A Plan for the Glytches and Improving Cash Flow :D

[Chic Aeon]

I am likely the eldest player of the glytch game, not in RL years but based on the time I entered the game which was just a few hours after it opened -- AND the fact that I am still there . That being said I have a few thoughts on both the glytches and how The Lab could raise some money and maybe not keep making changes that cost the populous more across the board. 

It became apparent a couple of nights ago that getting the canon was actually the endgame of The Curse of the Magical Glytches. A RL friend who is also playing came to dinner. It was great (thank you Sun Basket). Then we went to try out the bonus areas. We were under the impression that we needed 5, 5 and 10 blue gems in order to enter the areas. We had been working hard to get those. No one passed along the memo that NOW all you need is the entrance fee. I can see the reasoning there, just was surprised as the apparently unannounced change. 

Anyway, after spending our gems for the entrance fees we each (in different bonus areas) were shaking our heads wondering why we cared. You CAN get a lot of glytches in one of the areas, but after playing awhile in the normal spots you accumulate so many glytches that deletion becomes the rule. Really. Once you have all the rares and epics you really don't need a bunch of copies. 

So the endgame is the canon (at least for me).  Then what?  Hmmmmm.

I started thinking about why people aren't more enthused with the glytches. They ARE cute -- when they aren't zapping you that is. You get to see a lot of new areas. You get some virtual exercise or for those of us that work way to much -- some off time. BUT, there is no incentive to keep playing. The Realms are still popular because you can earn linden and spend it -- or for some folks cash out. Granted, it isn't near as easy these days with the blues and greens on a skimpy appearance schedule, but still -- over time you have something you can use. 

Since I love to ponder I succumbed to the muse and came up with a couple of ideas -- all this while hunting glytches, which after some hours at it (like a couple of hundred) gets to be sort of meditative and you don't actually have to pay that much attention. Here are a couple of ideas that might be helpful, both to the game and its participants and to the Lab coffers.

People need a reason to play. Beyond getting the glytches. That is pretty much the bottom line.

1. Let people turn in gems to get inworld USABLE virtual goods from various creators. Creators would supply the goods for free. Linden lab would make the redemption vendors and people would pick up their prizes at the participating stores. Traffic and possible customers for the stores. Incentive for the participants to keep hunting. 

2. Charge for glytch areas. This may already be the plan as resident owned glytch areas have been talked about since the beginning. But until there are enough players there is really no reason to add new spots. There really wouldn't be that much traffic generated for the hosts. So what else would get a lot of people interested in playing?

3. How about being able to BUY some of endless expanse of mainland with GEMS!    This would cost The Lab nothing AND would generate tier revenue. It would also encourage Premium membership as you would need to be Premium to "buy" your land with gems.  There could also (possibly) be a way to turn gems into tier payments.  

 

Those are my ideas and dinner is done and cooling. But I wanted to get them down for the record while I was thinking about them. 

I realize that "the Lindens never come here" and I am likely typing to myself, but that's OK. I actually do that quite a bit. It is a mental exercise that I enjoy.

 

[Tari Landar]

I haven't had the chance to play the game yet, mostly because I haven't had the time to sit down and do it, though I have been interested in checking it out.

That said...I like your ideas, and even having not played it yet, I can see where a positive flow would come from any of the options-at least as far as LL should be concerned, as well as landowners of course.  I hope someone at the lab reads them, and at least puts them into the consideration pile, rather than the round receptacle abyss that ideas seem to reside these days. 

[ChinRey]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

The Realms are still popular because you can earn linden and spend it

Oh no! did you have to mention the Linden Realms? I don't know what I hate the most, the sily game itself or the act that one of my slts seems to be addicted to it (that's why I never log ehr on if I can avoid it). At least I learned something this time: you're not a real Lindenrealmoholic until you start playing it in mouselook.

 

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

2. Charge for glytch areas.

Ummmm... errrr... welll... as a landowner I always welcome visitors and I love to see people enjoy all the space I have made available to the public. But pay for it? I already pay quite a lot in tier and I have to ask, what's in it for me?

[Chic Aeon]

9 hours ago, ChinRey said:

 

Ummmm... errrr... welll... as a landowner I always welcome visitors and I love to see people enjoy all the space I have made available to the public. But pay for it? I already pay quite a lot in tier and I have to ask, what's in it for me?

