Gridwide attacks: harmless jokes, accidents, and the non-action of Linden Lab....

Some companies are too strict on their playerbase, ie banning players from forums for mentioning other games.

Some people are truly bumblefucking retarded, rather than obstenibly malicious.

Last night's catastrophe is a result of the opposite of the above two statements.

Linden Lab has been historically lax when it comes to disciplining its userbase. From racist attacks, to generic griefing, to real world threats, to everything else, LL has a tendency to slap you on the wrist and then continue writing code for Havok2, or whatever is coming next year.

Last night saw the complete and total collapse of the Grid. Not due to server failure, earthquake, a glitch in the Sim code, or even due to tripping over the power cord (all of which have happened).

Instead, a kid with a free account obliterated the entire grid with an 8-line, self-replicating object called "GrieferSphere RC3".

That's Griefer, as in someone/something that griefs, Sphere, as in 3d shape, and RC3, meaning release candidate 3.

the owner of the sphere, Ol Fitzcarrido, belonged to Something Awful, a group based on the community of the website of the same name.

They are similar to W-hat, SA Goons, and the host of other Something Awful groups running around SL. An example of their shining good humor is the Fetus Factory out in Gallii.

Of course, within moments of the grid falling down, the SA goons popped into the IRC channel, saying it was an "accident".

The SA forum thread dedicated to SL was similarly filled with apologetic maneuvering.

Of course the SL forums aren't helping, with vague threats of legal action over losing money at Tringo, and the demands (yes, demands) of the playerbase to ban everyone ever belonging to W-hat or their sister groups.

Sigh. here we go again.

SomethingAwful.com is an entirely different community than SL. Whereas SA is filled with your average assortment of the Internet Demographic (18-34, predominantly male), SL's demographics are more evenly skewed: the spread is about 50/50 male/female, and the average age is somewhere around the late 20's/early 30's.

On top of that, a typical SA joke would have to do with dead babies. A typical SL joke would involve, I dunno, tringo.

Do you see the culture clash here?

The Linden response has been, of course, extremely muted. The account was permabanned. Big deal. It takes another credit card and about 5 minutes to get a new account.

So basically their entire infrastructure is wiped out, less than 12 hours before a major point release, and all they can do is ban a free account.

Big fucking deal. I can make free accounts all day and wipe out the grid once a week, if that's all they're going to do.

Furthermore, the usual W-hat morons have been hopping all over the SL forums, splitting their time between rather tepid in-jokes and non-sequitors (here's an example: "HEY GUYS I LIKE TO SUCK DICK IS THAT NORMAL") and apologizing on behalf of the kid who bombed the grid.

Oh hai guyz, it wuz just an accident, kthx.

Right. The best argument they can come up with is "well, we only meant to grief TWO people, instead of 4000. Sorry about that."

After that was refuted, they resorted to semantics and "you can't judge a person by his group affiliations" bullshit.

Look, if you belong to the Nazi party, and your "friends" gas a few Jews, chances are I'm going to a) Call you a Nazi, and b) shoot you along with your friends for helping to kill Jews. Even if you didn't do it, you're guilty by association.

That's how human society works, and has worked, for millenia. Virtual spaces are no different.

Similarly, if you belong to W-hat, and your "friends" bring down the Sim, spout racist rhetoric, push buttons, and generally make dickwads out of themselves, sooner or later the rest of society will label you, and everyone else related to SomethingAwful, as fucking twits.

And yet every time this shit happens, half of the group acts completely surprised at this turn of events!

"hai guyz wots goin on why duz every1 hate us"

Most of it is smokescreen hyperbole, of course. The jokesters and his friends knew what was going on. At best, they didn't realize their script would kill the grid. At worst, they planned this attack from the getgo (anecdotal reports indicate that the spheres were popping up on private sims too, disconnected from the grid).

But what will LLab do? Why, nothing, of course. Perhaps a stern, vaguely worded warning from Robin or Jeska, a few bannings of free accounts, and then they'll try to pretend nothing happened on the eve of 1.7.

Until next time, when someone does it again. Only this time it won't be so easy to clean up, I imagine. Viruses evolve, and so do griefers.

Criminal charges would be nice, but we won't see them.

In conclusion: W-hat wins, SL loses. Again.

GG LLab.

LF

State of Play III Contest: Musings and Ruminations.

In early September, the news was circulated around the SL community that the upcoming State of Play conference included a MMORPG Public Space Design Competition. The challenge, obstenibly, was to design a space within one of the many worlds defined as MMORPG (WoW, There, SL, TSO, Ultima, Everquest, etc.) that fostered public discourse and civic participation. Actually, from the site itself:

Judges are looking for the designs, spaces and structures that foster civic engagement, promote civil society and strengthen the public sphere while, at the same time, demonstrating artistic and aesthetic vision.

Okay, no problem; design a space where people interact within SL, where public discourse happens, maybe even has a civic function (post office? museum? police training ground?), perhaps roughly model it on real-life locations, and then build the place.

19 of the 25 entries were from Second Life, covering the gamut of virtual space: museums, art installations, revisions of how people view data, gardens, skyscrapers, ships, and even entire cities were entered. All of them had some sort of civic participation built-in: people used these places much as ancient Greeks used their forums.

So what won?

Er, well, the Relay for Life Sim. Nothing terribly wrong with that; it technically fostered civic cooperation, however it was designed for a Real-World application, rather than being built with the virtual world in mind. Also, it no longer exists.

It's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places I'm miffed about.

2nd place was CINE, a buzzword-spattered art experiment in which a person stands in the middle and "experiences" it, in the real world. Not an MMORPG.

3rd place was an artistic re-rendering of the entire internet, but which never really existed in any sort of space, virtual of real, and most certainly was not MMORPG.

4th place used the Quake3 engine (which is nowhere near the definition of an MMORPG) projected on real-world walls, in which users experienced a "virtual world" that re-synthesized data fed to it and projected it onto the walls.


The entries described are an affront to the competition. Specifically it said to use some sort of MMORPG space in order to create these "public spaces"; presumably the point was to showcase how important virtual worlds had become to human discourse and society as a whole. Most of the entrants must have agreed with me, as they entered many different types of spaces that attempted to address the special concerns of their respective worlds. Public space was re-imagined to work for the virtual worlds.

