Very serious question about sandboxes.

being that on a daily basis actually more like several times a day at any one of the current public sand boxes some one comes along and disrupts every one and Linden has to be called in to handle some ass hat. not to mention they can get pretty lagy when there is a lot of people all trying to build that is if you can find a place to build.
wednesday night while going to sleep i was thinking about this because while I was in live help that night despite the enormous amount of troubles people were having in world there were many calls of needing linden assistance at one of the public sand boxes because some ass hat had released a bunch of physical things bring the sand box to a virtual standstill. So it got me thinking of putting a totally private and limited access sand box on one of my private islands.
so i thought I come here and ask about this to see if there actually would be an interest in such a sandbox.

Would you pay to be able to build in sand box that was a private island and could be guaranteed that it would be lag free and more importantly grief free.


I am seriously considering converting one of my private Islands to a sand box for the purpose of having a lag and grief free environment. The way it would work if i could get enough people that would be willing to pay to make up the monthly cost of the Island plus a bit more for income would be to add people to the Island access list that would want to participate in such a sandbox. They can then build to what ever they want. I would have some basic rules as in behavior and leaving builds out for extended periods and such things.

so the questions are

would you pay for admission to such a sandbox?

and if so how much would you be willing to pay?

sincerely

-Crucial

I wouldn't. Only because there are some hidden, and tucked away sandboxes that nobody uses. An example would be in Dalton, nobody is *ever* there. Also, if you do a search for "Sandbox" you can find some empty ones.

Well, the sandbox WAS empty until you named it here, Nimrod.

A pay for admission sandbox might be pretty valuable. You need about 60000L a month to break even on the rent, that's not too bad at all really. The question on how much to charge/how much we'd be willing to pay might be better answered with a little clarification:

Are you going to restrict the number of people who can sign up for the sandbox to keep overcrowding down, or are you planning on expanding the sandbox with more islands as necessary if demand proves enough?

You might get away with charging like 2000L a month for a subscription, 30 avs and you're covered every month, anything else afterwards is gravy. Higher prices, less avs? Dunno. But if you don't draw the line somewhere then you run into some of the same problem as public sandboxes. Of course if you have 30 or 50 avs signed up for a sandbox, only a fraction will likely use it at any one time, so it's hard to say really.

I personally use sandboxes like once in a blue moon, so I probably wouldn't subscribe to a private one either.

I have never used a sand box my self so I don't know a lot about them except that i do know some do get very busy and griefed quite a bit. hence why I would ask here before leaping in to such a business

How much people would be willing to pay would depend to a large extent on how frequently it is wiped.

yea about 80 - 90 k L$ is what i was aiming at.



Yes the number of people that would be allowed to sign up would be about 60 the current number of people allowed on the island access list.

yes I would expand with more Islands if demand was sufficient.



yea at 60 aves i was thinking around 1500 L$ a month per avatar.



Indeed another reason of posting here is to gain knowledge of just how many might be interested.

and for the record I am very sincere in this because of the many problems that occur at the public sand boxes

-Crucial

Honestly I think its a pretty cool idea, being able to guarantee a grief and lag free environment where you can build seems like it would be a winner to a lot of people, especially large-scale builders.

You could also offer extra features (if you wanted) that other sandboxes don't offer, like terraforming practice, higher wipe rates (if necessary), stuff like that.

Another thing you may want to consider to recoup your investment is offer advertising space around the borders of the sim, if you're into that sort of thing.

I don't think I would have auto return on but I would ask that participants of the sandbox to pick up there builds before they go for the day. But if it were a very large or complex build and they needed more time they could just let me know.
with only 50_60 avatars even allowed in the sim I think this might not be that much of a problem.
after all any build made would need to be picked up eventually and build in such a way that it could be.

well since the Island would be invisible from the main land and only people allowed on the island would be those on the access list It would defiantly be lag free and grief free. not sure advertising would be worth it with only a max of 60 people even allowed on the Island but a good idea none the less

I did not even think about the terraforming but yes that could be an option also.

I think the idea has some merit.

For myself, I might not be prepared to pay now, as I've resorted to using my own land as my private Sandbox for building. That could change if I sell, or build something permanent on my parcel or whatever.

