Saturation -- Too many events -- Survey of sorts

[Chic Aeon]

I was about to start putting my personal thoughts on paper -- well virtual paper anyway, but then I stopped to reflect.  I know I am not alone  in the "Please, please, make it stop" outlook concerning the preponderance of events.  But, is there an equally stalwart contingent that have hunkered down in the trenches waving "We Want More!"  ? 

 

I just counted approximately 250 events listed on Seraphim, most of them occurring weekly or monthly, That is close to 4,000 events (super sloppy in my head math but you get the idea) events per year.  Some are large, some small; a few (I can think of only two really) that I look forward to when they come around twice a year.

 

I find I don't really care much any more. The possibility of finding something I really like at an event has decreased over time. These days I am better off exploring some well-made sims and inspecting the stylist's choices.   I now only look at a very few weekend sales. This past Saturday I bought two things and featured nothing.  Still, that may just be ME. 

 

So give me some input here guys. What would you like to see happen to events?  I know a lot of very talented creators whose incomes are WAY down and who make very little profit on events these days. These folks toil more with less reward. This can't go on forever.  

 

[Bree Giffen]

Simply let the market correct itself? The events that do well will continue and those that don't will stop. Visitors will go to events that interest them and creators will choose how to run their businesses. 

[Pamela Galli]

First it was hunts then charity events then sale events, all of which I tried out as a merchant and quit after a few tries. I have a pretty store with everything arranged as I like, and I always have seasonal gifts out. What do I want to mess with events for? It’s not worth any additional money I might make on an event. Word of mouth is still king.

I have no interest in shopping inworld, certainly not anywhere crowded. If there’s some tool I need I buy it on MP. 

[LilNosferatu]

I like looking around at events, but I feel like there's always events going on-- kinda defeats the purpose of "event", I think. I wouldn't mind it so much though, if there was a bit more diversity, but it seems like 90% of the events feature all the same stuff. Same stores, same designers, same styles... it feels like the only time there's really any diversity is in the special/infrequent events, or when they have themes (like the 90s kid event this month! that was cool!). Aside from those, it just feels like the same brands trying to peddle the same products to the same customer base, so I think those get a bit superfluous.

Edited January 18, 2022 by LilNosferatu

[Rolig Loon]

I rarely go to events.  When I do, see see a lot of the same stuff everywhere, as LilNosferatu says. It's not worth my time to wander around.  When I shop, I scan MP to sort the interesting things from the chaff and see what's available. Then I visit targeted in-world shops.

[Persephone Emerald]

I'd like fewer events, but as was said above, let the free market sort it out. It helps to have a list of YouTubers who review events and then watch their videos before deciding if you want to spend time at another event or not. 

[Stephanie Misfit]

I only shop at the big, high quality events, and a couple of the weekend sales. I agree with the other people who have said it is all a bit same-y though. I appreciate the themed events, like the sci fi ones, those are pretty great and seem to encourage creativity from most of the designers who participate, and there are usually a few lesser known designers popping up in those, I find. So I guess to answer your question, more creativity in designs at the events, and more events with themes (with designers that actually stick to the themes).

[LittleMe Jewell]

I don't really even shop much anymore.  

I have enough clothing such that if I wore a new outfit every day (hell, 2 outfits per day) and never repeated anything, I would probably still not run out for at least a year (or 2 or 3).  I also have enough hair, shoes, and makeup such that I could also only use each of those items once and I wouldn't run out for many, many months. 

I have enough furniture, landscaping, and decorations to decorate every style of house that I might ever live in - and to redecorate them every month for a year.  And I currently have enough homes & skyboxes such that I could swap to a new one every month and still not run out for a couple of years. 

And given that my inventory is now over 160k, my estimates of how long things will last is probably shy by quite a bit.

So, these days I explore, I do hunts (primarily because I still enjoy figuring out the clues), I spend a bit of time tinkering in Blender (but I really don't have enough desire there to learn it properly), and I spend time messing with my KittyCats.

I'm pretty sure I spend more time on the forums these days than I do being active in SL (even not counting work hours where I can't log in).

Edited January 18, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[Prokofy Neva]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

I was about to start putting my personal thoughts on paper -- well virtual paper anyway, but then I stopped to reflect.  I know I am not alone  in the "Please, please, make it stop" outlook concerning the preponderance of events.  But, is there an equally stalwart contingent that have hunkered down in the trenches waving "We Want More!"  ? 

