is a premium account worth it?

[Kempaggio]

so i just signed up and was thinking about doing a premium account, is it worth it?

[Marianne Little]

Well, I signed up 4 years ago and never found it worth it. 

Main reason is that my account is placed on hold if it's some payment issue. It is not just reverted to basic. I read too many horror stories about billing issues and people loosing their account permanently to find it worth the risk.

Second reason is that the land coming with Premium, don't have enough prims. I have to buy more land to decorate as I wish, and then I can just rent land from another resident instead.

I would advice you to just go around and explore SL a bit more, before you decide what to do. 

[Ceka Cianci]

i was premium when i first had gotten here for about two years..then since i was living mostly on estate land rather than mainland i decided it really was not giving me anything other than customer service which i really never used anyways..

then this past summer i decided to go back..i forget why really but there was a reason  lol..

 

anyways  for me now since they added the private sand boxes..i think those alone for me make it worth it..

nobody is there and you can sometimes have 15k in prims all to yourself with nobody giving you grief..

it's quiet and relaxing..that and you get all that other stuff that comes with it..but me it's the private sand boxes that make it better and worth it..*winks*

[wiked Anton]

if you wish to star a business and already have some skills that will go toward that, such ar marketing and bulding and textureing. although business is slow in SL atm, there are planty of people but theyare spending less. Yes you can rent land, but the rent (i find) is more expensive than the tiers you pay, and you get less prims from rented land, i dont know why, perhaps the owners like to steal a small percentage of prims for themselves. I "own" land and do not regret it, i get to do with it what i like, and no one to answer to . sometimes i have billing issue with a payment not going through, but i use a debit card and paypal, so when one doesnt go through, and i get an email, i just use the other method. I have never lost my account with these issue and think that when people lose their accounts, it is more du to they have no funds to pay their tiers, to prevent this, if you have no money ( you have to think one month in advance) you sell you land, take all you stuff and revert back to basic. You would know if you need to do this ie, you lose your RL job anf your sl business is doing terribley, make the hard decision that month in advance (before you next tiers are due).....it really is a personal decision that only you can make as only you know your financial situation.

[Randall Ahren]

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Kempaggio wrote:

so i just signed up and was thinking about doing a premium account, is it worth it?

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It's worth it to me. It's so much nicer having your own parcel to rez into instead of an infohub for your home location. You can do the math, but I think after the stipend and bonus, the cost to you is about L$250 per month if you sign up for a year. If you're worried about a payment glitch, go premium with an alt and keep your main avatar basic and keep your land set to group for use by your main. The Linden Home is nice and they have the new privacy feature now so that nobody can cam in and perv you.

 

[Jacki Silverfall]

Yes, I think it is. My friend and I made a group in which we both donated our 512 sqm lots to put a small store on. This is great as now we have no tier. Plus you get a extra 10% of land when you do that. You can buy and sell land on the mainland. The stipend of 300L and sign up bonus 1000L or is it 1200L i forget. The math works out to about 3 dollars a month. I pay by the year so pay once and your done. Now SL has the sandboxes and gifts for premium members. Don't forget customer service.

[Storm Clarence]

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Jacki Silverfall wrote:

Yes, I think it is. My friend and I made a group in which we both donated our 512 sqm lots to put a small store on. This is great as now we have no tier. Plus you get a extra 10% of land when you do that. 

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Hi Jacki, I am a little confused on how to donate the 'free' 512sqm to a group?  From what I have understood was that the 512 freebie can not be allocated to a group and still have it free let alone getting the 10% extra.

[Thinkerer Melville]

I used to think that a premium account was not worth it for most people, but the Lindens added some perk recently. Here is an artce I write on the subject.

Premium perks add value to premium accounts

http://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2011/09/kit-premiium-perks-add-value-to-premium.html

TKR

[Lyra Blackthorne]

I have been Premium since 2006 and think it is worth it...mostly for customer support. Live chat is great for immediate resolution of small issues.  For bigger issues Premium members have a access to support for most any SL issue. Non premium members have almost 0 support.

There are other benefits like the free tier on a 512; I still own my first land and use it as a lil vendor site to support my main store.  You can own/rent mainland from LL which a non-premium member cannot. There are premium only sandboxes; I don't need these but wish they were available when I was a nooblet and had no place to open large prim items or practice building. 

I get back a big portion of what I spend on membership with the weekly Premium member allowance; so for me the benefits out weigh the small net cost.

