Open Spaces Announcement & Talk with M and Jack Linden

Scenario 3: LL does not care about 'small customers' anymore. Maybe they want to concentrate on solvent business clients rather (like other similar companies), and expect to make much more money there than with average people. This will also be the end of SL as we know it.

I think it boils down to this:

Either LL really changes their strategy, becomes more liberal, and moderate when it comes to pricing. Or they keep up their present strategy - this will probably be the final needed impulse to push the open grid projects into a mature state; then LL will have an equal competitor, backed by a huge, flexible and cheap opensource community. Both scenarios will be fine for the customers, only in the latter one LL will be the looser.

The future will be great, with or without LL - but that's their choice

The Second Life Grid project is far more interesting. That's where the companies find a platform to create new business opportunities. And they don't go there for a measely 4096 mainland parcel - they think in whole regions.

Unfortunatly the deed is done. Most here do not understand they were actually getting a steal, and naturally do not want to lose that sweet deal. The openspaces were grossly underpriced and you are right, it led to mainland becoming virtually worthless. But this is the fault of LL not the people buying the openspaces.

indeed, broccoli, this is another good point,
if you think about big companies LL wants to attract to SL, I would first of all check the reputation of the firm (LL) before I really invest in their service. And if LL goes on like this, their reputation will dramatically decline. BMW, ooo, you have a presence in SL that is run by that strange rip-off company with poor communication called LL?

A few posts back people are wondering if LL is focussing only on RL big businesses.

My thoughts on this:
1.- RL large businesses are leaving SL already in greater numbers then new are arriving already quit a while.
2.- RL large businesses make long-term plans in which external unpredictable factors weigh in risk analyses and predictions. The current inconsistancy of LL makes the risk-factor probebly too high.
2.- RL large businesses do not want to be associated with a company that has a reputation of making consumers angry or feel extorted.
3.- RL large businesses need consumers to visit their inworld activity. So without consumers there is no use in being around in Second Life.

Whilst companies may be looking for new business opportunities, you also have to remember that most will do their research before parting with any cash. If they happen to catch wind that LL screw its customers about, change prices on a whim, sell inferior products then blame it on their customers for using them "too much", and a general dissatisfaction with the company, its policies and its managers... would *you* want to spend thousands of dollars here? I would certainly be very wary of doing so, in the current global financial crisis.

OK, get this - talk about adding insult to injury...

With this announcement we have no choice but to join our 'homestead' sims to get a full sim, not a choice we are happy about but not something LL care about...anyway...we put in the support ticket yesterday to get the sims moved/joined into one full sim but the tier on 2 of them is due in two days time and the others a few days after that. Wondering what to do we contacted live support and spoke to Ethan Linden about this. After asking many times whether they were really going to make us pay for at least 2 of the sims full month tiers (and probably more by the time they get round to sorting it out), when they were waiting in a queue to be deleted he avoided the question and spoke about tier dates - totally refusing to say either way, after a while he was forced to admit that 'Unfortunately there isn't a credit on the previous tiers'. When asked to confirm what he was saying, because frankly we couldn't believe it, he rudely closed the chat window down and refused to say anything - great customer service.

So folks..if you are turning in your lovely 'homesteads' as they will soon be known for one full sim, bear in mind that even if tier is due while you are sitting in the ever growing waiting queue it's tough luck - you'll end up paying a full months tier on EVERY sim, just to have it deleted when they finally get round to sorting it - with NO CREDIT towards the new full sim you are exchanging them for...now that's just extortion....another great tip from 'how to get screwed', by the Lindens...they kept that one quiet huh?!

Back in 2006 Mark Kingdon (now M Linden) wrote

... The most interesting part of the session was near the end when an audience member asked a question that struck at the heart of why the entire topic matters at all: "Why should we care what someone on a social network says about our brand?"

The most obvious answer is consumers can tell millions of their closest friends what they think. But there's more. Consumer comments within social media can influence purchase decisions. A new Compete Research study proves the effect of consumer-generated influence is quantifiable. ....

See http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624215 for whole article.

Perhaps we should take the hint and express our annoyance with this price hike on whatever social networks we belong to rather than in a closed forum, that after all is why LL closed comments on the easily visible blog.

