Is this the death of contract builders?

I must say, I've been out of the loop for a couple of days, the pain was a bit overwhelming, but here I come back and read about 1.2 and wonder, is LL trying to kill off the contract builder profession?

Help me understand why you do/don't think contract builders will/won't be around in the new SL.

My view is this. If the socializers no longer have to pay anything to play, what incentive will there be for them to have land, and then have a contract builder, build them a house?

With the PRIM limits being evoked, will contract builders be able to construct new structures without having to go to the sandbox to do so? As a contract builder, I can tell you, the sandbox is not somewhere I want to be when I'm trying to be serious about building!

I see there are good things coming in 1.2, but one thing I see is the death of us who build for others. I don't see others wanting to have their own piece of the world, and their own home, when they can simply play for free.

Also, on a side subject, how will this impact areas like Slate, where we are building a community based on a neighborhood ideal, where people live, and don't necessarily run cool rides, attractions, etc., to get people to come visit? Will 1.2 now make us choose to either "work" at SL, or "play" at SL, but you can't do both?

I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say about these comments.

My thought...

Initially I think there might be a little slow down for contract building with the new pay-once "landless/social" class of player.

But I also think that a good percentage of the landless will pay the minimum monthly fee (if not more $) so they can get some land.

Silly as many builds are (mine included, a big empty "shop" with no dwell ($1 last week!)), there's something about owning some land and constructing your house/box/tree/hole, etc.

I think the 1.2 changes will be a boon for SL, not immediately (not short-term, which is never better than long-term). I believe 1.2 is all about long term.

I think it will be better for us all (down the road a little). More people to meet, more sims over time, more business for contractors and shops.

On a side note, I'm curious what the prim limit will be. And it sounds like it will go up over time (as FPS gets tuned, I think it was Philip that posted that the servers can handle a ton of objects, it's a drawing limitation that henders us).

Bos

If the land is developed, builders will be needed. There will be more people who own no land, and therefore need no home, and no one to build it for them. But those people will have to have some reason to be in the world besides flying over empty vistas. Clubs, games, stores and other attractions and meeting places will be important and there will be more demand for them. They will have to be built, and now there will even be RL$ rewards for building them. There may be fewer individual houses, but there may be more builds geared toward other users.

Just my thoughts on it.

I personally don't think it is Bob. See, I do clothing and accesories, make a few furniture pieces, do a picture gallery, I'm great at socializing, I hope I'm good at mentoring (because I love it), and while I think I did OK with my building that houses my shop and gallery, it is still basically a box with some nice textures.

Now that I will be really watching my prim count, I am wanting to turn to a good designer to build a nice looking place for me. Just when it comes to building the outside structure, my creative side goes out the window. hehe.. I am sure I am not the only one that this is the case for. There are also the reasons the other two posters mentioned. So, I think builders will still be in demand.

I have built a few houses for folk now, and I think 1.2 will have little effect directly - on the amount of work available for architects/builders.

To begin with, we can assume there will be far more new residents, therefore the market itself will grow (and one would hope that the more skilled old-timers with a track record will get more of the work). A bigger world means more potential clients.

Secondly, I can see that once the initial shock is out of the way - groups will begin pooling resources and more themed areas will emerge - and these may well involve the hiring of skilled builders.

Lastly - I like the idea that builders will now be working within defined limits. A client can say - build a house with x feature and stay under Y prims please. And no chance that the sim will suddenly be too full to work.

All sounds good to me.

I'd think contract builders might have more work. With 1.2, building -really- nice houses/busines's/etc using a very strict prim limit per land owned would make the services of an experianced builder who really understands texture use even more important.

welcome back bob. hope you're feeling much better.

i think jellin's right. the biggest adjustment contractors, well everybody for that matter, will have to make is constructing objects with as few prims as possible. it's going to become even more of a challenge to build a good looking house with few enough prims that people will want to purchase it.

but the same is true for furniture, trees et cetera. vehicles have a limit already right? so that won't change. i haven't designed clothing yet so i don't know how many prims that requires or supports. but general builds will be relying a LOT more on textures.

if anything. contractors are going to have to hire more and better texturizers i'm sure.

Contract building (and group builds, and large projects) will be dead for a while, due to the prim caps. But they'll come back stronger than ever once the system for prim sharing and exchange is figured out and implemented.

Bob, glad to see you're feeling better.

I've already had Lordfly make two new, prim-conscious shops for me (which were both commissioned before any news of 1.2 was out, since I began seeing the value of lower-prim builds when the sims I am in began to fill up).

Also, Bob, at least one of the recipients of the developer incentive awards, namely Cori, has a house in Slate (which was also built by Lordfly).

Good work will always be in demand and rewarded. The rules of the game are about to change, I guess we will all have to change with them.

