First Land OMFG How hard is it to GET?!

Wow, if you believed the sales pitch when signing up for this game, it seemed that First Land was something that you were given as an incentive for signing up on a premium account. But ALAS, I have been looking for a week and none has been available when I have been on.

IMHO it stinks. Do I really have to sit with the Land Search open for days on end just to catch the First Land release that I am entitled too?

Come On Linden people....why give new Second Lifers such a cynical experience first up. Or is it because you already have my $72.00 for the year? I hope not...that would be too sad.

I think you nailed it - they must have shut down all first land once they got your $72.

I'm constantly checking for good deals on land. I'll let you know if first land pops up in search while I'm online

Is it just me or is first land some of the worst land one can get? I keep thinking of getting it but then I just take a look at what a sim full of first land looks like and my enthusiasm wanes. Big time.

There will be a lot of first land very shortly:

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/01/30/new-continent-coming-to-second-life-mainland/

And, yes, first land sims do tend be what we call "newbie ghettos" for the first month or so. Many of your new neighbors will sell right away, some will start combining parcels to form bigger parcels and eventually the sim will stabilize, but it will be little ugly until things shake out.

Oh dear, I can hear all the land barons crying over that link... Thanks for providing it by the way, here I was asking for a limit increase to buy more land -- LL did me a favor for not responding, this way I won't lose a ton of money

Ah, so I was right! Lol

Mearly making a cynical comment, not actually BELIEVING it.

Good info, thanks, hopefully it might become a little easier to find it shortly.

Actually, it's easy to find now, for the people who actually want it enough to put in the time and do a little research. So the ones who want it most will get it first - makes perfect sense to me.

I've seen a few fairly dreary looking sims go up recently, but my first land sim is beautiful... rolling green hillsides. Of course, it helps that I actually put the time into researching and checked the sim out a few days before it went up for sale, so when it did I was ready and could jump on the plot I wanted. And that I joined a group to help notify people when First Land was available, so that I knew when it went up. I didn't have to spend hours repeatedly searching... I did have to use my time wisely.

I got first land..............nice first land that I "live" on to this day. It's no ghetto, has very little lag and no commercial malls and clubs in my parcel. I suppose I was lucky to get what i got. One neighbor directly next to me (and in a different parcel) and on the other three sides I have wide open Linden Land........no nieghbor close enogh to me to hear normal chat.....and maybe two who could hear if I shouted. However, I got that land way back in Feb last year...........I didn't have to any research or scour the search or wait for it. I just did one search one evening and visited a few places and decided on what I got. Simple....no stress no worry.

It's not that way anymore............a friend of mine never could get first land. Wound up buying on a private sim and at a price much more than my $L1 per meter. It's not what SL hypes............they still hype what they hyped to me. Only difference is that I happened to come along a little earlier than my friend and anyone else of late. That's not right..............in fact it's just flat wrong. No new premium resident should have to spend hours searching and snatching up the first plot they find for sale even if it is in some really crowded parcel that they might not be able to even enter with all the commercial stuff taking all the resources. That's just not what one expects from reading all the hype that SL puts out to bring premium members in. I was lucky...............I guess. Or was I just in at the right time? I don't know. I just don't think one should have to put all that "research" and time in to get what was told would available to them once they went premium. Do that research and effort stuff once you get a foot in the door........not trying to get the door opened in the first place.

Well Peggy, thats my point exactly. Thanks for making it more eloquantly than I managed.

Linden creates the expectation that First Land is right there when you land in SL, you choose your parcel and off you go. From what you are saying, they haven't changed their hype, but the popularity and hype have put a strain on the supply of First Land. Look, fair enough. But I still feel ripped off, at least in the short term.

And, for the life of me, I dont know how "RESEARCH" is going to help me when their is no land available. Surely nobody knows when the Land becomes available, so if no-one but Linden knows, how can I research it.

Frankly, i dont care where I get the land, as long as I get it for the price that was promised. Most areas I am sure will clean up after a period of settling down, thats all cool. But without somewhere to call your own, I am feeling a little displaced.

But I'm sure I'll get over it. I could build a bridge and get over it...if I had somewhere to build.

What research does one do that allows them to know when first land will be available before it is available and to get there in the few minutes before it's gone?

I know, it's sad. but true..even almost 2 years ago..we STILL had to LOOK for 1st land. I suppose its like the old saying, "you get what you pay for"? well, even so..its becomes a task..looking for your first land...but i DO have to tell you, there's light at the end of the tunnel..once you find your land..you will find a peace and settle into SL..hahah..god..did I just say that? Yes..i've been in virtual land TOO long..but it's like anything i life...if its worth getting, it's worth fighting for..god, WHO said that?

Yummy is right - First Land has never been automatic, and has always had all kinds of things potentially built on it.

I'm rather surprised that certain people were able to enter First Land sims in advance, though.

Are they still varying the release of First Land to allow for different time zones?

