Openspace Announcement Discussion with Jack Linden

No, i should have known this from the start. I am using 3100 prims, i followed the rules looking at the OpenSpace's built by Lindens. Where do i have to put these prims now? Into their...?



No, i don't want being forced to give em more money with a gun pointed at my head: "give to me more money per month or you'll loose anything". This is Criminal.



"Intended" by who? I've used and i'm using my OpenSpace in the same (if not less) exact way of Linden Labs. I don't read anywhere on the contract that i've subscribed that running more than 3000 prims, or running more than X scripts, or accepting more than X avatars would be considered an "abuse", otherwise they were abusing of it emself (looking at their OpenSpace... again). They only told to me: "If you have any performance issue because of misuse we will not support it..."; in no way they have talked about "limits" that i didn't known from the start or a fee increase because of uninteded usage.
I did my calculation, and i've ended to the conclusion that i can pay the current fees, so i've decided to spend those money for setting up a OS, if you increase the price because you wanna earn more, my calculation doesn't work anymore, so offer to give my (setup) money back and we're fine.

First, let´s be clear about the reason for this robbery: It has NOTHING to do with resources! Open Space sims create no more server load than full spec sims (per CPU). The whole "we´re doing this to crack down on abusers" story is nonsense.
The reason for this increase is clear: LL´s portfoilos have taken it in the shorts just like all of ours.
They get us to buy a product by creating value (increase void prim allowance to 3750) then when we use those prims they claim that we are abusing the product. Granted, those running clubs, sex cafés and other stupid, script heavy projects need to be weeded out but that can be done by limiting prim and script usage to begin with.

We have 4 full spec sims and 2 Open Space´s. Our OS sims run around 1/3 rd the allowable prims and 30 - 40 scripts that average under 2.0ms. All of which they can monitor. They are used as intended by LL to enhance the environment of our 4 full spec sims yet now they demand 66% more tiers? How is charging us more addressing the server load again?

Seems to me a brilliant way of having us finance new machines then pricing us off the grid to allow the Govenor more resources for Mainland development.

Having us finance your losses on Wall St. at a time when we are all in Crash and Burn mode is not going to fly.

Hello,
You all went on about everyone buying these open spaces and saying oh how good it is. Now, you turn around due to something you think you should do and dont even care for the private owners and what its cost them. I am saying that if you do this many of us that own a few sims will pull out. and go some place else. Yet, you will get more land on the MAINLAND for 195 a mon tier but you also have to pay YOU for a upgrade on thier account. Why dont you leave things alone. lower the cost. The way things are right now for all of us , is not looking good and your making it worse.
If you want to loose more , making this move you will for sure do this. look at the groups in which I know the you peek into. You have now hit the new all over the world. Dont think about your on pockets and mouths, but ours as well.
I know that if you do this i will be right behind the rest by pulling my money out of lindens, you have gotten enough from all of us

Shame that a game has turned sour

Hmmm..., if I buy or rent an apartment in so called real life, I have to follow some rules. I can not party each night with 50 people, driving my home entertainment systems to the maximum sound levels and jumping up and down all day. Also I can not start a woodstock festival in my garden, when I own a urban house and ground. It would be normal, that the owner of the apartments or city officials would kick me out, if I would not stop to cut the nerves of my neighborhood, or if I would start something to disturb the technical and energy ressources of the city where I live. If I, for example, would manage something to make New York, Paris, London, Berlin, dark for a week by sabotage of the electric system for example, it would have serious consequences.

But one thing would not happen: all what one can do to break such rules, would not result in higher fees for me or for others. It would have only some personal consequences by law, only for me.

In this specific case, we see a double punishment strategy. All are punished, if guilty or not, verbal and by financial consequences and at the same time more strict and clear rules and exorbitant higher fees are on the way.

From my view, just as an observer, because I have no island and no open spaces, but from my view, the normal way would be, to give out just more strict rules for usage and to kick out the people who doesn't following the rules. They can still hold their island, but no open spaces. Also to set up more technical barrieres would be normal.

All in all just the same way, like things would be managed in real life situations, would be a normal strategy.

