Massive OS sim abandonments

They are. Even if more than half the OpenSpaces shut down (and of the ones I know about, far less than that are going) the number of OpenSpaces and Homesteads would still comparable to mainland sims.

I am sorry Argent, I respect you but in this instance I think you are off your rocker.

Have you been attending the Jack Linden school of spin?

What, because I refuse to get all emotional and panicky over Linden Labs screwup and paint everything about them in the blackest hues?

Oh, they screwed up in all kinds of ways here, but it's not the $20 per month price increase that's the problem... even at $95 a month OpenSpaces or Homesteads or whatever they call them would be a bargain. It's the way they mishandled them, starting with the mixed signals about what you're supposed to use them for, through the second price increase next July, that's turned them into a mess. I'm not defending any of that, just pointing out that *right now* those OpenSpaces/Homesteads people are sitting on, at the moment, are *still* a better deal than anything else you can get for the money.

That is why a friend and I started our own grid we were tired of lies over and over and price hikes...

If you need the latest best servers in the future as the software evolves will just offer a upgrade package and even then I doubt it would cost more and like I said will never force it..


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No they are not, if you use it for open waterway... for example. How often are you going to use it? As I see it it is un realistic and sure as heck is not worth 125.00 a month on top of your 295.00!! As we all need to own a regualr sim to own an OS, that is unrealistic for the basic hobbist like me who only has one OS and one regualr, I am not in here to rape people of money or charge tripple tiers to un suspecting new people or open a high traffic shopping mall...

I am angry at the people who over abused these OS and now the people who tried to keep within the bounds of purchase are being punished as they (the abusers) all abandoned theirs! This angers me more than anything I have ever seen heard or done on SL.

I agree with you,as a renter and i speak for all renters who only used their OS for their own personal use it angers me too,only two avys use my OS at all times,i have'nt maxed out my prim allowance.
My OS is performance problem free,absolutely no lag,
The abusers who used these for much more than they were intended should be the ones punished,,,,,,,,as you say, they move on and we are left to suffer the consequences

Are you mixing up the new OpenSpaces (which are the new "void" product) which will remain $75.00, and Homesteads (which have no such restriction) and are increasing over the next six months to $125.00?

We've lost somewhere around 4,000 islands, now I do like a gamble but it wouldn't be much of a bet to suggest most of those 4,000 were openspaces, the majority have probably been converted to full sims but plenty have simply been abandoned. So the boom is well and truly over and now we're in the bust cycle.

Heh. I just wrote that even if they lost more than half the OpenSpaces that would still leave the same order of magnitude OpenSpaces as Mainland, and that implied a pretty strong demand for the product even at $95. And, hey, that's less than half... and still leaves more OpenSpaces than Mainland.

Mainland is what, 20% of the grid? I think the eyebrow raising point Argent was you claiming that they remain exploded despite everyone else seeing huge numbers of openspaces disappearing. The product has became tainted.

Yes we'll have more than when we started the road to explosion back in March or April, but that's to be expected merely based on the fact that people were allowed to buy them in singles rather than packs of four, there would have been an increase merely based on that. However where the product loses mass appeal is the USD$125 tier point, that is a major stumbling block and that's why people are abandoning ship on this product, USD$95 would hardly have caused a ripple.

If Linden Lab sell them direct we'll probably see a bit of a boost too, but that will come at a cost.

If *half* the number of OpenSpaces remaining had been all the OpenSpaces sold since the boom started, it would *still* be evidence that it was, even at this price, a bargain.
I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me by repeating a point I made myself.

I feel sorry for those hurt from the opensim price change, but this issue is no different than others i have seen since beginning SL.

First there was the gambling ban, then banks closed down, then age verification, then VAT, and now openspaces.......

Each time there is an issue, people panic & think its the end of the line. Meanwhile, if you look at the long-term pattern, its only normal market movement: contraction & expansion in a growing economy. It would worry me more to see uninterrupted growth, since that only means a big bubble is forming.

Everyone say they are leaving SL with each new problem that occurs, but most don't actually do it. Its kinda like smokers who perpetually say they are quitting and complain about their habit.... obviously, they really enjoy what they are doing (at least with some part of mind), and can't stop....

Despite the temporary bust cycles caused by those small issues..... SL does continue on, and has expanded 10X over, if you look at the big picture. Some business sectors suffered at certain points, but the flexible businesses moved on & prospered.

So like they say in a famous book..... "Don't Panic!".

They (I) will remain until it is still convenient... but it's getting very tiny atm, when i've started on the business time i were working (sometime with the same if not more effort than my RL job) and i were receiving something back: L$ to pay back my SIM (actually a SIM and a homestead) plus some extra money to get some fun inworld... but actually i'm facing high expenses (openspace price increase.. i have to pay the VAT), plus the sales are generally dropped by 40% (even if i make the calculation considering the xmas shopping), now almost each month i risk to have to use my own money to run my business, that would be ok if i just get fun around, but it would be stupid if i have to (hard) work plus have to pay for working (!). If it wasn't for the scripting (that remained paied well) i would have been really near to quit everything. With the price increased to 125$ (for me it will be: 150usd) i would really forced to give up with my stores and concentrate on scripting (it means abandon my SIM's) ...and it wouldn't be fun anymore because it would be a replica of my actual RL job (i'm a programmer), while with building i don't earn enything but i enjoy fun and AT LEAST *today* i may pay back the lands, but again i feel stupid to work and to pay with own money to make contents.
I agree on the "don't panic" thing (the sky is *not* falling...), but this is the first time that im starting concretely to think that a day i would be forced to abandon the whole thing (and the fun i had until today) because im really near the even.

