EOTB: Linden Lab To Raise Premium Account Price, Lowering Linden Dollar Buy Fee, Sim Monthy Fees

 

Yesterday on Monday June 8, Linden Lab announced some price changes. Good news if you keep buying Lindens or own one or more sims. But if you're a Premium Resident, some bad news. 

 

First the bad news, which the Lab called the reason for "adding more value to paid membership plans." The cost of Premium will be going up from $11.99 USD a month to $12.99 a month. If you pay by the quarter or year, the price will be a little less. If you pay every three months, the price will be going up to $11.99 USD a month or $35.97 per quarter. If you pay by the year, the rate will be going up to $9.99 USD a month or $119.88 annually. There was some fine print at the bottom of the announcement saying that the option to pay quarterly is no longer available "for new purchases."

 

The last time Premium accounts went up in price was over seven years ago from $9.50 a month, in May 2019, which the Lab then called "the difficult decision to make our first Premium price increase in over a decade." Their language back then was more direct than the wording in Monday's announcement. 

 

The price increase is not immediate, but will take place thirty days after the announcement, on July 8, 2026.  

 

The costs for Plus and Premium Plus level accounts. $5.99 and $29.99 USD a month respectively, which were introduced after the previous price increase, are not changing.  

 

Not all of the news was bad. Linden Lab announced that the minimum fee to purchase Linden dollars would be going down from $1.49 USD to 49 cents. 

 

But, there was a catch. The Lab would announce the ceiling rate, the maximum buy fee, was going up from $14.99 USD to $29.99.  The benefit of making fewer purchases of more Linden dollars instead of more smaller ones is being reduced. 

 

The fee changes Linden Lab wanted to emphasize the most is what will likely affect the smallest number of residents (albeit so much of the Grid as we know it depends on them).  The price of maintaining a sim will be going down from $209 a month to $199 a month. Sims whose prim capacity has been expanded to 30,000 will drop in monthly maintenance from $239 USD to $209. For a sim with an education discount, the monthly rate to maintain it drops from $129 USD to $105. This is a decrease of almost a fifth. So good news for those paying for education areas. The setup fee of $349 USD will not change. 

 

Linden Lab would justify it's increase in Premium accounts by saying they were "adding more value to our plans. In the past month alone, we’ve added two valuable new benefits - exclusive early access to some of the hottest shopping events in Second Life and at least 12 exclusive gifts monthly, which is the largest collection of exclusive paid membership monthly gifts ever!" They also stated they were offering "Expanded access to Linden Homes, Premium customer support benefits, more subscriber-exclusive virtual gifts than ever before," and "New partnerships offering early access to some of Second Life’s hottest shopping events and experiences."

 

A thread opened in the official Second Life forums on the announcement.  While there was some praise for making land more affordable, most of the comments were grumbles about the greater cost for Premium accounts. "They're getting greedy again and want to milk Premium a little more if they can, or push more people to go for (Premium Plus)." "'Expanded access to Linden Homes' ... so what, in fact, what does that even mean?" "Given that just about everything in real life has gone up a lot in price in recent times, it's hardly surprising that LL has put its fees up."

 

To see the blog post in full, Click Here.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Lower Sim Tier, Higher Linden Dollar Purchase/Sell Fees Announced, Residents Can Now Pay Tier With Linden Dollars

Linden Lab had some good news and bad news a few days ago in regards to the fees it charges, good news for sim owners, not so good for the rest of us. 

The good news, if you own a sim, your expenses are going down. The Lab announced it was dropping sim tier by $20 USD a month. 

 

In recognition of our upcoming 20th anniversary, we are ... Dropping the monthly price of Full Regions by $20 for our 20th anniversary – effective immediately, Full Regions are now $209/mo.  

As the chart shows, this is the third sim tier reduction in five years, with sims now being $81 USD less a month than they were in early 2018. 

The Lab would also announce that people could pay for a sim using Linden dollars in what's being called the "$L For Land Beta Program." (see more below).

The bad news, fees for buying and selling Lindens are going up. The Lab would say this was partially due to the expected loss of sim tier revenue, and partially due to inflation increasing their operating costs.

