Second Life, Linden Labs, User Base Retention.
[QUOTE=Katt Linden]As we have mentioned previously, tailoring the Second Life platform to make it easier for new Residents to begin experiencing the virtual world is one of our primary objectives moving forward. With that in mind, we’re pleased to announce that Linden Lab has engaged award-winning interactive design agency Big Spaceship as a partner in transforming the Second Life experience.
....
[/QUOTE]
WOAH THERE.....
Yes, please, Katt, I have been, for my sins, one of those people, employed by larger companies and organisations, to teach their employees three simple things.
1) A retained customer is worth three new customers.
It is simple logic, the existing customer already knows the system, the costs, the benefits, the methods, the people, the product. They have a good experience working with you and will prefer that, to having to gain all that experience again with another company. Further, the existing customer spends little time balancing your company against the opposition, its often ‘easier’ to stick with what you have, the customer normally does not court imbalance, frustration or the need to see great change. In your jargon, it is a win-win situation.
2) Existing customers will generate new customers.
Call it buzz, hype, anything, but the existing customer base, and the easy way you work with them, is seen right away by new customers trying to find a better customer experience. In other words, they will see how much your existing customers are happy with their relationship with you; they will want to be a part of it. You cannot lose. Treat your customers fairly, happily, promptly and courteously, and the new customers will do all they can to be a part of that experience. Keep your product priced at a level that keeps existing customers, and new customers will want to fall into step very quickly to take advantage of what they perceive the existing customer are enjoying.
3) Simpler and easier communications, wins customers.
It is easy, like you were taught in University, or by the boss of your early Company where you shined, or when you told your own employees, Keep It Simple! When communication is hard, multi faceted, meaningful jargon and complicated ways of saying things, you’re telling people you do not value them. Yes. By being complicated clever, you are setting yourself up to be apart from the people you need most, the customers. If they, for example, want a red doo-hicky, or a green one, let them have one, please, if you try to tell the customer he actually wants a blue thingy-ma-bob, you lose them. Simple. Keep it Simple.
The news media, refer to the over complicated language below, as spin... Its actually quite meaningless and does nothing for you when you apply it to a customer. It means, You have little to say, but like to use clever words. In the old days, it was called smoke and mirrors...
[Quote]... Big Spaceship will be working with internal teams at Linden Lab to research, design, prototype and test web sites and user interfaces that dramatically lower the learning curve for experiencing Second Life.
Big Spaceship will employ a user-centered design methodology to develop innovative solutions for streamlining the complexity of Second Life without limiting the freedom and expressiveness that makes Second Life so powerful for so many people... [/Quote]
Lets re-write that horrible paragraph.. Together...
A company called ‘Big Spaceship’ will be working with us to improve things for new players.
The second sentence above doesn’t actually say anything of value.
It does show one thing that all your customers will see and recognise instantly Katt, you have no idea what to do or say so you fill the space with techno babble. You could have said the entire post in three sentances.
Example,” We feel if we make the start-up time for new players better, we can retain more customers.” We have employed a company called ‘Big Spaceship’ to work for us to help us get it better for new players. We think it will improve things for Second Life, part of Linden Labs.
That’s all you needed to say, dressing it up in spin shows you have lost the ability to keep it simple.
http://rivers-rock.blogspot.com responding to http://forums.secondlife.com
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Mismanaged to destruction by Linden Labs, Second life dies.
Blog by: River Ely
Date: Nov 24th, 2008.
River Rock was sold tonight for the cost of transfer, VAT and a couple beers. Two years ago we started Rivers Rock as a we had moderately good land sales on the mainland and my partner had about six sims of her own. In those days, as we bought a sim, we would divide it into lots, sell them in a couple days or so and from the proceeds, fund the next sim. We literally had people falling out of the sky snapping up the lots as quickly as we could mark them out and price them.
Some days we would all join forces just to deal with the influx of visitors all hungry to buy the land at whatever price we set it for. At about this time, the Lindens broke the land search gizmo and we noticed other sellers dropping out of the sky onto our property too, staying for a few moments, and then leaving. They wanted to know our secret. We found that customers were drying up, so we set up arrival mats that greeted the customer in their own language and underneath the mats; we set the land for sale for a dollar a plot to raise it up the land listings on the land search.
