King Philip Initiates Pro-Active Economic Action To Combat Growing Inflation. Yay!

I can't wait for posts from new citizens oh say 3 - 4 months from now when they find out how fat on the tit we all used to be

That will be true for me. Apparently the "being removed after six months" thing wasn't happening.

coco

P.S. How fat on the tit SOME of you used to be. By the time I joined, ratings were too expensive for me to play that game anyway.

Yes, that has not changed.

Anyone with a couple of thousand dollars laying around?
We could buy cheap lindens right now, and CASH in a month or 2.
I only want 40% of the profit.

Torley - you can come stay at my castle anytime! We can't have you living out of dumpsters!

Please, tell me that I'm not the only person who thinks that Torley Torgeson is a hedgehog. I don't know why, but it sounds like a hedgehog.

Phil knows a good thing when he sees it. First he had people paying real money for fake property. Now he will have people spending real money to buy monopoly script.
So much for the statement that Linden Lab does not and will never trade in currency.
Per a statement made Phil in a town hall when they cut the pay for events. (not the exact quote but pretty damm close)

We have land barons is currency barons next?

Rox

Personal opinion: It makes the current ratings system completely worthless, which is another money sink down the drain. SL needs a lot more viable ways of removing money from the system, not just slowing its intake. A full glass that now has a trickle dripping into it instead of a full faucet is still an overflowing glass.



Highly doubtful. With gas prices expected to hit $4 a gallon soon due to Katrina (Link) and other rising costs, I think there will definitely be less discrecionary spending, which means less people coming into SL willing to spend a lot of money on the game.

At the same time, I know more than my fair share of people who are basic and plan to stay that way, simply due to their personal economic standing, so that takes them out of the money game. Without what little they were getting through the ratings system, that will definitely put forth a stronger view of the haves and have nots.

Personally, I think the L$ will rise in value, but I also think there will be less people to buy it as well. Doesn't bother me either way.

Nope. We'll have a Mature version of There.

This does bother me. Go to town flaming and yelling at me if you must but I play second life for fun. Working in a game is not fun so I don't want to work. I've gone from well over $1000 a week in stipends because of ratings to what will now be $500. My occupation in SL is consumer. I am all for leveling the playing field for newbies but come on...pretty soon they'll be taking away the stipends so everyone has no choice but to either create content or get a SL job. Aren't we allowed to just have fun, buy stuff and party???? IT'S A GAME (to me anyway...don't want to start up this debate again) Take away the rating bonuses but for crying out loud...put some more into our weekly stipends!!!!!! LL, are you moving in the direction that all members are going to have to create content or are we still going to be allowed to just socialize and go shopping?



Comments like this make me angry because I don't see SL as some part time job. It's a game where I can shop the way I can't in RL because I have (had) much more money in SL than I do in RL. It's fantasy for me and having to earn a living in SL is not fun. I already spend more than enough on this game monthly to where I should not have to buy more $L to have fun. I create, and build but I do it for myself. I do not want to deal with unhappy customers and people giving me suggestions on how to make my creations better.

I see this as some LL ploy to make their new feature very popular because people will want to buy more $L and will do so in game rather than through other means. Why on earth should I pay $50 + a month to play a game and then have to pay even more to get any enjoyment out of it???

Oh do you find that laughable? Perhaps you should be reading some other threads that popped up today. Some about secret meetings, and such who say they will speak for you, but are better than you or me.

If the sky is falling it would be someone at LL making that sucker fall. Or perhaphs they just tripped over the cables to the servers again and unplugged the grid. History could repeat it's self ya just never know As for you who don't know yes that realy happened.

Cat

After carrying his banner around for umm, I dunno a year or more, Kitty is excited that he'll soon get a new banner (dunno what yet, maybe anti-porn, or anti-earthworms, or pro-midgets).

Anyway, we set about creating a counter. I'm sure you'll be as excited to count the seconds as we are! Free to copy! Full mod so you can peer at my scripting prowess (and flame away, but I blame kitty for any inaccuracies or mucked up routines).

Don't Delay! Supply is limited to the first 3 trillion or so customers.

Viva!

Amen to that totally

I've not seen anyone raise this question, but as there are no "consumables" in SL, perhaps the reason for the slow decline in L$ valuation over the last 5 months or so has a lot to do with the population growth slowing and everybody having already bought everything they can use.

This is not an uncommon phenomenon in many businesses. Sure the idealized economic models show the demand curve heading off to infinity, but that does not obtain in the real world. SecondLife is a game with "selective market appeal" meaning that it may have attracted most of the folks who would be interested in it. Linden Lab's push into foreign markets seems to indicate that they too believe they've reached saturation in the English/American speaking market.

The demand curve of SL is weird in other ways. Because the asset server if coughing up blood at present, you've got a situation where the more units you sell, the lower the perceived utility because of performance degredation. This is the exact opposite of the network effect that fueled faxes and e-mail - that is, the more people had a fax the more valuable yours became.

Should inflation be curbed, well, if LL wants to continue to use their "play SL, get rich" marketing approach it needs to. Will staunching the money supply help? Probably in the short term, but how many airplanes, dresses, hairdoos, etc. can a finite populace buy before their "bellies" are full?

Perhaps 'twould be better for LL to introduce planned obselecence where instead of the asset server randomly discarding inventory, it auto-deletes everything older than 3 months, that should keep the economy spinning.

