Employment Opportunities

HTML rendering isn't required, although it would be nice.

Being able to output data to format that users can keep in their inventory, view online and then optionally download is needed. And the Notecard system could probably be extended to allow this with minimal implimentation effort by Linden Labs. However they have categorically stated that they will not do this, because it would put too high a load on their asset servers.

This to me is bit of an interesting response, because either A) it indicates that the asset system is not robust thus making SL a platform that *should not* be developed on due to stability reasons, and/or B) they have not explored options of having a form of Notecard that is stored locally on the client and then just a reference stored on the server (this reference would allow it to show in your inventory no matter where you were, but if you were at a machine that did not have a local copy it would indicate "offline" and possibly indicate a reference to which local client machine it was stored on)

The second option, (B), is not so much of a hinderance, because you could always have the in-game object that generated the notecard, just generate a new one for you if your at another client.

Bussinesses survived for many many years w/o fancy reports, using simple mono-spaced fonts and well thought out plain ascii reports. Although I work in education, rather then "corporate america" -- I still find plain text reports are generally not only easier to read, but more informative... Although graphs would be nice, generating them in SL even w/ HTML support would be problematic (unless we were allowed to do client side plug-ins and scripting.)

That'd be cool. Hmmm... set up a scripted atachment that senses the appearance of new non-physical prims near me. Have it kick off an animation overrider on my sleeping avatar that makes me wave my hands like Mandrake the Magician feeling up a giant stripper and targets them with the orbital anvil launcher... and if they were on my land teleported them home on collision...
Apparently. Pity.

I've hired a "Sales Slave". She gets copies of what I make, and a stack of no-copy/transfer items, if if she sells them gets a25% commission. She gets lots of nice things she can't afford, and I get 75% or sales that I probably would not have had at all.

The problem is permissions and zero accountability; I obviously can't give her copy/trans versions of anything, and I just have to trust she reports sales accurately.

The other huge problems is groups; they are crippled and near-useless. I cant have someone manage my store unless I can also trust them not to steal the entire shop; the all/nothing permissions on land is a nightmare, and the lack of script functions for groups is horrible.

hi all - I am brand new to the game - just been spending the last couple of days in the sandbox messing around - hard to learn but very satisfying to build - I am happy

I am fortunate in that I have enough coding and 3d modelling experience to happily tinker away and maybe in the future I'll be able to make a few L$ from it.

For the unskilled to make money you need to

A. Make the job fun or they wont work
B. have the job contribute to the economy

The best way I can see to do this is create jobs in the oldest and most exciting industry in the world (no not THAT one)

HUNTING!!

Whenever you play an FPS game you are hunting - whether you know it or not - and by cracky its a helluva lot of fun.

All that is required is to make the hunting worthwhile - some ideas might be bounties on creatures that are killed or exotic prims or textures to use in other items.

With the greatest respect to the economic longbrains in these threads - all the theory and financial jiggery pokery in the world means nothing unless the basics are in place.

1. go out and kill stuff
2. use the stuff you get from the kill
3. go out and kill more stuff

Not all of us were born builders but every one of us is a born hunter

I've not spent enough time in the game to expound on the practical elements of this particular theory but I reckon if you are going to model life on a computer - start at the beginning.

(*awaits flames from people a lot smarter than I am*)

Grab a cool looking object someone else built, and go on a hunt for people who may be interested in having one for themselves. If they are, they buy, and you get a part of the profit from the original seller (after you have agreed on this with the seller of course). And this could be flying/driving around in something really cool looking, or just trying to ensnare people by coyly playing a really cool and addictive looking game near some other group of people. You have fun hunting for people and content, and showing off other people's content, other people are exposed to SL's possibilities, and you could pick up some $L in the process. Yeah, I'm describing a sales job, but it can still be fun.

I see second life as having the best qualities of two types of games/simulations or whatever hat you want to put on them. The lack of a defined goal gives SL the same potential as a good role playing sim. Back in another lifetime, I used to RP quite a bit, and the best campaigns were those with a more or less open set of goals. Good players are quite adept at making their own goals if given the oppportunity. Unfortunatly, SL does not yet have all the tools in place for players to do just that, there are too many competing interests. Theme based sims just cost too much for the average player, and from what I've seen, its hard to create certain aspects that would add to various ideas i've seen thrown about.

As far as the detailed analysis, absolutely! LL should release more data. One of the marks of a good game/sim with longevity is the desire of players to do detailed analysis. If anybody here ever played Stars!, you'll know exactly what I meant. That was a small game (it fit on one floppy) played by email. Graphics were horrible, but the depth was fantasitic. There were literally hundreds upon hundreds of user based fan sites analyizing the game. While the code itself was never released, the underlying numbers for each module was, affectionalty known as "The guts of XXX." Stars! was not the only successful game that resulted in player based analysis, virtually every successful game I've seen had that, in fact, you can still find 20+ year old analysis and strategy articles on games that were first released in the 70s and 80s. The desire of SL residents to do the same for SL is proof enough to me that SL has the potential to succeed.

OMG, you are not suggesting we hunt furries? Some of my best friends are critters. But if its for the good of the game, I'm willing to make the sacrifice .

True - but speaking for myself I reckon it would be more fun to slay the seven footed garglebeast of thragg armed only with your trusty toothpick +1. The pelt of this dreaded creature can then be sold to a builder who creates clothing from this material (perhaps using the toes of the jeweled squeaker bird as buttons).

Ok so its a bit of a simplistic example but one that works well in other games which have a stable-ish economy - In EVE online you can go hunting pirates for bounty and loot which can be used in the construction of other items - in addition mining rare ores in EVE online can be a difficult and dangerous profession due to pirates etc.

in other words danger + reward = fun for most people

if you can make the rewards tradeable within SL then I would say you have the beginnings of a properly grounded market economy.

Then again mebbe I am just a rocketship builder with ideas above her station

In that case, go bug an av named Tiger Crossing to make something like that in SL. He is of the Bethesda Softworks variety who did that whole Morrowind Elderscrolls and Oblivion thing. He's also a fur, so maybe you can hunt him a little as well.
Alkthough now that I remember it, SL does have DarkLife, or whatever it's called, where players slay monsters, collect money, use it to buy weapons, and even sell that money for $L. A MMORPG game within MMOG game.



Um... yarrr....? *tears*




Reading "danger + reward = fun" immediately made me thing of business and trading for some reason. It's the danger that the idea I have will fall through, but a reward of having a few extra $L, which makes some of the things I enjoy in SL fun.

lol I guess its horses for courses - that basic equation can be applied to almost any SL job you can think of I reckon - even the pizza maker job.

Example pizza maker job game.

1. create pizza maker toy (select base - add toppings etc etc.)
2. create the pizza maker game - random orders coming in all the time to keep the player busy and they have a time limit in which to make them - however if a real paying SL resident comes in then they will want their pizza made as fast as possible .If the pizza is late or wrong they will lose out on pay (danger) - if its made quickly and correctly then perhaps the player will get a bonus (reward)

hmmmm have I defeated my own initial argument about hunting here? lol

I guess I picked hunting as it is a profession that is immediately accessible to everyone - and especially those who are FPS fans

They also have furry hunting going on in Lusk all the time (at Luskwood, specifically), but I think you need an alt for it. Ask Michi Lumin about it.

p.s. it doesn't earn you any $L.