How should jobless Jane Doe make money?

So Jeska closed Catherine's other thread before I had a chance to post, so I thought I'd make a new poll instead!

Hypothetical:

Jane Doe has good job in computer industry. Nice computer at home, Second Life account with an average land tier, good creative skills, makes items that other people in SL enjoy owning. Jane really enjoys playing on SL.

Jane Doe loses job.

Does Jane:

a) Spend more time on SL making more and better items, running mentor and instructor events and doing all she can to maximize her L$ income to pay for her internet connection and basic living needs?

b) Try applying for increasingly scarce jobs comparable to her old job, hoping she doesn't run out of money before she finally lands one?

c) Go out and get a job at McDonalds, which she hates, so she can earn enough money to pay for her internet connection and basic living needs, and play SL in the small amount of free time she now has?

d) Other (state below)

I've tried to word the options as neutrally as possible, bearing in mind Cristiano's points on some of the other recent polls. I am genuinely interested in what comes out of this thread, as I have no strong opinion myself on this one.

Jane should try and find another real-world job.

It's possible to make a decent amount of money in SL. Some people are doing it as I type this. It's also possible to make a lot of money gambling, but I wouldn't recommend that either.

I've seen far too many 'sky is falling' threads with people crying about land prices dropping, the value of the Linden dropping, and them not being to cover their cost for the game, let alone pay bills. Some of these posts are from the same people who were laughing all the way to the bank 2 weeks earlier.

SL income is less stable than RL jobs, which is saying something.

I just don't see how anybody could truly make a living creating items in SL right now. If we're talking paying for a mortgage or monthly rent, plus food and other bills included in day-to-day living expenses, I don't think it would be possible to reap that kind of profit off selling SL goods. I've watched the prices on some items sold in SL shoot upward to begin with, but then fall back down to a reasonable level; I assume this is because the market just didn't support that higher price point, no matter the supposed level of quality.

I would have to be in pretty dire straits to go to work for McDonald's or another fast food joint of the same ilk. I'd be seeking out other retail options before I went the Mickey-D route. There are also a lot of different places to look for jobs that not everybody thinks to investigate, including temp agencies and head hunters.

Someday, SL might have a healthy (and large) enough economy to support content creators who want to make a living at it. I just don't think it's the case right now.

I wonder what Jane Doe's talents are, beyond this?

This world is full of risks. But rewards too.

But then again, Stephen King sagely said:


"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work."


But then, the counterstrike vs. that will be "Work smarter, not harder", and it can go on and on.

Life forks in all sorts of funny ways. Jane may discover she has an uberimpressive ability for scripting as well as creating stuff, or say her fashions become SL hits -- and she crosses them over into the "real world" with the help of friends.

There are so many possibilities. Depends what Jane's personality is like. If she wants the stability, I'd recommend a non-SL job, for now anyway. She can still come on SL to have fun. Maybe a sort of vocational equilibrium: she finds a decently-paying job, uses that to leverage her finances in the meantime. She then dedicates more time to SL as sees fit to see if she can seize more profitable opportunities here, and eventually finds she can -- amazingly enough -- make a comfortable living in SL. So, she quits her "real" job and spends fulltime working AND playing in Second Life. Perhaps SL expands by leaps and bounds in the not-so-distant future, so Jane Doe scales her devotion up and at it, and one day... SHE BECOMES A LINDEN!!!

Could happen.

Should try to get another RL job, really. (Doesn't prevent her from going on creating stuff in SL as long as she can though.) I very much doubt SL can pay up to a real salary.

Oh, and regarding the "go get a job at McDonald's" (I'd have mentioned it in the other thread it it hadn't been closed). Some people seriously need to wake up regarding this. I worked there and I know how it goes... you don't get a job at McDo's if you're "too old". "Too old" varies, but generally, after 25-30, you're old there (and I'm kind). They want "young and dynamic" personnel, not 40-years old people who've lost their job, or who've been at home until the kids were grown up and then have to get a job :/

This is one interesting poll but very hard to make choice.

I would say that SL environment is risky and unstable. To rely on it can be dangerous, especially if you live in expensive developed country. If Jane would live in India and already has some financial success in SL to proove that she has skills to succeed there and she enjoy much more than RL job then I would encourage her focus on SL. Or if Jane is married and could live with her husband's money in case things go wrong. But otherwise I would encourage her focus on RL job. Whatever you do in SL today: tomorrow some clever people from developing country might make it their full time job.

The answer is simple, as long as she has no dependents: follow her passions.

