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Second Life: A Look at Land Prices
New MMORPG.com Second Life Correspondent David Greene writes this look at land prices in Linden Labs' Second Life
Second Life is a pinnacle of social gaming today. In October of 200,8 Linden Labs announced that they would be raising the prices of their privately owned virtual areas know as sims, or more specifically the sims known as Open-Space.
An OpenSpace is a type of private island that Linden Labs made available for light use countryside or ocean. The design team at Linden Labs figured that if Governor Linden can have ocean and green spaces, they should also let private estate owners do the same.
The reasoning behind the price increase was that the overuse of Open-Spaces has put additional strain on some of their network and database infrastructure at a much higher ratio than was reflected in their current pricing. Open-Spaces differ from normal regions in one significant way; unlike normal regions that get a CPU to themselves on the server, there can be up to four Open-spaces on a single CPU. Open-spaces were intended to be used as landscapes, but they turned out to be the Second Life version of affordable housing.
Although Linden Labs stated that they need to take these steps to improve their performance and better reflect their actual usage levels, the change was not as well received by the community as hoped. The announcement came with a cloud of doom and gloom from some of the community, so we took to the lands of Second Life to talk to OpenSpace owner LaPiscean Liberty to find out how this will affect him and those in his shoes.
LaPiscean Liberty is a principle investor and manager in Moon Park Land Sales, a Second Life business directly affected by this change. Moon Park Land Sales offers a wide range of properties from mainland to remote islands.
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Second Life has an excellent track record with customer service, but what about when that customer has their own customers? Sim owners can sell sections of their land to Second Life residents, and this is where LaPiscean comes in as a sales person and entrepreneur. When asked about his dealing with Linden Labs in the capacity of a land owner and land sales agent LaPiscean has this to say:
“I believe they are a little confused and shortsighted in the game play of Virtual World Economics. They are on the front of the technology; however they may find that the newer open source grids will be running circles around them. They need global marketing and an application that is scalable to growth. In trying to achieve a balance in real life economics and virtual world real-estate they found that the Open-Space sim cost as much to support as the regular sim.”
With the changes to pricing, some residents are starting to look at privately owned servers similar to Second Life servers called OpenSorce grids. One of the groups spearheading this effort is OpenLife. The philosophy at OpenLife is that of a world for the users by the users. Although in concept this is the same as the thought behind Second Life, OpenLife has not yet become enveloped in the corporate pressures that the gaming industry often creates. OpenLife is growing fast with currently over 45,000 residents. This flux of residences has also prompted some landowners to close down their holdings in Second Life in order to change their focus to where the residents are. We asked LaPiscean what actions he had taken:
“There is cause for a rift in community because of this, and a llot of business headed out to Open-Source grids. However, most successful businesses that headed out to other grids like myself, didn’t lose a presence in SL. Most businesses just reduced their footprint during this transition. I for one did not turn in any sims and don have much vacancy, so far Second Life is treating me well on land issues. In business you have to roll sometimes. Others were not as fortunate as their cost projections for their businesses where thrown off. This put allot of startups out of business as their plans no longer fit their budgets.”
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LaPiscean and his staff have also taken some amazing steps to ensure that Moon Park is on the map for a long time to come. Among the many amenities that Moon Park offers there are concert halls, dance clubs, shopping, and beautiful landscapes. LaPiscean has been talent scouting live performers for the venues scattered across the Moon Park. LaPiscean specifically looks at live tribute performers for the concerts he supports. By providing this abundance of entertainment and keeping the traffic to Moon Park high LaPiscean has been able to ensure that there will be renters and homeowners in Moon park for many years to come.
With Open-Source grids becoming more and more popular Linden labs will have to step up their development of Second Life in order to stay on top of the social gaming market. Linden labs is stepping up with new viewer technology, like the first look viewer and their new Slim, but only time will tell if the Open-Source grids hurt Linden labss Second Life on a more permanent basis. Lucky for them the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and well in business men like LaPiscean and the staff of Moon Park Land Sales. For more information on Moon Park Land Sales please check out their site via the link below.
