Latest trends in SL economy (shopping)

Many many many moons ago LL did just that... assigned first land. I still have the email I was sent in Feb of 2004 telling me where my first land was, set to sale to me only, for $L512.

Apparently, that program, like most things SL, wasn't scalable.

Anshe, btw, also deals in IMVU credits as well as having her(their*) fingers in PE's "real world economy" (**cough sputter cough**).

This year was the first year I actually sold my created content in SL. Prior I had a habit of simply giving anything I made to anyone who wanted a copy, since I never came to SL with dreams of "Making RL Income", but rather was enticed by the concept of "Your World. Your Imagination" (a concept that seems to be dying a terribly slow death).

My grandfathered stipend of $L500/week pays my premium membership, my very meager sales offset the price of my mainland tier. Finally, after 4 years, I no longer pay LL a cent to be here. So that now my ultimate goal in SL is to not have to pay anything to the company that created it. Smart marketing there LL.

Nor do I spend very much shopping anymore. Hardly ever did actually.

IMHO, the thing that LL reallllly dropped the ball on with SL was promoting the level of creativity possible here that is possible no where else. They sacrificed the dream of creating a world of imagination on the alter of The Almighty Corporate Dollar.

You, the average dreamy-eyed content creator, creating simply for the love of the unique medium, are never going to be able to compete with LL revised direction for SL (ie: from world of imagination to world of corporate business). Nor does LL give a rat's poop if the economy for content creators is such to allow them to make a decent profit, because that's not the ultimate goal for LL.

The ultimate goal for LL for this platform is to get big business to pay them to use it for advertising.

You, dear content creator, are simply making the sales pitch more attractive.

The best LL can do for you to stimulate the economy is to artificially adjust the value of their valueless currency thru Supply Linden and flood the world with land for the land barons to squabble over when prices get too high. We see how well that's working.

Had LL kept to it's original concept and placed Imagination as the pinnacle of their platform, perhaps the labor of your creative efforts would bear more fruit. Maybe you could have even had some fun while doing it.

I came to SL on the back of the Anshe story, and wondered about the possibilities of earning here, however it only took a couple of weeks to realise that to make money here it's a full time commitment and also speculative too. So I settled down to the social aspects and made quite a few good friends.

It's only recently I started creating content on any scale and even though I only sell it for fractions of a penny, it's the fact that people buy it that satisfies me enough.

The odd thing I've noticed is that my items between L$20 and L$50 sell much better than items below that range, also if I make bespoke items I just ask for a tip and I usually get given between 400% to a 1000% more than I would ask for it.

I honestly believe that no intention to go this way. Really. I think that they originally wanted the dream world of imagination. But the problem is, their hosting model wasn't designed to handle that.. and so the problems dominoed forward. And they could hardly take the entire world offline for 6 months while they rebuilt the entire server architecture.

SL has to be capitalist (because it depends on resources from the real world), and capitalism is about efficiency, and efficiency isn't kind to creativity. I mean, for example - I know that the makers of certain scripted gadgets are wilfully holding back on implementing certain features because if they went all-out, and created everything they (legally) could, they could leave every other scripter with nothing left to create and/or no motivation to create anything. Essentially, they're having to oppose some capitalist principles (and give up some of their own gain) to try and keep the dream - that a creative person could come to SL, make something, and experience an "American dream" success spiral - alive. But if someone entered that market at maximum efficiency - then most likely they would devastate that situation for scripters.. but consumers would cheer, because that's what they do when efficiency increases and who can blame them? All they know is that they can now get more for less money.

It's even been suggested elsewhere that LL are courting big brands because being out-competed by Sony or AA or Microsoft doesn't run the risk of triggering psychological damage in the same way that being out-competed by someone who started at the same time as you did and learned in the same environment! (Yes, I know that "let's hide the successful people, so the worse people's feelings aren't hurt" sounds really pathetic, but unlike real life, SL is a product that LL have to market - if SL makes a person feel bad and untalented, will they continue to use it? Will they be keen to put money into it?)



How could they possibly do that, though?

