SL Economy: If Everything is So Good, Why is Everything So Bad?

Now that the site is back up, I continue to ponder T-Linden's highly-spun economic report, to see if there is anything I can really understand about our real virtual economy by studying this pripiska, as the Soviets used to call, in one word, the phenomenon of "reports by local managers who inflate their numbers to report fictions to the center".

The number I keep coming back to is this one, presented as if a glorious achievement of the Motherland: 826,000 monthly log-ons.

But...but...There used to be a number shown right on the web site and the log-in screen called "60 day log-ons". And that number showed 1.5 million something for a long time, then dropped to 1.4 million something lately.

You could say it's about the short month, February. But this is a report after March, in April. 

Right now, as I log on with the 1.23 viewer (not Viewer 2), I get this information in the upper right-hand corner:

1,396,481 logged in last 60 days
50,353  logged in now

Naturally, you, like me, wonder sometimes, as you see that "logged in now" never seem to go above 75,000 even at prime time, how you "get" the 1.4 million 60-day uniques.

And naturally I'm still wondering how you "get" the 1.4 million 60-day unique log-ons when the reported 30-day number is now down to 826,000. I guess there are always some 570,481 people who logged in last month, but where are they this month, damn them! 570,481 people who would have logged in, if only February didn't have only 28 days! 570,481 people who found that it got warmer outdoors and didn't stay inside on SL (that's T Linden's other implied excuse, as he explains the rise in numbers overall in his more rosy report by the fact that cold weather keeps people indoors).

Yesterday I had a tenant move in who told me she had *real* chickens in *real* life and that she wouldn't need to make use of my pet-friendly option lol. I suppose she could be one of those 570,481 any minute now, driven out doors to take care of her *real* chickens; driven outdoors to bask in the spring sunshine!

OK, then, I will leave you to ponder where half a million people went.

There's another strange statement: "certain transactions that were previously classified as Resident activity will now be counted as Linden activity, and therefore removed from the overall numbers".

I *think* is a reference to the fact that before, commissions for Xstreet were money in Apotheus' pocket as owner of Xstreet back when it was SLexchange.com, today, are sinks that ultimately drive the sale of currency and land for LL's pocket now. So what was previously a *plus* for the economy that cashed out into *real money* is now, with the Linden takeover, converted into burnt currency. It doesn't take any special talent to turn something that was living and growing and good for everybody into Burning Life, but the Lindens have done that before. As T explains (as Ciaran needs to learn), the burning of what used to put real food on Apotheus real table is now for a greater glory for the Motherland -- sinks in the controlled economy that force people to buy more currency from each other and the Lindens for more currency fees -- but that's *less* money all around, even so, at the end of the day, unless ultimately all of this increase in Linden Homes and Xstreet sales translates to a land purchase, i.e. a homestead down the line.That is the goal of the Linden economy: to lead newbies from orientation through Linden Homes and more Xstreet purchases to a realization that he needs a homestead to pursue his decoration and sex in greater privacy.

That's what the Lindens are watching for, that almighty conversion from the general loss leader of Linden Homes  to Homesteads bought directly from Lindens or from wholesalers (watch the Lindens drop the requirement that you must first own an island to have a homestead, by freeing up homesteads to be bought as Linden Homesteads on separate areas like Linden Homes.

I'm going to call Linden H omes a loss leader, as at the regular LindEx rates, the $1200 stipend per month that the premium subscription buys is worth $4.64 US -- although booked as a source in the economy and not a LindEx purchase, which leaves a total of $5.31 paying for the server space, not of 512 m2, which is misleading, but 1024 m2, because the Lindens *provide* 512, but they *put the prims on* worth 234 prims (1024 m2 holds 234 prims on a standard sim). That is, people are giving "a free 512 m2 tier" to hold their Linden Homes plot with, but in fact, it's a 1024 m2 value. At the regular rate for 1024 m2, the Lindens would get normally *another $5* from a resident -- in order to graduate from his $9.95 premium account, giving him only "free 512 m2" he'd have to pay *another US $5* to increase to 1024 m2. At the bulk discount rate, a landlord would pay $3.03 for that land (1024 x .00296 cents) at going LindEx rates (US $3.72/1000 Lindens). That's why I call it a loss leader -- some people are paying $14.95 a month for their 1024 m2 on the mainland they own without any Linden Home; some rental agents might be paying less; but those in Linden Homes are paying only $9.95 and getting the value of a 1024 m2.

