As many of you in Second Life may have heard by now via a pre-Christmas announcement, Rod Humble took on the reins at Linden Lab as CEO last month. When I first read that someone from Electronic Arts was taking on the helm at SL, I perked up, as I am a fan of EA games like "Dragon Age" and "Mass Effect." Humble seems a sensible hire, and the move seems to me an organic transition for him, having been a supervisor for the best-selling PC game The Sims, to make.

But let me slow down my excitement a bit, as reality comes at me. Humble, having freshly started his tenure this month, has a lot on his plate. Not quite of Obama proportions, but still significant enough to make this SL user's avatar raise a dubious eyebrow. 2010 has been an annoying year for most SL users, with the advent of the much maligned 2.0 Viewer (which I have a love-hate relationship with), and the consolidated username issue implemented in November, among others (I recommend checking out Avril Korman's well-written blog posts on some of these irksome SL problems). 

In a statement, Humble said: “I have a long-standing interest in 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.” It seems an innocuous and lightweight enough thing to put out there. And rather vague. I don't think anyone knows how Humble will, well, humble complaint-happy Second Life users into a relative state of SL satisfaction. But it doesn't hurt to speculate, does it? What do you think of Humble's prospects as CEO? What direction do you think he will take Second Life; downward or upward? Will 2011 be a good year in Second Life, now that it's been Humbled?