Forcing You To Buy to Enter a Sim?

Would you patronize a sim if you were forced to buy their products in order to enter the sim?

I'm not going to pick on anyone in particular, but I find the practice reprehensible. I feel that I'm being held at gunpoint in order to enter. It would be like Macy's banning entry until you buy something. I simply would no longer go to Macy's.

I will donate often if I like your sim. If I like your products, I will buy them. That is how money is made. Not by holding potential customers hostage. It seems that you would be committing fiscal suicide.

i wouldn't go in. how do you know if you even want to shop there if you can't go in and see the products.

i take ban lines very personally.

Hmn. Maybe, or it could be like Disneyland, where you have to pay an entrance fee to ride the attractions.

Or a two-drink minimum to enter a club?

Have you ever paid a cover charge at a bar in RL? Or paid admission to an amusement park or a museum?

"Held at gunpoint" and "reprehensible" are pretty strong words for a practice that is a pretty common business model throughout the real world. You don't have to like it, and you don't have to support it in SL if you don't want to. But it's hardly criminal or beneath contempt for people who put hours upon hours of hard work - not to mention real life tier fees - into their sims to try a business model other than voluntary donations to recoup those costs.

I suppose it remains to be seen whether people in SL will respond to that model as the OP has, making it basically unsustainable. I hope that not everyone will take that attitude, because it's good for SL if the community supports a range of business models. But whether I would choose to pay admission to sim or not, I don't really see how the model deserves the level of condemnation it receives in the OP.

It certainly doesn't sound like a very successful business model for Second Life in 2008, but then selling books over the internet was considered crazy as well, once.

Ok, color me annoyed. I did buy their space kitty avatar a while back, but it doesn't include the magic scripted bits so isn't eligible.

Oh, to answer the question ...

I might. It depends on the sim and whether I felt it was worth the charge.

If, for a wild example, I could not enter Avalon ballroom unless I have bought something from one of the shops, I would have no problem at all buying something first.

But that's just me. YMMV. It's a free world; no one is "forcing" you to do anything. Someone is, however, asking to be paid for their work. I have no problem with that.

You have to buy something to enter the sim....but....how can you buy something if you can't enter the sim?

o.O

I can go bar-hopping all night and never pay a cover charge. I can walk into any store without buying anything. Disneyland is an amusement park, not a store. The only time I would pay a cover charge at a bar is if there is a special event I want to participate in.

Also, how can I know if I will like your sim if I can't even get in to look around?

If I am at a party at your sim, how do I convince my friends to pay to party with me when we could easily just go somewhere else?

Other sims are making money by producing quality content people are willing to pay for. Unless you have a special event or attraction no one is going to pay for the privilege of seeing your build. You have to offer the customer value for the money he/she is going to spend.

There's a little store outside the entrance.

I think, for me, I think it would depend on how the concept was presented. If it's a "NO SOOP FOR YOOO!" kind of hostility, or any other clear implication that I'm not welcome unless I buy something, then I'd steer clear. But if it's more like, "This region is a special customer-appreciation build we've created specifically for our new and existing clients," then I'd probably be open to it, assuming the products were worth buying, and the sim seemed like it would be worth spending time in.

Another way to look at it is you're buying an admission ticket that happens to come with a free gift. I have to wonder, Steely, if you'd find it so "reprehensible" if it were presented that way.

If you don't know what's in the sim, the comparisons with Disneyland and such don't stand up. You know what's in those, and the very reason you're there is because of what's in them. A sim with unknown content isn't the same at all.

I can hop around sims all night long without paying to enter.

What's your point?

Depends. If the sim is an attraction of some sort, or a club or other entertainment, I can see paying to get in, but if it is just a place to shop...No. Never.

what are you supposed to buy and how much does it cost?

All of this points to your choice to not pay before entering a sim, which is a perfectly valid choice. It may even make charging admission a bad business model - that remains to be seen. It doesn't make it "held at gunpoint" or "reprehensible" to charge admission to those who might be willing to pay it, though. It's not your objection to paying that I necessarily think is misplaced - it's the level of moral outrage in your rhetoric.

Museums charge admission to let you look at the art. Amusement parks charge admission to let you ride the rides, buy the concessions, and play the games. Wholesale clubs charge a membership fee to let you buy a year's supply of toilet paper at once. Movie theaters make you buy a ticket before you see the movie, and don't generally refund it if the film turned out to be a stinker. This business model is all over the place in real life - it's a realistic and viable way to recoup the costs of running and establishment.

So what makes it so offensive to you in SL? Especially where, as you point out, you have the freedom not to participate in it if you don't want to. Just go somewhere else.

By the way, I wouldn't charge admission or a cover charge to my place - just to clarify, I know you didn't mean me specifically when you said "you" but other people might not realize that.

But, my place is a small little cafe on a small enough plot of land that I can afford to eat the tier even if no one donates a single Linden. If my place were a whole sim or a multi-sim build (like one of the Rezzable creations, for example) into which I'd poured hundreds of hours of creative work, I just don't see how it's morally wrong to charge admission when the real-life equivalent would do just that. You ask how you would decide whether you wanted to pay to enter the sim if you couldn't see it first. Same way you would in real life - word of mouth, reviews, advertisements, and on and on.

I think it's up to the land owner to decide how to operate. This case you're describing: I don't get it, I don't think it would work, and it's the opposite of what most of us do (try to get MORE people to visit the sim). But I don't think there's any point expending energy and stressing about some sim owner trying it their own way.

Vote with your teleporting powers. Go visit the 1000s of sims that want you to visit them. In a few weeks, you'll probably come across some ad trying to get you to visit the crazy exclusionary sim because their business was failing miserably. At that time, you can just LOL at them.

For the well known sim that is trying this, you need to wear a scripted gadget they sell for 100L, or have bought one of their themed avatars (they run for 400-ish) that includes a HUD with the same key built in.

So it is a themed place? Then perhaps if the theme was one that interested me, I wouldn't have a problem, especially if it is only $100L

Is it some sort of combat system?

Maybe they are forcing you to be capturable/killable?

Totally makes sense in my opinion.
SL is mostly open that we often forget there is no promised visiting right in any place in SL.

(whine)but I did buy an avatar and it's the wrong kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind(/whine)

Honestly, I've always wondered how that company could possibly have made any money. They usually have shops in their sims, but the stores were semi-hidden and often stocked with things that aren't really related to the sim (in this particular sim it is all related, but the shop was semi-hidden in the past). I guess the old setup didn't cover the costs :/

That company does have some sims where you can be killed unless you wear a gadget, but the one with the new shop (the popular tiny aliens place) isn't very dangerous =)

No, AFAIK. It is simply a way to verify that paying residents are there.

That's part of my point. If I were offered a special value instead of just, "Sorry, you are banned until you buy something," I would gladly pay the entrance fee. But you have to offer me something in return for my money, not just empty promises.