This latest land price reduction, increased development of Second Life features, improvements, and an unfortunate combination of world-wide economic factors including inflation, all bring additional costs to our operations. We’ve spent time considering ways to manage these costs to minimize the overall burden on our Residents. We decided to absorb many of the costs and distribute some by making a change to Linden Dollar buy and sell fees. Effective today, we are changing LindeX fees as follows:

• Increasing the buy fee to 10% with a minimum fee of $1.49 and a maximum fee of $14.99USD per transaction
• Increasing the sell fee to 5% 

This is the latest of several Linden dollar purchase fee increases since June 2017, when they went up from 40 to 60 cents per transaction. Later that year, they would be raised from 60 to 99 cents. In June 2018, they went up from 99 cents to $1.49 per transaction. In April 2021, they went from the $1.49 flat fee to a 7.5% fee that could go no lower than $1.49. 

 

The fee for selling Lindens hasn't been changed as much. They had been 1.5% several years ago, then in Nov. 2017, then went up to 2.5%, and later to 3.5%.

Of the good news that residents can now pay sim tier with Linden dollars, thus for those making Linden dollars able to avoid the cashout fees, there are a few strings attached. The Lab would describe them on a webpage (link). To begin with, it's a trial system that might get canceled after six months. Also, at least for now, only Premium Plus accounts are eligible to take part, and only one sim can be paid for this way. Skill gaming (technically legal gambling) sims are also not eligible, at this time.

Linden Lab would also post a chart of how many Linden dollars would be needed to pay for the various kinds of sim, a regular full sim costing 57,475 Linden dollars a month. To set up these kinds of payments, one has to travel to the "Land Payments" sim, go in the office, find a kiosk, and follow the instructions on the website. 

There's a thread in the official forums to the topic, which as of the writing of this article has 17 pages so far, so discussion has been active.

 

Addition: Although the price changes were supposed to take effect right away, I was contacted by someone saying her sims are still showing the old prices. 

Bixyl Shuftan

EOTB: No Land Setup Fees For December, Holiday-Themed Last Names

 

 

 Yesterday in the official blog, Linden Lab had a couple announcements. For those interested in getting sims, the Lab has an early Christmas present. They stated that there would be no setup fees for sims purchased in December.

Premium and Premium Plus subscribers will pay no setup fees for any new regions purchased during the month of December. Only pay the first month’s maintenance fee and move right in.

 

To read the blog post in full, Click Here. To read comments in the forum thread, Click Here.  

Also, the Lab also announced new last names, Christmas-themed ones.

Tinseltail
Elf
Mistletoe
Gingerbread
Noelle
Claus
Blitzen

The Lab stated the names are up only "for a limited time," though may be back next year.

Comparing this months list of names to the original list in April 2020, only a few names remain:  Atheria, Huntsman, Voxel, Littlepaws, Takeda, Dallas, and the option to change to the generic "Resident."

 To read the blog post in full: Click Here. 

Linden Lab Changes Name Change Fees

 

When Linden Lab made it possible to change the last name of one's account a couple years ago (or bringing back last names as it was often called), it could be done only by someone with a Premium account. So someone with a basic account would have to sign up for it, at least temporarily, and then pay the fee.

A few days ago, Linden Lab announced that there would be changes to how one would pay for a name change. The good news, those with basic accounts won't need to sign up for Premium, and those with Premium Plus will pay a much smaller fee. The bad news, those with basic accounts won't be paying much less.

 Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve updated our Name Change service in a major way. We’ve told you that we were going to keep working on adding new features to the Premium and Premium Plus offerings, and we’re delivering on that once again today. From here on, Premium and Premium Plus subscribers will benefit from a reduced price for the Name Change service.

But that’s not all! Not only are we discounting the service across the board, but we’ve decided to democratize the service to everyone.

For those with Premium accounts, the fee has been cut from $39.99 US Dollars to $34.99, a reduction of about one eighth the price. Those with Premium Plus will benefit the most, as they will now only have to pay a $14.99 USD fee, less than half. For those with basic accounts, their fee is $49.99. While more convenient than the old way, it's not much less than the $51.98 combined for a one-month subscription for Premium and name change.

