SLUniverse Forums

Wildefire Walcott

Wait. They have traffic bots?

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Fade Languish

That's what I was wondering about.

CaleVinson

In that case - my bad, sorry.

I love the line I bolded above.

I don't think any one thing "makes" SL. I think its a combination of factors, and we all "weight" those factors differently. I take your point about the flying toilet not being anywhere near as much fun without the sharing with others. But I'd contend that you don't need SL to have that sharing, if sharing is all that matters it could possibly be achieved in an old-style MUD. If you don't believe me, check out Charlemagne's signature from SecondSurvivor:

It makes me smile every time I see it, and its all text, not a single textured polygon in sight.

As to people staying in SL, my suspicion is that content is at least as important as friendships. I'd contend that its the lack of things to *do* (as opposed to *look at* - see Amelia's post above) that leads to a significant fraction of SL's horrendous retention figures. As evidence, I'd offer the success of WoW relative to SL. That said, I don't really care if SL retains people or not (beyond the need for LL to remain profitable enough to survive) - I'm a card-carrying marginal-misfit, and proud of it!

Analogies are always fraught with danger. What if Michelangelo had been denied the uses of brushes entirely in his work on the Sistine Chapel, and had to finger-paint instead? No one will agree on what tools/features are/are-not vital for content creation for SL. Some will argue that skeletal animation (taking just one example) is the equivalent of Michelangelo's brushes, others that it represents no more than higher-quality paints.

Amelia

OMG, no, I should have written it, they are sculpted noobs, part of the istallation. They look like my first SL boyfriend, OMG! You can buy this statue of an away noob, I forget how much it costs, but I am sure whoever who's living with you will complain

Fade Languish

Shame, that could have been +

Michael Bigwig

Depending on the quality of the sim, I might pay a small fee to see it...but for the most part, I wouldn't pay. There are too many awesome sims out there I can see for free.

If a really cool band was playing live, I might throw a few bucks down to see them. Or if a film festival was hosting in SL, I might pay.

Overall, I think it's a bad idea, and a fad I wouldn't want to see take-off.

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~Michael Bigwig
___________________Lead Designer, Glowbox Designs

Lexxi Gynoid

There was a comment, maybe in this thread, maybe on a completely different forum, about Black Swan, which used to be Rezzable Hacllll . . can't recall that name now. I had been there when it still had Rezzable in the title and noted it had no clothing, or anything else for sale. They mentioned it still looked the same, but they had the dresses "down below" or something like that. That didn't make sense to me (it was a ring of land with a giant statue of a girl in the middle, with lava flowing on the ring, and statues on the ring, water surrounded the giant statue, no noob "art" in the sky, no "down below" to put dresses (down below would be in the water)), but now that I see pictures I know - it does not look like the same place now.

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Amelia

Yo Lexxi,

actually it's still more or less the same setup, a ring with statues surrounded by water. The platform where the clothes are sold rests very near to the water below, and one finds the noobs in the sky through a secret way. <-- hey, interactivity!

Lexxi Gynoid

Oh, ok. Thanks. That just seems . . . wrong, though to have a "platform" just sitting there with clothing on it. Seems to break the artistic nature, or attempt. I mean the whole thing had been an art piece. Now it sounds like they took the Mona Lisa and in the corner put in some ads and some tear-away coupon paper.

Wildefire Walcott

Oh, is "Black Swan" the former "Rezzable Hallucinogen?"

Cocoanut Koala

Well, that one depends on who you ask, too. And I doubt anyone is going to visit them all.

Lot of good thoughts in your post. Let me rattle around with them best as I can.

I can't quite get around the question, "why should everyone who wants hair have to repeat this exercise."

But to try - well, for the same reason everyone in real life who wants to have their hair done relies on things other than the city providing them a list of the best hair salons?

Also, inherent in what you have said, is something of the notion that the controlling entity SHOULD make things easier for people, and, consequently, short-circuit the whole shopping experience: "Go here. There, we've saved you the trouble." I can't quite get around that as a good thing.

I believe the results of doing something like that (ostensibly to provide something useful to someone who doesn't want to put "hair" in search) is more detrimental to residents, overall, than it is helpful.