Instead we get a defunct, special-purpose Sim commandeered for RL purposes and 3 art installations that may or may not mention the MMORPG concept in their smattering of artistic buzzwordery.

Indeed, why didn't they just open up the competition to anything involving the two words "virtual" and "world" within a paragraph?

How does a re-imagining of the Internet, written merely as a dream, function as a public space? Where is the "MMORPG" in the Quake3 installation at a Dutch arts festival?

This isn't to disparage the hard work the participants did; no doubt they poured their minds and souls into the projects. But they absolutely do not belong in this competition, especially not at the top of the heap.

Consider Midnight City: Essentially a self-contained 16 acre urban area, the place has many "public" structures; a park, several dance clubs, public streets, movie theatres, plazas. In between all of them are little areas where people hang out: alleyways, staircases, the side of an abandoned building; the unintended consequences of a complex space.

Is this not a re-imagining of the public space? Does this not encourage civic discussion and interaction? Does this not leverage the strengths of its environment (Second Life), as well as design around its inherent flaws?

Isn't that the point of the entire competition? Why isn't Aimee Weber polishing off a virtual award to put in her shop?

Or why isn't The Port, a radical departure of information awareness?

How about Pixal Town, a 4-sim area dedicated to helping people learn English as a second language?

Where is their recognition?

Instead, the State of Play judges stroked their beards and became intoxicated with the power of art for art's sake; none of the winners displayed even a mild amount of the requirements for the contest.

This is, of course, almost a week and a half after the contest ended; the original First Place prize were tickets and registration to the SoP conference. Instead, the winners were (quietly) announced on a semi-hidden webpage on the second day of the conference. Timely, indeed.

Maybe next year they'll pick winners for a competition that actually had followed the requirements, instead of picking wild art installations, however intriguing they may be.

LF

Prokofy 1, Google 0

The Apocalypse may be upon us.

Google recently started a blogger search tool . In my egotistical search for my own virtual moniker, no less than 80% of the hits of my own name go to Prok's own paranoid, hyperwritten blog, Second Thoughts.

Numerically, it's more hits than I get from Google Main itself.

It's comical, nay, scary. To think that he has veered his hyper-accusatory thought process against me at least a dozen times, always in the negative.

What the hell is his problem? Wait, I'm sure he reads as much as he writes (a herculean task, I'll grant), so let me ask prok directly: What the hell is your problem? Ever since you came into SL, you've been rallying against your hypothetical, impotent enemies that only you can stop... the FIC, the Techi-Wiki, the scripters, the builders, the texture makers, anyone that doesn't have your narrow and useless skillset is immediately under suspect of skullfucking lindens for favors.

For over a year you've devoted more written garbage to your cockeyed beliefs than there are words in the entire Bible. Your forum posts are one-trick ponies, yet somehow manage to stretch beyond the textual horizon, blocking out the sun. Your blog comments are just as long, spamming the SL Herald with your tired diatribes of classism, favoritism, lindenism, and anti-prok-ism.

You're a cad, a sham, a total and complete disgrace of a human being. Your ramblings are a waste of electrons. You and your alts are the only ones listening. Give up.

That felt much better.

LF

The coming Linden Dollar crash...

Welcome to the first virtual economic depression. :)

Due to GOM's restructuring of its service, the Linden dollar has accelerated it's slow decline into a tumbling avalanche. What was a gradual devaluation of the Linden Dollar due to inflation and currency oversaturation is now turning into a free-for-all buyers' market.

At last count, the $L is trading at $3.57 per $L1000. The Lindens have stated that they'd like to keep it around $4.00/$L1000.

This is only partly LLabs' fault... this is even only partly GOM's fault.

The rest of the blame shifts to the currency sellers themselves.

Instead of holding steady at a specific price, you have folks willing to undercut each other over and over again, filling ever smaller price points on the market.

Where will this end? Until everyone -- yeah, every seller -- sets their price at a certain level.

When I put my money up, I'm going to put it at around $4.00/$L1000. I recommend everyone else do the same.

Otherwise the economy, and all that it entails, will collapse. Rampant inflation, dogs and cats living together, pandas on fire, and all that rot.

We can stop the first virtual economic depression... although part of me doesn't want to. :)

Watching with keen interest,

LF

Recently, my two-year anniversary in SL has passed.

It's hard to believe that I've been involved with SL for two years already... and yet... only two years?

It's always been my personal opinion that time seems to go alot faster on the grid, so to speak. Within a week of me being in SL, I felt like I knew everyone pretty well. Within a month, I felt like a grizzled veteran.

After two years, I feel downright ancient.

It's kinda funny, my existence in SL. I've managed to become well known for two things, somewhat paradoxically: my vitriolic forum posts, and my (allegedly) excellent architectural acumen.

My forum posting history started innocently enough: wide eyed newbie, full of optimism at the world he just discovered, posting questions and participating in healthy discussion... but beneath the veneer of innocence lay a rather opinionated individual, ready to cut down the folks he sees as "wrong". My forum persona is boisterous, bold, argumentative, cutthroat, sarcastic, logical, and sometimes downright evil.

On the one hand, I know that my forum "personality", as it were, does not fully reflect the person that is me... indeed, anyone that's met me in-world could attest to that. On the other hand, the way I present myself on the forums is definitely a facet of who I am, even though I tend to only display it in that venue.

Over the past two years I have waded into countless threads, interjected my piece into many an unfolding drama, and single-handedly killed dozens of threads. I have dueled, parried, thrusted, and kicked my way around the forums for over 2000 posts. That's around 1000 posts a year... certainly, I would wager that I have waxed more prose on the SL forums than I have anywhere else in my life combined.

And then there's the "other" side of me; my in-world self. While no less opinionated, I'm less likely to go barging around meeting areas. I'm much more quiet, and even shy. I try to be nice to everyone I meet.

And then there's that whole "architect" thing. I'm not quite sure how, but I've managed to become one of the "top" builders in SL; if not for skill, then certainly for name recognition. It never ceases to amaze me how many "top builders in SL" lists I've managed to worm into. To think that I'm in the top tier of builders in SL in a growing community of 37,000 is mind-boggilng; and considering my "competition", I remain incredulous at the veracity of my building prowess.

