Is the Second Life an elaborate pyramid scheme?

[Matthew_Gallant]

Yawn. Wake me up when it’s a Pyramid Head Scheme. Here’s his most famous scheme:

[Kunikos]

Yawn. Wake me up when people stop posting cliche images in non related thread topics to make inane jokes.

[Kunikos]

That’s nothing. I hear that Blizzard is siphoning off millions of dollars from WoW subscription fees!

Seriously, what does this even mean? What do you think happens to the money people pay Linden Labs for Linden Dollars? They aren’t a bank. You can’t withdraw your money. That’s a usage fee that you paid, and they’re going to take that money and use it to pay their bills and (maybe) make a profit.

Yes, you can withdraw your Linden Dollars into real world dollars. And there are banks within Second Life as well.

[Derek_French]

I thought Real Life was an elaborate pyramid scheme…

[jeffd]

Not a pyramid scheme so much as a bizarre virtual economy. Yeah they could devalue the Linden whenever they felt like. Probably be pretty stupid of them to do (since no one would “invest” in them ever again) but hey, that’s life.

[Damien_Neil]

If you put money into L$ to buy some SL item or developed property, such as the kind that Chung makes, is it possible for the creators of the game to devalue the game currency so that people making things in the game can lose real dollars?

Yes.

Also, the US government can (and does) put more money into circulation, thereby devaluing the cash in your pocket.

The CopyBot program allows you to cheat to make an object, as long as it doesn’t have script code attached. So basically anyone making static objects, such as clothing, avatars, architectural complex buildings, etc. have had the rug pulled out from underneath them.

In other news, people can pirate movies, music, and games.

None of these things are unique to Second Life, and none of them have anything at all to do with pyramid schemes.

[Aeon221]

I thought it was about Egyptians =/

[Kunikos]

None of these things are unique to Second Life, and none of them have anything at all to do with pyramid schemes.

I’m pretty sure you can’t make a copy of someone’s estate and mansion in the real world with zero invested resources. Obviously the analogy for scripts, videos, and music works though. I’m just not a big fan of the whole “pirate” metaphor, since pirates take ownership of the original things while people on the internet make a duplicate (which may or may not be inferior to the original).

[Damien_Neil]

Yes, you can withdraw your Linden Dollars into real world dollars. And there are banks within Second Life as well.

Linden Labs’s site states: “Residents who have amassed lots of Linden Dollars are matched with residents who want to buy Linden Dollars at LindeX (our official currency exchange), or at other unaffiliated third-party exchanges.”

That isn’t a withdrawal, it’s a transaction between two third parties mediated by Linden Labs. Once you’ve paid for your L$, the only way to convert them back into real-world currency is to sell them to someone. LL isn’t going to give you squat for them.

[Damien_Neil]

I’m pretty sure you can’t make a copy of someone’s estate and mansion in the real world with zero invested resources. Obviously the analogy for scripts, videos, and music works though. I’m just not a big fan of the whole “pirate” metaphor, since pirates take ownership of the original things while people on the internet make a duplicate (which may or may not be inferior to the original).

I’m pretty sure you can’t make an estate and mansion in the real world with zero invested resources either. So?

CopyBot enables copyright infringement. It’s exactly the same as copying any other piece of information, and the issues surrounding its use are essentially identical to the ones surrounding CD ripping software.

[Alan_Au]

I thought it was about Egyptians =/

You’re confusing this with pyramids, which are elaborate second-life schemes.

• Alan

[Mike_O_Malley]

That’s a great line!

[Kunikos]

That isn’t a withdrawal, it’s a transaction between two third parties mediated by Linden Labs. Once you’ve paid for your L$, the only way to convert them back into real-world currency is to sell them to someone. LL isn’t going to give you squat for them.

Isn’t that similar to the real world though? The US government doesn’t let you convert your US dollars to gold, the thing that values our currency. If you want gold or to exchange it to some other currency you go on the currency exchange. Despite this, people can still get ripped off when the government prints out more money and inflates the economy. If there are player run banks this issue becomes even hairier.

[Kunikos]

I’m pretty sure you can’t make an estate and mansion in the real world with zero invested resources either. So?

I was just trying to make a point that it isn’t 1:1 with standard digital copyright infringement, and it has more in common with counterfeiting such as fake handbags, etc. They “look” like the real thing, but are (sometimes lower quality) knock-offs. I suppose in some countries such as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc this issue exists with higher level piracy for movies, but as far as I know this isn’t such a huge issue in the western world. You can generally only purchase a blue-bottomed DVD+/-R with a printed on label.

Anyway, it’s kind of going off into tangent land.

[Matthew_Gallant]

The US government doesn’t let you convert your US dollars to gold, the thing that values our currency.

The dollar hasn’t been based on gold since 1975.

[moss_icon]

given current exchange rates with the british pound, i can only presume that the dollar is based on sand.

[Kunikos]

Maybe the US government should buy DeBiers and base it on diamonds? Oh wait, nevermind we DID spend all that money on sand. Sand mixed with blood and oil. Mostly blood.