Does having others use your content = power?

That's essential the sort of thing I meant by power, when asking the question.

It's most notable in items that have network effect, where it's harder for newcomers to compete; or that are hard to make, where people will be more likely to settle for something that isn't exactly what they wanted, than to do the work to make it themselves.. Xcite and Sensations have made some excellent, popular items; but have they, in doing so, made their own whims on the structure of people's sexual relationships into law? Have the makers of DCS gained the power to decide what game others play? Have they imposed a minimum amount of effort that anyone with another game must make to see it played? Did Luc and/or Jesrad define what "magic" means in SL - and did Tuna redefine it?

My SL experience has greatly improved since I stopped being a consumer and started being a producer. I make my products based on what _I_ think is fun and cool and have gotten a good response.

The reason I even started building was because no one was making the stuff I wanted to see in SL. I was subject to others' interpretations on themes I was into. I started to lose interest until I started thinking "man I could have built that thing I just spent L$1000 on!"

Anyone who doesn't build their own stuff in SL is seeing things through other peoples' eyes in my opinion.

That's exactly the experience I was talking about. That, combined with the feeling of being unable to build your way out of it, because you lack the needed talent.

Most successful content creators I know made things that THEY wanted in SL that other folks ended up enjoying. Many of them got into it with no initial intent of selling their wares.

There's no such thing as a monopoly in Second Life. There are big businesses in SL but they don't hold ANYWHERE near the influence over consumers' minds and distributors/retailers that real-world corporations do. And yeah, some of the in-world businesses are stingy in terms of licensing, but still there is simply no comparison between an SL business's influence over residents and a RL mega-producer's.

People select a given product based on the item's features, quality, price as compared to competing products. The power is in the consumer's hands in Second Life, not the other way around.

Now, I don't think this should be taken that people that buy all their stuff are lesser than those of us who build what you consume. The thing I've always liked about SL is how it's completely different and unrelated things to different people. Some people like the sensation of shopping and buying things. Some like to express themselves through creation. Some like making money off of people who are willing to buy things.

I personally have a little of each in me. Why learn to build an AK-47 with a grenade launcher when someone else already made a hardcore one?

I once tried to bend a fork with my mind, but it got very annoyed with my messing around with it's molecular structure and it jammed itself in my ear. I promise I'll never mess with that stuff again!

Do I get off when people buy my stuff? Oh, OH, OH YEAH, YES, YES, YES, Aaahhhhhh.


But seriously...

Power? Not unless you're making tools for the customer. Even then it doesn't give the creator any more "power" than they already had - just the satisfaction that they made someone elses life a little easier. (That is, if the object in question actually works as advertised. )

But I think I know where the original poster is coming from. In a Zen kind of a way, the artist/artisan/creator gets a little "boost" or good karma coming back to them when someone accepts and enjoys that extension of themselves that they made for others.

But I don't think "power" as originally stated is quite the right way to say it.

That didn't seem to me to be the kind of "power" that was being referred to. It was "power" as in us creators are shaping the consumers' experience piece by piece.

Sure they have a choice as to what they buy and look at but it's still our interpretations of those themes that they see and interract with...and it's not any one of us that completely shapes it unless the consumer only buys from one person and only hangs out at their sim...which does happen!

SL *does* amplify the effect of some things, though, such as network effect.

As an example, there's a well-known BDSM product which lacks the ability to add multiple "owners" - a feature that consumers continually demand, and that the producer has repeatedly refused to include. But because the product is so well-known and popular, and because it is such high quality in other areas, competing products haven't been able to displace it; everyone is prepared to trade off loss of that feature for the extra value it provides in other areas. Is the maker of that product essentially exerting major influence on the market - essentially defining the structure of people's relationships? (I've seen themed places where they wanted to create "groups" of masters/mistresses have to abandon those plans because of that limit.)

Likewise, a common problem I've hard from people is a person not liking the details of the way in which some object works, but not being able to build one that works they way they want it to because they have lesser artistic ability, and they would rather tolerate the item not working how they want, than make one themselves that would inevitably look worse. As the standards of art in SL rise, this will unfortunately happen more and more.

Creating content in Second Life has, for me, been *empowering*. Through what was initially a passing interest, I have become fairly proficient in numerous graphic design suites that, prior to discovering Second Life, I wouldn't have glanced at twice in a software store. This knowledge has considerably extended the graphic design experience I already had in my FL, allowing me to create totally different kinds of artwork...which is frankly, a great joy.

Having others use (or rather, buy) my in-world content, if anything, degrades the quality of my Second Life, sapping all my time and energy.

I might go back into business someday though. No fool like an old fool and all that.

I must admit that keeping the best stuff I make for myself and my buddies is also empowering. It also gets me unexpected commission offers which I actually take up once in a while!

I even made L500 on a pair of 2-prim-default-hair sideburns I made for myself! Luckily there wasn't voice back then because I was laughing through the whole transaction!!

Some people will buy anything!!

