the most expensive\ status symbols

Joseph think how many times you can say that statement in RL(wasting perfectly good money), and it would'nt be any different here. Examples: millionaire X buys a bentley for $450,000USD(one of many cars they own), owns 10 multi- million dollar houses(which they can only live in one at a time). When you hear that someone has spent a large sum of money on an item, alot of people would say to them selves, man that persons wasting money. But to them they are aquiring a status symbol for all to recognize.
I am aware that anyone can build things( but we must acknowledge the learning curve, because i can't build shit), if you want to take the time to learn to build. So if one were to create something that is deemed a status symbol in RL, would it transfer to a symbol in the virtual world? Example, some guy purchased a virtual Bentley $500.00 USD. It may be a waste of money to some, but others may respect what it respresents.

Newport Beach is local to me, and yes, it's got its fair share of trust fund kids. Although it's about equally full of their bored moms...

Anyway. Having had many friends that were so embarrassingly rich they would never have to work (unlike me!) I'd noticed some strong trends.

1) They didn't buy much in the way of flashy stuff. Really. Generally you wouldn't even suspect until you saw where their parents lived. They have friends of normal income, usually from college or whatnot, and are typically embarrassed with regard to their own money. It's the people that can barely afford it that drive most of the Ferrari's and things like that.

2) Often perpetual students with multiple degrees; otherwise bored to death. I knew mostly rich males. Almost all highly intelligent with stable girlfriends like anybody else (later marrying them). But a few were ironically considered total losers by females even though their wealth was known.

3) Many so into drugs it you wonder how they get by. I remember one friend (years ago) I had to help back to his beach condo because he was staggering wasted across Balboa Blvd one fine Saturday morning, having trouble finding the other side of the street. He wouldn't even go until I walked him to the store first and we got him some cigarettes. Good thing I was riding by on my bicycle! As I helped him back into his beach place, he propositioned the girls that lived below him. They gave me the 'make sure he doesn't wander out again' look.

4) They deeply respect people who 'make it' on their own, and wish they had. None of them went on to manage their family fortune save one (who was uncharacteristically not a druggie by the way) and he went back to asia to do it.

whats up Desmond. Here in New York i have been around a few different types who handle being wealthy very differently.

One. Who you would never know they were rich until you have stepped into their homes(i mean you can't even tell from the outside of their home).

two. The individual who is oblivious to their own wealth, and it is just apart of their every day lives( its natural for them to eat at Cipriani's, ride around in limos of all makes, private jets,etc..).

three. the dick head who is a fuck-up and because he is mentally dim, he has no control over his trust, and only recieves an allowance.

four. And ofcourse the biggest spender of them all, the noveaux rich that does'nt know what to do with themselves or their new found riches.

I will gladly take anyone of these positions. Some people have all the luck.

NCI: Brace Coral, Tateru Nino, Carl Metropolitan.
The Ivory Tower: Lumiere Noir.

Aside from new users- anyone who is here and investing significant money into the system knows what it can buy and knows that the common opinion looks down on extravagance in purchases rather than up. That said- I can concede that land is the last luxury item. It's not the house you put on it or the Starax sculpture in the yard, but the sim address and view that counts.

To follow along with the discussion of the new rich vs old money- old money buys a lovely moderate sized plot in the old continents- landscapes it well to fit with it's neighborhood and acknowledges that people will see and admire their home in it's location- but doesn't really care as long as the neighborhood is nice and they're happy there- new money buys half a sim in Corsica and puts up ban lines to block out the little people who might intrude on their amazing home, but leaves the view open to be admired.

I am constantly surprised by old money in real life. Not for it's flashiness, but for it's modesty.

Nice, Capella. I like the comparison.

Thats pretty good Capella. Now who in SL represents the old money and who represents the noveau rich?

Much like in real life- the difference is knowledge and longevity. Getting a great plot in the SL equivalent of the Hamptons is probably more a case of who you know and how many lindens you have- in inverse proportions more than likely (although I freely admit I am not one of the old guard.) the more people you know, the more likely you are to be cut a deal when someone is selling out- the fewer people you know the more they're going to gouge you to get in. =P

New rich tends to be people who haven't been here for years- people who don't know the in crowd, people who have a lot of US$ to throw into the system and want the biggest the best and the flashiest.

There are degrees along the line, as in all things. But in many ways I'd imagine that's just like real life.

