Just How Bad is the SL Economy

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The fact that the outfit *is* the texture, pretty much, so by "applying a new texture to it" you've basically created a new outfit.

I'll make you a deal - let's meet back here in a year and see how it all turns out.

I have seen things done in-world that completely defy logic and common sense. Doing something like this would not be unheard-of. I mean, if you think about it, you already have the designer's name embedded in the object. It would not be difficult to tweak it to look like one of the same designer's current styles, and sell the knock-off at just below what the original is going for. Sure, being no-copy would greatly limit the impact this would have, but it would certainly be a way for one to recoup what she paid for the outfit last year.

Okay, anyone willing to go to that much effort will probably just keep the "updated" outfit and keep wearing it to avoid buying a new one. But either way, it deprives the designer a potential sale.

OR, someone could do what you suggested, re-create the work as their own, and sell the knockoff en masse. Since the original is sold as transferable, it could be a while before anyone catches on - and by then, the knock-off artist has already moved his or her funds to an alt and then re-created.

If LL redesigned XStreet so that you could browse it just like you can now, but you have to TP to the physical store to complete the transaction and pick up the item, then adding XStreet to the viewer is an idea that has merit.

If, on the other hand, LL keeps XStreet just as it is now, then I really don't believe anything good can come of it. LL would basically be using the technology to slash its own wrists. Like you stated, why would I, or anyone else, want to TP somewhere, wait for things to rez, and dodge traffic bots and campers while I try to locate what it is I want to buy, assuming the store even has it, if I can just simply do a quick search within my viewer, click a couple of buttons, and complete the entire transaction in between emotes in my bed?

Why would you not just sell the original outfit at just below retail price? Why go to the effort of creating a whole new texture? oh you mean if you made a better outfit texture than the designer and sold it for more or nearly same? Then good luck to them if they can do that I say - nothing wrong with that unless they are telling people the original designer made it. If that is a persons strategy why go to such elaborate lengths? Just use a discard box from that designer - fill it with rubbish and sell it as if it was the designers. Scammers operate on the easiest path to getting the money without care to what happens next as long as they can evade trouble.

I fails to see how the designer is deprived of anything. They sold an outfit and you got an outfit - if you keep changing the textures with ones you made then apart from being stupid you still have one outfit. By one outfit I mean you cannot make a copy or give one to another and still wear it yourself.
The designer has lost nothing.

It does not matter how many odd things you see inworld and even though it is technically possible to do this,someone would have to be insane to go to all the hard work of making new textures for an outfit an not make easy part to go with it (the layers). I will bet this type of insanity is either extremely rare and not worth the worry over of does not exist. I would extremely amused to be proven wrong though lol.

Ummm why are they knock off? If you make your own textures from scratch and your own SL clothing layers (so you get listed as creator), even if it looks like similar (or even almost exact) to another design, you are not breaking any rules/law or ethics. Anyone who tells you different is uninformed.

What would be the point? That is more laborious than now. I would not shop like that, I doubt many would want to.

This model has worked fabulously for years now, didn't kill in world sales. It was just another option, it is only that LL has bought it and wants to make it the preferred channel that might kill all shopping. LL should separate XStreets as a business unit and let it compete with other web sites and inworld sales without inherent competitive advantage.
A bit like Microsoft's Operating Systems and Applications business units were supposed to be.
However this last part is unlikely. It is entirely possible that LL has either a different strategy altogether or that they have unwittingly make a critically bad move with this act.

The thing that will impact tier is if XStreetSL, or its inworld equivalent, delivers products directly to the customers Inventory. The monsta question for LL is, How would this impact tier revenue and would there be any increase in content revenue to compensate for any tier loss?

Could be modelled I suppose, but would only be a best guess in the end. Would be a cojone moment if LL acted on it. Im just not sure that LL sees any reason for chancing this any time soon.

What I can see though is more service and tools for shopkeepers and customers inworld. Things like shopkeepers being able to buy and use product catalog services integrated into inworld Search as opposed to the one-shape-fits-all classified system. Perhaps even a try-before-you-buy button that shopkeepers pay for and can enable on their parcels.

