Survey: Do You Have a Premium Second Life Account, Or If Not, What Would Make You Get One?

Last week's post on staunching Second Life's revenue loss brought up a lot of interesting ideas and passionate debate, but the most immediate way of stabilizing SL is through growth in monthly Premium subscriptions (currently $6 to $9.50 a month, depending how you pay). Hence this survey -- do you have a Premium account already, and if not, what would it take for you to get one? Many possibilities above, and by all means suggest your own in Comments below.

Hey look, Linden Lab, we're helping you do your own market research!

Comments

[Taylor]

Other: stop double-dipping on land sales. It's crazy that I have to pay upfront to "buy" something that I'm really just renting. There's tons and tons and tons of abandoned mainland land; let me freely choose from that and I'll very gladly pay not only for a Premium membership but for extra tier with a larger parcel.

[Tamar Luminos]

More tier and larger parcel with more prims might do it. As it is, I rent a corner 4096sqm parcel with 1250 prims for 1493L/week. I like having the space and prims to be able to build a few different detailed settings. The LL starter land is way too small and too few prims to really be able to do much with it.

I'd love to buy/rent an entire sim, but 300 USD/mo. is way too much.

[Dollie]

Other: If there was a physical alternative like how Steam and IMVU have cards that you can buy rather than paying online through paypal.

[CharleyJohnson]

I think it is clear that the cost of owning land, tier, is too high. To use a metaphor, it is as if the government got all its money from a tax on land. The feudal system. Replace the tax on land, in whole or in part, with a sales tax. That way LL taps into the main source of economic activity in SL, the sale of goods and services. LL should take a percentage of each transaction on the Marketplace. Keep it low enough not to suppress volume. Have a lower tax on goods and services sold in an inworld store.

[Bluebeholder]

The ability to have an actual last name like the early days.

[Shug Maitland]

Taylor: You already can "freely choose" mainland. Under most circumstances, LL will put the land up for auction but there is little competition and most plots go for only a little over L$1/sq.M.

Bluebeholder: OMG, we wish! Unfortunately, LL seems to have little appetite for actually re-implementing last names (in spite of the fact that they acknowledge it would be a good idea in principal).

[Shockwave]

Frankly premium is useless. But i do think you should not be allowed to have a store in marketplace unless you are premium. That will not do much to staunch the loss of people though, which is the heart of the problem. I can play SL for a month, or get two new console games per month for the same money. What do you think is more fun to most folks?

You can toss ideas around till your fingers bleed. But if you dont address the root cause of LLs troubles - that all that abandoned land costs too much - the problem will never be fixed. And as to the argument that ll cant afford to lower prices - they could afford to lower prices for everyone in the Atlas project.

[Willliam Burns]

The problem with Premium Accounts is that there is little incentive to actually buy into them. Most of the "perks" are merely duplications of things a non-premium member can attain as a regular citizen, or are superficial "upgrades" that aren't really a big deal.

1. 300L Stipend. Essentially you'd get this if you spent the same amount normally to buy the L$ as you needed. Most "jobs" in SL alone can net you far more than this per week without paying into the system.

2. Exclusive Access to Premium Only areas. The citizens of Second Life create a massive amount of open regions which are pretty amazing. Putting content behind a premium account doesn't seem like a compelling reason.

3. Premium Virtual Gifts. Every virtual item I've seen Linden Lab offer as a premium gift has been matched or bested by independent designers on Marketplace openly. You remember the "Hoverboard" pack right? VETOX had a far superior hoverboard system for free on MP. Dune Buggy? Same deal. There are better alternatives without the Premium Account, or at least comparable.

4. Customer Support. I'm not entirely sure this is worthwhile on its own, but I'll throw it in there as a possible positive for people who aren't as tech savvy.

The rest is pretty much inconsequential to me.

[ What would compel me to use a Premium Account? ]

1. Remember SLGo? It was a streaming service that allowed the end-user to stream SL at ultra graphics regardless of their local computer capabilities. In that this service was 3rd party made absolutely no sense. This is an example of "added value proposition" wherein the company is not duplicating things that are available otherwise.

If Linden Lab built a viewer whereby premium users could enable an SLGO type streaming booster to be able to use SL in ultra graphics regardless of their computer capabilities, this is an added value proposition that is not easily or already duplicated in the existing user-base via services. Doubly so if LL also made a mobile viewer with the same capabilities - whereby non-premium members would still use it normally at a reduced ability (based on their device) but could pay the premium for the streaming booster built in.

2. Let's say that Linden Lab also implements a back-end system whereby idle regions can co-process active regions. This way, popular regions could handle the load through processor sharing on the servers on-demand. Drastically increasing the concurrency for regions, less lag overall (and in conjunction with the streaming perk) nearly no lag for the end user machine.

Putting those two things squarely into the "Premium User" experience would be two things that aren't easily replicable by the existing user-base, and therefore become unique benefits, and would drastically increase the end-user experience for the price. SaS (subscription as a service) model done right.

If I saw those two things implemented into Second Life as a Premium option, I'd be far more compelled.

[Felecia Carver]

I dropped Premium when I had technical issues. The hours for support are useless to most people. I then did the math and figured the stipend wasn't worth the cost.

[Sahbrena]

Other: A few things actually. More active participation to stop grievers. they have ways of tracking the stuff that is going on, tracking AVI's and the things they do. More prim for the land plot you get as well as a little more space. Maybe bump it up prim to 200-300.

AND

What Willliam Burns said... wow. That would definitely make a difference for me renewing my premium membership.

