Remember a bit back when I said, “These guys seem pretty smart.“? Well, apparently not everyone agrees. I was reading Raph’s comments on it earlier today:
It’s a sensationalistic headline and tagline for an argument that isn’t actually about SL itself but about how some folks may be using SL.
Which is a perfectly fair assessment, but doesn’t really need further commenting after he finished up with:
The bottom line is that going into SL, or indeed any world, purely on the basis of RMT and money to be made is probably a bad idea. The reliable returns for the average Western person just aren’t there in any of the worlds. This doesn’t mean that the world operators are necessarily running a pyramid scheme themselves, and I think it’s irresponsible to say so. But it does mean that anyone looking to make a buck should assume they are the sucker, and be pleasantly surprised if it turns out otherwise.
Which is really just a cool way of agree with me when I said you shouldn’t be trying to make money from SL.
But is any of that worth commenting on? Not really. Raph is pretty straight foward and pretty right on.
Then I read the link he posted in his post to 3pointD.com. I can’t say they were as fair…
His main complaint is that the currency exchange market isn’t liquid enough for someone to be able to cash out large amounts of L$ at current rates. Moving large volumes of currency results in a fall in the value you actually receive for your L$. This doesn’t make SL a Ponzi scheme; it simply means there’s not a lot of liquidity in the market. Large currency moves in real-world economies that can’t handle them often result in the same thing. The problem — and it’s a real one — is that Linden Lab advertises SL as an economy as robust as any mature real-world economy. It simply isn’t yet. But neither is it a scam.
I haven’t reread the article, but I don’t remember where he said it was SL’s scam, just that the economy in SL was a scam. That is doesn’t have the real world comforts we’ve come to expect in American money markets (insured money, for one) is very true and I agree with their assertment that Linden Labs shouldn’t be advertising their market as the real thing. It’s not.
But then go on to stir up and basically call Valleywag silly bastards. Or the original blogger, I’m not sure. Either way, they might have sounded a bit less biased if they hadn’t littered the article with personal attacks.
Even that though, I let it go. I don’t care either way. It’s SL and some website I’ve never heard of and Valleywag. What’s to care about…see, then Au got involved. And while I said he makes SL sound cool, he is anything but unbiased and probably should have stayed out of this one. I, for one, am glad he didn’t though. It makes for very fun quotes like this:
Even at a brief glance, however, it reads like a Soviet economist trying to figure out how Wall Street works.
I mean, can you ask for better lines than that? Really. He spends most of the article mentioning how factually wrong the article is, even though his facts don’t really make it sound that wrong, just a little bit off. Mostly he just comes across as a Homer. That any talk of SL not being gods gift to man is completely unfounded and shouldn’t dare to be blasphemied across the universe. It’s to be expected, I guess, and it’s pretty funny. And even though he says up front he might be biased, it’s pretty eviden it’s not just might. He’s so far lost in SL that he talk about the freebies Linden Labs gives away as if they are something anything not a n00b uses (again, I’m not 100% sure on this, as I don’t play. Just what I’ve heard).
The main point is this. If SL is such a good thing and not over hyped and doesn’t need the defense, why are so many people getting their panties in twist over some enonomist saying it’s a pyrmid scheme? Why? Because it partially is. Maybe not by Linden Labs fault, but it definitely works out like that if you are trying to make money in SL and you aren’t one of the already established big boys. That’s not a good thing.
Oh, and a side note, that Au quotes the “usage” numbers in article that Linden Labs released as gospel is pretty funny. Because they are pretty obviously junk and have already been debunked as such.
What Would Matt Do: Again, I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t be giving my money away to SL. Nah, it sounds like I’ll have to spend a lot of time defending the game instead of playing… Note, this story is an oldie, but possibly a prophetic goodie.