Land Bubble has Officially Burst, and LL Pours it On!

I think it's time to change the business model.

Allow anyone to own mainland, but give the free tier and group bonus only to premium members. Groups must have at least one premium tier contributor to get the bonus. Allowing anyone to own would result in a significant increase in mainland ownership. Demand would likely rise to meet the overwhelming supply.

It would probably not harm estates or larger rental operations too much, as mainland is still like the uncontrollable wild west. Those who prefer order, and those who realize that they can get more prims from renting will continue to rent. Even if someone gets 100 prims to decorate on a 512, it will still cost them approximately 150%+ than most rentals for the same amount of prims per month.

I know that you agree with me, its right there in your post. And I know you know I'm right -- how? Only someone really uncertain about what they think would write such an odd post.

I quite like this. I'm not as optimistic about the size of the effect, but it would help some at least, and it would be good to see that Premium barrier removed. (Of course, I'd like more perks for Premium, too, besides the bonus 512 and group tier bonus, the slightly enhanced support portal, and of course that trademark-monogrammed smoking jacket we all got , but that's really best a separate problem.)

well, you don't even own land now, do you raymond?

Smoking jacket??? all i got was the secret handshake...

I have a 1024 for my Zen tea house and turtle pond. But I might be in the market for more land if they would provide a more stable economy and platform.

I have always found it strange that premium members get a bonus free 512M tier, when you have to be premium anyway to buy mainland, a bonus over whom exactly? So anyone should be able to own mainland but if you're not premium you pay tier right away on that first 512, that at least leaves verified payment and audit data.

I'm not sure it would make a big difference to the rental market if that were the case anyway, some people would still be able to rent cheaper than buying, as premium membership is hardly expensive I've never really seen it as much of a barrier to owning land anyway.

I think Linden Lab have pondered this, they must have done as they've pondered scrapping premium membership.

I think the free tier was not a "divider" in class but a pot sweetener. For the vast majority of the time, land costs have been pretty steep. And tier has been high. That first 512 is just an incentive to hold more land than you might normally have without it.

I'd have to say that I am in that boat too. I don't see myself ever owning SL land again, be it mainland or estate. When I owned my plot, as much as I loved it, I wasn't there enough to really warrant the expense. The going price for similar plots, was not worth the efoort to sell it so I just abandoned it. I'm strictly a renter now.

Thats a point i made earlier and what i noticed on my own sims and across my recent travels on Mainland. Its all very well renting or buying land....but after a while how much time does one spend on these plots.? I'm seeing a lot of non-activity nowadays

I'm beginning to wonder, if it;s really worth it. When i first bought land in 2006, i actually spent most of my time on it during the first 4 months.....its never quite been that way since, regardless where i live.

Part of it has to do with a philosophical change for me as well. Having land and a house , setting it up, playing house and what not just isn't important for me any more. I'm sitting in a chair listening to music in mt RL house, I don't need to log into SL to do it, especially at 9.95 a month. My SL time is limited, so I spend it doing the things I like to do, I don't need a plot of land or a big house for it. I have a rented apartment that suits my needs as a log in spot, to change clothes or for an occasional visitor, but otherwise, I'm someplace else.

To me the real question is LL's intent with land dumping even after the market has crashed big time. What are they trying to accomplish? They're not dumb. They know what is going on. So where is the profit for them in destroying the mainland market? Are they trying to negate land as a major asset in SL life, to shift the economic focus of the residency? Do they have plans that will likely stir up a whole new population boom, and are dumping land beforehand to forestall an insane price climb like the halcian days of late 2006/early 2007? Are they trying to drive landbot runners crazy by making their operations unprofitable after tier is factored in? What is the aim of LL right now?

I am really confused by all this.

