First Land program to end
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 1:12 PM by: Jack LindenEffective immediately, the supply of cheap First Land parcels by Linden Lab will cease. Premium accounts will still be able to own up to 512m of land as part of their Premium membership package as they do now, the only change is that we will not be supplying the discounted parcels as we have done in the past. The website and knowledgebase will be amended to reflect this change shortly.
The First Land program was put in place to encourage land ownership for those moving up to Premium membership. Increasingly we have found that these cheap L$1 per meter parcels were not benefitting those people as intended. Because of the low price, they were being immediately sold, or bought via alts, purely for profit.
We have discussed many methods to ensure that First Land is used as intended but have decided that there is no way to do this without significantly impacting on resident freedoms. Therefore the First Land Program will no longer be provided. It may still be possible to find cheap land for sale, for example small parcels that have been abandoned and recycled by us, but it will not be sold specifically as First Land. Our hope is that through much higher levels of mainland expansion, market forces will act to bring resale prices down over time, for example the new continent being brought up to the east.
You may ask what, without First Land, is the value of a Premium account? Well consider that the L$1200 stipend per month (around USD$4.50) plus 512m free tier per month (around USD$5.00) means that the monthly premium account essentially pays for itself. We are actively looking for additional ways to increase premium value, and we would love to hear any ideas the community has on this.
As always if you have any questions or feedback on the First Land issue itself, please email the concierge team at concierge@lindenlab.com.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:17 PM
way to go, this supports your land barons even more. I bet you 512 that anshe chung is dancing about this now….
February 20th, 2007 at 1:20 PM
More ways to increase the value of a Premium account?
Here’s a biggie: Premium/Priority Support.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:22 PM
Yay.. NOT.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:23 PM
This is no surprise to those of us who have been following SL and LL for a while.
I do hope, however, that this will not mark the end of Mainland growth and expansion after the new eastern land.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:24 PM
“It may still be possible to find cheap land for sale, for example small parcels that have been abandoned and recycled by us, but it will not be sold specifically as First Land.”
Land sold by you may be very cheap, but the odds of anyone who isn’t running a land-purchase bot getting it is slim, surely?
One of the things keeping land prices low is the steady trickle of people selling their first land off quickly when they realise they don’t have the faintest idea what to do with it…
February 20th, 2007 at 1:24 PM
First, you raise prices for new islands, then you screw up the database and networking so badly that no sim can operate without massive lag. Then you make it impossible for people to teleport anyone not in your own friends list. Now you show that you only want people with lots of money.
Linden Labs, you are sell outs! Your people you hire as liasons cannot any questions, none of them help one bit. You have bad ratings by the Better Business Bureau and your customer service line not only never gets answered, but instead puts you into a voicemail system.
Go ahead Phil, we know you think you want that metaverse to go through Linden Labs, but with the way your networking and database crash regualrly, your dreams will blow away quickly. Stop chasing the money and start fixing the issues that you all are creating each week and never fixing. I think Linden Labs needs to have their own place rolled back to a previous time when it worked!
February 20th, 2007 at 1:25 PM
Makes sense.
First Land was irretrievably broken once unverified accounts were allowed. And as the population grows, it’d only be harder and harder to keep up with demand.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:25 PM
Dicker Hax Says:
February 20th, 2007 at 1:17 PM PST
way to go, this supports your land barons even more. I bet you 512 that anshe chung is dancing about this now….
Actually the fact that realitors pay so well for brand new land makes percect sence not to give it away to noobs..why give away a sim when someone will pay 3000usd and up? ..i’m suprised it took this long
February 20th, 2007 at 1:26 PM
Oh. Great. I just joined yesterday, on advice of an academic colleague, and paid for a year of premium and was waiting to buy land until I felt I understood the system a little bit - maybe a week.
One day and a rug gets pulled out. Does this happen often? Am I going to regret paying for a year of this in advance?
February 20th, 2007 at 1:26 PM
so with all this new land coming up in the east, and if it is not being offered as first land, at what price is LL going to sell this land? i’m curious what LL thinks land is worth.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:26 PM
Wow, pretty shocking news. I remember when I started even paying 512sqm for L$5000 at that time was a crazy thought for me. Who would buy land that’s not even real for around $20? That’s insane. If LL want’s to ease people into SL this will make it hard for people to grasp the idea of spending real money for virtual things.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:27 PM
You know, you could just abolish premium membership and the concept of tier, and just make everyone pay a flat per server charge, distributed on a pro rata basis for existing mainland sims. What exactly are premium accounts *for*, anyway? It’s not as if you make any significant amount of income from them - as you point out, it’s just a package of things that could be bought individually.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:29 PM
What is the status of those who’ve bought premium accounts for the advertised first land benefits? Is it strictly legal to advertise something and then withdraw one of the advertised benefits without offering those affected refunds on the remaining time of their premium accounts?
