Process Credit Fees Raised. Again.

[Fauve Aeon]

13 hours ago, Alyona Su said:

I believe the main rub is that it was a full doubling of that tax (I know, they call it commission) - rather than slowly ramping it up over time, for example: 1% each year over the last five years.

My first thought in fact was ‘well they have not raised it at all for years so this is not surprising’. I’m not saying that I like the increase, who does? But I understand it, my city has a 10% tax rate. We buy and sell in my hobby RL and there is always someone who gripes about the taxes, the VAT, the shipping, the PayPal fees...I’ve had better luck just bundling them in with the price and just not mentioning it at all...’the negotiated price is the final price’ policy. We also just registered our recently purchased car and paid the taxes on it, oof...it would have been better to just take that hit as a higher total cost when we bought it. 

in SL, we have commercially zoned land in a great community and I’ll use it, only putting enough on the MP for a presence, advertising ‘limited stock on the MP’...and discounting inworld sales by the L$ percentage of the MP commission fees (gacha resale excepted). I’m also looking forward to doing another project I wouldn’t have a chance to do RL without considerable expense...developing a funky steampunk cooperative venture. We did take over and run one sort of co-op in SL at one point, and it was interesting and fun. This time we will play architect, design, commission/build it ourselves and hopefully re-create a gathering of interesting creators under 1 roof, subletting modularly by the L$/LI to cover tier...and have another go. 
 

Gacha are the exception... I’m kind of surprised no one has mentioned the hit that pull-price Gacha resellers will take, so Gacha fans might be wiser to buy/sell/trade inworld. Time to tour the Gacha resell places, see how they are doing, and continue setting mine up!

[Rya Nitely]

1 hour ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

Note that Alyona was only describing fees, taxes, etc. as making up the cost of doing business figure she used as opposed to adding in rent, equipment cost, etc.

 

14 hours ago, Alyona Su said:

which means I have to maintain land for a place, there is that cost added to my costs of business.

So, I can take the 10% hit with MP only, or I take a higher hit by also maintaining the cost of an in-world location.

I think Alyona was concentrating more on fees and taxes, especially the 10% MP fee as this has a direct impact on her.

The rent you pay on property used for business purposes is a cost. So, I don't totally understand what you mean.

Anyway, those are my costs - over 50%, and considering the pittance I get, it is no longer worth it for me to push myself to increase or maintain profit. I am sure I'm not alone.

So for me and others in a similar position we don't call it fair, but it is what it is and I make my choice.

I'll still be in SL because creating simply and only for the pleasure of it is a novelty.

[Alyona Su]

1 hour ago, Rya Nitely said:

I think Alyona was concentrating more on fees and taxes, especially the 10% MP fee as this has a direct impact on her.

This is an accurate statement, thank you. I have no intention to belittle anyone in your position. my call-outs are directed to those whose knee-jerk reactions are over the top shrill. Though the RL economy (in the U.S., anyway) was utter garbage during the previous administrations eight years and much improved now, the SL economy have been in a slow decline over the last 10 years or so (from my purview).

I do get it and I understand the complaints and empathize; it affects me, too. My replies in this thread from the very beginning has always been intended to throw shrill comments back into the laps of those who made them, along with stating a simple fact. Do I like that fact? I most certainly do not. My main point is simply that there are costs to doing business, even a virtual one such as with SL. The real question is whether one can maintain a reasonable profit.

It comes down to the "!% Rule" - I've read that those in RL in the U.S. making $170,000 are at the threshold of never in need anymore; any costs to maintaining that amount is hence: moot, because the money will now maintain itself. Meaning that if they pay even 50% in taxes, they may complain about it, but they'll never "feel" it, where as a 30% tax on someone making even half that will feel real pain in it.

It's the same with MP: Those raking in 100's of thousands of L$ every month or two may complain about it, but won't really blink an eye. The rest of us: ouch. I do not try to earn any kind of real money in SL, my MP just supports my in-SL shopping, etc. Those who are trying to supplement their incomes, I feel your pain. Though I also feel that many of the commenters in this thread do not meet that criteria, they do not sell enough to warrant their outrage. I've looked at their MP store and... Well, what goes through my mind is "Seriously?" To them I say: it's the cost of doing business, adopt or move on.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Theresa Tennyson]

3 hours ago, Rya Nitely said:

The rent you pay on property used for business purposes is a cost. So, I don't totally understand what you mean.

