December 12, 2008 by Sarah Nerd
So the title "Win a Space in the Second Life Holiday Marketplace" just popped up on the official blog. At first glance I assumed it was something like the semi annual lottery they hold for free vending spots on a Linden sim. But that's not the case here. By "win" they mean buy a temporary piece of land auction style. I'll save you the trouble of reading the full blog and share the major details.....
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This winter season, Linden Lab is pleased to announce a limited time Holiday Marketplace. Not only is it a holiday snowscape, it’s also a land extravaganza. For a one time charge and no recurring land fees, you can have this land for 60 days!!
To complement the Second Life Winterfaire, we’ve created a small number of parcels available only via the Second Life Land Auctions starting on Monday. Auctions for parcels on Dasher, Prancer, Donner and Blitzen will start at only L$1.
As a bonus, each auction winner will receive a limited edition holiday gift package from Linden Lab, delivered directly to your real life door.*
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SO.. Basically they want you to BUY not win but BUY a piece of land with your money that they will reclaim in two months. And is it just me or does anyone else see the stupidity in offering holiday shop land only a few days before Christmas? By the time the auction ends you will only get a few days of use before Christmas is over. This would have made more sense to me if they offered it say right after Thanksgiving so that the people who "win" one, could actually get some use out of the land for it's intended purpose in the proper time span. The only part that interests me is the real life package. I am curious as to what is in that package, but not curious enough to pay much if anything at all for it. Personally I would prefer a "Sorry you lost so much money on the start up costs of open space sims" package at my doorstep because lord knows we have nothing to show for that loss.
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Re: (WIn=Buy)
Using "win" to describe getting something at an auction is a relatively common idiom (you're competing with the other bidders, etc, etc). But I fully agree that the official SL blog has an annoyingly, and depressingly, XXth century marketing tone to it these days. Somewhere someone made the decision that this was going to be a completely cleansed marketing vehicle, not a place to do actual communication with residents actual or potential.
Considering how leading-edge the technology is, it's ironic how paleolithic and pre-Cluetrain the customer relations style has become.
-- Dale Innis
Re: (WIn=Buy)
Using win to describe getting something at auction is a relatively common idiom on an auction site, you are indeed right. The winning bid, the winning bidder, you've won the auction yadda yadda yadda.
The blog title reads like it's going to be a competition like the Luna Lottery. Second Life's primary usage isn't as an auction site.
Re: (WIn=Buy)
The Luna lottery was exactly what I was thinking when I read the title. Felt a little misleading to me when I realized that in was in fact just a sales blog.
64 character subject limit!
There's a worrying theme of back alley type speak emerging from Linden
Lab that I am not at all comfortable with. This isn't a competition and
shouldn't be presented as such, even leaving that aside, sims named
after Father Christmas' reindeers should have been around weeks ago,
it's a little late now.
If anyone is having difficulty replying to this thread please change the subject heading on your comment, there's a 64 character limit on the subject title.
Re: Win a Space at in the Second Life Holiday Marketplace! (WIn=
Yeah. That sucks. I really don't know what they're thinking.
Re: Win a Space at in the Second Life Holiday Marketplace! (WIn=
i don't even want to know what Baby
win=buy
You are so right. Win??? What a bait and switch. The current tone from LL reminds me of an enthusiastic neophyte marketer. LL is underestimating the sensitivity to Bullshit that most Second Life residents possess. Stop talking down to us. We see through you. Give it to us straight. This kind of crap makes me think SL is going to tank, or at the very least, that a better Metaverse is just around the corner. They have to stop bullshitting us like this. Appreciate your insight, you boiled it down well. And hey! I love your cottage, I use it at my sweater shop!
Re: win=buy
It's not only that Sarah. Noticed the so called "communities" message and who are mentioned in it? Some of them are just large estate owners as I recall, or are that communities too? Oh btw, the message says that LL will inform the rest about how to get involved into the community program. Now how about that, that's basically saying that some "players" got knowledge about communing in front. Don't expect to be mentioned on the blog when you apply, the preference of free advertising in the blog is only meant for the insiders.The whole blog is full of this bollocks at the moment, trying to wave away the storm on open spaces. But what LL seems to be doing is that they are showing their ignorance to you and all non-insiders.