Friday 24th August marked the start of another of the regular pushes by LL to encourage people to sign-up to Premium accounts, with the usual banner headline “Save 50% on your membership when you sign-up”. This time the offer runs through until Friday 31st August.
As per usual, the discount comes with strings: it only applies the Quarterly plan and only to the first quarter’s payment. This tends to make a bit of a mockery of the “Save 50%” headline (which should more correctly read, “Save 50% on your first payment” – but that doesn’t really have the same ring to it, does it?).
The promotional page again features the same list of benefits and the same glitzy video, and still carries the same overall question marks around it.
While I’m Premium myself, I admit that there is much about these ads I find objectionable and misleading, particularly the “more” statements, something I touched on when reporting the last Premium offer. But that’s the major problem with Premium; when all is said and done, it actually offers little in the way of tangible benefits outside of Mainland ownership and Customer Services support. Even stipend, it might be argued, is little more than a refund of money already paid to LL.
A Personal Opinion
I re-upped to Premium at the start of November 2011, and went through getting a Linden Home and trying-out the Premium Sandboxes. If you’re considering Premium, you might want to give those articles the once-over. However, before you do so, consider your options carefully.
If you need a decent amount of space in-world (anything over 2048 sq metres and allowing for the 512sq m free tier option), you’re probably not going to get much out of upping to Premium. Similarly, if you’re a builder and have your own space in which to build, you’ll need to weigh-up how often you need to use a public building space and whether or not non-Premium sandboxes are really that bad when you do.
However, if you are downsizing in SL, the Premium may well offer benefits: the Linden Home may not be a state-of-the-art build, but it comes with an available prim allocation / land capacity of 117. This is enough to provide reasonably comfortable living space, particularly if you’re not downsizing with a view to leaving, but simply don’t want the expense of land rental. Even at $22.50 a quarter ($7.50 a month before your refund … er, stipend …), Premium does offer value-for-money if you want to maintain a modest home without the hassle of weekly tier (and $7.50 is an amount you can easily pay out per week elsewhere for a small parcel of land). Just make sure that, as per my item on getting a Linden Home, you have a good look around – and don’t forget that if the first place you get doesn’t suit, it’s easy to abandon and try again.
The end of October marks my first full year since re-upping to Premium. I’ll be offering more thoughts and feedback then.
Starting yesterday, Premium members began to receive a survey via e-mail from Linden Lab seeking ways to improve the Wilderness Regions. I’ve actually no objections to surveys to a point – they do tend to point to linden Lab trying to seek some input from users, even if the surveys are somewhat weighted in a certain direction.
The focus of the survey was to gain feedback on how to make the Wilderness Regions more popular, and included a range of suggestions, thus:
LL’s suggestions for improving the Wilderness Experience
I’m not going to go anywhere near the suggestions themselves, as tempting as some of them are for poking at (I appreciate that people do come to SL looking for “dates” etc., but speed dating? In a jungle?!).
I’m also not going to offer up any suggestions on “improving” the current Wilderness regions myself per se, because Alex Hayden has pretty much hit the nail squarely on the head on that subject of offering up improvement ideas.
My only real response to Linden Lab on the subject of providing anything like the Wilderness Experience on a permanent basis is: stop it. Period.
I’ve no problem with these ideas being rolled-out as a means of previewing new capabilities that are coming into Second Life (as was originally the focus of the Linden Realms game). I’ve no objection to such previews being offered-up to Premium members ahead of the rest of the SL populace. This is worthwhile as it gives people the opportunity to get a look and feel for things ahead of roll-out, see how they might be used, etc. Combined with test areas where people can fiddle and play with new tools as well (as with pathfinding), then the preview idea has a lot of merit. Indeed, it is because I thought the Wilderness Experience was a means to preview pathfinding, I avoided being overly critical when it was launched.
However, I’m firmly opposed to LL sprouting “attractions” of their own all over the grid. As I commented on Twitter last night:
Which I don’t think is an unreasonable stand-point, given it is precisely how Rod Humble has described what should be the case.
