Latest trends in SL economy (shopping)

The new "search all" page is definitely not going to help anyone's business except for those few people on the front page or so of the results,

and the top 10 classified ads with that keyword.

I know that and you know that, and a lot of forum readers now know that .. but we are still a small percentage of the population. Mr and Mrs average newbie will still be sucked in by that first page of search, get disappointed and leave I believe unless Linden sort out this 'fixing'

I hope so. I hope also that the current better-than-average creators will go back through their ranges. I've personally been so disappointed with hopelessly mis-matching front/back seams I've knocked one much-publicized creator here off my list

You say that like it's a common occurance, and I highly doubt that it is. I'm really not sure where this myth is coming from but I do believe it's a myth and nothing more. There seems to be a much higher bias against content creators than the other way around, considering how often statements like the above are bandied about. It's depressingly common to hear content creators described as greedy, arrogant, snobbish, and so on, but I've yet to ever hear a content creator describe consumers as being somehow inferior. That would be amazingly stupid if it actually happened.

I'm a noob - just a little over a month old - and I have no problem buying Lindens to get the stuff I want, whether it's a little bit of land or a really beautiful skin or a nice piece of furniture for my house.

I enjoy shopping in the $1 stores and well-organized freebie places but I know that when I want something really special it's going to cost me a couple hundred Linden. I could never earn that much camping (I'd die of boredom anyhow, sitting around is not why I enjoy SL), and SL is enough of a time suck already without investing more time into getting really good at building. So for now I just buy Linden. Even if I spend a couple of bucks on SL every week, that's just one less Starbucks coffee for me - I can live with that, it's money spent on entertainment, like going to the movies or renting a DVD or paying my cable bill. And it's been totally worth it - I'm having a great time, for about the same amount of money that I occasionally spend on a nice meal or on a book I never get around to reading.

I certainly don't think of myself as a loser for spending a few bucks on SL, though I suppose it's possible that others do. But I'm not stupid - I can see the difference between the crappy stuff at the freebie stores and the really nice things I actually spend money on. I know what kind of effort it would take to learn how to design my own nice things and I'm not able to give it that kind of effort right now.

I have made a few small items for myself, and maybe, in time, if I acquire the skills, I can think about trying to build things that are interesting and special enough to sell. But for now I'm content as a SL consumer.

I'm getting from this thread that I am unusual in feeling that way, though.



As I noted above, I quickly learned that the freebies were largely crap. I could see that the stuff I was wearing wasn't as nice as what everyone else was wearing, that my skin looked monotone and strange when everyone else's looked smooth and real, &c. My motivation to spend real $ was that I found I enjoyed shopping and wanted nice things - much like in RL, only SL stuff is much cheaper and tends to fit me better . Again, it seems I am not the norm.



This has been the biggest challenge for me, finding stores that sell the stuff I want to wear. I dress pretty modestly in SL - I just don't like the look of hotpants and tube tops, so sue me. I'm more comfortable in oxfords than in stilleto heels, and it turns out my avatar is too. I also like to dress my avatar in more elaborate stuff like Indian clothes, and I've found a few shops where I can get stuff like that - another reason to spend real money. But finding this forum has been a real boon for me to find new stores selling interesting stuff, and I'm developing a nice landmark collection.

Shopping is one of my favorite hobbies in SL. I even buy stuff I can make myself! Except I COULDN'T really make it myself, because that is that person's own imagination, not mine.

There is just so much imaginative wonderful stuff out there. I looked on SLExchange the other night for Christmas outfits, and was just blown away by the tremendous variety; some of them not so hot maybe, but many of them absolutely beautiful creations.

coco

I mostly buy clothes.. furniture and such I can make, I don't use weapons, and I don't generally use vehicles.

I'll buy some scripted gadgets, maybe a skin, etcetera

Lately though I've cut way back because I've been working on my own shop, some new ideas, learning sculpties and scripting, and most importantly spending time with my SL Family.

