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Rathgrith027

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Everything posted by Rathgrith027

  1. If everyone gets the exact same items, then it should be within compliance, but if it's randomized, then no.
  2. I understand that frustration, but you need to look at both Real life and Second Life circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused people to lose their homes, their real life jobs, and even lose their lives. I wouldn't doubt for a second if one creator from SL has lost their life to it, if not more. While yes, many people have been at home during the pandemic, It doesn't help that people have been having to focus on real life for many reasons. This is the primary reason why you probably have been seeing less and less content in recent times. The reason for that is undoubtedly because of the loosening of restrictions. I have seen some friends of mine not on as often because of this and related reasons as well. Many people have said that Second Life is dying for years. Our concurrent user count up until the COVID-19 pandemic started was relatively stable for about 2-4 years. Our Economy had a GDP of around 800 Million USD (or was it 180 Million? I can't remember which it was sadly) as late as 2018. We will inevitably take a hit from this. but this isn't ours, and it isn't the Lindens' Fault. If you want to point the blame at anyone for pressure on Gacha, it is the mobile and AAA games industry for pushing lootboxes like they have been, raising the ire of many groups of people. As someone who did a small amount of reselling on the side, hear me when I say this - I understand yours, and others concerns when you say you're worried or frustrated - I know I've come off as agitated and annoyed, but I genuinely sympathize with your fears. But this is for the best, so that we can ensure that Second Life doesn't die as a result of legal non-compliance when these laws become enacted in more countries. The Lindens as of late have been making a genuine attempt, within reason, to try and improve Second Life. It has been rough to some extent, but with change, that is to be expected. Trust me and others when I say that the end of Gacha will not be the end of Second Life, and that it will not lead down that path.
  3. If they're that mad that Gacha is going that they're going to torpedo their entire store, then honestly they're not thinking properly.
  4. At worst it'll push away the people who decided that basing their entire business schema on this one, legally and morally dubious distribution scheme, and even then, they were setting themselves up for eventual failure when this would inevitably come down on their heads. And even then, it wouldn't take much to just start selling their products in a conventional format.
  5. I wish people would understand this. I'm sick and tired, and I'm certainly not the only one, of people thinking that Linden Lab will just change their minds on this or enact difficult to enforce, overreaching regulations. Let me be perfectly blunt here: There is no chance in hell that Linden Lab will reverse their decision on this, unless somehow, half the civilized world's governments all of a sudden decide that Gacha is perfectly fine, and either stop enforcing already existing laws or pursue enacting new ones to ban it. And I can safely say that with pressure from various interests on the matter, ranging from frustrated gamers and parents, to gambling addiction groups, among others, would sooner drink bleach than let that happen. I'm sick of people making comparisons to things that are either legally sound or have the square root of nothing to do with Gacha and lootboxes. Let me put it like this: Asking Linden Lab not to ban Gacha, would be like asking Linden Lab to have Patch Linden, or whoever is legally considered the executive officer of Linden Lab, to go to court and represent LL sans Attorney. Anyone with any understanding of law knows that representing yourself unless you damn well know what you're doing, is asking for punishment, and continuing to ignore rising legal risks to allowing this distribution method is not much different.
  6. By that logic, going to the Bureau de change when you visit another country to get their currency is gambling.
  7. What part of, "Linden Lab has no immunity to the laws of the nations it operates in" do you have trouble understanding?
  8. There rarely is. That and it doesn't change the fact that is still considered gambling.
  9. As LittleMe Said, there's always that small subset of people.
  10. Honestly, I will admit that it's a shame that some will leave SL over this, but if I were them, I would have phased out of this area of work long ago. The writing has been on the wall for Gacha and Lootboxes for a while now - ask any gamer who is even remotely familiar with the business practices within both the triple A and Mobile fields - This has been a long time coming for many. Hell, Forza Horizon 4 was rumored to have a Gacha Feature, but it had Real Life Transactions for 'Wheelspins' removed from the game prior to release because of all this, opting for offering Wheelspins and Super Wheelspins in return for levelling up and completing in game objectives. Battlefront 2 removed lootboxes after four months of release. Other companies have tread the same ground that Linden Lab has with this decision. The only reason why Lootboxes haven't been banned in more places can easily boil down to the COVID-19 Pandemic, obviously, taking priority in leglislatures and governments as a whole worldwide for over a year and some change now. Give it 2 years, and I'm certain that other countries will follow in the footsteps of Belgium and the Netherlands. If you don't like this, write to your legislators. This is not something Linden Lab can say No to - this is a pre-emptive act to ensure that we as a userbase still have a legally viable platform to call home. We've been at the forefront of scandal after scandal, and I and Many others know damn well what Linden Lab's lax and even, over-reaching responses ergo, can do to SL, as it's happened before. I for one applaud Linden Lab for actually doing something before it becomes a legal problem. Whether or not you agree with me on whether Gacha in a legal capacity should be banned, is your prerogative, but as I have stated above comes from very clear observations of the legal and economic areas around Gacha and Lootboxes - Its' days are undoubtedly numbered. Whether you want to put your head in the sand and scream at the Lindens or accept it and roll with the punches, is your decision. Take it from someone who as an High Functioning Autist with general anxiety disorder who for years, used to fear changes - I have come to accept it myself.