Actually there WAS more to my thought  but my post was LOONG already.  I was thinking that folks that hosted might get special "billing" in Places or search for being "supportive" of SL LOL; a little like a paid ad only more of a trade.    I am laughing a bit here but there have been many other odd things happen in the past so not out of the realm of possibilities. 

There is a current thread going around --- oh the one about the Atlantic article (think that is the magazine anyway) and that it is difficult to get new folks to stay. As mentioned that has always been an issue, but when I was new you could camp -- which actually was a game in itself as getting a spot was often an adventure -- and there were other ways to make money.  Now there are the Realms and some other odd private games that seem filled with non-payment issues. So there is one difference now. 

People do a lot of expensive things to get higher in the search engines, so hosting the game -- along with some possible new customers might be attractive to some. 

[Phil Deakins]

And suppose you have no desire to get your land higher in search, because you don't sell anything or run a club and such, so the land isn't even in search?

ETA: I do think your ideas about being able to covert the things to L$ or goods are good though, although I don't see how it would cause new people to stay. Camping didn't.

Edited November 12, 2017 by Phil Deakins

[LittleMe Jewell]

51 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

.... I don't see how it would cause new people to stay. Camping didn't.

Yeah, I don't know if it would increase the number of new users that decide to stay, but if the gems could be put towards land purchase, that might encourage some existing members to become Premium and get land.  With many, I think once they start getting their own land, they tend to want to increase the size of that land, which means increased tier fees to LL.

Being able to trade the gems for goods could definitely appeal to some and possibly increase participation in the game.  For me, it would depend upon the quality of said goods as I'm one of those that tried the game but just was not really interested in running around gathering glytches just for the heck of it.

[Chic Aeon]

Actually my OP wasn't specifically targeting attracting new users. I haven't seen that the glytches have done that at all. Granted there are some default avatars running around but I doubt those are new users, just new alts made to play the game. That was done WIDELY when The Realms came on the scene. Many of the people playing with the Magical Glytches are old-timer folks. 

Of the people of "my generation" and before, I don't know many that DIDN'T camp when they were new. Actually I don't know any at all that are friends, but I suspect I must know some -- maybe you are one  @Phil Deakins. So while camping didn't keep everyone here obviously, it did help keep some. I earned all the money I needed to start my first shop and upload textures and pay rent -- all by camping.  From there my sales took over.  It is more difficult these days to start a business so the new people (and some do come in specifically with business in mind even if that is just part of their personal game within a game) have to get some money somewhere for uploads. In the olden days many things could be created with free textures and prims; your creativity made your product. Now, that's pretty difficult to do. 

I realize that plenty of people ARE willing to pay in order to make SL their virtual home, but some come into the game with the goal of not spending out of pocket real life money. For those folks, having a way to get some free land down the road might be helpful.

Again, my OP was not really aimed at new folks but more at long time residents. The only game that has really brought in new folks has been The Realms and that certainly seems to be because there was a way to get spendable money from playing.  Actually, now that I think about it, can't you get money from Paleoquest? The problem was that it was so hard (and especially losing your eggs or whatever if you ran into a trap) that actually earning any money was almost impossible. I never hear folks saying "run over to Paleoquest and earn some money".

 

 

[Phil Deakins]

My comment about camping meant that new people didn't know about camping. I'd been here a while, for instance, before I learned that it existed, and I had someone showing me the ropes. So it can't have helped new people to stay. I've no doubt that it helped those who had managed to stay for a little while - a week or three maybe - but they are not those who come, have a look, and go away.

[LittleMe Jewell]

49 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

My comment about camping meant that new people didn't know about camping. I'd been here a while, for instance, before I learned that it existed, and I had someone showing me the ropes.

There were (and still are) way more women's clothing and hair stores than men and back in 2007 they all had camping chairs that many of us utilized, even when we were willing to put RL money into SL.  You couldn't go shopping anywhere for women's stuff without finding tons of camping chairs, so even as a newbie, I found lots all on my own just by bouncing around to different stores.  Since you are older than me and didn't know about them right away, I'm guessing that it was likely the difference in the number of stores for guys vs girls and the way those stores went about attracting their customers.