[jennylongview Innovia]

 Hello's.. In this tough economy were every RL counts towards bills. I am trying to justify the expense. Even though I am single and answer to no one. I am pondering dropping the account... I will still buy the money... Having a house can not be reason enough to keep the account. just a thought.

 

Have a wonderful  almost end of the week

[Venus Petrov]

It has been worth it to me, yes.  Even though most of the time I have been in SL I have owned/lived on estate land, I now live on mainland and LL is my landlord.  You can live on mainland without a premium account but only as a renter.  The Live Chat is often helpful and much easier than filing support tickets.  Plus, the weekly stipend is a nice bonus.

I agree with prior suggestions that you spend a bit of time in SL and then make the decision that works for you.  You can always change it later if conditions warrant.

[Ellyn Elan]

I've been both premium and basic.

For me the answer was "no." So I no longer am. If they make payment mandatory then I will pay.

The answer depends on what you want to do in SL, as many have said.

[Ceera Murakami]

I have been in SL for over 6 years, and have run profitable businesses in SL, and have never had sufficient reason to become a Premium member. It isn't a "necessity" for anything other than directly owning mainland, and gaining access to more categories of technical support.

If you DO really want to own Mainland, then the cost is negligible. If you buy an annual subscription, the amount they pay back to you in L$ stipends each week over the year, plus the value of getting free tier on your first 512 M2 of land that you own on the Mainland, or on a Linden Home Parcel, is worth just a little more than what you pay. But you're really just paying up-front for L$ and tier fees that they dole out to you over the next year. Personally, if I need L$, I'd rather buy them as I need them.

As someone else mentioned, one major negative with Premium Membership is that if you ever have a billing problem with your automated Premium Membership subscription, LL will suspend your account, and could even ban and delete your account for non-payment. For me, that one risk outweighs any possible benefits. I don't want to lose the hundreds of dollars worth of purchased content that my account has in inventory, or lose access to the account that runs my in-world businesses, just because LL develops a problem processing PayPal funds, or because my credit card happens to be maxxed out when they try to bill it.

[Claireschen Hesten]

in my 3 and a half years in SL i often thought about going premium but didn't really see what value it would offer me i don't need to buy mainland because i have a great landlord who i've rented 1024sqm of mainland directly bordering a welcome centre from for the past 2+ years if i need L$ i buy them from my favourite exchange i've never had need to use live chat or support past what is offered to basic accounts

but when LL did a special 50% off 3 months premium offer for first time premium sign ups in september i did a few calculations and thought what the hell i'll go premium the weekly stipend over 3 months plus the L$1000 sign up bonus (paid after 45 days of consecutive premium membership) and some random L$250 included in addition to the L$1000 that i thought was only for people paying by credit card that i hadn't factored in worked out to be more L$ than i could get buying them from my favourite exchange.

i took up the linden home instead of 512sqm of tier free mainland which i could of gone for got the premium gift and have used  the premium only sandboxes
i can live with out a linden home i rezzed a fab low prim skybox on my rented plot and and used some furniture which you would not believe is only 1 prim. the premium gifts i can live with out so far LL has only put one out and who knows when the next will come. premium sandboxes they are great but i would not miss them when time comes to downgrade

if your own piece of private space and weekly pocket money plus use of exclusive sandboxes is what your after or you plan on owning a big piece of mainland then premium is worth it

[Kelli May]

In purely monetary terms, it can vary depending on whether you pay yearly or monthly, when you joined SL, what the current L$ exchange rate is, and if you pay VAT on your subscriptions. All of this assumes that you own some mainland* and therefore pay tier.

For me, the answer is 'yes', but only by $10-15 a year. If I'd signed up more recently and only received L$300/week stipend, it'd be cheaper to buy my L$ and rent. This argument throws out any ancilliary benefits like support, sand boxes and... not sure what else we're meant to get. A vague feeling of satisfaction for supporting the world that's given me thousands of hours of pleasure over the last few years? A smug sense of superiority of the non-premium residents? Whatever, Premium works for me.

 

*I know that a lot of people would rather scoop out their eyes with a rusty spoon than live on mainland, but it suits me.

[Rolig Loon]

I've been in SL for more than four and a half years and have never given Premium membership more than a passing thought.  There are really two advantages to being Premium: (1) You can buy in the Mainland instead of renting and (2) You have access to greater support through Live Chat. 

Personally, I have never wanted to live on the Mainland.  I have rented shops on the Mainland and on private estates, and I have had my home on a rented parcel on a private estate for a couple of years.  It works for me economically, and I have had wonderful neighbors and landlords. 

