[Embark on a Quest in Linden Realms: Collect Crystals, Earn Linden Dollars and Have a Blast!]

As I understand it, the purpose of these games is two-fold.  

They're supposed to be for the Lab's developers to protype new tools and functions before making them available to us, as Rodvik explained in his keynote speech at SLCC.   As a content creator, I'm very happy with that; I'd love, for example, to be able to make portals that force-tp people between sims on collision or touch without having to use RLV, and, when llTeleportAgent finally becomes available, it will be good to know it's been thoroughly tested.   

They're also supposed to give new residents something to do while they get the hang of using the viewer, a bit like that chap in WoW who apparently sends you off on quests to kill some boar.   To my mind, anything that helps increase the new-user rentention rate is a good thing; as I understand it, lots of people create accounts and then give up, half an hour later, because there's nothing obvious for them to do and they can't figure out how to do anything, anyway.  

And, in the longer term, if someone feels like a bit of first-person-shooter fun, then it's no bad thing if they can enjoy it in an in-world game rather than have to log off and do something else (or go shooting at people in sandboxes, of course).

Speaking as someone who has fun making interactive content, and who makes a bit of money selling it to people who enjoy  various forms of RP, I'm very pleased about the implications of these games.

[Making Strides to Improve our Customer Support Services]

I think the AR Category "Commerce - Failure to Deliver Product  or Service"  means "Ignore This."

The Knowledge Base FAQs seem to cover the topic clearly, if not to everyone's satisfaction:

Q: I have an agreement with one or more Residents regarding real estate, group management, performance of services, division of revenue, etc., but they aren't keeping to the agreement

A: Linden Lab cannot verify, enforce, certify, examine, uphold, or adjudicate any oath, contract, deal, bargain, or agreement made by the Residents of Second Life. Please contact the Resident with whom you have a dispute, and request that they make good on the deal. While you may have a valid agreement with another person, Linden Lab is not a party to and cannot resolve your dispute.

[Making Strides to Improve our Customer Support Services]

@Velvet -- At present, if anyone ends up having an issue that's not covered in the wiki -- or on which they can't obtain advice from in-world groups or SL Answers -- they're pretty much screwed whatever their account status.

I can understand why LL doesn't want to have people spending time talking folks -- whatever their account status -- through what I bet are two of the most common problems that are brought to them, "half my inventory has vanished" and "my avatar is permanently ruthed," when both of those can usually be solved without LL's intervention provided the user knows how to do it.   I don't really have a problem with LL not helping basic members fix issues which I (as a Concierge member) wouldn't bother them with, provided that information about the relevant fixes and alternative resources for advice are made more clearly available.

However, there're still several issues -- "my avatar is ghosted on a mainland sim and I can't log back in," for example (or "I'm ghosted on a private estate and the owner isn't available to restart the sim") -- with which LL assistance is necessary whatever your account status.    And, to my mind, that assistance should be available to everyone.  

On which topic, how difficult would it be, I wonder, to add a "forcibly log my avatar out" button to the dashboard?  It seems really odd that I can't log myself out if I'm ghosted but, if I by mistake I try to log myself in twice, instead of logging in my alt, that logs me out automatically.

[Making Strides to Improve our Customer Support Services]

Seems to me that the discussion is getting a bit off-beam, I'm afraid.

To my mind, there are two completely separate questions being debated.   One is, "how can LL make premium membership more attractive to residents?"  The answer to that may be "By offering them an enhanced level of support" along with a load of matters completely unrelated to support, such as "By allowing them to use mega prims and letting them belong to more than 25 groups."

The question here, though, or so it seem to me, is "Will reducing the (pretty minimal) level of support basic accounts currently receive do anything to improve the (almost as minimal) level of support people paying several hundred USD a month receive?" 

I remain to be convinced it will, since I find it hard to believe that the main reason Concierge support has nose-dived over the last few months, with tickets remaining unopened for weeks on end, when previously they were dealt with very rapidly,  is that LL's support team have suddenly found themselves too busy helping basic accounts to offer Concierge customers the level of support we enjoyed until recently.

[Making Strides to Improve our Customer Support Services]

why do basic accounts expect support? lol

this is why support is so messed up for customers who actually pay the lindens to use their platform, cos our tickets from like 2 months ago are still in "new" status cos basic avatar X raised a ticket cos she had lag one day and avatar Y raised a ticket cos she couldn't use teh emeralds lol, and avatar Z raised a ticket cos avatar A called her a meanie

It is obviously time for tickets to be ignored unless they are raised by concierge, cos linden labs need to learn that the only people they need to spend money on supporting are the people who pay *them* to use their platform.

I think that misses the point, I'm afraid.   The problem isn't that a good customer service system is being overwhelmed by silly tickets from free accounts; it's that they don't seem to have a particularly good system in place to start with.   I don't think it would take much time to have some decent front-line support staff opening everyone's tickets promptly, sending out sensible stock replies to silly questions about "why can't I use Emerald" or "Someone's called me a meanie" no matter from whom they come, and escalating the ones that pass this filter for appropriate attention and action by someone else.  

At the moment, everything just seems to get stuck, no matter who submits the ticket.   And certainly my recent experiences with Ontynes haven't given me the impression I've been talking to someone who'd be able to handle my particular issue competently and professionally if only he wasn't being pestered by all these free accounts; possibly unfairly, I've come away with the strong impression I've been dealing with someone who's just not very good at his job (or, if he is, that he's stuck within the constraints of a customer service system that won't let him do it properly).

[Making Strides to Improve our Customer Support Services]

I agree.  Concierge support used to be outstanding, particularly if I was fortunate enough to get Spike dealing with the issue.

But the last two or three or times, I've ended up with Ontynes, whose abilities seem to extend no further than telling you to file a ticket, or telling you to be patient when you call a week or so later to ask when someone's likely to get round to looking at it, let alone resolving it.

I get the very strong impression that LL's ended up with a support system that doesn't allow the front line people to escalate cases, even if they want to.  

Certainly I'd advise anyone who needs technical advice to use the appropriate Second Life Answers forums and those on independent sites like SLU rather waste time trying to get sense out of Live Help.