Another aspect is maybe the real global economy. Latest now, the game starts to eat the butter from real life bread. I do not expect that people would start to live from gras and bork and drinking water from the toilet, just to play the game further.

Wich means: LL could lower all fees in general and stop the open space idea. If one want a nice environment, then he or she could buy just a normal sim additional. Or some. Then people can do with the sims what they want. Some will create just "nature", some will create whatever. I never understood the idea of open spaces. If one likes to have a park, a lake, a beach or whatver in life, one needs to pay full for that too.

If the idea was to give people the opportunity to have some kind of nature saving national park environment around their islands, then is there only a need to give strict rules for usage, but no need to increase the fees.

Easy, or not?

A whole new perspective!

So L$ 75 was appropriate for the INTENDED use of OpenSpace sims, and L$125 is appropriate for the people who 'overused' them. Fair enough.

LOGICAL CONCLUSION ... L$125 is a TOTAL RIP-OFF for the people who use them as ORIGINALLY INTENDED.

This is grossly unfair and blatant over-charging for THESE people.

Is it REALLY beyond the wit of LL to distinguish between these two groups of people?

LOL, I worked there once.... Really don't wish LL the same destiny...



Just having static prims on the SIM is not the problem I think. In addition to prims there are 4 times as much landscape to render and do physics calculations on. So in the outset, having 4 OpenSpaces on a server is a potential larger load than one full SIM. So to keep the SIM's non-laggy, the use (traffic, scripts and so on) must be less than 1/4 of a full sim.

In addition to the region servers, Second Life also uses common infrastructure like network lines, login servers, asset servers, and so on. These resources are not priced, that is they are free for basic accounts; LL somehow just split the cost evenly on land owners.

Now, even with a lower prim density, typically 4 sims with 4 shops will use common resources 4 times as much as one sim with one store.

Yet LL priced it at the same level. Accountants might say that owners of a full SIM subsidized the users of OpenSpaces. They probably did it because the phrase "light use" was meant to exclude clubs, shops and rentals.

The problem then lies in the pricing model. And the way they marketed and sold the OpenSpace product, creating a mismatch between customer expectations and their own business model. And in the way they choosed to close that mismatch. The new pricing model is perhaps more fair according to the use, but not according to all the customers thinking they are in line with the deal.

LL should rather have enforced a restriction on central resource usage, and offered an upgraded OpenSpace product to those needing it as they are today. Because the huge popularity of OpenSpaces is founded in them fulfilling the ultimate dream of a lot of residents (having their own island), and at the same time be just within the cost they are able to take. LL should take care to find out HOW they can offer a low-spec, low-cost island to their customers, instead of removing a very popular product from the marketplace (in reality, a $125 island is a different product than a $75 island).

I very much doubt that this is anywhere near accurate.

Could perhaps a structure be found that those owners who have anchored (or will in future anchor) their OS to their full SIMs (e.g. at a maximum ratio of 4 OS to 1 full SIM) continue to pay (either grandfathered or even in future circumstances) the "original" price of US$ 75 per month, whereas those who do not anchor them and have them as "stand alone" OS, and obviously therefore (need to) make the other (previously unforeseen?) use of these OS then "just" empty water or forest will be charged at the mentioned higher price of US$ 125 per month?

As per my previous calculation: 900 US$ for an additional empty 'void' SIM on top of the full SIMs which are already in possession may perhaps be seen as reasonable (but is still a lot of money!), whereas 1500 US$ per annum seems to border on sheer lunacy.

This could also prove to be the rescue e.g. for the larger RP clustered SIMs, and the sailing sims like USS federation (and many others). (And no, I have never sailed on them, neither do I engage in RP, but I do sympathise with their predicament).

Dear Jack,

we are 3 residents owning an OS for our own private purposes.

we read your announcements very carefully and were upset about this unreasonable high raise of prices.

we understand that LLs aim was to offer addtional space with low prims and low traffic for Full-Prim-Sim (FPS) users.
It is also understandable that LLs has underestimated the development of use of these sims.

what we don't understand is why LL doubled the prim amount to 3750 prims per sim, when the objective is to hold down the traffic, scripts and building activities.
this signal led the wrong way. you can't expect the LPS-owners think the way "oh, very good. now i have 1500 more prims that i shouldn't use".

when LL sets the limit to 3750/LPS it is realistic that people will use this amount.

of course, it is clear that LL has to react on the change of use, but a raise of 67% (!!!) is not acceptable. it means for us to spend 600 USD/year more for our hobby.

we love being in SL, but we have a limit and spending so much money isn't affordable. if u raise the price we are forced to give up our virtual home.

therefore we ask u to think your decision over.


kind regards
zizzy umaga
lane tunwarm
frederik yalin

PS: the intention of this letter is that you understand our point of view, and not to offend you or anyone.

