Time to renew your Second Life Premium account!

[JeanneAnne]

---

Peggy Paperdoll wrote:

...

I really do have a real life...........I don't have time to constantly gripe about SL like some people.  I don't have time to "do business" in SL.  I don't "invest" in something that mere entertainment.  I pay for my entertainment, just I pay my cable bill. 

---

'K Peggy...

Enjoy your RL AND your SL ..

Peace!

Jeanne

[Randall Ahren]

---

Peggy Paperdoll wrote:

I don't have time to constantly gripe about SL like some people.

---

Nevertheless, you appear to have time to constantly gripe about people that constantly gripe about SL. :smileyvery-happy:

[Peggy Paperdoll]

But that's fun for me Randal and you know it.  It's almost better than watching Survivor on TV........which kicks off a new season in less than 30 mins for me. 

[Pussycat Catnap]

Someone needs to tone it down in here.

I can't think of anything I said in my post that warranted a personal atack. I've not read all of the thread but it doesn't look like others posted things warranting personal attacks either.

The initial topic seemed like a friendly little post from someone saying they were renewing - I can't see any reason why this warrants anger.

 

 

[Six Igaly]

So many people so many opinions and none of them is either good or bad. I'm glad to support LL just as I like to support the phone company, the supermarket, the electric company, the gas company, the car mechanic and everyone else that makes investments in order to make MY life easier and funnier.

[Celebee]

I'm a basic account holder, and I pay about US$15 per month (same as the amount I pay for MMORPGs) for Lindens to spend. So far, I'm pretty happy with what I have, and I have yet to need to contact support for anything, but I'm actually quite tempted to go premium. I like the idea of having a little place of my own to call home. At the moment, I'm currently paying L50 per week for a skybox fully furnished, but I am unable to add my own furniture to it. The only thing I can do there is unpack boxes of clothes. And, the monthly rates for empty lots are quite expensive.

At the same time, if I subscribe monthly, I get about 300L per week, which is in my opinion too small an amount. The stuff I buy costs 250L at the most. That's why I'm split between two minds when it comes to subscribing.

[Ceka Cianci]

---

Celebee wrote:

I'm a basic account holder, and I pay about US$15 per month (same as the amount I pay for MMORPGs) for Lindens to spend. So far, I'm pretty happy with what I have, and I have yet to need to contact support for anything, but I'm actually quite tempted to go premium. I like the idea of having a little place of my own to call home. At the moment, I'm currently paying L50 per week for a skybox fully furnished, but I am unable to add my own furniture to it. The only thing I can do there is unpack boxes of clothes. And, the monthly rates for empty lots are quite expensive.

At the same time, if I subscribe monthly, I get about 300L per week, which is in my opinion too small an amount. The stuff I buy costs 250L at the most. That's why I'm split between two minds when it comes to subscribing.

---

well if you do go premium you can get a linden home and i believe you still keep your 300 per week..

the stripen used to be where you could apply it to a piece of mainland 512 lot called first land..premium is 9.95 a month..

so you are getting about half of that back in stripen..so really it's not too bad..i get 400 a week because that was the rate when i joined..some get 500 a week..the older residents..plus i think after 45 days they give you a 1,000L$ going premium bonus for your first time  your account goes premium..

and also..you get access to the premium sandboxes which for myself are worth that..

nobody is ever there hehehe.you could rez a skybox and hang out there all day if you wanted or however long before the return time  lol..

 

i went premium right away...then went to basic for about a year or so..then finally went back to premium..

you get to try a lot of stuff out before the rest of the grid also..like the realms and other things at times..

basic can do most of the things we can..but not everything..i guess it just depends if the little perks are worth it to someone or not to where they really would want or need to go  basic or premium..

you can get land being basic..you just pretty much have to deal with a land owner rather than direct with LL..

i'm premium and i'm dealing with a land owner also..but it's because i don't feel like actually buying into a sim..i like the option to move next month if i want..

[Pussycat Catnap]

---

Celebee wrote:

I'm a basic account holder, and I pay about US$15 per month (same as the amount I pay for MMORPGs) for Lindens to spend.

At the same time, if I subscribe monthly, I get about 300L per week, which is in my opinion too small an amount. The stuff I buy costs 250L at the most. That's why I'm split between two minds when it comes to subscribing.

---

A cost breakdown for you:

$9.95 = land and $300/week.

So $5 left on you above budget, which is basically $1250L presently,

So on premium at your current budget you'd get 2450L/month.

You're losing $1250L in a month, so far. But your current rental is 50L/week. Or 200/month.

