Tier costs, the sim deathwatch: Why I don't think it's a big problem.

ADDENDUM added at bottom.

Every so often on New World Notes or other SL related forums, you get some oldbie crank complaining about Tier. I usually want to be an oldbie crank myself and tell them off. Why?

1. The majority of the people complaining about tier prices are mostly members of what I call the "furry builder and scripter gang". (Yes, I know they're not all furries, it just seems like furrydom seems to go with being a hardcore builder/scripter) All they want is a cheap vanity sim to basically be their own personal sandbox. If they get one, all they'll do is spend time there building and puttering around and not really doing anything with it with other people (other than projects with other furry builder and scripters} involved.

2. The other group that complains about tier are the RPers. Almost all RP sims are vanity projects that survive on donations or a well heeled Angel or groups of Angels, which really isn't practical, long term. These folks, I understand.

But I doubt tier prices will go down soon, and in fact, think it might be a bad idea if they did so at the current time. Now you're thinking: "But CC, don't you want the furry scripters to have their sims, and the RPers to be able to keep their RP sims going" Yes, but:


1. There's a content glut on the grid. one of the reasons some regions aren't making it financialy is that there's too much stuff out there so the money is spread around. More stuff, with the same amount of people spending means the money gets spread thinner like too little butter over too much bread. Cheap sims would lead to a land glut and encourage even more newbie designers to flood the grid with 2006-era quality level stuffs. That would be a bad thing and LL knows it. LL wants to reduce content glut so every store sim that's selling low quality crappe that gets shut down is a good thing.

2. LL doesn't want to deal with the "Waaaaah...whining". I personally believe that sims are priced the way they are with the setup fees to help keep the "riff raff" out of sim ownership. LL doesn't want people who can barely afford it to get a region, then have them cancel two months later when their car needs fixed, and then beg LL to restore their sim as it was when they have a bit more money again. They want people with stable incomes who can keep paying even if their cat needs to go to the vet, or they have doctor bills or need to replace their furnace. In other words they want the upper class to own sims, but the rest of us to rent what space we can afford. Think about it, in RL, not everyone owns a big mansion with thousands of acres of property. You got a few people who do, and then more people who own a 1200sq ft home, and some who live in a cramped 500sq ft apartment. I know, everyone wants a mansion and a sim of their own, but LL is encouraging people to live within their SL means. Personally, I really wouldn't need anything bigger than a double prim 1024, really. Even if I had a sim...I wouldn't be doing much with it, it would lead to empty space which leads to:

3. One of the big things the masses and newbies complain about is how empty SL feels. LL knows it's an issue and probably likes that there's less of a sim glut so that SL feels less empty. If LL dropped tier, a bunch of people would buy their own sim and sit idle in it while they IM. Thus increasing the problem.

You want tier prices to drop? Probably not going to happen, but if you REALLY want it to happen. Get the masses spending money...including the second worlders. SL is a trickle up economy, more people shopping means more people with money for regions.

ADDENDUM:

Hey! I just had an idea...what might work is if LL priced tier based on purpose of the region, Commercial one-owner sims one rate, residential single owned vanity puttering sim another, RP group sims another. sims for commercial rentals another. They could then enable and disable various features and capabilities, like say..transactions...based on that. Might not work or be feasible but it is an idea to throw out there.