Economy Announcement: Removal of Traffic Incentives

In RL there are granting organizations: multitudes of them. There are government incentives to create beautiful things (usually paid for by property taxes of people who like to live where there are symphonies, public parks, plays, school systems, etc.)

In SL there is one granting organization. There are businesses that sometimes provide some sponsorships, but there is a disconnect between this philanthropy and events makers. For SL experiential content to survive it must transform or be seen of value by the society of the world. I only hope this value isn't discovered too late (after all public spaces have closed doors other than malls and casinos).

That was the point I was trying to make. I would gladly go to a concert, enjoy it and put L$100 in a tip jar for having a good time, but to be charged L$100 to go to a concert with someone I've never heard of I will - and most will - probably not bother.

Same with clubs. Why pay to listen to Club 977 when I can go to Shoutcast and listen for free?

I have no problem supporting things voluntarily if I feel they are worth it ... but will think twice about paying to go to something unknown. Now, I'm not entirely tight for cash (being a premium account) but a newbie basic getting L$50 a week, well thats a lot of money to give out for an unknown event.

Lewis

Gabe- the symbol of the snake eating its tail is also a symbol of the eternal unity of all things.

The end is the beginning, the sideways '8' symbol for infinity is supposedly derived from the image of the snake eating its own tail (with a Möbius strip like half-twist).

(It's no big deal... I just thought it funny that your metaphor somewhat contradicts your point. )

--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros

OK, gotta defend Gabe here. LOL

While that may be the symbol in some areas, a snake eating its tail in the US (especially in the midwest) is almost universally recognized as the self-destructive act of a senseless creature.

And these are event lessons that people will learn.

As with real life, I'm certain that there will be a part of most events where a shout out to the charitable sponsors of the event is included, so that those that attended for free would be encouraged to patron the event sponsors.

Some events will be able to get away with a fee at the door if they have sufficient incentive within or reputation to demand such payment.

It will actually be interesting... if people are no longer encouraged to over-populate their events in order to increase dwell, they may start charging at the door in order to keep attendence to levels that don't cause horrendous lag. That's a win in my book.

Gotta love local interpretation and plan ol'ambiguity! Who needs crystal clear terms and concepts are for (insert ambiguous derogatory collective generalization here)! =)

Probably why we have such a difficult time with the 'is SL a game?' question.

--
very limited scope cultural definitions:
Geeks prefer USING new technologies to talk to each other.
Nerds prefer to talk ABOUT new technologies with each other.

Just a point that I don't think has been stressed enough in this thread....

Dwell is good for only a couple of things... getting on the most popular list, and measuring traffic (perhaps a measure of "success". This is not going to change, and dwell can still be used for that.

As a spurce of income? It has always been a measly amount and never contributed to wealth or came NEAR to paying ones tier or other bills.

When I had the island and Club Elite, I was number two on the list. I didn't even pay attention to my dwell payments they were so insignificant. What WAS significant was that dwell was used to calculate who got DI! (Developer Incentive money). THAT was significant. However, THAT program was recently dropped. We just haven't seen the fall-out yet. Those who got DI are the ones who are going to be dropping out or selling off their land because they used the US cash payments to pay their tiers. I can't imagine the actual dwell payment affecting very many.

So are you honestly saying you get L$500 - 1000 per day in dwell payments right now, in each of your four sims?

- Jon

I would be happy to pay L$100 ($0.30) to attend any live music event in SL. I would probably even pay L$1,000 ($3.00) if I knew the event was going to be high quality. I'd definately pay even more if there would be multiple performers.

Not Me! I am just too cheap to pay for something that is provided elsewhere free!

Oh, due to cultural differences, I do not tip!

Well then, in the new SL, you should stick to Linden provided entertainment features, such as "chat".

Well done Anshe.

But then Anshe is a little different to many other Second Life places, as Dreamland is one of the places where people will pay for existing content. I think that may be one way to go forward, try building on your land and make the content attractive enough for people to buy it on the basis on "content" or entertainment value rather than just pure land alone.

If that happens en-mass it will spell the end for content creators who insist on producing content that cannot be transfered

Well most obvioously in that paying money does not equate to being entertained. As yourself who buys lindens? Do we have ethat data? Do we know what size black s the 7,000,000 per day is bought in. Also set that off agaisnt thed new resident growth rate, and provide statistics on teh resident retention rate-how much are new users buying to get land, skins, houses and other high end items, versus, how much people are spending on so called entertainment. It looks good in the market if people come into SL spend $25,000L-$50,000L on the start up costs for a new avi. How ever its bad for SL if people then drop the game in three moneth because there is nothing to do.

Also how many of the lindens bought on the market go to subsidize projects or build that releied on dwell but do not generate profit? Likely none. The problem with numbers are: 1. people don't understand the very numbers they are tossing about, 2. people are operating entirely from one number and not thinking about all the other conditions that might impact long term interest in SL, and 3. people utterly miss the point of who the number has an impact on. Dwell rewards a narrow spectrum of users, and its impact on the economy is not what matters, its its impact on users perceptions of second life.

And if everyone was meant to work here it would be called Sim-Shopkeeper or Sim-Sweatshop.

K, this probably should have been brought up before now.

There is a difference in "dwell", "traffic" and "DI".

Traffic is how many people visit your land for how much time.

Dwell is L$ that is awarded for generating that traffic.

