VendeX

I came across an extremely interesting article in PXP about a new system by Sol Columbia (found here ).

Basically, it adjusts prices in $L according to the current $L --> $USD value. Dazzle and ETD are jumping on the bandwagon already -- I am surprised this has not generated more interest.

What do you guys think? I am considering converting myself. Would it make a difference in the way you felt about shopping?

I have recently bought the JEVN vendor for 2k L so I would have to stick with it for a while. I heard the VendeX isn't a network vendor like JEVN.

I think the situation needs to be clarified - LL deliberately made llHTTPRequest unable to get exchange rate and it seems odd they'd intend it to be gotten through other means. I've asked about this on Answers.

It's a good idea, but it's a shame it has to go through an external server..

I would rather just deal with lindens, its easier to spend ridiclous amounts of money for me, pretending that its just play money.

Ahh, see now I do understand that, it IS easier, and I know i'll be thinking WHOA, I could buy a muffin with this! But then i'll remember my diet and think NONO Gimme the Pixel Goods!

Seriously though, I like the idea and I hope it works out, cos lets face it $L or $US - On a purely personal note, If I wanna buy it, I will.. if it gives me the price in $L, $US, $Monopoly or $pebbles!

I read it in the blog and I was immediatly interested.
Who spits on a game that pays for itself? Anyways, not me. And right now, I do all I can to convert my Lindens into USD$ to be able to continue to afford the 1/4 sim where I live with my best friends... And I could not afford it if I didn't have any sales... and that would make me really sad (blahblah, yknow wot im sayin? lol).

Soooo when I read this I got excited, and thought perhaps I'd use it.
But I have to admit I'd feel somewhat ashamed towards my customers... I don't know.
One part of me thinks it's fair, and another thinks, this poor customer who knows his/her friend got the same item way cheaper a week ago... Not sure mmh.

Wah. Tough one.

As an avid shopper I have to agree with Nylon that I prefer to shop in Lindens. I don't have an issue with adjusting the price with the exchange rate, but I came across one of these vendors yesterday and the item was US$3 and it threw me for a loop. I ended up buying the product (for L$975) but I would rather have not know the US$ rate.

Very useful tool for a vendor concerned with their RL earnings.

Potential cold shower for a would-be customer. Might be cold enough to outweight the gains from up-to-date earnings per-item, but that's hard to say.

Effectively bypasses the L$, since your customer is buying items with USD and L$ is acting just as short-time buffer to allow exchange of good. As such has either zero impact on rate of L$, or negative effect (as L$ has even less purpose than it already had, _and_ it turns L$ inflation into self-fuelling loop to a degree) ... so i find the mentions i've read so far how it's a possible "L$ saviour" ... either a bit naive, or a bit dishonest (as in, one is telling themselves it's for the good of economy to make the switch easier, when it's quite obvious to all involved it's mostly about the tool being good for one's own earnings)

I might have understood wrong, but I don't think this makes you buy in usd?
The seller chooses a usd$ amount but people buy in $L... Am I lost?

This is what I am worried about. $L is obviously play money, but there is a certain freedom in paying for things in $L -- kind of like how people feel more free in costumes (like at Halloween). There's this switch in people's heads -- intellectually, it is the $USD dressed up in a different costume, but emotionally, it's not (it doesn't feel real). Exactly the reason why casinos use chips.

It makes it painfully obvious how much the item is worth in USD, at current L$/USD rate.

Whereas while you're normally shopping, this is a knowledge one is either blissfully unaware of, or manages to mentally block it quite easier.

Ok, yes, that's what I had previously thought...
Well I guess you either assume or not, sad reality.
But like Willow said, no shame, hey, you'd buy it anyways (I know I would).
We are here to have fun, and if shopping is your fun... This should not stop you.
What I see as an image in my head is like "Oh wow, I can't believe I am paying 3usd for THIS" but... you did it yesterday, and the day before, and etc etc.
Being ignorant... Since when is that a cool thing? So basically, it would be like saying "this is wrong because it tells us the truth and we don't wanna know the truth because we are ashamed to pay so many USD$ for PIXELS..." O.o This might be a hardcore way to view it, but well.. It sounds weird to me. Dunno...

I am still splitted but bah...

Thing is, it _does_ stop people quite often. Basic psychology, that... which is, like Lo mentioned, why gambling dens and other places like that try to avoid mentions of real money when possible ^^;;


Yes, precisely. Humans don't like it when the fact they're acting silly is shoved down their throat. You can argue this is silly, but trying to act rational about it isn't going to make sales any better. Because we don't act rational most of time, and shopping bases on this to large degree ^^ ( $1995 instead of $2000, product placement etc)

Aye!! O.o I keep changing my opinion every 3 seconds on this... Now you hit a point...

I guess I better close this thread, and do like with do for USD versus $L, pretend it's not real neither happening, haha! Playing with my brain... Hurts!

Anyways it seemed like a good idea, but I guess game shall remain game.

Yes, I can imagine this becoming amusing in other context.

