Is having a Premium acct. worth it?

Really? 300L seems like a fairly average price for a decent pair of shoes to me.

As to the OP, yes, Premium is worth it to me. When I signed up, stipend was 400L/month, which means the account pays for itself. I can own a little land with no tier, or a little more for reduced tier, and I'm able to get better customer support.

One of my alts is also Premium, at the 300L rate, used to reduce my tier further while increasing the amount of land I can hold with the 10% group bonus. I don't really play her, so I just cash out her stipend every week to help cover the monthly tier.

They just changed the rule...you can complain even if you pre-pay for a year. Plus it means more shoe money.

If you don't plan on owning land, save the money. You have ownership over your AV. It's one of the few things that you do have "ownership" over, free account or not. Paying for premium does nothing to protect an AV, as far as I know.

Nope. I don't like subscriptions to anything. I guess I'm just afraid of committment.

You just quoted the wrong quote when answering. I am suing you for your shoe collection.

Changed it, You can have my shoes when you pry them off my cold dead feet.

Stop with the shoe talk...you are making me so horny.

I dropped it. Now I just cash in the stipend every month until the sub runs out.

The only 'real' advantage to paying for a premium account is to buy LL owned land, although there a lot of nice new shiny class 5 servers out there, that you can buy plenty of land from. Oh.. and you can join the ranks of people that blame everything about SL to those 'non-paying, freeloaders, chump change beggars' that don't have a premium account.
Before anyone asks...... I paid for a 'Life Time Membership' way back in the dark ages, which entitled me to be seen as a long time investor and with the ability to buy land from LL.. only to have them drop that some 3 months later and convert it to a 'free account' and they still owe me some 78 years of lifetime payment back (average lifespan minus the 3 months used). With interest, that equates to over 100USD... so far...
I do own land (converted to group) bought L$'s and never to date taken a single L$ out of game, ploughing the many many 1,000L$ back into the community through one source or another.

I pay my subscribtion per year (and get a stipend of 500 LS$). I own exactly the amount land in one sim that I can hold for a 40 US$ teir (which is 30 Euro... and that sounds cheaper ^^). I don't rent because I want full controle on my land. And maybe I don't trust other with something as my "virtual land" .

It costs me RL money. True. But so does the wine I drink, my horses (those are a lot MORE expensive the SL all together), the TV I watch, the movies I rent and the music I download from iTunes.
Thing I am trying to say is, things I do as hobby or as entertainment cost money. Simple as that, so yes... for me it is worth it.

Morwen.

Definitely. 9.95 for a Month of Sl. A movie ticket here is $10. I go to the movies from 1 to 5 times a month, for aprroximately 10 hours total. maybe one of those 5 movies is actually worth the money. SL is by far the best entertainment value or me.

Of course you can't buy any land, anywhere, until your membership downgrade process is over.

mars if they did that to the old-timers its pretty dirty.

We are all different and all look for different things out of Second Life. Is my (relatively new) premium membership worth it? Let me get back to you in a year as to how my experience in SL goes. Does the land I (sort of) own worth it? Well I can tell you that my monthly tiers are the most expensive thing I pay here in SL. Once again ask me in a year if it was all worth it. But like other people have mentioned, the RL money I pay into SL is chump changed compared to the RL money I pay for other RL entertainment endeavors. So for me it is all about getting entertainment value for my hard earned dollars and so far SL has been very entertaining and well worth the money. But ask me in a year and I may or may not give you a different answer.

oh that sucks. i thought i'd be able to buy/sell land during my first downgrade. i didnt like the fact that although i was still paid up till the end of the month, i wasnt a 'real' member anymore. i cant imagine if it had been a year contract!

Yes, it almost cost me my home (SL that is). I fled the mainland for the islands, and found a great place. Deciding I didn't need to be premium, I started a downgrade.

Long story shortened, sim changes hands, please rebuy land from new owner for 0L$. I was stunned to find out that I couldn't buy private land even though I still had a premie account, and didn't even require it for this purchase.

An understanding estate manager, and quick response from a billing department phone call to stop the downgrade saved the day.

A little over three weeks later I recieved a reply to the email I had also sent to billing support outlining the problem. They sugged I call them to clear the matter up.

It's worth it if you plan on devoting a lot of time and money into SL. If you have an ambitious business strategy, it would behoove you to buy some land.

I make a decent part-time salary doing freelance graphic design and modeling on a basic account--I simply rent an office on Silicon Island.

I have a premium membership, and I think it's worth it. I own mainland, in Nautilus, and I like not living with a covenant and being able to do what I want with my land. I have had very few experiences with griefers, although someone with a noob skin apparently cammed into and tp'd into my locked, privacy enabled windowed home while I was changing. But other than that, no major problems, no ad farms, very little lag. I'm happy with my 2560 plot and the world I play in for a total of $25 US per month. As other's have said, entertainment costs money. Overall, SL is way cheaper than most other forms of entertainment, and I think the price is worth it. I have problems with it sometimes, same as others, but not so many that I want to stop playing inworld. It's my way to unwind after the kids go to bed at night. I personally feel that LL might serve themselves and all residents better if they only allowed free accounts for a trial period, and then a monthly charge. My husband plays computer video games, and I know how much they cost and how long it takes him to complete one. SL is definitely a better value, even with the darn, annoying bugs.

If you need mainland land for whatever reason - go premium.

If your SL set up is particularily error prone - in that you will need frequent customer service for whatever reason, go premium.

Otherwise - premium isnt worth the effort.



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That would change if they institute priority log-ons. Then Id say - If being on when you need to be is important, go premium.

Well to prevent running out perhaps you should put some of the money into a better collar system for your "sub"

There is the problem for me personally and why I get annoyed at blanket statements about free accounts. I paid for a lifetime membership, from memory (which isnt good these days lol) I had a choice, either 2.95USD a month premium account, or 39.95USD one off payment for Life Time account. I invested in the 'game' back in 2004, which seems to account for nothing now, since they removed that type of account, I'm now a 'free account'. I paid the equivilant of a years account up front into a platform barely recognisable today or without a solid future, I never claimed my 512mtr puddle or built anything, as there didn't seem much to do then and certainly the initiation was sparse at best. 3+ years down the line, things have changed dramically and dynamically. I am here because I came from a generation of 'beta testers' of a predecessor of SL called Atmosphere (Adobe product), in the hope this would become the 3D web of tomorrow.

stipend? which stipend? 14 days and I haven't seen a linden....

Hmmm.... my stipend of 500 L$ was today normally added to my balance.

Morwen.

probably Linden hate me ....

This is NOT World of Warcraft...this is Second Life. Forcing us to pay to play is ludicrous, and is severely detrimental to the synergy being produced in-world.

Stop hating on the basic account user. Try opening your eyes, there are thousands of basic accounts that are creating amazing content. I think some of you are just jealous you have to pay and we don't. I thrive and enjoy myself just as much (if not more) than the average paying citizen. Please open your eyes, and stop discriminating...because that's what it is...ignorant discrimination.