Null And Void: Despite Openspaces Price Revision, Some Continue Their Departure Plans

Floating off the coast of steampunk empire New Babbage, Clockspire Island has a skull head at its base and a tower high enough for dirigibles to dock at.  Rather "has", I should say. 

"[The Lindens] new Openspace pricing left me with little choice but to leave my sim behind," reports its owner, Doctor Obolensky, "and move to smaller digs." And with that, Clockspire will go (if it hasn't been vaporized already.)  Following its exit is the Royal Air Force of Caledon, another SL steampunk society.  "There is still hope for us die-hard pilots," Vint Falken quotes leading aviatrix Zoe Connolly, "but SL is no longer a friendly place for our activities."  Instead, their dogfights will move to a multiplayer computer game. 

These departures, it's worth repeating, were made even after the Lindens announced a significant scaling back of their originally announced price hike.  As spectacular as it is, the Clockspire likely doesn't qualify under the "light use" regulations the Lindens will now enforce with coded script/prim limits, and would probably have to pay the more expensive "Homesteads" price.  But occasional air combat does fit under that rubric, so in the case of Captain Connolly, the exit seems to be fueled by a crisis in confidence.

What other Openspace builds and cultures now face similar jeopardy?

Hat tip: Dr Rafael Fabre.  Image credit: Doctor Obolensky.

Comments

[Nightbird Glineux]

So the plans for Openspace sims change from USD 125 on 1 January to USD 125 on 1 July.

I'm sorry, Hamlet. I don't mean to flame you, but your claim that this is "a significant scaling back" makes *no* sense to me. Surely Doctor Obolensky's work does not qualify for the USD 75 rate? Nor would the RCAF, with their hangers, runways, and support buildings? Why should people like Doctor Obolensky and Zoe Connolly stay? How does your post that you link to even apply to them?

[Tristin Mikazuki]

Seen this coming along time ago..
Once other 3d worlds get up and running with real world econs sl is gona have a pretty hard time of it they kinda screwed thier customers over to much.

[Hamlet Au]

@Nightbird: I'm not sure what you're asking, but by "significant scaling back", I'm referring to the light use Openspaces that won't pay the July 09 price hike.

[Ann Otoole]

People yell scream and generally behave badly threatening to leave. Endlessly I might add.

They generally don't.

LL knows this.

[Pavig Lok]

Rezzable has dropped most openspaces with the rest to follow next month (after conversion to proper sims).
Some sailing communities seem to be on the way out. Several others I've heard of. The new plans aren't cost effective - the old plans despite high cost of entry (buy 4 and convert) were.

Basically I think folk have planned ROI or expenses far in advance of linden announced price rises, and with an unknown future (read as "to be announced further restrictions") folk can't justify a long term business model for homesteads.

Admitedly this may just be economics on the lindens part.. they can't let costs overstep provision outlay.... but well neither can we as residents and sl dependent businesses or enthusiasts.

My personal take is many who did the math immediately post original price hike announcement were already planning their exit strategy by the time LL reacted with a more reasonable solution... after doing the math again they chose generally to get out anyways cause the second solution didn't make much more economic sense in the long term. Oh well.

And in answer to Ann Otoole.. yes they are leaving.

My guess is LL aren't stupid and did this for a reason.. expect announcements before the years end.. new product strata or strategy.... if it made economic sense they would never have cut their own throats like this. But for us... well we'll have to wait and see. Just my two cents as usual :P Pav.

[Ariadne Korda]

I keep hearing people saying this 'oooh they scaled back their demands' thing - all too often.

There are - sadly - often PEOPLE WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER than to either misread the famous 'letter to residents' or to act on hearsay.

As Ann says, a lot of people won't leave. They'll be digging around trying to reshuffle their personal budgets. Some can't do that, which is why, dammit, some places created by those who are richer in creativity than dollars (and don't focus that much on making profits)- WILL leave.

[Timeless Prototype]

Sure, we're not leaving, just getting closer towards a free basic account that gets used whenever and no long periods of time dedicated to making stuff in SL anymore.

And we *are* dumping land:
http://www.timelessprototype.com/tpdc/blog/post/2008/11/Pi-Islands-For-Sale.aspx

[Rika Watanabe]

In all my years of studying online communities, I can say with some certainty that people rarely leave...

...people rarely leave slamming the door behind them, that is. Social settings are always a major part of any life, they're here for the other people. When greatly displeased with governance or otherwise forced to abandon some of their social (yes, they're all social) activities in an online community because of a change in "physical laws" of the world, so to speak, they complain they are going to leave, but instead, they scale back the activity. Quitting, no. They still have friends here. Dumping land, oh yes.

But after scaling the activity back, they look for other things to do with their time, and usually, they find them. And they scale more activities back. Eventually friends they still have stop recognising them. That's when they can be considered left for good.

This lingering can take years, but is no less an exodus than people packing up and quitting as announced.

[Ann Otoole]

When the SL Concurrency reaches 1 million then few will remember the "gunpowder revolution of 2008" and even less will care about it.

All those "content creators that left" will be back in SL with big stores. And nobody will think the less of them for reestablishing their businesses.

Life goes on.

What is necessary is for Linden Lab to finally comprehend and embrace what Secondlife is--A large entertainment platform. And to make all the ideological stuff a secondary benefit.

[GoSpeed Racer]

Agrees with Ann and Rika. by analogy: Hurricane Linden bears down on you and your small coastal hamlet. Your town is devastated, but miraculously few are killed. The landscape is a shambles as landmarks are obliterated and whole coastal barrier islands are washed away. Just like RL most people move back in and set up shop. Most towns simply do not want to die as it is the community and not the assets that bring people back.

