Wagner James Au / New World Notes

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For Metaverse Creators in Developing Nations, Second Life’s Costs to Entry Have Grown Too High (Comment of the Week)

SL developing nations virtual metaverse economyImportant comment from Brazil-based reader "Moanna", responding to my economics survey which suggests that the cost of entrance into the Second Life economy has become so high, it's difficult for newcomers to break in.

For people in developing nations like hers, those costs are far higher than what they'd be for creators based in the EU/North America. She breaks those expenses down in terms of Brazil's currency, the Real. (Currently valued at 20 cents USD per 1 Real.) 

I've been trying to learn because I want to enter this market.

To create something good, we spend on courses (I paid 600 Reals), programs (Avastar, Marvelous Designer, brushes, molds) and other things that need to be purchased (image services, tables, furniture, parts, equipment, all quoted in US dollars in Brazil). It's very difficult to find support…

I still analyze it from a different angle, because I'm Brazilian. My country has a very undervalued currency. So imagine that we have to pay 4.7 times more for a Linden Dollar… 

1,600 SL creators earn over USD $10,000/year from their virtual content and services. However, that's 3X more than what a Brazilian earning minimum wage in their country makes:

For those who already have a [business] within the platform, it's OK because they already receive [payment] in USD dollars. But for a designer in Brazil starting out this is a lot of money, because here in the country, the minimum wage is 1,212 Reals/month. [I.E. $247 USD/month, less than $3000 USD per year. – WJA]

Not to mention that we pay a lot in taxes to the government; it is known that Brazil has a much higher tax burden. We also have a hard time finding support from other designers and buying items needed to fit in costs a lot.

Having an encouraging policy for new designers would be very beneficial.

Very much agree on the last point! Again, the obvious solution is for Linden Lab to charge new designers highly discounted commissions when they first start out, and give them special promotions in Project Runway-type contests.

Image: Volunteer help area for Brazilian users in Second Life.

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7 responses to “For Metaverse Creators in Developing Nations, Second Life’s Costs to Entry Have Grown Too High (Comment of the Week)”

  1. anonymous content creator Avatar
    anonymous content creator

    I live in Brazil. It works the other way round too, the $ is very valuable and gets me a higher standard of living than using that dollar in USA. I can eat well, afford rent and my bills, all from SL content creation. Adobe prices their monthly subscriptions in the local currency too, but yes marvelous designer is very expensive compared to adobes monthly subs.

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  2. Reiille Avatar
    Reiille

    I can relate to this statement a lot, coming from Mexico. 1 usd is worth 20 pesos to us, which of course, if you earn that back in revenue, it can be a huge financial help. I myself have been trying to break into the market, but the investment to be made to put a new brand out there is more than I can afford, so it’s been a slow burn.

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  3. Luther Weymann Avatar
    Luther Weymann

    The twenty years of Linden Research not providing at least one major rewrite of their Second Life product is within the software industry nearly unheard of. As someone who spent their entire working life in software, from the mainframe in the 1970s to internet applications in the 2000s, this non-rewrite is only for one reason. The board of directors and stakeholders have no interest in Second Life other than using it as their piggy bank. The lack of concurrent users of Second Life falls squarely on their shoulders. There should have been several significant rewrites of the database applications and user interface by now. This would have provided a considerable variety of new sophisticated and easy-to-learn building tools within the applications. These new building tools would have provided every user with the ability to create just about anything possible within SL with a skill set seen only by third-party products and the elite users trained in them. Second Life having this ability would have grown the user base tremendously as a building environment, grown the economic base of the in-world stores and SL Market, and solved the problem of keeping the less financially fortunate from efficiently doing business in Second Life. I’m like a broken record here. I’ve been saying for over a decade that the development of Second Life is one of the greatest mismanagement of a company that I have ever seen in my nearly forty years in software.

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  4. Anna Avatar
    Anna

    You actually need hardly anything to start creating in Second Life. You can use the beta viewer to upload tryouts so it doesn’t cost you anything to upload until your final version, use Photopea for free, use Blender for free, you don’t need Marvelous Designer or Avastar. If you don’t have any Lindens to upload go to parties with sploders, fish, check for all the possibilities to make some Lindens. Don’t rent land to start, use the Marketplace to sell your goods. Use Facebook to promote your stuff in the many many groups for Second Life. When you make some Lindens invest them back in your business. When you have some spare join an event. Dreams come true but only with hard work just like in rl! If I can you can too! ❤️

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  5. Adeon Writer Avatar
    Adeon Writer

    I disagree somewhat. I’ve spent more money for VRChat related content and services than I ever have for Second Life.
    The difference is that Second Life charges you just to create experiences for them. It’s totally backwards when literally every other user-created-experiences platforms let you create locations and have friends live in them for free.
    It’s not the costs are high (people pay WAY more on other platforms), they’re charging for the wrong things.

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  6. Isabella Avatar
    Isabella

    STOP USING SL AS A WAY OF LIVING!!!
    STOP THE CONTINOUS SHOPPING ALREADY!!!!

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  7. Isabella Avatar
    Isabella

    Also, MANY noobs “creating” things that have hundreds and hundreds of poligons!! the complexity trough the roof!! and LL DOESN’T CARE because it is money to their pockets.
    SL is never going to be a popular platform. You had the recent lockdown, people did came, but it wasn’t it. Didn’t took off. The press isn’t talking about SL as a way people coming toghether. Too many flaws! and if you look at SL you most certainly will see the bimbos looking like a slut venus of willendorf kind of style.. it is a shame!.
    Incredible sims were torn down because of LL monthly fees.

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