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Making A Living In Second Life
Wired has an article looking at folks who have dropped out of the whole 'meatspace moneymaking' thing, and are now making their living in Second Life. From the article: "Within a month, Grinnell was making more in Second Life than in her real-world job as a dispatcher. And after three months she realized she could quit her day job altogether. Now Second Life is her primary source of income, and Grinnell, whose avatar answers to the name Janie Marlowe, claims she earns more than four times her previous salary. Grinnell isn't alone. Artists and designers, landowners and currency speculators, are turning the virtual environment of Second Life into a real-world profit center." Interesting, and with a respectability lacking in gold farming.
I wonder how long it will be before real-life politicians start setting up their own virtual offices in Second Life so they can tax the in-game profits of Janie Marlowe or try to regulate her online business.
I'm worried that people like this could well be in for a nasty surprise in the next few years. While they may well be making several times their previous salaries in MMORPGs, what happens if the game is simply closed by its manufacturers, or something better comes along that players flock to? If they can't then map their skills from one game to another, they're suddenly out of luck and out of a job - how sustainable is this sort of job? I certainly wouldn't quit my day job simply out of the security it would afford me - if the game ends tomorrow, at least I still have a paycheque.
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
Mmm wonder if it would be possibly to perform second life federal racketeering
Second Life released an Linux native alpha client. Some hard rough edges but very usable.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Before the Slashdot Barbecue Kings start jumping up and down on the charred remains of this idea, I want to point out that this kind of thing is in no way analagous to making money from skill at other kinds of game. Making money in SL isn't tied to advertising or tournaments, it's in producing content that other gamers enjoy.
It's still a tough dance to do, but I just want to help us all by steering away from references to "Fatality" and the MLG.
Especially in the world's oldest profession.
DN
But not for the majority, otherwise it would all fall down as any earnings from the game would end up being pumped back into the game. Just like real life. The scary thing is that some people are probably paying more for in-game clothes/furniture than they do for their real-life self.
But yeah, would be nice to be in on the receiving end of it at the moment. Until more people start getting creative, creating competition and driving prices down anyway.
You can make a lot of money from furries. Take an established section of the web market, add the word "fur" to it, and sell it at an inflated price and you're into money.
Ask http://www.furcadia.com/ or http://www.furbid.ws/
Comment of the year
It really takes a while after starting Second Life before you realize the true, and staggering, implications.
The metaverse is finally here!
And it has a really, really, really low framerate!
And there really isn't anything to do there except stand around in gaudy discos and watch your avatar run through a dance animation!
Still, isn't it neat?
This is no different than working at a restaurant, bar, nightclub or any business which can easily close and has high turnover.
That depends on the industry. The MMO world doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. I'm not sure how viable it is to "play" full-time in games like Star Wars, WoW, UO, or EQ, so I am thinking that Second Life's system is for the time being, pretty unique.
However, learning property management in Second Life might give you a leg up in the real world over someone else who has never done it. If you're a reporter, that might help you become a writer for a game rag or a local paper. Second Life is certainly not as good as real experience, but it's better than nothing.
If you're extremely skilled, content you create for games might get you noticed by a developer.
So your choices, besides not doing anything like it ever again, range from working in another MMORPG, doing the same trade but in real life, or working in game development, in that order of realism.
Skill, talent, and hard work are your ultimate job security. If you have those it doesn't matter if your dabbling in freelancing or working for the government, you'll have job security during your entire life.
But what if Sony bought Linden Games? What if now in Second Life you could use Linden Dollars only to buy VAIO laptops, and WEGA TVs, and Walkmen? What if you could only be a punk rocker, surfer, or skateboarder? Would I have any chance at suing Sony for in effect destroying my career?
I wonder if they can take "advergaming" to the next level. What if you worked as a rep for Volvo and got paid to walk around Second Life and asking property owners if you could put up a Volvo billboard? Or if you had a car dealership where real Volvos could be bought (or concept cars).
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Until she has to go back out into the real world with this at the top of her resume: 2006 - 2008, Played Video Games
Have you visited the creative world of resume writing?
