$99 problems

[Erwin Solo]

6 hours ago, ChinRey said:

... It's not the same thing because you don't have to be a premium member to own a private region. Those two parts of the SL economy are kept completely separate from each other....

Yeah, but as a region owner I carry a premium membership to get access to the finest sandboxes in SL.  Sometimes one wants to test something out without junking up one's SIM.

[Fluf Fredriksson]

On 5/30/2019 at 11:53 PM, Theresa Tennyson said:

 

So this...

...is a "typo"?

I think what they mean is .. they will deduct the VAT (sales tax) from the $99 annual fee they get and pay it anyway.

But it's a sucker punch in pricing strategy. Anyone (outside of America) that wasn't paying the annual fee to avoid a larger lump sum payment, will now see it as an extra burden to pay monthly or quarterly. Best option? Go basic and drop the premium. It's a very USA centric strategy.

But it gets worse .. if you dig into the cost of owning land in SL vs premium membership ..

Say you have a premium account, you have 1024m2 of land, you decide you want another 1024. It's actually cheaper now to make a second premium account, group the two 1024m2 land parcels and take the L$ stipend than it is to have 1 premium account with 2048m2 of land.

I haven't extrapolated how far this new crazy economic strategy goes, but it could be that the cheapest way to increase your land allowance up to a considerable size of land is to make multiple premium accounts (until the $ cost per land finally becomes cheaper than another premium alt allowing for the stipend pay back).

A part of me thinks that's just ill considered pricing strategy by LL. Another part of me thinks it's a cynical attempt to make it look like more people are signing up and are online (you'd have to log in on the alts sometimes to transfer the L$ to your main account). Either way. It's highlighting the ridiculous cost of owning mainland in SL. Look at just about any mainland sim in SL and it's mostly empty abandoned land. It doesn't cost LL anything at all if you purchase some of that land and move on to it. They are already running that server. They are already paying that cost. You are doing them a favour.

So the end result of LL's recent price hike for me? I'll probably reduce my land ownership to keep the annual cost down, and that in turn means I'll be paying less to LL than I was before the price hike, because doing both now seems too expensive for what I get out of SL. Slow hand clap LL "Well Done".

[Theresa Tennyson]

26 minutes ago, Fluf Fredriksson said:

Say you have a premium account, you have 1024m2 of land, you decide you want another 1024. It's actually cheaper now to make a second premium account, group the two 1024m2 land parcels and take the L$ stipend than it is to have 1 premium account with 2048m2 of land.

I haven't extrapolated how far this new crazy economic strategy goes, but it could be that the cheapest way to increase your land allowance up to a considerable size of land is to make multiple premium accounts (until the $ cost per land finally becomes cheaper than another premium alt allowing for the stipend pay back).

A part of me thinks that's just ill considered pricing strategy by LL. Another part of me thinks it's a cynical attempt to make it look like more people are signing up and are online (you'd have to log in on the alts sometimes to transfer the L$ to your main account). Either way. It's highlighting the ridiculous cost of owning mainland in SL. Look at just about any mainland sim in SL and it's mostly empty abandoned land. It doesn't cost LL anything at all if you purchase some of that land and move on to it. They are already running that server. They are already paying that cost. You are doing them a favour.

 

It always was cheaper to do things that way; in fact, it was considerably cheaper to do that before the price hike.

[Fluf Fredriksson]

31 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

It always was cheaper to do things that way; in fact, it was considerably cheaper to do that before the price hike.

Doesn't make it any less nuts. The price hike just made me go look at what SL was costing me.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I gain more money in my bank. LL drains some of the non-US payers out of the system (they already pay around 3% just to pay in $). It's all good.

EDIT: Question for US SL premium payers ... Would you try and reduce what you pay to LL if it cost you 18% to 23% more on top of the price hike? Because that's what a lot of people outside of America are looking at.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Fluf Fredriksson

[rasterscan]

Gosh. Reading all eleven pages of this thread was an emotional roller coaster of a ride for me. The peak being this quip from a well know stalwart "I knew I should have never logged back in but I listened to the other half's offer of a mesh body."  Raised a smile and I don't mind admitting it. So. In the cold light of day I did a little math. (99 x 100)  / 365 = 27.123. What else could one buy for 27 USA cents a day ? Furthermore, I could even go non premium and play for free ! In summary,  SL is still a great deal imho.

[sparkie Hallard]

To me it suggests that second life is slowly going down hill.. my sales  are not as busy as they used to be and my store has been going for 10 years.

i think there profits are falling from lack of members now in the game as used to be.. hence why the price hikes. Just like in worldz that died , there was not enough funding in the end. 

I miss the old dats when the population was  busty. 

[Selene Gregoire]

29 minutes ago, rasterscan said:

well know stalwart

Well known?   

 

Stalwart?  

[Fluf Fredriksson]

4 hours ago, rasterscan said:

Gosh. Reading all eleven pages of this thread was an emotional roller coaster of a ride for me. The peak being this quip from a well know stalwart "I knew I should have never logged back in but I listened to the other half's offer of a mesh body."  Raised a smile and I don't mind admitting it. So. In the cold light of day I did a little math. (99 x 100)  / 365 = 27.123. What else could one buy for 27 USA cents a day ? Furthermore, I could even go non premium and play for free ! In summary,  SL is still a great deal imho.

Now lets look at that as a non US payer who wasn't paying annually, who wants 2048m of land total... Quarterly payments will no longer be available so...

US version: $11.99 per month premium + $7 per month land = $18.99 per month or $227.88 a year so (227.88 x 100) / 365 = 62 cents per day

Non US version with 20% VAT: $11.99 premium + 20% VAT + 3% Transaction charge = $14.82 per month. $7 land + 20% VAT + 3% Transaction charge = $8.65. Total $281.66 a year or 77 cents per day.

That's a very very expensive MMO. Most multiplayer online games are around $10 a month. 32 cents per day.

[rasterscan]

1 hour ago, Fluf Fredriksson said:

Now lets look at that as a non US payer who wasn't paying annually, who wants 2048m of land

Well, if you want 2048m of land it will cost more, yes.