The mats worked. It found us customers and ensured that we had our islands filled as quickly as we could without needing four of five of us babysitting the land for sale. In those days we snatched it back right away, else some of the people that bought out land set out for sale again so that they would get the profit without owning it. Heady days!
Towards the end of last summer, we found that selling land as a ¼ sim bought our land higher up the search ladder and that many Second Life users were keen to own safe land with a high prim count. The margins were ok as well. Life for a while was good. Even with the onset of last winter, sales were slow, but were working if you babysat the land for long enough. Then the Lindens changed the rules on the voids. Voids were low prim islands, and you needed to buy them in fours, and at least one, had to abut your main sim. The change was to enable the sims to be sold individually and without the need to butt up to a primary sim. They upped the prim count to 3750 and dropped the tier to 75USD month.
We watched helplessly and inexorably as tenants that had been with us for so long slowly migrated to the new open sims. The fact they were laggy, and sharing servers seemed to be offset by the ability to have loads of space, a good prim count and a very low tier.
Our sims began to show more and more open places, with sales not being taken up by customers. The land sales gizmo was page after page of open space sims, as fifteen thousand open space sims flooded into the market like some kind of candy confectionary currency. The lindens must have made a fortune selling them.
Finally, the Lindens, realised they had missed a massive market potential and giving away open sims was brought to a halt. Additionally they hiked the tier by 66% causing an instant massive swing away from open sims. Sadly, this was one more failure on the part of Linden Labs and instead of users returning to the normal sims, they elected to leave SL. The economy is ripe for giving up luxuries and as the USD, EURO and GBP fall in free fall on the worlds markets, food and light is more important. We paid the tiers on the islands, and the lack of income from missing tenants came from our surplus in the hopes of hanging onto the islands until the residents realised they needed real land again. The erosive nature of paying for others to play has now eroded my bank account surplus to zero and there is no more honey in the pot to sweeten the experience for those few who stayed loyal.
So tonight, I approached a lovely lady and close friend and invited her to buy the sim from me for the cost of transfer, VAT and a couple beers, she accepted. I enterd the word 'SOLD' into the status box on my spreadsheet, and logged out, for the last time, as a sim owner in Second Life, a company mismanged to destruction by Linden Labs.
Date: Nov 24th, 2008.
River Rock was sold tonight for the cost of transfer, VAT and a couple beers. Two years ago we started Rivers Rock as a we had moderately good land sales on the mainland and my partner had about six sims of her own. In those days, as we bought a sim, we would divide it into lots, sell them in a couple days or so and from the proceeds, fund the next sim. We literally had people falling out of the sky snapping up the lots as quickly as we could mark them out and price them.
Some days we would all join forces just to deal with the influx of visitors all hungry to buy the land at whatever price we set it for. At about this time, the Lindens broke the land search gizmo and we noticed other sellers dropping out of the sky onto our property too, staying for a few moments, and then leaving. They wanted to know our secret. We found that customers were drying up, so we set up arrival mats that greeted the customer in their own language and underneath the mats; we set the land for sale for a dollar a plot to raise it up the land listings on the land search.
The mats worked. It found us customers and ensured that we had our islands filled as quickly as we could without needing four of five of us babysitting the land for sale. In those days we snatched it back right away, else some of the people that bought out land set out for sale again so that they would get the profit without owning it. Heady days!
Towards the end of last summer, we found that selling land as a ¼ sim bought our land higher up the search ladder and that many Second Life users were keen to own safe land with a high prim count. The margins were ok as well. Life for a while was good. Even with the onset of last winter, sales were slow, but were working if you babysat the land for long enough. Then the Lindens changed the rules on the voids. Voids were low prim islands, and you needed to buy them in fours, and at least one, had to abut your main sim. The change was to enable the sims to be sold individually and without the need to butt up to a primary sim. They upped the prim count to 3750 and dropped the tier to 75USD month.
We watched helplessly and inexorably as tenants that had been with us for so long slowly migrated to the new open sims. The fact they were laggy, and sharing servers seemed to be offset by the ability to have loads of space, a good prim count and a very low tier.
Our sims began to show more and more open places, with sales not being taken up by customers. The land sales gizmo was page after page of open space sims, as fifteen thousand open space sims flooded into the market like some kind of candy confectionary currency. The lindens must have made a fortune selling them.
