Can you LL monkeys ever get this right?

The hypothetical competitor to LL fails to materialize year after year.

I don't imagine that SL being known as a total money pit for investors might have anything to do with the lack of competition.

Remember, SL 1.0 was essentially a garage production. Other entrants could easily attempt it. But just as friendster's business model was:

1. get lots of people to sign up for free
   
2. get more free sign-ups
   
3. magic happens here
   
4. profit!
   

LL is peddling the same sort of service (although more graphically intense) and like friendster, is sort of stuck on step 2.

Limit the "freeloading" free accounts? What kind of elitism "bologne" is that? Its exactly that perspective about free accounts I cannot stand. Just because an account is free, does not by any means they are "freeloaders". Do they not pay for items in SL like anyone else and dont the sellers benefit just the same? YES. What seems to me to be the problem is greed pure and simple for wanting everypne to have to pay to play because thats the only difference between a premium and a free account, one can own land and the other cant. So what the double hockey sticks would you want free accounts limited even more than that just because they dont want to own land, so what.

Billions in RL dont own their own home but does that mean that if someone rents an apartment in RL that they are somehow inferior to those who own their own home? No, they are not. This BS about referring to free accounts as freeloaders needs to end because it has no grounds and those supposed "freeloaders" line the pockets of premium account holders with lindens just the same as others for buying items made in SL or purchasing Lindens. Frankly, Im dissapointed that Sara would view free accounts with such a shallow view, considering that the last I knew, I was her best friend, but apparently I am just another freeloader since I have and always use a free acount for the past couple years.

The ONLY thing about free accounts that should change if anything is to bring back using age verification methods for new accounts. Other than that, the ones referring to free account holders as "freeloaders" and want to have everyone charged just for playing can go back to TSO(or There)or end the discriminitive comments about account holders. Not everyone has the financial ability and/or flexibility to be shelling out a monthly fee just to login for a benefit(owning land), that frankly is over-rated when you can just lease or rent and have the same land rights as a owner except being able to re-sell the land.

pst im one of those freeloaders, only payed SL once, and never ever spendt a dime on it

Seeing as its going now i wont either, was tempted to get land once, now uh...no thanks

don`t you love it!.............well.............. welcome to the new second life where we are all = nomatter if we pay and those doing the bitching are not

..while your rudness is merely obnoxious.

lol!

You still refuse to wear shoes?

Are you that ignorant that you think just because you pay for your premium account that somehow makes you a more valuable subscriber to LL? Or that I dont pay to LL in any fashion just as you do with your monthly 9.95? I pay easily 10 times that a month when I sell the lindens I make from my business to them. So your little rationalization of saying I dont pay just because I dont have a premium account is completly unfounded. So you're welcome to try another approach oh high and mighty premium account holder. Also, you might try playing another online game other than SL because the way it works with all games is the input of all the subscibers, not just a few, is what the devs pay attention to. Its always been that way and always will be, and the only thing Im bitching about is elitists like you and your misinformed attitude.

I cant say as i just register to play this game and cant even login as there is Crash problem....how can you charge pple to play a game that is so unstable, ever play Wow or FFXI or any MMORPG?? Never faced so many bugs and thing to be fixed?? of course it's open source and it's free for all on imagination and creation but as a customer i dont care the reason why it's not working as if it's a software or hardware or sux programmers. I pay to play and so far i'm not satisfy with the service i have.

You pay/ you cant play??? wtf and here is the problem

QUOTE:
Dimity Ramaty: I'm trying to log into SL on a laptop, which is updated and should be able to handle SL. I can login, but as the mar moves to the right to download my clothes, or the window pops up about Streaming music, SL just shuts down, not even logging out. I don't even get an option to send Crash Report the next time i start SL.

Anyone have any tips?

-----

I got the exact same problem but on my PC!!! ANYONE HELP!!!

I just register with this Second life thing but cant even know what it looks like as i cant figured out how to solve this problem and after sending 5 tickets by phone and 4 emails, i still wait for answers as i cant get a hold of someone to help me on this either!!!

