Why should I pay for playing?

What ticks me off about mainstream places that host INGO games is they make a ton of money with their hefty dwell, yet make the players pay (they call it donate) for the game. I don't get it.
Once in a while I will donate to a game that's hosted in an unpopular place, but the places that are on top of the list in the "Popular places" ? Seems ridiculous to me.

dwell was stopped months ago...and ingo games are just like gambling so you should put money in why win what others are putting in?

Hmm you may be right

Umm dwell/traffic hasnt paid anything in quite some time... landowners make NOTHING from hosting games, in fact they usually pay out pocket to put into the pot PLUS to pay the host, some people do it to bring attention to thier shops or malls, others do simply because they enjoy it... Why do you feel its ok to win other people's donations and you make no effort to donate anything yourself?

I've hosted Slingo since I came into SL in my spare time. With my store I'm down to only having one day to do that with, but that's besides the point.

Have you ever been to a casino that let you gamble for free?

Simply put, nothing's completely free. I *used* to spend 1000s of L a week to host when I hosted 5 days a week. To hear someone not want to put in at least 10L (worth maybe 2 cents US dollars) when I know how much I have to spend just to run it, gets all under my skin. My pay is $75L per hour...there's no way I'm making money off of hosting Slingo. People don't ever tip, and with as much as I am required to put in so that the game keeps going (since no one wants to pay), I don't think it's fair to ask the host to pay your way. Not one bit. The casino also doesn't make a dime from these games. We run these games so that people can come have fun...I really hope you don't play when I'm ever hosting. Where I work, we ban people who refuse to pay. We require you to donate something to play.

On top of that, there are many other reasons to actually get a paid account(were you even asking about this??). You can own your own land and buying L is a bit more sane than busting your ass in SL to make $150L a day. (I only still host because I like my employer) ($75L an hour or $150L total a day is about the going rate to pay your hosts and stuff per day/night. You can buy $1000L for only like $3 dollars and some change US dollars...doesn't really make sense to me to bust your ass to make that $75L an hour. That's slave wages.

Sorry, I haven't thought of that for some reason. Good point. I feel my whole perspective just shifted.

"Why haven't you thought of that before, silly?", she tells herself.

So if those popular places don't make anything on dwell anymore (does that word mean anything nowadays?) , how DO they make money?

I've gone with a slightly different model for SLTrivia; while it's definitely not as innovative as Kermitt's Tringo, I've built in a sponsorship package. Basically, I'm offsetting the costs I have of hosting a web server and bandwidth (required for storing / transmitting questions and scores to www.SLTrivia.com) by sponsor banners.

Perhaps some tringo places could do the same kind of thing manually and get sponsors (SL content creators) to offer money in return for advertising? There's a big need for marketing opportunities in SL, and this could be one.

Regards,

-Flip

For sure, absolutely NO ONE is making dwell anymore. Nor have they for a few months now. If you see places with those little green voting boxes? Feel free to snicker under your breath. They are absolutely pointless and are just taking up about 8 prims that could be better used on something else.

Casino games make money, rentals make money, commissions make money. But dwell simply no longer exists.

Not entirely. They didn't before dwell went out cause LL changed the way they had paid dwell.

However, many of them are now listings for SL's popular places on 3rd party websites. More votes, the higher you rank.

What about clubs, how do they make $L?

I suppose you can make money by renting out vendor space in your club, or by having sponsors. but running a club by itself, you make nothing.

hm, I think my store is not big enough yet to fit with a large ad venue, but I have been looking for places to run ads...

don't pay to play slingo. many place like ice dragons playpen and many other places on requrei u to donate 20% if u win the pot. i have made of 1500 united states dollars playing slingo and i only ever donated when i win. and don't wate the nmoney in game sell it and get phreee money from the tards that donate to da pot bahahahhahahhahahahahahah!

Many clubs, particularly strip clubs, leech off the dancers tips. In a reversal of fortune, the removal of Dwell has placed the Dancers in the role of "self employed performer" and the clubs as "agent" (or pimp).. rather than the club paying the dancers for the draw they bring into the club, the dancers now pay a portion of their tips to the club, for the "priviledge" of dancing nude for pocket change.

I have seen these percentages range from 10% of your nightly take, on the honour system.. to 30% or more, taken DIRECTLY out of your club-owned tipjar, with severe penalties (including banning from the property) for accepting direct payment of tips, circumventing the tipjar. In at least one case I know of, the "adult performers" receive 0% of the tips, and do not even make as much as a noob on a camping chair.

I'm sure that several clubs also have similar arrangements with Escorts (prostitutes) and prodommes.. Allowing them to do business on site for a "finder's fee".

Clubs also make money off the "Sploders" and casino machines, games, slingo, whatever they do. THe house always has an edge in gambling machines. assume it's there every time. You will never break even in the long run. Luckily most people don't play that long. A few people lose, and few people win.. that's how gambling works.. buut the house always takes it's part home at the end of the day.

Some clubs may just be the "write off" of a guilty conscienced businessperson.. someone who's made a killing selling really hot cars, paid off their RL mortgage on the proceeds, and now wants to "give back" ala Bruce Wayne. Shwah.. okay I'm dreaming.. sorry. There's a hook somewhere... you just gotta look at everything that's going on, to see it. It may be that the club is only PART of a larger empire by the owner of the club, and that the club may "bring them in" and the surrounding stores, malls, etc may be the hook.

The simple fact is, people make and run clubs.. many of them are losing money constantly.. some malls aren't even able to pay the land use fees and teir it costs for them to keep the lights on.. But the owners keep it up.. partially out of hope that one day they can turn it around, and partially because it's fun, there's prestige to be had, you can sell ad space and vendor space on site, and with the right combination of events, tippjars, and sploders, random item chairs, and dancepads to confuse the flow of money.. you can indeed make a profit at it. But it's no longer a matter of "draw enough people to my land to offset the cost of getting them here."