er, pardon my ignorance...

LOL

Oh come on! RL$1,000 for the Chip Midnight account and I'll throw in a brand new Lifetime Membership and employ you for RL$50 a week. You can be my VP Design.

Submit to my domination!!

No, it hasn't. My real money buys me the same access as someone else. They don't figure into the game system at all. For an example of mixed into the system look at There, where T$ = US$.

Once properly explained, the tiered membership structure makes sense. I don't take issue with that.

The "input" side of my apprehension does not yet exist. Look to There for an excellent example of that part..

Now, the output side is what worries me. To lift from what Beryl alluded to, "money changes everything". If you've followed the dissection in various places about the copyright-related TOS changes, you'd know they open the door to lawsuits between users over content. When it's all play money, who cares. When we're getting real money out of it in some form, there's incentive to actually do it.

That's just one example. How about if you start your SL business on your 1024m2 of land, and make enough to buy another 512m2 via L$, not real ones. All of a sudden it has direct financial impact on you, because if your SL business fails you are out real money. In this example it's only $5/mo for that piece of land, but I'm sure you can extrapolate from there for larger ventures. It's not a game anymore, and I think if you ask the playerbase you will find more people here for a "game" than an extension of real life hassles.

I've thought a lot about this (though anything beyond 1.2 is pure speculation on my part) and have to say that no longer does 1.2 make me a sad panda, but the what I percieve to be the shifting course of the game design does.

As for points about the current influence of RL$ on the system via the grey market..

To me going from an "underground" grey market activity to a sanctioned, sponsored, or even encouraged company supported one is what people don't want to see. It's like saying organized crime has influence over people, so let's legalize it. This step has already been taken regarding mule accounts. Instead of setting up a mule of dubious legality you can just cut the middle man and pay LL directly for one. Just think, no hassle with getting that 2nd account into your group, or transferring stipend! Think of the time you'll save.

Meh. Like I said, I'll have to see where things are going.

Awesome post Kathy! I think you pretty well summed it up perfectly. Thanks.

Personally, I think alot of my "indifference" (though leaning towards the positive side of things) has to do with the fact that I paid alot of money for a service, and now, a short time after I paid for it...it's a somewhat different deal/value. I don't know if it's better or worse yet, but I don't think I'll be disappointed in the long run.

It IS weird to pay $200+ for a service only to have the terms of service you agreed to radically change a month or two later.

Most (many anyway) lifers have been here a long time. The world has been evolving, yes. This was a big and sudden change that was released with few details.

As details emerge I see people warming up to the idea. I agree that holding people to their initial shock response is not really fair. Let it all play out.

--"Those feverish players will have to be either creative, persistently sneaky, or both. You can't just walk into SL and make a fortune. Most of the scammers I've known about get publically shamed and then booted from the game in no time flat."--

You would be absolutely amazed at how creative people are willing to get for money. Get one or two creative guys who can code and build...get a bunch of friends to buy the one time 10 dollar membership and dwell...

--"No, it's more like "everyone and their uncle is hitting the world record while leaving alot of people far behind, so we're going to change the record so not everyone gets the accolades.--"

There is only one world record. As there is only one top dog in SL ratings. It's not a bracket. The harder the high end works, the more disparate the haves and have nots will be.

As a lifer I'll say this...I am a lot, lot more optimistic about these changes then I was about the last round of disastrous tax/economy changes.

Edit omg RL gambling dollars are now possible. if the house can convert winnings into RL dollars for payouts via paypal or something....eep.

Ah, but I would argue that you're not just buying "access" -- you're also buying resources which directly relate to in-world objects/scripts. In fact, if you look at how LL is setting up the fee structure in 1.2, they must consider pure access (bandwidth plus basic processing on the sim) relatively inexpensive -- or at least an expense that can be paid for other ways.

Just because you can't buy L$ directly from Linden Labs doesn't not mean that L$ cannot or do not have a RL$ value. Sorry if that was not clear from my post?



I don't understand? How would this work? Mule accounts are against the TOS (obviously disregard my first world domination idea).

The point of my ideas for domination was to hopefully show that even if a very rich person could buy anything they wanted to in SL, it wouldn't necessarily impact your experience within the world and could perhaps enhance it.

As far as Second Life being a "game" I must disagree with you. SL is very different beast. I would say that many people have been playing it like a game:


These kinds of response are fascinating because they highlight a certain type of MMOG player (probably Bartle's Achiever http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm ). I think some are afraid that the part of Second Life that did feel like a game -- having to understand a set of rules (taxes) and beating the system each week -- will be gone. It certainly was a great challenge and I have recently gotten caught up in it as well (I'm part Achiever as well). But, honestly, I don't think it's really what Second Life was supposed to be about. This is not a game -- it is a world. There are games in the world, but the world is not a game.

Here's the description of SL:
"Second Life is an expansive online society, lived in and built by its participants. Join a 3D world full of people, activity, and fun, where you and fellow residents can build a shared reality. You choose your own goals -- travel and explore, claim and build on virtual land, make friends and socialize, or vie for status and wealth. Whatever you choose to do, your Second Life starts now."
- http://secondlife.com/about/

For me, the 1.2 changes are about aligning the world of SL with this description. Choose your own goals.

But there is hope for the achievers! There will still be the opportunity to get on the leaderboard through the acquisition of L$ and popularity.

Oh, and very nice post, Kathy. I truly do empathize with oldsters and even enterprising youngsters who've put so much effort into something only to have things change on them.

Change can be painful. Hopefully everyone will make it out the other side. I don't want an empty plot of land next to me, Cienna!

Right now people set up mules to defray tax costs, correct? Removing taxes and allowing you to pay more RL$ instead is in essence the same, there's just no second account involved. In both cases you are paying more money to cover your taxes instead of earning the L$ another way.

Again, I don't think this is really that big a deal, and once it was explained right I kind of like it.

As for whether it is a game or not, well, I have a feeling I am going to have to agree to disagree with some people on that. :) (plus I'm late for a meeting, eep)

I'm hoping that with the new system a lot more people will stick around to buy clothes and guns and planes and Dark Life backpacks. The people who are successful now will be even more successful as a geometric growth kicks in and SL starts getting huge.