Anyone having this same problem but with a solution so that i dont pay montly fees for a useless game that cant even start by itself without crashing my PC! are we back in the windows 3.1 time ??? never saw an online game with so many bugs report and problems daily!

You will probalby ask if my PC can run the game? the answers is hell yeah and why would i be able to plays WOW or FFXI but not that SL thing?? i dont get it but please help me out!!!

Seem like one needs to insult to get attention well.....nevermind with this reply...have a nice day

The Grid Monkeys are people too, I get just a upset and pissedoff as the rest. But can I do about it........Well Either stop playing or deal with curent conditions....Well I still here right?
Sooner of later The Grid Monkeys will get it right.WHEN? who really knows. I swear at this game countless times to myself. The growth with is not even real as many say is causing all sort of problems. If there is a game beyond 2007 who really knows. But as long as there is a second life. There will be problems, issues, etc...Just like Real Life.

That price breakdown someone posted for how much a sim costs shows just how ignorant some of you complainers are. There is much more that goes into running a server than just buying a piece of hardware, sticking it in your bedroom, and turning it on.

Your monthly land tier fees cover the following additional hidden services for your server:

- Internet connection (possibly 10 megabits per server)
- Networking interconnect equipment (switches, routers, cabling)
- Air conditioning (cooling on hot summer days)
- Fire detection and active suppression (halon)
- Backup battery/generator power (when the lights go out)
- Colocation support: 24x7 staff on site to help deal with problems within one hour
- Hardware for the central database farm (to support all the sims)

I would bet that the monthly tier fees either just BARELY cover all this other stuff in addition to the purchase cost of the server itself, or probably don't cover it all. For LL to be profitable, those tier fees might actually have to go even higher than they are already.


Then after 3-4 years the warranty on the server you bought is going to expire. If LL wants to continue to have their simulators supported by the manufacturer they are going to HAVE to replace your server with a new one with a new hardware warranty. I dare you to try and get an eight-year hardware warranty on a $20,000 server from Dell. They will not do it.

So every couple years, EVERY sim server has to be replaced. That is at least another $5000 for a new server with all new parts inside, which LL so far is not expecting you to pay up-front. But someone has to pay it. If there at 3500 sims and about four to a server, that is 875 servers. So every 3-4 years LL needs to spend $4,375,000 to keep the hardware fresh, and this refresh cycle never ends.


The people making most of the money in this venture are the hardware manufacturers and the support/networking/protection vendors.

Sorta makes you wonder how I can rent a dual Xeon dedicated server with 500Gb of bandwidth plus all the features you list, which has to be upgraded and maintained in just the same fashion for about the same money, doesn't it?

I guess I must have got lucky and found a non-profit organisation?

One that I've been with for four years now? Already had one major hardware update? Impressive reliability? A support system that gets back to me within 30mins 24/7 on the rare occasions it's required? NO downtime so far, even during the hardware upgrade?

So what's your point? That has nothing to do with SL's current instabilities. Their servers likely do a helluva lot more than yours do.

O'yeah, Linden isn't making money here. They run the game because they feel charitable and love mankind. Plzzzzz!!!!

Now, if you want to help them out then by all means, go ahead and send them extra dollars.

The last statement I'd heard said they still weren't profitable, nor have they ever been.

That's venture capital for you: they have money to spend while revenues are less than the costs of operation. When I was paying attention, the rule of thumb was that one in ten tech ventures yield returns to the investors, the remainder are cash pits.

You are being extremely short-sighted, and appear to have no idea what the real costs are to fully design, build, support, and operate that sim you are paying monthly fees to use.

Does this dual-Xeon server you are renting for about the same price as an SL sim also include the cost of paying for a staff of 100 or so highly skilled programmers and technical professionals to design and build a completely new and custom software for your server?

Ooops, I guess not.

You're paying for much more than the hardware. You're also helping to pay for the salaries, facilities, hardware, and support services of the employees of Linden Lab. But I guess all that should be thrown in for free with your sim, right?

.

What? he runs a sl style company? Oh well Nevermind...........Must love the forums peoples views at times..Sigh