LL did, in fact, used to give free space and things to people who had imaginative builds they liked. Naturally, of course, the growth of SL quickly far outstripped the Lindens' ability to pay attention to everyone until there was a common perception that only certain people were "favoured by the Lindens" and got significant advantages for it - this was the source of the original FIC complaints. So, LL stopped doing it. There was no scalable replacement.

Pie, I'm a latecomer, so I don't have your perspective. But I can tell you that, from my point of view, SL is still exciting, still magic.

I see the warts, I'm not blind. I spit upon Corporate America and laugh at them and at LL when they come here and fall on their faces. I rail at the foolish decisions, the clumsy policy announcements, the instabilities.

But at the same time...

I'm meeting tons of new friends, learning a million new things, having a ball creating things, buying gorgeous fashions, teaching, helping...

I see some of the creations of others, from Galactica, Svarga, and Avilion to my friend's friend's lush and soothing gardens, and I'm blown away. I'll never create like that, but I'm not jealous. I do what I can, and strive to do better.

Maybe you need a break. Or anything that helps you put aside that cynicism and look at SL again through a newcomer's eyes. The magic is still there. It can still be "Our World, Our Imagination."

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New SLyear!
Lindal Kidd

This may be a radical viewpoint, but I honestly don't think a few ideas from the marketing effort or which customers are courted makes terribly much difference.

Or at least, not these.

Maybe if they used "Your kinks, your psychological issues explored!" or "Scam with anonymity!" it would have some impact.

But I'd like to propose a daring idea: it doesn't really make a damn bit of difference how it's blandly marketed.

Cold-calling corporations... again, so what. It doesn't matter who you solicit, really.

We are still 10 years early, before car dealerships or soda manufacturers will be expected to have a presence here. That's the difference: you *expect* a car company website. You don't expect a metaverse presence. Yet.

* * * * *

Here's where reality meets virtuality: you don't get something for nothing.

Seriously folks, asking for a good economy is like asking for it to rain money. No blue fairy is going to wave a wand and make that happen. Asking the service provider to do that isn't going to work. They don't control everyone's wallet. We do.

And the fact that certain other worlds exist is proof that you can have a world that is embarrassingly technologically backward or crashy far more than SL, and you can still survive.

Want a good economy? It's effort, it's commitment, it's up to you.

When I got started, every market I touched was already dominated (houses, land) far more so by known SL industry heavyweights than it is today. I simply tried hard and didn't give up.

It isn't the big industries that destroy SL businesses, and blaming the service provider is a huge cop-out. The real dreamkiller is that internal voice that keeps whispering: 'give up... give up...' because let's face it, it takes effort to succeed.

Edit: incidentally, I'm going to be on with Mitch Wagner at Dr Dobbs island at 10am SLT today, I think live on voice (I've never done anything quite like this before) if anyone wants to say hi.

That would be true if this was the real world, but the problem is that Second Life has a whole extra layer of psychology that mean that a lot of the real world models don't apply anymore. The key is that _the real world doesn't have to sell itself_. Most people in real life will not kill themselves if they don't get exactly the life they wanted. They will stay alive, contributing to the economy, contributing to the social life, doing the necessary tasks that others didn't want to do. On the other hand most people will not think twice of saying that, if Second Life doesn't give them what they want, they'll stop using it.

Every economist knows about the problem of undesirable but necessary jobs. Everyone wants clean toilets, but nobody wants to clean them. In a world where anyone who is told to clean toilets can simply "quit the world" and go and do something else, that becomes a huge problem.

And the sad truth is there is a huge and negative perception in SL, that has resulted in "putting in real money from your own pocket" being seen by many residents, old and new, as being the equivalent of cleaning SL's toilets.

There is no way to remove the need for real money to be provided, so what's needed is to change its status, with all of the social upheaval that may well result in.

So I guess you're right, but you've exposed your own paradox. If it really is possible to build a profitable business by hard work... then the lazy people are the ones paying for SL for all of us. How long will they continue doing so, if all SL does for them is to put them at the bottom of the heap and tell them that they are lazy?

