Four's Company, Five's a Crowd?

Continuing along the lines of "The Metaverse or the Fetaverse" thread on this Sunday morning, I'd like to invite you all to think about what happened while you were all sleeping.

Four companies took over four key functions of our "game" or "world" or "thingie" without anyone much complaining.

In the real world, certain tycoons and companies took over the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. Sometimes in life, you need a strong, leadership personality who puts enormous resources, time, talent, and treasure into an enterprise or an endeavour. Sometimes he cuts corners or even commits outright crime. Later, he might found a hospital or opera company to mitigate that impression. These are natural world phenomena, and our world is not excempt from them.

o One company, Nexcom has taken over the cell phone market. If you think you didn't need a cell phone in a game where you can pick up and send an IM at any moment, not only did you fail to realize how sexy you're going to look with some gear on your belt, you're failing to realize the potential for harvesting and harbouring all the convos in the game (I won't be buying a cell phone but you can use the Linden-made IM to reach me.)

o Another company, Snapzilla, runs all the screenshots taken in the game, some of which are taken out to be shown by the Lindens. (I use this service but I remain critical of the related website's forums and editorial policies).

o A third company, GIGAS/secondserver.net, with a sales website, a mall, and a real estate empire already under their belt, now have headed to run the Blog-o-Verse and organize all the SL-related blogs (my blog won't be joining them and will remain independent).

o A fourth company Slexchange.com is the leader on the Internet -- inworld exchange of goods. I'm well aware that secondserver.net and slboutique.com and possibly others constitute competition to them but since they are the biggest (or so it seems) I'm going to include them in our discussion of monopolists. I use Slexchange.com and I'm happy with it though it's not without its problems.

Thus handily, without so much as a whimper and barely a protest, four large companies made up of older players with concentrated wealth, some of which they obtained by living under idyllic past days with free 4096s, etc., have created monopolies over some of the most basic functions of the game -- having a convo, taking a screenshot, buying a product from the Internet, and blogging about SL.

THESE AREN'T JUST MONOPOLIES OVER OUR LITTLE GAME, THESE ARE POTENTIAL MONOPOLIES OVER THE METAVERSE, AND THE CONSTITUTE THEY CREATION OF THE FETAVERSE.

In part, some of the freedom from monopolies might come from these titans competing with each other -- GIGAS might start adding a picture upload system to their Blog-o-Verse (which is what I call an attempt to put a monopolist blogging function at the source of the Metaverse, SL).

Did anybody else notice this? Did anybody else care? Does it matter?

Its a metaverse, ie free market.

Do what you want do what you can as long as its ok with others.

I fail to see your point.

So? So start your own company that offers any or all of the above mentioned products and/or services with your own spin on it.

People will buy and use the best service/product offered at the best price, especially when packaged with the best customer service and support.

No one is stopping you from doing such. No one is stopping anybody from doing such.

*prepares to hear rant about how it would be too hard to accomplish*

So? Those people had to work "too hard" to get where they are now. Wah.

My only response to this is ALL YOUR SNAPSHOT ARE BELONG TO US!

I must LIBORATE MY SHOTZEZ

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:



Exhibit C:

Sounds like a completely optional service with free built in competition. As we all know, free competition means it is impossible to make money at it.


If you don't like them use Flickr a service completely unaffiliated with SL (minus of course the Second Life Group). Flickr even accepts the email snapshot postcards. I see your blog is hosted on TypePad, which I believe Epitaxial worked on to get it to accept the snapshot postcards as well.


Another 'monopoly' with viable alternatives, it sounds like.


Competition.. which all offer a different set of features. I use secondserver.net because they were willing to work with me so I could integrate it into my personal sales database. Sounds like good competition there.


MMm cheese.


No, no, and no. You did a good job of providing competition to all your supposed monopolies.

Don't bother replying, I still have you on ignore. I'm only allowed to reply to you to correct blatant lies and mistruths.

What you say?!?!?

<Having no chance to survive, Logan makes his time...>

Yes, Cristiano said it all, ALL YOUR SNAPSHOTZ ARE BELONG TO US.



1. When four companies band together with Linden endorsements and perks, I"m thinking it's going to be pretty hard to stop. I'm not noticing anyone else coming and competing. Anyone could, of course, but they won't get a) the Linden endorsement/perk/franchise b) the market share.

