Pulled My Investment Out of SL

Some random thoughts:

Movie theaters:

* Charge nearly twice as much as they did 10 years ago.

* Make us watch 10-20 minutes of adverts if we want a good seat.

* Ushers have given up trying to eject chatterbox patrons.

We pay more for a subsidized service that has deteriorated. (well, some people do... a lot of people, like me, have pretty much given up on going to movie theaters)

But movies are STILL being made... but the "movie viewing" business models have changed radically over the last few years. It's evolution. Horses to cars, Theaters to rentals, SecondLife to... who knows.


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Price increases: As far as I'm concerned, people trying to PROFIT off of SecondLife *SHOULD* help subsidize SecondLife directly in the form of land use fees. The idea of LL charging everyone directly is dumb, it'd slam the door in the face of people that might end up high-paying subscribers... and it would kill the customer flow to the "middle men" that own land and pay tier from it.

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While SL has a monopoly, LL must do whatever they must to ensure they become (1) Profitable and (2) Competitive.

Who knows how many groups are out there now using SL as a case study for what to do or not do in this market space? Once LL is profitable, you can bet there will be tag-alongs trying to one-up them.

If LL has to "stick it to us" now in order to increase their long term chances... so be it. I'd rather not have them cave in to popular demand and then fail spectacularly a year from now.

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The above doesn't really count as a "Resident's Answer to someone asking for help" and, as such, probably doesn't belong in "Resident Answers" along with the rest of this thread. I'll shush now.

I want to point out that the increase in charge is not what people are ranting about....
It's that people are consistantly complaining about the service, hoping that the company they are paying will deliver what they promise, and instead, the company raises prices...

People have so much love and joy and creativity invested in secondlife... it's very hard to relinquish that. People were hoping to continue paying in the hopes that in the long run, the grid would get better... and instead the prices increase.

SL is like a canvas and paints.... LL (the art store) promises you that you can create anything on this canvas and with these paints. But then you complete your work of art after months and months.... and you begin to notice the green paint and red paint you used disappear.... then soon after the art store calls and says you are going to be charged more for the canvas it is on, or else you can give up the artwork.

This is why we're all upset... it's because we've paid for what LL claims is a reality of secondlife, when in actuality LLs claims are just ideals.... but we don't realize this until we're already completely invested in the SL world. We've bought our land, created our business... THEN, we find out there is fine print.. and the fine print is that LL & SL does not guarantee that what they tell you the SL world is really isn't. LL is always promoting the future of SL, and where they want it to head... and LL is actually SELLING their thoughts for SLs future.... but they are not presenting the facts, the reality, and the present. LL is shady when presenting what you are actually paying for.

Great Discussion.

To respond and answer a few things...

1. Irregardless - is a word. I have never had anyone point out my poor english, but thanks for trying. I have a word you can pick on me about later in this post. *wink*

2. I put my money where my mouth *fingers* were. I said I would do it and I did it. I did not whine or threaten. I told the truth about the issues - I see with LL - and took action.

Personally, I feel bad for the staff. They are doing what the job as given to them, its the management that I was concerned about.

IMO, the programmers are stumped and can't get over the hurdles. Its hard to let go (or fire) those that you are "family" with but for the betterment of SL, a new team to oversee SL is desperately needed if they want to proceed forward.

Meanwhile, I will use my money elsewhere. Its the best decision I or any of us can make right now. In a few months, I'll see the state of health SL is in and reconsider my options.

Thank you again, take care.

Xplorer

I am happy that the OP made a decision but what exactly is his/her question? Isn't this a forum for residents to answer other resident's questions?

Maybe I am missing the question.

what im getting...but as of late, im not getting quality..the lag the upload time, it takes me twice as long to complete a task as it did even 6 months ago. As for raising prices for sims, all i can say is our prices will get raised to the masses (most are free accts) for the services we provide in condo rentals.

As for the free accounts, i seriously dont mind them, as they are our target customers. But as i say, our costs of playing will be directly sent over to our customers, and i surely see all other businesses in SL following suite. I can however feel for the person that owns land for the joy of owning, creating content for free, providing an entertainment base for the masses. That will go down the crapper if prices continue to rise and as ive said many times, and we can already see it, SL will become a vast wasteland of wars and whores.