Her resume would surely have something along the lines of Graphic Designer, or Data Broker, or Database Administrator, or some other nifty way to euphemize "made clothes for avatars is MMORPG". Hell, the two years that I sold paintings for an art dealer on ebay, I was a webmaster, customer service rep, or sales representative depending on who I was giving my resume to.
music lover since 1969
Anyone know for sure if Second Life runs on a Mac Mini? I was thinking of getting one to use just for that purpose but it appears it probably won't run Second Life. Such things aren't always as they seem from reading the requirements though. Any first hand experience?
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
This is just an example of how free markets create wealth.
What value did Second Life have before people moved in and started exercising their rights to engage in unrestricted trade? Absolutely nothing, except a bunch of promise.
But when people began exchanging goods and services without restriction, they begin to build something beautiful.
Imagine for a moment that the owners of Second Life tried something other than free market economics. What if they decided they would dictate the direction of growth? Or what if they controlled the money supply and gave it only to people they liked? Or what if they banned certain transactions? What if Second Life had a board of very smart and highly educated economists trying to create the ideal economy? What if they had onerous taxes and regulations?
If you think that anything but free markets work, you haven't had much experience in the real world.
I would hope that we can take some of the principles that makes Second Life so wonderful (IE, free trade) and bring it into our real world so that we can create even more wealth.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
Those making money are nothing but sheep farmers, harvesting from n00bs that wanna play with their paper dolls simulating getting laid.
Despite the claims, it's a closed system with a very limited future, a collapsing eternal economy, and more bugs than a bait shop.
The claim of "A user created community" is Linden/Rosedale just playing everyone for suckers, missing it's potential and merely focusing on profit,
while wrapping themselves in a blanket of lazy, scamming altruism. There's a few interesting builds, but for the most part, it's more BigLots than Metaverse.
The quality of the graphics looks like a game from 5 years ago, and they haven't improved on the look in well over a year, other than adding a water shader.
Can't wait for someone to do it right.
One of the things that doesn't occur to most people is that you're getting a lot more value from a job than just the paycheck.
Benefits are a large expense for any business.
When you leave the world of paycheck + benefits, life gets a lot mre expensive. You have to shell out for your own medical, dental, vision insurance.
That's part of the reason consultants charge so much per hour, they need to cover all those 'other' costs that you don't have to worry so much about in the corporate world.
What I would really like to know is how much of that game generated income is getting reported to the IRS.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I made over 250 gold "coins/pieces" in WoW... but I don't have any gold in real life, except in my teeth (fillings). ... I wonder if I'll get rated Funny, or Troll ...
Modesty is one of life's greatest attributes
Just another example of Dick being ahead of his time. What a crazy world we live in.
This is just an example of how free markets create wealth.
No. This is an example of a free market redistributing wealth earned in another external economy under completely different rules. All it is doing is rewarding someone for the fruits of their labors with the money others have earned elsewhere under different rules. All this is is someone earning a living under our existing non-free market system just like a flea market or yard sale.
It's a fine example of how well a free market economy works when no one has essential needs and every purchase is a luxury purchase. SL characters don't die of starvation if they can't earn money. They don't die of exposure without the ability to afford housing. They don't need medical care. They don't grow old and infirm and require retirement. Not only would you never have to kill to survive, you couldn't kill for money even if you wanted to. Violent crime is impossible. You can't cause serious harm to people deliberately or even indifferently by way of pollution, foreclosure, or anything else.
In other words, SL is nothing like reality. It is a world without disease, aging, or any other infirmity, non-consensual violence, and starvation or deprivation of any other sort. Well sure it works as a free market economy! All the hazards of the free market and human nature don't exist there.
If you think that anything but free markets work, you haven't had much experience in the real world.
If you think that free markets work, you haven't had much experience with reality. People who think free markets solve everything honestly don't understand the ramifications of the non-exclusive nature of public and common goods nor do they understand the net negative effects of the extreme poverty of others on oneself.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Your thinly veiled racism is contemptible. I disrespect what you respect, and respect what you disrespect, because I disrespect your worldview.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Interesting, and with a respectability lacking in gold farming.
The only differnce is that here, in Second Life, gold farming is permitted.
It might be time we started to consider whether or not the problems from gold farming (economic, social, and otherwise) come not from the farming, but from the awkward, unenforceable prohibitions on it.
