Category: Subscription Plans

Lab posts about latest Premium offer and Mainland LI increase

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeUpdate, November 3rd: the changes in prim allowances in full are now available in this post.

On Thursday, November 3rd, the Lab blogged about their latest Premium subscription offer for Second Life, and in doing so gave confirmation of the Mainland LI / prim allowances people had been noticing following the weekly deployments on Monday, November 1st and Tuesday November 2nd – and gave a tease for more news to come:

In regards to the latter, the blog post  – Go Premium for 50% Off* & Enjoy Our Newest Perks Plus an Exclusive Gift – noted:

Premium members are entitled to a Linden Home and can own parcels on the Mainland. Now, we’re raising the limit on the number of prims you can use in those spaces. This means you will have more prims and creative flexibility to decorate and customize your own space.  Land impact (object) capacity on Mainland Regions will go from 15,000 to 22,500 – that’s a lot more building capacity!

In addition to this, we will further carry the prim limit increases to the private estate regions shortly.  Keep your eye on our blogs for more information!

An episode of Designing Worlds comes out later this afternoon which talks more in-depth about this new perk. We’ll update this blog once it’s available.

(My emphasis on the last part of the statement). All things being equal, I’ll also have more to come around 14:00 SLT see the link at the top of this article.

The blog post from the Lab confirms that Mainland full regions now have a standard Land Capacity / prim allowance of 22,500.
The blog post from the Lab confirms that Mainland full regions now have a standard Land Capacity / prim allowance of 22,500.

The rest of the post concerns itself with the Premium subscription offer, which started on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2016 at 08:00 SLT and will expire on November 10th, 2016 at 08:00 SLT. It offers the usual 50% discount – which for this offer is applied to the first month of the monthly subscription plan, as the small print explains:

TERMS & CONDITIONS This offer begins on November 3, 2016 at 8AM Pacific Time (PT) and expires on November 10, 2016 at 8AM PT. To qualify for this promotion, you must 1) have an existing Second Life (“SL”) basic account or create a new account, and 2) select monthly (every one month) billing for your SL account. The fifty percent (50%) discount will be applied to your first month’s bill and future months will be billed at the standard Premium Membership price (currently US$9.50 per month). For new accounts or accounts not previously upgraded to Premium Membership, after initial login through the Second Life viewer following upgrade to Premium Membership and: 1) following your first full week, the L$300 weekly stipend will be deposited to your account every Tuesday for the duration of your Premium Membership; and 2) after your account has been active for forty-five (45) consecutive days, the L$ sign-up bonus will be deposited to your account.

As well as the discount, Premium members are also offered a new gift in the form of a laser-shooting Alpha Robot Avatar.

 

Spring 2016 Premium membership discount

Posted on by Inara Pey

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 Premium Discount is once again on offer, together with a set of Halloween gifts
The Premium Discount is once again on offer, together with a set of spring / summer gifts

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.

Spring 2016 gift: breakfast table and food and chairs, bench, trellises and plushies
Spring 2016 gift: breakfast table and food and chairs, bench, trellises and plushies.

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.

 

Halloween Premium discount and gifts in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update: The Lab has also now blogged on this offer, and also indicate that the Haunted House experience has re-opened in Second Life, which is open to anyone via the Portal Park.

Linden Lab has launched the latest Premium membership offer alongside a seasonal Halloween gift offer for new and existing Premium members.

The Premium membership discount applies to the first quarter of the Quarterly Billing plan (remaining quarters all billed at the full price of US $22.50 per quarter), and runs from now through until 08:00 SLT on Monday, November 2nd, 2015.

The Premium Discount is once again on offer, together with a set of Halloween gifts
The Premium Discount is once again on offer, together with a set of Halloween gifts

The Halloween gifts come in three parts: a ridable flying dinosaur (with aviator helmet for the rider), which is clearly intended to link to the PaleoQuest game; two “ghostly” avatars (male and female) with HUD and alpha mask; and finally, a drone system, comprising a wearable iPad-style controller, a HUD, and an update system.

I’ve tended not to be overly enthusiastic about such gifts (with the odd exception, such as the sailing boat – which at least got me into sailing in SL), and to be brutally honest, these do little to break the mould. The dino and the ghost avatars have a certain yawn factor about them which had me rezzing to take a look, trying and deleting.

Playing with the drone
Playing with the drone

The drone could be seen as a little fun item, and has a number of interesting features.  You can, for example, slave your camera to it, and fly it around, or you can set it to automatically follow you (or someone else who is within range) as you wander around (it’ll self-delete should you teleport out of the current region), while the radar function will list the names of other avatars in the region and their distance from your avatar. There are also options for customising the drone and setting its “mood”, and it’ll get a tad naggy if you forget it is there.

That said, I’m not entirely sure just how long the drone is likely to remain a novelty item for most; if you want to have a free-flying camera, a suitable controller and the flycam mode in the viewer are both far more efficient (as is alt-camming). However, it can be entertaining (I admit to having a giggle when it spooked a helo crew hovering next to my house), and could offer options in some RP scenarios, while the iPad and its associated  animations might find a use from time-to-time, even if the drone doesn’t.

As usual, if you are considering the move up from Basic, might I offer some thoughts (as long in the tooth as they might be) as someone who has bounced from Premium to Basic and back again?

Lab extends Concierge Live Chat to all Premium members

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeMonday, August 17th saw the Lab slip out notice of the latest Premium membership sign-up discount under the headline Get 50% Off Premium Membership – Now with Even Better Support.

Previously appearing on a roughly quarterly basis, these offers / drives seem to have switched to bimonthly events since April 2015, which aligns them nicely with Halloween  and Christmas for the purposes of gift-giving.