I do however mind unverified accounts, as LL puts me in hazard of doing adult things around a minor, and it invites in those that dont want to be accountable for their behavior.

I dont think any of us would deliberately go to a high priced, fancy restaurant, wait 2 hours for a meal that was barely edible. Thats what i feel like is happening to me in SL, pricey game, not alot of service, and the product is definitely sliding.

Amen to that.

And...

unfortunately, irregardless is a word. It shouldn't be, but it is.
Not recognized by thesauri, but it is in some dictionaries.
THIS is more of an outrage than non-verifieds, ageplayers, Goreans and furries, all put together (which conjures up a horrible image. Sorry.)

There must be a petition somewhere.

Oh, yeah. While we're at it, can we make "contact" a noun again, like it should be?

This forum has been turned into a general discussion forum, not by announcing a policy, but by failing to enforce the rules posted in the forum description and the sticky that describes this forum.

Since they have in fact allowed this forum to be the General forum it should have it's name changed to General and the forum description should be changed to reflect reality.
Or they should enforce the rules. Or close the forums so that the user run forum sites have some business.

Oh please, try to ignore the discussion threads that don't interest you. A community needs to communicate, at one central point where the largest parts of this community can be found. I don't like a negative thread like this too, but I love the fact that we can still chat a little in this forum section, as long as the orginal post contains a question mark they closed enough forum sections already.

lol i pays my money to do this too...so

Yeppers. My thoughts exactly. Higher tier is unfortunate but for the new people joining it will be the norm; just like for me it was the norm to pay 1,250 for a SIM but apparently they used to be 995.


All im dreading is the increase on that which was supposed to be 'grandfathered'

lmfao.

ALthough historically those with the most time and investment in SL have a tendency to stick it out. ALot make noises about leaving but how many actually do?

There are maybe a handful of older players who's leaving might make LL stand up and take notice. FOr the rest of us its "see ya".

The way it's going, they'll have to offer a weekly "premium fee" instead of monthly, and we'll be used to having "wow, you've been here two months? I've not met anyone that old in game yet" regularly.

There is plenty of short term gain but it's the longer term players that have made SL the success it is. Lose us, SL dies. Period.

One thing that does greatly concern me is that Linden Lab doesn't appear to do anything else. SL is its one product, and that's it.

Lewis

There are a lot of other companies involved in Online gaming and Online community who have cast most of or all their resources into one single basket.

Blizzard is one of the ones that comes most to mind these days for its World of Warcraft, but CCP has also done it with EVE Online, and Cryptic Studios has done it for the past three years with City of Heroes (don't diss me on them bringing out City of Villains, it's just CoH with a few non-technical rejigs in place). In all three cases, a company has decided to do things that deviate significantly from previously established templates, with at least enough success to keep development and upkeep going.

I'm not suggesting that uniqueness = survivability, but people in these times tend to be more curious about things. Second Life is nothing, if not good, at indulging these tendencies in many ways: exploration of identity, forging of relationships, examining how the blocks of logic and the torture of prims can produce a million unique things.

I like to think of Linden Labs as not selling a product per se, but rather building a system that allows for the creation of any product that can be produced through human ingenuity, scripting and prim torture (yes, even hoochie hair). If you build an excellent peta-sized system for people to use, it stops being relevant that that's all you've built.

Yes, there should be room for concern, but it should be the sort that you get when you find out a real estate agent only sells land, or only rents out houses. Doing a single thing and doing it exceptionally well can be a path to success, don't go around knocking it.

Now that's funny. hahaha. I've been in a game like that... namely Star Wars Galaxies.

I've been participating in virtual communities for 25 years now.

Time and time again, I have seen foundation 'players' replaced by 2nd generation groups, then those by 3rd generation and 4th... providing the owner/maintainer of the virtual space continues to offer it.

Sometimes a small remnant of the previous generation persists to the next some grumble that "Things aren't like they used to be" others enjoy the change, adapting to the new culture growing up around them.

People leave or die to make room for the up and coming. It's called life and it's natural.

If survival depended on making you happy, Lewis, SL would have burst into a flame hot enough to turn sand into glass long ago.

