Discussion Thread - Details on the Q2 2008 Island Price Change

WHAT WHERE WHEN?

Um.....I don`t think so. Well then again i leave on earth. He where in Japan are almost at 5.50 for 4 liters...........No reality here only Fiction it seems

You are taking a totally different tack. I don't care about the regulatory angle, as a consumer. From a consumer standpoint, I am playing a game. I have to pay real money to enjoy certain aspects, which includes data storage. You are looking at it from a different point of view. What does the consumer care so long as the transaction is legal? So from the consumer standpoint, I buy my entertainment and it happens to allow me to make a little money by selling my privileges, in whole or in part, to other people.

Excuse YOU. Spare me your condescension, because it is both ignorant and unwarranted.

I have already put in thousands of dollars and a hell of a lot of my spare time, thank you very much. I own two sims worth of land and I build just about everything that goes on it. I am sensitive to land price movements because I too would like to get back as much as I can out of my land if/when I decide to sell it. So I am not unsympathetic, but I am a realist to know that the real value is ultimately not in the land itself but what I DO with it. I already knew that prices were going to go down at some point due to competition. That changes my outlook radically because otherwise I'd have a greater sense of entitlement as to what service Linden Lab owes me with respect to the management of land. I think that the outrage is warranted to a degree but the change was going to eventually come, so what to do about that?

As a mainland land owner, this change hurts me more than an estate owner because it hurts what I do in terms of usage of my land (rental business - increasing competition frm estates) and it hurts my resale value by depressing the market price for my land. But you know what? I just deal with it, because it was going to happen sooner or later. It just happens to be sooner.

I own half a sim of main land now so am just entiled to a 40% refund as existing island owners are and I've put $4-5k into SL over 18 months so don't say I don't comprehend putting money into the world, and if I buy a sim for $1k and it drops to $500 a few months later, I really won't give a sh&t because I will be using the land for another 5 years not locking it in a box as a high risk investment to sell for profit. Even if I sell it, it will be either to buy other land or leaving the game, which , I wouldn't care at the time as I would have got my $1k of enjoyment from it anyway.

My question to you then is how much RL cash have you TAKEN from SL?

Some of the people boasting of living off SL are now the ones whining the land they are still living off in income is worth less, maybe they were silly enough to borrow money to invest it, in reality it's because the market can't handle competition, so the making money by LandBaroning is now shot too, and some of them were blantant theivery to the detrement of the decent ones, land on islands sold from alt to alt running with the buyers money, bidding end users out of the auction market, some landlords in the past have been charging tenants per week what they pay per month, does that happen regularly with RL land? In the end it's worth as much as the average bunch of 1's & 0's on a hard drive are. If they want to make a living the'll have to put more effort in than some freebie houses and a couple of palm trees.
And what would most do with their 40% refund if they got one, probably buy yet another island to add to the rental island desert.

Tegg, how do you justify saying that LL can charge whatever they want for the price of a sim and then say that landlords charge too much?

Honestly Tegg you are missing the point.

The point is that LL does not treat their higher paying customers in the way people who spend thousands of dollars in other businesses are accustomed to being treated by the businesses where they spend their money. Even casinos, who we all know are in the business of *taking* money and usually giving nothing in return, make their customers feel welcomed.

It's a fact of capitalism that he who spends more money is usually accustomed to a higher quality of service, and those who don't feel they received what they paid for, are likely to take their money and go elsewhere, and complain about the service.

If I walked into most establishments with a few thousand dollars in my purse, and was treated rudely by a salesperson, I wouldn't buy anything there and would complain to management letting them know the EXACT reason why. In most establishments if I did buy something there and it was marked down by 40% within a month, all I would have to do is ask and the 40% would be honored. The same goes for many other businesses.

The colloquial term for it is "biting the hand that feeds you" and in the case of this thread, many of the sim owners feel they have been bitten. Nothing another customer tells them is going to change that feeling, only the "biter" can do it by offering them something in return to salve the hard feelings. LL doesn't seem to be diong that.

I have been treated rudely by other businesses, and I have walked out. That is what I am doing in this case as well. Because in this situation, LL bites.

Not only that, but the expensive product they are selling is completely unreliable.

Nobody is entitled to anything, which I'm pretty sure you agree with However mainland and estate are very different, estate is fixed cost, mainland isn't. Mainland is very much market driven in its pricing structure, estate really isn't. People pay closer attention to the TCO on estate than they do on mainland.

Mainland has to work differently, there will be those who want to move up at some point, they really don't want land pricing to run away in the higher echelons, but they also won't be keen to see it droip through the floor because your base for moving up will often be selling the plot you own, mainland is closer to RL estate than island ever will be.

Well then again he THINKS he knows all.........But sadly well
people renting out sims have the right to charge what they believe is fair value. If someone is willing to pay X Amount per month then there is nothing wrong if said owners ask and recieve that amount asked for rent......Just like RL which some people fails to understand what applies in RL applies to SL.

Landlords are sorted by the free market, unfortunately SL isn't effected by competition yet, but when it is then you will really have something to complain about as land prices drop. But you are too blind to see that happening.

Speaking of dropping land prices, they are finally starting to dump more mainland sims per day to auction.

It does seems like so, prices are dropping. In that same sence they are starting to clean up mainland as well again. Adfarms are still alive and well mostly but other issues they are address.

It's tier that will be the real area of competition. The upfront fees are a very small fraction of the cost.

Why is it that everyone doesnt know and you know all? Sorry you don`t have the first Idea what your talking about. Let alone being a expert of being a landowner

Many people are smart enough to see it coming others like you are just blinded by the illusion that there will never be a competitor to SL. And LL will make good money out of you too. Sorry you have no idea, let alone being an expert on the future. By all means keep pouring money into empty sims as an investment.
And tiers going to be next, and you will all whine then too as even more people become landowners rather than rent.