Getting money is easy enough. Keeping it and knowing the right people to get you into parties and to give your newly acquired wealth weight in the world rather than flash and dazzle is the mark of distinction between old wealth and new. Old money marries old money. New money marries into old money to become old money. The only way to shake off the dust of the new rich is to associate long enough with the old guard until everyone forgets that you're "new"- and the only way that you'll manage that association is to blend in. In a world like SL that takes months and years rather than decades and generations. It also means a lot less about your ability to actually put food on the table in real life. =P

I'm going to risk a real answer to this thread. Not because I approve of how perceptions work, but strictly observationally.

Probably the most 'statusy' addresses are not even known to most people on the grid nowadays.

Nova Albion (the 4 city sims near the welcome area), the old Da Boom, and to a far lesser degree the surrounding 'color' sims where it's possible to buy in. Bonifacio and Gibson - don't even *think* of getting in there unless you know somebody.

These areas aren't very special in terms of beauty or other simmy goodness. Perhaps not ugly, but 'just okay' typically. Basically they are the home of the old guard, the beta members with charter accounts and so forth.

There's one notable exception: being near to the Welcome Area and the traditional old sandboxes means that you'll get a lot of new player traffic. Some sims, like Abbotts, are a licence to print $L if you know what you are doing. And believe me, some who know very much what they are doing keep the land there.

Thing is, perception is bigger than reality here - so what if you live next to someone with a lifetime 4096m of land, who found secondlife before you did. Not a big deal, although the perception that it is a big deal persists. Unless you have an account that dates back to those days, are snarky in forums and have a fairly well known old SL biz, you'll be forever seen as a 'wannabe'.

Even though I've been called 'feted inner core 2.0' by Prok, have a pile of sims and a main account from the 2003 era, I'd still be a 'wannabe' and 'new money' if I moved into Nova Albion in most residents eyes - many of whom became de-facto SL rich by virtue of having gotten land there early. Not one of the old guard myself, as I was pretty quiet in beta days, not 'part of the gang' and my Des account was created in March of 05.

Personally however, I think worrying about such things is utter nonsense, and I seem to scratch out my humble existence from the virtual dirt just fine without regard for such distinctions.

* * * * *

There are other areas with super-premium reputations, of course, and land costs might be one of the more obvious indicators.

When land typically changes hands at close to $L 50 a meter and *stays like that for months*, even now, odds are it's a premium area. Caledon's Victoria City downtown, and some of the outlying areas have been like that, with pricing like that being the norm as recently as two weeks ago much to my consternation (I discourage such pricing but can't exactly stop the practise).

Such an effect drops off quickly, as one gets away from the downtown region. Get outside the sim and suddenly it's a completely different story. To be honest, I own the bloody sim and it's nice, but... $L 45/m to 50/m nice? Even I'd say resoundingly not, but I'm not the one trading cash around for rental rights, the residents are. I just take tier, which is near nothing by comparison, and I'd offered the sim at land fees of just $L 4/meter when it opened - hardly backbreaking rates.

There are plenty of other places that go for super-premium pricing, often niche market and often completely inaccessible to the typical user in terms of 'buying in' unless you know somebody - far harder to get into than Caledon.

There are a set of challenges that come with being born on 3rd base especially if you are aware enough not to act like you hit a triple.

You still have to make it to home base but you didn't acquire the skills by working to get where you are (why rich people can be seen as losers..poor in character) so you have to make sure not claim any special attributes due to your lucky accident and you have to find the way to gain skills to give yourself a sense of accomplishment and a life of your own.

Not many are successful and its hard to make a meaningful life out of consuming.

No one has mentioned the ultimate status symbol in any world: First Bling.

Sorry i was'nt here yesterday. Thanks for all of the responses. And Des you are the next generation FIC. I'm going to check out all the spots you named(i guess the residents of the aforementioned communities would'nt mind me standing on the corner with my shirt off while i smoke a joint).

I agree with those that stated that Friends are your biggest acheivements/assets... they didn't cost money to gain, but remain priceless even after the potential demise of SL. If you are looking for financial status.. perhaps become a Linden.. they own everything .

Back to your original question regarding houses Jamil, the Farnesworth House from Maximum Minimum at 30K would be a pretty impressive purchase.

