Free Land & Free House from LL

There's enough really nice free houses, including ones from the Lindens, that the only real value for a house is if it's somehow different and distinctive. In a neighborhood built up of slightly replicas of the same six houses, what's the point?

And then there's the latest premium I saw, the jetpack. You know how many free jetpacks there are?

But, hey, I'll grant you that I may simply be misguided. There's an awful lot of stuff that people put up for sale or buy in Second Life for simply incomprehensible prices. I've seen people pay more for a prim containing an open source script and a free animation than for a beautifully crafted vehicle, and boggled at the prices for other objects, and people keep buying them. Instant profit, just add llParticleSystem();... so maybe I'm completely off-base... but i just don't see a tract house as having any real value outside the context of its role in creating a neighborhood... it's the neighborhood that has the value here.
That's me. That's why I said that the actual value of the "freebies" are minor and irrelevant: the possibility of an actual functional neighborhood is much more interesting.

Well, the neighborhood can add great value, of course, depending on the neighborhood - like Boardman. But the main attraction of and need for small houses like these is the fact that you can only get a small size houseon a 512 lot, and also because you only get 117 prims on a size 512 lot.

So you want houses which look good and are fairly easy to move around in, despite their small size, and which have the feeling of having more rooms than they really do (sometimes), and which don't use up too many prims! Of course if people don't like their house once they get in it, they can remove it and put up a house of their own, or one of the other smaller-size houses on the market, including some free ones floating around.

coco

P.S. Yes, there are free houses around, but but not really that many; I know, cause I collect free stuff! lol And you would be surprised - the interesting thing is, people ALWAYS want new and different. Always. And often something just being new is different enough. You build it, they will come!

I agree; I am hoping that the neighborhood itself will grow in value, regardless of what houses people put on it. It's the concept I like so much.

Not to nit pic or anything but of the houses that did win the 5k bid from LL most did not follow the rules or did a substandard job on the textures. Obvious problems like the brick should be horizontal not vertical. Congrats to the winners.

Well, I didn't look at all of them real closely, Martin, just very briefly. But bear in mind that the textures on many - if not all - of them had been changed, at least in part, so as to provide variety, even though there were only six styles. That might have caused some problems.

coco

Yeah, I stopped by to gawk, and had an almost unstoppable urge to urinate on someone's azaleas and then go on a shooting rampage. Strong flashbacks to playing "Destroy All Humans", too, especially the suburban city level. I wanna suck human brainstems out, blow up their BBQ grills, get in a flying saucer and set fire to every house, grab fleeing civilians with a tractor beam and smash them into walls while I laugh maniacally...

This place is a horrifying, soulless hellmouth built on the graves of the angry derezzed, waiting to destroy all who enter.

LOL, Kami!

Y'all who would like in on this and are having a hard time, just keep (politely) at it.

Last night I ran into a new player who surely should have gotten an e-mail, considering the time she joined, etc. So I'm getting the idea that that part of the system isn't foolproof. Seems to me that people joining in and around that time should just sort of patiently persist, cause there may be some foul-ups in the delivery of the e-mails and so forth. They're probably backed up on all this, too.

coco

well they didn't do a professional job of changing the textures then. Too many obvious errors.

Anyone not directly involved with the promo have any luck yet?

I sent an email a couple days ago directly to lauren and haven't gotten a response back yet. I sent another one today to the sureality one as well just in case. One of things that's turned me away from the first land promo is they're usually out in the middle of nowhere, and who knows what you're neighbors are going to do, at least here you have an idea. Here at least they're trying to make it a suburbia theme to it.

I'm just curious if they're just extremely busy or only offering this to the newest of new people, although I've seen people that have been on SL longer and have places there.

btw, 1st post, hi or something.

I'm not sure what the problem is, Eon - but, if you're just wanting in and not hearing back, I know that VzNevada, who was having the same problem earlier in this thread, did get through, and did get her house and lot. Sometimes the specific Lindens you need go out of the office a day or two, but they did get back to her, and you wrote the right people, so they should get back to you, too.

If you don't hear from someone in a couple of days, I would write again, though.

coco

Actually I had upgraded at the same time that the email went out...so I was about one hour or two away from MY email arriving...which it did. So when I finally got my email from my server it was already a done deal...since that happened I was able to get my house and land but not without having to somewhat work for it: I had to keep my eyes open as a sort of welcomer and had to pay for it as well. I don't think it's open to anyone who isn't a brand new premium resident. BUT in the future after someone has their land and house for three months...they have the option to sell...SO...anyone will be able to buy and get in

So right. They'll give away a 512 and a n00b house for a premium account, but people sitting around begging for the chance to charter and willing to pay tier are ignored.

WTF is wrong with this picture?

