Lords and Peasants

1) They don't work well psychologically, in a game - an entertainment medium - you've already paid for. However, astute readers will notice I have previously said that may well be changing, since SL is essentially FREE now. Now it makes more psychological sense to pay for entertainment.

2) Others who have tried it have explained why it doesn't work. I forget exactly, but it has something to do with not really being able to keep people from peeking in, or some such.

In any case, IF it worked so well, why aren't people doing it?

coco

Because it's a game! Duh!

Dunno, Coco. That's what we've been asking. You have yet to answer.

maybe i'm not understanding u ... but ... if YOU feel like it's not working well and YOU feel like it's something that CAN be done, then why not come up with ways of making it happen? why depend on some1 else 2 get the ball rolling? start networking, form a group, Q&A, try n try again ... how else can something succeed?

No, I am not, Michi. They are not the slightest where you are working for someone else. They are where you are providing services - hundreds and hundreds of them - that avatars just don't need and will never need.

This is a side issue, really - but $5 per avatar for event really wouldn't begin to cover the amount of work involved.

More DWELL, though, that would benefit entertainers. It wouldn't benefit builders like myself, but it would benefit entertainers.

coco

I am dumb when it comes to economics but I think the whole point here is that ANY sort of changes like this to give people more money simply means that the value of the L$ will go down, and prices will go up.

"Dwell" is a crutch to help people enjoy the game, to reward people for creating popular places. I make content and worship Lagnor, so right now I wouldn't personally mind them eliminating dwell - it would probably bump the value of the Linden dollar. And then everyone would REALLY be upset. Then we could do it all 1984-style and slowly reintroduce a watered down dwell so people feel like things are getting progressively better.

That might, uh, require hard work.

Or risk.

Or... trying? I dunno. Plenty of valid reasons, I'm sure.

Don't let Enabran fool you into thinking that I am at all adverse toward hard work and risk. As he well knows.

coco

and yet again ... why depend on Linden? there's opportunity out in SL, just put mind 2 matter

Oh, no one needs to believe me. Res ipsa loquitur.

i don't get fooled by any1. but i do know that if u want anything done right, u have 2 do it urself ... or at least try 2. n if it doesn't work, at least u tried n don't sit in forums asking "i wonder what would happen if ....."

hard work is what's needed 2 succeed.

Evidently Linden Lab's help is what's needed to succeed.

Yes, that is true - about the more Lindens, the more the value will go down.

And that brings me to the next point of my argument which I totally, TOTALLY absolutely HATE to bring up.

Think of it: We can make things totally without cost to ourselves (except time) and then resell them, over and over and over and over.

We don't have to do a DANG THING to resell them, except advertise them and let the advertisement stay up there. Maybe some customer service here and there.

But we do the work - at no cost to us - and it's done. And can sell basically forever more. (Theoretically, anyway.)

Entertainment providers have to be there every minute. They also have to spend a lot of time planning, along with the advertising we all do. They can't do their entertainment once and sell it again and again and again.

They also can't sell drinks.

That's why they need more support. They need dwell, stipends, or a combination of them both.

IF you don't want to give them more support, and you are worried about the value of the Linden, then I've got a way that would equalize the playing field better AND increase the value of the Linden:

Charge us for every prim we rez.

If they did that, I would quit. It's probably the one thing that would cause me to quit.

But I gotta admit, it would make things a little more pro-entertainment and less pro-physical content creation.

coco

Sure, and then more entertainers would have more money, then spend or cash out that money, and the L$ would be inflated, and in a month or two we'd be back in the same situation tho.

what makes u think that's true? do u know how hard it is to constantly come up with new designs so buyers don't become bored with what u have???? do u know how much time u put in 2 create a design? granted those who host must be in the area they r hosting at, but it's definitely NOT a matter of just create n sit back n watch the dollars roll in.

What happens when the rest of the market values the L$ at 50% what it currently does?

Give more money away until we reach 25% of current value?

15%?

10%?

5%?

If you want to come here to enjoy yourself, you're more than welcome to, for FREE. When I hang out with my friends in world (both of them, the real one and the imaginary one), money isn't involved, we don't pay eachother for showing up. A new character who comes into this "game" with NO artistic, scripting, or any kind of skills other than SOCIAL skills can have a hell of a good time, IMO. I was amazed how much freebie stuff when I started here, and there's even more out there now.

I know, I know, but reward people for hosting popular events, drawing a crowd. No matter how you do it people will game it, people will set up dwell-chairs and abuse the system. If you give every new character $L5,000 then people will go try to game it by getting alts. Eggy, could you please come in here and tell everyone how long ago this was all first suggested?

Yes, I know these things.

I've done both content building and entertaining (in another game), so I know what is involved in each.

Enabran, fine - then charge us to rez prims and scripts.

coco

That we can agree on!

9.95 per account (after the first one, which is free).

Interesting you bring up the dwell chairs.

Seems like everytime someone DOES get enterprising, and come up with something like money balls or dwell chairs, that gets looked upon with disgust. I call it enterprising.

coco

Eggy, could you please show up and tell us the story of when they used to HAVE taxes like this and everyone said RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE and reinacted the boston tea party?

Do you have ANY CLUE how much development time and post-sale customer service time Luskwood Creatures takes from us?

Less than two hours when we log on at night (after our real jobs) is a GOOD night.

The bigcats took three months of work, staying up till 3am, to develop.

You seem to have no idea what hard work is.

OH! and we do events too. Some of the biggest on SL.

Trust me. There is nothing spectacularly special about us. We just are willing to put in the work. If ANYONE asked me what Luskwood's success was due to I would say perserverence and the willingness to see things through.

See Theory Y.

oright, again confused ... so if u know all that's involved, y make a statement like that? e1 that makes money in this game has all started with the same gameplan ... EFFORT ... that's all it takes. make an effort 2 learn something or explore something or try 2 help solve something that u feel is not right.

You are always gonna make a mistake, Enabran, when you think that a virtual world translates economically into the real world.

What we have seen is exactly what it translates into, no more, no less.

I think it would be better - and we would get more residents, and the Lindens would make a greater profit - if there were more and more varied entertainment for the population.

And if you want to translate it that accurately into the real world, then the materials of our goods would actually cost something.

coco

They have started with the same gameplan, and that gameplan favors physical content creation over non-physical content creation, as well as over simple, productive work anyone can do.

Were it not so, fewer people would leave the game saying it is boring.

coco