Oh would I love to say this is some sort of early April Fools gag, but sadly, its not. Rod Humble has stepped down from his position working as the Executive Vice President for EA Play to work as the CEO for Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life. I wonder who will fill his position…
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 23, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Linden Lab®, creator of the 3D virtual world Second Life®, today announced that Rod Humble has become the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Humble joins Linden Lab from Electronic Arts, where he was Executive Vice President for its EA Play label.
Humble’s 20-year career in the game development industry has included work on more than 200 games. In his most recent position at Electronic Arts, Humble headed the EA Play label, which includes the best-selling PC game franchise of all time, The Sims. In 2009, he was ranked #2 on the annual list of the Hot 100 Game Developers from gaming publication Edge. Prior to his work at Electronic Arts, Humble served as Vice President of Product Development at Sony Online Entertainment for the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), EverQuest.
“Rod is a great new leader for Linden Lab,” said Philip Rosedale, Founder of Second Life. “Second Life has become a consistently large and profitable business with a thriving virtual economy built together with its passionate Resident community. This has always been a big, long-term vision, it is still early and there is enormous opportunity for growth. With Rod’s fresh insights and deep experience in creating and leading the development of fun, intuitive, immersive entertainment experiences that have attracted massive audiences of loyal users, he’s the right leader to understand what makes us special and bring the next level of growth to Second Life.”
“Joining Linden Lab is a very exciting opportunity,” said Humble. “I have a long standing interest in the how the boundaries of society and economics change as communications evolve in new ways. Second Life is unique: it sits at the intersection of virtual worlds, avatars, and human contact. The Residents and developers of Second Life have built something very special, I am honored to join the talented team at Linden Lab to help expand this new frontier.”
About Linden Lab and Second Life
Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared online experiences known as Second Life. The privately held company has had revenues exceeding $75 million and has been profitable (excluding restructuring and non-cash stock compensation expense) each of the last three years. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and employs more than 220 people.
Second Life is the leading 3D virtual world filled with user-created content and immersive experiences. In Second Life, Residents meet and interact with friends around the world, enjoy entertainment from live music to role-playing games, explore unique environments and communities, and much more. Residents can also create, buy, and sell anything they can imagine, participating in the world’s largest user-generated virtual goods economy.
Today, Second Life’s virtual land mass would be roughly twice the size of Hong Kong. In Q3 2010 alone, over 750,000 unique Residents from around the globe spent more than 105 million hours experiencing Second Life while exchanging more than $150 million worth of Linden dollars in its economy.
Yaaaaay! Finally, this annoying something is away <3
Sad news for us, but what a great Xmas present for the Humble family!!
I’m unlikely to be able to get on the Net until after New Years Day so just in case:
[B]Merry Xmas & A Happy New Year!!!!![/B]
To Everyone!
Hope you all get lots of Simmy goodness!!!
Have a good one, and don’t do anything I woul… oh what am I saying… [B]GO FOR IT!![/B]
😉 :p 😀
Finally! Maybe the new manager will know what to do and what’s best for the label. I say bring back will wright for EA Play! 😛
All I have to say is, that he aint gonna be visiting you sims’ homes giving out free computers with Sims 3 anymore!!
Yes! Haha, is it weird that I’m actuelly happy about this?
You’re kidding, right? : P
I believe I read that he was the one who wanted to add RPG elements to The Sims but I don’t remember where I saw that info. If all the RPG mess was his idea, then I say good riddance!
WOW!! This doesn’t sound like a promotion, it sounds like a demotion! How can working for Second Life, The Sims rip-off, be better than working for the most popular computer game in history?! Well I’m glad he’s gone, I never really liked him!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t he the twit who hated all of the supernatural elements in the Sims series? Second Life can gladly have him.
^ Yes, he is. As well as the one who wanted to include rpg elements in the game. Which, he did. Hopefully whoever takes his place will have a better understanding of the series. This has certainly given me hope for the future.
La-la, the witch has left!!
I am kidding of course! But I like to imagine the new replacement will bring new aspects and greater depths and more reasonable prices to the sims! 😛
Ah well…. I can dream….
I do remember articles saying Rod was the one who disliked supernatural elements and he wished to introduce RPG gameplay into the franchise. He said he wanted to bring his expertise from EverQuest (MMORPG) into the game. The articles even mentioned specific features he added such as moodlets (called buffs in MMORPG’s).
I really hope his leave will alleviate the forceful and often unwanted RPG gameplay from the franchise. This is The Sims, but SimQuest!!
