Defining the FIC (Seriously)

I baked my own damn pie and you have no right to any of it. Instead of blowing all your time and effort complaining on the forums, go get a cookbook and learn how to use it.



Your morale isn't my problem, nor is it LL's. When I have morale issues, I go see a shrink or get a kiss from my mom.

*points up to Kim* Ditto

I now must profess my undying love for Kim.

LOL! Pie! I love it! I need -that- put on a sampler pillow

Dives in for a threesome

Would that make it a FICgy?

See! We really -are- all in bed together...

But this is exactly the problem. a) Building for pleasure, is very different compared to b) building for someone else's expectations, as a full-time job and with a deadline -- but how can you ever prove yourself able to do b) if you can't get a customer because they're all sent to the people who are proven in advance?

It's really the classic "can't get a job without experience, can't get experience without a job" situation, but with the additional problem that the market is small enough that it's satisfied even if only those with experience get jobs. And this causes FIC allegations because the only way the people with experience, got that experience, was by getting the first ever job.

Kim, it's not your pie to divide.

And it was Aimee who brought up the morale of some. I brought up the morale of others.

And I am a good cook.

coco

Have you seen Cory's join date? The FIC were well entrenched by the time she started. But her join didn't didn't matter because people liked what they saw when she builds. That's what it takes to get on that list. Not a join date, not who you know... just great skills.

How many produce only because they want publicity and perks? I enjoy the act of creation. I enjoy having people see my work. The rest is gravy.

SL success comes from research, hard work, salesmanship, and talent. If all one had were contacts, one wouldn't get very far.

Do you want equal opportunity? Or do you want to dampen some peoples' well-earned success in favor of those you see as more deserving? I am at a loss how you can do both.

Do you really believe that no one gets a paying gig around here unless it was handed to them on a platter by LL? How insulting. I've already told you this isn't the case, and I guess you've just chosen to ignore it.

Yumi. I'm going to kill you. You're deliberately being contrary. and anybody who quotes the movie 'The Incredibles' as though it was some deep and enlightening story has got to be having a laugh.

You're not Blaze are you? Blaze would do this too. He'd be contrary just for the hell of it

Anybody who answers anymore of Yumi's posts in this thread shall be IM'ed and called horrible names.

You start small and work your way up. Before we ever got a consideration for a RL client, we worked inworld with inworld clients. We got testimonials as to the quality of our work and our ability to handle projects. Our previous RL resumes also went a long way towards informing people that we have experience where it was needed in terms of project management.

It worked the same for me when I was in web design. I started out doing sites for free, for experience and to fill out my resume. Once I had something to show, I could market myself until I found a job doing it professionally. I did exactly the same thing in SL. In neither case did anyone come knocking at my door offering me a job before I made it clearly known that I was interested in one.

Working in SL at the level where you're considered for these projects is a job, just like any other job - just the location has changed. The answer to your question is the same here as it is anywhere - you start small and work your way up, and you pull in experience from your previous jobs to show that you'll be able to handle this new one.

I know it can be done, because I've done it. Tiny Seadog didn't take on its first inworld job until November of last year. After enough inworld jobs where our resume was filled out nicely, we got an offer for a larger job. There's absolutely nothing standing in the way of anyone else from doing it either, as long as they devote enough time, talent and determination to it.

I'll forgive you. It was obviously work in progress..

You're turning me on. Quit it.

It is my pie to divide. I found my own clients. I got my own press coverage. I built my own portfolio. If you want a pie, go make your own.



So what?

Just wanted to bump this neglected and under-appreciated Pol.

Oh, behaaaave!

I hope this doesn't upset Cory, but I am going to use her as an example.


Last August, Cory made this massive thing, it was really cool but took up 1/4 of a sim. She built it in a sandbox. She wanted some place to put it for a week she could sell it. She posted in classifieds, in an area no one reads. LOL I saw the post, and I asked her to show me what she made. I was amazed. At that time I had a private island that was mostly empty, so I told her she could put it on the island. I didn't know her ass from Adam and she didn't know me.

She offered to pay me for the space, but I had a better idea (call me Kathy Lee!). Anyway we talked I told her my concept and vision for the island and she agreed to do the work on the island for FREE for the exposure and because I rock and I told her to do whatever she wanted as long as it fit the theme I wanted. So she went to work and in 10 days, basically she build a whole sim, while working a full time job and designed a ton of custom textures.

