Phillip's Announcement

Game over, thats it. Game over. Does anyone know of any games similar to SL developing?


When linden gives out stipends, where does that come from? Thin air? j/w.

A point to clarify: Lawrence Linden, LindeX guru extraordinaire, will be leading these town hall meetings. I'm sorry if the announcement was misleading.

These moves seem to be sensible and reasonable.


We have to place our trust in something.

a) unrestrained free market forces
b) a corporation jealously guarding its interests
c) a mixture of the two.


In a world of dwell gamers, account farmers, and eventually competitive worlds, alternative c) seems pretty good.

Yes but now they've taken away new premiums even getting a full stipend. I don't see as many new premiums cropping up..thats less attractiveness to upgrade and a downhill slide for SL.

It might not be a shockwave routine, but the game's value for newer players just plummeted.

Yes, it *IS* a tax. I'm ok with it as long as Philip realises this and doesn't start squeezing blood from stone and screw us all over.

Hmmmm.... If I had money making machine with the ability to make unlimited quantity, and my profits might be coming a bit short this quarter.

I wonder what I would do?

What would you do?


(Just added) OK maybe I"m being over dramatic just read Philip's Blog, but I still don't like it. Blah blah blah.....

Of course he won't.
Now bend over - this won't hurt a bit.

I personally don't think you're being over dramatic.

The claim about "moderating the economy" is a red herring given that the exchange rate has been consistently dropping and the only way this move can affect the rate is to push it further downward. If they were serious about economic balance, they would commit to buying from the market when the rate was below some target and selling back when above it.

Roll in the fact that they have effectively decided to take $10,000 each month (at this point -- that amount could always increase!) directly from content creators, and this amounts to a poorly disguised cash-grab.

But the flip side is that since there are basically NO paying jobs in SL ppl will not ahve income to spend on in world content. Content creators need a place to build, a home, and shops. They cannot aford these when ppl do not ahve L's to buy thier things and not as many pl buy L's online as you might think. Since killing the basic stipend sales have already been in the toilet in world. This will only exacerbate this already bad situation. It is panderring to the land baron/day L traders while toally destroying the in world economy and is one of the DUMBEST moves Linden could have made. If they are removing the income of stipned they are going to ahve to start instituting an enforced minimum L wage for ALL in game employees of any business . As it is a lot of content pl are jsut shutting down due to a lack of income in world and I for one will NOT buy L's to suport creating content for free. I can make content for nothing in 3DS Max or in Maya. I don't need SL at all to vent a creation fix. IF Linden is trying to kill content creation and overall the whole chat, they are doing a fine job of it. I wonder what the land barons and day traders will say when they ahve no one left to sell to? They've already destroyed content creators' customer base efectively.

Well Robin I am sorry to say al this move will do is put he final nails into an already dying in game economy. Sure the day traders are happy but a lot of us who create content are folding up due to a lack of in world pruchases. The result is we can no longer support shops without income and with removal of stipends, players in world cannot buy content. There are almost NO paying jobs in SL. Most employers are tips only and take a cut of those from thier slave labor. I'd like to thank Linden for removing about 90% of my reason for being in SL. The creation of 3D content in an intereactive environment. I cannot build it if I cannot get a place to do so and support that place. Whoever your financial guru is now they need to put hier diploma back into that box of cracker jacks since they obviously atre toaly clueles about how to strengthen an economy OR they are only concerned with caterring to day traders.

The value of L$ has risen since.



But you already state there are no jobs so this will not be true for anyone, right?



HUH??



HUH?


HUH?

How so? The Basic account stipend hasn't changed. They still buy money on the Lindex just like they've always done. Please don't argue that the 50L a week they got was so terribly useful that it's loss affected their game.

Upgrading to premium allows one to rent land on a Linden estate rather than having to rent on a residential estate. That's the only premium benefit. The 2000L monthly stipend (1600L now) it recieves costs $9.95US. That's been a dead loss for nearly a year as you can purchase 3000L a month for $10US.

So what exactly has plummeted here?

