In the medium term, what will happen to the cost of land tier? Will it go up, stay the same, or go down?
I'm interested in your analysis. Here are some points to consider:
1. Linden Lab will determine land tier costs into the medium-term future. Therefore, changes will result from incentives that affect them.
2. Computing power costs less and less all the time. Quantitatively, the cost per operation is decreasing exponentially with time. If everything else stayed the same, the cost of simulating a sim would decrease exponentially over time.
3. Linden Lab will continue to modify the SL code over time. Some changes will reduce computing requirements (e.g. Mono) and some changes will increase computing requirements (e.g. new kinds of joints).
4. The number of users of Second Life will change. That number affects computing costs and customer service costs.
5. New sims (servers) are constantly being brought online (both mainland and private islands).