Landcutting will be too timid

No matter what Linden Lab makes of its landcutting, I can already tell you that the move will be too timid. No matter what the policy is, there is something important to add in order for Second Life to have a comprehensive property rights system in place.

The missing key element will now be zoning on the Mainland. SL needs to have a policy that separates commercial zones from residential ones, on whole sims. It is too important an issue to avoid it, at least for the longer term.

I see two major advantages if zoning ever becomes a reality.

The first one is obvious for home owners: having more uniform sims where clubs and stores are not located a few meters away from a nice house. Not only would sims be less noisy, but the design of the sims would naturally fit better with their purpose. A great inspiration for this should be private estates. Hundreds of estates are cleverly designed and divided. Even a sim filled with small squares of beach beats the current disorganization that prevails on Mainland.

I also see another motivation to implement zoning, and that's smoother exploration for users. Right now, flying around sims is an almost fruitless activity. You can stumble on the nicest and oddest locations at the same time. Some sims are totally deprived of interesting places to discover. Now, a nice commercial sim (such as Shoes) will allow you to find interesting stores, but Mainland suffers from a lack of those. Please, don't tell me that malls fulfill that need.

When will LL adopt such zoning policy to make our second lives better? Better sooner than later.

Of course, I welcome the idea that landcutting will be limited. It will help regulate land prices. This is a better deal for land buyers. It will also favor the real estate businesses that are serious about striking deals on nice pieces of land.

Don't underestimate the importance of property rights in Second Life when you read this. In any world, real or virtual, proper management of property is the most important role that regulators can play, security aside. It is the most basic, most crucial form of organization in civilization. If property is a mess, the quality of life goes down.

Are they kidding with Openspace?

I wonder who Linden Lab think they are kidding with the launch of Homestead sims and their keeping of Openspace as a low-end product.

When you look at the way Openspace is set up, it is good for almost nothing but building a bit of nature and flying around alone. I am pushing it to the extreme, but any serious use of those sims, even residential use, is not advised. Why would anyone pay a setup fee and US$75 per month in tier? For US$20 more, you actually get something decent if your use of land is not intensive.

It makes no sense to try fooling people into paying that much money for so little. How much time per month will people spend walking around and flying around land that offers very little but scenery? How many customers will buy into that? I can't see that becoming an important market for long-term purposes.

It is high time for Linden Lab to focus on users instead of just selling land for the sake of collecting tier. Otherwise, it is burning itself in the long run because when competition shows up in virtual worlds, anything more decent, more open and widely accessible will become popular. Right now, there is no doubt that LL is doing well. Land use and tier is an incredible backbone. But what people do in SL will determine its future. If they enjoy activities, they will stick around. If they get bored, abandon land and leave... things get a bit more complicated.

That's something to think about in the new year. Have a good one, folks!