Public Service Announcement re: Openspace sims

We have an OpenSpace Sim and I just wanted to add my comment to this...

We have set up a theatre there and have had an event. The thing is, the sim is empty otherwise - just a few landscaping (i.e. non-scripted) objects.

So far we have had one event which was a Geisha show - there were six geishas and about 30 in the audience and no lag at all. It was nice to be on a sim that truly felt "open air", rather than "open sky".

We don't intend to put anything else on that sim.

Is there any way of finding out which other sims are running on the same computer? We want to be "Good Neighbours" if possible.

Thanks.

I personally can't help but think that the cat is out of the bag with regard to OS sims and it's a bit too late.

Yesterday I had one guy interested in a 4096m2 plot on private estate. Then he came back later and said he was going for one with a L$1 purchase price and 4 times the space for the same 8k tier.

Instantly I recognised that as OS but that's pretty hard to compete against if there are say only 4 avs on that sim. The numbers work for both the owner and the purchaser and they get 4 times the space for the same prim count give or take a few.

It seems to me to be two camps in this discussion:-

Full sim owners trying to rent against what appear to be ridiculously low OS prices

OS renters happy to be getting what is perceived to be 4x the plot size

If all people want is residential with "typical" objects at a good price and are only going to see typically a half dozen avs max then I can't help but think that full sims have lost the battle. Tell me otherwise from a sales perspective, not a technical one. The technical differences are irrelevant if it does the job.

Plenty of people can't afford an openspace, there's still lots of room for full sims but those who might have rented a quarter of a region on a full sim are more likely to be swayed by the prospect of an openspace.

Not a sales perspective per se, but I'll say this: too many opensource regions are bad for business. Even if people are happy with them. Really.

I am getting a steady influx of people with openspaces wanting a modest standard parcel in Caledon. (which is kinda tough cause we are full) Why? Because they get *bored* on their openspace. It supports them beautifully. Maybe a few friends. But once your close friends don't log in for six hours a night, and you don't either... it's a ghost town.

Brutal statistics: 3750 prims supports maybe six residential people comfortably, tops. A full region supports maaaaybe 24. Guess which region averages a couple people in it at any given time, and which averages close to none. You got it.

Now put shops on those and watch the dwell time drop through the floor from there, unless it's a booming shop. Not that it matters. Shoppers aren't friends and neighbours - they are shoppers.

This is what people don't get. You aren't providing 'land' per se. You are providing creative control, community spirit with the like-minded, a sense of identity and a sense of home.

So openspaces are *great* for creative control and identity - but fail the community test. They really need to be mixed with a larger community or they fail, given enough time.

I don't mean the whole sim. The person was looking at 4096m2 on a full sim and went to a quarter of an OS instead for the same price.

I'd also like to know this for the reverse reason. I wouldn't be willing to rent on an openspace sim if it's shared with a resource hog on another openspace sim.

Interesting but I think even that has a limited shelf life. I find people ask me for extra prims more often than they ask for extra space, the flexibility to provide that is lessened on an openspace.

There again I'm a miserable git and fully expect an openspace market crash.

I got a quasi answer on this from my estate manager where for the parcel on which I live. An owner of four openspace sims can make a request to Linden Lab to place all four sims on the same CPU and Linden Lab will let him or her know if they can accomodate the request. That means if you rent an openspace sim from such an estate owner and his covenants enforce against resource hogging then you can afford yourself some protection in picking and choosing your openspace sim when renting.

News to me, I didn't think this was possible due to how resetting sims works and they come back on at the first available space.

If this service is available they should be advertising it.

I learn so much on these boards. I had no idea I lived on an openspace sim. I have 937 prims on my Island, which is 1/4 sim.......so I am on openspace?

I have not noticed any performance issues, what would I be looking for? When you say scripts don’t run correctly, does that mean problems with doors opening, or the little floaties in the pool not spinning? I don’t seem to have issues, perhaps the issues are with more complex scripts?

