Springtime in the northern hemisphere brings with it many things. The changing of the clocks; the longer hours of daylight; the promise of sunshine … eventually; the inevitable turning of thoughts towards lawns and mowers. And the arrival of the Second Life Premium Discount.
The latest offer, launched on April 14th, 2016, see the usual 50% discount on the first instalment of the quarterly membership payment plan, reducing it to US $11.25 (the remaining quarters of the billing period remaining at US $22.50 (European users note that VAT is no longer applied to Premium subscriptions).
The offer comes with another set of in-world gifts, available from the Premium gift kiosks, and this time takes the form of a set of garden furniture and accessories, namely a breakfast table with food provided in either a 16 LI set or a lower LOD 8 LI set; a garden bench, a set of garden trellises (one with flower heads and one without), plus a pair of plushies (bird and rabbit) which each come in versions which can be rezzed in-world or which can be held. The total LI for the in-world items (minus plushies) is 55 (or 47 when using the “Low LOD” food items), which is rather a lot, coupled with some lacklustre texturing.
I’ll state up-front that like a lot of people, I’m not a fan of Premium gifts of this type, and do much prefer the broader benefits the Lab has striven to offer of late: access to concierge support, the increase in the number of off-line IMs Premium members can access on next logging-in, and the increase in group slots from 42 to 60 for Premium members, and Experience Keys being available only for Premium members.
However, I also understand that offering benefits of this type isn’t necessarily easy, either, and nor is implementing many of the other ideas that have been put forwards, again as I discussed just over a year ago. In this respect, the Lab is caught between something of a rock and hard place on a number of levels. As such, whether or not to update will remain a consideration of broader issues (such as the added benefits mentioned above), rather than simply looking at perks like this alone.
For those who are interested in the latest offer, it expires on April 25, 2016, at 08:00 SLT. It comes with the usual small print, to whit:
To qualify for this promotion, you must 1) have an existing Second Life (“SL”) basic account or create a new account, and 2) select quarterly (every three months) billing for your SL account. The fifty percent (50%) discount will be applied to your first quarter’s bill and future quarters will be billed at the standard Premium Membership price (currently US$22.50 per quarter). Any Linden Dollar (L$) sign-up bonus will be applied to new accounts or accounts not previously upgraded to Premium Membership after the account has been active for forty-five (45) consecutive days.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 