It's not evidence of that at all, people didn't buy them at this price, the fact that people have decided to keep them doesn't mean that they see it as a great bargain, it's 20 bucks a month more to keep the same land you already have compared to getting rid and starting again.

Four times the land area.
Estate tools.
Privacy.
Unlimited terraforming.

$20 per month? Not a bargain? You're crazy.

But a quarter of the prims and as yet undefined limits on scripts and avatars, and quite possibly other limits to be imposed if these don't solve the problems that LL perceive.

I don't think OSs ever were that much of a bargain, they were an inferior product for a lower price, and I had no interest in that inferior product. To me even $75 was always too much to pay for what was on offer, although I suspect that had they offered Homesteads at $95 in the first place they'd have sold very nearly as many as they did, and even if $125 had been the original price I'd guess they would have sold a good number of them. The real issue that is getting people riled is surely not the $125 itself but the $50 increase.

Call me old fashioned but paying more for less has always struck me as not being a great bargain. There are new limits being imposed. The new Openspace product is of course not being increased, but people aren't happy about paying the same for less in that instance.

No. You're mixing things up.

For $75 you get a quarter of a sim on the mainland.

For the same $75 you got a whole sim, with the SAME NUMBER OF PRIMS as that quarter sim of mainland. 4 times the land area.
Yes. I. Already. Said. That.

Ohhhhh the voice of reason here to sooth everyone"s "panic"
I'm glad you have such a clear picture and can tell us all it is normal market movement and not to panic
You can't equate the gambling ban with this,that was illegal and LL had to stop that due to FBI interest,the age verification,well that speaks for itself.
This was caused by LL's own stupidity,that's what pissed everyone off and cause many to lose trust in LL.
They offered an affordable product,they did that by taking an existing product and lowering the set up fee,then double the prims and then it became a popular product.
People wanted that product because LL made it affordable.
People like me bought (rented) that product,made our homes there and this became SL to us,we bought it because LL offered it to us at a price we could afford.
Yes many got upset at the price increase because it was offered at one price and when many bought that product LL changed the rules and decided to all of a suddenly take it out of that affordability range.
Instead of using smokers trying to quite as an example,let me use another.
What if you bought a house and the bank came up with a mortgage you could afford,then 6 months later said "we are raising your mortgage 66%" don't you think you would be more than a little pissed off,well they could tell you "it's normal market movement" so you are now left with a choice,pay it or give it up because you can't afford it anymore.
You bought the house because you could afford what they offered.
That is the same here,we bought what they offered us then they cruelly changed the rules to suit themselves without thought to the many who made their homes on the product they made affordable to us.
I keep saying that because LL made it affordable,LL created this whole mess by taking an unpopular product and making it popular.
It might mean little to you but real lives are affected here,not just a virtual avatar,my island is everything to me,it is my home,i spend all my time there with my lover.
I have a beautiful garden there,we live on a huge 4 story yacht,we have roads all around the island to drive our cars and bikes on,we have a jet and 2 helicopters.
I got my island in good faith,granted i got it before they became popular with 1875 prims,it was the privacy i desired after being on a small piece of land with absolutely no privacy.
Don't reduce us to "normal market movement" LL's decision is wrong,and the whole OS debacle was created by LL and has nothing to do with "normal market movement".
The OS problem was created by LL and killed by LL
That is not "normal market movement" that is manipulation of the market

Pretty much agree with this, let's not forget that people were buying this product when you had to buy them four at a time and they only supported 1875 prims. People weighed up the pro's and cons and then decided whether to purchase.

The initial announcement regarding changes such as being able to buy them as a single instead of a pack of four, and being able to place them anywhere instead of anchored to an existing island would have seen a growth in the product anyway. Doubling the prim count for a slight increase in tier, it was around $2 a month or something, people were seeing the potential.

However having encouraged the growth and then hitting people with the 50 bucks a month rise, yeah, that's what people are riled about. Even a 10 dollar increase would have raised little more than token noise, 20 starts to get noiser, 50 is a big increase.

All that means nothing,i do not have estate tools,i do not have unlimited terraforming,yes i have privacy
It is not the $20 people are upset about,if LL left it at that most would be happy with that.
It's the jump to $125 that is the problem and for that price you can't say we are getting value for our money.
For that price we should have half a normal sim's prims 7500 or close to it
You cannot look at the picture as it stands right now,many will ride out the increase to $95 because it is still affordable
The real picture will become clear in july when the $125 clicks in,then you will see a huge reduction in homesteads as people give them up because they can't afford to keep them any longer

If LL start selling homesteads direct, then it's a fair comparison to make directly with owning just a quarter of a mainland sim. As they don't then a more fair comparison is:

A sim and a half of mainland costs $292.50 a month. That's how LL stagger the tier structure, so you'd have upto 22,500 prims.

An island and openspace cost $370 a month, you need the island to own the openspace, that gives you 18,750 prims.

So what are you all going to do when they decide enough is enough and pull the plug all together?

We'll discuss it for months afterwards on a third party forum