Linden - come take your pound of flesh!

I rent land out to those wanting land, do not sell it. Maybe I am wrong but do not see any reason for ppl to put out upfront money. The few islands that I sold maybe 15 were because some people, for whatever reason, had a need to own their land. Could it be they wanted to make a profit ?

Alliez, maybe if LL took your approach things would be better. Unfortunately LL has no quams about taking significant upfront RL dollars. $1000 US for a sim is significant and it gives you no rights what so ever. It is a deposit never to be refunded even if all the rules change tomorrow in such as way that you lose everything. The land owners who ask for something up front are only trying to pass that up front cost on to the renter.

As this whole fiasco shows none of us own anything. Land may be sold but it is only a fee for use arrangement with a heafty start up payment. Despite the fancy names like "Estate Manager" the only real landlord here is LL. Thats why there are so many cries for the grandfathering clause - if not contractual, it is a extension of good will that puts people on firmer ground (so to speak). With a grandfther clause there is at least some longevity in the fee arrangement. Corporations would never enter such a one-sided contract as the current user agreements yet everyone who claims their businesses are now ruined did just that. Do you think IBM is in here with the standard user agreement? No. They have locked contracts with non-LL terms and conditions to prevent this kind of thing.

As for customer service and bad management I think LL has crossed the line this time. The line is one of pure economics (Real world, not Second Life). No matter how much one might be addicted to SL and no matter how much they want to be here when people just can't afford the costs any longer it is "game over". It won't make any difference if they are newbs or seasoned master builders when the minimum price to play reaches that line new business transactions will be rare and LL will be the loser. Sure you can drop back to the free account model but that is like watching others play the game and only increases the cost to LL. Not very fun and a bit limiting from a player and corporate perspective.

I read a post in here somewhere that said what LL needs now is a new business. They should get some management and public relations consulting and develop a plan to repackage second life. Second Life II so to speak, tied to a new business model. Perhaps one where every user pays some monthly fee and there are 30 or 60 day trials. This would reduce the cost burden for everyone and allow LL to grow its business in a much more structured and planned way.

What we know for sure right now though is that SL is in need of something. First and foremost new management who know how to run a software, gaming and entertainment company. Someone who understands price point and marketing and can maximize its growth with a solid technical and business plan. As a user and customer I give LL a D- grade on their management of this company. Despite all of the positive global interest and support in VR worlds and despite a monopoly position in the market this company is thrashing with a highly motivated yet completely dissatisfied customer base.

Good points, Cappy, but if i may:



1. Just because LL seems to place no importance on customer service doesn't mean customer service is not important. That would be like stating sales or marketing were not important just because you were bad at them.

Besides, with chat lag and stability issues afoot, SL is an OK 3D chatroom, especially on weekends.

2. How do you add value to a virtual world? Well, a few ideas right off:

Improve viewer stability and improve back-end performance. Right there you've increase the value dramatically, from a resource-intensive chat program to a possibly functional entertainment platform.

Simplify the first hour, decreasing the slope of the learning curve. From the estimates I've heard, this is where they lose a sizable percentage of potential new users that are sticking their head in to see what SL is all about. The longer you can keep the "Noobs," the more they might spend, and the more content they might generate to populate your product, so you can put screen caps on glossy media packets for the marketting department.

There you've improved your short term retention rates. Besides, most new customers are not spending RL money in SL right off the bat- they are too busy wandering around confused, or discovering things like camping and poledancing. To improve long term retention and maybe get them to invest money into the product, you have to give them a reason to stay.

But if they don't feel they are receiving a decent value for the time and money spent, They stop spending and stop creating. They stop adding value to your product for you, or worse.

As for squatters, well, by definition: they squat. They have no reason to contribute, but they have no reason to leave. They do not contribute to anything apart from concurrency statistics.

3 - I heartily agree. Good luck to you, too.

Those not in the US$ economy, and suffering from worsening exchange rates, might consider that L$ earnt on SL will translate now to many more of your local currency. So if we could put more effort into making products for sale in SL, then perhaps some small amount of money might be made out of this recession.

I agree. I think Linden have a new strategy that does not involve the 'little people' like myself. They are certainly not interested in art and culture, unless it comes from a corporate entity. It doesn't matter to Linden if places like the Spacexcape Project closes down - what's $500 a month to them?

Spacexcape Bridges waves goodbye to Linden Labs and blows them a kiss.

I assume you mean OS,I had to put $500 up front to "buy" mine and no i did not get it for profit

You mean to say you paid someone upfront $500 for an OS sim? That amount of money is more then they paid to set it up in the first place. All I can say is ppl move into mine and pay rent, no money upfront. In Dec I will have been in business 4 years, never raised rent til now, when LL raised tier on OS sims, I have notified all my renters about the increases in both Jan and July and happy to say many will stay. Some can not and I will move them as I have already moved some.

