Why Should Class 4 Sim owners pay to speak?

I'm not sure where people are getting that it will be free to everyone else. This was taken from the announcement in the blog-

"A limited beta trial on a test grid launches next week, before a Grid-wide beta takes place later in March, open to all Residents. Official launch is scheduled for some time in Q2 this year, although more details on that nearer the time. There will be no additional charge for using voice for residents or land-owners during the both of these beta trial periods."

No additional charge during the beta trial periods. So that leads me to believe there will be some sort of charge for the service for everyone who wants to use it.

In case anyone else missed it: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6162410.html


On the bottom of the 1st page and top of the 2nd;

"Miller said voice will be free of charge to everyone during the beta and will work on any computer that can currently run Second Life. Afterward, mainland property owners and island owners who pay the current $295 monthly maintenance fee can use the feature on their property for free.

But he added that those residents who own older islands with lower fees may be required to upgrade to current pricing in order to enable voice on their land.

"It is a significant added value, and we thought long and hard about offering it to (those with lower) pricing," Miller said. "But, as I say, we may change our thinking around this based on the beta phase. So I would be reluctant to say that that is a hard and fast decision."

I noticed it says "Afterward, mainland property owners and island owners who pay the current $295 monthly maintenance fee can use the feature on their property for free. "

Does that mean that mainland tier is going up?

I don't think so. I think it means the mainland is getting it without an increase in rate change. But that's just my interpretation.

Yes, I believe it's Vivox which is supplying voice.

But that's why your voice-for-premium-members-only idea may not fly. External third-party software is typically licensed on a per-server basis, so LL will probably pass on those costs on the same basis.

LL is probably paying Vivox a substantial fee for every server with voice enabled (and probably a recurring fee rather than a one-time fee) which a $195/month island might not be able to cover, while a $295/month island probably can.

As for mainland regions, well, on average they probably generate enough revenue to cover this fee, directly or indirectly. For example, a region with 64 parcels each of size 1024 sq.m. will generate 5 * 64 = $320 a month in tier, and even a first-land region with 128 parcels each of size 512 sq.m. which generates zero tier will still pay for itself by inducing up to 128 premium memberships, most of which are paying $9.95 /month rather than the far more cost-effective $72 /year.

So if they are automatically enabling voice in all mainland regions, it's not out of the goodness of their hearts, or to ensure a "uniform mainland experience", it's because mainland regions make enough money to justify it. And if they aren't enabling voice in $195 islands, despite the PR hit, it's perhaps because they'd lose money in doing so.

I just hope this doesn't turn into a giveaway for all the unpaid masses while land owners foot the bill.

Get them cow's a-ready yawl, it's a-milkin' time!
/me moos

Sounds like a "justified" price increase to me.

They sure aren't going to lose 1200 a year per sim though.

Proof: If they did, it would kill their mainland profits pretty effectively. Something Something, you are one of the sharper finance guys, you know as well as I do how their mainland numbers roughly work out.

So no, I don't buy that it's necessary.

If it was say, 20 USD per sim, pfft, I'd turn on voice on all my old sims and just eat the cost personally. That's STILL 220 USD/mo for my 11 sim's worth. But we are talking 100 USD per.

This simply won't fly for 99% of us and will harm the feature itself because service will be so spotty.

Doing all charging on a "land owner" basis seems more in line with a vision of being a behind the scenes "hosting service" rather than continuing as the subscription based walled garden.

It probably helps reinforce the idea that LL wants to be seen as one of those hands-off "common carrier" things, which is handy for avoiding all kinds of legal problems at least. It also means all income is generated by people hosting their own stuff, and chasing end user money isn't then a big deal for them. If someone will pay them $295 a month, then have to worry about how much they can populate their sim, then it's about 20 fewer customers than LL has to deal with all with their own 2048s etc on a mainland sim.

Even subscribing now is really signing up to a kind of hosting plan with a bit of a carrot thrown in.

So that's why I don't see them charging for this on a premium sub basis.

Joe Linden blog entry

http://forums.secondlife.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1438441

Q. Is voice an automatic option, how are you enabled?

Voice capability is linked to the land parcel rather than an individual Resident, so in that sense it’s automatic. The entire Mainland in the Second Life Grid will be voice-enabled by default, with individual land owners able to opt out if they so choose. Private island owners also have the ability to turn on voice as they wish if they’re on a current payment plan (grandfathered plans may require an additional fee).

I don't belive that Linden Lab is justified in making announcements that effectively lower the value of the investment I have made. And to make this announcement after the Class 4 Sell-off deadline is outrageous.

