Reader Submitted Commentary: Things To Do About The Gacha Ban

 
As everybody knows, Linden Lab plans to ban gacha prize machines later this month. LL says that the gacha ban, is because of legislation in other countries. If that were so, then they would confine gacha prize machines on islands. They do that with games of skill, such as Zyngo. In the U.S., in many states, games of skill are not legal. People living in those states, can't go to those islands. So, why is LL banning gacha prize machines? That is because of one of the new owners. He doesn't like gacha prize machines. He thinks that people that play gacha, are being cheated. So he, and perhaps one of the other new owners, have decided to ban gacha prize machines.

The Lindens have closed the forum thread about the gacha prize machine ban. So, what can be done? If you have twitter, then send the Lindens a message on twitter. But don't cuss, or send any nasty messages. If you play the gacha machine, tell them, and tell them what you think of the ban. Do you sell your gacha prizes? If you do, tell them, and tell them how much you make per month selling gachas. Do you make the gacha prizes? If you do, then tell them that. And tell them how much you make per month, making the prizes. You can also email the Lindens. But no name calling, or nasty language.  But do be firm, and do let them know what you think.

Now, what else can be done? Email, or send a tweet to the news media. I don't mean just the SL news media. I emailed Fox News. You might email your local paper, or your local radio, or TV station. Let them know about the gacha prize machine ban. Let them know what you think about the ban. You could still email the SL news media. One is the SL Newser. Here is the link to the website.  http://slnewser.blogspot.com/

There is something else that can be done. That is to file a lawsuit. That should be done last. The creators need to get together, and file a class action lawsuit. The resellers need to get together, and also file a class action lawsuit. Chances of winning is slim. But here in the U.S., we don't have loser pays laws. You sue somebody, and you lose, you don't have to pay. LL has been sued, and has lost. One time they got sued by Marc Woebegone, the case was settled out of court. Another time, Stoker Serpentine sued LL. He made sex beds, and made them transfer, no copy. Somebody found away to copy the sex beds during a sim restart. Stroker sued, and it was settled.

My store has 7 gacha prize machines. The items were made by FeelGood Trip, and his ex wife. There's clothes, cellphones, buildings, and other items. The items are about 10 years old, or older.

Pass this note card out, and let everybody know. Also pass this out to other Gacha groups.

Kelvin R. Throop
 

"Good Neighbor Commandments" Obelisks on Mainland

The Mainland gets something of a bad rap among Second Life residents, and not without reason. The land is cheap and there's lots of sims to explore. But there are the ban lines that put your casually going about to a halt. And there are the security orbs that give you just a few seconds before teleporting you back to your home location.

So it got my attention when Lia (Female Winslet) told me about some obelisks she found by the road on the Mainland. Dropping by one at Route 10 at Tangna (65/53/77), ir was marked "Good Neighbor Commandments for Second Life Mainland" on the bottom. On each of the four sides, there were suggestions for better Second Life living, written in the style of the Ten Commandments.

Thou shalt not set thy security orb to teleport people without at least a one minute warning, lest thou beest a jerk.

Thou shalt not block roads or sea lanes with thy objects, nor shall ye set ban lines, for they are the suck.

Thou shall allow build and run scripts on thy land and use autoreturn to keep it neat and tidy, for it is thy friend.

Thou shall beget privacy walls, screens, and shrubbery around thy land which please the eye of thy neighbor as they do thyself.

The obelisks were made by Abnor Mole. Besides the one at Route 10, I saw a few more at Marybank (55/211/51), Hae An (165/120/50), and Lippert (104/214/179). Lia told me of a few other locations I hadn't checked. So will these black stones get more people to clean up their acts, or rather their land, a bit? Hopefully they will, and we can go about Mainland a little longer before running into another yellow barrier.

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: New Year's Contest, Xmas Present, and More

While the Newser has been busy reporting on Christmas-themed events across Second Life, Linden Labs has not been inactive. They've posted a few goings-on in their blog, most recently about a New Year's Eve photography contest.

Winter has arrived — and the spirit of the season is evident in every sense — from the snow on the ground in many parts, to the merriment and joy and observances across the world. We want to know how you celebrate the coming of the New Year in our New Year Snapshot Contest. If it’s a whole new look for your avatar, or an inworld party to celebrate — share your snapshots for a chance to win L$10,000,  L$5,000, L$3,000 or L$1,000. Visit the contest in our Official Forums for details and to enter.

There's also a Christmas present from the folks of Linden Lab, just go over to Portal Park 1 and find it.

If you’ve got a sweet tooth — come by one of the Portal Park locations to pick up a free holiday gift. Look for the red gift box and click it to get your copy — and enjoy the seasonally decorated Portal Park while you’re there.

The prize wasn't far from the Portal Park 1 (133/119/23) location provided, just beyond the arch labeled "Social Area." I (as my alt) got a copy of the present, and rezzing it at the office had a gingerbread house, "Happy Holidays from the Linden family!"

