Another Negative Article about SL

Sort of like the transmorgifier in KIDS5B that turned adult avatars into kid avatars?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlNjlpqpq8o

Except it does it under scripted control, and turns you temporarily into an otter and then back to your original character, without you having to do anything but (once) giving it permission. And it's got a selection of 42 random otters (and weasels) it can turn you into. And it's been turning people into otters for over a decade. Mostly otters. Some of the options are strange...

> pull lever
You pull the lever. The Otterizer stirs.

The Otterizer grabs you in its steel hands and drags you into the hopper.
Images of otterish forms are flashed in your mind, and rules of otterish
conduct run through the back of your head...

> look me
(Argent looked at you)
A spray of ice, a faint dusting of snowflakes, a cloud of chill mist, and within it a sleek, alert form... pale as a ghost, shimmering, crystal, a blue-white weaselly shape with little black eyes dark as the night sky beyond the death of the universe. Argent smiles at you, teeth like tiny crystal daggers, tongue like a pale flame. What's an ice weasel doing out in a hot place like this?

> wait
Nothing happens

You feel faint. Worse, you don't feel like an otter any more.

> look me
(Argent looked at you)
Imagine an otter that had decided to hunt on land, or a wolf that's becoming adapted for an aquatic life. Add short thick sealfur, countershaded in a complex pattern of irregular patches. On the forehead, shoulders, and haunches are patches where the black skin shows through thin fuzz. The whole assemblage is vaguely reminiscent of a well-groomed and somewhat streamlined hyena, and it's about the size of one...
Multiply by eight, an unruly active (oddly coordinated) mob, working together to sculpt the mind of Argent between them. Their names? The males are Ran, Del, Nen, and Ja. The females Ka, Sur, Lin, and Phan.
Nearest to you is Ran, a large animal, the largest of the pack. His fur is shot with grey.

He does - sort of - cover that, though. I think the problem is that "exploring" in a virtual world, on its own, just isn't that appealing to some people. I think there was an article by one of the MMO designers (I don't think it was Richard Bartle, but it might have referred to him) which mentioned that explorers most like it when they can socially 'cash in' their explorations. In real life, just about any new place you visit gives you a new topic of conversation, but in SL.. unless you've met some like-minded people within SL, that isn't so likely to happen, although I suppose it could. It's why so many explorers love blogging about what they've found.



To some extent, the onus is on the resort to make sure that the tourist brochure correctly points out its attractive features, so that authors find them.

They're not "more likely" to pay in advance, they're simply required to pay a year in advance.

And 12 times 0 is still 0 so it's pure nonsense that educational institutions qualify as an "income source". At best they cover their own expenses; at worst they're costing LL money which is recovered by "Joe/Jane Resident" paying full tier on their land.

This isn't even up for debate, it's been pointed out again and again by LL: the RL education sector is something they want present in SL no matter the cost to them.

Well, sounds like he selected a specific resort, and in that case, their brochure was on target.

That being the case, he should have clarified how specific his research would be, and not assign his findings on that specific topic to the entire community.

None of us knows what it costs LL to provide islands, but it's probably way less than the rent on them. What probably drives up the cost is labor of administration so if Podunk U settles in for 2 years (They pay for one year and then renew) or if they're UTexas Podunk, they get a grant from the legislature that runs two years and pay for the first year up front with the rest encumbered, there's very low administrative costs for LL.

Meanwhile, if our friend Field of Dreams Land Baron pays full tier, he pays the set up and the first month, and pays every month, but can only support his dream for three months. You can guess the rest.

The education folks even in just year one put a lot more money in SL's pocket. Of course Land Baron could resell and now a new person is paying tier to LL or maybe they pay it to the Land Baron. I'm not sure if there is a secondary market for islands the way there is for mainland.

But Linden Labs would not charge educational institutions half price if they could not profit handsomely.

Those I have helped, gifted, taught and encouraged dont need to step up here to prove anything to you. They know who they are, including those who picked from the money tree at my video vendor. (Feel free to stop by and read the numbers on the tree, do some research instead of sitting there passing judgement with no research)

I dont have to prove anything to you either. One's charitable contributions are more meaningful when one doesn't parade around trumpeting about it. Nor do I have to question anything.

/me gives you a high five!

Gummi's a sourpuss, and even says so her (him?) self.

...so first research and investigation is required, then suddenly it's forbidden? and you don't have to question ANYTHING? That's very odd, I thought you were questioning the conclusions of an article you found online.

Or do you mean that you need your questions to be easy ones only?

Umm... thing is, there's no kind if karmic exchange balance going on here. The good deeds of the disabled, to the variously-abled, do not count as some sort of global plus against which the sleaziness of pay "hunts" can be discounted. Your various defences and accounts are actually, irrelevant to what Collins found; he didn't find you. Personally, I find the high and mighty tone from the disabled here to itself be offensive, because you haven't done your research before you jump to claim the moral high ground.

What's even worse for me is, I don't see the shill that Collins encountered, turning up here to tell us ho buoyed up her noob-baiting money scam team are, by the efforts of the disabled. Wake up guys, the people you are defending, don't deserve your help...

You addressed that to me, and I'm not disabled, and didn't detect a high and mighty tone. Unless you're referring to my tone. Was merely going to list a number of contributions that have nothing to do with sex and sleaze, but the list is getting pretty long, and there's a lot more to add. I doubt that listing pleasant and productve experiences is copping some kind of a Tude or moral high ground.

Yeah. I think folks are vastly overestimating the advantages to LL of prepayment and possibly lower administration costs. That's all just tiny percentages of LL's finances. The balance sheet of a company like LL has to be dominated by Engineering and Operations labor expense, not hosting, not bandwidth, not administrative support, and certainly not cost of money. So even if no educational sim ever required the first touch of administration, and even if LL enjoyed the float of a full year prepayment, it would account for at most maybe a 5% reduction in fully-loaded cost.

So yeah, it's a pretty straightforward subsidy: everybody else pays more so that educational institutions can pay less. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and not for reasons of altruism. Lots of tech companies give hefty educational discounts as a way of marketing their wares to full-paying customers. Surely some students, faculty, and staff got themselves personal land-owning accounts after being exposed to SL in the deeply discounted educational sims. It's a good market: nice demographics, and they're all past that initial learning curve when many new sign-ups disappear.

It's good business, but however they do the accounting it's not a profit source, it's a marketing expense.

(I'm sure the image of a Second Life filled with academics gives Mitch extra cred with his homies, too.)

No worries, he/she meant to address it to me I'm sure. No problem. I answered Gummi's question, from this post:

"2) What have you done lately to help and foster either/or disabled users, those interested in dance, or noobs in general?"

with my own response, which was what I intended to do. Gummi could be quite right about the rest. But, it's not for anyone else to decide, who deserves help and who does not. If I choose to help someone, new resident or not, it won't be because someone else decided I should (or, that that person didn't deserve it or wasn't worthy.) You make your decisions, I make mine. One thing is for sure correct, the journalist found what they found, and that's what they wrote about. Shame they didn't find anything else, but it is what it is.

What do you mean, they didn't listen? They made a CONTINENT-SIZED virtual bordello. The largest contiguous set of "educational" regions is what - 20 sims? 30? I think they listened very well.