There are a few posts over at New World Notes during the last month or so regarding Land Barons, the damage (or not) of the SL Marketplace, tier prices, entertainment and roleplaying. I’m not a Land Baron, I do have an interest in roleplaying, entertainment, tier pricing and the damage or not of the SL Marketplace. There are links between these subjects.
Desmond Shang kicked things off back on September 27th with a post about whether land barons matter anymore or not. They do, love them or loathe them land barons do work that would otherwise fall upon Linden Lab to do. Linden Lab are not Blizzard Entertainment, they don’t have the resources to deal with lots of individual customers day in, day out, they have a product that is chaotic in nature, Land Barons fill a gap.
Masami Kuramoto then inspired a post from Hamlet Au regarding themed mainland, and Masami makes some reasonable points but misses the point that the chaotic nature of Second Life is also one of its biggest draws. Masami is quoted as saying:
“SL has the largest map of all games, but the content is messed up. Imagine entire continents of adjacent regions featuring the same theme. Sort of like the Linden Home areas, but without the prefab buildings. Imagine Nexus Prime, Suffugium, S.I.C., The Next Day, Insilico and Hangar Liquides side by side and The Wastelands somewhere nearby.”
However, these places have thrived due to users driving them, not Linden Lab, again, Linden Lab don’t have the resources to manage this sort of thing and many people would be put off by being t0ld they have to stick to a certain theme all the time. I think this may work if there were other worlds, but I can’t see this working when we have one world where people do go from era to era. This would require a lot of work by Linden Lab to pull off, Masami also makes one more all too true comment:
“There are quite a few roleplay communities that emerged around a single themed sim. The problem with these communities is that they vanish as soon as the sim owner runs out of time or money.”
The major thing holding back roleplaying sims in Second Life is tier pricing, the SL Marketplace has eaten into inworld shops and commission vendors, making it even harder for a roleplaying sim to thrive, which in some ways brings us to a third post over at New World Notes, this one from Ayesha Lytton.
Ayesha comments: “The Marketplace has really caused commercial land to take a hit. Many stores no longer bother with an in-world presence. The most successful ones still do, however most are no longer operating mall or branch locations. Clubs and organizations that depended on rent from branch locations have lost that revenue source, so many have closed, further compounding the problem. There needs to be an incentive to operate in-world locations, or a disincentive to list on Marketplace if you don’t own land.”
I disagree with Ayesha about the need for an incentive to operate inworld locations, that horse has bolted, that model is dying and it’s too late to turn back the clock. However I do have sympathy regarding clubs and organisations that depended upon rent from branch locations to offer activities, roleplaying is one of those activities and that’s where we come back to tier pricing.
Tier pricing is of course an old chestnut, yet it’s one that’s not going to go away. Linden Lab need to address the tier issue at some point, sooner rather than later would be better, the issue is not just tier in itself, it’s shared payments, currently individuals on private estates take responsibility for tier, there’s no easy way to share costs. That makes matters easier for Linden Lab, but it doesn’t help with communities.
However the beauty and beast of Second Life is choice, to many the choice to be a wizard, a disco king or a mad professor wherever you want is the reason they are here, others want a more structured lifestyle. The latter can be achieved within communities with strong bonds, the former would be stifled by zoning and new rules and regulations.
However at the end of the day, it’s not Land Barons or the chaotic nature of Second Life that will be its undoing, it’s tier pricing that will ultimately bring the house down. However there’s life in Second Life still, plenty of it and maybe that’s why Linden Lab aren’t addressing payment and tier issues, thousands are still here, creating, having fun, building bridges, the end is not nigh. Maybe Linden Lab don’t feel there would be enough long term benefit from addressing these issues, that there wouldn’t be a boost, none of us know whether lower tier would boost revenues, so maybe Linden Lab are taking a better the devil you know approach.
Well, refreshing to read a post critical of tier that doesn’t end with calls to mutiny and “flee and let the bastards die” which seems to be the fashion nowadays. However, you are probably correct, tier, which is currently LL’s bread-and-butter from Second Life, will eventually be its undoing unless they take the time to fashion a new model.
While there are still plenty of people either with lots of disposable income (I just recently heard Drew Cary say on a podcast, “I have so many islands and I don’t do anything with most of them. Well, goes with being rich I guess. I let friends use them sometimes.”) to people (like myself) who are enamored of Second Life and have sacrificed other things to come up with the money for tier, to get a wider audience something will have to be done about “one owner per region” model of pricing. Currently, if a region owner can’t get enough renters or donations (hah, that old joke) then he/she gives up and everyone is tossed off the land.
As is being discussed on other forums, however, Rod Humble will probably be concentrating on building a game inventory more than he will be worrying about what happens to Second Life, alas. I am still a Linden Lab supporter and look forward to everything they will be developing, but it will be a shame if The Grid is swept under the priority rug.
I think you hit on a key point when you say “unless they take time to fashion another model” … that’s the important part.
Cutting tier without introducing other revenue generating streams or saving costs really would undo Second Life, I think a more constructive discussion on tier has to include suggestions on how new revenue streams can be created, all too many tier discussions end at the point of calling for tier to be lowered, but that would not be a sensible business move by Linden Lab, tier reductions have to be accompanied by a replacement income stream.
I’d like to see them introduce a system whereby people were charged for how many days a sim is active, so you might only have your sim open at the weekends, a pro rata charge for that along with an admin fee, may work, instead of a flat always on monthly fee, or it may be a damp squib.
Yes that sounds feasible, pay-per-use. Then again, the servers are physical, not cloud (unless I’m completely clueless, which is always a possibility), so unused bandwidth will lower their costs, but the servers still exist, still require rack space, maintenance, facility rental, etc. Tier is a complex issue, obviously, that won’t respond to a knee-jerk solution. Hopefully, they will tackle it; if not, well then it was a great party while it lasted. 🙂 Going sailing now while the Cyber Sea is still there … cheers.
Yes they aren’t using cloud services, I mentioned in another post that they’ve spent a lot of money on their current infrastructure and will want to maximise its value, so I wouldn’t expect a move to the cloud anytime soon.
Maybe that explains why short term rentals of sims from Linden Lab for temporary events are so expensive.