Looping the Hen

The New Economy: Prologue

More than 100,000 people worldwide make their living off of Ebay. Many are ‘game merchants’, peddlers of magic swords, virtual real estate and bags full of gold coin. More than 30,000 people (in the US) make a comfortable living playing online games full-time and selling their in-game loot, gold, or credits for the real-world variety. In Eastern Europe and Asia, ‘game farms’ employ thousands of people who instead of sweating it out stitching clothes or sweeping streets, work 12-hour days swinging cartoon axes, collecting treasure, and turning it over to their boss at the end of their shift. Most work on a quota; occasionally, the best (or the lucky) find a way to ‘embezzle’ some of it and convert it into valuable American currency.

It boggles the mind of many folks I talk to that can’t comprehend paying real money for virtual goods, or even that virtual items can have value. I hope this series of articles may give them a little more understanding of those of us who find real worth in things that are ‘unreal.’ This will be the first of a two or three-part series breaking down and explaining a cultural phenomenon that has the potential to allow many of us who have nothing more than an idea, a little faith, and a dollop of luck to live well above our means, either by fully embracing the New Economy, or using it to increase our standard of living.

The first installment will focus on the development of virtual economies: what they are, how they develop, why they work and are important, and both the opportunity and dangers they represent. The 2nd will discuss the rise of Ebay and the auction economy, and its potential to create a new middle class. We will touch on what Glenn Reynolds calls the ‘Army of Davids’, empowered individuals who ‘punch above their weight’ by leveraging technology. Everyday folks now have the ability to do many things that not so many years ago were limited to the commercial or governmental sphere.

I hope that I can get people as excited as I am by the prospect of having a huge portion of the economy run by us, by entrepreneurs, many of who are our friends and neighbors. Nowadays, no one has to accept living an ‘average life.’ This means you (and me!): Tammybaby, Lilly, Mom, Dad and Anne, Tom and Dagi, AKBar and WCB, Todd, Gribblet and DarkElf, Gibb and Saint, Tarpy and MamaB. And everyone else who may stop by! People are not limited now by high costs of owning and starting a business, by blindingly obtuse regulations, by taxes, or by ‘the Man.’ People are limited or not only by their own willingness to take a risk. And in some cases there is almost no risk involved, as we can now easily convert our entertainment to extra cash.

So let’s start with the area of the New Economy that has done so well by me: virtual worlds and their associated economies. Be warned, some of these articles will be long. However, I hope most of you will engage with me if you don’t understand something, or would like to add your insights, either in the comments, by email, or even by (gasp) phone. I hope to have the first installment up tomorrow!

Aaaaaah!

It finally felt like the worst of summer was past us today! It was beautiful and the temperature was just low enough so I could feel human after sweating. Arnold and I went running in the park; we did a mile and a half at a pretty good clip. I was impressed a creature 6 inches tall could keep up as well as he did. My honey joined us for a 2nd lap of 1.5; she has started to run parts of it and we walk the rest. She has done fabulous and I am proud of her, especially as she just quit smoking a couple months ago! You go Honeybee!

I might be back to a decent blogging schedule, we'll see how it goes. I have at least a couple or 3 days worth of stuff for here, and I am going to be starting a new D&D game, so I will have posts over on the other side starting in a day or so also. Rodney also picked the next challenge for DDM, it's over here. We still wish you'd come play Gribblet and Dark_Elf!

G has reminded me I have some stories to tell from Canada still also, and I have been wanting to do a couple of pieces on what I call 'the New Economy'. I am hoping it will be practice for some editorial writing I hope to do for Lime-Tree Girl. I am also working on a pretty significant business venture with G and some others, I am sure I'll want to pontificate on some of that as well.

Anyhoo, my baby has Grilled Cheeses and Soup waiting, she rocks! Back later!

The Eve S+L Crisis

This article describes a fairly common occurrence in the Eve universe (the game where I sold that character for all that kayle). The total value of the embezzlement, at Ebay prices, is closer to $80,000 than the $170,000 posited in the article. Still, not bad for a few months work.

As always, a few whiners wonder whether they can sue in the real world, or perhaps even call the police and try to prosecute a crime. Personally, I've always liked Eve because it is truly open-ended. CCP has a long tradition of not attempting to stop incidents like this in an attempt to have the game player-driven, in contrast to Blizzard and most of the other MMOG-running companies. It is immersive in ways that most other online games can only hope to be.

In the beginning it was a little hard, as many players had a hard time of creating their own 'content' as they were used to developers spoon-feeding it to them, but now it is becoming one of the more successful games and has a huge cult following. In fact, their China server opening broke records for concurrent players just a couple of months ago, and there are now more Chinese accounts than total 'Western' players.

This is me!

This is perfect, Mamab!

From Non-Sequitur, one of the funniest comic series ever. There is one group of strips about the little girl starting her own religion; it had me in stitches for ages!

She's truly made for me!

So my honey and I are out driving the other day on the interstate. We pass under one of those electric signs the states use to advertise Amber Alerts, traffic delays and the like. This day, it said 'Air Quality Alert-Take Fewer Trips'. Tammy looks at me and asks 'I've always wondered why they put those signs on the highway...what does taking fewer trips have to do with pollen count?'

Rob from the poor and give to the...

Happy 200th post! Go me!

