worried about the devaluing linden? solution here.

Edit* I just read another post similar to this, my bad lol. Oh well this goes more in depth and explains it a lot better then the other one.

If you're worried about the linden dollar devaluing then why worry? Just sell your product for higher, increase prices etc. Why do you think it cost like 10000Yen (i'm not sure if that's exact) for a soda in japan? or 20 Peso's for a soda in mexico? There are many countries who have a worthless dollar compared to the US but to fix that, they just sell things for a higher price to balance it out.

When you sell something, don't think of it in Linden value, think of it in USD value and then adjust the linden price according to the market average for that week. This week it would probably be around L$308, 309/$1USD? If you have a product you want to sell for $20USD then go to the market exchange page on SL and look up how much $20USD is worth in SL based on the weekly average or the last few days. Then set your linden prices accordingly.

Who cares if you'll be selling a $2USD product for L$6000L, thats the way the market's heading. If people adjusted their prices like this then it wouldn't really matter how much the Linden Dollar is worth compared to 1USD, you'll still get the same amount in USD if you adjust your prices according to the market. McDonalds does it, why don't you?

I don't sell my lindens. the market -is only in game to me.- therefore, when I lower my prices, stay at the same level, and openly undercut with similiar alternatives to more expensive products, I'm STILL making a profit.

Why should I adjust prices based on a worthless figure?

Not so much a solution... it's what you have to do if you pay for things (such as sims) in USD. However I think people are pissed because SL is a game and they don't want to have to do this, again because it's a game, they are not here to make money. Since they come in with a fixed rate, if stuff becomes mroe expensive we'll just have a whole shit load of poor people that can't buy anything. They would ahve to buy L$ with USD, which again don't want to because it's a game.

Well i'm pretty sure you can't buy much with out buying linden, making your own products and selling them, or getting lucky in a casino. Aside from that, Second Life is advertised as a business adventure, they especially advertise the fact that you can make a profit off off of Second Life. The articles on the home page show this (notice the business week article?). Also if second life is a game, how can you win? When is there a game over?

I personally use Second Life to make money while I am at college, i script and sell games. If it wasn't for second life, I'd be working at mcdonalds. I traded off a grease factory for doing something i love, scripting and coding(simply because i am taking computer programming at college for a bachelors degree in computer science). If people continue to ruin the market, how am I going to pay for college? Would you trade second life as a profit earner to go work at mcdonalds? nope!

Safe to say your post is inaccurate.

White Wolf publishes a game system in which there are no 'set' goals. Players make them. There is no 'winning' There is onlt meeting your own goals.

Games don't require a winning 'target.'

game1 ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gm)
n.

A competitive activity or sport in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules: the game of basketball; the game of gin rummy.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


Try telling linden that Second Life is a game, i've talked to a few of them inworld and I said "game" and they quickly said, "SL is not a game, if it is then how can you win "

The very fact that SL isn't competative to everyone disproves that it is a game.

This thread seems to suggest a fundamental, irreconcilable difference in viewpoints between two groups of residents. On the one hand there are those that claim SL is just a game and that business has no right to enter the world and upset the game. On the other hand there are those that claim that SL provides them the opportunity to earn some money to supplement their RW income--even earn their entire RW income.

The problem with this dichotomy is that each group believes that the other group is wrong.

What residents have to understand, is that both groups obviously have the right to be in SL and can do so with mutual respect and cooperation.

To many business owners in the RW, business is a game. Therefore, creating a successful venture in SL that competes with other business owners and plays by the rules of the in-world economy is an exciting, energizing game. The object is to win--to win a profit. The opponents are the competition. The game of business fits the definition below:


In fact, business can be the most difficult game to master. It also can be more powerful than any weapon in SL or the RW.

So, instead of thinking about two, diametrically opposed schools of thought in SL, try looking at SL from the other group's point of view. Games of fun and war belong just as much as games of business. Of course, to those that play the game of business, it is fun and entertaining.

SL is not a game. Though many people like to think it is, it's simply not "just a game".

Second, people have been using their dollars to buy online currency in GAMES for over a decade. Infact, this is a gigantic industry now, across games like Everquest, World of Warcraft and others. Millions upon millions of players use their dollars to buy GAME CURRENCY.

I do it, you do it, tons of people do it.

SL is no different, and in fact there is even more reason to spend your dollars here then to just try and "win the game economy". If you think that Linden Labs made some kind of closed environment to run some politicial and economic experiments on - you are only partly right. SL is about the 3D web, it's about a virtual software development platform that is open to everyone who can figure out the "basic" tech, and afford a few dollars to invest.