When are they going to GET IT that it isn't just n00bs who want zoning for residential, or would be willing to pay/pay more for it?

GDI they do stupid shit like this and I just get pissed off all over again... oh yippee, someone got 5k for building tin can housing to support Biff, Muffy, and Stu who probably won't be here in six months.... meanwhile I know about 25 people who'd happily pay $250 or more straight up to charter and be willing to pay a higher premium per month (in addition to tier) and LL sits around with their thumb up their ass thinking up new ways to lick the sack of the mainstream who DOES NOT GIVE A SHIT and will not for another 8 - 10 years (IF THEN).

Bah.

Calm down, calm down.
Im sorry LL arent doing all they can to provide the land opp's you want.
As a noob, Im too new to know how strong the land demand for existing residents is... what kind of charter/land are you after? Is Blumfield what you want? A first-land for existing members kind of Blumfield? IM Reuben or Lauren Linden, they seem to be the Lindens most involved in the Blumfield promotion.

However, as has been noted here already, Blumfield is not zoned. I think a number of the residents (including me) would like some form of zoning, but there is none.

yours, in a neighbourly kind of way,

Biff

Thank you for the warm welcome

The faith of a new reisdent is touching. Annoying, but touching.



Trust me, it isn't all about you.

Blumfield is a way to generate and bring in more premium accts. I don't think that it was put there to insult or hurt you. In the near future, you'll see Blumfield houses and land up for sale... and then you can easily buy in. I'm saying that because after the three month period, anyone who lives there can sell...

There are down sides too to this cause: You have 512m lot with NO guarantee that anyone around you will sell. This is exactly the way it is everywhere else. There's also no guarantee that it will remain a residential development...since there is already a large business there. We are permitted to take down our homes and put anything there that we want...as long as we keep this property for three months.

Yes it's brand new and a really pretty community...but will it stay that way? We're going to have a meeting this next week coming and see what will happen to this place in the future. If we play our cards right, maybe we can maintain what we have...we'll see...I hope so...

I don't see why you won't be able to get in some time soon. Watch in the furture and you'll see ads for lots selling there... but hopefully most of the people will stay.

You're not getting it. The only real revenue stream LL has is to hook people on tiering up. Land is the only real income. There should be others, and there could be, only they're either too blind or too deaf to catch on.... let's give people free housing so they will....buy more land.

Er, yeah. Right. It goes right up there with fucking for virginity on the 'smart' scale.

I took my house down and put up one that I bought. The houses in Blumfield are pretty high in prims for houses their size. They're nice...no doubt about it, but high in prims. By the time I put up three items of furniture in one room, I was out of prims. Being new I didn't know enough to search for furniture very low in prims OR make my own.

What are you saying when you say tiering up? I want to do that too if someone next to me sells after someone buys. Right now I don't have anyone right around me so I have a long wait. Do you mean tiering up in general? I guess being new I don't know everything yet, so I'll leave this to you and all the people who have been here for a long time.

I hope whatever it is you're looking for, you get it. I mean that too...no sarcasm at all intended.

Simply put - giving away product is the first and surest sign of trouble in a company. Of course, we've had many, but most people ignore them. They will, of course, be the same people that cry the loudest in amazement and anger when it finally does crash.

My point was, there are people willing to PAY for zoning and land with good prim allotment and so forth... and LL basically blows them a raspberry and turns around to make McHouses for people who are the LEAST LIKELY to be here a year from now.

If they were smart... well, shit. Nevermind. They aren't.

OH Snaparoo!

Sure, people who tier up pay more, but people who pay for premium also provide revenue for LL - and that is the point of the Blumfield promotion - which again is not zoned and does not have a higher prim allotment than any other land.

It might have been successful in encouraging people to pay money to LL who otherwise would be playing for free, in which case it *has* succeeded in raising revenue for LL.

As for getting land in a sim with zoning and good prim allotment... gee why not put together a feature request and get like minded people to support your request. I'll probably give you a vote too.

Why not? Because you don't treat a hemophiliac with bandaids, that's why.

If LL really wanted to get their shit together, there are a number of long time customers who could easily provide them with the plan and insight on how to do so. Companies who do not listen to their customers fail. Linden Labs is heading that direction with an vengeance.

This is just one in a short-but-increasing string of dumb ideas that counter good business sense. The only good thing is that you can only slice your own throat so many times before you nick an artery.

I'm content to watch the show... especially seeing as no one in LL is listening.

Another option could be just outright owning your own sim. Get a couple people to go in on it if needed, and just agree that one area is residential, one area is commercial, etc. I don't know if you can get into the first land market or if you just want a residential zoned area for anyone. It's my understanding that you're own sim you can do whatever you want as far as splitting it up into land to sell, setting up rules for new landowners, etc.