But, I do have to say having been in world since April, 2004 and started in buying private sims from just about the start, I am fortunate and know it. I have always suggested to potential renters that they check out whoever they might deal with, talk with ppl, search on them in the forums. Knowledge is power~

Nikita, I do wish you the very best.

Most SL Residents are finally upset about what is happening with OS sims, but what many of them never took into account is that LL began a short-sighted campaign to try to make more money for themselves...or a concerted effort to fleece us...months ago. Regardless of their motives, it is progressing daily. What appears to only affect estate owners is only the latest volley from LL in what appears to be a concerted effort to financially devalue the land we've invested in over the last years. Then once land costs almost nothing..and is worth the same...jack up the tiers and really screw 'em!!!

When I first came to SL over two years ago...I purchased land in the Semoshi region...and have continued to do so, until I own approximatly 98% of the sim. I pay $195.00 a month in tier. My investment over time to acquire that land was approximately $1600.00. There were fluctuations in the land market over that time that at various times made my land worth $1800.00-$2000.00. That was to be expected.

THE FIRST BAD POLICY CHANGE that was made happened Six Months ago. There was a reduction in the cost of mainland region acquistion, it was supposedly done to improve sales of land for LL....mainland regions were reduced from $1250.00 (as a starting bid price) with most selling in the $1800.00-$2000.00 range, which made my land commensurate in value. The reduction was to $750.00 (as a starting bid price). This immediately devalued my land. In other words, the land that a week earlier was worth perhaps $1900.00 US dollars, suddenly was worth less than a thousand. Why would anyone purchase my land if they could buy mainland land at auction for half the price? This was LL's first foray into economic manipulation, and they did it with either their financial eyes closed, or no concern about what effect it would have on the investment that their residents have made in their land.

Over time, because of this reduction in acquistion cost, mainland land continued to become more and more devalued. With the further devaluing of the land, my sim was worth approximately $700.00. Land prices continue to plunge. Using the Linden Stats, last month the average price per sq meter of land was approx. L$1.6/sq meter. I lost approximately three quarters the value of the investment I made in Second Life, because LL wished to increase their sales.

THE SECOND BAD POLICY CHANGE...Now comes along a new mainland continent, part of the parks and recreations program. Its called Nautilus...it is a pre-built series of regions that are currently for sale. The problem with Nautilus is that the parcels are being auctioned by LL for the same lowered acquisition price that was set six months ago, certainly they are being bid up higher by land speculators, but that is not the point, the parcels in these new sims are allotted twice the prims per sq. meter that other older mainland sims are. In other words, you can buy at auction a 1024 sq. meter parcel on the new Nautilus continent and that parcel will support 468 prims. The rest of mainland can only support 234 prims on a 1024 parcel. A lot of folks are saying this is equalized by the high bid prices that the new land in Nautilus is bringing in...well, acquistion price is a small part of the ongoing cost of land. I checked with concierge support and was told that the tier would be the same per sq. meter as it is on the rest of the mainland, and that the "bonus" prims would be on that land permanently. So if you are not already tiered up, having made your investment in SL already, you can get twice the prims for the same amount of sq. meters...and not pay twice the tier. Sounds like a great deal, huh? It's not, it is a horrible development.

Simply put, LL has made a short-sighted decision to improve LL's sales while showing that they have no regard for your existing mainland residents ...a decision that has devalued the land of every mainland landowner in SL outside of Nautilus. Why would someone pay for established mainland that has already been devalued once...when they can buy on Nautilus and get twice the prims? To buy land on the rest of mainland and get twice the prims...well, you have to buy twice the land. Of course I cant invest in Nautilus, because I own a full sim of mainland already, I am fully tiered up...and have no choice but to keep it, and I don't think I could sell now for more than about L$3/sq. meter...or about $450.00, based on current mainland prices in search.

LL made decisions that made more money for LL...great..but you took it out of my pocket to do it...and out of the pocket of every other mainland landowner in SL. So, can we expect parity with the Nautilus regions? Will LL be giving us 2X the prims?...Or will LL be cutting our tier prices in half?

I ask this because LL mainland pricing and prim charts say this:

1/128 Region 512 sqm 117prims US$5
1/64 Region 1,024 sqm 234prims US$8
1/32 Region 2,048 sqm 468prims US$15
1/16 Region 4,096 sqm 937prims US$25
1/8 Region 8,192 sqm 1,875prims US$40
1/4 Region 16,384 sqm 3,750prims US$75
1/2 Region 32,768 sqm 7,500prims US$125
Entire Region 65,536 sqm 15,000prims US$195

and that is still true...UNLESS YOU BUY ON NAUTILUS...then you pay the same tier, but get twice the prims, which once again screws existing mainland land values.

