camping, pathetic or productive?

I was (and am) asking *why* someone would prefer to do that. I am trying to understand the appeal.

But you know, the cost I'm thinking of isn't even money. It's the time spent *not* doing any of the million creative, engaging and social things SL has to offer.

I kind of think it's a vicious cycle. You decide that SL isn't all that interesting, so you don't want to invest, so you camp for L$. But camping takes so much time to accumulate much money at all that you don't go out and explore the world, and therefore, you never find the things that would make SL interesting enough to put some money into so you can go do things rather than camp.

But you know, the cost I'm thinking of isn't even money. It's the time spent *not* doing any of the million creative, engaging and social things SL has to offer.

You can see everything in SL for free and there are tons of freebies availible to get you started, certainly to the point where you can decide if SL is entertaining enough for you to spend your money on.

Brash, my question was directed specifically to the one person who said they would not bother with SL if they couldn't get everything free. It wasn't about camping in general, it was how someone makes the decision that the platform is not worth spending a few dollars on but is worth spending several hours of idle time to get the same amount of in-world money.

I was not asking about what's been covered all through the thread, which I have been following.

I see this an awful lot - comparing "SL without any L$" to a trial period - but the problem is, it doesn't quite work that way.

The difference is that when you decide to put your money into SL, you get to spend that money on items.. but then that's it. It isn't like a traditional game (yes, I know SL is not considered a game, but it still competes with them) where, once you've paid the money, you get everything that the game has to offer - or maybe you have to "earn" it by some in-game method, but you don't have to put in any more real money, and you will eventually either have it all or stop caring about the game (and if you don't care about the game, you don't care about not having the content).

Users who have some kind of regular in-world income might find it easy to forget about this, but it can be a killer downsell for the world. The fact that they can put in money to buy parts for a lovely new avatar - but that no matter how much money they put in, they will _never_ reach the stage where they can freely create any avatar they want - because the individual parts will always have a price tag. Not only that, but the more avatars they do create, they more they will have to pay, which is tantamount to telling them they should create as few as possible.

Camping offers a route to that, because (it seems to the new user that) there's always more money available from camping. It provides that elusive "eventually, I'll have it all" property.

I half wish that LL would sell L$-only subscriptions, but I know there are a lot of issues with the way LindeX works preventing them doing that.

I can spend all that time because I AFK camp a lot. I usually listen to podcasts in the other room while camping. No I don't think I could do it if I had to spend the entire time tethered to the computer.

As for why I wouldn't pay for the entertainment I'm getting from SL, while I do find exploring SL entertaining I don't find it more entertaining then the other games I could be buying. At free SL is pretty compelling, once I have to start investing real money into it then I have to decide if I want to buy that awesome bunch of avatars or that 10$ XBLA game. Personally I'm gonna buy the XBLA game, but that is just me.

Edit: I guess the thing is I'm not a real SL'er, like some of you guys. I'm not here to build awesome stuff or to socialize. I'm here to sight-see, and look at all the awesome stuff others have made.

If they are adults who would be able to pay: Why are they unable to calculate the electricity costs of their PC? Someone who camps for hours on end, possibly over night, pays more for the needed electricity than they'd have to pay if they bought the earned amount of L$ on the LindeX.

By the way ...if the place doesn't pay or doesn't pay what is advertised I just move on to somewhere else to camp, not go around stamping my feet a making a fuss. I guess I'm not the typical camper because I'm not going around whining about "not getting money owed to me". -_- I haven't notice any of that, are these tantrums happening a lot in the forums?

As for the other things? I'm figuring.. they don't see it that way. Exploring - they want to join in themselves, not just look at all the neat things that other people have and they can't afford. And creative things - they don't feel they can do them, and the sad, brutal truth is that statistically they're probably right.

Afford isn't really the proper term in this case. Campers aren't poor (in the "I can't afford food or a home" sense) in RL, they can buy things just fine, they just don't want to.

True point. If you can afford a high-end computer and a broadband connection, a couple of bucks for a few hundred Lindens isn't exactly going to kill you.

Afford isn't really the proper term in this case. Campers aren't poor (in the "I can't afford food or a home" sense) in RL, they can buy things just fine, they just don't want to.

Hrm, but that really isn't true for any MMO Yumi. You pay a *monthly fee* or you don't play at all. And that is in addition to paying for the game, at first.

I mean, I understand if people don't want to spend a lot of money in SL. But things in SL don't cost much, really. A few dollars for most of the things people want like avatars, skins, clothing, gagets, animations. Sure it can add up but it's like anything, you don't spend what you don't have. If you spend the equivalent of a WoW subscribtion every month you would have plenty.

I really do think it's the mentality that this is a game that makes people do the equivalent of "farming for gold" instead of just spending a few bucks for the avatar or whatever. These things are just add-ons, no one just logs into SL to shop and look at themselves and then log out (I hope, lol). People use SL to socialize or build or script or dance or whatever they find amusing.

Waste of resources? Normal camping chairs create little to no lag. Most are a single timer that activates on sit. Pretty efficient in SL.

Taken out of context for sure.
Sorry Yumi, all the silly ban this or that polls are getting to me.