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FREE LAND ? No set up fees ! Woohoo !


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Time Limited offer, this weekend, No Set Up Fees on new sims

This is a great idea, marvelous to see some changes from LL regarding the land pricing model. I really hope this encourages some new users to get a sim.

The time is right this REALLY should be a permenant deal - no set up fees ever - and also LL should introduce no need to own a full sim before you can buy a Homestead. Then we'd see some massive growth in the grid

The set up fees have always been a blocker to sim purchases. But unfortunately, we still have a big blocker to sim ownership - and that blocker is the requirement that we own a full sim before we can purchase a Homestead.

With no set up fees and no requirement to own a full sim,    Homesteads would become LL's killer product.

But with the massive 300USD per month tier for a full sim, LL are blocking the core user base from getting the product they want - which is their own Homestead directly from LL with no set up fee. That would be awesome.

I genuinely hope the current DEAL generates new interest in land ownership.

But the only real solution is to reduce tier, it would put literally thousands of new sims on the grid.

 

Secondlife needs :

No set up fees

Anyone can buy a Homestead (no full sim needed)

Homesteads 49.99 USD per month tier

Full sims 195.99 USD per month tier

 

The above pricing model would make sims fly off the shelves, it would halt the abandonment of sims overnight.

Secondlife is an amazing, outstanding technology, people love it, want to use it. If  tier was priced right  we would see dramatic and incredible growth.

 

 

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Astonished to see LL offering some kind of deal on land. But the phrase 'To Little Too Late' is ringing in my ears.

I totally agree dude ! if there was a tier reduction people would flock to buy homesteads from LL if we didn't have to get a full sim. That gotta have a full sim thing is a real dream killer

 

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I can't knock the deal, but for me I'd rather pay the $1000 purchase price and have the ongoing tier reduced by a significant margin, that's what would make it a long term viability for me. 

In an ideal world of course I'd rather pay no setup fee or a nominal one if any and then have a much reduced tier.  :smileywink:

I also wonder what the people are feeling who put an order in yesterday or earlier this week for a sim?  I remember when I bought my last island sim being informed two days later that as a European it was going to cost me 17.5% more in VAT for the purchase price and tier, I was not best pleased.  To be fair LL offered me the chance to pull out without any fee, I hope they are going to be just as generous to people who have already got recent orders placed.

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In an ideal world of course I'd rather pay no setup fee or a nominal one if any and then have a much reduced tier.

FREEING THE LAND MARKET, reducing tier and letting anybody buy a Homestead is key to the future success of Secondlife.

Like you say Sy, it's the ongoing high monthly tier costs that are blocking the spectacular growth of the grid

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Irrelevant I am sorry to say. Tier is the clanger and is a completely unfathomable expense.

Some kind of sliding scale or business land category where you could only earn a certain amount of L profit per inexpensive amount of land dues would be more appropriate. Eg: you pay for, not own 1024, well anything you earnt above 4 x 1024 per month could go to LL perhaps?

Same formula for higher levels of land renting. Could it work? I have no idea o.0 it's just off the top of my head right now.

A more user freindly model where LL gets their dues too is the way to go.

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Let's look back into 2008 for a moment. Yes, homesteads ('open spaces' as they were called back then) indeed used to be "LL's killer product" as Ralph mentioned. LL sold more of those than they could deliver, there were waiting lists and all the stufff. Massive grow, lots of land owners, everything fineand dandy.

Really?

No, not really. What most people didn't acknowledge was the initial idea of those open spaces. See, LL originally made them as low cost, low usage areas for existing landowners to add some parks, gardens and other decorative land to their existing outfit. But customers used them in a different way. They built rental objects, shopping malls, clubs and all that stuff and used those open spaces just like full sims. What most residents didn't take into account or just ignored was the fact that a homestead has to share 1 server with 3 other sims. Not only did you get only 3750 prims but more importantly the script load is divided through 4 as well. This lead to massive lag throughout the grid. LL in their typically helpless, clumsy way didn't see any other solution than to raise the tier in order to dampen the demand on those sims. I guess they want to avoid the errors of the past and avoid history repeating itself.

Of course should LL lower the tier prices, of course they should make land ownership more afforrdable.

But residents should be more aware of what they are buiyng into and what they get. And don't have too high, unrealistic expectations.

 

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I just had to add a comment here, that if you are just thinking about getting some virtual land to do something with, i might be an idea to look at mainland areas, and look for a quarter or a half  a region or so..there is still a monthly tier to pay, but no set up fees...(ever)..

If i may be so bold here, could i suggest, like others have, that you could reduce montly tier, but not forever, say half price for 6 months or something like that..

I stopped being impressed about it all personally, and stopped "playing the game",  when the mainland land market decimated in 2008..but thats just my opinion, and possibly not others. but i havent left though, still interested in seeing what happens generally..

