Eye on the Blog: Second Life on Amazon with Weekend Promotions

This weekend, it was announced on the Linden Blog that Second Life was doing promotions on Amazon.com.

It’s a new year, and we have news: Second Life is now available on Amazon! 

In addition to the standard Mac and PC versions, we’re offering several bundled packages for sale, which include vehicles to enjoy and L$ to spend inworld or on the Marketplace.

As a special promotion, this weekend only the Starter Vehicle Pack (usually $9.95), which includes a hoverboard and L$1000 will be available for FREE [limit one per customer].

If a friend of yours has been waiting to join Second Life, now is a great chance for them to head over to Amazon and get started with the free Starter Vehicle Pack. Spread the word!

Besides links to the Mac and PC official viewers, there were three offers listed. One was a Premium Vehicle Pack that consisted of a overboard, a sailboat, the dune buggy once available only to Premium members, and 4000 Lindens, for $25 US dollars. Then there was the Deluxe Vehicle Pack with the overboard and sailboat with 2000 Lindens for $15. Last was the Starter Vehicle Pack with the overboard and 1000 Lindens. The latter was not listed as free, but marked "Currently unavailable." Word was people were logging in with alts and when the Lab realized this they took it down. Later on, it was listed at ten dollars.

There have been a number of reactions from residents. There was a thread about it in the official forums, where most residents expressed skepticism. One called it "a fiasco that does further damage to SL's reputation."

Daniel Voyager thought it was a good idea overall, but noted in his comments after his post that those outside the United States couldn't benefit from the promotions. Someone commenting on his article thought it was a good idea, but not thought out very well.

Tateru Nino called the promotions "just plain embarrassing." She noted that Second Life was listed as a "game," a sticking point with her and other residents. The second part was because of the content bundles, which were of various vehicles, calling vehicles in general "the single, weakest, most unreliable aspect of Second Life," and likely to give newcomers a bad impression.

Inara Pey noted the items had been up on Amazon since December 10th, but only now being announced by Linden Lab to the residents. In a second post she felt Linden Lab should be let off about the "game" issue, considering public attitudes and Amazon's limited categories, but not about what she felt was the promotion being far short of it's potential, "the packages are indicative of thinking at the Lab, which is at worst simply lazy, or at best demonstrating an inability to think an idea through."

Probably the most enthusiastic about the promotion was Hamlet Au, who called it "a clever sales system" that could help make up for its declining land sales, "a pretty good idea for driving new revenue." He suggested that anyone who had an Amazon affiliate code add it in to a link to the promotions so they could get a small cut if someone makes a purchase. But many of those commenting on his article weren't so sure.