DI (dwell incentive? dunno) is a monthly bonus that is paid to sims that have excellent traffic.

There is some confusion as to what is being cancelled by LL. I don't have that specific answer-- but I believe that at least the DI is being cancelled (how about dwell?). And that's the big chunk.

True... however, you and I have been here a little while, and know that someone like Frogg Marlowe or Jaycatt Neko are on the bill. it's going to be a quality event - but the newer player who's never heard of them might think that it's just some amateur playing an MP3 recording that they made in the back bedroom and it'll be crap - so they go somewhere that's free instead, and IS crap.

So, they decide either live music events are crap, expensive or both, and don't go to them anymore ... which then leaves them going to casinos or some other moneygrabber (paying L$50 to go to an event is expensive yet losing L$1000 at a casino is 'fun').

Lewis

Good point Shaun. When LL cut the event support, Elf Clan was faced with a choice: cut events, cut prizes for events, or figure out another way to fund events.

We came up with two answers: we set out EVENT DONATIONS / TIP jars (depending on the event), and we from time to time ask merchants to support events in exchange for advertising.

Now mind you, since SL can't get 50 avs on a sim without passing a cat, there aren't a lot of people we're advertising to. But, merchants in general will pretty much support an event out of the goodness of their heart. It is also surprising how many people are willing to donate at events in order to keep a group/events going. Elf Clan has never let us down; we have never run short of event funds.

Of course, we have 560+ members. Still, even at events where only 10-15 people have attended, there has always been one or two generous souls who donated enough money to offer a reasonable prize to contestants. To those people, a hearty thank you, as well as to those who could only afford to donate L5 or L10... every bit helps and is scrupulously accounted for.

So it wasn't a big problem for us... but it was for others. Perhaps it shouldn't have been, because anyone can do the same thing. But it can be predicted that in general, people can't afford to shell out L50 or L100 for every event they attend.

I've performed at Live Music events where people generally donated from L100 to L1000, depending on their finances and generosity. L100 is what, 33 cents these days? Not a big tip for someone performing live music, but every bit was welcome. Folks are willing to donate for individual events like that. But very few can do so for every event. So either the event holder funds it out of own pocket, or there is no event funding and everyone just attends and expects no prizes or bonuses and people donate their time. Which basically means they're donating their time and resources to entertain LL customers. In some cases that's warranted (such as when a boat racing club has a gathering to share common interest). In other cases, it's not.

I would not pay any amount to attend any event I have ever seen advertised in SL, no matter what the quality of the performers. Because I have yet to see an event advertised in SL that I had any interest in attending, whether I paid or not... and I'm not sure I can imagine either a build or an event that I'd pay an admission fee of even L$10 for, sight unseen.

I've dropped at times over L$1000 as a "tip"* on a build, but I can't imagine that waiting for a few big tippers is a viable way to pay tier. Maybe I should test that.

* I come from a culture that doesn't tip, too. I got over it.

I'm not sure that wouldn't be a bad idea.

Good points. Something else I'm wondering is how much of that 7mil (is that an accurate figure? I kinda question it) is actually being bought for use on SL. I think there is a good chance that a good number of those are being bought by speculators who believe the L$ will eventually go back to 250/$1 and plan to sell at a profit. Hard to say.

Just another step in the evolution of SL from a social space to an economic one. Can't wait to log in and see everyone working hard. Won't that be fun? Little avies busy making widgets to sell to other little avies to make enough money to pay their tier fees so they can go on making widgets to sell so they can make their tier fees.... Yah, sure sounds like fun to me.

Can't you just see the new SL logo? "Second Life, it's your Second Job!"

There are granting organizations here in SL, just not that many that want to fund sexxay thong contests. For example, The SL Botanical Gardens recently sponsored Lauk's Flower Show to the tune of $5,000L. Enabran and the FFRC have both mentioned willingness to sponsor - but again, those who are willing to sponsor are going to fund events that appeal to their sensabilities, which is the same way philanthropy works in RL. Guggenheim didn't fund racetracks, he was into art, which is why we have museums all over the world with his name on them and not the NASCAR Guggenheim Cup.

SL provides you with a rich 3-D tool set and if you are at all creative, you can start a business to cover expenses for your "folly" projects - which for you might be a spa/club; for me it is a 1/4 sim of gardens and waterfalls.

Actually Argent, you make a good point. I came from a 3D-VR system that was not economy oriented. People gave away things to others for the sheer reputation of being a master designer/builder. They built areas and let people visit free of charge. But then, their membership fee was $24 a year too. Most could afford to do so at that price. But when a sim owner is paying US$3,590 the first year to operate a sim, things become a little more complex.

Like you, I'm not sure it would be a bad idea for SL to go non-economy. It would mean LL losing the majority of their clients and sim count dropping from over 1000 to about 7... but... it might wind up being a friendlier and less-competitive environment.

Yes, I am aware of those terms, and what the difference is.

There isn't really any confusion, at least not on my part. LL already cancelled DI, which was costing them a big chunk of change (real money) every month. What they're cancelling now is daily dwell payments, which really don't amount to much for most people. If you've got high enough traffic to be making serious money off dwell, you should be able to convert that traffic into sales or profits somehow without LL needing to give you a handout.

- Jon

Using that logic, why pay for clothing, skins, vehicles, or anything in SL?