Yet the company keeps muddying the waters. On the one hands, they’re hands-off for SL9B to the point of refusing to even provide a modest number of sims, on the other they’re tipping the table somewhat to assist a major reseller while also offering-up environments that, quite frankly,while novel in their own right could be done a hell of a lot better by users.
Again, I’ve not going to delve into the broader argument on LL’s approach, as Alex really has said just about all that needs to be said on the matter – and I again strongly recommend you read his piece.
There is another aspect of this that does annoy me however, and this is however you look at the survey, it reads as an attempt to seek feedback from us in order to make the Wilderness Experience more attractive to new users. Indeed, when you look at the Premium package as a whole, there is very little, that has any practical appeal to the established SL user for reasons that have been covered ad infinitum elsewhere including this blog).
There is actually nothing wrong with this – up to a point – and there are certainly valid reasons for making the Premium package appeal to those coming in through the door (not the least of which is helping to relieve the burden placed on tier for revenue – tier still accounting for around 80% of LL’s revenue). The problem is in the way that everything is skewed towards the new user at the expense of the established user.
There’s actually nothing new in this per se. Linden Lab hasn’t been focused on the question of actual user retention for years; their focus has been solely on churn and maintaining equilibrium. Whether this is the right policy or not is itself a major point of debate; it is also one I’m deliberately not going to enter into here, simply because it is complex, controversial – and somewhat outside the focus of this article.
Suffice it to say that as it stands, there is little within the Premium package that would encourage the vast majority of established Basic Account users to upgrade. Sure, I did last year, after a long period as Basic. But I knew going in that I was taking a calculated gamble, and the attraction wasn’t the benefits; simply put, if LL were going to start previewing stuff to Premium users (as with linden Realms), I was prepared to take a punt in order to be able to blog on such things. Sure, I’ve been somewhat positive to some of the benefits since that time – but the benefits alone would not have caused me to re-up to Premium last November.
Linden Homes: limited occupancy time?
Alex offers some very practical suggestions on Premium in his post; some simply – and sadly – won’t happen. Others – such as setting a time limit to how long people can occupy a Linden Home – are viable options, and entirely in keeping with the original intent of the scheme – although I would caveat the idea as Alex expresses it. As I said in reply to his piece:
While broadly agreeing on Linden Homes – there should be a time limit on occupancy in order for them to function as Jack Linden originally claimed, to get people started on the property ladder – I would caveat it on a couple of points:
Offering people a larger alternative prim-wise is not sound; it does tip the playing field and could have a further detrimental impact on private estates.
What do you offer users “in place” of the Home benefit at the end of the year? In order to encourage people to renew their Premium, something needs to be offered as an incentive.
Personally, I’d prefer to see Linden Homes made available for a period of 3 months & a mechanism put in place by which estates wishing to do so can advertise their offerings (through the “community hubs” within the various LH “estates”, for example), presenting those coming to the end of their time with the opportunity to browse and then go see what is on offer and make a choice. Three months strikes me as ideal, as it fits with encouraging people to take the quarterly membership package which LL is so keen to push, so it gives the option of downgrading at the end of the period & it is sufficient time for newcomers to get to grips with having a home in SL and familiarising themselves with concepts such as rentals as they prepare to make a move elsewhere.
This still leaves the question as to what to offer as an alternative incentive. A rise in the stipend back to the old L$500? probably not enough on its own, so something more substantial needs to be offered, or people will simply downgrade.
The key point in this idea is that by providing the space for private estates to advertise their offerings to those whose time in their Linden Home is about to expire, and leaving it up to estates as to whether or not they advertise / provide information, Linden Lab is continuing in its role as a provider while avoiding being seen as to be tipping the table in favour of one estate or another.
Another option LL should perhaps consider – and which was suggested a while back by Will Burns – strike deals with branded IPs to provide genuinely exclusive and desirable items for Premium members. Obviously, there are some sticking points in the idea (do any branded IPs see any remaining value in SL?), but these hardly negate exploring options.
