Second Life now reporting "Active User" numbers

[Trippy]

Active User as defined in their Metrics Glossary:

An Active User is defined as a Resident who has logged into the system for longer than 1 Hour for the reported time period. Active users could include Alternate accounts, if those accounts are being used for longer than 1 hour.

Numbers for May and June as downloaded from Meta's metrics blog:

May 2007 - 507,844
June 2007 - 494,981      

Note that these aren't true unique user numbers despite the name since they include alts played for more than an hour (the spreadsheet column name Active Avatar Count is a more accurate description).

Publishing these numbers also confirms the anecdotal evidence that lots of people are trying SL but not many are sticking around. If you look at the Population tab in the July spreadsheet you can see that around 900K 850K new accounts ("Unique Residents") were created in June but the number of Active Users actually went down compared to May.

[Venkman]

Good info.

I still think the best metric is the premium account holders. Those accounts show:

• The truly interested people who felt it was worth investing in the game world
• The only people who can own land, as only those who pay a fee can own land
• The only people who can build permanent stuff, as only those who own land can build stuff that doesn't disappear
• (in theory) the people actually buying most of what is for sale, mostly including land barons

The number of visitors (the 8mil+ number) is good for people who want to justify having a presence there, as this in theory could be advertising. Of course, it's harder to find people than be alone :)

Otherwise, people trying to justify presence in SL to further a political agenda or make money have to look at the far lower numbers to understand the true potential.

[Numtini]

# The only people who can own land, as only those who pay a fee can own land

That's less and less true because of the Linden's anything goes libertarianism the mainland is a cesspool. So lots of people, probably a majority, own land that they rent from other residents on private sims. Since the premium account "tier" doesn't help with that, most of us with land on private sims are not premium members.

[CmdrSlack]

You're also not really land owners in the traditional sense. Renting in SL is similar to renting in RL in the sense that you don't own the land, but have the right to use it for a specific period of time. Your use is likely restricted based on the rules your landowner has set. In SL, that's your restrictive covenant, in RL, that's a lease.

Granted, I think those who truly "own" land in the SL sense are also just glorified renters, but that's just me.

[Numtini]

I actually love my covenant. I've owned three plots on the mainland and every one has started nice and ended up with some purple cube monstrosity or a porno thing next door.

[CmdrSlack]

What bugs me are the covenants that accompany sales, not rentals.

If I wanted that, I'd go buy a RL home in some gated community.

[Numtini]

I find it so minimally intrusive. To me it's all just common sense. It's less like a gated community and more like basic zoning.

[Tale]

Nalts (rising YouTube star) tries Second Life

Tonight I tried to understand why Second Life is getting such buzz. I met a drag queen, flew naked and ran over a rat on a segway I stole from a drag queen.

Am I missing something here?

[Deniz]

I rent a place on a private covenant-restricted sim where I paid a purchase price and have rights to sell on the property, so it's effectively a permanent lease I suppose. I wouldn't dream of buying land on the mainland. It's clusterfuck shanty-town full of retards.

[Furiously]

Couple questions on land ownership for those of you that do own.

Looks like you can rent from someone for just about the same cost and not have the real $ impact. In fact, I'm very confused on why they use Linden $'s for everything but the tier fees.

Sky rentals - I've seen a few floating structures - Seems like some enterprising individual could rent the sky above them for more $, why don't people do this? Or can you only sub-divide based on X and Y?

So, for $9.95 I can rent land, and pay at least $5 a month in land use fee's if I have more then a 22 meter x 22 meter space?

Do any of you make money in SL?

[CmdrSlack]

Nope, no sky rentals. Most of my builds used low-height to mid-height stuff (you can actually have observation rooms that just allow you to see the stuff below you), mostly because two of the really neat things I discovered early on were aircraft and skydiving.

I don't make money in SL, but I guess I could if I was to actually take the time to finish the prefab houses and furniture I'd created.

[Numtini]

You can divide rental into "land rental" and "apartment/dwelling rental."

By apartment/dwelling rental, I mean places that have a bunch of prefabs already all set up, sometimes furnished usually not, with the land around them decorated. You pay lindens into a box in the front of the house and its yours for the week or month. These are a pretty good way to get a little space to call your own. But the rules of these sorts of places are usually very strict. More like living in a condomium than owning or renting a home. One of my friends lives in one of these. She has a condo which actually looks like a townhouse condo. Inside she has full decoration rights. Outside, it's prelandscaped and she has no rights to decorate her yard or the outdoors near the house. She can't have a skybox either. She has a boat and is allowed to park it at the dock because she has specific permission from the landlord.

