How Low Will It Go: Deluxe Edition!

I forgot to mention how much I love this series of threads. I wish SL land speculation was covered on TV news.

I like purty home environments - can I come live on Troll Sweat when you're the successful bidder please, Raymond?

Must admit, I'd be tempted to rent on a sim called that too.

We trolls can live happily ever after on a sim with that name!

Although that indeed sets a floor for *profitable* purchase of land at auction, with Premium membership flat-to-falling, and half the Map yellow, there's just no guarantee that equilibrium won't be reached well below the break-even point, unless or until the low land price (or something) starts attracting new Premium members and/or tiering-up by existing members.

I'm not *predicting* such a market, but just want to point out that the only real floor is L$0/sq.m. for existing land.

Woot woot, lower lower!!!

Its only temporary, generating cheap land and therefore hopefully (fingers crossed) more premium members.

Then they will stop dumping Sims again, just in time for the northern hemisphere winter.

Lets just hope they can improve stability in time for next big surge in population numbers.

I paid the place a visit just now.
The parrot would like it there. There's a definite fjord feel to the place.


Anyway: My dad says:
"Horses sweat, men perspire, and young ladies glow."
Trolls probably just ooze.

LOL. Sounds like we'll be er, reproducing with that name.

Sweaty indeed.

/runs!

I haven't read all the responses yet (don't shoot me), but my thoughts are very simple (for once).

SL is a business.

LL is in business to make money.

LL has investors it has to say it's making money for.

The two main ways LL makes money is:
1. sim auctions
2. recurring charges for tier for each sim auctioned (the big enchilada)

So... why wouldn't they keep auctioning until people stopped buying or until there is a mass number who default on paying for the auction they won.

I don't mean to sound cruel but LL doesn't care about you that much.

And don't get me wrong, I love SL and most of the time amazed the place works as it does.

My story in brief:
I bought my sim at the height and paid a pretty penny for it. But I didn't care about the original outlay -- that came out of my entertainment fund and just like everything else I buy with my entertainment fund, I kissed the cash good bye. My main concern was tier. Anyone who's done their homework know the money suck is in the tier. Could I afford the monthly tier? Mmnn yes, but no... so the sim is has leasers/renters to offset the costs and it's all groovy. But if that goes to hell, I can still pay tier (sacrificing entertainment money that would be spent elsewhere LOL).

Bottom line... rather than asking why, ask "why not?"

Peace and truffles.

PS: There's a sim up for auction called "Rumpus"... so who wouldn't want to grab that. *chuckle*

/trips and pounces, laughing

But to that point, if they want mo money, why are they releasing sims at a pace that keeps them from getting top dollar for them? All they need to is space them out a bit more and the auctions would be closing for a lot more. Why the rush?

I'm in awe. You are a giant robotic panda with many talents.

This is pure speculation, but I suspect it's less employee time (and less cost to the company) to release a "shwack" of sims than piecemeal. Also, the real money is in tier (as long as they cover the cost of the server and the employee who flips a switch to set it up etc., I don't think they care too much about what they get for the auction -- anything over a grand is gravy)... the more sims that get sold sooner rather than later, the more they can rake in in tier.

Or... God is behind LL and he's messing with all of us to see what we'll do.

I've been flying around Corsica all morning, looking at future lands that haven't even been named yet and sims sold in the past to see what the vibe is. Not a lot of pretty land but some people are doing interesting things. Lots of land for sale at various prices.

I think it is good for them to knock the base price down a bit, it gives newer players a chance to enter the land game without too much cost and we all know that prices will go back up in the future if they slow down the Sim dumping, especially if we get a big population boom in the fourth quarter like we did last year.

I came in that boom so i'm not sure if the 4th quarter boom happens every year or if it was just last year, its a game of wait and see.

I'm certainly planing to buy more land in the near future, but the spots I've got my eyes on are double the base price at the moment, but that doesn't bother me, this is my dream Sim I'm going to be buying into and offers me everything i want in a sim, its on the mainland too.

I cant wait, i'm addicted to prims, LOL.

