2009年5月3日 星期日

Revise "Money Trees, the Gospel For the Newbies?"

        Like the other online games, Second Life provides a platform for the players to buy and sell goods. The currency in SL is called "Linden", which is derived from the name of the platform, Linden lab. In order to have a good time in SL, the players have to earn lindens to buy, such as clothes, houses, lands, etc. Normally, there are three main ways to gain lindens: One is to exchange real money for lindens, which is the major choice among players for the convenience; another is to work in SL as shop owners or employees; and the last is to play games or to participate in some activities of certain festivals like searching rabbit eggs on Easter Sunday. Here is an exception only accessed to the newbies in SL, that is by money trees. It seems to be a gospel to the newbies, doesn't it? Still, there are some problems with usage of money trees.
        From my observation, money trees have two forms, one are the trees for newbies only, but the other are the trees available for everyone. Money trees in the first form have some limitations, for example, some require those who enter Sl below 30 days, yet the other may be available to  those who are under 60 days. People who are qualified tp these conditions can gain some lindens from the donation in these trees, and the prizes are depended on how much people donated in these trees, yet usually it is less than you have expected. The second form of trees require people to fill surveys in two pages, which are labeled by different nationalities. Through this regional segmentation,  players' IP addresses are bound with the nationality division, so they can't fill the surveys of other nations. I found it unfair and annoying for players like me whose nationalities are not listed in the surveys. Furthermore, there is only one international version can be chosen (which links to a porn website) . Hence, by these limitations, I find money trees don't help a lot for the newbies.

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