do you consider basic accounts to be inferiors?

i would like to know your opinion on the difference between basic and premium accounts,

- do you consider a basic user is inferior to a premium user?
- do you think LL should push the basic accounts to move to premium?
- do you think the basic accounts should get more restriction as an incentive to move to premium?
- do you think it would be a bad way to have a script function allowing to detect if someone is basic or premium by it's key? (it used to be written in the profile)
-what do you think of the charter accounts?

if you are a basic account:
- do you consider to go premium someday?
- what kind of incentive would make you choose to go premium?
- (warning biased question) do you think you are participating in any way in LL's costs?

if you are a premium:
- do you feel you are paying for the basic accounts?
- what is keeping you from going back to basic? (exepted the land)

i have been in planetside recently where there is free and paying accounts , you can go from free to paying but not the opposite. Do you think it should be the same in sl? once an account go premium it can't go back to basic?

I definitely feel that I am subsidising basic accounts, because I pay per month to provide entertainment for them.

What keeps me from going back to basic? Because I don't expect to get "something for nothing" like so many people do these days, even if I didn't own land I'd have gone premium because it's the right thing to do.

LL must consider restricting what freebie accounts can do otherwise SL will never become profitable.

Restrictions I would add would be:

1) Remove the ability to 'sell' on Lindex - if you're making enough money to cash out, you aren't a newbie any more.
2) Remove the ability to join groups.

If you're serious about wanting to play SL, you shouldn't have a problem with paying $10 a month for the privilege. If you're new, you have time to discover the potential and decide you want to play, before upgrading to a premium to unlock your account restrictions.

Next problem is camping chairs/dance pads. Once they're gone, SL may have a chance.

Lewis

I compared other ”hobbies” with the SL fee. Then it was no problem to pay for the account.

One pair of shoes less in a year and then it was no problem!

And yes I am used to pay for things I use. And yes I dont expect that I can leave the food stoore with a filled bag without paying for the things in it.

/Tina

As a paying/premium user who's also also paying for a largish slice of land, yes I *know* that I'm carrying the basic accounts. How can I not be? I'm giving money to LL, the free accounts are *getting* money, bandwidth, etc. from LL.

Without *someone* to pay for it, there would *be* no SL.

I'm not against basic accounts, some of my best friends use basic accounts because that's all that they can afford.

The thing that *does* bother me, is the sense of *entitlement* that I see from some basic users. There seems to be a strict denial that their accounts are being subsidized, or any kind of realization that there are almost *no* other games out there, particuarly games as filled with options and things to do that let you play for free.

Personally, I think that there *should* be some incentive for basic account users to move to paid accounts. The more money that LL gets, the better they can make the game. You want LL to hire enough people to fix the bugs, inprove the game, add new features, etc. then the best thing that someone can do is to buy a premium account so that they're actually helping support the game.

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Painting with too big of a brush there. Some people have basic accounts because they want to check it out first, they need to be 'sold' on SL before they pay for it. Some people have basic accounts because that's all they could afford and wouldn't be here otherwise. I've met a lot of basics who buy a lot of money off of LindeX though, they're just not interested in owning land, and if you're not interested in owning land then you get more bang for your buck by putting that $10 a month into LindeX, Linden Lab makes money off that too. I've talked to many basics who buy enough from LindeX that the 3% Linden Lab made off their purchases puts most tier holders contribution to shame. Lots of basics eventually go on to being premium land holders after they start making enough from SL to afford it, also.

Some people are also basic because it's cheaper to have all their tier in their partner(s) accounts and pay them instead. Higher tier == more discount. They're paying too, just indirectly.

Sure, some, maybe a healthy percentage of basics are 'freeloading,' I just don't think it's fair to say they all suck just because they're basic.

As a Resident, I was always on a Basic account. I didn't personally have a need for land (still don't, really, apart from the administrative side of it) but I could have seen myself upgrading to Premium if something like an explorer's pack was offered. Optional things which would have been really useful for my travels, like advanced landmarks management, a back button to TP to where I was last, and my beloved Offer Group TP dream.

I'd like to believe I contributed to SL in my own little way while on a Basic account and hopefully I didn't encumber the system too much.

i remember it was what There offered, there was some functions reserved to paying members.
What about the flexiprims?


and the "too poor to pay 10$ a month" will never have a single grip on me it just ring sooo wrong.

Nope



Well duh, that's pretty much common business sense.



Nope



I wouldn't have a need for it and I can't see that many, apart from those wishing to create class divides, would have a use for it.



Good for them



Yes, but that's not really a bad thing. As a content developer, the more people in SL, the more people there are for me to sell to. And that far outstips anything I am subsidising for the basic accounts. So although yes, I'm paying, no I don't have a problem with that.



How can you ignore the land? I don't understand. The only reason to be premium is so you can own land. Oh and extra stipend, but that doesn't bother me either way.



No, flexibility is key to Sl flourishing.

I'm seeing a few people in SL echoing some of the comments here, that if you're serious about SL you should pay your 10 dollars a month and that without people paying that, LL will never become profitable.

