Pulled My Investment Out of SL

I sold my land and sold my lindens. That is just a drop in the big bucket to SL, but irregardless, its less support of a company that is willing to charge very high prices for little return.

You would think in the day and age of e-commerce as efficient as its ever been, there should not be too many problems selling Lindens. It is ludicrous to wait almost 2 weeks for payment of the sold lindens, OR that I cannot credit the account that the purchase of the original lindens was made from. You must request a check or send to paypal.

Silencing the voices, Raising the prices, Continue to let issues plague the common everyday user, Griefing Goo textures all over SL that the creator of the game is unable to harness, not responding to AR's in less than 30 days, responding to AR's in an irrational fashion, not to mention suspending outspoken avy's but never reprimanding free account users that cause issues for the paying customer, the list goes on right?

SL has lost its focus and certainly has soul searching to do.

Xplorer

Amen to that.

It certainly seems and feels like the game has gotten away from them. There are too many things going in the wrong direction right now. And it seems as though none of them are being addressed properly or in the proper time frame.

I don't know but it seems to me that a lot of you have confused commerce with communism. The bit about they lost their focus sounds like some religious or non-profit issue.

LL is a business. If they can charge higher prices, they would be crazy not to. If I go into a store and the prices aren't what I can pay, I don't say, man you guys suck, you are charging more than I can pay.

I think of it as this is a new industry and they are just realizing the potential. Those of us who got to play with some really cool tools at the cut rate were lucky. But then that happens and we move on. Those that can afford can will stay. Crying about it and calling LL names is just well as juvenile as it sounds.

My taxes went up, and I couldn't control that, gas has gone up. Oh I think I will stop heating my home because they raised the prices.

Instead of all this moaning as if you are going to change LL's mind, find other alternatives. Join together. Use sandboxes. Or move on.

I just don't get what else anyone thinks they can do. A company does what a company can. It's called capitalism.

I've read editorials and reviews that seem to promote SL as the new world wide web. If this is so then surely commerce is going to buy into it anyway. I don't know how much more fun SL used to be .. but I'm having the time of my life now .. hell! I might even go premium.

Are you serious? Here's an idea: Charge everybody for resources being used by everybody. Or do you think it's right that a minority of people, many of whom are hobbyists providing some of the best content in Second Life, should foot the bill for the majority?
A company charges what customers are prepared to pay. That is not called capitalism, but is just how prices are dictated under this economic system. Here we have an example of a customer who is no longer prepared to pay. I sold up (mainland) too, albeit because of unhappiness with the way things were going before the island sim pricing crisis. After that price increase, my partner stopped building and sold his private sim land because -- between the risk of tier on old sims being changed to the new rate, and the sim owner deciding her business was no longer viable and walking out -- he decided his investment was no longer secure. Personally, I think Xplorer, my partner and I provide a far superior example of how capitalism works.

Nice day, etc.

Okay go ahead, you do that. I'll wait for the company you form to do this. You can't expect a company to make decisions based on what you want. And if you don't think people are prepared to pay the new charges, just sit back and watch.

I agree with Dillion on this one.



A store usually sells necessities, SL isn't a necessity. You may not say a store sucks, but there's plenty out t


Those that can afford are getting less and less everyday. A consignment store sells at what people want and some things tend not to move. Priced well, they do. Compare that with a place like Nordstrom's or Saks who are selling their name. SL has neither of that appeal. How many people in SL are impressed that someone owns an island? The cost of running internet businesses is going down as the market has been overloaded now with makers, and there are tons of reliable technologies out there that are cheaper than even the price we were paying. Having them increase is basically passing along the buck of the bill to paying players to support free ones.



Most need heat... it's a necessity. Not a luxury like SL. Aside from that, if you can't pay for gas, then you aren't getting it. Most common people, owning large amounts of land was taking tons of hard work, then to throw an increase out there within a few days, while handing out insider information (which by the way, if this was RL, would be illegal), is certainly cause for uproar. They can't pay for it, they can't have it. Same as gas. You can't pay for it, you don't get it simply on principle.



Companies can and do go under everyday for bad business decisions. The decision to even imply (though they directly stated it) that the raise was due in a large part because large companies can pay it was a really low blow for the average user. Users made SL what it is. Now, that it's so 'wonderful', LL lets companies come in as they wish, they crush the very people who made it.

If a company doesn't listen to it's customers, it's doomed. Why do you think so many companies spend so much money on market research? To find out demand, priorities, etc. of shoppers, they then tailor their next ad campaign, sales items, etc. to what the sample says.

Name me a single company who has been around more than 5 years that has never spent a dime on advertising, market research, targeting groups, etc.

If the past is any indicator then there is a fairly predictable outcome. It goes something like this.

LL annouces something that pisses alot of people off.
Ranting and raving ensues.
People threaten to tier down and/or leave.
Some actually do.
New players arrive and have never known about life before the thing that pissed everyone off.
SL goes on much as always.