And yet, even though I've been here two years, even though I'm a well known resident of SL, even though I'm usually greeted with hearty greetings and back-slapping jollies, I've always had the odd, nagging sensation that I "don't fit in".

It's not that I don't have friends... I've got quite the number, in fact. But no matter what, no matter when I stop by, I always feel like I'm "interrupting" something, like my sudden inclusion into the general area of conversation has disrupted the group's mojo. I've felt like this ever since I started; I'd hop down in the middle of a group of people, and it almost feels like the mood changes, for whateve reason.

Even with groups I "regularly" hang out with, I feel like the rarely-visiting uncle; nice enough, pleasant to be around, but never really part of "the family".

So, if you see me hop in, say a few words, and then hop out again, don't feel slighted. Just know that I've once again gotten the weird vibe of me interrupting something otherwise important, and hence I should get out of Dodge. Either that or I found an idea for a building. :)

And now I'd like to take the remaining monitor space by thanking various folks and groups that I've met and known over my two-years-and-running span, in a public and embarrassing fashion. :)

Beryl Greenacre: a great friend, one of the original "neighbors in slate" group that I stumbled upon; my first building client, and a faboo clothing designer to boot.

Ezhar Fairlight: It's his fault I build by the numbers. I met this dude in Slate; he was my neighbor in fact. He always seemed to be on, sometimes 17 hours a day... I learned that he was on extended vacation, and wanted to spend it in-world. Weirdo. :P Anyways, were it not for his Pei-Mei style tutelage ("It's wrong! do it again! fix it! I see texture flash!" :P ), I wouldn't be half the builder that I am today.

Kenzington Fairlight: Another Slate neighbor. Veritably unknown in-world, but definitely a world of cool and a force to be reckoned with. If it's not Kenz-approved, it's probably not fit for proper consumption. :) Encouraged me to do tons of things... a great partner in crime.

Launa Fauna: Possibly the nicest person on the grid, an absolute joy to converse with, a Skype Ninja, and an accomplished artist as well. Everyone should hang out with teh launas. :)

Mistress, Aimee, Torrid, Water, Si, and everyone else ever in the Midnight City crew: Thanks for putting up with my antics throughout time, definitely one of the coolest group of people in-world, if a bit hyperactive. Also, pound-for-pound, insanely creative and talented in all of their pursuits. Perhaps the gestation pool for the FIC, too, who knows. :)

Barnes, Ingrid, Marcos, and company: The "other" group I hang out with... slightly less batshit loony, but no less fun to hang around. Great drinking companions :)

Juro Kothari, Barnesworth Anubis, Maxx Monde, Traxx Hathor, Neil/Neph Protagonist, Ingrid Ingersoll, Marcos Fonzerelli and various other prim ninjas: The best architectural "competition" I could ever hope to go up against. Chock full of inspiration and talent, all of you!

So, yeah... thus ends my two year homage to myself. I'm not going anywhere, mind you, but I just felt that at 630+ days of being in-world, I need some sort of sappy, text-based announcement.

Here's to another two years!

Rawr.

LF

Round two....

As SL's second anniversary passes us by, let us take the time to reflect on the virtual world around us. And indeed, on ourselves.

We have here, what may or may not be, a veritable revolution in socializing and communication. By competing, living, and hanging out in a 100% resident-controlled world, we have real power over our existence. Our surroundings. We have the potential of dropping all barriers to communication, to understanding each other and bringing about world peace, or something.

And yet, even when granted this extraordinary tool for self-exploration and 21st century socializing, we manage to wall ourselves off from each other. Sometimes, more so in SL than we would in RL.

We lie about our jobs.

We lie about our true intentions.

We lie about our ages.

We lie about our gender.

We lie about our relationships.

We wall off our feelings in grandiose displays of furrydom or BDSM powergames or building megatowers or engaging in monopolistic business practices or shooting random passerby with nuclear warheads.

We shun those that are different.

We reject those that do not share our beliefs and convictions.

Are these all symptoms of a twisted and demented online metaverse, or is this merely a virtual, exaggerated extension of the real world?

If the former... what can we do to change it? How could we foster a true virtual world of relative openess, a social Glasnost that is the envy of online spaces? Would we even want to?

If the latter... well, I guess we're all screwed then, aren't we? :)

I find it disheartening at the least that in a world that, on the surface, seems to be extremely forgiving, liberal, and otherwise open to new ideas and beliefs, us creatures on the individual level are still preventing others from seeing who we really are, by hiding away in our virtual extensions of ourselves. Burying our emotions and reactions into sub-cultured roleplaying that is meant to marginalize anything bad that happens. Switching roles and stories as easily as switching IM conversations.

So, here's hoping to an honesty Renaissance. I have nothing to hide... do you?

LF

The Gridsa sploded!

The Grid went half down today at 2:51 PM. The resulting carnage left many "stranded" on neighboring sims, that somehow stayed up.

It was interesting to watch. Clusters of people immediately formed in the sim I was in (Luna), talking to each other to see what was happening. People automatically gathered at the Luna fountain and discussed the issues as Brent gave us grid-wide information updates.

Tringo host met Jedi scripter met physical sandbox participant met virtual architect.

It was interesting to see genres of SL users that don't normally interact come together in a place other than the Welcome Area, even if some of them were a bit annoying (script kiddies are like that).

Just another daily experience in SL. :)

LF

And then it was dark...

For the past 2 days, SL has been a bit... hard to reach. Due to the overwhelming popularity of SL (philip pegged last month's growth alone at 5000 new accounts), the login servers are a bit, shall we say "jammed to the hilt".

On top of that, because the Lindens apparently have little idea how human nature works, they didn't place hard enough limits on certain parts of the user experience in their design specs. Namely, inventory size and outbound emails.

So, we come to a head; three problems causing a ruckus all at once. The login server is overloaded at peak hours, exacerbated by people frantically jamming the "login" button over and over again. The inventory asset server is nearly on fire, because people are natural packrats (some folks have reported having 18,000 objects in their inventory... christ almighty. I thought I was bad with 3500...). And, due to email being the only reliable way to get outside data in and out of SL, the linden lab email server is being hit several hundred times a SECOND.

Christ.

Yeah, so it's bad.

So of course the illiterate teeming millions crawl out of their bling piles and post illegible scrawls on the bathroom wall that IS... the SL general forum.

