First Land is no more

Okay Jack............from a very non programmer. They can and did track or monitor who was eligible for First Land. You used it once and you could not use again....one shot thing. How is that very much different from once you buy that first land tracking or monitoring that purchase for a given period of time before you had the option of selling it again for more than, say a 5% profit? That would have put a big hurt on the First Land flipping that went on so rampantly. Or how much more difficult would it be to tie alternate avis to a single method of payment and deny first land to avis with the same CC, PayPal, or other method of payment account? I can see some injustices in the latter case with families.........but really that could be solved too if they had some sort of competent customer service (a phone call, or maybe a simple form to submit). Sorry, your expert comments sound like excuses..........it won't wash with me.

You can't tell me that it could not be done and could not be done without having to work themselves to death. The financial explanation is probably spot on.......it would create some work that maybe is not as productive as other work. But shafting your base for your convenience will never get you far..............not after Microsoft did it's B.S. It worked for Bill Gates because he was the first to get by with it. Most people are too smart to let it happen again to them (I said "MOST"...........not all). Besides, Phillip Rosedale is no Bill Gates. Rest assurred their are some folks out their watching Linden Labs, looking at the successes and failures and working on another project to compete.............and there will a mass exudus from SL when they open for business

Well, I KNOW they could fix it, because when they put Blumfield out, giving new players a house with a 512 piece of land, it was made so they couldn't transfer the land for 60 days.

Now I agree with you that the benefit of fixing it, to LL, wasn't worth the cost of, you know, actually flipping that SWITCH.

Because they really don't want to be bothered with small-time land owners aka premium accounts any more, at all, ever. The goal is to eventually just stop offering premium accounts. No stipends, no customer service, nada.

So why don't they do it right away, instead of this slow death by a thousand cuts we've been witnessing over the past year or so? Because then they would LOSE us. And they can't afford to lose us right now.

But in their ultimate plan, yes - we are a goner. If you can't afford to buy entire Sims, you be out of luck, re customer service and everything else. Ultimately, that will be whole blocks of sims; none of this single-sim stuff.

(And speaking of customer service, whatever happened to all that talk on the blog not long ago about how they were going to revamp all that? Maybe when pigs fly.)

coco

P.S. Here's another thing, in case others haven't noticed. What always happens in SL is something dies from neglect and abuse first, for months and months, while residents talk urgently about it and propose (imminently sensible) suggestions to fix it.

This goes on for a while, then LL finally announces that it isn't working right; and so they are axing it.

I really don't know if this is a conscious strategy. It's possible that things just DO fall into neglect for ages, then someone at the top says, "This is giving me a headache. Let's just get rid of it." And the employees who were having to answer questions about it breathe a sigh of relief.

But it is also a way of killing something off. Let it turn into a problem first. Refuse to do anything to fix the problem.

My last post to the Linden Answers forum was asking why not make First Land non-transferable for sixty days, like Blumfield. However, the question didn't get answered, because the Linden Answers forum, which also had been neglected and abused for ages, was abruptly shut down.

I brought it up again on the Blog, and Robin said they were considering the pros and cons of such a plan. I'm thinking to myself, what cons?

It turns out that apparently the con was residents "losing their freedom." Not that I buy that for a moment, of course. I mean, that's REALLY stretching.

So you can't say they weren't aware of that solution. Many variations on that solution have been presented. Most of which people would have been overjoyed with.

Instead, we get this.

The truth is plain and simple: They make more money by cutting out First Land. It would be nice if they would just admit it.

I understand that it was decided to remove the First Land system for some very clear reasons. I thought I could provide some input on a system which I believe would allow for the offering of First Land without concern over abuses of first land for profit by alts.

When you upgrade to premium to get first land, simply set an account downgrade fee for First Land owners at a higher price limit. Basically all you need to do is ensure that one cannot make profit by buying and then selling first land. Its a simple equation really.

