"Your only limit is your imagination."

Here's an idea: only do work that makes you happy.

OK, I think I see what you are getting at now.

"the split between doing stuff that you really want to do because it's what you want to do, and doing stuff that you perhaps don't want to do so much because it makes you money."

Well, that split only occurs at certain intersections, as you pointed out. There is no split when what someone likes to do makes them money. There is a split where someone wants to do something that WON'T make them money.

It doesn't occur at any intersection between me making houses and things and selling them. It did occur at the intersection between me doing Game Show Channel and being able to afford to.

So it is a problem if what you have in mind is something like Four Seasons. Or similar wonderful builds that preceeded it, like Spitooney and Backstage. I tend to view that problem, though, more in terms of "no support for entertainment." It is difficult for people to charge for these things (though I think, now that we have free accounts, it's time some started trying), and yet there is little support from the game structure to make them pay off.

And they can't even make up their losses charging for virtual Coke and hot dogs, like rl entertainment places can easily do with their captive audiences.

My problem with it is that the whole SL system means that entertainment venues and major attractions such as Four Seasons - which are what will sustain those thousands of players we are getting, make them want to turn into Premiums, and make them want to buy our stuff - can be achieved only after the problem of how to afford that much space (since the thing isn't going to pay off) for that long, or even very long.

That leaves those places dependant on other venues (like Ice Dragon, in your example), whereas they aren't irl. Or they are dependant on the rl wealth of the creator and/or his backer, or his already booming business in something else.

For me, I took a look at the system and said to heck with that, it's obvious I can't afford to put on Game Show Channel until I've ALREADY made a mint by some other method. So I started building. But not with the intent of doing so in order to sustain a future Game Show Channel. That seemed on the face of it wrong to me, because I don't want to do something that requires a lot of effort and dedication to do right, just in order to do something ELSE, if you follow me.

So I started building as my chosen career, with no thought to "using" it eventually to do some other thing. And I still feel that way. Fortunately, I'm just as happy, and in many ways happier, with my chosen field. But, you'll notice, SL didn't get a Game Show Channel, either.


Well, interestingly, I saw the INVERSE of this last night. I was at a telehub, putting in my ad, and saw an interesting and tantalizingly cryptic ad from someone else. Clicked on it, and got a notecard from that talented and hugely successful nice guy casino owner Moonshine Herbst, offering to place his slot machines on other people's land (machines he built), and he would get a percentage of the profits. I was even tempted enough to actually think about it for myself before coming back to my senses. (Slot machines and cottages really, REALLY can't get along together, lol.)

As for the opportunity cube idea, I'd have to give that a lot of thought about it, but it seems like it could work. A lot of places now do the same thing in sort of an informal way - by allowing display of someone else's goods in their place - in addition to the more formal way of renting space. It sounds like another way, and a cute way for this to take place. It is sort of a foreign concept, though, and thus a tough sell. (Plus not everybody is altruistic, AND people are mighty conscious of their prim counts.)

I really don't have much clear idea of what you are trying to build up your money FOR. Also, worrying about what skill you will need in the future is kind of putting the cart before the horse. When I make things I don't have the skill for - by which I mean, I don't have the skill for a particular PIECE of the design I have in mind - it is a challenge, yes. That script for the pillows, for instance. I was stymied on that for a long time, until just last night, in fact!

I don't think that would be so great. If SL were only about the thrill of learning new skills, we'd have nothing but a bunch of eggheads running around. (No offense, Eggy!) I want there to be more Tringo than tutorials in the events list, because that is more natural and expected, for a number of reasons. (1) Lots and lots and LOTS of people are self-taught types. Especially people who are already computer-type people. (2) A tutorial on a topic you tend to go to once. A Tringo game, you go to over and over.

In other words, tutorials are actually a much smaller market. Looking at the events lists, as I regularly do, I noticed a place called Teazers seems to be busy making this their "thing." They seem to be going whole hog into that smaller market (interest, actually, would be a better word), and should do well.

The thrill of making things, though, remains ever and always the hook of SL. That hook, though, can't survive on its own. We need Tringo, Four Seasons, and that sort of thing, and we need them BAD.

Well - I think you are asking rather too much of one slogan. That is a common problem around here; people THINK too much, and analyze the heck out of every little thing. (CAUTION: THE NEXT SENTENCE MAY BE UNDULY ATTRACTIVE TO POSTERS NAMED SIGGY ROMULUS.) And when I say people, I mean myself.

It would be true, though, that if you don't wish to make anything, and you also don't wish to be social, then yes, I would say you are pretty much shot out of luck in SL.

Oh wait, P.S. I reread your last paragraph. Yes, I agree - social goals, if you define them as something like the Game Show Channel - ARE hard to get at directly, and require the sort of grind that would have been required of me if I didn't enjoy building and wanted to make money in another market in order to do GSC. So instead, I chose another market that I knew I would enjoy doing in its own right, and let the Game Show Channel slide. So I think I see what you mean.

coco

But that's not as much fun as worrying about what the Jones's are doing, and telling them how they should be using the land and resources they pay real money for.

