OpenSpace sims and where will renters go?

With all the despair surrounding OpenSpace sims and the January tier increases i'm wondering where the tenants will go if many OS sims are shut down.

We sell games and many of our customers are renting on OS sims. As they they have full lives and lovely homes I guess most of them will stay in SL and move their homes elsewhere.

What does this mean for the Mainland and Private Islands?
Perhaps the mainland population density will increase and there will be a much needed resurgance on the mainland?
Of course would this mean land prices going back up?
So many knock-on effects.

Just wondering - is there any brightness in the gloom?

Well we can see by this new Linden in the fold that they are seriously attempting to increase their premium account numbers. The open Sim debacle may have been planned to create a run on mainland - because 750 prims at 75 USD a month does not compare to buying mainland and getting many more prims for the same amount of money. I have been shopping for descent secluded mainland to move my home off my opensim also. I have been a mainland premium account since 2005 - so I am used to the mainland ghetto - but the new customers demand much better (as is evident by nautilus). Linden Lab will need to completely re-define their mainland product to make their dreams come true.

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Thank you for making some sense out of this.
It comes as quite a shock to me that this OS sim debacle might have been planned. The anguish in the forum responses to the OS sim tier rises and lower prims offered has caused so much resentment and damage to SL - yet there might be some logic in the apparent madness.

I'm almost dreading January as it might be a turning point - but perhaps it might give a boost to the mainland although i doubt many OS sim owners will see it this way.

Yes, the mainland does seem a ghetto and a shambles in most places, except for those high priced plots overlooking beaches rivers. I guess if they could enforce a minimum plot area and get rid of the tiny plots used for adds and speculation it could help make many areas better to live in.

Here's a nightmare scenario for you.

Nov 2009. Mainland is as bad as ever in general, openspaces are 125 a month with ridiculous restrictions *but in spite of that* are still 3750 prim and the last best hope for privacy below 295/month. The 'link' between openspaces and owning a homestead region remains unbroken.

Now, consider that land barony survives precisely *because* rates are very high - if anyone could get a region, no need for land barons. As such, after a massive shakeout that kills off many, many estates in the coming months, the land barons that survive are the main place to turn to for these things.

The market value of homesteads skyrockets. Surviving mega-estates shrug, simply offer homesteads at the going rate at that time, passing costs and more onto what remains of the residents of the grid.

Precedent: the 100 USD/month price increase on private estates two years ago. Killed off a lot of places, and drove the refugees to security. I went from 14 regions prior to the Nov 06 price increase, to 44 regions today - much of that because my competition was slaughtered and I was one of the few fairly well known estates remaining.

Do I like this scenario? Absolutely not. It's like having a favourite uncle die and getting his cool car. Yeah there's the car, but really you'd do anything to turn back the clock if you could.

None at all, the way Linden Lab have handled the openspace issue shows a major lack of thinking holistically. I only have one, I'm swallowing the heinous increase because you simply don't do that to customers, what that means is I need to make savings, that means I buy less from content creators, this creates an issue for the economy as a whole.

The management at Linden Lab should be ashamed of themselves.

Yes, i fully agree, even if they thought it would make SL better for the majority it is still totally unfair to change the terms of OS sims and leave the owners in such a predicament. Those 117 forum pages in response to Linden Labs new announcement on tier increase and prim limts show how many people are affected - plus all the tenants etc.

there are so many possible permutations of the outcome of this debacle...ive just given up thinking about it...I wont have as much spare pennies for sure..so I will buy less, and make my own, or make do.

I have a churning in my belly when I think about this issue, it doest sit well with me how it was handled..the upset for so many...and the fact that, really those who caused it will probably hike up the cost to the end user and carry on much as before.

Its the small guy that carries the load, as usual tsk

Please do not believe that the people that caused this is anyone else than Linden Lab. This divide-and-conquer routine has been very effective for LL in past - so they went for it again - blaming the residents for some bizarre business decision that negatively impacts us all.

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Living on Mainland ? Never !

I do believe that some users are to be held up responsible for this...Im not saying totally..but yes...partly. These voids/openspaces were not meant for Malls or to be sliced up for 16 or whatever rentals..those that did this..gave LL a *get out clause* when it didnt suit them to provide them for the price they were...like it or not..SOME of this mess does rest on SOME of the shoulders of those that used them this way.

Im tired of the back and forth arguments about intended use...scripts use...av numbers...the fact remains wether people choose to like it or not, interpret it however they like...about prims etc etc etc...the get out has been used..they were totally over used for the wrong intended purpose..because people say *oh but but but they have 3750 prims so it MUST be ok"...doesnt make it right or correct...as much as it isnt right how LL handled it,sold it, marketed it...