Support is a different matter. I know that Live Chat is a real help for those who need it, but it's costly benefit. If I ever ran up against a problem that I couldn't solve myself, I suppose I could pay the fee for Premium for a month, but that has never happened.  I keep my fingers crossed. So far I have never had a problem that I needed Live Chat for.

[Petronilla Whitfield]

I would have to answer 'no.'

I was premium from when I joined in the summer of 2007 until the summer of 2011.  I made the decision not to renew my annual membership in January and February of 2011 when I realized that trying to resolve issues with a support staff whose members--in my experience--were uninformed about Second Life, unwilling to bring my issues to the attention of anyone who could actually help, and in some cases, eager to deny that any issue existed, caused me so much aggravation that it was decreasing my enjoyment of Second Life.  I decided that I would be better off with (almost) no access to support than I was having access to a "service" that exasperated me.  Around that time, Linden Lab claimed that the support services were being revamped and improved.  Some people said that they thought that support was improving, but that was not my experience.  I felt that it was getting wprse.

I hated the thought of giving up my Mainland parcels, so  I came here to ask about the experiences of people who had moved from Mainland to estates.  On the basis to the answers, I took the plunge, put my Mainland holdings up for sale, and moved to a long-established estate.  I've lived on the estate for nearly nine months and love it.  

I am a happy basic member and cannot imagine going back to premium.

 

[Deej Kasshiki]

I keep my premium account because of the stipend and on the small chance that I might need fast support access. I haven't owned mainland for years (doubt I'd ever go back to that chaotic mess) and donate my 512 to a group so, no big deal there. The recently introduced private sandboxes and "gifts" aren't very valuable to me.

I'm hoping that LL makes good on the promise of further value added features because, as it is now, the incentive to keep a premium account really isn't there.

[Void Singer]

as others have pointed out, it depends on how you value the things you get with premium membership....

Support: increased ticket types, and live chat support
this is great for getting non-basic problems sorted out... by non basic I mean things other than "I don't know how to do XYZ", or "my computer is slow"... that type of support you can get better and faster for free on the forums.... but if your avatar is ghosted, or a region needs a reboot but isn't actually down, support can get those things sorted for you quickly.

Linden Homes:
you get a free home, and it uses up your free allotment of land you get for being premium. you could go out an buy a mainland plot of your choosing instead, but with this you get a free themed house in a themed neighborhood. there's only 4 major themes, and a few variations between them, with a little customization, but the difference is you don't lose the prims for the home, and can decorate a little more.

Ability to buy mainland:
some people would prefer estate land, but the benefit of Mainland is not needing to trust your landlord, no extra rules for what you can do with your land, and the ability to be part of a larger connected set of regions), the down side is that with teir prices what they are, estate land can often work out cheaper, and there are a few fairly large themed estates, and they do tend to be better monitored for problems

Stipend:
not really a big deal, esentially you've automatically converted some cash into L$ to spend inworld, if you would've spent that cash for L$ anyways it offsets the price of your subscription

Premium Sandboxs:
access to building space with other premium users... griefing attacks should be rare to non existant, so it makes it a little easier to create in peace, of course most private monitored sandboxes will offer you similar building peace

free gifts:
might be good, might be worthless

 

things you get that anyone with payment info on file gets as well
the ability to upload meshes
adult access (assuming you entered an eligible age) [this is not the same as age verification]
payment info used marker [also applies to anyone that actually spent money in SL] (there are some places that this is a mark of trust, or at least accountability)

 

I've probably missed a few.... my recommendation for new residents is to hold off on premium and check out all your options... once you decide what you want and need, go for that, regardless of whether it's premium or not.

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Kempaggio. I have never been a Premium Member in SL. As already mentioned the top benefit you get if you upgrade is the technical support you have anytime or thought Live Chat or with tickets. About Linden Homes, i know several Premium Members but noone use a Linden Home to live. On the other side if you upgrade you get back most of money you spend about, with L$. If we assume that you spend 88.56US$ for an Annual membership plan (21,926L$). You will get back (300*52)+1000 = 16,600L$. So your real cost is only 5,326L$ (21.48US$) / year or just 1.79L$ / month. Under this prism and for less than 2US$ / month, you can try it and if you think that you don't need it just stop it before your annual plan expires. My thought is relative with the fact that is very very possible, if not sure, you will need to buy some lindens. For me is a myth that SL is a free virtual world.