The overall problem here, of course, is that we’ll all have our own views on how things can be improved in terms of Premium membership – and the majority of these views will differ. I’m actually prepared to be somewhat flexible on matters, but as I said, benefits weren’t what drew me into re-upping – although I’ll also say that unless something drastic happens elsewhere, they are not enough to keep me at Premium.
The Wilderness “staging” regions (now closed, as with the “public” Wilderness), alongside the pathfinding sims
As to the Wilderness Experience, I can only repeat what I said in the survey and at the top of this post: LL, do not make it a permanent feature, or try to expand it. You’ve closed it and the “staging” version off to public access. Keep it that way until you have something genuinely new and exciting you wish to showcase, then re-vamp and re-open the regions. Indeed, keep them available for precisely this purpose: showcasing new tools, new capabilities and the like – but limit their lifespan in each case. Don’t go trying to hang trinkets and baubles on them in an attempt to dress them up and make them attractive. It won’t work.
Frankly, you’re far better off doing what you purport you want to be doing: providing tools and a platform on which to use them. Leave the actual content creation to the experts.
So, I’m browsing the Destination Guide, looking for a suitable place to cover in my “Virtual Destinations” series, when I come across a new set of premium-only regions labelled “Premium Wilderness”.
First look – the Destination Guide
The regions appear aimed at another Premium membership promotion, and to showcase some of the new pathfinding capabilities coming to SL. At the time I started my explorations, the blog post had yet to appear, so intrigued by what I’d seen in the Destination Guide, I read the byline in the Destination Guide Jump into the adventure that is the Premium Wilderness and set sail for adventure in this new experience – and jumped.
My first stop was Tapir – although as the six regions are all grouped together and have a common theme, you can start in any one of them.
I arrived on a small pier on the edge of a river. A click me sign provided me with the following information:
Welcome to the Jungle! Feel free to explore at your leisure.
Boat Ride: Take a boat ride and enjoy the scenery. Just click on the boat when it arrives at the dock and enjoy the ride!
Explore: Follow the paths, you never know where they might lead!
Interact: Click on the things you see, you never know what you will find!
Sitting on the dock of the jungle: arriving at Tapir
There is a lot to click and play with – touch a multi-hued frog and it will hop around you and then lead you away from the pier…then disappear into the reeds at the edge of the river. There’s a boat that swings by which you can catch for a cruise along the river, or there are inner tubes you can paddle and diving kit for the really adventurous.
How you get about is up to you – walk, ride, swim – and there is plenty to see along the way, with the 6 sims forming a dense jungle-type environment complete with ancient ruins, brought together in a very atmospheric mix – moreso if you can run with shadows enabled.
Ancient ruins
The experiences within the regions vary widely in content and use. You can, for example, meet a jaguar and play “fetch” with it, or wrestle with a crocodile, or play round-up with a herd of capybaras and corral them. There are also places where you need to watch your step.
Interestingly, when encountering things you can touch, you’ll often get a chat message, such as:
Acoustic Guitar – po: Look in your inventory for Guitar. It should be in your Object folder. Or click on the Recent Items tab at the top to locate it. Right click and select Wear. Right click and select Detatch to take it off.
One assumes this is for the benefit of those new users who have chosen to take the plunge and sign-up directly for Premium membership as a part of the promo offer.
Playing fetch with a jaguar
The regions appear to be intended as a social experience as well – there are numerous places for getting together and chatting / sharing. Some of the experiences are also geared towards sharing – the boat rides through the sims, the Tahr racing on the beach or Tahr rides through the jungle, using, I assume, the pathfinding capabilities.
Thoughts
While visiting the regions, I was surprised to see comments start popping-up in Group chats that were somewhat negative – including one that suggested the regions are a means for the Lab to “recycle” abandoned land, which strikes me as cynical.
In terms of presentation, the regions are very atmospheric – and I recommend a visit with shadows enabled if you can, especially if you are using Exodus with HDR / Gamma Correction or Niran’s with its advanced rendering options.
