The New Continent with Free Houses for Premiums

For all premium accounts, I think.

If the beta goes well it will be and I can see no reason why beta shouldn't go well.

Yes, according to the blog, for beta they will send email invites to people that are already premium and have at least 512 tier available.

Faithless - Yes, I can understand if your market is the entry level resident that this is direct competition. I wouldn't think it too difficult to make your offerings a little more tempting and even a 'next step' type rental though. Some value added features perhaps? Check out the new offerings and see what they lack. Media player perhaps?

For the entire residential rental/sales market though I still believe this move could lead to more new residents staying the course and moving up to better digs.

If you think about it up until this offering 'new resident' was a bit of a misnomer. 'New homeless person' is probably more accurate

Rime

You should check out the Elderglen Infohub.

After visiting the areas, I'd say they all look a lot nicer close up than they do at a distance. Mascara could really take off.

Sounds nice, but the details specifically dealing with prim usage/limits, and actual theory behind the idea is weak in my opinion.

The more I consider the Linden Home thing, the more I like it. As a newbie user, I really wanted to own land and have my own little place but was terrified at the idea of buying land. I ended up being extremely lucky but I bet that lots of newbies aren't so lucky, and buy next to (ahem) casinos, clubs, bot shops, etc, that lag them out.

If, as a new user, I knew that I could get a little practice home for free (with membership) I would have jumped on it. I know that for me, I would have eventually moved out and up, through either renting or buying.

If I were LL, I would put a time limit on the parcel ownership. I'd give newbies a month to live for free, then kick them out, return their furniture and plants, then give the plot to another newbie. A month is long enough to decide if you're going to stay in SL.

Of course that would mean risking a McHome springing up next to you. Also I doubt anyone that wanted one of them would enjoy having stuff between them and the nearest road.

I went and looked around the other day, first thing I noticed was that it reminded me in many ways of the miltary provided housing I grew up in. Not really a positive thing, but not a deal breaker considering the cost of either one.

First - Parcels all seem to be the same exact footprint as the house, so you have no outside space of your own, not something I would like at all.

Second - Some of the houses are more than 117 prim on their own. Now I know they won't count against parcel prim in these areas, but doesn't that, in the end, give the new user a very unreal expectation as to what can be done with a 512m parcel? When they do move on, I would expect a major bit of shock when they drag their linden house out of the library (should they be available), or a nice little cottage they bought, and it won't rez on the new parcel they just laid out all their camping lindens on...

Are these strictly residential? Can one put a little commercial shop in one of the builds?

I went cycling in the fantasy sims and California style sims and I do like what I saw. The cottages in the Fern didn't appeal to me. Too plain on in the inside for my taste. But the California homes had more amenities which I liked. Haven't seen the other styles yet. The sim crossings were almost seamless. I like the parks and the community "feel". It was great for cycling and I hope they have rez points because I would love to go horseback and motorcycling there too.

But I do have some concerns......

Basically, the premium members comes in 3 categories.

1. Exisiting premium members that never used their 512 allotment.
2. Existing folks that have been in sl for awhile and decides to upgrade to premium.
3. Folks absolutely new to sl.

I don't believe kicking anyone out after 30 days is a good idea, perhaps 45 days. Most rentals that market to new residents offer 6 week occupancy limit. If sl imposes a 30 day occupancy limit then the folks in categories 1 & 2 will do fine because they basically know the difference between mainland and private estates and how things are.

The folks in category 3 the transition will be more challenging.

1. Prim limits. The homes on these continents don't count towards the prim allowance. If these folks aren't "educated" on how the prim count works, they will have a false sense of belief that they can rez their 117 prim house and not be counted. During their "stay" will there be any information available to these folks to educate them about prim count and so on. .

2. Where am I going to live? Will LL just simply toss these folks out on the streets after their occupancy limit has max'd? Are there plans to steer them to mainland and where? I recall when I purchased my first land. It was right in front of a bird sanctuary with a lovely lake. Then one day, it was a military prison with barbed wire and everything. That was a huge shock. I didn't know anything about altenative housing such as skyboxes nor prim limit. I learned the hard way. Will they be educated on the difference mainland vs private land ownership (really rental) as they enter into a residential marketplace?

The above is to just name a few of the misunderstandings I foresee these folks will have. Yes, I understand the short term goal is to increase premium membership. But what about the long term goal?

No commercial activity allowed. There's actually a covenant, which reads in part:



I'll be curious to see whether (and how) they actually enforce some of this.

watch out for the giant white balloon named rover that tries to smother you if you do the naughties and the inhabitants who wander round saying 'be seeing you'

I too was scared to death buying my first land parcel. It was way overpriced, I now know, but I had to have THAT parcel, on THAT sim, so I ante'd up. I didn't even understand I could remove the little freebie house that was sitting there and whatever perks I'd gain from buying the land, or even that there WERE land tools let alone how to use/set them. It was estate land, on water, so I didn't have surprises springing up around me, that wasn't til later when I took over my RL son's mainland parcel when he took a break from SL. I still own that, he comes in and out and has rights on the parcel. It's on Whitesun, next to Allana where the Forum Hangout is. When I bought the land there, there was nothing around; then a huge BDSM club sprang up for awhile, all black, like a big black box, next door. I sighed and waited it out. Then someone started building huge builds, maybe just for practice, I didn't know, that also eventually disappeared. That same person recently bought, and abandoned land next to mine (waited him out again, lol) and now a rental guy owns most of it, I have no complaints about him. I've waited out some scary neighbors on mainland. Since I do have the mainland, I guess I don't qualify for a Linden home, as am using the 512.

