"Farming" in SL ?

Reading todays posts on Terra Nova I was pointed toward this interesting article about "Farming" ...

http://www.gameguidesonline.com/guides/articles/ggoarticleoctober05_01.asp

and it made me wonder if many of the so called "yard sales" in SL are in fact run by farmers. I've seen products, including my own creations, sold for ridiculously cheap prices in these sales. Too cheap to have integrity imho.

...

If I was running a farming operation, I'd hire people to keep an eye on a few characters that were logged in 24 hours, never logging out or moving from one location (except the odd nudge to stop them idling out), and automatically or manually offering a teleport to anyone who IMed them.

Then I'd sell them to store and new sim owners as virtual telehubs.

Ummm... actually, let me go make a phone call...

It seems certain that some probably are.

I don't understand this at all.

How could someone make money "farming" by selling things for ridiculously cheap prices that they bought for higher prices?

And how could that then be "too cheap to have integrity"?

coco

Unless Imiss my guess, they aren't farming the cheap items... that's just money laundering...

They are farming the Freebie avs.

10 freebies == 500/week that you didn't otherwise have...

and if you sign each one up under an assumed or stolen IDentity, since they are free and no CC charge happens, there is no actual theft of credit service... only ID.

And if you do this a LOT of times, you could make a LOT of money on the Lindex... in US$

And the actual victims are those of us who have to deal with a destabilized economy as Linden Dollars flush the market.

<<EDIT>>
Oh... and I completely forgot the Dwell bonus...
If every Wraith (New term coined by me for empty, soulles agents...) stays only 5 minutes per day on that land, and then is swapped out for another... the DWELL bonus could get HUGE. Think of it... The entire dwell value of an army of empty avs....

All of this could be handled by scripts on the client side and wouldn't even NEED a script hook...just a front end Input Manipulator.

I'm actually in the process of writing a paper arguing that the long-term effective exchange rate should approach a value obtained by account farming. Part of the paper will demonstrate that the only reason the market appears unstable is that it hasn't finished relaxing to its equilibrium value, and the L$<->USD exchange rate can be well approximated by a widely-used stochastic process.

Now, the recent conversion of basic accounts to being free *does* suggest that in the long-term the exchange rate should drop to effectively zero. Once widespread free-account farming begins, LL will need to take immediate action (probably in the form of eliminating the basic stipend) if they truly want a stable exchange rate.

I remember approaching the "farming value" of the L$ at 2.1$ / 1k L$

I put it somewhat higher than that, given additional factors like the US$ interest rate and the market price of risk (i.e. what rate of return would make it worthwhile to register 1,000 accounts in order to farm the stipend?).

I am contemplating farming soybeans on my plot.

It's quite easy really, they didn't pay for a lot of the stuff in the first place. This week alone I've had 3 people turn up and ask me to donate to their yard sale.

I do donate to worthwhile causes and to some competitions as prizes but not to yard sales, but apparently it's worthwile people flying around begging for peoples stuff which they then sell on.

Look in the events list, recently I've seen a large increase in the number of yard sales. I'm not sure where I stand on them actually, I can see no harm in ligit events, I was just wondering if this could be a farming activity.

[edit] adding I haven't seen begging for ages and suddenly there's a rush of it, anyone else noticing ?

I almost thought this was going to be about bringing simulated plant life into SL.

</hijack>

Dang it.. I thought this was a Harvest Moon in SL thread!

http://www.natsume.com/games/HM_wlgirl/

What about snow lands! Will they be left out starving?!!?

At last count there was hardly any food in SL except selling for 100's of linden!

We must grow our own!

HAHAHA OMG that cracks me up. Closest thing I've seen to that in SL is Taco!

As a matter of fact, I did too. I think it would be a good idea actually, provided people had moods and needs, for example a need to eat. It would form part of the basis for a real in-game economy, something that SL currently lacks. Or at least that's my impression.

well if you think that is the case, maybe you should script those things into your avatar. If other people agree with you. They'll use the script as well. But at the cost of having less money to buy entertainment. But then I guess your script could be argue to be just one of many forms of entertainment in sl.