But nothing says "money to burn" like a custom Scope Cleaver house and 60K virtual yacht - the owner of these items said she has spent around 2 million linden on her virtual home.

http://www.slnn.com/article/misty5-marvel/

I'm sure someone mentioned it- Staraxe Wands.

Job: Escort 2nd- Linden

A rental plot in Caldwell Estates is the ultimate living experience. Or if you are partial to Mainland, I hear Liome Beach Resort is the place to be.

I agree

Asri Falcone released a house last year with a starting price of L$40,000 (around $150 USD)- and if I remember right the plan was to actually increase the price by L$1000 every week. I don't know what it's listed for now.

The idea was to price it such that only a small number of people could (or would) ever pay for it, guaranteeing its uniqueness on the grid.

Intriguing comparison - an I say dat not only because it would put me in old money territory. Our home has not much changed since it was rezzed in 2005, and still sits on its plot on mainland, old continent, beachfront. The land was purchased new, and has been in our family ever since. The home and surrounding landscape is not the flashiest place you'll ever see, with a home based on my mommy's RL midwest, two story house. It's not permanent or any of dat like someting a charter member might have -- but it might as well be, really.

It's actually a beautiful place, really, more so than if it was some place totally over the top.

Mari

Hummm. I have to agree that just spending a wad of money does not, in itself, buy "Status" in SL. There are content creators and Builders who do equal quality work, and yet whose prices are orders of magnitude apart. Why? Because some people think they aren't getting "the Best" unless they "Spend the most".

I have one client who owns one normal sim and 4 Openspaces sims, and who uses them merely for her personal residence in SL. No stores, rentals, or anything else in that 5-sim area to generate income. Just several large homes and other features for her own pleasure and that of her guests. That's a pretty big investment in SL creature comforts, by anyone's standards. What she has spent in just a few months to have me build them for her is more than I have spent in two *years* of playing in SL, or could even consider spending in SL in a given year. And yet my prices are a fraction of a number of better known builders. There are people she could have gone to and paid a hundred times more than she paid me. And it hasn't "bought her status". She has plenty of comforts, but most of SL surely doesn't even know she exists.

Yet there are other potential clients that I have talked to that I *know* did go somewhere else and pay far more than I would have charged them, because they felt that a lower bid couldn't possibly give them what they wanted. The Builders that charge far more than I do still manage to get work. Someone out there will pay even the highest fees. And honestly, the really expensive ones are usually teams of people who can do similar quality (or better), far faster than any one-person operation could.

The clothing designers whose work I most admire, and whose products I buy time and time again, are not the most expensive ones. Lots of people shop for quality. You buy, you try, and if you like you go back again. If the quality is great, the price doesn't matter, since most individual items don't really cost that much in terms of real money.

For the few "big ticket items" that I do own, price was the last consideration. I bought them because I liked the features they offered. In a couple of cases, like a high-end scripted bed, than meant saving my L$ for a while and working a little harder to earn enough to buy the thing. But I wouldn't have bought it at all, if the quality and features weren't there.

The Starax wand was what I considered a status symbol. But not just that, it was apparently lots of fun, too! Unfortunately, I couldn't afford one, and then he stopped making them/left SL.

coco

Dearly Darlings,

Although I don't believe in social stratification in SL. I agree that in RL people who really have money, old money at that really don't stand out in the crowd. I also agree that any Starax item is a special thing to own. I would have loved to have a wand too. I don't bring money into the game so I also could not have one until it was too late.

You all have a lovely afternoon!

Ever Yours,

Mrs. showdog Tiger

Someone who maxes out their credit card getting big homes and expensive cars in SL just look ridiculous to me.

As has been said numerous times in this thread, I respect those who do quality work in SL. Show me the person who has personally built the grandest and highest quality mansion and then I'll be impressed.

Finally someone who see's it the correct way. This so called status symbol is exactly how the "designers" of sl think of themselves. Most swear they're the elite of sl and act like it too not wanting to help or be bothered by those who buy their wares. Placing in their profiles comments like "don't bother me, don't IM me because my time is oh so precious."

I don't care who sells what or who created what, they're all the same just like the newbie who just came in sl. Only difference is they've been here longer and know more about the place and the ins and outs.

They need to read this and get off their ego driven high horses as they're not the elite nor does what they do in sl mean "squat" either. There's thousands of others who do the same exact thing they do and maybe better and they don't act like they're the stars of sl.

That would happen to be my PIMP cup.