As for rants about "hard to accomplish," you've come to the wrong doorstep. It's precisely my assessment of the land market that prompted me to come in and create a low-cost alternative to high-priced mall rents and high-cost land purchases -- my rentals company. So I work very hard at that, as do other smaller land and rentals companies like mine who are diversifying the monopolized land market.

Kudos to Nexcom, Snapzilla, GIGAS/secondserver, and Slexchange! Anybody that has followed the progress of these companies know how much time, effort, and commitment they have poured into their projects. You are an inspiration for us all.

This is not a monopoly Prok. A company that has reasonable competition is not a monopoly BY DEFINITION. It's like saying... oh... GM has a monopoly on cars... But Ford, Toyota, whatever, those are out there too.



Lets say I decide to sell left handed fleems. I happen to be the only one who has ever decided to sell left-handed fleems. In that sense I currently have a "monopoly" on the market.

But that doesn't mean nobody else can make left handed fleems. It just means I thought of it first, or was the first person to provide a good version of them.

Whats the problem here? Are you saying innovation should be stiffled because it creats a monopoly when new things are first created?




Yes, no, no.

You obviously don't get the reference if you felt the need to add in an extra Z to my quote. Whatever What would be those perks again, Prokofy? Let's see - I've spent nearly $10,000 USD of my own money so far on Snapzilla between hosting, bandwidth, and development costs, and it is a free service. There are several other photo sites, including Bel Muse's gallery site that predated mine and hosted SL snapshots.

If you think it was all so easy, then do it yourself, please - knock yourself out. Before you claim "oh your site benefitted from LL putting snapshots on the home page" - those have been there for approximately a month, and Snapzilla had 8,000 snapshots in it at the time or redesign - after two full months in operation. In other words, it has gained 4,000 snapshots in a month - or the same amount it did with or without it being on the front page.

It is easy for you to stand and criticize, but honestly, what stands in the way of anyone else doing the same thing as all of the companies you have listed? Not a thing - but I know, that fact doesn't help your rants, so you will ignore it.

prok, what about anshe's and your own projects in sl ?

There are many people in SL willing to work hard to do somthing. In SL your work is reworded in many diffrent ways.

Next your going to be telling me that the Lusk crew are going to be taking over the avatar world and that IGE and GOM are going to drive every one ito the ground

Prokofy,

Why did you leave out ANSHECHUNG.COM? It is the defacto land business site, and the 800 lb gorilla of the market.

Nope. Looks like you'll have to shoulder the burden all by yourself!

Talk about an anti-business attitude!

Thank God for capitalism, free markets and the Internet enabling collective power of people. Thank God, SL have great entrepreneurs who invest and make money and thank God SL also empowers individuals with the tools and imagination to create.

It seems to me that the author of this thread is both against the capitalistic and free markets as well as the collective and disruptive power of individuals:

/120/16/49898/1.html

If SL was true Metaverse, I am sure he would then complain why we have Snow Crash infecting minds of hackers Sorry but you are no Hiro Protagonist here !

Just a quick note to say I use none of the above, and have no need to. So slightly curious as to how the listing of the companies given can place a stranglehold on those markets, or SL in general.

I don't use vendors; I don't sell anything period. I have asked one or two others to look at vendors for their products, but the list I give also included two or three others that are purely in-world (like Moopf's) because they're simpler. Just a matter of what you really need.

Pics? I don't take snaps much either, and what I do take is not shared (to SL residents) anyway. Nothing against Cris (Snapzilla is neat), I just already have a paid account with Photobucket, and is for private use with the Uru Shard forum I normally affiliate with. And of course I'm going to use the paid service since I paid for it.

I also think Nexcom is a neat idea, but there is no way to have a truly private conversation in-world. Therefore if I feel it needs to really be that private I'll ask it to be via email or elsewhere, but not inworld. Semi-private conversations for me are just best via IM, or normal 'say' but somewhere remote.

Prok, as others have mentioned you're strangely silent regarding land in general (and I have nothing against anyone regarding that either - including you). Just curious, since your list covers very wide aspects of the SL 'businesses' you mention in the other thread. [Disclaimer here, I do rent, but only one island owner had - and still has - the closest privacy layout to what I wanted at the time.]

I know a lot of people who use none of these services, perhaps don't even know they exist, and their enjoyment and or participation in SL is in no way hampered or lessened. Snapzilla is the only one of the mentioned features that I have myself found useful at all, but I rarely use it. For someone who is supposedly pro-business to be attacking successful player designed and run businesses is a bit much. I will have to try talking from both sides of my ass, sometime, and see what comes out.