T Linden sets the stage for disappoint and lowering of expectations here:

The introduction of Viewer 2 in public beta did not have a meaningful impact on the Second Life economy in Q1 2010, though we will drill down on the impact of Viewer 2 and the investments in the New User Experience in the Q2 2010 economy post.

I disagree. I think Viewer 2 had a horrible impact on the economy. I think it led some people to stop logging on; even to close their businesses. It was the last whack in a long line of whacks that included Zindra forced relocation, homesteads gutting out the island rentals market, Xstreet changes driving away small business, etc. Oh, those people aren't "everybody" and we can't exaggerate their importance, but they do exist. Well, I'm still looking for some 570,000 people and where they went (it may be that 820,000 is a figure for *repeat* log-ons only and 1.4 million is for *only one time* logging on).

Instead of worrying about those lost people, I should take comfort in an increasing number of real people, those who are..."active in the economy":

Residents active in the Economy reached 517,349 in March, a 2010 high.

But T Linden has performed a sleight of hand here, too. Before, this figure was those who had "spent $1 or more inworld", at least, that's how I always understood it -- those who had themselves purchased something or transferred $1 in world to another avatar.

But now, if he defines it both as those who spent and those who merely received, it opens up a whole "Dead Souls" category. Those people who only receive Linden dollars, but never spend them. Who would these people be? Well, they would be alts. They would be mules, to use the game parlance. They would be people who hold groups together. I have people like that, who I just transfer money now and then to keep them out of the red, as they debit out from group fees. See, the automatic debiting of the sink of group fees, i.e. fees for advertising in search at $30 a week, would be sucking out the dollars those avatars held, but would *not* be booked as "a dollar spent inworld" that would go to a real person who could then cash it out as real money -- it would only be going to a sink. There are about 20,000 groups on the mainland. Many of them have dummy avatars like this in them holding them together. I don't exaggerate the role of the dummy avatar whose only purpose is to receive small amounts occasionally to offset whatever fees may debit out of him, but there it is.

But there are tens of thousands of other dead souls. These are people receiving group dividends who never log on and spend. Or more to the point, people who receive payments that just pile up and never get spent or cashed out. People like Bonecrusher Slate, who has cars for sale on the Route 66 lot in Ravenglass that I preserve as a legacy and a place to rez your car to travel the roads there which are working pretty well and are a nice scenic and interesting ride. Some people buy the old cars and tanks there, and that money debits out of their account and goes...somewhere. Not to Bonecrusher because he's gone from the People list, low these many four years. But they go...to some place in a holding pattern above his account should it ever restore? or? People gone from the People list can continue to receive funds and not spend them -- there are hundreds of oldbies who left out stuff for sale, perhaps only a freebie for $1, or even a vendor collecting $500, but just never log on. This vast load of unspent "savings," if you will, is in the system but it isn't directly to the benefit of the economy. It doesn't generate interest. It isn't part of a credit union or bank that helps other people build houses or businesses with loans. So it's just "there". T Linden knows what that figure is; we don't; that is, it's part of a number they now give out as "$7 billion" but we don't know *what part* of that is really live and actual and available to really be spent.

So the question is really whether there are so many of those non-contributing "savings" members of SL that have now boosted his number of 450,000 to 570,000 or what that boost represents *really*.

