Best Interest of Player's Versus Businesses

This is several problems in one. one, Telehubs are a less than satisfactory solution to transportation. P2P is the correct course. LL should choose P2P for the good of SL as a whole, as well as most players. But a problem LL and a few players created was to create a premium market for Telehub land. So LL doesn't want to upset "numba one customa" and maybe a few others, so they keep telehubs, at the expense of SL an almost every other customer. Bad decision on LL's part, as usual. If they feel loyalty to one customer who bet on Telehubs, even though that person had a lot of forewarning to divest in that land, they should have made the right decision for SL and the community, and given that favorite customer some extra land to keep that person happy.

But they didn't. Poor judgment. Totally predictable.

LL rarely misses a chance at shooting themselves in the foot.

Just like the economy. They could fix it quite easily, but that would entail a decision to stop screwing it up. At best they don't seem to know, at all, what they are doing. By removing land from the L$ economy, it is exactly as if they had dumped a huge volume of L$ into the SL economy. Most land transactions are probably outside of the L$ economy now. Removing half of the transactions from an economy overnight is like printing twice the money and handing it out overnight. That's a technique one country would do to another as an act of war - flood another country with perfect counterfeit money to destroy their economy. Maybe LL really don't understand how that works. If that is the case, then Philip and crew are not bright people. Either that, or they knew what they were doing to the SL economy but really didn't care. For how they treated GOM, and the SL community in many matters, suggests that "don't care about anyone" could also be the problem.

As for Linden Labs, their profit mongering is out of control.

if you think that people do not benefit each other from trading.

I'm trying to figure out if it will actually hurt others or not

What are you talking about removing land from the market though? Last I checked, we still were in the unlimited supply of land mode. The price of land in $US has stayed about the same. In order for this to happen at the current $L price, the price in $L has to increase. We have had problems with the amount of currency dumped into circulation, but where have you seen land removed? Even if a third party sells land outside of SL, it still part of the land market. It is the same way that GOM, IGE, SLExchange, etc. work on the same market.

Linden Labs was not cruel with GOM. The only thing GOM had to offer them was employees, experience, and an interface. The idea of an open market exchange that allows GOM to function is common knowledge. Linden Labs gave GOM an offer...

When a commodity, in this case land, is not traded for a currency, L$ in this case, that commodity is no longer a part of the market of that currency. Products that are traded in US$ are a part of the US$ economy, not the L$ economy. It's almost like the land in SL no longer exists. To the SL economy, it does not exist.

Say you have an economy with five widgets, five m2 of land, and ten L$ of currency. Those ten items are going to even out to be worth those ten L$. If you double the supply of L$, now you have twenty L$ going after the same ten items, and eventually the price of those ten item is going to equal the twenty L$ available to spend for them.

Now if you take the land out of that, so you just have five widgets but you still have ten L$, those five widgets are going to become worth about ten L$ due to supply and demand. The widgets aren't really worth more because they represent all of the value. The L$ are worth less. That is what happened when LL and a few others took land out of the SL/L$ economy by not accepting L$ as a valid currency of trade of those items. A perfect way to create runaway inflation. It's like President Bush ere to just declare that all real estate transactions in the US will be traded in German Marks. A move like that would only make sense if the US$ was being given up on as it had no value.

Of course, by deficit spending with no intention of ever paying it back, Bush is setting up that scenario, but that's another discussion.


As for LL making a valid offer for GOM, from what I had read, LL offered GOM no cash, just stock. The problem with stock is that it is only valuable if there is a buyer for it. If you can't find a buyer for the stock, it's toilet paper. How much are a bunch of aging computers under questionable management worth to anyone but LL? Not much. Almost nothing.

Postulates:
1. The best interest of the individual player is the most important thing in Second Life period.
2. The best interest of the business entity is not necessarily the best interest of the individual player.
3. The best interest of the business entity is usually not in the best interest of the individual player.


All business entities (profiteers) must understand that their whole cause is to make money. The only thing important to a profiteer is profit. Not the best interest of the individual. Nothing. Profit and only profit is in the best interest of the profiteer.

I myself am a profiteer in this game, and can understand this simple concept.
It appears that many profiteers that play SL delude themselves into thinking the best interest of their business in any way shape or form coincides with the best interest of Second Life. It does not. Never delude yourself into thinking so.

If a profiteer in believes in any way that their business is in any way relevant to the betterment of Second Life, they are SERIOUSLY deluding themselves. Again, all profiteers need to understand that your business is for your betterment/profit, and only for your profit.

