With v1.2 what becomes of linden dollars?

When v1.2 comes around it seems to render Linden dollars useless. How will people own stores if your getting virtual money that can't buy land or objects anymore? Unless I'm mistaken it seems like real money is the only currency now. Correct me if I'm wrong.

RTFM
You will still have to buy land with L$ and you will be able to throw them at other players with gleeful abandon in exchange for their goods and services.
Rezzing objects out of your inventory will not cost money, but actually buying objects from other players will.

I wonder though what will happen to the prices of items in SL.
for $100 you could get a pretty cool item. $500 a cool item with a cool script. but with 1.2 why bother trying to make a profit? Sure it may buy the amount of land you are entitled to free of taxes for your account. But what about beyond that? taxes for extra land? You would have to make thousands of L$ a month to afford it. How many people would buy a $10,000 item that is worth $100 right now?

New people that dont know the old economy?

Pricing is going to be an interesting thing. There is going to be a great divide in classes (I predict). Old timers will have lots of L$ to toss around whereas new members will have very little.

Sounds like it will be a good idea to sell several things at low prices and some more exclusive items at seemingly high prices.

It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

Actually, I planned to scout the forums today for a thread of this very nature, because I'm concerned about the same thing. Eggy, land costs 1L per parcel. That means someone with their "welcome to the game" 1000L could buy their entire 512 plot of land in an instant. It means a lifetime member *points to self* can buy their 4000L plot of land without a flinch. Not to put my moola on the table or anything, but that still leaves me with 28000L. As far as I know, and I'm not always clear on things (I'm just an airhead, shoot me) but objects don't cost anything anymore to make. So money will ONLY be used to buy other peoples' stuff, and land auctions, which, if land parcels only cost 1L each, an auction sellinig land for five times as much as its worth would still only scratch the wallet of some of the members who have been here for a long time.

Dae,
land costs $1L to buy but thats not including the RL maint fees. I have L$ to buy land but dont want to put out RL$ to maintain ownership. Its multi leveled.

I plan to wait and see how it goes for a bit before I alter my prices, though since money will probably be harder to come by for newer players I might end up lowering them. No sense doing anything drastic til I see how the economy ends up working out.

As for older players sitting on heaps of cash, that can vanish in an instant in land auctions and paying the extortionate L$ rates for land in lieu of RL$

Some things you can spend $L on...

Purchase new land
Bid on an auction (land at first, who knows what else later)
Pay land use fees
Buy stuff from other players
Directory listings
Uploading sound files and textures
Convert to $US (gamingopenmarket.com)

Eggy,

I "Read The ****ing Manual" already, but it seems like store owners have no reason to sell stuff anymore. You can use it to buy other stuff but thats it. Buyers still have use for money but people who sell things get nothing but virtual money in return. I'm not even sure that you can use gamingopenmarket.com because who wants money that's useless anyway? Ohh I don't like this v1.2 thing at all. I don't see how they could see these as better changes without letting us take a survey or something. It's all too suspicious. I currently have a small plot of land with about 130-ish prims on it but now I have to buy more than 1024m2 of land just to have enough room for objects I already have. I'm paying 15 a month now to have all the prims I want but In order to keep the prims I have now I still have to pay 15 a month.

¬_¬

Since you dont have any use for your money, give it to me!
You can pay me through my calling card, or just gamble at one of the Omega Games arcades

Hmmm. Looks like the money market has the $L worth about USD$ 0.003 right now.

Just thought I'd mention that

Oh, and I look for it to hit USD$ 0.010 before the end of January. Based mostly on efforts of dollar-rich investors looking to raise $L for large land purchases. Of course, what the heck do I know?

At any rate, I would like to point out - re an earlier post - that the price for retail goods should be set to recover costs and to generate a profit. The relative worth of land has nothing much to do with it unless land is part of the cost.

So, given that the only things of value in a given object for sale are textures, whatever overhead the business spends on the plant or the outlet, labor and intellectual resources, then prices should be mostly determined by the scarcity of the last two. If there is only one manufacturer of quality hoverboards, I will spend what I feel the item is worth to my needs. If there are two makers or quality, then it will be features against prices - driving the quality up and the prices down.

We will all get better value for our money, which wil have the effect of raising the buying power of tourist-class users. This, in turn, given their potentially large numbers (relatively speaking) should help drive this toward an economy based primarily on two things: land purchases and quality recreational items.

Or, I suppose, on Lucky Charms and Nvidia backpacks

There's still stuff to buy. I for one will still be buying the new fashions whenever they come out,

As for other things, I see people saying things like "why buy when I can make it myself?" Totally valid and I can't touch it. On the other hand, I can't believe I'm the only person who happens to have a good 'nestegg' going into 1.2 who can't make it myself.

I can hear the virtual groans, but I like shopping. I like to buy clothes. Yeah, if I learned how, I'm sure eventuially I can make my own, but where's the happy surprise seeing something new and buying it?! Showing it off to your friends and running back together to buy the place out?! That's fun right there I tell ya.

