Corporations in Second Life

You miss it. I am saying that I believe a pixel shirt to be a real life product, of the entertainment stripe. Every bit as much as that movie. Things that happen on a computer happen in real life. The lines have been blurring for some time now, and will eventually bleed both directions so much that the RL/virtual argument will become moot. In my world, it already is, although I respect the fact that in yours it may not be so.

For me personally, I have never understood the strong desire some have to separate. I have a feeling it comes at least partly from social pressures (people being made to feel ashamed of taking things that happen on a computer "too seriously" which are slowly eroding and giving way to broader acceptance.

You consider a pixel shirt to be a real-life product, of the entertainment stripe.

Still, it is not of the entertainment stripe that can be purchased outside of SL. It is entertainment that is of use only within SL, does not exist outside of SL, is sold nowhere but SL, and isn't a commercial marker for something that exists outside of SL. Resident rate.

A real-life entertainer, on the other hand, who buys land to promote his latest album, is a commercial interest. Commercial rate.

Anshe is not the same as Century 21. She doesn't have a real-world real estate company that sells real land at real profits to sustain her SL venture. Her SL business can't be funded by her real-world business, and doesn't represent simply a small portion of the advertising budget for her true business. Its purpose is not to advertise a real-world product.

Her business is confined within SL, and her product serves only other avatars.

It doesn't matter whether a product/service is movies, music, a shirt, or anything else.

Land prices and land tier would thus be charged like this:

Century 21: Commercial rate.
Dreamland, Otherworld, Azure Islands, etc.: Resident rate.

Nissan, Toyota, Pontiac: Commercial rate.
Dominus Shadow: Resident rate.

IBM: Commercial rate.
Aeolus's Computer Store: Resident rate.

American Apparel: Commercial rate.
Little Rebel: Resident rate.

. . . and so on.

I do think that some of the "other resident segments" that LL has talked about addressing eventually may include content creators whose product/service exists in SL only and serves only other SL avatars, and who have no commercial interest outside of SL.

We are a different group from real-world companies who are here to advertise their real-world businesses (or even to sell their real-world products and services), and we shouldn't be charged the same for our land.

Let me ask you this: Who would it hurt?

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be charged the same for selling pixel products to other avatars as Nissan is charged to advertise a business that exists outside of SL.

They aren't here to sell pixel cars; we are. It's two different things, and it's only fair to charge appropriately.

coco

And what I'm saying is that, while this might be true, the net effect is the same. The net effect is that the smaller or newer businesses on SL get locked out. But if that happens, does it really matter why it happens? I've been locked out from some things I wanted to make by dominant resident companies. I'm not going to post their names, because it would sound like I was attacking them, and I'm not, since I know they didn't do it deliberately to hurt me, they just did the best they can and benefited from network effect. This equally doesn't mean there aren't other opportunities out there. But the question still comes down to: if I'm a newbie and I want to build cars, why is it so much worse for Nissan to be stopping me than an SL company? Indeed, how is the experience from my point of view any different in either case?

You could even argue that it's better for corporations to do it. If there's an dominant SL car seller (I don't know if there is or not), you can't get into the market, and you don't get anything but what you pay for. But if it's Nissan giving away their cars for free, you still can't get into the market, but at least you and everyone else who wants one get a free Nissan.



Well, giving away land for free is a special case because of the tier fee. But there are several people who've placed builds in the world to advertise their RL skills and get an RL job - do they have to pay the commercial rate? If the commercial takeover you're talking about happens this will only become more common - the existing commercial sites were built by SL resident-formed companies and people will try to get hired by them.

Didn't you, yourself, build a prefab house which was entered in a competition which won you publicity (ie, advertising for your skills) and then was given away free to a subset of new Premium members, who otherwise might have paid for prefabs? I don't know if you got any RL interest in your 3D design ability as a result, but it was certainly a possibility. I'm not saying you did anything wrong - indeed my whole point is that you didn't - but would doing this make you a corporate user?

No they shouldn't, if they make under a certain amount of money. That's why I think this idea is unworkable. The distinction of "commercial" has to be made simply by income level alone, irregardless of whether its a SL or RL business.

