Wwbna?

There's only one Anshe. Well, Anshee too, but you get the point.

Whoever's "next", will be themselves.

That'd make a great coffee table book, I'm serious—I was looking at the Anshe Chung museum during the SLCC and liked how it was set up!

Thanks for the new sig.

How is that not how it works?

If I had a lot of money... I could... buy a lot of land... and start renting it out, or reselling it.

Just like if I had a lot of money RL, I could buy a lot of, say, cars, cameras, or cheese, and begin selling it for a profit.

How again is that not how it works, Blaze?

I don't think there'd be that much of a point really.

If you want to do what Anshe does, save up $3000 or so, buy a private island (the extra US$ is to cover your ass for tier), landscape it, and start renting/semi-selling off bits of it and skim the tier discount difference. Wait till you make back your stake and then do it again. If it doesn't all sell, stop.

If you have loads of money then you could.. umm.. well, save up $30000 and buy 10 private islands. But then you've got to landscape them all, which'll take extra time, and you'll get hit more by tier while you're waiting for them to sell... so it doesn't seem that buying straight in would be such a great idea.

heh. Yeah this really is a funny thread.

What is there not to understand? You need money to make money. Owning sims costs a heck of a lot of money, hence it's ludicrous to say that was attained by no investment. Compounding this is the simple fact you need a Premium Account to ever own tier in the first place, so saying it happened on a Basic is utter crap.


Nor does all of this back-of-the-envelop calculation do anything for the real issue. Specifically, virtual land is an investment with a huge amount of overhead. To be successful, you need a pretty clear head on the way things work before ever stepping up to the table.

So, "Who will be the next land baron?" Frankly, who cares? The business model is pretty clear: Buy low, sell high, with the minimum turnover time.

I personally have to intentions to be the next Anshe. I'm too busy working on my own progress as Newfie.


- Newfie

If its at all possible, when would you say that people started taking notice that Anshe existed? So far, my best estimate is March, 2004.

Would you concur?

And as far as the book thingy goes, I agree. In fact, I've started taking a few notes from people I've talked to IW and am scribbling down a few stories here and there. Its fascinating stuff, really.

Taking notice that she existed? She first logged on towards the end of March, 2004.

Are you saying that somehow, she was here before she was here?

No, No... just trying to draw a timeline from the stories I've heard.

Anshe first made waves by offering her virtual sex classes, and charging for them (which was pretty rare for classes). She also got embroiled in a big battle with Feliciaa Feaver over the use of the name "Pet Auction" for an inworld event. This was mid-late Spring 2004. There was also her brief but tumultuous business partnership with Briana Dawson on the expansion of Galleria City (a relationship that went sour very fast with both sides blaming the other). Anshe really made her mark when the land prices soared to meteoric heights in the summer of 2004 - she rode the wave of the $20-30/m2 land prices until the bubble burst when the glut of snow land and other factors caused prices to go back to normal levels.

Within that you have all the fights over her sale signs, Anshe's not so subtle tactics (her fights with Oneironaut Escher over terraforming come to mind), her creative use of not picking up auction land to skirt tier fees, etc. Whee, this was even before her entree into web sales via SLExchange - though you can't leave out all the malls she bought up (and the drama surrounding Centre Ville). Anshe had a very busy summer in 2004. She definitely ascended at quite a rate, and shows no sign of slowing down. Her own continent, two money exchanges, nearly every mall in SL, even marquee sponsor of the SLCC - it seems she won't stop until we have all been conquered a la Shadowbane. Vive la Anshe.

It is really funny to see how some people think they "know" something. And the creativity in create some weird folklore is fascinating

Alrighty, lets look at the basic problem of human psychology: Anshe is successful, but Johny is not successful. Johny can simply not admit that maybe Anshe is better at something. So he start look for excuses, and voila, here is result: Anshe must have "cheated"! You know, only somebody who cheat can be more successful than Johny. So she must either be some evil robber who act unethical, or she must bring tons of money from RL or from some other game or whatever. Once Johny believes that the world is alright for him. Then he can go tell all his friends.