[Subversive Vavoom]

Marketplace fraud is rampant; Lindens won't even bother with it. Any yahoo can sell an empty box or notecard on the MP for as much as they like, mark it no copy/limited qty. and not even suffer a negative review. Police that, require premium to sell via the MP, and implement some sort of verification system for the content that's being sold, box or no box.

[Flashing Merlin]

I'm already Premium and the reason has nothing to do with any of the incentives LL offers. The comments above document fairly well why those incentives are fairly worthless.

I started building my home in SL by renting on a private island. That island failed, so I was forced to move to another island, and start building all over again. A year later that second island failed, and faced with moving yet again, I opted to move to the mainland where I wouldn't have to worry about another island failing.

I feel it's well worth paying for Premium membership because it allows you to own plots on the mainland, and gain the security that offers. For me that's the only selling point for Premium membership, however LL doesn't even mention this as an advantage.

[Snowhawk]

I have premium. I have for years, mostly because the name of the sim where my Linden home is is the best. But that's not really enough, is it? Land tier is rediculous. Lower mainland fees, and private region fees would be much more incentive to me. Even renting a homestead is too much, at about $130US a month for the cheapest ones. And I'm good at efficiently decorating, but the prim allowances are still too small.

One thing I liked about InWorldz was the sim rental was incredibly cheap (a 2x2 for less than a single full region in SL, with more prims per region) with a tiny set up fee.

I don't like having neighbors in SL. I have ideas for a roleplay area that I can't implement because I can't afford the sim rental.

Here's what I know: people will pay more for something that is free, but has good incentives. I play The Elder Scrolls Online, and I not only pay for a subscription, but I buy Crowns for other shop items occasionally. When I played World of Warcraft, I didn't buy nearly as many cosmetic things. The subscription fee was required, and I got nothing for it, other than game access. In ESO, I get Crowns, access to DLC areas, and a bag just for my crafting materials.

I have, over the years, thrown probably thousands at Linden Labs buying L$, paying premium fees, and paying land tier. Yet I'm finding myself in a position of "Do I really want to spend this money each month for a couple of spots of virtual land?" Because that and the stipend are the only perks I remotely care about, but I can sell a couple of furry mods that I've already made and uploaded and make more than the stipend.

(tl;dr I don't think premium is with it, and if I wasn't hosting other people, I wouldn't spend the money I do each month.)

[Clara Seller]

I guess I'm the lonely little lamb who would love to see a premium avatar in the spirit of the Daz3D models incorporated with the functionality of what original SL avatars used to be. I miss the days when your head was just an assumed part of your body and you didn't need Access Council Approval and a dossier to put a freckle on your cheek. Throwing the foundation to the free market has complicated everything, created monopolies, and bulldozed originality.

[Pim Peccable]

I've resisted premium for over 10 years amid several reactions of 'Meh, don't need that' and 'Not worth paying for'. Poverty has not helped either.

What would make fidget over the decision?

William Burns mentioned streaming SL at ultra graphics regardless of their local computer capabilities as SLGO did. I actually THOUGHT about getting THAT until it stopped being available!

Doubling the stipend would make one feel like they are actually getting a deal. It currently matches buying $L once a month.

[YsabelleStewart]

I think the stipend is handy, and the default SL homes are very basic, don't even have stairs, just a ramp as I recall. The higher number of groups is definitely useful. The premium areas seem to be a bit 'meh'. I'm struggling to see more advantages at the moment. I wasn't aware of priority entry on full regions. In general, I think they need to offer more than they're providing now. Some good comments above.

[Mariko Nightfire]

Cheaper Land. Larger Sims. More Prims.

[pixels]

I have a premium membership but not sure it's worth $120/year.

I think William Burns made excellent points. I was just about to sign up for SL Go then it was gone so never got to test it but that would def be a game changer.

[Greg]

I had SLGO and miss it. If Ll had a premiu service that offered this type of streaming serice they would capture a majority of users. the rest of the sugestions will do little to increase premium participation.

[Tim King]

For less than 8 bucks a month, I'm still happy with my Linden home.

Sure, it's nothing special, but now with the additional prims we got recently, and being thrifty with mesh objects, I can make due for my needs in SL. Plus, the 300L per week means that I have some regular shopping money too.

When I want to use any of my zillions of inventory items, I just teleport to a premium sandbox and set up shop there for a bit while I play around. Then I can select all and put it back in my inventory till the next time. I know it's not ideal, but I'm quite good at it now. It saves me money that I'd otherwise be spending for rent.

I spend a lot of time out and about exploring and taking snapshots around SL. But the premium sandbox comes in handy for snapshots with my own stuff. I rather fancy being a sandbox squatter. But then, there's always my Linden home to go back to.

Best thing is, I added an extra floor on the roof on my Linden home. It's quite spacious now. I actually have 25 or so extra prims that I still haven't used.

[Meadow Heart]

With more Sims requiring group membership for access, an increase in the maximum group amount is something I would greatly appreciate. As a creator I have to belong to a certain number of groups, which severely limits the ones I would like to join for social purposes. Also it is highly annoying that although I have had premium on multiple account since I started SL, the stipend was reduced from 500 to 300 because of a clerical issue in billing. Although I paid retroactively, I was told they could not reinstate it back to what it was, as a result I cancelled.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Meadow, premium users ALREADY get more group slots than non-premium users, 60 vs 42. LL hasn't done a good job of promoting this benefit. There's also the premium access thing involving avatar limits that LL just implemented.

[Mike]

Converting the monthly cost of premium to Aussie dollars it just is not worth the money for what you get. I once was premium, But for what i was paying monthly just was not worth it to me. Unlimited groups would be great, Specaily for non premium merchants.