Openspace Announcement Discussion with Jack Linden
|
|
nikita2 Denimore
Registered User
Join date: 28 Oct 2008
Posts: 130
|
10-29-2008 05:05
From: Louhi Gothly Exactly!!
What ARE we getting for our price increase??? Seeing as though we will be paying over one third the price of a regular 15000 prim SL island then the prim count should be adjusted accordingly,there should then be over 5000 prims on OS As a footnote i was informed by my estate owner the OS i own/rent will be going form 7500 to 1100 a week,that translates to $190 US a month tier fee taking into account currency exchange with paypal. He is making $37 a month profit and looks like he is'nt going to make a concessions with his profit, If there are any estate owner who can offer me a better deal than 1100 drop me a note card in world,this is an alt id. as i am signed in at work and the only place i will use my primary id is on my home computer Wish i did'nt have to work i would love to take part in all the in world protests |
|
Rosie Barthelmess
Registered User
Join date: 17 May 2007
Posts: 545
|
10-29-2008 05:09
Oh, hi. Any response from Jack? *looks around*
Also, the more I think about this, changing ANY bit of the OS's actual capability requirements (1/4 of a sim prims, 1/4 of a sim avs, 1/4 of a sim scripts) would be changing the product that I paid for. If I paid for (and I did) 3750 prims and now I get told I have to have 1875 prims, that's not acceptable.
I don't mind if they enforce things like av traffic down to 10-15, as we rarely have more than 3 at a time on the openspace anyway. Giving us some kind of concrete limit on number of scripts/ms of scripts would be fine with me too, since those are already implied.
But if the original mandate was "This is 1/4 of a sim, it has the prims and performance of 1/4 of a sim, we don't recommend it for anything but 'light use' and if you use it for anything else we can't help you with performance" and now they try to DECREASE what those limits are and keep my tier the same as some kind of a compromise, that's a pile of crap and 100% still unacceptable.
1) Go after the people who are abusing openspaces with overpopulation, high traffic, and commercial endeavors like malls, clubs, sex islands, etc.
2) REINFORCE the legitimate, hard limits without LOWERING THEM
3) or refund our $250 setup fees for our openspaces when we hand them back into LL so they can put more openspaces into Nautilus and the new continent and fill them up with prims themselves.
|
|
Zigadena Gabardini
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jan 2008
Posts: 27
|
I agreee!
10-29-2008 05:12
From: Gunner Gopheller With the world economy going to pot, it's obvious that the owners of LL must be on Crack with an escalating addiction. What moron of a business school did your owners attend? You should be REDUCING prices for ALL SIMS. If you follow thru with this idiotic idea of raising prices with the world on the brink of a Depression, you better get ready for some lawsuits of gigantic proportions.
Please - OH Please - will some other company give LL a run for their money and give us an alternative!! >>>>Thanks , could not have said it better myself! |
|
Jim Perhaps
Registered User
Join date: 10 Dec 2005
Posts: 65
|
Good point!!!
10-29-2008 05:15
From: AzA Zymurgy have you EVER had a 66% price rise on anything you use???? I think Linden Labs knew that these openspace sims would be abused by some. I think they also have all the technology to put an end to that abuse. My guess it this was a cleverly devised scheme to make money. Why did they double the prims on them if they did not want people to take advantage of the extra prims? Did they say if you let someone buy into your estate by buying a portion of an open space sim from you that it would be a violation of TOS? Maybe it is more a case of Jack up the prices so some people abandon their sims which gives Linden Labs servers to use for their own land sale business and servers to resell as full sims. Servers SL customers already payed for and have been paying tier on. I do not think even Lindens Labs is so dumb that they got up one morning and said "Wow people are using all 3700 prims in these open spaces and people with 100 scripted attachments are visiting we have to raise prices to survive!!" I think a great deal of thought went into January's intended price increase and quite possibly this course of action was decided upon before they announced openspace sims for 250 dollars and 75 dollars tier. Does anyone else think this is quite possible or do you think they were clueless that these sims would be taken full advantage of as well as abused? |
|
Misty Harley
Registered User
Join date: 7 Oct 2006
Posts: 19
|
10-29-2008 05:18
From: Windy Noyes What do you expect Jack to say? He was wrong, sorry and you can forget their decision?
Forget it - he will politely say he appreciates and understands all of your concerns, but the sims were not working properly because they were being used, and everyone was supposed to pay $75 a month tiers for looking at the pretty water.