Some of these are new Xstreet buyers -- it increased 25 percent. But Xstreet buys were ALREADY counted in the old number of 450,000 because people used to have to pay an inworld object -- the terminal owned by the avatar account for Xstreet -- so their purchases were already reflected in economic reports. So are you telling me that 120,000 new people were found to buy on Xstreet because it merged? Maybe so (it's 26 percent of 450,000 and we were told the increase *in sales* was by 25 percent). If that's the case, then 120,000 people buying stuff on Xstreet should have caused a huge boom in the economy -- huge! 

And T street said sales jumped 25 percent:

Daily Xstreet sales jumped approximately 25% immediately after the introduction of easier methods for Residents to access their Linden Dollar balances. A portion of the jump in LindeX activity was also a result of these changes.

(BTW, again Ciaran needs to study this very graphic example of how the sink of the Linden's commission on Xstreet *leads to a jump on LindEx activity* -- people have to go buy money on the LindEx to buy more stuff on Xstreet which includes Linden commissions which benefit the Lindens by sinking away money, and then fueling another round of people needing to buy more money from the Lindex which includes real-money fees.)

But...it still doesn't look like we got 120,000 people buying in the economy, because that would lead to more than 25 percent increase in Xstreet sales, wouldn't it?

I'm not a literalist geek like Tateru Nino, so I don't fuss and fuss about the Lindens' tendency first to say user-to-user transactions mean nothing, and now to flog its increase as an economic boom. I don't posit, like Tateru, that there are all these literalist geeks who make scripts to pass money back and forth between themselves to screw up the numbers. I don't take culturally condemnatory viewpoints about certain types of activity as not being valid, like many geeks including Tateru tend to do, i.e. that gambling is "empty" money because it goes into a machine and then comes out and then goes in again. That's retarded. Money doesn't have a judgement built into it. If it went into a rental unit for 30 days, it counts as much as if it went into a prostitute's tipjar or went into a casino for a total of five seconds. 

Here's how T Linden explains it, taking into account the crabbing by Tatero about geeks passing money to throw off the system and "prove something":

Total User-to-User Transactions Reach US$160M, up 30% From Q1 2009 - The total of all transactions in Second Life reached a new high in the quarter. The sum of all L$-denominated transactions between all participants in the Second Life economy equaled a total value of US$160 million, a 4% increase over Q4 2009, and a 30% increase over Q1 2009. The increasing sequential growth rate in the first quarter is a function of new user acquisition, seasonal strength, and Xstreet growth.

The total User-to-User Transactions figure is our most relevant metric for the expansion of activity in the Second Life economy. While there are factors which could affect the precision of this number, such as payments between alt accounts, or scripted payments between objects, it has been measured in the same manner in every period and is checked for extremely large transactions and high volumes of similar transactions in an attempt to validate the number. We feel it is most appropriate as a measure of the growth and dynamism of the Second Life economy relative to previous quarters.

So, ok, I tend to take that increase in user transactions as not "empty calories" and not merely passing around to accounts, but I do fast forward to the next question:

If there are $160 million US dollars in transactions this quarter, then that means annualized, there will be $640 million in transactions (against the $570 million of last year), a $70 million increase. Where is that $70 million then? We realize that the cashout is only roughly 10 percent of the house take -- $55 million cashed out to residences out of that big $570 million in transactions (because money stays inworld. So what's the projected cashout? 10 percent of a figure increased by $70 million is *something* -- but then, we come back to the other numbers I'm not seeing this minute in T Linden's boast: the Positive Monthly Linden Flow businesses who made more Lindens than they spent. How are they doing? They were all crashing last time I looked, except for some smaller businesses in one sector earning US $50 or less, right?

The problem for me is not that the Lindens make mass culture with Linden Homes. The SLintelligentsia can go on moaning about the cultural "wasteland" of free people doing what they want freely as they sit in Grace Oclock (let's hope they leave Grace a bigger tip, for all their love of culture).  They can go on grieving for the lost Lindenor when everybody was a fabulous artist with traffic of 50,000 on their art galleries which were not cheap erotic SLart *cough*.

