Latest trends in SL economy (shopping)

I just looked... what are they doing selling things for 100L? rofl.

But I see what you mean. Holy cow, the prim counts are so high.

The problem is that as a "3D chatroom plus shopping", Second Life loses out to other platforms which have been built from the ground up for that purpose. IMVU for example is exactly that, and marketed that way... except you don't have to pay for land (you effectively host your own house, but since you're limited to only using it for chat - there's no scripting or physics - the load required for hosting is far less than SL), and you _can_ get free money because of their predits system. SL will have a much harder time competing in that market, and doing so could require some painful economic changes. (I feel that SL merchants probably wouldn't like being told "someone bought your item with the 'promotional' L$ that we hand out for free, so you don't get any of those L$, but you do get a free texture upload". That is what IMVU developers get, and it's deemed necessary to "hook people in"..)

I think the main issue, is that many people see the "killing and maiming" on the computer as actually more functional, because it is antisocial and thus is something you could not possibly do with real people. On the other hand, when it comes to just chatting online, they argue that you can talk to real people so why not do that?

Of course social networking sites are becoming popular, but those are usually strongly tied to RL and Second Life can't easily do that without a lot of risk..

Yes, but how likely are you able to fly a space shuttle, walk around a giant kitchen while you're the size of a mouse, go scuba diving, or fly through a jungle? It may just be virtual, but it's a whole lot of fun. Going to a baseball game online would be pretty much at the bottom of my list.

Yesterday I met a Dutch person who loves to go to SL, in part, because speaking to people helps her improve her English language skills. Plus she was wearing a super hat that you probably wouldn't be caught dead in RL.
You don't have to be a basement dweller to want to go in-world.

I just did a brief investigation of IMVU including downloading the software, creating a guest account, and looking over their FAQ. While it is fairly adequate for chatting, the abilities on it do not compare to Second Life. They seem to have a 'credit' system where you buy in world money with real money, but I don't see any way to transfer those credits back into real money. The avatar customization doesn't seem to be on par with Second Life either, of course I didn't try buying any of the customized avatars, but I know that a newbie in SL can make a much better avatar for free. I couldn't seem to move my avatar around at all in IMVU; I could only click on furniture and sit on it or pan around the chatroooms with the viewing options. They don't seem to have voice. My window would not run in full screen mode, although I'm sure there was a setting for it somewhere.

Linden Lab cannot throw free money at newbies because of the gaming of the systems that goes on in SL; registration is open and free. It would appear that the credits cannot be turned into real money, so I see nothing wrong with IMVU throwing free credits at new players to get them hooked. Second Life members can easily camp, get a job, or use hippie pay (depending on the country they are from) for free money.

I think the biggest problem with marketing SL as a place to chat with friends (for free) is the system requirements. Yahoo! is one of the only few places I can think of that has free text chat AND voice (not to mention email). You can run Yahoo! chat on a 10 year old machine with little to no problems. IMVU's system requirements are much much lower than SL's which gives them an advantage in that area. http://www.imvu.com/catalog/web_info.php?section=Info&topic=specs
IMVU also has a buddy list/messenger much like Yahoo's or Myspace's that runs while you are in the chatrooms. That wouldn't be a bad idea for Second Life.

If I were to try these two things out a year ago one after the other, I would choose Second Life. I am now uninstalling IMVU from my computer, lol. The reason I want them to attract people with the lure of free chatting & profiles is that it is a common thing to do on the internet. Playing house is not something that I think would entice the common internet goer or gamer. Once they have been 'tricked' into thinking Second Life is just a chatroom, they can be blown away with all of the other things there are to do here such as scripting, role playing, shopping, exploring, dancing, listening to music, watching videos, and zoMg..having pixel sex! -gasp-

Here are some commercials on Youtube that I found for Second Life. I am doubting if they are real or were actually broadcast on tv, but they are fairly entertaining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6o_nkOD1no&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFj-sqipgwc&NR=1

Has anyone else seen any commercials for Second Life? I want to see what the new people are seeing. When I came here, it was through word of mouth on Yahoo.

