Sl <----> RL

Guys and Gals,

Here's something interesting... At the moment I'm selling some new xml-rpc tools which send their data to my server and allow you to use them from a web control panel. To pay for the bandwidth on this, I charge a small fee. It works out around less than $50L a month.

When I took my product 'round the houses' the responses I got were split between 'we like our old stuff' and 'it costs too much'.

It's that second argument I want to question here today. We now have XML-RPC and the ability to email out to servers... We are on the fringe of real SL -> RL integration, and making the whole Second Life experience wider generally. Linden Labs themselves were pledged to creating a mobile division for SL on cellphone at one point.

Now, there are hundreds of private sims, each costing $200 US a month, that's approx $50,000L a month in use at the moment. People are willing to shell out $200 in US hard cash to Linden Labs, but not $50, or $0.20 US a month to third party people who extend the SL experience.

I just wonder, where is money and SL going? People used to say don't ask for serious amounts of money in SL, but I think $0.20 is tiny. And if we want to realise the potential of the tools Linden Labs have built into second life, we are going to have to sober up and start paying someone more than twenty cents to build us powerful external modules.

So why do we shun paying 20 cents to developers who take SL that bit further, but we pay $200 US *a month* to Linden labs for another sim. Willingness to give a little money is not the problem, so what is?

And how will Second Life ever go further, cause I know last night I was about ready to throw in the towel on SL and just work on industrial development instead, cause people dissing me for asking 20 cents was just pitiful.

I want to know, what's in the heads of the masses... Why is one form of spending OK, and the other so taboo? Lend me your brains, your thoughts and your opinions...

I read you product release and I do really like the concepts of the products. My issue is that I don't really need to externalize the controls of my in-world objects. For me, I don't need a web interfaced vendor, visitor counter or intercom. Though they are all really cool. I prefer to keep SL in world. Where I see XML and email being more useful is to bring RL data in world. Give me an in world newspaper that scrolls the RL headlines 24x7. Sell the paper on a monthly subscription basis.

I agree what I'm trying to do can't be for everyone cause we're all different. But there is a definite opinion amongst the SL masses that coding effort is not worth paying (anything) for... Really what I'm asking here, is where do people see things progressing, with them giving nothing to the developers?

Suppose I build a system to bring tons+tons of data into SL, I can do that, it's substantially easier than getting data out... But why do it? It'd take some time to perfect, and what happens when it's done? People just shrug and say they won't pay for it? A lot of people yesterday offered to take my wares off me if they were free...

What do people really see as worth 'paying for' here. Clearly islands are worth $50,000 L a month, so if only I could make those... But seriously, I create because I really love to see what's possible, but with so many other projects in RL crowding for my time, I just really can't realise this potential without some support.

Y'know, Mark Busch said once: people want things that are fun. That's probably not a bad place to start?

Azelda

I would say that is what the Developer's Incentive program is for. But it is broken, as we all know. At this stage of SL development, I see people's perception of SL as a huge chat room with cool toys you can pose with. Right now I think the majority of the SL consumer market is based around: clothes, skins, animations, gambling and so on. If you can make an av look sexy or have a little fun, you have a product. The hard core industrial applications like rental systems, vendors and such have a fairly limited market. But, give it time. If LL uses this latest capital correctly, developer's may actual be rewarded. Though, pulling in $100,000 / year in Lindens may be a ways off.

Hmm, you have a good way of capturing the world around you into words Al, I think reading what you wrote, that's quite an accurate picture of things

My problem I think is that I have always been fascinated why things work, and I go for the guts every time, making industrial stuff, not light sparkly stuff...

I'm going to bide my time on XML-RPC. I can forsee all that's possible with it, and even guess at the dev times for different products, but I'm going to hold till SL is ready for it.

As for you Al, your idea of getting data into SL is interesting. Tell me, what is it you would want to get into SL, and why? I'm interested...

Sorry Mi'lady, I don't do fun... I wouldn't build the theme park, but when you catch the train to go to the theme park, I'd have a hand in designing part of the AI that does the points on the train line... I'd work on an improved track section design... I'd build a new way to make a train black box that tells us more about how the train runs... Not fun, but it has it's place too.