Why Should Class 4 Sim owners pay to speak?

Put me on that list too. Giving it to everyone for free except class 4 sim owners seems very arbitrary and I really don't see a good justification for it.

I don't really see this as particularly fair either. While I currently have three premium accounts, pretty soon I'll have none. I won't own any mainland, so I don't need a premium account. I am however paying LL significantly more than I ever have while being premium. Frankly, I don't think LL cares about providing me with incentives to pay $9.95, when they're getting $295 a month from me.

I gave her the idea......

Do you own a sim? Did you own a sim when this change was dropped in our lap like a bowl of hot soup? It wasnt a small montly increase, it was a 50% increase in price. Can YOU instantly come up with $100 each month in the game? The price increase affected a lot of things for those that are purchasing new sims...housing rentals, the cost of clothing so that designers who had sims of their own could afford them, other items prices increased etc. Adding this and forcing all sim owners to change is going to just cause another increase in prices for those that had tried to keep theirs resonable or low.

The cost had to be passed down to other users and trust me, Ive heard plenty of people whining about that too. What about those people that have sims out for people to simply enjoy without making a profit or even paying out of their pocket for? With NO additional benefits they should be made to just up their pay to the same as the people who are getting better servers?

IF they are going to make it required to pay that extra amount, then every single sim or land owner should have to pay that price, not simply those with the class 4 sims. If they are going to force that payment price, they should upgrade to class 5 servers. Just because you own mainland or class 5 doesnt make you a 'better av' in which you should get a new feature free while the rest have to pay. Voice and server class have nothing to do with each other.

As long as its an option I will not be paying more just so other people can cyber or yap yap yap on my sims. IMO, and the opinions of MANY others, if someone wants to yap they can pay for the feature themselves. I would have been much happier if the crew of people working on voice would have been working on all the bugs and such that have been following us around for...too long.

As a matter of fact, I do own a sim, and just ordered a second.

And yes, I do pay my tier from money earned in game, although I don't see how that is relevant. The point is, there's nothing you can do on a class 5, 295 dollar a month sim, that you can't do on a class 4, 195 dollar a month sim. And even LL says the performance between a class 5 and class 4 is negligible. I agree tho, when they do raise the price, they should upgrade the servers. The fact that class 3s are still around is sad. In the meantime, enjoy skating by with your lower than most tier.

Class 5's are better. A lot better.

I'll survive all right. But I can't gloss over the 13,200 USD yearly hit that Caledon would suffer to stay current. And that's keeping our class 4's, just jacking up the rates by 100 a month in 11 sims' worth.

Add to that: buying 9 class 5's to replace our class four's is a mere, one time charge of 15075 USD - what's to worry? At least until 'class six' comes out. Anyone think that these sorts of blows will just be sorta absorbed somehow by the community?


- Should I jack prices up until I'm just another boring residential enclave for the idle rich?

- Or shall I try attracting people to last year's feature-deprived hardware?

Those are the options I've got so far with the 100 USD/mo thing.

Personally, I think LL might make more money if they restrict the option to disable voice only to premiums, rather than if they rstrict use of voice to only premiums.

I don't plan to pay a penny more.

Recently LL gave Class 3 owners the opportunity to upgrade to Class 5 -- but didn't extend that same opportunity to Class 4 owners, citing no difference in performance. Now, they roll out a bell-and-whistle that they are providing to Class 5 and the mainland (and, aren't mainland sim owners paying $195.00 per month -- same as those of us with Class 4 islands?)

LL has chosen to paint Class 4 owners into a corner -- no upgrade in performance (yeah, they say Class 5 is no different...), but nickle-and-dime us now and into the future for any new thing.

I'm personally not interested in voice -- I talk to my friends in Skype. However, what if folks choose not to come to my sim to dance or explore or have a wedding because I don't have voice available to them?

*sighs*

EXACTLY. Our investments are being lowered in value by Linden Lab saying we are inferior to Class 5 sims and must pay for any added features from here on out. Another classic bait and switch from the company that bought you the telehub debacle.

You can't have it both ways. There are people saying they shouldn't have to pay as much, because their class 4 is a "used car". Now we have people saying there "investment" is being lowered in value. But isn't that why you claim you should only have to pay 195 a month, because it *is* worth less? So which is it?