Very, very true.

LL's marketing can only be blamed to a degree, but they can't force us to spend our money. They can make it more reliable so that the avid shoppers will not fear losing their inventory, but the penchant to spend is not something they can really control. Again, there has been a massive influx of people who just do not want to pay any money, to LL or otherwise, if they can swing it. I'll use Elora's boyfriend as an example. He earns inworld, but has to have teeth pulled to go shopping.

Many people come here and want to make money inworld and they want to cash out. Hence the rise of the BIAB. Someone will buy this stuff... how many, I don't know, but someone will.

Those that are creative have to really fight - with money and time - to get noticed in a world that is already filled with content creators and generic BIABs. A lot of people give up or feel like it. Sometimes it takes throwing even more money at the problem to make it work - that is what happened to me. The problem is that we all straddle the line of "it's a game" or "it's a business." And when you treat it like a business, and give it the time and money that it needs, it should grow. I'm not saying spend 90k on a classified ad, although that would certainly increase visibility. But aggressive marketing is something that the vast majority of creators/businesses here don't do.

But there IS nobody on the "bottom of the heap" in SL, Yumi. Campers, of course, but that's their choice. There ARE no dirty, necessary jobs. And anybody can, for a very few dollars (a hell of a lot fewer than in RL) have the kind of life that most people only dream of...a big house, on the water, fast cars and boats, beautiful women and men, partying every night, shopping every day. Not to mention the ability to travel the world for free, instantly.

Sure, the content creators get paid by the consumers. And they may feel superior, and perhaps rightly so. But there's no motivation for the consumers to leave, except for things like stability issues. They've come for fun, and fun is here to be had.

Bottom line: There are only two things of value in SL: "land" (server space and CPU cycles) and intellectual property...either in tangible form like a house or a texture or script or a dress...or in less tangible form like a live music performance, or an escort's creativity in texting. LL has a lock on the first, although if you're clever you can be a middleman and make a profit by selling or renting real estate. Creative people provide the second. Everyone else must pay cash.

Um.. you seem to be trying to draw some kind of value equivalence between these things in RL and these things in SL and.. well, that's just not correct. It doesn't work that way, I'm afraid.

The attitude that many newbies have is that if you put even a few dollars into SL, then a gold-plated mansion and a private yacht is the very _minimum_ you should expect, because that's the percieved exchange rate between real money and virtual goods. And given that, getting those things by putting in real money doesn't feel like success or anything special. Do you feel special and successful because you purchased a can of Coca-Cola for 75c this morning?



Is there fun to be had _by putting in money_, though? By putting in money _continuously_?



And there's your fallacy. When you say "you must pay cash"; they say "Uninstall Second Life". What keeps them there?

In my experience, yes. Many people find the shopping experience in Second Life as entertaining as shopping in real life, but for a fraction of the cost. For them, the "putting in money continuously" part is a feature; not a bug.

I've had several friends who gave up at orientation island. Only one made it past there and she's never been a gamer so she found the learning curve too overwhelming and dropped out quickly.

SL appears to be either too dull or too difficult. It probably will always be dull to the gamers, but it needs to stop being so difficult for the noobs if it's ever going to have real growth.

What, exactly, was so difficult? It is not as if they teach you how to build there. Learning how to speak? Or walk? Or dress yourself? Maybe I'm just jaded since I played text based games for years and understood basic movement like N, E, S, W. Flying? Yeah, it's tough to get the hang of at first, but is it that hard to figure out that you should tap the keys lightly?

As a two month old, I would just like to offer some insights....I have a home, a beautiful home from Serenity Falls. My partner and I have three pieces of land... I am building and one piece of land will have my new workshop on it. We have landscaped, visited other worlds etc. My first two weeks were spent at freebie locations and standing on a camping dance ball. It was hard to get "into" life in SL...If there was a mentoring system. A one on one newbie help. Just a hour or two a week to show a newbie what you have done and what can be accomplished I think it would help. As for spending... I am a shopaholic. I use the search but I tend not to use the first page but go back to the 3rd or 5 th page. I like the smaller shops.