All in all I've spent quite a bit on clothes and accessories, probably around 300,000 L$ all told. Whenever I shop for clothes I get a couple of outfits, and accessories to match. I always use my own shape, and a skin I love, as well as eyes I made. I have two hair styles I switch between at the moment..need to shop for some more though...

Right now, my shopping is way down from what it was. I used to always be buying things, now its pretty rare due to my time spent with other ventures, time spent out of SL, and a bit of time just kinda..sitting ^_^

At the moment the thing I've spent the most on in the past couple weeks is a club that a friend introduced me to, I've donated probably 6000 there in donations and tips ^_^

Well... that's sort of true. I think it might happen as a result of misunderstanding though. If a content creators to says something like, "any person who works hard enough should be able to make at least some L$ on Second Life", they probably mean it to be encouraging, but saying that is also equivalent to saying anyone who isn't making L$ must be lazy.

Similar things can also be taken in the wrong way.. something like "I had no art experience when I came here and I still succeeded" may be taken by some people to imply "... but you still didn't, so I'm superior to you in some other way".

Essentially, encouraging people has to be done with care

I think it's more a case of some generalizations made based upon stereotypes that do exist, but probably in small numbers. Artists just create all they need, never buy from someone else, don't socialize, feel that they have a higher station in the SL strata. Business people are here to make profit solely, will do anything to make a Linden, don't really care about any other aspect, Scripters and other technically astute people are rigid, black and white thinkers wit no social graces, consumers and socializers are either lazy inept luddites, or vapid blingtards. There are people that meet these descriptions no doubt , but like any stereotype it is grossly exaggerated. But human nature is to paint groups with the same broad brush.

You sure are NOT alone in that.

I can't get into it too deep (personal promises and tact) but I know some content baronesses - modest decent clothing is an INSANE HUGE market.

I personally know of a situation where it has been worth well over 1000 USD/month, and a few other 'comfortable' (as it is politely put) content creators that have to be in that financial neighbourhood.

I can barely make textured socks from the user interface myself, but it sure hasn't been a bad thing to be involved inworld alongside some of these creators (Victorian stuff, for instance).

I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but I was talking about "newbies" in the strictest sense: those who are still stumbling around on OI/HI, or just barely made it to the mainland. I don't think filling their head with building and business stories on the off chance they'll be the 1-in-a- 1000 that can pull it off is what they really need the most at that point.

Except it isn't at all equivalent. Not even a little bit. Anyone who would hear that is projecting their own attitude, bias, or insecurity.

In my opinion, if you're in SL and want to make L$, and aren't, you ARE being lazy. Look at the employment forum. dancers and escorts are always needed, that gets some L$ right there! If you aren't good enough at content creation and want to do it, just work at it till you ARE good enough.. if you wanna make L$ and you arent well then yes. You're being lazy.

(The 'you' references in this post are meant as a general 'you person' kind of statement, not as an attack on an individual by any means)

I dunno Chip, some of that attitude has been projected over the years. (*definitely not by you)

Mainly towards people who complained they cant make any money in Second Life.

Theres also been a similar sentiment directed towards people who sell something that "anyone can make"

I surely don't feel everyone who tells someone to work harder or learn a skill to make money in Second Life is trying to imply that those who aren't making any are incompetent.

But Yumi has a point there has been SOME implication by many that if you cant make money in SL your are either Lazy or untalented, or both.

No, I think it does actually logically entail that.

1. Anyone who works hard enough can make money.
2. You have not made money.
3. Therefore you have not worked hard enough.

Pretty much a carry over from real life attitudes towards making money.

"If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"

Of course in RL it is even _less_ accurate, as SL does not have quite such instances of inherited wealth, social discrimination, geographical issues and so on. But it is still a popular fiction amongst those who have money, and I suppose does carry over; everyone less fortunate than I is only so because of some character flaw.