...I remember a while back they offered to upgrade class 3s and 4s to class 5s for a fee, and the understanding that the new tier would apply. I wonder how many people took advantage of that offer...

Personally, I think LL might make more money if they restrict the option to disable voice only to premiums, rather than if they rstrict use of voice to only premiums.

I said I should not have to pay for free features. LL saying I do raises my costs and lowers my re-sale value even more than they did when they rolled out Class 5 Servers.

Well it appears my memory was faulty, they only offered to upgrade class 3s to class 5s:

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/01/29/regarding-class-upgrades-and-island-transfers/

but like they point out there:

"The performance of a class 5 server, for most uses, is not significantly better than a class 4 machine."

and I agree. I can sympathize with your plight, having 11 sims to consider is a lot. But honestly, from a financial standpoint, if you aren't in a position to handle an increase, it sounds like you may be overextended. And mind you i'm no financial expert. I myself am taking a risk by getting a second sim. I may not be able to support it, only time will tell. But life is about risks, and sometimes things go your way, and sometimes they don't. The best you can do is plan for the worst and hope for the best. And part of that planning is factoring in price increases.

Edit: Actually keeping the sims 'feature deprived' might be the only justification for keeping their tier lower. Maybe no voice is a blessing in disquise.. I know if I could disable voice on my islands to save 100 bucks a month, i'd jump at that chance.

Well, in spite of what they point out, the testing I've done, my personal experiences and the response of literally hundreds of community members is: class 5's are clearly, painfully, obviously, noticeably better. You'd have to be pretty new not to notice.

It's even *worse* on the openspace sims. Class 5 openspace sims totally pwn class 4 openspaces. I've got some, I did some benchmarks the first night I had them: they rock. We've had 60+ people in a class 5 openspace - just try ten in a class 4!

Second: I'm not overextended in the least. In fact, I doubt you can find *anyone* with the ratio of reserves to expenses that I've got. Oh, I'll survive this alright. No doubt whatsoever in my mind.

The fact that *I* can't justify the price increase, even with rates higher than Anshe, even with 3 months tier in case of zero occupancy when I'm running 100% full for the past year, might say something.

I'm no canary in a coalmine here.

To bring myself up to current tech, *just for one year*

15075 USD for new class 5's
+13200 USD (new fees, recurring)
----------
28275 USD.

Okay, so I left off the fact that I could sell my class 4's. But I'm also leaving out the fact that class six is prolly what, 18 months away? Pretend those just cancel, and that's being generous.

So, whee, it covers me until the next phase of hardware upgrades hit. We've had what, roughly one of those per year?

Also, for anyone who ever dealt with non-computer savvy people, ya know how they judge things when they make a decision? "Best" and "not the best".

This is a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad move, this 100 USD/mo more concept.

Well I don't think it lowers resale value. My guess would be a good 70-80% of ppl could care less about voice (and yes I just made that up), so if you could get a sim for 100 bucks a month cheaper, with no voice, that would actually be a nice feature. Then people wouldn't have to come up with excuses as to why they don't use it. They just say, "the sim doesn't support it", and go grinning on their way. I can tell you now, on my two Class-5-295-a-month-sims-that-have-voice-for-free, It won't be enabled.

When voice rolls out it's set up to be free on the mainland and free to Class 5 sim owners. But Linden Lab proposes to force Class 4 Sim owners to foot the bill for their latest gadget. And why should we? If voice is free for everyone else then it is free for Class 4 Sim owners also. We were told numerous times that Class 5 sims cost $100 USD more a month because they had to buy new equipment to roll them out. No other reason. No major performance changes. And we all know that every region on the mainland is not Class 5.

This is just some arbitray attempt to milk Class 4 Sim owners until we are paying more than the Class 5 Sim owners each month and we sell our sims for pennies on the dollar (because who wants a Class 4 with extra costs attached to it just to get voice and any other new 'feature' they role out after this?) and then we will hand over $1700 USD for a Class 5 Sim to SAVE MONEY!

Again (like the telehub land debacle) Linden Labs is de-valuing our holdings with their bizarre business practices.