In terms of experience, I have to admit it’s a mixed bag. The regions are immersive, and offer a lot to see and do – but there were some oddities. While accepting that this might be another example of the “publish-test-polish” approach seemingly beloved of Rod Humble – but it does seem odd that other new capabilities coming to SL are seemingly ignored. The game of fetch with the jaguar, for example, requires you accept a stick into your inventory each time you touch the jaguar – and one wonders why the capability to attach the stick to your avatar, bypassing inventory altogether wasn’t used. Particularly as you are repeatedly prompted to accept the stick from the jaguar after each throw, leading to a possible small accumulation of sticks. But this is a minor niggle in the scheme of things.
Overall, the regions offer an interesting diversion for those with a Premium account who might like to spent time exploring something a little different. So why not give it a try?
At the end last week, Linden Lab started putting out a survey aimed at Premium Members on the subject of Linden Homes. This is in all likelihood the follow-up to a comment made by Vogt Linden at SLCC 2011 that the Lab would be looking at Linden Homes, wherein he noted that – and without going into specifics – the scheme had been good for user retention, but had grown somewhat stale, and that as such LL would be looking at how to refresh the offering.
my Linden Home
The survey is a good first step, and in keeping with recent moves by Linden Lab to seek feedback from the community (such as with overhauling inventory). The survey itself is a multi-page affair, largely with multiple choice responses in the form of radio button (either / or) and check boxes (multiple responses). It takes a couple of minutes to complete, and it by-and-large asks pertinent questions on Linden Homes and the wider matter of Premium benefits (which you are asked to individually rank in terms of personal importance to you, the options for each benefit running from Very Important to Not Important, with Neutral as the middle ground).
There is also an opportunity to provide more specific feedback to the Lab at the end of the survey in the form of two free format text boxes in which Linden Home owners are encouraged to give detailed feedback and thoughts / suggestions.
In some respects, Linden Homes straddle a difficult divide. On the one hand they offer a quantifiable benefit for new users that encourages them to take out Premium membership and helps guarantee they remain engaged with SL as a result of the “investment”. On the other, there is a risk that they impact on the overall land rental / housing market, particularly for those who gear their business model specifically at smaller land holdings and what might be termed “starter homes” in SL. How big an impact this actually is itself hard to quantify – at least for those of us not engaged in that specific market segment.
Certainly, it is probably fair to say that Linden Homes, as currently implemented, haven’t worked entirely as originally intended – when launched, LL did see them as a means of getting people “onto” the property ladder, with the aim of people then moving on to “bigger” things land-wise as their needs grew. I’m not entirely convinced this has been the case – and the desire to revamp the offering would suggest that LL feel the same way.
The problem is, of course, how do they improve the offering, without running the risk of being seen as “further” eating-in to the rental market as a whole (if this is indeed an issue)? Making Linden Homes more attractive through larger prim allocations, larger land footfalls, etc., does run the risk of drawing people away from renting elsewhere – and I suspect that LL are fully aware of this risk, as the survey suggests some possible enhancements in other areas:
The ability to build more complex objects
Decorate a home more elaborately
Have more control over the Linden Home land parcel
Replacing the Linden Home with a personal build
More community events and social opportunities
Tutorials such as building & scripting
Land market expansion opportunities.
Of these, the last three strike me as the most flexible of options if harder to practically implement, although the first three are liable to be potentially the more popular among respondents. Land market expansion I would see as a useful element to add, simply to try to help stimulate the “upward” movement of those coming into Linden Homes that LL originally hoped would be the case – although I admit, I’m somewhat stumped as to how this could be practically achieved.
Community and social events might also work – the Linden Homes are billed as “communities”, but the truth of the matter is, “community” plays a very minor role. Most Linden Home regions have the same issue as everywhere else – large tracks of land, few people. Were LL to be more pro-active in stimulating regional events it might encourage a greater feeling of “community” – although that is admittedly a big might, and one very hard to measure in terms of overall benefit / success compared with the amount of effort required to get things organised (or in even encouraging residents to take up the challenge).
