Written 28 October,2008
Linsanity
Has Linden Lab Lost Its Collective Mind?
“We will increase the monthly maintenance fee [for Openspace sims] from USD$75 to USD$125 per month. This price increase will apply to all owners of Openspaces on January 1st as well as new purchases after that date. There will be no grandfathering of Openspace maintenance pricing.”
-- Jack Linden, Linden Blog, 27 October, 2008
Last night Linden Lab announced that because “Openspaces are being used about twice as much as we expected, in other words being loaded with double the content/avatar load than we’d expect for a region that is supposed to be light use,” which results in “additional strain on some of our network and database infrastructure,” monthly tier will be increased on 1 January from the current $USD $75.00 per month to $USD $125.00. Upfront fees for new Openspaces will be increased from USD$250 to USD$375.
In some scenarios such a price increase might make sense—but in this case it is sheer Linden insanity—linsanity, as I have termed it.
Last night’s announcement was the flip side of an announcement made in early April, when Linden Lab announced the availability of single Openspace sims for purchase by sim owners (previously, they were available only in lots of four) and a concurrent increase in prim limits on Openspaces from 1750 to 3500.
And now the Lab is shocked—SHOCKED!— Openspaces have twice as many prims and avatars? Puh-LEASE! What did they expect would happen when they doubled prim allowances? Did they think owners would say, “Oh, wow, now I can not put another 1750 prims on the land! Now I can have 2000 free prims instead of just 250!” Yeah. Right! In their dreams!
Rather than disciplining owners who are overloading their Openspaces with prims, avatars, and scripts by running clubs and malls, rather than placing limits on the avatar load or number of scripts on Openspaces, rather than saying, “Okay, okay, okay, we screwed up! Because our servers can’t handle 3500 prims on Openspaces, we’re taking prim bsack down to 1750,” rather than charging increased tier on new purchases of Openspace sims, Linden Lab is punishing every Openspace owner by increasing tier by 60%, a move that will do absolutely NOTHING to alleviate the supposed problem of overload.
See? Linsanity!
The Lab’s April decision to reduce island prices cost a lot of people a lot of money in lost land value. The current decision will cost island owners more money, as they will lose their purchase price when they abandon their Openspaces—and many, many owners will indeed abandon them.
I’m ordinarily a supporter of Linden Lab, even when they make bonehead decisions—but Jack’s announcement smacks of deceit and dishonesty and misdirection. I cannot continue to support Linden Lab unless it does something to make this untenable situation better.
Linsanity
Has Linden Lab Lost Its Collective Mind?
“We will increase the monthly maintenance fee [for Openspace sims] from USD$75 to USD$125 per month. This price increase will apply to all owners of Openspaces on January 1st as well as new purchases after that date. There will be no grandfathering of Openspace maintenance pricing.”
-- Jack Linden, Linden Blog, 27 October, 2008
Last night Linden Lab announced that because “Openspaces are being used about twice as much as we expected, in other words being loaded with double the content/avatar load than we’d expect for a region that is supposed to be light use,” which results in “additional strain on some of our network and database infrastructure,” monthly tier will be increased on 1 January from the current $USD $75.00 per month to $USD $125.00. Upfront fees for new Openspaces will be increased from USD$250 to USD$375.
In some scenarios such a price increase might make sense—but in this case it is sheer Linden insanity—linsanity, as I have termed it.
Last night’s announcement was the flip side of an announcement made in early April, when Linden Lab announced the availability of single Openspace sims for purchase by sim owners (previously, they were available only in lots of four) and a concurrent increase in prim limits on Openspaces from 1750 to 3500.
And now the Lab is shocked—SHOCKED!— Openspaces have twice as many prims and avatars? Puh-LEASE! What did they expect would happen when they doubled prim allowances? Did they think owners would say, “Oh, wow, now I can not put another 1750 prims on the land! Now I can have 2000 free prims instead of just 250!” Yeah. Right! In their dreams!
Rather than disciplining owners who are overloading their Openspaces with prims, avatars, and scripts by running clubs and malls, rather than placing limits on the avatar load or number of scripts on Openspaces, rather than saying, “Okay, okay, okay, we screwed up! Because our servers can’t handle 3500 prims on Openspaces, we’re taking prim bsack down to 1750,” rather than charging increased tier on new purchases of Openspace sims, Linden Lab is punishing every Openspace owner by increasing tier by 60%, a move that will do absolutely NOTHING to alleviate the supposed problem of overload.
See? Linsanity!
The Lab’s April decision to reduce island prices cost a lot of people a lot of money in lost land value. The current decision will cost island owners more money, as they will lose their purchase price when they abandon their Openspaces—and many, many owners will indeed abandon them.
I’m ordinarily a supporter of Linden Lab, even when they make bonehead decisions—but Jack’s announcement smacks of deceit and dishonesty and misdirection. I cannot continue to support Linden Lab unless it does something to make this untenable situation better.
2 comments:
Classic bait and switch. I'll be giving up my OS sim by the end of the year.
I'll be giving up both of mine. Everyone I know with them will be bailing.
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