You wont always make the most money short-term following your passions (or even ever), but you will make some, and you'll be passionate, which counts for a lot.

Of course, if Jane Doe has dependents, the situation is rather more complicated; and I abstain from replying in this case, since its a situation I've taken pains to avoid.

Azelda

jane should replace her old job assuming she's persuing a career that interests her. i have little sympathy for people who work for thirty years in a job they hate. that's a foolish thing to do in the us. i understand that it's different in other countries.

if a job isn't forthcoming, jane should take a parttime job, even one she hates, for the money and continue looking for another career job.

now it is important for jane to keep her spirits up. if second life is her primary source of entertainment, she should endevour to budget the time and money to play. she will not have more time than she did. looking for a job IS a full time job. personally, i would give up cable and eating out before i dropped my sl tier. but i would drop my tier to keep my alabama shakespeare festival season tickets if it came to it. hopefully i'll lose my job in september and have a year to cover them so it doesn't come to that.

oh wait! what am i saying?

You could just buy like a pound of herb and sell it in the hood to gte you started before you move up to selling bigger and better drugs lmao. j/k, from what all the "rappers" say they make plenty of money dealing drugs lol.

Phone/video-sex Operator or Prostitute, both of which can be done at her home and will still give her plenty of time on SL.

Or..find a rich man/woman and become thier live-in lover/domestic slave, which again would still enable plenty of time for SL.

*runs and hides*

Jane should become a shepherd.
Thats where the money is.

Is that the newest, politically correct term for sheep pimping?

Ok how can Jane play sl if jane has no money,

The ultimate paradox which came first Sl or the money in janes situation of course...

Shadow

This is my RL in reverse. Lost the job, then found SL a couple of years later. SL literally saved my soul. I had lost all hope by the time I found it. Don't know if I'll make any money in SL, but it's not really important. SL has given my life meaning for the first time in a long while.

BTW, getting that job back isn't so easy...

She should look for another job. If her specialty is indeed fading away, then she needs to find a new engaging specialty.

SL would make a great part-time job for a student, but we are all too dependent on the whims of the Lindens and passing fads among players to rely on SL for a life-long gig.

If you're good you can make money from anything. There are guys that make money out of having sex with women y'know?

Azelda

Great answer Azelda! For me, SL makes a good second income. It isn't reliable and I wouldn't want to be in the position of absolutely depending on the income, but it has definitely helped me get by during a year when my biggest RL client cut their advertising budget in half, which cut my income in half. Income from SL has saved my ass more than a few times. For some people, like me, the ability to make money in SL is the difference between feeling comfortable putting in a lot of time and effort here or having to contribute a lot less than I do and find more work I enjoy less. I would love to see this niche of online gaming take off and get to the point where I could make my living completely from developing content. We aren't nearly there yet, but the prospects are very exciting. I'd rather apply my skills to helping people have fun and fascilitating play than helping some large corporation stuff their pockets, but I do need to pay my bills and feed myself and the cat. If I can do both at the same time, so much the better!

I didn't answer the poll as there wasn't an answer I was satisfied with.

SL is a virtual online world. What should be Jane's priority is her RL and taking care of herself and her family, if there is one in the picture. Relying on SL for their sole income is a very foolish thing to do. Anything could happen..sales could go down drastically...or someone could create something that is better than hers, or even worse, which I'm sure we all hope doesn't happen, Linden Labs could one day cease to exist.

Online games sometimes are fleeting things, and so are the fads and going ons in an imaginary world. She should definitely do the right thing and suck it up and get a real job. She'll have to put up with all of the anxieties that go along with going to work everyday and losing time from playing SL. But let's face it, at least she won't have to lie in bed at night worrying how she's going to pay her bills, or eat, or what she'll say to the next bill collector that calls her house with another threat.

She should peddle her pixels predominantly to purveyers of perversion

You and your pickles Talen

Lecktor reminded me:

she should peddle her pixels predominantly to purveyers of perversion who have a propensity towards pickle porn

I guess find some more RL werk...I'm werking now...me hates it but luvs the ability to eat and pay for broadband...Hope Jane finds something soon.

Agreed, but I would also like to add that most rl jobs also offer medical/dental and life insurance. Which SL does not. A RL job you must also pay taxes, SL you do not. A RL job sometimes comes with a company vehicle. SL does not.

The perks of a RL job are far more than trying to make SL into a rl job.

Perhaps Jane should join a commune and not have to worry about mundane evil capitalistic things like having a job... and by working at that job helping the capitalist greed machine exalt God Money.

Most communes dont have electricty much less dsl LOL