Land rental just means buying land on a private island without the upfront cost and you pay the landlord more per month than you would if you "bought." Like I bought my land with an upfront cost of about US $100, but it's on one of Ansche Chung's private islands. I pay $24 a month to Ansche Chung for a 1/16th of a sim. If I hadn't "bought" it with an upfront cost, I could have the same 4096 on an Anche Chung sim for $28. So there's a $4 premium for not paying that upfront cost. The land here is blank, I have complete control over it other than the covenant which is basically "don't create ugly crap that bothers your neigbors."

You can definitely rent "sky" spaces under the apartment model, but most people don't. Most skyboxes aren't all that attractive, so ground construction is easier to sell. And the real limiting factor on use of your property isn't how you divide it physically, but the number of prims you have available to build. So if you are renting in the sky, you effectively can't rent on the ground because you only have so many prims to work with. Though, I have seen one place that rents skyboxes by the hour for sex purposes.

[WayAbvPar]

I am starting to see a disturbing number of friends on Xfire playing Second Life. If that doesn't show the need for a decent new MMOG I don't know what does.

[Slayerik]

I am starting to see a disturbing number of friends on Xfire playing Second Life. If that doesn't show the need for a decent new MMOG I don't know what does.

I just caught myself going...Hmmm...maybe I should check this out.

Thanks WAP for putting me back on the right path. I owe you one.

[Furiously]

I am starting to see a disturbing number of friends on Xfire playing Second Life. If that doesn't show the need for a decent new MMOG I don't know what does.

You remember how cool NWN's was going to be? How there were going to be TONS of great modules to play through, how much fun you were going to have fun playing D&D again? Then you downloaded a couple modules. And reality set it.

That. Is. Second. Life.

Just because you give everyone content creation tools doesn't mean everyone should be playing with them - Just like it was with NWN's.

That being said, there were 2 or 3 incredible modules to download, and it's the same with SL. I really need to post a SS of the zone I found last night. I was amazed. Someone had made a Japanese City Scape complete with Neon Evawhatever whatever robots. Then there was a cel shaded area with giant flowers, octopuses and tea-cups.

There are a couple great things to do. The rest of it sucks. If you can find the good stuff - it's a good diversion. I appreciate the lack of grindage. But for entertainment...I can step onto a dance floor with live music or a live DJ and immediately look like I could be dancing with the stars.

It's a sandbox.

[Deniz]

One thing that Second Life has finally proven to me that I'm basically a Bartlesque explorer, because I can spend hours just looking at sims and all the shit people have created. And there are a lot of sims in Second Life. The other thing that can keep you there is, as one of Lum's posts on brokentoys mentions, getting yourself set-up in one of SL's communities, like the RP sims of Midian City or the City of Lost Angels, or the steampunk region Caledon. Some of the most interesting RP around is going down in SL.

On skyboxes, when you buy land you own the space above it and can build to about 700 feet. As Numtini says, the limit to building is running out of prims so if you're building on the land and in a skybox then you have to be a bit spartan. In the last couple of days I've been building what is a basically a huge box with a forest glade inside floating 700 feet above my land. I go up there to build shit without being pestered and work on my marksmanship for the RP/combat sims I mess around in.

Anyway, the game is not for everyone. There are no foozles, besides anything else. But I'd basically lost interest in traditional MMOGs in the last few years and needed something different to keep the love alive.

[CmdrSlack]

My only real issue with SL beyond the obvious ones (crap search function, crap UI, laggy/buggy, etc.) is that when I DO own land and I actively work on creating content towards that "open a shop" goal, I tend to get too involved time-wise to where I have to just stop playing for a while to reclaim my To Do list.

Building objects is a total time warper for me, I sit down to build "just one table" and then hours have gone by and I'm trying to hack several free scripts together to make the table do something strange like auto rez various place settings via voice commands.

[Furiously]

My only real issue with SL beyond the obvious ones (crap search function, crap UI, laggy/buggy, etc.) is that when I DO own land and I actively work on creating content towards that "open a shop" goal, I tend to get too involved time-wise to where I have to just stop playing for a while to reclaim my To Do list.