No, the problem for me is that when there was a population who came in from 2004-2007 and following ready to make what is essentially the mass culture of Linden Homes, little rentals and houses and accessories for Kens and Barbies, the Lindens stepped on it by ABSOLUTELY REFUSING to sell even their own land from the welcome areas and even allowing Mentors to ACTIVELY discourage newbies from buying land -- "you don't need land to have fun" -- and also killed it by letting forums mullahs constantly scream about how selling land was evil, and newbies needed to be steered to building and scripting; that rentals agent were tacky and greedy, and needed to be removed from SL; that nobody could advertise anymore in the infohubs, because big billboards are tacky.

That is, they let that Burning Life geek culture, combined with the designers' aesthetic of other early adapters, kill off any space for anyone inside the economy already -- by some miracle of persistence -- from creating mass culture. That Anshe and even Adam were able to do this anyway, although with huge difficulties without MOTD and infohub advertising capacity (except for a brief period recently), is merely a miracle of persistence, as I said!

The Lindens made the judgement call not to allow a free economy to create mass culture for four reasons, all sound business reasons even if they are unaesthetic:

o When they tried driving new users to furries and Cubey's airfield and some FIC club years ago, they found it didn't solve retention problems -- few stuck. (I would say that was because a) they didn't try long enough b) they didn't try with mass cultural appeal, but stuck to their geek cultural appeal)

o When they tried for a time to use advertising on third-party sites for land and homes in SL (I was part of this short-lived experiment), they didn't see user retention (I would argue that this was a) due to too short a period b) mismanagement in not explaining how the system would dump newbies right on the land advertised needing orientation help, not a sales agent).

o When they tried assiduously, for more than two years, to build first REG API, then Community Gateways, then Community Plan, they didn't lead to retention; they found that older residents might go to those areas like steampunk or Japanese language sims; they found that new users did not. Again, I would say this was because a) they didn't allow for mass culture, having an aversion to it b) they didn't open the system up so that anyone could sign up for it, they only allowed their friends and those capable of scripting a REG API and running an orientation system play in that game. This was wrong, because orientation and house sales should be linked, but not combined.

o When they tried cleaning up the Mainland, getting rid of ad farms, building roads that people had begged for, it didn't lead to more purchase of premium accounts -- people were ungrateful, and kept moving to the islands. They had to build two entirely controlled-content areas, Bay City and Nautilus, to try to attract the big spenders, which they did up to a point, but which did not solve their retention fast enough. Again, I would say this was because they refused to go after mass culture, forcing people into aesthetics that mass culture does not prefer (1930s Chicago, Ancient Dolphin), and refused to price it at a mass culture buy-in (the properties are outrageously expensive for what they are, hundreds of US dollars for a mere 1024 m2 with easements near it).

So, having failed because they feared mass culture, feared scaling too high, feared the middle class of America and Europe and Japan and Russia and Brazil because they created lots more customer service problems, too, they decided to embrace the inevitable, but their way. They decided to make the mass culture of Linden Homes, but completely control it so that they could squeeze the most money out of it quickly, and not let it drain into the inworld economy enriching people who cashed out, but not them.

The Lindens need to make cash, to pay for their costs and get some benefit out of this tough and risky and time-consuming rentals business they are in (I have some sympathy for that enterprise, as I'm in a miniature version of it myself).

So they have to either make island owners by premium subscriptions to pay for Concierge, or make bulk discounts available to those buying 100 sims (maybe they do that already, quietly) or sell more trinkets like the platinum pendants. Something!

I'd like the solution for them and us to involve them allowing board advertising in infohubs and welcome areas, and kiosks in the Linden Homes advertising larger rental spaces for those looking to move on.

I have board advertising like this next to a Linden infohub with 5000 traffic on it every day. Why aren't you advertising with me and helping support the SL Public Land preserve?

