Open Letter to Phillip Linden

Let me start by saying that this is not another one of those “Land Barons are evil” letters - I am probably what most people consider a land baron. I buy and sell land in-world, and I make money at it. But let me also state for the record, that if LL banned the sale of ANY land I would still play and enjoy SL i.e. money is not my primary reason for been here. Note that I said in-world, because although I have bought land at auctions in the distant past (two months ago!), things have got so crazy that its ceased to be a reasonable way for anybody to acquire land. As an example, there is currently a 9.8K sq M plot on the auction which is currently going for roughly 41.5L$ per sq M (1.5 days before auction close and based of the best buying rate on GOM right now of 1.24L$ to the U$1). Whilst this is an extreme example, I believe that it demonstrates a pattern of dangerous inflation.
Now price inflation in itself, is not automatically a bad thing – it increases the value of assets in-game and keeps the SL economy moving forward, and it was obvious that with the growth that has gone on in SL in recent times, that land prices would increase, however things are obviously getting out of control. As you know, in an attempt to fix this, LL doubled the amount of land that was available for auction, a move that whilst done with the right intentions, has merely served to give more land accessible to a small set of users. For example, I analyzed the data for the last 5 days. In that period, 68 auctions have closed with an average L$ per sq M of 11.84 and roughly two/thirds of the auctions going for over 10L$ per sq M (for US$ auctions I use a rate of US$1.25 per L$250 based off of today’s GOM rate). There were a total of 22 unique buyers, with over half the land been purchased by just six people and over a quarter was acquired by just two people. According to your own statistics, only 15% of the user base holds all of the land in SL. Now obviously, there are a lot of people who have no interest in owning land, and there are a lot of people who like having a lot of land for various reasons.

I believe the following steps should be taken:

These first two are designed to add some controls to the practice of buying land and immediately reselling it at a higher price
1) Immediately institute a waiting period for resale of any land purchased from the auctions, of 32 days. Make it less attractive to people to buy land on the auction and immediately turn it around.
2) Immediately institute a waiting period for resale of land sold in game of 32 days (I would suggest that this not be enacted retroactively, so people who already have land for sale can still sell it instantly).

The next few suggestions are designed to encourage people to keep land longer:
3) Allow land owners the option to specify a list of users, on a per parcel basis, that can be allowed to set home on there land WITHOUT having to deed land to a group.
4) Allow land owners the option to specify a list of user and give each of them a prim allowance on a per parcel basis. The prim allowance should be subtracted from the total prims allowed on a parcel for clarity. I believe that this could actually be rolled into number 3 as a single option.
5) Increase dwell for tenants. Incentivize land owners to become land lords by increasing the dwell for tenants by some appreciable factor. I believe that using dwell, rather than a flat bonus, is a better option because its less open to abuse (a bonus paid for the number of tenants could be easily abused, a bonus based off the dwell actually requires real people to log in and actually be a tenant).

Now it is obvious that initially, this may make matters worse – people will rush to buy up land and throw up any old slop and call it an apartment. However, I honestly believe that, over time, this will
a) Decrease pressure on the land market
b) Make buildings WORTH something. Its really quite distressing to see the way buildings and builders are an under-valued commodity. Over time, I think the value of designing “spaces” the people actually want to hang around in will slowly increase, as the desire to get people to dwell increases.
c) Protect the quality of water ways, beaches etc. People will naturally want to live (and be willing to pay) for better views, this in turn will reduce the pressure on land owners to sub-divide land for sale for quick profit and encourage them to develop areas.

It’s my belief that instituting only one or two of these controls on their own will not be enough (in the same way that increasing land auctions wasn’t enough). Thoughts?

Really awsome ideas. I would love to see these features.

I dont like the idea of a waiting period on land sales.. If I mess up on buying land, I have to get customer service help


But everything else would be great.

* edit: And add a new category to the Finder for Apartments

Ther are a couple of major problems with the waiting period suggestion as it is descirbed above...

1. If I desire a specific piece of land for sale which is currently a part of a larger parcel fir sale AND I buy the big parcel with the intention of immediately reselling the part of the parcel I do not want, then I am stuck for 32 days - possibly aong with a higher tier than I wish (for a period of an extra month at minimum. Buy on July 31...tier up.. wait 32 days to sell.. sell.. now it's September and I can teir back down...BUT my max usage for September reflects the undesired parcel that I just sold).

2. Why shouldn't I be able to immediately resell the parcel o someone - period? Say I have the tier, but friend A won't have it until Wednesday. I buy it with the intention of holding it for him until Wednesday. According to the proposal above, I can't sell him the land for 32 days! Ridiculous.

I believe that I understand the intention in this thread... However, this is not the solution - at least not the "forced hold on land sales" period.

I know that many of the "successful" land barons won't like this suggestion, but it's one that I mentioned in this thread :

*Another suggestion is to make the land non-resellable. Before all these changes I remember the thrill of finding public land and purchasing it directly from LL. Also, if something happened that you needed to move (laggy sim, mean neighbors or you just want to relocate) you would just release the land and find some more public land to claim. This could be done again, but do not reimburse the Lindens used to claim/buy the land as it can be considered a small price to pay for the privilege of relocating.*

Now that monthly fees are tied to land ownership it will be hard for the problems that we used to have to resurface (e.g. prim hogging, land hogging, etc.) since this would mean the owners would be paying very high fees to keep the land.

I'm against any waiting period to sell the land. If i want to buy a large piece just so I can use a part of it I shouldn't have to hold all of it. Also 32 days will make the person wanting to sell pay the land tier twice befor doing so if its in the right time frame.

The way to decrease the land barron problem isn't by punishing everyone else. To be honest this won't hurt the Barron at all they will still have the land and they will still sell it. lately with GOM prices holding the land longer is to their advantage.

There is only one way to curb land prices and that is to release more land at a more rapid pace...anything else won't make a difference to those selling land.

I think they would have to make some sort of major change for people to be able to buy land at a reasonable price. Like users being able to create land, being able to sign up for land (like landless), letting people break up privately bought islands or pre buy land at a set price.

I've been trying to buy 4024m2 for four months, but I'm not willing to pay more then 100. Unforchently I'm not expecting to find land any time soon, with land prices being what they are.

I keep remembering an interview with an ll empty who was saying how great the game was, because it didn't try to limit the users. But That just what's happening when server space is being sold at extreme prices.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I think if LL opens up land auctions to players the land market will stabilize as fewer people will be buying land for direct resale. But LL makes more money the current way...