____________________[PRO] eBay Delists Virtuality

[congeries]

Фигасе - eBay Delisting All Auctions for Virtual Property!

For the overall health of the marketplace" the company felt that theproper course of action, after considerable contemplation, was to banthe sale of these items outright.

Начало конца в целом неплохой компании. Амазон (шеф которого стоят за такой конструкцией, как Second Life), я думаю, на заставит долго ждать с открытием соотвествующей рубрике в списке своих товаров (тут надо добавить, конечно, что и основатель eBay Pierre Omidyar тоже стоит за SL, но вот надо же какие обсдачи).

Конечно, всё это можно прочитать как начало загона монетизации виртуальных миров внутрь самих миров. Но в связи с амбициями всё той же SL стать 3D-интернетом будущего это всё равно выглядит смешно.

 

Comments

[arpad.livejournal.com]

Well - they have a bunch of problems and potential lawsuits allowing something that clearly outlawed by game developers of most virtual worlds.

Shitty decision still. People will be forced to use non-safe sites and pay higher fees.

As for SL ambitions - I am sure these guys do not understand at all what they are doing.

[centralasian.livejournal.com]

I would argue with the last statement, assuming we will clarify whom do we mean by 'them'.

Linden Lab is a bunch of clever guys, no doubts. But there are just 'almost 60' of them atm; there is a feeling that they're merely a puppet (or a facade, to be polite) of something much bigger then them.

For example, the IBM's team working on the SL applications and extensions is alone consists of more than 300 people (software developers only), and this is not the only group actively working on the issue.

Having in mind that they already released their client code for open source development (and will do the same with a server code pretty soon), we can assume that the chances for this engine to become a new 3D-interface to the Internet are not that small.

[dvv7.livejournal.com]

From one side, I understand them. It is hard to trace delivery, insure such transactions and so on. From another side, in the real world people sell and buy far more intangible items, mostly in financial markets, say options. This is associated with strong rules.

But what if I sell a logo. The value of each brand or piece of art is as subjective, after all it's all picture of something. What is the difference between Malevich's Black Square and the one that someone will paint tomorrow?

It will be shame on them, if they did it for operational reasons, in order to prevent the load on customer services and longer times for complaint resolution.

The bad thing is that they try to impose and stipulate values: "for the overall health of the marketplace" - does it mean that they consider it improper to sell virtual items. This is not the only case of moralising from eBay.

[dvv7.livejournal.com]

Ask inventors or writers, they'll tell you they did not understand what they were doing at all. The key is to stop making it looking like you thought it should look like.

[arpad.livejournal.com]

I like bold ideas. But all this talk about "3D intrface for the Internet" and "virtual property" is a total BS, forgive my English...

What they did - is 3D party space. Customised by players. May be it can become serious part of the blogosphere. But it will never be "interface to Internet".

We walked that way so many times and every time we discovered that people do not want Internet shops to look like real one. The only use for 3D environemnt in today Internet is ornamental or recreational.

Now if the creators of SL were really aiming to make an interface to anything - they would have worked on building interfaces for secure trade in real money and real services, building identities that last. But it require deeper concept than "we will make avatars able to build 3D homes and dress prettily".

[arpad.livejournal.com]

Columbus did not what he thought. But he knew what he did. He found the best time and place to sail as deep into Atlantica as it was possible. He knew that India is somewhere on other side. And he was rewarded.

To find something unexpected you should do a lot of work first. And you should know what you are doing even if you will end doing something else.

[silpol.livejournal.com]

mind you, you are so right and... half-empty ;)