The Alphaville Herald

Golden Calf Bleats No More. Are More Club Closings Far Behind?

by Alphaville Herald on 13/01/05 at 9:22 am

by Walker Spaight

Even before the economic changes recently announced by the Lindens went into effect, at least one club owner in Second Life had abandoned his nightspot when faced with having to maintain it in the absence of Linden event support, according to his landlord.

“Panzer Bixby, owner of the Golden Calf decided he couldn’t pay his rent for the land anymore, since he was using event hosting to make his money,” TinaStar Dawn told the Herald after Tuesday’s meeting with Robin Linden.

The club, formerly located on TinaStar’s land in the Alta sim, had opened only three months ago, but has now been torn down, TinaStar says. Without the rental income from the Golden Calf, which amounted to L$4,000 a month, TinaStar is now planning to tier down her land holdings to only enough for personal use.

Another resident told the Herald she planned to sell 6,000 square meters of land as a result of the changes.

While some changes to the economy were probably necessary, the path chosen has left club owners scrambling for ways to make ends meet. Other club and business owners expressed similar concerns to the Herald after the meeting.

Interviewed at a scantily-clad sexiest avatar contest at Club Belle Feu, owner Liv Karuna told the Herald that she plans to adapt to the new changes. “I plan to do what I need to do to continue to be successful,” she said,
“but I’m confident there is a middle ground that we might be able to explore.”

Liv cited a proposal brought up in a meeting with Philip Linden on Tuesday. Under that idea, which the Lindens are reportedly considering, event support would be reinstated in return for a L$100 reduction in base stipends. But a poll being conducted on the forums was running 52 percent against the idea to 40 percent in favor on Wednesday afternoon.

Though club closings would satisfy the concerns of some residents that club culture in Second Life has been getting out of hand, Karuna and others also cited the burden that ending event support would put on club owners’ payrolls.

“I’m as worried about my Lindens
as I am about losing good event managers,” Karuna said.

Designer Shiryu Musashi, who attended the meeting with Philip, pointed out to the Herald that “clubs offer jobs to MANY people that can’t afford to have their own business for one reason or another. Cutting event support would throw a good thousand people out of jobs. Designers and builders will be badly affected as well.”

Debate has raged in the forums over the last day or so on how well residents would take to being charged to go to a club. Some were concerned that a lack of patrons would mean not only the loss of Linden event support, but sharply reduced dwell payments as well.

But as Liv put it, “Trust me, dwell pays squat.”