The new fees didn't come out of the blue; the were on top of a reduction in the cost of "land." Most of the merchants in these threads also own virtual land in Second Life for their stores - I know two of them own two full regions apiece. The cost for those decreased, which is a reduction in income for Second Life. (The content load for those same regions also increased with the prim allowance increase.)

The reduction in "land" cost is a reduction in "fixed cost" which would be the same for someone owning land whether they sold $L10 or $L10,000,000 of items in a month. Land cost acts as a regressive tax.

The new fees which are being complained about are not fixed expenses - they are directly proportional to the amount of income for the business. It is theoretically impossible for them to be greater than income coming in.

When the fees and land cost reduction are looked at together, it will benefit a business bringing in a comparatively small amount and work to the disadvantage of a business bringing in a comparatively large amount. However, that means that the businesses that are hurt are still bringing in a comparatively large amount.

I haven't seen anyone doing math about the effect of the new fees taking into account land costs. In fact, one of the people posting literally didn't know how much they were actually paying for land now.

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by Theresa Tennyson

[Tonk Tomcat]

I only rent land for my store and the land lord (it's a big sim renting group) did not reduced the cost recently, so there is no reduced cost inworld to me. Even if my land would cost less, the landcost are still nothing compared to all the fees. For me the maximum level on fees are already reached. Not sure how it is for us citizen, but in my opinion it's already super hard to make enough anymore.

• 10% marketplace fee
• 3,5% linden dollar to dollar exchange fee
• 5% process fee
• 4% paypal $ to € fee
• 19% vat
• ~30% income tax

As you see i even don't take land cost to it, because it's only a small part (~27k/month). Compared to the 5% marketplace fee increase we just had, thats like a waterdrop to a barrel of water.

Now do the math how much on tax and fees you have to pay and how much is left for you, BEFORE you have to also pay software/hardware to work with (yes, you can get some amount for working stuff back from tax, but not 100%, so it's still a big amount you also have to pay from the net income). And if you do sl as fulltime job as a freelancer like i do, you also have to pay health insurance and you have to save some money for pension. The amount you would have to make is really very high.

Also, most of all creators (sorry to say that) create content that never should be in any game, nor it should be in sl (mesh polycount-wise). If everybody would spent the time it really needs to create game ready mesh content, nobody would be able to trash out new stuff every week. So the income of every creator would sink a lot, new stuff would be more expensive, less people buy the more expensive stuff / or could only buy new stuff when there is new stuff released (maybe once a month, at least 2 per month/designer, depends how complex the stuff is) and linden lab would even get less at the end because with no new content, residents would not need to buy linden dollars (because why should somebody buy linden dollars if there is nothing to spend them for?).

So, increasing the fees to the creators is completly at the wrong end. I really spent every day per week from morning till night in creating new stuff. At the end, it didn't pay anymore right now, and the increased fees does not help at all. I'm doing this fullltime since 11 years. So i know what i'm talking about. I hope some lindens read this and maybe they consider some of the points when they plan to milk the cash cow even more. Some day there is no cow left to milk, if they go on like this.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Tonk Tomcat

[Flea Yatsenko]

If SL was growing and doing well, they wouldn't have to increase fees. If SL was growing by 5% every few months, they'd make more money with 5% commission than they would at 10% with a flat or declining userbase. Remember that old story or whatever where someone asks if you'd rather have a penny that doubles every day or get a few dollars a day? It's very similar.

SL still plays like a game before 2010. You need a good computer, it takes time to learn how to use it, etc. SL desperately needs a new, alternative viewer designed for exploring the world and making your avatar look good. People have no patience to learn a something like SL, they did years and years ago.

LL needs to shift SL to be more attractive to content consumers and not content creators. There are enough creators, it's why most of the grid is empty. People come here to make things and then no one shows up because everyone else is making things and they want people to show up. Meanwhile you have people who don't have the time or patience to learn the SL viewer and get into things. You have a generation that barely knows how to use a physical QWERTY keyboard, and there's nothing LL has to cater to that market.

I've floated this idea before, but LL needs to make the current viewer the advanced editor for SL, then make a simple, well performing viewer that does nothing but let you explore the world and buy stuff. They need a way to compile a sim into an optimized map that can be downloaded by that viewer, so it runs significantly better and we can get SL on iOS and Android.