Exactly, but these things aren't being advertised to the general populace. There has to be a way to get them in, and LL isn't doing a great job of doing it in my opinion. The fact that i am still here after a year is proof it can be done. I'm as pedestrian as they come as far as this stuff goes.

You have to create your own webstore to sell them, undercutting the company's own rate - as at http://imcredits.com/. Selling credits isn't an advertised feature but there is no risk API and no rules against such sales, so it's a matter of taking it into your hands, it seems.



That is the consequence of the focus on being "a 3d chatroom with shopping".. and of the need to minimize hosting effort. I'm not saying that IMVU is in any way a replacement for SL, nor do I particularly like it - only that it shows the difficulty (and the potential consequences) of marketing SL purely as a chatroom.

The average non-SL user, though, just won't engage with any of these. "You didn't go scuba diving, you just moved a pretend person around on the computer while the screen was all blue." From the typical "mainstream" point of view, doing these things on SL is no better than watching a video of them. I can't say I support that, but that's how many people seem to think of it.

Moreover.. a) if you want to go scuba diving on the computer you can buy a scuba diving game and go diving with unlimited different diving suits for free (after buying the game), treasure to find, etc.. and b) unless you're paying L$ every time you go diving, the person running the diving site is paying for it from their own pocket.

What I have found myself is that there is _no_ single activity on SL that, alone, would keep me in SL. What keeps me in SL is the variety and diversity and the ability to share a community between those multiple activities. But not everyone stays around long enough to find that out and some people would rather do have one thing done really well.

Age Verification has halted my spending.

I don't want to spend because I do not know how long I will remain as when IAV is turned fully on... the grid may be a place I do not want to be in anymore. So YES, age verification has impacted at least one person's spending.

I'll send you a landmark when I'm back in-world

Point is well made, though. There are a huge number of really interesting areas on SL that can keep you entertained without ever setting foot in a shop. It's a shame so few people are moved to explore them.

Of course it's not like being in the real world. Of course it's virtual. So is reading a book or watching TV but no one objects to people spending hours doing that!

I don't think that many of these places advertise themselves enough to get found without the word of mouth that brings them there. Kart racing, for example. How does one know to find it other than by word of mouth? Where to go sailing, or surfing? You get people inworld who come across something cool on private property, like a surfboard, and can't use it. Granted, I understand the need for balance against using private property, but at the same time, we can't be so stodgy about it. I mean, I don't want noobs having sex in my bed, but I don't mind them looking in to see my cozy Asian decor.

Oh, where can I fly an Eagle? I loved that show. I agree, in that any money I spend in SL is entertainment money, it expendable income so I really don't think much about it. I don't consider it an investment in anything.

*How cool would a Gerry Anderson Sim be where you could fly an Eagle, or maybe Thunderbird 2, or dress up in one of those Moonbase costumes with the purple pageboy hairdo?*

I'm sure there are excellent scuba builds in-world. However, what I posted was not how _I_ see it, but how the average _outsider_ sees it. The average outsider can't just be given a landmark. (And that's a big flaw in SL, IMHO - if only the viewer could be condensed, so that you could just give someone a URL and a mini-viewer would pop up as part of a web page, with an anonymous avatar for them and no need for an account creation process..)

In any case, their point is not that the graphics are unspectacular but that at the end of the day, you are just watching things on a screen. To a large majority of "mainstream" people, to even have used the phrase "going scuba diving" to describe the SL activity has already marked you out as strange, and even worthy of being insulted - I've seen it happen

I know it's been said a million times, but it's sad that SL only really appeals to a small part of the population. Gamers hate the crappy graphics, chatters hate the learning curve, parents hate the smut, and corporations hate the economy. The rest of us realize that at the end of the day, it's just a place to play. What I would love to see is more stuff like this:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/11/a_likeness_of_markey_will_address_climate_change_meeting/

That's not a bad idea, but how do you deal with the inflationary effect on the L$ economy and the L$ to US$ exchange rate? Basic (free) account holders used to get stipends of 50L$ before June 2006 for weeks that they logged in. Based on the current weekly login numbers that would be about 21,000,000 L$ added to the economy each week above and beyond current sources?

