Losing Land: Amid Openspaces Controversy, Second Life Posts Loss Of Several Hundred Private Islands

Olivier Avon recently suggested I check the Second Life stats page (reg. req.), and when I did, it initially seemed like a data error.  For the first time in memory, the number of private Islands Added was in the negative; as of today, it's minus 367. 

The drop was so sharp (1045 islands were added in October), I asked Marketing and Community Development VP Robin Linden what it signified.  Was it fair to infer people with Openspaces were giving up on them, in the wake of the controversy over price changes?

"I think it would be a mistake to rely too much on the stats page at this point," Robin replied, "while the data are fluctuating daily as people move things around."  She pointed to the third quarter in-world economic report published yesterday by company CFO Zee Linden.  There, Zee notes, "October results indicate that we should expect land growth to slow in Q4 as Residents reconfigure their land holdings to accommodate the change in [Openspace] pricing and addition of the 'Homestead' island type.  We expect to see some Residents consolidate their holdings to adjust to the new pricing and product types."

How much of a change, though?  In a subsequent Second Life Forum conversation (reg. req.), Zee reported that "the number of Openspace sims is now greater than the number of full regions. We're 39% Full regions, 44% Openspace regions and 14% mainland."  (This figure, by the way, eerily fits a calculation compiled a couple weeks ago by Resident Tyche Shepherd, conducting an in-world survey; he estimated 46% of the world was Openspace.)

So nearly half of the known Second Life world is comprised of Openspace or "void" sims.   If Zee and Robin are right, expect to see wild fluctuations to that "Islands Added" metric soon. 

Comments

[Eirik Haefnir]

@ Robin's quote

So true. You should listen to the Lindens. Of course it's a mistake to trust the stats page when the Lindens frak things up.

The stats page is only trustworthy when the stats are in the advantage of LL obviously.

Can I haz cheeseburger nao?

[Tateru Nino]

I think the odds of the figure being actually *incorrect* are vanishingly small. Who thinks that the Lab *isn't* watching that figure like a hawk, and in more detail than is published?

[Timeless Prototype]

I've noted that this figure (-367) has remained static for at least the 3 days that I've noticed it. How often is it meant to be generated and updated?

[BJ Tunwarm]

So at 44% that means 11677 void sims. Since about only 1%, if that much, use the void sims as actual voids pretty much all of them are going to end up as homesteads. With a 25% rent increase that would mean the number would be down to 8757 by the end of January '09 and 4670 by the end of July '09. So a drop 350 is more of a yawn that anything else.

[rightasrain]

we have a voids to full conversion that is still in the queue--seems like they are a little slow on actioning these. Ticket was submitted on 30 Oct.

Interesting to see LL lead Q3 results with user hours, but no mention of adjustment due to bots and campers. Then tout land mass growth again--well at least we won't have to hear about that again.

$L60/m2 = $USD13,000 for a region?? Who would burn that kinda dough? Seems more like speculators than "some users have a high demand for a more structured experience."

[Timeless Prototype]

PS. How can that number include openspace/void sims if there were 13,000 of them? I'm guessing that -367 is only full island sims and not counting openspace sims. Can we get a Lab assistant to definitively explain how exactly the numbers are made up again to the lab rats (us) please?

[Timeless Prototype]

PPS. Hmm, OK, might be feasible, adding 1000 openspace sims per month since they were released on March 7 would be around 9000.

[Vint Falken]

Minus 558 now... I can only assume they are catching up on 'please delete my sim and btw. I hate you guys!' tickets?

[Ann Otoole]

Only safe bet is people generally stopped buying OS regions.

Some percentage of the downsizing is the effect of collapsing 4 OS regions into one standard region.

We will not know the full impact until January anyway so it is sort of early to be calling out the doomsday book to analyze population trends.

I have yet to see one person cancel their Secondlife account over this. Maybe there is someone who did. I just haven't seen it. All the most vitriolic bloggers, comment posters, and protesters are still in Secondlife and it doesn't appear as though they are going anywhere. Well some are being suspended for the welcome area spamming and if they keep that up then I suspect they will get removed. Not the same as taking the action to cancel an account.

[faerie]

What about the effects of people consolidating their OpenSpace sims into full sims?

Wouldn't every consolidation result in a net -3 sims (but with no real loss of revenue to LL)?

Is there any way to know how many consolidations are taking place?

[Faerie]

Oops I seem to have repeated part of what Ann said.

@ Ann, I know Lilly Yifu has given up her land business and walked away. However it has to be said that many of her tenants were people who had moved from renting on full sims to renting on her OpenSpaces and as a result of her abandoning her tenants, they are looking to rent elsewhere - presumably back to the situation they were in before they moved to the OpenSpace rental (that is paying the same amount but to a different landlord).

[Tateru Nino]

No, there's no way to know how many consolidations. I've yet to hear of one taking place, so it is *possible* that the answer is none at this stage.

The page has updated again. The net loss is now -558 as of 13 November. A net loss of 36,568,530 square metres (or a bit over 9000 acres).

[Tateru Nino]

(To clarify - I know that consolidations have been ordered - I'm just not aware of any that have actually been processed yet)

[Yesha Sivan]

Sad news (I have re-posted it on my blog).
maybe maybe Linden will start to fix things.
I sure hope so.