Muahahahahahahha..... Too bad for the suckers that listened to the hypsters and bought L$... Time to sell this pig... The L$ if going into the toliet... For you Brits, that Water Closet.

Confidence? Trust?

Silly Starax, LL have shattered our trust so many times we could stuff a giant sofa with the remnants and put them to better use. Who trusts LL? Raise your hands. Yeah, that's what I thought.

What's to trust anyway? Our "contract" says they may terminate our account at any time for no reason with no refund and complete loss of our work which is available to them at all times to use as they see fit anyway.

For Heaven's sake they're developing experimental software under our feet and we're helping to fund the project in the interest of having virtual world building software available to us at some point in time. I don't imagine they trust us any more than we do them.

Have I gotten off topic? Sorry.

So I read Philips blog, attended the town hall, and re-read the townhall transcript.

My simple question is the topic of this message - I'm not looking for snarky replies from cheerleaders or conspiracy theorists. I'm hoping one of the Lindens (Lawrence?) can just answer this question directly?

Why has LL made the decision to start selling Lindens?

(and thanks for your time, if an answer is given)

it an attempt to become profitable.

all this 'stabilizing the economy' bullshit just makes Linden Lab leadership look dumb.

No, the stipend is a premium benefit too.

Take out the land (about 5 USD teir) and that leaves 5 USD monthly buying 2000L

So the benefits of premium are BOTH 512 teir and owning land AND a discount on bought lindens.

How many lindens will 5 USD a month buy you? Thats the benefit of premium.

I think Bub, Altruima, and Lee. So 3 Lindens.

(If you count Pony as a Linden, then 4)

Man.. Philip runs you 5 dollars on his own.

I'm just curious. Why is it that when somebody starts a business they suddenly lose all moral values and are guided solely by the desire to make a profit? I never understood why is that so many conclude that buisness owners would sell their babies on the open market for an extra .02 percent of market share. Do you people really think Phillip et all are sitting in smoke filled rooms twisting their evil moustaches figuring out ways to screw us?

Maybe LL is taking one of many steps designed to keep SL afloat after the investment money runs out and have a self sustaining economy that doesnt need artifcial rules to keep it going.

True, selling lindens directly is an extra source of income to LL, but its also part of improving the economy if done in the right context. And slow phase in of something this big is far better than making sweeping changes in one fell swoop.

Its been a long day and I'm tired, and I apolgize if this comes across as unduely harsh, but these kinds of posts just got to me.

Well said!

Again, I'm looking for the Linden answer to my question. Not 'what other people think the LL angelic/satanic/other motive is'.

Currently 1419L so 1600 a month is still a benefit. Should we argue that 191 free lindens is not as beneficial as 591 per month?

It is slightly difficult for me to believe that the inworld
economy is going to come to a crashing halt due to the lack of
handing out what amounts to a very small amount of money.

One poster alternatively mentions that if new players do not have this small amount of L then all the creators are just going
to go home. Then says that they need the money to have a place to create.
I suppose depending on the motives of each new person there could be a degree of truth to that.

I doubt that the successful creators inworld are that dependent on people that do not buy from the lindex, and who
only have 50 or 250 per week to spend.

For sellers a sale is a sale is a sale, so any little bit is good.
Yet I do not see this as the end of economic production in SL.
In RL very few organizations simply give shopping cash away
without some requirements.
And the people receiving that money also have the additional
burden of having to actually eat and and find shelter.
Somehow the RL economy manages to survive.

There are places in SL where new people can place their creations for sale for free. Or even use their own sales ability
to work out different types of arrangements for sales space.

I still think people can build in sandboxes. So new people
may have to work a little harder, but I think the rags to riches
story is still available.
I did not do it that way my self, I brought money with me.
I just wanted to have space and money and the ability to shop
right away. But I do have a great deal of respect for those who
have done it that way.

As SL becomes just a bit more like RL it seems just a bit more
exciting.

Not really..its still depreciating what premium means though.. with no real perks, premium memberships are gonna fall off