You could add sinks, but unless they were carefully constructed, they would fall hardest on the new resident population. Finally, since LL began printing and selling L$, they have a disincentive to increase the L$ injected into the economy, as every "free" L$ is one they can't sell and make US$ on.

I don't know that there is a good answer to this.



Any suggestions? I'm not trying to be sarcastic. I just don't know what you think could be done that is not already done.



I don't see how that is possible. I can tell you personally, I would fight it tooth and nail on behalf of NCI.



As long as LL has their servers in Texas and California, valid gaming licenses in other countries won't make a difference as far as LL's liablity is concerned.



LL does not invest L$ in their infrastructure. They don't pay people in L$. And adding taxes would certainly not stimulate the economy.

However--one thing that a transaction tax could do is create an offsetting sink that would allow for payment of stipends to new residents. It would also make all 0L$ transactions become 1L$ transactions, eliminating freebies.

This--of course--screws the new resident most.



The Lindex already plays the role of a central bank in the SL economy, as far as regulating the money supply. However, if you ask LL to get involved in regulating individual player-run "banks" and "stock exchanges" you immediately run into two problems.

1) It would cost LL a lot of time and money (US$ money). Where does it come from? Do they raise rates?

2) SL "banks" and "stock exchanges" may actually be illegal under, or subject to regulation under, existing US laws.

I think this is a rare misstep by Anshe Chung. 10L$ items are effectively trying to compete in the high end of the freebie market.

Anshe Chung = Walmart + real estate agency = Wal-estate lol

IMVU used to be my "hangout" before finding out about SL. And it is just that a "3-D chatroom plus shopping". But the economy has deflated there as well when it comes to content creation. In April, they took out almost all adult related items from their catalog. "Bits" and furniture with poses, ect were wiped out due to the fear that kids (under 1 could get their hands on a c.c., buy an adult pass and purchase these items. Content creators were promised a refund but it didn't come in the $$ spent to upload.
Buying items on there is also more expensive than SL. This includes buying their credits.
Avatars don't walk, just stand or sit where the content creator chooses to put the pose.

Second Life in my opinion is a lot more than just a 3-D chatroom.

Ok, my curiosity got the better of me, and I went to the IMVU Homepage. Besides the kewpie doll looking avatars that make me long for Ruth, this line from the page made me say, "No thanks":*But with IMVU you create your own avatars who chat in killer 3D scenes.* Killer 3D scenes? Like, Oh my God, totally! I can see why they'd be worried about kids getting their hands on adult content, the place seems aimed for kids.

It is aimed at teens. The majority of my adults friends there are now gone, all that's left are teens.

but it's funny how many people I talked to on there, and asked them if they've ever played second life. the majority said they never even heard of it, the rest said they couldn't run it on their computers.

When the WWW. Internet and the ability to write & receive emails were first launched it was also poo poo'd by the general public!! Nowadays 100's of millions if not billions connect to the Internet for one reason or another......yes even those that constantly diss Second Life and similar programs.

In time as more and more Virtual Worlds will spring up then 3D engagement & interaction will be quite the norm. Its' an education process and it might take a decade or so to change people's perception, but it will happen. The possibilities to do things in this 3D format are endless. Linden Labs has merely scratched the surface!

I don't forsee LL being a major player in that enviroment, I believe it will take a heavyweight Corp with money and resources to develop a standard platform that becomes portable worldwide (someone like Google maybe). LL will always be reognised as the pioneers.....but that's about it.


As for the declining 2nd life economy.....i don't have any solutions that are quick fix and feasable. I do think removing of 1st Land , gambling & other things discussed here have added to the decline which might be hard to rebound from.

lag- double posting

I wonder how many JIRA votes it would take before LL reinstituted First Land?

Never. LL would have to ASSIGN the land for it to work, and hell will freeze over before that happens.