Do the Lindens ever help you out?

Me and my friend Cheif Stonehill made a playable hockey rink. I spoke with a few Linden's about getting it into Rizzal. I think it was Lee that said he would bring it up. The only response we got was 3 weeks later Colin telling us to remove the advertisements from the rink or he would remove them for us. (We had adds for Pepsi, McDonalds, Visa, Subway to make it look more real... We are changing them to something else right now though).

So my question to everyone is, have the Lindens ever gone out of their way to help you out? I don't mean in terms of abuse reports or sorting out issues, I mean, have they ever been on tour, seen your build and said "that is someone that would attract more people into SL, can we sponsor that project?"

Just wondering.

Lee said hi to me when i started. that was nice.

Yes. I'm on two linden sponsored projects right now. I could be in three, but I realized LSL wasnt sufficiently powerful for the third with or without the lindens' help.

Generally speaking the Lindens don't sponsor resident projects. If they did then there would be cries of favoritism and it would create more trouble than it's worth. They do however start projects that they enlist residents to work on or manage.

As for your signs... they don't want to be sued. Trademarked logos from big companies like coke or mcdonald's are always removed when they crop up. Don't take it personally.

Sorry Chip I think people are actually encouraged to make games for Rizal. The man has a point there.

I know Eggy Saw a post about it somewhere recently. I was just clarifying a bit. Your post made it sound like the lindens sometimes arbitrarily decide to fund or support people which they don't really do... just trying to keep those pesky worms in their can. How it works for getting things in Rizal, I haven't a clue.

Lindens are busy people. And not all lindens are equal heh.

Liasons (sp) are work at home GMs more or less and have the last name linden.

All the developers also have linden accounts.

So sometimes its a matter of finding the right linden to talk to. Also, as I said first, they are busy. One mention to one linden really isn't sufficient. Posting on the boards can help, and finding the right linden can help.

Lee is probably my favourite Linden. He's great

How did you get them to sponsor your projects Eggy? I knew about the casino. What were the other projects?

I don't think favortism would enter the picture because they would be sponsoring projects that would help bring more people to SL, more money to Linden Labs etc...

The first step for McDonalds if they wanted to take legal action, would be sending the Lindens a letter asking them to remove the signs. But it's the Lindens prerogative. We took down the signs right away.

wouldn't the first step be for a McDonalds lawyer to be a player?

There have already been problems when some people mistakenly thought the themed communities were getting subsidised by the Lindens.



I think they'd rather not be getting letters from anyone's lawyers and so are taking the better safe than sorry approach (no doubt based on the advice of their own lawyers) The signs for your rink are a cool idea though so why not sell ad space to actual SL businesses or make up parody ones?

But the Lindens DO decide to support user projects now and then. Me and Christopher Omega were once coding a way cool game that had to use all sorts of nasty tricks to fit in the memory restrictions of LSL scripts but I came to the conclusion that even though we could get around the memory restrictions the latency of LSL commands would never let us run it fast enough to be enjoyable. I asked a certain Linden if he would like to take a look at our project, and one of the things that Linden said was that there would probably be a few Lindens interested in helping out with it.
I get free land taxes for the disco, pirate cotton gets free land taxes for our DarkLife project, its not like its that big a deal. The lindens will claim up to 1/4th of a themed sim to keep the theme from dying, and they have been known to keep around a few user builds like Yamato for instance, and dont forget that Governor's Mansion was built by Steller back in Alpha and has been supported by the Lindens ever since Beta started AFAIK.
With regards to favoritism, well that can be a problem if you run into idiots, but idiots have no place in SL and so they eventually get kicked out or tired of not fitting in, which means they are pleasantly scarce around here.
Jack, I suggest that you first get your game more or less working, possibly even hold some gaming events there, and then talk to the lindens about it again.

Regarding the ads in the hockey rink, I think the common solution is to replace the ads with parody ads: Popsi, McDougals, etc.

Once the game is working, you can always use ads for actual SL businesses.

I stand corrected eggy

If you look in the inventory of the big white screen at Dore 4, there's a really cool parody of the Coca Cola logo with a Linden slant.

Also you should put actual SL businesses on there.


Maybe instead of using Canadian hockey teams, you could use SL region teams?