Dozens of misunderstanding, mis-learned, and misanthropic individuals hocked the proverbial loogie onto many a Linden in the last 48 hours, demanding a systematic and complete fix by yesterday, or By God, they were gonna tier down.

Nevermind that the forum regulars tried to explain what the issues were... they didn't care. They had netsex and thong contests to attend to. Their businesses were "losing money"...

Let's backtrack a bit here.

If your business is losing money in any other way, shape or form other than land tier, then you are DOING IT WRONG. SL has no inherent expenses. You don't need hourly employees for most things, so why are you paying them by the hour? Why are you losing money? Linden Labs is not responsible for your poor business acumen.

Anyways.

People were upset. Perhaps understandably so, but what struck the wrong chord in me was the absolute asshole, flippant attitude they presented their cases in. OMGWTFBBQ FIX IT OR I QUIT was the general tone of most of it. Worse yet, they got pissed when people told them to can it.

I saw so many threads of people, many apparently not hearing of such English wonders such as the period or capital letters, spouting off at things they simply didn't understand or want to grasp. It was a puke bucket full of verbage that should not have been uttered.

The last 48 hours really shined a big fucking spotlight on some of the morons that play this game. Yes, I'm talking to you. The ones that fail to realize that the Lindens are human beings, not demi-gods, they are not explicitly trying to fuck you over. They are doing their job, they love SL, and they try to be nice to the community.

Stop biting their heads off. Your netseks can wait. The future growth and prosperity of The Grid is more important than your bling, your petty relationships, and your casino habit.

That is my rant for the night... signing off.

LF

OH NOEZ TEH MAFIAZ

Tonight I was sitting in my coffee bar, talking to Beryl Greenacre, setting up a repeater for the town hall meeting, when along comes a d00d that happened to be the leader of a group called the "Diablo Cartel".

Riiiight.

Anyways, he said his hellos, and he started talking big about being "different than everyone else in SL". When asked why, he simply pointed to an article featuring him in the SecondLife Herald (SL's finest tabloid... it's a fairly recent article).

The gist of the article (and the group's existence, apparently) is to go around "selling drugs" and "selling guns" to people in SL.

Riiiiight.


Anyhow, after we showed less-than-stellar enthusiasm, he tottered off. Beryl and I chatted for a bit longer, and then she logged. I noted my amusement in IRC, prompting a teleport for a fellow IRC idler. We sat down in my lovely yellow chairs in my home, and tried to watch the fellow.

While on my neighbor's land, he was fiddling with objects that must have been the "drugs" he was trying to sell -- non physical platforms that flew around, apparently. Around this time another member of his "mafia" comes by and they chat for a bit. My fellow IRC person pondered a course of action.

While thinking, a "rival" "mafia" (I love using quotes) member shows up. They have a few words. Then she teleports in some people. Then more. Then more. All of them are armed to the teeth. In a non-combat, PG-sim.

Riiiight.

By this time I'm laughing to myself, and my curiosity has spilled over into IMs to various friends and the IRC channel. Soon 2 lindens pop in, morbidly curious. A couple friends come in. And then some more IRC regulars filter into Grignano.

Grignano now has more people in it than it's ever had in it's 1 year existence.

One of the observers breaks the ice by openly mocking the assembled, trash-talking mafia group. Then everyone sits on the awnings and the rooftop of the building they were assembling in, basically heckling them.

And so it continued for about 15 minutes. The Mafia tried to ignore us all, but when you outnumber a group 3 to 1, it's hard to ignore so many catcalls :)

After ten or so minutes of the mafias calling each other names (as best they could... they had a VERY funny limitation on what they could say, simply because they were in a PG sim... maybe the two lindens circling overhead had something to do with it), the crowd got bored and dispersed. And so did the Mafia.

Wow, what a hoot. Two drug dealers get called pansies for being in a PG sim by another mafia. Then both mafias are ridiculed to the point of impotence by the assembled peanut gallery.

I must ask, what the hell is the point of these mafia groups anyways? You're playing pretend with pretend guns and prancing around like those "gangstas" you see in the "movies". Nevermind the fact that organized crime has very few rules, are ruthless, and aren't usually very friendly. No, all of these kids come in and have themselves a good ol' time playing shootup until their accounts are banned for griefing or being underage.

When's the Teen grid starting up again?

LF

This is quality. Thanks go to Marcos Fonzerelli for the good work. :D

Linkie

The skype type....

Folks in SL love to communicate. From IMs and chat groups to IRC channels, Nexcom cell phones, and external instant messenger programs, the SL residents at large are practically gossip queens.

A lot of folks also take a liking to voice chats.. in lieu of Linden Labs implementing a decent voice chat system any time soon (not until after version 2.0), some have taken it upon themselves to find other means of communication. Some have setup dedicated SL Teamspeak servers. Many others use Skype, which is a very good Internet telephony program.

I dunno.

For me, talking on the phone or through a chintzy PC microphone is a rough ordeal. What do I say? How do I say it? Am I mumbling? Is the connection good? Am I too far away from the mic? Too close? Can I listen to music too? Should I be paying more attention to the typing folks in SL, my building, or the people in my headphones?

I'm a rather shy person, believe it or not. Behind the endless parade of wordy malaprops in the forums, I tend to keep to myself. I sell silly consumer electronics stuff all day, usually to angry consumer whores, and when I come home I just don't want to have a fireside chat. Usually.

There's only one person that I've talked to on skype that makes me actually WANT to use skype. I dunno how she does it, but she can pull you into a conversation of hers regardless of your mood or vocal aptitude. She can orchestrate voice conferences with the skill of a seasoned conductor. She talks extremely eloquently, full of verbosity and wit, and is so damned energetic, even when she's exhausted, that you can't help but get sucked into her enthusiasm.

So, if you ever want a good chatting partner, launa's your gal. :P

Just be prepared to spend the next couple of hours on the horn. At least.

*drinks a beer in honor of Launa*

LF

The Sweatshop question in SL

A thread in the forums recently raised the evil spectre of sweatshops coming to SL to ruin poor people's lives, and, perhaps more importantly for us, the economy of SL.

Fortunately, such a possibility is very remote indeed. I posit that Second Life is fairly impervious to all sorts of sweatshop tactics.

