SL Monetary Policy & Upcoming Changes...Discuss!

First and formost buddy, get off yer high horse and quit flaming, I think we're all trying to be nice and calm and express out opinions of the said change. Now with that said let us continue shall we?

First off, there is absolutly no garuntee that people will lower their prices simply because the lindens cut money.

Now back to human nature: People like big numbers, I like looking at my account and seeing that $10,000L vs $100L. Seeing things that aren't possible in my first life remind me this is in fact a game, and not life. Hence making this game more true to life is the same as fueling an addiction which will lead to alot more harmful things in the future for LL.

Again, I say fix the bugs, then worry about money. The money flow isn't hurting anything at all. and the only people in favor of this change seem to be the people who already have money to toss around. And as for people saying "Learn to script" "You just need practice" I say bah to that. I spent over 15 hours building a house, which looked like utter shit when it was completed. I can't even make a fucking box properly. AS for scripting, I hate Java, I hate C++, and I hate derivitives of said languages or other languages looking like them. They are a pain in the ass to learn, and not worthy of my time. Give me an interface where I can write in C and not have to learn a completely new language and then we'll talk. AS for texture editing ect, I have no problem learning how to do that, if LL wants to pay for the software to do so. Its "cheap" "affordible" Well buddy, when you live on $200 a week or less, not a whole lot continues to be cheap and affordible. I can't afford to shell out 100 - 200 clams just to use photoshop, and I'm not about to risk jail time or fines to use it for free.

There is nothing stopping you from buying up some lindens in GOM and then later on lining your pockets with usd. And I don't think there are any kickbacks. Just having the courage to buy and sell. Just like having the courage to sit down with the tools that lindens gave us and start creating. When I first started way back in beta near the end of beta..I thought I could never compete with the big boys in building and was awestruck at their builds...but I practiced and practiced and now can command a higher fee and feel I am up there with the big boys. Sometimes tho I still feel like that newbie with the box on the head.

I had shut SL off and was about to go to the store when I read Alan Palmerstone's mention of Cubey's Clubbiest Club. Oh cool, I thought, Cubey's a neat guy, and not only does he have a club, but it's the most instensely clubesque, the one with maximum clubosity. I prepared to abandon my shopping plans but a few paragraphs later was saddened to to see that there is no Cubey's Clubbiest Club. A cruel and disheartening used of a ficticious example if ever there was one.

The loss of bonus income won't affect me much, I don't spend much anyway. If my understanding is correct, my relative wealth will go up, since I have good balance to start with.

Professor Antiquity, and so will thousand of other players when the valuation of the L$ they hold in their pocket rises as the supply drops.

Will IGE benefit? Yes. But IGE only holds about 8% of the currency in float. Who do you think will benefit more? IGE or the Players (just like you) holding the other 92%? Guess its back to Econ 099 for you.

Furthermore, upon looking over this thread, it has turned into a flaming pile of shit. So, I will now step out of this conversation and ya'll who like to pick apart threads instead of reading into them can blow me.

It rose during the land boom of the Summer of 2004, then fell back to normal levels. That is a false claim. Of course, you'd know that, if you paid attention...




The same amount of land is available as has been for the last year.




LLabs has stated that average markup of plots is in the 10% range. That's not a whole lot.



Look at it this way. Worst case scenario: Drop the last digit from your stipend and the prices of everything in the world. So, 10,000 lindens becomes 1,000 lindens. But, the 100 dollar shirt becomes 10 linden dollars.

No big loss there.



Really? You need a shirt that badly?



Philip doesn't muck around in the code, he's the CEO because he's the "big thinker". It's his job to muck around with the economy. The codemonkeys work on bugs. He works on social ideas.

They can do both, you know.

The economy, if it's in a state of inflatino, will get worse and worse, until it's like TSO or There, with shirts costing thousands of dollars rather than a hundred or so like it does now.

It's best to fix it now than wait.


ATTN ALL: THE SKY IS NOT FALLING. RETURN TO YOUR POSTS.

LF

Silence Infidel.... Your missing the picture with your zeal to have bugs fixed first and ignore the economics of the game.

Likewise, buddy. Don't throw big claims around without facts to back them up.

LF

Interesting idea Chip!

That would allow the non-premium account folks to have a SL without having to struggle.

I like it.

thats because I could give a shit less about the economy, I want my video card to function properly ect before they worry about it.

Exactly And have more money to spend on goods.

I agree with you 100% Lordfly..

Thanks, Chip. I think the notion of LL taking kickbacks is about the most absurd thing I've read on this (or any!) forum in a long time. The point of GOM is to help users with more L$ than they can feasibly use recycle then back into the community for those who feel they would like more. What possible reason would we have to *pay* LL for the privilege?

I think the point of this move is that LL have a very complicated beast ("the SL economy" they're trying to keep under control. Most people reading this have heard of "MUDflation" -- here's a company actively trying to moderate that and keep it from creating an even larger disparity between the have's and have-not's, and they're getting grief over it.

Bye bye land rentals...hello typical rich get richer, poor get poorer scenerio. Trying to make a GAME too much rl is bad..this is gonna hurt SL me thinks..I know I can't afford my land rental anymore considering it went 100L a week..no way I can afford it now. Time to start playing WoW instead maybe?

there are apparently some who do not get the fact that with the reduction in game itself of linden that OTHERS WILL go and PURCHASE FUNDS FROM OUTSIDE SOURCES that will still skew the economy. those that cannot afford to purchase the funds will be the ones that are hurt in the long run. so those that sell will be richer but still does nothing for those that can't afford to buy linden in the first place. the economy will still be skewed but hey that's the way big business seems to like it. hell ea games let it get to the point where a st bernard went for 20mil (this was due to being able to purchase money from other sources) hence my point in that fact that those that can afford to buy will own what they want and those that can't will be screwed

Go buy a new machine....