For the blog post in full, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

News And Commentary: Questions Raised About Horizon Following Zuckerburg's Comments, Announcement of Creator Fees

 

It's no secret that many Second Life users roll their eyes at Linden Lab a lot. But can anyone else do a better job at developing a virtual world. The biggest company gicing it a try is Facebook/Meta, with it's Horizons. This virtual world has already been ridiculed for having avatars with nothing below the waist. But certain comments by the company founder plus how much of a cut it plans to take from content creators is making it look worse.

Read more in Other Grinds, MMOs, and Games.

Reader-Submitted Commentary: Linden Lab's Continued Greed

  
Due to the recent increase in purchasing lindens an added 7.5 percent, which is higher than the sales tax in my state which is neither zero or low, I am forced to cancel my premium account. They cap it at $9.99 however, all this does is make it so those who buy over $150 USD lindens aren't charged more who could probably more afford it.  This mostly effects those who buy between $100 USD and $140 USD, which is what I think a lot of regular users may purchase. Buying more frequently in smaller increments won't help as you are charged $1.49 per purchase on top of this new charge.  

I know Linden Lab seems to think that most people who play Second Life are some kind of at least middle-class pay pigs with huge sums of expendable income. But the truth is, many of us are in fact either working class, unemployed, or like me on a low fixed income due to disability, retirement or similar.   They have raised the cost of premium in the past 2-3 years. They have raised the cost of buying lindens for the 4th time in five years, and they raised the cost of selling them at least once. They have also raised the cut of MP sellers that they takem forcing them to raise MP prices.

I feel that in addition to just plain greed, we are being forced to pay for their failed projects (Sansar) and poor choices moving the servers to Amazon business cloud servers, not even the gaming ones, to save money, which has resulted in a number of bugs and issues. To those whose stores or groups I left, please understand I had no other choice.  

Linden Lab gets away with this kind of horrid move and generally poor customer service to a large degree because they are somewhat of a monopoly in complex immersive adult virtual worlds.  IMVU is geared more towards teens and not really competition.  Avakin seems similar to IMVU.  Inworldz is long dead.  I have tried some other grids but never logged in more than a few times.  I have too much time, relationships and money invested in Secondlife anyway to start over unless forced to do so.  Many people they know who have been here for years almost daily are in a similar position so the Lindens know they can charge whatever they like.   

Oh and the increase on buying lindens comes  right at the beginning of the annual Fantasy Faire, which benefits Relay For Life, an organization that raises money to fight Cancer. So I hope that doesn't affect them raising money.

Kἶէმƈεlἶმ Lմἶղƈօɾἶმlօէε Kεlνმɾl (Kitacelia Resident)
  

Linden Lab To Change Fees For Buying Linden Dollars, Price Increases For Some

    

For those whom buy Linden dollars in larger amounts, you will soon be paying more. A few days ago, Linden Lab announced that starting Thursday April 22, it will change the way it charges people for buying it's virtual currency for Second Life. Instead of a flat fee for any amount, they'll be charging a percentage with the old fee as the minimum.

Effective April 22, the current flat buy fee rate of $1.49 will be replaced by a 7.5% buy fee (capped at $9.99) applied to the total amount of Linden Dollars purchased in each transaction. The $1.49 minimum still applies. 

So what does this mean? If you buy Linden dollars in amounts of $20 or less, nothing really changes. But buying more than that, you'll be paying more. For instance, someone buying $30 USD worth of Lindens, assuming an exchange rate of 250 Linden dollars for one US dollar, will be charged 7.5% of $30 extra, or $2.25, and so pay a total of $32.25 instead of $31.49. This is an increase of 76 cents. For $50 USD, the fee is $3.75, and paying $53.75, an increase of $2.26.

Linden Lab would explain it was trying to manage having to deal with expenses, such as "Investing in our infrastructure to further improve speed and cadence of update" and "Developing new marketing initiatives and entertainment partnerships to fuel growth,"and wanted to "manage these costs in a way that minimizes the overall burden on our Residents." While it was going ahead and taking some loss, the Lab stated they needed a way to make up part of the expenses.

