Premium, Is it worth it anymore?

[Tendrils]

A long long time ago in a sim far away there was a premium package that would give you a small home to call you own that gave you 100 prims to work with to decorate it with then $L300 a week to go shopping. Slowly this package grew to include other things like premium places and special gifts. But now none of that is enticing enough to buy a premium status, the house prim limits are super small for any amount of decorating, the allowance is laughably small and the gifts are useless. Is there any good reason to get premium these days or is it due for an overhaul?

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Tendrils wrote:

Is there any good reason to get premium these days or is it due for an overhaul?

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Let's see... having land without having to pay tier to a middleman, who could disappear at any moment. Oh and getting ever so slightly less crappy customer service.  An overhaul?... why yes... I can't wait to see what useless perq they offer us next.

...Dres

[Amethyst Jetaime]

To me its not worth it .I've never been premium in 7+ years and have never regretted it. 

The only reason i see to be premium is to be able to own mainland which isn't all that great IMO.  Mainland is more expensive to aquire , as you'll pay at least 0.5 - 1.00 L a prim for the least desireable land and a LOT more for prime land whereas  you can get estate land for as little as 1L or the first weeks tier.  The tier rates compare favorably  too even with the free 512m. 

When I haven't owned an estate (you don't have to be premium to be an estate owner)  I've rented / bought my land from reputable people or estates who have been in business for  while and come highly recommended.  I've never had anyone disappear on me.

As far as support, even when i had conceirge service as an estate owner it was dismal.  Any issues i've had I always have been able to solve myself with a little research.  If anything ever happens that only LL can fix, I can always pay for a month of premium, get the problem fixed then drop it again, although I've never had to do this.

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

Depends on what you seek in land.

In a comment referring to when to 'get a linden home' from another thread I responded with my list for who I feel should get what kind of land:

 

• If I was looking at a user who needed hand-holding, I'd send them to an estate somewhere.
• If they needed built in community, I'd send them an estate somewhere.
• If they needed a sense that a place had a good stable theme they could grow with, I'd send them to an estate somewhere.
• If they were a do-it-yourself tinkerer, I'd send them to mainland.
• If they wanted control, I'd send them to mainland.
• If they were an isolationist iconoclastic nutcase, I'd send them to mainland.

 

So if you're one of the last three then yes, going premium is worth it. If you're one of the first three its not. And if you don't feel any need for your own place in SL, then the entire discussion is more or less moot for you either way.

 

[Tamara Artis]

You can own Mainland even if you're not premium, but you own it through your group

[Alicia Sautereau]

lolled :matte-motes-big-grin-squint:

[ChinRey]

+ You get 300 L$/week - that's quite a lot actually.

+ And you get access to live support chat - that's really great.

+ If I understand correctly, you can also exchange your Lindens for real life money through LL at a slightly better rate than elsewhere - that's nice of course but you need to have tons of L$ before that becomes important.

To me the first two of those are more than worth the money even though it goes downhill fast from here:

- It may be nice to have a Linden Home ready for you when you're a newbie but you probably don't want to keep it longer than absolutely necessary. They're not exactly good houses and the neighbourhood is bland at best, horrible at worst.

- The Premium Gifts are just rubbish, not even worth spending the minute it takes to collect and unpack them.

[Knowl Paine]

The Premium sandboxes are so fine. If a creator is a night owl, they might have an entire empty Region to work in. It is just beautiful. That alone, is worth every penny.

A stipend of 15,600L$ at the yearly rate, is a good return.

The ability to conduct most transactions without restrictions make SL a little easier.

A Linden Home is a nice option.

A really nice plot on the mainland, is worth going premium for.

Support is like secondlife insurance to me, I only use it if I am completely dead.

The Gifts could be better if Residents could nominate items they purchase at MP.

 

 

 

 

[Maxwell Rodgers]

I consider myself an old school veteran on SL. Lemme tell you a little about Linden Labs, they are only in this for the money, don't let anything fool you. I had premium once, I told LL I was going to be late on a payment, I told them directly, but low and behold they delete my account. I owed them 10$, that's it, but they deleted at least $1,000 worth of content. And half was on uploads. So they kill my account over 10 measly dollars? When I already payed them 500$ in uploads. It makes me sick.

[Pussycat Catnap]

I've been premium since 2009. I currently have it on 5 accounts. I tend to fluctuate between 4 to 5 premium accounts.

For me its been exactly what I needed.

From my list up there, my reason is mostly: 

• If they wanted control, I'd send them to mainland.

I can't stand folks telling me what to do or how to do it, or needing to clear things with people. If not for that I'd be estate because I much prefer communities. Two opposing desires...

 

But... serious necropost up there...

 

[Perrie Juran]

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Maxwell Rodgers wrote:

I consider myself an old school veteran on SL. Lemme tell you a little about Linden Labs, they are only in this for the money, don't let anything fool you.

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I'm not aware of anyone who is saying they aren't in it for the money.

 

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 I had premium once, I told LL I was going to be late on a payment, I told them directly, but low and behold they delete my account. I owed them 10$, that's it, but they deleted at least $1,000 worth of content. And half was on uploads. So they kill my account over 10 measly dollars? When I already payed them 500$ in uploads. It makes me sick.

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And how many requests do you think they get like this? 

You owed a debt.  It's that simple.

 

Lastly, I don't know how long ago this was that it happened to you but in Jan 2012 they extended the delinquency policy from seven days to thirty.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Linden_Lab_Official:Delinquency_policy&diff=next&oldid=1142804

I'm premium also and if I become delinquent then it will suck to be me.  They are already giving me thirty days grace.