Tiyuk's Second Life Adventures

This post is in reference to, and response to, those who are discussing M's most recent letter to Second Life residents in the official forums. I also posted it on the forums themselves, but they are so overloaded that no one would be able to find it any easier than a needle in a haystack If you have the burning desire to respond to this post, I ask that you do so on the official forums... I'll be following the thread as it develops at its current alarming pace for the next few hours.

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You know what guys? I'm not an OpenSpace owner. I have no convincing reason to care about this. I own a private island, and I don't know anyone in my circle of friends who has any stock in an OpenSpace. But when the original price hike announcement hit, I was with you guys 100%, with my pitchfork, with my flag displaying an SL emblem giving the finger, demanding an explanation on Linden's customer service sims. I felt a great injustice had been served to a great number of people, and even though it didn't impact me, I was motivated and duty-bound to make sure my voice of dissent was heard.

I'd even contemplated shutting down Envision island -- denying Linden Lab the profit of my private island, and denying my poor residents the benefits of living there -- just to prove the point that Linden was being unreasonable.

Guess what? We threw a fit, and now Linden Lab is giving you a break. They are no longer telling you, It's my way or the highway. They are telling you, This is what it's really going to cost us for the different demands each use case has; put your money where your mouth is.

Linden Lab has very reasonably compromised. They have backed down from their unreasonable position, to one where you now have alternatives. Alternatives are good, even if the end result for the carnival-on-an-OpenSpace owners is the same.

Look... the only people who know how much it costs to operate a heavily-loaded sim are the IT department managers and operations people who work Linden's data centers. We don't know the exact numbers, and I doubt we have any reason to be privy to those exact figures. Those of you saying that prices should be lower have absolutely no grounds for your claims; you are simply using Linden's compromising position to knock them back even further.

What if Linden would have to take a monetary loss when you guys start pegging openspace servers, in order to stabilise their performance? Hm? What if they had to split OpenSpaces so dramatically that there are only two OpenSpaces per server, in order that they remain stable? At $75/month, that's hardly fair to us Private Island owners, much less Linden.

Fact: The technology behind the hardware and the software is what it is. The technology can and will be improved at both a hardware and software level, but pricing cannot be set on predicted outcomes of future R & D. R & D is the single most unpredictable activity that businesses pay for, and it is the most expensive for Linden Lab.

Fact: It's entirely possible that, finally, Linden is setting price points which better reflect their costs. This is particularly compelling when you consider that a heavily loaded sim - be it an OpenSpace, Mainland, or Private Island - must be run with fewer other sims on the same server if it hogs resources. That means Linden needs more servers to handle that load.

Fact: You now have options you didn't have before. Consider them, make up your mind, and stick with it. Even if you choose a Homestead, you're still paying way! less than a Private Island, and you're getting lots of value.

Fact: This is not smoke and mirrors. There are real changes being made in terms of technical restrictions to ensure the stability of the entire grid. These restrictions will prevent the sort of sprawl that originated this problem.

Fact: Now that the policy on what is "intended" for each sim class is clear, we can also very explicitly define the term "abuse" for each sim class. Also, abuse may become less possible with the technical restrictions. So if you are given a certain number of scripts, go ahead and use them, and Linden can't call it abuse, because that's what they're restricting you to. You all complained that they gave you X and wanted you to use X/4; now they're giving you X and if you use X, they're happy. How is that bad?

My conclusion? This change has swayed me from the column of dissident to the column of Linden supporter. I now have a renewed belief that Linden Lab is a reasonable company, staffed by people who are sensitive to the reactions of their customers, and who are willing to take profit cuts and hire more staff in order to satisfy their angry customers.

To be angry at them still, at this point, is folly. So please calm down, think about these changes, and start planning for the future of your land.

Cordially,

Tiyuk Quellmalz