Building objects is a total time warper for me, I sit down to build "just one table" and then hours have gone by and I'm trying to hack several free scripts together to make the table do something strange like auto rez various place settings via voice commands.

I'd agree with both those statements. There is nothing worse then knowing what you want to find, but being unable to because you don't know the exact name of the person selling it or the store name.

My other complaint is that it seems like nothing gets cached. I should be able to save like 5 zones as favorites and it should store all their geometry and textures. When it takes 5 minutes to rez a zone, something is broken.

[Soln]

you wonder why they wouldn't just show unique CC holders, might give a better sense of unique subs.  Also, do they have numbers for members that have done an exchange -- i.e. that have made RL money? or did I miss that? thx

[WindupAtheist]

Some of the most interesting RP around is going down in SL.

How the hell does SL make enough sense to roleplay in?

"Let's see, there's a dark elf Jedi with his lightsaber glued to his crotch, Captain Yiffy of the Starship Furryprize won't stop pointing his tricorder at me, and I'm pretty sure a squadron of Messershmits with cocks painted on the side just flew by chasing a giant grapefruit.  What would my character, Throgdar the cyborg barbarian, really say in this situation?"

[Numtini]

How the hell does SL make enough sense to roleplay in?

Because, like a mud, it lets you create a private area to RP in.

BTW if anyone hasn't seen Starry Nights, go peek. It's a machinima, Raph links to it.

[Viin]

How the hell does SL make enough sense to roleplay in?

Because, like a mud MUSH/MOO, it lets you create a private area to RP in.

BTW if anyone hasn't seen Starry Nights, go peek. It's a machinima, Raph links to it.

Fixed it. I know I know, but it annoys me when people lump hack-n-slash MUDs with social oriented MUSH/MOO stuff.

[cmlancas]

I used to play a MOO when I was very, very little where we used to construct turn based pokemans.


It was fun for awhile.

[Trippy]

How the hell does SL make enough sense to roleplay in?

Because, like a mud MUSH/MOO, it lets you create a private area to RP in.

BTW if anyone hasn't seen Starry Nights, go peek. It's a machinima, Raph links to it.

Fixed it. I know I know, but it annoys me when people lump hack-n-slash MUDs with social oriented MUSH/MOO stuff.

MUD is the general term.

[CmdrSlack]

Also, do they have numbers for members that have done an exchange -- i.e. that have made RL money? or did I miss that? thx

I don't recall if their economy reports include numbers on how many people bought vs cashed out, but that's where they'd be if they were released.

I found this in the member area under "economic status":

Code:

 Estimated In World Business Owners
Unique Users with Positive Monthly Linden Dollar Flow (PMLF) 2
USD Equivalent PMLF 	January 2007 	February 2007 	March 2007 	April 2007 	May 2007 	June 2007
< $10 USD 	                    11,396 	     13,490 	    16,598 	        17,795 	          21,006 	23,159
$10 to $50 USD 	                   5,671 	     6,625           8,692 	         9,475 	           10,638 	 11,544
$50 to $100 USD 	          1,489 	    1,690 	    2,133 	        2,340 	           2,613 	  2,697
$100 to $200 USD 	         1,119 	           1,289 	   1,635 	       1,763 	          1,840 	 2,040
$200 to $500 USD 	         1,018 	           1,165 	   1,415 	       1,592 	          1,628 	 1,685
$500 to $1,000 USD 	          386 	             496 	     631 	          699 	              674 	      645
$1,000 to $2,000 USD 	         263 	             283 	    395 	         396 	             389             422
$2,000 to $5,000 USD 	         188 	             211 	    278 	         275 	             288 	     273
> $5,000 USD 	                     97 	          116 	        152 	             139 	         139 	         132
Total Unique Users with PMLF 	21,627 	       25,365          31,929 	         34,474 	    39,215 	   42,597

What PMLF is:

PMLF (Positive Monthly Linden Flow) looks at the flow of Linden Dollars into a unique user's account BEFORE Linden Lab Charges are applied to the account. These numbers EXCLUDE payments or receipts related to the sale or acquisition of land (since theoretically these represent investments and not business receipts). All numbers are rolled-up among avatar "alts" to the Unique Customer Level. Businesses that are operate Linden Dollar exchanges are excluded. Note that some businesses accept payment outside the Linden Economy (e.g. via CC & Paypal) and those numbers are not included in these reports.