 

I just counted approximately 250 events listed on Seraphim, most of them occurring weekly or monthly, That is close to 4,000 events (super sloppy in my head math but you get the idea) events per year.  Some are large, some small; a few (I can think of only two really) that I look forward to when they come around twice a year.

 

I find I don't really care much any more. The possibility of finding something I really like at an event has decreased over time. These days I am better off exploring some well-made sims and inspecting the stylist's choices.   I now only look at a very few weekend sales. This past Saturday I bought two things and featured nothing.  Still, that may just be ME. 

 

So give me some input here guys. What would you like to see happen to events?  I know a lot of very talented creators whose incomes are WAY down and who make very little profit on events these days. These folks toil more with less reward. This can't go on forever.  

 

I suppose you can't stop people from having too many events, it's a sign of distress and poverty.

People often wonder why poor folks have so many children, when they are poor. And the answer is, they are in distress, their children die in infancy, they are needed as free farm hands, etc. So in my family we might quote the Irish stories of why they have 10 children, which isn't merely because they don't believe in birth control: 3 die in infancy, 3 become alcoholics or helplessly insane, 2 must be given up to the priesthood and nunnery, that leaves 2 that might work out and support the parents in their own age. And so events on Seraphim, as imperfect as the analogy is.

What I have to do now is simply never even look at the Seraphim ads for certain events that I know never have anything interesting for me, and if they might have that one good thing or bargain, well, maybe I will see it in world and maybe I will pursue it later.

I've reduced the number of events in general that I'm willing to go to or even browse the ad for because the gatcha ban austerity measures still aren't lifted as far as I'm concerned.

It's getting so a new event will not even merit a click, and old creators who mysteriously have brand-new namesm who were somehow able to be accepted by the organizers and pay the booth field (which means they are an old brand trying to revive themselves) -- I don't buy from. 

I used to enjoy going to Seraphim to see all the events but now I dread it, half of it will be things that either I don't look at, or if I do, will give a major pass to.  So I guess like a lot of things in our world, some of them will die off, or become quarterly, or say they are quarterly and never appear again (where is 7 Republic?)

I often think of a wonderful creator who has a terminal disease in RL and who struggles to stay in certain events to be seen, and can't stay in the view with the weekend sales anymore, and my heart contracts, it's all so terrible and so undeserved.

I found out today a well-known artist sold all his land and no longer sells in SL anymore. So the good people disappear quietly or perhaps dramatically sometimes, and the mediocre flourish. 

Yesterday a prominent furniture maker who is never in events, considers himself a fine craftsman, and who puts his furniture on no-mod came to the Tibetan Temple in Wakeley and complained to me that a Western-style reading chair was there that maybe I had "left accidentally"  and that "wasn't part of the original build," and seemed unaware that I had tiered that build since 2004 and that the builder -- like so many in SL!  was gone from SL.

So once again I found that someone knew his own worth and thought himself above others, cloaked in faux Buddhist "compassion," but he just loses customers with no-mod and attitude. Of course I'm keeping the cosy reading chair for people to sit in and read the Buddhist literature, maybe they don't all want to kneel or sit cross legged. I did replace the Christmas fabric chair with some "Tibetan chairs" which are probably fake Tibetan anyway.

So... I can offer to someone to give them a free store or lot but it's too late, they don't want to stay in SL. And mediocrity prospers and because I have to put out new things or it looks old, they will find a buyer in me, hopefully for only 30 or 50 on weekend sales.

There's another thing -- I think people who have failed in business, or are just tired of all the difficulties in SL, or just bored with SL's limitations, want company, so they want people to say everything has gone to trash. It hasn't, but you have to pick through more stuff.

 

[Akane Nacht]

I like thematic events (like Baroqued, NEO japan or we ❤️ RP) because I know I'll see stuff in genres I like. The general events which just feature new releases I seldom go to (unless they are offering a free gift). I don't do the jumping from store to store sales anymore (some offer a HUD to browse thru, but even then I don't look regularly). I do like the mega events like the Christmas shop and hop, and I will wander through most of it just to see what's new. 

[blissfulbreeze]

I think it's very overwhelming. I used to look at the events every weekend, but lately have been staying away. I may look at Seraphim on Sundays, for 3 event sales pictures. The rest is just too much. 

