| Oh boy lot's of questions let me see if I can answer some of them...
What we now call OpenSpace sims, previously referred to as Void sims, were created originally by Linden Lab for empty spaces. They commononly used them to add oceans to the mainland though frequently those sims had the full use of 15,000 prims they were still 16 simulators on one server as OpenSpace sims are now (Regular sims are 4 per server).
Several people were pushing for Linden Lab to let Estate owners buy void sims. The primary person pushing for this was Marktwain White of Hollywood and creator of the United Sailing Sims. Originally the idea was exactly as stated above, a place for open water sims as LL had been doing with voids on the mainland. Mark was the first person to aquire void sims, back before they were available even by concierge ticket (A test case). Later on they became available through the support ticket system by estate owners, the system was not at all automated and it could take a while to get your sims.
Of course once these things came out people immediately wanted more, they wanted to be able to use them for home, not have to have them attached and all that. I think the reason they initially required an order of four and to be attached was because it was jury-rigged, the entire thing was done manually compared to regular sims. Of course now you can order them in singles and have them wherever you want, even have different estate owners than the estate biller (The person that pays for the sim even if not listed as owner) if you make a request by the support system (Which was possible before with full sims).
Still you can't order an openspace sim without owning a full island. And why not? Some people think it's because it would hurt the market too much and that's probably true but I suspect there is another reason why. I think it is because of support, because island owners get a different, higher, level of support than those on the mainland even if you own several sims worth of land on the mainland. Openspace sims have access to the same tools and same support that a full sim does, and I don't think LL has the ability nor desire to provide estate level support to potentially thousands of openspace owners.
Having the system the way it is now provides a filter. As long as openspace sims are leased out by estate owners they will be the first line of support, not Linden Lab. The estate owners can address and fix issues without having to involve LL and only call on them for the worst of situations.
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- ZATZAi |