New LL/SL products: $L accounts

Not sure if anyone has already suggested this, but I think it might
be a great new offering to people....

It seems that right now we have 2 types of accounts:
1) $10/lifetime Basic Membership with incredibly LOW stipends and no land
2) $10/mo (or more) Premium Membership with still (fairly) low stipends
but access to own land.

I would recommend LL implement a 3rd account type choice which does not
allow land ownership, but does give out a LOT more $L in "stipends" on
a weekly basis.... Perhaps a new account at $20/mo would give about
L$1200/wk (more or less).

This type of account would be geared to appeal to the "gamer" types
mostly... who are already use to paying $25/mo or more for other MMO
type games, and want to be able to "play" without feeling too tied down
by their lack of $L to buy things or enjoy their "game".

These type of people probably aren't interested in owning land (many
are happy to rent), but they want the $L on-hand and ready for when
they might want to spend it.

Yes, I'm sure some of you are thinking "There is NO need for this, since
people can buy $L on GOM or such.... and really even less need for
this when LL puts a way to buy $L in the GUI".

Although I personally agree these are alternative ways to do the same
thing... and maybe even allow the "player" to get more $L for their $US,
I STILL feel having this account option would be wise, because it's
most of the "game players" that are not going to want to be breaking
in to their FL bank accounts or CreditCard every time they want some
new small thing to buy.... even though ironically the $20/mo charge
is doing the same thing.

It's a matter of mindset. Gamers who are already use to paying $20/mo
for MMO's will see this account option as something they are already
use to... and won't have a problem with it in SL too.... But if you try
and tell someone SL is a MMO with $10 lifetime access and then once
they are in-world they find (and are consiously aware) that for every
purchase they are hitting their bank account... it will be a distraction.

Yes, perhaps a small matter of perception only, but it would cost LL
nothing to implement the new type of account, and could open the
doors to several more people spending money ($L and $US) when
they might not otherwise.

Probably most of us here in the forums will not take this option
because we are not the audience of Joe Generic Game Player.
Those types don't care about forums
But you can think of it like the choice of having Pay Per View
movies ($L paid through GUI) as opposed to Premium monthly
movie channels like HBO, Cinemax, etc were you pay a monthly
fee and get movie access. Some people like each of the
options. My only suggestion is that LL provide the OPTION
for those that might want it.

Thoughts?

Gabrielle

Hmm, what about buying a basic account, and $20 worth of L$ (~5000) every month ?

LL is making an exchange between residents that lets residents get as much $L as they want from other residents who want to sell their $L for cash. This kind of elminates any purpose for a larger stipend option, since people will be able to purchase $L quick and easy just like they did on GOM. The difference will be that you won't have to sign up with a third party site or be restricted like you are on GOM to just a PayPal payment. You will be able to use your current credit card on file with LL as well as any other payment options LL decides to implement.

Right... the resident gets (about) the same result.

The difference is in the mindset of the person who is use to putting a
reoccuring charge on their CC, as opposed to the concious spending
of money buying $L only when needed through the GUI.

There is a lot to be said about all the services that work on the
reoccuring charge rather than the pay-at-your-will.

Like I said... it's certainly not for everyone, but it would not hurt
to have this set up for those that might want it. Even if just 100
people sign up for that type of account, then LL will be getting
that much more income from people who might not have otherwise
paid in to the system... or perhaps would have delayed buying $L
because they had to make a conscious decission to buy right then.
Also, it means more $L in their hands (just burning a hole in their
pockets) to be spent...

That means more L$ going into the economy :/ Not good for inflation. LL would be in fact selling L$ for profit there, and they'd have to buy back L$ in return to keep the exchange rate steady...

Hehe prolly impractical, but just like we have selectable monthly fees for land, doing the same for stipends would be interesting, you get to choose your 3rd-party service and how much you want each month, and it comes on in.

Doesn't have to work that way...
LL doesn't need to "create" $L for this....
It could be done just as they plan to do for buying $L manually through
the GUI, except that it happens automatically each week...

To the end user "game player" type... it would all be transparent.
All they would know is they are paying a monthly fee to play the
"game" of SL, and they are getting PLENTY of $L each week to
splurge and have fun with.

I think Jesrad has a point there. Despite LL deciding to become a market for $L to dollar exchanges, they are not actually going to be buying and selling $L themselves (barring some financial crisis). If instead they were supplying lots of new $L themselves, it would cause inflation.

This "LL buys L$ from players to provide your megastipend" aspect does make it seem a bit odd, but it would certainly be necessary to prevent a big effect on the money supply, with consequent need to find more money sinks - when they are scraping around ineffectually for them at present.

Nevertheless it could work. And I agree with you Gabrielle that it is just possible you have something there on the "mindset" angle.

It may not seem highly rational - but good innovative marketing rarely is.

I think you should send Philip an IM, or at the very least try to rephrase it as a problem to be overcome, and post it on the hotline.

