Friday, March 28, 2008

"Camping In Second Life" video

Paying avatars to loiter: Cool earning opportunity or greedy business practice that hurts the community?

Higher resolution version available for download here



Full song "Camping Incognito" by Just Plan Bill available here.

2 comments:

Kanomi said...

That is a great video! I support the boycott since I avoid those malls full of campers anyway. I find them kind of creepy and I hate them staring at me with their lifeless, dead eyes when I shop! :o

Harper Beresford said...

The vast majority of smart businesspeople don't rent from places with lots of campers either. I rent a lot of spaces in malls on SL, and I know that malls with campers have an inflated traffic count, and I will not rent there because, frankly, the sales never come through.

Unfortunately, it's a Catch-22 for malls that want to generate real traffic--they can't do so without getting their ad pushed up in the classifieds unless they get a lot of prepublicity (ie, Armidi). Also, for new members who come into SL thinking they can play without buying Linden, this is one of the few means of earning a pittance until they can get their skills up enough to adequately earn or spend Linden. We all know it's a waste of time, but for many, it's part of becoming a resident.

Campers are a blight--I agree. But they fill a need. Those of us who are more sophisticated/wealthy/experienced may think them unnecessary but they beat other means of forcing new residents to earn money (ie. stripping, escorting, etc.)