And, because LL tried to cram 4 openspace SIMs on one server in the hope most of the processor power will not be needed in order to get more profit, it may now be necessary to either put less openspace regions on each server, reducing profit, or put up the price. And, because many will abandon their SIMs, we need to add a bit more so cover the loss of revenue that would cause.
What Jack won't do is apologize for the lack of technical control that meant some SIMs used too much power at the expense of the other 3 on the server. After all, that would make LL partly responsible for this f#$% up, and they won't be admitting to that any time soon.
Does LL care about you? About Me? Not one Linden dollar. What I am not understanding and that may be because I am not a techy type person, is this: Four sims that when put together equal one sim on...one server.....is the same as one sim on one server? Which then brings the question....why is there lag on many many private full sims as well as mainland? will they turn around in 6 months and go "mainland and private sims are not being used properly so we must raise tier in order to offset the lag that produces wear and tear on our servers." Dunno...still not making much sense to me right now. |
|
Hiroshi Kumaki
Registered User
Join date: 19 Oct 2007
Posts: 3
|
Requestng Total Pricing of Lands
10-29-2008 05:18
If, as Jack points out, the majority of thousands of openspace owners use it in heavy ways, the price hike this time is understandable, to be sure. But, at the same time, I would like to ask Linden Labs to consider much more profoundly the fact so many people have ordered openspaces, not normal regions, and that so many people use it in heavy ways, even renting parcels or houses.
That fact seems to me to prove the following:
1. So many people want their own island to use freely.
2. So many people take the openspace price as reasonable,
in other words, they think the price of normal region too expensive!
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the price hike this time is understandable. But, at the same time, I would like to ask Linden Labs to reconsider the price of normal regions too. If the price of the normal regions be lowered, the measures Linden Labs is going to take will be effective. But if they apply price hike of openspace only, the result will be hazardous. Second Life will no more be attractive to those who would like to create things freely, and they will walk out on it.
I expect Linden Labs will finally decide its pricing taking all these possibilities into consideration, which will be attractive to all the residents and would-be residents of Second Life.
|
|
Taisha Zanzibar
Registered User
Join date: 16 Oct 2008
Posts: 1
|
shame on you!
10-29-2008 05:19
This is not anymore a game to play for everybody! It's too expensive. I can't afford the tier of a sim with your new high price politics!! SL is going to be more and more a business game. It's a sad story. Money is ruling the world, also in SL. I did not want to sell anything on my sim, I just wanted to built a wonderful land to enjoy visitors. This project died with your new politics. And the wonderful different colors of SL will die as well. More shops, more strange sex games? No good world for me anymore. I am incredibly disappointed. Linden Lab is creating a social desaster. Shame on you!!!!
|
|
Thasius Vaher
Registered User
Join date: 15 Jun 2008
Posts: 33
|
10-29-2008 05:20
I don't think this is about money. I refuse to accept Linden Labs are stupid enough to hike the prices with the world economy as it is and expect to earn more. This is about getting rid of something they have found to be none cost effective, in order to replace it with a product that they believe will be. Burning the bush to make room for new growth.
We're all paying the price naturally.
Where's the comments from Jack anyways? Besides the ONE? Discussion? Pfft.
All this does is push people into OpenSim by the droves. I logged in there today and there must of been 100 newbie looking people just running around.
|
|
Xay Tomsen
Registered User
Join date: 18 Feb 2007
Posts: 2
|
44 sims ... going going gone
10-29-2008 05:21
I sent a trimmed down version of this to concierge support and they said to post it here, so here goes. Thru past experience I know it won't achieve anything but hey, i have to try for the sake of my community.
---------------------------------------
I don't want to knee jerk react so before I abandon my estate, I want to make sure I understand the ramifications of the new Open Space policy before the tiers start falling due in a few days time. I need an answer within 2 days, and as I spend $70,000US a year with you, I would appreciate that courtesy.
My situation is this. I have 44 tropical island sims called Irukandji: 11 full-prim sims and 33 open spaces. The difference between tiers that i pay and tiers i receive from rentals is about 1500US per month. I've worn this loss because I'm trying to create utopia, and as far as our population is concerned, I've succeeded. It's a work of art to me, not a business, or i would have walked off a long time ago.