But LL won't do that anyway, so I think we RL people have little to worry about.

I personally think LL has made a major wrong turn on pricing. It's now overpriced to the indie developer in SL unless they want to be ultracommercial - i.e. set up a store, do rentals etc. But yet still way underpriced for commercial use. And when I mean commercial, I mean midsized and large companies, not your average independent "mom and pop" sort of outfit. Garage Games for example sets their level for a commercial license at 250,000 dollars in company income, in SL that could be set lower - maybe 100 k or more. That would be more than fair.

For artists like me, it was time to find the button on my ejector seat and downsize in SL, and look to other solutions. And yes, they do exist and for less money than SL. This is why I went with a game engine with an agreeable licensing scheme, dropped my mainland, and kept my private island rental on a premier sim - where I am guaranteed a stable atmosphere and sim to host my store and the occasional event.

I really think now I should thank the Lindens, for waking me up, getting me off my butt and finding a better solution for me. I'm actually happier licensing the Torque for my simulation project, and I can use more of my 3d skillset with the art done in an engine where I have complete creative control.

Linden Lab doesn't care about the private content creators. Not anymore. They've finally gotten the press exposure and RL corporate interest they've always wanted, and the landscape is very quickly changing as a result. Here's what I just wrote a couple hours ago on this exact topic:

Judging by the questions people were asking and the comments people are making about the last Concierge Townhall, it's clear that most residents still don't understand the major shift that's happening in Second Life right now. It's really very simple.

All this time, Linden Lab has relied on creative users to build Second Life into something that would appeal to both a mainstream consumer audience and a real-world corporate clientele. That goal has been achieved, and all the individuals who made the grid what it is today are gently being pushed aside to make room for the big boys. This has really been the plan all along, folks. I want to answer some questions I keep hearing:

1. Why don't you start charging users so the people who actually contribute to Second Life don't have to pay for the burden that free users put on Second Life? Second Life has always been an economy of suppliers and consumers. This is not going to change. Does your local shopping center charge you to go browse the shops? No. But all the shops pay rather high fees to have storefronts there. Second Life is like the mall. You can also think of Second Life as a giant convention center, where businesses pay to have a presence- just instead of tiny booths businesses have entire islands to showcase their products and services. True, most conventions charge visitors a fee to get in, but that's because the convention center doesn't charge the businesses that showcase on its premises, but the organization who arranged for the conference. The conference organizer charges visitors to help offset the rental of the hall. This middleman doesn't exist in Second Life; businesses pay Linden Lab directly to have 'floorspace' in Second Life. There is no need to charge visitors in Second Life. If you did, many of them wouldn't come, and many businesses won't want to put resources into an effort that excludes a large portion of the potential audience.
   
2. Why not just charge corporate customers a higher rate? Well, there are other companies who do have different rates for private clients and small businesses versus corporate clients. For example, telephone companies offer a different pricing scheme for large companies. What you seem to be forgetting though, is that companies who offer different pricing schemes also offer different levels of SERVICE. Linden Lab is not equipped to provide 'premiere' support or service to its clients, no matter how big they are, to justify a higher pricing tier for them. The only way they could do this at their current staffing level would be to CUT existing service levels for private landowners, and I don't think anyone wants that.
   
3. Why can't we host our sims on our own servers and pay a lower rate? One of the first things you learn in a business is you don't charge customers based on what it costs you to provide a service; you charge them based on what they will pay. You also don't go out of your way to develop additional capabilities for them unless you've got a hungry competitor in the wings waiting to snatch up your customers who need a little more for a little less. At this point, LL has no immediate competition. They will not allocate resources to anything that they're going to have to charge LESS for upon implementation unless they have a damn good reason to do it.
   
