Living in the Metaverse
gonzo phenomenology of virtual worlds
It is about those skins again. Quick reminder:
- I got some full permissions skins (from Another Shop, which I'll learn later).
- I did what anybody would, I packed them and started giving them for free.
- I thought a bit and shared some of my questions and concerns about second life economy.
- I turned out as a bitch who is ranting against free stuff in second life.
I know I am a bitch sometimes and I love a good rant when it is appropriate, but this a clear case of misunderstanding.
- I have no ethical questions about giving content for free. Problem that made me write that post is about SL economy. If there is something wrong in giving freebies, then it is not giving itself, but economy that is a mother to land barons and step-mother to content creators. If principles of economy behind open source and free software movement are questioned by that, that is ok, but that doesn't mean that I said they are wrong. Far from that.
- My main question was what happens if some types of products are on market (and some of those even free) while other (like land) is with fixed prices.
- I don't think that people are not allowed to do with their creations what their will is. That includes and is not limited to giving it around for free.
- I am not a designer who feels that freebies are dangerous for my biz. (You could get that impression here.) I don't have a biz in second life.
- Yes, I will rethink my writing. It seems that I have to be misunderstood every now and then.
- I am still proud to be a communist script kiddie :p
Thank you for reading this.
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11 Responses for "Some Clarifications"
hehe…
I was watching this discussion for some time through our news aggregator (http://yolto.com , don’t forget to enter the search terms “Second Life” or something, there are quite a few news besides SL there). Let me contribute my 5L$…
1. Indeed ANY giveaway of any object that can be reproduced without ANY loss in quality undermines TRADITIONAL business-models and TRADITIONAL distribution networks of many industries, no matter what they say. So what? They are businessmen, they MUST invent new models and channels… or find people who are doing that and kill them or jail them. Other suggestions? None.
2. There is no such thing as ‘SL level of wages’, there is TIME that people spend on WORK. If the work is a part of commercial product it’s up to a entrepreneur how (s)he calculates the direct and indirect costs and reaches profitability (there are peculiar examples in online business, f.i. Google and the like), but it is NECESSARY. If there is no profit in case you pay PEOPLE for their TIME - then the whole enterprise can not be called a ‘business’.
Why so much misunderstanding? Because Philip tricked you, people. Because it was necessary for the development of SL from scratch - to trick people to a degree when they will keep spending time excited about ‘possible’ ‘getting rich’ thingy. Smart move. A bit cynical, but very smart businesswise.
Anyways… People who want to do business will keep creating businesses, staffing them and doing businesses, paying people for their work. If there will still be ‘immersed’ individuals ready to work for peanuts or for free - they will be ‘hired’ if not to say ‘bought’ (because that’s how they value their time and in a sence - themselves - ‘cheap slaves’). That’s it.
Once again, there is no such thing, repeat, THERE IS NO SUCH THING as ‘SL business’. People at their computers want to eat, need clothes, and at least a chair, computer and internet connection. You may calculate ‘minimum wage’ based on this. Also… Doing ‘SL creativity’ from your first job (which lots of people do) is just stealing from your employer, nothing less. And yes, this is a REAL ‘moral issue’.
Sorry for these words of truth. I have a feeling that many peple would like to stay ignorant about it as long as possible. That’s their game and btw that’s why they keep staying there.
Regards.
Yes, I saw it in your profile “the communist script kiddie”; no problem with communist, but script kiddie is hard to swallow unless you put it in perspective :-p.
Maybe I helped centering in that impression by citing the “bullshit” phrase, and using it for getting open source in the lot, even if I only did at your comments. And not, I am not starting again about open source. I don’t worry too much about it, or freebies, but about the holiness that seems to surround it; I tend to get annoyed when people say, “It is good, and that’s all”.
And I insist, I am not going about it again! Please, let us forget about it :-p.
I agree with your need off letting things clear, but I doubt that anybody who took the effort to read your post should get other impresion that the one you stated there, and now here.
Now, about you “being a bitch sometimes”, when and how? I feel curious :-)
I fail to see why there is anything “evil” about “land barons”. They work hard, create content, and people pay for it because they value it.
Indeed, Linden Lab’s very business model, which makes this entire enchilada possible, is based on the premise that land costs something because server hardware and programmers’ time costs something.
Excessive freebies are the bane of SL existence and harm most of all the newbie-to-newbie economy that could thrive and create much more opportunity for people starting if these condescending and controlling oldbies and midbies didn’t flood every market with their free non-mod non-transfer junk.
If it is on transfer, then it should indeed be resold to create value, and anyone who puts a freebie on transfer must assume it will be sold and not kvetch about it.
This copyleft stuff that all software has to be free is silly, because somebody always has to pay.
Who pays for *your* game?
London, I appreciate your attempt to close the open source discussion but, as you can see, that is not going to be that easy. As you know, I am slow but I do answer your questions with long confessional post, so you’ll know when and why I do feel as a bitch.
Prokofy, nothing is wrong with land barons. They do an important service in the community and get payed for that. Problem is that land has fixed price and there is no free market if one set of items has fixed price.
And that was the point of this clarification, I am not hunting bad guys nor trying to declare good guys. Nor I wanted to start a witch hunt, though it seems that many were ready to fight their own imaginary battles.
Question was if our economy is ok, if it can be better and what we can do about it.
I don’t think that freebies are bad for the economy. They actually improves the look of our world. Also, they are keeping a few newbies more on the grid.
Who pays for my game? Which game we are talking about? Second life? Or game of this operating system and free software that runs on my hardware? Or the game called “my first life”?
Mmmm…. I want to make some clarifications: I was only kidding when I asked about the bitching thing, and now I feel a bit worried about opening a door I maybe am not ready to cross…
…. I mean, long, confessional posts? do you know the time it takes to read them? And then it comes commenting, and all the follow ups, and…
*winks*
…Can I take back the question as a clear case of misunderstanding?
Sure dear. I’ll tell you when we meet. :)
[...] Harper would say ;). Living in the Metaverse wrote a couple of opinions on To Free or Not to Free (read the clarification, as well). Around the Grid with Harper and Myg got a track backs from New World Notes about the economic [...]
dandellion, it isn’t exactly true that land has a fixed price, as on the mainland, it is sold at auction. Oh, to be sure, the Lindens start a bid at $1250 for whole sims and at I believe 5/meter or something on parcels. Still, it has a very high range after that.
Your idea of what it means for an economy to be “ok” will be ideologically driven by your Extroprianism or whatever it is your ideology is. You can say anybody has an ideology, but mine isn’t as rigid, looking for signs and rules and memes. I can concede the need for social responsibility that anarcho-capitalists can never concede as they believe it harms freedom. I can say that freebies should be sold without fear as it will help the newbie economy, even though the creator fascists will screech that this is “theft” (then…don’t put it on sell/transfer then). And so on. The definition of what is “ok” will vary.
Extropian ideology? Is that some new role-playing I haven’t heard of, or are you hallucinating again?
Alex, sorry that Akismet was rude about you :) Thanks for getting at the things straight and clear.
@dandellion original post: no worries. :) I think noone misunderstood you. It’s a mostly theoretical exercise anyway. Like I said yesterday - after I bought the 1L new hair, and then spent another 1000L on other hairs, in the end I am wearing just that particular 1L hair. So should keep us up for sometime. If they demand more money, let me know. Just keep walking. /Johnny. :)
@dandellion last-before-last: *lol*
@prok: we <3 you. (this time without any extra tries. *sends more flowers*)
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