I've played some many online RPG's. They all had me farming for worthless virtual goods. Witch only allowed me to farm better. So I could buy other worthless goods. Even though they were trying to create realistic experiences. But those very rules they imposed, limited the interactivity, and took out many of the elements found in real life. Creativity, expression, uneak identity, dreams.

But onistly; I have no interest in my avatar needing to take potty breaks. Or telling me he has a head ake witch means I can't script. I log in to have fun. I would rather spend my money on entertainment; and my time creating. Nice clothing, furniture, games, events. All of witch are being created by me, and by other uses. All of witch using their uneak abilities and crafts to create, express, and better the community.

If you mean a commodities based economy in SL, check out minerva.

Considering (virtual) needs. The request has been made several times in SL to have a (TSO like) system of bodily and human needs. My opinion in this is:
It's perfectly possible to build a system with the exisiting tools in SL to subject avatars on a range of 'needs', and have these needs fulfilled by performing certain actions.

The simple fact that this system isn't available, means that the need for these 'needs' is not as high as expected. If hundreds of residents felt the urge to subject their avatar to these rituals, I expect some savvy developers to have already built (and sold) this system ages ago

Yeah, this Minerva mod was almost what I was thinking about. Thanks for sharing.



Well, you're wrong. If there was a "need off" button in The Sims you can bet your ass most people would push it ASAP. If for nothing else then not to lose out on the competion. Still, people who play The Sims don't and it's only the most successful game in PC history. Funny, isn't it?
The simple truth is this: what is mandatory for all becomes accepted by all if it feels right, that is to say, when it's within reason. Only an idiot would design a game where tending your fields meant 12 hours of sweatshop plowing or where you were timed to go on the loo every 10 minutes. (And still designers do exactly this time and again, it's what's called "grinding" in the MMORPG community.)

A much better way would be to plant your cozy orchard and then simply let it grow by itself. After some time, you could return to your farm and watch with a sense of fulfillment how your labour of love had become ripe for the "clicking", I mean the plucking. Ready to be teleported off to the market or the town trattoria where Bruno, the friendly innkeeper would turn it into Italian applepie (if there is such a thing ) for travellers and passers by.

I agree it would be pretty much a different game from Second Life even if it looked exactly the same, but that's not to say it would not be a successful concept for a game much like this one. Nor is it very intelligent to say that decent work must be a drudge. It's an uncreative statement at best. I bet the producers of The Sims lashed out with exactly the same tirades once upon a time: "People will die of boredom if asked to play eating dinners!" "No, absolutely no watching your avatar sleep!" "People are stupid, they only want to shoot at things. Not lead a normal life." Yada, yada, yada.

I don't know if its an increase but yeah DANG there are a lot of yard sales. Now personally I like yard sales and I've found some darned good deals at them. I think yard sales in SL are pretty much the same as they are in RL -- maybe that table that someone found in their attic is a real antique and maybe its just a piece of shit paint your own furniture item that's been misused. Ok maybe not that drastic but you get the picture. You have to sift through a lot of junk to find the treasures.

And yeah - a LOT of people misuse the yard sale thing. I've been to yard sales that never end. Sometimes I show up at yard sales a day early just to see if its legit or not. There's this one chick who uses yard sales as an extension of her shop, which, IMHO, is completely bogus.

I don't think its a farming activity. I think for about half the cases its people trying to get rid of accumulated stuff in their inventories and the other half people who are using their yards as shopfronts and the events list as free advertising -- which I abhor. But that isn't the same as farming. That's just dishonest.

Food requires Lindens to buy.

Lindens grow on trees.

Thus we already have agriculture AND economy combined

But really... since SL is "persistant" I think it would be neat to script some "plants" that need to be watered and such. Sort of a simple tamagotchi. Water it well.. it grows well.

Some people have asked to say something how Minerva works and how you need to eat to live! But having read the forum from the start... I think I've got the wrong end of the stick..LOL


Blueman, we have trees that need watered... 4 times in one hour, but not more than once every 10 minutes, or they die. At the end, you cut it down and get wood!


and to add my 2 pence worth... A yard sale is not an event! (my humble thought)

Cheers