[Charolotte Caxton]

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Storm Clarence wrote:

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Jacki Silverfall wrote:

Yes, I think it is. My friend and I made a group in which we both donated our 512 sqm lots to put a small store on. This is great as now we have no tier. Plus you get a extra 10% of land when you do that. 

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Hi Jacki, I am a little confused on how to donate the 'free' 512sqm to a group?  From what I have understood was that the 512 freebie can not be allocated to a group and still have it free let alone getting the 10% extra.

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If you and I were premium, we would each be allowed 512 sqm of free tier. We could donate our tier to a group. The group could own 110 percent or less of any land contributions. So, if you and I were a group that consisted of only you and I, 2 members, the group could own 512+512times10percent for a total of 1126 sqmeters. You wouldn't get 10percent extra, it would have to be purchased by you or I for the group using the Buy For Group option. So the group could own up to 1126 square meters of land and you and I would pay no tier fees because we only donated 512 each. 

From Deeding Land to a Group:

Group-owned land is always held collectively by a group, not by any one group member. In order for the group to own land, its members must submit land contributions, which are donations that members make from their own personal land allowance. The group can own a total amount of land whose size in square meters equals 110% or less of the sum of all group contributions.

Tip:The Land Use Fees calculator shows your current fees and has the option to calculate your estimated fees for square meters owned or donated to group.

To give land to a group but continue to pay for it yourself:

1. Right-click the land and choose About Land.
2. In the GENERAL tab, click Set and select the desired group.
3. Check Allow Deed To Group, then Owner Makes Contribution With Deed.
4. Click Deed.

Note: In order to deed land to a group, you need the ability to deed and buy land for the group. Furthermore, the region needs to have Allow Land Resell set in the Region/Estate Menu.

 

From Buy For Group: (written for 1.23 but still the same in 3.1.0)

This window allows you to "Buy" a parcel of virtual land for your currently active group. You must first set the group as active using the top menu Edit > Groups... item. You must also have the ability to buy land for your group in the group information window. Finally, the land must be set for sale to anyone, or specifically to you. The window is opened via the "Buy For Group..." button in the "About Land" window as shown above.

It is similar to the "Buy Land" window as described above except the second checkbox under "Buying land for group will:" will have a note about having sufficient land use credits to cover the parcel. When bought, the land will be "Group Owned", which means the owner listed will be the group rather than an individual.

Group owned land is supported by it's members contributing part of their land fee tier allocation to the group. At a given monthly tier fee, you are allowed a certain total square meters of land use, which is split between personally held land and group contributions. Any combination of contributions from different group members may be used, as long as the total contributions is at least as much as the total group held land.

[Storm Clarence]

Hi Charo, I like your new avatar pic. 

Thank you for your reply.  I knew all of the above but I was unaware that you are able to donate the free 512sqm to a group.  I understand now that you can. 

[Charolotte Caxton]

Thanks, Storm! 

 

[JeanneAnne]

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Kempaggio wrote:

so i just signed up and was thinking about doing a premium account, is it worth it?

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No.

Why pay for something you can have for free?

It's perfectly possible to enjoy SL fully without ever paying a cent of real money for it. You can even build stuff in public sandboxes if building appeals to you. You can sell stuff over the browser marketplace if you want to. The 117 prims you get with a so-called "premium" (paid) account aren't sufficient to do much with, so it's just a scam to intice you to "buy more land" (rent server space) for storing the code for the stuff you "build." But why should you? SL is overbuilt as it is. Entire beautiful sims are routinely deserted. Why contribute to the clutter? All you're doing is making a cut-throat corporation richer and yourself poorer by doing so.

Rezz wherever you logged off from, I say, and roam SL at will, unencumbered by "stuff." Listen to music, dance, chat, make friends, conduct romances, explore around, fly, go underwater, and do all the fun stuff SL has to offer, but don't build more stuff (or don't save it if you do), don't buy stuff (there's plenty of good stuff available for free) and by all means don't pay LL any real money. You don't get anything in return for spending real money on SL, over & above what you get for free, that even comes close to justifying the expense. If you can afford a premium account, rather than opening one, donate that money to charity instead.

Jeanne

[Sy Beck]

Out of interest, what do you think would happen if all the paying customers took your advice too?  Your freeloading theory of SL economics is only possible because there are people doing all the things you advise others not to do, such as buying land, bringing money into the game and purchasing premium.

If your contribution to SL is to just take from it, well that's fine, but a little less disparaging and general disdain of others who choose to contribute wouldn't go amiss either.  They are after all the ones paying for your little free playground to exist.