I've thought some more on this and found something else quite laughable. "and the rich get richer" Examine it for a moment. If this "fighting inflation" trend continues as I suspect, the stipends are history very soon too. I predict half of the social nation will leave enmasse exodus. The rest of the socialites who stay maybe half of them will buy Linden. The rest will just be social. Shopping will drop off and the rich get POORER. Just my opinion and probably won't happen but my shit stirring stick was dry this morning. Discuss and YMMV

LMAO! precious

I think that was very likely the underlying concern of the un-FIC FIC Star Chamber meeting held yesterday with Philip.

Babylon be burnin', baby.

And thus is the end of the SL welfare and a out of wack rating system. No longer will the loophole of rating circles have any effect on the economy. Ratings have historically had very little to do with what they were designated for, as is indicated by the building ratings of some whom claim content building is a "sweatshop" thing, self professing they don't build anything yet have larger building ratings than most content producers I know. If these ratings typically had any legitimate meaning behind them, I would somewhat agree with those whom cry out about this change. But as has been shown time and time again, the rating system did not work; it has no indication besides people's resourcefulness of getting others to rate them. Since the system is broken, getting rid of the financial support makes sense. Perhaps those reliant upon it could spend their energies they did on rate mining onto something more globally beneficial. Host events, perform services, get a job for <x> company, or god forbid, start sweating and build.

For those whom choose not to find alternative ways to make money, that is their choice - It does not cost L$ to play. No one is forcing anyone to buy the content. Like in RL, SL is full of choices - I can make more money and buy more stuff, or I can buy $L and buy more stuff, or I can do neither, but hey, I will have less stuff. That makes sense. Why should people be able to buy hoards if they are unwilling to work for it?

BECAUSE IT'S A GAME AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!!!! I'm not saying the rating system isn't flawed and should be done away with, but I think our stipends should be raised. It doesn't cost L$ to play but it does cost real money to play and when people don't feel they are able to gt their money's worth out of it they will leave. I can guarantee if they do away with stipends completely (which I think is the direction this is heading) I will be gone. Like I said above, I do build, I do create things, but I do it for me. I don't want the criticizm of my creations that is so abundant in SL, I don't want to deal with unhappy customers. I however do not have the scripting skills of some and therefore buy a lot. I also do not have the photoshop skills nor the time to spend learning it that some do so I buy a lot. As a full time teacher, part time grad. student, soon to be Mom, SL is a place for me to relax, have fun, and shop the way I want to shop in RL. The ratings will soon have no meaning for me anyway because since people don't really rate anymore my ratings will be gone because of the 6 month rule. If I'm so unhappy with my decrease in salary why don't I leave? Well because I have made good friends in SL and will only leave if I have to, but I have to say since I can only shop they way I used to about once every 2 or 3 months due to my stipend decreasing I am a lot less frequently in world.

One more thing...if you are someone who works in SL, and creates content, and provides services....thank you! however it is a choice you made and not an obligation of all, and shouldn't be an obligation of SL membership!

Oooh.

There may be a hedgehog version who hasn't appeared inworld yet, another one of my alts within an avatar. Evangeline Suavage specializes in this type of thing. Hrmmm...

There was a bunny though!

because they are doing the things that make them rich.

If I wasnt lazy I could be rich too. But Im not interested in devoting countless hours designing clothes, or scripting, running events or whatever the tasks may be. I just like to bum around. hence, my "wealth" is very bum.

I believe you are wrong. I'm no economist, in fact I hate money, dealing with money, spending/investing/thinking/worrying/hording/crying over money. irl that is.

Anywho, I believe you're wrong, in that raising the stipend will not allow the non-merchant SL player to "[be] able to gt(sic) their money's worth...". Raising the stipend, just like rating's free "8.6 million monthly induction of $Lindens" into the economy(if I got that value right, A linden posted (Philip?) what the value was, it's a LOT), anywho I ramble, raising the stipend will inflate the economy just like the (stupid, imho) rating bonuses do. Nothing will change from how it is now, only that more money is injected into the SL economy than ever before (because it would be stipends for ALL, as it is now some of us don't play, never played, and never plan to play the 'ratings game'.

$500/week is a good chunk of cash, for just subscribing to play SL. It's a lot of injected money into the econ, and it's fair across the board, unlike ratings. (I realize some get $50, but that's their subscription choice -- which LL's business model to be incentive to upgrade (thus netting LL more real income.

Again, I'm no economist, but one doesn't have to be one to know that ratings has always been, is, and always will be (until 6 weeks from now anyway, thank God), borked because it's gamed, inflated, and frankly stoopid economics.

Bravo.

Of course one thing to consider with all this free economy crapola; we don't NEED to buy anything in SL. Continue to cut stripends and folks not out to make money in SL will buy less, thus making less money for the god-I-hope-the-L$-goes-up-soon crowd.

In RL, we need food, shelter, transportation, etc. In SL, I need nothing really. I'll never buy another L$. If I can't make enough to buy things within SL, I simply won't buy things within SL. I pay a land tier fee, which is more than enough (and greatly reduced from what it once was).

So the rich may get richer, but maybe only for a while. Then again..maybe not.

Oh..btw..screw ratings. Couldn't care less about them. But folks saying "welfare" , "get busy", "work hard" had best be careful that it doesn't eventually bite them in the ass. Some folks come into SL to escape RL and it's stresses and to have fun. That can certainly be done without L$, but many enjoy shopping, and LL may not want to go too far in taking that enjoyment away.

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Another reason why this move is a good idea.