4. Aren't you worried about losing the creative folks who made Second Life the vibrant metaverse it is today? Um, no. If you're reading this right now, you are likely not part of the demographic that LL's corporate clients are targeting. Do you only listen to Top 40 radio? Do you only watch English language, Hollywood-produced movies? Have you EVER read a book that was displayed on the impulse aisle at your grocery store? If you answered no to these questions, you are not mainstream. You are an early adopter. You're likely more educated and tech-savvy than the average person, and you know what else? You're damned picky. Second Life will lose some of its heart, but who cares? MOST people don't give a shit about creativity. MOST people are content with watered-down corporate bullshit, and really don't know anything else. Think about this: Everyone in Second Life knows what a furry or a gorean is. 99.99% of the rest of the world has no fucking clue what they are and you can be damned sure that Nissan, American Apparel, etc. would be more than happy if none of their visitors knew anything about them either. Sure, we'll lose some of our big-name creators. Some of them will find corporate support in one form of another. But the unbridaled privately-fueled passion and creativity that many of us adore here will be marginalized if it doesn't vanish altogether.

I love my Second Life, and I'm going to enjoy it and my friends here for as long as I can before it loses its heart. These things just happen. It's Walmartization. You can't stop it. *sigh*

Also, more than one person has brought up the example of how the web started as a community of impassioned geeks but eventually blossomed into a space where corporations, institutions, and individuals can all co-exist. The problem with this analogy is that Linden Lab is a small. privately held company. They have complete control over their network and software, and they only have limited resources to focus on their customers. Who's more important to LL right now? Nissan, or someone who makes avatar skins as a side job?

donkeys and whores.
Corporations are just donkeys, trampling over each other to the next big thing and trampling over each other to leave when something else comes along. You can't blame them, they are simple minded fools. Wether they are welcome or not, thats each persons opinion but LL dangled a carrott and they all came running. what I have seen so far is nothing for anyone to be concerned about - dreadful products and dreary sims.

The ones in the middle are the real problem, people who whore themselves to the corporations for a bit of virtual gold. They will do anything for money - whores in every sense of the word.

Stick all this together and it makes for some horrific scenes of beastiality and mutant offspring.


Sex whoring is dead, corporate whoring is the new sex in SL.

Where is my free car? I IM'd the bafoon on the billboard - never got one - Not very professional is it.

It only happened because anyone (and possibly their mother too ) can install an apache server and off they go.

I see LL making IBM's mistake, in not valuing the small business and independent developer in giving value to the products and eventual market. And its why Microsoft pulverised IBM to the ground with their OS. Does anyone else here remember IBM and its colossal mistake in thinking small business and individuals just didn't have use for a computer? I sure do.

It's telling when reading the official line. They clearly do not understand what and WHO are giving private islands their value. The people who make the value of these properties are the independent developers. People like Laukosargas Svarog, Dane Zander, etc.

When enough of these people go, SL is going to suffer.

Cut them out and LL is providing opportunities for their eventual competition. And they will come, eventually. Mark my words. As I see it, LL made a huge mistake with the mainland. They should have concentrated mainly on private islands and not continued the mainland project when it became clear that compelling content was NOT going to evolve easily on the mainland. A quote of Machiavelli that comes to mind:

"To found a new republic, or to reform entirely the old institutions of an existing one, must be the work of one man only"

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/machiavelli-disc1-9.html

And a community's foundation must be the work of one man only. Or woman as the case may be.

Overpricing private sims is simply never going to make the mainland more attractive, as I read in Reuters article when they quoted Philip Linden. It will never happen, because the mainland lacks someone to be the arbitrator. Democracies can only exist in much LARGER societies, where the extended order comes into play - where the rule of law replaces that of the webs of trust that exist in small groups. The mainland is simply too much in flux for any long term organisation to occur - when from one day to the other conditions in your sim can radically change depending on just one land owner. Anarchy reigns, and usually it's not a pretty sight. The prettiest sims are generally the ones in just a limited number of hands, or hands of one owner only. There's no coincidence here.

enough from me on this topic for one day, I guess.

After some thought..

It's possible that LL are redefining the whole SL economy.

Remember that the current SL economy is the result of such a process. None of the things considered sacred in SL now were designed into it originally.

This time next year it will be entirely possible that stipends will be back, LindeX will be closed, and L$-to-US$ trading will be banned by the TOS.

I wouldn't count on it. If you lived your whole Second Life without LindEx, it probably wouldn't make a difference to you if it disappeared one day. It's quite another thing to have lived all or most of your life with such conveniences only to have them taken away.