From: Nepenthes Ixchel
What would be the effect on the economy, and the general player experience, if some of the biggest land barons quit SL? I think it would improve the user experience myself, but I have no evidence whatsoever for that. *grins*
What do other people think? Are land barons needed for SL to function? Would having the big ones leave open the way to a greater number of smaller barons, meaning more variety? Would the Linden go up or down? Would 95% of players even notice?
It depends on how they leaves SL
1-> Abandon all the lands they have.
-> this means near 100-120 sims(maybe more) tier loss for LL 195X100 =~ 20000usd tier loss per month for LL
2-> Quick sell for cheap all the lands they have.
-> while leaving they must lower the land prices with a loss to sell quick and leave, so a market crash on land market and most of small land barons will have to leave the game.
-> some resisting barons will buy these cheap lands but this will take time to raise prices again.
-> Because of cheap lands, 1000usd for a mainland sim will be TOO expensive, then LL cant sell(maybe a few for individual projects who doesnt want private sims) mainland sims on auctions.
-> many land barons have private rental islands at the same time, so leaving these business too means lack of competition at private rentals, this will make private island rental fees higher.
-> An income loss for LL.
-> This can create a one-month panic but the land market and other markets will recover themselves after a time.
In conclusion, land barons are the ones who bring lands to you, not for much profits. If one calculates the income and outcome and tier fees for a landbaron, you will really see there is not much profit(at least for me, this month i made loss, not profit.)
Without land barons, at short term, land prices will be cheaper, because of quick sells of these land barons.
At long term, less sims will enter to the game because without big land barons noone can buy 10-25 sims per month from the LL(if one does this means he becomes a land baron). So land prices will increase to much more higher.
Land barons are not evil people, at all of businesses in SL there are costs, time, work, etc. It is same for land barons too, plus unlike other businesses there is over 4000-5000 usd cost monthly to buy lands.
It is wrong to think that:"if there are no land barons we could buy cheaper lands". This is completely wrong. The biggest competition in SL is in land business. So lands are always for cheapest prices in SL. And this is why many people who tries to enter land business leaving this business quick.
I can write abour land business tons of lines here, you can agree or not, but just be aware of this it is not :"buy for 1000, sell for 1100". It is much more than this.