Finally, the Lindens, realised they had missed a massive market potential and giving away open sims was brought to a halt. Additionally they hiked the tier by 66% causing an instant massive swing away from open sims. Sadly, this was one more failure on the part of Linden Labs and instead of users returning to the normal sims, they elected to leave SL. The economy is ripe for giving up luxuries and as the USD, EURO and GBP fall in free fall on the worlds markets, food and light is more important. We paid the tiers on the islands, and the lack of income from missing tenants came from our surplus in the hopes of hanging onto the islands until the residents realised they needed real land again. The erosive nature of paying for others to play has now eroded my bank account surplus to zero and there is no more honey in the pot to sweeten the experience for those few who stayed loyal.
So tonight, I approached a lovely lady and close friend and invited her to buy the sim from me for the cost of transfer, VAT and a couple beers, she accepted. I enterd the word 'SOLD' into the status box on my spreadsheet, and logged out, for the last time, as a sim owner in Second Life, a company mismanged to destruction by Linden Labs.
Green Dot Terracotta Armies
Written by River Ely: Nov 23rd, 2008-11-23
(Written in response to http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2008/11/how-many-bots-i.html )
(based upon a posting on Second Life Forums at http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=2230625&postcount=374
I pointed out in February the financial stability of owning small islands in Second Life with the intention of renting out space was declining. I was poo-poo'd It is madness in anyone’s eyes, to continually generate more and more land while the user base has been visibly shrinking, its as though they are printing money to satisfy the cost of hiring employees.
They (Linden Labs) are aware of the issues, but have (in my opinion) no way of altering the decline as the original motivators have either left the company, retired with fat cat pensions or have been fired. The bot population was evident at the beginning of the year and I found an island near one of my own, with a platform at 700 meters, crammed with 40 avatars, all in neat lines, all facing the same way and all in newbie player clothing and dress style. We called them 'Ruths', and could not understand at the time, the logic of so many people standing still for no reason. had they been dancing it might have been a party, but like Chinese terracotta armies, they stood in silent rows facing a nonexistent orator.
With the introduction of a relaxed rule set governing Voids or Open Space Sims, the final decline was initiated. A greedy move to generate more income was exploited and made available open space sims to about anyone at low cost. We had regular renters abandoning sound high prim low cost lots on conventional sims, in favour of the open spaces Sims that were starting to flood the market. For a while, it seemed the only way to retain these customers, was to convert main sims to open spaces and to buy in more and more open spaces. Still, the Europeans like myself, were fighting a losing battle in the early summer, as profit margins dropped, USA players could settle on a ten percent profit line. Sadly, with a European Player being hit with an additional VAT cost, 17.5% to 25%, we become early victims in the price cut wars. We watched our islands empty as the users followed the trail of cheap rentals and lots of space.
The Linden Income Generation factory has now changed the rules with a huge price hike on the cheap plentiful oversold Open Space population. The global economic downturn is not evident it seems in Linden Labs as they raised the cost of an Open Space sim by 66%. With some 15,000 open space sims to be affected, the price hike, if accepted by the users, would generate a massive income boost for the company.
The shifting USD-GBP ratio means that now I pay considerably more for my open Sim than I did in February, so my margins compared with the USD holder are more than depleted, they are trashed. If you are not a United States Player, I feel it is no longer an option to own islands in Second Life, that is if your aim is to generate income to cover your own player costs, plus a small profit. The frequency with which I have been giving islands away, asking Linden Labs Concierge Service to switch off open space sims and letting them expire in order to stem the flow of Money Out compared to Money In is alarming. I am but one player in SL, I had 12 Full Islands and number of open space sims, I am down to one island, with a single open space due to close in a few days time as tier rolls around again.
The summer surplus that has in the past kept me afloat until the autumnal players return like snowbirds flocking in for the perceived winter sunshine has been eroded over the last winter, hammered in the summer and is now all but dried up completely and I can no longer afford to sit on empty sims in the hopes that renters will any moment, flood in and restart the income generation.
The business model I had was sound, as was that of countless hundreds of other sim owners. The failing was the assumption by Linden Labs that everything in the garden was rosy and they failed on three counts.
One, they skewed the traffic stats and believed their results were the truth, regardless of the shouts from people like ourselves, Island owners with more empty sand than was comfortable
Two, generated more and more land for the nonexistent players thus deforming land prices beyond the point of stability.