Irukandji is also SL's largest gay and lesbian community with residents from 56 countries, both gay and straight. It is a creator's haven, with every tree, animal, car, boat, plane, helicopter, and sea creature made by Irukandji residents. We have a tough covenant, no ban lines, little trouble from griefers or hate crimers, and our own police force to protect our residents. That's about a hundredth of what we're about.
Last month, the problem was that I'm Australian - I believe Irukandji is the largest Australian-owned estate - and the exchange rate crippled us last month. But rather than give up, and with the support of our residents, I fixed the problem by abandoning a dozen or so sims, downgrading others to open spaces, and moving people to different sims. Finally we're close to breaking even so the currency issue was solved.
But now, LL delivers this latest blow. The few open spaces we rent have a single land owner tucked away in a corner with next to zero traffic and the rest is open public space that's rarely used. We have no commercial district in Irukandji except a small info centre on a full prim sim, Tamita Island, and another dedicated commercial full-prim sim. The rest is sparse residential, predominantly on full prim sims, with a strict covenant re lag inducing activities which is actively enforced by the police and the estate team. Of the 2.88 million sqm in Irukandji, over 2 million sqm is public seas and beaches, with 100 paying tenants spread out over 44 sims. There are rarely more than 50 people in the entire estate at any given time.
This latest action by LL now means that my tier debt will increase by $1650US per month from January 1, and that the bays will not only be unsustainable, but virtually useless given that it seems i can't even deed them to group. And if I could? How could I afford them now?
So i'm asking you, Linden Labs, do i understand this new ruling correctly?
If I'm right, given our extremely low effect on your infrastructure, and our extremely high value to marginalised communities and art itself, I can no longer sit by in good conscience and watch an already marginalised community be further extorted and destroyed.
I've endured a lot of crazy decisions by Linden Labs over the last 18 months and the absolute worst customer service of any organisation i've ever dealt with in my 43 years of life, but this is one step too far. Despite my initial enthusiasm for SL, i CAN get over it, and I will. I'll abandon the entire estate rather than see it become a speckled bunch of isolated class 5's with no common areas to enjoy or meet other people. LL, You've successfully turned SL into RL, divided and segregated and awful. I'm disgusted in what SL represents.
Another estate owner I spoke to today has put in a similar notice and is about to walk off 57 sims with equal outrage and disgust. People on this blog are asking where all the thousands of sims are that may be abandoned - Well there's a hundred between two people, and we're only small fry compared to some. Do the maths.
I'm very used to being ignored by concierge support and LL in general - never bothered to help me with any of the three scam transactions you allowed to leave my account over the past eighteen months (only $500,000L) - and didn't remotely give a damn when you devalued my estate by $14,000US with the last bout of flooding the market with cheap sims (which you're blaming us for now) so I'll say it clear in a public place.
If i don't see a damn big knight on a white stallion coming to the rescue before month's end - that's two days - I'll get the message. I'll give the community notice that the estate's closing down, then submit the relevant support tickets to abandon it. I've had a gutful of this ongoing extortion of private estates and your wholesale indifference to those of us who actually create the damn content you boast about. Your choice Linden Labs - I'm not saying another word. Xay Tomsen
|
|
Windy Noyes
Registered User
Join date: 28 Oct 2008
Posts: 7
|
10-29-2008 05:22
Linden Labs is proud to announce our new region package called EMPTYSPACE. With EMPTYSPACE, you can use 100Prims and 2 scripts and have a total of 2 people at one time, as long as one is a bot. Unfortunately, we can't guarantee that your EMPTYSPACE won't be lag free, because we will be putting 100 on a server. Even so you will be able to at least say you own a region, even if you can't actually use it. EMPTYSPACE regions can be bought for $199 set-up fee and $75 maintenance fee. However, we reserve the right to nearly double the price once enough of you have signed up for one  ) |
|
Eli Schlegal
Registered User
Join date: 20 Nov 2007
Posts: 2,387
|
10-29-2008 05:23
From: Sonja Felisimo Hi everyone thought I would give an explanation to you all seen as LL obviously don't feel the need too. To make it easier to understand I have used cows as the commodity LL has 2 cows Sorry everyone to make a funny comment but what sl is doing is so bad if you didn't laugh you would cry  No need to apologize... it wasn't funny  |
|
JoyofRLC Acker
Registered User
Join date: 28 Apr 2008
Posts: 3
|
OS Pricing - LL business model
10-29-2008 05:26
(Im relatively new here and have not read all 2000 odd posts on this, just the 1st 10 and last 5 or so pages)
BUT will pitch in anyway...