Now I do admit the last 10 weeks or so have been a nightmare of hacks,attacks,bugs and piss off policy changes but I think in the long term the standard pattern above will play out.

Thanks.

What company? I have no idea what company you're talking about but it certainly doesn't relate to my message. I'm not looking for an alternative to Second Life. I'm quite happy alt+tabbing between 3DS Max and IRC thesedays.
Where did I say I expected that? I merely suggested that as ALL users use resources whenever they hit the login button, they should ALL be charged something towards the running costs. I'm eager to understand why you don't think that's fair.I don't recall saying that either, but you'll certainly find dozens of examples of honest, established users (including many who already own private sims) who aren't going ahead with private sim orders now -- if you pay attention to the various SL communication hotspots out there

And of course people are prepared to pay the new charges. I'll bet there's one born every minute. That doesn't make the situation fair though. Or excusable.

(Shhhh . . . we're not supposed to talk here.)

(coco)

Okay, I'm at work, so I don't have time to do a point by point. I just don't understand why so many people are freaking out and making statements as if LL was a non-profit organization. Using words like "fair" and the need to "focus". I believe in your previous post you suggested charging everyone, I'm assuming that was a dig at getting rid of free accounts, which has been a part of LL for a while. And yes, businesses listen to focus groups, not rants. It just seems kind of pointless to yell up at a corporation like you are some superior being and the corporation is run by idiots.

But that's my opinion. I"m just happy LL has done what they have done and that I've gotten a chance to do some incredible things and experience some incredible stuff.

Besides, if you really wanted to affect change to LL, telling them that they are wrong and ranting at them is not the way. Making positive suggestions work much better.

If I'm not mistaken, this is an example of troll behavior. Why engage in it? You are better than this.

What are you smoking and why aren't you sharing? Simce when is good customer service communism?

Why is that 'a dig'? Why should a minority of users already providing some of the most outstanding content in Second Life subsidize the VAST resources used by a majority who pay little or nothing at all? Really. It's not a dig. Why?
Will you feel the same way when your monthly bill goes up by $100USD a month? That's assuming you own a private sim of course, which you might not. Well, we've already been warned that further pricing changes are ahead. Assuming you just own land, will you feel the same way if mainland tier is increased as dramatically as private sim tier? (If 4096m2 tier increased from $25USD to $40USD maybe?) Or if...say...a charge (one time or regular) is slapped on all free accounts?
Well it's a good job so many were made in this thread then. Or maybe you missed them.

Sorry you're giving up Xplorer.

Did you actually have a question for Residents to Answer?

After all... I sure you wouldn't want to contribute to any loss of focus.

The part where they think it should be "fair" instead of the company trying to make money as best it sees fit.

"The underlying moral foundation of capitalism is that when companies compete to give people what they want, both producers and consumers win. Producers win by making money, and customers win by getting better deals than they could get somewhere else."

It's not capitalism or communism that are at issue April, but the unfairness of monopolies.


I think Coco is pointing out that Resident Answers is for questions/answers. She's not trolling. I just re-acquainted myself with Torley's About posting...

...and figured that this thread has spun dangerously off-topic, although it might not have really been appropriate for RA in the first place. I won't add anymore for that reason. Thanks Coco.

All of you who think that the paying customers are what keeps SL going are crazy. The "free" accounts that you want to get rid of are where the money comes from. They spend money! That's how you make money! and that's how SL works. If free accounts were abolished, the population would be cut in half and SL would be a boring land of crap stores and landowners. Get over yourself. If it's too expensive, go free. If they lose too many businesses, they'll adjust.

April are you part owner or have stock in sl? It seems like it the way you go out your way to defend it. I mean, you even admit you're at work, at work and you're really getting into it defending these people like if it's ok what they're doing.

It's true, they have lost focus and now are sticking it to it's players. You don't think people will leave if they continue this trend? I guess you don't know what happen to SOE with Starwars Galaxies. The way masses of players left that game because of what the company Sony did to them.

It happened there and it can happen here too. NO game or company is immune.

Cole no game is immune in that you are right. The one thing that LL has going for it is a long history (as Paul pointed out earlier) of new people replacing old as fast as the old ones leave

That does NOT make the crap we have all been going through right but it does mean for now at least there is an unending supply of newbs some of which will stick around and become paying customers.

Noooo. There is no such word as irregardless. This annoys more than any price hike or marginalizing of residents in SL.

I see your "irregardless" and raise you an "orientate."

Totally in agreement of sorts. lol I agree with it, but then there's another sidepoint to be made.

If LL has a very weak long term resident history, it may scare off all those buyers, payers and money handlers. With each major influx of leaving older accounts having their fill, true, more step into the place, but any intelligent company investing in SL will also want to see the stay power for residents.