Because It's Monday, Here's a Talking Cat Comparing & Contrasting Second Life, Sansar, High Fidelity & Space

The talking cat is actually the mesh avatar creator Medhue, also creator of talking elephants and snakes and such. As you'd guess, he actually has some smart opinions of each virtual world. Roughly summing up the cat's analysis (catalytics?):

Medhue likes the graphics of Space, but thinks the world’s commissions for developers are too high, and thinks the same of Sansar. Instead of charging a 30% for commissions, he suggests, why not charge developers for services such as marketing. (“You’re hurting the very people who are helping your platform.”) He admires High Fidelity, but is worried it doesn’t protect developer’s IP rights enough -- but mentions that a High Fidelity staffer says the company plans to roll out a feature that’ will protect content. Finally, he mentions how excited he still is with Second Life, especially with the coming of NPCs, which he thinks will make the virtual world will feel more like a world, and not a ghost town. (Imagine a sim full of talking cats.)

Comments

[Adam]

Heh, I was literally just chatting about this yesterday over at SLU.

Short official answer from us on pricing/commissions for Space:

Our pricing model is structured around content sales, not land sales. We give away a region free to every user; and additional regions are at a reasonable low cost. The marketplace charges no fees. That means you've got no fixed overheads selling in space; every sale you make, you earn from (you don't need to earn above tier each month first).

We could have gone the other way around, and done lower commissions, but make it up on high land subscriptions - but we think that scenario is actually worse for everyone, creators included.

Here's a couple of reasons this is a good thing for creators;

1- Users aren't spending tons of money each month on land, that means everything they spend is on content. That leaves users with a lot more spare change to buy virtual goods & services with. Overall, this should translate to more sales for merchants - and a less expensive hobby means a wider audience is possible.

2- Because each users first region is free, every user is a land owner potentially; meaning that furniture and region template designers have a bigger market to sell into; rather than the ~10-20% who own land.

3- It aligns our interests. We don't make money, unless creators make money. This has flow-on effects in the long run. It means we have an incredibly strong incentive to keep creators happy, handle content piracy properly, co-ordinate marketing and be available and responsive to creators. (We also handle support queries on items sold through the marketplace!)

4- The lack of fixed overheads is especially good for smaller creators who are getting established; you don't need to try squeeze to get above tier each month - this helps lower the risk to getting involved in a new world.

The commission we've picked is the same app-store split you may be used to elsewhere; at the end of the day, we do need to make some money as the platform operator somehow (gotta cover payroll!) - and we think this keeps our interests as a platform operator completely aligned with getting more sales for creators; rather than trying to sign up subscriptions.

[Medhue]

I'm currently working with Zooby's. The cat is my first project for them.

[Medhue]

Oh, and I'm only doing the rigging and animation for the cat. We have a great team at Zooby's and the Bento cat is coming along nicely.

[Just Say'n]

#SecondLifeForLife
#SecondLifeFTW
#SecondLifeBetterThenEver

Your World,Your Imagination.. 15yrs later & still growing strong!