As a final note to be part of these changes, I myself purchased land from Moon park sales. This purchased happened at the beginning of December and the initial charge for the property was $25.00 per month. The first price change I experienced was after the first of the year and it changed my monthly tier (the monthly fee for land ownership) to $28.00 per month. My Sim owner LaPiscean has let me know that later this spring with the final change to land pricing will make my tier increase to $32.50 per month. Personally for the ability to owneven a small piece of what is Second Life, the price is well worth it.
surely I am missing the concept of this game... i get being in a world thats submersive but to live and operate a business out of it does seem to go a little to far..
kind of worrying in all fairness. I know if theres money theres always going to be someone trying to capitalise on it. but virtual land masses?
I could just use some modelling tools and make my own private virtual land mass and not need to spend any money...
I can't even label this as a game.. because it sounds as mediocre and mundane as ordinary life...
sorry im not trying to be ignorant i see the plus side to these things I just can't see how this is classed as a game?
What is it in this "game" that supposibly makes it a game and not a business tool?
PS I had done a little look into this along time ago it didnt appeal..
im not trying to put it down cause it obviously does appeal to a large number of people.
It is not a game. It is a virtual world platform that can have game elements. Actually, you sound mundane and mediocre because you fail to understand what it is all about.
Why is running a business in a virtual environment go too far? How is that any different from running a business via a web site or the Internet?
The fact that people can use modeling, texture design, scripting, sound & animation to build and create objects and also sell them as regular commodities is amazing. Rather than waste hours pointlessly killing virtual orcs or chasing after epeen stats, people in SL are socializing and being creative. How is that mundane and mediocre?
I owned what is called a sim in SL and had an amazing time designing an environment that people could use for RP. I made many objects and I have given them away freely and at this point, have given away 1000s of copies of my stuff.
It amazes me time and time again that even gamers don't get what Second Life is about. You all are so used to being served video games like generations before you were served television that a new medium like Second Life which fosters socializing and creativity (and very legitimate avenues of earning a living) seems odd.
How is being able to exist in a virtual environment where I can look any way that I want to (currently sporting a steampunk look) be just as boring as ordinary life? On the contrary, people go to SL to get away from RL just like we all play games or read books. The only difference is that in SL, we are being creative. We are creating objects and environments that are as varied as the human imagination will allow.
My only complaint with SL is that the technology and network infrastructure is not good enough to support more than 75K concurrent users and the delivery of content over the Internet can be slow. Also, the scripitng language which is now using Mono still isn't robust enough to have twitch/combat based gaming elements within SL although some do exist. Still, there's plenty of RP going on in ALL forms be it sci-fi/fantasy to adult sexual fantasy.
I don't know. Maybe it's silly americans who don't get SL. After all, SL got 60% of its traffic from outside the USA in 2008. Latin America, Asia, Europe...they're smart. They get it!
PS: I would consider SL part of the MMO community because you can RP very well in SL. There are games within SL. But, just because the whole entirety of SL can't be wrapped up in quests, raiding & killing things doesn't mean it's not an MMO. This genre is growing and expanding and SL has been around publically since 2003 and was very much considered part of the roster of MMO games since it was released.
As a content creator in Second Life I was about to clarify several things but looks like just about everything has been covered already. Shame that people get over excited and feel the urge to try to discredit others though while making their points. People who are not well versed in the platform are not silly for asking. Quite the opposite - that's how people learn.
I rent virtual land in Second Life from an American friend which saves me renting direct from Linden Labs (and paying VAT on top - which is grossly unfair but don't get me started on that.) I'm happy to pay the monthly land fees. Compare with why people usually sell/rent web servers rather than run Apache from their own computer and you can fill in the benefits yourself. Only you're getting more with Second Life servers because in addition to overheads of running a server 24/7 you're effectively renting their server platform which is continuously updated and connected to their own servers/services/assets. And users who act as middlemen reselling virtual land usually offer something extra such as designing an area around a common theme on which renters place their own content. Bottom line is you pay for resources and peoples time like anything else.
Ignorant so called journalists often get a kick out reporting the sexual side of Second Life. As if other open platforms don't have exactly the same areas, namely real life and the Internet, who'd have thought it! Then there's the impatient who expect to be hand held the second they log in, like a game, and complain there's nothing to do. Second Life has a search facility to find content which interests the user just like we have Google on the internet. Actually that's not the best comparison because Second Life's search is powered by a Google appliance but you get the gist.
This is not to say Second Life is perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Far from it. But it's easily the best we currently have and nothing compares yet despite the influx of virtual world platforms trying to start up in 2008.
sorry im not trying to be ignorant i see the plus side to these things I just can't see how this is classed as a game?
What is it in this "game" that supposibly makes it a game and not a business tool?