There wasn’t any mention up until now of the difficulties of getting first land while signing up for premium accounts.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:31 PM
“Well consider that the L$1200 stipend per month (around USD$4.50) plus 512m free tier per month (around USD$5.00) means that the monthly premium account essentially pays for itself.”
So does a free account when considered that way … can’t build anything of value on 512m, have to buy or rent more land. might as well have a free account and rent from the land barons as try to build something for oneself
February 20th, 2007 at 1:33 PM
I’m sorry; this is a serious error. The problem is that many residents signed up for premium memberships when the ability to buy First Land was part of the deal; by making this change, you have removed value from their memberships RETROACTIVELY. At current land prices, the land price discount is worth at least US$20.
A more fair move might be to have a final release of First Land that people who were premium members before today (and who have never exercised their land buying rights) would be eligible to buy. New premium members (those who join after the change is announced) would not be eligible to buy the reduced-price land.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:34 PM
>:( I was waiting for a nice First Land parcel and i didn’t buy land to wait for it… AND NOW THIS?
Thanks LL, REALLY THANKS.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:34 PM
In reality you guys should at least offer first land to all current premium accounts if they haven’t bought one. It’s only the fair thing to do, otherwise it’s grounds on false advertising.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:35 PM
Why not setup a temporary program so that all current qualifying residents can request First Land, then have their land be assigned to them. This was how it was ‘way back when’ and it worked fine. Once the list of eligible residents is exhausted, close the program for good.
It’d help stem the tide of resentment and missed entitlement.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:35 PM
Its pretty discouraging I actually wanted to build on my 512 if i could ever get it. every time i went the land was being scooped up by bots run it like a homestead where the account has to hold it for a certain length of time before flipping it that would discourage the bandits. I just want some land I can live on without haveing to pay 50-60$ US for vapor.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:36 PM
give us back our 500 stipends a week, and better support and FIX LAG
February 20th, 2007 at 1:39 PM
I have to agree with Shirley. Dropping the axe on First Land with no warning whatsoever is a poor approach to those who were considering the purchase of their first parcel.
I know it took me a while to experiment with prim counts, landscaping and building on my First Land before I moved to acquire more.
Shirley posed an excellent alternative. A final release of First Land for those who became Premium members before today.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:39 PM
Well, there goes any chance of me upgrading to premium.
However, I do see the point that they’re just being flipped for a profit.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:39 PM
Linden Lab will do away with any system that gets gamed. It happened with rating when people were gaming that system to get more L$, it happened with the developer’s rewards when people were gaming that system to get more US$, and it’s happened with first land.
Is it a shame that a bunch of bad apples have to ruin it for the whole bunch? Yes. But don’t blame Linden Lab; blame those who are abusing the system and new residents that have caused this action to be taken. Linden Lab isn’t at fault here; consider blaming those who are using bot run throw away accounts to swoop in, purchase first last, and resell it.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:39 PM
Go nuts double everyones tier continue to ignore live help request close the phonelines, but please for my sanity and others FIX THE GAME first! can we make it enjoyable for all before we crank prices and do away with the things the majority of the long time players pay for wether it works or not? It like selling a CAR WITH NO WHEELS .You can sit in it radio works great engine humms like a kitten but you cant go no where *shrugs*
February 20th, 2007 at 1:41 PM
Right on!
“First Land” areas have always seemed like toxic waste dumps… like sandboxes with no auto-return set. Land barons get a few parcels and then put up monsterous eye sores to get their neighbors to sell out cheap and move, giving the land baron a nice big swath of land to sell at regularly market rates.
Not to mention the confusion that seemed rampant between “free land” and “First Land”.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:41 PM
I would have thought that you would give a 512 piece of land with every premium account, it would ensure constant expansion and growth by premium accounts. Goes to show how the marketing people that sink companies think, I’m watching this as a case study, I have never seen a company with so much potential, shot itself so many times and so often.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:41 PM
Without the availability of any type of First Land, there is LESS incentive to become a premium member. Tier then only becomes useful if you are a member of a group which does own land and needs the tier donated. Returning the stipend to the L$500 mark might help make up for the loss of this account feature.
I have been doing regular searches for first land since joining in order to gauge the availability (none) while deciding if I should go premium. First land does not have to be so far below market price that it immediately gets turned over. Set a reasonable price around 3 to 5 L$/m2 to make it affordable after collecting and saving stipend for less than one quarter (of course while NOT spending in the rest of SL’s economy).
Just how will the newly created land be sold?
February 20th, 2007 at 1:42 PM
Damn … I have been trying hard the last 4 weeks to buy first land …. now they cancel the whole thing ?
How will be able to get our cheap land as advertised ? Please give some land to all of us who have a premium account and have not been able to buy First land.