In other MMORPGs, the money supply is essentially infinite at any point in time; it comes directly from loot on monsters, which spawn forever and ever. If you kill 10, 10 more will show up within 5 minutes. So, if you have 50-100 people on one server doing nothing but bashing monsters for loot, you eventually accumulate millions of gold pieces. The benefit for the sweatshop company is the ability to sell this gold to the highest bidder; the downside for the game and the economy is runaway inflation.

The Lindens have their economy structured differently. There is no monster button to push, no loot to swindle. Everyone gets a weekly stipend from the lindens, plus traffic bonuses. That's it. Everything else comes from players trading around goods and services (apparently quite a bit, too; last week's economic data suggested over $US 500,000 worth of SL stuff was traded). This prevents runaway inflation because the players can't poke the loot button over and over again, and also the Lindens have a tight control on how much to give out every week (a few weeks ago, in order to curb inflation, they cut the weekly stipend... despite the infinitely crying complaints from everyone ever, a negligible amount of people quit, and the economy is still going strong, if not stronger, than before)

Anyways, that removes the ability for the sweatshop owners to directly cause a wreck to the economy. The only other way to do it would be to mass-produce goods and/or services. But that is a risky proposition for the sweatshop operator. Why? Let's go through a few examples:

• Sweatshop owner decides to mass-produce buildings. He trains 50-100 people in the archaic building tools given to us in SL for about 3 weeks, and then opens up virtual shop. First of all, the market is already quite flooded. Secondly, whoops, now the workers have a personal skill they can use for better pay/better conditions: that is, they have rudimentary CAD skills.
• Sweatshop owner decides to mass-produce scripts. He trains 50-100 people in the LSL programming language. Whoops, now the workers have another skill; rudimentary programming logic skills.
• Sweatshop owner decides to go old-school and mass-produce clothing. He trains 50 people in PHotoshop. Whoops, now the sweatshop workers have an extremely valuable skill in a professional-grade photo editing program. Sony called, they want to hire them for 10 bucks an hour doing texture work for Gran Turismo BAndicoot 5 Dance Dance Alpha. Whoops indeed.

And so on. SL is based upon cottage industry types; I'd bet that 90% of businesses in SL are sole proprietorships, or are essentially one (that is, it's only a partnership because one is sexxing up the other, or whatever else); one person in SL can have the production capacity of a small corporation. Now that's power.

So don't worry, fellow gridmonkeys, our money, our skills, and our economy is safe from the sweatshops, for now.

LF

Things about me.

I'm a fan of honesty, and removing any barriers to communications and removing false pretenses.

Here's some randomly-pulled data about me, Lordfly Digeridoo:

Real Name: Josh

Age: 22

Sex: Male

Occupation: Part time electronics retail dude, part time Eastern Michigan University college student (majoring in Urban/Regional Planning, minor in Geographical Information Systems)

Hobbies: Singing in my car, making music, watching movies, playing SL, arguing, reading, video games, playing golf, drinking good beer (good beer = not anything made by Budweiser or Miller), spending time with friends, other outlets of creativity

Car driven: 1994 Ford Tempo

Computer: Pentium 4 2.6 ghz, 1024 MB DDR ram, Geforce 5700

Beer in fridge: sadly running low, only Labatt Blue is in there (hey, it's cheap and decently quaffable)

Currently playing other than SL: Gran Turismo 4, Rome: Total War

Time in SL: Since July 23, 2003

Amount of money made in SL: Around $US 1,000

What the money was used for: Finishing up my Associates Degree

Skills in SL: structural builder, keen observer, armchair economist, forum warrior

SL, Game or Not? It's a thingie, stupid.

What I want SL to be: an alternate reality. Trying to turn it into the "web 3d" is simplistic and doesn't do the technology justice. I want it to become a major communication, creative, and social hub for millions of people worldwide.

Predictions for SL:

First major corporation to set up shop in SL: late 2006/early 2007
First time LLabs posts a profit: Late 2005
First assault charge stemming from SL: 2008
First accredited college class given exclusively in SL: 2008
One hundred thousand users reached: 2006
One million users reached: 2007

I've run out of things to randomly pull from my mind. Oh well, at least it was a post. :D

LF

*performs blog voodoo*

So, let's resurrect this dead blog and retool it for new uses!

Like... rambling about SL in general terms instead of the specifics of the economy!

Be warned, though, this post is preceded by about 5 or 6 beers, so I'm feeling a bit fuzzy.

I'm sitting in the 1.6 preview right now, attending a "party" where the lindens are showing us off in front of 200 or so people at some party at GDC. Basically it's your average SL club with a video screen in the background.

Apparently some people are getting bitchy because they didn't know about the shindig 4 weeks ahead of time or whatnot. This ties in further with the incessent ridiculous ramblings about the Feted(fetid) Inner Core.

Honestly. Some folks in the SL community are worse than JFK conspiracy theorists.

"TEH LINDENZ ATE MY BABY & THEY WONT LET ME INTO PREVIEW LIKE THOSE ASSHOLES" *points at group not like themselves*

I'm really getting sick of people complaining about SL favoritism. Here's why.

Ever since SL launched, the lindens have been, for lack of a better word, "there". Even the CEO was there, running around the world, fixing stuff. You could TALK to him, and anyone else in the company, with a few emails, IMs, or even phone calls. This was supposed to foster a positive user-developer relationship.

And it did, until, oh, about midway through version 1.5.

About that time independent groups of people decided that they weren't being listened to 100% of the time, so they started rumblings on the forums. And rumbled. and rumbled. and rumbled.

Then people got in-world and bitched. The more forum posts. Then more accusations.

The lindens, of course, being developers and not sociologists, made the occasional blunder of (from outward appearances) of reinforcing this ridiculous world image accidentally by adding a few questionable features (concierge service? linden incubator program? 1.6 pre-preview test?) and not "explaining" themselves.

The problem with all of this is that almost anyone not dancing in a club 24/7 can be considered Feted Inner Core. After hundreds of pages of witless, "serious" dialogue on the forums, there is no actual definition of who is, and who isn't, FIC. Is it content creators? LAnd barons? Money hogs? Lindens? Club owners? Rate miners? Virtual escorts? Vampires?

Who the fuck is exactly FIC?