Edit..i fixed a typo.

 

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While nice, the offer isn't as generous as it may appear at first.  WIth the economy the way it is, and so many people losing sims because they can not afford the tier any longer, you can get a full sim on the secondary market for FAR less than LL charges for a brand new one - sometimes the price only covers the relatively modest transfer fee which the seller then pays LL.  

I doubt Homestead's .will ever be available to persons that do not own a full sim.  This would put a huge dent in the profitablity of the land barons who own huge estates and  rent homesteads.  LL has always favored  the land barons over the general population. Also the present setup is much more lucrative to LL.  If a renter leaves a homestead, the land baron generally pays the tier by re-renting the sim and/or from their other income or sells the homestead to another land baron and LL sees no disruption of their income.  If homesteads were avaiable without a full sim there would be many people who buy one only to abandon it a few months down the road because they can't afford it and disrupt the income flow to LL.

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After reflection, it's marvelous to see some movement in LL's land pricing offers but clearly it's not going to make any difference. It might boost this months sim numbers which would have been totally appalling, I'm guessing

Right now nearly all the big shops inworld and little shops are suffering the most terrible traffic

When I say terrible traffic - that often means no traffic and the marketplace sales are not making up the difference.

All my records for 6 years being an SL creator and merchant in SL show that things should have picked up by now after the summer slump, but not this year, inworld and marketplace sales are slow. All the creators I know say they are down approx. 50% and slipping.

At the root of this deep decline in interest and use of Secondlife are the outdated, unaffordable, high tier costs.

LL know it, we know it, everybody knows it - The current tier pricing model is driving interested, enthusiastic customers away.

High tier costs = Low concurrency = low sales = declining economy

We're not stagnant anymore, we're not flatlining, we're actually in decline and this should NOT be happening to SL. It's an incredible medium oppressed by high tier costs .

LL have the power to turn this around and re-energise Secondlife and make millions in the process. Be brave Linden Labs, REDUCE TIER NOW !  For goodness sake believe in your product - IT'S SPECTACULAR !! 

 

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Ralph I agree with you that high virtual land prices are a major factor holding back SL's growth, especially for the merchant, creative, artistic, roleplay and educational communities who provide the content that brings people into SL. I appreciate your campaign and truly hope that LL will listen before it's too late but, there are some other factors involved in the decline of SL as well:

 

  • Failure of upper management to develop a strategic vision and direction for SL
  • Failure to address long-standing technical issues that affect all customers' ability to fully utilize SL (i.e. sim crossings, group chat)
  • Failure to understand how their customers use the platform and consistently implementing plans directly contrary to customer needs (i.e. adult region, open space sims, viewer 2)
  • Alienating long-term loyal customers in the quest to gain new customers
  • Lack of communication with their customers, many of whom are technically advanced and who have offered potential solutions to the many ongoing issues
  • Disconnect from customers (due to lack of communication and the fact that management and employees don't actually spend time inworld)
  • Failure to market and promote SL consistently
  • Failure to leverage volunteers to mentor new users, thus increasing retention
  • Terrible customer service/support

All of these points, in addition to the problem of insanely high tier and setup fees, need to be addressed if SL is to reverse the slow decline of the last 2-3 years.

(edit for grammar)

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Deej Kasshiki wrote:

Ralph I agree with you that high virtual land prices are a
major
factor holding back SL's growth, especially for the merchant, creative, artistic, roleplay and educational communities who provide the content that brings people into SL. I appreciate your campaign and truly hope that LL will listen before it's too late but, there are some other factors involved in the decline of SL as well:

 
  • Failure of upper management to develop a strategic vision and direction for SL
  • Failure to address long-standing technical issues that affect all customers' ability to fully utilize SL (i.e. sim crossings, group chat)
  • Failure to understand how their customers use the platform and consistently implementing plans directly contrary to customer needs (i.e. adult region, open space sims, viewer 2)
  • Alienating long-term loyal customers in the quest to gain new customers
  • Lack of communication with their customers, many of whom are technically advanced and who have offered potential solutions to the many ongoing issues
  • Disconnect from customers (due to lack of communication and the fact that management and employees don't actually spend time inworld)
  • Failure to market and promote SL consistently
  • Failure to leverage volunteers to mentor new users, thus increasing retention
  • Terrible customer service/support

All of these points, in addition to the problem of insanely high tier and setup fees, need to be addressed if SL is to reverse the slow decline of the last 2-3 years.

(edit for grammar)

People are just fed up :(  There has been debacle after debacle from LL in the 4 years I've been here :(  They really have to consider themselves lucky that there is nothing comparable out there or they would have went under years ago.