Earlier entries from not long ago included an update on "Experience Keys," which Linden Lab first announced they were working on in July, demonstrating it at "The Cornfield" game. This time, they were offering a "Release Candiate" viewer for the feature.

... a new Viewer Release Candidate makes it easy for you to manage all your experience permissions in one place. This new Viewer makes it easy to Block, Unblock, or Reset experiences. Additionally, an Events Tab logs the objects and scripts you encounter in an experience, so every action performed on your avatar will be saved or recorded. Have a problem with an experience? We’ve also integrated a new reporting feature to make it easy to flag bad experiences to our Support team for review. Search is also available in the new Viewer, so you can explore all of the growing number of available experiences that use this feature.

Earlier in the month, they offered a new feedback and suggestions page.

What’s the one thing Linden Lab could do that would have the biggest impact on further improving your Second Life experience? Many Second Life users have thoughts on this - from different approaches for the way things are done today, to brand new features that could dramatically improve their experiences, to seemingly small things that could have a big impact. Today, we’re launching an easier way to share your ideas with us, a new “Feedback & Suggestions” page on SecondLife.com. You can also find this page by going to Help and finding New Feature Suggestions in the drop down.

One can find the suggestions page here: https://support.secondlife.com/suggestions/ .

And if things have seemed wonkier than usual on the Grid, it likely was not your imagination. The Lab posted that there were certain "recent inventory issues" going on with accounts.

Bixyl Shuftan

Roleplaying Basics

There are a number of roleplaying sims across Second Life. Some, such as Steelhead, involve a light amount of it, as while it's not required it is encouraged. For those in the Grid new to RPing, as it's sometimes called for short, they may not know where to begin. Theonlyjohnny Resident offers a few basics in this article which can be applied in and out of virtual reality.

Read Theonlyjohnny's story in People.

Commentary: Ebbe Altberg, Don't Forget the Oldbies

Recently in New World Notes, Hamlet Au had three suggestions for Linden Lab's new CEO Ebbe Altberg (link) in regards to Second Life. Two were excellent ones, that he go about in the Grid not as a Linden but a regular avatar, and that there should be more communication with the residents. But he made one that in my opinion would be a mistake.

 ... the existing userbase is never going away. .... So don't worry about them overly much ...  they'll basically be fine. (Yes, they'll keep complaining like crazy, and say horrible things about you and the company, but that's just their way of saying, "Baby, I can't live without you".)

Hamlet ended up getting a number of comments chastising him for that bit of advice, as Luskwood's Michi Lumin put it, "It's ludicrous to ignore the power of a happy userbase recruiting more users." And there have been times large numbers of people considered leaving the Grid, most recently last years two major changes to the terms of service. When third party Linden exchangers were shut down, many residents outside the United States seriously considered leaving. Even those able to use the official Lindex exchange didn't trust it. If the Lab hadn't backtracked, we could have, correction - would have, seen a sharp drop in the number of residents.

This is not a problem unique to Second Life. Businesses of all kinds strive to attract new customers from automobiles to soft drinks to radio stations. Once while yours truly was listening to one talk show, a host described his time as a disk jockey at another station during a staff meeting, in which the new guy in marketing suggested they stop playing the classic rock tunes they were currently playing and start with more modern pop. The DJ looked at him and commented that would make them loose their old audience while there would be no guarantee new listeners would arrive.

Unlike radio listeners, Second Life's residents have invested more than just time. They've made friends here. They've rented virtual land here. They've run businesses here. So change isn't as simple as turning a dial. But longtime residents, the oldbies, do have their limits. Even having friends here isn't a preventive measure as some communities, such as the Sunweaver/Angels, get together in games outside Second Life, even other virtual worlds.

Granted there are people whom see any change at all as bad. But this isn't the mindset of most longtime residents. And sometimes the reason for the complaint is a lack of confidence in Linden Lab due to it's history. Such confidence takes time to rebuild, and one way to further strain it is to ignore.

And even if a disgruntled resident stays, he won't necessarily keep on as he has. A few years ago, Linden Lab did an about-face to the owners of homestead sims, and suddenly many owners now had to pay a lot more money. Faced with what many called a "bait and switch," many instead chose to let their land go, even though they stayed. And so the total number of landholdings decreased. Even long after this controversy died down, residents less than happy with their Second Life experience are less likely to invest in it further with money purchases. They're also less likely to encourage people outside Second Life to come here. Word of mouth (or mouse) still remains how many new users find out about the Grid.

Ebbe has quite a challenge ahead. It isn't just to bring in new residents to Second Life while reassuring the older ones. It's also to encourage the oldbies to invest more here, more time, more money. A happy longtime resident population will help the Lab by spending more and encouraging friends to come to the Grid. But if the Lab decides they don't need to listen to them, the oldbies will respond by cutting back on spending, and for some deciding it's time to move on, continuing to meet up with best friends in other places.

Bixyl Shuftan

Image Credit: Kirby Crow.