So, let me tell you some of the simple truth:

In March 26th 2004 I start in SL with one Basic account. 9,95$. At first I think SL is some pretty hopeless thing, but that day the Shadowbane server was down, so I just try out SL. Before I start SL I am already richest avatar on my server in the following online games:

- Asheron's Call
- Shadowbane
- Star Wars Galaxies

Right. But in none of those games I sold my items or money for real money. Because those are games and selling for US$ was against the TOS of those games. I also considered this very unfair, so I never did. IGE did. Anshe did not.

The way I got rich in Asheron's Call was by help people. I enjoyed make alchemy things for others. They brought me reagents and I craft for them. I did not charge, just doing for free. But some people gave me tips and because I was the best at what I do I become the richest on the server, richer than all the powergamers or people who charged money for things. The sad story come when some Russian gang hacked my account and they made thousands US$ on EBay. I guess that is life. At least they did not delete my character.

In Shadowbane I somehow become the leader of the hugest nation on my server. This make me rich and powerful. But I never used my game money for myself and I never sold for US$.

In Star Wars it took me only few weeks to become richest avatar on my server. People told me that dancers and entertainers in Star Wars are poor. So after play one wargame Shadowbane for so long I saw as one challenge to try success without one weapon. So I go to the cantinas and entertain the people. And the rest that happen is none of your business .

So finally I come to Second Life. And I am fascinated by the many freedom. Freedom to create totally new things, freedom to act like adult people without silly PG rules. I also realize that people are allowed to change money. So I ask myself: Is this now the virtual reality? And I set one goal: to explore how real this virtual reality can be. And I want see if it is possible to play one MMORPG for free. I am also in love with the many nice people who helped one newbie Anshe.

In the first week I already earn more than 5000 L$ (not counting newbie gifts) by entertain people and teach classes, doing fun things. One month later I sell Asian fashion, one niche nobody else fill that time, and earn maybe 25000 L$ in one week. Then when SL 1.4 patch comes I am first to sell animations and earn 50000 L$ in one day. And how I make so much money with animation? Because I am not afraid to learn something I never do before and when I see nobody else has the market I work the whole night. And I sell cheap to people, which makes many many people come and queue up in my tea house. Who say on this thread I sold poses expensive? 5 L$ - 20 L$ per pose on first day after SL 1.4 expensive? I did nice price and win the mass market, thousands of customers

So having nice content sales I start put up stores. Because at that time most malls not last long I buy small pieces of land: like 256sqm little piece. And I put small stores on it. And because it is so easy to just set some price and click "for sale" I set those land for sale at higher price, just in case somebody want to pay me much. And to my surprise many of the land my stores were on sold with nice profit. So my stores become kinda nomadic: they always move when land sells to new place where I buy new land cheap.

My initial "land market investment" for this was 256 sqm of land for 6 L$ per sqm (the cheapest PG land available in June 2004). I did not even use one serious fraction of my earnings from content sales.

The rest just grow from profits reinvested. Like it or not. You could have done it, if you would only have worked hard enough and think fast enough. And with work *hard* I do mean work hard. Totally, absolutely, insanely workaholic hard on top of RL job. So hard that it is absolutely impossible to do, unless you really enjoy it There is no excuse for "Johny"

What effect Anshe doing land baron had on land prices you can nicely see in the history of land prices in SL of that time. The peak was July 2004. From then onwards land price drop continuously and at same time market share of Anshe grow. Like it or not, but when I started with land the normal resell margin of the land baron was 50%-100%. People buy mature snow land at auction for 10 L$ per sqm and put for sale at 20 L$ per sqm. Then arrives Anshe and buys at auction for 12.5 L$ and sells in world for 15 L$. Ouch! Anyone surprise that Anshe become so big? Before I enter land market it was speculation for those who know about it. People did not compete but form cartel. After I enter it become hard work.

So, did I invent something? Well, I did not invent fashion, nor teaching, nor private entertainment, nor animations, nor malls, nor land, nor land trading nor renting. But who did?

What I take credit for, however, is that at least in SL I did many things first or better or cheaper. I always look where something could be made better, where can make people happy. So sometimes all I do is optimize something and bring down the price, like with mainland land trade or malls or by invest into the website item trading or by compete against IGE. Everytime I enter one market prices drop.

