this is a plug for my longest running virtual world friend’s online shop and also my thoughts on paying for virtual world stuff
in most of the world, for most things of value, you pay. people have been trading goods, services, and money for other goods and services for a long time. it’s the “way of the world” and this is also true in virtual worlds. it may be especially true in virtual worlds with Linden Lab having set the precedent of charging $1000 setup fee and $295 (plus VAT) a month for 15,000 prims! yet even with that astronomical cost for a sim, the cry from the masses to have freebies is a big part of the virtual world community. and it often seems a little weird to me
i have made my 100% of my real life livelihood for the last seven years doing only stuff online. it’s a mix of real 9-5 day jobs and freelance work but it is all work that is only delivered online
i have no problems with virtual world freebies and have started offering them myself – but in a limited capacity. the stuff i have made for Enclave Harbour is part of a commercial endeavor and doubtfully would ever be given away for free. this is no different than illustrations in most science textbooks – those are copyrighted and may only be reproduced with written consent
the freebie stuff i offer are things i make just for fun and for practice. for example, that first thing i offered, the Haxor Outpost, is something i probably won’t use for myself. depending on what i do with Kitely – if i’m in a situation where i have several regions under one of their plans, i may rez out the Haxor Outpost and detail it out – but that would be as a form of recreation for me. building in OpenSim is as much a recreational activity for me as is shooting 9 ball for a couple of hours on a sunday afternoon =)
i like sharing recreational activities and virtual world freebies fit in that category for me
but i would also like OpenSim building to be my avocation and maybe it will be with Enclave Harbour sometime this year
making money from one’s work is not wrong and paying for good stuff that you like or can use is a fair way to grow your own presence in your virtual world endeavors and grow virtual worlds in general. if you have an in-world club or venue that puts on live music performances, is there anything wrong with paying the musician and making enough to pay for your hardware? if you make a little extra, does it help the development of virtual worlds to hire a scripter to make your club a really fun dance floor?
in Second Life, many people don’t mind paying for quality products. i routinely bought $400 L shoes and $600 L hair. i even paid $5000 L for a great robot avatar
OpenSim’s development and deployment is such that it can be hard to be “commercial” because of the fear of being ripped off. but not everyone that buys something is going to pirate it. enter my friend Sunny’s online store which has been around for a few years now
is she concerned about piracy? i think so but she never let it stop her from making a go of it and offering items that you can buy via PayPal micropayments
Sunny has been in virtual worlds since 2006 and she is in many of them now. with shops in-world and also an online shop – Total Avatar Shop =)
freebies are great, but quality products are also good and worth paying for if they fit your needs
i think it is a good start. there are problem with paypal from the customers but she has control over her inventory, so it shouldnt be a problem with the vendor.
remember when there used to be an independent site (i forgot the name). then LL bought it and made it only for second life. actually they dump the site and make their own.
what we need is for the site to ship to our address and we determine what to do with it. that part of the reason for home systems. but home systems are not going to happen and i have given up on that.
but look at daz. you can buy a lot of stuff there. some are by daz and others from other vendors. you pay and you get a download link. they dont care what you do with it afterwards.
LL could do it with their client but they dont want to do it. for the 3rd pary clients i dont understand why they dont do it.
bristle
6 Aug 12 at 11:25 am
was that Avatar Nation? the place for all games that then was SL only basically
DAZ is a good example and so is TurboSquid
this will improve and Virtual Worlds still need to mature a little more =)
Ener Hax
6 Aug 12 at 1:21 pm
I love Sunny’s Paypal plan. She’ll deliver to any grid so it’s an easy way to shop online if you have a multi-grid approach like I do. Her service is excellent and very prompt.
Jamie Wright
6 Aug 12 at 2:08 pm
well LL bought avatar nation, ruining all the people fun that were not on second life. no, they bought the xstreet.com. then they dump it.
i like turbosquid but their prices are too high. i bought nearly $1000 from DAZ for 3.0 so can be expensive too except at $20-30 you say “ok i will buy that” and before long you have $200 in the check out line.
bristle
6 Aug 12 at 3:52 pm
Don’t forget about Electric Sheep’s OnRez store. They came out with a browser somewhere around v1.08-16′s time. At least it was stable, had higher fps, and wasn’t a system hog compaired to LL’s browser.
joe
7 Aug 12 at 3:17 pm
very cool
3D avatar games
9 Aug 12 at 9:39 am
Hi Ener! Thanks for the shout out! I appreciate that. I started in SL in 2005, that is when we met and had the best of times! The store is doing fair I’d say. I have sales here and there (one that was 25.00 recently) I really love being able to go into some unknown world and make people happy. I must say that Dream Walker and I have been collaborating a lot lately and there is a really cool deal in the making! She is the one that created the delivery box that I use to deliver items to people. It works perfectly and now she even updated it! Now instead of coming to a particular place in a world, items are delivered when the person logs on! She is WAY too brilliant and I feel blessed that she’s helping me the way she is!
I never have trouble with Paypal. The only issue I seem to have is people forget to let me know who they are in a world and what world to deliver to. My dream of dreams (which will probably happen because of Dream Walker) is for someone to purchase an item on my site and it would be delivered instantly.
I miss you Ener, I wish you would come visit me in Inworldz (that’s my home base now) and check out my new island! There is my island page. It’s a beautiful island with GREAT designers. We LOVE visitors:-)
http://totalavatarshop.com/total%20avatar%20island.htm
Love to the Beaver!
Sunny
10 Aug 12 at 1:03 am
DreamWalker is the bomb – she was the first person to code an in-world PayPal vendor! she is wicked smart
and i will have a Kitely home soon, also a tropical island which is probably because of your influence on me and Sunny Isles!!! =)
Ener Hax
10 Aug 12 at 10:33 am
Saw this cute “hippy chick” outfit, skirt, and hair she made on her site. I might stop in and get that for one of my Faeries. I wonder about licenses and usage terms though. I doubt that she gets many people who want her outfits for non-avatars (npcs). If it were not for the stuff Linda Kellie shared with the likes of me, I’d not have any cool faerie NPC outfits. I couldn’t make a cute outfit if I wanted to.
Araxie Longoar
10 Aug 12 at 5:29 pm
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Repost – A true commercial store Ener Hax Author » Total Avatar Shop
10 Aug 12 at 5:59 pm