Limit the stipends ant total amount of L$ in the system

This forces the players to either find a way to earn money in the game or buy L$ for $.

Sure, if I have enough money coming in to pay my monthly bills, then that's all well and good; but it's the difference between entertainment (which is a disposable outgoing) and an incoming profit.

Lewis

But if a lot more people made things just for the fun of it, rather than profit, SL would be a much richer world, in many ways.

Making stuff just for fun in SL can be expensive.
e.g : take a look at "pro racer"

A lot of people just try to sell to not lose too much money.

Option1: Simply dont give a stipend to anybody who has more L$ than a certain limit, for example 2000L$. I dont really know why somebody with more than 2000L$ would need free money. This would then be something like social help from the government for the poors . With this option, I would also suggest to have people pay for certain things one needs to do in the game, if they are not eligible for a stipend. For example: if you have more than that 2000 L$ on your account, you pay 1L$ per teleport, if you dont, its free. Moneychairs? sure, but only if are eligable for stipends.



IMHO, neither option is a viable solution.

The reason being is with option 1 the system would be gamed badly. Residents would simply play the "shifting linden" game between alts and friends in order to circumvent the proposed limit of $L for each account, thereby avoiding this "penalty." And if we were to calculate the limit based on the combined total of anyones alts per credit card, there will always be family and friends who could hold our linden, or additional credit cards to shift our linden to.

The matter of fairness should also be an issue of consideration. Many people are of the impression that since they are paying for their subscription, they are therefore entitled to their $L500 stipend regardless of how successful they have been in their SL.

So what do you believe would be the end result?
A good percentage of people downgrading to basic maybe?

At this point in SL's evolution, i believe it would behoove LL to find creative ways to increase their population of premium residents, not decrease it. And this would work toward decreasing it and thus cutting into LL's bottom line.

Now they could cut/limit stipends for premium residents by replacing these stipends with a replacement incentive, such as increased land allocation, and that might work. But that is the direction they should be headed in. Not simply limiting/cutting stipend and offering nothing else in return, unless...they eliminated free basic accounts altogether with.

No it is not. It is that money system that spurs people to create the things that contribute to the community. If you don't want to pay to have those things provided, produce them yourself with your own time, money and skills.

I'm insulted that you think us content creators don't contribute to the community. We BUILT the bloody community!

"You have to remember that when you have an economy which is 90% seller"

Second Life is NOT 90% seller. Do you see 180,000 shops out there on SL?

So tell me; a Second Life where you have to pay to play, where there is no longer a financial incentive for people to create content...is that really the game you want to play?

I dont know if the total amount of L$ in the game is fixed somehow. If not, buying L$ with real $ simply turns on the money printing machine and generates more money -> risk of inflation.
Now, if Linden would limit the total amount of L$ in the system, L$ becomes a limited resource and follows the rules of demand and supply. After all, RL money is a limited resource too, as governments try not to print unlimited amount of money to prevent inflation.
However, trying to install such a thing in a game opens a whole can of worms, as balancing an economy is no easy thing. If you think you have an easy solution to the problem, have a talk with Alan Greenspan

There currently is Total L$ Supply (L$) 681,211,519 in the game and when the page where this comes from is updated in less then 24 hours you can see how much more new money was added via stipends.

"Again, I differentiate between "covering costs" and "making a living from a computer game"."

To make a British minimum-wage living from SL I'd need to make at least L$23,500 per day, every week day, 50 weeks a year.

This isn't likely to happen.

Musuko.

about L$12/million is added every week, so when the page is updated soon, the total will be just shy of L$700/million.