[Rowan Amore]

I'd much prefer individual stores do their own sales during the year.  90% of the stores at any of these event, I never buy a single thing from.  Clothes and furnishings being at the top of my group list, I check notices weekly to see what they have on sale and where.  Pop in, buy it and leave.

 

[Echelon Alcott]

I regularly attend a few select events, which I believe still have quality products. There are not as many offerings for guys in events, so it is not a deluge of products that I have to sift through; therefore, not as big of a problem compared to what the ladies face.

[Lysistrata Szapira]

I prefer events that only allow new, original mesh items.  Call me a snob.  There is so much template crap in SL now, and so many events allow it.  The only reason I would pay lindens for a template item would be if they offer an extensive color HUD/excellent texturing.   I just can't praise things that came straight out of the template box using the same original files, and I laugh when these stores call themselves "couture" or "So & So Designs" when they used such minimal effort that they shouldn't even be called designs.  It would be ok if people started with templates to learn the texturing process, but sooner or later they should learn to mesh or pay someone to mesh. 

FLF and C88 are two I almost always check on because they usually have some of my favorite stores.  FLF has slipped a little bit in recent months with who/what they allow in, but C88 seems to be holding on (although getting some stores to stay on theme seems to be an ongoing issue).  I can occasionally find things on the Saturday Sale and Happy Weekend. Kustom9 is still pretty good.   I have a pretty set-in-stone list of stores from these events that I look at while I ignore the template stores.  I bought several things at CozyFest over the weekend (yay for quality 50L things).

I guess it's best not to name and shame stores here, but certain events keyed into certain looks ("thicc" or teeny bodies or caricatures especially) are not my jam.  I am not into that aesthetic, but maybe it helps those who wear those bodies find stores that do cater to them?  I do find it a shame that stores in the aforementioned "thicc" event seem to think that female avatars with those bodies only want to walk around with boobs hanging out and in labia floss or unzipped bottoms.   If I wanted a plump look, I wouldn't want the streetwalker chic look that is popular right now.  I also didn't like the invisible pony rider look from back in the day. 

I still look at Seraphim because I don't have time to monitor Flickr for new releases and sales, but I ignore about 75% of Seraphim's postings for events because I know which ones are basically all templates all the time now. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Lysistrata Szapira
grammar

[Nick0678]

I rarely use the MP, it's filled with low quality garbage and also old creations,  usually i will buy something either from an event or if i saw it on another avatar.

We need even more events, i consider them a virtual products catalog in world so can never have too many of those, also the "generic" events are usually flooded with female stuff, when it comes to male events there's just a couple of good ones.

If that raises the cost for the creators and they make less profit.. that's ok we are not business partners.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

I'm really interested in the economic and cultural impact of events. Do they, for instance, tend to reinforce the tendency already existing in SL to boost the well-established stores at the expense of new ones? Or, alternately, do they represent an opportunity for a new creator to achieve a profile?

I like the fact that they are in-world, even if it can be annoying trying to get into them early on: anything that increases in-world economic activity (as opposed to MP) seems to me a good thing. But . . . I wonder if they are reducing traffic at the in-world stores of creators? (This is obviously not true of the weekend sales, which must substantially increase it.) And does that mean, perhaps, that some creators are tempted to ditch their in-world locations entirely?

I do think events have probably boosted consumerism in SL -- and that's both good and bad. It's good that it is bolstering SL's economy and financial health. On the flip side, I tend to think that "shopping" has become such a central activity in SL that it is actually threatening many of the other things that the platform used to be good for.

I am a fairly prolific consumer, but I am neither dedicated nor organized enough to follow events closely. I couldn't tell you when any of them, really, open and close. Fortunately, I have good friends who are waaaay better at this than I am, and they frequently post interesting stuff on Discord. It helps that they have excellent taste, and a pretty good sense of what I like.

The one thing that, from a personal perspective, I like about events is that they have frequently introduced me to shops and creators I hadn't known about. Many of these have become favourites over time. So, that's a positive.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Silent Mistwalker]

I stopped doing events when they started charging for the hunt gifts. That was what, 10 - 12 years ago.

[Chris Corvinus]

3 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

Simply let the market correct itself?

What market? Nothing is regulated. There's no rules. Its do whatever you want. That's why there's 565447765443366 events no matter how much people complain about it.