There's nothing logical about assuming someone is making a value judgment they didn't actually say, and that you couldn't know without psychic powers. For it to be logical to assert as a generality that most (or even many) content creators have that attitude, you'd have to know the disposition of a sufficient sample of content creators before you could draw any conclusions about how common or uncommon the attitude actually is. Since no such data exists (and a few notable prima donas doesn't constitute anything close to a sufficient sample size), the assertion can be written off for what it is - speculation without substance. No offense.

I am not making a statement about content creators; I am responding to the original assertion, which was that the statement "anyone can make money in SL if they work hard enough", while possibly meant in an encouraging way, in fact has the further implication "if you don't make money you haven't worked hard enough".

Do all content creators say this? Well, as one, I don't, so that disproves that, not that it was something that I claimed... in fact in my judgement most creators are quite smart enough to understand that there are other factors in play. There are a few who _do_ say that sort of thing though.

Well... yes, they are... um, and so? As I mentioned before.. if we're interested in selling more people on SL, we have to sell it to those people as they are, complete with all their flaws.

Would you, in real life, ever tell a woman who was short of money that she should become a stripper/prostitute? And that if she chose not to, it could only be out of laziness, so her lack of money was her own fault?

It is true that doing these things in Second Life does not carry the same kind of risk that it does in real life, but many users are equally uncomfortable with the idea (the reality is that they are still exchanging sexual interaction for money). I think it's likely that at least some new players would actually quit the world as a direct result of being exposed to this viewpoint, which in the real world would be considered misogynist in the extreme.



And that's the issue.. the problem is that there are aspects that you can't "work at", or at least that it's generally believed that you can't "work at". You can learn to make new prim shapes, but you can't learn to come up with a design that looks good given a finite set of prims - that's generally percieved as being in-born talent. That general perception might be wrong, but it is still the general perception, and people can hardly be blamed for following it.

QFT

and QFLOLs

Then there is host, dj, greeter, sales associate, realtor.. none of those involve sex and have basically the same pay as far as I can tell. And then there is still the 'Learn a trade' option I mentioned



But you can google images of anything quite literally and figure out how to make it into prims. You can ask people what they want made, and then make it into prims. If you're a scripter, see what needs to be done and do it. A texturer..well..thats usually either just random textures or specifically ordered textures. (I consider clothes a seperate skill from texturer)

You're focusing only on building. There are other tradeskills in this Life hon. An animator would be one of the easier ones to come up with ideas for.. just look at someone move.. then do it!! OMG! NEW ANIMS!! (Lol sorry)

Seriously, if you arent making money in SL, and you want to, it's quite simply you aren't trying hard enough in my opinion. You can learn a new skill, you can use very basic social skills, if you're not opposed to it you can use those wild fantasies everyone has to your advantage.

You can also google for "copyright infringement" and "intellectual property". Just because the web doesn't have permissions doesn't mean everything you find can be used however you want.

I didn't mean copyright infringement XD Need to be more specific


I personally have never made a design and then actually used that exact design. Googling things helps me come up with ideas, essentially I see something, and then figure out how to make it into prims, and then do my own thing. Make a shoe in SL and it will not likely look exactly like a shoe in RL. During the creation, most people (Unless I'm odd..really dunno on this one) will decide they want something other than the exact thing.

When I'm building, I follow a design until something seems like it needs to be there, then I add it in.

If I started with a Nike shoe, I would end up making something similar in prims, but I would not end with a nike shoe. I would end with something that is my own design, if only because I have my own building style. Noone can replicate my exact designs without literally copying settings. Its not possible, since people do things different ways.

Also, in the case of learning, most of the time you only have to worry about copyright infringement when you get better at it, at least for building since for it to be an exact design anyways it would have to be sculpted from images.

I know not all of that post makes sense... oh well

I read it as referring solely to textures, rather than the 'to have a "design image" to recreate (or to derive from)' you meant .