Announcing the Second Life Land Store Boycott

DING! DING! DING! Give that man a prize.

Spot on. The motives behind this 'protest' are clearly purely for personal gain, without one drop of thought for the community as a whole - which, never forget, if it wasn't for the people playing the game, wouldn't have a business.

Notice the careful missing of the question as to when Anshe last logged in to play and just have fun, without any business deal in mind.

Lewis

You are absolutely right. However, there may a difference between what they can do and what they ought do or what might be best for their continuance.

Haha, this is hilarious. My initial thought was that this was indeed a good way of allowing people to protect for expansion but then, reading the details, the following made me change my mind:

1. If you only reserve, it goes up for auction (nice way to drive the price up).
2. They'll only protect your land so that no sim joins, but one sim-step away would not be protected.
3. You have to renew your reservations (and hence go to auction again) every 3 months.
4. Even though they'll not let anybody join directly on to a sim, you're going to have to reserve those joined spaces anyway, otherwise the island two steps away might get another island first, leaving only a single gap in-between.

The auction part really makes me wonder what the intention is here. In fact, that it all seems to be geared toward a steady stream of income, makes me wonder even more. That Linden Lab are now selling "reservations" could mean any of the following:

1. Sim sales aren't high enough and this might force some of those who were waiting for a second, third etc. island into just biting the bullet and getting one straight away, rather than leaving it to chance in an auction and losing the right.
2. They are a company getting desperate for income.

What I do find interesting is that they say they won't allow people to reserve slots right next to you, but there's no mention of not allowing people to reserve slots right next to a slot you've reserved. If they do, how are they doing to manage that exactly as it would strike me that the current island configuration leads to a situation where (a) there will be much fighting over reserve slots between three or four different sim owners (hence why this is being done at autction, to drive up the price), (b) in many places this won't be available because of the way the islands are arranged and so, (c) I wonder if this means that they're also hoping there's a knock on of people wanting their sims moved to clearer areas and hence being charged the exorbitant fee for having a couple of location fields changed.

I have to wonder if Linden Lab aren't reaching a point where they're getting concerned about their income. Maybe it's not perilous just yet, but maybe it's not getting closer to making money, so they need to find new avenues from which they can add to their revenue stream.

So come on, present your udders everybody, the Linden Lab Milk Maids are coming to squeeze some more out. I wonder if the farm's getting closer to going out of business?

Anybody like to place a bet on when tier charges will increase by the way? I'm getting a feeling in my water that it's coming soon.

Sounds like SL has peaked.. Its down hill from here...

Very good assessment, Moopf

There is only one way to counter this: we are 100% determined to not pay one single US$ for sim voids nor for island moves under this conditions.

Hello is this Restarunte Exploite'?

Yes Ma'am. How can I help you?

I'd like to make a dinner reservation for a romantic dinner for 2 for next thursday.

Certainly Ma'am that will be $30 could I have your Credit Card number please.

Umm $30 for a reservation?

Yes Ma'am - hold on a moment please.....(Elevator music...)

OK Back Ma'am now you said next Thursday? Ok thay will be $40...

But you just said $30???

Yes Ma'am but that other call wanted a reservation on Thurday as well and out bid you

Umm out bid me?

Yes Ma'am niw wiuld you like a quiet window seat?

Ih yes!!!

Of course Ma;am - oops hold on (Elevator music...)


Ok back Ma'am now one reservation for 2 near a window - that will be $100 Ma'am

$100!!!!!! But...but...

Welll Ma'am that other call was the Shriners who came into town and just reserved all the window seats so they coyld moon passers by but i Did manage yo reserver you one in the middle of the fellows...
Oops hold on again please Ma'am (Elevator music...)

Click

An issue I have is that with a reservation auction system LL is trying to make people pay for land in a way that would imply that it is very finite. It isn't in at least two respects.