The fee for buying Lindens last went up in June 2018, from 99 cents. It was the second increase in less than a year, in Novemeber 2017 going up from 60 cents to 99 cents, and in June 2017 going up from 40 cents to 60 cents. Part of the reasons for these increases were the reductions in sim tier charged to residents.

The fee for selling Linden dollars, which is 3.5%, remains unchanged. 

A thread was created in the Second Life forums about the topic, which as of the writing of this article is sixteen pages long. Checking the first few, a few residents complained, "LL are digging their own grave by raising the fee." But most seemed more open to explanations and reserved in their criticism, "It is all a matter of take it or leave it in the end. If you are not satisfied you take your business elsewhere. That is the normal procedure everywhere."
 
Source: Linden blog

Bixyl Shuftan
   

Linden Lab Raising Price of Premium Accounts, Reducing Group Capacity in Basic Accounts

Yesterday on Wednesday May 29, Linden Lab announced "Land Price Reductions, New Premium Perks, and Pricing Changes." But it's the "Pricing Changes" that are getting most of the attention plus The "Premium and Basic Account Changes."

The Lab announced "the difficult decision to make our first Premium price increase in over a decade." Their monthly rate was going up by over 25% from $9.50 USD a month to $11.99. Their quarterly rate was going up by almost 50% from $22.50 every three months to $32.97. And their yearly rate was going up by almost 40% from $72 a year to $99.

The Lab did say on June 3 they would be offering a "limited time offer" until June 24 for Premium account residents to renew at the old rate for one more cycle, including for those being billed monthly to switch to quarterly or annually and for those billed monthly to go quarterly. For basic accounts going Premium, being billed quarterly would no longer be an option. That option would remain only for existing Premium accounts.

Linden Lab was also increasing the credit processing fee for selling Linden dollars to Paypal and Skrill accounts from 2.5% per transaction to 5% (with a minimum fee of $3). In Nov 2017, it was raised from 1.5% to 2.5%. The Lab gave "increased regulatory and compliance costs" as the reason.

The good news for Premium account residents, Linden Lab announced that effective June 24, their group limit would rise from 60 to 70. The number of stored offline IMs would rise from 50 to 80. Unfortunately, Basic account residents would be taking a hit. Their group limit would be cut from 42 to 35, and their stored offline IMs would go down from 25 to 15.

This is the first time that group capacity for residents has been trimmed back. In October 2010, the limit for all accounts was raised from 25 to 40. In January 2011 it was raised to 42. In June 2015, it was raised to 60 for Premium residents, with regular ones still having a limit at 42.

The best news was for landowners. Linden Lab announced that the tier for full sims was going down again, effective June 3. For most, it would be from $249 USD to $229. The rate for grandfathered, or "bought-down", sims was also being cut, from $195 USD to $179. The $30 fee to add to the prim limit was unchanged.

The residents were quick to react, numerous comments in two threads in the Discussion Forums, "$99 Problems," and "What Are Your Opinions ..." There's also one in VR Universe. Needless to say, there were many expressing disappointment and anger, with accusations the Lab was acting out of greed.

For the blog post in full, Click Here.

Linden Lab Cutting Land Prices And Setup Fees, Increasing Linden Dollar Purchase Fees, No New Openspace Sims After June

Some big news from Linden Lab, especially if you own a lot of land. Yesterday on Wednesday June 20, it was announced on the official blog , as well as by Ebbe Linden during his "Meet the Lindens" interview yesterday at the SL15B, that starting on July 2, the tier for private sims was being cut 15%. It was also announced that the fees to set up a private sim were being reduced "by as much as 41%." But, there's some "fine print." And to help offset these reduced land charges, the fee to buy Linden dollars is going up.

Effective July 2, monthly maintenance fees on Private Estates are dropping by up to 15%! In addition, one-time land set-up fees are also reduced by as much as 41%.  And remember, the setup fee includes your first month’s payment. Discounts will vary based on the type of land ...


