Upcoming Premium Levels - speculations

[Qie Niangao]

32 minutes ago, Callum Meriman said:

Tyche suggests otherwise http://www.gridsurvey.com/ but I guess nobody knows. Where do you get your figures that mainland and private give the lab the same?

• Monthly Tier Estimates - Private Estates c.US$2.970 Million, Mainland c.US$0.704 Million

Oh, no, that's not what I meant at all. Rather, I was claiming -- and only to a very rough first approximation -- that the Lab's income is about the same per square meter of land rented/"owned" by a resident. And that's just based on Estate land fees compared to the cost of Mainland tier (above the "free" Premium "bonus" tier), with some vigorous hand-waving over complications like grandfathered sims, Atlas program fees, etc., etc.

And that was all just to say the Lab doesn't particularly gain by luring Estate renters into becoming Mainland owners. Possibly the opposite, in fact, depending how we ascribe Premium membership fees to Mainland tier, but maybe further complicated by other unknowns such as different "stickiness" of "renters" vs "owners" or whatever.

[Love Zhaoying]

28 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

with some vigorous hand-waving over complications

I call these “details”. Details are good!

[Love Zhaoying]

29 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

And that was all just to say the Lab doesn't particularly gain by luring Estate renters into becoming Mainland owners. Possibly the opposite, in fact, depending how we ascribe Premium membership fees to Mainland tier, but maybe further complicated by other unknowns such as different "stickiness" of "renters" vs "owners" or whatever.

Won’t all the current excitement over 1024 tier (meaning, mainland will get bought more) hurt the private sim owners who need renters? 

[Parhelion Palou]

I'd love a version of Premium that allows you to have more than one Experience. Whether tier or most of the other perks are included doesn't concern me, but I'd want to maintain my current stipend level.

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Won’t all the current excitement over 1024 tier (meaning, mainland will get bought more) hurt the private sim owners who need renters? 

I'd think it would hurt them some, but mostly for the places that make their regions look like mainland. Lazy landlords will lose out. It's not like everyone would want to jump to premium anyway. Premium costs real money; those who earn Lindens in-world can rent without converting Lindens to dollars. Others notice the expense less by paying some Lindens each week rather than maintaining Premium.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Parhelion Palou said:

I'd love a version of Premium that allows you to have more than one Experience.

Good idea. I hadn’t realized you can only have one.

[LittleMe Jewell]

I'm hoping for more of an à la carte approach.  A basic premium level that gives some L$, some amount of tier (512-1024) that could be used for a Linden Home rather than mainland, and an increased level of support over Basic accounts.  After that it let's you add on what is important to you for an additional fee.  So each of the additional benefits woudl have a price tag and you pick and choose what you want and are willing to pay for.

Increased group slots - maybe a couple of levels (personally, I'd likely pay more for this)
Higher stipend
Private sandboxes
Priority access to events
Premium only gifts
Premium only locations (like Racer's Gultch and the Premium only hunts)
Various levels of Support
Increased number of allowed Experiences

 

However, I'm guessing that they will simply have set levels.   Level 1 gets X amount of L$, 512 tier/Linden Home, slightly elevated support - all for X amount of US$.  Then each defined level above that gets one or more additional perks, with possibly a bit more L$ and/or tier, for more US$.

Also, given that Premium prices have not increased in over a decade, I could see a higher fee just for the complete existing package that Premiums get.  Then higher / lower levels created from there.
 

Edited March 24, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Sammy Huntsman]

I don't think ranked Premium would work. Love the idea, but why don't we just stick with what we have. I think that introducing something like that, would break the ideal that LL had for SL. We don't need to add plans, or microtransactions, like other triple A titles use. I think they would lose customers, rather than gain them. I pay for the yearly premium, and I would like to get what I pay for, not for an extra 10 bucks you can get this. If that is the case, I would cancel my premium, and say ***** it.

