Things will get worse if they ever get better

Yumi, my answer was a response to you saying that the Real World was running out of ideas and had no space to express them. Are these products built on things that already existed? Yes, of course, just like the automobile was based on a horse-drawn carriage. My point was there there are plenty of new ideas around and plenty of market for them in RL, which is the opposite to what you asserted. If someone can build on existing technology and come up with something that people perceive as new and exciting, they will buy it. I see no reason why SL shouldn't be exactly the same.

Interesting characterization you have made, there.

LOL

I was more reffering to

If you are running your Credit Card buying gas ..

You are going to pause before running up further charges for pretend money in a pretend world.

The chief problem with sl is it is so fake. Taking a walk along a beach in sl is no more "fun" than walking down a busy street. In rl there is the feel of the salt air on your skin, the smell of the ocean, the act of walking or other means of moving.
I just bought a new dress in rl, the feel of the material upon my skin. Going out to dinner is not the same as well.
Buying content in sl is more like renting it due to the new flaws in sl that keep deleting content. Even so I have all of the content needed and do not need any more.
To sum it up, I would rather spend my money on rl "entertainment" before spending it on sl.

Right. But the majority of individuals in RL are now disenfranchised from the innovation process, and even from the creation process! Is there a risk of that happening in SL, too?



Um, it was you who gave your definition of how a resident could be "successful". I was simply highlighting a problem with that definition.

I bought an Island last week and its so much fun. I had originally thought of being a landlord etc... but not now. I am finding a way to pay the 295 teir and keep it for me and my fiance. It's way too much fun to give it up.
I do plan on opening a skybox store eventually for my friends to sell stuff in.

A smaller number of people are innovating and creating, simply because the bar has been raised. The appetite of the RL public for new items is still very much there.

I guess I don't see why that can't also be true in SL.

The bar has been raised in-world as well - now you can't just throw together a few prims and sell it, you have to learn to build, scultpies, scripting, etc. This has led to a smaller number of people doing it, just like in RL. I still maintain that if you learn and can come up with a product that people want and you are the only one that makes it, then you stand a good chance of being a success in business in SL. There will be residents who, if they know about it, will buy it.

(and, FTR, the people that aren't a success in business are not "failures" - that is a characterization that you chose to use. I suppose if your only view of SL is as a platform to run a business then it would follow, but it is far, far more than that to most residents.)

Because it's _risky_ in SL. RL people don't kill themselves because they fall below the bar (although they might become criminals - and that is happening in SL too) but SL people might leave because of that. If fact, you said it yourself:



If it turns out that the total experience of the "non-creators" isn't good enough, then SL risks losing its consumer base, and with it its business viability. LL haven't checked this with market research, and SL will have no way of "undoing" that evolution if it turns out to be harmful (as I said, if LL said that more new people should feel like they can contribute to creation, or else SL would go bust - how could it be arranged?)



You are the one who defined what it means to be a "success" in SL. If there were things other than business involved you could have mentioned them too! The reason why I highlighted it was that business success _is_ identified by most people, newbies especially, as being equivalent to general "success" in SL. You are quite right that there are other ways to enjoy SL but they don't have the feeling of "success" for many people.