But I bet the Lindens cannot do this now for legal reasons (appearing to allow the advertising of "land" when they are pretending it's a limited license for accessing content which they utterly control) and they cannot do this for pragmatic reasons -- why advertise to land flippers who pay $125 in server fees per homestead every month and sell them *again and again* or rent them for $135 a month while doing nothing, because they can have the customer have estate rights and take care of himself?

Why do that, when they can drive people to go buy the homesteads directly from them?

T Linden is forecasting no doubt increased Xstreet sales (that takes away from inworld sales at stores, and takes away not only the need for inworld stores, but the stores that anchor communities that include residence and entertainment -- sales don't just happen within specific stores, but are often in a social context like a club or event, and some of these impulse buys or social buys are now removed to Xstreet, stripping out commerce that used to help keep social communities cohesive.

No doubt he is hoping for increased Linden Homes and adding other Linden thingies to these Linden homes, furniture, events, and as I said Linden Clubs, Linden Stores, Linden Music with licensed musicians,e tc.

The problem isn't that T Linden is finally, after all these years of Burning Life bullshit, embracing mass culture and suburbia. That's a good thing! The problem is that he is hugging it so close he is cutting us mass culture providers that persistenced in this burnt playa all this time out of the deal.

T Linden hopes to unleash the $7 billion Lindens ($26 million real dollars) of "spending power" from all those dead accounts, people collecting stipends who don't log on, even people with young fortunes waiting for that time that PayPal might get turned on in their country or they marry a rich Italian widow who will cash them out or something...

Crap Mariner and Grace McDunnough and hundreds of others in the SLintelligentsia, whether Bettina Tizzy if she is still around or other culture mavens are wailing about the loss of culture and the brutish insensitivity of T Linden to their fine sensibilities. I do feel for them because I share some but not all of their sensibilities (I have chickens; they don't have chickens; we might meet at a Frog Marlowe concert, however). But...there are only hundreds of people who find building and scripting and fine music and interesting Irish story telling and a Metanomics with some off-key Beyers jazz singing and starfucking of the TED circuiters...compelling.

The rest of the people in SL need and want something else that is more than SONY home or There or IMVU but not...Tableau, where Toast might very well grief you by mocking you as much as sell you a necklace.

But here's the problem, which some people call MMORPG inflation or staglation:

This number [of money available to spend in the SL economy] is flat compared to Q4 2009, and an 18% increase compared to Q1 2009. Multiple factors contributed to the flat balances of Linden dollars held by Residents compared to Q4 2009, notably the merging of Linden dollar balances on Xstreet, increased direct Linden dollar sales on Xstreet as part of item purchases, and increased Linden dollar sinks on Xstreet in Q1. See the Spotlight below for a discussion of economic sinks and sources in Second Life.

Again, the very success of the artificial economy contains within it, its own doom -- the need of the platform provider to use the economy for its own economic gain in a "company town" constantly clashes with the need of residents in a user-generated economy to pursue their own free economy *without* the intrusion of the platform provider.

The Lindens intrude because tier us never enough; they need currency sales; they need commissions on purchases (they learned that much from There); they need major sinks of high-end land like Nautilus to drain sinks out and help fuel a tiny cadre of high-end land dealers who then stay addicted for more purchases and cashouts providing at least a trickle of currency and fees for transfer to Paypal; they need, need, need.

I'd like to think a different model can be fashioned, whereby they are less in a hurry, or less greedy, or less intrusive and can be content to allow a free economy deliver them the land fees and sales taxes they require to keep a platform going. That model apparently doesn't have the time or the cash generation for them to succeed.

The Lindens do have to think through what their recipe of dropping the hundreds of people who make up Grace Oclock means and pursuing the mass culture.

We already have an experiment in mass surburban living (which we don't quite have in Second Life because out of the 50,000 logged on, a high percentage aren't in the suburban dream but are building, scripting, selling, making non-suburban dreams like BDSM or goth, etc.)

That experiment was called "The Sims Online" that easily had 50,000 logging on (they didn't reveal their figures, but you could multiple the sims and count the dots, etc.) Almost all those people were living the basic suburban life, as the counterculture was tinier, and more discouraged by the TOS.  And what happened to these people is that they got bored and went into counterculture (BDSM increased) or they went into crime (Sim Shadow Government) and various mafias.