And three, rather than introducing a package that encouraged land owners to retain and promote their land, they increased the cost of ownership to a point the market no longer would bear. They seem to have been blind to the loss of money spending account holders, and seem to have been treating bots, campers and alts as if they are real players all needing to own their ‘space’, a ludicrous and unsustainable situation to find themselves in. I bet the original creators, having sold second life to the current board, are laughing all the way to the bank.
We have been predicting the failure of Second Life for some time, it is a shame the Linden Labs Board Members could not have done the same.
(Written in response to http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2008/11/how-many-bots-i.html )
(based upon a posting on Second Life Forums at http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=2230625&postcount=374
I pointed out in February the financial stability of owning small islands in Second Life with the intention of renting out space was declining. I was poo-poo'd It is madness in anyone’s eyes, to continually generate more and more land while the user base has been visibly shrinking, its as though they are printing money to satisfy the cost of hiring employees.
They (Linden Labs) are aware of the issues, but have (in my opinion) no way of altering the decline as the original motivators have either left the company, retired with fat cat pensions or have been fired. The bot population was evident at the beginning of the year and I found an island near one of my own, with a platform at 700 meters, crammed with 40 avatars, all in neat lines, all facing the same way and all in newbie player clothing and dress style. We called them 'Ruths', and could not understand at the time, the logic of so many people standing still for no reason. had they been dancing it might have been a party, but like Chinese terracotta armies, they stood in silent rows facing a nonexistent orator.
With the introduction of a relaxed rule set governing Voids or Open Space Sims, the final decline was initiated. A greedy move to generate more income was exploited and made available open space sims to about anyone at low cost. We had regular renters abandoning sound high prim low cost lots on conventional sims, in favour of the open spaces Sims that were starting to flood the market. For a while, it seemed the only way to retain these customers, was to convert main sims to open spaces and to buy in more and more open spaces. Still, the Europeans like myself, were fighting a losing battle in the early summer, as profit margins dropped, USA players could settle on a ten percent profit line. Sadly, with a European Player being hit with an additional VAT cost, 17.5% to 25%, we become early victims in the price cut wars. We watched our islands empty as the users followed the trail of cheap rentals and lots of space.
The Linden Income Generation factory has now changed the rules with a huge price hike on the cheap plentiful oversold Open Space population. The global economic downturn is not evident it seems in Linden Labs as they raised the cost of an Open Space sim by 66%. With some 15,000 open space sims to be affected, the price hike, if accepted by the users, would generate a massive income boost for the company.
The shifting USD-GBP ratio means that now I pay considerably more for my open Sim than I did in February, so my margins compared with the USD holder are more than depleted, they are trashed. If you are not a United States Player, I feel it is no longer an option to own islands in Second Life, that is if your aim is to generate income to cover your own player costs, plus a small profit. The frequency with which I have been giving islands away, asking Linden Labs Concierge Service to switch off open space sims and letting them expire in order to stem the flow of Money Out compared to Money In is alarming. I am but one player in SL, I had 12 Full Islands and number of open space sims, I am down to one island, with a single open space due to close in a few days time as tier rolls around again.
The summer surplus that has in the past kept me afloat until the autumnal players return like snowbirds flocking in for the perceived winter sunshine has been eroded over the last winter, hammered in the summer and is now all but dried up completely and I can no longer afford to sit on empty sims in the hopes that renters will any moment, flood in and restart the income generation.
The business model I had was sound, as was that of countless hundreds of other sim owners. The failing was the assumption by Linden Labs that everything in the garden was rosy and they failed on three counts.
One, they skewed the traffic stats and believed their results were the truth, regardless of the shouts from people like ourselves, Island owners with more empty sand than was comfortable
Two, generated more and more land for the nonexistent players thus deforming land prices beyond the point of stability.
And three, rather than introducing a package that encouraged land owners to retain and promote their land, they increased the cost of ownership to a point the market no longer would bear. They seem to have been blind to the loss of money spending account holders, and seem to have been treating bots, campers and alts as if they are real players all needing to own their ‘space’, a ludicrous and unsustainable situation to find themselves in. I bet the original creators, having sold second life to the current board, are laughing all the way to the bank.
We have been predicting the failure of Second Life for some time, it is a shame the Linden Labs Board Members could not have done the same.
Saturday, 22 November 2008
JAGI, call it what it is...
May I add to...
