can't help but notice that the only categories considered in this are those that can currently afford to have land in SL.

in any case you're probably correct in that there wouldn't suddenly be a return of all the hobbyists and roleplayers buying sims. It

would take an awful lot of cultural change back to the days before the approach of only supporting profit-making enterprises.

Also: The tracts of our tiers The tracts of our tiers - Inara's companion piece.

Haizo: What does that say about your orientation?

Well, judging by some of the nasty emails I'm getting, my piece was not so well received in some quarters.

For various reasons, I'm not sure that I agree that profit would be greatly reduced for region owners. However, one thing seems clear to me

and that is that it seems as if people are not seeing the current price of land (in effect, the cost to "play") as worth the return. It

The estate holders I spoke to were pretty sure that that would be the result. They made a pretty compelling case.

seems to me that more are leaving than joining. Of course, that may simply be an effect that's local to my neighbourhood. I think that LL...

has to do something to correct that imbalance. So far, attempts to raise the value of being in SL seem to have failed.

I don't own an estate, but it seems to me that the assertion that profit is proportional to land price to the extent that you are proposing

is dependant on land price being the only factor in estate value. Personally, I think that factors such as service and theme may be of a

constant value. That is, it may be that no matter how low the cost of land, good service and a good theme/environment/community are worth

(let's say) $25/month.

The natural and normal attrition that takes place isn't being replaced.

(Agree or not, though, there's no call for nastiness.)

The median life expectancy for a new user is... say about four minutes.

A third don't get anywhere near as far as that.