Considering what I pay in tier to be able to have my own private build platform, I would seriously consider a weekly/monthly fee to be able to use such a place. I enjoy having other focused builders around working alongside me but my few excursions into any sandbox have left me such negative vibes I have always paid tier to have my own place to build. As to how much, as long as it was less than my tier payments are currently for my 'sandbox' space, I'd be happy. If it was the same, I'd prefer my current set up because I wouldn't have to pack it up at the end of the day.

Char

I've never had any problems in the sandboxes, so I wouldn't pay you anything. However, I do most of my building on my own land, so it's not really an issue for me.

Edit: I also know of places that are owned by Gov Linden that are build enabled and have auto return set to 60 or even 90 minutes. So they are great for a quick build.

I can't promise to pay as I just bought my first piece of land in order to get away from the constant greifing in the sandboxes and the junk that people leave all over. think it's a fantastic idea though and would probably have not bought land if it was already available.

The two things mentioned on this thread that would make me *not* do it though...

- people leaving junk around. It would have to be a serious rule that people delete their stuff when they leave - like they are supposed to in the regular sandboxes but never do - or I would not be interested.

- no advertising. Paying money to use a place that has crappy ads in your face is just rude. The first ad and I would be gone.

another thing that comes to mind is weapons and vehicle "testing." the majority of the problems in sandboxes is people go there not to build but just to goof around in vehicles and shoot guns. If you ask them about it they say "oh, we're just testing" this is crap!!!. if i pay to use a sandbox for building it has to be for building, and no screwing around in laggy vehicles or rezzing joke stuff all over.

hmmm.. i guess what i am saying is that it woudl have to be policed 24/7 to be worth it to me.

Oh yes indeed only people that are serious about building and using the sand box for building would be allowed. no weapons would be allowed either. If perchance I had enough people ask about a weapons testing sandbox I would consider opening one. but as for the one i have in mind atm It would be Strictly NO weapons and Builds would most probably be required to be removed when you leave the sand box with the exception as I noted above where you ask if you could leave it for longer due to complexity and size but i think that would be the rare case.

This sounds like it could be a viable idea. Although I am not currently in a position to use such services (this may change if I decide to release my land) I do have a question. What about scripting? For me, when I build I enjoy making scripted objects mostly. I realize however this adds a layer of lag-complexity to your idea, but I wondered how it would be handled?

I think it's an excellent idea, for serious builders. If I fill up my land, which I will soon, I'd pony up for that.

I like the idea. I've recently tiered down, so have no extra land to build on and have started going to a sandbox...was crazy, I had to sit while building.

Had never built in a sandbox before...but once I went, I saw some things that gave me ideas. It's fun to see what other folks are doing.

Lets see here, I would be willing to pay maybe 10L an hour... if it was grief and lag free, which in itself is impossiple. SO I guess no. Nowhere in SL is griefer free and will ever be griefer free. Make the fee low and average people can afford it, people will grief there, make the price too high, only the 2% rich asses can afford it, still a chance of griefing. Lag is Lag is Lag is everywhere, and the update broke my patiented lag shield .

But seriously, since I am a serious builder who builds GAINT things all the time, I would like it there, still, anyone could turn to the life of crime in a flash, you can't stop griefing, and lag happenes everywhere now adays, not just because of scripts or builds or residents, but casue of LL and what they are doing to SL.

Think of this as a private personal sandbox for only 50-60 people using the resources of an entire sim

Indeed it can be 100% griefer free because the only people that would even be allowed on the island would be those that have paid for a subscription. Maybe i should say 99.99 % griefer free in the slim chance that a serious builder decided to turn to a life of crime or that some ass hat actually pays for the subscription for the sole purpose of causing havoc in the sim in either case the person would loose there subscription with out refund.

as for lag it is very true lag is a subjective thing and can be brought upon by many things.
the type of lag that i can say would be very close to zero would be server lag. Lag that is caused by the slow down of the server. as for other types of lag that have to do with client side or bandwidth there is nothing I can do about that. If the computer a person is using is not up to the min system requirements then there is only one person that can do any thing about that and that is them.

Im glad to see there are a few that would actually use such a service although I think before i begin this endeavor i get a few more people interested in it.