Open Forum: How Will Brexit Impact SL's Many UK Users?

Pictured: SL's London Village -- click here to visit

UK users, the floor is yours -- how will last night's Brexit influence your usage of Second Life? British SLers make up a large percentage of the active userbase, and most economists believe the Brexit will have a heavy negative impact on the British economy, so the overall influence is likely to be sharp and noticeable.

Your own take, UK readers? And come to think of it, as the Brexit will probably impact every user in every country, this open forum is open to all.

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Comments

[zz bottom]

I fear they are to stunned by the error they did they will not be able to post soon. Those who voted Brexit i mean.
As for the rest, i would advise them to move to Scotland or North Ireland.

[zz bottom]

But as many are joking, just a reminder, on the ashes of 1st world war we let a country alone go bankrupt and that lead to Adolf's Hitler raise.
It is time to understand, as a family we don't turn our back on one of our family if it decides its time to go out of our home

[Alan Fleming]

Inane question. Remove Second Life and insert any other online technology to see how stupid this sounds.

"How will Brexit influence your usage of YouTube? Steam? Dropbox? Will things now look different through your Oculus Rift because of Brexit?"

Of *course* not. Go delete this and come back with something more relevant when you've had a think about it, Hamlet.

[Ciaran Laval]

Unlikely to make much of a difference. The Brexiters may think that the future will be so bright that they have to wear shades but it's unlikely that EU style rules, such as VAT on online services, will change much, if at all.

[Wagner J Au]

"Remove Second Life and insert any other online technology to see how stupid this sounds."

For starters, very few online technologies depend so heavily on monetization rates $299/month or higher or a heavy flow of real cash transactions for virtual currency or heavy dedicated broadband use or high-end desktop PCs or international commerce within a virtual economy. Actually, I think roughly none except SL.

[Tizzy Canucci]

The exchange rate is what I thought of. Everything bought abroad is going to be more expensive unless the £ recovers and there's going to be uncertainty for quite some time to come.

[Mal Burns]

This is more from an Open Sim (hypergrid) perspective, but...

I am in the UK, albeit with my virtual presence based in Canada. I openly hyperjump to grids like Francogrid and Metropolis (France and Germany) just as I might load a webpage anywhere in the world. This is 21st century global life and the Metaverse (however you frame or reframe it) represents online communication and presence that truly transcends borders and often enhances our experiences by eliminating biases some have when there is a more obvious trigger for sexism, gender issues, racism, cultural issues and all the other "isms" you may think of.

Travelling to a virtual space and engaging with whole groups of people who may be at any time or place in the organic world is one of the truly liberating factors in this collective immersion. It is the exact opposite of isolationism.

My country feels less than itself today, as a gullible mass of people have been purchased by variety of self-interest propaganda machines to erect the barriers that lead to isolationism. And in the space of a mere 12 hours thrown us from the 5th largest economy to 6th. No country is an island in this multinational world.

I digress. Yet I wondered if I would log-in today and find my British IP address blocked from teleporting to France or Germany. It hasn't come to that, but as we erect our new walls they might have every right to do the same.

An open Metaverse has felt like the future for me for some time. But this sudden cloud of regression makes me wonder if dreams like that can ever come to pass.

SL is not on the hypergrid of course, hosted entirely on American servers. In some ways it is already a platform surrounded by walls. But there are lessons here. Imagine a country as large and influential as the US somehow wakes up one day and finds itself governed by isolationist policy? How long before national walls rise around virtual spaces to destroy the very things that so validate them now?

Oh yes! SO is gonna be costing Brits a wee bit more from now on. At least so long as the gates are open.

[DevinVaughn]

Alan Fleming, ........The reason why Brexit matters to UK SL users is the exchange rate. Shoppers from UK will be shellshocked by how more expensive it just became to buy Lindens. That drives down the SL Economy. And on the flip side, All the talented designers from UK who provide us wonderful creations could be driven out of business by the high exchange rates. For example, Last night the Pound nosedived to 15 cents to the US Dollar. That means, a Designer who normally cashes out from the Lindex 100 pounds would only get 15. ... Chilling...

[irihapeti]

@DevinVaughn

a UK designer in SL earns in USD. A collapse in the UKP means that they will get a whole lot more UKP for their USD earnings

[Ciaran Laval]

@DevinVaughn "For example, Last night the Pound nosedived to 15 cents to the US Dollar. That means, a Designer who normally cashes out from the Lindex 100 pounds would only get 15. ... Chilling..."

I think you have misread something, the pound did not drop to 15 cents to the US dollar, it may dropped 15 cents, it's currently worth 1.37.