 

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This is going to cause sims to become abandoned by estate owners, everyone with a full sim for sale or rent now is going to bail out. Sims don't cost 1000 USD anyways, they're only about 500 USD on the secure transfer market. This will result in decreasing the size of the grid, and driving up private island rents. Bad idea all around. The usual for the Lab...

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Kylie Jaxxon wrote:

People are just fed up
:(
  There has been debacle after debacle from LL in the 4 years I've been here
:(
  They really have to consider themselves lucky that there is nothing comparable out there or they would have went under years ago.

 

I would argue there are plenty of OpenSim grids, and similar, out there that if not comparable to SL now could be soon.  At least one I know of has delayed implementation of voice and physics and such till they have solved more fundamental problems such as stability and scalability. You'd be hard pressed to find an OS grid that charged anywhere near $295/month for a full region, and one can download and setup an OS server on their own machine where they can play around with as many regions they want for free.

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Hi Knutz, maybe "comparable" is not the correct word :(  Bottom line...those other places are half empty, inhabited by mostly computer geeks (I mean this nicely,) not for the run of the mill type players.  Until you can or if transfer inventory over there, they are useless, IMO.  As they stand now, they can't give LL a run for their money.

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Kylie Jaxxon wrote:

Hi Knutz, maybe "comparable" is not the correct word
:(
  Bottom line...those other places are half empty, inhabited by mostly computer geeks (I mean this nicely,) not for the run of the mill type players.  Until you can or if transfer inventory over there, they are useless, IMO.  As they stand now, they can't give LL a run for their money.

What you're saying is true at present, what I'm saying is that LL doesn't want to wait till another grid starts up ad campaigns like "Three times the prims, third of the price" and "Bugs before shinnies", before changing their ways.  I know plenty of SL content creators setting up shop on other grids, they're seeing enough people there to make it worth the effort, and outrageous region prices is only one of many things LL is doing to drive people away.

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@Gooden,

The only thing causing sime to be abandoned is - drum roll - the oppressively high tier costs

Estate owners won't have any estates left if high tier costs continue. Wise estate owners, who have foresight, would lobby LL for a large reduction in tier for everybody not just Atlas program members

Wise estate owners who actually want to grow their business and not just sit on and turn around the same land over and over again would welcome lower tier costs and no set up fees, it would ultimately, long term benefit estate owners  more than any other class of resident.

Because lower tier cost would create a greater demand for their product, which is land.

Gooden, don't you know ? Secondlife is declining and in danger because of high tier costs.

NOBODY can afford these prices !  fact !

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Well I'm sorry but having just paid for land I think its a royal pain in the a*se!  Only a month or so ago did they offer half price membership to new avatars.  seems to me they are just trying to get more in without giving a rats behind about the ones they already have - what about customer loyalty?.  If they want more people inworld then the answer is simple - stop making SL out of reach for those who can't afford super computers.  SL is an amazing place for all of us, whether we just want to log in to go to a live show or whether we are agrophobic RL and need an oulet and to be able to lead a 'normal' life via the PC.  But it seems to me that they just keep narrowing the goal posts in terms of what is required to access the game.  They are fast making SL a rich person's hangout!  Most are not leaving by choice but simply because their computers are not good enough.  Maybe address that issue and they won't have to think of other ways of keeping people while annoying the people they already have.  But then again why care about those people? they already have our money!

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LL had to do something with those numerous servers sitting idle from months of estate owners just dumping their sims.  The real money (for LL) is the monthly tier.  Those servers are already paid for, and only requiring new landholders.

I would be curious to know how many people buy in and keep (for more than a few months) these "free" sims.

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Hi , Im new on the game (like two months) , but I have a "Rented" SIM and now I have My own SIM . I think We can improve the atention to the people who rent , the sims most people told me that many Real States Owner dont pay atention to the Renters maybe that can be the diference . I make partys every Tuesday , Thursday and Saturday to incrase the traffic in my sim and the people stay more than two hours on the Sim ... 

I think guys this is a game , is a place to have friends no be nice , but if you see this like a bussines you will see that theres no bussines at all.. or no the same way that us to be.. 

Thanks to all... 

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Sy Beck wrote:

How come nobody who has ordered a sim in the past week hasn't been on to complain....or maybe....nobody has been ordering sims in the past week(s)?

Or maybe the only people ordering sims are getting deals like this, LL do deals with large estate owners, I don't know what the terms are but deals do exist.

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Ciaran Laval wrote:


Sy Beck wrote:

How come nobody who has ordered a sim in the past week hasn't been on to complain....or maybe....nobody has been ordering sims in the past week(s)?

Or maybe the only people ordering sims are getting deals like this, LL do deals with large estate owners, I don't know what the terms are but deals do exist.

Shhh, the first rule about the F.I.C is that you don't mention the F.I.C..........oops.

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