I hear it often , “ I can ’ t believe how much Second Life ( SL ) is shrinking !” Well in some ways , it is , in others , I don ’ t agree exactly .
There are a lot of “ newbies ” joining every day , whether they stick around though , I think is up to the lands available to them to visit along with the activities and ability to learn how to create here in world . It ’ s helping them to find their “ second life ” purpose within Second Life .
I do agree though , that lands are shrinking , especially role-play sims and available role-players to participate in those that remain . One of the key factors to which I attribute this decline , is SL ’ s Marketplace .
It used to be cumbersome to purchase things on a website in SL . Originally , it was a third party called “ XStreet ” who created the marketplace . Later after XStreet found some success , Linden Labs purchased it , turning it into the MP we frequent today . In-so-doing though , they eliminated the need for in-world shopping , creating a completely free-standing solution .
Back then , XStreet had an in-world component to shopping , not fully eliminating the need of the virtual shopping spree and while many of us used XStreet , the vast majority of products were still not available on it . Let ’ s face it , SL was still so new to us and we were rather enamored with the thought of shopping in a 3D virtual space .
So , we shopped at in-world stores predominantly . Because we did , vendors knew they needed land in-world for a store and because we did , role-play sims could fill marketplace landing zones in their sims with paying renters that covered the costs of the sims .
Today , role-play sims are lucky to get vendors moving in at 20 % or 25 % commission on sales , but there are only a very rare few that can command even L $ 150 / week for 50 prims in a market stall .
Pip ’ s Flickr Pic ’ s hoto Entry “ It ’ s a Rainy Day !!” by Marcus Stipes NU VIBEZ & ROLEPLAY GUIDE MAGAZINE
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