I like seeing new surprising things, things that I might want, and since stuff is still for sale, I can buy it. Why? Because there's no way I can do a jetpack, or a plane, or some weird little gadget that doesn something I never thought of.

There's still going to be a serious economy.

But the the prices do bother me. I'd hate to see a way to turn RL$ into $L like in There. If that happens, yeah I think we'd see outrageous prices. 10K for a shirt. If that's cut off, and the only 'new' money will be people with small bank accounts and prices may stay stable, lower perhaps than they are now, but hopefullt atable .. eventually.

To the Lindens.

I'm sorry, but this is the way I feel. On the one hand, you categorically deny you will allow $L to be bought outright with RL$, yet you also publically encourage the practice by a 3rd parrty. I realize that there's still the limit of how much money is in the game, but that's such a thin line. I'm very afraid that a year or so from now we'll be able to actually buy $L from you for cash. It's so easy. We're not doing, we won't do it, but these guys will, they're great, and ther are no problems at all ... hmmm ok, maybe we'll try it too.

Please, seriously please, don't go there.

Actually, I never thought they had a choice once they decided real money would become part of the economy of the game. Once that happened, it was inevitable. I was kinda saying that a week ago

But, I guess I have to wait until this new economy gets a chance to run a while. It's a cinch the old way wasn't working toward growth. Maybe this one will. I am still against the idea of linking this economy with Real Life affluence, but this wouldn't be the first time my principles were impractical.

We'll just have to see if the extra force this puts into the economy is good for the future - or bad for the culture.

Please confirm that I can sell my L$ for US$ at any gaming website (say Simlane.com), and this site is allowed to sell to other residents? If so, can residents sell in-world items for US$ or give away in-world items to members (paying subscription fees) of a gaming website?

Who is the GOM associate in SL?

One-time expense.

One-time expense

Not unless you're obscenely rich

Just moves money around, doesn't take it out of circulation

I'll grant these

Again, just moves money around.

Another probable use for money: wages. It is quite likely that lower costs of land and materials will increase the relative value of labor. Having an increasing number of lower (tourist) class workers - who want to earn money, but have no land or prims of their own - could lead to more labor-intensive industries.

I could see a moderate sized company - or two - formed of lower class workers whose specialty is construction of large builds on whole sims, or for large projects. I can also see the ability to hire and schedule attendants for retail businesses instead of having to automate sales. Personal service may become more prevalent.

A working class will enable us to provide one-on-one service like hiring a painter to paint your building a different texture when it suits you. Or like making a company that provides out-call escort services. Or like providing custom texture uploads for walk-in traffic. Or like having a club for newbies that's open 24/7. Or like forming a police force. Or like hiring a staff of news reporters.

It was very hard to find cheap labor when every person had easy access to his own land and prims. The way to make money in the past was to use your land and prims to draw visitors. Or you could create a retail store that cost huge amounts of taxes to maintain and for which it was nearly impossible to get extra capital and labor. Some folks could hire out as consultants or specialists, or simply on a whim or as the mood and circumstances dictated. But, largely, the entire economy was composed of either sole-proprietor businesses crippled by taxes, or landed gentry, or lay-abouts, or a large (and growing) group of frustrated residents who don't feel good enough at building, scripting or socializing to have anything to contribute.

Well, now we're going to get the largest tax cuts in our history. It's time to test that conservative pet theory. Will large tax cuts fuel the ascension of the middle class? Will it force the creation of huge numbers of good-paying jobs? Are you people who are complaining that there is nothing left to do with your money willing to turn around and "trickle" it down on the new working-class we're about to create?

Save your money for a while. I believe there will soon come a time when wonderful investment opportunities will come along. You'll be able to create an economy that provides you luxuries and expressions that will certainly startle you. And, in return for investing your "useless" money today, you'll receive back the kind of returns that can make you a truly significant participant in the future of this world.

We've moved rapidly through many stages of economic growth. Believe it or not, it's already time to say goodbye to pre-industrial Linden. If you have spare cash laying around, perhaps it's time to start thinking like a Captain of Industry



(The attendants here should really start taking the keyboard away from me after 4 in the morning. :-/ I’m so sleepy I don’t even know if I’m still speaking English.

well see, now the lindens don't have to fret over there being no group interaction. they can implement the code knowing that there will be groups to use it. they'll consist of officers that run the operation and peons working for a paycheck.

i suppose what we call a group now will consist of equals and exist through sheer cooperation without using the code.

What will become of group owned land/objects? They're value in your prim limit should be divided, like if there are 5 people in a group that own one object that object is worth 1 prim/5 so you can have 5 objects that will amount to one prim on all group members limit.

No answers from Linden?

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Could be, however I quoted Robin Linden on this (see first page), and asked for an explanation/confirmation on that part.

Yeah, I was saying this ever since I heard how 1.2 is gonna work. I don't see any reason for me at all to try to earn money now. Without costs to rez prims, prim and land taxes, I just need enough to buy my little chunk of land and that's it.

I mean, for the most part if I want something I make it myself and I don't see any reason now why I should sell any of it.

I don't see how this plan could possibly be any better... how can an economy where money really isn't all the usefull thrive?

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