As it stands, the Linden Homes regions do have “community centres” that largely seem to be devoid of traffic and simply going to waste – so attempting to put these to better use might be worthwhile. As might opening them to advertising by in-world businesses and estates, which itself has two potential benefits: money raised from the use of vendor boards could be put towards the cost of monthly (or whatever) entertainments, it demonstrates practically that LL are working more “with” rental estates rather than in “competition” with them.
A further idea might be for LL to simply reduce the volume of Linden Homes per region (or offer more in the way of regions devoted to parkland and / or water), and offer Linden Home residents greater opportunities of using such “rural” sims – such as allowing them to rez their own boats to go sailing or explore the waterways, or vehicles / horses to explore parkland and country tracks – perhaps even supply rez-on-demand facilities for home owners to use.
These are entirely off-the-top-of-my-head ideas which may or may not be practical. I’ve tried to give full and detailed feedback to LL on Linden Homes via the survey, complete with a range of thoughts and ideas. I’d encourage any of you yet to receive the survey / yet to respond to it to do the same. That LL are seeking feedback is to be applauded, even if (like me) you don’t use your Linden Home that routinely or as your primary place of residence in SL and / or see little reason to change things.
So, another part of the Premium package is the use of exclusive sandboxes. I’m fortunate enough to have a build platform of my own right now – but what would it be like using one of them if I didn’t?
Some twenty sandboxes are available for use by Premium members in five groups of four apiece:
Note that all of the sandbox with the exception of the last four above are rated General. Bricker, Colborne, Goyer and Teagano are all rated Adult. All are subject to the usual rules: no combat, selling, gambling, advertising, boxes cleared-down every four hours, etc.
For those interested in trying the Linden Realms game, you’ll also find a portal on one of the sandboxes in each of the groups of four.
Performance-wise they all seemed pretty good: on Firestorm I was hitting 38-40 fps on average, even when building, lag was minimal ( shared the sandbox I was in with two other large builds).
I spent a happy time re-working my personal version of Fallingwater (yay for 64m prim sizes!), and while I have rarely used sandboxes in the past, I have encountered the odd problem in public sandboxes elsewhere, I found my time passed as quietly and as uninterrupted asit does building at home.
Happy building
The whole idea of Premium sandboxes struck me as “Meh,” before; but as I said, I have the luxury of having space to build, so seeing something like this as a benefit escaped me. Now I’ve tried four out (yup, I actually bounced around trying-out different regions!), I can see why they could well be attractive.
Certainly places to keep in mind should I ever opt to downsize land holdings!
Linden Homes came about some time after I’d given up my original Premium account and when they first arrived, I wasn’t overly impressed. I found some of the regions unimaginative, and most of them rather crowded. However, as I’m back on Premium, I thought I might as well exercise my option of having one, if only to see what the process is like.
Typical Tahoe (click to enlarge)
For those unfamiliar with Linden Homes, and to save repeating things here:
You can find essential information in the knowledge base
Before leaping-in and selecting a Linden Home, it is worthwhile preparing the ground:
Read through the links above – especially the knowledge base article, the FAQ and the Linden Home Reference Guide
Visit the themed regions before you decide on which theme / style to go for – first hand experience outweighs leaping in blind and then finding you’d rather be elsewhere. Get a feel for the look of each theme and a taste of how the regions perform on your computer; view the various styles first-hand (while respecting people’s privacy!). You can reach the themed estates via their info hubs:
Meadowbrook Infohub – modern look apartment-style units, minimal landscaping
Tahoe Infohub – A-frame houses in a more rural setting
Elderglen Infohub – fantasy environment with a strong lean towards Tolkien
Once you are suitably informed and have an idea of the theme you’d like, hop over to the Registration Page to select your preferred home theme / style.
