The Cost of Land

The page that says you have to increase your membership to be able to own more land confuses me. Is the monthly charge per month for land in Linden Dollars or US Dollars? L$5 for 512 m^2 isn't bad at all, but $5 US is an entirely different story...

The monthly charge for your land allotment in the tier is charged in $us

US dollars.
Premium members get more L$ and a free 512 meter plot.
What's so bad about $5/month?
I spend more than that to watch a single movie for two hours. In SL, those $5 will get you a whole month of far richer entertainment than anything you can see in a theater.

$5 a month is what it starts at. I don't mind paying a little extra, but at a premium membership level, plus $5 a month, that's $180 a year. Even if I choose to be billed yearly, we're still talking $132 a year. And that's just to get 512 m^2. I really want one of the bigger parcels (2k m^2 would be the minimum, but at $15 a month + premium membership that's a minimum charge of $252 a year.

Now I suppose that when I get out of school and get a real job (if I can find one), things will be different, and I might not care about blowing $252 a year on a video game. But right now, finances are tight, and US $ means no matter how much stuff I script and sell, I may never be able to justify the cost of a nice sized plot of land.

I agree that the land allocation with the monthly membership should be more considering that people with the free accounts are getting 4096m2. They need to offer more lifetimes again with better land allocation.

Had you spent $225 back in the days when none of us were really certain whether SL would still be viable in a year, you would have been rewarded with the same benefits we were.

You no longer have any significant risk for your investment. Why on earth should you get the same benefits for the same price and without the risk?

But a free account getting 4096 m^2 is paying $30+ a month for their land. Lifetimes don't get land allocation.

He's talking about the beta and pre-1.2 lifer accounts, Vautrin, not the basic one-time $10 account.

On a side note, either you've missed something or your math is slightly off. If you have a premium account, it includes a 512m allotment. So, if you tier up one level, your total allotment would be 1024.

If you tiered up two levels, your allotment would be 1536, for $8 + $9.95/month.

I just found SL a week ago. So that wasn't an option for me. I think I should be able to pay for land in Linden $ as well as US $. For instance, let's say they charged L$500 a month for every 512 m^2 a month, but if you had a high dwell you could get L$1000. Those who make the game better and create things that people want to go to would get rewarded with free land, and those who just wanted land to create their own things on could pay in $US.

All I am saying is that for a student who works full time at a crappy job at Friendly's can't afford the same $US per month as somebody who has a real job. And it would be cool if people like me could get the full benefit of playing SL with a large piece of land...

So you have to be at risk to get a benefit!
From what I've heard people with lifetime accounts do have a 4096m2 allocation.

You can get the full benefit of playing SL with a large piece of land. But like any online game (don't shoot me for calling it a game), you can't get everything all at once -- you have to earn it. You have to spend time learning to build or otherwise contribute before you can start earning a significant amount of Linden dollars.

Here's an analogy: When you graduate from high school and start your life on your own, sure you'd *like* to have a big house and an excellent job right off, but you can't. You have to work at a McJob and live in a basement until you become more established.

Once you have built your skills and reputation enough, you may well find that you have an increased L$ income, which you can use to offset the cost of a higher land tier. This is the route that many established SL residents have gone to be able to own large plots of land.

So don't be disappointed if you can't do or buy everything that an established resident can. Just like the real world, it takes time to earn your way.

There are two types of lifetime account, Wilson. One of them has a 4096 allotment, the other one has 0.

I'm truely sorry that you missed the opportunity to buy a lifetime account.

I'm even more sorry that I wasn't in a position to benefit from the IT boom in the mid-to-late 90's. That's life. Opportunities come and go. Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time to grab an opportunity.

And yes, I feel that those that take greater risk should be rewarded.

You can always trade L$ for US$ on GOM or IGE to cover land fees, or use the Lindens for Land program.

But in case you haven't noticed, land in SL has real-world value now. I don't believe that LL should be required to pay you to participate. And I certainly don't believe that long-term players should have to pay for you to play!