Alrighty. Now I have written one long posting on one public forum. My friends who sometimes desperately try to give me advice on PR are going bang their heads against the next wall. Anshe happily writes and mentions "private entertainment", Shadowbane and so many other things in the so-called "snake pit" (= forums) and all this in one quickly written and badly spelled post. At 6:45 am my time, which has become quite normal for me to still work, from the long evening and night. Now lotsa material to quote out of context, spin, misinterprete or simply misunderstand.

But maybe I don't care. PR or not, I am just Anshe. Call me stubborn or stupid. But I am still one "business girl", not one "business woman". Because I always want to believe in the nice things. Such as that people are good, the truth always wins, that honesty gets reward.

It can hurt when somebody treat you like some computer or ANSHEUBERCORP thing, then speculate about you as if you were the stock market, when in fact you are just one human being.

There have been other fun issues, the whole 'sales listings' of island rental land, and the big deal when ll officially classified that as 'a bug' and removed it...

all i can say is actions generally speak louder than words, and when they contradict, theres usually a *good* reason for it. Its usually not very hard to find, either, if you take the time to sit back and think a little.

People do what they do, and say what they say, for a reason. Anshe's helped a hell of alot of people, and made a hell of alot of money doin it.

Is that bad? i don't think thats for 'us' to say. we should just sit back, and watch, and if from time to time we see people are getting hurt, we hope someone steps in/up to correct the course (and mabye nudge it a little one way, or another).

LL's done a good job of that so far, chances are they'll continue to do so.. because its in *their* best interest to have as many happy users as they can get... which is generally in everyone else's best interest too... just sometimes, some people, might loose sight of that now and again... that pesky whole 'bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' nonsense ... sometimes people just really can't see their way around a short term profit, to a long term loss layin behind, look at the recent history of the 'exchanges' for a better example of how that works than mere words.

was anshe responsible for this?

actually yes... but the stupid search feature is down so it may take me awhile to find some relevant links...

ooh... and as a continuation of my last little chain of thought... doesn't someone's fluency/prowess with a language generally get *better* with time and practice?

...

/130/5a/34732/1.html

(as compared to the above diatribe in this thread)

but ooh no, there's no 'act' going on here, no 'invented' perosna, no historical 'revisionism'

i just wish people would drop the act, be sincere, and realize you don't have to screw people do to well, and if yer *NOT* screwin people, you have no reason to hide.

aah here we go:



i'd link the thread directly, but i loathe seeing that thing get 'reborn'

(also again, notice the formerly superior grasp of the basic day to day usage of the english language, before the current 'back story'/'character' of anshe chung were invented)

There's just one problem there, Anshe. Eltee and I *are* successful in SL. Quite.

That doesn't mean I can abide by the rewriting of history.

I just call them how I see them.

so once again, i still must ask - anshe was responsible for this? are you saying anshe some how hacked SL and made island land show up in land sales maps? i'm still confused.

no, im saying anshe had previously openly admitted to discussing it with LL as a feature, on multiple occasions, prior to its actual inclusion in SL, and then due to how she used or possibly 'mis-used' that feature, it was ultimately removed from SL.

Essentially it was an 'ambiguous' usage of the tool, but one LL had been prepared to initially accept, at least if anshe's own posts are to be believed.

*in practice* however, anshe's practice, it was determined to be detrimental enough to SL to be directly, and specifically removed...

the implication is that rather than staying on the 'helpful' side of the ambiguity, by openly admitting the land was rented, and that she still had ultimate control of it, which was, presumably what LL was expecting, instead, she attempted to pass the land off as direct sales, *using* the ambiguity to her short term advantage, at the expense of 'trapping' some people in land that was 'more' or mabye more properly 'less' than they bargained for.


I'm not saying that everyone was unhappy with the arrangement, as plenty of people were not, and continue to enjoy the service anshe provides, thats great. There were, however, enough people, who did feel decieved, and complained, that action was taken.

ok i agree with you. anshe is a savy business woman.

Very much so, as sly as any slick Enron CEO.

