In a nutshell...

You've been warned folks -- don't be too good at what you do or you'll find yourself in the unenviable position of being forced to compete with the host.

Personally, I think LL should give credit where credit is due and BUY the best from whomever built it, then implement it as they like. Everyone would win in that scenario, and it seems much fairer than this outcome... which, frankly, is borderline theft of IP.... especially since the EULA makes explicit allowance for residents to hold their IP.

Meh. Not like I'm in the crosshairs on this one, but let's just say I've lost some respect for LL today. They can gloss it over however they like, but knee-capping established businesses in an environment they are touting AS being friendly TO business just doesn't wash.

I guess I still don't get what all the hubbub is about.

The Lindens are giving folks selling on GOM direct access to the interface, in the client. The amount of people exposed to currency exchange is going to explode. I doubt tenfold like what Philip is hoping for, but a significant amount of people WILL start buying currency because of this.

I'm guessing that if people want to really "cash out", they're going to have to go with GOM anyways, because I doubt that the lindens will have the ability, coordination, and bank account to cut checks like crazy every week. Instead they'll probably institute an "account credit" system, because it doesn't cost anyone money.

Other than that, GOM can diversify their business by adding more value: data, charts, guides, community pages, and so on. The folks that want the hard data (like me) will probably stay, especially if they remain the way to get money OUT of SL, rather than keeping money inside the system.

Again, I guess I don't get it. Every major update to the game has put SOMEBODY out of business, or at the least, severely obsolete. Remember furniture before custom animations?

Yeah, I live next to a shop that still sells them. They ain't doing much business.

Remember the "video stores" before streaming video?

I don't see that many "Matrix Scene" "televisions" like I used to.

Streaming audio killed the in-world looping record (splicing together 10-second clips to make a song).

Clothed skirts absolutely demolished the prim-skirt business (for a time, anyway... they seem to be making a slight comeback)

And so forth.

Havok 2, when fully implemented, will ruin the current crop of vehicles. The new rendering engine will render obsolete the concept of skyboxes.

And so on and so on, towards the golden path.

Prediction: More people will use this new feature than are complaining about it.

LF

[omitted quote]

I'm hoping Havok 2 will and the rendering engine really will improve things.

Granted, I'd still have a skybox, I'd just now be able to make it giant billboard as well.

for quite a time now i've put forward my perception thatr SL is more in an advanced state of Beta testing than a final product.. of course, if things go "right", SL will NEVER be a finished product.

this isn't a reaon to not do well at what you do, but to be wary of the future. you're new product today, may be altered as a new LL feature. not that it's necessarily a bad thing, this is what they mean when they talk about the "ghrowing pains" of a new culture.. a new country.. heck, a new world!

i agree that it would be great to see GOM get a bigger piece of this pie, but i also believe they'll be just fine.. it could even equalize out down the line to be good for GOM's business.

This is SL, we don't have "pause" here.

Just to clarify -- I don't buy Lindens, so this really doesn't effect me. But the notion of LL 'nationalizing' your hard work sets a very bad precedent. Just remember, you heard it here first. (shrug)

Whee! Another thread about the same thing. Yay!

I don't believe you guys still believe that Santa Claus is going to pop out of the Easter Bunny's hat and integrate the Havok 2 engine. Y'all crack me up. Maybe we'll see useful group code revisions in 1.8 too. ROFSHOFKFAWLUATW!

"Havok 2 is Godot"

Very sensible, Lordfly - how about hotlining that to Philip?

Everything points to letting most anyone 'cashout' Which is a big mistake as far as I can see.

For example:

I'm with LF on this. As with every change in the game, some people just find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this case, anyone owning a currency exchange or actively buying/selling L$ as their business will be affected. To everyone else, this is of amazingly huge benefit.

I think we should all understand that the nature of SL is change, and it's not wise -- or reasonable -- to depend on our favourite features staying the same forever and ever. I'm sorry that the GOM guys may lose out on this, but the game is evolving. SLers need to evolve with it. We don't even know yet if the LL currency exchange will put GOM out of business. GOM may have features that LL won't offer.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this new feature works out. Let's not go mental every time LL brings in a new feature.

At least blaze didn't start this one.

Yup.

sniffs the air....starting to smell a whole lot like There.com.

*Cat wipes her shoe on the Welcome mat and goes for a long walk.

Let's hope if you're ever 'in the wrong place at the wrong time', you have the sense to remember these words. Somehow I doubt you would be as blasse' were it biplanes and an airport coming to residents to make teleportation or travel easier.

Since it seems most are still missing my point, I'll try one last time to make it --

It isn't about the money. It is about saying you're going to let the world evolve as it will then stepping in and basically stealing the ideas that arise, pulling the rug from under those who spent the time and effort to make them work, and generally making it clear that no business effort within SL is safe from having it happen to them without any recourse at all.

If you still don't get it, I can only say I hope you're never in the position where you have the chance to learn first-hand.

Let's face it; anything player-run and operated won't last forever. Indeed, the GOM co-founder recently gave up earlier today. Dozens, if not hundreds, of products are permanently orphaned as people quit/left/get banned, in-world. Services run by other people are shaky, prone to downtime, and may change/be dropped without warning (witness SLBlogger.com, a great idea, brought down by a spam attack or somesuch; currently it's a 404 page, and Adam has no time to bring it back up to fruition).

Anything player-run is a temporary thing. The fact that GOM has been running for so long is commendable, indeed enviable, but is a rarity in our ever-changing world. GOM could have folded yesterday, today, tomorrow, or next week, but if it went under, suddenly the economy is devoid of a basic, indeed vital, public service.

Considering it's seen by many as extremely vital to the economic well-being of our fragile virtual society, it makes sense that it would be eventually brought under the "government's" wing, at least in a rudimentary fashion.

Furthermore, I'm willing to bet that LLabs' implementation will fall far short of what GOM offers.

LF

edit -- also, let's try to not make this a personal witch-hunt, about how Teh Eebil Lindens Labzors are pillaging the women and raping the land in a haphazard, greedy fashion. Yeah, it sucks that GOM feels threatened by the proposed changes. Becoming one of the most vital pieces of economic development in the SL world is a risk they took, and prospered under, for over a year.

There have been releases where a new feature or updated feature breaks one or more of my vehicles. I fixed them, or helped LL track down the bug via bug reports where I can. It's just part of how software works. Often you can't update one thing without the effects rippling outwards and touching things that you thought were updated. I take this as part of creating content in SL: anything I've created could be obsolete next month.

And if LL for some reason decided to create and run their own airport in Second Life based on what I and the other Abbotts crew have created, then great! I'm happy to see SL influenced in that way. I don't expect Abbotts to stay forever.

SL is change. We have to change with it.

Not a change that breaks your product, a change that competes with and places your entire business into an immediately inferior position.

You can keep trying to gloss over the point, but that doesn't mean it goes away.... and it's easy to say you wouldn't mind when you can be fairly certain of it never happening.

Anyway... those who want to 'get it' will and the rest won't. C'est la vie.