...

In conclusion, I completely agree with the original poster here.

I have very much enjoyed playing Railrood Tycoon and Sim City and so on, and would not begrudge anyone the chance to play toy capitalist should they wish to, as long as they don't think that that gives them the right to screw up my life.

A bit like RL come to think of it.

Yeah well Sl is a game to me. I think it a game in general. What I never ever understand is why SL needs to be protectionist with the economy? Who guarantess you the right to use SL to get through college? I am not guaranteed an exchanged rate in RL, why should I in SL.

It seems to me that the very same people who are screaming that the stipend is an entitlment and should be abolished , are those who are screaming they are entitled to have a stable economy to pay for college.

You're correct! SL has become a bit like RL. Someone always gets screwed when trying to deal within a free-market economic system--the haves and have nots, for instance. Whereas everyone may have the right and possibly the opportunity to "win" the economic game, others simply play much better and have more leverage to bare. The same occurs in SL. If everyone won, then there would be no profits.

And yes, if you are worried about currency devaluation, then raise your prices. I'm surprised most have not. That's basic econ 101.



That is a topic that has been discussed numerous times within this forum. My point is that it's a question of semantics. To some it's a game, to others it is not. I say call it a game if you want but that does not justify claiming that business people should stay out. To me, business is a fun game--a very serious one at that.



Ahem! [Edit: Imean, amen...oops!] Platforms like SL or Croquet will change the face of the Internet in 10 years or less. Good by OS's and browsers as we know them.

Because if they don't, the game will die.

No, only the people who don't know how to "play the economic game" will die. If you have an understanding of business and economics, and you come to SL to "play that game" then you have a much higher chance of success then the Econ 101 student who is trying to combine their classwork and a way to pay for beer into a "business in SL"

Or, alternatively, people who have no intention of playing the economic game, or don't care about it that much, will survive.

Well, nobody will die either way, but a few people might quit.

My only problem with rasing sale prices(of items im selling) to adjust to the Linden Value is that i'll lose some sales. The value of the linden is dropping but not everyone knows this, people may look at the price and think "why so much?" and then there's a lost sale because they won't understand that prices are adjusted accordingly. Of course there's always notecards, banners, and other things I could make to inform people but if everyone doesn't adjust their prices, they'll go elsewhere to buy.

Also, people who've paid higher amounts of USD for a more valued Linden Dollar back when it had greater value have lost profit, anyone who bought 100K of linden in the past for L$270/$1USD could've got L$115555 for today's L$312/$1USD. So now they have 100K of linden worth $320.51 USD when they paid $370.37USD for it in the past.

Summary:

Buying 100K;

L$100K @ L$270/$1USD = $370.37USD (in the past)

L$100K @ L$312/$1USD = $320.51USD (Now)

Price Difference = $49.86USD

Those who purchased in the past were screwed if they've been saving it.

It is advertised that you CAN make a profit. Kinda like how it is advertised that you CAN buy real estate with nothing down etc. Nobody ever said that it would be easy, or that the profits would be large.

My profits have been pretty large until recently when the economy has gone all out of whack. I've paid off a semester through second life.

You know what the most powerful money maker ever is? an Idea, or many idea's, and then the knowledge to put those idea's into motion and to generate the physical working form of those idea's.

White Wolf make Vampire: the Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Neither is competative to everyone. Neither have a 'winning condition.' Both are -still- games.

SL therefore can be classified as a game. As for the Lindens..well I'll believe it when I see Havok2 by 1.7

SL -is- a game. It just isn't -only- a game.

Oh, and *cough*

game 1 (gm) KEY

NOUN:

1. An activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime: party games; word games.
   

This would make SUCH a perfect sig line!

It's a massively multiuser software environment with content creation and trade with emphasis is on entertainment.

In terms of its economy, as with every facet of SL, "To each his own."

There are freebies for nearly everything. Nobody says they vastly undermine economic growth.

If you want to make real life currency in SL, you should price in terms of RL currency.
If you play as a game, then price in terms of whatever moves you. One would wonder why you're reading this forum if you don't care (all are welcome yadda yadda).

The economy WILL fluctuate. If it stayed the same, the value of real money would decrease (at various rates) and that in itself would change the value of the Linden... at varous rates worldwide.

Compare Linden inflation to the price of gas and be glad you don't have to drive to Second LIfe every morning. See? Everybody saves!

I agree. I have so many ideas, and so little time.

This is definately a plus. It's a shame consumers couldn't do what a certain airline did and buy fuel before it went up, to pump later.