The chart looks like ass, I know. I spent some time trying to format it and was rather unsuccessful, although it looks perfect in the text entry box. At any rate, it doesn't really answer the question directly, but it's some kind of number regarding number of residents making dough.

[Trippy]

The chart looks like ass, I know. I spent some time trying to format it and was rather unsuccessful, although it looks perfect in the text entry box.

Get rid of the tabs.

[Tale]

So, could I make the following statements about the gold in them thar digital hills?

- More than 90 per cent of Second Life accounts spend more than they earn in it.

- Half of those "earning money" earn less than $10 per month.

- Fees cancel out small incomes, so really 96 per cent of Second Life accounts spend more than they earn.

- Of half a million active Second Life accounts, only a few hundred could be said to earn a real world equivalent income from it.

[TripleDES]

Jesus, if I'd make 5k USD a month, I'd be playing this piece of shit all day, too.

[WindupAtheist]

How the hell does SL make enough sense to roleplay in?

Because, like a mud, it lets you create a private area to RP in.

BTW if anyone hasn't seen Starry Nights, go peek. It's a machinima, Raph links to it.

Weak.  If they were real roleplayers, they'd just RP out in the world and rationalize it as them living in Hell or something.  :-D

[Furiously]

Jesus, if I'd make 5k USD a month, I'd be playing this piece of shit all day, too.

Completely unrelated, but suddenly I am thinking about switching to e-surance...

[Righ]

How the hell does SL make enough sense to roleplay in?

Because, like a mud MUSH/MOO, it lets you create a private area to RP in.

BTW if anyone hasn't seen Starry Nights, go peek. It's a machinima, Raph links to it.

Fixed it. I know I know, but it annoys me when people lump hack-n-slash MUDs with social oriented MUSH/MOO stuff.

MUD is the general term.

Arguably. Some people use the term MUD to apply only to hack & slash games, others use the term to apply to online stuff universally. Apparently Viin belongs to the former group, and you belong to the latter. Neither of you own the term, so you're free to argue, but you ain't gonna convince each other in this thread or the next. Good luck.

[Trippy]

Arguably. Some people use the term MUD to apply only to hack & slash games, others use the term to apply to online stuff universally. Apparently Viin belongs to the former group, and you belong to the latter. Neither of you own the term, so you're free to argue, but you ain't gonna convince each other in this thread or the next. Good luck.

Well MOO stands for "MUD Object Oriented" so he's wrong about that one by definition. And TinyMUSH/TinyMUCK, where the terms MUSH and MUCK came from, were both derived from TinyMUD (as well as whole bunch of others like TinyMUSE and TinyMUX) so unless he thinks TinyMUD is not a "MUD" he's wrong about those as well.

[Furiously]

Of half a million active Second Life accounts, only a few hundred could be said to earn a real world equivalent income from it.

A. Land fee's of $200 (mainland) to $300 a month (Island).
B. Exhange rate of 270 Lindens to the dollar.

Which means...You have to do $54,000 to $81,000 Linden's of business a month. Just to break even. Considering your average clothing outfit goes for $50 to $500 lindens, that's a lot of sales you'll have to make. Granted, you are likely not going to utilize the full island or find a full zone on mainland.

If I had a ton of cash laying around I would think the way to make money would be to wait for the 75% of businesses that open to fold then buy their land to sell to the next person who thinks their future in SL is going to be full of RL MONEY!!!! But I don't have a ton of cash that I'm will to bet with. I'm also predicting SL is going to have their first bubble shortly with people realizing you don't need 100 empty strip clubs, 100 malls that are mostly vacant and 100 casino's that are going to be closed once the IRS contacts Linden Labs.

[Numtini]

If I had a ton of cash laying around I would think the way to make money would be to wait for the 75% of businesses that open to fold then buy their land to sell to the next person who thinks their future in SL is going to be full of RL MONEY!!!!

That's how Ansche Chung made her money.

[CmdrSlack]

A friend of mine here in Chicago owns one or two islands and just rents out lots. She makes enough to break even plus a few hundred bucks/mo that she uses for going out and whatnot.

So it's entirely doable.