Fair is Fair !
February 20th, 2007 at 1:43 PM
I have “bought” land on a private island, (since good First Land was unavailable) so the “free tier” included with premium membership is of no use to me. I think you’ll find many people in a similar situation — you should figure out a way to make Premium membership attractive to this segment of the population.
I’m not against premium membership, but it would cost me money. I’d rather buy lindens, and earn lindens from content creation, than become Premium.
The suggestion upthread about special tech support for premium members would be one thing that would be very attractive. Another would be raising the stipend so that the net in lindens is closer to the real-world cost.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:44 PM
BOT’s cannot buy first land .first land can be purchesed once by a new user once thats it bots have nothing to do with it.the new user can set it for ten time what they paid its completely up to them and has nothing to do with realitors or BOTS of any kind.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:45 PM
I’m glad this happend. I dream of the day land on the mainland returns to resonable prices that makes owning land and creating things enjoyable. It’s nice to make money in SL but what people have done to completly exploit the generosity of LL is sad and the people who actaully deserve land to create at reasonable prices was once opon a time. i’m hopeing there will be rules on the ammount of Sale signs people can garbage up SL with. That is a complex topic but one can only hope.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:45 PM
well is there no way to have “new residents” apply for first land and then them be assigned a lot. Yes they would have to take what is given to them but at least linden labs can give first land to premiums who are originals somehow? I dont know credit card info is usually a pretty good indication of who is an original or not ? Anyhow this was predictable given the large amount of complaints. I just think there is a way to give out first land to people who pay for a premium. Say they can apply only after being premium for 90 days. They submit a written application to linden labs via this website and the support team goes and reviews their info for “originality” and then if they qualify for first land give them a parcel and then its theirs. Its better then removing it altogether I would think?
February 20th, 2007 at 1:49 PM
Whilst it’s not perhaps a popular move, it is a good one in my opinion. Fair enough, I doubt I would own land now if it wasn’t for First Land, but the land buying process/economy was being corrupted beyond belief.
Maybe if First Land had been available for a 512 Linden fee, and had no resale rights … meaning that the owner could live in it, as a Premium Member, but the land would only be able to be abandoned to Gov Linden if the owners wished to leave it (meaning it would go back into the First Land market as a newly available plot).
This would even stop renters, since the person who owned the land would need to pay one Premium account per plot of land. The economics of renting to people without premium accounts wouldn’t make it worth doing. The person who is renting would be better of buying their own plot of First Land, even if they only stayed there for a month before abandoning the land back to Gov Linden.
I think the idea is there, but the execution is perhaps lacking. Maybe a solution was discussed, and seemed perfectly viable, but was deemed to be a waste of resources … when there are many bugs to be ironed out, and features to be added during this crazy period of growth.
Who knows?
February 20th, 2007 at 1:51 PM
I am not happy to read this. First you told me “come on, be a premium and you will get your firstland to make it your home”.
No you tell me that this was a joke? No you make me homeless, or victime of the impossible prices what i have to pay for a little place.
this ist not fair. It is not my fault when you allow speculaters to make their deals and destroy the environment with their “for sales” things. Nobody wants to leave on a place like that. So at the end why do you dont restrict the acting of those speculators?
Ah, yes, i forgot, they make monney, and they help you make more monney too.
I can tell you what you can do to make me forget my angry. You can increase the free tiers per month to 1024.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:53 PM
You know, I was a premium customer at one time. I had my first land assigned to me, I thought it worked well. I mean sure, I didn’t get much of a choice who my neighbors were. However, there was a system in place (created by the residents) that allowed for trading of that land to someone else.
I dropped this premium account a long time ago. Why? Put simply it’s because I found it was much easier to rent, then having to pay for my land AND tier fees. The stipend is not enough to warrant having a premium account, and since you’re taking away first land (without replacing it first with some sort of feature), I see many more accounts dropping to free status.
Also I’d like to point out that many of us had predicted that unverified accounts would ruin things for people. I think it’s not only the cause of land profiteering, but also a lot of griefing, not to mention the overgrowth of the sim population. (27K users, may as well not even log in). I still fail to understand why they are allowed.
Don’t get me wrong, I love second life.. But I think LL needs to listen more to the customer base.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:54 PM
I have to agree that this benefit has been abused by people creating multiple alt accounts simply to create profit, but a grandfather clause for all existing Premium Members really would help ease the transition. Otherwise it really is a slap in the face of newbies who were counting on First Land as a motivation for upgrading.
As long as you’re cleaning house, can you get rid of traffic counts based on camping? That would be a positive in the quality of SL life.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:55 PM
I’ve been messing around in second life for the last week or so, and was actually looking at the “register for a premium account” page (jI was ust about to register) when this announcement came out. This change, and the problems I’ve had (being repeatedly logged out, not able to teleport and so on) have made me reconsider. I enjoy the second life approach to virtual reality very much, and would like to find another virtual reality similar to second life that I could go to instead. Can anybody recommend one for me?
