Socially|Mundane

Okay - not really.
In my previous post, about the new viewer design by Big Spaceship, among other things, a reader calling themselves Dreamworld make a comment that is sarcastic, but understandably so:

Goodbye Second Life As We Know It? « Common|Sensible: "Dreamworld / 11.3.08 / 3pm
Yes a complete redesign for a viewer by a 3th party company must be rather expensive but I’m sure with the additional 67% extra tier fee income Linden will be able to cover that bill without much trouble. Something which can’t be said for the residents of Second Life who will have to come up with the extra large fee amount to pay for their island."

So, here is my reply to Dreamworld, which is long enough to simply make it a post all it's own:

@Dreamworld: I get your point. Of course your comment in made in frustrated sarcasm, but it is understood and well-taken.

The real and main reason, in my opinion, for the Void sim fee increases is to maintain the economy. The economy is suffering because of those things. Too many people using Openspace sims and passing them off as full sims - even telling people they are full sims when they are not.

I know because I have a hud that warns me when I am on an open-space sim. it's amazing what some people are doing with these things.

So, what Jack Linden is claiming.. is true. But what he is not saying is that the move also is to help fix the economy, which is based in virtual land and Linden lab NEEDS the economy to be strong, or they will lose a lot of money.

People stop shopping and buying L$, merchants stop leasing their merchant booth at malls, Mall owners stop leasing the land from the sim owners, the sim owners can't make tier - abandon the sim (and sometimes move to an openspace sim) all comes down to linden Lab losing money.

So, why such a large increase in the fees? It is a buffer that allows Linden Lab to lose as much as about 40% of all the income from people abandoning their Openspace sims - and still continue to make the same money they are making today - as I write this.

Anything new from there on is icing on the cake and growth in the bottom line.

From a business sense: it's genius.

For all my thoughts on the Openspace scenario, visit my other blog at http://sociallymundane.com

To see the original post Dreamworld is replying to go here