Ophelia's Gaze: SL Fashionista Entitlement is Bad for the Economy, Bad for Creators, and Bad Karma for Everyone

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

I was recently shopping in a well-known SL boutique, when two fashionistas walked in. They were only looking for freebies, which they loudly announced in public chat:

"Why is the blue version of this shirt free," one of them demanded for everyone to hear, "but the red version isn't? I only want the red one!"

I quietly stewed behind the keyboard. Nerve-grating scenes like this are pretty typical nowadays, whether I'm shopping somewhere crowded or just browsing SL fashion blogs: I'm almost guaranteed to find someone there, undervaluing an SL designer's work. It's no longer a shock when I hear people talking in a store about not buying an item because the designer has the gall to charge more than L$100 for it -- you know, less than 50 cents in real money -- nor is it out of the ordinary when an SL blogger whines that the nearly free skin someone has released is from their older line, rather than their newest. Another popular complaint is that freebies and cheapies are in the wrong colors, or don't come in enough colors. This disgusting sense of entitlement is grinding down SL's fashion economy, and probably driving out some of our best designers.

Here's a perfect example of what I mean:

At one point not too long ago, freebie fashion, fashion hunts for free items, and discount events were few and far between in SL's fashion world. Now, they're all but taken for granted. I'm hard pressed to name even one store that doesn't have a freebie available somewhere in their main shop. In other words, this sense of entitlement is so ingrained, most content creators feel they have to cater to it -- even if that means basically laboring for tens of hours with their incredible talent and creativity, for free.

Don't get me wrong; this shift toward freebies and our culture of entitlement has helped to make SL fashion much more accessible, and so do those average price points. Kitting your avatar out with custom gear will cost you much less in Second Life than it would in most MMOs or games, where the content comes from the developer and not the community, and that's helped the fashion market grow to the size it is today. The problem for me comes when customers develop a sense that designers somehow owe them quality goods, for pennies. While some designers do absolutely overprice their items and overvalue their market, there is a point when these judgements stop being realistic valuations, and start being a sense of entitlement. (That point usually involves a ridiculous argument along the lines of, "It's not even a 'real' product, right?")

Pricing is a tricky balancing act for a designer. A low price can often fuel sales, but if they go too low they won't be able to get proper compensation for the time they spent developing that item. The item may not be "real", but the time spent creating it and using it is very real, and that's where value should lie. Some designers create out of passion with no interest in profiting from their work and that's great, but it's a choice that they should make, not us. But even if they wanted to earn some money from their efforts, freebies have become so pervasive that the market for high quality, higher-priced items has become ever more difficult to penetrate.

Second Life is not even the largest market for user-made virtual fashion. And for designers who feel exhausted by this expectation of freebies, I can just imagine them looking at IMVU and other platforms, where there are many more shoppers (with much lower expectations), who may be more appreciative of their talents. In my opinion, our sense of entitlement to a good deal as consumers should end where a designer's right to earn more than slave wages begins. And if you don't respect the work that goes into a product that "isn't real", then frankly, the SL fashion world may be better off without you.

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Melanie]

AMEN.

[Evie Miles]

You know, I agree with the post, but have always sort of considered that the boom in "pre-fab design" templates has also attributed.

Loads of people will buy templates or sculpted prims, whack them together without changing them and offer them cheaply as promotional items.

In that case, the time spent is minimal and so people -don't- mind charging less. It adds to the problem for anyone who puts more than a minute into their content. Because yes, out of that, comes the expectation that any quality stuff ought to cost 50L, too.

Not saying it's a bad thing, just.. is.

[Anya Ohmai]

Brilliantly wrote and well said.

To me many hand drawn designers underprice their items because value doesn't seem to be placed in that aspect -- and when most other hand drawn artist price low, the rest of them who are entering the market are forced to follow suit for not wanting to be bashed for being greedy.

A lot of designers have been labelled greedy at one point in their SLife -- but truly, how greedy are they when the items sold are less than 5 dollars each and can be used over and over again in a world where to some people, is very real and solid.

