I fully realize that the Lindens can’t go on subsidizing or breaking even on their tektopia. That’s fine. But you don’t run it for 3 years privileging only a certain group to enable them to make a fortune off it, then usher in big business and dump off the tier-payers in a mere 2 days. It’s truly shabby behaviour.

Labors of love for beautiful sims with no income, but to merely have something nice, now is entirely out of reach as seen by those sims dying out. It’s going to be all commercial and all clubs before long. Even resi run info places will soon take a hit and that’s just too much to ask for the common person who gets nothing out of being helpful in SL.

Labors of love for beautiful sims with no income, but to merely have something nice, now is entirely out of reach as seen by those sims dying out. It’s going to be all commercial and all clubs before long. Even resi run info places will soon take a hit and that’s just too much to ask for the common person who gets nothing out of being helpful in SL.

The real truth… you’re whinning because SL has more people and it’s becoming too much for Linden Labs… thus they are hiring and expanding their grounds. Money don’t come from trees… and there’s no such things as camping chairs in Real Life. Grow up.

No, you’re incorrect, LL has not kept the same pricing for 3 years, not on your life. Nor should they, even given the industry’s pattern of reducing the cost of hardware and not increasing it. That’s because they don’t just sell computers, they sell land in a world on those computers.

They increased the cost of islands from $995 in the old days to $1250 in June 2005 or so, when they also moved to an auction where only whole sims would be supplied fresh at bids opening at $1000, and only used, recycled abandoned part sims would be provided occasionally. So both island and mainland costs went up substantially ($1200-1500 for wholesale sim auction on the mainland), and the Lindens glutted, and that affected the dollar/Linden value. This is all amply recorded in news and blogs throughout this period.

If it costs them $1000, as they used to say, then they’re charging of only $1000 at times (when auctions had no competition due to their glutting) wasn’t very well managed, eh? So sure, I don’t mind if they charge more for their costs.

My beef isn’t that a capitalist company in a capitalist country sells things at a higher price to make a profit over expenses. Good! My beef is:

a) sticker shock — giving 2 days notice only — unfair and unnecessary
b) insider trader — letting a special privileged list know in advance so they could both profit and also position themselves and plan better

That’s wrong! That’s not capitalism, that’s state socialism and oligarchism.

Will people beyond the “hated land baron Prok” be affected? Of course they will. Content creators often favoured by types like the author of this nasty post have to have land under them in some fashion — they can’t all live out of sandboxes and SLB stores. Most have an anchor store and that means tier. Most want non-laggy island sims to show their wares and that means huge new costs. Clubs, content-makers, even non-profits now will all have to pass these costs on to customers — the world’s tiny microeconomy is easily affected by abrupt and harsh moves like this and always has been.

Land barons are complaining bitterly — perhaps not as publicly because they don’t want to harm their Linden connections and they don’t wish to appear weak and worried to their clients who might bolt from them to others who don’t appear weak.

In Second Life, people love to play at being professional and love to hate amateurs, and everybody is always trying to one-up the next guy and show how much cooler and savvy they are.

But…In Second Life, it’s absurd to make plans like “Oh, I’ll diversify my portfolio” or “oh, better not have my eggs in one basket” because it is a complete roller-coaster ride and like nothing in real life or previous MMORPG life.

As it happens, in my business, I have a wide variety of parcels on 50 sims, including private island sims. Most land is mainland because that’s what I preferred and built up, but I have island land too. I also sell content which I make or commission, and for non-profit projects, I solicit tier and contributions. I try to have a range of sources of income to tide over the inevitable ups and downs. Most big land barons (I’m not one of them) try to diversify their portfolio but some dumped the mainland entirely.

Some of them are now bitching that the mainland is now ostensibly being favoured now, so hey, perhaps the one-basket eggsters were in the know and now will reap rewards?

Except nobody in the land business ever makes as much money as content makers and metaversal consultants. Land is too risky and goes through too many changes. It has to be a labour of love and is for most land barons. Only those with a huge volume of land and sales could probably say that their sheer volume makes them a decent profit, but it’s one that is always at risk due to their equally great need to hire help, stay a step of the Lindens on the auctions, and recover from everything the Lindens constantly throw at us.

When the grids crash, people still buy content on websites or come shopping again the minute the doors open again. Landlords meanwhile suffer horrendously sometimes with days of grief-ball clean-up, move-outs from people upset in general at SL and blaming it on their rental, and even having to repair destroyed buildings from forced returns. Three weeks after the October 12th disaster, I am *still* cleaning up and still recovering from losses. Hello? Get a grip.

SL has evolved and changed dramatically in the two years I’ve been on it. I’ve hung on for the ride. I’ve increased my business and have tripled my customers and land supply. What on earth is your problem that you have to lob in a hateful, nasty post like that which amounts basically to accusing a reporter of reporting bad news just because it allegedly harmed his business? That’s stupid. It didn’t. And even if it did, it would still be right to report it.

But…wait a minute…first I’m supposed to be making a slew of money…then I’m supposed to be adjusting or dying…which is it?

Bluesapphire, adjust or die yourself. Critical thinkers and speakers like me will be around for a long time to come.

It’s just you. You see the cost of technology goes DOWN over time. They are upgrading to servers that are availble to people at 1k USD. 4 sims to a server= 2400 profit right off the bat.

The cost of maintaining a server stays the same (electricity and bandwidth regardless of class), so not only island increase, but tier increase results in them not only paying less for servers, but jamming them full and increasing profits to an ungodly amount for a game that’s about as stable at a lopsided upended egg. If the game were more stable, and they actually put guards in place that worked, then it might be worth it, but they aren’t even testing some content causing unstability.

In the end, you pay this new amount and all the fees and they can snatch it right back and sell it to someone else. Or if LL goes under, then your screwed there too, as you agree that you may not get anything in the event LL takes your stuff or goes under losing everything.