Tier lowered… on the mainland.

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tier

Most people in SL have been saying it for a long time and it has even become a bit of a, what kids these days call a “meme”;

The Tier is too damn high!

Well, today Linden Lab announced they are lowering the tier by 10%… but only if you have land on the mainland.
Which makes this news not quite as exciting for this landowner.
I can’t help wonder why only mainland land owners get this bonus.
I guess it is because there is so much empty space there, but it being crowded and lack of land management powers is the reason many of us decided to move to a private region ages ago.
Personally I felt I didn’t have a choice, being surrounded by lots of strange builds that ruined the immersion in my sim but also desperately needing full admin powers to deal with grievers and other sim problems, I needed to move 1920s Berlin to a private region to make the place even remotely bearable for my tenants.
This however meant much higher tier and thus much more work to make a sim pay for itself or even profitable.
Just to get access to tools I think all land owners deserve.

Now I am famously horrible at math, but that would reduce the monthly tier for a full mainlandregion with $17.50, so from $175 to $157.50.
Which is of course still quite a lot and as many will say is still “too damn high” but it is a  step in the right direction and something I welcome.
It is of course a fact that this change will help everyone who currently has land but will this amount make a difference to aspiring land owners?
Would the 10% reduction change your mind?

According to the LL announcement this reduction is effective immediately.

Another nice bonus is that mainland allotment is doubled for premium members.
I remember getting my first land as a premium member and starting 1920s Berlin on it and I know this change would have been very welcome back then.

We, well some of us, get this improvement a few months ahead of SL’s 15th birthday.
I hope we can expect more bonuses like these when the birthday celebrations begin and I hope that private region owners and those of us who have left the mainland and live elsewhere on this virtual planet are not passed by this time and also get a reduction in tier.
I reckon we’ve deserved it.

You can read the official announcement by clicking here.

 

 

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Grandfathered rates, looking a gift horse in the mouth.

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grandfathered, maxwell graf, tier

A few days ago Linden Lab announced that they were going to offer land owners the chance to buy the ‘grandfathered rate’, pay $600 once to get a permanent $100 discount on your tier.

You can read about it by clicking here.

Now this offer has received both positive as negative criticism, as with everything LL says or does.
It is too complicated to go into details but some say that you can’t lose because after 6 months this investment starts paying for itself, while others say it is a desperate attempt of LL to get some quick cash out of us before everyone leaves for Sansar or another virtual world and that by the time you earn this investment back, SL will have emptied.
Some people also say that this once more damages the business of some land lords, which is of course true as they need to lower their rates because more people will get grandfathered regions and will thus offer land for lower rent.
Then again, I always assumed that as a landlord people stay with you not just because your rent is low but also because your sims are nice, the community is wonderful and you are just a wonderful landlord!

Anyway, for me personally, this is a good deal.
I am pretty sure that 1920s Berlin is still here in a year time even if Project Sansar has gone public and allows me to build 1920s Berlin there with all the options I now have in SL.
Something which will not happen that soon.
So all I have to do is spend $600 and voila, my tier goes down.
It will  not make me rich, with VAT and all the time I spend working on my sim, I’d still make more flipping burgers, but every penny counts.

But $600 is a lot of money.

So although I am an old fashioned lady who is petrified of being considered rude, I am going against etiquette and look this gift horse in the mouth.
Sorry Linden Lab.

I can see two ways to make this offer even better and even more attractive for a lot of people.

1.Give every estate or group or community, that has managed to survive in Second Life for longer than 5 years the option to grandfather their regions for free or much cheaper than $600.
Making a sim work and keeping it going for such a long time is quite an achievement.
Places who manage this clearly bring new people to SL or keep users from leaving, they are good (free) publicity for LL to promote SL with, in short; they are doing something right and this directly or indirectly is good for Second Life.
Allowing them to grandfather their community land will give them a huge boost.
At the end of the month more money is left behind for those who run the place and/or more money can be put back into it.
Some sims that are not run just for profit sometimes find it hard to get tier together every month and this grandfathered status will take a load of their backs.
In short; it will help and reward sims that are doing something right.
And yes, I am totally thinking about my own sims and my own pockets as well.
Lower tier will mean I can spend even more time running Berlin but it will also make it easier to pay for my next project; 1940s London.
And what will this do to relatively new sims?
They know that if they manage to hold on one more year, or 2 or 3, their tier will go down.
Of course some complicated decisions have to be made, after all a sim or group or community can be doing very well for over 6 years but due to landlord trouble or other reasons be forced to abandon one region and start over again in another region.
But you get the idea.

