SL in 5/29 NYTimes

Another great article on SL - this one focuses on the ability to own your IP and make money buying/selling (if that's your thing)

I saw that and was a bit disappointed by it. I look forward to the day when the ability to make money from virtual goods is commonplace and no longer inspires the incredulous tone that most of the articles end up with. People spend money on their hobbies... shocking! Any press is good press, but it seems to me they end up missing the point. Comparing transactions in SL to gold farming in UO is like comparing someone selling golf pants and clubs through a legitimate business to someone who sneaks onto the driving range at night to steal golf balls and then sell them.

I had to wonder how someone with malls at 14 telehubs locations (which is what they were implying was the land holdings for this person covered) could generate $1800 "after taxes" -- but more importantly, after upfront purchase cost of telehub land and after tier. That's a lot of change from the rentos. I'm thinking this land dealer also had to be selling land off the auction as well in his business to make that kind of profit, after all expenses, of $1800 per month. If the information is correct and does reflect after-tier and after-land cost profit, then we can understand why people hang on to telehub land so fiercely that they try to drive others out of it.

When SL real-estate work is compared to gold-farming in other games or selling simoleons, perhaps that puts it in its proper place, and takes some of the luster off it.

Some people are going to be disappointed that the article didn't reflect all the fantastic and whimsical art, programming, animation, building, etc. that goes on, but for that maybe you need to pitch the story to "Art in America" or "Wired" or "Architectural Digest".

The fact is, the hard-core gaming set has always looked for a way to get an excuse to turn a game and a hobby into a job like their IT job, and now they've done it with SL lol.

The articles are going to go on being incredulous when a figure like $1800 or $100,000 can emerge from what amounts to manipulation of pixels on a screen. Some very meaningful pixels, of course...

They miss the point that people are making that much or more not selling land at all

All these articles are great. You know who loves to read articles like this? The IRS, this is one of the many ways they catch tax cheats. People need to think twice before they go bragging in newspapers about how much money they are making in SL, if they aren't claiming it on their taxes.



And who in the hell is Jason Ainsworth? I think I know but...

No, there's been tons and tons of articles about the content kings getting rich off SL. There are many articles about the teenage animation king making a fortune and getting pulled off the game by his mom and LL, and people making $50k or more a year in animations, skins, vehicles, whatever. That's all out there, just do a google.

And that NYT article didn't miss that point at all. They noted that the Tringo inventor had struck it rich selling Tringo as a RL game.

The only point of this article, in the business section, was that Sony's recent actions and other game companies have made a valuation of game wares in RL terms a reality.

I have to ask, what the heck are these people ON?
Giving away your RL names to mainstream press?
You think we won't read that??
I hope you won't complain when people start posting your "private" RL details in the forums...

Doesn't that make it ok to name in the game and here since they have given that information to the media?

Dunno what articles you've been reading. Care to provide some links? Especially for what I bolded? I can't think of a single article that fits any of your claims. (edited)

Personally, I claim what I cash out of SL as income on my tax return and pay taxes on it.

I dont think LL will like it an awful lot, but they are just covering their ass. Corporations are often forced to be overly prudent in order to avoid getting sued.
Seriously... never give anyone your RL name.
Unless your name happens to be John Smith or something extremely common, a simple google search will probably reveal one giant fuckload of RL info about you, and two or three more searches might yield your RL address, phone number, the school your kids go to, heck, if you live in america odds are people can instantly dig up an aerial picture of your house on google maps complete with directions on how to get there, and its just a matter of time until google expands their service to the rest of the world.

I routinely provide my real name. It's on my website. I make sure that online phone directories have my information so that people CAN find me. Just two weeks ago I heard from a long lost friend I lost touch with twenty years ago because of it. Bad people do bad things. That's no reason to spend your whole life in hiding.

Um, I'm not talking out of my ass. I'm just reading "The Second Life Herald".

Here's the story about the teenage king:

4/24/2005
“R.I.P Ryan Dayton” - Teenage ‘Air’ Profits (Part 1/2)

Doesn't seem possible to link directly to SLH so go to www.secondlifeherald.com and type in "teen" in the search engine for this two-part story.


Here's an article about the in-world ad agenyc:

http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3503316

Also go to this website's pages of RL news articles to see articles about the Tringo guy.

And here's a link to an article about the non-profit work done in SL, which is just as imoprtant an interesting:

http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,67142,00.html

Media coverage is not all about land sales -- keep googling, you'll find lots more.

Not everyone who wishes to maintain their RL privacy in a game like this is "in hiding" from "being bad". Maybe they just wish to prevent retaliation against them by people who often take game and forum disputes into RL to harass and stalk. *Shrugs*.

