Who knew dumpster diving could be so much fun?

I’m being bombarded with incredible (read: free) deals on everything from clothing, to skins, to shoes, and it’s just too much to pass up. While I love to feed my hard earned money from my job back into the Second Life economy, you’re making it too easy for me to just spend it elsewhere.

You see, it’s bigger than a sense of entitlement from freebie hunters, or the argument that freebies shouldn’t be boycotted. Out of all the freebies received and the hunts attended, very few of those people will actually spend more than a few L in your store, let alone glance at your item in their inventory. Yet you continue to use the funds that others spend in your store to subsidize making freebies on the off-chance that someone new will discover you. As I, the loyal customer, grow more bitter about not being rewarded for faithfully shopping, you give me less incentive to continue shopping there.

That’s right. You’ve taught me to use you. Instead of wanting to spend my money, I’ll just hop over and grab your freebie of the week, or day, or whatever, and keep my dough.

I understand that the economy sucks, and your customers are making less money or cutting back on budget. That’s what sales and reward programs are for.

I’m not even calling for a ban on freebies, because they do serve their purpose. They’re getting out of hand, though. When you have to spend 12 hours over the course of two weeks on one single hunt, it’s simply not worth it. Even if I don’t go on a hunt, but you’re participating in one, I’ll hesitate to visit your store, because I don’t want my shopping experience to be filled with the lag and stench of free.

You’re welcome to continue hurting your bottom line, though, because that’s what you’re doing. If you think you need to inflate your traffic numbers to get customers, you’re taking the wrong approach to marketing your product.

In the meantime, if you see me at your store, feel free to say hi, but I won’t be there long. I just came to pick up that super new freebie you just issued for 24 hours only. What boggles me, though, is how it’s so much better than a lot of the products you actually charge for. Oh well. See you at the next announcement!

Image courtesy of Faery Sola

It is completely ludicrous for a customer to feel that they’re entitled to a product at a price which suits them, as this does nothing but devalue the time and effort a designer feels they put into their work.

The issue escalated when Faery Sola and Ziggy Quirk called for a ban on freebies. Something which Ana Lutetia and myself debated several months back. We had the foresight back then to see there were entitlement issues forming, and that they needed to be nipped in the bud in order to maintain Second Life’s economy and keep the talented designers on the grid.

So now we’re starting to see hardworking designers getting flak for the prices they charge for their wares – welcome, my friends, to a grid where some people feel they’re entitled to something for (next to) nothing.

The promotion of freebies and the freebie culture throughout Second Life will lead to many numerous problems within the SL economy. When I blogged about it before, people just automatically assumed that I was talking about a blanket monetary effect. But what I referred to was a “Freebie Culture” which is what has happened here.

The sense of entitlement comes when there is an influx of high quality freebies – there’s essentially no reason to “upgrade” when you can get all you need without having to pay for it. When I first started Second Life in 2006, freebies were all poor quality and if you wanted to look decent, you had to find your credit card and invest in some Lindens.

Now, you can pick out a whole wardrobe without spending a dime and look a million bucks.

But Prad! Why on Earth are you complaining about something which is free?!

Because I actually give a damn about Second Life and its content creators. The time and skill it takes to create products deserve compensation, and if we create a culture where people feel they’re entitled to things for free, or for next to nothing, then we’re going to cripple the grid.

Designers won’t make money, so they won’t create in SL, and before you know it, all those lovely freebies will just dry up and you won’t be able to purchase much because the designers have all shut up shop. And this is before we get to the jerks who IM designers complaining that their prices are too high.

And again, I’ll hear the tired argument of “Oh, but freebies help me find stores and find out how good they are so I can go spend money there!”. Except it seems the minority and ruining that for you, and it’s time to go back to the good old days where we read fashion blogs, spoke to friends about their favourite stores and exchanged something called “landmarks”. Oh – and see that “Search” button?

