Is Anshe Chung going to force the weak hands to fold?

I noticed that Anshe has consumed quite a few of the new land up for auction, with very little competition.

What does she know that others do not?

Is she going to force the weak hands to fold by prolonged selling of land, forcing the p m2 to a point where other land barons will scream and exit the biz, leaving SL ripe for her plucking?

What's the strategy? What does she know that everyone else does not?

That land, as a business, isn't going to be terribly profitable from here on out.

Consider that, if you want to play the volumes game, you're going to have to either buy vast swaths of land at market value (very expensive), or buy chunks of sims (minimum cost $US 1000)... that's a huge investment in a risky endeavor. She can do this because she was essentially "grandfathered" into the current economical model; that is, she already made her risky investments, and can now use her revenue to purchase more land to make more revenue, etc. A person entering the market today does not have that benefit.

Consider if you want to play the "single, develop-a-plot" game, well... that market never really developed. No one wants to spend hours developing a plot, only to have it surrounded by urban sprawl or demolished by a bored landowner.

LF

i agree, with one minor addition. She's developed savvy when the fruit was low hanging, meaning she could make mistakes and still profit. I think the game has changed where if you are not an old hand at land baroning, you'll have to pay through the nose to learn how to play the game.



Jau has some good thoughts on this. However, his cynicism is too much for me.. I see Adam and Nolan doing relatively well here. They had to go through some growing pains tho.

LoL - she just like's to shop!

Ahh, yes, compulsive sim buying.

I just hope that more of the world looks like a memorial cemetary. Yes, the new signs are far better than the old ones so I really shouldn't complain, but there are times when I wonder just who is beneath all those markers?

Anshe owns so much land on the grid, she probably just gives LL a heads up on when she needs more to buy, so there isn't a shortage. My guess, anyway

With the new whole-sim auctions, it is very hard to be a small land baron. Once you get beyond one sim, you pay tier in 1/2 sim increments. If you own 65537 m2 (1 sim + 1 extra square meter) you are paying $100 tier on that one extra m2.

The bigger you are, the smaller that 1/2 sim tier increment is as a percentage of all your inventory. I don't think you can dabble in land barony with just 1 or two sims any more and expect to make a profit. Its too much of a pain in the ass to manage that $100 tier boundary. when you have to work with all-or-nothing sims. If you can't top off with 1/4 sim on the auction its really hard to make a profit.

I don't think Anshe has to force anything. Small players will eventually give up of their own accord, its too hard to make money as a small player no matter what anshe does. Of course there will always be newcomers who want to try. Sooner or later there will be others with the time on their hands and the shrewdness to give anshe some real competition.

Curious this should come up just now. Yesterday I was pondering the fact that last week Anshe Chung bought 4 new sims, along with a sizeable quantity of other auction parcels.

Bearing in mind the cost of these sims, some of which have rather low m2 figures and thus higher L$/m2 cost than might at first appear - and the prices that are normally charged for AC land (check your local cemetery for the figures) - and, bearing in mind that this land isn't selling at anything like the rate it is being acquired at, allowing for tier costs of holding the land - one can't help wondering at the logic behind this apparent buying frenzy.

Interestingly it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that it simply isn't necessary to pay more than the nominal L$1000 for a sim!
If someone else wants it (I.E. outbids your opening offer), why, just don't make further bids! LL will keep releasing land regardless while it's selling.
This might ultimately lead to certain people who seem to view the auctions as some sort of life or death 'win' at all costs competition holding 20 - 30 - 40 unwanted, unused, unsaleable sims... A prospect that I would find deeply amusing.

I for one shall be watching events of the next 3-6 months with considerable interest...

Actually I did notice, and there's a post in another thread discussing it (check my back history). Of course I weened out of my 'bidding frenzy' days back on eBay and have no interest in bringing it back.

I'm a bit surprised myself about the number of sims coming out and being bought. Best to wait and see, let it calm down.

What worries me is the number of auction lots that've closed with no bids during the past few weeks. There are two ~1/4 sim listings on the closed list now, and that's been fairly standard lately.

I've always said that LL had no reason to care if every square meter of land on the map were for sale as long as some resident owned it and was paying the tier. It's a little early in the life cycle for them to be getting stuck with quarters of sims that nobody wants at all.

You wealthy patrons out there buy that land and keep this project funded or I'll come over there and oh never mind.

Those are always PG. There is a lot of PG land in-world for $2.5 to $4 per m2, why would anyone pay $5 on the auction.

Buster

Hadn't thought of that. I forget the average player wouldn't be caught dead owning land in a PG sim. Well humans can't own things when y'all are dead anyway. I forget that too.

I suppose it's in LL's best interest to not release any more PG land then. Eventually, they can recover all of the land in PG sims, change the rating, and auction it as M. Or they could just drop the sim rating system tomorrow.

Well, if LL is clever they may be able to re-arrange computing resources in such a way that land not being used gets piled on servers with other land that isn't being used.

Grid computing could possibly do some exciting things in this space, cost wise.

Our 2 contiguous sims of PG land that routinely tops 12000 dwell says otherwise.




Over my dead body.



I could live with that one.

... I don't know what the stigma is about PG land. We've never felt constrained where we are. You aren't allowed to have open sex-on-the-grass in the M sims either, according to the CS.

Awwwww crap!!!

*thought Michi really liked our front garden that one time over*

One smart business women...

Nothing. What's different is what she does with the same information. She appears to be a calculated risk taker with a willingness to structure her game to accomodate how other people want to play theirs. A large # of people clamored for zoned sims, LL pointed to a preference for this to be player driven. Anshe provided and the people came.

Anshe seems adaptable yet more importantly consistent in her purchasing pattern. An endeavor of significant magnitude requires an individual with long term vision to be at the helm. Keeping current is one thing, but responding to economic fluctuations like someone playing a Vegas table while it's hot is not the odds on choice for long term success.

Imo, now seems to be a good time to buy low strategy rather than the bail out in the face of uncertainty activity which currently seems prevalent. Not unusual, really, since risk takers and gamblers are not the norm. Not to mention, that option isn't really available to Anshe. Who would buy her out if she decided to throw in the towel? It hasn't been her history, either. She didn't bail on the mainland when she put up the cash to develop zoned sims. Her only real option at this point is to stay the course if she is to protect her holdings.

Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, heh.

Not wishing any ill luck to Anshe, but I have wondered what would be the effect on SL if a major landowner, such as Anshe, dropped dead, got divorced (and her assets became part of the divorce), had to dump her land....

Probably it would all get sold as a package deal, brand name and all.

I really wish LL would clarify the TOS on User Account transfers. I'm going to hotline that, actually..

To who.... Imagine all that land coming back to the Lindens or being thrown on the market at the same time. ouchies

Assuming she's profitable, I'd happily buy her business. I'm sure there are quite a few others around here with the same thoughts.

If she were making 100K per year, you could probably buy the business for about 100K (1/2 years income plus some liquidation premium)

This was pretty much my reaction to a post in a previous thread which recommended that Anshe cash out and retire, like he and others have done, for the benefilt of the community. Personal feelings and histories aside, I can't see a benefit for LL or the SL community in Anshe's downfall or in her sudden withdrawal.

Obviously not everyone can, or is willing to pay that kind of money. But I don't think that's the major thing that would put someone off. Anyone considering paying out that amount of money woul dhave done their homework on the business, and realised the IMMENSE amount of work involved.