Ayesha
New member
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2018
- Messages
- 28
I had a feeling I should pop back into the forums after a year or so of almost never reading. Once again, Linden Lab has taken an ax to a major source of income for creators in SL, and they’ve gone about it in the most boneheaded way possible.
I understand that there are regulatory reasons behind banning gacha, but people could have been given more time and alternatives put in place to support business owners. I don’t share the glee others are expressing at the loss of a fun game that helped support creators in a very competitive and difficult market. I was never really into gacha, but I have a friend who loves it and we enjoyed playing together at the Fantasy Faire and other events and trading items with each other. It was a way for us to connect even though we live far apart geographically and are often busy with our respective careers and life challenges. It brings back fond memories and I know she'll be sad when I share the bad news.
I joined Second Life believing that it could be an amazing platform for both creativity and business. I hoped it would be a way for disabled people like me and others with limitations to build friendships and make money. It is to some extent, and it has changed my life for the better overall. I met some of my best friends because of SL and that made it all worthwhile. But I'll never forget a conversation I had with a woman who sold me a grandfathered island about 10 years ago. She said she was leaving because Linden Lab was too incompetent to create a stable platform technologically and policy-wise for doing business. This was after the OpenSpace/Homestead price increase and gridwide revolt, but before the forced relocation of adult content, before the cancellation of nonprofit discounts, before LL bought SLExchange leading to a huge drop in demand for land, and before they wrecked skill gaming. I wish I had never invested in more regions or games or any other SL business after that conversation, because she was right.
I've made money in SL over the long run, but nothing compared to what I would have if I had spent that time and effort starting a business on the regular Internet. I have gone on to do so and it has been much more successful with less bullshit to deal with. Google search is the Linden Lab of the internet, as it too is unpredictable and can skyrocket or tank your business with one algorithm change, but at least there are other ways to market and reach customers.
Linden Lab has always been its own worst enemy, and some of us will never trust them again, because these kinds of things just keep happening over and over. It seems that anything truly profitable in SL gets shut down or destroyed by arbitrary pricing and rule changes, and every time they have to ban something for legal reasons, it is handled in the worst way possible. And there's always a group of people cheering at the misery of inworld businesses they hate because Evil Capitalists Made Money. Never mind that said evil capitalists are running small businesses by real world standards and even Anshe Chung is no more than a pimple on Jeff Bezos' butt.
I always hoped some other virtual platform would come along and offer a better alternative, but so far they've failed spectacularly despite the low bar set by LL. So in the meantime I'll be the old lady (in SL years) sitting on my virtual porch warning the young'uns with the same advice I didn't listen to 10 years ago. SL is a great place to meet people, explore amazing environments, create art and play dress-up, but don't start a business. It's high risk for low reward and you can make more money with the same skills as a video game developer, e-commerce store owner, artist on Patreon, musician live streaming on social media etc.
SL will probably continue chugging along without gachas (though who knows what will be the final straw for a shrinking userbase), but it's part of a pattern long-term SL residents can't help but see. And some of us have moved on because we know the way LL handles change is never going to change. Closing my SL business right now would take more effort than keeping it open, and I still make a small amount of money, but the moment that is no longer the case, I'm out. I've learned from history and I hope others do too.
I understand that there are regulatory reasons behind banning gacha, but people could have been given more time and alternatives put in place to support business owners. I don’t share the glee others are expressing at the loss of a fun game that helped support creators in a very competitive and difficult market. I was never really into gacha, but I have a friend who loves it and we enjoyed playing together at the Fantasy Faire and other events and trading items with each other. It was a way for us to connect even though we live far apart geographically and are often busy with our respective careers and life challenges. It brings back fond memories and I know she'll be sad when I share the bad news.
I joined Second Life believing that it could be an amazing platform for both creativity and business. I hoped it would be a way for disabled people like me and others with limitations to build friendships and make money. It is to some extent, and it has changed my life for the better overall. I met some of my best friends because of SL and that made it all worthwhile. But I'll never forget a conversation I had with a woman who sold me a grandfathered island about 10 years ago. She said she was leaving because Linden Lab was too incompetent to create a stable platform technologically and policy-wise for doing business. This was after the OpenSpace/Homestead price increase and gridwide revolt, but before the forced relocation of adult content, before the cancellation of nonprofit discounts, before LL bought SLExchange leading to a huge drop in demand for land, and before they wrecked skill gaming. I wish I had never invested in more regions or games or any other SL business after that conversation, because she was right.
I've made money in SL over the long run, but nothing compared to what I would have if I had spent that time and effort starting a business on the regular Internet. I have gone on to do so and it has been much more successful with less bullshit to deal with. Google search is the Linden Lab of the internet, as it too is unpredictable and can skyrocket or tank your business with one algorithm change, but at least there are other ways to market and reach customers.
Linden Lab has always been its own worst enemy, and some of us will never trust them again, because these kinds of things just keep happening over and over. It seems that anything truly profitable in SL gets shut down or destroyed by arbitrary pricing and rule changes, and every time they have to ban something for legal reasons, it is handled in the worst way possible. And there's always a group of people cheering at the misery of inworld businesses they hate because Evil Capitalists Made Money. Never mind that said evil capitalists are running small businesses by real world standards and even Anshe Chung is no more than a pimple on Jeff Bezos' butt.
I always hoped some other virtual platform would come along and offer a better alternative, but so far they've failed spectacularly despite the low bar set by LL. So in the meantime I'll be the old lady (in SL years) sitting on my virtual porch warning the young'uns with the same advice I didn't listen to 10 years ago. SL is a great place to meet people, explore amazing environments, create art and play dress-up, but don't start a business. It's high risk for low reward and you can make more money with the same skills as a video game developer, e-commerce store owner, artist on Patreon, musician live streaming on social media etc.
SL will probably continue chugging along without gachas (though who knows what will be the final straw for a shrinking userbase), but it's part of a pattern long-term SL residents can't help but see. And some of us have moved on because we know the way LL handles change is never going to change. Closing my SL business right now would take more effort than keeping it open, and I still make a small amount of money, but the moment that is no longer the case, I'm out. I've learned from history and I hope others do too.
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