[LittleMe Jewell]

25 minutes ago, halebore Aeon said:

I don't think ranked Premium would work. Love the idea, but why don't we just stick with what we have. I think that introducing something like that, would break the ideal that LL had for SL. We don't need to add plans, or microtransactions, like other triple A titles use. I think they would lose customers, rather than gain them. I pay for the yearly premium, and I would like to get what I pay for, not for an extra 10 bucks you can get this. If that is the case, I would cancel my premium, and say ***** it.

Per the blog announcement, Tiered Premium is coming.

" In addition, we will soon announce new tiered Premium membership offerings that allow Residents to choose the membership level that provides the benefits most important to them. "

 

[Blush Bravin]

5 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

Perhaps Concierge support might come back for a higher level. It used to be based on the amount of land owned, but it could come back based on the 'amount' of Premium membership.

I'm thinking this is a pretty good guess seeing as how the amount of support in Sansar is directly dependent on the level of membership.

[Phil Deakins]

I didn't know that, Blush. Ty.

[Rhonda Huntress]

5 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

So I think it might be pleasant to speculate as to what might be in the various levels.

My tin foil hat says get your free alts now before they become "basic premium."

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 minute ago, Rhonda Huntress said:

My tin foil hat says get your free alts now before they become "basic premium."

Along those lines, I was thinking of upgrading a few to Premium to help offset my increased land size tier costs.  I'm now thinking of waiting and hoping that a new "cheaper" level will be introduced that simply gives me tier for a cheaper rate, maybe with fewer L$.

[Blush Bravin]

here's how the subscription levels work in Sansar .. we might get some insight into how they are thinking

 

[Phil Deakins]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Along those lines, I was thinking of upgrading a few to Premium to help offset my increased land size tier costs.  I'm now thinking of waiting and hoping that a new "cheaper" level will be introduced that simply gives me tier for a cheaper rate, maybe with fewer L$.

My guess is that it'll be a while before we see the new Premium levels - at lerast months, anyway - but it's just a guess.

Another guess is that LL won't undermine existing Premium users. I know that's not always been true in the past, but LL does have a history of not undermining users. E.g. grandfathering stipends and private sim tiers. In this case, if I pay $72 for a year's premium membership today, I don't expect a new level to come in, just like the one I have but costing less, while my year is still active, without also changing my Premium to the new level, with a credit. Similarly, if my Premium membership allows 1024 tier-free, and a new level for the same fee allows 2048, I'd expect LL to modify my level so that I also have 2048. Conversely, I would not expect LL to bring a new level in at the same cost as mine, and that only has 512 tier-free, and reduce my 1024 to 512, at least until my year has run its course.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Phil Deakins

[Pussycat Catnap]

Any ranking system scares the heck out of me. That Sansar thing makes me extremely glad I'm not over there...

 

[Parhelion Palou]

1 hour ago, Blush Bravin said:

here's how the subscription levels work in Sansar .. we might get some insight into how they are thinking

 

Those are all related to people who want to create experiences. The majority of users won't need any of them -- they're the ones the experience owners are hoping to attract.

[MegaRose]

I've never owned (or rented) land or had premium, but I've been considering. I think what would push me to it would be if they offered regions of Linden Stores the way there are Linden Homes. It would be a good baby step between being a wandering vagrant with a Marketplace page and being a big store owner. 

But I'm not well versed on the logistics of that kind of thing, traffic-wise and land impact-wise. 

[Pussycat Catnap]

Basically malls. Plenty of SL resident run malls. They suffer from proximity to each other. In SL it's best to have your shop surrounded by low traffic neighbors. We all love going to shopping events, but we also love to complain about the lag. It is tolerable because it is typically a temporary event.

Malls historically, back before MP... were a constant source of people's complaints about 'laggy SL'.

In my opinion, merchants are best staying on MP with 0L demos... and a small 512m spot on a quiet sim, maybe even next to their home... that visually showcases their current top and newest products in a display designed to give you an 'experience' / brand-identity connection.

