Second Life Lowers Initial Price Hurdle; Becomes Virtual Real Estate Broker
from the well,-why-not dept
Second Life, the virtual world that has tested the borders of real world laws in a virtual world, has finally realized that if they're trying to make money by selling things in game it probably helps to get rid of the initial price barrier. That means that they're doing away with the initial subscription fee, and hoping to make money in the virtual real estate business. The reasoning makes sense -- and it's almost surprising that they didn't do this before. They figure with more people joining the world, more will get involved in "buying" real estate in the world, and the company will make their money from those sales. Though, if you look at the details, owning property involves (oh, look at that!) a regular fee -- so, really they haven't ditched the "subscription" fee. They've just changed what the fee includes. Of course, as we've noted in the past, this raises all sorts of legal questions. What happens if their servers go down or the company shuts down? If people actually "own" the property they've bought, but it all lives on Linden Labs' servers, does the company have any liability should they "delete" or "destroy" someone else's property?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
And if Katrina strikes
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: And if Katrina strikes
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
Yes, read the T&Cs
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Aww..crap
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pyramids (and not the good kinds built by Egyption
Eventually and inevitably, this leads to a situation where stupidity runs out and the vast majority of investors lose their money because there is no one stupider left to hold up the pyramid.
Laws should not protect stupid people from themselves. Don't waste my tax dollars dealing with this. I'd rather my government address poverty in the REAL world rather than creating laws governing virtual property.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Pyramids (and not the good kinds built by Egyp
The cost of making an online house is probably higher. Value is in perception only, in real life, or in the virtual world.
Oh, and some people buy virtual property because they actually want to have and enjoy it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Pyramids (and not the good kinds built by Egyp
Yeah right. People are reluctant to buy games when it's cheaper to download them at warez sites. People aren't going to pay an $100 for a virtual house for "game enjoyment." The enjoyment would be earning the house in the game, not buying it for real cash.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Pyramids (and not the good kinds built by Egyp
That's not a pyramid scheme. It would only be a pyramid scheme if you then sold your trainers for $30 to someone who intended to sell them for $40, etc.
Also, the people who buy virtual property because they enjoy, both of them, are way outnumbers by the thousands or tens of thousands who are in on the pyramid scheme.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Virtual Bailout
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Virtual Real Estate Brokerage
[ link to this | view in thread ]