I suspect (sadly) that those are the only two things with any hope of being noticed.

I think you have a good idea about the state of mind of the buyers. The problem comes with the fact that Linden doesn't want to be in the middle buying and selling in any way. I don't blame them. There is always the chance that they would make the wrong speculation about the future price and lose money. This means that the stipend will have to change in amount every week, since they will have to be buying your stipend based on the current price of the $L. Things would just have to be worded very carefully to make it clear that the stipend payout would change. I can see alot of people changing from one stipend to the other and freaking out when they get a different amount every week.

Absolutely true. And that might feel so odd it would undo the psychological value altogether. Pity. Another good idea bites the dust ?

I don't think this has to be the case, necessarily.

As it stands now, when Joe Avatar pays $10/mo to get a premium
account he gets L$500 and access to own 512m2 land.

First question should be what does that $10 cover?
SIM/CPU rental for 1/128 of a server, but since an entire
sim can be had for US$200/mo, that puts the real
cost of 1/128 of a server at about US$1.56/mo....
which leaves about $8.50 to cover other LL expenses
like salaries, utilities, equipment, advertising, etc.

Of course, we don't know exactly how much of that
$8.50 goes toward those expenses, but I'm sure
SOME of that goes back in to SL world in some form.
Right now they give Joe Avatar L$500 which comes
from SOMEWHERE.

My idea does not suggest that LL buys or sells $L, as
they have said they don't want to do that. But they HAVE
said they are implementing a feauture in the GUI where
residents can sell/buy from each other, so part of their
$10/mo fee will go to the AUTOMATED task of buying $L
from someone else selling at the start of each new week.

LL has stated that their goal is to keep L$1000 at around
US$4.00 ... and since they do control the flow of currency
creation/destruction, then they can indeed achieve that.
Although things may seem a little rough now, I'm sure with
the addition of their new VP of Finance, they should soon
have a better handle stabilizing the value.

So... after that is done, it's pretty much guaranteed that
those automated weekly purchases (from the membership
fees) will be fairly close to a fixed price. And since LL is
currently giving out L$500, then they could easily reduce
that "normal" amount, and give away only enough to make
sure the weekely stipends came out to the same amount
each week.

Of course, all this would be easily automated, though it
may sound a little complex as a NEW idea... it's really rather
simple to create and implement.

In the mean time... it would mean more people buying in
to this new account type, bringing LL more money than
they would otherwise have.... remember.. these are people
who don't care about owning land, and so would not be
getting premium accounts anyway, but ARE looking for more
$L to have fun with... and so if this was not implemented,
then, as best case scenerio they (might) just buy from other
residents using the new GUI, and LL would get a minor fee,
or at worst case, they would not buy any $L because they
see it as an _extra_ charge to their CC.

Gabrielle

I do find your logic very persuasive, Gabrielle, and your "third account type" marketing idea absolutely first class.

But I am not as confident as you that LL can get the exchange rate well stabilised, and remove this worrying "variable stipend" quirk. I think they have the power, but they don't seem to have the determination. Though I agree about the new VP Finance, and the planned economics consultant. These two together may put some fire into it.

Why not address your proposal to the new VP Finance, so its one of his welcome emails when he finally arrives ?

Gabi, i find your idea perfect. right now i own land just because i wanted to build a house. the house is built, i decorated it, friends visted and now im done. my land is on the market and when it sells, i'll go back to a basic account. being able to own 512 m is a doubtful reason for paying 10 dollars a month.

However if i could pay 10 or 15 a month and get lindens to spend i would. i'm a player here. i have a real job in real world and will not work here. i socialize and consume. i also dont bring real money in here. if i have no linden, i spend none. i have a lot of friends here that feel the same way.

its early in the morning sorry for the length. but, i think its a great idea, go beat on the lord lindens about it...

thanks jaci

Again, I reiterate that it is a good marketing idea. I do not have as much problem with a pay for stipend as I did for a rating bouns. At least the pay for stipend starts out as costing the user a set amount of money. This cost helps make the $L worth more to them.

Even if they do stabilize the economy, however. The flow of money to the stipend is going from resident to Linden Labs when it is newly created $L. This still breaks the cycle of a resident buying $L giving to a content provider who gets money from the next resident trying to buy from the next content provider. When the benefit is indirect through SL spending some of the money on improvements, there is a loss of return to the content creator. Linden Labs shouldn't have to spend 100% of their money back on SL. They need to make a profit too. If you are not talking about a varying autobuy of $L, then there could still be a negative effect if an idea like this is not done in moderation.

Other than that though, I think both the idea of multiple stipend levels and a varying autobuy of resident owned $L are good ideas if done in moderation. I wouldn't like to see someone that could get something like $10,000$L / week without having to pay some of their money in the resident owned $L market. Your suggestion of $L1200 / week would probably fit under the moderation side. Sometimes it is hard to tell where the moderation level is, though.