November is half-over and once again it’s time for the end-of-year Premium membership promo from LL – and Premium gifts make something of a seasonal return.
As usual, the offer is 50% off of membership for those upgrading, but only if they opt for the Quarterly billing plan, and the discount is applied only to the first quarter billing period.
There is also an e-mail circulating to users about both the promotion and the gifts. I’m still not clear why, whenever the upgrade promos are run my main account (which is Premium) gets the invitation to “upgrade”, while my Crash Test Alt account never does (and it has a separate e-mail address, so it’s not like I’m confusing the two), but hey-ho.
The Premium gift is designed to be of a festive spirit featuring a range of items, notably twelve empty cubes textured as gifts, together with teddy bears last seen in the SL10B premium gift vendors, now attired for Christmas; a thanksgiving candle; a Christmas candle; a poinsettia; “high” (26 LI) and “low” detail (15 LI) versions of an Xmas tree; and a Christmas wreath.
I’ll leave it to others to comment on the gift set. Instead I’ll just mention that the Premium promotion started at 00:01 on Thursday November 21st and runs until 00:01 on Wednesday 1st January 2014 (although at the time of writing, the small print of the upgrade page itself quotes the offer period as ” starts Friday July 26, 2013 at 12:01AM (PST) and expires Sunday August 11, 2013 at 11:59pm (PST)”. Oops.).
If you’re interested, I offered some thoughts on the matter a couple of years ago, and which probably still holds true today and might be worth reading before making the jump.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
The offer is disappointing, is the kindest way I can put it. It’s designed to confuse which disappoints me.
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The way Premium is promoted in general tends to be misleading, with some of the accompanying statements questionable, as I’ve tended to bang on about in the past, and not just around the “50% off” statement. It is disappointing, as there are benefits to be had with Premium.
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I think you forgot to mention the 3 quite nice and packed dinner tables in the premium gift, the rest is not worth mentioning.
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I had a premium account once. With the 50% discount and the weekly stipend it almost repays itself, so you can have a LL home almost for “free”, with some extras, life support and gifts.
Premium gifts are nothing great, compared to what you can find in the shops, but some of them are nice enough being gifts. I don’t feel the current gifts attractive though, even less if they are going to be rezzed inside a LL home, whit its limited prim capacity.
For new and/or homeless avatars the Linden home aren’t super, but fine enough, depending on the model. They count 0 prims, so, even if it is a “little” 512 sqm parcel, you have all the prims available (117). They offer full control of the parcel (besides terraforming), so you can toggle visibility of the avatars inside, set the ban-lines etc. That’s better than most skyboxes and some rentals, but outside the offer, there are cheap rentals that are more affordable and that gives you full control of the parcel. I would like that LL could turn the LL towns into livable social places, with a central square, where they organize events and people could meet and hang out. Perhaps they need to hire an host and people will scream for the lag anyway. Also to me it is fun to decorate my home, but for what I can see, most homes in SL are used simply as private dressing rooms or as private sex beds and people meet in clubs and similar places. Yet I’m not sure that the only option is to have ghost towns. I remember a private region with a little club inside and homes around, where the managers organized events and games, so the people made friendship and it was quite fun.
The exclusive premium experiences are so exclusive, that I couldn’t share them with my non premium friends. And again the places used to be empty. I visited them, then I had no reason to come back. Maybe now they have been improved, but I don’t know.
Premium sandboxes are quiet and griefing is uncommon, but some “advanced” users now use opensim hosted in their own computers.
I think that the 50% offer isn’t bad, for who has no home yet and needs live support and likes a quiet sandbox, but once it is expired it doesn’t offer much and there are cheaper rentals.
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I have no issue with Premium; I’m Premium myself with this account. I’ve also pointed-out the pros / cons when considering upping to Premium in the article linked-to at the end of this item. The only two caveats I do have are that:
I feel the whole Premium Gift idea is a missed opportunity on the Lab’s part. It’s not an incentive, and far more could be done relatively cheaply to boost Premium and have far more impact.
And even having said that, I was more than happy with my Tahoe home, and even though I’ve moved back to private land rental (so I can have access to Blakes Sea), I still keep the Tahoe.
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I went premium this year. Really don’t get any benefit from it, I see it as simply a means of showing support to the lab lol. But no seriously I’ve been here for years, learnt so much, that I now seem to be beyond any benefits of premium. Some enjoy the gifts and hunts and that’s kool, but I build all my own stuff. Some useful perks for me being premium would be free or cheaper enhanced listings on marketplace, or special preference on destination guide. Or maybe even have a premium And Pro account.
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Yup, Premium rally can be horses for courses.
If you’ve been engaged in SL for a reasonable amount of time, have a need for a decent amount of land space / want something of a themed or “managed” environment & already have a house or two sitting in inventory, or you are happy renting the land space you already have, then the current Premium package really has little going for it.
For those who have avoided holding land & having a house, but are wanting to test the waters, then the benefits are clearer, particularly if willing to take the plunge with the annual payment plan (although even the quarterly may offers reasonable return, particularly at the moment). Similarly, if you’re feeling a little jaded around SL and want to cut down on expenditure in terms of the land tier you’re paying (and sorry estate owners for saying this), then Premium offers a means by which you can keep a digital roof over your head and control your outlay, again particularly in the case of the annual payment plan.
More really could be done to encourage the use of Premium membership, however. As you say, and it would be good to see the Lab actually think more creatively in this direction and offer benefits / options which are a genuine bonus that will appeal more solidly to a broader cross section of the community. Even somethine like a multiple-choice series of options people can tailor to suit their needs, such then why you sign-up, you get A, B, C, and then can choose to add one of D, E or F to your package, depending on what particularly interests you. So to take your idea, content creators could opt for a package which provides them with a level of enhanced listing on the MP and perhaps a top-level ad in the Destination Guide, whereas someone interested in boating / driving / flying gets the option of a “Premium Pack” containing a car, boat, plane the Lab has commissioned from noted content creators in SL, and so on.
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2 reasons to get premium.
A: most of the linden dollars i need anyway for paying rent.
B: for the premium sandboxes, but its also a bit disapointed that it seems to have a return time of 4 hours. Hello non premium members have crowded sandboxes with lonbger return time. Linden Labs need to increase the return time. 4 Hours is short. !
The last premium gift is for now the best one i have seen, the pllane where really dissapointed. and because its not modify you cant throw the bad script out and write your own. SO LL need to make sure gifts are modify !
And still say that premium members need to have 1024sqm free land. There’s anyway enough land and makes premium way more intressting. It can also boost mainland quality if people can make soemthing nice on 1024sqm. its a bit harder on 512sqm but possible,
Linden Home’s are silly, because you never know where your home is located. LL choice the location !
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Access to auctions and live support, be able to buy any piece of any size we wish of mainland by filling a ticket!
Reasons more then enough to be and remain premium for all but 3 days in my SL life!
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I think its well worth the money as u get a lot of it back as stipend anyhoo. Love the sandboxes and my Linden home and I LOVE my mainland home ❤
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