Robin Harper to leave Linden Lab
by Tateru Nino 
Feb 2nd 2009 at 9:00PM
Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds
After almost seven years at Linden Lab Robin Harper, the Lab's Vice President of Marketing and Community Development, has given notice of her impending departure from the company.
Harper, who arrived at Linden Lab from game company Maxis, was nominated as one of Edge's 100 Most Influential Women in Gaming in 2006, and in 2007 we considered her the one person Linden Lab and Second Life could least afford to lose. While we still believe that was a correct call at the time, times obviously change.
The Lab has been undergoing significant shake-up at the executive level, particularly in the last six months, as new Lab CEO Mark Kingdon has been completely overhauling management of the company, and given the rate at which Kingdon has been restructuring the executive, this doesn't come as much of a surprise.
Harper had a significant hand in most major decisions for the fledgling company during her time there. Everything from the name of the product to numerous popular and unpopular decisions involving regulation, and spent her time trying to maintain a tricky balance between the company's needs as a business, and advocacy for the users and customers of the virtual environment. As such there is probably no shortage of people willing to either praise her or damn her for the company's performance and decisions to-date.
Harper's last day will be February 15, and she has not yet announced any future plans, other than to take stock and consider her next move.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Osprey Therian said on 9:38PM 2-02-2009
You'll be missed, Robin. Good luck in the future.
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CareNotToShareIt said on 9:48PM 2-02-2009
It's a classic textbook corporate play ... get rid off the people that actually know how the company operates so you can start hiring your buddies and start outsourcing projects to people that know nothing .. :-)
(sorry if the above blur makes no sense to you .. it makes perfect sense to me)
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Skate Foss said on 10:18AM 2-03-2009
There's definitely a pattern forming. Its beginning to be felt across the grid. Anyone that has dealings with Lindens can see it or 'feel' it. And so far the changes that are taking place, are not having good results at all.
FlipperPA Peregrine said on 9:15AM 2-03-2009
Best of luck in your future endeavors, Robin. There has never been a better advocate for Residents; hopefully your influence will continue in virtual worlds in the future.
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The Eye Doctor said on 6:46PM 2-03-2009
It probably for the best, leave now before the ship sinks. Since we are taking about a company that doesn’t really care if griefers are get innocent players banned from the game.
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Cincia Singh said on 10:48AM 2-03-2009
Best of luck with your next adventure and I hope you find the next challenge rewarding both personally and professionally. You will be missed terribly.
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Cruxis said on 5:33PM 2-03-2009
Well Robin, looks like it's time to start a new Secondlife! We shall call it... PROjEk0T DReemchiLD. You like? I came with it all by myself. Sort of. Hope to see you around in the online community!!! Thank you sooo much for everything you've done!
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Jay said on 7:16AM 2-04-2009
OMG the fundamentalist core of LL will leave.
Heck I might come back with less church influence "read no nipples" in world.
Robin, you fundamentalist nutcase... you should have been fired before the popcorn muncher.
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