[nexus burbclave]

Well said. Thank you for this. I've witnessed this pattern even outside the fashion sector, although I suspect it is far more pervasive in fashion. I fully understand a desire to be frugal right now, but frugality involves making tough choices, not getting everything you want for free.

I wish I had more Linden Dollars to spread around to my favorite creators and artists, but my currency supply isn't infinite. So I buy what the things I really want when I can, and I supplement that with things that I make for myself. If you really want to save money, learn to create. Many of the tools that you need are right there in-world, as are many fine tutorials to help get you started. You might even gain an appreciation for how much work actually goes into making these things and decide that those $500L shoes aren't such a bad deal after all.

[Uccello]

Yep. Another reason I got out of being a creator/retailer.

[Harper Beresford]

You forgot to value other things as well, Iris, like the tier for the sim it's hosted on, the time to maintain the business, the cost and time for advertising, and the cost of software to make the items. I took a similar spin to this a while ago when I had gotten disgusted after moderating a hunt group. http://slfashionpassion.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/on-freebies/

[Music_Island]

I don't think it is the culture of entitlement so much that is grinding me down as some of the other things you mention. I feel that even more SL residents think of SL as a "game" and so nothing is "real" or worthy of respect. The level of civility seems to be declining. Why is this happening? My top two guesses are 1) a distinct change in the tone and content of SL marketing towards a lighter-weight, social media focus, and 2)the leaking of educators & non-profits out of SL who were civilizing influences and produced intellectually stimulating content-- discussions and lecture series -- that attracted and retained a more educated and thoughtful group of residents.

[Ananda Sandgrain]

I love playing devil's advocate, as I'm sure my other posts make clear, but I do have to point out that what is called "entitlement" is really nothing of the sort - it's really driven by insecurity. Complaining happens among people who find themselves up against a situation where they don't actually have enough money in their accounts to pay for the items anyway, so they come up with a different way to entertain themselves. (In this case, by sharing snarky gossip.)

But "entitlement" is also a two-way street. There is no guarantee whatsoever that simply because a creator puts a lot of work in to making something, that they will then be able to get back a decent amount of money for their efforts. Pretending that you deserve the special protections that the SL market offers, that you deserve to be paid well simply because you spent a lot of time and money, is its own form of entitlement. You're better off served by ignoring the whiners and going on enjoying the creativity and money that you do bring in. Because "deserving" has nothing to do with it.

[Nalates Urriah]

Good post. The entitlement mentality is showing up in numerous places. We won't fix it in SL until it is fixed iRL.

[John Lopez]

Virtual economies operate very differently from real world ones. Purchased clothing never wears out or gets damaged and once a design is created, it can be replicated for no discernible cost.

There are only two sources of "new" demand. The first is the obvious new user (assuming they aren't provided for due to being an alt) and the second is the innovative, which causes even the jaded old users to make room in their already overflowing inventory. Artificial scarcity tactics such as "no copy" only work if everyone colludes.

The end result is obvious: prices can only move downward for the commonplace. I had hoped that mesh would drive a spike in interest, but the combination of low mesh viewer adoption (making your new prized possession view-able to the minority) and the failure to implement mesh fitting (which astounded me when they closed the request) has quashed that, at least for me.

Finally you have the influence of the freebee overload now available, a non-perishable resource that can in many cases be repliaced across avatars. That further diminishes demand (but at least had the advantage that most of those items were of lower quality).

In other words, I don't think this is really a surprising "news" item for anyone. Of course, straws that break backs rarely are.

The brutal reality of economics is that the effort you put into something (or any other overhead and costs) simply *do* *not* *matter* to your customer's evaluation of what the market will pay. In SL the easily availability of reasonable quality free goods, low cost high quality goods and the massive number of "I don't have L$" avatars makes this even more painful for the potential retailer.