The main registration page is in two parts: on the left is a drop-down list for the various themes, with previews of the available styles shown below it. Click on a given preview image, and it is displayed in a larger size on the right of the page, together with further images you can flick through.
Again, some points to bear in mind:
As stated above, it’s worth seeing the various themes in situ, rather than relying on the images along, if you’ve not already done so
Not all the styles for a theme may be displayed (for example, Meadowbrook has 9 styles, but it appears rare for more than four or five to be displayed in the registration page at any one time)
If the style of house you’re seeking isn’t displayed, try reloading the page a few times – this can cause the listings to update
Available styles tend to vary
If the style you want still doesn’t appear, leave the page a while and come back to it.
Once you have selected your preferred style, enter a name for it and click NEXT. A confirmatory page is displayed, outlining your choice, with the nine covenant rules relating to the use of a Linden Home. You need to tick the check box relating to these rules and click the ACCEPT button in order for your order to be processed, or if you have a change of heart, you can go back and changed things before accepting.
Typical Elderglen (click to enlarge)
The order processing takes a couple of minutes to complete, after which a final page is displayed, listing the region in which your house is located, together with a SLurl, together with assorted additional links intended to help you get started with your new home. An e-mail containing this information is also sent to you as additional confirmation.
And that’s it! All that remains is to log-in to SL (if you’re not already) and go see your house!
So, What did I Get?
In the end and after careful explorations, I opted for the Tahoe theme purely on the basis of performance; I found this theme to be the least laggy for my PC. Firestorm also handled it somewhat better than the other theme regions, where I’d invariably crash after about 15 minutes of moving around – a novel experience for me when using Firestorm. Viewer 3 did tend to manage things better – but with appallingly low frame rates.
Outside my Linden Home
My specific choice of Tahoe house was the Aspen (my thanks to @SecondLife on Twitter for getting Aspen actually back onto the registration page options!). This, to me, offers the greatest flexibility for customisation.
Customising
Linden Homes can be customised in terms of textures and appearance via the web-based house control / configuration options. These present the textures specific to your house style and make applying them very easy. If you want, you can also load the texture sets for other house styles in the theme and try those out.
For the intrepid of mind, there are also texture packs available from the local info hubs that allow you to use the textures common to your house theme to make any additions of your own more readily match your chosen decor.
Tahoe “Aspen” default interior – note angled wall on the right
For my Aspen, I opted to understake a minor make-over, adding an additional vertical interior wall, net curtains on the end windows for add privacy without having to shutter the windows entirely, and a galleried bedroom loft. This claimed a total of 16 prims from my allowance of 117.
The new additions – wall, loft and net curtains
To get a feel for the place once furnished, I “borrowed” my PrimPossible furniture and added a few of my own. These gave me a comfortable home, complete with piano, pictures, some lighting of my own and a potted plant, all for a grand total of 23 prims.
The furnished house with lighting
Opinion
The process for obtaining a house is well-designed and easy to follow; the only potential issue being the fact that all the styles for a given theme may not always be available. Patience tends to win out when this does happen – most styles eventually turn up over the course of a day or two.
There’s nothing particularly eye-catching in the Linden Homes; build quality is good, but not especially outstanding; texturing is kept to 512×512 for better loading, so can appear a little blurry and flat when seen up-close. Houses with upper floors tend to have ye olde ramp rather than stairs of any description, which gives them a very dated feel. As they are intended as a “first step” on the property ladder in SL, much of this is possibly deliberate to encourage people to move on to bigger and better. So the best way of describing the Linden Homes is “workman-like”.
One point worthy of mention is that given the way houses are crammed together in some of the themes, it’s probably worthwhile invoking parcel privacy (if your Viewer supports it). This prevents your own chat being overheard from outside, and protects you from overhearing others.
As for the house I now have – well, I’m not sure what I’ll do with it. It’s no substitute for my “real” SL home, true enough. But on the other hand, now it’s sorted out, it’s not actually too bad. I also like the idea of having a little pied-à-terre I can use on occasion, so I might hang on to it for a little while!
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 