Exactly. It cracked me up to read that LL has "lost its focus" as if it was Greenpeace and they were no longer working to save the baby seals.

And no, for the person who asked, I do not own stock in LL. I am just a realist. It's a software platform that is constantly evolving and it will do so as it sees fit. If it no longer satisfies your needs, you have a choice, change your needs or move on.

Amen! But alot of these raise the questions directly related to residents. So it's not as point and clear as:

Where do I find Smashie's store?

But it does raise questions and most of the time, good discussion on how things can be remedied and also how it compares.

And I think Doubledown hit it on the head more eloquently than I.



Exactly!

If LL were pragmatists instead of visionary idealists... SL wouldn't exist.

SL is, simply, a "Work in Progress".

That fact is not hidden carefully in the small print... it is expressed loudly in the big print: "Dynamic! Changing! Evolving! Revolutionary!"

Anyone willing to invest thousands of dollars into secondlife should be savvy enough to understand that means wrinkles, unforeseens, last minute changes, serious adjustments, ... and of course ... risk.

I believe that false advertising and deceptive marketing accusations should be able to show that the company INTENDED to decieve... not merely falling short of the offering they were genuinely hoping to provide and are still working towards making a reality.


It's personal interpretation for now.... I think they're trying to make their vision a reality... you think they're out to deliberately deceive you.

Well.. it is a "virtual" world... not a "real" one. I suppose there is something "deceptive" about that.

well said DD Tandino

False advertising is not delivering the goods that you advertise, regardless of how it happens. It's not personal interpretation when LL has promised X and X and X and instead we get more bugs, a pretty new snapshot feature and a new log in screen, without X and X and X being delivered.

I agree they are working hard. And there's no other free game with quite the entreprenurial draw out there, but we are investing in them, and they are investing in companies.

I really think we are somewhat the anachronism now. The whole thing seems to be about getting real-world companies in here to advertise their real-world goods, and having the doors completely open so a lot of people can tromp through to look at those ads.

That's why we're being given the same prices as Nissan.

coco

When you can no longer align those who disagree with LL policy with communists, it's time to suggest they're playing the clubbed seal card eh?

Three things:
1) There is no marxist conspiracy going on here.
2) Disagreeing with LL policy and/or reducing your investment until you feel more secure does not equal playing the victim.
3) We are so banned from Resident Answers for continuing this thread.

Did you miss the original message? The evolution of the system no longer suited the OP, he had a choice to pull the plug on his investment and reconsider his position in the world, so that's exactly what he did.

Everything is FREE except for a very specific list advertised goods and services:

* Lindex Transaction Fees and blocks of newly minted L$
* Land Use Fees/Tier
* Parcels of new land directly from LL
* Content Uploads/Snapshots
* Classified advertisements
* Recording Ratings on other players
* (did I miss any?)

"Future Feature X" is not "advertised for sale" and we can't "buy" it.

Nor was it promised by a specific date, or promised to be delivered before other features, so we can't accuse LL of failing to deliver.

There is a big difference between "setting a strategic direction" and "making promises", and what counts as what IS open to personal interpretation.

LL gets to decide what to use revenue from us for as long as they deliver what we're actually BUYING. If they think it will benefit SL to change their strategic direction so that SL is more appealing to companies... that's their call too.

All I know is that SL must remain popular if it's to survive. That doesn't mean bending over backwards to please 1% of the oldest users that want things back the way they used to be... that means finding new and excited people who are interested in what SL can become.

Some of that 1% is still very enthusiastic about where SL is headed.

I linked entreprenuer (that doesn't look spelled right...) to my statement before investing statement. That was to mean that those who are operating in SL are the investors. And yes, there have been specific dates and times on certain features and releases promised to virtual landowners, business people, etc. that haven't been delivered or weren't delivered in the manner which was first stated. Some people, with LL's announcements make the decision to go premium, own land, sims, etc.

I'm certainly not old by any means, I'm at 11 months, but I've played extensively, day to day some months, put money into it, etc. because of what I've read on what SL was proposing to do, and all that good stuff. I know I can't be the only one.

If LL decides to change thier ways, they must be prepared for the ramifications of it.