One day... one day... Cubey's Club Clubber Club will be built! Mark my words!

Go out and learn x skill, or y skill.. Sounds easy, right?

After a simple class, most people can rez cube. There even used to be classes on making clothes with just the sliders. So that's not a major issue - at least for me.

OTOH, it IS a game. Changing the stipend of newbs, in particular, or those without "mad skilz"/no talent, is changing the nature of the game for the people paying to play. I could care less about lifetime account holders - they can afford to stick this out. They have no necessity to pay tier fees to play anymore (in effect, they have prepaid). However, being a subscription-based game, my advice to newbs from this point on - especially after all the recent posts/classes on how little land is actually necessary to "do SL".

At this point, I have become a true SL cynic.. in game as well as here in the forums. In world, until recently, I was not cynical... but over the past months have become more and moreso due to bugs, inconsistent enforcements, etc.

It's just a game... and I am going to sell my "personal equipment" and play with the "schoolyards'" for a while I think.

In the case of Second Life, Linden Lab can change the size of the various sources (stipends, bonuses, dwell, and event support) and the sinks (parcel listing fees, L$ land sales, upload costs) as a way of modulating the money supply in a manner similar to the Federal Reserve. Like the Fed, our goal in making such changes is to keep the economy stable and growing.

Our policy (which will no doubt evolve and become more formal as Second Life grows) has been to take a frequent look at the leading indicators, and make adjustments to these sources and sinks. Our specific goals in making adjustments are several: To maintain a stable exchange rate against the U.S. dollar, to maintain stable overall land prices both at auction and in-world, and to maintain stability in consumer prices.

With this overview, our latest findings and intentions are below:

Recent trends in land prices, currency exchange, and pricing indicators suggest a gradual overall inflation in the linden dollar economy. In response to that trend, and incorporating general design goals and user feedback wherever possible, we will be making several changes over the coming two weeks:

+ A reduction in fees paid to support events to cover only those events deemed educational
+ A 50% reduction in the bonus amounts paid out as weekly 'Stipend Ratings'

Taken together, these two changes reduce the amount of new currency flowing into the Second Life economy by approximately L$4.5 Million per month. This is a signifigant change, corresponding to a reduction in overall economic incentives by roughly 25%.


I got this little note from someone and for some one like me who doesnt know how to script or to build or even design clothes what are we gonna do I only host llike 2 events a month and thats it not only do I lose that but now they are gonna cut my stipend to when i pay so much in land tier fees and all that stuff now they want more its just plan out sucks I think I will investigate into some other online games who havent gotten the big head and are running the people who are supporting their games in the first place into the ground!!!!!!

Comming from There.com, this too was the first step they took in "assessing" their economy. Stopped paying and assisting in events, and upped the prices for submissions (thank god we dont have that YET here in SL)

I bragged to all my friends from There.com about how SL was so much easier to obtain and sustain money in your pockets, welp I guess that wont be an argument of mine any longer.

Apparently LL dint take any notice to There.com, which to became what I see to be greedy, and lost 90 percent of its memebers, nearly all of the beta testers, b/c of their stinginess, and greedy to fill their own pockets, put people out of jobs (including myself).

I see this as a deja vu, and I think I will be looking for a new place to play, cause I cant do that BS again! Once was enough for me thanks

And what about my land fees? Are those gonna go down too? HELL NO...*steaming HOT*

Originally Posted by Merwan Marker

Interesting idea Chip!

That would allow the non-premium account folks to have a SL without having to struggle.
-----



Spend on goods, services, bingo, gambling, giving away at the WC, etc. etc.

Economics for the rest of us!

MUDflation



Read Up You Slackers....
And Give praise to Edward Castronova - The Alan Greenspan of Virtual Economies



Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828

On Virtual Economies
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=338500

Yes - I will have to greatly reduce the land I rent as it is paid for out of my stipend.

I will have to reduce the number places I sell clothes at - perhaps to just slexchange as I design for pleasure not business.

If I get any money in the future it will not be working for myself - it will be working for Anshe or someone as they will have access to the rl money to employ people.

Someone seems to have decided that my Second Life should take places in Bush's America. I'm very happy living in Europe in my first life and have no desire to be second class in my second.

For all those who say - make stuff, buy! sell! play at being little republicans! I say the following-

Most people use SL as an entertainment medium. Some create stuff - and some of those who create stuff make money from it - most clothing designers do not. Most of us create for pleasure and to learn.

I predict the following effects:

Reduction in the number of private islands as people buy them to host events and there aren't going to be 25% of the events there are now.

Greater inequality, especially for basics and those on low income in rl.

The growth of a "capitalist class" and a greater consolidation of wealth.

A loss of freedom as people will not be able to rent their spot of land out of their stipend. People will not be able to make money hosting events and would be expected to work for others to make money.

I really, strongly oppose this change. This will cut down a lot of the fun for me.

Just want to point that when Phil L. says -


"+ A 50% reduction in the bonus amounts paid out as weekly 'Stipend Ratings "


THis does not mean Stipends will be cut in half - rather that only the bonus portion of Stipends will be cut in half.

Look carefully tomorrow at your Stipend and how it is calculated - this may not be as much money as first thought.