Do the Lindens talk to each other?
The Openspace fiasco leads me to wonder whether the Lindens actually talk to each other. If they do, you have to wonder if they really do know their arse from their elbow.
Do Jack and Zee talk? I mean in July on this blog post Zee states:
“Land mass grew over 44%. The total number of regions owned by residents increased 44.2% over Q1 to just over 1.5 billion square meters. Our growth was due to the popularity of our newly launched “Openspace” land product along with a change in pricing to make the purchase of land more accessible to first time buyers. “Openspace” regions are full 65,000 square meter regions with an upfront fee of $250 and a recurring monthly fee of $75.”
Indeed in that very blog post there is a comment from me, negative Nancy as usual decrying openspaces, indeed I said:
“You’re playing an extremely dangerous game here, devaluing assets, increasing land mass with regions that are by official Linden blurb not designed to be used for the purposes they are being used for and mainland is not recovering at the rate at which it decreased.
Lots of semi filled islands and mainland parcels is likely to lead to the mother of all crashes.
However thanks for the heads up that islands are likely to devalue again, there’s a lead balloon around somewhere.”
Pretty ironic that around six weeks later I finally caved and decided to buy one but there I am, pointing out how they were being used. It’s also ironic that by the time I purchased one Linden Lab seemed to have noted a defect in the product in terms of its likely resource use, but continued to sell them.
However back to the Lindens and their communication. Hamlet Au has a post including a quote from M Linden where he says:
“We understand that this price adjustment will affect businesses and other projects of some our Second Life Residents,” and emphasized the cost increases were only directed at select landowners, who have until January 2009 to adjust themselves to the new rates. “To be clear,” Kingdon continued, “this price adjustment affects only a portion of land in Second Life; it does not apply to private islands or regular mainland property. We made this change to ensure an optimal Second Life experience for all Residents.”
Has Zee talked to M? Has he told him about how excited Linden Lab were about openspace sales? Has anyone told M that openspace owners have to own a full sim first and therefore it affects a lot of people. Has anyone told M just how many Openspaces are on the grid? He really doesn’t seem to grasp just how widely used openspaces are.
Jack of course was pointing to the knowledgebase article in his last post. The article ignore by so many, including Linden Lab. Does anyone seriously buy the issue that they were intended only for forests or open waterways? Is anyone seriously suggesting that Linden Lab didn’t know what the driving force behind the growth of this product was? I mean come on, this is absurd.
Personally I want Linden Lab to grandfather existing owners in. Change the price today on new openspaces or stop selling them. They really shouldn’t be encouraging further use until the issue is sorted out but most important of all I want Linden Lab to take resposnibility for the boom they created, Linden Lab so far have refused to acknowledge any responsibility and instead are pointing fingers at the very residents they were crowing about in July. That more than anything else is what Linden Lab should be ashamed of.
Oh and they should also spend the majority of any increased profits on some customer service training, because customer service is severely lacking.