DISCLOSURE - I "own" an 'island' on an open sim which I will be using for a simple house & pool etc - assuming I stay!!
......
Tiers would seem to be like utility charges so legally Id say they are quite within rights to make the increase. Bait and switch seems irrelevant. Has there been misrepresentation? Id say thats arguable either way given the apparently mixed signals on 'proper use' of OS.
Some ask how increasing charges helps reduce resource usage. It doesnt of course. It *MIGHT* fund additional or upgraded servers to maintain service levels. Those who know LL track record can comment on likelihood of this happening.
(Im not a techie but I find it passing strange that everyone focuses so much on prims as a resource measure - arent prims really related to storage, which is basically free these days - thank you Google; as opposed to processor demands from scripts and avis etc ... processing is not quite free yet? "Land" comes with max prims but not with max cycles).
I think its more interesting to look at this in terms of marketing and business model. Im not sure what LL business model is. umm do they? But hey its fun to speculate.
Seems to me theres a real demand for a nice, spacious island type places for people (for the sake of clarity LOL, "people" means individuals not persons in the legal sense embracing corporate or commercial entities) to build houses with landscaping, pools, docks whatever. To hang with friends. Usually a few at a time. The occasional party. For less than $40 US a month.
To satisfy this need LL is basically just running servers. Thats now a commodity with plunging price/performance. You need massive scale (ie lots of customers).
"Content" is by the users, their friends or 3rd parties.
All the MBA wizzes seem to think Content is where the money is online.
There also seems to be a demand for 'light commercial' space too (all those malls selling clothes, furniture). I have to wonder about that ... how many of those actually make money for their owners based on the number I see with negligible traffic. But thats another storey. It seems common sense that they should pay higher utility charges (per metre or whatever) than residential sims.
I gather there are major RL corporatoins 'experimenting' with SL for various purposes. Probably high margins for LL. BUT - just a wild guess here - such activity could be high on the list for cut backs in a recession.
Seems to me the personal residential sector of SL could be a buffer for LL against corporate cut backs.
My guess is LL wants to shift from utility business to being content provider. But they've chosen a very inept way of getting there, by p***ing off a significant customer base. Presumably theyll regard the loss of revenue from OS tiers as people leave as a transition cost and are hoping to offset it as new people join and pay higher prices for the new regions etc. (Id like to know what the quit rates and recritment rates are).
The point of this ramble? My guess is this is a "strategic" move by LL. As such, mass blogs and 'votes' are unlikely to have them change direction. By all means yell and scream, But have contingency plans ready as they'll probably go ahead regardless. My other guess is that LL will see revenues drop.
PS: If you look at my SL name you can guess part of my contingency plan LOL. Its actually quite interesting comparing these sorts of issues in the two worlds.
|
|
Jim Perhaps
Registered User
Join date: 10 Dec 2005
Posts: 65
|
Confused
10-29-2008 05:26
From: Thasius Vaher I don't think this is about money. I refuse to accept Linden Labs are stupid enough to hike the prices with the world economy as it is and expect to earn more. This is about getting rid of something they have found to be none cost effective, in order to replace it with a product that they believe will be. Burning the bush to make room for new growth.
If you refuse to accept that Linden Labs is stupid enough to hike prices in a bad economy are you willing to agree that they are stupid enough that they had no clue after running SL for years that these openspace sims would be used as they are being used? After all who upped the prims to 3700?? If it is not about making money then why not just clamp down on the abusers? Why jack up the price for all those that are using the sims as Linden Labs claims they thought they would be used? Just consider these two points if you are really refuse to think this is not about money. Thank you |
|
Celeste Auer
Registered User
Join date: 13 May 2007
Posts: 8
|
Tsk Tsk
10-29-2008 05:27
|
|
Lord Sullivan
DTC at all times :)
Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,870
|
10-29-2008 05:30
From: Alicia Sautereau if this is legal, i`ll eat my ashtray if estate owners team up and take LL to court, i`ll celebrate on the forums and prolly get a life time ban Thanks for the link in your signature i have just emailed the lawyers
_____________________
Independent Shopping for Second Life residents from established and new merchants. http://slapt.me  slapt.me - In-World HQ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bastet/123/118/26
|
|
JoyofRLC Acker
Registered User
Join date: 28 Apr 2008
Posts: 3
|
Another thought ....