February 20th, 2007 at 1:58 PM
Gee thanks, guys, I’ll never own land now unless I want to buy it at the price of an average used car in USD. Not a chance. I doubt I’ll ever upgrade now.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:59 PM
The only premium service I care about right now is the ability to LOG IN!!
You set up a ‘RESTRICTED’ option a couple of days ago but have yet to use it, even though we are running consistently over 30000 users when the system can’t support more than 20000 effectively. Result? I spend 20 minutes trying to log in , over and over again…Precisely how long do you think your premium members are going to tolerate that, when every day we see more and more griefers getting on with free accounts screwing up sims and basically being idiots, because they know that nothing is getting done to stop this behavior? This place used to be fun - now its becoming more work than its worth…
February 20th, 2007 at 1:59 PM
I tried upgrading to a premium membership in order to get land before. this is nothing new. It was impossible to own land if you weren’t rich or a land baron already. I have no desire to pay so much for something like that. Maybe you could just GRANT land to new premium subscribers. land that can’t change hands to identified land barons. Hopefully this will end up better in the end.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:00 PM
I am one of the users that upgraded to Premium because I wanted to purchase First Land. I upgraded a week ago and was under the impression that First Land was difficult, but not impossible, to obtain. I searched and searched and searched for days. I joined the First Land Finders group.
I’m not going to scream about oh, this isn’t fair or this is false advertising (both of which may be true, but anyway…) I guess I’d just like to voice my disappointment. I was excited about being able to get “into the game” the way others have, with First Land.
It would be nice if those of us who upgraded and were not able to take advantage of First Land could maybe have the chance to at least have first crack at the new land coming up, even if it is sold at a higher rate than First Land.
Thanks for listening.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:01 PM
Gutted.
As Micah said “I have been doing regular searches for first land since joining in order to gauge the availability (none) while deciding if I should go premium.”
As I’d not seen any land, I thought upgrading to Premium could wait til after payday at the end of the month - no huge rush I thought. How wrong can a girl be?
I now have no incentive to ugrade to Premium. I can buy the Linden Dollars I need and I can’t possibly justify paying market value for land I don’t know how to use - it’ll probably take a lot of practice for me to learn how to build.
I’m a regular reader of the blog, but this is my first post - I feel that strongly about it.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:01 PM
Hi there just a thought and not sure how it would work out ….
What if you kept the idea of having 512 sq m of land for new users and would give then full rights to that land just make it not avaliable to resell. After all there is not addtional charge for for a 512 parcel anyway. Then if the residnet decides to get more land then they would intern donate back the 512 parcel for another new user. But now that i think more about it … peeps may not want to upgrade to a lager portion of a sim but you could always donate that 512 for the 512L like before for a specfic amount of time and this will gain new customers to join as well as give them an option to stay in game and decide if they truly want to purchase their own land etc. and will give back the sq m to linden labs for new customers …
Not sure if this type of support would work but may give new users a taste of SL
Hope that made sense
February 20th, 2007 at 2:01 PM
I fail to see how market forces will bring prices DOWN when databases are so lagged that searches are mostly out of date by the time they reach your client…………..
February 20th, 2007 at 2:02 PM
Sad news for the little guy.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:02 PM
Wow. I agree that first land should not be available to anyone not premium before today, but should still be permitted to purchase… within a 60 day window or so. That means that you, LL, would need to get it out in a fair and timely manner. It is not fair to the people who signed up with the hope of getting first land in mind to should have the possibility taken away.
Although what this will do to the economy… well, it might be good for me since I rent apartments.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:03 PM
I agree with most of the posters that, advertising a service and then just withdrawing it is plain wrong and deceptive. I upgraded to premium to find a first land. I know it was scarce, but I heard of people able to acquiring it.
How will you guarantee that the new land will benefit the new persons?
It would have been much better to make a ruling that first land could not have been sold for about 3 months or so. I specifically searched for just a 512 m2 parcel. Not intended to sell it.
So how are you going to refund me?
Or will you increase the stipend so that we can afford land at these higher prices of land?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:03 PM
Premium accounts have been growing less and less in value..heh. For those newer residents that don’t know, you used to get a $500L weekly stipend for your premium accounts, then it went to $400L and now $300L. Now, no more first land…wow, you really know how to put the choke on people LL. But that’s okay…I’ve survived almost 3 years on my basic account…pay $10US for a lifetime basic account you said and that’s all I’ve ever needed. You keep making premium accounts look like crap…why would I ever want one heh? I’ll just continue to survive on making my own $L and using it to pay for my large plot of land…why get a premium account when I make more off my money that sits there in my Ginko account collecting interest yay!
