Every couple of months a new topic, or one revisited, comes up that gets blogged and sends everyone into fits. The most recent is again the Great Debate on Freebies. Prad stirred the pot quite a bit with his post, Entitlement and loads of other bloggers have commented or written on their own blogs about it. I’m not gonna debate the worthiness of freebies with anyone. They have their place and use and if someone works really hard at making something and then decides to just give it away…. Well who am I to tell them they can’t or shouldn’t?
There are many things in the SL economy that annoy me to no end but I’m not going to waste a lot of time complaining to the internet about it. I stopped doing hunts ages ago. If my friends are doing one and want company, sure I’ll hop my way around with them but I don’t feel compelled to continue. I have to say though, I’ve found a few new favorite stores through these things so they aren’t all bad. But saying that, I won’t waste hours and hours going to hundreds of stores for stuff that I may or may not end up keeping. Just as an aside, a list of all the participating stores in a hunt would be great because even if I don’t go on the hunt, I can always visit these stores later when they aren’t as crowded and can do some serious shopping. Just sayin…
The problem isn’t the freebie in my mind. The problem is the people. The consumers who have gotten so engrossed in the ‘hunts’ that they have forgotten that these are actually stores, not just buildings holding a hunt a gift that you have to find. The designers in an effort to improve sales or traffic or both keeping improving the free gift they give out or join more hunts. The quality of some of the free gifts I’ve seen is just stellar so kudos to all of you for the higher standards you’ve set. But when your freebies are so damn good, I don’t need to buy anything! Then there are the bloggers. I use the fashion blogs just like everyone else to see what’s new and for ideas. No, I don’t like seeing something on every single blog and usually those items i’ll avoid. At least for a few months anyway. 
The point I’m making here is that we ALL have contributed to this feeling of "Entitlement" as Prad puts it.
For me, freebies taught me how to build. I took things apart, figured out how they were done and then tried to duplicate them. Once I realized I could make a copy, well then I had to make my ‘own’. I don’t have a store and I don’t sell anything on Xstreet but I do know how to make some stuff. Clothing and shoes and hair escape me mainly because of the amount of photoshop time and patience and frankly skill needed that I just don’t have right now. Right now I’m focusing on making some animations for myself. When I’m happy with them, maybe I’ll sell them or give some away, who knows. The fact is I learned how to do things by pulling other peoples work apart and seeing what made it work or how it was put together. I also spent hours watching Prad build and learned sooo much from him, seeing how he puts something together. So, the freebie served a purpose for me.
All that being said, I’ll still grab a freebie that I see that is amazing or that I just simply have to have. To be honest though, I’d pay for these items if they weren’t free.
Instead of everyone getting angry with each other, designer and consumer alike, or attempting to point fingers or throw the blame around, why don’t you all start the designers consortium as someone suggested in Prad’s comments. Get together and talk about how to increase business or traffic or marketing or PR. Talk this stuff out together, ask your customers what they think, work together rather than against each other. Get some folks together who know how to run a successful business in SL and RL. Come up with new ways of doing things. This is SL, if we can fly then surely there are different ways of marketing your product.
I’ve met quite a few designers in SL and without exception they are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. They are also incredibly talented and busy and smart. I’d love to see a group of them get together to sort out some of the issues with SL business.
Look what they accomplish for RFL every year….
Imagine what they could do for the SL economy….
Tags: content creation, entitlement, fashion, freebies, prad prathivi, SecondLife
I have some old clothes from 2 years ago that were freebies. But most of what is in my inventory that is worthwhile are things I bought. Some are gifted to me by friends, whether designers or just someone buying me a gift. I’ve made a few small things, but nothing that I think is worthwhile selling, or was made for some other purpose than a business, like personal gifts.
Freebie warehouses seem like graveyards to me of past items that may or may not be worth all the time spent digging through them. Sure, a hunt for prizes at a store might be interesting to some, but it’s not so appealing to me. What matters to me is keeping the prices reasonable. Sure, it’s vague, but, for an example, I wouldn’t pay $1000 L for just a pair of shoes or a shirt, no matter how wonderfully textured or has amazingly crafted prim parts (which, for most clothing besides maybe shoes, armor, or some specialty items, is kind of a waste of prims and slots that could be used on the body for other things) , or whatever. I may pay close to $1000 L on a set of clothing, depending on how many sets are included and if the design appeals to me. But otherwise, paying more than $500 L for one outfit, or $50 to $100 L for a single piece of what ultimately amounts to doll clothing is not in my personal budget or interest. Let’s get reasonable, if you want people to shell out $50 of rl money for designer jeans, then go out into the world, take some designer classes, take a job in the industry, whether of an established company, or if you have the money to start one, start your own line of designer clothing in the real world to get real world prices. Otherwise, realize that you’re likely not going to be a RL millionaire by selling SL clothing. Get rich quick scams are just that, scams. You still have to put effort into a product to make it a success, no matter if it’s a rl or sl product.
Some more thoughts…
Instead of businesses giving freebie clothing away, why not have contests by which one earns awards? I know there are contests all the time in SL, or at least used to be. Though most have mainly given cash prizes.
Plus, a lot of the club contests are usually a ‘Best in…’ whatever outfit or theme. Why not make contests that have more depth than that, such as an art contests, or maybe a reading contest, or something that has the person putting more effort into it? And, with the more effort required for the contest, the more quality in the reward.
That could take care of entitlement, as the receiving a prize is much more rewarding than just being handed something.