Why do people obsess with $$$?

After reading yet *another* "Oh my, those MMOrs are cashing out their funny money for US$" stories linked from Terra Nova, I'm thinking -

- Why is it money is the only thing the media seems to dwell on with MMOs?

I mean, even the Relay for Life stories ... all were more of "OMG they raised $5600!" more than "Wow they got people all over the world to help."

Like, is it so unbelievable that people are making money off virtual worlds? Is that more sensational and newsworthy than any other topics of SL?

I want to hear your thoughts.

well, in my opinion, the media in general caters to the lowest common denominator and since we are in an era (at least in the USA) of phoney prudishness they can't talk about sex (which would really get more people here I'm sure hehe!!) so money is the topic as it is a common thing, wow you mean i can sit on my fat lazy ass and make money playing a game wow!

It's funny, when I think a lot about money, I lose it. (Mostly gambling.)

When I don't worry and just have fun, money gets tossed my way.

Seems to be some pretty weird inverse psychology there.

I don't find much about online worlds to be "revolutionary"—I just view it as natural things I've wanted to experience for a long time. Happy as I am it's coming true, I can see how some people might think it crazy. My mindset is an eccentric one... if peeps can make L$$$ here, grrreat, but I know more flavors to Second life than that. Especially nice is when money can be tied into other topics... like the lack of it thereof! MUHAHAHA.

hehe Torley! don't people make special stuff in sl for ya for free? (not that you're not worth it!)

Hehehe, yes, but I still buy stuff that's recolorable. And too often, I find myself insisting to friends, "You shouldn't have given that to me for free! ARGHHH!"

ah, run with it, your graciousness and critiques on the things you get in your blog are worth far more than mere $L!

Usually people PAY for entertainment software...

TANSTAAFL*

*There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Money makes the world go 'round,
The world go 'round,
The world go 'round...



P2

Umm... just a wild guess here, but maybe because it is a major thrust of Second Life® marketing?

from the mass media's perspective

boring: non-profit do-gooders, educational advances, sociological impact, global community, yada yada yada

news worthy: sex, money and celebrities (we only have the first two to offer)

Anyone sick of their L$ can forward them to this shallow individual. All proceeds will contribute towards the 'get Hiro drunk in a nightclub to the point he thinks he can dance fund'.

It's much more of an amalgam than a revolution, a progression rather, to a more complete, open-path, rediculous existance that I loathe... I woulding trade it for the world.

And yes, I am guilty of giving things to Tor *just* to see them melonized

I don't think it's necessarily an obsession with money. I think it's a hook for understanding that SL is something different.

My first thought on reading the question was to think of the old CNN Headlines Hotwired video interview -- which I can't find the link for at the moment (not the CNN interview currently on the homepage) --

Here's this guy -- educated, intelligent, and informed -- asking a string of questions so clueless that Phil looks like he's trying not to chortle aloud while listening to a naive child's first attempt at adult vocabulary.
The interviewer sounds like my mother:

"So this is one of those online multiplayer video games where people contest against one another, and if they have a special strength or skill, they can hoard it and sell it on eBay?"

I'm not very articulate when trying to explain something like a proto-metaverse to people whose usual context for understanding is what they hear about video games and Yahoo Chat on Fox news -- which is to say, most people I know.

It's only when I mention things like commerce, Katrina relief, and the memorial for the London bombings that they get an inkling of SL being perhaps closer to a colonial society than to a Dungeons & Dragons chatroom where people exchange cheats on the sly.

My Ph.D mother doesn't understand the difference between SL and the Combat Flight Simulator Webring. Running a business and making real money which can be donated to charity or pay the dry cleaning bill is a distinguishing feature she can understand.

ok Hiro - I will double my rent for a month to see you dance lol.

Alexa

The McMedia have a thirst to sensationalize the ordinary. These are the same people who bring us the wind chill factor and the heat index. Even simple concepts like the temperature aren't good enough, they have to hype it and make it seem even colder or even hotter.

The McNews is trying to sell hand lotion, floor wax, tampons, sports cars, airline tickets, etc. So they need to make sure that every word they utter is of interest to every single person. They can't risk even one person out there turning the channel.

They figure everybody is interested in money. There might be a member of the audience who doesn't care that you can terraform imaginary land. So that subject is off limits.

Maybe other aspects of SL will be noticed by some wide-eyed beginner-reporter doing the funny human interest segment for some local TV station in a small city in case there aren't any rapes, murders or dumpste fires to hype. Don't hold your breath waiting for it on McCNN.

Buster

Hey that's a great way to word it.

Thanx again for the goggles!

I'd submit that the $$$ obsession is in many case an alibi actually? A rationalization to justify spending a lot of time online fleeing from reality, or even, a lie you tell your RL significant other while spending time with online pixel partners.

So, while the $$$ makes for nice media coverage and will be the subject of respectable conversations... it doesn't start to describe what attracts SLers to the virtual world: a mixture of entertainment, freeform creativity, relationships, ego building and (cough) casual sex.

But it is hard to describe that with a 10'' snippet on the 6 o'clock news