Simple Feature: Buy me off with more prims

I'll have to say, right now, and for the record...that I am fucking pissed.

I personally bust my ass in Second Life to make good things for the game.

I get NOTHING back from Linden Labs in this regard. Absolutely nothing. They even charge me for having groups to support the communities that I've already spent tons of money on creating.

Every month...right as rain, I gotta pay tier. And I pay it for what? The right to have a certain amount of prims to provide my community and myself with the build that I've envisioned.

Oh..and why is my tier so high do you ask? Is digital land really worth paying two hundred dollars USD a month for...when you truely think about it?

Well the basic answer there is NO ITS NOT.

We pay this stupid amount of tier because it is how Linden Labs subsidizes the open door policy they have that has done nothing but destroy the grid since June.

Thats right....I SUBSIDIZE THE ACCESS RIGHTS OF HACKERS AND GRIEFERS.

I pay...OUT THE NOSE, to allow these people access to the game that I make my living in.

So not only do I get NOTHING except a Group Liability(where I get CHARGED for providing said content) from Linden Labs for providing much needed to content to their game. I also get to pay Linden Labs to give them the ability to give the very people that are destroying the game access to it. Oh...and to top it all off, the Lindens aren't going to compensate me for lost sales. The Lindens aren't going to compensate me for lost time, lost builds, stolen property....nothing...its all down to me. I pay and pay and pay and what do I get in return for it? Nothing...its pay more or take my ball and go home.

I am tired of the hollow excuses. I am tired of being patronized via a blog. I am tired of the constant attacks, tired of the service outages, tired of the constant exploits, tired of never being able to get through to customer support on the phone or via email and whats more I am tired of paying enough to finance a REALLY NICE CAR in RL, every month, to the Lindens for this level of service.

I want some compensation. Plain and simple...I think EVERY PAYING ACCOUNT IN SL DESERVES A LEVEL OF COMPENSATION for having to be the financiers of our own destruction because someone at Linden Labs thinks 1,000,000 accounts by the end of the year is some kind of good thing.

You can't give me money. That inflates the Linden.

You won't give me free time because you gotta have the money I'm giving you otherwise all these yahoos attacking the grid can't get in.

And you sure as hell don't appear to be able to restore the platform to the level of service I came to expect before June.

So what can you do? Buy me off with prims. Thats what. Make what I've already got invested in your system worth MORE to me. Do something for ME as a valued customer and premium member paying a huge amount of tier that says "thank you for your patience, we understand your frustration".

DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN PATRONIZE ME VIA A BLOG THREE OR FOUR TIMES A WEEK WHEN THE GRID FAILS BECAUSE I'M PAYING FOR YOU ALL TO HAVE AN OPEN DOOR POLICY.

Do something for me. Do something for all your premium accounts that makes us believe you give a damn...cause at this point...doesn't seem like you're here to do much else but take our money in exchange for US making YOUR game a success.

Buy a clue...even some of the worst service providers in the world know when they've got to pony up and compensate their users for interruptions in service.

So.. um... they're not providing a game, an environment where you get to do all this?
They provide a service, people pay for it. That's... um.. called business. You knew the deal when you went in, right? Or did someone make a promise to you that Linden Labs would reward you for using their service? If so, I'd love to see where that was written.

You say you get NOTHING from them. I assume you mean nothing beyond the basic service they provide.

I'm sorry, but where did you get the idea that they owe you something?

Two hundred dollars a month gives me the idea they owe me something.

Name one game where people pay that kind of money.

They provide a service. Yes...but they provide a pretty damn shoddy service lately.

And if you remember, they used to PAY people for creating content for their game...there are ISLANDS and entire sims out there that were financed by DI.

I'm not asking for a reward. I'm not even asking for DI. What I'm asking for is compensation for lost time, lost sales, lost customers and lost traffic because what I do is what allows me to hand them 200 dollars every month and the damn grid has been down a total of about two whole days a week now, every week now, since around the beginning of August.

The service is appalling. The performance of the platform is appalling. All of this is traced back to June 6th, when they decided to completely overextend their resources and open the door to every yahoo that can stand up and see daylight.

The point of the post is simple...those that pay tier are the ones giving EVERYONE THAT DOESN'T pay tier access to the platform. And we get diddly for doing so...except more and more potential for loss, potential for IP theft, potential for everything we put into the game to be destroyed or stolen and they don't even do anything about it.

I make all my own textures, they're pretty damn good...guess what? Linden Labs put a feature in the debug options that allows you to steal my textures by using a script. I won't explain how to do it...but its there. Who cares about permissions exploits? All you need is a rudimentary knowledge of scripting a clue about how the debug options work and the ability to cut and paste from a screenshot and any texture in the game is yours.

