Were you surprised GOM announced its closing?

I'm wondering what percentage of residents were surprised, too.

<------- not surprised

Wait for the poll, fewl! ;^p

i should have known!

I think it was inevitable and judging from some of the comments by the GOM crew it appeared the exchange wasn't a viable entity.

Just a bit surprised by the speed

Not surprised from what has beeen going on. I made sure I sold most of my L$ and I am relieved because those who don't read the forums will get the email and their panicked sale before Sunday's closing is bound to the push the L$ even lower. Sad news indeed.

I'm COMPLETELY suprised. They went from about 1500-2000 trades a day up to around 4000 trades a day in the past few weeks. The $L may have been low, but certainly they were profiting from all those extra trades? Either I'm wrong about that or they're closing to screw the economy in a huge way before LL starts doing currency exchange, or they're sick of the abuse and don't want to think about it anymore.

They pioneered the way things are done around here, they can do whatever pleases them. But I'll admit I'm a little bit worried here... I liked having a little extra cash.

"I don't like you anymore. I'm going home and taking my toys with me."

Nope. As I said on a thread about GOM when LL announced the trading mechanism (which still feels remarkably wooly!): "GOM's dead baby, GOM's dead". I think Eggy might remember that as he posted a really funny little skit after it (if I remember rightly)

And Eggy, I don't blame them for taking their toys home with them. It was the only power they had - screw the market for a while and put pressure on LL by closing quickly before their trading market (what-ever-it-is) is released. I'd probably of done exactly the same in their situation to be honest. After all, it's purely business now.

Precisely. More drama from GOM...

Moopf, what eggzactly does GOM have to gain from this?
The proper attitude IMHO would have been to produce a positive statement with lots of hype about all the new features they are going to add and how they welcome the competition and are sure they will continue to be able to produce a much more enjoyable trading experience for everyone. Stuff like that

They don't have anything to gain, but weren't really gaining anything anyway in the first place, so....nothing to lose my doing this and it's a last two-fingered salute to LL. When LL gets it's foot in the door, GOM knew things were going to be even more difficult, and I'm sure it felt like they were kind of being stabbed in the back a little by LL, so what's left for them to do? The only thing possible. Pull out before LL has established their trading market. Biggest impact causing the biggest fuss for LL and stretching them to get this trading doo-dad up and running.

Yup, I'd of looked at the situation and done the same. Call it throwing the toys out if you like, I call it exercising your last act as a business that knows it's not got long left anyway, so may as well make life a little bit more difficult for those who've caused the situation. I mean, what possible incentive do they have to make things easier for LL?

The GOM beast destroying the town's treasury has to be the BEST MMORPG EVENT EVER!

hahaha, that's good

Precisely Eggy.

Reading between the lines of the interactions between LL and GOM it was my interpretation ( and only my interpretation I'm not saying this is fact ) that some were maybe being a little too greedy. LL's response ( it seemed to me ) was to offer less each time GOM asked for more. Given the attitude of it's creators and their supporters, GOM's closure was inevitable although surprisingly sudden. I have no sympathy for GOM, but plenty for all the people they're screwing by playing the spoilt little boys game. If I was in any position to give any advice I would say hold on to your Lindens, wait until LL get their exchange up and running. Which I guess will be soon now !

I didn't know "spite" was a valid business administration tactic

I think they've finally took one look at their operations, decided it wasn't viable and have re-evaluated their positions and are going to look at the other opportunities that may have better returns and piece of mind then SL.

If they had decided to shut up shop earlier then I would have seen it as an escalation of their negotiations with LL. A way of bringing about concessions and a compromise from LL. But they didn't.

I probably would have done that if I was in a similar position. If you're backs too the wall in an negotiation, then its an armageddon option to try and get back control on the negotiating table.

Oh! You mean behave like a business faced with a newly competitive environment? Now there's a novel idea...

You really think that? I mean, really? Look around. A lot of business is done through spite.

If it was a competitor, outside of LL, then yes I'd agree with your statement. But when LL is basically setting up an equivalent "matching/trading" service to GOM, side-stepping GOM, cutting the GOM step out and making the GOM model kind of redundant, then that's more than a competitor. You're not going to compete with LL, it's kind of that simple, as LL own the system. So in this case, no I don't agree with your statement.

Nothing last forever. Someday we will all be flying thru the metaverse talking about the days we use to play in the platform SL.

I was not really surprised by the announcement. Mainly due to the threads I've been reading by those running GOM, the Lindens, and of course the customers. I just kinda had a feeling they would close.

I would have thought they would wait till after the Linden system was in place. Not so much out of obligation to their customers, but just because of the way the Linden system sounds like it is going to be set up. Which sounds basically like GOM type places are still going to be needed. That a business like GOM would just work *through* the Linden implemented interface.

But who knows. I could be way off. And as business people, GOM had to make their own decisions based on their own perceived risks. I'm sure it was not a 100% easy choice to make.

I'm not going to worry though. I'm sure we will be fine and our economy will thrive again. I'll take a wait and see approach as usual.

No, they have proven to fold under pressure before. When their lemonade stand gets kicked, they take their ball and go home. The only amazing thing is that they have lasted this long. The closing, the notice, the timeline, just fit right in with their continual lack of professionalism.

Actually Moopf, the way they have handled themselves publicly, and the closing announcement are exactly why LL had to step in, to protect the rest of their customers from the whims of 2.

"The way they have handled themselves publicly" is why LL has to do this? Colour me confused on that. I've always found them very easy to approach, very quick to sort out problems, very pro-active in dealing with fraud and, unlike the other "large" one, very much members of the community. They're pissed now, for sure. And I don't blame them for being so. But to say they act on "whims" or, in your preceeding post, have been largely unprofessional in running GOM I cannot see.