So you'd lose 1050L/month in exnchange for full control over your land lot (assuming you bought mainland and not a linden home. Linden homes on the other hand have very tight covenents).

That's paying by the month.

Pay by the quarter or annual and you lose less, but have to commit more upfront.

 

- Its hard for me to convince you of why I'd still go for that deal, because its an emotional commitment not a rational one. Others would fall on the other side of the line.

You can buy a 512 or 560 mainland lot for less than 500L and still get a good location, these days, if you put in the time to look for it.

 

Another way to look at -testing- this:

$9.95 is super cheap. 2 or 3 coffees at Starbucks these days.

So its easy to just say "I'll ry this for one month, and then keep it if I like it."

- SOmeone not long ago on another one of the subforums here asked about finding a private spot for a date, and I suggested they go premium for the date. The final cost of one month premium, a prefab house, a dance ball, and a plot of land is less than your average meal at McDonalds. And if you can't afford to take your date to McDonalds...

 

[Clarissa Lowell]

---

JeanneAnne wrote:

---

Peggy Paperdoll wrote:

Remember that when you need support and can't seem to get any. 

Just saying.

---

I don't need any "support" Peggy.

SL either works for me or it doesn't.

If it does I have fun.

If it doesn't I move on to something else.

What's up with the likes of you who take a game so seriously?

I really don't understand this ..

It reeks of ... obsession.. or something, to me.

Don't you have a real life?

Jeanne

---

That seems a little mean. You never seemed like a mean person to me.

So, people who play SL and take the investment of their time or money seriously don't have a real life?

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I didn't take the post as "mean".  Heck, I've been meaner in some of my posts (maybe even in this thread and possibly directed at Jeanne).  I think I can actually relate to Jeanne more than some others.  She's blunt and to the point, untactful, opinionated, and a little hard headed.......all that can be said about me. 

But she definiitely has the "obsession" part wrong.  I also have quite an active real life (that real life has prevented me from logging into SL except for a few short minutes every other day or so lately).  I spend time in the forums because I don't feel I must be at my desk, in front of my monitor, like I do when I'm logged in (it's just me......if I'm in-world I feel I have to do something besides just park my avatar on my sky platform and go about my real life only coming back to my computer occassionally).  My "obsession" is my occassional jumping into some thread on the forums and "being mean" to someone who makes silly comments or makes some stupid assertion about SL or someone in SL........it's fun for me when I find people like Jeanne who I truly believe does not take anything I post seriously (and definitely doesn't get her panties all wadded up).

I answered her post and I believe she understands me a little better.  No harm done to me nor any to her either.  I'm having fun with her.....and I hope she's having fun with me in return.

[161488303349]

i get premium bc i wanted to own my place. i tried linden homes for about a week but was a bit constricting for me. so now just have a tiny mainland and am happy with that

i get the $72 annual subscription bc by then i had decided thats what i wanted. was the land more than anything that made me decide that way

the stipend helps with my spending i found, bc i know i am going to get on bene day. am less impulsive when i buy now bc of the stipend. like now if i see something and i not have enough l$ to buy then i go oh well! i will wait till next week and get then. before i just used to click the button and buy l$ straightaway. i still buy L$ sometimes but only when is major purchases that i think about a lot more now that i used to before

[Etalia Cristole]

I just renewed and it will be my last 3 months as premium.  My first account here was in 2007.  I didn't do much with Sl until 2009 when I decided to start fresh with a new name, which meant back then a new account.  I have been premium ever since, now about two and a half years.  I have spent a good amount of money in SL, in fact far more then i should have spent but as someone else said, hobbies cost money.

In three months I will make the call if its still worth using SL.  If I decide to stay, I will just pay rent on private land.  For the cost of my premium account I can rent land thats larger and has more prims with the equivalent of the 300L stipend left over in my bank account as real ($) USD.  Free housing is useless for people like myself who have been around for a while.  The 512sqm land I own is far nicer then then the free housing, and because I own land I can't get that housing anyway.  While I will never get back the 8k I dropped for this corner parcel bordered by LL protected ocean, its a loss I plan to accept.  Hell, whats the point of a view when they allow people to buy up mainland and sublet it; spam your view with a plethora of rented skyboxes?  I can't even sail in or fly over the protected ocean so thats useless besides preventing total "view-spam".

