Op/Ed: Enough with the Clubs!
by Alphaville Herald on 09/01/05 at 1:14 pm
Artemis Fate
The following essay by Artemis Fate appeared in Players, vol. 9. We are grateful to both Marilyn Murphy and to Artemis for permission to republish it here. It is, in our humble opinion, a spot on critique of the rise of club culture in SL, and how it signals a kind of failure of the SL vision.
Enough with the Clubs
by Artemis Fate
As of today, there are over 200 clubs listed in Find.
Now, needless to say, that’s a whole lot of clubs. What exactly happened? When did the world of SL, the world I knew and loved in the pre-1.2 days, a world where when people bought their plots, the first idea would be to see what kind of stuff they could build on it. I used to fly around and look at all the new builds, everything was original and exciting. Anyone remember the 50 foot toilet in Hawthorne? It was a time that didnt want or need clubs, there was only one successful club then; Club Vogue. A club that got mention in Hamlet’s NWN for being a seedy strip club, after all, something like that was unique.
After some time Club Elite was made, and after the controversy of his land holdings was washed out by a wave of incoming new players, it began to prosper. Now here, to me, is where things started going bad. Two clubs of course, isnt entirely that bad, but little by little, new players came in seeing the prosperity of Club Elite and decided that they too wanted a piece. So little by little, new players put away their creativity, their originality, their sense of adventure in the new world, and instead of seeing what they could do with their land in the new world, they instead turned to the idea of profits, plopping down a slipshod doppleganger of the latest prosperous club.
So SL went from a game that catered to the creative element of the technical community, programmers, engineers, and technicians, as well as just the everyday person with the rather risque areas of M areas, (at that time less than 25% of the entire land mass) to a lame imitation of Las Vegas life — a landscape speckled with gaggles of near-identical people boxes, religiously frequented by an evergrowing community of new players.
What may I say, happened to all the adventurers? The people who play the game to test how far they can take it. Seems like every new creative building, every new original object, and every step into the unknown in SL, is being done by long-time players. Whilst the growing population of new faces is little by little getting absorbed in joining a club, or making their own copy of a current popular club.
But I cant really blame them, I can see how a lost new player would get involved in this, I’ve heard from some new friends who managed to stay out of the club scene that some clubs send represtenatives to the welcome center, and try to lure any lost avatar to their establishments, with promise of money and information on the workings of the game. Infact, if anything pulls new players into the clubs, it’s a promise of money. Looking at my event list today, there are 33 events promising free money, that is, of 45 events. 6 more of these events are for clubs that are advertising a theme night. So out of 45 events in a day, 39 of them are club related, and only a feeble 3 events run by SL’s Mentor’s offering help to new players. Not to mention that all of these mentor events run early morning, when not as many new players are jumping into the game. So sadly enough, it seems that the majority of the new avatar population is destined to be parasitically absorbed by the club scene.
Second Life’s website used to advertise how you could be anything in this world, a scrolling list of fantasy job ocupations, a varitable plethora of child-hood dreams of what you’d grow up to be. But SL actually offers that you can be anything you want, a wonderful outtake of a person’s Id, the dreams of a child that didnt come true in life. So how come so many seem to have chosen a profession like Stripper or Hooker — professions that, decidedly, are not exactly bespeckled with what i’d call glory. Sure, I’ve known some people who’ve done it part time for money or maybe for fun, but these people do it all the time, all day of their SL time.
It’s simply…..displeasing to me, how club obsessed, how MONEY obsessed SL has become in these months. With the GoM turning SL’s play money into RL money, the world seems to have been plagued by greed, land barony, overpriced clothing and objects, and clubs trying anyway they can to get your dwell.
I really didnt want to see myself turn into that old lady who talks about the “good ol’ days” but personally; I prefer a gigantic toilet to a new club any day.
Artemis tending bar at the former Jessie dive: Dirty Dicks.
