SECONDLIFE STEAM FIASCO - ULTIMATE CHURN OVER

Secondlife will soon be available on steam and this will be one of Linden Lab's greatest fails.

 

Making Secondlife available on Steam is a great idea. But unfortunately, inviting Steam users to try Secondlife while tier costs are impossibly high makes no sense. Why invite millions of users who can't afford the Secondlife product - Land -  to come play.

What we're about to see is the most awesome churn over ever experienced by an MMO or virtual world. Apparently Secondlife already fails to retain 16 thousand users who try it per day. Why try to attract more customers to a platform that is so expensive and the current user base is so frustrated and alienated by the pricing that they are leaving in droves.

If Linden Lab thinks their current user base has been and is overbearing and critical, wait until the Steam community makes their feeling felt. Their used to gold standard games at discount prices.

Secondlife takes the power away from the user. Secondlife tier costs make the user feel powerless and poor. Tier costs are so high educators have left, role players are choosing alternative grids because they need lots of land, music venues are closing, inworld shops are empty and closing. Projects are closing, projects are not being started. All around we are seeing the decay of a unique platform.

It's really quite incredible to see an amazing technology like Secondlife, a trail blazing company like Linden Lab, fossilise in front of our very eyes. Their inability to change the one thing that would improve their bottom line, make their customers happy and invigorate their product, is the one thing they refuse to do - DROP SET-UP FEES and LOWER TIER COSTS

The build up of negative energy because of high tier costs is so great it's quite possible we'll see a mass abandonment of the platform. Right now customers are dropping private sims at a rate of approx. 100 sims per week

The sad truth is that even if Linden Lab convert some Steam users in to Secondlife TRY-OUT TOURISTS, as soon as the Steam users realise how much it costs to own land and really do the cool stuff, they'll walk too.

Recently Rod Humble said they had no problem getting people to try Secondlife for a while, it was getting people to stay that was the problem.

Well Rod, why do you think that is dude ?

Do ya think that maybe, just maybe, you might be pricing your product beyond the pockets of your user base ?

Why do you think you are not retaining customers ?
Why do you think nearly 100 sims are being abandoned every week ?
Why do you think converted, passionate users are abandoning the platform ?

Secondlife is dying. the price of land is killing it. churning over thousands of Steam users a day is not going to improve Linden Lab's bottom line. The Lab will keep losing sims and money until they lower tier costs.

SECONDLIFE FAILING - 849 SIMS LOST IN 8 WEEKS

Watching Secondlife right now is like watching a train wreck. It's awful but one can hardly look away.

I'm sad to report the loss of 849 private Secondlife sims in the last 8 weeks. That's an average loss of 106 sims per week. This is very serious decay. The SL economy is experiencing it's most dramatic summer slump ever. Sales are seriously down, inworld shop traffic is extremely poor, sims are closing and concurrency is stagnant and slipping.

How many lost sims will it take before Linden Lab realise the only way to save Secondlife, and yes SL does need saving, is to reduce tier costs and drop set-up fees and release the grid from the tyranny of the land barons and let anyone buy a Homestead or openspace sim without having to own a full sim.

Secondlife's land pricing model is antiquated and destructive. Price is everything. Current land prices in Secondlife are literally driving converted passionate users away. What a brilliant business plan - Drive away, alienate and depress the people who actually want to use your product

 

http://www.metaverse-business.com/regionweek.php

 

Secondlife is a dream making tool. Current tier costs are dream killers

 

 

http://www.metaverse-business.com/regionmonth.php

 

 

The attrition rate of 106 sims a week is approx. 5 thousand sims per year. That's millions of dollars lost revenue and 5000 places less to visit in Secondlife and thousands of people of who will have a negative experience of Secondlife - losing their virtual home, their store, their art installation, their club, their forest retreat, their beach house, their dream. 

 

These sim losses represents projects not being completed or started because it's just too expensive. It's a question of value for money and current tier costs are not good value for money.

 

Even if Secondlife were PERFECT, people would still NOT pay these ongoing monthly prices for their virtual presence. Secondlife is outstanding technology priced beyond the reach of it's real, actual user base. The decay will continue until tier costs come down.

 





SECONDLIFE CORE USERS ABANDON SIMS

Here's just one example of a passionate, established Secondlife creator sharing their story of frustration.
It's the typical story of over-priced island rental costs destroying the diversity and viability of Secondlife.
It's the story of the contracting Secondlife grid and economy.

Linden Lab's executive team should take note of this example of what it's actually like at ground level.

No amount of shilly shallying around with normal maps, specular maps, pathfinding etc, (all marvellous things) is going to compensate for the loss of diversity and stop the avalanche of abandoned sims.

As exciting as Secondlife's availability on STEAM is, without lower tier costs LL are not going to be able to convert 'Steam Tourists' in to sim owning paying customers.

The original discussion can be found at  ..... http://iliveisl.com/over-3000-sl-private-sims-gone-in-last-2-years/

Amiryu Hosoi's post at ilivesl.com
Well, I am strolling the web today because today is the second time LL decided to charge my paypal account to pay for tier. I wanted to know if there would be a way to temporary pause a few of my sims. I own 4 sims that are open to the public and lots and lots of people are using them for free. The regions are Japan Edo time based and host several roleplay groups and a lot of residents. My market Hosoi Ichiba is paying for all 4 sims + advertisements + occasional gifts to new residents. I am also using SL as a toolbox to design and proof my RL Japanese themed designs.

Since the start of the world wide economic crysis we seem to be in I, like many others, noticed a decline in sales. However my Ichiba was still going strong up to the start of this holiday season. Seems people are finally running out of “playmoney”. Maybe after the summer my sales will start growing again but I have the odd feeling it won’t;-(
If my sales doesn’t recover I will need to close down my sims and SL will loose again 4 wonderful free landmarks. I know I am not alone in this. Already a lot of great places closed down to never return and a lot will follow. The idea I have to let down all those people that depend on the scenery that I created over the years will make me so super sad;-( For what I know there is no way I can preserve complete sims to reerect them on the LL grid or elsewhere later.
I think LL needs to rethink their business strategy. Like some people here said, LL has a great tool and nowadays their servers and viewers are very stable. If LL should decide to lower tier and startup fees I am sure new people will start using SL and people that moved away to, for instance Open Sim like environments, will come back to SL. I am afraid though that will never happen.

For example; a few months agoo I contacted LL to talk about pricing and possible discount on 24 private sims because I was in the race for a very big RL contract rebuilding a complete town and zoo in the Netherlands. (my client didn’t want to use Open Sim) The kind of project that could put SL on the map again as a serious tool and virtual environment. The answer however was NO! LL didnt even want to think about it!
I am simply not able to fund the 4 sims (1200 USD a month) from my RL income at the moment. Saying that makes me think about how much I payed to SL in tier and commision, etc. over the last 6 years… it must be in the region of USD 150.000+

So that leaves me with one option only. Praying sales will recover after the summer so my friends, residents and visitors can keep enjoying our little corner in SL.

For all people riding the same boat I would like to say; keep up the faith!
Kind regards,
Amiryu Hosoi