PPS: please, excuse any errors in grammar and language, for we are no native english speakers

regarding "not to be used for building"

Jack....apparently your own company missed that memo:

http://mistyisforeverlost.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/dear-governor-linden-tm-copy-right-all-that-good-jazz/

I think maybe Linden Labs needs to come up with a new reason for the rate hike beyond "not using them properly" when your company is not using them properly.

I also think, taking into consideration the worlds poor economic factors and how the grid, for so many, is entertainment that cannot be allotted much more money, you need to reconsider the tax hike.

You have already experienced returned sims because of not only this poor decision to increase tier by over 50% in hard economic times but also by using a blame game that your also guilty of. Along with extremely poor business tactics of no grandfather clause for pre-existing sims and allowing what you have claimed to be a faulty product since August to continue to be purchased.

I ready your current blog about re-thinking the decisions and I certainly hope you do. I feel that if the masses had not complained as they did, some going so far as to jumping the gun and abandoning already......this decision would hold firm. We are not your toys and unfortunately those that have already abandoned most likely will not be back. Word spreads and for every one user that left, five will never have the SL icon on their desk of those five, three more will never have the icon on their desk and of those....down to one. Using the tactic to "offer high and go lower" is a horrible way to handle your customer base on top of the already poor business practice the Lab has shown, not only the past few days but the past two years that I have been in world.

I'm not going to cry "I'm leaving" because although I am thoroughly disgusted with your companies ability to do proper business, I love the game, the format and all it will and does offer. I'm not going anywhere. However, I will never own mainland as I am sure that is your hope of many. Lose their current and rush to mainland. Especially after I have seen and personally witnessed your company doing exactly what I am with my OS.

I will leave SL if the increase will be as announced. This is unbelievable what you do with us. An increase of 50$???? as a penalty for those who don't use the sims within the rules?
Solve it in another way is my recommendation...i repeat i will leave SL totally if plans come true.

I agree with a lot that has been said here before.

Linden Labs advertise Second Life as a place "to live your dreams". But everytime people do that some Linden shows up and tells you like "no, no, this is not what we intended".

The problem are not the SL users, but Linden Labs. It seems that many things you offer are based on half-baked thoughts. Sure looks like your main intention is to make a fast buck, and if problems arise your first action to take is increase prices. Does that solve any problem? Drive your customers away, disappoint them, destroy their virtual dreams or business efforts? That is not exactly my idea of customer care.

Why don't you just do some more brainstorming before making offers to us which then cannot be kept? If I treated my customers like that in RL I would be broke and living under the bridge already! If I mess up I have to stand in for that and see how I can fix the problem without taking it out on my customers with a "oops".

Raising the tiers without really offering any benefit is just ridiculous. Have you ever thought about how much people have spent on making their very own dream come true. And many will just have to let it go because you messed up and they won't get any compensation.

Sorry, but I don't understand this kind of business practices.

Multiply 3750x4. You get 15.000? Prims per sq. meter is not the issue, script usuage and textures are what drag down performance, neither of which are limited at this point.

The point is this has NOTHING to do with addressing resouce problems. Charging us all more for Open Space sims will do nothing on that front.

And as server load is NOT the issue here, it really makes no difference anyway.

Has Jack Linden REALLY NOT COMMENTED since post # 587?

Or did I blink and miss it???

Maybe we really DO need a full weekend BOYCOTT by many thousands of residents to get him to LISTEN and take notice of how utterly unfair this is to people who used the OS sims for their original intended purpose?

Or maybe Jack's / LL's full attention is 'ungettable'?

