POLL: Lifers, do you like the changes?

#1 for me. The new plan makes more business sense and better ensures the long-term survival and growth of SL, since LL will be able to much better match their costs with their income.

The non-lifetime members will be essentially leasing server resources by paying USD for land, in much the same way that you can lease from a WWW ISP to host your website.

For lifetime members, you get to continue to gobble up resources at a one-time cost, so the value is enormous, limited only by the lesser of either your lifetime or SL's lifetime, the latter of which is more likely to be longer under the new system.

I second #5

I want to see how it affects us first.

1 --- I am continuing my account BECAUSE of this.

$L don't add new simulators, real $$$ adds new simulators, and because people with fake money were hoarding resources, they had to bring in real money.

Personally, I will pay 10$ a month, get almost 1,000 more square meters than I presently own, and get almost 220 more prims rezzed at once. (I have 74 prims rezzed on a 1184 sq meter parcel. It looks beautiful, IMO, and loads fast)

Sorry for those who were already on the top of the heap, Fake Money no longer decides who's better than me. If you want to be better than me you're just gonna have to pay Linden Labs more money, them's the breaks.

I'm with Chip.

<-- dazed and confused

3) because YOU ARE NOT THE LAND YOU POSSESS!!!

Read that again...
YOU
ARE
NOT
YOUR
LAND

You are not your land, your rating, or the people with whom you consort. Did you join SL to own tons of land? No. Did you join SL in the hopes of making money off of it? No. Did you join SL because it gave you the ability to build anything (within your means)? Probably. Can you still buiid ANYTHING? yes. Can you maintain it? More likely than it used to be.*

*Unless you're over your prim limit... and you have over 400 prims to work with... economize.

I'm a 5 too, I think.

It's going to be interesting to see how it all pans out, for sure, but I'm not sure they can throw it all in the air and expect it to land in the same form...

I'm sure we're going to lose some good people, and good areas because of this new system, but conversely others may find themselves freer to join and be a part of/expand their world.

Ho hum. Yes. More info. A big long bullet list of new games mechanics required, I think.

3

2. I got a bad feeling about this

..must...channel...emotion...

I'm not a lifer, but it looks to me like the lifers just got screwed. Ouch.

To the Lindens, with all respect (you guys have always been super nice to me): You seem to have abused the trust of your community. Distressing. Trust, once lost, is long in returning.

And a shocked "WTF?" to you for dropping this on the community like a bomb. Handing out some question and answer forms to a small focus group was not the way to handle the introduction of these major changes. We have a WORLD, people! We have meeting places! We have IM and email! What happened to the "town meetings" BEFORE this was decided? Having this decision thrust upon us without any input really hurts the feeling of community participation.

I realize that SL (and virtual community itself) is still very young. Just a babe, in fact. Major changes, tough choices and mistakes are a part of growth. SL does so many things right and is, without question, the "best party going" in Virtual Reality. I'm planning to stay on the ride as long as I can. Wouldn't miss it. I suspect most hardcore SL'ers feel the same way. It's a shame that these changes seem to be destined to drive away and waste such dedicated supporters.

Lindens, please listen to your community. They're upset and afraid. Learn from this. You simply MUST consult that community before you decide to implement plans that would change their lives! You seem to be in danger of driving away great people who love SL. Please, please, don't screw this up.


...

The more I read about this the more I'm switching my answer to yes. LL responded to many suggestions with this announcement. Taxes, ratings, and prim usage has been a hot topic lately and they just threw them all out the window. That's pretty bold a move but I think it's a good one. The price change is great for casual users. I remember an earlier post by Beryl on how SL would make a nice Christmas gift. Now it can by paying $10 for basically a lifetime membership to check out the world of SL.
For the power users or those wishing to gain mass amounts of cash, we'll just have to see how much L$ you need to spend to pay for extra space.
For the goal oriented, I would have to say now it's all about getting as much land/cash, dwell, cool builds, and RL cash without spending anything.
I like that everything is easier to figure out. No more trying to plan your taxes/stipend. Land = amount you can build and that's it. No more worrying about whether you'll go negative or if the sim limit has been reached.
We'll just have to see.

Im 3

I just totalled all my land (I love M$ Excel ) and figured out how much of a sim I own, It tirned out to be only about 14.4 percent.

Im already happy with the amount of land that I own, so this allows me a bit of wiggling room, as I am a lifer.

Thank gawd for the new improvments though. My framerate on my 'top sucks arse. (Its almost constantly < 10)


==Chris

Good luck everyone, I hope we all make it through the transition alright.

I feel kinda the same way... apprehensive, more than anything...

however, I do disagree with your assertion that lifers just got screwed. It depends, I guess, on the lifer and their motivations in SL (which may now have changed, admittedly!)

In signing up for life, I simply wanted the benefits of knowing that I had already paid for SL up front. That has not really changed, save for the fact that it *is* possible now to incur extra costs. Maybe lifetime shouldn't be called lifetime.

But it sounds to me like we will have adequate facilities to ensure that we dont go over the quota if thats our intention, and for me, at least, with no plans for world domination or owning a sim, I still think it's good value for money to sign up for $225 and the prospect of never paying again.

As such, with the reservations I posted in the 'holy crap' thread about my hopes and wishes that this reshaping of our community wont drive away some of the friends I'm joining for life to be with....