10-29-2008 05:31
I hope there arent SL finance companies lending against OS real estate - other wise we could be facing our very own credit crunch as all the properties go under water (and I dont mean "lower land" LOL
|
|
Thasius Vaher
Registered User
Join date: 15 Jun 2008
Posts: 33
|
10-29-2008 05:34
Well, naturally it IS about money, but it's not about earning more money from open space sims. It's about I believe, making space. Open space are filling the void between those who are happy with mainland and those who can not afford full sims. Linden Labs clearly does not want them doing such. This price hike is about killing off open spaces to make room for a new product. Namely their new residential abortion.
|
|
DerDepp Schnabel
Registered User
Join date: 17 Jan 2007
Posts: 25
|
Server
10-29-2008 05:36
Just a question: Do LL rent their Servers?
You can rent a dedicated Highend Server (the whole machine) including unlim. Traffic
for 99.- Euro ( 127US$) without any Setupfee.
Since Serverfarms strongly growing, all prices decrease, not increase.
|
|
AzA Zymurgy
Registered User
Join date: 1 May 2007
Posts: 32
|
Very Well Put....
10-29-2008 05:36
From: Xay Tomsen I sent a trimmed down version of this to concierge support and they said to post it here, so here goes. Thru past experience I know it won't achieve anything but hey, i have to try for the sake of my community.
---------------------------------------
I don't want to knee jerk react so before I abandon my estate, I want to make sure I understand the ramifications of the new Open Space policy before the tiers start falling due in a few days time. I need an answer within 2 days, and as I spend $70,000US a year with you, I would appreciate that courtesy.
My situation is this. I have 44 tropical island sims called Irukandji: 11 full-prim sims and 33 open spaces. The difference between tiers that i pay and tiers i receive from rentals is about 1500US per month. I've worn this loss because I'm trying to create utopia, and as far as our population is concerned, I've succeeded. It's a work of art to me, not a business, or i would have walked off a long time ago.
Irukandji is also SL's largest gay and lesbian community with residents from 56 countries, both gay and straight. It is a creator's haven, with every tree, animal, car, boat, plane, helicopter, and sea creature made by Irukandji residents. We have a tough covenant, no ban lines, little trouble from griefers or hate crimers, and our own police force to protect our residents. That's about a hundredth of what we're about.
Last month, the problem was that I'm Australian - I believe Irukandji is the largest Australian-owned estate - and the exchange rate crippled us last month. But rather than give up, and with the support of our residents, I fixed the problem by abandoning a dozen or so sims, downgrading others to open spaces, and moving people to different sims. Finally we're close to breaking even so the currency issue was solved.
But now, LL delivers this latest blow. The few open spaces we rent have a single land owner tucked away in a corner with next to zero traffic and the rest is open public space that's rarely used. We have no commercial district in Irukandji except a small info centre on a full prim sim, Tamita Island, and another dedicated commercial full-prim sim. The rest is sparse residential, predominantly on full prim sims, with a strict covenant re lag inducing activities which is actively enforced by the police and the estate team. Of the 2.88 million sqm in Irukandji, over 2 million sqm is public seas and beaches, with 100 paying tenants spread out over 44 sims. There are rarely more than 50 people in the entire estate at any given time.
This latest action by LL now means that my tier debt will increase by $1650US per month from January 1, and that the bays will not only be unsustainable, but virtually useless given that it seems i can't even deed them to group. And if I could? How could I afford them now?
So i'm asking you, Linden Labs, do i understand this new ruling correctly?
If I'm right, given our extremely low effect on your infrastructure, and our extremely high value to marginalised communities and art itself, I can no longer sit by in good conscience and watch an already marginalised community be further extorted and destroyed.
I've endured a lot of crazy decisions by Linden Labs over the last 18 months and the absolute worst customer service of any organisation i've ever dealt with in my 43 years of life, but this is one step too far. Despite my initial enthusiasm for SL, i CAN get over it, and I will. I'll abandon the entire estate rather than see it become a speckled bunch of isolated class 5's with no common areas to enjoy or meet other people. LL, You've successfully turned SL into RL, divided and segregated and awful. I'm disgusted in what SL represents.