In my case, it didn't have anything to do with whether or not I stayed, but I really liked that it offset the amount of money that I needed to put into SL back then.

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

There were (and still are) way more women's clothing and hair stores than men and back in 2007 they all had camping chairs that many of us utilized, even when we were willing to put RL money into SL.  You couldn't go shopping anywhere for women's stuff without finding tons of camping chairs, so even as a newbie, I found lots all on my own just by bouncing around to different stores.  Since you are older than me and didn't know about them right away, I'm guessing that it was likely the difference in the number of stores for guys vs girls and the way those stores went about attracting their customers.

In my case, it didn't have anything to do with whether or not I stayed, but I really liked that it offset the amount of money that I needed to put into SL back then.

Oh yes, camping chairs. There was an Asian place that had some stellar things and my "show me how you looked when you were new" photo was taken at Calla where you could camp for hair, watch lucky boards for hair AND play trivia for money. Great place. MANY HOURS there LOL. 

 

Actually that wasn't what Phil was talking about -- at least not what I perceived he was talking about.  Before camping for products, there was camping for money. You would go hit a board or my favorite was tap on a guitar which would give you a guitar and you would play guitar (or sometime just sit like a zombie) and get paid for being there. That was called CAMPING :D.  So people would log on their avatars and usually go AFK which was harder then and you had to wear some scripted thingie so that you could actually stay inworld without being logged off if you didn't move or type or whatever. 

You could make $18 lindens and hour at a good one and stay for 10 hours. There were better deals I think but that was a really popular one. TONS of people there and lots of conversations going on as well as money trees you could watch and such. You could roam the whole mall area and still get paid.  So $180 a day which isn't all that much but in a month $5,400 lindens -- certainly enough to do things with. 

There was even one where you sat around and smoked waterpipes (presumably with something other than water in them). It was pretty strange and I only went there once. There were some where you played vidoe games or repaired things or washed windows. All sorts of creative products were made back then. It was pretty fun really and you could IM your friends when you were leaving a good spot so that they could come take your place.

Good memories.

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

OMG.  That sort of camping was definitely gone by early/mid 2007 - only camping for products was around in my beginning.  I do remember Money Trees being around in my first 6 months or so.  If you had a good enough computer such that things rezzed quickly, you could scoop up quite a bit from those.  I seldom ever exceed about L$50 over 3-4 hours time, but that still seemed like a ton to a newbie. 

[Phil Deakins]

I was definitely talking about camping for money. I never saw any camping for products. It's the first I've heard of it. But even so, brand new users had to get past the initial stage before they came across anything like that, and the percentage that came, saw, and left is quite high. My guess is that most of them never got past day one, and never knew about camping. In the Atlantic article (discussed in another thread) Philip Rosedale was reported as saying that, people who stay for 4 hours, stay. Others don't. It's those other new users that I was meaning. Camping didn't cause new users to stay.

Camping for money wasn't gone by early/mid 2007. It mostly disappeared when LL banned anything that artificailly inflated traffic on land that is set to show in search, whenever that was. That's when traffic bots were banned. Even then it didn't totally diappear. At one stage since then, I had 8 camping chairs in my store (on their own little parcel that wasn't in search). I was put off by people who used to occupy more than one chair. I found one guy occupying 7 of the 8 chairs, and preventing others from using them. Since I had them there just to give a little something back, I eventually removed them. If they were counting for traffic, it would have been ok, but they weren't.

Edited November 12, 2017 by Phil Deakins

[Phil Deakins]

32 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

You could make $18 lindens and hour at a good one

There were a few that paid 3L per 10 minutes but most paid 2L per 10 minutes. The nicest 3L one I saw was a whole sim with lots of stuff for sale on the arrival level, but you could go down to the desert island below where there were animated rugs, a campfire, a bar, and such. As long as you were in the sim, you were earning. It was time limited, of course.

Edited November 12, 2017 by Phil Deakins

[Chic Aeon]

4 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

There were a few that paid 3L per 10 minutes but most paid 2L per 10 minutes. The nicest 3L one I saw was a whole sim with lots of stuff for sale on the arrival level, but you could go down to the desert island below where there were animated rugs, a campfire, a bar, and such. As long as you were in the sim, you were earning. It was time limited, of course.

