Difference between mainland region and private region

[Kathlen Onyx]

I didn't want to post this on this person's ad but I'm genuinely curious. They are selling a full region on the mainland for 75,000L which is Approx $325. The land fee is $175/month and the region is a Moderate region. The prim allowance is 22,500.

If you purchase a full private region the set up fee is $349 and the monthly cost is $229 a month.  So a total difference for the monthly fee is $54 and the difference from the cost of what they are selling it for and a private region set up is about $25 for 20.000 prims. I assume you have the ability to choose if you want the sim A, M or G and they place it appropriately.

Besides the difference in the monthly cost of $54 and the extra 2500 prim allowance what is the advantage of having a full region in the middle of the mainland?  I am assuming that there are some or people would not be paying these huge amounts for mainland rather than just getting a private region. 

 

 

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

My number one guess would be road/air/water access to other regions. If you are on a private region, you are surrounded by void sims (unless you are part of a group of connected private regions). People who like to explore or want to have explorers enter their region might choose Mainland so they won't be isolated as they would be on a private region. 

[Rabid Cheetah]

The one time a friend rented just an 8th of a private sim, we felt very confined and boxed in, even when exploring neighboring parcels.  It feels very disconnected from the rest of the world.

[BJoyful]

3 hours ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

Besides the difference in the monthly cost of $54 and the extra 2500 prim allowance what is the advantage of having a full region in the middle of the mainland?

For me also, as @Sylvia Tamalyn and @Rabid Cheetah ... I would buy Mainland over an Estate be to be connected to other Regions for the freedom of travel and exploration. 

CONS:

You cannot change the maturity Rating: G, M or A on Mainland. 

Most Mainland has limited Terraforming +4/-4 m on most major Continents.

PROS:

Another advantage is if you own it or buy it as a Land Group you can allow people to contribute tier in lieu of rent and this is a big advantage to people not online regularly as the tier is paid by the tier donor to LL directly with no need to go through logging in to  pay a landlord or a tier box or rent box if your tier is due ♥

A Land Group can have Rules similar to a Covenant to control such things as orbs or Banlines, theme of area, etc.

A Land Group receives a 10% bonus so you only need 90% of the total square metres of tier to be donated to cover an entire Region.

[Qie Niangao]

I'd go with Mainland out of habit, but that US$54/month recurring fee advantage adds up, too.

I wonder, though, if some of the difference in up-front prices might be carried over from times when that monthly fee difference was more like US$100 / month. Back then, it took a hefty premium to buy a full Mainland region (when available) over set-up fees for a private island.

 

[Sister Nova]

You have to be a premium a/c in order to own a mainland region, as it really is just the largest mainland parcel you can get. You don't need to have a premium a/c in order to have a private region. I don't think you get any region powers on the mainland region.

As others have already commented, the big draw with mainland is being connected to other regions. You can only join your private region to others owned by you, or where the owner of any other private regions that you wish to join are in agreement for you to do so.

[Chic Aeon]

For ME the disadvantage would be less than charming neighboring sims (not as important if you are going to mostly be up in the sky). Patch told us that the regions bordering a sim ("region" and "sim" are pretty synonymous for many of us) impact our FPS (this in a talk when the Belli houses first were shown at Expo).    And of course with mainland you have no guarantees who will be next to you in the future.  

 

A big plus -- although not as good as it was before the premium rate hike --  is that you can make alts and make them premium and then contribute the tier  to the group and your final cost will be less than if you paid for tier on one account.  I did the math a couple of years ago when things changed and likely someone who does this can tell you exactly or you can do the math yourself.   I was working with less than a whole sim but something to check on anyway.  Again, someone here likely knows the difference and will post. 

 

There are always pros and cons with mainland. Terraforming as mentioned is one disadvantage to mainland. One thing NOT mentioned so far is the amount of people you can get in a mainland sim versus a private region. That may or may not be important to you.   I "think" unless things have changed that you can now set your sky settings on mainland with EEP.  I haven't kept up with that so not really sure but the default mainland EEP settings are HORRIBLE so you might want to check into that.  To me that would be pretty important. 

 

So it really boils down to price versus abilities and how important certain abilities (and price) would be to you.   

[Rowan Amore]

I've never owned a private region only rented a homestead (same size, less prims).  I loved the ability to make it exactly how I wanted.  Terraforming, ground textures, SIM surround.  All of those features are greatly limited on any mainland.  Also, as someone mentioned, on mainland, you don't know what type of build the person next to you will do.

Mainland seems just as isolated as one might feel on a private estate.  You could travel for miles and not see a single soul.  People tend to keep to themselves.  If I'm in the mood to drive, there a plenty of places to do so without having to actually own mainland.  I've just never felt that sense of confinement or isolation people talk about on private estates.  

 

 

[Prokofy Neva]

8 hours ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

I didn't want to post this on this person's ad but I'm genuinely curious. They are selling a full region on the mainland for 75,000L which is Approx $325. The land fee is $175/month and the region is a Moderate region. The prim allowance is 22,500.

If you purchase a full private region the set up fee is $349 and the monthly cost is $229 a month.  So a total difference for the monthly fee is $54 and the difference from the cost of what they are selling it for and a private region set up is about $25 for 20.000 prims. I assume you have the ability to choose if you want the sim A, M or G and they place it appropriately.

Besides the difference in the monthly cost of $54 and the extra 2500 prim allowance what is the advantage of having a full region in the middle of the mainland?  I am assuming that there are some or people would not be paying these huge amounts for mainland rather than just getting a private region. 

 

 

Well, it's like what they say about whole versus term life insurance.

And the advice is, "Buy term, and invest the difference."

And the advice for SL is, "Buy Mainland and invest the difference."

There is nothing worse than that smack in the face that greets you when you try to fly off a private island. It has a hard stop. You can't get off it. It's like Alcatraz. Unless you TP out of it, of course, or log in elsewhere. Or unless you buy two and link them. But then at the end of *that*, there's still the hard stop.

On Mainland, sure, there are banlines. But there are Linden roads. Most people don't put up ban lines. It's nice. And cheaper. You can walk, fly, drive, sail. Truly.

The private island system of SL is, for the most part, an archipelago of egos, in silos. It's how a closed society proliferates. Mainland at least represents a certain dream of the founders which in part was not realizable because of their own fallacies and flaws, but really, it still represents the practicality and desirability of the open society. Civil society.

"I'd say, stay on the mainland, the idea of clustering and the magic spell of working with your neighbors is just a great appeal." Philip Linden, Town Hall, Second Life, 7/7/06

[anniebumpkins]

I can offer my limited experience in both. I prefer mainland for both my private and public parcels, but I'm a social creature and I've always felt more connected to my neighbors on mainland (as evidenced by the fact that I've made friends with many of them in the time I've been here). Also, for my ends, mainland tends to be cheaper in the long run for more. I think it really depends on what you want to get out of your space, what you intend to use it for. That said, I only have very limited experience renting on private island sims and I'm still a bit of a student in this as well- and, of course, the sociability of private sims would depend, I imagine, on how the owners market and design it. I would say if privacy and total control are important to you, private sims seem to be the way to go (or float your stuff on up to the sky). Personally I like the ever-changing landscape of the mainland and being part of that, hence my preference. 😊