Another JAGI from River Ely:
This might sound odd, but please change the wording of "Selling Land". You do NOT sell land, selling implies the buyer has something they can take away and or something they own, We don’t 'own' anything in second life, things don't actually exist. Refer to a new island cost as a "Set up fee" for that is what it is. When a land owner sells land onto the next owner (or more often on mainland, speculator), they are transferring the 'setup cost' plus a profit margin of their own.
When an island owner rents space to a user and charges them a tier, they are actually sharing a proportion of the expected tier, to Linden Labs, plus a profit margin. But they don’t actually sell land, they share the cost of server time rental, nothing more, nothing less. How about Linden Labs calling it what it is, instead of fancy real world names that imply something that doesn’t actually happen.
Example
Say I 'buy' a region of mainland, then I should have the option of having that region lodged on my home computer system or another place I choose.
Say I buy a collection of primitives, (math coordinates with image textures stretched between nurbs), and I should be able to store that collection of information on my own system, so that I become responsible for its retention and or subsequent loss.
If I am not buying, as you suggest, but renting or gaining the freedom to use, then state that.
The concept of buying things is well understood in society, so is double talk, smoke and mirrors and clever people cheating less clever people to make a profit is something most of us do not like.
Change the wording Linden Labs, You don’t sell land, or islands, you charge a set up fee and you charge an ongoing maintenance fee (tier), My JAGI, call things what they are, not a fancy name that alludes to something completely different.
[url]http://rivers-rock.blogspot.com/2008/11/just-another-good-idea-jagi.html[/url]
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Bumble Parx First, please refer to us as customers, not residents, when discussing the parts of SL that we pay for. Maybe it's just me, but I find the tone of the announcements directed at 'residents' as quite patronising. ... |
Another JAGI from River Ely:
This might sound odd, but please change the wording of "Selling Land". You do NOT sell land, selling implies the buyer has something they can take away and or something they own, We don’t 'own' anything in second life, things don't actually exist. Refer to a new island cost as a "Set up fee" for that is what it is. When a land owner sells land onto the next owner (or more often on mainland, speculator), they are transferring the 'setup cost' plus a profit margin of their own.
When an island owner rents space to a user and charges them a tier, they are actually sharing a proportion of the expected tier, to Linden Labs, plus a profit margin. But they don’t actually sell land, they share the cost of server time rental, nothing more, nothing less. How about Linden Labs calling it what it is, instead of fancy real world names that imply something that doesn’t actually happen.
Example
Say I 'buy' a region of mainland, then I should have the option of having that region lodged on my home computer system or another place I choose.
Say I buy a collection of primitives, (math coordinates with image textures stretched between nurbs), and I should be able to store that collection of information on my own system, so that I become responsible for its retention and or subsequent loss.
If I am not buying, as you suggest, but renting or gaining the freedom to use, then state that.
The concept of buying things is well understood in society, so is double talk, smoke and mirrors and clever people cheating less clever people to make a profit is something most of us do not like.
Change the wording Linden Labs, You don’t sell land, or islands, you charge a set up fee and you charge an ongoing maintenance fee (tier), My JAGI, call things what they are, not a fancy name that alludes to something completely different.
[url]http://rivers-rock.blogspot.com/2008/11/just-another-good-idea-jagi.html[/url]
Just Another Good Idea (JAGI)
Hi [Enter name of new hire], Welcome to Linden Labs.
I recycled the above, I used it for a whole bunch of other people who have come to the forum and said “I am new but we are going to change things for the better, we need to listen to you, give us your ideas”. And we do, we give you all ideas, concepts, suggestions. Some good, some awful and some not worth printing, and every now and them, we come up with a terrific idea and somehow, after all is said and done, it turns into just that, “Just Another Good Idea” (JAGI).
Your product has a lot of rough edges, is sloppy in some parts and is broken in others, the JIRA tells you that but I understand it will cost money and brains to fix a lot of the issues and that could detract from immediate income generation.
So a new JAGI needs to not detract from Income Generation while at the same time, fixing something that is broken.
Your ideas over the past two years have been perplexing, Windlight, Voice, Banning Gambling rather that create local servers, updates needing a whole package to be re-downloaded instead of a module for that package (huh!) so a new JAGI would have to have a value and a point and that could be implemented with minimum disruption.
You product has a huge addicted user base. No matter how much you mess up (and admit for once that mistakes in judgement are too frequent), we are still here. If you ever had a company that needed customer generated feedback, it is this one, but it seems no one at Linden Labs listens to their customers here. So a new JAGI needs to come from listening to us, your user base. (We are for the most part friendly, but remember, we outnumber you a million to one).