That is fine for retailers Isablan. My sim consists of a business center and a Live Venue. Voice is a mandatory fetaure for my business. I followed all blog and forum entries for months to monitor the Class5 roll-out and weigh what moves I should make. Even after the Lindens only informed a select few about the new Class 5 sims and then came clean about that - I still assumed I was getting the whole story so I could decide if I should sell and upgrade. NO PRICE INCREASE was the last word on the Class 4 Sim issue from Linden Lab. And now this back-door effort to increase Class 4 Sim Tier. No increase means no increase. Period.

While i do agree that this is retarded of LL belittle class 4 sim owners, i also have to say that it's going to be a blessing for me that the sims i usually hang out in will not have voice chat.

Since it's tied to parcels and not user accounts, that's exactly what it will be. I wouldn't be surprised to see mainland tier go up eventually after this takes off.

Hearing the financial frustrations expressed here, and adding to that all of the other concerns residents have expressed over this feature in countless other threads, it is quite disheartening that Linden Lab is making no attempts at all to discuss this with us. We have almost completely lost any ability to communicate with this company. They have withdrawn inside their corporate shell and are no longer openly talking with residents. Where are the town hall meetings?

If Voice is mandatory for your business, then how is your business surviving at the moment... what with voice support not ready yet?

They don't want people to go premium. My feeling is that they are trying to phase premiums out.

They want free users to get voice for free. They want free users to get everything everyone else pays for, except land of their own, for free. They want as many free users as they can possibly get, all talking, saying, "Ooo, isn't this cool!

And when you think about it, the casual user who drops into SL once or twice a week - not to live on land here, or go into business here, but just to take in the sights or meet people - would probably love to talk to people while they are doing it. Because to them, the whole thing is a novelty anyway. Why not make it more of a novelty?

If there was a site where I planned only to drop in a couple of times a month for a lark, that didn't cost me a thing, sure, why not have voice, too? And anything else they wanted to give me that didn't cost me a thing.

For those who are actually here a significant amount of time, though, living on land (theirs or someone else's) or running a business, the idea of the yakkety yak all day long from people you will never see again is a cacaphony many would rather not deal with.

In addition, the idea that one group should be sliced off from the paying users AND the free users and told they have to pay for voice where the rest of us don't is just - manipulative and mean.

coco

And you can bet my prices will make a jump up when this happens. Getcher houses now.

coco

I think you are probably right there Cocoanut. In the scheme of things premium membership by itself probably doesn't bring a huge amount of revenue in to the LL coffers. What with First Land being no more, the only thing it does is allow you to buy land, and it is the buying of land and monthly tiers that really brings in the cash.

So I would guess that they will look to drop Premium membership and eventually allow anyone to purchase land. This may lead to more people actually buying land on impulse (therefore more cash for LL) as they don't have to think about upgrading to Premium in the first place.

Zee Linden posted this November 1st during the whole island tier increase:


Of course, that was then, and was followed with a policy change of announcing tier increases 6 months ahead of time.

The reasoning for any increase (same linked comment) was:

skype

The one thing you keep saying that grates my nerves is the word "investment". A sim isn't an investment. Or at the very least, a very, very bad one. You have no tangible asset. There isn't even any guarantee it will be there tomorrow. A Sim is really a very shiny vitural money pit. Once people realize this maybe they won't be so upset over the pit widening a bit.

Exactly how I feel.

Being left behind featurewise is *very* significant, and everyone knows it.

Not telling us about 100 USD/mo charges before we all rushed to buy more sims was highly unethical.

Let's see if the future holds redemption, or confirms my worst fears.

Can you point to where they say it will be 100 USD/mo for voice? The quote only says a possible additional fee. that could be 10 USD for all anyone knows. I'm beginning to see a pattern of gross exaggeration over this whole issue. Makes having any meaningful discourse pretty much impossible.

I think the best thing for people in game with land at all to do is come and be updated on the blog, the boards etc. My own group of friends and I are already in discussions about what to do if...or rather... when price increases happen. At the present we are surviving by about breakin even and are ok with that because it gives us land to enjoy. However, with price increases, that all ends and a plan is a good thing for everyone to have in the case of "I'm selling it all" coming up.

Regardless...Im sure the new voice feature is going to introduce problems they arent even prepared to respond to (much like a lot of issus that seem to go ignored). I forese a lot of 'elders' of the game moving on. Rather sad to see that as the future of SL instead of all the dreams people have had built up over time.