Tonight, it's the Slate Lumberjacks vs. the Jessie Spartans! Who will win in this clash of the titans?

I will, because I brought a cruise missile!

First, I want to say the hockey rink ROCKS and you let me live out a life-long fantasy - driving the Zamboni!!!! Although I'd like it a lot better if one of the team choices was Redwings - and if the Redwings always won! <grin>

Okay, that said, YES, I've had several Lindens go out of their way to help me out with projects, but not in ways you might expect. The help they've given me couldn't be mistaken in any way for favoritism because the project itself is unique, and primarily involves their providing information that I can pass on to "first life" funding sources for a "second life" project. (Sorry if that's cryptic, it's just a very long story!) However, even in this case, they have gone out of their way not to do anything in game that could smack of playing favorites.

Personally, I think they all have read too much Ayn Rynd.

Bhodi

There's no such thing as too much Ayn Rand

Chip, thanks for not making a big deal out of my typo!

I accept personal responsibility for that typo.

I, too, may well have read too much Ayn Rand! (Although I do think you have a moral obligation to toss a drowing man a life preserver, even if it means you have to walk a few steps out of your way...)

I'm always constantly bouncing my thoughts and ideas off several of the Lindens - especially Michael Linden - and they have always been helpful to some degree, depending on how much thought or research my question involves.
I've been thinking about the whole rink wall advertising situation, and whereas in one way you could look at it as free advertising/product placement for Visa, Pepsi, et c (which Nike and one or two other companies are apparently already doing in THERE) - so you could conceiveably contact the individual companies and they'd no doubt be perfectly delighted to allow you to use their trademarked symbols on your rink - I would have to figure that a). those symbols are being used in strictly controlled circumstances in there.com, and b). the companies involved are definitely paying in some manner for the privelege of doing so. If Linden Lab allowed their free use in SL they would lose control of a very lucrative source of revenue for the company and investors. I'm getting a little worried about the upcoming political season and dreading the vision of SL being plastered with posters for any candidate - who are all about equally contemptible in my view.

Before 1.1 and Lee would send out event cards...instead of asking him to send me card....I would hit him with a joke....Lee is dry as toast....I wanna squeeze his wittle cheeks....but man.....he is gonna laugh....I have made it my lifes work now........sad isnt it


Dave Linden...loven ya baby...

Jeff sexy av, NOVA THE GREAT....my favorite Lindens

and Lee.....just wanna squeeeeeeze his wittle cheeks...



hugs
jojo

Yes, actually, several Lindens have gone out of their way to help me. I think LL has some of the best support staff in the on-line gaming world.

First off, they're very careful about being fair, which is good, if you ask for something that's an unfair advantage they can't do it. Secondly as mentioned earlier, you need the right Linden for the job, but pretty much any Linden can help you get in contact with the right Linden. Third, they're diplomatic, if you say something like "I have a incredibly demanding script and memory intensive 15 player game, and I'd like to put it in the sim with all the other games" (for example) they might say something like "we'll look in to it".

I always find the Lindens helpfull, and they have always taken the time to listen to me IW.

The Lindens are definatly help out a lot. Nobody can agrue that. Just wondering how often projects got sponsored. I also wonder if Phil is asking the Lindens to be proactive in regards to finding projects that enhance SL.

Taxes can cover the 'nesting' portion of the game quite well but to be in a project that uses a lot of land & prims you have to invest a lot of time to make enough money. So I gave up on my home and just started working on projects. Having a home in Teal was fun. It was hard decision but I think I'll have more fun this way.

I lack the skills, dedication and short term memory to host events The rink is playable but it's never been tested with more than 4 people. If someone wants me to show them how to referee a game send me an IM in world. Anyone can use it to host events. Same goes for the Mini Putt hover above that only has 3 holes so far.

You may want to check out this annoucement about tax-free land for team experiences.

Ummm... Jack... McDonalds, and all that shit you had are against trademark laws, unless you have a written agreement from those companies stating that you can have them in-game. I doubt LL would wanna pay millions of dollars for your incoherant inconsiderate screw up.

The DarkLife project has been getting Linden help for a couple of weeks now. We entered testing phase tonight and so far everyone who has seen it has loved it.

I'll post a full write up tomorrow when it's not 2.30am as well as a call for a few testers

Pirate