I am not a gamer...this is my first time, I think I found my home

There are lots of mentors in the world, but it's very difficult to offer one-on-one help simply because there are so many new people coming in.

Also, it's difficult to show what can be accomplished.. if you show someone something you've made, for every 3 people who are inspired that it was possible to accomplish, there is 1 who will feel useless because they think you're better than them.

Well, they do have a sandbox there with a bunch of billboards that show you the basics of building, but leave out any information that might help you build anything useful. I'm a FPS gamer from back in the days of Half Life and Doom (The first Half Life, lol - back in the days before the gravity gun), so basic movement wasn't a big deal, but I found a lot of the concepts extremely difficult - attaching a functional AO, understanding the culture of Sl, figuring out how not to look like that guy who just tp'ed in from orientation, where to go, what to do, why camping and surveys are crap, etc. I was so frustrated with getting my AO to work that I almost quit. My home was set to Ahern, which is an absolute zoo. Every time I tried to hang out there and figure out how the hell SL worked, I was attacked by something that rezzed millions of pictures of gay porn or spongebob squarepants and then the sim crashed and I couldn't figure out how to log on anywhere else. I had no friends, nobody to ask how anything worked and I didn't know there was an in-world orientation island with mentors I could get help from. Never heard of NCI or the Ivory Tower of Prims.

Seriously, it can be really intimidating for new people. Especially if they are a little shy to start with and feel like they are acting stupid questions. I'm lucky I found these forums and had the guts to ask really dumb questions. I'm also lucky I have a stubborn streak wide enough to keep me going when I got frustrated and was all alone.

Well I am trying to be positive here...when I say MADE, I mean a home, friends etc not just builds. Showing someone what can be accomplished and the road to get there. Not just the final result.

There is more then just walking, speaking or walking that can be difficult in SL.
At least they have included how to use search with the Orientation Island's HUD.
The thing is not every one is virtual world or even tech savvy.
Some things in SL are very easy to do compared to other virtual worlds but there are some
things like around creating, finding things to do, even interacting that can be quite a challenge for some players.
What makes it even more difficult is the server issues, how some comprehend the information available, then add series and series of ghost town most newer residents see and all the little and big things like going to place with lot of Avatars but everyone being Zombified, griever attacks, numerous other things. If you add the amount of money
that can be lost in this world from making expensive mistakes it all adds up.
The more you spend the more risk of actually losing it to some stupid mistake with land or various transaction. If you make mistake SL isn't going to say, "Hey I am sorry here is the
500 usd you just lost in that bad land deal." And why should they? The thing is all this
adds up to bad feelings and burn out.
Luckily I stuck around long enough and kept trying but SL is only interesting to me because of the friends I have made, being able to be creative but even so their is limits with this.
I have spent personally all I want too. And it only make sense after a while where you don't want to put out more money for Lindens then you absolutely need too because of various reasons.
I am going to remain Premium but that's it for now for myself.
I am going to continue to learn and create but I pretty much know at this point my skills aren't going to compete with someone who is experienced Graphic Artist or 3D Content creator even if I tried.
Truthfully if I didn't have friends in SL that I do or was able to create I probably wouldn't find SL that interesting.
For those who like playing games like my boyfriend, he sees no real use for SL and has no interest in joining.

second life is a different experience, it is role playing but no winning or losing. There are those who see it as a pastime and those who see a chance to make money. It can be diffiuclt to learn all the finer points but the basics are pretty simple. Rmember there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers. getting Preferences set can help but what to set them at? Try different things, ask. You may have to ask 20 people but when you get that one friendly response it is worth it -- and is that so different from the "real" world?
Experiment, do role playing, try building but keep trying. You can't blow up anything.
If you are shy in real life be bold in SL, or if bold be shy. Be surprised what you can learn about yourself.
Always remember - behind every avatar is a human person and the range goes from nice to mean.

I'm talking specificially about Orientation Island and why people would quit at that point. I know that the advanced things are hard - land ownership, group powers, making money, etc. Those things are not dealt with on OI. I want to know what exactly is so difficult that people cannot pick it up on OI, other than maybe flying. Hell, I crashed before my tutorials were over and couldn't log back in because OI was full.

