I did too and I have to say; the meltdowns and massive amount of whining, screaming, threatening to 'leave SL forever' and other outraged over-reactions people are having on SL FB have been quite entertaining. *edited to add: Most of this about the changes in groups, which LL walked back the next day. #virtualfirstworldproblems.
A lot of folks weren't around when we only got 15. FIFTEEN! And that was also the era of having your prim hair show up attached to one's virtual hoohoo after a TP. Before Voice, Before Sculpties, Before Windlight, Before the Dark Times...Before M Linden.
But back then there were meltdowns and whining, screaming, threats to leave SL, claims that "whatever" would "Kill SL", and reaching for the pitchforks and torches over different things. When I joined, as a free account, which only a few months old at that point, people were still moaning about THAT. And over time Residents have moaned about Stipends, Voice, Sheep Search, Sculpties, Ratings, Dwell, the closing of the Teen Grid, the Openspace/Homestead debacle, the big layoff under M Linden, Child Avatars at SLB, Bay City, the creation of Zindra, various changes in the ToS, the removal of Third Party currency exchanges, removal of gambling, Adult Verification, Marketplace (and LL buying SLExchange and SLBoutique), the Tier Buydown policy, First Land, the Introduction of Linden Homes and Mesh!
And before my time there was the Prim Tax Revolt, and the creation of parcels, and the introduction of direct Teleporting. (the people who had bought valuable land near telehubs were PISSED)
You want to know one of the reasons why LL doesn't like to communicate with us? That^^, they've been burned so many times. LL could announce to tomorrow that everyone with a premium account gets a free region and a pony and you'd have someone saying that was a Tekki-wikki commie plot to undermine capitalism, free-enterprise, and the income model of mainland land barons in SL.
That said, it doesn't help that LL seems to have 3 internal cultures that don't seem to work well with each other. You've got the governance/decision makers, the tech-lindens and the community-lindens.
The Tech Lindens say: groups are SRSLY a resource Hog.
the decision lindens say: Lets reduce the number of groups Basic's have, that'll reduce the drain
and then the community-lindens don't seem to say: "Whut? don't you realize that will cause the residents to reach for their pitchforks and torches...again?"
When the real question the decision lindens need to ask the tech-lindens is "Why are they a drain in the first place? Why didn't you separate Land groups from social groups?"
And the tech-lindens will say: "Because we and early Linden culture was focused so much on sandbox culture and Land and the ability to build on it and not so much on the social experience. So we designed SL with OUR needs and the needs of the Crash Override/Hiro Protagonist types we wanted for our userbase. So groups are tied to Land."
"change it"
"we can't, not without more people...that M let go, and not without rewriting SL from the ground up, which would essentially break everything"
"Frak!"
As for the rate hike, I don't understand why so many people are freaking out.
Because they've been spoiled by it staying the same for over a decade...and the fact that 37.5% in one year is a BIG jump. As I've said, they should have been raising it little by little over that time.
I'm really curious what 'new level' of premium they are teasing means too.
Me too.
It's almost like you've seen this dance before.
All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again....so say we all. But you've seen this dance before yourself, Vicereine, as have most of us oldbies, FIC and near-FIC on VVO.
I wish the premium increase has been announced with the addition of the extra land and prims that happened a couple months ago. I think that would have made the increase more palatable.
Yes, I'm VERY surprised they didn't. But I'm not sure LL thinks that far ahead. I think they wander hither to and fro carried by the winds of chance and act in "the moment" not with foresight. This is why they didn't see the pent up demand for the Linden Homes in Bellisseria. Even the land based houses were all taken within a couple of days!
At this point, I feel like an entitled a-hole over complaining about the premium cost increase. I've enjoyed nearly 15 years of SL at the same price.
Yes, but as is being said, they should have had the foresight to raise it a little bit at a time over a period of a decade, not 37.5% at once.
Now that we will be paying more, LL should pull their resources back into their profitable product, and put Sansar on the back burner.
Sansar should go multi-platform ASAP, that would help...a little.
Like most of LL's announcements, it's ham-handed and more of a Marketing/PR failure than a real dick-move.
They keep making this same mistake over and over.
If LL had paired rate/fee hikes with the substantive enhancements they've made over the past year or two, far fewer people would freak out. Rate hike WITH EXTRA PRIMS! Rate hike WITH MORE FREE LAND! People need to feel like they're getting something for their money. By releasing those features to much fanfare months ago, LL undercut themselves. That was the perfect time to nudge rates up a bit.
Exactomundo! While the price increase made me go "ouch" I'm firmly in the camp of "they should have been increasing it over time!" And I am flabbergasted at why they haven't or why they didn't announce the increase at the same time of the prim and tier increase.
It's all about perception.
Indeed.
Purely hypothetical, of course, given none of us - AFAIK - are in charge of the Lab, but: what would you feel would really make Premium worth it?
2048 or 4096 tier, Xiola Linden and Strawberry Linden as my own personal shopping buddies...and a unicorn pony.
I'd be delighted if the land allowance were redeemable with private landlords, not just for mainland. Communities grow up way beyond the Lab's control or interest; being able to secure a plot where you actually call home in SL would be pretty neat.
yes, I've suggested that before, that one be able to donate their tier to one's favorite Ebil Land Baron to pay for a parcel from said Ebil Land Baron
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