[foneco zuzu]

I spent every day, more then 400L just tipping Djs', Event Hostess or whatever!
I go to a major shop and I got every day at least 50L vouchers to mod clothing.
I do not spent L in hair nor clothes anymore cause I learned how to create them to myself.
So i have more then 10.000L in vouchers that i use to get items that i can mod to my content and to my taste.
And all i build has one main purpose, to make My look unique but also non scripted, as i can walk around with 0 scripts in Me, and i defy all to see my Flickr page to see how any can look without wearing a single script, and not being naked, lol.
Now many of those called creators, should not even be on the grid in 1st place, those who fill their products with old scripts, and not allow to mod them or at least allow them to be removed.
And i feel ashamed to see major builders, still don't giving a damn about the fact that more and more places in the grid are using the 0 scripts policy, that will make most of those items useless!
So instead of whining about free stuff, make sure you learn to create items that if need to use scripts to be recized, at least can those be removed after.
AND ALL THAT LOVE SL SHOULD LEARN HOW TO BE ABLE TO WALK AROUND WITHOUT SCRIPTS, OR JUST USE THE REALLY NEEDED ONES (A AO and/or a collar, and your intimate parts only when really needed, lol)

[Flo2]

I don't sympathize with these cheepie chicks whining for more freebies in the shops - but I don't sympathize either with those avatars who spend thousands of lindens every month only for clothes and skins, spending most of their SL time in shopping malls, and attending events only for showing off their new outfits - but I know, it's just my personal taste - I grew up on Thackeray's Vanity Fair. :) A taste, that finds it neither economical, nor rational. But it's just my taste. - Note, by the way, that talented creators are the people in SL who I respect above all! without objections. They are real artists. But their clients, either penniless or rich...
But it's just my taste.

[Johnny alt]

Linden Lab want to charge 300USD per month for their product. That's 300USD per MONTH, not per year.

Yet they allow the cheapest products to be front and centre of the first pages of the marketplace.

The effect this has is that Secondlife looks worse because cheap products are often the worst products ( not always, but nearly always).

How can Linden Lab expect to lease sims at the premium price of 300USD per month when their product looks worse and worse because they are not cultivating the talented creators but instead allowing the cheapest and lowest quality goods the best exposure at the SL marketplace.

So Linden Lab want to charge 300USD per month for their product yet creators are expected to create and sell their time for 10L$.

Something is seriously wrong with this !

The balance has been lost and Secondlife is suffering because of it

[Johnny alt]

If Linden Lab reduced tier costs, concurrency would improve, there would be more customers and creators COULD charge less for top quality goods.

Resident killing tier costs are the big problem. If there are less customers top quality creators need to charge more not less.

The balance is clearly lost

[shockwave yareach]

I'm a furry, so I don't really grasp what the attraction is to all these fur-rubbing clothes in the first place :)

As for the sense of entitlement, that's a common trait with younger users of the internet as a whole. They have a free home and free food, a free computer and free broadband. Then they enter this free virtual world after hearing about it on their favorite free blogging spot. They don't know that the shop isn't owned by LL. They don't know that the funds paid to purchase the red pill (sorry, shirt) keep the store they are enjoying in business. To them, it's just another virtual place where everything should be free.

A good response is to say that what's free is free and what isn't, has to be sold for money or the entire store AND the free stuff disappear. Because you have to pay LL for the land; it's not free and neither is everything on the land, though you try to be nice and give away some things.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

In real life or in the virtual world, if you make something, somebody else is going to want it cheap or free.

Sometimes it's because they love your work but they don't have money, and with those people you can often work out a special deal on an individual basis, either giving them a discount or exchanging something else of value, if they approach you in a nice manner and don't resort to begging.

People who demand that you do something or get snarky about it are prime candidates for Ban and Ignore. Seriously. My decision to market my art doesn't make me anybody's indentured servent, and I decide my prices, you don't.

Since legal experts inform me that on-the-spot euthenasia for the terminally stupid is in fact against federal, state and local laws, the next best thing is just to toss them out before they hit their rhetorical stride.