I vote [1] for now... for my predicament at least. There are a lot of people I know in game for whom this wont be anything like as good a deal for, tho.

and I think I'm still gonna sign up for life with my fingers firmly crossed. a 1/16th of a sim will do me very nicely, thank you.

1.
You can still pay for land with L$ if you're a big earner in that department as Phil pointed out and no tax is fantastic

Pirate

1. We have survived all other changes and SL has become a better place for it. I believe the same will happen here. And I am a lifer with 1/16 sim of land already so I am happy.

I'm currently #3 - indifferent until I get IW and see how it all works out. Lots of pros and cons to bear in mind, but hell, SL has always been about 'evolving' - let it evolve!

I have survived far, far bigger changes in RL. It's gonna take a hell of alot more than this to make me leave SL!

Lindens: Good on ya for not sticking to 'formulas', and having the guts to try something new!

Most great things are scoffed at when suggested, or rejected outright.

I think this is the way to go, Linden survives financially, and people who want more can support the infrastructure by compensating the Lindens for it.

I'm very happy that there will not be a 'prim-patrol' thread in the near (or distant) future.

1. For me, no question.

No taxes. No prim banking/disputes. Low cost casual user membership. Ability for groups to own and govern really large areas if they wish to afford it - more themes. All good.

SL has always been a capitalist economy, I see no reason why RL capitalism shouldn't come into play. Those residents that are wealthy in-game now, will continue to be so long as they add value to the world as they can now get L$ in return for their creativity. Those that are wealthy essentially because they were in early, may find things more difficult if they want to hold large areas but contribute little.

Lifers get a good chunk of land, and associated prims - guaranteed and totally free. Forever. And they still have the option of paying a subscription as many others do and therefore owning even more should they wish to.

I would hope that once folk receive their explanatory email from Linden explaining exactly what their personal situation will be - that most folk will feel more positive about the changes. We shall see.

What's this I hear about a @$10.00 flat fee?

I don't care about anything in game that goes on, but the fact that I paid over $200 for a lifetime membership really... REALLY... REEEALLY irks me. I'm not a person of money, by any means, and I extra had to save up to get my lifetime membership. I'm glad everyone else gets to play now, but I feel like my purchase of the game might be lunch money now.

I guess I'm #1 but also #3. Overall I think the changes are a bold move by the Lindens.

I'm indifferent because, as a lifer, I'm wondering what the specifics are. And no doubt the answers will come trickling in (I see a Philip thread, yet to read it...).

I assume Lifers get a 1/16th chunk of land forever AND forever free. Want more than 1/16th? -- then you pay a monthly for the extra. That, if my assumption is correct, sounds great to me.

I question what we do with our current land/builds. I like where I am, I like my neighbors. I don't want to move, but I want free land :)

As well, I want a specific neighbor -- namely my 2nd account (yes I'm a 2xLifer, I have my reasons and it's not $L, it's for testing scripts. Nothing beats a controlled tester :). If land is via auction I have doubts I'll get the neighbor(s) I want (and currently have).

Bos

I guess I'm a #3 right now... mainly as I haven't been able to log in for about a month now (my crashing before the load screen has started again and I won't be able to work on it for another week or two yet). Once I get back on, this new system will most likely already be up and running, but I'd like to be able to evaluate my situation first, as I have been known to build a bit prim intensive (250+ airships for instance). Still, I think it sounds interesting if nothing else. Although finding beachfront land again is gonna be a bear I'm not looking forward to.

Anyhow, I'm dying to get back, but until I can go back to being antisocial by choice and not due to bugs, I guess I'll stay a #3.

Hopefully see you all around Xmas.

1
i can live with it....

At first i was really confused, and i still am to an extent, but i think i'm going to wait and see what happens.

#5

As it was explained to me, being a current member gets you a base allocation of land (4096 m2 for lifetimers, 1024 m2 for the rest of us), with the prim allocation tht goes along with it. If you stay within that allocation, you can play for no cost: no additional signup fee, no monthly charge.

The $10/month plan, if you sign up for it, gives you an additional 512 m2 (prim allocation included), and some other goodies (possibly a larger stipend).

1.

This is a really bold idea and a fair solution for many of the problems that have continued to plague us. Most residents will be better off. If more than two or three dozen players are adversely affected, I'd be greatly surprised, and most of the ones who will be affected are smart enough to survive and even prosper even under the new plan.

I'm a (1) till I see more info for the most part.

Some of a (3). As I am waiting to see how this works out.

But a (2) in only one area as mentioned before. I own some land, only to help a friend out. Otherwise I own no land. No need too. So I spent the RL$ of a lifer membership when all I needed was $10.

But on a lighter side of it.....

I am just over a year old (SL years) including beta. So in the terms of what the original membership fees were. I made out well. So the membership payment for the lifer wasn't so bad for me, unlike some others who have recently paid for one.

I am with David on this one... If you look at the big picture and not the little tiny bits most are focusing on. Lifetime = a football field People. plus 1/4 for the current residents is a good size..my shop in DarkWood is on less than 2 squares and the other two I share with Kitra and I am doing very well. The creative will have an advantage too. But Most people have stayed with SL because of the freedom to express their creativity. It will also get people to probably build together making the possibilities endless. If a group of Lifetimers got together and all shared in the growth, you could see some wonderful things. So look at the ins and out and form you opinions but in the long run...you will get more than what you paid for.

1.
1.
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1.
1.
1.
Yeah 1.

Soren