As I go on in SL I'm glad i didn't read too much before jumping in as the "Hype" is usually always just that, and haing any preconceptions may have made me head for the exits after a short time.

As for research, assuming the Search database is working (I know that's a big assumption these days! *g*), any of you could find and join one of the watch-out-for-first-land groups in less time than it's taken to post here. If you say you didn't know the groups exist... well, you don't buy land in real life without educating yourself about the market, and no one spoonfeeds you that information. Doing a few keyword searches isn't that hard. As I told the one newbie who asked me to teleport her to the First Land that was available then, if you don't know how to use search and the map yourself, you're probably not ready for land ownership anyway.

As for knowing when a new sim is about to go up -- no, there's no way you can be sure, but there are ways you can get hints. I went to the first First land that was available after I went premium and decided I didn't like it, but in the process of deciding, I looked around at the neighboring sims. And gosh dang, several of them were empty and listed as Linden Land. Since I didn't think LL would leave empty sims just sitting around forever for the heck of it... You can also check the edges of the continents for where it looks like new sims are being built. Again, this isn't going to help you be online at the right time, but it gives you a chance to evaluate the land at your leisure and decide ahead of time if it's a region you want to go for when you get the chance.

And I totally understand the discomfort of feeling "homeless" -- the first thing I did when leaving Help Island was go visit rental places. And there aren't enough of them for the newbie market and it's a tremendous drudgery trying to find them. I'm thinking of putting together a "newbie rental guide" for that reason -- trying to find a Basic budget rental was much harder than finding First Land! But if you can afford the $10/month for premium, you can probably afford to buy enough lindens to rent a more expensive place for a few weeks, if not for long-term.

And for the record, I got my first land exactly a month ago, and I've seen it up for sale several times before and since. So I'm not talking about conditions months ago.

Newbies..
If u really need home, just go rent somewhere, there are plenty of rentals available at competitive prices. You are crying there is lack of the first land, but admit it, first thing u are going to do with your new shiny 512L purchase, is to put 10K price tag on it..

I gots first land and have a cute little skybox! But it wasn't easy and most of it was bought up by professionals. But if you keep looking and keep trying you can get it. And they're about to release a lot more.

Don't give up! Keep looking!

Most people are searching for land, though - thinking to search Groups for that purpose isn't at all obvious.

I understand what you're saying, but I also sympathise with the point of view of people who think that paying for Premium paid for their First Land, and they shouldn't need to do even more work to get it.



That was kinda harsh! She was probably in a hurry to get there. Offering a teleport is considerably faster because you don't have to wait for the Search query to run.



Wasn't there a movement a while back that all first land sims should be the same, pretty much flat, so that nobody would be advantaged/disadvantaged by getting waterfront or hills? I honestly think that wouldn't be a bad idea.. the problem with grabbing First Land as quickly as possible is that you have no idea who your neighbours are going to be. Certainly while I was buying some people would advise you to buy a parcel where the surrounding locations are already owned because although the terrain probably won't be that great (otherwise someone else would have bought it first), at least knowing what's going to be right next to you prevents the sale value getting lowered in that way.



This is probably just a result of the current land boom - around a year back you couldn't price small house rentals low enough.

Telling people to go rent a flat if the signed up for a premium account to have 512sqm of land without a tier available to them is just a better joke. They can rent a place without having a premium account. It's lindens fault not to provide more first land after SL is getting more and more attention through media coverage in the last months and the registrations have increased. If you have more people sign up you have to make more first land available.

Atm the only ppl who gain from this is the landsharks.

Yet they dont..but constantly whine and bitch. They are far more important things LL needs to concentrate than some first land and ghetto 512 plots issue..

Back when Premium accounts gave L$500/week, getting First Land wasn't critical, but now that 512sqm of tier free land is a key part of a Premium account. Not getting First Land is now a "deal breaker" - if you don't get any, then the L$300/week that you do get is a bad deal.

Like I said, I consider an "All" search just a basic part of educating yourself.

I'm afraid I don't. *g* LL advertises the ability to buy land with premium membership -- the hype never claims it will be given to you or even reserved for you, and if people don't read the small print, it's their own responsibility.

Actually, given my laggy connection, it probably wouldn't have been. Still, I probably would have TP'd her, if I'd actually been there and she'd just been asking for speed, but I wasn't in the region and she really didn't know how to use the Search and Map.

Eww. How boring and dreary that would be. There is an element of luck in getting good First Land now, but it's moderated by how much time and effort you spend, and I think that's just how it should be. That's also why I don't like the idea of reserving spots for First Land -- I'd have hated to be assigned a spot in Craggen Maw! Both of those scenarios would have left me and a lot of others with 512s that we didn't like, didn't want to expand on, and could only make good use of by selling, while the only ones to get really nice land would be the ones -- just like in the real world -- who were already wealthy enough to afford it. Where's the fun in that?