The catch? First, Skill Games areas are not eligible for the tier cut. Grandfathered sims, which the Lab also called "bought down," are not eligible either, "since those are still below the newly-reduced rates." And if you were thinking of getting an Openspace sim, you don't have much time. The Lab announced after June, no more new ones will be available. For those who need a reminder, Openspace sims, also known as "void sims," are "intended for very low-impact scenic use such as ocean, forest, or countryside," and have a capacity of 1000 prims and ten avatars. They cost $150 US to set up and have a $75 US tier each.

The other part of the catch will affect many more residents. The Lab announced that starting July 2, to "help us offset the revenues lost on land," the charge for buying Linden dollars is going up from $.99 US per transaction to $1.49, an increase of slightly fifty percent. This is the second increase in the purchase fee in less than a year, the previous increase in November being from 60 to 99 cents. So in several months, the fee to buy Linden dollars has been raised by almost 150% .

So what's going on? The general feeling is that Linden Lab is trying to transfer the money paid by the residents, so less is made by landowners, and more is made by shoppers, in order to bring a halt to the long slow decline over time in the number of privately owned sims, which while having slowed down in recent months hasn't really stopped.

While some landowners are no doubt looking forward to lower tiers, there has been one critic so far. MarkTwain White posted in the comments under the article in Modem World, "The newly announced 15% tier-rate reduction is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. That reduction Does NOT apply to us that have paid incredibly higher fees (200% on average) to have our lands reduced to grandfather rates in the past (thus in one big Catch-22 causing us to pay fees only to be excluded from the new fee reduction. The subtle Second Life 'screw you' here is that we now have to pay 50% higher transaction fees' to cover the our (SL’s) increase in costs for reducing your tie.' ...Experienced land rental companies get none of these discounts that LL is offering to the new companies they hope to attract due to reduced fees designed to increase their income while at the same time building a new tax basis made up of future rental companies that will become the target of new usurious fee increases. LL had done it more than once. This is classic LL policy: squeeze blood from current content providers (developers of properties to sell or lease) but go after new blood to bring new fees (taxes) to LL...."

So will the Lab see more people buying sims? Or will the long slow decline continue while shoppers buy less Linden dollars and merchants end up making less money? Time will tell.

For more information, check the announcement by Linden Lab here.
Additional sources: SL Grid Survey, Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Raising Fees to Buy Lindens, Will Raise Fees to Sell

By Bixyl Shuftan

Second Life is getting more expensive for it's residents. On the Linden blog yesterday, they announced that they were "making multi-million dollar investments in Second Life that will benefit Residents in the near and long term, while also ensuring that the virtual world’s bright future ahead is even more awesome than its 14+ year history has been. Exciting times!" This was followed by an announcement that there would be "Updates to LindeX and Credit Processing Fees."

Underlying SL’s user-to-user economy and the ability to buy and sell L$’s for real currency is a significant amount of ongoing work to ensure that everything remains compliant with applicable laws and regulations, while also preventing fraud and money laundering. This work comes at a cost, and we are adjusting related fees in order to help cover those costs and enable us to continue to invest in Second Life’s future.

Starting yesterday, the fee for buying Linden dollars over the Lindex rose from 60 cents to 99 cents per transaction, an increase of about two-thirds. Starting on January 3, the fee for selling Linden dollars will go from 1.5% per transaction to 2.5 percent, and the $25 USD cap on fees per transaction will be removed.

At least one Second Life businessman has responded to these increases. Oobleck Allagash, a co-owner of KraftWork and PocketGacha, commented in New World Notes that the Lab had "attacked those who work to create the SL economy by raising the fees to process payments nearly 67% overnight, but more importantly, removing the $25 cap which will, for larger brands, result in exorbitant additional costs." He questioned the reason for the increases, "what work has changed specifically that will require LL to generate millions more a year annually? Sounds a bit more like those that drive the SL economy are in fact now paying for the failure of Sansar."

The Lab did mention one way it had been trying to protect inworld businesses, "Recently, we closed an exploit that fraudulent gacha re-sellers had used. Our governance team can now catch them when they attempt the cheating method that we have already fixed." Though this alone isn't an explanation for why such a large increase.




