Bhodi's Do-Gooder, Communitarian Prim Usage Primer

First, let me say that I"m NOT suggesting that this is the model everyone should follow, or that it is in any way more correct than other models. I"m putting this out there so that I can share how I make decisons about prim usage in the hopes that it will encourage others to think about their own decisions...

What is the value of this build to others?
This is the most important question I ask myself before I start building (or, more likely, having something built.) Am I making a private home for my own use? A tiny ornament that will be buried deep inside that home that no one but me will ever see? Or am I putting something cool or useful in a public place for lots of people to use/enjoy/interact with? Am I building a setting for other people to gather in for a specific purpose? Am I creating a game that other people will play?

I gave up my private home because it seemed to me to be a waste of resources, but I don't expect (or even want!) other people to do so. However, I encourage others to consider whether or not their high-prim private home is keeping a shared experience from being created, and to ask themselves if that makes SL a better place?

How much of my reasonable share of the sim prims am I already using?
This one is easy. If I"m already over the proportional alotment of prims for the size of my land holding, and the Sim is even moderately high in prim usage, then I either derez something to make up the difference, move the project, or don't do it. If my sixty prim chandelier is keeping AVx from building anything on land he bought, then it's MY bad.

What is the prim usage in this Sim?
Okay, having decided how many prims I think something is worth in terms of it's community value (meaning a lot to very few, not a specific number), I then look at where I plan to build and ask myself "Can this sim reasonably support this effort without becoming prim bound? It would be unfair to my neighbors in a nearly-full sim to suddenly embark on building a highly detailed enhancement to an existing property, for instance, if there were others who were still struggling to find the prim allowance to build their basic projects. This doesn't mean I won't do a project, but it may mean I will either move it or put it on hold until the sim I've chosen thins out a bit.


I realize the game doesn't compell me to consider these things - but my place in the community of SL does.

Thoughts?

Bhodi

This is of course just my personal opinion, but I see two contradictory points in this ideology. The two goals are to decide what to build based on providing something beneficial to the community and at the same time making sure everyone has equal access to resources. I believe those two things are in conflict, and here's why...

The SL economy and tax structure are intended to allocate resources based on benefit to others. If someone can sustain a large elaborate build they must be getting their money from somewhere. If they are living within their means financially then that already indicates that they're providing adequate benefit to the community regardless of how they build, or what they build. If they were just a resource drain with no benefit they'd be broke and not able to drain many resources in the first place.

Secondly, if everyone gets the same alottment of resources without anyone having the ability to rise above the pack and achieve a more opulent lifestyle within SL, where's the incentive to innovate and benefit others (as translated into income and ability to use resources)? Altruism is wonderful and desirable, but it should never be mandatory.

I'm not saying that things are perfect the way they are, but I think the current population boom and impatience for new sims to open is skewing people's views. I'm very interested to see how Olive develops and what kinds of things people are able to build there. I think the long term solution is a mix of sim types to suit different tastes. Olive is a great first step but I would never want to see that imposed everywhere. There should always be sims where someone who works their butt off and amasses a fortune can live accordingly.

One major thing that seems to be getting lost in all this talk about resource hogging is that money is the primary resource, not prims. Money controls what you can build, using how much resource, and how long you can sustain it in world. If you think there are people who are too rich and are able to sustain too much stuff, don't buy their products. Don't rate them. Open a competing business. Save your money so you can afford more. Vote with your wallet. Earn. People who are taking up resources by living beyond their means will take care of themselves.

If this is all just about frustration of not being able to find available land in sims that are not already hitting the prim cap, then nag LL to add more sims rather than look for ways to take things away from people who've done well for themselves in the SL economy.

The problem with lack of land and prims is not a behavioral one but rather a technical one. SL is a game WAY before its time - the technical restrictions are ridiculous. 2.4 prims per plot is simply not acceptable for any sort of build. An 8x8 plot can thus use all of 10 prims to build a house, and then you cant have any furniture in it. While 8x8 may seem small its actually about the size of the default cabin, which has about 35 prims IIRC. So someone who wants to live in a default cabin and have a fair usage of prims needs to claim 3.5 times more land than he needs - something like a 28x8 plot which makes for a HUGE 16x8 lawn that must remain empty.
This could be mitigated by making a better default cabin
Or just increase the size of the prims a little. I'd start by raising it to 12 meters - 12 is a "magic" number known since ancient times for its divisibility by 6,4,3 and 2 which makes it really handy. Plus, since plots are 4x4, a 12 meter prim would take up an integer number of plots - a 3x3 square of 4x4 plots. Which is a much more comfortable house size than 8x8. This could make low prim housing a lot more acceptable since most houses could just be a 12x12 cube of varying height.

Not to make light of anything but . . .

maybe its time to just do a mass protest for more sims? You know, "We want Sims and we want them NOW!"



Zana

I don't think thats making light at all.
I did a flyover the other night and was amazed at the number of places with 100% or very close to it.

Even some of the more 'out of the way' places are starting to go up as people 'spill over' from places that are maxxed out.

The recent opening of Olive didn't seem to help that much either. Maybe the problem does run deeper than what's been pointed at. Maybe there is simply a shortage of resources as more ppl come to grips with SL and leave the 'starter areas' to make their mark on the world.

Only LL knows the answer to that question in the long run though.

Siggy.