But thanks to our current system, instead of being stuck with a 512 I don't like, a month after buying First Land, I now have a lovely 2048 in a sim I love. The neighbors aren't all ideal, but it's a long shot from a slum or ghetto, and we have a landowners association that's just starting out but willing to do what we can to prevent it from going down the drain (i.e., buying group land if necessary to prevent it from becoming a casino). And although I'd like to have more land and more control over neighboring lots, *shrug*. Even without it, I can anticipate living here happily for months. Part of that is due to luck -- good neighbors, adjoining neighbors who wanted to sell, and an unexpected holiday bonus check -- but it's also largely due to my putting in the time and effort to educate myself about the land market before going premium. And since I've already lost the real-life luck roll and no amount of real-life research will let me own land any time soon, I'm perfectly happy with an SL system that maybe doesn't put me on a completely level playing field with the wealthy but does allow some upward mobility based on thinking skills rather than family of origin. Okay, I'm heading toward a classism rant, so I'll just shut up now. *g*

Don't tell me that... I would like to have rental properties, if only to control the land around me, but if I did, I'd definitely need the rental income to make tier.

What you "consider" is only your opinion, though - what matters is what people are actually doing; if people are getting frustrated for lack of First Land and quitting premium, that's generally bad for everyone, even if they're "wrong" to do so. Did you consider posting notices for these groups at some of the newbie help sites? I'm sure that many would give you a free sign or similar for something so helpful.



The price of Premium is based on the idea that you will get First Land, though, as it would be an obviously bad deal otherwise. If people generally start believing "you don't really get First Land, that's a lie and a marketing trick, so Premium is really a con" then the ripple effect will be bad for LL and everyone else, no matter how "irresponsible" people might be.

Sellers have to sell to their customers, and teachers/helpers have to helper their students, as the people they are, whatever their faults.



Ah, ok, I didn't realise they were asking you to go out there and then TP them. Sorry!



The problem is that people who got the 512s in Craggen Maw - and someone's got to get them, no matter how smart they are, because LL can simply wait on releasing the next sim until it's full (I don't know if they do this, but it would make sense for them to, since they are paying to maintain that sim and will want their money back from it before investing more) - will say the same thing. Where's the fun in them having to struggle to make L$ while the lucky guy/gal who got waterfront first land flipped it for a far bigger profit? And isn't ability to invest "time and effort" into a virtual world proportional to RL wealth, anyway?



The problem is that some people just don't want to be involved in the land market.



That was actually what I did at one point - I had a mainland 8192, and noticed there was another big lot for sale next door, so I gritted my teeth for the 16384 tier and bought that plus another one across the road, then rented out the extra lot. The only problem is that you're competing against rental barons who're at the 65536+ tier, so their tier for a 512 is $1.50, whereas at the 16384 tier it's $2.30. Bear in mind that back then, a) the L$ was lower valued, b) landlords could make extra profits from dwell payments, and c) going Premium got you L$500/week plus your 512sqm, so it was an obviously better deal than renting except for people who wanted to avoid any RL payments. The going rate for a 512 rental property was something like L$125 a week, and bear in mind that you usually need to offer a prim bonus too (ie, you can't fill the entire land with 512s), so of course I couldn't make my tier back. Still, I liked having folks around in the houses and the entertainment was worth the money.

I've given the information to a few newbies who asked me about land ownership, and to a land class I went to, but I'm not interested in spoonfeeding people. That would just neutralize the small advantage that exists for people willing to pick up their own spoons. And to be honest, I don't feel any investment in any of the newbie help sites that already exist, since I never got any benefit from them myself, beyond NCI classes that I discovered by Searching. I'm happy to help people who are trying to help themselves, but I'll leave the coddling to people better suited for it than myself.

Which is why I don't promote myself as a helper or a teacher. I'm only two months old myself, anyway, so I hardly consider myself out of the newbie category.


Yes, but there are people who live in Texas by choice, and I'm sure there are people who would like the terrain in Craggen Maw -- I'm just not one of them. The current system gives us a choice. If you like the land, you can take it. If you don't like the the land, you can wait for another chance. If you dislike being homeless more than you dislike the land, you can weigh your priorities and make a decision accordingly.

How do they know that person was lucky and didn't spend weeks waiting for the right plot to buy?



Not really, more proportional to time management skills and priority setting. Right now I'm between jobs in my field and working at just above minimum wage in the interim, but I chose to spent my free time on SL instead of watching tv or whatever else. And I knew my priorities... I knew I wouldn't be happy in SL without a comfortable home base (because I'm the type of person who needs my territory) and I knew I couldn't afford to just buy whatever looked good. So I chose to spend my time and energy in making the best possible use of what little money I had.

Then they shouldn't be complaining about the lack of First Land, because when they try to buy it, they are involving themselves in the land market. Own land, you're part of the land market, it's a done deal.

Speaking of time management... time to stop with the forums and get ready for work. *sigh*