Gary Wright

So tell me, Loadza Kumsung.....did you sign on as a Premium Member your first day in SL, or did you start with a free account? I'm betting you are a hypocrite who started with a free account. I started with a free account too, quite sensibly. It was about four months before I upgraded to a Premium account. If I had had to pay for it just to get in in the first place, I most likely never would have joined. I think most people who want to STAY in SL long-term should probably get a Premium account, for at least one of their IDs....but I wouldn't make it mandatory, and I especially wouldn't make it mandatory from the start, like you are suggesting. That will only prevent people from joining. Don't forget, SL isn't like WoW (which, btw, is a household word, while SL most definitely is not). WoW provides a lot of content for its fee. SL does not; nearly all content inside, whether it be objects, scripts, sims, roleplay or social, is provided by the residents.....and usually at additional fees. So you certainly can't use analogy with other multiplayer online games to support your "pay to play" argument for SL. Many (but not all) of the people I know in SL have a paid account. MOST of the people I know in SL have alts, none of which are paid accounts. Eliminating free accounts will not fix the problems of SL, but will certainly unjustly penalize lots of people. Identifying griefers and copybot users and going after the person behind the account, not just the free account, will fix most of those problems.