Honestly, I am not terribly dismayed at people falling off at OI. It may sound elitist, but if you cannot grasp simple things like chat or clothing layers, you are not going to have any fun as you should progress and will be a burden on others. Things like an AO - I didn't even know what that was until after weeks of walking around like a basic av. These things are not necessary, and shouldn't stress people out so soon in the game.

As for boxes... yeah, we all wear one at some point. BFD. Reading the pie chart on avatars or objects isn't rocket science. None of it is, but people get this glaze over their eyes when it comes to computers and words lose their meaning.

This something I've said numerous times, The Vaunted Learning Curve is a Myth . you aren't going to master SL in a week, of course, but isn't the learning part of the fun? I spent about 2 hours on OI when I joined, and hit the road. I was sent to Ahern, I think, and I just went from there. I wandered, read what was available on this site, and some in world stuff, found quiet spots and practiced, asked some questions and just plowed through. Even despite my general lack of interest in building and texturing, I've manged to pick up skills just from osmosis and necessity. There's too much "I want it now". Everyone wants to be a MasterbuilderLandBaronFashionDesignerMillionaire right off the bat.

I think that it's important in SL to get something to make you go "WOW!" early on, so that you don't mind the steep learning curve.

Orientation Island gives you an insight to a world full of noobs that is laggy as hell - hardly a good first impression.

The few RL people that I have brought into SL, I have got them off Orientation Island QUICKLY and brought them to a quiet and pretty part of the grid. Somewhere we can learn about real simple things like moving, bumping into things, how to chat, how to IM, etc, without the lag and without the crush of people. Often just that first glimpse of the place is a "wow" and then, just when they get used to it, you show them how to fly, and you get another true "wow" sensation.

I have brought three people into SL in total, and they are utterly hooked. One is well past the 3-month stage, the other two are a couple of weeks in.

In terms of the classes of citizen, I don't think there is ANY shame in "pay-to-play" - it's certainly not like cleaning toilets - I really don't see that analogy! I am lucky - I have found my niche in-world and can make my own play-money without having to bring any in, but knowing what I know about SL now, if I stopped earning in SL tomorrow, then once my money ran out I would put a few dollars into my Linden account and still enjoy SL without feeling in any way inferior.

QFFT!

When I first came in SL during beta I was really really overwhelmed.
I couldn't do much because the lag was so bad.
With my 3rd Alt I actually tried to use OI as sand box for tiny bit but it wouldn't let me
save or attach anything I had built while being OI.
When I returned last year I was really confused...it took a while and some kind people
to help me get to point I am. If it hadn't been for those people I don't know if SL would
have had been appealing.
Thing is attitude well if they can't figure it out then they should go or if they don't spend two thousand dollars or more month they should go type of attitude would drive most new people away

I don't expect anyone to spend 2k a month here. I certainly don't!! And I encourage newbies to take advantage of stuff that is free. There are many quality free things out there that are great starters. But after some time, if they love the place, they should move beyond these things and contribute something to this world - monetarily would be nice, but if it's just art that keeps people coming back, great!

But as for the figuring it out part - you eventually got it, even with some help. But if someone gets so frustrated so quickly that they quit at OI, they would never be happy here, because the stuff that truly IS difficult to grasp will make their second lives a nightmare should they ever broach it.

I am very shy and dont have a clue about gaming or computers. I waited almost a year before I first bought land and then was still scared too. What I found I enjoyed the most was the interaction of everyone and the different countries that they lived in.

I did hear that some people come in to earn money, but had also noticed when they do they soon disappear along with a bit of their rl money. I think the first thing we need to do is just to enjoy being in here and the people we meet. My advice would be to have a wonderful time and if you want to build and sell do that for fun too. If for some reason you are lucky enough to find that special niche that makes you millions more power to you, but dont count on it or you will soon see money slipping from your hands. It's not the money, its the people. Enjoy them!!

Happy Holidays to all