To round up, a JAGI needs to continue to generate income and hopefully improve it.
A JAGI needs have value that does not require disruption or a change in infrastructure.
A JAGI needs to be easy to implement, (Those are the best kind, low outlay, huge return)
And a JAGI has to be borne from your customers.
Here is my JAGI
Premium Accounts
The value of the premium account is miss understood when compared with Non Premium account holders. I would change little for the premium account holders. I would make a change to non premium account holders to widen the gap between account holders and non account holders.
1) I suggest that non premium account holders, Alts, Bots, Campers, Greifers etcetera are rewarded with in inventory scrub every 24 hours. ( yes, remove all created and or purchased content). Reason: if the account is to be used to sample SL then it is no loss, allow the character to be persistent but with an inventory cleaned out after 24 hours.
2) Allow non premium account holders to forcibly expire after thirty days. With the name being locked for 30 days more against re-use. How many times do you need to log in and explore before deciding you want to retain inventory and a name?
3) Remove the option to hold funds from non account holders. That way they can’t be ‘gifted’ funds from other avatar accounts and buy weapons or other things that can be used to reduce the quality of game play for those of us who invest into Second Life.
4) If the account is an ALT account, and the account is riding on the strength of a premium account, then for account purposes, it should be part of that account and counted as the main avatar. So if there are 40,000 logged in and 10,000 are ALTS camping or taking up numbers, the true account of logged in accounts should be 30,000.
Or
4a) If an premium account is logged in, and an alternative account for that holder tries to log in, the premium account avi should be bumped off. Restricting one avi to one user. If the second account is a premium account, then allow the second avatar to add to the total number of avatars on line without bumping off the first or primary avatar.
Remove negativity
I am not suggesting Camping Avi’s should be banned, but if you want to set a dozen or forty avatars to camp to swell the numbers for your sim, then pay premium for each one, then we will see how ineffective campers are and Linden Labs will make a tidy sum in the process.
I am not suggesting that people create alts for negative reasons, or for attacking those who have displeased their owners, but if you had to pay premium for your avi in order to attack the other player, then losing your accounts upon detection would be a far more costly process.
Resolve
Simple changes, they have defined values, they increase the revenue for Linden Labs and go some way to creating more visible numbers with more accuracy. It means little or no change for the vast majority of users who already contribute heavily to the success of Linden labs, and the removal of some free accounts ability to grief, camp or clutter, would be an impact appreciated by every premium member that ever existed.
Please vote for my JAGI.
http://forums.secondlife.com reply# 374
I recycled the above, I used it for a whole bunch of other people who have come to the forum and said “I am new but we are going to change things for the better, we need to listen to you, give us your ideas”. And we do, we give you all ideas, concepts, suggestions. Some good, some awful and some not worth printing, and every now and them, we come up with a terrific idea and somehow, after all is said and done, it turns into just that, “Just Another Good Idea” (JAGI).
Your product has a lot of rough edges, is sloppy in some parts and is broken in others, the JIRA tells you that but I understand it will cost money and brains to fix a lot of the issues and that could detract from immediate income generation.
So a new JAGI needs to not detract from Income Generation while at the same time, fixing something that is broken.
Your ideas over the past two years have been perplexing, Windlight, Voice, Banning Gambling rather that create local servers, updates needing a whole package to be re-downloaded instead of a module for that package (huh!) so a new JAGI would have to have a value and a point and that could be implemented with minimum disruption.
You product has a huge addicted user base. No matter how much you mess up (and admit for once that mistakes in judgement are too frequent), we are still here. If you ever had a company that needed customer generated feedback, it is this one, but it seems no one at Linden Labs listens to their customers here. So a new JAGI needs to come from listening to us, your user base. (We are for the most part friendly, but remember, we outnumber you a million to one).
To round up, a JAGI needs to continue to generate income and hopefully improve it.
A JAGI needs have value that does not require disruption or a change in infrastructure.
A JAGI needs to be easy to implement, (Those are the best kind, low outlay, huge return)
And a JAGI has to be borne from your customers.
Here is my JAGI
Premium Accounts
The value of the premium account is miss understood when compared with Non Premium account holders. I would change little for the premium account holders. I would make a change to non premium account holders to widen the gap between account holders and non account holders.
