UPDATED: They're baaaaaack. With this enigmatic phrase: "it was something we simply had to do." Again, IMHO, it wasn't. Except for new content, the businesses run themselves for the most part. Need to take a break, fine, but there's no need to shut down the entire sim for a short break. And frankly RL businesses couldn't get away with shutting down without some good reason stated publicly.
Original Post:
The quad sims are closed, no reason given, no hints on how long, nothing except for a "respect our decision" Well I can respect their decision to do so while still being of the mindset to say.....It's a dumb decision.
Yes, that's right, it's dumb, and not necessary at all.
Suppose I was a designer, and I needed to take a break for some RL reason, why with automated payments for sims and the like I wouldn't have to shut down at all. Just say, hey, going on vacation no customer service for two weeks. I wouldn't even have to do that if I did one thing that designers in SL do not do enough of:
Delegate.
Who needs to shut down if one has trusted managers/assistants that can handle customer requests. In particular, doesn't Dazzle have "design associates" now?
As an example, I could give my bosses at Linden Lifestyles, one of whom is still on hiatus.(Come back, Sabrina!) During their hiatus, did they shut down their sims? Nope, Did they shut down their businesses? Nope. I could log into SL and be in a fully in business Chez Petite in Calla, in two shakes of a lambs tail.
And if the shutdown is for a branding/image/store rebuild, then why shut down totally at all. Invite your customers to kibbitz and perhaps lend advice during the build ie. "No Ginny, don't drop the Dazzle branding, yes I know how you want to change the image built you've built up brand equity and people are still going to call your store Dazzle anyway."
And one final thing, when you shut down, you're giving free money to your competitors. Remember Ginny's hiatus when she shut down Dazzle? Remember all those new designers that showed up and got blogged? It would have been harder for those people to break into the SL fashion market if Ginny had still been putting out hordes of stuffage. Her absence created opportunity.
Now, I doubt that all four of the Quad sim folks are having RL issues at the same time. Odds are they're going to do some kind of joint "Ginny, Starley, Elika, Cani 2.0" thing, god forbid. IMHO personal opinion it was a bad idea to move those four busy (and often laggy) sims right next to each other anyway It could be possible that one is having RL issues an dthe others are closed in solidarity. That would be nice for a few hours or a day, but perhaps not very business savvy for days on end.
The unofficial, unauthorized, fansite blog of CronoCloud Creeggan, an avatar in the game/playtoy/virtual world, Second Life®. Since I consider myself a fashionista, guess what I'm going to talk about...mostly...Fashion! Second Life® and Linden Lab® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. All rights reserved. No infringement is intended.
8 comments:
Whatever, theyre attention whores, shop elsewhere. They didnt close, they temporarily closed. im tred of them trying to cause hysteria and bring attention to themselves, im no longer shopping at any of those sims unless they return with a damn good reason for this continual BS.
I think it's hard for people operating a virtual business who may not be business people in RL to understand what is and isn't a good decision. In RL, a closure of this kind would be accompanied with a press release explaining why it happened. No one is saying anyone has to in SL, but it would have been a good idea from the customer's perspective. When you get big enough to pull out an RL income that will sustain you, there should be at least some accountabilty.
Now, of course, no one KNOWS what happened. It's not like them to disappear for no reason. I suspect the reason they haven't SAID why they left is because doing so would make one or all four of them look very bad. I really hope that isn't the case because a) I like them all, and their products, and b) it'll probably come out anyway and hurt them ten times worse than if they said it in the first place.
Just speculation on my part, of course.
Uh it's no one's business why they closed. Period.
They are back open so I guess go shop till your heart is content.
Way to be shallow.
mm they're always doing crap like this. it's called "Lets see how many of these pathetic sheep will blog about us and devote time of their lives to talking about us!!"
Like I said, go shop elsewhere this is a pathetic need for them to feed their egos and laugh at you guys and how easily they puppet you. /=
As someone said before me, we do not know why the quad closed. I would like to add to that that we do not have the right to demand to know what the motivation behind that was.
If you own a (virtual) business, you can shut it down at any time you see fit. You do not owe an explanation to anyone. We all have a right to our privacy, remember?
It may have been inconvenient for some (I can understand that), but let's see things in perspective here, shall we?
Nobody was harmed in any way because of this. So what if you couldn't buy that skin/dress/hair you wanted. There's more to your (second) life than shopping, even if you proclaim to be a fashionista.
I personally do not care what the motivation for shutting down was; just glad the place reopened again.
Why does this touch you so badly, Crono? More importantly: why do you (and apparently some commenters here) consider this to be an interesting topic to write about?
I doubt it was an attempt to create drama, but if it would have been, you guys were sure quick to jump on the bandwagon. : D
Elisama
I would like to add to that that we do not have the right to demand to know what the motivation behind that was. If you own a (virtual) business, you can shut it down at any time you see fit. You do not owe an explanation to anyone. We all have a right to our privacy, remember?
Correct, but the SL blogs are the press, and if say Macy's/Bloomies/Saks/Nordies all shut down with the same enigmatic notice, the RL press would be asking questions. That's my point in part, the Quad Four are the equivalent of the big department stores, and they need to start thinking like that.
Why does this touch you so badly, Crono? More importantly: why do you (and apparently some commenters here) consider this to be an interesting topic to write about?
Again, imagine you're a fashion reporter for say, the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune. Imagine the biggest stores in NYC or Chicago shutting down with the exact same press release with limited information. You'd start writing and commenting wouldn't you? Four of the biggest fashion houses in SL just shut down for a week, with practically no explanation why. They can do that yes, but they can't stop people from wondering why.
If they didn't want any "supposition" or wanted their privacy they could have left their stores open, not made any comment at all and still taken their hiatus. There are content creators who've done that. And if there was some tragedy why not say something because there are plenty of folks who would want to help with fundraisers, virtual vigils, whatever.
My personal theory is that they took a trip to see Willow and made the mistake of shutting down rather than using the visit as an opportunity to "honor" Willow by say, having a sale on Willow-packs.
And as Alaska said above:
In RL, a closure of this kind would be accompanied with a press release explaining why it happened. No one is saying anyone has to in SL, but it would have been a good idea from the customer's perspective. When you get big enough to pull out an RL income that will sustain you, there should be at least some accountabilty.
Shut up. Please. I'm tired of hearing about this quad drama when it's all made up by the people of SL. No drama from the quad it's self. HMMM.. So we can blame drama on other people now? What is the world coming to.
Yikes....
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