Ok so as far as i can tell from reading many of the posts and also LL perspective the main issue here is that currently 2 open space SIMs can create more load than 1 single Full SIM if they are being overloaded with scripts and avatars. This is unfair to others sharing the server and also to LL who need to run a smooth ship for all and ensure an even service.

The problem was created via short sightedness when Open Space SIMs were sold without proper usage limits built in at a very tempting price...

The solution is not a raise in price this will force many to abandon.
The solution has to be limitations on use.

So what would constitute 1/4 of a Full SIMs resources?

3750 prims
20-25 avatar limit
2ms script time

Im no technician but i believe this would be within 1/4 of a full SIM resources so working within this would mean you are never taking more than your fair share?

Id also like to add that going ahead with any kind of price hike on the current open space SIMs and then creating yet another seperate "light use" product as ive seen suggested would for me and many others still mean abandoning our current SIMs after having spent hundreds of hours on them and having to rebuild from scratch.
I merely have 2 OS and the thought of doing this is bad enough! for those who have many and have built whole communities on them i cant imagine how they would feel but it would at best leave them de motivated.

My point is please find a solution that allows us to remain where we are as massive upheavel at this point will steal leave many casualties behind and a bad taste in the communities mouth.

I would say that adding limits such as these and also a small reasonable! price increase may be pallatable if neccesary something in the region of 10$ not 50$ ! if it meant i could stay where i am! this is the key point for me as i think ive made clear i want to STAY where i am under reasonable and viable conditions!

After my initial outrage i must say i appreciate that LL do appear to be listening and taking stock i just wish you guys luck finding the best solution for all involved but i think its become clear its been down to your own mistakes and please take this into account when negotiating an outcome..

I do find it difficult to accept the claims that the current use is "unexpected".

As I've mentioned, it is difficult to see what purpose LL intended an unachored openspace to be used for when the removed the anchoring requirement, if not for the purposes they ended up being used for.

Secondly, within 24 hours of the new openspace availability being announced on the blog back in March, the forums were full of people looking for sim owners who would rent them one of the new openspaces, and landbarons realising that they had to respond to the demand to stay in business.

If LL had any illusions what the consequence of their new openspace policy was when they first announced it, any Linden (or anyone else) reading the forums would have been in no doubt that

a) openspaces were going to be used to homes and clubs etc.
b) it was going to have a major impact on existing mainland and private estate markets

So what was LL's response to this - well after a few weeks they announced they were lowering the upfront cost of openspace sims from $425 to $250.

So sorry, by claiming that these uses are unexpected LL is either stretching the truth, or demonstrating a remarkable lack of forsight verging on stupidity.

Matthew

So this will be my first post at the Linden's forum.
First to say, english isn't my mothers tongue, I'm not a native speaker.

As we all know, there have to be changes on the Open Space Simulators. And of course it's also an emotional thing, but this can also been seeing in a clear view. And it can be discussed in good way for all.
You are going to increase the cost by 67%, that's your choice at this time.
And please do not forget the European Community has to pay VAT and the VAT is up to 25% according to the land living. This people have to pay an extra increase of, only for the tier monthly! And yes I know you do not earn the Vat, thats not your's. Thats a problem of the European Union, not yours. But the people have to pay for it.
Many of us have seen the problems with the OS Sims, and as mentioned before many of us think that there could be a different way to solve this problem.
Why not splitting in different tier's according to the usage? (eg. light, middle, heavy use)
Why dont use technical restrictions such as (some suggestions)
restrictions of number of Ava's allowed
restrictions of number of allowed scripts running
restrictions of global time used on Sim for scripts
restrictions of using bandwith
I think this all would help keep running up to 4 OS Sims on a single CPU. And reducing lag and usage in the regions used.
And I think this will keep back the usage you recommended in the wiki/faq.
I think you have the possibilitys and resources to distinguish the usage of OS Sims.
And you have the option looking for alternatives.
And of course it's the Linden's company and it's the Linden's choice what to do. And I think if you would find an other solution and figure out the options technically und financially you have, you'll find a proper way that fits for all, the Linden's and the Residents.
I'm with you in the case of a change, also as Sim owner. But not in the case how you are doing this at this time.