Even if that fellow with the 14 malls gave his RL name to the Times, he didn't give his SL name. And that's his right, and it's his right not to be harassed and stalked, and if he didn't put this information on his SL profile "Hey, I'm the guy in the NYT and my real name is XY" then no one has the right, under the TOS, to put him up on the forums here. That's important to remember.

While any number of people will work to do both googling and in-game witch-hunts to link up people from RL media to SL itself, their efforts are actionable under the TOS if they violation the TOS by publishing their "research" on these forums.

There was an article in Secondlifeherald about him. Can't remember his name.

I don't think Chip was implying that people were in hiding from being bad. He was saying that just because someone MIGHT do something malicious to you because your information is AVAILABLE to people, doesn't mean that you should live in fear, or NOT make SOME information available so you can be found!!

Good grief, Prok... there's not a personal insult in every comment someone makes. Not even if that person has been known to vehemently disagree with you!

That is a good idea Chip. One of my friends Father is an investigator for the IRS. Reading newpaper articles, society pages, blah blah is one of the methods they use to catch tax cheats. People should really be cautious if they keep doing this, someone is going to get caught eventally.

That would be why. I was talking about actual mainstream press articles, not the Herald.

And Nikki, that's exactly what I meant about having your info online. Just because something might happen is no reason to live in fear that something will happen. I've reconnected with at least three friends I'd lost touch with because I make myself easy to find online.

he is buying and selling land. he's one of the biggest land barons.

(I'm sortof back after a couple months due to an RL move from US/Eastern to US/Pacific...)

Press coverage of SL is good. I'm just wondering how many newbies are going to show up in-world looking to make $500/mo, and chasing every pyramid scheme that's pitched to them for a couple weeks... I'm sure that's not how LL wants to grow the userbase.

Brief SL mention in Bruce Sterling's 6/05 Wired column. He writes about innovation - specifically the success of Wikipedia, leveraging user creativity and energy.

"Google is the class act here, but there's also Blogger, Flickr, Second Life, Shype, Technorati, Wikipedia, and practically everything that calls itself open source"

Good company, eh.

1. "Good grief, Prok... there's not a personal insult in every comment someone makes. Not even if that person has been known to vehemently disagree with you!"

Nor did I read it that way. I think you are reading too much into Prok's answer. He is just putting another perspective, and he speaks from experience.

I, too, as a somewhat public figure irl in terms of being a writer, am careful about not being all that traceable by any nutcase who happens to object to something I've written. On the other hand, as I mentioned once before, a really famous person, a psychiatrist, was in the NYC phone book, so not worried was she about being open. So it's just different strokes for different folks.

I have become even more cautious since I ran into this truly insane person on TSO, who stalked me and my two friends and made many threats. I had enough on him that I managed to google my way into his online diary, where it was clearly evident that (a) he was totally insane and (b) the authorities knew it and were already watching him. And even so, I'm still probably far too trusting of people I think I know well on games. I mean, I meet them irl and things like that.

Something like what happened to me in TSO happening to you - or what Prok has experienced - tends to make you cautious.

2. You know what? I don't really believe what people say they make off this game! I guess it's probably true, but - I just don't believe it! I guess I would have to see hard proof to ever actually believe it.

3. Chip is extremely wise - and a true businessperson - to report his income from this game. Those who don't are taking a huge risk. If you get caught and haven't reported income, you are liable for horrible amounts of interest that has piled up, plus big fines, in addition to all the back taxes you owe, and the IRS is a pain in the butt to deal with. Especially if their computer gets some idea in its head, true or not.

As a writer, I was always very careful to declare anything and everything that could be considered income from anybody, including cash gotten from being just an ordinary person in a market research group, lol.

In fact, I betcha the IRS is already onto these things, thanks to all the publicity, and getting their act in gear to go after them.

coco

Chip, why don't you just come out and say it.... you're a baller, you make more than $100k USD per year in SL and you want everyone to know it.

ha ha ha ha.... majored in psychology.

ha! I wish I just happen to think the fact that people can turn their creative energies into profit in SL is far more compelling than than the real estate market, which is SL's closest equivalent to UO gold farming (no offense to SL's land barons). So many of these articles take a sort of "money for nothing" slant that I think they truly miss the point.

I agree! How do we corral the mainstream press in that direction? The self organization of SecondLife's assets is one of it's compelling qualities. How do we, the citizens of SecondLife organize to steer the press in the right direction? Blogs? A community "SL for Profit" webpage? Calling Uncle Jimmy who writes for the Chicago Tribune and asking for help?

Any ideas?