New Void Sim Price Hike will destroy the foundation of themed sims in Second Life

I was struck by a strange parallel last night, as I was called to an emergency meeting in Caledon Oxbridge. Linden Labs is acting like a Hollywood studio right on the verge of the television age.

The decade marked by the Great Depression and leading into World War II is fondly remembered as Hollywood’s Golden Age. During this time period, the great studio system of making movies in America was born; the resulting entertainment empire that grew out of this time still exists in some form today. A relatively small amount of major studios produced 95% of all American movies-- and they produced in volumes unheard of today. 7,500 feature length films of all genres were released by the studios between 1930 and 1945 to an audience that was willing to see AT LEAST ONE FILM PER WEEK. In short, the Depression's "economic downturn" built the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood-- one of the most culturally significant events of the 20th century, for good or ill. In an economy that was far more desperate than the one we find ourselves in today (so far), why did the average citizenry spend their hard earned money on entertainment (and so much of it?). Several reasons, really, but chiefly these: there was nothing else to do. No television, no MMORGs, no cable TV, no Nintendo DS, no WII, no realistic competition for a consumer's entertainment dollar. Movies were cheap, and they kept the populace happy.. Today, we are faced with a very different economy and a multitude of entertainment choices. We're also in the midst of an economic downturn that may take us a decade of hard work to fight our way out of. Linden Labs would do well to remember that.

MMOGs are still in their early years of development-- a fact that makes itself known to the customers with every crash, patch and release of a flawed software client. Second Life is the 800 lb gorilla of this trend for the time being as it is still somewhat unique compared to many of the choices currently on the market. Players can 'buy and sell' land (a very heavily caveated concept, as we will see). Players may indulge in economic activity that helps pay for their time in world, or even, in the case of the lucky 1 or 2 per cent, make a profit. The rest of us schmoes have to pay our tier fees like everyone else.

Linden Labs' recent announcement OPEN SPACE PRICING AND POLICY CHANGES will, effectively, send the price of operating "Light use" or open sims through the roof. In the words of the Lindens:

Effective Immediately

We (Linden Labs) will no longer allow the Owner of an Openspace to be changed to a different resident than the Payor. Initially we will not enforce this change on Openspaces where the Payor and Owner are already different but in those cases the only change allowed will be to set the Owner back to the Payor. This doesn’t affect the parcel level rentals, this is just focussed on the whole region rental of Openspaces.

We will no longer offer an educational or non-profit discount for new Openspaces. As mentioned earlier, this is due to the increased back end resource required for us to support Openspaces in the way that they are now being used. For the small number of Educators that already have Openspaces, we will be contacting you directly to discuss this change.

Next, we will be making changes to the viewer that enable residents to know precisely what type of land or region they are on so that the land market remains as fair and easy to understand as possible. So expect to see changes that much more clearly display to residents whether they are on Linden Mainland or Private Estate, whether it is a Normal region or Openspace and what that means. This will affect various aspects of the Viewer including the inworld Search along with the About Land and Buy Land screens. Making Land easier to understand will benefit everyone, especially new users looking to step onto the property ladder for the first time.

D. Shang addresses the crowd of concerned citizens at Oxbridge. 65 in attendance.

Lastly we will begin to proactively discuss overloaded Openspaces with their owners. This is important because as with abuse of region resources, a heavily overloaded Openspace can adversely affect other Openspaces sharing the same machine which is clearly unfair to residents who are using them responsibly. We have listened to your feedback on this, and agree that we need to make changes to better support our Openspace users by actively working to keep the performance levels as high as possible. We will also provide some detailed guidance about what ‘overuse’ looks like and how to prevent it.

So to recap:

* Openspace prices and fees change on the 1st January with no grandfathering.
* Class 4 Openspaces will be upgraded to class 5 in January.
* Educator discount is no longer available for Openspaces.
* No Owner switching for Openspaces unless it’s a full transfer of Payor.
* More proactive education by support staff to prevent unfair resource use by Openspace regions.

Linden Labs Second Life Blog Post

The consequences of this action are more than a little dire-- not for Second Life as a whole, but particularly for sims that rely heavily on open spaces-- not just an aesthetic, but for their day to day activities. Sims such as the Second Life Sailing Confederation, or the Wild West sims, or Caledon, or Antiquity, all of which have significant open sims that are being used as an essential aesthetic for community activities.. the draw, if you will.