Thank you for your time reading this

Sveta
User, Simowner
Resident from Austria/Europe

The problem is other residents who have Open Sims that are sharing your processor and are suffering because of your overuse?

this sounds more appropiate to me.
agrees with hern.

I replying late as I have been speaking with many residents on this subject. First of all let me explain thatin the last year My Husband and I , living in Europe have invested in >Sl in so many ways, not all good ones and have lost more then 200000 lindens from abusive full sim region owners, we were paying 400USD a month to some of these land ROBBERS, i could mention names and tell you exactly where they live in europe, a,d very well known in SL , but I wont, and dont understand why we would have to pay for their abuse of which i have witnesses and friends offers , WE recently bought two open space sims, for cultural and only cultural events, on the sims we have the best artsists in SL, again i wont mention names but they are very well known and have huge following, some of them were at the recent Florence Italy show, in the Museum of natural History for the Renaisance Creative show, of which you know of because Mrs Linden was their in person; with their SL pics, SL art , so to say
WHY ARE THEY ARE ON OUR SIMS, because we have them have free space for their art and exhibitions of SL art we have over 105 spaces and growing, no commissions to us , we pay all ,the ads, the shows , the dj's etc, why because we love our friends and our artists and we have three groups on FLICR so I d say we have some influence, BUT now this month after buying a second OPENSPACE sim to provide more attractions so that people can wonder and take all these nice shots that makes SL one of the most beautiful sim games on the net and in the world, you decide to up the price of open space 50 percent, I am now paying a 190 dollars a month for TWO, just to have a nice sims for people to enjoy and show their art for free, and now i will have to pay Three hundred dollars a month as of January!!!!!
I am not an abuser, i give the space freely for cultural purposes and all the pics taken on SL are in my Four Flicr groups making your sims and SL more and more popular and bringing new people to you! SO tell me why I should now pay you even more, i pay for my server space and have had no complaints from my region owner? Is this fair?

Now I will probably not be able to afford these two islands and will have to charge commissions and will have to put rentals up if i want to keep them, AND the most important thing is I cannot even believe that you would do this at a time when your members are probably hurting due to the world financial crisis??????????
When I called your London Offices and explained the situation about Tier abuse from some region owners , they stated they could do nothing about it????????
so now we are going to pay more for something we thought was a great way to be able to afford a sim tho less prims, without selling the mercedes or the house in RL??????
Really all joking aside if it is going to cost me any more money just to have sims for my artist friends , then i will quit sl and stop buying lindens, unfortunate but true, and i think many will come along, and you will lose some very good and loyal members!
whats more important, feeding the chidren in your family? paying for a new car? paying rent? on your RL land or staying in SL? I WOULD SUGGEST THAT SINCE YOU HAVE OFFERED OPS AND ITS GOING SO WELL? EVEN IF YOU ARE LOSING ON FULL ISLAND SALES? THAT YOU FIND ANOTHER SOLUTION INSTEAD OF DOUBLING THE PRICE ? YOU HAVE STARTED THIS ? NOW GO WITH IT AND TAKE CARE OF THE DEMANDS AND DELETE THE ABUSIVE ACCOUNTS ? STOP BEING CHICKEN ABOUT THIS? GO FOR IT? WHATS A LITTLE BIT OF OVERLOAD FOR YOU FOLKS? ALSO MY LAST COMMENT? THE FIRST POST ON THIS WAS A GIRL WHO SAID SHE THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT DUE TO LAG
HAHAHAHAHAAHAH FROM THE DAY I HAVE BEEN PAYING SL THERE HAS BEEN LAG? AND EVEN WITH THE UPDATES THEIR IS LAG SO POST SOMETHING ESLE OTHER THEN SOMEONE WHO HAS NO IDEE ABOUT WHY LAG EXISTS! TY for reading this a very loyal member that you have no idee exists ))))

Dear Jack

I'm glad to hear you are reading each post. You must be burning the midnight oil with 2674 replies and counting. Judging by the views, it would seem that the forum is busier than SL!

Further to my previous post stating my argument why this OS thing is a bad idea, I would like to present an individual SL resident's situation in the hope that this will give you some insight (in relation to OS sims) into the virtual lives and business of many others like me.