Freebies have resulted to the problem of entitlement amongst some residents in Second Life, and designers and rapidly tiring of having to deal with such petty issues. Try thanking the designers who give away freebies and you might be able to salvage something, but I for one am glad to see some designers pushing to an embargo on freebies.  They’re doing much more harm than good, and we need to stop them from driving designers to despair before they decide to call it a day and we start seeing talent disappearing from the grid.

Also see: The Other Side of the Coin.

Image used with the kind permission of Faery Sola.

Bottom Shot

perhaps…although I did just pick up a virtual scooter I have no real need for). Previously I’ve blogged about my rebellious second life shopping addiction, something I am appalled about in real life. I am, by nature, not a materialist at all. Yet…

Seriously, what is it about Second Life that has you suddenly interested in appearances? I can, after only a few weeks living secondly, spot a noob within twenty yards, based normally on their non-skin and ability to not-wear-hair. I am a keen Profile reader, and always take a secret look at any noobs suddenly jerking onto the same dance floor I am on (sexual reference not intended).

Perhaps it’s because I’ve received quite a few off-the-cuff compliments about how I’ve put my own avatar together so quickly. I’ve had strangers IM me about this, asking where I got my hair from, how did I get my shape and skin together so quickly, given my newness at all of this.

I’ve never been complimented before towards appearances. The ego kinda sticks, doesn’t it?

Hence I found myself actually interested in surveying some Youtube out there, showcasing the latest greatest top model appointed in Second Life, a true stunner I forgot the name of, but who has a heck of a shape and skin. Go her, meow!

And the fact that although I will not go out there and seek more skins or even reasonably would suggest I would want to be a ‘model’ there is a propensity within me to worry about the size of my derriere way too much. Way. Too. Much. And the fact that some skirts make me look like Greta Garbo without the sex appeal, but a much larger bottom. Sigh.

Some people when creating their Second Life persona, show that alternative side of themselves that normally doesn’t get an outing. I know this, given the amount of fairies and vampires I encounter everyday.

And then there’s those of us who actually set about creating an avatar which represents how we look within our real lives – with some enhancements of course. In real life I do wear glasses in the daytime (sometimes), and I am hour-glassed shaped (well, I was until a few years ago, anyway) and I do have curly reddish hair.

But I draw the line at suggesting my bum is that big in real life, I surely do. So, does my bum really look big in this?

Sidenote: although the above is meant tongue-in-cheek, I have actually read all those studies out there towards the power of having an attractive avatar on our own real lives. Although I may not agree with some of the psychological intimations involved in those studies, I personally do find that having an ‘attractive’ avatar helps me feel more confident that the rest of me within Second Life will be more readily accepted, rather than others concentrating on the fact I have noob-skin and no animation. Whether this helps in my real life, is a different matter all-told, and I seriously doubt I am more confident in real life just because I have no side-handles or stretch-marks in the metaverse.

Some links :

1. Gender Aspects on Computer Game Avatars (looks at the suggestion that female avatars are so hyper-sexualised that this may be the reason why many women are put off such ‘games’).
2. Avatar ‘Appearance Codes’ in Internet-Based Virtual Worlds (this report went and looked at ‘professionals’ within the metaverse, using IBM employees as examples. Despite the perhaps misconception that professionals would look ‘professional’ within a virtual world, they found most wanted to blend in with the culture of the rest of the grid – and were sporting fairy wings etc.
3. The Influence of Visual Appearance of User’s Avatar on the Manipulation of Objects in Virtual Environments (possibly correlates the look of an avatar with their ability to build things).
4. Stanford Professor Shows How Avatars Mimic Behaviour – this time it’s a video.
5. THE PROTEUS EFFECT: BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION VIA TRANSFORMATIONS OF DIGITAL SELF-REPRESENTATION A DISSERTATION (Nick Yee’s now-famous study recently re-termed in a Newsweek column as ‘Our Imaginary, Hotter Selves’, in which I learnt that making myself nice and attractive in Second Life is simple wish-fulfillment, sigh).