They should rent these things to basic members for something like $5 a month.

I'm a premium member with my partner I rent a half region...what do I want a linden house for.... ? There were free houses on offer at help island I never wanted them.

Instead of these barmy schemes its time we saw something which will GENUINELY be a benefit to premium account owners....

While I see that they are honestly trying to provide some sort of value-add item here, I still think they are going about this completely the wrong way.

The managed parcels with Linden-owned buffer area between each parcel, and the houses that actually are linked to Linden land just outside your parcel border, will give an extremely unrealistic expectation of what land ownership on the Mainland is really like.

Imagine a new SL Resident, who goes Premium and snaps up one of these free homes to start with. They see that having a house on a 512 M2 parcel gives them a full 117 prims to decorate with. They see that they have neighborhoods that are locked to a theme, and with buffer areas between homes that are landscaped and managed by LL. They don't see that the home they are living in is at or over 80 to 117 prims, in itself.

They decide that 117 prims isn't enough, so they abandon the free home and seek a 1024 M2 parcel on the mainland.

They find that when they place a similar quality home on a 1024 M2 parcel, as well as the 117 prims worth of stuff they brought with them from their free home, that the extra tier for the extra 512 M2 has bought them next to nothing in terms of new prim allotment. In fact, they may even lose prims in the move.

They find that in almost every case, available Mainland is NOT zoned and managed, and that all parcels are edge-to edge with their neighbors, with no LL-managed buffer zones, no themed residential areas, and no landscaping other than what the parcel owners provide. An exception to this is Bay City, Nautilus City, and similar future developments, which still have zoning and terraforming restrictions, and which have outrageously high buy-in costs. How happy will they be, paying extra to move from a managed suburban neighborhood into either un-managed chaos, or highly-restricted and expensive LL developed cities?

How likely are they to be extremely dissapointed, and to quit, since the initial "demo experience" wasn't anything like the reality of owning most Mainland?

That could require a basic member to plug in a charge card.....make it easier for them to purchase lindens on a whim.....and easier to step up to premium....which probably means more retention, more commitment/hours spent.....good plan.

As it is....they are leaving out basic members, which something like this would be perfect for.

Treasure, my husband Willard said the same exact thing. Will said the reason why he signed up for premium was exactly due to the first land program. But once he signed up they discontinued it and he felt he was mislead. His "first land" cost him 12,000L. He felt and still does that he was jipped. Like you he doesn't believe he qualifies because naturally his 512 allotment is not counted against his tier.

I'm sure there are a lot of premium members that fall into that category and feel slighted as you and Will does.

As I understand the beta is going to be run offering existing premium members houses...

Why ?

I wonder if those premium members selected will the the ones who haven't made a move towards upping their tier yet and who look like potential 'non-renewers' .

I'm puzzled though if premium members are not that important to lindens economically as has been implied in the past why make this -albeit meager - attempt at encouraging premium members. ?

THAT^^

Honestly, I agree that it would be a far better idea to forget about this as a Premium perk, and instead aim this primarily at Basic members who have never owned land. Make it cheaper than a Premium membership, but have a monthly fee. This requires putting payment info on file, and using that payment method, and breaks down the initial barrier to spending money to do stuff in SL.

Then, if they want to have MORE land rights, or a larger parcel, or if they want to have the parcel itself cost them nothing, they can go Premium, and keep the house for zero tier, or can abandon it and go buy a normal Mainland parcel.

What I want to know are where -and what, and when - are these other forthcoming 'perks' for premium members that were mentioned in the responses to the original blog on this scheme.

Needless to say the Linden who posted responded to those who drooled over the idea and ignored the somewhat more cynical and incisive responses.

Presumably one perk with the forthcoming cut backs on script allowances will be not having to look at pimpy guys in chunky bling jewellery


And perhaps not having to bother opening doors or turning on lights because the scripts to power 'em wont be there anymore....


excuse my cynicism here...

LMAO -- I've been catching up on the originals of The Prisoner.


My understanding is that the Linden Homes will always be something any Premium member can opt for -- after the beta time anyway. The blog simply states that, for the beta, if you are Premium with at least 512 tier still available, you may get an offer to get a home there. I don't think it is intended to be "strictly for new premiums" or "strictly for those that do not own any other land". I know a few people that own quite a bit of land and are still thinking the Linden Homes might be a good place for a tiny solitude hideaway area.


I think that they are hoping this encourages people to go buy lots of land -- and that is a money maker for them.
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