In case you were wondering, Second Life's economy isn't so bad
The unemployment level is the highest its been since the early 1980's but...CNN's SciTechBlog reports that it appears the economy of Second Life is actually pretty stable.
Second Life users can use real money as currency while playing the game. Users can buy and sell using the game's "Linden" currency (L$). It's Web site boasts that more than $100 million U.S. dollars of L$ were bought and sold in 2008.
That's right. One hundred million dollars.
CNN reports that the number of users with a positive monthly Linden flow has actually increased over the past six months.
A CNN.com "iReporter" interviewed Second Life users (presumably in Second Life itself) for the article, and one told him, "one dollar goes a lot farther in Second Life than real life."
One said she is trying to open an employment agency because, apparently, there are job openings on the virtual world.
The iReporter told CNN, "The economy continues to go down and rarely do we hear some positive news. Perhaps it is Second Life that is giving us that bit of hope."
Well...perhaps...
Second Life users can use real money as currency while playing the game. Users can buy and sell using the game's "Linden" currency (L$). It's Web site boasts that more than $100 million U.S. dollars of L$ were bought and sold in 2008.
That's right. One hundred million dollars.
CNN reports that the number of users with a positive monthly Linden flow has actually increased over the past six months.
A CNN.com "iReporter" interviewed Second Life users (presumably in Second Life itself) for the article, and one told him, "one dollar goes a lot farther in Second Life than real life."
One said she is trying to open an employment agency because, apparently, there are job openings on the virtual world.
The iReporter told CNN, "The economy continues to go down and rarely do we hear some positive news. Perhaps it is Second Life that is giving us that bit of hope."
Well...perhaps...
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Well, in my eyes this isn't a big surprise. Actually, without the stupid business decisions by LL (open space debacle), it would look even better. Why? Well, in times of a RL crisis people look for cheap entertainment, and LL still is exactly that, looking at the amount of money you have to invest to have a nice second life. In times when people don't have the money to travel the world, to buy fancy gadgets and so on, they turn to other, affordable things. In earlier times of crisis, people bought books and watched videos instead of traveling and other more expensive things - today at least some people live their (in RL non-affordable) phantasies in places like SL. Good for the SL economy, and as I said before: without LL idiocy the SL economy would be even better.
Well said. Lets hope this recession is good for our virtual economy and people start spending a few dollars here instead of a costly movie in RL.