2.As I mentioned before, $600 is a lot of money to most people.
And even if you have lots of dosh and you have a nice Second Life related income, it still is quite an investment to spend if you own more than a few regions.
And if you make money in SL, chances are you own more than one region.
One of the reasons people are deciding not to grandfather right now is simply because they do not have that money available to them at this moment.
So I’d like to suggest allowing us to pay in instalments.
Hear me out.
You can sign up for the grandfathered deal now but in stead of paying LL $600 on the spot, you get your lowered tier right away but… LL adds $100 a month to your tier as payment for the grandfathered status.
Between now and 6 months LL has my $600 and I get my lower tier.
So the end result is the same except that more people will decide to take the deal!

When people have to pay the entire amount at once, they either decide not take the deal or they save up money for the next couple of months and pay when they have it.
If LL implements my suggestion I think more people will accept the deal, more sims end up with lower grandfathered tier, more communities survive longer, the economy gets a boost, everybody happy.
And yes, once more I am mostly just looking at my situation.
I will have to save $100 a month for half a year before I can afford this deal.
I’d rather just keep paying the regular high tier and then get lower tier in 6 months.

Besides, we need a little break because we have to go buy new computers and VR headsets soon.

Maxwell Graf contacted me about this earlier and had the same sort of idea, so I’m sharing his post below.

Let us know what you think!

Maxwell Graf;

The ability to “opt-in” to the new tier rates program is a no-brainer, and a welcome change. Why would I say no to lowering my monthly costs, especially considering the state of both the SL and RL economies? It has been talked about since I have been in SL. It is a great incentive and a smart move by LL. I would have done it already, if not for the unfortunate lack of 600$ in expendable income, even if that would benefit my business in the long run. This is a problem which needs to be addressed.

What I am asking for is a way to say yes I want to opt-in to the new program, LL start taking 100$ from my 295$ a month tier for six months, and then lower my rate in six months to the grandfathered tier rate. Without this option, I have no way to do this. Without this option, the benefit to me as a customer who needs a break does not happen.

Dear Lab: I do not mind waiting for six more months of full price to get the lower price. I have been paying for full sims since 2008 and will continue to do so. Give me a break if you want to give me a break, and I will stay and love you for it, but don’t tell me “We would like to offer you this discount because you supported us as a loyal customer, we know times are hard and we want you to stay. Pay us 600$ to do so.”

If I made enough in SL to have an extra six hundred dollars laying around I would most likely not worry about a 100$ a month break on my tier. A lot of us are fighting to stay in SL and keep going but this is similar in some ways to a tax break for the rich. When you offer a discount to only those who can afford it, what are you saying to those who cant is not only in direct opposition to your long term goal or ours but has a negative impact on your customer relations and we both lose the very benefits you are trying to provide. It goes a solid half-way to appreciating the 10 years of my reliable support of your business.

Click here to visit Maxwell Graf’s website.

Linden Lab lowers tier… but…

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tier

 

Linden Lab has just announced that it is lowering the tier by $30 a month for homesteads and $100 a month for full regions… but…

Yes there is a but.

In stead of lowering the general tier they are offering you the chance to “buy down” your region and/or homestead of a one time fee of $600 and thus turn it into a ‘grandfathered’ sim.
So you’ll get a discount but you have to buy the right to get this discount.

First things first, it is great that LL keeps hammering away at the tier, they know it is too high and are clearly looking into ways of lowering it as much as they can.
Which must be scary and difficult as it is of course their main source of income and they need every penny they get to not just pay for the electricity and virtual schnaps bill, but also for the development of Project Sansar.
Last November they already lowered the set-up fees by 40% so they are on the right path.

Having said that, $600 is a lot of money.

Grandfathered regions have a lower tier level because back when LL raised tier in 2010 they allowed people who already owned land at that time to continue paying the original lower fee.
Which makes sense because if you suddenly raise rent you risk people running away.

You have to make this decision before October 4th, so you have some time to save up money to pay for this but it will also take at least half a year before you earn your investment back in tier discount.

This offer comes at an interesting time because by the time it ends, Sansar will have opened to a lot more beta testers and if all goes well, we’ll be months away from it opening to the main public.
Who knows how things are going in SL by then?

So, if you own a full region you pay LL $600 and they will switch your land to grandfathered tier, which is $195 a month in stead of the regular $295 a month.

If you own a homestead you pay LL $180 and they will switch your land to grandfathered tier, which is $95 a month in stead of the regular $125 a month.

