Beta packages

As someone who's considering a lifetime membership option, I feel almost like an investor in Linden Labs: the more successful LL is, the longer I can use my lifetime membership to get into SL. Is there any information that can be made public regarding how your finances look, how long you can survive in the absence of funding, or anything else that might shed some light into how long we can expect SL to run? If your plan looks good, it might encourage more people to sign up for the lifetime membership plan, which sounds like a great way to get a nice lump of funding up front.

Thanks for any information you might be able to share.

(Er, sorry about trying to post to the announcements forum -- I only noticed it after submitting the reply, of course!)

Sure! I really can't say too much, but here is a summary of what we as a private company can say:

Linden was started by me (Philip Rosedale) in late '99. We've been working as a team on SL for about 3 years now.

We are currently 25 people.

We are well funded by a fascinating group of investors, led by Mitch Kapor of Lotus Development fame - he is also our chairman and very involved in the product and company direction.

For more stuff about our management team, see http://lindenlab.com/management.php

For more about the company, see http://lindenlab.com/press_1.php

So one way to make sure Second Life has a lifetime at least as long as yours is to tell all your friends! The more you refer, the faster we'll grow and the stronger the world will be.

As a long time Beta resident and hopefully soon to be 'Lifetime' resident. I'd like to hear from the Lindens on what the perameters are that they have defined 'Lifetime' to be. There have been a couple other threads where this has been asked, but not answered.

Now that the beta Lifetime offer is official, I'd like to know the answer to this is.

Is it:

1. As long as Linden Lab offers SL, your a lifetime member.

2. Until Linden Lab goes out of business (god forbid).

3. Until Linden Lab creates SL II and deactivates SL.

4. For X number of years as required by some state laws.

4. Some or all of the above (what mix?).

5. None of the above (if so , then what?).


- Mickey

Lifetime means for as long as we both shall live. Kind of like getting married.

Seriously, we want to make sure that for as long as you want, you will be able to participate in Second Life. The only deterrents would be #2 (hope that never happens!) or if you no longer have the hardware/bandwidth to access the world.

Can I sign up for a beta account before June 23rd and get the beta prices?

I want to sign up, but I was planning to use a different credit card and create a new account so I can change my name (I really don't have much history with this one)! lol, decisions, decisions...

Joe

Yep, you can still get the price if you sign up anyrtime before the 23rd. So no problem - just create a new account.

Thanks everyone for your support so far! Conversions are rolling in...

Not to try to be a legal Eagle here, but Is there a form we can sign that legally explains that our lifetime is not X number of years but as long as SL and Linden Labs stay online?

Not complaining tho, you price is lower then I expected for a lifetime membership as broken down month by month a lifetime is equal to just over 10 months at the monthly rate.

Also, for those who invest in a lifetime membership, and feel so attached as many are. Would there be incentives for further investing beyond the initial Lifetime membership payment?

This could be a toughy cuz not all of us (I certainly am not), are financially well enough off to even fork over the lifetime fee in one chunk by the 23rd.

One last note. Is there a lifetime option at all at a increased rate for those who can't afford it b4 the 23rd?

Charlie there will be a very limited number of lifetime memberships sold at launch, but at a higher price.

As you point out, they are a really great deal - one way for us to say thanks for the beta effort. So we will not always offer them, but we thought for the beta users they made sense.

We're doing some checking on what the legal meaning of 'lifetime' is... it probably varies from state to state, etc. Will keep you posted. Robin captured the basic intent in her mail - we will get that into a more detailed form as needed.

I don't mean to knit-pick here either, but I would like a clarification on the game progression.

Say that SLII comes out in 3 years. Will LifeTime members have an option to transfer to there under this LifeTime program, or will we have to purcahse another LifeTime membership?




Bob Bunderfeld

Here's another way to look at it... most games cost about $50. How many hours do you play it before you uninstall it and stick it on a shelf? For me I might get 20-40 hours of fun out of a game... the rare game maybe twice that. Even if SL were to cease to be in a year or two I'd still have gotten way more than my $159 worth or fun. I've already gotten more than $159 worth of fun from the beta that cost me nothing

Here's another way... $14.95 x 12 months = $179.40. If it lasts more than 10 months you're already ahead.

Exactly Chip I feel the same way, but just lookin for stability and clarification you know ?


But yea I've been in the beta since Dec 2nd. And enjoyed every min. of it. heheh sometimes beyond what we were supposed to be allowed lol ask Cory Linden about his and my first meet lol. I was on at somewhere around 8am or so PST. Still playing hhehe I was one of the first to stretch the boundries of the time limits hehe. I loved it so much. I was even told by one Linden that at some point I held the record for amount of time in world per week. (was something like 60+ hours a week lol.) and that was back when hours were really limited.

So I do think that the price is much more than fair. I have already gotten my money's worth if I get a lifetime membership .