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