Second Life Costs: What a Sane Adult Might Say

Location: Saying "Goodbye to all that"

Dean: "I hear that prices went up in that Second World game you use."

Iggy: "Um, that's Second Life."

Dean (shuffles windows on his computer until invoice pops up): "So now we have to pay $300 monthly for a fake island?"

Iggy: "Well, it's renting server space."

Dean: "You pay $700 annually for that online scheduling system you use for over 2000 students each year, right?"

Iggy: "Yes, and we get instant phone support and technical trouble-shooting for the data on their servers."

Dean: "What does this Linden Labs company provide for our $3600?"

Iggy: "Not so much."

Dean: "So buy a server and talk to I.T. about support. On your three-year replacement cycle that's a lot cheaper. Get one of our in-house grants to attend a training class on running this OpenSim thing."

Iggy: "I like that idea."

Dean: "Say....you mean someone can be a dog in this Second World...Life thing?"

Iggy: "True."

Dean: "And what would a dog do in Second Life?"

Iggy: "What dogs do in real life, but talk and fly too."

Dean: "Get in touch with purchasing about that server."

It is best that we leave SL. Seriously. If we are going to seem serious to the world beyond we need to bid a fond goodbye to social users. We don't let y'all use our intranets or a lot of our Web 2.0 content. It's for the paying customers called "students" and our colleagues on the faculty and staff.

Goodbye and thanks for all the prims, LL.