Wen Nomad
Jan 9th, 2005
Very well said,
Clubs have sucked away the creative spirit of SL and made it into a social simulator like There or TSO, which it most deffinantly is not. The quick recruitment of newbies by clubs has forced many of them into not realizing the true scope of possibilities in SL.
Prong Thetan
Jan 9th, 2005
For the very reasons outlined above, I decided early on that clubs, casinos, and shopping malls were not my idea of a fun Second Life…
Thanks to my dedicated team of developers, we have something brand NEW and entirely DIFFERENT to offer the “fresh off the boat” player.
It will send ripples through the Second Life community like nothing has before. It will align perfectly with Phillip Lindens vision.
All I can say for now is….
Something wicked this way comes
ian
Jan 9th, 2005
it seems this has happened to many MMOPRGS that doesn’t have killing involved in it. secondlife is a social MMORPG.
marilyn murphy
Jan 9th, 2005
ok, so glad this article is seeing a wider audience. when it was given to me by artemis i was very happy with it. it says what needs to be said. a very good observation well written.
Silarsis
Jan 9th, 2005
Personally, as a newcomer, I don’t think it’s the clubs that are the problem – it’s the money. It’s very easy to get hooked into the idea that you can make money, and even without the translation into real world dollars, Linden are justa bout the only obvious thing you can “play for” – the easiest way as a newcomer to go “yeah, I’m getting somewhere”.
Not sure how you fix it, though. Or if it should be fixed. Coders and Designers will build their own niches and populate them, newbies will eventually find them if they’re interested, and the whole thing will scale upward (similar to how the ‘net has – ask any old-timer about what the ‘net was like before it moved out of mainly academia…). Maybe.
urizenus
Jan 9th, 2005
What n00bs *should* do is work for the Herald as stringers. That way they could get out and explore SL *and* get paid 500-1K Linden per story. But noooooo, they would rather watch their avi dance inside a big ugly box.
Kurt
Jan 9th, 2005
I remember there was a point when ll state the regular events should not be listed on the event list. But from what i’ve seen the same people are listing their regular events all the time. .
personally I would like to see the clubs have their own event list. Separate from all other events. I think it would give new ideas a chance to develop. While allowing the more traditional event to still have their advertising.
Father Callahan
Jan 9th, 2005
Wait a second, we get paid?
urizenus
Jan 9th, 2005
Yes, but I deduct 1 linden for every time you spam me in YIM. Hence you owe me 187K Lindens.
Tony Walsh
Jan 10th, 2005
Hey Uri, I tried to trackback this post, but I seem to be blacklisted or something (second time in as many posts my trackback’s been rejected). If you have a sec can you unblock secretlair.com?
Thanks man
-t-
urizenus
Jan 10th, 2005
not sure what the problem is. I notice that some of the comments are going into the “moderated” pile — presumably because the spam detector doesn’t like them. Uh, I’ll look into both problems.
Maria LaVeaux
Jan 14th, 2005
Trends come, and Trends go.
Right now, new people express their creativity in the form of Clubs. (And some are Very creative). But in time, they get Bored with them, and try to stretch themselves else where.
I don’t see the catastrophe here.
As for Money Obsessed. We all want nice things,, some we make ourselves, some we buy. To buy them we need Money. To get money,, well, some form of Business is needed. SL has an Economy. Some think it is out of control, I disagree, because i can still buy a nice outfit for 200L or an unusual prop, or Decoration for 25L It isn’t like TSO, where Rare pets were fetching more than a Quarter Million, and people could almost Conjure money out of thin air. You Have to work for it, and in the Market,, Compete for the Dollars out there.
Maria
Urizenus
Jan 14th, 2005
The new economic changes should speed along the end of the club epidemic. What I hadn’t realized until just this week that was that because of the structure of event support in SL, the clubs were being supported by a form of Linden welfare. In effect, the Lindens were subsidizing creativity sink holes and in effect killing their own game/world. Hopefully the new economic changes will reverse the situation. Hopefully, I say.