There's a lot of things LL should be doing to grow the user base. And they keep getting stuck in side projects and ignoring SL. Imagine how much the SL economy would grow if there was an Android app where the focus was on having a home and making your AV look cool, and you could buy L$ directly from the app.

SLMP is interesting, because when we make more money selling stuff, so does LL. It's win win, which is why I think a lot of people are upset about the increase. LL took something that should be win win and turned it into win-lose with merchants losing twice as much money as they used to in each transaction.

I feel sorry for you outside of the US. VAT and that income tax is absurd.

[Rya Nitely]

4 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

I haven't seen anyone doing math about the effect of the new fees taking into account land costs.

 

I have acknowledged it, and the extra prims do help but it doesn't bring in more sales for me.

Actually, December has been one of the worst months I've had, and I only realised this when I was working out percentages. Over the past six months my profits are down 40% compared to a year or two ago. I knew I was making less but I only just worked out how much less. I'm just so relieved I didn't quit my rl job to do this full time, and my sympathy goes to those who do. Not knowing when your income will be reduced again by increased fees would be stressful.

[Luna Bliss]

On 12/30/2019 at 4:41 PM, Alyona Su said:

That is a very fair question! 25% would be my breaking point and I'll explain why: I also ran a RL business for a time. There are taxes

I say yes, it is fair. 

I'm glad you have a limit, as I was starting to think only the side of authority matters to you when evaluating SL matters, and that you would just lay down and accept anything LL proposed! And I do understand and share your irritation with those creators who are unable to even entertain realities from 'the other side' in this debate.
However, SL is vastly different from RL on so many levels, and so using RL taxes to evaluate the economy in SL is comparing apples to oranges. While some theories can apply to both it's dangerous to equate the two when attempting to formulate what would increase SL's chance of success over the long-run.

As Rya documented earlier in the thread, the fee increases are an experiment -- LL does not know how this will effect SL and so they are proceeding slowly and evaluating along the way. So instead of telling people this is the "cost of doing business" it would be more accurate to say this is, at least at this point in time, the "cost of being an experiment".

But back to the differences between RL & SL economies that make comparisons between RL taxes and SL fees a specious argument, there are many, but a few are -- manufacturing costs and government regulations in RL that prevent or minimize the undercutting so prevalent in SL, better regulations in RL to prevent or minimize the stolen goods that decrease our wages in SL, higher wages available in RL commensurate with time and dedication in the pursuit of higher skills that do not apply to most creators in SL, an open system in RL with a worldwide audience which increases sales (Amazon notwithstanding) whereas SL is a closed system, a higher estimation of 'real' goods in RL vs the devaluation of digital ones.

I view the devaluation of 3d content, or even digital internet content in general, to be the root problem -- and it's a perception we could work to change. This is very difficult to do without LL's backing though, their perception made apparent when they framed content creators as "getting away" with not paying their fair share (this reveals they don't value the hard work that goes into being a successful content creator here). It became apparent when the former Linden with the Shakespeare name found it remarkable that the residents of SL earn more than LL does (hello, there are less than a hundred Lindens and many thousands of creators, so you might take this into account when suggesting what is fair). It became apparent when selling some trees to a Linden long ago, who was super stressed because he was finding creating content was so difficult, believing that he was simply inept and so couldn't entertain the fact that quality content creation is very difficult and requires time and skill! It became apparent with the offhand comment by our leader on a video (when responding to disturbances over fee increases) suggesting content creators can just increase prices (one would expect our leader to know a bit more about our ability to do that, and come up with methods to facilitate a rise in prices). The point is, how can quality content be encouraged, supported, and protected when the time and effort required to become skilled in such an endeavor is not recognized? Why would the residents of the world who brag about never paying for 'pixels' ever respect the hard work of creation when the leaders don't appear to respect it and treat the flooding of stolen goods into the world so lightly? Or when they pay the Moles only 10 dollars an hour?
I could rant on and on about how residents or people in general devalue 3d content, but I believe the changes in attitude need to come first from those in control. Since they intend to procure more revenue from MP sales one would think they would be developing ways to present 3d content in a more favorable light.

[Flea Yatsenko]

22 hours ago, Rya Nitely said:

I have acknowledged it, and the extra prims do help but it doesn't bring in more sales for me.