Just under two years ago I entered into the SL land business. My passions are landscape and architecture and so it made sense to design houses in beautiful landscapes and sell a pre-developed package. I quickly found a market for this on the mainland and, in an effort to provide a more stable and managed environment, bought my first private island with the vision of creating a fully landscaped subcontinent. I found the properties were selling as quckly as I could make them and the Skye estate was confirmed as my SL business venture. Incidentally, I am no stranger to RL business, being director of three businesses turning over in excess of £1,000,000 UKP per annum. SL is a pleasant evening distraction.

When I found out about OS sims I was delighted. Here was a way to extend the smoothly integrated landscape of the Skye regions and offer my residents a more rewarding experience. I bought what was available a year and a half ago - a pack of four. The cost of the tier including OS was not fully covered by residents but I figured that would change in time and I could bare the shortfall in the meantime. It seemed worth it to establish a beautiful subcon with a happy community.

On the four OS sims I built a landscape of mountains, lochs, forests, falls, I used the prim limit to the max for trees and rocks. I built an underwater landscape with all you would expect in a natural environment -fish, seaweed, wrecks etc. All this for the use of my paying residents. At no point did I consider this to be an abuse of the open space idea. I was "estate owners wishing to provide empty areas such as water, hills and forest" albeit to the max of the prim allowance. And at no point was I told by LL that I was doing anything wrong.

So business was good but as SL grew quickly, increasing competition forced me to look for ways to differentiate.

About 10 months ago, I realised that if an OS could support the use I described above , then it would easily support one or two residents with a house in a large landscape. After all, what is the difference between a prim used in tree and one in a house? A script that makes a fish swim is hardly different to one that rotates a door. And in my carefully managed estate I could easily control any overuse.

So I bought another four pack and built more houses. These four sims quickly sold to customers looking for privacy in a beautiful land and I was careful to monitor the use of these sims. I found that there are two types of people - those who value prims and those who value open space. You could see this as the difference between people wanting to live in towns or countryside.

I knew this was stretching the definition of landscape and the intent of the OS policy but I reasoned that as the use was about the same load as my pure landscape sims then there would be no loss to the customer or SL.

Shortly after, LL changed the prim limit, and then changed the way OS sims were supplied making them both cheaper and easier to get. To cut a long story short, this blew my business apart - I was no longer able to compete in a flooded market. Everyone had the same idea and naturally responded to demand from residents for expansive spaces with much reduced prims limits. LL sold thousands of OS sims on the dream of 'owning your own sim', the vast majority for exactly the reasons I have outlined.

However, despite now having a loss making business as I felt I had an obligation to the Skye residents who had paid me for their properties, I decided to carry on and look for a way to trade through this, generate profit and pay for the the OS sims on Skye .

At the same time I started building prefab castles. I needed a place to display these and decided to use the extra prims I had been given to build in the sky above the OS landscapes. I reasoned that the prims were available and the traffic or script load would not increase significantly so that would be ok. This meant I could test the market without taking a big risk buying a sim for display. I found there was a good market for well made products and once again Skye was on an even keel with castle sales more than paying for the estates needs. For the first time I was actually making a good profit in SL! Happy days! As products and sales have grown I have started the process of buying new sims specifically for displaying my products. I have bought an OS for this and stayed well within the prim limits and don't run heavy scripts. It means I can display a couple of castles in a creative landscape, not bunched together in a shopping centre kind of way.

It has been an interesting experience all in all. I have observed first hand how fragile the economy of SL can be when businesses continue on irrationally slim or non existent margins simply because people love to play the game and follow the dream.

And now this OS price rise!!! Another, dramatic change, another hurdle. Another boulder thrown in the fish pond just because some of the goldfish have broken the rules

Well, what effect do I anticipate this having on my SL business? Let's look at a scenario:

I have 22 residents across 14 sims (3 full islands, 4 landscape OS and 6 'residential' OS and 1 'display' OS). These residents have paid for and own their land.

I pay US$2009 per month to LL (inc VAT which I can't reclaim) This will rise to US$2655 if the plans go through. I recover US$1345 from residents and the rest I cover from castle sales. Clearly I will be forced to pass the additional costs on to my customers. I suspect that US$176 per month ($125 plus VAT plus 20% to cover communal space - no profit) will be a little rich for many of my residents. Even my regular island residents will feel a rise as they are paying for some of the four communal OS regions.

