Discussion Thread - Details on the Q2 2008 Island Price Change

It's just that people can't seem to get past the idea that there is no true "land" in SL and therefore no value except whatever content you provide. Despite knowing they are paying for a service there remains an expectation that land in SL will have the properties of actual, real life, real estate. I wouldn't suggest anyone buy an island even at the reduced rate if they don't have this understanding.

Considering the amount of Estates, the people complaining are a fraction of the total amount of Estate owners. In my opinion, most will not be affected a bit, as I already explained in another topic. An Estate owner who is in the game for long term, could care less about the sim price but is interested in mainly the monthly costs.

So buying an Estate gets cheaper, so what. It's still 1000 dollars. At the end of the year, you have payed 4540 dollars for your Estate. No petty cash I'd say. Okay, it would have been 5235 dollar with the old purchase price. But for both goes the same: you have to have a solid business plan to make it work, or have much disposable budget for entertainment.

The only effect it has, it that once you sell your Estate, it's worth a lot less then when you purchased it. And of course that is a sour grape. But it would have been just as bad if LL decided to lower the price in 3 steps as well. So basically you will not get your investment price back by selling your Island. That is the risk you took when purchasing it in the first place.
Each and every Estate owner must have had a plan to recover the purchase costs. Some do it by making renters pay an upfront price, some just rent out their land against slightly higher tiers but no upfront price. In the end, they both get their payments for the Island back. Either to purchase a second Island, or to have higher margins after the recoup. But the initial purchase has been recouped.

So yes, I do understand people are not amused by seeing their asset being sold for 40% lower then they payed for it. But that is a risk they took when buying. No one ever made a promise about not getting cheaper. So cope with it, and be glad your next estate can be purchased a lot cheaper

Before I get asked: No I do not own an Estate. Neither do I own land: I rent. But if you want only Island owners to reply, you should start an Island Owners Forum.

There is a cowboy way to do things and a professional way to do things. Linden Lab did it the cowboy way.

Someone wrote this in the official LL blog ...
"THANK YOU SO MUCH LL! I will be buying several sims at the new low price to start my
rental business... "
Wherever you go in SL you will find hundreds and thousands of empty rental homes, even now with the more expencive sims from the past ...
Do you really believe it will be easier for you to run a rental company in the future ? - OK, the one time purchase will be lower, but for that now MANY MORE people will think the same and buy more and more sims, building more and more rentals and shops and malls and clubs and whatever ...

But that does not mean that there are also more and more renters and customers now ... Who the hell shall rent all the houses ?! - It will be much harder, the rent will go down to the bones and all you will do with your new rental sims is changing money ... As soon as you try to make a win someone else will be cheaper ... Good times for renters, BAD times for rental owners ...

There is a way to do it and a way not to do it, and they went about it the wrong way, and have destroyed the confidence of so many people in the process.

Here is an assertion for you:

Someone sure has their panties in a bunch.

Here is another one:

ALL my posts are my opinion

And a 3rd:

Ignore list updated

and long-term estate owners are suddenly faced with unknowns entering entering the market, able to sell land for nearly half the price and can even eat two months tier and still beat your price.
they will also have the displeasure of seeing more cases of people getting shafted by rogue estate owners and wearing their reputation.

Six US$ auctions not bid on as yet, someone's got the message.

SL, I invested a lot of money into this game, paid the now, older sim set up fee's. I was here to help this SL world grow, I invested my money, I supported SL when you jacked up all prices from the former sim set up fee's and tier fee's. Yes, I have 2 different tier payments, but that does not change the fact of the money spent to buy the sims I have now and the dramatic loss of my sims value. Where is the SL support, the thanks, the appreciation to those that have been here and already spent the money to help keep SL going. What thanks do we get for the many years of our financial support to SL.. ""here SL user thats bought sims, bend over."

SL, I truely enjoy what you have going on here , in this SL world you created and its obvious. But you're forgetting about the people who invested the money to help keep SL alive, paying your outrageous prices. Now you lower the prices on those that have been here, supported SL and bought the sims at your former sim set up free's, giving us no oppertunity to at least make back the money we've spent on the sims we bought, when we do eventually deside to sell our sims. SL, you have no real idea how hard it is to maintain these sims and try to come close in breaking almost even with paying the tier fee's. SL, ya took away our last oppertunity to have a piece of mind when and if we sell our sims. I can live with the fact of the high priced tier fee's. I pay my bills, for the lil over 2 years I have owned my sims. What really sucks, even if I was that upset to the point I wanted to leave because of this. I would be screwing myself even more. I dont want to sell what I have invested in, I enjoy my SL hobby. But come on SL, dont give the long term supporters the shaft, do something to show your appreciation and gratitude to those that have been here and financially helped SL grow.

SL, ya just took an additional 2K$ outta my pocket, and this time I have nothing to show for it.

Godspeed

I don't exactly think most estate owners thought they were buying TVs or Toyotas when they purchased based on history. Kinda makes for a bad comparison IMHO...
If I were an estate owner this would probably upset me. Its like the idea that the house I built in 2004 is now worth less than what I paid to have it built thanks to the wonderful US economy. When I bought I certainly didn't think that would happen.
Just wait until tier goes up in Q3... the cheaper SIMs won't seem so great then..

