All Sticks, No Carrots

Heinlein wasn't as bad as people make out. I think a lot of what he had to say was as much cautionary as anything. That said, I still agree with some of it.



Well, no, not today. Today McDonalds would issue a public announcement about the "rising costs of catsup manufacture", chiding the consumer for being wasteful with their catsup, and then start charging for the catsup packets, and raise the price of burgers by a quarter to "recoup past losses".

That is what I keep trying to tell everyone, but do they listen? No. Nobody listen to Enabran.

If people were "farming" the reputation bonus, that's a problem for Linden Labs. They could have tweaked the bonus calculations so it could't be farmed, though, rather than eliminating it.

If people were "farming" the developer's incentive, that's a problem for Linden Labs. They could have tweaked the dwell calculations so that paying basic accounts Lindens for dwell wasn't profitable, though, rather than eliminating it.

Whether this would have satisfied the hard-core "pure market economists", I don't know. I do know, however, that real economies are a lot more complex than this one and simplifying it to remove feedback mechanisms is likely to make it less stable... not more stable.

do you want me to hold your hand?

Big words + math + logic = ?????????????????

Not exactly. What they would do is conveniently forget to add the ketchup packets to the bag at the drive through. By playing on the inherent laziness and trusting nature of McD's customers, who love to get their food without getting out of the car and will assume the order is correct without a detailed check of the bad's contents, they can save a few cents.

Another solid tactic, employed by Subway, is to refuse customers more than one napkin without a fight. Most of the cowed customers begin to feel happy to have a napkin at all.

Isn't there a rule against using names?

DO you want me to report your post? Then explain your post and I will not reply with Question Marks.

You want to report his post because you failed to understand it? "for all I know this could be a personal attack!"

Not in this context, no.

please report my posts. i'm sure the fic moderators will have a good laugh at your expense.

"jauani wu is smarter than me "

Hahaha, classic.

I pretty much agree with the original post. Not everyone can afford to endlessly buy Lindens, and it seems to me that Linden Labs has always appeared to be quite greedy. Even when they gave out decent stipends, it could all be spent in about five minutes on a couple shirts or whatever...and then they took away the ability for the average player to make any kind of decent income. Everyone doesn't have the talent/time/ability to spend all day creating things to sell, and them putting them on the market against 10,000 other already-established shops. Not everyone can afford Photoshop.

Rather than giving out free basic accounts, I think it would be better to do as other games do and charge $12-15 a month and let them get something of value in-game in return. The stipends just don't cut it, for those who have nothing to sell (and not everyone comes here to build things--some people come to play and have fun and relax).

I never saw any evidence that stipends or event hosting was "breaking the system" at all. It just gave non-rich people, who SL seems to hate, a way to make a minimal living by trading their time for a small amount of game money. It's not too much to ask.

I think much of the abuse has come from people who have lots of RL money and buy up lots of SL land (which others can not afford) and then charge rental prices which pay for their teir fees and make them a profit...and the newbies and the average Joe have little choice, because where else are they going to live? In a tiny cabin in a snowfield that holds a lamp and a table and then runs out of prims? Who is that supposed to be fun for?

There are so many good things about SL, but they need to cut people a break and let them have more ways to earn better money there without putting their entire RL salaries into the Linden ATM just to have enough money to get by and enjoy the place. Linden Labs is doing fine, trust me: I've played most of the online MMOG's and this one is by far the greediest and most costly, and gives the smallest return for your investment.

The only people here who are gloating about how great it is and how the system was abused are people with a lot of money, because many of those who do not have that kind of cash flow are unhappy with the way we have been treated here. It's a great game, but it's also a financial sinkhole. $1200 to buy an island, and then $195 a month to own it? Maybe you can afford that if you're a lawyer, but most people will never be able to and this gives people with tons of RL cash the ability to have lots more fun than people without it. Nobody is asking for a free game or a million bucks a week. Just some kind of reasonable solution that will let us enjoy the game the way it should be enjoyed.

You can, um, already do that. For 9.95 a month you get much more money and 512 meters of land automaticly.

LET'S NOT LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF COMPLAINING, SIR

I appreciate that you took the time and effort to write the above. Many people who are unhappy just fire off something difficult to read and disorganized. So I want to respond seriously.

I think doing an $L account instead of a free account is a great idea. I think many people would be willing to pay $10-$20 a month for $L if it was automatic. I've been peddling that idea to anyone who will listen in the last week. However, the $L for that stipend must be bought off the market. Otherwise LL is just printing money and the economy will tank - that's basic high school economics.

For better or for worse, SL is not like other MMOs and comparing it to others doesn't work. For example, in any MMO like WoW or EQ, the game developer pays a sizable staff very well to create content. In SL, content creators fill that role. Dollar for dollar the guys working for the games company have the better deal. Linden Labs only provides us the (almost) blank canvas. Content creators want to be and should be compensated for their time. Not to discount people who don't want to do work in SL, those folks bring equal value to the game IMO. We need to find a way that works for both.

Yes, buying and maintaining a sim is expensive. But buying the server that a sim runs on and hiring the staff to maintain it is expensive too. Linden Lab consumes a lot of hardware, much more than the average MMO company. That's the price we pay for the flexibility of the world. Standard MMO worlds are static, SL is absolutely dynamic.

People with more money in RL also have more fun in RL... not just in SL. But wait, that assumes that you define fun as something you can buy. Now I own half a sim. I'm not rich, but I'm not poor either. I decided that $100 a month (plus cable internet, plus good computer) was worth it to me for what I get out of SL in enjoyment. That's a very personal decision. It means that I skip other stuff I could have or be doing. If I had to cut back would I still be in SL? Yes. I had a ton of fun when I only owned 512m.

"Just some kind of reasonable solution that will let us enjoy the game the way it should be enjoyed." Requoting this here because I think this is the heart of many of the conflicts between people in SL. People have as many different ideas of how the game should be enjoyed as there are people in SL. I think you have to take SL for what it is, find like minded people who want to play your way, and fit your desires to reality. If that won't work, then this may not be the place for you. SL can't be everything to everyone.

Some peoples' complete and total lack of a grip on reality is absolutely amazing. Fight the good fight, Enabran and Surreal, but be sure to stop banging your head against that brick wall once you start feeling like you're pretty high!

As for having robots build everything we need and it being free, c'mon, that ALWAYS ends badly, didn't you see the documentary trilogy called "The Matrix"?

Regards,

-Flip

what carrot sticks?

If you dream of incredibly slow rendering and gray rectangles with white outlines, it is child's play to realize in your dream in Second Life.