A good deal and another step in the right direction, but still, $600 is a lot of money.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could say… pay it in 6 instalments of $100?
That way you’d just keep paying regular tier for 6 months and then you get the discount.
Luckily the offer stands for the next 6 months so if you save $100 of your Lindens every month, you’ll be able to get one without making the investment in one big payment.

Lets hope this is another step on the way to more discounts and even lower tier.

You can read the full story on the Second Life website by clicking here.

Why lowering setup fees in SL isn’t as great as it sounds

Tags

"second life", costs, economy, money, setup fees, tier

Last November Linden Lab lowered the setup fees for buying land in Second Life.

At the time I was quite enthusiastic and felt that it was a great step in the right direction, hoping that more prices would start coming down, especially tier.

And even though I still think that this was a good step in the right direction, I’ve had a little time to think it over and now realise that this news wasn’t as great as I first thought.

For people who never looked into buying regions, it of course sounds great when they lower the price from $1000 (!) to $600, but if you have been in SL a little longer and ask more experienced people for advice, you’ll learn that paying even $600 is still a lot more than if you bought one second hand from another SL user.

For instance, if you join one of the Land selling groups in Second Life (such as the one I joined called ‘For sale by owner’ or here on the SL forum; Regions for sale) and are patient, you’ll be eventually offered regions for as little as $300 or even less.
I joined the group a while ago and have even seen them being offered for $100.
And you can even buy a ‘grandfathered‘ region there, if you’re lucky.
And yes, you may still have to pay $150 to move the region, $100 to transfer and $50 to rename it (even though in many cases this is already part of the deal and if you do all those things at once even LL will charge you less), but even then it is still cheaper than buying a new one from Linden Lab.

After all, fewer and fewer people are buying land and many want to get rid of their region, so the market is good if you’re a buyer.

So, as long as second hand regions can be bought for $300 or even less, having them now for sale at $600 is not a very good deal.
Looking at the stats, it is clear that the lowered setup fee did not cause a increase of regions being sold nor did it stop the total amount of regions declining.

In the end we end up in the same old situation; SL is too expensive for many people.
I still think they should lower the setup fee even more or scarp it.
And of course they should also lower the tier, even if it is just by a small amount.
But this is of course scary as the tier is what pays the bills and if they lowered them they would lose income without being sure that many more people would actually start renting land.

Linden Lab decreases land setup fees!

Tags

"second life", linden lab, setup fees, tier

Today Linden Lab announced that they have lowered the land setup fees!

I quote from the announcement on the SL website;

Decreased Land Set-Up Fees and Changes to Transferring Regions

by Linden Lab on ‎11-17-2015 08:00 AM

We are pleased to announce two changes that make it less expensive to get your own Private Island in Second Life!

Price Drop for Land Set-up Fees

Effective immediately, all new Private Island set-up fees are up to 40% cheaper! Whether you’re looking to expand your estate or just getting started with your first Private Island, it’s a great time to buy.

Here are the new, reduced set-up fees:

• Full Private Island  – previously $1000, now $600
• Developed Full Private Island – previously $1029, now $629
• Homestead Private Island – previously $375, now $225
• Developed Homestead Private Island – previously $395, now $250
• Openspace Private Island – previously $250, now $150

Qualified educational and nonprofit organizations will continue to receive a 50% discount off the applicable set-up fee (as well as 50% off ongoing maintenance fees). For more information about our discount program, please visit this page.

If you have paid a region set-up fee in the past 14 days, you will receive the difference in fees back as a credit (in US Dollars) to your account balance.

I think this is a very, very good idea.
The costs of land have in the past stopped me from expanding my project and I am sure it has kept many from even starting one.

It will make things just a bit more attractive for people to take that big step and start their own sim.

I have suggested lowering and even scrapping these setup fees in the past and am happy this is now happening.

I  don’t want to be rude and look a gift horse in the mouth but I still think it is too expensive,  $600 bucks is a lot of money especially as the tier remains the same and we still don’t have the option to for instance buy half or even a quarter of a sim, or maybe sims that are only online in the weekends.
Something I’ve also suggested in previous posts here and here.

But nevertheless it is a great step in the right direction and it makes things a lot more attractive for those of us owning sims and wanting to expand and those who are thinking about starting their own sim.

And who knows, maybe more news like this will follow and other prices might start going down as well.
I for one am keeping my fingers crossed.

Let’s see if the amount of regions, which dipped below 25.000 recently, will now go up again.