I meant “NOT SimQuest” in my post. 😛
All I have to say is, that he aint gonna be visiting you sims’ homes giving out free computers with Sims 3 anymore!!
maybe Grant will get promoted. He would be a great leader… maybe.
well seeing all the hateful comments i to decided to join the majority but i fear that our hapinnes is short lived.
it is possible that a worst WHICH takes his place like it happened with me in school , my teacher got replaced.
ahh those ugly days. 😀
and MERRY XMAS!
😀 😛 :B
Those are the things that I miss. My sims having memories, and they affect the lives of the sims. I miss my sims having memories of the good times and the bad, thought bubbles bringing the memories up and the sims reacting.
Oh yes, I want sims to stay sandbox play, maybe it will happen when Rod goes away. This has been the best Christmas gift ever.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everybody!
what’s wrong with moodlets? so a feature from another game was also used in the Sims 3. big deal about moodlets, i for one love the moodlets. although i still want my sims to have real memories like they did in TS2 but the moodlets add a little more. Now with the RPG crap World Adventures is the first thing that comes to mind. If WA was his doing than i say bye Rod and Promote Grant… at least he listens to us. That and he has a more social and positive personality. Rod is like a zombie.
Good riddance, Humble, or whatever the heck your real name is! Go ruin Second Life!
All I have to say is, that he aint gonna be visiting you sims’ homes giving out free computers with Sims 3 anymore!!
Okay why the hell did two people copy and paste my original comment?! Think of your own!
But to be honest, I didnt really care about him. Although why would you go from a big well-known game, to Second Life??
Sadly?! It’s not sad at all. This guy practically ruined The Sims 3. Maybe they can get some people back who worked on The Sims 1, and make this game great again.
@Thomas: hey watch your mouth! Second Life is NOT a sim-ripoff by any means. Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about. Second Life is not even a game, it is a destination, a place to go to have a virtual life experience. I don’t care if you want to bad mouth this guy, I don’t know anything about him, but lay off Second Life.
Don’t mistake me. I actually do like the moodlets, sometimes we feel happy despite not being satisfied physiologically (e.g. feeling great about winning a tri-athlon despite being tired and hungry from the race). It’s just the way they are implemented is a tad unrealistic, specifically their duration.
Very sorry to see him go. Wish him luck at his new job.
I can say that I’m rather pleased-he didn’t miss a step in trying to downgrade the game. If it improves the chances of the game being more what simmers want, that’s a good move.
Does anyone know when The sims 3 comes out outdoor living stuff
Last I read, February.
Hopefully the new EPs will reflect the change in management. Gameplay just seems more flat, nothing makes the player feel a special alignment with these sims. Sims 2, I would just have lots of aww moments. Not so much with Sims 3.
I think the difference between non-simmers and simmers is that accomplishing the goal is the most important experience for non-simmers while the JOURNEY towards the goal (and sometimes, there is no goal) is the most important experience for simmers.
TS3 has become an objective, goal-based game, which is drastically different from TS1 and TS2, which focuses on providing a creative, funny, and rich EXPERIENCE. For example, I love watching my sims cook and the variety of dishes they can prepare, but for hardcore gamers, all they may care about is the alleviation of the Hunger statistic. TS3’s focus leans towards the latter rather than the former.
Well, there’s is nothing special about the way sims cook, and cooking animation was pretty much the same with every dish. Maybe if they had add some mini games where you help your sims cooking it would have been a more special. the point of fullfilling hunger is so you can go on to do other things in game beside hearing you sims moaning about being hungry.
Wooohooo!!!!!! Best news ever and yeah Second Life is basically a rip off of the sims. I played it for 3 months when I couldn’t bring the Sims2 with me to university before the sims3 came out. It’s like a revamped version of the Sims Online but with more rpg aspects to it depending on where you play in game. Rod should be very happy there and I hope someone who understands what the Sims really is, replaces him.
I really hope Grant gets promoted and fills the position i fell the same that he would be a great leader.
Grant actually listens to us. that and he has a better personality. hopefully with Rod gone EP 4 will be one of the three themes we want again. or maybe two or them together.
“…yeah Second Life is basically a rip off of the sims.”
You clearly haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.
Second Life is a 3D virtual online community like PlayStation Home. The Sims is a simulation game. Completely different things. Try doing some simple research instead of spouting such rubbish next time around.
Yaaaaay! Finally, this annoying something is away <3²
I hope Sims 3 will improve after the departure of stupid!
OMG! I hope this is true! I got really tired of all of the books and crap that had references to him in my game.
Jud! Grant is gone too! Noooo!