(sigh)

I'm not telling anyone else how to use their resources. I'm merely saying that if they want to use it to help new people, there are more efficient ways of doing it that handing a large single quantity of land to one person. From their point of view, why bet all your money on one horse?

Well, it isn't just that 4 Seasons is an entertainment venue, you understand. I'm not talking so much about the effect it has on the grid as the effect it had on the builder. As I say, what it shows is that the builder wanted their SL to be that of someone running a theme park. Maybe someone else would want theirs as a knight, or a spy, or something similar. Yes, shock horror, I'm pretty sure she was role-playing by building that area. The whole concept of a "Second Life" suggests that's important. So how can we help more people get to play the role they want to?



Are you sure about that? The prices people pay for bartender scripts suggest otherwise...



(nodnod)

Well, we also do have to think about whether these things will sustain players to turn into Premiums. The last time I went by Four Seasons, I tried to contact the builder to ask if I could get involved in helping out, but apparantly she's been away for a long while. When I got to the area, the backer had installed a bank of 12 floating camping chairs and a cinema screen above the entrance. Guess where everyone was. Guess the effect this had on traffic. (sigh)

But when I've spoken to the people hanging out at camping chairs, it generally seems that they're running their own little sub-game where the idea is to camp as much as you can, maybe take a risk by gambling, connect with people, use the money and/or influence you get to obtain av customizations and then show them off at the next camp site (or at sexy av contests). Ie, the goal is to get to show off, and the loop of camping -> gambling -> av contests supported that little subgame.



Sure, I understand that. (Though they're only 1 prim each ) Well, my selling copy is basically "if you had someone offer you a better version of a structure on your land - by your definition of better - for free, just for the prestige of having it on your site, why wouldn't you take it?"

Because it's more fun for me to build my own stuff?

You set up the premise that it's unfair to newbies for folks like Ice Dragons to gift land to someone else.

That's pretty much telling them that they shouldn't be doing so, in my book.

Who said SL is supposed to be a "utopia", let alone one fitting your personal vision thereof anyway?

When I was about 3 months old in SL, I decided to go into the building business. Having just grasped the basic knowledge of the tools, I started making homes/businesses/whatever for people.

I had a good time for over a year and a half. Making money to pay for college doing something I'd be doing anyway was a nice plus.

Over time, however, it became less "fun" and more "job". I spent less and less time socializing and having fun in SL, and more and more time juggling architectural service jobs.

Eventually I dreaded logging into SL because it was another "job" that awaited me, after school and my "day job". I ceased extracting much joy from the process, because being told exactly where someone's dungeon should go in their McMansion floorplan wears thin.

So, right about the time school started, I got entirely burned out and took a sabbatical from custom building.

Since then I haven't had much time to log in, but I'm a hell of a lot less stressed out. I'm revamping my prefab home business, a process where I control 100% the output of what I want to slap my name on. Perhaps eventually I'll go back to custom building full-time, but right now I can't even stomach the thought.

It seems to be a constant trend in SL, actually. Content creators burn brightly for a while, becoming successful (or perhaps even famous), but then after a year or so (or more), they just... stop. It's happened several times to very high profile players. They just... stop making stuff. They "retire" and live out the rest of their SL existence riding on their famousitude, before probably dropping off and quitting sL.

The ones that continue making stuff usually shift to high-end luxury items, or one-of-a-kind items.

Basically, you should avoid this cycle. Just make stuff you want to make. The market will come to you in SL, not vice versa. The best markets were made by people passionately working their craft for their own benefit, not for strangers.

If you're doing it for money, you're doing it wrong.

LF

...whenever i need inspiration i just go to zombo.com...

Zombo.com is the most incredible site on the internet, hands down.

"Yeeess."

Well, it wouldn't be targeted at people who are using their land to host their own stuff - more at the items that many people have on their land that are made by others.

To some extent it is unfair, yes. But, things can't always be fair, yadda yadda. No, to me the big problem is that it's unsustainable. Many successful people have spare land, but they only have so much, and I doubt many of them are going to actually buy and tier extra areas just to give them away. Combine that with the fact that at least some of the people investing in this way are going to wind up with burned fingers and we can predict that this can't last forever. And unless you're going to assert that "newbies who are given land areas never do anything beneficial to SL that they would not otherwise have done" (which I think you'd have a lot of trouble proving) that means that the ability of SL to recieve those benefits is also on a finite fuse. I only encourage looking at alternate ways of helping new builders get integrated - and helping SL recieve the benefits of their doing so - that are more sustainable, and less likely to get investors' fingers burned. That's all.

And here I thought I was doing it right, paying the bills doing work I enjoy and feeling fulfilled and stuff . . .

It works for a while, but eventually it starts becoming less enjoyable and more work-related.

