Land Price Question/Idea

From Philip as posted in the Concierge transcript:

Philip Linden: We need to take a look at those prices now with the goal of making them neutral to businesses. By that I mean SL businesses, not RL businesses. In particular, we don’t want cases where the same business costs differently to run on the mainland versus on an islands.

Why not? It actually makes more sense to have Island owners pay a higher fee per month considering they have access to more features of that SIM. From what I have gathered, they can change the terrain textures, can change the water height, set terra-forming limits, ban not only parcel level but looks to be SIM level too, set other SIM level controls from sun/moon phase as a fixed point. Island owners can set covenants on land sales, have access to region stats on script and other resource consumption, send global messages to all residents on the SIM etc. In the long run, island owners should pay more for added features and levels of control that mainland parcel owners do not have access to.
Unless there are no concrete plans on increasing tier fees for mainland parcel owners. After looking at tier fees as they stand for mainland parcel owners, LL actually makes a bit more money from residents who own land in a mainland SIM. 2 residents, each tier at 1/2 level currently pay $125 a month = $250 a month whereas a full tier level pays $195 a month. 4 residents owning 1/4 of a mainland SIM pay $75 each = $300 a month total. Considering that the only differences so far for a premium account and a free account is that the basic level premium gets a regular stipend (that has been reduced 2 times now) and can own a 512 sq meter plot of land, a SIM can be divided into 128 512 sq meter plots = 128 basic level premium accounts at $9.95 a month = $1273.6 per month for a particular SIM a month, on a 4 SIM server = $5094.4 a month worth of income per 4 SIM server. I can understand the need to raise prices for Island SIM owners due to lower overall income per server but the possibility of increasing fees all across the board doesn't seem right. Perhaps a more viable solution would be to add more mainland SIMs that could be configured to only have 512 sq meter plots that would completely be first land that could not be joined/subdivided or resold to anyone not meeting the first land requirements, perhaps this could generate the required revenue to keep island fees down in the long run.
One other question boggles my mind here, why is it we have to tier at nothing less than 512sq meters yet we can sub divide in 16sq meter increments? What is the point in that when these 16sq meter plots can only hold 3 prims that are usually wasted on advert signs and land scanners then set for sale at insane prices like $9,000 L$?

Mike, some great thoughts here! This whole shebang:



is something I've heard many, many times. We're currently investigating changes to the tier system to fulfill the needs and special requirements of a rapidly-growing world.

Related to the rest of what you said, we're also considering other adaptations. Another common thread I've heard about First Land is making it untransferrable and simply giving it back to Governor Linden when someone's ready to move up to a bigger parcel, very similar to what you said.

Unfortunately I don't have future details on that, but we certainly are listening, watching for patterns, and going to address them publicly as they come.

Stay tuned for the next Town Hall in 3 days!

http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/11/08/town-hall-with-philip-linden-nov-16/