Ideally, this is done in a democratic fashion, and the people making these decisions have just as much of a mandate to mitigate the pitfalls of a lawless/free economy as much as they do a lawless/free society with laws against harming others. In my opinion, the government should encourage free markets wherever private goods or club goods are involved unless there a life-need (e.g. healthcare), predatory practices (e.g. credit & investment), or both (e.g. utilities) are frequently present. However, whenever common goods or public goods are involved, government must step in to regulate because the free market can only make things worse.
For those who wonder what I'm talking about, there are four classical types of goods that economists define based on whether or not you can exclude others from use and whether or not use diminishes the good. They are:
The definition of degrading a good can vary, but the general idea is that adding or subtracting a single user does not signficantly affect the enjoyment of other users. A concert hall might fill up, but me listening to the music doesn't take away your ability to listen to it. Excludability is more about making sure that people who don't pay for a good can't use it without requiring government coercion. DRM can only exclude goods with government measures to prevent making tools to crack it.
The problem with common and public goods is in the fact that you can't effectively charge people for them. You can't make people stop polluting without coercive force. If you stop paying your taxes and hole up in a compound in Montana, the US military still protects you. The free market cannot effectively solve problems related to these types of goods. Only government can because the effective management and creation of these goods requires that people be forced to play along even if they don't want to.
Government can do this in ways that encourages more or less free market-like behavior. For example, emission trading schemes are more free market like than mandated technologies. However, without government force, there would be no market for emission trading because companies would continue to treat things that they get for free as externalities that free market cost pressures prevent them from worrying about. In fact, the free market makes things worse because competition forces actors in the market to cut costs wherever possible. People wouldn't pollute if it wasn't profitable, and a free market only makes things worse by giving incentives to bad behavior.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Wooooooooo!
Modesty is one of life's greatest attributes
Disclaimer: I don't claim to know anything about any of these games' models.
.02% to the player's "to hit" probability percentile -for that skill-, per unit pre-purchased, but at the cost of being -kept- offline for 9.5 hours AND 100 gold pieces.. value dependant on exchange rate. those in it for a quick boost give the server less time to rest but the local economy benefits from the need of (?) trainers, facilities, materials consumed, produced or processed, etc.
.05
.. roll the dice ..?
Sure, getting XP modifiers and offline cash and breast plate, etc. -while- absent is fine.. but why should you?
What incentive does the ever-giving, limitless-supply, disneyworld factory conveyor belt of the MMORPG world have to fork out this stuff?
Tax those that wish to -take advantage- of these systems..
This is just an example of -one- application. The variables, adjustments and angles are limitless. You could SkillShop (TM)(R)(C)(patent pending) Foul Language. In this case, it would add
Logoff options:
Combat:
[ ](42m/5g) [ ](24m/15g) [ ](15m/35g) Flame Punch +.15
[4](44m/7g) [ ](27m/18g) [ ](15m/35g) Spinning Kick +.12
[6](90m/5g) [ ](45m/14g) [2](15m/35g) Foul Language +.02
General:
[ ](32m/7g) [ ](17m/16g) [ ](15m/35g) Legs - Running Skill +
[ ](47m/8g) [ ](19m/15g) [ ](15m/35g) Arms - Grab/Climb Skill +.03
[ ](48m/9g) [ ](19m/13g) [ ](15m/35g) Mind - Dodge Skill +.01
Collected funds could be rerouted back into the community, providing a pool of earnable offline income. As a "Foul Lanauge Trainer" you could offer rogue non-NPC training at lower (higher?) rates (in remote areas or 'villages' with no trainers. Rare skills can be got by meeting (and paying/partying with) strangers. Maybe 2D avatar chat could be offered as a waiting-room or lobby experience. parlor games, voice chat, etc. etc. etc. without the hangup of walking long distances, grinding away at mobs or other repetitive tasks.
Choose skills you'd like to -invest- in while offline. Not just expect a return for showing up. Like being a deadbeat dad and coming back to a brand new house.