I don't want to sound like a bitter naysayer, but a lot has changed in SL over the years.  I have watched this VR rise and am now witnessing its fall.  Anyone who has been a round for a while can't deny they see it too.  The population has seriously decreased, the quality of items for sale has reached an all time low now that a lot of builders have moved on, most of the destinations I used to love are gone, etc.  From a scientific standpoint its fascinating.  We're watching a society and its virtual civilization die right before our eyes.  Linden did a lot right over the years, more then I think they get credit for but lets be honest, they did a lot wrong too.  People might have stood besides them if they actually admitted their mistakes and corrected them but I see more arrogance then solutions.

The following is just my opinion.  Based on what I have seen over the past year the only conclusion I can draw is that the Lindens have realized the "End of Days" is near and are just riding the gravy train as long as they can till the money runs out.  At that point they will probably cut their losses and move onto another project.  For those who have played an MMORPG till the final days before it gets shut down, you should know the feeling.  While SL has not yet become that empty and lifeless, its not far off.  Back in the day even the smallest club had a few people at all times, now only three of four big ones are left that ever have people consistently in that zone.  This mirrors over to every aspect of SL including recreation destinations, shopping, gaming, etc.

We can debate what has caused the decline in SL till we are blue in the face but its hard to argue against inflated land prices, aggressive land prim limits, the loss of casinos/gambling, a CS department that has been outsourced, and a management company that refuses to get with the times and embrace a now very mobile community.  Christ, Android has Quad Core tablets with Quad Core cell phones arriving to the market next month.  We should have seen a SL mobile client at least a year ago.  Seamless integration with the World Wide Web has been hindered by the lack of an HTML client and the absurdly overpriced cost of land.  I think if land prices were drastically reduced, a mobile app was made and HTML client/plugin was created, we would see a huge rise in SL again.  I would like to think one day I could log into my Google account, surf the web in a browser and each page I go to have the option to enter its virtual world hosted in something like Second Life directly from that browser window.  VRML tried to accomplish this but not having one host run the virtual world and store your avatar, items, etc makes every VRML webpage a stand alone environment.  This is why there are next to no VRML pages on the web.  Second Life could be the answer but I just don't see the effort or motivation on the part of Linden Lab.

Just like in real life human history, every civilization reaches a plateau and then suddenly implodes or slowly declines till it reaches total collapse.  After the collapse, whatever is left over of the previous society rises up out of the ashes and rebuilds even bigger and stronger then the last civilization.  The circle then repeats itself.  Thats human history and it appears that virtual worlds may share the same fate.  If they truly want to save second life we need virtual Armageddon; wipe the slate clean and start anew this time doing better planning when it comes to mainland layout and building restrictions for certain areas.  Go balls to the wall when designing mainland; spend the prims and make it a beautiful place.  Leave enough room as open space to maintain the lands beauty.  Keep commercial and residential separate.  You should be able to sail or fly around the world, automatically teleporting when you reach a regions border to the adjacent region.  Large open water zones should be public access. The list goes on but why bother typing it out when no one is listening anyway.

[Paul Hexem]

I had a premium account for a while.

But then I realized for that same price, an MMO has no laggy sim crossings, just an expanse of open space you can almost seamlessly traverse. It has working group chat, with little to no errors. It has object deliveries in a mail system that failing is the exception, not the norm. Physics engines that make sense. Framerates in the hundreds, instead of less than 20.

Not only that, but they've had this ability for years.

Then consider that a lot of these MMO's, they're actually Free to Play, and STILL are more stable, built on more reliable platforms than SL.

My opinion? Not worth it.

[Jaci Nightfire]

I never get one of these 'Time to renew your Second Life Premium account!' emails. Heck I've paid for several years and never even got an acknowledgement of my payment email. I have been around a very long time. A Lifetime Member account & 3 paid premium accounts, which include this one.

This is the only one that is not self sustaining. I so meant to take this one down to Basic before it came due again. Alas, I found the payment was pending today on my bank account. One reason that I put off going back to basic is because, even though the Knowledge Base says we will keep our stipend benefit, for the duration of paid time. I had the bad experience years ago, for this not to have happened. I just let it slide, because I didn't reallly need it. But, I did not want to go through that frustration again. Plus, why give up my land until the last week, or so.

Yes, my bad because I spaced it out. Stupid of me in this day, when I could've easily set up a calendar alert, like many of my other personal reminders. Still I feel like venting. It sure would be nice to get at least some kind of message like I see many others DO get. I sure am wondering why y'all get them and I do not???  Not on any of my paid accounts? Gosh, especially paying by the year. That is just one simple payment due warning, per account, per year! I would not even mind on the ones I pay with cashed out L$. That money is already sitting there in my account.

Hitting my bank with no courtesy email warning for $72. Not cool.

Never a 'Thank You for renewing!', not so cool, either.