MOOD INDIGO, PART II (OR, NOT SELLING OUT, BUT BUYING IN)

... continued from last Thursday:

"It was nice because we could plan in advance," says FlipperPA Peregrine, showing me the map of Indigo, the simulator he recently bought the rental rights to, bidding over $1200 before the auction closed. "I cut it up into sixteen 4096 [square meter] plots... I group-deeded the land, and each person [in my group] allocated the proper amount... It's nice, because this way we could plan in advance who our neighbors would be, come up with a group plan sim-wide and [an overall] theme."

Looking at the names and labels on the map, I ask him if "PARK" is a Korean guy.

He laughs. "The park is going to be a full one-quarter sim." On it will be Indigo Mountain, and in it, a network of caves. (The auction also bought Peregrine the right to terraform the land, so he'll literally be able to click and drag his mountain up into existence.)

Like Indigo castle, it's an ambitious project, and an expensive one. Even for the founder of a high-tech company who just sold his stakes in the business to another firm.

"I also figured," Flipper says later, smiling, "it would pay for itself within a year or so, as well."

Huh?

"I bought the sim entirely," says Peregrine, "but share it with the group. We don't have to pay monthly [fees] as we have allocated land to the group, adding up to the full 65K [square meters of the sim] per month."

"Oh, you mean the group's collective holdings mean you don't have to pay a monthly deal?"

"Yes," Flipper answers. "You can deed the land to [a] group, and then have people allocate from their personal land allocation to the group."

This may require some explanation. Most residents are alloted a small plot of land, which is covered by a monthly fee. (Any land beyond that allotment costs them extra.) Residents with lifetime accounts get a much larger allotment, and ownership rules in Second Life allow residents to deed over their entitled acerage to any group they belong to, so it can be shared it common. So what Peregrine and his group of eleven friends have done is deed over enough of their pre-paid land rights so they can cover the 65,000 square meters that comprise all of Indigo.

"So basically," I realize, "twelve people get a ton of land and [building block] prims to play with, for 1200 bucks!"

"Exactly," says Peregrine, winking.

"And that's all they'll ever have to pay," I say, starting to understand, "unless they want more land." Rental fees for a whole sim would usually run about $200 per month-- but the collective allotment from Peregrine's group cancels out that fee entirely.

"It's also advantageous that if someone leaves the group," Flipper continues, "They can, with no hard feelings, and we can find someone else to take their place, without worrying who they will sell to."

"Lemme do some mental calculations," I say. "Average [resident] monthly fee's around $15, so $180 a year [per resident]. So with twelve folks, jeez, for a $1200 investment, you're saving beaucoup [money] within 6 or so months!"

"Exactly my calculations as well!" says Peregrine. "We're [lifetime account holders] as well, so it was a no-brainer for me. We also paid for quite a bit of the cost of the sim by selling our old land for $US."

The genius of the financial workaround here suddenly dawns on me. At first, I imagined Indigo to be a kind of goth kibbutz, subsidized by a generous socialist benefactor with a taste for white face paint. Now it seems more like a bunch of folks pooling their resources together to turn a spacious warehouse into an communal artist's space, in a way that'll save them hundreds of dollars per year. (Paying a lot less to the landord, in the bargain.)

"So," I say, "this isn't quite like you're just shelling out 1200 from your pocket as the suddenly rich former company owner?"

"Exactly. We had a full plan in advance on how we were going to handle it. I didn't approach this as being 'the rich kid on the block'. I looked at it as being in a position to do some neat stuff with friends, and needed their help to pull it off... and I truly consider it a group-owned sim. I don't want to be seen as a land baron or dictator."

"Well, then again, if there is a conflict in the group, I imagine it could get hairy."

"Yeah, but there haven't been group conflicts yet," says Peregrine, crossing his fingers. "I keep reminding people IT'S STILL ONLY A GAME!"

Actually, I'm less and less sure of that statement, just about every time I log in.