And from an earlier article some of Mark's own advice he seems to have forgotten

.... Listen carefully. If you target connected customers, have a mechanism in place to collect feedback before taking major actions (product changes, new product launches, etc.). Don't act in a vacuum. Use social media to engage customers and solicit their feedback. Then, make their input an important part of your strategy.....

I had a nice little sim business going, I paid $US1675 to LL for each sim and were paying you almost $US1500 a month in tier. I was doing alright, LL's constant printing of mainland made it tough, but I survived. Your introduction of the $US1000 sim and the $US250 Open Space completely destroyed my business. Overnight I found that no one wanted to rent the lots on my sims. I cut the prices on my sims to the barest minimum, in same cases I had to rent out at below cost, but alas, no one was interested. In short, LL forced me into the Open Space market, it was either rent out Open Spaces or close my doors.

[Read the new announcement and talk it over here, thanks!]

A Letter to Second Life Residents

M Linden here. Many thanks to everyone who responded constructively with their concerns and suggestions about our Openspaces announcement. We’ve listened carefully and your feedback has led to some amendments to our original plan.

Before I jump to the policy amendments, I’d like to provide some insight into our decision and then recap what we’ve heard from you. When the Openspaces product was originally launched, Linden Lab offered Island owners the opportunity to add Openspaces to their land for light use only –- such as ocean or park land. But we didn’t build in and enforce specific, quantifiable performance limits on the Openspaces. Why? For two simple reasons:

1. As you know all too well, many things affect performance of a Sim in complex inter-related ways (i.e., scripts, prims, avatars, media). We were reluctant to limit the overall experience and your creativity by posing specific limits on all these variables – partly because Linden Lab has always been pretty free-form and believes in the innate goodness of Second Life Residents and partly because imposing limits require that we hire staff to enforce them.

2. We wanted to get this product to market quickly. Openspaces was wildly popular. Some Island owners added ocean and park land, as intended but many built empires – glorious builds, beautiful rental properties and other great things. Since land-owners co-habitate on CPUs, if one owner adds an ocean and one builds a carnival, the shared CPU gets overloaded. The ocean-loving Resident who followed the original intent suffers and we are called in to resolve the conflict. Second Life is much too large to do that.

When we sorted through the good and bad in the many conversations, comment cards, emails, and calls, you shared many things but there were three consistent themes we can work with:

1. Those of you who used the Openspaces as originally intended — for ocean or park land — want that product at the original price point and are willing to accept clear restrictions on usage.

2. Some of you have built businesses on the Openspaces product, set your rental rates or built your groups and although you acknowledge you built more than was intended for Openspaces, a large and rapid price change is too much for you to absorb.

3. Some of you created builds that were between an ocean and a carnival and want some kind of “normal region lite” product – a lower price point than a normal region but with the ability to build a certain amount of content.

We’ve launched three land products in the company’s history: Mainland, Islands and now Openspaces. Because we have complexity everywhere else, we’re loath to add a highly complex pricing structure. Nevertheless, it’s clear we have to build a product mix and pricing structure that offers more flexibility.

Here is how we are amending the price change:

1. We are going to retain the Openspaces product at its original price point and its original intended use (forest, water, etc.). We will have technical limitations to help regulate their use, initially avatar and prim limit restrictions, eventually event, classified and script limits. Those of you who chose to use the Openspaces as intended may stay at the US$75 rate, but will need to contact the concierge team to do so.

2. If you want more than an Openspace, we will offer you the choice of moving to a new product called Homesteads that is intended for light use such as low density rentals. For existing Openspace owners we will phase in the price increase for this new product over the next 6 months. Homesteads will also have technical limits for avatars and prims, and eventually script limits as well.

* January 5, 2009 – non-compliant Openspaces will transition to Homesteads and the maintenance fees will go from $75 to $95 per month. We will offer an educational discount to qualified educators on the new Homestead product. The discount amount will be the same as Private Regions, roughly 30%.

* July 2009 — the maintenance fees for Homesteads will go from $95 to $125 per month

For detailed information on these changes, please go to the Knowledge Base.

We believe this is fair. Jack and I will join you in the forums throughout the day today to discuss this. Comments are closed on the blog, not because we want to limit dialog or free expression but because this is a conversation with Residents and the forums require log-in. This is a policy we are going to follow moving forward with all major announcements. Blog the announcement, express and discuss in the Forums.

