toy money v. real money

Bingo.

A number of months ago LL asked the residents whether or not it should get into the L$ <-> US$ business, and risk was the primary reason that I saw against it.

Consider that enabling this from LL exposes them to risk from everything in SL:

liability for unregulated gambling
liability for sex-for-money (not sure what the regulations are on phone sex, etc)
liability for copyright violation (even though LL has respected RL businesses' claims in the past)

somehow, i don't think laying l$ between these kinds of activites and us$ will be a long-term protection against liabilities of this type.

I agree. But for now, even Paypal is protected. When you see something like a Federal law that requires inter-state sales tax payment / income tax reporting on Paypal as a bank / crackdown on off-shores internet casinos - well, then LL will be forced to rethink the L$'s liability.

Prior to 1.2 the Linden dollar was largely toy money. But you have to balance the world somehow and the way they had chosen wasn't working.

Right now you are no more gambling in SL than if you were playing monopoly even though in theory you could lose your house spending all your real money on fake money to play in SL casinos. But SL doesn't have to uphold any gambling laws because real money isn't involved. As long as its the players that decide to give the Linden dollar its value, it keeps SL out of a lot of mess.

It's the same legal loophole that Tokyo casinos use - you win metal balls, then you go across the street and change them for money.

1. Selling money was the downfall of There.
2. More money = higher prices = total wash.
3. Printing more money doesn't solve RL money problems, why would it solve SL money problems?
4. Did I mention that There died as soon as it sold money?
5. There are like, a million threads about this.
6. Cheese.
7. There really screwed things up when they forced users to pay money for Therebucks.
8. Therebucks rhymes with "There sucks". Coincidence?
9. No, the pain!
10. Welcome to Second Life.

While we're on the subject, let's compare why this is a bad idea in Second Life while this is not.

1) Compared to a traditional MMOG, the Lindens don't create all of the content in Second Life. This busts the door wide open for intellectual property theft, as well as several other issues that are extremely hard to avoid.

2) Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has vastly more resources at their disposal than Linden Labs, most pointedly in human capital.

3) Objects are "taken" from a user's inventory in Sony's case, whereas objects in Second Life can be copied. This presents "exclusivity" fraud problems.

4) Forcing the Lindens to keep the available currency and capital necessary for this venture would be difficult at best. What if there's a "run at the bank" just after conversion to USD?

At any rate, this will probably be a moot point in the long term.

Please don't take this personally, but this needs to be said; I think it's a matter of perspective.


Yes, and that's exactly why it's a bad idea. If the money drops and becomes worthless, then content developers stop being motivated. No content, no fun stuff.


Says whom? What you're really buying is part of a server that exists in RL. This server costs money. Where else will the money come to pay for this?


It's everyone. No money = no content. No content = no fun for anyone.


If you're having trouble making money, i recommend one of many threads about making money in SL. Search for "make money" and you should find some discussions.


It frustrates me to have to read people explain over and over how SL costs all of $10US to play forever... your typical MMO costs $50 per expansion pack and $15 / month. SL is a bargain!