Really…get your crap together LL
February 20th, 2007 at 2:03 PM
I understand why you did this. Now, just make it right for those of us who BOUGHT AND PAID FOR the right to purchase first land before today.
Perhaps a lottery to randomly distribute lots to those of us in that situation. Or maybe just notify people of land sales in the order they PAID for their premium account? The easiest? A partial refund. I’d accept 3000L.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:04 PM
As representative of the First Land Searchers group I truely feel sorry this descision has been made. The reasoning behind this ruling is also questionable, and probably arguable from a contract point of view.
1. Current Land Searchers, for the larger part, have seriously been looking for a parcel to own themselves.
2. The unavailability of First Land has not been the result of huge speculation, but of the incapacity of Linden to address the problem of land-bots.
3. Premium account members have INVESTED in the expanse of Second Life based upon the contractual promise to right of ownership of a parcel of First Land.
Taking into account that there are thousands of premium membership owners who have signed up to pay $ 5,- a month for the right to hold First Land, it brings thousands of dollars of venue for Linden Labs this is easy money.
Cutting on the First Land allocation in this fashion will not achieve the goals intented. On the contrarry, it will work counter productive. It leaves thousands of frustrated users who will no longer support the ideals and growth of SL, it will fend off new upgrades to Premium accounts and will only end in a new surge in landprices.
The promise of finding alternative ways to make premium interesting again is not a substantial offer. Over 90% of the users have upgraded to premium solely for the purpose of owning First Land, and the only way to compensate this would be to increase the monthly stipend enough to enable us to buy a regulare parcel.
Additional Efforts that could be taken:
1. During transition phase premium account members receive enough L$ to purchase a normal lot.
2. Linden delivers enough first land for current premium account holders to fullfil the contractual First Land promise.
Rulings that could ensure First Land usage as intended:
1. First Land buyers take a contractual obligation to hold the First Land parcel for at least 1 year.
2. During a planned transition phase only existing parcels can be traded and auctioned. New parcels can only be sold if they originate from new regions.
Let us negotiate a transition phase
I truly hope there are some laywers out there with a copy of the original terms of use and premium membership rights that will make an effort of this issue in a RL court of law.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:04 PM
Its about time.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:05 PM
Obviously this had to happen. It is impossible to have regulated sectors in a desperately free economy like the one in SL. We all saw it coming. The only question was when.
On the other hand, I am sure that many people did go premium because they thought first land was available. I did, and did not discover the true situation until I started to search for the promised (first) land. It is a little unfair towards us, since we were newbies at the, and could not know.
Oh well, we will survive.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:08 PM
Thank you to all those who abused this program for pure greed and profit and ruined it for everyone. Way to go!
February 20th, 2007 at 2:08 PM
It is a shame that they didn’t make a comment in this blog about what they ARE going to do with new land that gets created, because they’re not stopping expansion right.
So come on Linden, how will you decide the price to sell it initially, will it be based on market averages, or location or what?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:08 PM
I’ve come to teh conclusion that this gradual stripping away of specific benefits for the premium accounts is a softly softly means of doing away with the entire concept altogether. Any premium account paid for yearly and receiving 400 L$ a week or more (ie teh older ones) is a loss leader for LL, and it makes sense for LL to do their best to maximise profits by minimising the number of people on these accounts. Moi, cynical?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:08 PM
Obvious that LL should pay attention to the current Premium Members and offer them at least a last opportunity for Firt Land. Just to prevent some nasty law cases…
Besides this point, it sounds to me that LL found another way to generate more money for themselves: restrict First Land, hence reducing available land for sale by the ppl in SL and monopolize their own position. Nice way to get a fuller wallet…
If First Land is a problem by being sold at high prices, you have to ensure that there is enough contraweight for this by supplying more land and act against land buying robots etc. This would benefit both LL as the members who want to have First Land to use or sell…Let the economic market work its own way, dont restrict it to your own benefits!
February 20th, 2007 at 2:10 PM
Well, I can see where this is going.
Thank you for your concern for our well-being. After all, offering inducements to sign up for premium membership isn’t necessary when you offer such stellar customer service and such a lag-free and inventory-safe grid, hm?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:12 PM
Linden Labs, you really need to honor first land for the primum accoutns that havent exercised that right. it is only fair, At the very lease, you should put some sims up and only ALLOW those accounts who have the right to buy the land as first land the ability to do so.
This doesnt impact me but there alot of people out there who have been looking for first land and havent been able to find it. Help them out and make them a priority,
February 20th, 2007 at 2:12 PM
As someone who upgraded to a Premium account earlier today, I am somewhat irritated.