It’s to do with the collaborative aspect of Second Life – designers coming together and working with one another to set up a scheme which encourages shoppers to visit all their stores. The best Grid-wide Hunt would include a mix of larger retailers and smaller stores, so the brand names would attract consumers to participate and allow the smaller retailers to get coverage.

All in all, it’s a great idea which benefits smaller retailers, and boosts traffic and business for larger stores too.

But it’s fallen flat on its face.

And it’s easy to see why – when you have a good idea, a bandwagon develops and everyone tries to climb on. Put too many people on and the whole thing collapses.

There’s a Grid Hunt pretty much every week now, and it’s ruining what was a good concept for finding talented stores and visiting popular SL merchants.

Also, some of the Hunts have far too many participating stores – they can take several days to complete and it seems a tad harsh on those at the later stages of the hunt who draw the short straws.

Longer hunts also lead to circumstances where shoppers simply teleport in, cam around for the freebie, grab and run off again. I’ve heard instances where hunters have hassled storeowners/customer service representatives for the location of their gifts, and upon being refused, have kicked up a fuss. Entitlement issues, much?

 A retailer would assume that the visitor will open the gift later and hopefully return, but the size of some of these Hunts will mean that some grid-hoppers won’t get around to opening all the gifts up.

A recent resolution has been to create “elitist hunts” which vet through stores and gives approval to selected merchants to participate in the hunt. Well, that raised confusion amongst people who thought it amusing that they had to be selected to provide a freebie. And then those who were rejected created rival hunts – and hence there was more hunts than time.

There is too much of a good thing, and it does feel that the original spirit of the Grid Hunts is being tainted – it’s not about collecting as many free gifts as you can lay your hands on, but visiting, exploring and discovering new retailers who would like you to purchase from them in the future.

Now I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, but seriously – quit whinging. If you don’t like the prices, then quite simply, don’t buy them. It really is that simple.. you don’t need to go off on a tangent about how so many other stores offer quality shoes at a much lower price. Bully for them – a store owner is fully entitled to set whatever price they wish on products they’ve worked hard on producing.

Now if you buy the shoes, and you don’t think it matches up to the quality you were expecting, then that’s different. You’re allowed to complain in that instance. Just remember that not everything in Second Life is supposed to be affordable to everyone.. the big brand names will always be more expensive to maintain an air of “exclusivity” about them, and to make them more desirable.

This week saw me get an IM from someone who had bought a bed from one of my competitors, before coming to the Amodica store and seeing the beds there. They then proceeded to IM me and say that had bought another bed, but really much prefer mine, but they’d spent all of their money at the other store, and only had 500L$ left, which meant they couldn’t afford the 600L$ beds. Could they possibly have it for a reduced price?

What?!

Now I’m sorry, but if the bed costs 600L$, then it costs 600L$. It’s hardly my problem if someone doesn’t have the money to purchase it, and it’s not my fault you went to another store first, either. I kept my cool and remained calm, explaining to them that the prices were set and that I won’t lower them.

And then I got accused of bad customer service and the guy would never shop here again.

I despair somedays.. I really do..

It’s plainly obvious that the designer of this particular jacket has a very boring Animation Override, assuming they use one at all. With burning passion, I hate jackets like these, simply because in SL they just don’t suit the majority of body types.

Now I wouldn’t mind so much if the signage/POS displays clearly stated that the base is made up using prims, and even offered a demo. If a jacket is for specialist shapes, then it should really be clear that the said jacket is going to look crap when you fly/move/do anything that you’d ever do in Second Life.

So that’s a few hundred Lindens wasted on a jacket which I’m never going to wear. Luckily there are still a few retailers selling normal jackets which look good, but the annoying trend seen above seems to be spreading, and I’ve love to meet this stick thin men with no AOs that they’re made for.

</rant>