Unexpected News From Linden Labs Regarding Open Space Simulators

I arrived in world late this evening to the sound of ISC channel buzzing with the latest news:

We need to therefore take some steps to improve their performance and better reflect their actual usage levels in our pricing so that we can maintain the best performance level for everyone. As a result, we will be implementing a pricing change effective January 1st along with some policy changes effective immediately.

Beginning 1st January 2009

We will increase the monthly maintenance fee from USD$75 to USD$125 per month. This price increase will apply to all owners of Openspaces on January 1st as well as new purchases after that date. There will be no grandfathering of Openspace maintenance pricing.

For anyone owning class 4 Openspaces on January 1st, they will be upgraded to class 5 by end of January, to further improve the experience people have on those regions.

At the same time, we will be increasing the upfront fee for brand new Openspaces from USD$250 to USD$375.

excerpted from The Second Life Blog

An urgent State Meeting was called and ~65 of us answered that call. There was much discussion, many questions, and the blowing off of a bit of steam. Desmond, exhibiting the wisdom of Soloman, noted that he would not be make rash decisions, and would be talking with many folks including some Lindens so that he might learn more.



Wait and See.

I have a number of concerns as a void owner. Things running through my tired brain are things like this:

• Is Loch Avie valuable enough as an open space to remain so? Or will she be converted to a full sim with 3 others?
• What do all these things really mean for Caledon as a whole?
• If I cannot host my events, will I enjoy SL as much? Is that my primary source of creativity and enjoyment?
• Should I spend the additional monies per month given the price increase if my void sim still exists?
• Why are the Lindens not providing guidelines to the void (openspace) sims along with metrics monitoring tools if overuse is the problem?

Desmond rightfully stated: As the world goes....so goes Caledon.

And by extension, I would say: As Caledon goes...so goes the world.



Additional reading:
Massively
Patent Pending
Tenth Life
Hibernia on the Skids
(will add more as I become aware of them)