Actually, December has been one of the worst months I've had, and I only realised this when I was working out percentages. Over the past six months my profits are down 40% compared to a year or two ago. I knew I was making less but I only just worked out how much less. I'm just so relieved I didn't quit my rl job to do this full time, and my sympathy goes to those who do. Not knowing when your income will be reduced again by increased fees would be stressful.

haha, I had a nice, long post written up about how December was bad for me too. And how it had to do with SL reliability being a problem. And when I clicked submit it ate my post and started giving 504 errors. What a nice reminder of why I never really use these forums.

[Alyona Su]

17 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

using RL taxes to evaluate the economy in SL is comparing apples to oranges

Let us be clear here, this is not what I was doing. I was using it as the example of the cost of doing business. There are some entitlement attitudes all over the place, especially in SL, where everything is expected for nothing. All I have ever said in this entire thread on this entire subject is: nothing is free, it's the cost of doing business. I will stand by that.

As for the differences in RL and SL economies: that is all a moot point. Business rules are still business rules with regard to the fact that there are costs to doing business, what those costs are and how they are levied are only the methods to the inevitable costs. The question is whether you can do enough business to support those costs.

The numbers I gave you with regard to my RL business was to explain why my limit would be 25%. There is no meaning in that explanation other than that.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Alyona Su

[Rya Nitely]

LL need to realise the cost of doing business too. What they are doing is lowering their cost by increasing ours, and they can do that for as long as they can get away with it. And there is nothing we can do except discuss it here, and support each other.

Nothing is free, and LL should realise this too because they are getting our hard labour for practically free when you take into account the hours we put in and what we get for it. It's slave labour, it's third world conditions. Yes, we can choose to do it or not, of course, just as anyone in the world working for such a low income.

[OptimoMaximo]

On 1/2/2020 at 3:03 PM, Rya Nitely said:

LL need to realise the cost of doing business too. What they are doing is lowering their cost by increasing ours, and they can do that for as long as they can get away with it. And there is nothing we can do except discuss it here, and support each other.

Nothing is free, and LL should realise this too because they are getting our hard labour for practically free when you take into account the hours we put in and what we get for it. It's slave labour, it's third world conditions. Yes, we can choose to do it or not, of course, just as anyone in the world working for such a low income.

... Unless LL expects all of us to just download someone else's models and upload them as is. At this condition, anyone can whip out a huge number of products a month, making the buck on scale sales. Legit production is disincentived

[Luna Bliss]

1 hour ago, OptimoMaximo said:

... Unless LL expects all of us to just download someone else's models and upload them as is. At this condition, anyone can whip out a huge number of products a month, making the buck on scale sales. Legit production is disincentived

Maybe I'll just get with the program and open a new store with questionable content...name it Laggy Bliss....lol.

I need money, I'm tempted...but I'd feel like I was doing a disservice to the hard working true creators in SL   

Edited January 3, 2020 by Luna Bliss

[Chic Aeon]

On 12/31/2019 at 1:20 PM, Rya Nitely said:

Actually, December has been one of the worst months I've had, and I only realised this when I was working out percentages. Over the past six months my profits are down 40% compared to a year or two ago. I knew I was making less but I only just worked out how much less. I'm just so relieved I didn't quit my rl job to do this full time, and my sympathy goes to those who do. Not knowing when your income will be reduced again by increased fees would be stressful.

I had the very same experience at the end of the year -- looking back. From July (before Tilia went into effect and we lost what seems to be a lot of folks (mostly Europeans) that were somewhat replaced statistically by alts made to get Belli homes ^^) My GROSS has dropped steadily (such a lovely curve - my statistics professor would be smiling) 66 percent Leaving me with 33 percent of what I USED to make.  

 

I am not cashing out any longer after Tilia came into effect, but LEA also closed so I needed new demo space.  My NET for December was almost laughable if it wasn't so sad.  Now it is still a profit and  some of my friends would be thrilled to have (they said so :D) but still.   So, I made a decision to move from my homestead to a 4096. Most of my sales are from the Marketplace (more now of late) and have messages that I will rez things as people want to see.  NOT what I wanted to do, but necessary if you want to keep a good business model as part of your personal "game" in SL (and I do).  

 

My creator friends who used to talk opening about how much they made and which venues were working for them etc are VERY QUIET which leads me to believe that I may actually be doing OK in the current climate (insert chuckle here).  So pretty obviously I am not encouraged to create. Add to that the preponderance of downloaded mesh at "original mesh only events" and it is pretty damn depressing.  Not as bad as Sansar, but still SO not good. 

