SL Monetary Policy & Upcoming Changes...Discuss!

see Sorry For Inconvenience

I wonder if this is an eventual trend to remove stipends entirely, forcing us to buy currency?

Wow... uhm... wow.

...

A lot of people are not going to sit well with this.

*sits in a box and puts the lid on*

I doubt that. I hope not as well.

Based on the horrible impact that the simular practice had on There I don't think SL will do that. LL would lose a bit of control over the economy in doing so, also being heavily dependant on another currency is just an awful idea (as demonstrated by There again).

I think LL also recognizes that not everyone is happy with this idea (as opinions voiced on the heavy There practice), and they themselves would not like it either.

All just guesses.

what about the people like me who enjoy that day of the week when 400l$ come in so your saying i will have basicy no L$ to buy that little weeky gift for myself that would suck, i would cry like baby Luminia does,,

lol only joking but it would suck

The thinking is, prices on all things will go down. Wether this will be practiced or not will be interisting to see.

Prices on things reflect the current price people are willing to pay, if people generaly have less money, they are willing to pay less for a product, meaning the product would go down in price. (my understanding)

So if producers are paying attention, they'll most likely reduce prices in all things, land, items, etc. so that the "average" person can afford said items.

How this will be affected by GOM/IGE trading will also be interisting to see. My guess is however that not many people will "make up the difference" in USD -> L$ conversion, a few may, but probably "generaly" the "average" user will not.

Seems like a good time to stock up on $L from GOM to me.....

Very intriguing.

I have to say I've never been so interested in virtual economies, as I have been with SL's. The results of this will be fun to watch. It's also times like these I'm glad I price my items a bit low.

*puts an eye on GOM and an eye on SL.. and watches*

I'm disappointed to hear this, if for no other reason than the quasitautological fact that there will be less bonus stipend dough each week to chew on.

However, when I read what Philip wrote with this:



Will this correlate with increased creativity of the arts and culture in SL? A sort of harkening back to "ye olde days"? (Which I hear much about still from the Oldbie Illuminati , but was never there for in the first place.)

It could have some curious side effects, desired and undesired.

In the meantime, I'm going to get economical. ^_^

Yay if this means no more parties clogging up the event calendar just to get the L500. We need more real events on the calendar.

A 25% reduction in money "generation" is pretty severe and should avert the inflationary trends. As for buying money, I assume you mean from Linden Lab and not just through player-to-player transfers through - for example - GOM.

I don't see Linden Lab getting into the selling L$ game anytime soon. A big part of the setup of SL is that consumers drive the creators to create. Creation requires incentive (for many), but it's just a game and if they removed stipends but kept the sinks, it would crush creation.

Like Greenspan, LL has to be gentle in monetary policy in order not to cause big disruptions. Unlike Greenspan, they have prefectly accurate statistics about the "world" and so have working data that macroeconomists would give body parts for. As with v1.2 and taxation, Linden Lab seems to prefer to do it once, pre-announce, and not have to tweak again in a month. It would probably be better to take a 25% drop and then reduce the reduction to 20% than to do it 5% at a time until balanced.

I've been asking for a reduction in the event payouts for a long time now. Events are entirely too much "tossing money at random crowds" these days. Glad to see it's happening.

Changes in monentary policies are so few and far between I guess that reflects on the amount of thought put into them...

Education events being rewarded -- woot -- excellent! I remember 'ye olde days' when there were a lot of building classes/contests etc.. and I think it was pretty cool.

Nowadays I hardly look at the events listings...

Ah well , we'll see how it goes and what goes down.

Siggy.

This is a step in the right direction.

Rampant inflation will destroy an economy from the inside out, and a society as well, though the connections are often hard to see.

As the $L spigot starts to shut off, people's time horizons will grow longer. More long-term projects will begin to dominate the economy. The quality of goods will increase, and prices will drop.
In general, less of a "las vegas" type of atmosphere, and probably less griefing too, oddly enough, because people will become more economically interdependent.

So to sum up, SL will only benefit in the long term from this move.

Well-said, Siggy... I was never there but I am curious if this is a "returning to" phase. With talk like this being raised, with a number of oldtimers coming back into the world, with Nephilaine showing off updated versions of early PixelDresses, etc.

RETURN TO FORM!