A bit, yes. But 40% in two weeks? Not complaining as I'm now able to bid on my first full sim tomorrow (found a great biz partner to share the tier cost), but causing a 40% drop does seem somewhat excessive (not to mention it shows how little control the end user really has).

You're going for Troll Sweat, aren't you?

I agree that releasing sims faster like this is a good way to start collecting the tier on them, and it seems tier is where the money is.

Also, as Lucrezia said, from a buisness perspective this seems to make financial sense. I am pretty new here, but a project the size of Corsica looks like a decent sized task at the buisness level. It isn't too hard to imagine a team/comapny goal of designing Corsica, buying the servers that make it up, getting everything up and running and out the door. It would also make sense that they placed the buy order for the harware all at one shot and it makes more sense to get it online and start collecting the tier on it than letting it sit in storage waiting to earn a bit more at auction in a few months. Completing the task also frees up those involved to move on to the next thing.

Like I said I am pretty new and am most likey wrong, but it seems like it would make sense outside of SL to lauch Corsica and mark the task complete, and let the inworld chips fall where they may.

My question is: What comes after Corsica?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitake

I would not be happy if they raised tier.

that which turns a quick buck today may not be in the long term interest of the company.
at 20, i would have doubled my income by simply dropping out of uni and taking an entry-level full time job.
i believe LL has taken the quick buck today in lieu better things tomorrow. time and time again they have demonstrated to me that they have no respect for their customers wishes, feel no obligation for customer support, couldnt care less about customer satisfaction, and will not hesitate to enact policies/decisions that are to the detriment of our sl livelihoods while in pursuit of even more profits. sure, i understand they are a company and 'they have the right' blah blah 'dont owe you' blah 'subsection c of the tos' blah blah. this isnt about what is legally their right, its about what is decent and about giving people a fair go. LL have sunk their own ship out of greed and arrogance. they, like you, fail to understand that the customers are investors in LL, sinking money here month after month and creating damn near 100% of the sl content. LL can get away with this now, but i reckon they are in hot water once a serious competitor becomes known.

Thanks for that, but if you'll note further up I had, in parentheses, explained that I was making a distinction from the ratings. I was just too tired to be a thesaurus on my own or to take time to reference one to find a better word for it.

Char

I agree, but not for the reason I suspect is intended. By pulling the rug out from under current investors, LL undermines confidence and discourages future investment in the in-world economy. But, taking a somewhat narrower view, I can see how lower land prices could encourage more folks to jump in as Premium members and tier-paying landowners--*especially* for Mainland--strategically making the customer base "stickier" for that fateful day when a viable competitor finally rears its head from the primordial ooze of development.

I definitely agree with you but we have no clue how pressured they are by investors. I've worked in public companies and the stress from investors can make a company do really stupid things.

I'm not saying this is fact with LL, but it's a possibility. I also, personally, think LL has been inventing their business model as they go -- which is entirely understandable since they're treading new ground. They could be testing "things"... poking and so forth to see what the results are because it's the only way they'll know.

If LL can weather their own storm, I think they'll be very successful in the long run. I just hope they have enough life preservers

I just want to point out the other side of the equation here..

Yes, LL makes its money by charging tier and selling land and $L.

LL spends money by maintaining staff and hardware (servers)

1 sim= 1 server I believe...

So if LL has already spent $USD on servers, they have to get them online as soon as possible to minimize expenditures and maximize profits.

Just like a car dealer doesn't have a back lot full of new cars gathering dust - they're all out on the front lot for sale.

I definitely think it's in LL's interest to keep land prices low so there's a lower barrier of entry for people who want to buy in and have a place to call home, or set up shop, or build an attraction which in turn can attract more people. It's not in their interest to create artificial scarcity for the sake of the "land as investment" crowd. I'm really not trying to slag people who use SL that way, but just trying to point out that I don't think that's something LL considers in their land release schedule. They want to drive prices down, not up. I'm sure they don't mind getting high prices at auction, but as others have said, in the long term, they're better served by having more people paying tier.