 

I really never had a giant issue with the fee raise, but add all the other issues over the last six months and the state of the US economy (and maybe others - I don't pay much attention to that) and it is NOT a good working climate.  So deciding NOT to sign that Tilia agreement turns out to be an even more logical choice in retrospect.  

Edited January 3, 2020 by Chic Aeon
spelling

[Luna Bliss]

27 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

My GROSS has dropped steadily (such a lovely curve - my statistics professor would be smiling) 66 percent Leaving me with 33 percent of what I USED to make.

What do you guess caused such a drop, and so fast! (I remember you mentioning not all that long ago you were doing fine)...

* Most creators I've talked to report drastic drops in income too, but don't know why... 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Luna Bliss

[Chic Aeon]

25 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

What do you guess caused such a drop, and so fast! (I remember you mentioning not all that long ago you were doing fine)...

* Most creators I've talked to report drastic drops in income too, but don't know why... 

Well the general RL ECONOMY likely plays into the scenario. And yes, up until July I was going great.  The Hop and Shop in June was my second highest earnings at an event EVER.   

 

It is likely a lot of things.  As I have said before, I definitely underestimated the Tilia Effect and I didn't expect as many folks to leave as appear to have done so. They left in August but that doesn't necessarily mean it was BECAUSE of Tilia.  Originally I just thought it was the European summer holiday thing, but they didn't return in September. 

 

What I see as a creator and a blogger is that many (not all certainly) folks that make mesh are making less interesting items. Quicker? Easier? Simpler? It all fits.   There are still a few filled with the creative spark; whether are not their sales reflect their extra work and enthusiasm I don't know. Others appear to be buying from the China Market (I really don't know much about that but apparently it is discussed widely on other forums.  This in many cases keeps me from blogging their items;  they just aren't up to my blog's standards (sadly).  That's all legal now of course, but still.   

 

 I see some friends going back to events where they DID NOT DO WELL previously (and which are in most cases way less viable than when they left. (I visit each month and note the downturns including traffic and quality of goods as well as number of creators.)  I haven't ASKED why but these are folks with big land bills to pay as well as RL monetary needs, so I am guessing it is a desperation thing.   

 

 

[Paul Hexem]

2 hours ago, OptimoMaximo said:

... Unless LL expects all of us to just download someone else's models and upload them as is. At this condition, anyone can whip out a huge number of products a month, making the buck on scale sales. Legit production is disincentived

Have you looked at the marketplace recently? That's exactly what they expect. More stolen content means more money from them, while they keep denying involvement because of outdated laws. 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

On 12/31/2019 at 10:20 PM, Tonk Tomcat said:

• 10% marketplace fee
• 3,5% linden dollar to dollar exchange fee
• 5% process fee
• 4% paypal $ to € fee
• 19% vat
• ~30% income tax

Half of these fees are out of Linden Lab's control and don't (wouldn't/shouldn't) affect their decision making. Not everyone converts currency, not everyone pays VAT, not everyone pays the same income tax. (I'm an EU citizen too, yay VAT.)

On 12/31/2019 at 10:20 PM, Tonk Tomcat said:

Now do the math how much on tax and fees you have to pay and how much is left for you

Here you go. I kept the paypal fees constant so you can see what effect LL's changes had.

On 12/31/2019 at 10:20 PM, Tonk Tomcat said:

So, increasing the fees to the creators is completly at the wrong end.

Which end do you propose they start increasing fees from, then?

Edited January 4, 2020 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Pavon2]

6 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

Well the general RL ECONOMY likely plays into the scenario. And yes, up until July I was going great.  The Hop and Shop in June was my second highest earnings at an event EVER.   

 

It is likely a lot of things.  As I have said before, I definitely underestimated the Tilia Effect and I didn't expect as many folks to leave as appear to have done so. They left in August but that doesn't necessarily mean it was BECAUSE of Tilia.  Originally I just thought it was the European summer holiday thing, but they didn't return in September. 

 

What I see as a creator and a blogger is that many (not all certainly) folks that make mesh are making less interesting items. Quicker? Easier? Simpler? It all fits.   There are still a few filled with the creative spark; whether are not their sales reflect their extra work and enthusiasm I don't know. Others appear to be buying from the China Market (I really don't know much about that but apparently it is discussed widely on other forums.  This in many cases keeps me from blogging their items;  they just aren't up to my blog's standards (sadly).  That's all legal now of course, but still.   

