SL Monetary Policy & Upcoming Changes...Discuss!

I think I saw this episode before. Its the one where the Lindens change something money related. Someone runs around in circles like Chicken Little, and threatens to leave, but doesn't. Next, the change goes through, and the world keeps on rezzin' like nothing happened. Then some noob puts a cabin on his head, everyone starts laughing, then there is a freeze-frame. Yep, I saw this one before...

Or you could just go barefoot.

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.

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.

Teeny, but that was my point above. No one has threatened to leave. Some people wonder how things will turn out but that seems to be the extent of the worry.

This biggest issues with this are simple:

LL is wasting time worrying about an economy that has already been tainted by the likes of IGE and GOM, both companies known for destroying the economies of games such as Linage 2, City of Heroes, Everquest, Final Fantasy XI, Eve Online, Ect. I personally don't want to support them, but the lindens leave me no choice with this change. I get about $1000L per week, that is my only form of income.

So, my $25 per month is buying me the need to waste hundreds of USD I don't have on GOM's scam, BETA level software that is so full of bugs, its pathetic, and a company that cares more about lining their pockets than they do taking care of the players. Instead of worrying about this why don't they:

A: Fix the ATI AGP Bug, LL is the only company in the world that dosen't support the #1 Video card maker in the world. I have a $300 video card that dosen't get me anywhere in SL except for frame rates of 10 - 15.

B: Fix the over use of CPU cycles. Currently, without AGP support all of the graphics are rendered using the CPU, which means my CPU is running NewView 100% of the time when Second-Life is running.

C: Fix the object/avatar ghosting syndrome, that is the most annoying thing in the world, having to relog every 20 minutes simply because the game dosen't like deleting an object or picking it up.

D: Fix up the server farms, if a sim is full, it should take precidence over other sims durring the musical crash game. Gama is home to two clubs right now, one of them 25k - 30k dwell club, the other one a 6 - 3k dwell club, the sim fills quick and ends up lagging, which destroys our dwell and takes away from our events.

I'm not asking a whole lot for my $25, only to fix whats broken and to leave alone whats not broken. I find it utterly humorous every time they "update" just to find even more bugs than there were before. I'm in the 10% of america that makes less than $20,000/year. I can't afford to waste money buying Lindens, and if this keeps up, I won't be able to afford to keep paying them for my plot of land. I'd be better off to take my money else where, where I will be able to spend more time having fun and less time worrying about an income.

-Ramoth Darkholme

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.

Maybe you've been reading the wrong threads then. I've seen plenty of people threatening to leave, even some who have already paid for the year ahead ready to just up and move out. I myself am thinking of starting a strike in game. A shut down of all non educational events, all creating, all buying and selling just to show the Lindens before this goes into effect what it's going to do to the in game economy. LISTEN TO YOUR PLAYERS, LINDEN LABS! THE MAJORITY ARE POSTING ALL OVER THE BOARDS IN PROTEST TO THIS CHANGE! If LL really valued their customers they would be paying attention and responding to at least some of the posts on the matter all over the boards. I wanted to apply for a job with Linden Labs as a liaison myself, but now I'm not so sure. I noticed too, that today after word started spreading rampant all over SL, there wasn't a single Linden logged in at all. Just when one is needed most to field all of this. That's what a liaison is for, isn't it? If I had that job I would've been in there as long as I could before getting some sleep, taking in people's concerns.

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.

People are complaining? Wow, big shocker there.

(snip)

SIGN DE PETITION OR I QUITZOR!!!!111oneone

blah.

This won't matter in 2 weeks.

LF

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?

This won't matter in 2 weeks.

Number one you have no idea when a linden is in world...they can and do m ask themselves. Number two that isn't what a liason is for ...they aren't your personal place to whine.

People are complaining? Wow, big shocker there.

People complained about the tax code rewrite in version 1.1. They thretened to leave. We're all still here.

People had a FUCKING RIOT when land tiers were introduced in 1.2. Everyone threatened to leave. We're all still here.

People had a conniption when Avalon was sold. Everyone threatened to leave. We're all still here.

People threatened to leave when SL goes down. We're all still here.

People threatened to leave when GOm came in. Then when IGE came in. We're all still here.

People threaten to leave all the time. We're all still here.

So do it, for Chrissakes. Or shutup and eat your pie.

This is not the end of the world. The clubby clubbers will still get to buy their bling bling, the content creators will still pay their bills, and everyone else in between can continue playing the game as normal.

But NO ONE listen to the old player spouting logic... no no, we have to have a panic first...

SIGN DE PETITION OR I QUITZOR!!!!111oneone

blah.

This won't matter in 2 weeks.

LF

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.

...our goal in making such changes is to keep the economy stable and growing.QUOTE]
Uh... does it strike anyone else that this is an impossibility --- to be both stable and growing simultaneously?

I know my command of English is supposed to be flexible enough to understand sarcasm, hyperbole and metaphor. Yet, this seems rhetorically and logically impossible to attain - a condition of "static growth".

Perhaps I am not as smart as I think I am?

Nah. I know that's not it.

Lordfly, there can't be that much change without loss. To say that ALL are still here is an ultimate and ultimates don't exist. That's saying "this never happens" or "that always happens". People have left, you just haven't noticed. Even more people came in to replace them, but if too much change occurs and too much of it is bad? Then you'll be sure that eventually SL will lose too many people, though of course not ALL, and will die. People will only take being kicked around and taken for a ride so much before they get fed up. Some are just more patient and used to it than others and will hang in a bit longer.

Yes, you aren't as smart as you think you are. I thought you at least had some intelligence there Korg. It is entirely possible to be stable and growing. If the economy isn't stable it won't grow. When the Economy is stable people will hire, take risk, start new business ventures. When the economy is not stable people will do none of those things.

snip

I'd really like to see LL eliminate stipeds entirely for anyone who makes more than a certain amount in sales the previous week or whose balance is above a certain amount, then take that money and give new players as much L$ as possible.