I’ve been pondering the grid wide ghost hunt and thinking it is one of the most fun things that I’ve ever participated in.. I have never seen so many people in Second Life at the same time, and for me it’s been really fabulous to rezz in different locations and see them bustling and crowded; which is precisely how the metaverse should be. Sure, the lag has been an utter nightmare at times, nothing new there then, but it feels so nice to be exploring busy places in search of a common goal…Time to put all that aside though, because it would appear that the Lindens may have dropped a proverbial bollock with the announcement that they’re increasing the cost of Openspace sims. As you can imagine, there are blog posts aplenty where the writers are apoplectic with rage about the situation.This is the initial blog entry from the Linden blog announcing the pricing changes, and Rezzable was one of the first to post a less than favourable reaction. What a blunder…in the hours that have followed the announcement reaction has escalated into a revolution of sorts, and there are threats of real life protests outside the Linden HQ. The passion that this issue has aroused across the grid should will be an interesting challenge for M Linden and co. Avvies are a savvy lot, and don’t take such changes lightly. Many people are going to be impacted by this, and I’m so glad that I didn’t invest in a void sim now, because there’s no way I would have been happy with the increases that will be implemented come January 2009. In fact, I think a lot of people will be leaving the grid for good after this latest bombshell.

Has anyone else noticed that when it comes to issues like this the Lindens really do seem to cock -up big style? What goes on in their preannouncement meetings? Do they sit around on bean bags bouncing balls off the wall, or do they actually stop to consider the repercussions on the world that they have created and the patrons within it- the patrons who keep Second Life afloat?

If I’m honest, price increases don’t surprise me considering the current economic climate, but I didn’t see this one coming, although it would appear that some did. Second Life has appeared to be making really substantial progress with ever increasing numbers of patrons in-world (or so the Linden metrics would have us believe ) but for a change as substantial as this to come along, and with the controversy that it is generating, it may well start to see the beginning of an exodus into other virtual worlds. Apparently Openlife saw over a thousand join-ups yesterday!Regardless of the money and time I’ve spent in world, it has genuinely become my second home. I love my virtual life, and I’m not ashamed to say it. I don’t care about the people who scoff at me or look at me as if I’m a total weirdo when I tell them what I do..to me Second Life has enabled me to achieve some of my ambitions, albeit in a completely different way. Of course I don’t use it as a substitute for my reality, but it is definitely more than a hobby to me. It’s hard to define, but it’s a part of me now, just as much as Kitty is a virtual representation of the real me, although, alas, I have neither her beauty nor her fashion sense. I must confess though that this has got me worried about the potential implications that it may have on the metaverse, and has also brought to mind a conversation that Jez and I were having about SL recently, when he predicted that in 18 months time the virtual floor would have fallen away from underneath its feet for it to have been succeeded by other MMO’s and metaverses…I scoffed at the very thought. Now I’m not so sure. I need to ask Jez about this, but when Blizzard communicate with it’s 11 million WoW subscribers does it leave them feeling like they’ve been shafted, or are they more respectful of their audience? It almost feels like a stealthly attempt at self-sabotage…

Perhaps LL are trying to scythe their way through the masses and use this as a process of selection? I know that the idea behind void sims was that they would be for ‘light use’ and I’m aware that people may have abused that, but not everyone should have to suffer for this. If I had bought a void sim I would have had it as my own home;it would certainly have been used lightly by me and only my closest friends, but not everyone is so honest. Making the masses pay for the sins of a few seems incredibly harsh, which leads me to think that LL needed to glean extra revenues from somewhere…my ‘Witchy ‘sense is tingling because something seems decidedly off about this…A lot of people, myself included, have considered M Linden to be quite a reasonable chap, so I’m sure I’m not going to be the only one appealing to his better judgement here and asking him to meet the residents to discuss these changes before they come into force, and subsequently change the Second Life experience forever….