Byproduct

Picture: My former 1/2 open space retreat, RIP 31 Oct 2008

When things once flourishing turn bitter, people tend to naturally hide anything that may indicate decline and deterioration. That seems to be the case with corporations more than regular people, especially when those details are indicators of their own business negative progress or ill-fate. And when negative numbers are a “byproduct” of their own decisions… etc., etc., etc.

The whole SL world knows first hand all the turmoil caused by Linden Labs since mid October 2008, when they announced the new tier prices, and later on with the new land reforms that have made useless, or pretty much useless, the open space sims. The introduction of the new homesteads was supposed to be a happy medium to replaced the former OS and cheer people’s hopes. Yet, it seems it hasn’t turn the way they wanted.

The Lab prouded themselves as being an ever growing mass of virtual real estate, without realizing that growth was but artificial (in some sense) because it relied, to a great extent, on the old OS system –that only accounted for surface extension, but not for valuable assets such as prim count and everything else.

People want and expect a better product if they have to pay a lot more. In the case of new homesteads, going up from US$75 a month to $125 for a lot more restrictions isn’t attractive at all, much less if you consider a reformed OS, that keeps the same price but shrinks in all other aspects, except surface area. So what has been the best the Lab managed to do to avoid going red? Nothing else, but hide the statistic data. As of today, the Second Life Herald  calculates the grid has lost 4846 sims (probably most of them open sims). According to them, that means more than 18% of the world has turned to virtual dust.

January saw only a mid price increase; July will see it in full glory. No doubt the world will keep shrinking in the meantime. Considering a sour RL global economy, does the Lab think they will fair well?