My only feeling would be that if you are going to make this retroactive, then some form of compensation should be offered to those who’ve been prevented from exercising their Free Land option. As land prices will (temporarily at any rate) go through the roof, I’d suggest that those people who haven’t bought should be given an ex gratia payment of the average market value of the free land they would have been entitled toat the point at which the free offer ended.
Otherwise it is incredibly unfair that - without warning - anyone upgrading should be stripped of the major benefit of having a Premium account.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:13 PM
It ~would~ be nice if Linden Lab explained somewhere (because I sure as hell can’t find it) that owning land on a private island does NOT require premium membership, and that premium membership is only an advantage if you want to own mainland land.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:13 PM
Hmm, if they get rid of the free land program, then what exactly do they do with land that has been abandoned by people that no longer pay to play the game? Where does that land go?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:16 PM
Ok, what if you get land what you *can’t* resell it?
Just land what you rent from LL instead of buying?
Ever thought about that?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:16 PM
As someone that paid for premium from the get go, I have found that there never was any first land to be had. However, if you wish to make premium accounts helpful to those of us who have just joined, all you need do is make it so that only FIRST TIME BUYERS may purchase the land, and can only purchase ONE parcel and it MUST be inhabited/owned by that person for a period of at least one year. Very simple to to, put a cannot resell on that parcel, and restricted to one parcel only at the 512 free parcel. This way, if a land baron wants the parcel, he has to wait a year and hopes that whoever doesn’t get the land abandoned. Just an idea.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:17 PM
I was just wondering….how much will it be for a 512m plot of land now? Its good to see the tier will still be free for 512 and of course the 300L stipend per week; but what will it cost to get the 512 from Linden Labs?
I am surprised some kind of rule was not put into place that would not allow users to resell First Land for perhaps at least 30 days. Even then, maybe after 30 days the land designated as First Land could only be sold for the original price or given back to Linden Labs. Would that work? The copybot was stopped with code wasn’t it? Why can’t something be done about land bots?
=[*.*]=
February 20th, 2007 at 2:18 PM
i WAS thinking about signing up for a Premium membership, just for the new land… but lucky for me, i didn’t yet.
It’s too bad Linden forgets his newbies in landownership…
How difficult can it be to just make newland non-transferable over a period of time ?
buy new land? keep the new land! want to sell? back to Linden labs…
easy as that.
this is just pushing the land-prices up even more!
-sigh- bad decision
February 20th, 2007 at 2:19 PM
to make a premium account more value?
easy. get ride of all the lag creating free accounts!
stop to let everyone in SL for free this will stop the damn issues and the lag and bring things back to normal.
i remember when i started it was 5000 ppl online and SL was great now all is a big mess nothing works really.
30 day trial like other web services have it too, then premium account or out! ende
February 20th, 2007 at 2:19 PM
I recently upgraded to a premium account so I would be ready to purchase first land as/when it became available.I was quite happily renting as a free member,now I feel totally ripped off,as I have just paid a full years subscription in advance(what a mug).Now I have to wait a further 50 weeks before I can downgrade and that is going to cost me a further $10(what a bigger mug)
February 20th, 2007 at 2:20 PM
I usually try to see both sides of the story and try to find LL’s reasoning behind things they do. In this case, I can’t. This is going to get pretty ugly. Instead of trying to come up with a way to keep the First Land system from being gamed, LL just gets rid of it.
New users have much less of a reason to go premium now. In fact, I can no longer think of a reason to be a premium account unless you’re going to be a land baron. Renting land is easier for normal residents, and it’s easy to move to a new location without worrying about selling your land. The premium stipend has shrunk to an amount that is just not enticing anymore, and now there is no great deal on your first piece of land. There is no difference in support. By phasing the things out that made a premium account enticing, LL is phasing out premium accounts as no one will want one anymore. I went free, and I am never going premium again until LL screws the free accounts. At that time, if my SL music career is still as lucrative as it is now, I guess I will be forced to go premium. If not, I’ll be moving on.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:20 PM
I guess making transfer of the land after 45 days - 90 days, as was done in Blumfield, would significantly impact resident freedoms?
coco
February 20th, 2007 at 2:23 PM
I’m so disappointed to hear this news. I remember how pleased I was when I got my little patch of first land and I remember full well the joy many new residents had when they got their first land. Now it’s all gone. How sad. It would have been far better for Linden Labs to assign a patch of First Land to each new premium account with the stipulation that it couldn’t be sold for 90 days. Oh well, c’est la vie :\
February 20th, 2007 at 2:24 PM
This does not surprise me although I know for a fact that there were plenty of new people who took advantage of this program to have their first land, it was not all barons. I know many would also expand too. While I can see your resoning for eliminating the first land program, I encourage you to still do small plot sales. Do them at regular sim costs but give people an anvenue to still buy a small plot of land like the first land sims. This way you will still give people an easy way to get a start in SL, even if it is more expensive the 512L, and you won’t have to care who buys them.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:24 PM
@38
It’ll likely go up for auction now.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:24 PM
And you wonder why I say the greatest move I made was to stay Basic.