PS I had done a little look into this along time ago it didnt appeal..
im not trying to put it down cause it obviously does appeal to a large number of people.
Second Life or SL as it is known to millions is an interactive virtual world. Linden labs the creators of second life instead of crafting a world turn a blank slate over to the community and created a world unlike any, anyone, had ever seen. Second Life is the kind of environment where you can be watching a live comedy show, get a message about a live concert from friends, and then go make out with the one you love. As to calling it a game, I would call it a social environment instead. SL is far and above the best social roleplaying game available currently in my opinion.
There are a lot of creative people in SL. It is completely unlike any other online experience. It's certainly not a game in my mind, but that debate has been had. I wish MMO developers would take some things from SL, like true player content creation and social interaction.
I want to thank those of you that took the time to read the article. I am Arra Jinx in SL, give me a shout if you see me ingame. SL truly has something for almost any roleplayer. From BattleStar Galactica RP to Mafia RP, it’s all there.
As a matter of fact here is the Surl to the BSG sim:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/BSG21/222/217/155
i was highly skeptical of SL at first. One of my friends convinced me to check it out and I tell you, it's a lot more than furries and pseudo graphic sex. MMO players complain about the lack of sandbox games, etc. Second Life IS the ulitmate sandbox.
Things you can do are plenty:
Be a DJ in a club, my musical tastes are varied and I am happy to report that there was at least one type of club supporting the different music genres I like.
use the DCS2 system (it gives your character hit points, stamina, etc.) to play games called "sims" there's all kinds, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc. I am currently playing a Resident Evil inspired one called Racoon City. There are really all different kinds.
There are TONS of freebies available so when you start you don't have to worry about breaking the bank. I recently added money, and 2k worth of lindens was less than 8 bucks.
Then there's the creative side, you can create buildings, clothes, animations, skins, gestures, etc..
I do feel like it is some crazy social experiment gone awry, but damn, it's a lot of fun :D
I would say definately give it a shot, it's free to play/connect and only costs a sub fee if you want to own land. Everything else is whatever you want to put into it.
Mind you, i've only been in the game for 2 weeks, and i still feel like I am barely scratching the surface. There is just sooo much to do and see.
A long time resident in SL, I have ranted more than once on the topic here. The real deal for me is in the creativity, and not the malls or sex industry. I built a small gaming area with rollerskating, fighting and vehicle racing on one of the open sims, but the price changes killed me out of the running.
Thats what this is really about, how the price changes in the OpenSpace sims killed a lot of start ups. For 25US less than the Openspace sim, I was considering building in the Opengrid platforms that have come about. I chose Sl for its updates and current player connections over a (in comparison) lightly populated area.
This rant is a bit personal, but its all I got to argue with, I think LindenLabs was wrong in changing its prices. They established limits that I followed really close, as a matter of fact, my sim was one of the fastest in the game, as I used low scripting and avatar toys instead of scripting the hell out of the sim. What eats server power is the scripting, maybe they should have set strict limits on scripts as well as prims, but its all water under the bridge. I left my sim on the owners doorstep with a note that says sorry, can't afford anymore. I was not getting any money for what I had built, though the idea was to get other players to donate to the sim, a successful model in SL once something is popular. SO I needed time, time I never got. Now I am back to not paying LL anything, and since I have been trying my ideas since 2005, will not return with any more big investment ideas or purchases. I'm a blue-collar worker with out a lot of extra (ha, extra) money.
If I try again, it will be on one of the open source supported platforms, which currently run at about 50US a month, compared to 195US for one in SL, not to mention the +1000US to buy into a sim. Yeah SL is better supported, but they just seem to be to greedy to work with those of us without a disposable income.
Typical american business reaction- screw the common people, and shut them out once we have our money.
The OpenSpace areas are a nice alterative. They do have less prims but still very usable. I would be happy to show off what I have done with mine to anyone that wanted to drop me a line in SL. My land is only my virtual residence right now but I love how relaxing it is for me. It may sound odd, but there is something very Zen about terraforming in SL.
Only real limits to SL are your imagination. If you find it mundane, then chances are you didn't spend enough time exploring, or you just don't have the imagination for a sandbox :)
Even for people who expect to be spoonfed content, it's really not that hard to find. It takes one or two searches, and you'll be where you wanna be. And yes, there's a very handy inWorld search function. And it's even got a handy visual button at the bottom of the screen ^^