1) As per the actual location of islands, they are very much movable. We all know that. Whether you view the $150USD relocation fee as a necessary deterrent to islands flying all over the map or a US dollar sink, moving an island is a matter of changing some database entries, perhaps a bit more.

2) Having bidding wars for existing void space might make sense if that was all there was and there were going to be no more places to put islands. However, we all also know that a tight land supply is not good for LL's land based business model.

It almost seems as if LL is trying to scare island owners into reserving and buying additional sims now rather than later. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt is a bad way to motivate your customers. Effective sometimes--- but bad.

A good way of making money though, if you're desperate.

Well, RBD, I hope you're wrong about it 'being all downhill from as here' as far as LL goes. The alternatives (AW, TSO, There, etc...) all suck big time.

On another note I was curious as to why Anshe Corp was rapidly fragmenting their precious Dreamland. Now it all makes sense: to increase it's 'surface area' and thus the number of sims on the boundary that are reserved for expansion. Nice to see they've joined the camping-chair crews and alt farmers in gaming the system.

But I'm not sure that will work. Take this simple example:

[ ][ ]

The brackets with stars in are current sims, the ones without are empty sims in-between. Now, what happens if you have a view that you might expand. Well, both the left and right sim would have to try to reserve the space next to them, otherwise the other could expand, like this:

[ ]

Which means that the right hand sim can't expand in that direction. In the case of Dreamland, increasing the perimiter area may create an overall bigger piece of land with a surrounding 1-sim border but it also means that they'll have to reserve more plots around them to stop the above example from happening. So they then have to bid on possibly more spots to preserve expansion. Don't forget, even though they won't let a sim join, if you want to expand in a certain direction, you're going to have to reserve those protected slots anyway, otherwise other land forms could create a situation where there is no way you can expand.

What's interesting in this is that if both the original sims try to reserve the space next to them, how does Linden Lab resolve this - they can't both reserve them as this would break their rule of no joining sims, yet allowing one to reserve wouldn't break that rule. They're not bidding on the same sim spot, they're bidding on ones next to each other. So, I presume they must have a method of stopping this from happening?

That's prolly why LL brought in their fun little auction / bidding-war 'feature'. I think LL would do well running a casino in Las Vegas.

Why do you presume that? Given the acceleration in the making of bad decisions LL has recently exhibited, I wouldn't presume *anything* has been thought through thoroughly.

Hmm. From what I can see I think I agree with Anshe here. Private island positioning will be a single database entry and entirely virtual. It's slightly different with a set of islands but there should be hundreds of thousands of potential positions to put a sim, location means absolutely nothing except for an estate.

This only seeks to cause a headache for those who own a lot of land. Which even if we don't like them much is pretty cruel

As a person who lives in Las Vegas I'd have to say - newp - they'd end up buried in the desert.

Folks dont take too kindly to having thier chips swept off the blackjack table and someone saying 'Ah... yeah... we thought it would be much better if we called this game 22....'

As if there aren't enough casinos in game already......

Lewis

The more things change, the more they stay the same!


Rock on LL - keeping Land Barons on their toes - one devaluation at a time!

Well no Ricky, I'm still kind of giving the benefit of the doubt that they've thought things through, contrary to evidence I know, but apparently the movers and shakers at Linden Lab are people with impressive track-records and backgrounds, so I still have trouble believing that they don't think things through from all sides.

You know, it's just occured to me, that for the larger groups of sims, it's probably more in their interest to reserve spots not right next to their current sims, but one step away. This limits the amount they'd need to spend to secure a larger expansion area. For instance take this:

[ ][ ][ ]


If they reserved the spot next to them, they could only be guaranteed the following:

[ ][ ]

Because others might fill in from the right, yet if they reserved the sim over one place, like this:

[ ][?][ ] (yes, the question mark is the reserved spot)

Then they've basically secured the following for certain:

[ ]

Haven't worked out the figures, but presumably you could just do this every other step out from your land to limit the amount you need to reserve. It has the same effect as filling in the gaps.