One thing I learned and others were reminded about in this process is that we have a very connected, passionate Resident base and we need to bring you into the dialog earlier, before putting forward these decisions. The input we received after Jack’s announcement was prolific and by-and-large very, very constructive. Second Life is at a size where 1:1 conversations are difficult and the forums are inadequate for full dialog. Office hours come up short, too. We have some thoughts on how to bring Residents into the dialog earlier which we will cover in a future blog post and Forum discussion.

I’d like to close on this thought: An area of concern for Residents over the past year has been platform stability. Through the hard work of many, many people, including Residents, we have made great strides that are very well documented. Crash rates are down. Substantially. Period. And until this price change, we were riding high in user satisfaction so we know you have recognized and appreciated the improvements we’ve been making. Our breakthroughs in stability improvement are particularly noteworthy because our land mass increased enormously this year. And, a good part of that increase was from Openspaces. However, the original plan was to expand land mass but expand load at a much lower rate. But, Openspaces — in many cases — have been overloaded with content, scripts and avatars so our very substantial stability gains have come even with the unplanned load increase. We are deeply committed to making this the best virtual world platform in the world and we are making great strides. We’ve also demonstrated we can deliver on our promise of continual stability improvements – even in the face of unanticipated growth.

I look forward to hearing from you in the Forum. Thank you for your candor, patience, restraint and willingness to work with Linden Lab and the Second Life community at large. Second Life is the wonder that it is because Linden Lab has always worked together – albeit sometimes imperfectly – with Residents to build this magnificent, bigger than life world we all love so much.

Thank you.

OMG!!!


Hey there M!!!

Practice what you preach. This is incredibly ironic!!




Hey M, M says that "YOU HAVE HOURS, NOT WEEKS"!!!!

Dear policy makers of Linden Lab,

I think the LL policy is a self-killing one, but that is another discussion. This is my final effort to see if it is possible to create a healthy middle long-term business plan within Second Life. There are a few questions left. Without the answers I do not think it is possible to make a risk analyses.

1) What are the exact specifications and, not yet specified but announced, limitations on usage of the Homestead product?

2) What are the exact specifications and, not yet specified but announced, limitations on usage of the new Openspace product?

3) Is there a chance that Linden Lab in 2008 or 2009 will put new limitations to usage of normal Sims?

4) Is there a chance that Linden Lab in 2008 or 2009 will change the current tier of 295U$ for private Sims (195 US$ Mainland Sims) for more then 10% up or down?

5) Is there a chance that Linden Lab in 2008 or 2009 will change the current grandfather tier on normal private Sims?

6) Is there a chance that Linden Lab in 2008 or 2009 will make the Homestead product available for people not owning a normal Sim?

7) Is there a policy regarding the Linden Lab wished future of Private Estates that rent-out land to residents or companies?

If there is a policy, like asked in question 7, what is this policy?

9) Is the current announcement on openspace and homestead products the final and definitve offer to the community?

10) Is it rue that at a "4xopenspace to 1xnormal sim" convert, LL starts the tier from scratch and with this collects a "hidden" convert fee anyway?

With the previous and current changes, Linden Lab has made the incalculable risk-factor simply too high to write any business plan. Maybe with some very clear answers and commitments from Linden Lab, this can change.

Regards
SNBSpecial Jun

As for a definition of 'rental' as it relates to the Openspace product, I expect in the large majority of cases it will be very clear whether a region is being used for scenery, for just water and forest, as opposed to it being used to live on. Where there are edge cases, we will need to look more closely.

It would be interesting to see how the threads develop on the Facebook group Second Life at least we can discuss there without fear of having a suspension here and no heavy handed moderating either. Just my 2 cents worth

As regards Zeebster's quoted chat, I just wanted to clarify that the product we are now calling Openspaces, with its limitations on agents and prims, is *not* for living in. It is very definitely for open areas used for scenery as per the recent knowledgebase article that M linked to in his blog post.

If you have an Openspace now, and you're still not sure whether it classes as Openspace or Homestead after the announcement, please file a support ticket so that we can take a look.

I wouldn't bet on that. I vaguely recall hearing of at least one thing someone had posted on an independent third party blog that got them a ban from SL.

Linden Lab value free speech ... as long as it's supportive, rather than truthful.

I wouldn't bet on that. I vaguely recall hearing of at least one thing someone had posted on an independent third party blog that got them a ban from SL.

Linden Lab value free speech ... as long as it's supportive, rather than truthful.