 

 I see some friends going back to events where they DID NOT DO WELL previously (and which are in most cases way less viable than when they left. (I visit each month and note the downturns including traffic and quality of goods as well as number of creators.)  I haven't ASKED why but these are folks with big land bills to pay as well as RL monetary needs, so I am guessing it is a desperation thing.   

 

 

 

What is "China Market" ?

[ChinRey]

31 minutes ago, Pavon2 said:

What is "China Market" ?

I haven't heard that term before either but I assume it means mass prduced meshes made in China or some other low cost country.

[Tonk Tomcat]

2 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

...

Dude, if you are not selfemployed and only earn pocketmoney, just stop try talking about things you have no clue of. You don't have to say something to everything. You always post such things when i comment, and you seem to not get it when i say i'm a self employed freelancer doing this since 11 years. I will not comment anything from you because the only thing you seem to want is to argue about things you aren't involed and have no clue about.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

2 hours ago, Tonk Tomcat said:

Dude, if you are not selfemployed and only earn pocketmoney, just stop try talking about things you have no clue of. You don't have to say something to everything. You always post such things when i comment, and you seem to not get it when i say i'm a self employed freelancer doing this since 11 years. I will not comment anything from you because the only thing you seem to want is to argue about things you aren't involed and have no clue about.

I haven't looked at this thread in weeks, yours happened to be the only one on the last page that was interesting enough to respond on.

I haven't discredited you in any way (and don't plan to), I just genuinely disagree with some of the points made and I wanted to ask you an (in my opinion) pretty concrete question.

If LL isn't raising land fees, and shouldn't raise L$ transaction fees, what should they do besides nothing?

P.S. I don't need to be personally self-employed by SL to fully understand the numbers and what you have to deal with financially. Everybody has income and expenses. I'll admit again that I'm very mathematically declined but this isn't rocket science and it directly relates to most other type of non-salaried job or income, self-employed or not.

If you seriously think there's something mystical about living off of SL, at least give me some specific subject I supposedly have no clue about, because the two posts from you I've responded to seemed pretty straight-forward. Can you even point out something about what I've said that's incorrect instead of just running away with a blanket "you're clueless?"

P.P.S. Regarding the "pocket money" comment.. I hope that wasn't said because of the "gross income" I used in the excel sheet. Just so everybody's aware, percentages are proportional. It doesn't matter whether you're cashing out L$ 1000 or $1000 USD. You get/lose proportionally just as much. The numbers I showed don't specify the currency, only the fees. I've clarified the sheet somewhat.

You can see that Tonk currently gets about 45% of his money after all the fees are taken out, while back in 2017 he got 49%. LL going from 1.5% processing and 5% MP tax to 5% processing and 10% MP tax has resulted in a 4% change in final net, not accounting for any changes in PayPal fees or personal income tax. If we assumed Tonk was making $50K (before any fees) a year, the monthly cost of these fee increases since 2017 would amount to... $208. Less if he makes less.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Pavon2 said:

 

What is "China Market" ?

Apparently there is a very large market (maybe several - not sure) of mesh for sale by people working in China. This info from friends who hang out on other social media. So like buying from Tubrosquid but from China :D. And possibly cheaper? Don't know.  Maybe someone else has more info. 

[Paul Hexem]

1 hour ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

If LL isn't raising land fees, and shouldn't raise L$ transaction fees, what should they do besides nothing?

Increase the cost of premium to match other MMOs and offer perks to make it worth it (Blizzard was raking in billions of dollars a month at one point- LL missed that window).

How about microtransactions? That's a proven business model. Name changes, last names, inventory perks, group perks, whatever. 

 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

11 minutes ago, Gadget Portal said:

Increase the cost of premium to match other MMOs and offer perks to make it worth it (Blizzard was raking in billions of dollars a month at one point- LL missed that window).

How about microtransactions? That's a proven business model. Name changes, last names, inventory perks, group perks, whatever. 

All well and good but they're also already doing that. Funny thing I just noticed while comparing prices, premium is more expensive if you pay quarterly (and incidentally about the same cost as WoW quarterly). Has it always been like that? Weird.

Second Life already has microtransactions though. It's called the SL economy.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Wulfie Reanimator