I opened the sim invited a ton of people (including some FIC) and people were amazed at her work (some people *cough* Ingrid *cough* questioned her about being the alt of every known designer in SL). She instantly had people offering her work and asking for custom jobs. She took orders and ran with it from there. She got better and better and in 7 months has made quite a name for herself out of no where.

Here are some tips from my experiences with Cory...


1) Don't be a pompous ass (think Hiro and act the opposite)
2) Be willing to work for free if it will generate some good publicity for yourself (think free accounts)
3) Have some actual talent (It helps, but there are lots of not talented people in SL making tons of money on little to no talent. Visit The Edge for glaring examples of this)
4)Treat it like real business, if you want it to be real business
5) Luck helps
6) Make something cool, post it in forums and hope someone notices.

Coco, if you check out the MTV thread, you'll notice there's people there who talk about the 'Making your own pie'.

Like Kim, many of the "FIC" who "steal" all the spotlight, make that spotlight on their own. Lindens don't run around going "We've got Time on the phone, Get Aimee and Kim over here" A few on that thread mentioned other interivews that they'd gotten on their own, no Linden help needed or offered.

Actually, Kiari, LL does sometimes contact resis who fit the right profile when a reporter comes looking for interviews. Catherine Linden posts a call in the forums in order to find people who will be a good match. She posted the other day that she also adds these people to her file of possible interview subjects.

Ah, you're right. Now that I'm looking for the posts, I see them. I'd been basing the "Lindens don't descend from the sky in a nimbus of light and glory to grant interviews" on in game contacts that have gotten interviews, but arranged them on their own.

I have absolutely no facts to back it up by I find this idea a bit silly and hard to believe.

Couldn't it be that they actually are trying to spread the joy around a bit and not go to the same old five or six people all the time? Why does their motive have to be "fear of favoritism"? Sounds wildly conspiratorial to me.

No offense, but to anyone who wants to jump ship because of a percieved lack of "proper attention" from LL I say:

"Don't let the door hit your bum on the way out."

Fair enough

Yeah, a lot of people haven't noticed that forum, Kiari, it isn't just you. They even renamed it and changed the description to try to make it more obvious, and it still gets overlooked. Weird, huh?

Cory freaked me out then and still does. Although lately I'm less shocked when she pulls out something fantastic she's made from her inventory because she does it all the time. Her inventory is FULL of eye candy.

So, if you are going to tell me to stop expecting morale, then tell Aimee the same thing - she brought it up, not me. I merely pointed out that it goes both ways.

Really, I shouldn't have to explain that.

The MTV thread, I have not been following. When I said we should all have a slice at the pie, I meant the Linden pie, of course. Not the pie that Kim bakes for herself. Or whatever pies I bake for myself.

Y'all can squawk till the end of time that there should be no processes by which everyone (in this very large game) can apply for Linden perks, privileges and proects, and you can come up with every diversion in the world to justify that position, usually in the form of motivational speeches.

But many of you actually believe I am right. You are not against equal opportunities, whether through contests or the DD, or any other method.

It's really kind of arrogant for people to argue against equal opportunity (which I still can't believe you actually do!) by lecturing others on hard work, etc. That pretty much assumes that anyone who has the viewpoint that there should be equal access for all to any Linden pie must be lazy, talentless sludges who can't do anything. And that is just as untrue as thinking that those who have received perks in the past are untalented and undeserving. Equal opportunity processes are a good thing, and no threat to anyone who is talented and deserving.

More and more, I suspect that some people against equal opportunity processes simply fear competition, and don't want to share the Linden pie, period. I never fear competition, for the simple reason that there is room enough in this world - real or virtual - for all talent. There always has been, and there always will be, because people like variety. People always want new stuff, and they always want different stuff. There is also no use fearing competition, because there will ALWAYS be someone better than you, at something, no matter who you are or what you do, because everyone is unique. The only thing to do with competition is to admire it, be inspired by it, and continue to do your own equally wonderful thing.

I learned that a long time ago, in NYC. I thought I'd reached the top! And I discovered a very good lesson then, that there IS no top! Ever! And that this is not only natural, it is also the best possible way things could be. There is always room for more talent, and other talent in no way diminishes one's own.

Any system which doesn't take advantage of the wide variety of talent they actually have access to is a static one that grows dull and fades away. We have all that talent here. There is zero reason why the pie should be divided up only among the same people always, or why the Lindens should be expected to somehow "discover" all the talent which is out there. There is every reason to give that talent a way to apply, and these processes for equal opportunity provide that.

And the more things work through these processes, the more it's a win-win situation for all.

coco