So it's reasonable to assume that the increase in mass suburban culture, which will keep happy most people, will still bore some enough into making familes, mafias, crime groups to gain bigger houses and more money or influence in the market, etc.

On the other hand, 85 million people in Farmville, with no significant Shadow Government or Woodbury like griefing problem developing to ruin it, and no counterculture turning it into porn or vampires, means that 85 million people can be kept largely happy in suburban or rural life, buying stuff like little umbrellas to keep the sun out of their eyes and little tractors for their crops to harvest faster.

Comments

[cube inada]

but farmville is a game.. not a tool for actual real people interaction/communications/ trade/ economy..
its no different then selling pez dispensers and then candy as a fad....

forget surburban, forget all ideas of "aesthitics"-- milllions love monsters in WOW, and millions love cartoony anime munshkins in IMVU or gaia.. and millions love kubrik people in habbo hotel....

its all about "opening and allowing an economy of others" and not trying to "own" it all...

that WORKS for a game.. but KILLS all human platforms/media for interaction...

LL waffles between the two products- game and platform, trying to have cake-eat it too.. and hoping enough will continue to have faith...

apple and adobe worked the same way.. now they both look like dicks to the faithful creative who changed there entire lives around those companies 10 years ago... and trust me,.. all those iphone ipod music fans, will be livid in a decade when jobs tells them their music formats and rolodexes are OLD and obsolete.. and hes deleteing them as a nod to the future....( as he told us flash users today)

LL will be remebered the same way... and all those who wont see it.. and even jaron- a hero today, and part of the virtual hype-con 20 years ago... are to blame as well.( yes at least jaron menched up 5 years ago)

others just move from adobe to LL...or organic to LL.. whereever the machine is that's currently sucking the hardest.:)

[Brinda Allen]

What's that line?...Bullcrap is bullcrap no matter what kind of perfume is on it.

I guess it might say something about the attitude of "The Benevolent Monarchy" that us *common* people suddenly can't add. That 1.4 60 day approx # hasn't changed appreciably in a long time.

This stuff so often looks like a carnie show...waving one hand while picking our pocket with the other.

[melponeme_k]

I can't blame Linden Lab for trying to imprint themselves on the platform or take back their platform. I think Philip began it all with the best of intentions. But remember, it was the beginning of the VR bubble. No one knew what would be successful. SL had a head start. So you can imagine the humiliation when a mere cartoon game overtook it and now defines VRs. We will get more of WoW or variations of it rather than SL.

The company probably considers the resident input platform a noble failure, if they think of it at all in such benign terms. Maybe that is giving them too much honor. They are business people. Its probably just another pipe dream gone bad and unprofitable.

Cube is right. The entertainment industry is quickly moving towards a mass platform of forced obsolescence. We will pay, pay and pay again for content they control. While they let hackers and scrapers keep everyone else in electronic serfdom.

But take heart all, the depression will grind most of them into dust. You can't have a business without paying customers.

[cube inada]

not just "entertainemnt" is my point... its all activities being funneled through the tech centered model of the web-net. etc

worse of all is the horrid gov 2.0 movements...which truly are anti republic adventures that will morph us to technototalitariasm.

how we "pay".. thats already been changed... we no longer pay to USE a service

we are USED by the service as pay.

[Edward Orendorff]

Hate the fact that WoW keeps getting compared to SL. I logged into WoW again to find, once again, someone in the trade channel complaining for more hair options in-game. And this was received by numerous others supporting the idea.

Enter SL: Learning curve is just as big, yet options are almost limitless. Land can be purchased or rented, money made, avatars changed on a whim....

So what's the big draw to WoW? Is it due to the mind numbing hours spent leveling a character? The monotonous attempts at doing difficult quests? Is it that it's a better platform for a fantasy world in which to play and role play than SL is?

