The Open Space sim debate rages on.  Vint posted this last night.  Interesting post.  If it’s true, and I’ve no reason to doubt Vint, then it would *appear* that LL wants to get into the Open Space sim rental business.  Why else would they build this stuff on an OS?  But why tell us(the residents) that this is not what they were intended for and then go and do it themselves?  Good question.

Now I totally understand the concept of paying for performance.  Want better and faster, it’s gonna cost ya.  Want more bells and whistles, it’s gonna cost ya.  So, if LL tells me, you can keep your OS with the 3,750 prims and continue to use it as a club with 40-50 avatars every night and blinding particles and intense lag you go right along doing that but it’s gonna cost you more.  I’m more or less ok with that.  The drain on resources becomes another issue altogether. 

The problem is, I don’t have a club on BaileysReach.  It’s just my house and whole bunch of plants.  I’ve never had more than 5 avs there at a time.  Most of the time it’s just me, sitting there while I’m doing something else.  My usage and the usage of the above club owner are totally different.  Should we both be paying the same?  You wouldn’t pay the same money for a Porsche that you would for a Volkswagen right? 

So here is my suggestion:  Pay for what you use.  I’m sure LL can come up with another tier level to bill on.  Or even multiple levels.  One size fits all never really works.  With so many different uses for the Open Space sims why not simply offer multiple use levels.  High traffic/use gets one tier fee.  Waterways, roads, true void sims gets a different tier fee. 

Suggestion #2:  Implement controls to match use.   You can’t give me an island with 3,750 prims and then say, but you aren’t supposed to use them.  Sorry, that’s silly.  Eventually I’m going to push the limits imposed on me.  Don’t give me limits and watch out!  So, put controls in place.  If I buy an Open Space at a waterway level, it should have few prims available and a low price.  The number of av’s allowed should be low as well.  The reverse goes for a club level, lots of prims and a higher price.

Jack Linden has another meeting in world today. I’m at work with no access so I won’t be able to attend.  If you go, remember, nasty verbal abuse gets us no where.  Be respectful, go with suggestions and constructive comments.

So, 24 hours have gone by since the big Open Space announcement by LL.  I’ve seen ranting, protests, hundreds of blog posts addressing it and the chat log from the emergency meeting with Jack Linden.  I’ve no idea what’s going to happen.

Will LL revise their plan?  I’d like to think so.  The residents of SL are the backbone of their product.  Without us, SL ceases to exist.  So if they’ve listened at all they’ll rethink their plan on the OpenSpace sims. 

If LL doesn’t revise their plan, then what.  Well, I’ve heard people saying they are dumping all their OpenSpaces.  I’ve heard some land owners and content creators threaten to leave SL entirely.  Well that’s a bit silly if you ask me.  Dumping the OS’ sure, leaving SL completely, no.  If you love the place then you’ll find a way to work with what we have.

I’ve done some more thinking, read many blogs about it and I’ve got some thoughts on the whole thing.  If you want to read some of the recap and find the other blog links, go over to Vint’s blog.  She’s organized them quite nicely.  Crap also has a flickr group dedicated to the Open Spaces that may be lost forever.

So here are my rambling thoughts on the whole thing..

1. Estate owners have been bitching about not having their sims entirely rented out.  The lowering of the price and increase in prims on  the Open Spaces is a direct result of this IMO.  If you could have an entire island to yourself for the same price as a 1/4 of a normal island what would you do?  Just look at how many OpenSpaces there are now and how many empty plots there are on the islands.  I won’t even go into mainland because I’m not familiar enough with it to comment.

2.  Open Space sims had their prims increased and the  prices lowered.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s gonna happen.  And look!  It happened!  For the most part, I imagine the majority of people have not abused them.  Some people have though.  Too many avs, too many scripts, too many textures etc etc.  I think the abusers should be paying more for their over use of the system resources. 

3.  Offer more options.  Instead of offering only 2 types of sims, offer 4.  Main sim as it is today.  Void sim that is truly open space and strictly limited to # of avatars, script usage and prim count.  All of which being very low.  I’d add two *light* sims.  One with 1700 prims and one with 3750.  Then price them accordingly.  It’s a service contract, you pay for the service you want.  I’m sure LL has the ability to do this now too.  This seems to be a better model which will not punish anyone for staying in the boundaries and will get those who wish to push the limits to pay for the privilege.  Now put all the heavy users together on their own servers which they are paying a premium to have.  Does this make sense to anyone besides me?

4.  In the 2 years I’ve been in SL, i’ve seen residents up in arms over a number of topics.  SL5B, lowering of island prices, ad farms etc etc.  Never have I seen such an outcry against LL as I’ve seen the last 24 hours.  It’s good to see so many residents standing up for what they believe in.  Just remember, in order for a protest to work, you need your apponent to listen to you and agree with you.  This isn’t going to happen without rational ideas and suggestions.  As a professor of mine used to say, "Do not complain to me unless you have a suggestion for a solution."    Simply complaining does nothing.  Give LL suggestions that make sense for everyone. 

5.  At the end of the day LL will do what they want.  It’s their world.  Those of us committed to SL will figure out a way to survive.  If content creators/designers/land owners leave, that will simply open a door for some smart cookie to take their place.  Life is about change.  Stand still and you’ll get run over.

Jack Linden said in the chat of the emergency meeting yesterday that LL may change the plans for the Open Spaces.  I look forward to seeing that.  I think the future is going to be an interesting place.  I’ll be in SL watching it from a strip of beach on Angel Square.

LL announced their new policy on openspace(OS) sims yesterday here .   Tier prices going up, upfront cost going up, as of January 1, 2009.  Read the post… I’ll wait.  Welcome back.  So, this is what it all means.  When LL lowered the prices on OS sims and double the prim count they had to know we’d use them for other than water and landscaping sims.  If they didn’t realize it…. well I don’t believe that.

So, now that a lot of people have bought them and some use them appropriately, some don’t.  LL is going to try to rectify that situation.  The open spaces aren’t going away, the prices are just going up.  I understand LL’s point in all of this.  I’m a sim owner and I own 3 OSs.  I’ve never over used them.  Yes, i’ve had people living on them but they’ve not overused them.  Will I keep them?  That’s a good question.  I’ve got a couple months to decide what to do with them.

So the blogosphere and the forums and the in world groups are going nuts.  One thing Prokofy Neva said last night that I agree with is that instead of bitching, get a group together, make a petition, get signatures and go to the Lindens with our suggestions.  Yelling and bitching will not change the situation.  Making reasonable suggestions to LL does.  Here are mine:

1.  Instead of having the ax fall on January 1, grandfather the current OSs until March 2009.  This will do 2 things.  There won’t be a flood of abandoned sims on January 1st.  Two, it will give current OS owners and LL an opportunity to evaluate the usage on these sims accurately.  This brings me to point 2..

2.  Create 2 kinds of OS.  The water/landscape only lower prim sim at the current pricing and the higher prim/higher use sim and the higher pricing.  If you currently have a populated OS that you don’t want to lose, you keep it and pay more.  If you are ok with dropping the prim count and really using it for light use, then you pay less.

Those are my 2 suggestions.  LL knows which OS sims are abusing what they were intended for.  Instead of punishing everyone, they should go to those owners directly and deal with them. 

As an island owner though, I do see some good coming from this.  All those folks renting on OSs, will either get their rents increased or will need to find a new home.  I see island land prices going back up and the available land being snatched up.  I have land available on Angel Square.  I don’t plan to raise the prices or rents to take advantage. 

It’ll be interesting to see what happens.  As always, LL throws a curve and those of us who are really committed will work out how to deal with it.