1) I suggest that non premium account holders, Alts, Bots, Campers, Greifers etcetera are rewarded with in inventory scrub every 24 hours. ( yes, remove all created and or purchased content). Reason: if the account is to be used to sample SL then it is no loss, allow the character to be persistent but with an inventory cleaned out after 24 hours.
2) Allow non premium account holders to forcibly expire after thirty days. With the name being locked for 30 days more against re-use. How many times do you need to log in and explore before deciding you want to retain inventory and a name?
3) Remove the option to hold funds from non account holders. That way they can’t be ‘gifted’ funds from other avatar accounts and buy weapons or other things that can be used to reduce the quality of game play for those of us who invest into Second Life.
4) If the account is an ALT account, and the account is riding on the strength of a premium account, then for account purposes, it should be part of that account and counted as the main avatar. So if there are 40,000 logged in and 10,000 are ALTS camping or taking up numbers, the true account of logged in accounts should be 30,000.
Or
4a) If an premium account is logged in, and an alternative account for that holder tries to log in, the premium account avi should be bumped off. Restricting one avi to one user. If the second account is a premium account, then allow the second avatar to add to the total number of avatars on line without bumping off the first or primary avatar.
Remove negativity
I am not suggesting Camping Avi’s should be banned, but if you want to set a dozen or forty avatars to camp to swell the numbers for your sim, then pay premium for each one, then we will see how ineffective campers are and Linden Labs will make a tidy sum in the process.
I am not suggesting that people create alts for negative reasons, or for attacking those who have displeased their owners, but if you had to pay premium for your avi in order to attack the other player, then losing your accounts upon detection would be a far more costly process.
Resolve
Simple changes, they have defined values, they increase the revenue for Linden Labs and go some way to creating more visible numbers with more accuracy. It means little or no change for the vast majority of users who already contribute heavily to the success of Linden labs, and the removal of some free accounts ability to grief, camp or clutter, would be an impact appreciated by every premium member that ever existed.
Please vote for my JAGI.
http://forums.secondlife.com reply# 374
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Message to Second Life Users: Zee Linden was there and listening.
After so many heated words from so many perspectives, Zee Linden invited anyone who cared to, to join him in Second Life for one on one conversation. We were given a chance for us all to talk to the CFO in world and place our questions openly and in context. Sadly no one turned up.
We get so drawn into the forums when a Linden is present.
I was unable to attend the in-world meeting as I have to be at work tomorrow and its gone midnight here in the UK already. However, Zee contacted me in Immediate Message Mode as I had written my questions out on a note card and allowed Zee to respond. I never thought for one moment that Zee would respond as I held the view that the CFO would either give me answers he thinks I want to hear, or he would give me answers he believes are correct, even though we have reason to doubt the legitimacy of his replies.
I have promised Zee that I will create a fair and balanced reply to the article in my blog, complaining about skewed metric, complaining about Bots camping and inflating the figure, about land dumping and churning. I am not perfect and never find the time to comb the myriads of stats released by SL, I, like many, become confident in the knowledge I have and hold onto that, and when it is not in a good light, I too can become tightly focused. Another reason not to expect Zee linden to reply, after all, he is on a losing streak as far as the facts I hold are concerned.
This of course is unfair.
I have had a good dialogue with Zee tonight, simple straightforward honest facts have been shared, not all glowing and rosy as earlier suggested by the tide of the news feed, but some facts have been presented in a more meaningful presentation to me, enough to get me thinking and enough for me to do three things.
1) I am withdrawing the barb from my tone, Zee has shown he is not only willing to communicate effectively but is also willing to share exacting and precise information. Though we may have to learn the best way of asking those questions as the dialogue and circumstance of Zee’s financial world is critically different in so many ways to our day to day work in Second Life.
2) I am acknowledging Zee has made every effort to reach out and discuss the trends and the events that are affecting residents. He has been attracting comment on the Forum here for the best part of three or four hours, and for a CFO that is indeed valuable time. Further, Zee has been in-world publically available to listen to our concerns in order to gain insight from our experiences. Again, consider the absence of other senior staff and then admit for Zee to spend valuable time face to face with us is a welcome change. None of us are happy at the seemingly madcap way the Linden managers are translating solutions currently, so Zee’s appearance on the forum and in world is got to be seen as a welcome opportunity.
3) I will publish a balanced article on my blog to follow up and counter balance the existing negative publications. I will review what I have learned from Zee tonight and will make that result available in RL along-side and balancing my other comments. I am going to be away for a few days and will not catch up until Monday, but catch up I will.