Burnout is imminent at that trajectory, unless you're some sort of work ninja.

LF

I don't buy this argument. It seems to me that, while many amazing content creators have come and gone, the ones who stick around are those that do aim to become professionals at it, constantly improving their products. It's the dilettantes like me who burn out - having reached an easy level of competence that was good for a few minor bits of fun but then not advancing my skills any further. And let's not forget that several of the best early content creators didn't really disappear or burn out - they became Lindens!

Professionals are the exception, not the rule. Amateurs who happen to be decent tend to get sucked into the workhole, and burn out.

funny story....

I've read some posts where people asked for help with things, only to be told, (paraphrasing here) "I'm not telling you, because then YOU will be able to do it."

This was a person, who is willing to do the work, learn what was needed. Yet, was basically told to go pound sand.

I make tattoo's for myself, and any friend who wants them, FREE, believe it or not, simply because I can, and I enjoy it. I've thought of putting up a vendor, but then it would be too much like work. I come here to relax, not to hold a second job.

I learned to make tattoos, because someone was kind enough to explain it to me. I don't have a schedule flexible enough to make it to the "classes" that are held at 2 in the morning every 20th Flanday.

Teach someone, and THEN they'll measure up to your wondrousness.

Peace,
Joseph

I'm sorry that you perceive a clear distinction between "enjoyable" and "work-related." I don't.

Burnout doesn't spring from accepting payment or working to spec. It's caused by redundant, repetitive work and bad work conditions and a lack of new challenges. Some of my best challenges have been posed by clients -- stuff I wouldn't have ever thought of trying to tackle.

And anyhow . . . it's better to burn out than to fade away.

I was also going to ask what a "work ninja" is, but Aimee's illustration explains it completely. Now, what I wanna know is why I've settled for a work uniform of jammie bottoms and a sweatshirt and fuzzy slippers for 20 years when I coulda had a cool ninja suit with wings?

I'm hearing the need to acknowledge the challenge of learning the skills that it takes to truly make things in SL. I've been there and (surprise) am still there: learning and learning and learning. And it would have been nice in some ways if someone had told me a year ago: "look, the straight dope is that your skills, degrees and years of rl experience = 0 in here, so you're gonna be in kindergarten for awhile. Here are the templates, here is the gimp website, here's the tower o primatives and see ya in a year."

Because it took about that long before I had an income (from efforts, not from the contest win) that met my needs. Well maybe 9 months. It also took a heartbreak (an sl love affair that tried to translate to RL then foundered) to make me get out of world long enough to learn gimp.

However, had someone told me come back in 9 months, when I first started, I probably wouldn't have. And that would have been a sad thing, because playing with textures and then seeing them come in world as eyes or panties or hair is SO Fun!!! It is worth the heartbreak, and the months of buying Linden or making them other ways (thanks to the naughty alt). It was worth it for me to have a hobby I find truly satisfying and which pays for my teir.

I think it is good to acknowledge challenge, so long as one also acknowledges the pleasure and reward that can come from meeting challenge. Yes, being in SL and trying to have an earned income is a challenge. As far as the issue of self-esteem goes, the hippy in me rankles at the idea that a hippy might not also believe in accountability.
Self-esteem cannot come from someone telling you how great you are. True self-esteem comes only from accomplishment. Find a goal that it is possible to accomplish (say making a pair of shoes or a chair or something to start) and then accomplish that goal. Then pick a bigger one. Rinse, repeat.

From: Cid Jacobs

Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

Second Life is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

It's also a matter of attitude.

The Attitude of one who likes and enjoys Failure:
"I can't do this. It's too hard. I don't have the talent. I'm not having fun... The system won't let make things easier for me! I don't know photoshop/gimp/poser/<insert random program here>, it's too complicated. My computer is too slow, my internet is too slow. I'm a prim retard. I'm a texture retard. Everyone is so unfriendly and won't help me. I can't go to that class, it's out of my schedule! The forums are too huge for me to sort out information. I'm too shy to ask, why don't people ask me if I'm having problems? I can never compete against the bigwigs. I just can't. Oh god I hate this! I hate this! Look at this, it's hideous! I can't even do something right!"

The Attitude of one who wants out of the Failure rut:
"i can do this...it looks difficult but I think I can hack it. I may not be as good as the others but I can try! Heck, why try, I'll be the best out there! After all I'll be doing something I enjoy. I'm not actually good in learning this <insert random program> but it won't hurt to read and try to learn. I'll ask for help if I get confused? Oh wow, that's pretty vague maybe I should do some research, the forums are a good place to start..and so is Google. Wow, classes...can't make it there but I'm sure I can find a different class or maybe I can ask in the forums. Experiment, huh? Why not? Limitations, hmm, I can work around that...What's this thing? It looks nothing like the way I envisioned it to be. Let me try again. And again. And again... (after x number of tries and a considerable amount of time) Woot! I got it!"

Question now is which one are you?