Tony Walsh manages to break down a post by Prok into one line1:
...If Linden Lab moves away from renting proprietary servers and instead turns towards an open-source server model, what will happen to the holdings of users who have invested in virtual real estate?...
Ownership
OK - let's clear the air. Just like SecondLife economic statistics, 'owning' virtual land is not - and never has been - like owning real estate. Why? If you buy something, you don't continue making payments on it - and in every scenario of 'land ownership' in SecondLife, you end up making payments on it.
If you own it, are you really dumb enough to pay rent through land tier or, literally, rent to some other SecondLife user? If you disagree with Linden Lab about something, can you demand your little slice of hard drive space and processing time? Try it. Go ahead. I'll be right here when you get back with a sad expression on your face.
There you are. See, you don't own it. You rent it, and because you rent it - you get to see just how silly the initial costs of virtual land have become. When you think about it, you realize that paying for virtual land is paying for glorified web hosting. Instead of a domain name, you get a plot of land that comes with coordinates and server space. The perception that anyone actually owns their server space only benefits one group of people - those that invest in virtual real estate and create economic bubbles.
Consider that at 9000 Lindens, the initial cost of a 512m plot being resold right now, is roughly $33 US - and that the 'rent' on that, per month at the lowest tier, is $5/month. A piece of 'First Land' costs 512L - 1 Linden per square meter - which is $1.89. The actual cost of renting 1 square meter for Linden Lab is less than 1 Linden per square meter, plus about 2.6 Lindens per month2.
Open Sourcing
Open Source, aside from empowering the community (and not just the technical folks), also increases the potential for competition. If someone can actually provide virtual land hosting lower than Linden Lab, is that a bad thing? Of course not.
The only people who say otherwise have been the ones off creating economic bubbles. Economic bubbles sometimes burst, especially when the basis is not very solid. Ultimately, the cost of land is not determined by the sellers - it is determined by the buyers. You can tell me that your land is worth $33 US, but that doesn't make it so. I might be willing to only spend $10 on it. Maybe you can get more. Maybe not. Ultimately, the value of the land is not determined until it actually switches hands.
And it still doesn't actually switch hands. The new user of Linden Lab's land hosting service simply pays for some rights of use of the land, bound by the Terms of Service and Community Standards.
Lower Land Hosting Costs are Bad?
Even a virtual real estate millionaire would have a hard time making a case for lower land hosting costs being a problem. No, the problem would be that virtual land hosting would be made available faster than a virtual real estate market would be able to purchase and artificially increase the price of. In other words, the real estate market will have less of a chance to monopolize virtual land hosting. The only reasons that the initial cost of land hosting are so high are because (1) people are willing to pay the prices and (2) There are no other options.
Given more options, the base land hosting price would decrease. And if someone can demonstrate how that is a bad thing for the majority... especially since the land hosting business profits are also determined by the base land hosting price.
Oh - imagine that you could own your own virtual land by hosting it yourself. You could even rent space out based on market rates and your own costs.
Beware of Molehills labeled as Mountains
A lot of the problems of SecondLife as a virtual world is that it is more open to interpretation than one might initially think. Economic statistics don't really show how much money has been spent. Land ownership isn't really owning land. And no, that no modify, no copy, no transfer avatar skin you bought isn't as much yours as you would like to think because if you do copy it - you break the rights of the copyright holder (you didn't buy the copyright!).
Will people lose money when the SecondLife server code is released as open source? Sure they will - if they don't plan for it, their losses will be higher. But the market is demanding lower prices for virtual land hosting - and it is arguable that part of that demand is because of the virtual real estate virtual market.
Welcome to a world where the literal is as virtual as the landscape. Beware people with bubbles. ;-)
1 I nominate Tony to do this with anything written by Prok.
2 512 m tier at $5/month, and 270L to $1 US.
Technorati Tags: 
/me waits for the sound of
/me waits for the sound of Prokofy's keyboard as she types a 3000 word comment "proving" that land in SL is bound by exactly the same rules as land in RL, and that LL has been involved in some kind of scam with its FIC buddies somehow.
Umm. yeah.
Then we can get Tony to put it into one line, then the rest of us can spend the appropriate amount of time on it. :-)
Two Points
1) I own/rent/have/whatever 1024 square meters on the mainland and I pay Linden Lab $5 US dollars per month. You see, Linden lab doesn't charge you anything if you have 512 square meters or less (because the first 512 is included as part of your Premium SL account). If you own 513-1024 square meters, then you pay $5 US dollars per month. Details are at http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=055
2) The fact is, Linden Lab uses phrases like "buy land" and "own land". Just browse around on the Second Life Knowledge Base. If, in fact, you aren't buying land (or server ownership), then isn't that misleading language? What exactly *are* you buying, and why doesn't Linden Lab call it *that*? Are they legally liable for using such misleading language?
In any case, a lot of people have invested thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of US dollars to "buy land". They have every right to be pissed off if Linden Lab comes along and says "You don't actually own this land (or server space), and we're going to shut it down now. Sorry :) Watermelons for all LOL"
Umm. Troy.
On point one, the '512m included' with your premium account is something which you pay for *through* the premium account. In other words - it ain't free. If there's another major reason for getting a premium account, please enlighten us.
On point two, you're part right. But what constitutes 'buying'? Look at land tier, which is a part of Linden Lab's concept of 'buying'. Maybe you can fight that - but to what end?
Sure, people have 'every right to be pissed off'. But being upset doesn't make one right or the majority. :-)
Ownership?
It appears that in SL -- as in RL -- whomever is "in charge" (read: rulemaker/enforcer)holds court over what property belongs to whom. In RL it is called "eminent domain." That means the folks "in charge" can take a person's land if that land can be put to a better use, as in a freeway or railroad tracks. The landowner is awarded whatever amount compensation the folks "in charge" feel is right. At least, that is how it used to be. The current trend, especially in those US areas deemed vacation spots, is for the "people in charge" to snag any land that they think will be of more value in the tax base. It's happened here. A house that had been in the "owner's" family for several generations was taken, so some rich guy could put up a condo. The city council said so.
No one ever really owns anything.
My first point was merely to
My first point was merely to correct your original article, which gives the reader the impression that one must pay $5 US dollars tier per month for the *first* 512 square meters of land. (Premium accounts also get a weekly stipend and the ability to Limit-Sell Linden dollars on the LindeX.)
The idea that "If you're paying for something on a regular basis, then you don't own it" is silly. Tier payments could be seen as a form of property tax. Just because you are making regular property tax payments doesn't mean that you don't own the property.
I think Linden Lab needs to explain what they mean by "buy land" and "own land", rather than letting people misconstrue those words for their normal meanings.
Troy...
Stop paying your 'property tax' and you won't have the 'property', will you? We can play semantics all day, but at the end of the day you still don't really own any land on a Linden Lab server. If you do, feel free to fence it off and stop paying - and see what happens.
As for 'correcting me', well - ok, fine. So let's say that you get a stipend of 400L a week. 1600L a month. That's $6 a month. How much does a premium account cost? $6 per month. Brilliant, you got me! Or do you? Again, stop paying the $6 a month and see what happens. And what is happening to that stipend? Was it 500L, now 400L, and in the future going away...
TANSTAAFL. That's our acronym of the day. :-)
Other link
Some others report a 'rogue server'.
Interesting, but incomplete.
Post new comment