This evening I saw the profile of a Gorean who was advertising "slaves" for sales: (Person's Name) L$4000, (Person's Name) L$2500, etc. I think that seeing that written as (Person's Name) US$12, (Person's Name) US$7 would not only be not "playing" anymore, it would be borderline offensive (or even way over the borderline in some cases)

I'm currently testing out the VendeX and have pretty much the same reactions to it as everything mentioned here and maybe a few that weren't.

One thing I'd like to note: pricing in USD had the EXACT same effect on me, I started figuring out how much the current USD rate would be if I had say, priced the same item at 75L when the exchange rate was 300:1. I looked at the USD rate and thought "I can't charge THAT for THIS!" and reduced the price a little bit until it felt more comfortable. So, sticker shock aside, you're actually paying less in Lindens for the same thing than you would have 2-3 weeks ago.

I'm lobbying Sol for a display showing BOTH rates, I know I would feel more comfortable with that, but let me ask you this:

How would you respond to merchandise sold using the VendeX, if it displayed the current L$ rate only? (ie. running silently in the background with no mention of USD.)

I tend to think that people wouldn't bat an eyelash, save for the occasional "Why is this 6L cheaper than it was when I bought it last week?" type questions.

Thoughts?

I think it'd come across quite a bit easier if:

a) price was shown in L$ only, like mentioned
b) adjustments were done weekly rather (or even monthly) than on day-by-day basis.

the b) part is probably more important that it might appear.... there's good reasons why very few merchants in RL adjust their prices on the fly, and most of them just settles on fixed price that lasts for long time. Even though technically they are experiencing the same devaluation SL merchants face, and in some countries this happens even at similar rates.

When you have price change once a month, it's easier for your customer to dismiss it as promotion, change in reaction to volume of sales, and whatever really. When you change it daily, it comes across almost like you don't really care about your customer's experience, and all that's important is your fixed profit... now of course this can be very very far from truth, but it's simply how it can feel like, and it's probably not wanted effect. o.O;

re: play money, poker chips and real money

I think there is that fear that people will get "cheap" when they see how much things cost in US$ but I can think of a couple online examples that show where buyers have adapted to regular currency better than we might expect.

Vegas vs Online Poker
Vegas uses chips but online poker uses real money. Most poker sites are doing well and people use real cash amounts to play Hold'em and other games live. One nice thing is that online is still just "clicking" and not holding money in your hand.

Some Games Are Already Using Both Currencies
IMVU the 3D chat client, already displays both the imvu credit price and the US$ price on all items. This hasn't slowed their economy down and buyers are used to seeing both rates. Here is a screen cap.
http://taunt.com/photos/uncategorized/vendex_us_1.jpg

It might be sweet if the VendeX had the option to show L$ or L$ and U$.

woah! my 13th post on 6/6/6 *bites nails*


Twiddler
Taunt.com

That's actually wrong - it displays the US$ equivalent in credits bought from IMVU. However, many of IMVU's content creators are now selling credits and undercutting IMVU's own store, so that figure isn't accurate and I expect most IMVU users ignore it.

Eg: the screenshot above shows 500 credits = US$0.50 but look at http://imvucredits.com/ and you'll see that 500 credits is actually US$0.30. Not much difference but enough for people to ignore the US$ line.

I will buy from a more expensive competitor more likely than from a vendor like this.

I'm considering using VendeX. I'll be more likely to switch if it has the features Joannah mentioned.

Who knows, if many big sellers start doing this, maybe it'll help stabilize the L$ value.

Let me toss in a few comments =)

First, the idea of VendeX is definitely not to draw attention to the US$ value of items in SL. That is mostly a consequence of me trying to make it easy for people to price things which shows up when you hover your mouse over a poster. I'm not averse to changing it slightly to obscure the US$ amount by having it in the settings notecard or to show both the US and L values. It just makes it slightly more difficult to manage.

The main reason I was asked to do this by several folks in the first place was that the Linden value has been falling and fluxuating for months and peoples creations were being rapidly devalued at current prices. For someone like Starley, faced with the task of repricing approximately 2000 posters to offset declining L$ prices once every few weeks, a month, or however often, it was reasonable to think there had to be a better way. So, tieing the price to the much stabler US$ was a good solution and I went ahead with the project.

It sounds to me from the comments so far that people really don't mind the adjustment of the L$ price because the underlying value really isn't changing. What people are taking issue with is the display of the $US value.

Yes -- that is my main hesitation.

Please keep USD out of the in-world experience. The currency for SL is the linden. Seeing USD prices for merchandise in-world will have an adverse effect.

I can go on and on by providing examples. Suffice it to say, nothing good can come of it. The sooner this is changed, the better for all involved.

I'm really glad for the feedback here! I really want this to be a positive thing.

I am going to make the following changes for the next revision which I'm going to do my best to do tomorrow...

1. Prices will still be set in US$, but willl be held in the notecard. This means that the only price customers will see is the L$ price in the mouseover and FastPay window.

2. The server will have a "Touch" menu that will allow you to select your frequency of price update. The choices will be Daily, Weekly, Monthly


Anyone who bought the system already will receive the update and can choose whether or not to use this newer method.