KNOWNS:
Cost of Aquisition = L$512
Market Rate = L$7000/512
$1USD to $Linden Conversion Ratio = $1USD/$270Lindens

EQUATION:
Potential Profit in USD = (L$7000 - L$512) * ($1 USD / L$270) = $25 USD

This rule should stand in place until paid tier fees cover $25 dollars which you would ideally track by tier payed, not by time from aquisition.

For example, you could keep this rule in place for 5 months after first land aquisition because $5USD/Month is tier, 5 months is $25, Potential Profit = 0

You could even pro-rate it, if you dont downgrade for 2 months and you paid $10 in tier, then $15 would be charged to downgrade.

The reason I suggest tracking by tier fees and not setting this fixed 5 month time is to cover customers that upgrade to higher tiers sooner than 5 months. These people are clearly not abusers and should not be penalized. Also, 5 months is a "long time" for new users testing the waters.

Also, consider the side value to Linden Labs; setting up this sytem means 1st Land owners pay the same if they play and quit after one month or 5 months. It will encourage these players to spend at least 5 months as SL players and hopefully in that time the will decide to stay for good!

All you have to do is charge customers $25 USD to downgrade. If the potential abuser is an ALT looking for profit, the profit potential profit is near zero. Probably not worth their time.

If the potential abuser is a Main that wants to sell the first land to "get a bunch of lindens now", the potential profit is also near zero. They get the money, but they really payed for it in the downgrade fee.

I believe this system would remove the drive to abuse the first land system and would allow promotion of land ownership for those serious about owning land.

What do you think?

What do you think?

That it would unfairly penalise those who might legitimately change their minds about owning land at some point, and be a disincentive to going premium and buying first land... ie people would think, damn, if I change my mind, that's gonna cost me.

That it would unfairly penalise those who might legitimately change their minds about owning land at some point, and be a disincentive to going premium and buying first land... ie people would think, damn, if I change my mind, that's gonna cost me.

And one of the big draws for First Land was the incentive to make some money selling it. If LL had elimated that aspect, there would have been just as much yelling.

Probably true, however I personally feel that since most video games cost $50 USD, twice the "risked money" here, people can easily overcome a $25 burdeon. Afterall, they roll the dice on $50 games all the time, play them for a short period of time and then dont pley them again.

ps: I hope I'm wrong and SL stays around for years to come..but I really just cant see that happening

They should probably just get rid of premium accounts entirely and simply go with tier fees and lindex.

I honestly don't see SL dying anytime soon unless something drastic happens, like they are bought out by another company that decides to shut them or whatnot.

They can get rid of firstland, stipends, free accounts, etc... but yet new players will continue to flock to SL. The old players will be pissed and threatening to leave and claiming that SL is dying... but the new players will take their place. That is all that will happen because there is NO OTHER game like SL available on the Internet.

Until Google or someone comes up with some competition to SL, be prepared to take it up the wahzoo from LL.

There is atleast one that I know of that will be released this summer and 2 others that I'm not to sure about so SL is getting some new compition..I just dont know if you can buy and sell the money in the new ones for real money like you can with the lindens..I hope they do put that in because I'll give them a shot then...just search it on the net you'll find a few

Do you still have your first two pieces of "First Land"? Just curious because you didn't mention that you got two pieces of "First Land".

Yes, ma'am, I still do.

April wants everyone to know that I have two premium accounts, and that I bought First Land with each account.

I still have all three accounts I ever made. Two of them are premium as I made them, and as I still pay for them.

Those two premium accounts each got First Land. And my shop, now much expanded, still encompasses these same two pieces of First Land.

April, I know you think I should have bought only one piece of First Land, and passed over it with my second premium account.

However, I didn't do that any more than I turned back in my stipend with the second premium account each week.

Nor did the Lindens tell people they should forego First Land on their second premium accounts, either officially or when individuals asked them directly.

I paid for premium accounts, which I believed entitled me to what came with each one, and I still believe that. You think differently. You think I should have passed over the second account's First Land. We will never agree on that.

Meanwhile, for going on two years now, LL has been getting steady payment from me for two premium accounts, as well as monthly tier payment for all my shop land, which includes the original First Land I bought with my two premium accounts.

coco

I really cant see SL being around in the long run its not stable it crashes...