And SL has been awesome for me already... this might just be even AWESOMER. w00t.

Yes that is a situation faced by many residents.

Possibly you can a way to earn a few L$ to offset the losses?

Indeed it may be even awsomer -- but on the flipside it also has the potential to suck balls -- only time will tell.

Remember - we will always see the past through rose colored glasses for the main part.. things in the past were also changed for a reason

I'll wait and see - I honestly don't think there is any one single change that could be made that will significantly change my time in SL - or my reasons for being here... So I can sort of watch the changes sail on by

Siggy.

Yep this may create some new edu events not yet imagined.

-=-=

SL has always inspired me to create, but I never got much satisfaction out of selling. Don't get me wrong, I love when people buy my products, because I know I've done something that others like - and that is the best compliment I could get. However, I've never priced anything high enough to make and SL "living" without my stipend.

Like every other change we've experienced in SL, I will just wait and see what happens. Roll with it...

Yeah... "We look forwards crying and look backwards laughing."

And the stuff that people make a big deal of at the time, but in hindsight, it seems so petty and puny.

The only constant is change... feel free to insert more temporal adages here. ^_^

Time is an illusion - Lunchtime doubly so...

-- Ford Prefect.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

cross posted from: /120/ee/32439/1.html#post336252

My forecast - probably pointless since this is being presented as a 'done deal' with time of actual implementation to be announced realsoonnow - the rich will get richer, the new/poor will stay that way longer.

--It obviously goes without saying that this will absolutely benefit the established player with current skills and game knowledge. They have a "product line" and the skillset/knowledge that the Lindens will support from x point forward - not the new player.

--It will discourage purchases as the majority of players WILL NOT go to GOM for $L. With less "income", the average player will make fewer purchases - ergo, less monetary exchange between players will occur.

--It will discourage players from keeping money in-game as fewer product innovations will be seen as "viable" in terms of profit-making.

--There will be less land-turnover. Those with land for sale will either be stuck with it = and the corresponding tier = for longer (good for LL, bad for player), or will release it/sell it for a pittance and take the money and run to GOM/IGE to minimize any real-world loss.

Consequently, I do NOT thank Philip. I think this is an ill-conceived decision to solve a non-existent problem, something that will cost LL/SL a number of players in the long run - almost certainly in the short term. While I do not deny that the TOS allows LL to make such a change without notice, I am not sure if recent events on the grid, land policies-growing the grid, and inconsistent application of TOS by Liasons (in world and here in the forums) bode well for the future of SL. I for one am beginning to consider following a number of much-better established players OUT of SL - not being a lifetime member, there's no golden parachute for me except that I paid my annual subscription already, so this basically means tiering down - or at least very seriously considering it.

edited for typo correction and to add the following:
I am sure that with the influx of the 8mil, LL would not miss my measly $200/mth anyway.... It is likely, however, to miss the cumulative total of tier fees I predict will be lost as a result of this.

I'm a little surprised. When I read Philip's post I figured major flamewar. It's been rather quiet.

I am probably like a certain percentage of the folks here who have enough money for a good amount of land tier and only sell items I build for $L1-5 each just for the thrill of selling. If I want something, I can buy it, whether with what I have or with $L from GOM. I don't hold events and when my stipend delta has dropped in the past, it was merely an indicator that I hadn't been to the clubs in a while. So, this won't dent me at all.

I am worried about the club kids, though. Before I get flamed, hear me out. Clubbing for ratings and event prizes/money balls is a real industry in SL, whether you like it or not. From what I can tell, a lot of them are on lifetime basic, so the ratings stipend is really their main form of income, with prize money coming in second.

Not everyone can build and script. It is an expensive/mind numbing proposition to design clothes and animations and the entry fee into those skills is either at least US$100 for software or the propeller head to make the free stuff work.

Those of you who own the clubs and make the clothes and other items for your living in SL are going to be hit by all of this. Cubey's Clubbiest Club* will probably have to close because he can no longer afford 4096sm in a mature sim and the clothiers with items over a certain amount will see a real drop in their revenue.

Maybe this will convince some of the more hardcore basic people to buy that yearly subscription for US$72 and get their L$2,000 per month in "salary."

I could be wrong. I guess it had to be done. I will wait and see along with everyone else.

*There is no Cubey's Clubbiest Club.