Question about Open Space sim ownership...

Now that LL have rammed through their latest price crash it's got me thinking about the possibilities of owning a sim... or one of those low-prim sims anyway. I know LL will only sell them to residents who already own at least one full sim but is there a block on owners selling those open-space sims on to interested parties...... such as myself? Because if not I could finally make the step up to having my own prim space to build stuff and stage events on.

I've seen alot of moaning on the forums about the way LL is bundling in an extra open-space sim with recent orders, but really, you guys could be on a nice little earner pocketing some extra cash (and tier rebate if I read things correctly) selling those unwanted open-space sims to residents who don't have quite the amount of cash to flash as you have.

Never mind, folks. I found the relevant announcement and it looks like it's still out of my reach:

http://tinyurl.com/6d8olo

Oh well... back to the cramped and crappy mainland slums and trashyards for me :\

That's the OLD policy and pricing.
I'm with you...it's not clear whether the NEW policy and pricing will allow someone who doesn't own a standard island to own an openspace sim.

The new policy from march 7th is clear on it:

"To purchase an Openspace region you will still need to own a normal island already..."

The price change is just that, a price change, so I don't expect a change to that rule. Especially with the new prices it would kill the mainland land market.

Alazarin, in my opinion open sims are way overrated. I've lived in one of those twice during my time in SL. I've always come back to the mainland after a couple of months. Among the reasons:
- You still have to abide by the covenant established by the estate owner.
- It can get VERY lonely out there, having a whole sim as your personal sandbox.

Even if you're ok with these... tier prices are staying the same. So renting an open sim will cost you $100+/month.

I don't see why not, they're available as upfront payment rentals anyway. LL could even have slightly different pricing for purchase/tier on the standalone version. Better they get it than a landlord.

I'd think there might be a large group of people it would be perfectly suited for, not everyone needs the full 15k prims, or high load and the estate tools would be an added perk.

A more relevant question is "how do OpenSpace sims perform under heavy avatar load?"

Which I can't answer, but the fact that you are considering holding events on one is something you need to explore. In *theory* they should perform fairly well since the number of prims is limited the lag factor shouldn't be as bad (fewer textures & things that have to download to each guest) - however, I don't know if this holds true in practice.

@ Isablan Neva: the events I have in mind are my live music shows and it's not as if the world's beating a path to my door to see them. It's just that I can't hack hustling gigs so it's easier for me to play at my own venue. That and the fact that I build my own stage sets / clubs /venue / whatnots... I've been getting into creating the environment for the shows as something that augments the performance. That and the fact that I just can't stand 99.999999999999% of the identikit clubs in SL. But, hey, if everyone else likes shoebox clubs with disco lites who am I to argue?


@ Calveen Kline: Loneliness? Wozzat? You mean people actually do things together out there? You're having me on ;D But seriously, I've come across a few open-sim rental deals at US$100 / month but that's out of my range. The ownership thing appealed to me as I know someone I could rent out half in order to help cover the tier cost.

I've been over to Open Grid / Open Life ... yeh like I really really wanna be a non-modifyable ruth and have to start over from scratch...... thinks... I wonder if that Second Inventory thing will ever be patched so I can transfer my content to another grid?