Multiple benefits in that the worlds will be less crowded with AFK'ers, who will be 'active' in the world, but identified as offline (maybe even with a countdown counter for all to see), who, for a fee and some time to read or cook or walk or enjoy a movie, or find a real life mate, could enhance their online experience and their peers' pockets at the same time.
now, mix in the model of 'play for free, upgrades for Real Money' and the game companies might have a new cash cow. Deep pocket heroes. An uber-skilled, well-funded player who is hardly ever online due to constant offline-training-time.
whatever happened to
You have made a classic mistake, claiming that wealth is measured in dollars. Let me put you through a short thought experiment.
* I have $100. I sit on it for a whole year. At the end of the year, I still have $100. Am I wealthy?
* I have $100. I spend that $100 for fuel to power my car so I can go to work each day and earn $1000. Then I reinvest some of that money into fuel, clothing, shelther, entertainment, etc. By the end of the year, I earned $60,000 and spent $59,900 on things I wanted and things I needed to earn the $60,000. Roughly $50,000 went into necessities to earn that $60,000 (costs) and the rest went into things I didn't really need but wanted anyway ($9,900). I have $100 on hand at the end of the year.
In which case am I wealthier? In the second example I am wealthier. I had things and experienced things I did not experience in the first instance, things that I wanted to do.
Based on my actions above, did I increase or decrease the money supply? In neither instance did I create or destroy dollars. So, I didn't incrase or decrease the number of dollars in the economy.
The bottom line: You cannot measure wealth with dollars, so don't bother trying. Wealth can be created (and destroyed) by my actions.
I cannot pinpoint the effects of another's poverty on my own situation. In fact, what you are and what you do do not affect me (unless you do something amoral or illegal.) I cannot pinpoint how my actions in creating wealth negatively affected anyone. In fact, when I engage in free trade, I notice that both parties are getting more than what they put in (otherwise, I or the other party wouldn't have done it.)
Your myths are based on superstitions passed on by Marx and his crew of communists. It is all lies, I'm afraid to tell you, without any factual or logical base.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
You used the word "ideally" to start off your argument. That means, "in anywhere but real life". Because we do not live in an idyllic world, ideals are worth nothing unless they are practical.
Let me explain. There is an ideal that everyone should be nice to one another. But this is an ideal. Real life is not like this. Far better is the concept that you should treat others like you would like to be treated. In real life, if you behave this way, you generally get ahead because you make friends and people like to be around you. It doesn't rely on others being nice to you, it only requires you to be nice to other people. This is a practical principle that works. It is not an ideal.
Now, you have a problem. How do we efficiently distribute goods and services to maximize the happiness of everyone? That is, we want everyone to be as happy as possible, and leave no one unhappy. This is the real-world problem. And ideal about men who are well-educated and understand things us regular folks can't and who can make our decisions for us is an ideal. What happens when you get a bunch of know-it-alls together to make all the decisions for others is they make bad decisions. People end up dying and killing and wars are started.
The capitalist solution is, "Within a set of parameters (law & morality), you secure your own happiness." This has proven by experience and history to be a far better system than anything where you have smart people make decisions for others. Even though Aunt May is below average intelligence, even though she hasn't been to school but for three days in her life, and even though she is misinformed on a number of subjects, if she is able to make her own decisions, she will be happier. Experience shows us this.
Bottom line: Freedom works, every time.
Now, one more thing. When I hear of smart people gathering together to tell others what to do, I start reaching for my shotgun. This is the definition of a tyranny, and tyranny is the one thing our country does not stand for. I know we as a people have granted certain rights to the government to do things such as tax and order us to war, but we the people reserve those rights and we the people can take them back if we so desire.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
You are sadly mistaken. Yes, boards and CEOs make decisions. But they are given the right to make that decision by the shareholders, and that right can be revoked. The boards and CEOs didn't intrude on a group of people, demand they be made CEO and board members, and granted a charter for life. No, they serve at the whim of the shareholders.
You'll not that unlike in politics, one bad decision means the downfall of an entire corporation. CEOs and board members lose BILLIONS of dollars if they make the wrong choice. Do you think they have a good incentive to make the right choice each time?
Consider what happened to the Communists after they starved MILLIONS of people to death in the Ukraine on purpose. Or what happened after China starved her people to death trying to make iron. Did they lose their power? No.
Who would you rather have run the government? A group of people accountable to the people, with a temporary grant of powers, or a group of people who siezed control and demands power for life?
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.