Simple economy fix - LL, are you listening?

Stop people being able to cash out L$ into real money, but allow people to buy L$ via Lindex.

Allow people to use L$ - at a fixed rate - to pay tier fees or buy sims.

Leave stipends alone.

Have it in place by the end of April. That is all. Everyone's probelems are solved except a few individuals who we could probably well do without anyway.

Lewis

why would people need to buy L$ if they have no content to buy?

If they kill stipends, then nobody will create content for fun or to give away because they have to sell stuff to survive; but nobody will have any money to buy it.

Just think how much money LL is losing a month by people cashing out their game money, which may simply be the difference between profitable (desireable) and not profitable (current situation).

Save the game - kill off the capitalists.

Lewis

lewis i've agreed with you up to this point but then linden labs is controlling L value and it just becomes mundane with no real fluxation. An example of this is like IGE for an instance basically used in the popular mmorpgs. The economy fluxuates which is good without that its just taking away an interesting bit!

think of how much they make from people like me that use it to pay tier, if i couldn't pay my tier by cashing L$ i'd downgrade to basic and just make things for myself. so would a large number of other content creators. and thats good in what way?

how is LL losing money? their tiers are being paid either by L spent in game from other players which are paid for at a profit to LL they get a cut of sales from Lindex they arnt actually losing anything. You are right that the problem isnt stipends but there isnt a real simple solution without screwing things up that make SL appealing!

The game IS boring because so many people concentrate on the economic aspect - which I don't even believe should exist as it does - rather than having fun and doing stuff 'just because they can'.

Lewis

Already covered that by saying that, at a fixed L$ - $1 rate, people could pay their tier by L$.

Lewis

fact of the matter is if people cant sell L its still dictated by LL. Focusing on the economic part of the game is a part of what SL is as a whole for some people. Your idea only works to Pay tier. There are people that make profit off SL or use it as a secondary job. I've met disabled people in game that use SL to make some income because they cant really work in r/l. Now is your system fair to the people that want profit? plus LL loses alot more money in this situation then they currently do in restrospect having people leaving - having less people cashing out (which they get a cut of the sale of). Eventually most of these "solutions" hurt the economy in a way it wont restabalize without changing it back. They are temporary and dont provide any kind of way to keep any structure in SL over the long term!

that wouldn't earn LL any money.

You're right about the simple bit.

Yet we have a so-called 'expert', who so far has provided nothing of any substance, deciding exactly what "solutions" are best without any substantial input from the community whatsoever.

Who cares about long term? SL isn't financially viable in its current state thanks to all the freeloaders on basic accounts and campers chewing up bandwidth that I am paying for, yet suffer the lag caused by it. I give it two years and SL will be dead unless LL wake up, put down the 'herbal cigarettes', and start acting like a business instead of a hippy commune.

Lewis

For people to buy L$ on the Lindex, other people have to be able to "cash out" by selling L$.

LL makes money on every Lindex transaction incidentally.

Please explain to me how LL is making a loss (on the Lindex as is). The Lindex is a pretty profitable business. With current overturn they should make 700US$ to 900US$ a day just on their 3.5% fee. Additionally most people will be using their US$ to pay for tier or to buy up the new sims on auction. Those cashing out real US$ as a profit are those that provide the content that keeps people intrested and that gets them to buy up the L$ on the Lindex.

What problem would you want to solve with this anyway?

No reason to use names etc. and sure campers chew up bandwidth but in what context are freeloads on basic accounts a problem 50L a week is worth pretty much jack and 500L for those that dont do much isnt putting a ding in the economy. They arnt the ones hurting things and i think people need to realize it. There is more to the L falling in value then people know and without and i agree with you here Substance or proof i dont believe a theory coming from someone else. I have no real Substance but i do have experience in game as far as what i see and have been thru. Frankly i feel the basic accounts if anything Help SL. Its the greedy people that want quick satisfaction that are the problem. Have you noticed any trend alot of the people saying get rid of such and such or change things are bigger names in SL or have been here awhile. I ask myself why? it seems pointless when they are controlling the L more then the basic players or those that dont have alot. Just sell L at a higher value and things will get back to normal. As far as SL not being financially viable thats not true the game itself is. LL itself on the other hand may be struggling i will believe. But then again alot of the gaming industry has been in the current year so far =/. Atari stock dropped to .69 usd and they got rid of 20% of their workforce world wide. Articles in paper prove my point and the fact of the matter that the whole industry is a little off doesnt help anything. Things will eventually stabalize in SL if the "PEOPLE" WANT them to.

Ya rite.

1) how do you think you can stop people from trading L$ for real money ? I'll happily show you how inane any plan you come up with is.

2) This is money I make from my own work. It's not yours nor LL's to decide what to do with it, only mine.