Contract building will be in HEAVY demand when people finally get a plot of their own (which they couldn't before due to prim/land shortages).

The emphasis will be on clean, prim-efficient builds that still look nice.

Everyone that pays a monthly fee will be able to have a house now. The neighborhood will finally start to fill up. It's nice, isn't it?

If the market changes, change with it.

LF

I wonder if that means all those crappy signs people have put up around Slate will be coming down?

It's amazing to me how someone who claims to be such a good builder as you, Lordfly, still has some ugly sign, showing just how infantile your work can be.

There are already (1.1) a lot of players who choose not to own land. For socializers 1.2 will change their monthly fee, not their playstyle. Those of us who want to own land are paying a monthly fee now; we won't have a problem continuing to do so in 1.2. I don't think we'll see any significant reduction in the number of people who want to own land or in the proportion of those people who will need the services of a contract builder.

And don't forget, current accounts will get 1024 square meters of land free of monthly charges. That's a lot of land and a lot of current accounts.

P.S.: Let's keep this thread civil.

One 30-prim sign, coming right up

I was actually thinking of removing it this week, Bob, but seeing as you're still clinging on to it as some sort of moral affront, I'll just make it prettier to look at

Merry Christmas, just the same

LF

At present, it is possible to give others global rights to edit your prims, right? Maybe the Lindens can find some way to let us grant permission to others to use our prims but to retain ownership. I dunno the details, but there do seem to be lots of possible solutions to this problem that don't include stripping SL of this intrinsic element.



I dunno, Lordfly. A pretty dream you have there - and I'd like to believe it, but here is my somewhat more pessimistic view of what's to come:

Land per user will drop, and $L will be spent on toys and clothes (not that those are bad things) rather than on building. The fact is that those with expansive land want custom work, and those with tiny plots tend to sate themselves with prefab homes. Contract building will take off temporarily as lifers and big spenders move into their land, and then it'll start to stagnate.

The emphasis will be on insanely tall, narrow, clunky (no more tax on volume per prim, so 10x10x10 all the way!), attention-grabbing builds that show every facet of the build's owner within a small surface. That is, crowded crap builds full of loud uploaded textures. (and sounds too probably)

Anyway, I hope you're right and I'm completely wrong. But these are what I'm worried is gonna happen.

Personally I'm surprised no one has speculated that "people learning how to build" will be the death of contract builders. Anyone can learn how to build and, not to downplay anyone's achievements, it's really not hard. The hard part of building is design and efficient prim use, not construction. Even if 1.2 never happens I could see the death of contract builders but the survival of contract architects.

The Statistical Argument
From the Linden newsletter: "Number of people who have signed up for a Second Life account since Beta: 20,013"

That's a lot of accounts. Let's say only 1/3 of them are still around. That's 6,671 people. And all of them get an allotment of 1,024 square meters for no monthly fee. That's a lot of land. That's a lot of potential houses before we even get to the new people who will elect to pay for land and will want a house. Even if there are no more new users ever your business will remain largely as it is now due to default free land allotments for current accounts.

But you know, even if no one ever wants a new house again, you can do other things. And unemployment isn't a bad thing in the Linden welfare state.

If no one wanted a house built ever again, I'd probably cry

And I'd see myself more as an architect than just a builder, anyhow... I usually design the house from top to bottom anyway... does that count? Will I get to stay in business?


Building isn't hard, you're right (I really need to start teaching an advanced building concepts class), it's just efficient design that wins the day.


LF

Hmm... Well... Ok, but only this time. When 1.3 comes you're out of business and I don't want to hear another word about it.

perhaps a contractor that excelled in building something other than houses, shops and huge rocket ships might attract some attention. then again, maybe not.

oh i didn't see the civil rating. sorry. ahem, my idea of a contractor in linden is someone who works with a builder, a texturer and a scripter to produce sellable items. a contractor's job is really to organize all these people, plus a pr person if they don't socialise much.

by that definition, project manager, i don't think contractors will die off. i do think they'll have to double as one of the actual workers or as the advertising agent.

am i being civil now?

Well, I don't think you'll have any loss in business. Some people want to have things and don't want to build them on thier own.

A lot of people play these games for the purpose of owning an online house. And nobody ever needed a house on here, it was just a cool thing to have, and a place to have people hang out. They'll still want houses, because they're cool.



Also, Slate is a very cool place. Cori Sunshine's house is so popular, she was one of the people who got an IRL cash bonus!

I mean, her house is so popular, that I built a GIANT CANNON just to shoot MYSELF over to her house. (If anybody was wondering why I have a giant cannon pointed at slate, that's what it's for)

And her house is just across the river from your place. The two of you have the most BEAUTUFUL houses in SL. I don't think visitors will be negligent in thier tourism.



Finally, if we get the chance I'd like to talk with you in world, I'd like to get an estimate for a build, if you're interested.