Frank Lardner

The stats that while concurrent users has been flat for the last year, while total sales has doubled, confirms my own impression of SL. In-world, it is a good place for those who wish to to create fantasy 'doll houses' (boys would call them 'forts' or 'clubhouses'). Plus, in world it is a good place to play and hangout with people and enjoy their creative use of shape, skin, clothing and toys. In-world is not an efficient or sociable way to shop for stuff. Most (not all) of those dependent on in-world shop rental are likely to be increasingly disappointed. Begging for cheaper rents is like begging for subsidized mortgages; we now know where that leads (Fannie and Freddie had a baby and called it Crash). I have never found the "shopping experience" in world to be as efficient or satisfactory as buying clothes and gear and gifts at the off-world Marketplace. Just as I'd rather find and buy a book in 5 minutes on Amazon, rather than drive 20 minute to the local B&N, search for the book for 20 minutes, buy it, then drive home again (elapsed time one hour). Even Amazon has found that Kindle is their biggest seller. Netflix killed Blockbuster (aka "dead business model walking"). My "in-world shopping experience" has been likewise: slow and lonely. I'd rather be socializing and playing in my home sim or visitng other sims where I roleplay and meet friends rather than wade through lag and crowded, bandwidth-hogging aisles of stuff in SL. Buying stuff in the Marketplace is increasingly far more efficient, and those betting on that changing (so that they can make rent) strike me as out-of-touch. The idea of making real money off SL by selling stuff or earning 'tips' for 'jobs' has always struck me as a fantasy. Like in First Life, some can do it. The majority of FL small businesses fail because of inadequate capital and over-optimism about "build it and people will come." Like in WoW, the money to be made is in creating good clothes, gear, etc. and selling/trading it off-world, then using/wearing/building with it in-world for the entertainment of the user and his/her counterparts in a fantasy, user-created playspace where you can fly and be someone else for a few hours a day. ~ Frank ~