FirstIsland

What do you think of Prokofy's idea that Linden Lab offer accounts that have never owned a private region the option of purchasing their first one at 1/2 price? He literally said free; but that would be a bit too gracious for a not yet profitable company to endure.

Here's a straightforward poll. Feel free to post comments of course; but please at least vote your initial answer.

I think it's a silly idea, if anything they should allow those with multiple islands a discounted rate on thier next purchase, but why discount those that have not been supporting the system in that way?

Sounds like a terrible idea.

Why would someone who has never owned an island get a 50% price break vs. someone who has owned 10 islands? Seems to me the 10 island owner should be the one getting the price break.

I agree with Schwanson and Sensual, offering a discount like this to first-time buyers is not a good move. It is far more appropriate to offer deep discounts to loyal customers.

That being said, I would really love it if LL would offer smaller, more affordable, private islands. I would definetely buy a quarter island immediately, and might even go for a half.

So, sure, offer islands for half-price ... just make them half-sized ...

Then, let me know when these are available ... I have my credit card ready

[Shameless Plug] I have 1/4 island parcels available for $0 purchase price and just the $75 USD per month tier fee... [/Shameless Plug]

Ah, that is good to know Schwanson. I think my idea was to have the same privacy and estate options that come with having your own isolated island. But I will definetely consider taking a look at what you are offering. Maybe I will contact you in-world.

This is response to the replies so far:

What happens when LL comes up with a way for everybody to host their own sim? It wont be fair on all those people who have spent thousands renting a sim from LL. Will it?

Or maybe because of all the complaints that LL would receive, that they'd never give us the ability to host our own sim?

Not a good idea.

As much as I would love to get an island at 1/2 price, or free, I don't think new buyers are the ones who deserve a discount, or that a discount should be given at all. And if they were to do this, who would get to eat the rest of the set-up cost? LL? Other residents who didn't get a discount?

Can you imagine how badly this would be gamed? It would be well worth bringing in alt after alt to grab islands at half cost, or have friends buy them for us so we can slice them up and rent them at full cost.

I would be the first to do this.

This will never happen in SL.

LL will get around it by offering another product. wait and see

Oh I think it will happen, eventually. And LL will be charging us licensing fees for software, support and the right to connect to the main grid ... so in the end we will pay a little less while LL avoids the capital expenditures and hassles of maintaining so much hardware themselves. You don't think this will happen? Oh yes, it will happen, just as soon as they build the technology to smoothly and efficiently connect all of these remote servers.

Actually, I think LL should dispense with private islands altogether, offering the current owners a buyout then adding them to the mainland. Private islands are destroying SL.

They should give island owners (first or otherwise) a break on monthly tier, not the initial cost. The tier is what is hard to cover. Yeah the 1250 is a big chunk to start, but try 2400 bucks a year for tier.

I'm not complaining actually. I do wish it was cheaper, and there have been arguments about changing buy-in to something higher and the tier really low (like real-life land), which I think would be better maybe. But for now, it works the way it is, imho.

MM

How are they destroying SL?
If it were not for private islands, I personally, would have probably left SL long ago...
Before private islands, I owned over half of Leda, My shop was cluttered with trash, the lag in the sim was unbareable, and my events were griefed... the only thing good about that place was my neighbors..

This would be gamed like mad. Alts would sprout like mad.

Where would LL come up with the thousands of dollars it needs in order to put up new servers if it was giving away islands like that?

I think the price of a sim is just too friggin high. I can buy land IRL for this price...

Opinion:

When I first saw the poll, I thought, wow! What a brilliant idea! Why didn't they think of this before?

Then I read the first post here, and saw that it was Prok's idea. Which means, of course, it therefore must be a bad idea, right? Of course right.

Here's why it would be good:

1. It would apply only to the *first* island.

2. Islands work like mainland works - you get a bit of it, and you want more!

The alts thing, as I see it, would be the problem.

As for the idea someone proposed about giving discounts the more islands you get, I think that might be a good idea, too.

(All this overlooks the fact that I agree with Siobhan that in many ways, the islands have been the ruination of SL. Or at least of SL proper, as it exists on the mainland, and insofar as addressing the concerns of the people there now seems to be considered secondary, at best.)

coco

you can? Tell me where please... I been dying for some horses...

What's the price of a computer? You know it takes a computer to run a sim, right?

Opinion:

As for the price of islands, whatever they can get for them and still sell a good many of them *is* the right price.

coco

Ahh, but they're crammin four on a box these days. And you can get a nice quad-proc machine for a few grand, probably less if you buy in bulk. These are just estimates.

And I am offended at someone for something and reporting some stuff to someone else!

MM

Bah... Odds are good that most people on the forums don't even know who Prok is anymore. I see people arguing this on merit.



I seem to recall that there was a long set of post about you buying "first land" as an alt.

Regardless, gaming of 1st land has been a serious problem. I can see lots of "first" sims changing hands pretty quickly.

It is labor intensive to track down alt accounts, even when it's possible. Credit card, ISP address, and email are not reliable indicators --- to say nothing of those couples who share the above and are not alts.

If it were Philip's idea, it would still be a stupid one. But I guess trying to dismiss all negative votes as being against Prokofy rather than the idea would be one way to dismiss those opinions.

It was brought to my wife's attention when calling Linden Lab that they are full aware of all alt accounts and use various methods of verifying this information. Who knows what is embedded in the Second Life application and what data is being sent to them about your computer system and location. Probably best we do not know.

But should some program be implemented such as the one suggested here in this thread, I'd be willing to bet that not only would they have to prevent alts from taking advantage, but they would be exposing their efforts to all of us in doing so.