I fear that many will decide enough is enough. So let's say half put their properties on the market. The recent market flooding of new OS sims has meant the land sales on Skye have almost stopped so there is little chance that they will sell (considering the volume of land about to be dumped they have no chance of making their money back). So they will abandon the land to me leaving me well overstocked with house and land properties I am not likely to shift quickly. Realistically I can't support a loss making concern and will be forced to abandon the spare sims back to LL (unless I can sell to a land baron). This will leave big holes in the landscape of Skye which was developed to a strict plan - all the sims blend together in the same way the mainland does. I will have lost many many hours of work and my residents will have lost many dollars.

On top of this, I fear my castle business will be affected as people are unable to afford the land to place them on.


So there you have it. One SL resident's story. No conclusions. Just the facts.

Alex

The amount Linden already gain in profits from Sim owners must be amazing. But thinking about it now....they want an Extra $600 (tier) a year per sim.
We have 4 open space sims along with 2 full prim so Linden want an Extra $2400 a year!
How many people are actually sim owners?..or how many open space sims are owned?
1/2 million?...more or less...only linden really know but as a round figure if 1 million OS sims are owned Linden are going to gain an EXTRA $3 million ontop of what they already make from us.
They going to try bail out the RL banks with all this money they make??..haha
I wish reality would kick in at linden....I think I'm out of Second Life now after 2 years.

This is a wonderful move on the part of the Lindens if their intention is to encourage people to leave Second Life and go to other Open Grid places such as Open Life or Central Life where land is much, much more reasonably priced.

You have been gouging us, and you are likely to put yourselves out of business with decisions like this, especially in the current economic crisis. If people lose their jobs one of the first things they have to cut back on recreational expenses, and Second Life is a very expensive recreational expense.

What were you thinking??

Jack says, in the latest SL Blog:



Jack, this reasoning is hogwash. If Openspaces have prim limits, then people are entitled to use them. 'intended use' - LL's vague suggestion of what the OpenSims can be used for - is hardly a contractual clause.

'the use has changed' - changed from what? What benchmark? The LL-operated OpenSims such as *Raymond 1-4? One of these OpenSims has a table with seating for 20 people. How many Avs does LL intend to allow to use OpenSims?

[*Edit - LL now seem to have hurriedly changed these from OpenSims to Sims - why? Too embarrassing for LL?]

LL's so-called 'intended use' of OpenSims is vague and contradictory, with few specific metrics such as prim limits. In that context, 'abusive' use of an OpenSim is meaningless. Breaches of the TOS would be a different matter, and would have no bearing on price increases.

You refer to people finding 'creative ways' of using OpenSims - great - so that's the excuse to hike up the price? Is 'creativity'. as opposed to prim limits, land area, etc., a new metric?

OpenSim owners don't just pay tier, they have paid a significant setup fee in good faith, as well as investing time and effort in building on their Sims. They are locked in, or at least would kiss goodbye to their work and setup fees if they are forced to abandon their OpenSims.

A 66% price hike (worse for educators, etc.) is outrageous. It stinks of bait-and switch.

I don't even own an OpenSim, and I am angry. My heart goes out to the OpenSim owners who are being screwed by LL for their 'creativity'.

As for why I don't own any Sim, well as I explain in an earlier post, I lost faith in LL's Sim pricing policies a long way back. 'Chaotic' is the most charitable description I can think of.

I strongly suspect that LL are not being open about the real reasons, and that the price hike is more about driving people off OpenSims than simply covering your apparent miscalculation in operating costs.

Hardware costs are falling; the number of your competitors is increasing. I am staggered that LL is throwing away it's biggest asset - it's customers.

The only honorable course is to grandfather tiers for existing owners. If prices have to go up for new OpenSims, then so be it, market forces will decide on how much more SL grows.

But if OpenSims close en masse, that will mark the decline of SL land mass, and will forever be remembered as the day SL started it's journey into obscurity. The press will seize on any statistics showing that SL is shrinking. The writing's on the wall, Jack.