Why do we keep assuming LL wants to "stabilize the Linden"?

They don't, if they did they would. How do we know for certain they really don't care about the linden value?

BECAUSE THEY SELL THEIR SIMS AND THE MAJORITY OF THEIR LAND FOR U.S. DOLLARS!

If they really cared, or wanted to stabilize, they'd sell athe majoritiy of their unlimited product for their own currency.

LOL

Marc Woebegone

...or wanted to go bankrupt...

You've got a valid point - there are currently 20 or so SIMS for sale at auction.

Or, perhaps they are trying to encourage more mini-land barons? To spread the wealth? To nip at the heels of the mighty-land baron? To minimize her clout?

I'm sure LL cares about stabilizing the L$ value.

It's just not the top or one of the highest priorities,
nor is it as easy to resolve without consequences.

LL might actually WANT the L$ value to slide
to put land barons out of business. Land barons
pay less per SQM than small parcel owners, if
more people tiered up because no one could
afford to lease land to renters anymore,
it would increase LL's revenue considerably.

1 player with full sim tier: ~usd$205 a month to LL.
2 players with half sim tiers: ~usd$270 a month.
4 players with 1/4th sim tier: ~usd$330 a month.
8 players with 1/8th sim tier: ~usd$360 a month.

Its interesting, because I've always thought that the rental business of land took out some of LL's revenue stream. My best guess for the future was increasing tier rates, but a sliding L$ will take care of it as well.

I guess we'll see.

Jopsy,

I think you are onto something. It's the same reason they haven't come out with more powerful land renting tools.

The new more powerful group options also benefit the smaller land owners.

While I don't think they are out to destroy land speculation, I don't think they are particularly fond of it either.

Perhaps they would rather encourage content builders than land speculators? Land speculation seems to be the place to make a RL income, thus pulling in those so inclined.

Perhaps they would rather encourage those who build and contribute to making SL more of what Phillip envisions?

At least this seems to be the main way they make their money.

But there has to be a balance. With all of the new Sims they have already put into the game, and like mentioned earlier, 20 new Sims on the auction right now, in my opinion they are negatively impacting many people in the game.

Any new technology requires a certain organization to achieve it.

Capital (money) is always required. To even get second life to this point I am sure millions have been spent already. I'm sure Linden Labs are not "profitable" yet, but very few businesses in their development/initial growth stage ever are.

Another requirement is the infrastructure of equipment, software, personnel, etc. LL has achieved much of the personnel & software development by having open code so that anyone can develop parts of the world and therefore not have to pay programmers to develop those ideas themselves.

But why are programmers and these knowledgeable people doing this? It is unbelievable to me that so many players evidently don't understand how this world is being created. In order for the LL model of development to work successfully, they must have realistic ways for these people to benefit financially from their work. PERIOD.

Land has been one of those ways. I think if you looked at the overall contributions made by the top 50-100 land owners in the game compared to others we would find they have contributed much to this world. One reason is because they have been able to make the money to pay others to develop additional ideas that they may not be able to develop on their own. So I feel land is the basis of the lindens earnings but also many of the other developers in the secondlife world.

By flooding the game with too much land they are effecting every other aspect of their business model by taking away one of the top ways many of the addtional developers make it worth their time to do.

I also feel that they need to make the land auctions TRUE auctions and quit this minimum started bid crap. There are enough land buyers in the world now that would not let any land sell too cheap. How many of you saw the 46,000 meter or so sim sell for $1,000 about a week and a half ago. Counting the land tier she paid $1195 and then sold the land for 3.8 - 4.3 per meter. If that was a real player she lost over $700. Have the Lindens decided to just start taking advantage of inexperienced, unknowledgeable players?

The bottom line to me is this. Land effects everything. If the lindens do not implement the land correctly they will fail in the long run. It does appear they are being very short sighted in trying to make the fast dollars now. They are missing the big picture if that's the case.

If they wanted more small parcel owners, they should start auctioning off small parcels.

Patrick-

Splitting up new land, shaping it and such take time and effort, and labor is Expen$ive.

My point was more focused on tier revenue, not initial land sales revenue.
LL only profits the first time they sell land, after which the land merely changes hands.

If the entire 1000ish sim grid were sold today at L$6 per sqm, (at today's rate of roughly 300:1), the lump sum of USD LL made off the sale would probably be in the same ball-park as 6 months of tier fees.

Anyway, I suspect that the loss of value at first-sale is more than made up for by the reduced cost of presenting new land.

Regardless of how talented the staff at LL is at inital terraforming and land development... I like that they allow others to design new land... for varieties sake.

I am well aware of that. I was in the "land baron" business long ago (when M land was going for $10L per M).




That was the logic used to justify the changes over the past year and a half.



I do too, and I am not against them selling large plots of land for US$. But I liked it much better when there was a nice mix of large and smaller plots in the auctions, and a mix of sales for US$ and Linden$. As for others designing new land, I think that idea is great in theory, however all of the newer sims I have visited have UGLY texturing, but that is just my opinion.

I dunno if they would actually do this, have you ever set the map to see what parcels are for sale, and scrolled the map back so you could see all the land? There are so many little parcels up for sale and has been since I came in that it's crazy...and the land barons are footing the bill for it (Covering server and bandwidth costs). The land barons may get a discounted rate, but could you imagine how much unsold land there would be without them, let alone the cost of running the servers, the bandwidth prices and all. If they are trying to drive the land barons out of business, they are cutting off their biggest customers, and since they aren't in profit...(They had 8 million USD invested in the program in Oct 2004, and just recently another 11 million) cutting off their biggest customers would be the nail in the coffin.
I know there is an argument that the land barons buy up the land and price it at exremely high prices (True in some cases, but I have seen alot of sims sell in the auctions for US$2000+) I don't think thats the norm, if you look at what the land sells for at auction, switch the value to L if it was bought US, figure in what the baron pays in tier for that many sqm the profit really isn't all that high
Another way LL profits from the land barons is the % they make off all L sales (3.5% on Lindex)
Trying to put the land barons out of business would put LL out of business

=) Sorry, thought I was clearer that my comments were focused on landlords that lease land to basic accounts... not to land barons that turn land around for sale.

I don't read the $8mil investment as a desperation move, but a growth move.

And you're right, if LL alienates the land barons that are paying tier on land that isn't selling, they do stand to lose that tier revenue. Of course, they can then turn around and re-auction off the land the baron has defaulted on, so it isn't a complete loss for LL, assuming the land sells at some point.

And think of it this way. Empty parcels don't generate a lot of network bandwidth, nor do they require a lot of processing power to support. It doesn't cost LL extra to have a lot of unsold land around... it might reduce their revenue considerably if the land barons march, but I don't think it would be fatal to them.

But the same recent updates also added more to the estate tools - which only the biggest land owners can access at all.

Yumi,

I meant the coming group changes, marked "in development" on the voting system, and talked about extensively at the town hall before last.

Not particularly. Unless they are paying the shaper and splitter exorbitant wages, it should cost (direct costs) under U$100/sim.


LL profits each month when they collect tier. (And the annual tier at full tier rate (U$195) and 4 sims per server is about twice that of the replacement cost of the hardware.)

There are many people who rent land and pay in USD via paypal or whatever. It's still cheaper and the exchange rate doesn't affect it