Also I can see freebie content being squeezed out by making it more difficult for people to find in Search other than through the paid-for catalog service. Like not being able to make objects visible in Search without paying a fee to do so. And like having the general Search engine ignore keywords like FREE FREEBIE $0, etc.

I like that idea, as I do that alot now already.

I tend to browse xstreet, then when I see something that interests me, I either use the slurl they provide in the ad, or search the owner in world to browse their store

(not sure why I do it that way, but I like doing it that way, and since there is no right or wrong, just preference, this idea to me sounds neat)

Why would LL prefer to keep the payment transaction method inworld where it is going to be as unreliable as a number 3 bus and yet make you select your items in a 100 times more reliable technology such as a web site?

um... huh??

no one said anything about LL even doing this, or preferring to do this. The preferences spoken of were a couple residents saying that they think it might be a good concept.

Also no one said anything about having to select the items on the website, it was said that it would be a good idea IF they implemented the xstreet into SL that this would be a good option.

for me, I understood it as basically a better search engine, but not replacing anything, and definitely not forcing anyone to do anything.

goodness...

Ok, here's my guess:

40% of all transactions will run through XStreet, the other 60% are still going to take place in world.

A) for a lot of items, shoppers want to SEE the item. They want to preview the animations in furniture, they want to walk through a house. Who in their right mind is going to buy an AO or dances without testing the animations?

B) People like to shop, especially with friends. They will still shop in-world, they will just be more choosy about where they TP to.

C) content creators who totally drop their in-world stores are going to lose out on impulse buys that would have been made from someone who TP's in. If I'm shopping for shoes, I'll want to TP to your store and see a fully rezzed set, not just your photoshopped images. If you don't have a store for me to TP to, how am I going to also see that you make fabulous dresses? You might sell me a pair of shoes, but you miss selling me a new dress and possibly another pair shoes to match it. Impulse purchasing is why there will be a race to find ways to get a shopper to TP to your store rather than just buy off XStreet.

Yes Katheryne did say all this, exactly here:

Goodness...

still confused by your post as I did not see anything in her post about LL forcing anyone to do anything or LL preferring to do anything in any specific way

oh and yes I know what she said, since I did quote it...

so let's pick it apart shall we?

"If LL redesigned XStreet so that you could browse it just like you can now, but you have to TP to the physical store to complete the transaction and pick up the item, then adding XStreet to the viewer is an idea that has merit."

actually not much to pick apart... she said IF which shows she is thinking of something that might be useful...
also she only mentions the redesign of xstreet and how it would work as useful (in her opinion which I agreed with in my post) in world when browsing via xstreet.
Then from what I understood she states that it is an idea that has merit if they did it that way...

no where do I see her as saying LL prefers to do that, nor that anyone is forced to shop that way...

*shakes head in disbelief*


goodness is becoming too weak of a word to describe my disbelief at your comments...


(edit: after re-reading your comments again, I think I get what you are saying, but the wording threw me off. Are you asking why would they do it? (and yes I know you started it with "why") (just one of those days)

because it looked like (to me) that your reply implied that she thinks LL wants to do things that way

sorry if I misunderstood

(backs away, as she knows where this is headed)

I totally, completely agree with you one thousand percent here! I refuse to actively participate in voice. I don't get anything from it except a splitting headache. I have a hard enough time following text chat in busy areas - add voice conversations to the mix, and I just simply can't keep up. At least with text chat, I can scroll up to see what I missed if I step away for a second, and I can tell who said what. With voice, it is impossible to review what's been said, and almost impossible to tell who said what in an active voice session (Yes, I know I can follow the green dots, but that requires me to take my eyes off of text, and fails completely if other participants are hot-mic'd and sitting too close to their speakers). In short, voice is a royal PITA that only leads me to frustration - and I don't play games to get frustrated.