I evidently found the best ones. I rarely camped at the 2 for 10 rate LOL.   I have also been (and still am) very good finding the best rentals and land sales deals :D.    We all have our odd accomplishment!   

[Phil Deakins]

I've written this before, but I'll write it again. It's funny. The best camping I came across was one in a club that paid 1L per 5 minutes. Camping was dancing and, while dance-camping the sim crashed. But it kept on paying me. I tried to stop it but I couldn't so I eventually logged out, turned the computer off, and went to bed. When I got up the next day, it was still paying me, and it had been paying me all through the night. Sometime during that day it stopped.

Edited November 12, 2017 by Phil Deakins

[Phil Deakins]

3 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

I evidently found the best ones. I rarely camped at the 2 for 10 rate LOL.   I have also been (and still am) very good finding the best rentals and land sales deals :D.    We all have our odd accomplishment!   

I wasn't all that fussed. I only ever camped because I was doing nothing at the time, so why not.

[Tari Landar]

45 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

OMG.  That sort of camping was definitely gone by early/mid 2007 - only camping for products was around in my beginning.  I do remember Money Trees being around in my first 6 months or so.  If you had a good enough computer such that things rezzed quickly, you could scoop up quite a bit from those.  I seldom ever exceed about L$50 over 3-4 hours time, but that still seemed like a ton to a newbie. 

No it wasn't, lol. I camped most of 2008-2009 on and off, it's how I was able to get my first "home"(expensive back then, I'd never pay that now for a home, lol), upload textures, buy stuff to aid in my own creations, and even assisted a LOT with my first round of RFL  as a creator contributing (09)  

By near end of 2009, the vast majority were gone, some still stuck around for a bit longer, but in 2008, oh yes they were still all over the place. A lot of the ones still around in 2008/09 were the ones were you danced on a dance pad for x amt of time, and got paid (usually $1 or $2 per x amt of minutes, some had hourly pay but they were a bit less). At any rate, they were everywhere still, some folks just didn't know about them   (apparently more people than I thought didn't know about them) 

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

I'm not sure if I remember any of the money ones or not.  Though it doesn't sound too familar, I'm sure I ran across some of them.  I think I figured that I somehow got a better deal camping to an actual item - hair / dress / shoes / whatever.  I got a lot of those items for anywhere from 30-60 min of camping.  Granted, the quality of much of it was horrid, but it took me quite a few months to really figure out what good quality clothing was.  In the beginning I was really happy to get a dress for sitting somewhere for an hour.

In thinking about it - I do remember dance pads that paid you.  I think I must have had horrid timing and no patience because any time I saw them they were full and they never seemed to become available in a reasonable time period.

Edited November 12, 2017 by LittleMe Jewell

[ChinRey]

9 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

And suppose you have no desire to get your land higher in search, because you don't sell anything or run a club and such, so the land isn't even in search?

I might but watching the search bumping effect private games like the fish-for Linden hunts, I'd have to consider the price and what I got in return.

Chin Rey shuts up for a few seconds and does some quick calculations.

Let me see if 1,000 landowners agreed to pay what it was worth to have search bumping glytches running wild on their land, that would add ... 2040 dollars to Linden Lab's yearly income.

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

In thinking about it - I do remember dance pads that paid you.  I think I must have had horrid timing and no patience because any time I saw them they were full and they never seemed to become available in a reasonable time period.

The trick was much like a game. You needed landmarks to all the good ones and then you just kept making the rounds until you found an open spot LOL.  The thought of WAITING for a place to come available is mind-boggling LOL.  You really did have to look at it as a game I think; most of the folks that I knew did just that.

And yes, you could get some nice things on those camp chairs for sure -- and some awful stuff. By the time I was sitting in those (and those you COULD wait for as they normally had the time left showing for everyone to see) I had figures out what was good and what was not. That was all relative of course 

[Chic Aeon]

4 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

I might but watching the search bumping effect private games like the fish-for Linden hunts, I'd have to consider the price and what I got in return.

Chin Rey shuts up for a few seconds and does some quick calculations.

