Announcement on Openspace Sims Tomorrow

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/11/04/openspace-announcement-due-tomorrow/

Any guesses as to what it will contain?

I bet they will not explain why they said Openspace sims were for light use only, and then increase the prim allowance to 3750, and then say because people used that number of prims they are going to charge extra for it.

Unless, of course, they have changed their minds??

My bet is on two classes of Openspace sims now:

Openspaces: 3750 prims, at the new rate

Void Sims: 1875 prims, at current rate

What is your best guess?

Rock

See also: /354/22/291075/1.html

Yep, read that . I am looking for more concrete guesses on what will actually be in the announcement though.

If you want to be a pundit, now's the time to speak up

Rock

To be honest, I think it'll just be more manure piled on as reasons for the price spike. M saying it will just be the sign to shut up, because it will be "official." He's the CEO, and his word is law.

At this time, it seems that LL (as embodied by M now) seems bent on ticking off the existing user base. I'll go on to say that I want to be proven wrong about this. "I'll gladly go to a Linden owned sandbox and dance there if he proves me wrong" level of hoping he proves me wrong.

/me too, Raudf..

I expect the blog will add even more fuel to the fires.

Location of said sandbox please (*cleans camera*)

Rock

Dunno. Either way, I'm gonna make sure I have everything (what little there is) backed up from Livingtree Cove for when it goes away

I predict the announcement will not reduce their goal of dramatically increasing revenue on the OS product.

It's possible they might offer to make two categories of openspace sims; one at the current price with severe limitations on prims and script and the existing OS at the higher $125 price.

As that's a bit complicated, they might instead offer OS sims without the current full sim ownership requirement. That might mollify the OS renters who already pay a $100 or more to cover the estate owner's tier and profit, and it wouldn't impact Linden's revenue stream.

If the actual goal was just to kill the OS product (not as profitable as manicured 1024 plots on themed mainland sims or full island sims), they might offer a small discount to get owners to covert to full sims and/or offer a tiny discount to OS renters for purchasing mainland parcel (e.g get one month free tier bs)

The most likely scenario is just more double talk and damage control to justify their underhanded maneuver. A remote chance of temporarily deferring the price hike until June might be on the table but that would only prolong the agony and rancor.

Sandbox Island. It's the one I used to haunt a lot before it became griefer paradise.

Seems reasonable.

The Lindens are up against Human Nature, here: 'if I can buy cheap and sell dear....I'm a gonna, no matter what the 'recommended use' is!'

There's no way to outlaw that. It's the way humans think.

Sure, the idea to provide cheap parkland and waterways seemed like a good one, because humans---in addition to being motivated to make massive profits---are also motivated to enjoy parkland and waterways.

But if people CAN rent out parcels (the renters of which won't look at the land any differently than they'd look at regular Mainland or Estate land) for the going price, yet have paid only a fraction of the normal price for land...then of course they're going to do that.

And this strains the resources of the system.

(I'm no expert, but I'm seeing the only fair solution as being to sell Open Space sims ONLY in sets of four---the same four that share a server. That way, no landlord could get away with 'explaining' to tenants that their lag is due to Those Other People Sharing Our Server.)

Sort of pointless to speculate, but...

I suspect they'll go through with the price increase for the current openspaces, possibly talking about at some point improving their performance.
They'll add a new class of openspaces at the current price, but scaling them back so severely that they are no longer a viable option, effectively killing them off and ending up with the price increase they announced, while looking like they compromised.

/me also thinks they'll fail to mention how increasing the price of openspace's will help the abuse problems that drove this. Seems that the people with busy shops & such will be the ones most likely to stay and people who use them as intended will return them to LL..

If M's interview with Hamlet is any indication, you would be correct, Raudf.

I still think they should have posted it today while a big chunk of their user base was distracted by the election.

I would ask about which part, but I'm going to assume both.

Is it so bad that I wish Phillip's cod piece was back in office?

/me chuckles

The tier increase for existing OS will be reduced (maybe 10-15%).
The current announced increase will remain in effect for new OS after 1/1.
The current restrictions on ownership transfer will be removed.

Here's your preview of what M will say tomorrow (or when LL Legal gets it back to him)

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/11/mark-kingdon-on.html

oh goody. we get to be called 'immaterial' again.

We're just not rezzed yet.

Going by what's already come out of LL, I'll guess that they will:-

1. Announce looking at the possibility of a new light-use OS sim in the future - like the orginal OS sim.

2. Keep the increases as is.

3. Announce various cost-free, or cheaper ways of converting current OS sims to normal sims.

Personally I think this is very likely. I think they will throw us a bone in response to the negative feedback and I think this will be it.

/me grabs the bone and runs away and buries it on mainland!

Seriously, though, this M guy seems to be really good at talking a lot without saying very much of substance. Who knows how all this will turn out? My guess is they'll give estate owners discounts on converting the openspaces to full sims, maybe even discount the transfer fees if they want to sell them to someone else. Probably they'll give more guidelines on what "light use" is supposed to be. Maybe they'll reduce the number of avatars allowed in the openspace sims to reinforce "light use". But I don't see them backing off on the price increase.

LoL...

When I first followed Mari's link, I got the page frameset, but no content where the article should be. I thought for a moment "Yep... After Legal gest through with it, the net sum will be nothing said...".

Then I refreshed the page, and saw it was an article I had read earlier, which did, in effect, say very little of substance.

What I would *like* to see them say (not holding my breath):

Existing OS sims get the price hike, but will be reallocated on the servers at 2 per core, instead of 4, to address the fact that they take twice as much server resources as we anticipated. At $125 per OS sim, they get $250 per core, which is comparable to the $295 per core that they get for normal sims.

A new "OS Lite" sim type wil be availble, with a limit of 10 avatars and 925 prims, at the old OS costs, but they must be directly connected to existing sims. Conversion from existing OS sims to this sim type will be free for the next 90 days. These would fill the intended use of OS sims, as waterways and forests, but would be too light in prim count and access allowances to serve as a residence for more than one household per lite OS sim. Possibly also hard code limits on script resources.

De-linking purchase of the current type of OS sim entirely from other sim ownership, so someone seeking privacy for a single household an do so at an affordable rate. As with full private island sims, a purchaser of a stand-alone OS sim would not have to be a Premium Member.

Restoring the education discount on OS sims, as removing it made no sense at all.

OK call me a newb, but what the hell is Phillip's cod piece? It sounds...er...icky...like a toupe or something.