I guess many are forgetting, or discounting, that the big rental islands contain a lot of basic users who, by dint of paying to rent land are, as a result, increasing LL's income as the owners of the islands purchase more land to meet the demand.

And they're also buying from the LindeX as somebody else has already said and there are many who are also creating content.

People get too hung up on the black and white perceived input these accounts make, without realising the input they actually make. I guess it's reverse entitlement at work

That's exactly what basic accounts are for - and within a month or two you should have a pretty good idea whether it's your thing or not. Sims Online gives you 14 days free trial, then it's shut off unless you pay. That hasn't been a problem for 3 years now.



Considering that you need a pretty high spec PC and a fast, expensive internet connection to play SL in the first place, at 30 cents a day for unlimited entertainment, I just don't see that $10 a month is really a problem for anyone who is able to play. When you can get a year's worth of unlimited access for $72, and the same person complaining about that thinks nothing of spending $100 a month on cigarettes, or $500 on a leather jacket, then I don't think there is any case to complain.

Lewis

Lewis, that's what you in your opinion think they're for, let's not forget that. I think you're missing the bigger picture of how these basic accounts actually work within SL and how they contribute in a more indirect, but equally valid, way.



You're making the assumption that these people are on basic accounts and not spending anything in SL. I don't believe you are even close to being right, for the reasons I've already stated in a previous post on this thread. You need to take a step back and realise that, just because they're not paying their $10 a month directly to Linden Lab, many are still contributing to the income of Linden Lab indirectly by renting land and using the LindeX.

There is no difference between people on basic and prem. accounts, especially as the only reason to get a prem. account is land. If you don't need your own land, you don't upgrade its as simple as that.

That's the root of the problem - there is little to no actual incentive to go premium. It's a problem that LL seem reluctant to address.

Lewis

As I said on a similar thread a few days ago, I am on a basic account but I send extremely non-insignificant checks to a friend of mine who owns an island sim. There is no technical way I can see to check if someone is a "freeloader" or not, even if one believes that said "freeloaders" should get less.

You can buy land as a basic member... ask any Landlord. But you dont get the free 512 ones..

/Tina - The EXAKT BagLady.

Could it be because they don't perceive it as a problem?

No. I view everyone in SL as equally inferior

No, I view everyone as equally inferior

I think this idea that basics pay nothing towards SL and that they are carried by the premiums is, as has been pointed out, not entirely true due to rentals etc, but it does stem from an understandable sense of unfairness on the part premiums who are seeing very little additional value for their money compared to basics.

Rather than penalize basics I do think LL should address this by giving more to the premiums. There seems to be a huge glut of land, how about a free and tier free 2048sqm ? Enough for a decent build with no additional costs in recognition of that commitment to SL ?

Of course, I strongly suspect income from membership fees is trivial compared to tier fees for LL which is why things are the way they are.

Aha, this is the reverse entitlement I was talking about in a previous post on this thread! Exactly what unfairness? You pay premium to own land (and get a bigger stipend, but I tend to ignore that). If you're not bothered about the stipend, then you can balance the "unfairness" against you quite simply: drop to basic and rent land.

Those who choose to pay premium to own land have it within their power to go back to basic and rent. There we go, unfairness sorted!

People have SUCH a simplistic view of this.

I started on a premium account, and owned land for over a year. I made a huge loss on land when Darkwood asked me to take on some of the prim land when it transferred over to Darkwood group from the Lindens... not on that land which was then trading at $1linden per metre, but on the land I let go in order to take the Darkwood Land into my tier.

Family finances being what they are, having a premium account no longer made sense for me last year, and I changed to a basic account. BUT... I have rented land from the inestimable Hiro Queso, and from different markets and shops. I am responsible for Numbakulla although my SL partner is currently holding the island (and paying the balance of the tier) for the donors and players of Numbakulla. I think my SL partner would agree that I was instrumental in persuading him to join me in SL (took me a year!), where he owns a private island.

I have made a huge number of freebies, built things, scambusted freebie sellers, posted to the forums, made content of all sorts. I may not be paying a premium account, or any tier, but I believe I am a net contributor to SL, and I think there are a lot of people like me.
Cali

That's because they're looking at it as a business, rather than the practical day-to-day usage of their game.

It's just like politics. The politicians think they have everyone right - but the general population can see that it isn't working. Unfortunately, with politics we can vote for a different party who hopefully will do things better (or at least less bad), but with SL all we can do is quit out of frustration.

Lewis

Your notion of "Reverse entitlement" is hardly fair... If a customer PAYS MONEY for a service there actually is an entitlement surely ?

As for owning land, as many basics keep claiming to rent, where's the advantage in notionally "owning" it again ?

But now you mention it, at least according to the economy forum, that stipend can be traded on the Lindex for about the same or slightly more than the cost of premium account in US$ anyway, so although you choose to overlook it, the added value could be said to be right there.

What day is it today? Where am I?

Yes, everything that Moopf said, except I would probably not have been quite so polite.