This is exactly what I did. I was renting 4096 for 1795 and found a 1/4 sim Island for the same price, I could not understand why it was so cheap. I saw a number of Islands for the same price, all offering 937 prims. I left my 4096 parcel and went to the 1/4 sim

Wow. Looks like the Lindens are in agreement with me for once!

I almost missed that one.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/10/27/openspace-pricing-and-policy-changes/

Now if only we can convince people that a two month warning before a price increase is not some how a bait & switch.

figured they would up the prices after a crapload of people orderd them in masses

not only did they sell alot more voids but now increase their price by $50 a month without any benefits

1 full sim: $295
1 void: $125
4x voids (1 full sim) $500!!!!!!!!!!!!

guess i won`t be renting a void after the increase...

It is a bait & switch when people have purchased them for long term plans within a set budget.

if you were living on a budget and doing anything with an Openspace, you are screwed.

You have no room to complain unless you have a contract with LL that locked the monthly price at a fixed amount.



I agree that this is yet another poorly thought out, heavy handed change that LL just dumped on everyone without any prior notice. If i had been in charge i would have spread this out over a few month first adding the client support & hinting at the over use, then dropping the ban hammer on the big abusers, then raising tier, but that's not how LL does things. I'm sorry for everyone's smashed dreams, but planing for the worst is just as important in sl as it is in rl.

Any company pulling a trick like this is completely out of their mind. Would not surprise me if there are going to be class action suits, and they would be won.

Making a product more expensive is not the issue here. Luring customers into buying a product with a substantial maintenance fee, and then making that maintenance fee 66% higher once enough customers took the bait, simply is a swindle.

They made them affordable, easier to buy (1 instead of 4) and finally doubled the amount of prims that can be used, knowing that they would be sold like crazy. And now they put 66% up the price, making them ridiculously more expensive as mainland/normal islands. With nothing more to justify this, then the fact they are technically unable to control the use. As I said, a swindle.



Planning for the worst with Linden Labs, is simply canceling your account, as there is no way you can predict a 66% rise in monthly fees. That's simply impossible. They make it impossible for any business to anticipate on this. As I said: it is not the costs of the product that is the problem, it is the maintenance fees. They conned a lot of people with this, who will have no choice then to abandon their property, loosing the initial purchase price, as well as any business they had. There are no words for this.

Tell that to the telcos, or the cable companys, or the credit card companys, or plenty of other businesses.

Well leliel of course I do not know what country you live in, but the 3 examples you mentioned did lower their prices in my country, compared to the service they deliver. Cable went up a small bit,but quadrupled the amount of channels. Telecom only gets cheaper each year, delivering more service. My CC did not get more expensive either. So what exactly should I read in your posting?

Furthermore, none of these 3 did require me to pay a few hundred dollars upfront either.

Another thing to remember here is that LL has the figures for money leaving SL, and they are probably thinking wow! more of that money should be ours, especially if the amounts of money leaving SL is significant.

Don't be silly. You're confusing legal standing with expectations. Consider the price of gas. Nobody's got a long term contract with Exxon, but when gas heads for $4-$6 a barrel they certainly have plenty of room to complain.

Yeah but someone has to pay for cleaning up the pollution

I live in the US and out here it is 100% legal for the credit card companys to raise your interest rates how ever much they want with only 15 days notice and this applies to all past debt as well as any future debt.

But I don't want to argue about this, it's late and I've been up all night reading posts from pissed off people. Unlike Snowflake I think this will have a noticeable impact on sl's economy.

Well, you know, that's an interesting point. Because they do occasionally get sued over sudden unexpected price increases, and they sometimes even lose and end up paying for overcharges.

I'm always surprised when this kind of argument is given credence by the court, so don't get on my case about whether it's appropriate or not, but it's funny you bring it up as if this grants LL "Carte Blanche"...