If you ever shop at some of the very big brand names in fitmesh clothing for meh bodies that insist on doing most of their business inworld... it's painful. Laggy even when you're alone (rare), and you have to navigate past aisles of stuff you already have or chose not to buy, to get to 'that thing you remembered seeing' that isn't current anymore... Most of them do have the smarts to put the new stuff near the door... but this often just means you have to wade through 30 other people to get past them and click that vendor...

So I kinda believe a small 'showcase shop' is best for both small and large merchants...

Places like Belleza... where there are almost no products in the store. (But they don't really do a good display job with the ones that are there)... so you just go there for the 'brand connection' and can mostly shop on MP. Some shops, like Mayreal (the mesh head brand I use), don't even have purchase active vendors inworld. At their real world shop all you can find is pictures of the heads, demos, and a redelivery terminal. You MUST buy on MP. I think Mayreal has the right of it...

And that means her store fits in a tiny parcel in an out of the way low traffic area where she can offer people wanting 'branding' a low lag experience.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

<-----------------*Points to her title*

 

[Qie Niangao]

15 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Won’t all the current excitement over 1024 tier (meaning, mainland will get bought more) hurt the private sim owners who need renters? 

I'm sure this worries private sim owners who need renters. It may even have some effect, but I doubt this current change on its own is going to make or break anybody. It seems even more unlikely that the Lab wants to shift the market away from private sim rentals.

[Sammy Huntsman]

It worries people who are already premium, will we get screwed over, will we lose some of the stuff we have grown accustomed to? Like that has me worried, that is why I say. Leave it the way it is, I don't need a Sansar like premium to come to Second Life. They are two separate platforms, keep it that way.

[Phil Deakins]

It doesn't worry me, halebore. I really don't think that LL will come up with a way that the Premium accounts I have now will be devalued - at least not until the periods I've paid for are up, at which time I'll be able to choose again. I suspect that there will a lower/cheaper level and a higher/ more costly level, and that what we have now will be in the middle and won't be changed very much. But that's only what I suspect.

[Alyona Su]

29 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

It doesn't worry me, halebore. I really don't think that LL will come up with a way that the Premium accounts I have now will be devalued - at least not until the periods I've paid for are up, at which time I'll be able to choose again. I suspect that there will a lower/cheaper level and a higher/ more costly level, and that what we have now will be in the middle and won't be changed very much. But that's only what I suspect.

I concur with this.

I imagine the lower tier prmeium will include the basics, like 512m2 LL Home, access to the premium zones (sandboxes and experiences) maybe a 150L stipend, basically "consuming" type stuff.

Current becoming the middle tier - all features and benefits remain in-tact.

Top tier being what we have now plus some new features we can only imagine - stuff I would think would be of interest to creators and business owners that most in SL wouldn;t care about much for themselves.

[Phil Deakins]

3 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

Top tier being what we have now plus some new features we can only imagine - stuff I would think would be of interest to creators and business owners that most in SL wouldn;t care about much for themselves.

And perhaps 1536 or 2048 tier-free allowance.

Overall, perhaps the stipends will be 200, 300, and 400, going from low to high.

Edited March 25, 2018 by Phil Deakins

[Qie Niangao]

2 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

Overall, perhaps the stipends will be 200, 300, and 400, going from low to high.

Eep. That just reminded me of something. Some of us are still collecting higher stipends -- L$500 and for a very few L$400 -- and I think there are still a few that stayed Basic and collect L$50/wk just for logging in (or maybe even logging in isn't required, but I know it goes poof if the account ever goes Premium).

It would make me sad if that went away, even though it's every bit as unfair and unearned as grandfathered fees for private sims.

Another perk of the Ancien Régime, before even my time: lifetime Premium status with 4096sq.m. tier-free forever, for a one-time fee. That would be quite something to see offered again.