Everything I’ve seen since my decision to stay on a FREE account (yep, I’m a post-1.7 Basic, so no cash outlay at all) has just reaffirmed my decision to stay that way.
I, too, am a renter, and keep my expenses low enough (and now my revenue high enough) that my L$ balance is consistently growing (and is already large enough to ‘live’ comfortably).
Congrats, LL, for souring yet another potential US$ spender here.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:25 PM
The only reason I got a Premium account was to get my first land. A little home of my own in SL. I know people who did the same thing. I’ve brought people into SL as paying members because they liked the idea of having their own little plot of land.
One of them hasn’t bought her First Land, yet. And now won’t be able to, even though she has bought a lot of land for business. Sucks to be a paying member now. If I was new, I’d never become a paying member, I can’t see that it would be worth it. I will no longer be encouraging my RL friends to become paying members.
Gads, how awful to be treated this way. I’ve heard WOW is very fun….
February 20th, 2007 at 2:26 PM
Face it people, LL wants to make money the fastest way possible. They’re not doing this for any other reason. They think they’ve reached the point where their game can generate $$ value with offering less benefits for more profit. They may be right, I don’t know, I’m a new player and was waiting for First Land to play around with.
It doesn’t make sense to get into the complexities of real estate and valuation of holdings and economic factors, etc, etc. We’re all a bunch of people sitting in front of a monitor typing on a keyboard. The information going back and forth is irrelevant. This is not a ‘metaverse’, no one is living anywhere else other than in front of their PCs and the priority here for LL is how to put more $$ in their bank account.
That’s all.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:26 PM
… Well, all the new Premiums who listened to your “More land is coming, more land in the east” are just effective immediately made serfs in this lovely World you’ve built. We’re just too much bother, to assign land to, eh? Certainly the financial interest of Lindon Labs is to those who give them the most money - your barons, who squeeeze it out of the poor, desparate for just a little plot of one’s own… And you are so sure all the people, landowners and serfs, are so addicted to your universe that we won’t find some other playground? You are betting your future on interesting assumptions.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:26 PM
RE:32
amen!
February 20th, 2007 at 2:28 PM
If this is a move to eventually discontinue premium accounts at all. They’re in the right track. I don’t think many would like to have a premium account when they decide to rip it from all benefits. No L, no land tiers. And the new continent? I bet rich barons already own half of it. so… *shrug*
February 20th, 2007 at 2:29 PM
Talarus Luan Says:
“More ways to increase the value of a Premium account?
Here’s a biggie: Premium/Priority Support.”
How about any support? As it is now support is virtually non-existant.
I’ve been trying to get a response to my dozens of requests for a trading tier review for months now and even going as far as snail mailing the entire board of directors has not provided any results.
If you want to add value to the accounts of people who are paying thousands of dollars to you how about you stop ignoring them?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:31 PM
Man, that sucks. I just bought a three-month premium account ONLY so that I could buy first land. I looked on the land searches everyday for two weeks and never found any, and now the program is ending. :’(
I wish I had had some warning that LL was going to do this. I understand the abuse problems and I hate to cry unfair, but this just really sucks for the rest of us who just wanted to get our own little virtual home without running up the bills.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:33 PM
The important benefit of premium isn’t the low price of the land, it’s the free 512 of tier that you get with it. Obviously if you have enough money to afford a premium account, you should be able to drep a bit of linden on some land. It may seem like the little guy is screwed in the short term (and that may be true) but everything will even itself out, like it always does.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:33 PM
Well, I can see the point about first land being flipped (I was offered $L 9000 within five minutes of getting mine) but I still think its sad. I’m glad I got mine when I did. Please LL grandparent clause the program for premiums who did not manage to obtain some, at least for a grace period.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:34 PM
As a land trader I’m partly responsible for this, as well with everyone else who purchased First Land from resell. I’m not denying that at all. It was all part of the game. Buy land when it’s set low and sell high. If a newb sold their 512 for 1024 we’d pile in to get the 50USD 30USD profit. The newb would go away happy for doubling his investment and so would we. It was part of the beast.
It got really ugly once we started asking newbs if they wanted to resell. I remember the first sim we did this with, if you go there now it’s nothing but a waste land. We took a perfect sim and gutted it. Reflection took me away from that part of the game. First Land helped me establish my own path inside of SL and here I was taking that opportunity away from others. I stopped being a vulture.