Another estate owner I spoke to today has put in a similar notice and is about to walk off 57 sims with equal outrage and disgust. People on this blog are asking where all the thousands of sims are that may be abandoned - Well there's a hundred between two people, and we're only small fry compared to some. Do the maths.
I'm very used to being ignored by concierge support and LL in general - never bothered to help me with any of the three scam transactions you allowed to leave my account over the past eighteen months (only $500,000L) - and didn't remotely give a damn when you devalued my estate by $14,000US with the last bout of flooding the market with cheap sims (which you're blaming us for now) so I'll say it clear in a public place.
If i don't see a damn big knight on a white stallion coming to the rescue before month's end - that's two days - I'll get the message. I'll give the community notice that the estate's closing down, then submit the relevant support tickets to abandon it. I've had a gutful of this ongoing extortion of private estates and your wholesale indifference to those of us who actually create the damn content you boast about. Your choice Linden Labs - I'm not saying another word. Xay Tomsen Nothing to say, just wanted to repost what you said so when LL skips through this they actually see yours..... Go ahead Linden Lab, we just gave you enough Rope. |
|
Jim Perhaps
Registered User
Join date: 10 Dec 2005
Posts: 65
|
Coud it have been????
10-29-2008 05:37
Could it have been to sucker a bunch of people into funding the purchase a ton of new servers? Servers that Linden Labs could jack up the price on to offset costs of there new LLNet which is posted in the blog? Servers that Linden Labs could use for their own landsales business if enough people abandon their openspace sims? Could that be the reason for the increase? |
|
buxton Dezno
Registered User
Join date: 31 Jul 2008
Posts: 1
|
open space price change
10-29-2008 05:38
From: Katt Linden Openspace Announcement Discussion
I will be reading all the comments to this thread tomorrow and will reply as best as I can then, as it's very late for me now in the UK. Please be assured that we do read every reply.
Jack
---
Openspace Pricing and Policy Changes
In March of this year, we announced improvements to our light use land product that we call Openspaces. Not long after this, the new Land Store opened allowing estate owners to buy Openspaces and have them delivered almost immediately, an enormous improvement over the old method of ordering them via support tickets. As a result we have seen tremendous demand for Openspaces - with many thousands of them being ordered. We're delighted that so many of you have found them to be a useful addition to your estates.
Read on after the cut..
For those that don't know, an Openspace is a type of private island that we made available for light use countryside or ocean. We figured that if Governor Linden can have ocean and green spaces, we should let private estate owners do the same. But Openspaces differ from normal regions in one particularly significant way; unlike normal regions that effectively get a CPU to themselves on the server, there can be up to four Openspaces on a single CPU (so 16 on a quad core machine), sharing the resource (hence them being ‘light use’).
So Openspaces have been incredibly popular as a perk for estate owners, but sadly there is a twist. Unfortunately most of the Openspaces are being used for much more than light use. Based on analysis performed in August and September, Openspaces are being used about twice as much as we expected, in other words being loaded with double the content/avatar load than we'd expect for a region that is supposed to be light use.
Rather than being employed as open areas like ocean with little or no content and traffic, the majority are being rented out to residents looking for a place to live. Because they were never intended for that level of load this is causing problems. For some people this has meant a less than great experience with performance fluctuations. The overuse of Openspaces has also put additional strain on some of our network and database infrastructure at a much higher ratio than is reflected in the current pricing. So higher traffic to and from the servers along with heavier demands on the asset server, both of which impact the overall experience people have inworld.
We need to therefore take some steps to improve their performance and better reflect their actual usage levels in our pricing so that we can maintain the best performance level for everyone. As a result, we will be implementing a pricing change effective January 1st along with some policy changes effective immediately.
Beginning 1st January 2009
We will increase the monthly maintenance fee from USD$75 to USD$125 per month. This price increase will apply to all owners of Openspaces on January 1st as well as new purchases after that date. There will be no grandfathering of Openspace maintenance pricing.
For anyone owning class 4 Openspaces on January 1st, they will be upgraded to class 5 by end of January, to further improve the experience people have on those regions.
At the same time, we will be increasing the upfront fee for brand new Openspaces from USD$250 to USD$375.
Effective Immediately
We will no longer allow the Owner of an Openspace to be changed to a different resident than the Payor. Initially we will not enforce this change on Openspaces where the Payor and Owner are already different but in those cases the only change allowed will be to set the Owner back to the Payor. This doesn't affect the parcel level rentals, this is just focussed on the whole region rental of Openspaces.