Maybe I'm missing a bet here, but I don't see it as having anything to do with power in either direction. I make stuff that I like/want/am amused by, and if someone else wants to buy something I've made, I feel a bit pleased that I've made something useful to others... and then immediately try to look at said item from the perspective of a buyer (rather than a creator) and try to see how I could make it better or more useful to others.

So. I guess I view it as a learning experience. Selling on SL nudges me to improve my skills in ways that might not have otherwise bothered with.

Aha, another person empowered with knowledge.

I guess this is what I was trying to say: People using my stuff doesn't give me power, but creating stuff for other people gives me the incentive to learn. That's where the power is, but it's totally personal and has nothing to do with airs and graces and wanting to lord it over the minions in a virtual world.

...and you are having a small amount of power over that buying person's SL experience by shaping it for them. THAT'S the power in question.

I don't think it's the kind of power that can be used or abused in any way. There's no real bad result from feeling pleased from making something people find useful unless you think you're big time because of it...which some do.

P'zactly... I think. Though, I'd love some minions, if anyone knows where I can sign up for those...

Power? Only insofar that I can build pretty much everything I want (except for vehicles, tried that and failed). Everything I sell was created either for one of my subs or for myself, only a few things on request of customers. But it doesn't give me any power over my customers, they buy only what they like. Luckily, many people seem to have similar tastes.

I HAVE FOUGHT MY WAY HERE
TO THE CASTLE BEYOND THE GOBLIN CITY
TO TAKE BACK THE CHILD THAT YOU HAVE STOLEN,
FOR MY WILL IS AS STRONG AS YOURS,
AND MY KINGDOM IS AS GREAT.
YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME.

-Labrynth

That and the power to limit the control others have over their own SL experiences by raising the skill bar. (Yes, I know this isn't done deliberately to be mean and it's not avoidable, but that doesn't mean it isn't power.)

How you Turn my world you precious thing.
You starve and near exhaust me.
Everything i've done, i've done for you.
I move the stars for no one!
You've run so long, you've run so Far.
But I beleive in you.
Yes i do.
Your eyes can be so cruel,
Just as i can be so cruel.
Live without the sun light.
Love without your heartbeat.
I can't live within you,
I can't live within you.

-Labrynth

Now you 2 have Labrynth stuck in my head lol.

To answer your question about power, I think power in SL equals to reputation. So to an extent, it is true that the more well-known a product is, the more "power" the creator has. But if the products are poorly designed, the power is only temporary as someone else will design better things. It is up to the creator to maintain their level of "competitiveness" which eventually brinds reputation, hence power. Now if power is more like "do as I say, customer !", well definitely no, content creators do not have that power. Well I do, but that's because I'm a b... lol



If you're talking about my stuff Yumi (and thank you greatly for the compliment then), I have to say that my next update *will* allow multiple owners. It is indeed a very popular request and I just wanted to do it right. I do not think the lack of multiple owners reshapes relationships (I certainly hope not), but it just wasn't sticking with the philosophy of my products, which is realism (staying voluntarely vague here). The way I've found is not breaking that philosophy, and is not made the way all the customers think it should be, but it's working great, will be more versatile and will help them a lot.

I was actually talking about several different manufacturers and not you in particular. But the compliments still apply to you

But the "do as I say, customer" power _does_ seem to be there, because the product (any product, not just yours) can make decisions about what it allows the customers to do. Yes, there can be competition, but beyond a certain level a) most people will be unable to compete just because of art skill, and b) it takes more and more work to make a competing product from scratch, when all that would be offered to customers is a marginal benefit.

It's essentially QWERTY/Dvorak problem - where people didn't start using Dvorak because they already had keyboards so Dvorak could only offer the small transient benefit, so effectively Sholes (the inventor of Qwerty) gained the power to decide how everyone would interact with their computers (I know that qwerty was designed for typewriters, not computers, but it didn't change when computers came in, so he gained that power when they did).

There is no spork.

(To answer the question: it gives me no power. It does make me proud and happy when someone likes my stuff enough to buy it an take it "home."

Mari

This sums it up for me ..

I Have been building for awhile, and someone saw one of my creations, a starfleet ship to be exact, and now the 6 that I have done, are housed at the Star Trek museum here.. There is no power, it is an honor that something I have built would even be considered for a museum like that.. I take great pride in what I build, and I also take great pride in customer satisfaction.. It is an priviledge to have people admire and want to buy my items..

<3

Jeza

I agree. I've been filling up my house with little projects I make in my free classes, or based off ideas I discovered thru those classes (sometimes something entirely different than the class project). One day after a class on how to package/set items for sale, I casually went through my house and set anything I had made myself, to a $L5 "sell" option (set to modify/copy/no-transfer). It was just on a lark and I then forgot about it. A few days later, I noticed on my account transactions, that someone had bought a little birdbath water fountain I had made in one class.

Obviously it is not an "economic" type thing, and gave me no "power" over anyone, it just made me feel really good to think someone looked at something I made, and in effect said "I'd put that in my house".

Even though I am still a rank beginner, it was a small acknowledgment that I was becoming a contributor to the world.

I would say more a sense of EMPOWER rather than of POWER.