The only thing that is really important to the Second Life is the individual player.

I never take profiteers seriously when they complain that such and such is causing them to lose business, and Linden Labs needs to do something about it. They may hate me for professing this, but in all honesty, it is completely irrelevant period whether or not profiteers loose money. Whether they go out of business or suffer because for whatever reason is, and should be totally irrelevant to Second Life.

Profiteers are in Second Life as part of the Second Life. But their businesses and profiteering is not the responsibility of Second Life. If they feel they can profit off of something, more power to them. If not, then do something else. It is in no way whatsoever anybody’s responsibility to ensure that profiteers in SL prosper. If they expect the community to support them, they do not understand who they are and what their place is.

Any feature that is beneficial to the individual is an improvement of Second Life. The effects of various business entities should never be taken into consideration when discussing the improvement of Second Life. Any improvement of Second Life as a whole should be 100% absolutely and utterly focused on the individual and only the individual.

Profiteers may come and go. Their profiteering is purely their privilege, and nobody’s responsibility.

Example:
I do not know about GOM’s feelings about Linden Labs implementing the currency exchange platform into Second Life. Second Life wants to implement currency exchange so that players can trade Lindens for Dollars within the game.
1. In doing so, Linden Labs will have usurped GOMs entire market (all of their customers).
2. GOM will go out of business because of this. (This is irrelevant.)

The relevant question is this: Will the individual benefit from such interface? I would say that the individual player of Second Life would totally benefit from having an interface within the game to exchange currencies with other players.


It is no doubt that Linden Labs saw the profit potential in currency exchange which they might not have foreseen had not GOM taken all the risks, and built up their business. Therefore, it is only natural that Linden Labs would want to cash in on it themselves.

The question is, does GOM have any right to this market? Does GOM deserve anything?
If anybody thinks so, they are seriously deluding themselves. If I were in GOMs shoes, I would most certainly be upset that I will lose my entire business that I built up. But I would never in my sane mind delude myself into thinking that this is unfair or that I deserve anything.

Remember: The only thing any profiteer deserves is whatever profit they are taking. Or “making” if you want to call it that. Nothing more. Nobody is responsible for compensating me for my loss because of new features that will benefit the individual. Such attitude is warped.

Regardless of the affect on profiteers, if it is a feature that will benefit the individual, it is an improvement to Second Life. By all means such feature should not be denied out of regard for any profiteer.

Anybody making profit from this game needs to stop looking at themselves as some sort of benefactor that deserves anything. Every one of us profit takers are beneficiaries of Second Life. We take profit as it comes, and if it does not come, we need to adjust. It is not unfair to us when we lose profit. Most importantly, by all means do not go as far as to deny what you know will benefit the individual, and therefore Second Life. All for the sake of your profit.

If you want to deny features that will hurt your business, know that you are doing so because it is in your best interest of profit to do so. Not because you are under some deluded impression that you deserve anything.

I cannot stress how important it is, when discussing improvements to Second Life, to put the individual before any business including Linden Labs itself.

eh, no profiteer, less new content, less happy individual players. no individual player, no ability to earn profit, no profiteers. see how that works? can't we all just get along?

and btw, i guess most people would consider me a profiteer, but i'm also an individual player who enjoys doing many of the things the world has to offer. so does that make me count twice as much, or by half? or do i not count at all because i'm not deeming any one person more or less important than the rest?

eh, i prefer not to count at all...i'm cool w/ that.

No it's not. It's plain and simple fact.


I guess I didn't explain it clearly. You as a business entity are different from you as a player.
Businesses do play a function. Nobody ever deneid that. Sure as long as there is incentive for businesses to make new content, they will do so. It doesn't matter.

What is in the best interest of SL does not equal what is the best interest of the businesses. I've given many clear examples why this is so. And this is so regardless of whatever function businesses play in the community. Busineses are an independent aspect of the community. Businesses are not the community.

No it's not. It's plain and simple fact.


I guess I didn't explain it clearly. You as a business entity are different from you as a player.
Businesses do play a function. Nobody ever deneid that. Sure as long as there is incentive for businesses to make new content, they will do so. It doesn't matter.

What is in the best interest of SL does not equal what is the best interest of the businesses. I've given many clear examples why this is so. And this is so regardless of whatever function businesses play in the community. Busineses are an independent aspect of the community. Businesses are not the community.