We will no longer offer an educational or non-profit discount for new Openspaces. As mentioned earlier, this is due to the increased back end resource required for us to support Openspaces in the way that they are now being used. For the small number of Educators that already have Openspaces, we will be contacting you directly to discuss this change.
Next, we will be making changes to the viewer that enable residents to know precisely what type of land or region they are on so that the land market remains as fair and easy to understand as possible. So expect to see changes that much more clearly display to residents whether they are on Linden Mainland or Private Estate, whether it is a Normal region or Openspace and what that means. This will affect various aspects of the Viewer including the inworld Search along with the About Land and Buy Land screens. Making Land easier to understand will benefit everyone, especially new users looking to step onto the property ladder for the first time.
Lastly we will begin to proactively discuss overloaded Openspaces with their owners. This is important because as with abuse of region resources, a heavily overloaded Openspace can adversely affect other Openspaces sharing the same machine which is clearly unfair to residents who are using them responsibly. We have listened to your feedback on this, and agree that we need to make changes to better support our Openspace users by actively working to keep the performance levels as high as possible. We will also provide some detailed guidance about what ‘overuse’ looks like and how to prevent it.
So to recap:
* Openspace prices and fees change on the 1st January with no grandfathering.
* Class 4 Openspaces will be upgraded to class 5 in January.
* Educator discount is no longer available for Openspaces.
* No Owner switching for Openspaces unless it’s a full transfer of Payor.
* More proactive education by support staff to prevent unfair resource use by Openspace regions.
We’re sure there will be many of you with questions and concerns on the back of this announcement. As previously, there will shortly be a forum created specifically for discussion of these changes so please head over here if you wish to provide feedback. In addition, if you need a more personal dialogue about this post, please contact support as usual. Not a good idea,yr just gonna upset too many residents,and they will leave.I can understand u have a business to maintain,but this is a price rise too far in this climate.Carry on like this and SL will be dead.Soon as linden gets competition. |
|
Melancthe Diavolo
Registered User
Join date: 23 Oct 2008
Posts: 1
|
This will kill us
10-29-2008 05:41
Having made these sims available it’s incredible to me that they then do this to a market that’s invested so much time and money.
This will kill our RP group totally, pushing us to a quarter sim at best.
This isn’t just about raising all that cash though. First it might make our region owner broke (many are quitting) which could just mean the places vanish one day.
PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!
Provide caps on scripts running, or on avatars allowed..whatever it takes.
|
|
Maggie Darwin
Matrisync Engineering
Join date: 2 Nov 2007
Posts: 186
|
10-29-2008 05:46
From: HoneyBear Lilliehook The point of the matter with your analogy is that those items didn't increase in price after you bought them. Those are consumables. SIMS are not consumables. Note that many of the items cited were services: internet, electricity. Server time for a sim is exactly analogous. When you pay the setup for a sim, you're not buying something with zero ongoing costs. |
|
Qie Niangao
Coin-operated
Join date: 24 May 2006
Posts: 7,138
|
In-world words from Jack
10-29-2008 05:50
Apologies to those who've seen this already, or who attended in-person, but Prok's blog has an interesting transcript of an in-world meeting with Jack, at http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/10/jack-jacks-the.html. It's extraordinarily painful to wade through the chatlog there, but if one just searches for "Jack Linden" to see his words, it's almost comprehensible. FWIW, I read this to contain some hope that something a little more reasonable will emerge. And also FWIW, I think I now buy that the original motivation was actually performance impact of OpenSpaces, and not just on other OpenSpaces, but rather more because of much greater than expected impact to central services (asset servers, internal networks, etc.)--out of all proportion to the revenue generated by the product. There's a telling remark toward the beginning of the log, explaining how two OpenSims can pose more of a load to central services than a single full-primmed sim. When you think about that, it's clear they had to do something. (Why they did what they did... ah, screw it, I'm just tired of speculating about that.)
_____________________
Archived for Your Protection
|
|
Lissa Fimicoloud
Registered User
Join date: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 75
|
10-29-2008 05:53
It amazes me that after so many pages of evidence that this claim of "abuse" is a lie that there are still people bringing it up. Perhaps they like to live in a fantasy world where LL actually cares. Give it up. LL is a business. They have changed their target demographic to large corporations. If you aren't one, they don't care what you think.
|