@irihapeti A designer will get less when cashing out. On the flip side, for consumers buying Lindens or paying tier, their bills will be cheaper.

[Ciaran Laval]

@irihapeti Apologies, you were right. I had brain failure and was thinking in terms of buying and selling pounds not dollars.

A drop in the value of the pound is better for cashing out as they need to sell fewer dollars to earn a pound. On the flip side, for consumers, buying Lindens or paying tier, their bills will be more expensive.

[Conifer]

I'm very sad that my country voted to leave the EU but I don't think it will have much impact on my SL. The only thing I can think of is that the falling pound will make it more expensive.

[DD Ra]

I feel, like Conifer that only the costs will change for some of us, and our RL lifes may be somewhat affected. But I doudt this will affect our Second Lifes, exept if some group come inworld to prolong the fight (IN vs OUT) or to ponder the consequences...

[AmyNevilly]

I'm a UK reader.

I was so happy to see we're finally leaving the EU.

None of you realise how bad it is living under EU regulations that prevent us from doing so many things with our economy.

I think there will be a short term recession, but longer term we will benefit from being outside the EU. Just like we benefitted from staying out of the EUro!

[Graham Mills]

Looks like my comment got removed by a spam filter. I can't believe I said anything controversial but censoring my miniscule call to action (write to your MP) is just symptomatic of collective madness over the past few weeks.

[sirhc deSantis]

Will have less an effect on me than your lot voting in the Noo Yooge Imperator.... at least in the UK theres not much chance of 'expressing disagreements via AR15s' (with the murder of the Rt Hon Helen Joanne "Jo" Cox still leaving me sick).

Less snarky, personally hoping the current lunacy will be replaced by something concrete, SL frankly is secondary right now.

[David Cartier]

I no longer live in the UK, but...I think that so soon as everyone sees that the sky hasn't fallen, things will be mostly back to normal within two weeks. Longer term there could very well be job benefits, if cheap Eastern European goods are no longer dumped in the market. There's also the fact that UK contributions to the EU usually result in a net loss. That will end and more money will stay at home. And there has never been a better time to unload Ulster and all of their miseries.

[irihapeti]

@David

where goes Ulster goes Scotland. And eventually Wales

all that be left of the once Great Britain and its once mighty Empire be a brave little England of limited provincial parochialism. Unimportant to the rest of the world

only thing that will be left of value to the world (worth buying) will be the best and brightest of your young people. Same as they are the only thing of value in other small countries which are content to be provincial and parochial in how they see things

[Julie Tailor]

I am a long time SL user and British.
I voted to exit EU as while yes the short-term economic situation will be tricky, the reality is independent and capability for our country will out last that blip. Many big media funded "economists" or publicly funded gobalist experts will declare the world is over as they will trot out the GDP impacts. But what they will fail to tell the average person is, in reality, when you remove the burden, bureaucrats (unelected), and give people freedom of choice, we will find new trade routes, direct agreements and capabilities worldwide. Britain is a survivor and it will rally.

Yes the pound is sitting at 1.37, but we have over the years seen in 2006 a rate of 1.94 through to lower rates at 1.41. It will start to re-stabilize into the 1.50s by the end of the year. So buy all things sterling now (great time to book flights and prepaid hotels to come visit us) for the year ahead. Great time to also invest in UK property markets and get some well performing shares at a lower cost.

The idiot who wrote above about Hilter (that was NOT how that went down, you may want to re-read your history books and understand the appeasement policy (not dissimilar to what Obama does now) and poor politics).

[Julie Tailor]

+ @ irihapeti

You seem to have a lot of hate for our country.
Did we touch a nerve?

[Graham Mills]

OpenSim user and Remainer here. Maybe folk of that persuasion are happier outside the walled garden?

Like Mal, I'm grieving for the rose-tinted view of a Britain that believed in fair play and evidence-based policy, not deceit and an airy disregard for "experts".

While I personally think this story has a way to go yet, the reputational damage already incurred is likely enormous. For anyone who thought we were better than this, I can only apologise.

[Graham Mills]

Incidentally, if anyone makes a #wearethe48 t-shirt, please stick it on the Kitely Market as well.

[irihapeti]

@Julie

when you live in a country that is small and largely irrelevant to the rest of the world, as I do, then you find how hard life actually is

you guys are going to find this out for yourselves now

the only thing that keeps Britain in the top 5-6 earners globally is its financial services. Take this out and you be down with us, where you don't actually want to be. The other EU nations are already lining up to take them