Open Spaces Announcement & Talk with M and Jack Linden

This seems like a step in the right direction. A much more reasonable compromise between the wants of users and the wants of the corporation. We'll need to see the actual numbers regarding prim limits and such before making a final call, but I think this is definitely a much more positive approach.

It is my opinion that Linden knew all along what they were doing.

People who have invested in good faith in estates that use open space sims as originally intended have been sold a bill of goods! The price for so called "Open Space" sims is being maintained but the number of prims is being reduced from 3750 to 750.

Everyone knows that the prim is considered the basic unit of land value in SL. This is an 80% reduction in value: cost per prim is increasing from US$ 3.3 cents per month to US $ 16.7 cents per month. For mainland, we pay US $75 per month for 3,750 prims. This is the same as the pre-increase Open Space sim prim price. Where is the equity in all of this?

BUYER BEWARE: You can expect Linden Labs to entice you with low entry fee and then jack up their prices by 80% or more once they think they have a captive audience.

When can we expect mainland Land Use Fees to increase so that they fall into line with the new Open Space / Homestead sim pricing.? If won't be very long either before Linden Labs also jack up the price on full sims. We now know what they consider to be the desirable monthly use cost per prim.IT IS 80% HIGHER THAN WHAT WE ARE ALL PAYING NOW.

TIME TO START PACKING UP YOUR GEAR FOLKS AND BEGIN THE MASS EXODUS.

SO SAD!

Raising prices is not "bait and switch". Bait and switch is when a business fraudulantly advertises a product or service at a very low price then tells the potential customer that the product is no longer available so they can then try and sell a more expensive product in its place.

You know what guys? I'm not an OpenSpace owner. I have no convincing reason to care about this. I own a private island, and I don't know anyone in my circle of friends who has any stock in an OpenSpace. But when the original price hike announcement hit, I was with you guys 100%, with my pitchfork, with my flag displaying an SL emblem giving the finger, demanding an explanation on Linden's customer service sims. I felt a great injustice had been served to a great number of people, and even though it didn't impact me, I was motivated and duty-bound to make sure my voice of dissent was heard.

I'd even contemplated shutting down Envision island -- denying Linden Lab the profit of my private island, and denying my poor residents the benefits of living there -- just to prove the point that Linden was being unreasonable.

Guess what? We threw a fit, and now Linden Lab is giving you a break. They are no longer telling you, It's my way or the highway. They are telling you, This is what it's really going to cost us for the different demands each use case has; put your money where your mouth is.

Linden Lab has very reasonably compromised. They have backed down from their unreasonable position, to one where you now have alternatives. Alternatives are good, even if the end result for the carnival-on-an-OpenSpace owners is the same.

Look... the only people who know how much it costs to operate a heavily-loaded sim are the IT department managers and operations people who work Linden's data centers. We don't know the exact numbers, and I doubt we have any reason to be privy to those exact figures. Those of you saying that prices should be lower have absolutely no grounds for your claims; you are simply using Linden's compromising position to knock them back even further.

What if Linden would have to take a monetary loss when you guys start pegging openspace servers, in order to stabilise their performance? Hm? What if they had to split OpenSpaces so dramatically that there are only two OpenSpaces per server, in order that they remain stable? At $75/month, that's hardly fair to us Private Island owners, much less Linden.

Fact: The technology behind the hardware and the software is what it is. The technology can and will be improved at both a hardware and software level, but pricing cannot be set on predicted outcomes of future R&D. R&D is the single most unpredictable activity that businesses pay for, and it is the most expensive for Linden Lab.

Fact: It's entirely possible that, finally, Linden is setting price points which better reflect their costs. This is particularly compelling when you consider that a heavily loaded sim - be it an OpenSpace, Mainland, or Private Island - must be run with fewer other sims on the same server if it hogs resources. That means Linden needs more servers to handle that load.

Fact: You now have options you didn't have before. Consider them, make up your mind, and stick with it. Even if you choose a Homestead, you're still paying way! less than a Private Island, and you're getting lots of value.

Fact: This is not smoke and mirrors. There are real changes being made in terms of technical restrictions to ensure the stability of the entire grid. These restrictions will prevent the sort of sprawl that originated this problem.

Fact: Now that the policy on what is "intended" for each sim class is clear, we can also very explicitly define the term "abuse" for each sim class. Also, abuse may become less possible with the technical restrictions. So if you are given a certain number of scripts, go ahead and use them, and Linden can't call it abuse, because that's what they're restricting you to. You all complained that they gave you X and wanted you to use X/4; now they're giving you X and if you use X, they're happy. How is that bad?

My conclusion? This change has swayed me from the column of dissident to the column of Linden supporter. I now have a renewed belief that Linden Lab is a reasonable company, staffed by people who are sensitive to the reactions of their customers, and who are willing to take profit cuts and hire more staff in order to satisfy their angry customers.

To be angry at them still, at this point, is folly. So please calm down, think about these changes, and start planning for the future of your land.

Cordially,

Tiyuk Quellmalz

I JUST DOWNLOAD THE OPENLIFE!!! Starting to leave secondlife!!!
The sims are cheappers...

We are going to start a new world for us

The dream is coming to an end in a (game) that helps you get thru the hard times in RL. IMO

If you don't crash (i do cause my pc at home)... how can OS are making all this truble to Lindens?

Where does it say that? And what does "live there" mean? Why not? I don't have a house where I "live", and the only house I have isn't where I "live". It's a prop in a completely different sim that isn't used for anything except as part of the backdrop. And until about a year ago my home point wasn't in either location.

Hell, I would have been all over the offer even at a 50US increase if it meant the full quarter sim prim allotment, agent lock at 20 and a reasonable script lock.

Like, say, advertising 3750 prims, deciding they do not want to deliver that, and asking you to buy a more expensive homestead instead (with the additional edge that you'll otherwise lose the already invested setup fee)?

On the contrary. Claiming beforehand you might possibly sometime in the future change something doesn't shield you from being guilty of bait and switch.

Felix Oxide: not to rain on your cheerleading, but you keep conveniently forgetting the bait, and characterizing this as just a price increase. They LOWERED the price by HALF, and then DOUBLED the prims. Then, after collecting all those setup fees, they give us this "deal".

you're just being obtuse, i think.

I hardly ever crash any more, and I can't remember the last time I had a sim crash on me.

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My conclusion? This change has swayed me from the column of dissident to the column of Linden supporter. I now have a renewed belief that Linden Lab is a reasonable company, staffed by people who are sensitive to the reactions of their customers, and who are willing to take profit cuts and hire more staff in order to satisfy their angry customers.

To be angry at them still, at this point, is folly. So please calm down, think about these changes, and start planning for the future of your land.

Cordially,

Tiyuk Quellmalz