This must be my bad year for customer service. I think I find it more frustrating to have a bad experience(s) now because most of my job is working with folks of various levels, from clerks to VPs to vendors, and helping each of them the best I can. My department often gets compliments for their genuine desire to do their jobs well and serve their customers. So when I reach clueless customer service folks, people who could care less about whether they've actually helped me, let alone done the right thing, or just downright refuse to respond (like my condo management company), it perturbs, annoys, or in Sprint PCS's case, makes me downright angry.

I'll get to Sprint in a minute, because I'm actually going to file a BBB complaint against them for a dangerous security policy, and need to work myself up into an appropriate lather.

Having listened to G and read about many condo associations, property associations, and condo management companies, it is obvious a good deal, maybe even most, are horrible. It seems mine is no different. I am sure some of you will think 'what's the big deal?' but my condo management company compounded their initial, and probably minor, screwup by refusing to respond to any request of mine for information.

So when I bought my condo, I picked what I thought was a great unit. It is always 10 degrees cooler in the summer than most of my neighbors due to great shading (a big deal in TN), it's a corner unit so I only have two neighbors (the weird Karaoke neighbors for those who have heard me babble on about them; the other unit behind me is currently vacant). It has a good view of the pool, has a nice little stream (when there is actually water running through it, which only happens about 1/4 of the year), and the trash dumpster was very close, about 20 yards from my front door.

Well, about 5 months ago I was going to take my trash out and noticed my dumpster was gone. Huh. That's odd. I thought maybe the trash company was replacing it or something. I ended up walking almost 200 yards to the next closest dumpster. In the middle of summer, it's quite a hike in 95 degree heat carrying two 40-lb trash bags. I have a feeling it won't be any better in the middle of winter.

So when I sent my next association payment (two actually, as I double up so I only write them a check every 2 months), I dropped them this note:

Robin Hood Condominiums
Jim Curley Properties
177 Belle Forest Circle
Nashville, TN 37221

May 30, 2006

Ma’am/Sir,

Could you please send me a key for the laundry room? Neither of the two sets I have works for the new lock.

Also, could you drop me a note to explain the movement of the dumpster from near my building? I (and all the units around me) have to walk nearly a quarter mile there and back to the next closest dumpster.

Thank you!
Toby Truman

A week passed, then two, and by the time it hit a month I figured I wouldn't get a response. Even if they didn't want to send me a note, they definitely should have sent me a key, which they didn't. Initially I thought it may have been possible they didn't receive my note, but they cashed my check, so that isn't what happened.

Two months later I was writing out another check for this company which now provides me less service than I had when I moved in. I included a more detailed note:

Robin Hood Condominiums
Jim Curley Properties
177 Belle Forest Circle
Nashville, TN 37221
07/28/06

2nd Request for Reply

Ma’am/Sir,

Attached is a copy of a note I sent two months ago; I have not yet received a reply. If there is a different address I should send correspondence, please let me know so I can re-route if necessary.

If this is the correct address, I hope someone will reply to my concerns.

I have a severe case of tendonitis/arthritis that makes it difficult for me to carry bags of trash long distances. The two trash dumpsters where I am required to walk to now are more than twice the distance away from where my original dumpster was for over a year. Would it be possible to move one of those back to the position of my original dumpster? That would make it much more convenient to anyone who lives in my building. (Building 2)

If this is not possible, I would appreciate an explanation letting me know why our original dumpster was moved and why no correspondence was sent out letting owners know it was occurring.

Thank you!
Toby L. Truman
Robin Hood Condominiums

Well, it's been almost a month since they cashed that check, and again no response to my concerns. It's not even like I expect them to move the dumpster back (even though the building deepest into our complex now has two dumpsters and two, maybe three buildings now have no dumpster at all.) I do, however, expect a response from someone I pay every month. We even pay more than most condos in our town do, ($139 monthly; my friend AKBar, who lives in an infinitely nicer neighborhood with more amenities one town over pays $99.) so the least I would expect is to maintain the standard of living I had when I moved in.

I did a quick web search of the condo management company, Jim Curley Properties, and they only have 6 Google hits for an exact match when I last checked, so this post will be very visible if anyone decides to research them. I'm not sure if I can file a BBB complain (or if one is applicable), but if I can, I will. It seems JCP handles one of the swankier condo neighborhoods in Nashville also, so maybe that's why we get so little service.

In any case, my next step will be to email them a note at the one email address I could find and see if they will reply to me from there.

It's funny, I used to get irritated at my previous condo management group for their little newsletters, which was downright degrading to some of the folks living on the property (usually the non-payer's of fees). The one thing I can say though, is I at least knew what was going on, what the balance sheet looked like, and any news. This new company appears to be getting the same amount of my money for far less service.

Behind the Times!

Via Mamab and Gapingvoid.com.

I keep trying to get Mamab or Tammeeee to blog, but so far no dice! Girls are umm, cool!

Sums it up for me...

We went from aggressively defending ourselves, our allies, and the right thing to do to...well...not much, as todays resolution gives Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran more breathing room...ugg.

(Cartoon via G-Max, if anyone knows who its by I'll give attribution)

Images of Canada

Just a couple of pics! The first is day 2 attempting to wake up, the 2nd is an odd sculpture near the entrance to Stanley Park, and the third is G with one of the many bear sculptures in the city.

Safe and Sound

I survived. They threw everything they had at me, from bridges of terrifying height to peeing Asian children, but still I prevailed, bringing culture and couth to our neighbors in the north.

More later, as I am off to work on updating my resume (more later, don't ask yet) and playing poker.

Here is a picture of me with a buddy of mine, outside the lounge where we saw the one and only Commander Adama
in the flesh.