No, I'm not silent about land, because land has been discussed ad nauseum in a million other threads. There is already at least 3 threads bashing my business right now regarding the 10 percent bonus and tier donation, so go and read those if you feel the need for a venue to discuss me, my business, or the land business in general.

Let me explain how these four monopolists I've chosen for discussion (and any one is welcome to correct the list as they like) differ from the land business.

The land business is open to all who wish to bid on the open land auction the Lindens have set up. You use server-side technology as it is called in the lingo-laden tekkie world, i.e. the Lindens run the tools. To break into these other businesses, however, you have to set up your own servers, and compete against other third-party servers.

Unlike RL, where telecom licenses and television licenses and other types of "public good" and "public airways" and "common carriers" types of goods/services are made available by license or auction, in SL, they were just GRABBED. Just like RUSSIA. I find that fascinating, don't you? Grabbed, when the state decided to make them grabbable, after first helping themselves a good heap LOL.

In the land business, if I want to get into it, I just pay the prices on the auction. I have to outbid the barons on their skinny margins or just be awake on a Saturday morning when a choice telehub is thrown out and they're asleep, or whatever. I can come in, and sell land, and reach any player in the game who has money and a hand and mouse to right-click on my land and buy it. It's utterly democratic, even being dominated, because in princple, anybody could come in if they just have the will and the money.

But when people have already sewn up all the communications lines and links and services, that's much, much, MUCH harder to break into. If every creator already has SLEX to use, why will they bother with someone else? The little black box is already in their store, linking their objects. Some might use smaller competitors, but won't have much incentive for the trouble.

If all the blogs are easily controlled by one giant Blog-o-Verse, why bother to go outside those heavily beaten pathways and establish your own blog, not linked up and entwined with all the other FIC blogs?

Who is going to bother to start ANOTHER cell phone company in a context where the market is literally and figuratively saturated?

Cristiano, I feel you pain, having spent $10,000 on this hunk of pet rock. Do I know what that's like? I do. What's the difference for you? You are positioning yourself forever and anon at the birth of the metaverse, ensuring that everyone will have to deal with you to get their snaps shown. Other businesses might like to use other types of tecnology but who in their right mind would attempt to break into a market already monopolized by one company, with huge investments AND the Linden partnership? They'd be nuts.

And would the Lindens crack open that relationship and make room for *one more* snapshot company that also wants to put snapshots up on the Lindens website to help sell the game and themselves? Well, unlikely. You can understand them, they're not going to want to look at that headache.

Try to get over your own little sense of personal indignation at seeing your company named, try to get over your own little sense of "gotcha" that I'm not raising the land business here (because there are tons of other threads where you can go do that) and see that this is a problem FOR OUR WORLD JUST AS IT WAS IN THE REAL WORLD.

A blatant lie. I have been selling left handed fleems since beta.
You will be hearing from my attorney.

David, I'm pro-business, but unlike the rest of the soi-disant "pro-business" crowd I'm pro-business not just for my business, and not just for my friend's and crony's business, but everyone's business. That's a liberal democracy with a capitalist system, not an oligarchy, which is what we have now in SL.

Batiushka, what a nice sleight of hand to take a critique of monopolies, which cripple small business and a healthy business climate, and turn it around and call it "anti-business". ROFL.

Ah, so because someone doesn't try to compete against SLExchange, or Nexcom, or my site, or any other business, it's the fault of the business? Please. All of the arguments you have raised could be raised about Anshe in the land business, yet you are right, there is competition because people have tried. Your arguments are quite weak really - they boil down to "they have been a success, so nobody else can because of it!". As usual, put up or shut up.

I didn't position myself anywhere, I created a site where none existed before it. The same that SLExchange did. I know it pisses you off when anything exists before you arrive to the party, but get over yourself, honestly. Someone could create a competitor to Snapzilla if they wanted to, there is nothing stopping them but the artificial barriers you made up. As usual, much ado about absolutely nothing.

One more thing about this. Once the SL postcard UI is modified to include a checkbox indicating whether or not you want your image to be public on the site, all snapshots going out of SL will go thorugh the front page, not just images to my site - so that kind of shoots a hole in your impotent theory.

Thank you for saying you don't know about which you speak.