Let me see if 1,000 landowners agreed to pay what it was worth to have search bumping glytches running wild on their land, that would add ... 2040 dollars to Linden Lab's yearly income.

I think -- much like getting into Linden sponsored events like the Marketplace sales and the Birthday Malls this last year, it would be a SELECT number of people. :D.  Some folks I suspect though would be happy to trade some space and lindens per month for a boost up in the search. Of course I am not saying that would be a PUBLIC knowledge thing. 

 

I was thinking maybe yesterday that another way to go would be to have the glytches on various lands (somewhat like Fishing) and people would REDEEM their gems AT the place they were getting them. That would give the landowners incentive to make good prizes --- so sort of like the camping for products chairs but more fun (and of course you are actually AROUND while you are hunting glytches). 

That is likely way too complex to be of much interest to The Lab. 

I still think the best idea would be to get some worthwhile prizes that more people would want. Honestly the ones you can get at the Apothecary (only a chance at what you want which isn't too helpful either) seem to be aimed at young kids (which in theory aren't playing). 

 

So clothes and hair and jewelry and animations ---   

Unless I missed the comment no one seemed to think THAT "better buyable gifts" was a bad idea.    I of course would be happy to make something nice but since I am H and G that wouldn't be as popular as things EVERYONE needs :D.   I did put out my first publicized gift for all today (I really hate running groups even though it IS good for business, so I just don't) and that was a popular move. Folks do like free stuff, and honestly there isn't as much of it around as there has been in previous years -- except at events. 

 

Now and then something spectacular, but .....

[ChinRey]

1 minute ago, Chic Aeon said:

I think -- much like getting into Linden sponsored events like the Marketplace sales and the Birthday Malls this last year, it would be a SELECT number of people. :D.  Some folks I suspect though would be happy to trade some space and lindens per month for a boost up in the search. Of course I am not saying that would be a PUBLIC knowledge thing.

If it was a substantial boost, yes, not just the marginal one you get from a little bit more traffic.

But it wouldn't work if everybody had their land search rankings boosted of course. So, as you said, it would have to be a secret hush-hush operation only known tot he selected few insiders, leaving the vast majority of landowners with no clue as to why their land's search rankings had dropped.

Linden Lab doesn't do that kind of shady business. They always play fair and treat all their customers on equal terms. They're famous for it.

[Phil Deakins]

Clarification: Camping mostly disappeared in the middle of 2009. (I looked it up). That's when the new rule about artificially inflating traffic numbers came in. Since traffic was the reason for the existance of camping, that was why it almost totally disappeared at that time.

It was a big disappointment to me because, the very day before the announcement, I'd put the final polish on my beautiful dynamic traffic bots system, and watched it running smoothly and perfectly

[Phil Deakins]

8 hours ago, ChinRey said:

If it was a substantial boost, yes, not just the marginal one you get from a little bit more traffic.

But it wouldn't work if everybody had their land search rankings boosted of course

Quite right. Which means that it wouldn't work at all due to most merchants, those who weren't included, being up in arms against it. In fact, the idea of buying a boost in the search results is a non-starter.

[ChinRey]

3 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

...

those who weren't included, being up in arms against it.

Yes but that's why it has to be kept a secret.

In a week or three now, Linden Lab is going to launch this year's big christmas sale. They will give a chosen few merchants a huge marketing boost at the other merchants' expense and even give them access to promo channels we're not actually allowed to use according to the ToS. This happens twice a year - spring and christmas - and every time it triggers a loud choir of complaints from merchants who are quite justifiably outraged by this blatant favoritism against them. The protests die fast of course but every time the little faith merchants may still have in LL's trustworthiness is diminished even furhter.

This is an example how not to do it because there is no way LL can hide it from the people they discriminate. They still try - adding insult to injury offending people's intelligence - but it's too obvious, everybody can see what's going on.

Paid for search rank boost on the other hand, that can be done in secret because nobody can ever be quite sure why one place is ranked higher than another. It doesn't even ahve to be connected to the glytches - a simple "pay us some money and we'll boost you in search" will do fine.

It could be a nice little extra income for Linden Lab. Somebody ought to file a JIRA suggesting it tot hem though. Nobody from LL is likely to read about it here.

Edited November 13, 2017 by ChinRey