To read the Linden's blog post in full, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Raising Fees to Buy Lindens, Maximum Fee to Sell

Second Life is about to get a little more expensive.

In the official Second Life blog on Tuesday, Linden Lab announced there would be an "update" to the fees for Second Life users to use the LindeX to purchase Linden dollars and the "credit processing" fees to sell Linden dollars for real money.

Underlying SL’s successful user-to-user L$ economy and the ability to buy and sell L$’s for real currency is a significant amount of ongoing work to ensure that everything remains compliant with applicable laws and regulations, while also preventing fraud and money laundering.

Investing in improvements to these processes and the ongoing compliance work required comes at a cost to Linden Lab, and we will be making some LindeX fee adjustments in order to share a portion of those costs with Residents active in the SL economy.

To buy Linden dollars, the fee on the LindeX is going from 40 cents per transaction to 60 cents.

To sell Linden dollars for real world currency, the current "fee structure" remains the same at one and a half percent with a minimum fee of $3 USD. But the maximum fee is going up from $15 USD to $25.

There was some debate about the issue on a thread in the official forums, some outright opposing it, others conceding the Lab probably had justifiable reasons to raise prices. One woman commented packing up and taking things to Opensim might not be a good ideas as on the Kitely grid "there is a 20% fee to sell on Kitely market and a 45 day wait to get your money to Paypal." and "there are many less BUYERS on Opensim so your chances of selling are possibly less."

If one takes the Lab's explanation at face value, their costs of making sure the transactions go smoothly while taking steps against "fraud and money laundering" are going up, either having to replace equipment, or get new equipment and employees as a result of new regulations or perhaps as a result of complaints about their service.  Hamlet Au of New World Notes suspected the latter might be a partial reason as he'd been hearing reports of some content creators suffering "financial crippling delays" in getting their real-world money from the Lab after selling them Linden dollars. So perhaps this is a case of the Lab responding to the complaints, but felt the users had to help pay for the costs. Hamlet also had another, sobering, explanation, "The Second Life economy is slowly but surely shrinking, so those who are still in the economy will have to pay more to keep participating in it."

In any event, the changes go into effect June 19.

Source: Hamlet Au

Bixyl Shuftan

Sansar Update: Video, Images, Details on Sansar Dollar, Fees, Release Date After March

By Bixyl Shuftan

A couple days ago on January 4, Linden Lab released some details on Sansar. One was a video, Sansar Creation Preview, featuring Loz Hyde, noted for being the man behind Meshworks and has worked on motion pictures such as "Terminator Salvation" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014 interview by Draxtor Despress).



Details about Sansar's virtual currency, the Sansar Dollar, were also made public when "Road to VR" magazine talked to "a representative of Linden Lab." The Sansar Dollar will be made available at the rate of 100 per US Dollar or one cent apiece.

The exchange rate between USD and Sansar dollars will be floating and will vary according to supply and demand. The rate will not necessarily be equal to the exchange rate between USD and Linden dollars in Second Life (which is also floating). To begin with, the exchange rate is about USD1 to S$100.

Second Life users will not be able to directly exchange Linden Dollars for Sansar Dollars, at least "for now." The Linden Dollars would have to be sold on the Lindex for real world currency (in which Linden Lab takes a cut), and then the user used the money to buy Sansar dollars. The representative did say that they "have not yet determined the rate of commission" they will be taking from Sansar users selling it's virtual currency for real world money.

On Upload VR, it was mentioned that as of December 2016, there were 700 content creators in Sansar, and Linden Lab was planning on giving more an early start before the official release. In an interview with Tom's Hardware, the number given was "roughly 500, maybe 600."

 In an interview with Venturebeat, Ebbe Altberg revealed Linden Lab will be charging both transaction fees for purchases in Sansar and "hosting fees" for virtual land, “We want it to be low enough that it does not add unnecessary friction to the economy ... But we do want to get a piece of the GDP and then make the hosting fees for Sansar as low as possible. We charged quite a bit for the hosting fees in Second Life and didn’t have a consumption tax to take part of the GDP. So now we will balance the hosting fees and the consumption fees in the economy.”