The point here is that I pay for the people that refuse to pay. I do so because in a retrospective way this will benefit me at some point. The problem is...the destructive side of this is beginning to heavily out weigh the potential net benefit and its pissing me off.

And whats more...the Lindens aren't doing crap about it except reactively patching holes and dealing with the fallout and talking down their noses to us via a blog.

And I expect a bit more than that for 200 dollars a month.

I do like some of the new options that have come out after June of this year... however I also know that premium account holders and land owners are the ONLY ones truelly supporting SL... Free accounts are not paying for the servers that keep SL running... Free accounts are not paying the salaries of the Linden Labs staff... I also dont see a ton of popup adds nor do I see a rash of advertisements on Secondlifes Pages suggesting that there is an outside source of funds that is paying for SL to operate... As such I cant help but think the only ones paying the bills here are the premium residents and land owners.

Now when I came into SL almost 2 years ago... there was only one major grid outage due to an outside source... and it was fixed in less than 3 hours... I have been paying almost $ 160.00 a month in support of SL... and I do support them not only financially but in spirit as well... But in my oppinion I honestly think even LL's own tech staff is as sick of this as we are... I know thier thinking this is not worth all this extra work we are doing... however thier employee's not the owner... The magic 1 mil accounts was not thier idea I am sure... And I am sure that this open the door to all has been a big headache for them as much as us all.

Come on SL up the prim... make the ONLY ones who truelly make SL a reality a bit happier... give us extra prim and up the free land amount from 512 on premium to 1024... we all remember the first land purchase where we tried to cram as much as we could into 100 prim on 512... that was impossible...lol

Basically since the environment is supported by Premium and land owner residents... why dont you concider us your stock holders... after all if LL was publically traded... I think your stocks would have started tanking in June... and with the events of late would be record lows.

I understand people thinking your giving us a game to play and we should not complain... However this game has not been a gift for me to play since the first day I went premium... nor has it been a gift the moment I began my tier addiction... I pay to enjoy SL.. I dont pay to watch rampant violations of TOS that have occured since June 2006, I dont pay to watch the blog because of an attack on the grid has kept me out of the game... I dont pay to watch naked floating self replicating pictures take over my landscaping... and I sure as hell dont pay for people to drop cubes advertising thier oppinions on my land.

I am sick of paying for people to destroy what I pay to enjoy.

I am sick of seeing the linden staff being verbally abused when they have no choice in this either and have to work harder then ever just to keep a game running that was for the most part worry free until june 2006.

I am sick of seeing premium account holders abused for the folly of a false 1 million account thats probably more like 200k with alts and banned account holders remade.

And I am sick of seeing Philip Linden on CNN stating how well things are progressing in SL, knowing full well that SL is being abused so much more since June and is not ever going to get better till he decides to stop and have a real look at what open registration has done to the grid, its paying residents, and his staff.

upping the prims wouldn't be that needed, however, more services to premiums and land owners, and ESPECIALLY to estate owners wich fuel a good deal of SL

Disclaimer : This post is not pro-LL. It is not anti-LL. It is not pro open-registration. It is not anti-open-registration. It is simply a realist explanation of why challenging the policy of open registration is pointless. I've seen many people challenge the open registration policy and all of them have failed. I want to make it clear why they have failed so people do not waste their time trying to do this over and over again. No offence is meant to anyone, and I'm not blaming anyone for anything either. I'm simply considering things from a realist, cold, rational point of view. Again.... I don't want to offend anyone... I'm just trying to tell it like it is.

It's a tried and true principle, expressed in books such as Making Friends and Staying Sane, that in order to get someone to change their behaviour, you need to enforce negative consequences on them for their current behaviour. These negative consequences you enforce on them have to be bad enough that they are capable of pushing through the change in behaviour despite resistance from the person's entrenched beliefs, desires, and behaviour patterns.

Applying this to the 'open registration' issue : the only way you are going to get LL to reverse the open registration policy is to enforce negative consequences on them - effectively punishing them for having this policy. These negative consequences would have to be very strong - strong enough that they outweigh many other factors stacked against them... factors such as the commitment of LL managers to their past decisions, and LL's existing business plan which is based upon the idea of open registration. You'd have to have negative consequences so bad that they are powerful enough to force LL to rethink it's whole "platform - like the internet" business model.

Unfortunately, you have pretty much no way to punish LL for their actions, as you are their customer and ultimately they can replace you.
Even if you and all your friends who believe Open Registration sucks simply up and leave SL.... LL can afford this because open registration will lead to even more people coming into SL. Thus the net flow of people, and money, is *into* SL, and thus, into LL. Thus they can afford to let you leave SL. Since they can afford to let you leave SL, you have no power because to them, you can be replaced. They might have some emotional attachment to you as a person, or they might feel sad that you are leaving, but ultimately, LL can replace you, and they know this. Therefore, they're not going to get motivated to change because of what you think, because no matter how mad you get...... you can't really do anything that hurts them bad enough to make them want to change their policy.

