Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A question for protesters with the courage of their convictions

A wave of protests broke out today after Linden Lab announced a 66% increase in Openspace pricing starting in January. Although I hope the company will reconsider and grandfather existing sims, the only real leverage we have is the power of the purse.

If you really believe that Linden's action is unethical, are you willing to make a pledge to cancel paid status and abandon your Second Life property if they don't relent? (Linden still gets the tier if you sell it.) Would you leave behind the virtual country of your birth, walk away from your digital assets and emigrate to the technologically inferior wilderness of an OpenSim?

Just wondering.

6 comments:

  1. If the residents of Nowhereville, Edloe, and Harbour wanted someone to lead the exodus, yes, I would fill that role for them and take the hit.

    -ls/cm

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  2. Do you mean to suggest that anyone who isn't willing to leave SL entirely if this policy isn't changed *doesn't* have the courage of your convictions? I can't actually think of a convincing argument for that, and of course you don't say it directly, but...

    Just wondering. :)

    (Oooh, the captcha word I got is "Ressians". Eerie!)

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  3. It's an important question and one, I believe, everyone is likely asking themselves at this point. It would be a very difficult decision and I suppose I can only hope at this point that it does not come down to that.

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  4. Mr. C. I didn't really expect anyone to say yes. :)

    dale: I was mostly being melodramatic to bring up people's feelings about how hard it would be to walk away, as well as the level of sacrifice protesters may need to choose to follow through on their convictions. Also a bit of an analogy on RL decisions people make to leave a repressive or intolerable environment and at great cost emigrate.

    izzy: Thanks. I hope it doesn't come down to that either.

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  5. I left a very tight raiding guild in EverQuest after 4 years; I loved many of those people. I left World of Warcraft and the guild I belonged to there as well.

    As you point out, there is a calculus of pain and hope here; I do have an OpenSim server running at home, so lets just wait and see.

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  6. I do believe that LL's actions are unethical, stupid and destructive.

    However, I don't believe there's any power in the universe that will get them to change their minds, and, frankly, I think they *want* our kind gone, gone entirely, and gone now.

    I'm not ready to leave yet. I'm hoping I'll have the luxury of making that choice myself, and not having it made for me by the next vile decision from LL, or the one after that.

    I can't count on that, though. So, I set up an av in OpenSim late last night.

    Not preparing for the eventuality of SL becoming completely intolerable would be foolish, given LL's history...

    ReplyDelete

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A beautiful thought experiment personified through the imagined perspective of a self-aware avatar. My creator's site can is at http://fourworlds.tumblr.com