Well maybe they should have considered them as Toyotas, you really can't compare it to RL land. It's buying a webpage, and if webpages get cheaper, well bad luck.

Someone wrote this in the official LL blog ...

"THANK YOU SO MUCH LL! I will be buying several sims at the new low price to start my
rental business... "

Wherever you go in SL you will find hundreds and thousands of empty rental homes, even now with the more expencive sims from the past ...

Do you really believe it will be easier for you to run a rental company in the future ? - OK, the one time purchase will be lower, but for that now MANY MORE people will think the same and buy more and more sims, building more and more rentals and shops and malls and clubs and whatever ...

But that does not mean that there are also more and more renters and customers now ... Who the hell shall rent all the houses ?! - It will be much harder, the rent will go down to the bones and all you will do with your new rental sims is changing money ... As soon as you try to make a win someone else will be cheaper ... Good times for renters, BAD times for rental owners ...

Look.

Go buy a brand new 2008 Toyota Prius right now in 2008. Say it cost $30,000.
Next year, buy a brand new 2009 Toyota Prius in 2009. Say it cost $28,000.

What are you gonna do? Go cry to Toyota because they lowered the price on the Prius? No. Toyota can do whatever it wants. It makes the cars, it sells the cars. If it wants to lower the cost on the cars, so be it. It's the exact same thing with private islands in SL.

You're talking nonsense!
As a rule, a vehicle is a transporter from A to B and generally depreciates in value from the moment you take it out of the show room (excluding taxis & buses that generate income to offset depreciation & running costs), Property over decades has generally appreciated in value. Sure there are recessions in economy, but once it has recovered the property generally starts to rise in value. It seen as an asset, whilst cars are seen as consumerable Goods over its lifespan.

you're comparing apples with oranges

But not if you consider the property to be unlike real land here. Here we are dealing with server space - a service, that probably will get cheaper over time with an increase in competition and decreases in technology costs. There is no correlation here between SL land and RL land.

There is no correlation here between SL land and RL land.

You're talking nonsense!
As a rule, a vehicle is a transporter from A to B and generally depreciates in value from the moment you take it out of the show room (excluding taxis & buses that generate income to offset depreciation & running costs), Property over decades has generally appreciated in value. Sure there are recessions in economy, but once it has recovered the property generally starts to rise in value. It seen as an asset, whilst cars are seen as consumerable Goods over its lifespan.

you're comparing apples with oranges

Please, people, don't lose your grip on reality. So what if it's all virtual - it's not LAND, and you cannot expect it to appreciate like rl land. If anything, with rising competition, one would expect the market prices to go down.

Sure I have but I beleive when I read that it is in the implied context of a virtual world. you would not expect them to fully qualify it everytime they talked about it would you? Inworld you do own it, you have all the rights of an owner (mostly). However in RL it is clear you own nothing...at least clear to me anyway. In RL it is clear to me the fantasy stops and you are getting a service. I think this really is a case of people wanting to see what they want to see.



No they don't but you might not have been charged when they started to depreciate is all. Besides I don't really beleive this is about server price. It is about finding many more people to pay tier and boost membership numbers. The enticing idea that having an island that you can afford (for some) is compelling and they think quite rightly in my opinion they will shift more islands.

Why should LL not decrease the service setup charge by whatever they want? Why do you feel they should consult island owners? You are not partners or investors however much you think you are but just regular customers is all - customers who spend a lot more than most sure but still customers and whilst some companies listen to their customers, virtually none pass price changes by them first.

They would not have called it web-hosting anyway, SL islands are not web content but they are an internet based service all the same.

Of course they paint the picture of virtual land - it is - the keyword here is virtual. Inworld it is land, out of world it is service hosting.

We all know that and it has been stated many times. Prices to go down: Fine. It's been stated many times. Prices to go down drastically is fine too. It's also been stated many times.

But... We are stating that they acted like cowboys. You think they did not? You think that they really made an effort to prepare this announcement, taking into consideration the impact on the clients who have already given them money? I don't think so. In fact, they didn't even have the answers to a lot of important questions when they posted the first blog. Then, they announced a follow-up blog "probably today" which ended up being published much later.

It sure looks like kids around a conference table improvising their next move.

I expect proper customer service from all places where I spend money and if LL wants to have sustainable growth, they better start understanding this. Of course, yes, it's up to them. It's a private business. But I care enough about SL to voice my concerns and, hopefully, they'll do it better next time... If they care.

i'm selling virtual gold. come get some.

We all know that and it has been stated many times. Prices to go down: Fine. It's been stated many times. Prices to go down drastically is fine too. It's also been stated many times.

But... We are stating that they acted like cowboys. You think they did not? You think that they really made an effort to prepare this announcement, taking into consideration the impact on the clients who have already given them money? I don't think so. In fact, they didn't even have the answers to a lot of important questions when they posted the first blog. Then, they announced a follow-up blog "probably today" which ended up being published much later.

It sure looks like kids around a conference table improvising their next move.

I expect proper customer service from all places where I spend money and if LL wants to have sustainable growth, they better start understanding this. Of course, yes, it's up to them. It's a private business. But I care enough about SL to voice my concerns and, hopefully, they'll do it better next time... If they care.

My gold's cheaper than 2k's, a new technological development has enabled me to reduce gold manufacturing costs, BUY from me!!!