You Say to keep land barons on their toes..... You Do realize that Anshe Actually sells alot of her land cheaper then some non-land barons who seem to push up their prices drastically. Compare a plot of her land vs a plot of someone elses land the same size quite often you will find the other person to be higher. Fundamentally land barons arnt neccessarily a bad thing it prevents some users that would otherwise push the land prices up much faster themselves from pushing land up themselves. Think about that concept and realize alot of the land Anshe ends up buying is from auctions rather then off users. I agree with her this land store would be a bad idea and would fundamanetally kill off alot of LL's fees as far as what they get per month cuz alot of people would say screw it and leave or get rid of their land. In turn LL deals a massive blow to themselves financially. While land barons do make a bit of a profit so does LL from tier fee's plus the people are buying sims or islands at cost for the most part. This idea is flawed on to many levels to go over with in the forums but, I believe t he current system land purcashing wise suffices for both users and LL and is pretty fair where as this land store idea seems a bit harsh!

You won't get any discounts for that, you know.

Actually, to follow on from my last thought about which sims to reserve, you could do this to vastly reduce your outlay:

     [ ][O][ ][O][ ][O][ ][O]
     [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
     [ ][O][ ]

[ ][O][ ]
     [ ][ ][ ]

[ ][ ][ ]
     [ ][O][ ]

[ ][O][ ]
     [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
     [ ][O][ ][O][ ][O][ ][O]
     

O = reserved (I didn't like ?)

I think that would work, depending on whether or not LL implement the no joining rule for reserved spaces which I guess they'd have to. You'd have to reserve 12 sims in the above example to give you a possible expansion of around 40 (note: my maths may be wrong there, just did a quick count)

If LL is going to proceed with this idea, I think that any reservation money collected, should be applied to the purchase price of the island.

That's an excellent idea, Moopf.

anshe may be the biggest customer LL has and this may impact her and other big island chains a lot but this will also effect every single island owner who has any plans at all to expand big or small.

i only own 3 islands 2 are joined and one is stand alone i have plans to expand in the future but i cant afford to reserve every single void sim around my islands to prevent some one from reserving the sims that are only 1 sim away. as it stands now with just my 3 sims it would cost me 540 us $ every 3 months to reserve and guarantee that i would be able to expand if i so decided. and that is only reserving the sims that are directly adjacent to mine not to mention the simes that are 1 sim away

so as you can see it is not only the big land brrons that this will effect in a negative way it WILL effect and cause chaios among any and all island owners that have any plans for expansion

Anshe may i suggest having some one start a petition. petitioning every island owner to forward this on to Phillip we can not stand idly by and let this happen

In its present form the new land store is a very very bad idea it will only cause greaf to any oone with plans to expand.

I am fighting the knee jerk reaction. Good Old Bank and Anshe hate the idea. I am sure you all recall her selfserving, ignorant, laughable hatred of p2p? While this doesn't seem like a great idea. Ms. Chung has demonstrated she thinks this is HER world and HER imagination so many times.

Desmond Shang here. Joining boycott.


This artificial scarcity problem was created not by us, but purely by the compact, forced placement of our islands in the beginning.

Doesn't artificial scarcity run directly counter to their touted vision?

We now have to pay the Company a fee to reverse the effect of their artificially scarce resource: grid coordinates. We are buying integers.



Even two months ago, I never dreamed of having a 'continent' - but now, my customers demand it.

Forget about my needs - how do I best serve them?

So it's reserve 10 sims in advance and make my customers wait eternally for my finances to catch up, or grow into whatever fractious, cramped space I've been forced into in the first place?




The only logical thing is to move my sim (10,000, 10,000) away.

I trust that we will all be allowed to move quite far? So we won't be forced into playing a giant game of Risk with our island neighbours?

Of course we won't much look like a contiguous grid any more, having to do that. Goodbye, immersion.

I am greatly dismayed.