Emergency meeting in Caledon Oxbridge

In Caledon, where I live, there are several open space sims. They are used for sailing, for community activities, for education. The Firth of Caledon is a major waterway consisting of several OS Sims that are used for sailing. As you can see HERE and HERE, this is a lovely addition to our themed community life in world. There are additional Openspace sims on the periphery of Caledon that are threatened by this move, and communities adjacent to ours, such as Winterfell, which would feel the impact of this decision.. We have come to rely on these sims to give Caledon a unique look and feel. It would be difficult to imagine a Caledon without a Carntaigh or Loch Avie or Kintyre, but these are the very sims that may be threatened by such a move.

In an emergency meeting last night, Caledon Governor Desmond Shang laid it out on the line. Financially, Open sims are a luxury with marginal return for the money he has invested. If massive price hikes on open sims occur, rental rates will go up. Some void, or open sims will go away and people may very well lose their land in the worst case. That's not my interpretation, either, but cold hard reality. Read HIS version:

[19:56] Desmond Shang: there may be other changes, such as prims, or performance - this is just the first bid,
[19:56] Desmond Shang: my personal take on it, is that this move is financial
[19:57] Desmond Shang: this is a guess, but I think they discovered that they damaged their own full region land market.
[19:57] Desmond Shang: anyway, here's what's likely to happen.
[19:57] Desmond Shang: I'll have to raise my rates, obviously, if this sticks.
[19:58] Desmond Shang: second, I'll have to possibly make changes to Caledon in an orderly manner
[19:58] Desmond Shang: that means that if we end up with fewer openspace regions, some may have to move.
[19:59] Desmond Shang: this I don't care to do - but if necessary, I'll ensure that we are a cohesive nation
[19:59] Desmond Shang: with as minimal damage overall as I can.
[20:00] Desmond Shang: The way I see it,
[20:00] Desmond Shang: they have to essentially curb the private estate market for openspaces - that's my guess
[20:01] Desmond Shang: so renting them out won't be terribly viable, and they may return to being a luxury item on the grid

Desmond Shang, in group chat last night, permission to quote

I have to agree with Desmond Shang in this instance-- clearly, Linden Labs FULL SIM land sales have been impacted by affordable open sims. Certainly, abuse of the 'affordable open sim for charities and educational institutions" idea has occurred. Like Shang, I don't think it's quite time to panic, yet, but I can't see a bright and cheery future for sims that rely on aesthetic themes if Open Sims become too expensive to run. I fully empathize with community managers like Shang, and Greg Barrymore (Antiquity), and Zatzai Asturias (SLSF), and MarkTwain White (SLSF), all of whom will have to make the decision to either operate closer to the margin, raise their prices, or simply amputate a sim or two if the Lindens maintain this policy.

Speaking for myself alone, I am not much affected by this decision-- TODAY. I own a small plot of land and am very happy with it... but I share the use of open sims with the owners who pay the price for them.. I fly over their lands, and sail my ironclad fleet in their waters, and I go to their sim-torturing social events. Because the open sims are helping to make the community/theme aesthetic real for me, I value them as a value-added part of my Second Life. I can easily afford the rather small investment I make in SL at the moment... I don't have to spend huge amounts of my limited free time creating and selling content for others to keep everything paid up. I don't HAVE to have a sim pay for itself. Frankly, I like it that way. SL gives me the chance to be creative in my own right, on my own terms, and on my own schedule. It also gives me the right to be lazy and just have fun. I can justify, easily, the amount of money I spend on SL in return for the amount of fun I receive from it. I have been offered an open sim on Caledon's land list many many times, and just as many times I have said no, thanks for asking-- I couldn't justify the cost of even 80 dollars a month to myself. If I were an open sim owner at this given moment, I'd be having second thoughts about staying in Second Life at all. The Terms of Service, as I read them, support LL charging us whatever they want, at any time at all. So they've certainly covered themselves on that legally, but that won't protect them economically from hundreds of sim owners voting with their feet-- I can easily predict many people will walk away from this in disgust.

Strategically, I really wonder at this move. Lowering, then raising, the rate on an open sim had me thinking back to that Golden Age of Hollywood again-- this is an act of hubris akin to the major studios pressuring theater owners into raising the price of a matinee show from a dime to a quarter right before the invention of the television set. Poor timing... it isn't very smart to price a non-essential luxury entertainment item such as Second Life so high that customers can't justify it in the face of economic recession.

I sincerely hope the Lindens change their mind about this issue, or come to some form of compromise with open sim owners. I can see this as a move that will doom the themed island communities that rely so heavily on Open Sims for content delivery. Given that Linden Labs itself is now putting a toe into the waters of content development, it's hard not to be somewhat cynical about their motivations. I shall try to be a 'better person' and dismiss such feelings. In the meantime, I encourage you to read the thread about land cost policies, get smart on it, and feedback your dissatisfaction Linden Labs. Vote against the issue on JIRA (probably won't do that much, but it will get their attention at least). It's all we can do.