  11. They are still hosting the content in the eyes of the law. Amazon is providing the server resources, that does not make Amazon automatically accountable and Linden Lab not accountable. Both technically are. Linden Lab provides access to these servers to the public, and Amazon provides Linden Lab these servers to run their services. Amazon Hosting is home to various different services, ranging from adult content to grandma's cookie recipes. The worst we'd get in my personal opinion is the child avatar situation being escalated, but I haven't seen that be an issue as of late.
  12. That doesn't stop these authorities from banning users from accessing Second Life and or punishing those who do engage in Gacha-related activities. Also, just because your company doesn't have a physical presence in a country doesn't mean that you can't be sued or charged for engaging in criminal activity in that territory and punished in some fashion (as mentioned prior) for violating them.
  13. It is already illegal in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as having extensive regulation in Japan. https://screenrant.com/lootbox-gambling-microtransactions-illegal-japan-china-belgium-netherlands/
  14. This. Exactly this. I know people want to point the finger at LL (Hell, I've done my fair share over the years), but this is something that has to be done. Gacha and lootboxes are already illegal in several jurisdictions, including in the Netherlands. This was going to happen eventually, and sadly there's nothing that Linden Lab can do other than at least provide a early warning before enforcing and slapping early offenders on the wrist.
  15. I've posted about it elsewhere already, but this still hits hard for me. I never met the man, but his vision, his will to make SL a better place and who he was as a person, hearing he is gone brings me to tears - Truly we have lost one of not just the Lab's, but of Second Life's finest. The Man. The Myth. The Linden. Rest in peace, Ebbe.
  16. And people wonder why I don't humor this peanut gallery called a forum. One last thing: "Perhaps you might try to go to any shop/retailer/anywhere that is not Second Life (or related to it in some way) and try to purchase goods using Linden Dollars. Let us know how well that goes. No, you don't get to convert it through Linden Lab first." How about this, you go to Japan or any country outside of the US and try to buy something with US Dollars. You can't. You have to go through the Bureau de Change and exchange your USD for Yen, etc. Same *****, different currency.
  17. Lemme guess, you still think the US dollar is backed by gold. No, it's backed by literally nothing but the authority that mints it - Linden Lab, the US Federal Reserve, Chuck-E-Cheese, etc. That's the literal definition of a fiat currency - it has no intrinsic value whatsoever - the only value it has comes from the authority that mints it guaranteeing that it actually is worth something, as well as those who buy and sell with it.
  18. The Linden Dollar is not a Cryptocurrency. It is a Fiat currency, much like the US Dollar. The Linden Dollar is guaranteed a US Dollar value (2,000 = 10~ USD) by Linden Lab, much like the US dollar's value is guaranteed by the US Federal Reserve - both of which are relative to their market value and can be regulated by withdrawing and adding SLD/USD from circulation, and can do so at will. Cryptocurrencies utilize a blockchain and aren't guaranteed by any entity and are valued based on market demand. Second Life does not utilize a blockchain in the LindeX in any fashion, nor can Lindens be mined in any capacity. Cryptocurrencies do not have a governing authority by their nature, meaning that the currency only has crypto withdrawn from circulation if it is either not spent or lost in one fashion or another. That and most if not all cryptocurrencies have a maximum possible amount of currency in existance by either computational or constructed limits, meaning that at one point there will be no more new cryptocurrency of a certain type (BTC, LTC, ETH).
  19. If Crypto came to SL it'd ass***** (pardon the vulgarity, but that is what would happen) the economy to the point it'd collapse shortly after due to the fact that only those who had L$ before moving to crypto would be able to get anything. As much as I tend to both lambast (and defend as well) the Lindens, I don't think anyone in the Financial department at Linden Lab is that stupid, and I'm sure as ***** certain that Upper Management isn't either.
  20. It'll be a pain in my ass personally as I rent and own a few properties throughout SL, both personal and for MIRAI, though the best solution honestly is to just buy your L$ in bulk per month rather than per transaction. I used to pay week to week, but now I just pay for a month up front, buying it at 40USD (Which would come to about 43 after the fee change). I personally dislike the situation, and hope that Linden Lab realizes that raising fees like this isn't going to bode well for Second Life's future unless they can provide a damn good justification for it. Unless at SL18B I hear that we're either getting a viewer rewrite, that the rumored Vulkan update is coming sooner than when hell freezes over, or that ancillary services like group chat, mySL and others get more stable, I'll be putting Battery Street on blast.
  21. THANK YOU. I've been complaining about this for a hot minute, It's one of the points as to why I hate how LL is so "Laissez-faire" at times.
  22. I'm surprised anyone even uses MySL these days. I've tried to get into Social Media platforms like Avatarbook and the sort but they never really have any weight to them, and feel like wasted potential that could have been better if they were used to replace mySL with them. I just never liked mySL due to how barebones and lackluster it was. I'd love a redo of the whole in-world social media system in that vein, but we've got bigger priorities than replacing mySL. Fixing it and Group Chats? Yes, are of moderate priority, at least in my educated opinion, but higher priority is optimizing this burning wreck we call a viewer.
  23. What am I missing here? You're complaining about having to use a authenticator program, which is a 2FA Method. Don't be a smartass.
  24. Authenticators are very light and don't need to be run in the background and are also available for PC as stated already. It's not that big of a deal. I have one on my linux system which uses about 100MB of RAM. That and "Another app"? What other app do you need for SL? All you need is a viewer, unless I'm missing something.
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