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.
We would like to thank you for the hundreds of servers you paid for. This may sound like I am kissing your ass before I give you the bad news but I am...
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.
We give you 3750 prims and what do you do? You go and use it all, to top that you invite your friends over OMG! SHAME ON YOU!
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.
Yeah you heard me right, you were not supposed to use them, they were for looking at! Ok, you can walk in it and maybe one friend but that's it.
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.
Now that I explained to you how crappy they are, I am actually going to ask you to pay more for it and you can expect the same crappy product can be yours for only $125 a month! Ours operators will be waiting for your call on 1st January 2009
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
Remember we said it was $75 back then and you agreed to that price, heheheh, y'know what? We changed our minds and there's nothing you can do about it sooo SUCK IT UP!
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.
Hmm I have to make it look like we are actually giving you something better than what you have but here's the thing.. We're not
Oh... and it will cost you more !
Blaa blaaa blaaa blaa....
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.
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.
We will go and harass the people that are on the same server who are giving you a hard time which is unfair to you sooo...
We're going to charge you more, now THAT is fair
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.
Yeah like I said.. We will charge you more and we will pretend we are paying attention to your concerns please write to us for us to ignore. Oh did I mention we will charge you more?
Thank you for the hundreds of servers you have paid for which we will happily sell after you dump it because nobody will buy them right now. If you wish to keep it, please pay more
Much Love
Translated by Jolly Jedburgh for:
Jack Linden
