Ok, back to reality...LL Competitive Practices

Wake Up everyone, I know you have fainted from my last posting, and quite frankly, I'm still pretty darn happy with the new Viewer and SHARED MEDIA; actually if someone out there has the talent to do Web-Development but can't think of ideas on how to use this SHARED MEDIA, contact me in-world, I got a LOAD of ideas for people.

Now, with that being said, I need to bring us all back to Reality, because while one good thing happened from Linden Lab, it doesn't excuse them for the other areas of their Business, and today I think it's time we talk about the Competitive Business Practices from Linden Lab.

Many of you probably don't remember this, but way way way back when our friend Philip was still sitting at the Helm of Linden Lab, he made it a point to let everyone know that Linden Lab WOULD NEVER directly compete against the Customer Base. Of course, we all know that this "policy" was shot down a while ago with Linden Lab acquisitions such as Web-Sites that dealt in the buying and selling of Lindens, Web-Sites that dealt with the buying and selling of Items and Services, and the most recently, Linden Lab has intruded on the Land Lease/Rental market.

My review of these "Premium Homes" that are there for the taking by all Premium Members is really not very nice. The houses look like nothing more then cardboard cut-outs from the 1950's. Not only do they look incredibly dull, but they are packed in so tight you would think Linden Lab couldn't afford a new Server here and there. Overall, the Premium Home experience will be a detriment to keeping New Residents in Second Life. They already have issues with the basic understanding of our World, and now they are going to be given the absolute worse experience in Virtual Home Ownership. I guess we can mark this idea down as, "a bad idea all the way around".

Not withstanding the creepiness of the Premium Homes, Linden Lab has set themselves to be in Direct Competition with one of the Strongest Customer Bases they have; Island Owners. I can't help but to agree with so many of the voices that are crying "FOUL" for this endeavor. Linden Lab not only is in Direct Compeition, but they also chose to CHEAT in order to be in Direct Competition. If you got and inspect these Premium Home areas you will notice that the Homes themselves are constructed of 117 PRIMS. Now normally a 512sq m area only serves up 117 PRIMS, except here in Linden Land, where the 117 PRIMS used for the houses, don't count against the Parcel Prim Count. Instead, the Premium Homes allow for another 117 PRIMS for Decor. So, in order for Linden Lab to compete with their own Customers, they have decided to "stack the deck" in their favor. This is probably a good idea considering how mediocre these homes are. Why it took Jack Linden and the Public Works Department 117 PRIMS for these homes is anyone's guess. I know almost all the really good builders in Second Life, and they could have created immensly more creative homes with 117 PRIMS, then what Linden Lab came up with. Not only that, but why does Linden Lab feel that they need to CHEAT and give themselves DOUBLE PRIMS on their Servers; which btw, they continue to say that this will only cause more lag and is the reason they don't do it for everyone, so what they are saying now is, that they are providing shabbily built cut-outs that will be dreadfully laggy.

What upsets me here, is not that Linden Lab chose to compete with their own Customer Base, but they decided to CHEAT to give themselves an "advantage". I think all Island Owners, no matter if you are in a Homestead or a Full Island, should immediately request that Linden Lab re-configure their Islands with DOUBLE the amount of PRIMS, since we know it can be done, and apparently the lag isn't really that big of a deal.

So, Jack, Blue, M, tell us will you, when we all of us Island Owners be upgraded to the same PRIM Count utilized on your own Islands? You keep saying that your "Regime" is better then the "Old Regime"; least the "Old Regime" didn't try to CHEAT when they competed against their Customers. So, is this the "New Regime" way of doing things, CHEAT if you can't compete?

Of course, I know you all will continue to remain silent, what a surprise, but your silence only goes to affirm my position; otherwise you wouldn't HIDE behind your desks all day, doing nothing.