This is like the Communist witch-hunts in the USA during the 1950's; people wave their banners around looking for the boogeymen, finding them under every rock and hidey place. It's undefendable too, because if you deny it, then obviously YOU ARE PART OF THE FIC OMFG OMFG OMFG.

The lindens are going to "help" out whoever they want to. They tend to favor folks who put a lot of effort into making the grid a better place. Yes, that means content creators, land owners, businesspeople, and more. It usually does NOT mean the insipid Dance Pants that mindlessly suck up bandwidth for a few months on a $US 10 trial account. The lindens gravitate towards polite, articulate people that have put more than ten bucks into their collective paychecks.

Any company will do this. Any PERSON would do this. The fact that the lindens are a friendly bunch makes it worse because everyone assumes they are DEH DEVILS WITH DEH HIDDEN AGENDAZ.

GEt over yourselves, all of you. If you are friendly and a good contributor to the world (entirely subjective, of course), you MAY or MAY NOT get a random invite to something completely pointless down the road. If you do, cool, don't rub it in anyone's face, asshole. And if you don't, oh well, life goes on, asshole.

More beers later,
LF

GOM and IGE: a comparison

Please note: I do not work for GOM nor IGE, so don't take this as an advertisement.

Both the GamingOpenMarket and IGE came about, coincidentally, just as the SL economy needed them most. When 1.2 hit, land demand was in the middle of hitting a then-unheard of high, taking the citizens and the Lindens completely by surprise. Prices were soaring, land barony was beginning to take shape, and there was a high demand for liquid capital with which to buy land. Everyone wanted land 15 minutes ago, and they were willing to pay any price.

Enter GOM and IGE.

IGE, a multi-national corporation with more than 100 employees, went their usual route of buying in-world currency for a low offer, then turning around and selling it for a higher price. This works wonders in games like Everquest and Ultima Online; an infinite money supply is "minted" every time someone kills and loots a monster, so there's always a supply. Conversely, the players are always craving better and better armor with which to kill these bad guys with, so the demand for money is always there. IGE actually plays both sides of the fence: They spend many hours camping spawn points and out-looting everyone, then selling the loot, and they ALSO sell the money that people require in order to buy the loot. Basically they can hit the players twice, and usually end up with their own money back with which to sell again.

This, of course, isn't all terribly legal; Many games' user agreements (in fact the vast majority of the huge MMORPG games have this) explicity state that all objects, game currency, and so on are the sole property of the game creators; as such, you can't sell something that isn't yours. The ban on in-world selling of items and money is prohibited, but loosely enforced. IGE therefore exists mostly on the fringe of gamer societies. Massive friction is sometimes generated inside these communities as well, when their loot-grabbing exploits push other, more casual players out of the way.

The economy in SL works much differently; the money supply is tightly controlled by the Lindens using complex formulas and stipend manipulation. There is no way for one player to "out-loot" the others, so to speak, so the money supply increases at a predictable pace.

This presents a few problems for IGE right off the bat; for one, there is nothing for an army of gamers to camp; no spawn points, no massive looting binges, no possible way to get more money at an acclerated pace. Furthermore, the commodity market in SL is completely player-run; very little items in a player's inventory are actually linden-created. Therefore, the actual demand for "rare" items is almost nil, as anyone can simply make their own design of something that will fit their needs perfectly. If they cannot, then they almost certainly know someone who can.

Thus, IGE has relegated itself to simply buying money at a lower price, and selling it for higher prices. IGE sets their buying and selling prices.

GOM, on the other hand, is a small startup, consisting of two employees. Originally offering currency exchanges in about a half a dozen games including SL, The Sims Online, There, and Everquest, it now supports only SL due to the other companies simply refusing to acknowledge the existance of item and currency trading on their game servers.

Their website is a simple money exchange market. Players post bids on what they're willing to pay for a certain amount of linden dollars (say, US$100 for $L25,000). Then, a willing seller simply deposits the money in an in-world GOM ATM, clicks about 3 times on the website, and the money is sent instantly to the buyer. The money market dictates the price of the linden dollar in this case. Players offer to buy or sell at whatever price they decide to sell at, and that's how it all works. GOM makes its money by skimming a small commission fee off of transactions. The wait time for funds deposit is dependent entirely on how long it takes someone to click on your order on the website; from there, it's automatic.

GOM's chief representative, Zeppi Schlegal, is usually in-world once a day, flying around and chatting with folks. The avatar is controlled by one man, GOM's founder. As most of GOM's website is automatic, he doesn't spend much time running money orders around, and instead spends his time chatting with customers and tweaking his ATM service.

IGE's represntative, the appropriately-named IGE Wheeling, is the account for the entire company. They log in to deliver your money, or to collect the money from you if you are selling. The person behind the keyboard is almost different every time; there have even been (unsubstantiated) reports of minor griefing by the account, as well as general rudeness. The account is usually busy flying to and fro, chatting with customers and trading money back and forth.

So, we have two companies here, providing a similar service to the end consumer, but doing it in two very different ways. Which one is better, not just for the consumer, but for Second Life as a whole?

In my opinion, it is GamingOpenMarket, for several key reasons.

First, is economic liquidity. IGE's business model requires it to hold onto vast sums of money (at least 10% of the entire money supply in SL as of this writing) in order to have enough of a supply for its buyers. Also, IGE can shut its doors to sellers at any time, usually when they have an overstocking of linden dollars. These two factors reduce the dynamicness of the entire SL economy, throwing median account balances and content pricing entirely out of whack (in fact, if IGE didn't exist, everyone would have on average almost 750 more linden dollars in their pockets today; that doesn't sound like much, but with 15,000 players, it's a hefty economic sum).

Second, is scaling issues. IGE's business model of money-running couriers works well, for now... but have you ever been in-world when they have multiple requests for money transfers? It's a financial logjam. I've seen friends have to wait in-world for several hours in order to get their order done. And that's with a small trading volume. Imagine one account trying to organize 20 requests for buy/sell orders. Have fun waiting...

On top of that, what would happen if they started using multiple accounts? IGE1, IGE2, etc... it wouldn't take a master schemer 5 minutes to sign up with similar-sounding accounts and suck a ton of lindens out of people.

GOM's automatic ATM service, on the other hand, is almost infinitely scalable. There's no waiting time between depositing money and selling it. Even transferring funds from Paypal over to GOM and vice versa takes a few hours tops. The ATM service is linden-backed, and linked to avatar's credit cards, so your money is safe both ways.