I have to ask a couple more questions of Zee before I can ( looking at my notes) fully respond, but I am confident that even though Linden Labs have cocked things up a bit, there is opportunity for some of surviving this and hopefully , going forward with realistic expectations and exploring real opportunities in the coming months.
Sadly, the world is suffering a slowdown in growth and this may exacerbate the decline in the short term for many companies, not just Linden Labs, but I feel a lot more confident now knowing Zee is reachable and is willing to listen to constructive argument. Hopefully we can work together if we can all agree to talk the same language, listen to each other, and pose sensible and correct solution opportunities.
We get so drawn into the forums when a Linden is present.
I was unable to attend the in-world meeting as I have to be at work tomorrow and its gone midnight here in the UK already. However, Zee contacted me in Immediate Message Mode as I had written my questions out on a note card and allowed Zee to respond. I never thought for one moment that Zee would respond as I held the view that the CFO would either give me answers he thinks I want to hear, or he would give me answers he believes are correct, even though we have reason to doubt the legitimacy of his replies.
I have promised Zee that I will create a fair and balanced reply to the article in my blog, complaining about skewed metric, complaining about Bots camping and inflating the figure, about land dumping and churning. I am not perfect and never find the time to comb the myriads of stats released by SL, I, like many, become confident in the knowledge I have and hold onto that, and when it is not in a good light, I too can become tightly focused. Another reason not to expect Zee linden to reply, after all, he is on a losing streak as far as the facts I hold are concerned.
This of course is unfair.
I have had a good dialogue with Zee tonight, simple straightforward honest facts have been shared, not all glowing and rosy as earlier suggested by the tide of the news feed, but some facts have been presented in a more meaningful presentation to me, enough to get me thinking and enough for me to do three things.
1) I am withdrawing the barb from my tone, Zee has shown he is not only willing to communicate effectively but is also willing to share exacting and precise information. Though we may have to learn the best way of asking those questions as the dialogue and circumstance of Zee’s financial world is critically different in so many ways to our day to day work in Second Life.
2) I am acknowledging Zee has made every effort to reach out and discuss the trends and the events that are affecting residents. He has been attracting comment on the Forum here for the best part of three or four hours, and for a CFO that is indeed valuable time. Further, Zee has been in-world publically available to listen to our concerns in order to gain insight from our experiences. Again, consider the absence of other senior staff and then admit for Zee to spend valuable time face to face with us is a welcome change. None of us are happy at the seemingly madcap way the Linden managers are translating solutions currently, so Zee’s appearance on the forum and in world is got to be seen as a welcome opportunity.
3) I will publish a balanced article on my blog to follow up and counter balance the existing negative publications. I will review what I have learned from Zee tonight and will make that result available in RL along-side and balancing my other comments. I am going to be away for a few days and will not catch up until Monday, but catch up I will.
I have to ask a couple more questions of Zee before I can ( looking at my notes) fully respond, but I am confident that even though Linden Labs have cocked things up a bit, there is opportunity for some of surviving this and hopefully , going forward with realistic expectations and exploring real opportunities in the coming months.
Sadly, the world is suffering a slowdown in growth and this may exacerbate the decline in the short term for many companies, not just Linden Labs, but I feel a lot more confident now knowing Zee is reachable and is willing to listen to constructive argument. Hopefully we can work together if we can all agree to talk the same language, listen to each other, and pose sensible and correct solution opportunities.
Another island gets switched off. Thanks Linden Labs for trashing dreams and stealing rainbows.
Tonight , the renter on River Mouth 4 vacated the property. I raised another ticket to have it switched off and in the nick of time, a buyer surfaced and is willing to take the island. After the deduction of 100 USD and the tier, I make, 25 usd, thats 12 GBP or after tax about 7GBP, enough for two pints of cheap beer. What a crying shame.
The island was a home for some, it was a playground for others, and it has been a thriving and affordable business for a lady driven to do charitable things.
The island is going to become part of a full sim again and hopefully carry on delivering hundreds of sim time hours for residents to shape, use and enjoy into the future.
The island was a home for some, it was a playground for others, and it has been a thriving and affordable business for a lady driven to do charitable things.
The island is going to become part of a full sim again and hopefully carry on delivering hundreds of sim time hours for residents to shape, use and enjoy into the future.
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