There is nice mainland out there. Too bad you're missing out!

Its clear that some OS sims have severe lag. We sell games and I've often been called out to a customer on an OS sim because their game wouldn't work. To-date it hasn't been the customers' fault but perhaps something else on their sim or on one of the other 3 sims sharing their sim server. All our games have script lag testers built in - and its no fun telling the customer their sim has scripts running 20 times slower than normal. Their homes look beautiful with no physical lag yet have script lag so terrible they cannot run a game like chess or poker. Sometimes these OS sims seems a curse and many people are led to believe that they are renting on a normal sim and don't know their server is sharing another 3 OS sims.
We even have a free Script Lag Tester in our shops, on SLX and OnRez. I have had IMs from tenants asking us to speak with their landlords and confirm that our script lag tester gives accurate readings. Perhaps some landlords don't understand OS sims either but there are lots of upset people who thought they had a paradise but find scripts are unrunnable on their land.
Once while looking for islands i met a guy selling OS sims - he didn't even know that 4 OS sims shared a computer.

It would be a great help on the Client Viewer's Map if OS sims showed up in a different color to Full Islands and Mainland.

i dont think people with lovely island will go to ugly mainland. my friend is going to a full sim or a bit of land on a full sim, get gets more prims so is happy with this

I jes helped some kid friends of mine land a sweet piece of mainland near the ol' Color sims., an my brother recently got a nice little chunk in Varney. If I had the tier, there's a couple mainland plots I would *love* to have.

There are indeed some nice spaces to be had. It's all in where you look!

I love the Mainland and will continue to support it.

There's some gorgeous mainland out there. Mainland is wide and varied, that's the beauty of the place.

I am staying on my sim with my landlady, it will be converted to a HS.

I looked at mainland parcels, quite a few of them, but in my opinion they're are awful. I don't like the colour of the terrian and the lag was apauling. They seemed to be surounded with industrial looking builds, I couldn't go from a beautiful, tropical, white sand beach to that.

I agree with Marcus, Mainland........ NEVER!

I sell a scripted contest system and I have to concur that in almost every case openspace sims have been the cause of severe lag causing my system to malfunction at a client site.
I am not getting the same problems for customers on full prim island or on the mainland.
So much for mainland being laggy and on that topic I have to say I own significant land in 2 sims and have an average sized parcel on third. I hardly ever have any performance problems except when the grid is generally flaky and then everyone is suffering too.

The scaremongering about lag on the mainland is overstated, sure there are many areas that have lag but there are many private islands that have lag too (due to inefficient use of textures and scripts). Mainland is not inherently laggy in a way that full prim private islands are not and there are some absolutely gorgeous areas to live in that have remained unspoiled for a long time, especially around the large water areas.

Me too Mainland is the only place where you can travel for hours and still not run out of water and/or land.
I love the diversity too, you never know what you might find, most play up that as being bad because ugly builds pop up but they miss the fact that fantastic builds pop up too.

I know that as someone in the land business, I have a bias here, however I must say:

The best way to protest this OS sim increase is to refuse to buy Mainland. They are doing this precisely to try to force people back there, so the best way to hurt them is to continue to reject what is an inferior product.

People want zoning. That isn't Mainland.
People want protection from living near eyesores. That isn't Mainland.
People want low lag. In many cases, that isn't Mainland.
People want truly themed areas. That isn't Mainland!
People want large plots of land far from neighbors, even if that means fewer prims. That isn't Mainland!
People want security and a quick response to griefers. That isn't Mainland.
People want privacy. That isn't Mainland!

Mainland is not a suitable replacement for OS sims - it is their polar opposite, in point of fact. Therefore, it should be rejected, until the Lindens restore what people want - spacious, privately managed, affordable land.

I think people should choose what is suitable and best for them, not be told what to do.

Remember this, what hurts LL is going to hurt us all eventually. Resolving grievances with LL is one thing, trying to ruin the platform for everyone is quite another.

Where did I suggest ruining the platform? If anyone is doing that, it is LL themselves due to their boneheaded decisions on this and so many other issues.

Trying to hurt LL is trying to ruin the platform. You advocated hurting them here:

I''ve been here a long time and don't have any eyesores in my sim in the mainland. It goes without saying that if you have a large plot of land in the mainland that this puts you far from neighbors. It's been a couple of years since I had a problem with a griefer. There are themed areas and finally; there have been discussions with LL about zoning. Before this OS debacle there were a never ending stream of threads about the perils and danger of renting land from a Private Island and people begging for the adverts to be labeled as such.

Which works both ways, Linden Lab pissing off their customers will have a knock on effect for people who were never interested in having an openspace. This is an inevitable side effect of this absurd decision.