Voice makes some sense in MMO where you're part of a guild or attack team taking on a fortress full of monsters or trying to take down a boss mob and peoples' hands are already busy dealing with their combat roles. But there is nothing like that going on in SL. All it does is just further perpetuate the idea of SL just being an overbloated 3-D chatroom - or a graphical Skype.

I don't know why you are confused, yes lets pick it apart.
First lets get some context, she is saying it would be good if LL did this to which I replied, why would they do it this way?

Now to the picking:

So this, K. wants it so you can browse XStreets as you can today. Not ambiguous. Not a problem there.

But You *HAVE* to tp to the store to complete the transaction. This is also unambigous, This is different, and where the comments I make are perfectly aimed and relevant. Why would LL make the system so you *HAVE* to tp to the store to complete the transaction? Don't have to do this today at all. I can pay from the web site - much easier.

I don't believe adding XStreets to the viewer this way has merits, or in any way actually.

That should not be hard to understand at all. So where is the problem exactly?

Also that comment about "in disbelief at my comments" that is casting doubts on my comments in general. My comments are as valid as yours, more so in many cases.
You don't have to agree with me Rha but I am getting sick of this kind of targeted shit. If you don't stop I shall AR you for every post you do it on and AR you inworld also.

It was a great conversation here until you arrived today.

Don't respond to me if you cannot do it without this sort of behaviour.

If people are still TPing in and buying more than I'm spending on tier, then sales won't have "moved to XStreet". I was saying only that *if* sales "moved to XStreet" I would close my store, because the sales from keeping the store open would quickly drop to less than I was paying in tier.

Now you're arguing that sales won't move to XStreet. I hope you're right now, and that you were simply exaggerating in the original message.

I feel the same, I think you get the best shoping inworld, there is a place for XStreets also as time has shown and it is a valuable tool which I would hate to see going away.
Some winning combinations should just not be tinkered with. To do so you risk ruining a winning dynamic.

Semantics

What I meant to say was that shopping trips are going to START at XStreet. I think most will still conclude in-world if it is an item that needs to be viewed "live." For stuff like gadgets, I think those sales will end up mostly through XStreet. No reason to TP to a store to pick up a MystiTool.....

I realize all of this is just conjecture and speculation at this point, since nobody really knows for sure how, or even if, LL will implement XStreet into the in-world search; so I'm just trying to play a little "what-if".

So let's assume that LL IS going to implement XStreet into in-world search; what would be the best way to do it so that it doesn't a mass wave of store owners to tear their stores down and sell off their land in order to save on tier, which is what I feel would happen if XStreet became fully integrated into the viewer as-is. My idea would allow people the ease of browsing XStreet just as they do today, just integrated; and require the customer to tp to the store to pick up the merchandise.

The social aspect of shopping is being missed here though. Yes, as a personal experience getting the best mix between needing to see the item (sometimes) and efficiency of searching, getting a better item description are the most important concerns.
However as social activity, none of those matter, it is the experience that takes precedence in my view.

Well this is the 100 thousand dollar question probably. I expect LL are asking this of themselves right now, but in all likelihood I think the best days of both inworld shopping and offworld shopping have already been and are now ending with this move.
I would love to be wrong but I think them buying it at all was a big mistake unless they go the separate business unit way and that is unlikely too.

The designer would be deprived of you going back to her every time a new style rolls out and replacing your old clothes with new ones out of her store.

But, I concede the point about anyone realistically doing that. I'm a builder, not a clothing designer; so I tend to think of objects as a collection of prims, not as primless textures and meshes. So, my apologies for the confusion.

I don't wish to labour a point here but if a person has gone to those lengths then they have become a designer themselves and whilst it is true that most designers do not like to shop for what they can make (all creators of any kind) they still spend money on styles they cannot or don't feel inclined to make. Otherwise it is the same as saying one designer deprives another designer of revenue by designing their own clothes.

Touché. This argument just made me realize I am guilty of the very same thing. Since learning how to build and learning LSL, I've deprived other home builders a sale, and many a scripter sales of scripted objects; and, if I can get around to building and scripting my own vendor, I hope to be able to sell my own houses with my own scripted add-ons (lights, windowblinds, etc.).