Third is community support. Zeppi is an actual member of our community. He will gladly talk to you about anything under the sun, not just about GOM. He sets up ATMS wherever you'd like them to be on your land. He helps run VERTU, Second Life's very own charity fund, and works with them, commission-free, in order to get them the best donation prices on the market. On top of that, he's a nice guy.

IGE Wheeling is the epitome of commercialization. It is a corporate account, nothing more. The account merely exists for workers to log in, do their job, and log out. Where's the community support? Where's the humorous anecdotes about IGE's family? Where's the conversation about the Cubs game?

Finally... I just like underdogs. IGE is a gigantic conglomerate who wouldn't mind strip-mining SL's databases for a few extra bucks. GOM, well, wouldn't. :)

So there you have it, a fairly long winded history, and final recommendation of the money markets in SL. Hopefully this was a good read.

LF

Some data, and a simple idea for the next stage in SL retailing...

A note on distribution of wealth

A small note of the distribution of wealth in SL; currently, one account, IGE Wheeling, the mule account of the IGE SuperSales website (a site that deals in trading with game currency... they don't actually bother to play SL), currently has over 10% of the ENTIRE money supply in circulation. That includes money in inactive accounts.

Not only that, the top 8 players in SL have a combined net worth of just over $L5.3 million. That means that the top %.001 of the current population of Second Life has a full %5 percent of the entire money supply, more if you don't count the IGE corporation's holdings.

Interesting that we have such a top-heavy economy... has SL's economic goal of money flowing to content creators worked too well? It would seem most content creators prefer to make their own things, or have their friends (who can also be content creators) make what they can't. This results in a constant flow of money "up" the economic food chain to the content creators, without it trickling downward back to the consumers (via GOM and IGE). The net worth of these accounts can be ranked in the tens of thousands of dollars, according to GOM's prices...

Anyways, just data to chew on.

The possible next step in the SL retailing industry...

Over a year ago, the main "shopping areas" were linden-sponsored; large stores with empty shelves, with an open invitation for content producers to drop their wares off for sale in these "Avatar Centrals". As well as these places, there were linden-sponsored "flea markets", that essentially were small areas where someone could plop their items down willy-nilly for sale in stalls.

Over time, folks started building their own shops. Small stores started dotting the landscape. With the inclusion of telehubs in 1.1, shops started clustering around the telehubs, hoping to get more foot traffic.

Soon the Lindens introduced Luna, the official mall shopping sim. Stores were filled with a bit more order, with vendors and clothes boxes neatly positioned around the stores.

And now, we have entire Sims dedicated to the shopping experience; the Galleria City sims, Le Cadre, Aqua, and so forth... all of them bring together dozens of vendors to hawk their wares at once, in all directions.

Each little piece of the Sims look ordered, but when glanced at from a whole, it still looks like capitalist anarchy.

What's needed, I think, is the next evolutionary step in retailing. In my opinion, that next step is a corporate department store.

Now before you go off on a tizzy and say "but we DO have department stores! Look at Galleria!" let me say that Galleria is a mall, not a department store.

A department store would work like this: A person buys a plot of land, and designs the store to be very space efficient; wide hallways, ample wallspace for products, a clean, modern design.

Then, the owner would design a vendor, or series of vendors, to use within the store, with care taken to follow a specific design motif (modern vendors, perhaps, or solid-black-shiny ones, or what have you). Then, you invite your interested content producers in.

The content producers would be REQUIRED to use your vendors and design specifications. They would require to use your boxes for walls, as well, to maximize display space.

Anyways, your vendors and your boxes should work on a commission-based system; the vendor would pay you a percentage of each sale, and the rest goes back to the consumer. Say, maybe %20/%80. The %20 going to you would go off of every sale, thus paying for things like rent. The pay structure is infinitely scalable too; no need to worry about paying rent or other silly finances.

PLus, the streamlined shopping experience would be better for customers; less jarring, messy areas to buy things in.

Anyways, just an idea.

I'll be on vacation til Sunday... cya then. :)

LF

GOM update and SL money-making primer

GOM update
After a full day of trading on the Gaming Open Market, it would appear that the Linden dollar has remained stable after re-open. This is probably a good thing :)

How to make money in SL
As a potentially new player, Second Life can be a bit daunting. The entire experience smacks you like a ton of bricks, and without any real set "direction", you can get overwhelmed in no time.

Eventually, though, most people seem to grasp the freedom that SL gives you and soon does the normal newbie things (attend some events, schmooze in the welcoming area, explore relentlessly, then find some good land to settle down in).

Next is usually some way/scheme/method to make some money, either for spending purposes or to cash out on GOM or IGE. I'd like to spend a few moments detailing some good ways to get your profit bus moving.

First things first, what do you want to sell? This usually stems directly from what you like to do in Second Life. Some folks like building, others like textures, still others have a thing for scripts.

Next, try to find a niche for your newly-acquired skills. Many many many folks make clothes; but do they make t-shirts with smarmy quotes on them? Is there some sort of unsatisfied demand for lime green skirts? Are people asking around for petunia-flavored furniture, but no one has it? Determine what the market needs best by asking around, checking out other stores, and so on.

Once you've found a niche to fill, it's time to actually produce your product or service. That's usually the easiest part, but be warned, sometimes making products can suck so much of your time away that it becomes more of a "job" than "fun". If this happens, step away for a week or two and take it easy. No need to get burned out :)

After you finish your product or products, it's time to "package" it. This usually means naming them properly (maybe with a brand name), putting them in sales boxes, scripting them to be user-friendly, and so on. This part is critical; presentation is everything in Second Life. Most folks pretty much expect a professional-grade product to come out of stores, and become infinitely frustrated when it doesn't work as intended.

For clothes, the best way to dispense clothes is to use a vendor, or use separate boxes for clothing pieces and sell the contents of each one (very popular, but prim-intensive). It helps to have a common theme with your boxes; many folks pose their avatar in front of a white screen with the clothes on to give the buyer a good idea of what the item looks like. Some also put the names of the product on the box texture itself; the key here is to present it well. Make the boxes all the same size; pose your avatar the same way every time for each box; and so on. Finally, position them on the sales floor in a neat and orderly way, so folks can browse your entire collection effortlessly.