In the case of the RCAF the voids were used as flying space. Voids have less objects and scripts to hamper their performance. Have you ever tried using a high speed vehicle in a regular sim? Not recommended! In our case our actual flight operations are going a dedicated flight sim platform. However our social activities such as the ready room, pub, and hangars will remain in SL. There are only planes in IL2:Sturmovik, no avatars, so SL will always be home for our face to face dialogs.

[Feline Slade]

"A significant scaling back of their originally announced price hike" is, sadly, what LL wants us to think of the price restructuring.

The product previously sold under the "openspace" name has been renamed and its pricing raise delayed. And performance of that product may be scaled back (news at 11 -- or at the end of the year, according to Jack Linden). The product being sold today as "openspace" is not what was being sold a month ago. If anything, the product itself is "scaled back."

I haven't gotten too deeply into the fray about the price increase, despite my personal feelings on the matter, but it frustrates me to see what I consider a reptuable information outlet giving misinformation on the subject. Despite all the noise, there are a surprising number of residents who are still blissfully ignorant on this subject. Let's not start rewriting history to favor LL's actions before those residents come looking for information about why the home they were innocently renting vanishes as the region is turned in to LL by its owner.

[Maximilian Proto]

I hate to spoil the party, but I don't quite follow the "its now too expensive for my group" argument.

Regardless of what you think about the price hike, if you have a group of 20odd people that really like to play (whatever they play), what is so difficult to ask them to commit 5 or 6 US$ per month to it?

[Ciaran Laval]

"Regardless of what you think about the price hike, if you have a group of 20odd people that really like to play (whatever they play), what is so difficult to ask them to commit 5 or 6 US$ per month to it?"

Ask Linden Lab about that, we wouldn't need freebie accounts if that were the case.

The Second Life world we're in will never reach one million concurrency. Second Life technology might one day but no time soon and when it does it will be big business utilising the platform to sell tangible products.

There's a simple rule of business that says you shouldn't make your customers feel poor after doing business with you, that's what Linden Lab are doing however. This is a damaging policy that erodes trust.

[Vidal Tripsa]

It's a sad fact that prices will rise, and organisations that run on slim profits, breaking even or at worst, a loss, will have to pack up their things. Ann O'Toole has a point, as the RCAF isn't leaving altogether. Pilots will likely still meet socially on the Grid, but they'll have fewer places to fly. Communities all over, including Extropia, are now having to ditch Openspace sims and merge them back into standard sims or drop them entirely just to keep them viable.

Openspace sims were great, but were tough to balance on the books. The 'gradual' price hike and dropping of available resources simply wipes that away, and relying on donations of a couple of hundred Linden Dollars here and there to cover that surplus is no way for a community to run its finances.

[Valentina Kendal]

I sight-see in SL a lot, it is one of my favorite things to do alone or with a friend. I just visited ClockSpire Island, and I'm glad I did, it is a beautiful build. What I can say is the majority of interesting/beautiful/inspiring builds I find are on islands or Open Space sims, not the mainland. If the price hikes drive some of this creativity out of SL or reduce it, it will be a sadder place for it.

[Gahum Riptide]

I had always thought it a bad, bad idea to base your business on an OS sim. They just never seemed like a viable place to house one.

I don't see a huge exodus of people like some have said, the social side of SL is far too attractive to get people to go entirely, and I think a lot of people saying they're going to leave entirely will return, because they'll miss those people who refuse to join things like OpenLife.

In the estate I live, we've kept a few OS sims for those willing to pay the increased tier. Others are being converted to full sims. The rest of residents there who live on OS sims are being moved onto existing regular sims. Our estate manager has managed to do this without increasing the tier for other residents who already were on regular sims. I told a friend who lived there that a positive of being moved to a regular sim is, he gets more prims to play with and he's paying a lot less tier wise than he was before.

[Samantha Poindexter]

"But occasional air combat does fit under that rubric, so in the case of Captain Connolly, the exit seems to be fueled by a crisis in confidence."

Actually, with a firm 10-avatar cap for OpenSpaces, occasional air combat doesn't fit under the new rules. Nor do occasional regattas. That Openspaces were originally intended for just such things appears to be immaterial to the Lindens.

[Loki Eliot]

The Goony Island is threatend by the price hike. Its my home and also a clubhouse for my many friends who come to hang out relax and decide what games to go play. It has become a much loved place where many Child Avatars met their first SL friends and is where all my ideas for events, roleplays and builds start.

At the start of the year i moved Goony island from an anshe chung sim i shared with 5 others because i could not afford Anshes new prices. The lure of the new openspace sims cost and ownership options was to good, so i moved. I then lost my RL job and was stuck at how to pay the tier. Thats when the community stepped in to help pay the monthly Tier as they love the place so much.

A lot is having to change, it's going to be difficult to raise cash for the tier now i can only have up to 20 on the island. Dont know what the scripts will do, but we will keep the open sim, and fight through what ever crap the Lindens Throw at us. We will push the openspace sim to its limit in order to get our monies worth. In the end though its up to the donations for the tier, and the price hike and limitations to my home, i fear we might not be able to do it. But we'll see what happens.

I just passed my third Rez day last month, and there was a time where i thought Linden Lab was on my side, the resident just trying to enjoy SL free to create, thats what drew me here. But this Last year i've just grown more and more to dispise the name 'Linden'. i'm here to have fun and create, for my friends and anyone else who would enjoy it. Thats why i put so much hard work in to stuff like the Dream Dome at the SL5B event, and the Hay Barn at Burning Life.

They would take everything i've grown to hold dear to me in SL.