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Konner et all, LL is in fact a business for profit. The two current forms of revenue generation are land sales and tier payments. Server space and the value-added VR software system that has been developed IS the product. LL needs to adjust the sale price of the product as they see fit in order to continue to remain an economically viable company. It's simply a matter of supply and demand.

What you and SNE and other "land barons/investors" are advocating is the following RL equivalent: I invent a new game-changing product (no pun intended). At the outset, I sell that product to early adopters for $100.00 USD. My product is an outstanding success with the "early" adopters. I eventually sell my product to all of the "early" adopters and now it's getting harder to sell.
In the meantime, certain costs have dropped (server space) and certain costs have increased (development/marketing/maintenance etc). On balance, expenses have INCREASED. I therefore need to adjust the price of/add more value to the product in order to increase the number of "non-early" adopters. The price adjustment is not an evil plot to do damage to "early" adopters. It's not an attempt to disrespect early adopters. You need to do what is required in order to survive and grow. You may question the tactics on how to accomplish this but do not ever question the reason or motive. What is it about all of you that would make you want to think so badly about people? (ie. we are the early adopters that helped make SL and now they don't care if they hurt us ... shady habit ... cutthroat business etc). In your collective world, LL should not lower the price of land because IT WOULD HURT ME. I should not lower the cost of my $100.00 USD product because it would hurt the "early" consumers. APPLE should not lower the costs of the iPhone because it would hurt the people who paid $499.00 USD. You see kids, adjusting the price of your product is a means of increasing revenue in order to stay viable and add value etc etc etc. GET IT? No evil plots, no desire to hurt people that helped make the company what it is today. Just a natural desire to survive so that we ALL can benefit from what has been created. Not just YOU.

So called Land Barons are the equivalent of the people who paid $499.00 USD for the first iPhones.

I'd like to offer a more positive potential win-potential win view. People who purchased the first iPhones for $500.00 USD may one day find themselves owning a valuable collector's item worth much more. Land barons today may find that what they own (and the experience they have) may prove to be much more valuable in the future ;) In the meantime, enjoy land ownership (not every joy in life involves the dollar bill), break even or better on tier
and accept the challenge of trying to make a success of your business. If you can't generate the additional money lost per sim (after monthly tier payments), did you really have a business?

Finally, does anyone know what percentage of the SL GDP is due to "land barons" and the SL "investment" community? What if it were 2.71% or less? What if 97.29% of the SL GDP is generated by individuals/companies with only one or 2 sims? Could you then understand why your interests may not be completely represented in the grand scheme?

Adjust, adapt or fail. Being cutthroat or shady has nothing to do with it. Those conclusions are not even rational from a business perspective. You go where the market and the product/services take you. Then you might have a chance of thriving and doing right by as many people as possible.

As always, taking the opposite side of the argument not because I will convince anyone but so as to make the discussion more thought-provoking.

Anonymous2