Now...it would seem that everything is roses and sunshine for the fast selling land on the Nautilus continent...double prims...decent price...lets ALL climb that bandwagon and all get double prims!! Yay...of course...that leaves a great deal of land on older mainland sims with no owner..no buyer. Recalls this is how the HUGE push to sell Open Space Sims started...GREAT new product..seems like a great deal...until the other shoe drops.

THE THIRD AND LATEST BAD POLICY CHANGE is as you all know, the Open Space controversy, and ironically it is the one getting all the press. LL is now "dropping the other shoe" figuratively with the new changes in tier costs. LL has been running a smoke and mirror game for years...they equate land value and tier with the number of square meters...square meters mean nothing....the PRIM is KING here in SL, and always has been. For them to base their pricing on sq meters is ridiculous...meters of land dont mean anything to the server...it's the number of prims, the number of scripts those prims can contain...and the number of residents that can be on the land. And a square meter of land allows and costs entirely differently depending upon where that sq. meter is located. It is one prim allottment/tier cost/sq meter on an island estate, something quite different on the regular mainland, something totally different on an OS sim..and a fourth something different on Nautilus...and it seems that other residents are finally understanding this. In October, one of the worst months SL has had, it would seem from the stats on the webpage...they still sold over a thousand new Island Regions...in November, so far, that would normally mean that they would have sold about 350 new regions as of today...instead they have lost -367 from the net number of regions...wake up LL...the residents are not buying into the real life loss of cash that your short-sighted attempts to keep your revenue up are costing your customers.

Temporal Mitra

I "bought" my OS just before the price drop,which of course was a little upsetting to see it go down.
The estate owner i am with is a reputable estate owner,(i would hazard a guess you know of him)i've read a lot of stories on here about islands just going poof and people losing everything they owned
I mentioned this in another post,i was dabbling with the idea of finding a cheaper homestead(that meaning the estate owner profit was less than i'm paying now)
But it makes one uneasy about moving to a cheaper place to save money and risk losing everything
I love my island,i have created my own little piece of heaven and i'm so attached to it,

Dear Lindens

I do hope you are well.

You are cordially invited to the inaugural "pound of flesh" party at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spacexcape%20Island/128/128/21
1pm SLT today where you will be invited to collect your pound of flesh from Spacexcape Bridges .... and then to repossess the Open Sim that she bought from you in July. After that, we invite you to take her body over to
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spacexcape%20Retreat/50/211/26
where you can rip out her heart and eat it amongst the trash she left behind for you.

Looking forward to you being there
The Spacexcape Team

sounds fun to watch lol

Ironic considering that Spacexcape is on the Showcase.

awww. I can't come. I'm too busy making RL money in my job, for things like food, housing and land tiers. Well, I used to earn money for the land tier anyways...

Hope it is a bloody success. Did anyone remember to bring BBQ sauce?

Thanks everyone who came and trashed the sim. We had fun and it will all be on You Tube bye end of this day! The main sim is now sold and we will close down and move out of Second Life on the 3rd December. Keep the candle burning guys!

Spacexcape

Got a linky for the youtube vid? Please?

I looked for "Spacexcape" over on Youtube and I believe that it's that one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkBx6BNrCIo

I have seen trends come and go but one steadfast is that scammers and profiteers look to turn a buck on kids and newbies to SL.

The openspace sims which were designed to give full sim owners added beauty to their creations have been downgraded into low-prim hovels rented out to unsuspecting players. This bastardization of the quality sims of SL is better gone, and you are right to get rid of them. I have seen many scams here on forums, in world, and on ebay involving open space. Many try to dupe buyers into believing they have a full-value sim when in fact it is not. The amount of total sims in world is staggering. It dilutes the per-sim population to a trickle. If the open-space owners choose to fold, better for all of SL as a whole.

so you mean here if your friend did a mistake then both of you should be punished ?????

Alicia, Linden Lab sold them. Linden Lab said it was ok to use them for residential usage, Linden Lab gleefully blogged about how much the land mass had grown. Linden Lab ignored pleas from both mainland and estate owners that Openspaces were causing problems, they were too busy counting the setup fees.

This led to some estate owners actually converting their full sims to openspaces, again for a fee to Linden Lab.

The idea that Linden Lab are right to have acted as they have is ludicrous.

Please don't feed the Trolls

Tell us Alicia, has the OS announcement increased your rental income? You know for your mall and cottages?

^^THIS^^

That doesn't mean people had to actually buy them though. We all knew that there were 4 regions to a cpu, and from the very start people were talking about problems. I don't understand why people continued to buy them and let it progress to this stage. If LL said jump off a cliff would everyone do that? I'm not saying LL's actions were anywhere near the best choice, but there were plenty of people out there abusing their openspaces that were also to blame.