Sponsored Land Grab

I just thought of this as an event. It would have to be a co-op effort between the community and the Lindens. The basic idea is to have a sim set aside as a "First Land, Land Grab".

The same rules for obtaining first land will apply, never owned land, no alts, etc, the only difference is the land is paid for in advance via community donations. The brand new land owners will get a free plot, if they are fast enough to claim it!.

Land grabs used to be fairly commonplace and was exciting for the participants and the spectators. There would be a region set aside and a time for its settlement would be announced. The sim would be an offline void and the settlers would mass around the border waiting for it to come online and become available to be claimed. It was a mad dash to edit land and claim a plot before the other. Lots of excitement and some disappointment for some too, but an overall spectacle.

The difference with this type of land grab, is that the plots would already be laid out and set to sell for L$0. Since the land is paid for in advance, and only brand new land owners have a shot at it, it should be good to go for all involved. Maybe throw in some 1024m plots for those new residents that have already decided to pay a tier fee.

The grab time and date should be advertised well in advance so everyone knows its gonna happen. Also, the land grab sim should be in the center of a nine sim area so there is plenty of room for settlers and spectators.

The downside is some wont get land and some will immediately sell the plot for a profit, but the plus side is that a lot of new residents will have a free plot of land to settle and a memory that will last their SL lifetime.

I will put up L$512 to see it happen. Who's with me on this? What wont work about it? What makes more sense? It could be an occasional event if the first one goes alright. Makes as much sense as money trees and much more entertaining.

It's a generous thought. THing is though that when you sign up for a premium account you get L$1000 straight away which is already enough to buy a plot of first land, so if there are any premium account holders around who've never owned land I'd be surprised. Esp. as even if they don't want to own land they'd still buy first land in order to sell it on. It may encourage some basic accounts to switch over to premium, but I doubt the cost of first land really comes into that decision - it's already cheap enough.

I would chip in $512 to make a noob happy! This would be fun!

I'll support this for L$1024. It sounds a lot more entertaining than a money tree. Got one of those already.

SL gains about 75 new people every day, there always new people that have never owned land and are questing for it. This idea would not be commonplace, just a true event that would happen on occasion.

I dunno, maybe I am romantic and yearning for the old days. Land rushes were always a real event, I remember vividly the land rushes on Chartreuse and Mauve, Maroon, and (I think the last one) on Albion. I doubt anyone that was a part of any of them has forgotten them either. For good or bad, they were a fun time and built a sense of community and a "I was there" feeling thats hard to match.

Thanks for the support, but I guess land grabs will just be a part of "the good ol days", like taxes and rez fees.

New users get $1000. First land costs $512. I don't see what the problem is here unless it's common for new users to blow all their money on drugs and hookers before they realise they can buy land.

Oh yes, it could be a fun 'event'. Assemble enough users in one place to cause time dilation, then each one tries to select the nearest parcel and click a couple of buttons and that's it unless they don't get the nearest parcel in which case they have to keep selecting parcels until they get one. No actually now I've thought about it it could be fun...

sounds fun, i'd do it. out of curiosity how close can you come to what you're proposing if you do it on you own w/o linden help... would likely cost more to get the land, harder to weed out alts and such, what else?

l.

The only trouble is, prior land grabs were gamed by multiple accounts from land investors or people just looking to make money. What will happen is that folks will claim the land, and then immediately turn around and sell it.

Also, it's contrary to the already existing "free" land offered through First Land. And if the Lindens don't agree to help out, it will be very easy to grief the system as we as users have no way of knowing whom is the alt of whom, if they have ever owned land before, etc.

Maybe a better idea would be to gather "Land Grants" or "First Land Sponsorships" in blocks of L$512, where the money could be given to newbies to purchase a First Land plot of their choice?

Interesting thought. I don't see having it on a regular basis. Maybe as a marketing ploy (anyone who signs up between x and y becomes eligible for our land grab as we commemorate our 25K'th sub (or something goofy like that)). If you have it on a regular basis some will abuse it as they try to abuse everything else around here.

I must say I agree with those who remind us that newbies do have one large to spend. So, one time thing, great. Ongoing I'm not so crazy about.

Perhaps the free parcel could be a second 512 adjacent to a first land 512 which would serve to assist newbies who haven't squandered their intitial $1K and provide an incentive for an upgraded membership for an additional $5 per month. This would also serve to somewhat alleviate the squashed look of most 1st land dwells which seems to be an ongoing issue.