Put simply : you have no power to challenge the open registration policy because the worst you can do to LL is leave..... and even if you do that they can replace you. Heck, it might even be in their best interests for you to leave, as if you left, they would not have to put up with the dissident on the official company forums.

So, you can't change the open registration policy - because you have basically no power over LL, even as a paying customer. It doesn't matter how much money you pay LL, money paid into SL does not equal any kind of 'stake' in the world that gives you the ability to determine how SL works. Being a paying customer of LL does not give you any influence over LL's policy on this issue or any other issue.

You can see this pretty clearly by looking at tools such as the FVT. The top proposals say very clearly "end open registration", yet LL state clearly that they're not going to do this. It doesn't matter that three times more people voted for this 'feature' than anything else on the voting tool. It doesn't matter it was revived even after closure because people felt so strongly about it. Ultimately.... LL knows that even if the people who are mad about open registration up and leave..... the net effect in terms of population numbers and money in SL as a result of open registration will be strongly positive. LL have thought this one through - they can afford for people who don't like this to leave, because more customers will replace them and SL as a whole will grow as a result of this change to open registration.

So, what can you do?

You have 3 options :

1) Accept the status quo and adjust yourself to the fact that this is simply how SL is. Accept the fact that you can't change this policy.
2) Remain annoyed at the situation and search for things you can do... such as restricting access to your land to those with payment info on file. Ultimately this option is self-defeating because as more and more people join SL through open registration, you will increasingly find yourself in a small cultural minority.
3) Decide that it is worth it for you to simply leave SL and liquidate, destroy or transfer your existing assets when you do. This has pretty much no effect on LL, but it does mean that you don't have to be governed by a policy that you disagree with.

Um, Angel Fluffy, I have no idea where you get that notion from, but LL is a business, and in order to remain in business they need paying customers. If enough paying customers agree that open registrations are a mistake, then they would be idiots to not listen, as if all those people left, they'd have a big hit to their income, and if people leave, you can except people to continue leaving as other paying customers join, see the same problems and leave too, or those that didn't leave right away change their mind, or lose good friends because of it.

LL's actions need to be didacted by its customers, maybe not each individual, but if something is really annoying or causing customers to be disatisfied (constant downtime due to griefers for example) then they need to do something about it, or they need to find a new source of income.

First, I have many friends with unverified accounts. I will not turn my back on my friends. I stand by their side.

To ban unverified accounts sends a message to every griever group that they have control over Second Life.

That single handedly, they are able to deny Second Life to many people who would never have had the opportunity to enjoy it.

Can unverified accounts be a liability to your business? Get used to it. Virtual businesses are a lot like real businesses. Either sink or swim. This is no bed of roses.

Second Life is about fun, not money. Unverified accounts attract people to make this game a lot more fun for everyone.

Witch hunts are so 1500's.

Linden Lab provides you a service. It is up to you to find value in this service. They have people's paychecks to pay.

People simply don't understand the value of Second Life.

This assumes that the person you're dealing with is not a rational actor, and is not capable of being reasoned with.

If you really believe that nobody is a rational actor, and that the only mechanism to change their behaviour is coerciom, I have to wonder why you thought it worthwhile to spend so much time explaining that point.

Stand by their side by doing what it takes to get them verified.

I'm not a virtual businessman, so complaining about business interests is pointless.

The bottom line is that griefers have control over SL, granted them by LL when they opened registration, and the only question is whether that control means they get to force LL to cripple SL or to close registration... because those ARE the only two options. There is not a third.

xD
Oh, that's HEE-larious! My sides ache! Ordinal FTW!

Thanks for that link Ordinal A most amusing piece of work

Ni-i-ice.

I can't say I disagree with anything the O.P. has said. At all.

And I agree with Haravikk, about Angel Fluffy's post. It seems to me that in every game/platform I've been in, there are posters who earnestly tell you that what you think or want has no influence whatsoever, you are powerless, and you are always and infinitely replaceable.

Not true. I don't want LL to find this out the hard way, and I'm sure they don't want to, either. But they might end up doing so, and events over the last few months certainly give every indication that might happen.

I know that for me, it is not at all the same ball game as it was when I joined. I had faith in the structure, then; in its integrity and stability, and in the ability of the Lindens to solve technical problems. Now I feel it's all falling apart.

I don't think this is at all a function of being an older player, either - there are absolutely too many concrete problems going on to excuse it as that. The griefers, the grid attacks, the replicating this and thats, disasterous updates, the permissions bugs, the inventory bugs, etc. - all of these rather major problems, as opposed to just, say, the annoying building bug that never goes away, or a slight mess-up after an update requiring a restart. Not to mention trying to get the players to pipe down about it all.

