Remember, you saw it here first

Important point.

I like your idea, Ghoti. It has just one little flaw: the one thing that the Lindens really hate with any process involving SL, is when a process leads to Linden involvement that can not be easily automated.

The bulk land sales are exactly that: an attempt to reduce the strain on Linden manpower involved in the creation of new land.

So, as much as I like the idea, I don't have big hopes that they will be implemented in the near future.

I'm not sure how many times I'm going to have to say this, but go visit Dreamland. Anshe has set aside an entire sim as a park (Central Park) and there are lakes and canals too. She knows that beauty sells. Fly over a few Dreamland sims and notice the difference between them and the mainland. The ugly factor is dramatically reduced. That makes us residents happy. That sells more land.

I don't understand - why is there a time limit?

If there were no time limits at all, Linden Lab would have to set up a server, host it, pay money for it and not get any tier payments for it in case the developer needs a few months to implement its ideas. Bad business model.

I'd think it would be good business to either use part of the setup fee to cover the first month of tier, or reduce the setup fee and start charging tier immediately.

I would expect to start paying tier immediately anyway.

Oh, yes, this would be great!



But in SL you could do better, right?



I have made the experience that a lot of people that buy first land very soon notice that they need more prims and more space to create what they have in mind. And this is the time when they start to move on to a nicer environment. have you ever tried to live on a 512 m2 parcel?

And there are people, that really appreciate a well landscaped area.



Hm ... but this should also be valid for private island, shouldn't it?



Do you get a special discount? I have to pay 1250 USD.

Mel

Except these new sims ARE NOT Dreamland, and cannot be a part of them. Once they sell, they are out of Anshe's control and WILL get just as ugly as the rest of the mainland.

Aaron, this is not true. Anshe is the owner of the private sims and can indeed insist on preserving a beautiful landscape. Besides this most of the sims are zoned and have to follow rules.

Anshe has every possible control.

Mel

EDIT: oops sorry, I thought you were talking about Dreamland. Forgive me!

Perhaps it's time to let people "own" a mainland sim regardless of who owns the land in it.
I'm sure LL would love the new income source - sell servers twice. Once for the land rights, another for administration rights. If someone leaves SL admin rights can be reauctioned.

Personally, I would say yes. I would never want to live somewhere that was not pleasing to my eye.

However, I recognize that a private sim is a private sim. It is temporary... only lasting as long as the resident that owns it (or passes it on to the next owner), and it also remains fully terraformable. You can raise a mountain in the middle of a private sim whenever you wish, then flatten it all and start over. With the new mainland bulk sales, once its set, its set in stone. There is currently only one chance for the terraformers to get it right.

-Ghoti

Not as far as I see it. We then have private mainland? Bad idea. Let the private empires exist in private sims. The mainland should remain for the people that do not want to deal with other people's empires.

-Ghoti

I disagree with your statement that the mainland is ugly. Perhaps many of the builds on the mainland could be preceived as ugly (in the eye of the beholder), but the land (terrain) itself is mostly very well done. Where the land has been +/- 4m terraformed, the 'revert' too will return it to its pristine state should a new owner decide they do not like the last resident's terraforming.

-Ghoti

I am not sure if it is a little bit to radical, but may I politely suggest

How do we know the "economically driven" are few, and that the "experience driven" are many?

Although I am not saying I'm in favor with what was done to these sims, it seems to me every day that the "experience driven" are just the same set of 50 or so people who dwell in the forums constantly posting new topics on these issues.

Behold, Case's vision of the future of SL!

All the land, broken up into 1500 sqm plots for sale for L$ 50,000 each... liberally carpeted with 40 m high glowing walls in tasteful purple and green.

To ensure that the full effect will be enjoyed at an unhurried pace, the walls will all be made out of pure Light to ensure a nice laggy environment where the true aesthete can contemplate the stunning landscape at their (enforced) leisure.

Anyone who disagrees, surely must admit to the lowest of tastes or total hypocracy.

oh ... it is Yeppeum, right?

Mel

Very well said ... its important to remember we are not talking about what people build, but what the underlying landscape is and can be. The mainland is quite a beautiful place. There are builds that take advantage of that ... and there are builds dont.

But the underlying landscape and its features remain.

Sorry ... I must be missing something. What is your point? Could you be a bit more specific? Thanks

Take a look at who started this thread and who built the wall in the picture.

Sorry ... I can't tell who built the wall in the picture.

And, Im not certain what anyone builds has any bearing on the merit of basic landscape, that once its locked down, can't be moved more than +/- 4M, ground textures can't be changed, etc.

No matter what someone might build on top ... if the underlying landscape is a sand bar, with drainage ditches ... there isn't much you can do to change that.

I think it's a valid point.

What a waste of everyones time to start a thread about poor aesthetics, if the OP's idea of aesthetics is a laggy ugly wall like that. It's completely out of place in that environment, which is the crux of the argument on this thread about Anshe's land.

If (as appears might be the case) this wall is more of a griefing tool than an actual build, than what does that say in turn about the OP's "community spirit" (also a major part of this thread)?

If that *is* Case's land and wall, then it is totaly hypocritical of her/him to start this thread in the first place.

I still leave my offer to Linden Lab open... If they want to get back into the land selling buisness, I'd LOVE to do landscaping and infrastructure design on new sims... For FREE. But now that LL only sells to reseller(s) who stand to make a profit from such work, I can't see this happening. And the reseller(s) operate on such tight margins that they probably won't pay for such skills when a grid of flat islands sells well enough. (Not to mention the 7-day limit just isn't enough to build infrastructure.)

Ah, well...

Well, his name is on the wall as builder and owner and his group owns the land - a bargain at only L$33/sqm too, I might add.

It would be interesting to hear what Case or the other members of his group have to say about their taste in builds and desires for land management.

Well. Took another peek at the bulk land again today. And just had to say, to all of you people pointing out Dreamland and just how great the terraforming there is as an example of whats to come.

Um, guess what. The first batches of ahem...'Frogger Island' are for sale. And yes, just canals and ugly ugly sand. And if that weren't bad enough. They're for sale at amazingly nasty prices too.

So, guess that whole thing of 'Its a work in progress' doesn't really hold water now? if I had to guess, would say more work was spent on the calculator counting up proceeds than in terraforming. Or perhaps it should be called Terrorforming, since I myself am struck with a sense of dread and foreboding when I think that this could be the future of SL terrain to come.

Ah well. If folks buy it, guess thats their perogative. Personally, kind of like green. And differing altitudes. Kind of like seeing different terrains, like the desertscape. Or the sheer awe factor of Tethys. But hey. On the bright side? Guess it'll make my mainland stuff like....collectors edition!

But yes, this is a bottom line cost saver for everyone involved. Linden Labs can sell it off without using manpower. And the winning bidder can hire newbies to do her (or his, don't want to call anyone out or anything) bidding for a nice low overhead. You know. People who think a shiny 500L is like, uber cash! Man, when did newbies become like immigrant labor lol.

Well. Think I've gone on enough for one post. But, I DO have to ask. Can I file the whole bulk land project as one entry in the fugly folder of InfoNet, or do I have to make entries for each sim, or god forbid each parcel?

*snickers*