For objects, putting them in boxes is probably the best way. Again, put them up against white screens, take pictures, crop them a bit, and put them in sales boxes. If the objects are no/modify/transfer, make sure you let the customer know ahead of time with a sign or a description tag. Plop them on the wall of your selling area, set the price, and voila.

For scripters, the easiest way for you folks to sell your wares is to put them in vendors that give out scripts (or scripted objects). Ensure that the script is user-friendly, properly debugged, and works well under duress. Many times a scripter will sell a product and then get deluged with customers using their script under the strangest of circumstances, and then wonder why it doesn't work. Again, proper debugging is key. BUT, MAKE SURE you take all of the "user-unfriendly" features out of your object before sale! That means IM spam, position shouting, permissions errors, and so on are removed or fixed before the masses get them.

There is one other area of the SL economy that rarely is noticed; the services industry. Services can be anything from hosting parties to building for clients. They usually involve the most work, but are invariably the most rewarding; it's a different challenge every day, and depending on the market you're entering, you can make killer money doing what you love.

The most common service rendered is usually building for other people. This can be tiresome, and will eventually burn you out if you're not careful (I am currently living proof of this). The best way to get yourself known is to just start building for people. Word of mouth spreads like wildfire in SL; one happy client tells 3 friends and whoever stops by their new home/shop; interested clients then IM you asking for your work, and so it perpetuates, increasing your reputation with each build and rapport with your customers.

Again, it's best to have a niche; many people need low-prim homes, so being able to texture well/make every prim count is paramount. Others don't have a care in the world for prims, and will let you design to their heart's content; every customer is different.

Above all, ensure that you charge properly for your work; just because you can build doesn't mean everyone else can. It is much too easy to undercharge yourself. A proficient architect can easily make $5,000 a job, if not more. Make sure your time invested is worth it. However, if you are still developing your skills, charging high prices will seem greedy and exorbitant. Only when you are comfortable with the tools will folks be gladly willing to pay whatever your price is to get your services.

Other services' fees depend on the demand, and the competition. Apartments are a prime example; charge too little and there is a perceived notion of a "ghetto". Charge too much and you won't get anyone into your building! You must strike a balance between cost, prims, and livable space.

This may all sound like common sense, but there are many folks that don't grasp the fundamentals of selling things, and hence get frustrated and leave the game. Don't do that; capitalism takes constant tweaking to work best.

Hopefully this will help folks.

Lordfly Digeridoo

A first post.

Howdy. Welcome to the Second Life Economy Analysis Blog (which can probably be called Sleab for short :). This will hopefully be a running blog detailing significant events in the economy of Second Life. Economic data, potential trends, new economic fields, how to make Linden dollars in-world, and so on. Over time, I hope to accurately gauge how the increasingly complex economy is doing, and be able to make suggestions based on that.

Fair warning, however; I do not have any sort of degree in even basic economics; I'm just a college student and SL fan with probably too much time on my hands. I'll try not to crash your investments into the nearest lake, I promise. :D

Anyhow, onward.

THe biggest news item today is probably the re-opening of the Gaming Open Market, SL's equivilent to the stock market. In case you hadn't heard, GOM was temporarily shut down on September 21st, as someone apparently played havoc on the site, sending the price fluctuating to $101 US dollars per $250 linden dollars all the way down to $.02/$L250, and everywhere in between. Over 15,000 blocks were transferred around before Jamie Hale, the CEO of GOM, shut it down.

Apparently this was another misuse of Paypal's illustrious chargeback system. Fortunately, nobody's actual transactions were affected, and everyone's money was safe. However, GOM has instituted a new safety measure to protect itself, in that it now requires an avatar linked to your account before you can deposit any money. This will allow GOM to track down any person fiddling with the market (as all avatars are linked by credit card by Linden Lab), and be able to respond with a tasty criminal suit.

For the few hours that GOM has been up, there's been a flurry of activity. Currently it's down from where it closed prior to the fraud, at $1.24. I'm sure it'll go back up once everyone's pent up dealings have gone through.

More long term, however, expect the linden to sink slowly in strength to the US dollar.

But why, do you ask? Well, here's a hunch.

Gaming Open Market launched about the same time that the current auctioning-for-land system went into use. When land prices kept shooting up (due to shortages, land barony, and what have you), so did the value of the linden dollar. It would seem that the $L and current land prices are very much entwined. As of the last couple of weeks, the average price of land paid has plummeted, with linden-dollar auctions falling to $4-5 lindens/square meter. Quite a bargain considering some plots were going for $L20/meter or more!

Anyways, expect a general depression on the demand of linden dollars. After all, if you only have to pay $7,000 for a 2048 meter chunk of land, why would anyone in their right mind pay top dollar for 25k, 50k, or more? Less money is needed to "make it" in SL, so the demand for having it will go down.

Even aside from that, though... there's going to be just MORE money floating around. Consider: previous auctions had tens of thousands of linden dollars being sucked out of the economy every day, as land prices had soared to ridiculous levels. When land is paid for directly at an auction, it is permamently "removed" from the money supply; as in, no one receives it. When land prices were high, so much money was leaving the economy, the increases in the economy (stipends, dwell grants, etc.) weren't enough to balance it. So, the linden dollar supply wasn't increasing fast enough to meet the demand of the ever-increasing playerbase (about 100 a day, at last counts), making each one worth more.

GOM prices soared, of course, as more people were chasing less and less linden dollars (well, less lindens-per-persion), as well as the folks piling on to snag enough money to pay for the new plot they just found (doled out by the land barony, of course, at "rock bottom" prices).

With the collapse of the land market, auction prices (and land baron prices) have shot way down, meaning less money being sucked out of the economy. Which meeeeans... everyone will have "more" money to play with. More money means even less demand for GOM prices, which will cause it to fall. Don't expect a complete crash; that would require a total panic. Instead, expect it to lose about 20-30 cents in value in a couple month's time, is my guess (to about $1.10-$1.20/$L250).

The current median bank balance for SL's playerbase is around $1000 lindens. Expect that to double within a few months, unless another land boom happens, which is unlikely, seeing as the Lindens currently have a good lid on the market by flooding it.

Tune in soon with more reports from your resident armchair economist. :)

Lordfly Digeridoo