A guild of philanthropic benefactors?

I have been a member of SL for about a year now. I hosted some word games near the start of my membership, using an LSL hosting script that I wrote. Now, after an extended period of having had little to do with SL, I've written another word-game script which I intend to use to host many games.

I tested my script on Sunday with a group of volunteers. Following an offhand comment made by one of the volunteers, I realised that, since the last time I hosted an SL event, the Lindens have stopped subsidising events with Linden dollars. I was dismayed at that, but I suppose it's something we'll have to live with.

I want to host events in SL, and I want to give people a financial incentive to attend those events, but, having few L$ savings, I'm not prepared to put myself out of pocket. I would have thought that it would have been in the Lindens' interest to assist in promoting events which would make SL a more interesting place to live in, but I suppose their decision was influenced by the slew of bingo games and dancing events which, to my mind, make the place very bleak indeed and rather less interesting than it might be.

So, it is my idea to ask the rich of Second Life if they would like to help fund edifying events. I'm talking about the sort of people who have bags of Linden dollars sitting next to the fire for use as kindling: the publicly minded Carnegies, Rockefellers, Gettys and Cadburys of this world. I'm imagining a committee of rich people to whom hosts of games of skill could apply for funding. I would have no qualms about announcing, for example, that I was hosting an event sponsored by the beneficent, charming and handsome Joe Realtor, and I would not expect personal payment for hosting the game: all I want is to be able to host worthwhile events and not to have to shell out my own cash as prize money.

I'm sure many people will disagree, but I think that games that require some skill and effort on the part of the player as well as the host, such as a trivia game or a word game, are more worthy of funding than games of chance at which the host merely has to click a button and the player merely has to attend. I don't want to have a debate about the relative merits of such games; I'm merely trying to test the ground as to whether there are others who agree with this point of view. Given the response I've had at the games that I've hosted, I suspect that there are many people who think the same.

If such a guild/committee/circle already exists, please let me know about it, and I won't try to form a rival.

If nothing like that exists, and if you're (a) rich and amenable to this idea; and/or (b) a (would-be) host of games of skill rather than chance, then please let's start a discussion about what we can do.

Just to clarify, please, what kind of events do you have in mind?
Other than any kind of "sitting" games, like word games, **ingo, or events where you just sit there (inworld) and hope to win something while doing basically nothing.

I would be willing to put up some money in any event that requires the use of some skills other than mouse-clicking...

Events like building contests, races, skydiving, sporting events, anything that makes you use your head in strategy or team cooperation.

And also, the prize has to be substancial enough to be an incentive, like the recent Linden train station contest. L15,000 is "starting" to be interesting, but still is only less that U$60. You can make that kind of money in 3 seconds on Jeopardy!

I'm not criticizing. Just pointing out some details.

I have yet to see a contest or event where the first prize is more that U$100. (about L26,000).

Because real money seem to be the incentive for many people in SL, only real money will make an event truely worth attending or competing for.

Unless people become like me and do things just for the fun of it.

Check out Awakening Avatars Event Sponsorship program at the link below and IM me inWorld.

Pratyeka, you seem to be making your main distinction between events which require the participants to be more or less immobile and those which require them to move about the landscape. My main distinction was between events which require some skill on the part of the participants and those which do not (i.e., games of pure chance such as bingo). I had in mind any game which would require any sort of skill on the part of the participant: this would include word games, trivia games, tringo at a push, I suppose (since it requires some skill, though it's not my cup of tea), and any of the more active events that you mentioned: basically anything except the sort of click-click-click game at which a monkey or an automaton would be just as good as a human being.

I wasn't thinking of the sort of figures that you mentioned (just a slightly-more-than-nominal amount, so that the participants would have some "real" reward for their efforts -- anything more than the mere title of having achieved Nth place), but it would be very interesting to have a large prize now and then to spice things up. Personally I think the prize money that used to be offered by the Lindens (L$500 per event, I think) was about right for the average event. You could never dine out on the money you won from a Linden-sponsored event, but it was nice to have stuffed a few dollars in your pocket.

Merwan, that looks like just the sort of thing I was looking for, and I will certainly check it out.

Point one : Erelas is not rich

Point two : Erelas is not rich (defined as having bags of L$ to use as kindling)

Point three : I'd be happy to sponsor / provide space / provide prizes for such a game as you describe, because we love having fun.

IM me in game and I'll give you the grand tour, as we are considering opening up part of our land to events that are not directly related to our organization. You can see a pic of where I am talking about here, http://golgotha.slpics.com .

Thank you Flugelhorn for clarifying. Will you create a group in order to facilitate communication between sponsors when comes the time to organize, announce and finance events?

Well now, Pratyeka, yesterday I did create a related group called A.R.G.O.S. (Announcements Re Games Of Skill), which welcomes hosts and players of games of skill. The idea behind it is that anyone about to host an unbingolike game could announce it to would-be players of such games by broadcasting news of it to all group members. Did you have in mind something a bit different?

(I'd appreciate it if anyone remotely interested in this group could subscribe to it, because it needs at least three members to survive. Subscription is open and free to all.)

I will subscribe to the group tonight.

I'm starting a foundation to help subsidize events. Learn more by clicking here. We need volunteers and donations to get going, but it's right along these lines.