Hmm got to be careful or all mainlad will become aadfarm hell. As it is therea res still some sims free of disease, but gradually the 16m cancer is going to get all mainland unless a cure is found :/

It's definitely very puzzling, I agree. I don't speak to or hear from Lindens very often but the last information I saw from them was during office hours with Jack Linden recorded here http://your2ndplace.com/node/1199. In that he stated that the average market price was a little over 6/sqm and that LL had /always/ targeted 6/sqm for land prices.

It's just about possible that the average land price really is 6/sqm but it seems implausible. Jack hinted that they were excluding land sold out of groups which seems like insanity since that is where most of the trading goes on. A larger percentage (but not all) of trades that don't involve groups are going to involve misinformed individuals since the benefits of storing land in groups is pretty self evident and so the price is going to be much higher.

As for land prices always being targetted at 6. The claim is utterly preposterous. Apart from when we plummeted from 10 through to 4/sqm in the last 6 months. Land prices haven't been 6/sqm in about 18 months. Personally until this last crash I had assumed LL were targetting 10/sqm since that's where things settled for a couple of months and the point at which LL started gently massaging the market.

All of this leads me to believe that LL really have no idea what is going on. Or more likely they don't care. Sim auctions are probably driven not by the market price but by other demands to increase such things as LL profits, concurrency, premium signups, system stability and so on.

I was probably the last person holding on to the belief that LL planned to manage the market and keep prices stable in the same way they do for the L$ exchange rate. Sadly I've had to abandon that belief in the face of ever mounting evidence. Just like Joy says the real reason is a total mystery but LL are obviously flooding the market deliberately and blatantly lying about the reason why.

Could it be that the new CEO asked to see the books, saw the majority of the income is from tier and directed the auction manager to dump as much land as possible with no concern for the base buy and sell prices?

I don't think a tier hike would be a good idea, but they might try a modest one soon. The first thing Michael Eisner did when he became Disney CEO was double the entrance fees to the theme parks. Visitors kept coming and they doubled profits overnight. SL ain't no Disneyland, but they may try something along those lines.

As for plans to stir up a population boom, they can plan and promote and advertise all they want but there will be no boom as long as performance continues to be a bust.

Yep as most companies nowdays seem to be about their 2 year profits not 20 year profits, they make good income for a few years by doubling entry fees, but few visit Disneyland twice after the hike or recommend it to friends as value for money.
Where would all the profits go, improvements and future park investmen? Of course not, to shareholders and the boards salary increases.
"Sorry the company can't afford $20k to replace the 7yo 250,000km trayback utility"
"Umm so how much was the CEO's new Merc and does it have strong roof racks so we can use it for deliveries when the utes gearbox finally dies?"

Actually, Disney put most of the profits into hiring more lawyers to go around the country finding schools that had painted Mickey and Donald murals and forcing them to paint over them. The rest went to Lindsay Lohan's salary for Freaky Friday.

Then how do you explain all these Mickey Mouse fixes and policies LL drops on us?

The is a cure. It's called the banhammer. Hire me to get rid of those punks and I'll do it with an efficiency that will make Josef Stalin look like Mother Theresa.

my theory, the big news coming is reduced tier. now when this is implemented there is very likely going to be a land rush, now to prevent all the land from being shallowed up in one big dash and forcing land prices sky high, what better way than to make sure that they flood SL with land in the meantime? it's just a theory.

If they lower mainland tier they better lower estate tier as wel so i can pass on the reduced tier to my tennants so they don't feel like LL screwed them over.

And she earned every penny of it.

I highly doubt they would lower one and not the other.

How cool would it be to see mainland tier at $95 a sim.

Its good if LL drives all the land flipper middlemen out of business.
Land flippers get their money by marking up the price , making land more expensive for everyone else, so I wont be sad to see them gone.

LL could easily divide up new sims into say 1024m parcels and sell direct to us using the inworld land sales tools.
This would mean lower land prices for people who actually want to use the land - LL's real customers.

It's those middlemen (and women) land flippers, as you call us, who buy those new SIMs and take on the $195 / month tier fee that allow you and others to purchase those smaller 1024 plots.