Do Natural Monopolies Need Virtual Regulation?

Well, no, the OP has a fair point - as I mentioned above, network effect can create a monopoly and doesn't match either of those.

It's similar to something that came up on another thread, essentially in SL you have two types of product, the "generic" type which can apply to anyone (flight assists, casual wear, etc) and the "community" type which are specific to particular communities. Competing with a "community" product right now is very hard because almost everyone already in the community will be referring newcomers to your competitor's existing product that they are familiar with. Relatively few people are shopping around, and that can be fairly devastating when you're trying to get started.

I know that many of the existing well-known makers were underdogs at one point, but the people they displaced weren't entrenched for as long as the current makers have been now, and moreover most of the early products were lacking some relatively easy functionality or properties that people in the community cared about. That's no longer the case - so you have to be careful, since it's great to add new ideas, but you have to take care that you aren't just adding extra things which nobody will care about. And that itself is difficult because most of the things which people care about, the existing makers already did, so you may well wind up having to sell your new ideas to the community as well as counting on them to sell your product..

Wow that's some imagery I didn't need....


Seriously though, back to the OP... regulation just isn't gonna happen anytime soon. I think we can all agree on that. As to the monopoly situation ... befiore kicking up a fuss about interoperability, why don't all you aspriring dong makers come up with an open standard, form a consortium and have a go at it.

But not if there's an overwhelming disincentive to use a better product because it can't interoperate with the huge existing market base of the inferior product. Another poster pointed out that a superior product in fact exists... but compare dwell at Competitor A's shop and Maker X's shop: in reality, Competitor A couldn't give away enough L$s with each free copy of their superior product to attract substantial market from Maker X.

Perhaps ironically, it was "patents" that got me thinking about this, while reading another thread about "copycats." At least in the US, patents exist to encourage innovation (or anyway that was Franklin's stated intent). It was essentially the same motivation that passed the Sherman Anti-Trust act during a Republican-dominated era.

To be honest, I can't imagine a regulatory framework in Second Life as it currently exists, but eventually one would expect that a virtual economy would have to adopt some of the safeguards to free trade that RL economies have been forced to adopt.

To be fair, I should point out that it was not clear that the product described was _superior_, only that it was _more complicated_.

The difference between these has been driven very hard into my head in a manner involving a product that took several months to produce.

Yes, the well-known prim naughty bits are quite simple, but do we really want to simulate not knowing what to do to please your partner best and thus risking doing the wrong thing and getting no reaction? I mean, whatever next - checking the bounding boxes on avatars to see if you banged your elbow on the wall...

The naughty bits market in SL has gone through several major evolutions where differing creators came out "on top" as it were (wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) Eventually, some enterprising soul will come out with something that surpases the current market leader, steals the business and then he/she gets to be king of the naughty bits market until the process repeats itself.... One has to keep in the mind the "churn" of the SL resident population, it is always possible for someone new to break in and cater to those who are just starting out and aren't ready to spend big bucks. A smart competitor would have have a freebie line with limited features and an upgrade package to build brand loyalty among new users....

Oh, Isablan.. I am going to be stifling laughter and blushing for the rest of the day now

Are we talking about the one I mentioned? It has the same basic functionality as the 'big guy,' and you can just stick with that if you like, while also allowing you the option to do more...it's just an opinion, but that seems superior to me.

Uh, Chip? That's just.. ermm.. creepy.

If this attachment made it so you couldn't wear anything that that guy didn't make and he bought out every shop that was competition then it would be a monopoly.

Dominating a market because your product is superior doesn't equal a monopoly. Dominating a market through actively attempting to block or obsorb competitive companies is a monopoly.

So are naughty bits that text cliches when you click on them

I partially agree with the thread starter. I think if the product was really superior, no one would complain but as it is, it only sells due to the misleading message "you need this to be compatible, no matter how crappy it looks. If you wear another product, you're sexually incompatible to 90% of all SL women and the majority of sex toys on the market".

Where I disagree though is that X has a true monopol and that it would be impossible to break the monopol with a better product. Many customers dislike an attachment that doesn't do what they want when they want, has a mind of its own that decides to stay limp when the roleplayer wants it to be ready for use, can't be timed with... climactic RL events and, above all, spams annoying green text in rather peculiar English. The same texts all over again, each time the product is used.

For that reason, there are enough customers who value functionality, a realistic look and good particle effects over mediocre design that is only accepted for the sake of so-called "compatibility". Compatibility meaning sims getting lagged due to countless listeners in X products and X-enabled toys plus lots of spam texts. I wonder how much of the lag problem in SL is caused by X; that's why I don't only sell better attachments but also refuse to make my adult toys X-compatible, in order to keep them as performant and lagless as possible.

Competing with X is the same as opening a gourmet restaurant next to a McD fastfood temple. Everyone knows their food is unhealthy, but everyone eats there. Nonetheless, McD doesn't have a food monopol and a gourmet restaurant can still make a decent revenue.

I find this thread rather xciting, but i'm getting distinct sensations that indicate it's much ado about nothing. Build a better twiddlehopper, and the virtual world will beat a path to your door. (just have a mop handy.)

HAHA! That was broadly offensive. I loved it!!

Well in their defense this unnamed company's products do Xcite all their customers

They don't have to be cliches if you're willing to work on your notecards a bit.

Ya know, we just had a hair show; a jewelry show is coming up...why isn't some budding entrepreneur putting together PassionCon '07? (just be quick about it before age verification deploys...)

I never thought Xcite was all that great anyhow.

I much prefer to type in the heat of the moment.

Typos and pauses are part of the indication you are suceeding at something, after all.

Plus when it comes to cybering men, having to keep clicking them to keep them "interested" is a major annoyance.

Bingo Collette.

Compatibility isn't really so important anyway. The leader here has a substantial lead, but there are areas for improvement and they can easily lose that lead.

IMHO, we don't need any silly regulations to fix this "problem". Where would it end? Let's not punish the market leader for being successful.

I would like to see more products from various vendors support the Sensations open communication standard. Also, a little marketing (like giving out good items as freebies!) would go a LONG way in this regard.

I really believe that this is a sitation that some seriously good entrepeneurship and marketing skills could change quite radically. I've been tempted myself, but I don't want to go into permanent customer support mode!

"Hold that pose honey, I'm going to edit in a few changes to the notecard here. No genital clicking while I'm editing!"

It might seem that way, but in market reality it isn't superior unless it actually adds new functionality _that people use_. If people don't care about the new features, they might as well not exist. Again, a lesson I've learned painfully.

And I have to reiterate: via Microsoft, there's a case that making a good product in a market with network effect _can_ be considered a monopoly.

lol, plan ahead.

I'm going to lock this thread for naming names and being off-topic.



There are many companies in the private part industry and they selling a diverse variety of products. There are no costs (besides that of upload) to entering the content industry in SL. Supplies in SL are infinite, very few producers in SL restrict the number of models of a product sold. It would be hard to ague that anyone other then LL is a monopoly in SL.