3) LL isn't losing any money when I sell L$.

4) I've been reinvesting every $ I made from selling L$ in SL by buying private islands. If I couldn't have done so, I would have been toying around with Croquet or shooting droids in Vendetta Online or making more planes and UFOs in X-Plane. SL wouldn't have animated animals at this point, there would be a few less private islands in the virtual ocean, and SL would thus be slightly less worth playing. Get a grip on reality, kthxbye.



I have to add that people thinking just like you have ruined my country and my future there. SL has been the light of hope for me. You take it from me, I'll track you down.

LL is not profitable as it is, it's been stated officially in an interview (its another thread in this forum).

Do you honestly know that 'most people' cover their game costs with cashing out - or would it be, as I suspect, most actually simply make a profit and keep it, without putting it back into game.

What problem would I solve? Well for one it would stop people treating a game as a cash cow, which damages everyone else, secondly LL wouldn't be paying out thousands a week to people cashing out.

I would love to get my hands on LL's accounts and see exactly how much money they get in from SL, as opposed to how much they are spending out through Lindex. But I would guess that kind of information is kept very secret, as it doesn't do business good for potential investors to realise that the projected figures are actually a load of bunkum.

Lewis

How the hell can you, with a straight face, imply that LL is entitled to the money SL residents make in SL ?! Get run over by a bus please.

Easily, make it a bannable offense, and if caught doing so, you get banned. Not rocket science.



LL can decide that you can't cash it out and there's nothing you can do about it.



By turning non existant currency (L$) into real cash ($) they are paying you, therefore losing money.



I tend to think I'm far more in reality than you, considering I treat SL as entertainment rather than an income. Do animated animals really make a great difference to the overall gameplay? Not mine in the slightest to be honest. Private islands? If the mainland was managed properly then there wouldn't be the need for people to 'escape' to private islands anyway.



I'll ignore reporting your threat at this occasion and simply state the fact that whatever happens in your real life is obviously clouding your judgement in game. I haven't got a clue what your country is, neither do I particularly care. Track me down if you wish, I'm in the UK. You have a one in 65 million chance of finding me. Perhaps you should use your money in improving your own lifestyle - or getting a therapist - instead of wasting it on a pointless flight to make a 'point' which isnt yours to make.

Simple truth of the matter is this. Don't attack me for making a suggestion that you don't like. LL will make their decisions regardless of what you or I may think.

Lewis

Alternatively: Do away with L$ altogether. Everyones problems are solved except the capitalists who are only interested in SL for its economy who we could probably well do without anyway.

Stop being silly.

A posts 900K L$ on the Lindex at a rate of 300
B buys it for 3000 US$ and gives his money to LL
LL pockets 105 US$ fee
A gets a netto of 2895US$

LL never puts in their own US$. You always need somebody outside LL who buys the L$ and hence LL always makes a profit on the transaction. In essence the L$ rate is of no importance to LL within the scope of the Lindex as long as the volume on the Lindex rises faster than the decline of the L$. LL's profit is based on the balance between volume and rate. Ideally the L$ would gain and the volume would grow but you can't have it all.

As there are no goals in game, except money, and gaming the popularity lists, bring on some new goals and opportunities, and I think you may well be right as a good way to improve it.

Just need LL to stop marketing the game with their lies of making thousands of dollars a year, and concentrate on some of the fun things that can be done instead.

Lewis

You know how the Lindex works right? That residents are buying it from other residents, therefore LL is not paying you. And you know they take a percentage off each sale, so they are making money off of transactions?

So... if:

a) the rate is unimportant to LL, why are they trying to mess with it?

b) If 'ideally' volume of L$ would gain, why are they considering removing stipends to stop it growing?

Lewis

And you're gonna catch people doing that just HOW ? If you answer "check donations of L$ inworld" I'll just bring to your attention that it's fairly easy to make sales of inworld content directly in US$. Thus your point is moot from the go.


And in this sentence, "they" refers to ... a resident, not LL. Thanks for playing, you lose.


I consider SL to be the greatest form of entertainment I've yet to find. I wish I could continue making fun content for SL all my life, and I've started investing more and more of my time for that purpose. The day I can sustain it will be a boon to me, and I believe also to the hundreds of people who have IMed me back with "I love your animated animals ! Most fun I had in SL this month !". Your suggestion that SL should just seize the real-money value of all L$ is communist. The exact same method has been put to use in my country a couple decades ago. Since then people have been fleeing the country faster than at anytime in history, and we're now quickly dropping behind every other european country. We're about on par with Slovenia regarding people's poverty level thanks to people thinking just like you being voted in office by other morons thinking just like you as well. That's why I think I have every reason to be pissed off when you suggest doing to SL the same that has happened here.