As for "adding the good ones to your list" - well, that will be awfully subjective, too, don't you think?

I know, of course, that we can find places that many, many people will agree are good. So perhaps they could be on the list? But of course, they can't ALL be. So what then - the ones that are left out will lose business to the ones miraculously annointed?

Agreed. I think the solution for that, though, would be a better search system. Like a phone book. Something with categories, and you look down the categories.

As for which places are worth a visit, I am firmly of the opinion that that should be a question decided in the marketplace, by the marketplace. By classified ads, by word of mouth, by ads in other venues, and so forth. Not decided for us by the powers-that-be.

I would disagree with that. I think by page five you have encountered many good places. Though perhaps not what person A considers "the best."

Finding the gems. I have a huge disconnect here. First off, if a place IS a gem, then it seems to me they can be more easily found by paying more for a classified ad.

Secondly, who decides what the gems are?

Third, that decision will make the difference between whether you suddenly are making a lot more money, or whether you are losing customers to those LL has decided to send people to.

And a lot of good places and "gems" WILL lose customers to other places.

Overall, once you start picking out a few stores, spotlighting them and promoting them, telling customers to go there, you are killing your own marketplace.

Well, I don't agree with the notion that anything is "best." "Pretty good," maybe. (Among SCADS of other "pretty goods," which get shafted with this system.)

But someone saying "I think this is pretty good" isn't a good enough reason to send the business to that person's way.

Really, it's quite akin to the U.S. government putting "Go to Hooters!" on every passport, or "Shop at Macy's!" on every tax return.

Such are my thoughts.

*****

As I mentioned earlier, the question is why. Why would LL want to create a situation where a few stores get all the business, and others fold?

I've been busy thinking about that, and trying to work it in with the fact that the whole Showcase thing is kind of in the middle of its development, on hold, while they figure out if and when they may want to charge for it. There is more to this than they have on the table right now.

Which I think may have to do with real-life companies. Right now, we've got H&R Block on there, but as far as I know, there may be no other accounting firms in SL. (I haven't looked.)

When one does come in, how are they going to like H&R Block getting the free advertising and promotion?

So, how does this idea of "we might charge" come into play, in view of that? (And when that happens, I think they are pretty well going to HAVE to charge, because I don't think a real-life company is going to roll over and accept this . . . lunacy.)

Meanwhile, we have the usual one-hand-washes-another, you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours thing going on with certain entries on the Showcase, combined with some choices that seem totally random and actually way less deserving than other places, in this person A's opinion, anyway.

It's a puzzlement what is motivating LL about this.

coco

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Lexxi Gynoid

Yes

Cocoanut Koala

Let me reiterate - I love Greenies/Rezzable stuff/Starax.

But . . . traffic bots?

I'm counting up here:

. Got Greenies on Showcase. Check.
. Wanted Black Swan on Showcase, too. Got that. Check.
. Charging admittance. Check.
. Adding traffic bots to falsely inflate traffic figures. Check.

I'm just so . . . amazed.

Too bad they just couldn't make a go of it like everyone else. Epic fail.

coco

Candide LeMay

. Failed to read the thread. Check
. Experienced strong emotions and passed judgement based on wrong information. Check

Cocoanut Koala

Those bots are not in Black Swan?

coco

Daman

If I read correctly, they're not bots. They're sculpted statues.

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Charlemagne Allen

One of Starax's first creation was a statue of Trinity jumping out the window in the Matrix, actually-- prim people seems to be a big thing for him.

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Cocoanut Koala

In that case, coolness! (Reading back, I do see the post that said that.)

coco

Ash

Rezzable can not make back what they spend. They outsource a lot of their scripting and animations. Custom scripting and animations is not cheap. Plus they pay a high premium because they require exclusive rights. I have heard of them paying builders as well. The Greenie crazy, if that is an accurate term has died. Their clothing is not overly popular. Their other gadgets and stuff really are not very original. Yet they have so much time and money invested in their sims and content.

This looks like a last ditch effort to me.

Wildefire Walcott

And with the wonder of sculpties his statues no longer look like anatomical dummies.

Wildefire Walcott