And guess what? Tomorrow someone is going to create ANOTHER event.... Because they can because Second Life allows it. Nobody in SL cares about oversaturation and markets. Do whatever you want. Create whatever you want. That's the whole selling point of Second Life.

[Maryanne Solo]

Would anyone consider the ©"Meta-Hurl"🤢🤮 effect coming into play?
Stuff that was once ours and OURS ONLY will soon be replicated, duplicated and threeplicated 
all over the digiverse and thrashed n bashed n smashed into everyone's reality.
I'm pretty annoyed at Buckerzerg and Co's inability to do anything original. 😖🙄 
Their leering, ogling, and mental fondling of SL makes it feel a bit yukky now. 
B@st_rds.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Maryanne Solo

[Blaise Glendevon]

4 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

If there’s some tool I need I buy it on MP. 

Hard disagree. I'd rather chew my leg off than try and find an object I want on MP if I don't already know the name of the store or of the item. MP search is profoundly borked. 

[TheDarkhand]

It's a love-hate; my MP has its days but overall slow. Shopping events.... love them or hate them, it's the difference between me making my cost and cashing out a monthly amount for my time or not doing them and being happy with just making in world expenses. The market will correct itself, and let's remember only a very few these days get on that website, and you can add an extra 5000k a year in events without website sponsoring. What I hate, most of the events are run by people who can not build; they dictate the rules, makeup ***** like ...5,000; if you are late, we won't be holding the doors for you; we now get to make more money off your hard work. I like to add the monopoly (against toss) that site and most the large event companies are all run by the same two people; they use alts as their "partners" in other events companies.

One thing I have done to help my in  world, I stopped having a shop, I have attractions. Atm I made "the Shadow over Inssmouth 2022" the town from the HP Lovecraft stories; what if Innsmouth was still there in 2022. I put in great detail, so it is photo-friendly and hide-free gifts all over the place. Now I am making an interactive NPC system that will allow people to solve quests while visiting innsmouth. I never visit shops in world, why would anyone else be my mindset. It has been a new passion and keeps me in an in-world location for demos. I keep my sales stuff outside the city to not junk up my fun with marketing. I also drop the sim and just rent land I know I can afford if sales slow, to many go full sim for just a shop and drive them to try to host their own events in hopes to earn the sim cost.

Edited January 18, 2022 by TheDarkhand

[steeljane42]

I shop almost exclusively at big/high quality (plus the usual few Friday/weekend ones) events for a long while now, a little bit at in-world stores for the releases that I might have missed earlier, and almost none at the MP. I do agree, however, that there's too many events, especially all those low quality/tier ones filled with mostly garbage, lots of them have tons of retextured FP stuff.

Thankfully there are sites like seraphim, so checking new releases on events is rather easy before even going there, and gets even easier if you follow your favorite creators on flickr.

MP I just dislike and rarely use these days. It lacks some basic features, and most importantly some stores/creators completely. The latter is up to the creator, but a number of my favorite ones either have absolutely nothing listed at the MP or outdated by 1-2 years at best.

Basic MP feature example: the black list. Similar to favorites stores list LL added a few years ago, but instead listings from stores you'd add to that list wouldn't show up. There's a large number of "creators" who continue to spam keywords or mass release some rebundled FP stuff in 100 versions making a simple search a pain. Boolean options don't help much against that, especially if it's more than a few stores that do that, which is usually the case.

[TheDarkhand]

Yes I am a opportunist......see meh city

Edited January 18, 2022 by TheDarkhand

[Maitimo]

I don't shop at any events except the 30L/35L/50L sales which are held by a handful of my favourite stores.

The big mall-type events, no. The products there are all out of my budget range. I can't afford clothes with single colours at L$200+ no matter how well-made or exclusive they are. 

I shop 99% on the MP because there, I can sort by price and exclude things above my price range. Visiting one of those big events is a total waste of my time.

[Anna Nova]

My avatar is complete.  So I am not looking for skins or things like that.  My wardrobe is full, so I am not looking for any more clothes.  My best friend (and partner) got Covid and disappeared last year, and has not been seen in-world for months.  I'm fed up of men who all look alike and start every conversation 'Hi'.... 'How are you?'....

I go to events if one of the designers of things I like tells me that they released something there - I do not wander, but go straight to it - check it out and then probably don't buy it.

I used to bring 100 USD into SL every month, but I have cut it to 25.

If it wasn't for the chat....