Of particular interest to Premium members is the “even better support” mentioned in the headline, which the post expands thus:

Starting today, Premium Members can now receive support by live chatting directly with the Linden Lab Concierge Support team. This is the same team of Lindens that Estate owners speak to when they need help, and now all Premium Members have access to this level of support.

For those not already a Premium member, the discount period runs through until 08:00 SLT on Monday the 24th of August 2015.

Note that the discount is only available when signing-up to the monthly billing plan, and is only applicable to the first month’s payment, reducing it to US $5.00 (+VAT, if applicable). Payments thereafter revert to the usual US $9.95 (+ VAT, if applicable).

This marks the second time the discount has been applied to the monthly billing plan, the first having been in April 2015, with the June discount offer switching back to the “traditional” quarterly plan.  Whether this  means we’ll be seeing the offer alternate between monthly and quarterly plans with future discount offers, or whether the Lab is simply gauging which generates the greater interest, remains to be seen.

Summertime Premium membership offer in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

‘Tis the time of quarter again – the summer Premium membership discount offer is up and running, and it is back to the “usual” 50% off of the first billing period when subscribing to the quarterly plan.

The announcement of the offer came via a blog post from the Lab, which also points to the (worthwhile) increased limit of 60 groups for Premium account holders, as well as the usual bits and pieces on offer to those upgrading: the L$1,000 bonus after 45 days, the weekly stipend of L$300, the opportunity to have your own Linden Home or piece of mainland, etc.

The summer Premium membership promo offers those interested a beach set
The summer Premium membership promo offers those interested a beach set

For those interested in the opportunity, the offer started at 08:00 PDT on Friday, June 12th, and concludes at 08:00 PDT on Monday, June 29th. As usual, if you are considering the move up from Basic, might I offer some thoughts (as long in the tooth as they might be) as someone who has bounced from Premium to Basic and back again?

This quarter’s offer of course wouldn’t be complete without the Premium gift box. This one has a decidedly summery feel to it, with a package of beach oriented items including wearables such as Elton John style sunglasses, a pic-er-nic basket, Boo-boo and sun hat; there’s also a picnic spread, beach towel and sun shade, sandcastle, beach ball, sun lotion and a colour-changing  surfboard you can ride. As gifts go, they’re pretty much on a par with what we’ve seen in  the past – which is to say a mixed bag. I can see the surf board getting use in those beach regions which allow rezzing; the picnic set could be good for romantics, again in places that allow rezzing. The rest? Well …

And as a final reminder (also in the official blog post), if you didn’t make the Premium meet-up with the Lindens on Thursday, June 11th but would like an advance copy of the SL12B avatar, don’t forget you have until midnight on the 12th June to snag one from the vendor.

Lab presents spring Premium membership offer – with a slight twist

Posted on by Inara Pey

We’re all familiar with the Lab’s periodic Premium membership offers: every once in a while one will pop-up offering a discount for those who up their membership from Basic or who are signing-up to SL for the first time.

I’d actually been expecting such an offer to pop-up around mid-March. However, it was announced on Friday, April 3rd, with a blog announcement,  and runs through until the Monday, April 13th, when it expires at 08:00 SLT.

As the blog post notes, there is no Premium gift offer this time around, instead the lab point to their recent announcement of  a Premium perk:

Being a Premium Second Life subscriber carries many benefits – from weekly L$ stipends, to your own Linden Home, expanded live customer support options, exclusive gifts, and more. Just last week, we added a new perk for Premium subscribers, and we’ll be adding even more benefits and features for Premium members throughout the year.

premium spring-15
This time the 50% discount applies to the first month’s payment on the Monthly plan

None of this is what makes the offer particularly interesting. As I’ve noted, they do pop-up periodically. What is interesting however, is hinted-at in the body text of the post:

If you’ve been waiting to upgrade to a Premium account, now is a great time, because today we’re kicking off a great new sale: from today until April 13, 2015, you can upgrade to Premium subscription for less than $5 for your first month! That’s a 50% discount off the regular rate, and this offer won’t last long. Upgrade today and start enjoying Premium benefits at our lowest-ever monthly rate.

Up until now, these offers have applied to the Quarterly billing plan, where the 50% discount is applied to the first quarter’s billing, reducing it from $22.50 to $11.25 (excluding VAT, where applicable). However, this time the discount applies to the Monthly billing scheme, as the notes at the end of the blog post further confirm.

Quite why the switch has been made is unclear; while I’ve never myself been convinced as to how well-received these offers are (that’s purely supposition, without any basis on fact), I’d say that the Quarterly plan discount represents a more appealing offer than just cutting the first month’s fee. Perhaps the Lab were finding that even with the first quarter’s bill cut by half, people weren’t overly enamoured with the offer, and are trying to mix things up a little. If so, I’d venture to suggest perhaps offering two months on the reduced rate might be a tad more appealing.

But really, the problem with Premium membership is not so much how much it costs – but what it brings. For the majority of people who can otherwise enjoy and contribute to SL free of charge (emphasis intentional, as “free” doesn’t equate to “feeloading”, as  is sometimes made out to be the case), Premium membership really isn’t that attractive. Hence why the Lab have in the past tried to spice it up with gifts. The problem here is, as I’ve recently explored, actually coming up with a Premium package that does offer the kind of incentives that are likely to have really broad-based appeal among users actually isn’t that easy.

In the meantime, if you are a Basic member and are considering upgrading, might I offer some thoughts (as long in the tooth as they might be) as someone who has bounced from Premium to Basic and back again?