Prize Pyle has been creating communities with the sims he won in auctions. Even though he has a grudge against me, I think what he has done to his sim is excellant. They are built like little communities, with roads, parks, even train systems. They are clean and bring a sense of neighborhood interaction that has been missing for awhile in the First Land Program.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:35 PM
I upgraded to Premium and spent much time day and night, trying to catch a First Land opportunity. Thanks a lot. I wanted a place where I could explore and practice new skills, build a house, play with the land. Now you’re taking that opportunity away. There are many new members who don’t have large real life bank accounts available to tap into so they can purchase SL land through Real Estate Brokers. I had suggested weeks ago that you make land available to members who’ve been waiting and who joined believing this would be a wonderful benefit.
I feel you’ve violated an unofficial contract you had with all of us who believed the First Land Hype we heard when we first began and I’m terribly disappointed. How do I cancel my Premium Membership?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:36 PM
Hame on you.Linden Labs.I signed up for a premium account specifically to buy fisrt land. this is a classic bait anD switch. offer first land option with your upgrade and say oh you can’t get it now.Linden labs you should be ashamed of yourselves, the least you should do is live up to your agreement or compensate for your change policy.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:36 PM
RE: #41:
Well, I just paid for a full year premium, like last nignt, after being basic for about a month. I have been looking for first land seriously for about two weeks - it is one of the main reasons I went to premium. Now - guess I should have saved my money for one more day.
I agree, if you were premium before LL cut the first land program (as I am, thogh just barely), you should have the option to get your first land, even if it is assigned, and you can’t resell for 90 days, or whatever. Once it was announced, it is real, but to announce it and make it retroactive just doesn’t seem fair. I want to buy - but I don’t think the prices being asked for are reasonable right now.
Sorry. LL, I think you might have goofed big time on this one.
Gray
February 20th, 2007 at 2:39 PM
eu adoraria jogar second life
February 20th, 2007 at 2:39 PM
A good point was made on SC - LL promised premiums First Land (until used) for life.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:40 PM
Thumbs up for this step. I think no one was ever able to get his first land anyway for 1L per qm. Now this step will make profits for those land moguls shrink a bit (I hope), as they could buy 512qm for 512L and sell it for maybe 35.000L, which just sucks a lot.
Now make a cleanup in the SEARCH for land, too… disallow RENTED land in the LAND FOR SALE list, or make a new category in there. Because if you try to find land, it is pretty hard to find land for SALE.
Thank you! =)
February 20th, 2007 at 2:40 PM
i like second life
February 20th, 2007 at 2:40 PM
I guess this isn’t really surprising. I’m just glad I got my bit of First Land, all 117 prims worth of it, when I did. The only reason I did was that I happened to log in and search at exactly the right time, teleported to the site immediately, and grabbed the first parcel I could. A few minutes either way and I might still be landless.
Hand raised here in support of the idea, mentioned several times, of allowing current premium account holders to buy First Land if they do not already own some.
BTW, I would sell my First Land parcel for a reasonable price if I could find a 2048-4096 parcel at a reasonable price and if I could even make my way through the hell of rentals and covenants and bad deals that currently makes up a Land search listing. I’m not holding my breath.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:42 PM
This is the way it should be done. First land is issued with your premium sign up. no matter where it is. no looking for it. it is just a given… later if they want to sell ok then…. That would take care of that. Some people dont want to own land. and are in this for the money. Money is what this game is about. They do have the right to sell their first land, no matter what LL’s idea was for it in the first place.
The rules for the game Monopoly have not changed or ever changed in the middle of play…..and that seems to work just fine.
I’m relatively new to SL. FIX THE GAME FIRST. get more servers and reliable servers. The load has increased more that double since I signed up.
This happens to any game or ISP that is not prepared for the amount of new customers signing up….
February 20th, 2007 at 2:43 PM
For the problem of people reselling First Land immediately for money, why not forbid First Land resale for a certain time after acquisition, in the year or a few order would seem fair.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:44 PM
Wel … Since 2 weeks in SL, i signed a premium one week ago because of the low price of first land ..
[ With Sense of Humor please ] .
For sure, as everybody, I got a “not found” each time I was looking for the “promised Land”
Then, as never a 512 parcel was available, I finaly buy at Heavy Cost my Land.
Perhaps Linden can make a “BEST EFFORT” and give back some money to people in same situation as me .
Why not a 512 L$ … It s not a heavy charge for Linden, and it s the equivalent as the 512 ² we ‘d have for 512 L$ ?
Let s know about the idea . [ 512 L$ is just for a symbolic gift from LINDEN ... I bougth 12000 my land .... ]
February 20th, 2007 at 2:44 PM
Wanna increase memberships?
Or you wanna decrease memberships?
Looks like a decrease to my way of thinking.
My renewal comes up April 1st.
Now I wonder should I or should I not?
Hummmm?
February 20th, 2007 at 2:44 PM
Tillie:
Funny how you were writing at the very same time as I was about the very same thing: the awfulness of the Land search. I hate that rentals are in there.