SL Economy

We all know the SL Economy sucks! Sales have slowed for many vendors, shops are closing, and if like me, you are a dancer, our VIPs just aren't opening their wallets like they used to. I have come up with a couple of ideas to remedy the situation.

Free accounts - While the makers of SL have been very generous in not having a time limited free account, this could be hurting the economy. Most game makers have time limited game trials, from a few hours, to 30 days. My suggestion is to limit the time on the free accounts or limit the area in which they can roam on the grid. This might help the griefer situation as well.

Increase the stipend - For people who pay to play the game, how far do you really think L$300 goes in a week? People can't spend money they don't have.

Vendor pricing -uploading textures in to SL costs 10L. So, when vendor charge $L1200 for a pair of boots, that's one helluva profit! Why do they need to cost that much? I understand the time that goes in to making these shoes is several hours, maybe days or even weeks. Why sell 1 pair for 1200, when you could sell hundreds of pairs at $L120. Wouldn't that stimulate the economy?

Many vendors offer freebies, or dollarbies to lure you in to their store. They do this in hopes you'll look around, and spend more money. Do people with free accounts spend money? It's too bad that there isn't a way to limit the access on free or dollarbie items to those who have paid accounts.


Reduce the cost of land tier. So many sims look like ghost towns with vacant spaces and empty stores. Real Estate companies and land owners can't make money on empty plots. Lowering land costs would encourage more people to put up homes, open stores etc. I know of a couple of stores that no longer have a presence in SL, and are selling their inventory on places like onrez and Xstreet (formerly SLX).

I know my ideas aren't perfect, but I'd be interested to see what would happen if some of these ideas were to be implemented.

Anyone have a crystal ball in their inventory?