Graeme Little

It is really a simple issue. If SL is a major activity in your life and you spend many happy hours there doing happy things, just continue paying the increased fee and be happy. Chances are you are are part of the SL elite and refer to most others as noobs with default bodies, default skins and no profile pictures. You most likely spend your full monthly stipend at the elite shops and supplement your shopping with RL money. You probably own huge estates and need 100+ extra group slots and as many extra offline IMs. You are probably also a content provider who have contributed significantly to the SL success by supporting your customers and actually bothering to respond to their questions and queries. However, If SL is only a casual thing in your life, but you do not spend enough time there to justify increased Premium Membership, down-size and become a Basic Member. Participate in SL activies of your choosing and if you really desire a new body or snazzy outfit to attend a snazzy event, pitch in some RL dollars and buy it. There are many shelters where you can squat with the other homeless to try on the snazzy outfit in private. If you also need a place to build your annual Happy Easter or Merry Christmas card, visit one of the many sandboxes where vast areas of building-allowed land welcome you for 24 hours. For me, the only reason I had a Premium Membership, was to have a house! The "Extra Premium Benefits" never interested me.... "Exclusive Premium Membership areas" never interested me either..... "Premium Gifts", fresh off the old-fashioned sculpty, prims-gazillion table, although generous and interesting, almost always joined their family in the trash bin, A good, knowledgeable friend took me shopping for a reasonable body, skin and a few pieces of snazzy duds to hide my noob-ness. But mostly, I loved owning a house. Hours and hours of decorating, creating my own custom items, buying and moving stuff around, pieces of art, sexy furniture, my own photographs and so many more hours spent being happy and socializing with my friends - and all because I am allowed to own (and manage) my own house. So, is it really simple for me? I guess not. If being a Premium Member is the only way I can OWN a house or a piece of land on which I can build and OWN a house, it seems worth it. In fact, this is what I have been doing for almost 10 years. However, what about all those other "Premium Benefits"? I am a member of more-or-less 20 groups, get almost no offline IMs, never use any other Premium Membership benefits (other than the stipend, of course, purely because it exists) - so having land and/or a house was my attraction. Unless tiered/sliding-scale Premium Membership is introduced, I guess the only SL attraction I have, has become too expensive for me. It is not unfair, it is not an evil act by LL, just circumstances that need to be evaluated and acted upon. In this age of referendums, I would vote for different levels of Premium Membership. I would vote for the level where I am allowed to buy a 512 or 1024 piece of land and build a house.... *sighs* Until then... *ring...ring.... hello, is that the shelter? Do you have any vacancies available?"