Bad business practices strike again! Even if the only (only!) bad business practice is poor communication, the Lindens are continuing on their well-established path of alienating customers. What this will mean for me as a landowner and for my tenants, only time will tell. If Linden Research doesn’t back off of their announced rate increases, I suppose we’ll convert open space sims into full sims and just eat the reduced elbow room.
If the “abuse” of open space sims that Jack Linden refers to is the real problem, then Linden Research should:
- provide realistic, explicit guidelines for what appropriate use is (number of avatars? script resources?)
- provide metrics tools for use by landowners (at a minimum) and other residents
- throttle performance on open space sims (hard limits to number of avatars and script time)
Instead, they seem to be hiding a need or desire to manipulate the land market behind these technical issues, for which they propose no changes. The only actions (besides increasing their rates) that Linden Research is taking is eliminating owner/payor transfers (something I didn’t even know was possible—I suppose you needed to be an insider to get it) and providing “education” to sim owners.
If you want to comment on the change, do so in the forums. Be aware that less than 24 hours after the announcement, there are 16 pages of comments, many of them apparently from owners of full sims who dislike the competition of open space sims used for residences or businesses.
It is simply outrageous and irresponsible for Linden Lab to have such a surprise attack on land owners after they have been squealing about land growth validating the renewed interest in Second Life. More spew about this here if anyone cares http://rezzable.com/blog/rightasrain-rimbaud/linden-labs-betrays-consumer-market#comment-1544
It’s hit 55 pages as of this moment
Currently at 92 pages…and the consensus seems to be that there is more here than meets the eye.