September 30, 2007
Lauks Nest saga, SL

Linden's VAT bombshell hits the SL art world

An early, obsessively detailed island that epitomized Second Life's first explosion of art and nature is now on sale. The move is a protest against an abrupt announcement that European value added tax (a sales tax) will be charged by Linden Labs. 25% more on a monthly charge of $200 or more is a big jump. But there has to be more to this than a tax protest.

The island was one of the first places I visited. It is a combination artificial ecology and pastiche of Maya art and architecture. A product of a time when there were only a few thousand people using SL (I entered when there were 350,000) and a skillful artifact created with crude 3D tools of the time. Now there are almost 10 million people who have tried SL, and times have changed.

At 1.6 million lindens (around $6000 US) Lauks Nest is one of the most expensive properties on sale in SL now. A bit of virtual world history, and a patron may well step in. But what would $6000 do for a living Maya family right now? For an under-funded archaeologist, for that matter?

Posted by Dave at September 30, 2007 10:53 PM