And now WoW sells a mount for 25 bucks. And yes, there is no shortage of people showing theirs off. Just like the pets sold. I'm just waiting for the high end gear and weapons to go on sale for those that are casual players LOL

SL has changed so much in the 3 years that I've been running around in it. The people are different, and most importantly, less informed. Meeting people today do not mirror meeting people 3 years ago. Less initiative to build, create, learn...

When SL starts charging a monthly fee just to log in..

[AnnOtooleInSL]

You can only piss off millions for so long before the inevitable commences. If the LL board cares they will fix this before this year is out. After they figure out where all the money went because that shitty prototype viewer could not have cost much and... well what can I say... the whole stabilization thing.. all that money obviously did not buy a god damn UPS did it.

Forensic auditors FTW.

[Yumi Murakami]

I hate to say this again, Prok, but I think I should make it clear. LL did not, ever, issue any statement to mentors telling them to tell new people that "you don't need land to have fun".

They _did_ judge mentors by retention rate, and so many mentors wound up being excessively defensive. "You don't need land to have fun" was usually said to anyone who seemed to be complaining about land costing real money.

[Prokofy Neva]

Yes it did.

The card the Mentors distributed with newbie tips, approved by Linden Lab, said YOU DON'T NEED LAND TO HAVE FUN and Mentors who tended to be people either without land who hung out in infohubs and sandboxes or people with boutique stores on charter accounts who HATED land barons would steer newbies accordingly.

The Linden moderators of the forums let thread after thread stand on the old forums started specifically to bash and heckle Anshe Chung or other small land barons like me, despite their rule that you couldn't start hate threads on one person (they made an exception for land barons).

The Lindens themselves, especially the opensource software fanatics, constantly, systematically trashed the land business and would not respond to griefing of it.

The Lindens never, ever advertised their own land even, for years, never informing newbies in any welcome emails, advertising, website help, etc. that they could buy land. Newbies found this out basically from other residents who told them about the first land -- it was never advertised.

Don't forget that there were hardly any private islands in the early years, most activity was on the mainland.

The Lindens first heavily discouraged the land market by instilling the prim tax -- this led to prim hoarding and bitter complaints from "creatives" who had "no space" and led them to come up with a land selling model, which they did begrudgingly.

There was no conscious program to introduce *their own land* to newbies until about 2006-2007, when finally *one* of the stations on the orientation island contained a tutorial about land, but it, too, downplayed the market aspect and said "You don't need land to have fun".

Linden Lab periodically deliberately land-glutted on the auction to destroy Anshe's business, even though sometimes land went unbid on the auction.

And so on. There is no question that the Lindens heavily discouraged the land business, *even their own*, because they had an ideological viewpoint about the space which was anti-market and anti-capitalist.

In September 2004, on my first day in Second Life, I went to a town hall in which Philip actually encouraged rental agents to come into being (few had by that point) because he was trying desperately to hawk land *just as an expedient at that moment* because of a terrible crash of the market that summer that occurred when the Lindens first put in snow, which became terribly popular, then glutted snow, then land became scarce and higher priced (which at that time meant *gasp* $7.5 a meter) and oldbies began screaming bloody murder on the forums that the world was dying and crass commercial interests were entering and destroying culture. Sigh.

So the Lindens heavily land glutted during this period, Anshe ate up everything that glutted with and grew to mega proportions, as did Adam Zaius and then they turned their attention to the corporate invasion.

[Udge Watanabe]

I was one of the mentors you spoke about, but I don't recognize myself in your description. No Linden ever told me *anything* that I had to say to anyone on any topic. I was never given a party line to pass on.

I did tell the newborns that they didn't *need* to buy land or get a premium account, if they asked (most didn't), because IMHO those statements happen to be true.

In my experience, those who asked about land or premium accounts did so because they were scared: they feared that their free account would turn out to be a useless come-on to get them hooked into a future of huge payments. I was very glad to settle their fears on this point.