Having said all that, though, I continue to pay, because I'm paying for my own pleasure. Each individual has a constant balance going on, a pleasure/displeasure ratio that can only be determined by that individual.

My pleasure is not dependent on making a certain profit, or on not having increasing frustrations, but on creating and on being with friends and meeting people. When SL stops being more of a pleasure than a pain to me, I would tier down or quit. Until then, I just view it as getting constantly more expensive than ever, and less playable. (And the policy decisions more inexplicable.)

Problem is, it doesn't matter how happy I personally remain in spite of these difficulties. If enough people become unhappy, the program will fail, and that is all there is to it. Or at least, it will become something different - probably less fun, less relevant; more of an "Advertising World" maybe.

It would be nice if they ever gave us anything, rather than constantly taking things away. I got excited when I saw they were reinstating bonuses for referring people who become premium. But next, I saw they were reducing stipends for premiums to $300 a month, so they can make more money by selling Lindens to us directly (while also, by the way, controlling the price of those Lindens, and essentially being in competition with content creators attempting to cash out, except there is no competition really, since LL is holding all the cards.)

And yet, I keep providing content, helping newbies and customers, etc. - all that you do, while paying for the privilege, and taking increasing hits.

So yeah, prims would be nice. Or something. But I'm not holding my breath. I figure I will just do SL as long as it's worth it to me for my own personal satisfactions, and/or until something better comes along. I don't expect anything to improve, which helps me stay happy, but unfortunately that in itself is something of an indictment. If things do improve, well, so much the better.

coco

P.S. It occurs to me that they offered the bonuses for referrals to get us to take up the slack on the fewer premiums that will result from giving new premiums lower stipends. That kinda feels like manipulation, too much manipulation, to me, and I don't care for that. So I don't think I'll refer anyone.

EDIT: On the plus side, the good news now is that the disappearing objects thing has been pinned down and will get fixed!

http://www.superwarehouse.com/HP_Single_Processor/b/110/c/2103

Most server costs from $2,000 to $4,000 each... Actually, can you imagine their eletric bill to have a server running all night long may take up? A lot.... Also, it cost more money to have T1 speed internet connection, Cable is very very weak for heavy traffic flow for business like SL.

Yes... Digital Lands doesn't seem that worth of money... but you can't just stop and only think about the land alone... you gotta think about the server, power, traffic, and a crew to keep them rolling.

It come down to this... Shame on you to point Linden Labs out as cheap greedy people. You are the greedy one who ask more for less. Shame on you.

Wow! I'm missing out!

Let me tap my contacts in LL to make sure we get you those extra prims right away!

I don't want to be deprived of your vision for our community... I pay tier after all... LL OWES me the opportunity to see your vision completed!

Heck LL shouldn't even CHARGE you tier until your vision is complete for all of us to benefit from! Heck, they should be paying YOU, you work so hard to make their world better, right?

Um... so what is it you're working on?

Did anyone spot this in the original post though?



So they're putting US$200 into SL, but they're taking out some greater amount of money. I don't see how in that circumstance they can possibly claim they aren't getting their money's worth. If (some amount of money, greater than US$200) isn't worth US$200 then.. well.. um, how is that even possible?

I realise that making a living in SL requires a lot of work, but if you can do the same amount of work and make a living without needing SL, then go for it! If you can't, then, well, maybe that tier fee is worth it after all.

Also, if the money you use to pay tier with comes from in-world sales, reliably, then doesn't that mean that effectively the userbase is paying for itself and you're benefitting from being an intermediary on the loop? Certainly, when I can pay tier from sales and rent (I can't always reliably do that yet, but I sometimes manage it) I feel like I'm the one who's being subsidised because I've managed to earn it - not that I'm subsidising other people.

Hey now.. that's just crazy talk!

--
Fighting a rant with logic is like pouring water on a grease fire.

I think the point was that with current griefer acitivty, open registration and so-on, businesses stand to lose money due to downtime, attacks, abuse etc.
So they may be turning a profit atm, but if bad things keep happening, then even a well-run business in SL could start going under as customers get fed-up of downtime, or turned away from your simulator because it's full of junk boxes some griefer rezzed everywhere.

You know, I don't want prims. I just want cash. Dirty cash. And I don't want any of that L$ rubbish either, I want hard currency.

LL needs to pay me right now. Right now, you hear? Or I'm leaving, I swear! I'll go! I will!

Nuh unh!! Your exit visa has been *REVOKED* !

--

That's my cue!

DENIED!

Next?

Actually, that's a good question. Really a good question to see why you want Linden Labs charge you less. It better be good.