Anshe is a hardworker, I don't think anyone is really doubting that. Infact, I don't really even think she plays this game at all as much as she works it: makes appearances for PR, logs in to buy and sell land, renting out land to new tenants, etc. I don't think she cheated for what she did of course, I don't even think she really had to make too much of an initial investment, she made a few clothes (I even have one of the outfits), and she got into animation making at a good time, when 1.4 came there were very few animations and everyone was animation crazy, so you put out anything and it sold well. Though most animations then were pretty much given out for free except Anshe's which I believe were at 249L$ or so for a pack of 30 or so poses (the specifics on those numbers could be off because it's been over a year). The poses were okay though they lacked style and application, they were mostly overly dramatic model poses. Even though I bought most of the packs she released totalling in around 100 poses, i've never found any good application for them except for about 3 times since. But like I said, the market was ripe and pretty much anything would have sold and did then, had I the money to go and buy a 150 USD program (which apparently Anshe did, unless a professional "business girl" such as herself pirated it) I would have learned the basics and done it myself. Really, and I think this is what a lot of people would say: Could I have done what Anshe did? Yes. Did I want too? No. Why is this? Probably because, for me, I didn't want to see Second Life as a work place and every avatar as nothing more than a potential customer, because I didn't want to treat it like a job, and more over: because I didn't want to have to focus my Second Life, the supposedly utopia in which I was to escape from all the focus on money in my real life. I was hoping these kinds of sleezy business tactics would stay out of SL, and for the larger part they did until 1.2 came along and LL started getting USD involved.

But that's what seperates the CEOs from the thousands upon thousands of expendable workers under them: how far you're willing to go to get the money, whether you have the gall to lay off a few hundred workers so that your stock will go up, or buy out a company and liquidate their business so you can drain them of money, THAT's the difference between Johnny and Anshe the Business Girl.

That whole post there of Anshe's reminded me of that whole "Caveman lawyer" skit on SNL. The premise was that this cave man got defrosted by scientists and learned all the ways of the future, it's languages and customs and became a lawyer. He then used his "I'm just a poor confused caveman admist all your advanced technology" defense in his cases to gain sympathy with the courts, even as he was answering cell phones and said advanced technology.

It's interesting because i've seen Anshe post a few times before as well, and she had good english then too, (and 6 am is no excuse, I know a girl from Israel with english as her second language who stays up to the point of passing out on her keyboard, and the english she has then is better than most of the grid) so it begs to say that she knows quite a bit about slippery tactics. I remember when she bought the forest, she immediately ran out and bought a furry av and then posted on the thread from furries attacking her for that aquisition about how much she loves her furry av and she wears it all the time (even posted a pic of it). So hmmm, says I: hmm. Maybe it's that Anshe knows a thing or two about getting sympathy from an audience, just like a good Business Girl should, even a "poor confused chinese girl with bad english".

Now is already morning and I am really too tired to go find the forum posts to quote.

But Robin Linden specifically posted that she has no problem with what I do. The reason she gave for removing PI land sales from the land finder was that other, less trustworthy, people could follow suit and abuse it.

It was not my practise that was perceive "detrimental to SL" but the fear of what other people could do with same tool.

Anyway, today our land ownership system just turned 9 months old. Hundreds of people trading hundreds, if not thousands of land parcel in more than 50 sims speak for themselves. You posted this link: /130/5a/34732/1.html. Since you read that post, you do realize that even before PI sim land deeding was made available we have been doing this on mainland? And you do realize that we did this to provide zoning and not just to somehow smuggle some cheap private island land into the market?

so...

1> you are complaining about the quality of 10 L$ poses? duh!

2>is there really a problem if some people approach sl as a job and provide content and service in the process? having 70 a sim grid full of customers is a clear indication she offers a service that several hundred residents appreciate on an ongioing basis. how is free thinking consumers choosing her services (and buying her 10 L$ poses) exploitation? wasn't there an adults only sign at the door?

3> you take issue that at times anshe has her husband or friends proof read her posts and at other times she doesn't? oh sorry- anshe must have sent an actress in her place to SLCC.

2006 is in two months, and you are still stuck in 2004.

LT, it is very common for non-native speakers to have wildly varying degrees of fluency depending on their mood. My english absolutely sucks when I'm nervous. It is terribly unfair to accuse Anshe of putting on an act.