At one point in the Tom's Hardware interview, Altberg commented, "we continue to add more creators .... And we will continue to do this throughout the first quarter." Later on, the interviewer asked, "So, you’re running the private creator preview for Sansar for the next quarter or so?" Altberg answered, "Yeah. We’re trying to be data driven in the process as opposed to date driven. I wouldn't say we have all kinds of luxuries and that we’re taking our sweet time, but we want to make sure that it's incredibly great by the time any user can get access."

So it seems instead of the announced release date of January 2017, this month, it looks like Sansar will not be available until at least April, possibly longer.

Sources: New World Notes, Modem World,

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Reduces Set-Up Fees For Getting Sims, Transfered Grandfathered Priced Regions Will Now Retain Status

Yesterday in the official Second Life blog, Linden Lab announced two changes in their sim fees that will be welcome news to the Grid's residents. "Effective immediately," the fees for setting up a private sim have been reduced up to forty percent.

• Full Private Island  - previously $1000, now $600
• Developed Full Private Island - previously $1029, now $629
• Homestead Private Island - previously $375, now $225
• Developed Homestead Private Island - previously $395, now $250
• Openspace Private Island - previously $250, now $150

The changes in the pricing plan do not affect monthly tiers ($295 a month for full private sims). But they can be combined with the fifty percent discount for nonprofit sims. So the price to set up a private sim for a nonprofit would drop from $500 US dollars to $300.

The other change regarding Linden fees is about the status of sims with grandfathered lower tier pricing ($195 US dollars a month for full private sims). Previously, when the ownership of such sims changed hands, they would lose their grandfathered status. Now, they keep their status when they have a new owner.

Inara Pey called the changes, "a step in the right direction," comparing it favorably to the one month "land sale" in October 2011 which failed to change the overall slow decline in the total number of privately held sims that year. Jo Yardley was glad to hear the news as well, though thought the set-up fees were still too high. Hamlet Au felt the changes were aimed not at the typical sim owner, but at land barons, calling it a move to encourage them to expand, and thus help maintain Linden Lab's revenue for enough time for the Sansar grid to gain a large following.

For the announcement in the Linden blog: Click Here.

Eye on the Blog: "Skill Gaming in Second Life"

In Second Life's earlier days, games of chance were completely legal. One could go around and find games of blackjack, poker, roulette, slot machines, and more in which you could put down and risk as many Lindens as you wanted. Then several years ago it was banned by Linden Lab, citing laws against Internet gambling. As time went on, games which required Lindens to play and offering a chance at a prize began to slowly return, such as "Zyngo." The makers explained these games did not depend completely on chance, but required some choices and skill by the players.

On Wednesday July 9, Linden Lab announced on their blog that they were updating their official policies.

Gambling is strictly prohibited in Second Life and operating, or participating in, a game of chance that provides a Linden Dollar payout is a violation of ourTerms of Service. However, games of skill are legally permitted in many jurisdictions, and we’ve seen that many Second Life users are interested in playing such games for Linden Dollars. Therefore we are updating our gaming policy in Second Life.

There was then a link that took readers to a page on the Second Life wiki which had the details. Among them:

"Skill Games" will only be allowed in specially designated areas. Those whom wish their virtual land to be able to house the games will need to apply to Linden Lab, and pay extra fees, which the Lab says are to offset "additional administrative and compliance-related costs."

Only those approved by Linden Lab to operate "skill games" will be allowed to operate them.

Makers of "skill games" can only sell or otherwise distribute those approved by Linden Lab, and will need to pay "a one-time nonrefundable application fee as well as a quarterly license fee."

Only those living in states where gambling is legal and are old enough are allowed to play the games. Those whom are not either one who try will be considered by the Lab as breaking their terms of service.

The rules are stated as going in effect on August 1, 2014.

Games such as Japanese pachinko machines, which offer not Lindens but tokens which can be exchanged for prizes, card games that offer no Linden prizes but are simply for play, and the "sploders" that are a frequent sight in Second Life clubs are presumably outside these restrictions.

For the blog post in full: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Coming-Soon-Skill-Gaming-in-Second-Life/ba-p/2771080

Linden Lab's Skill Gaming Frequently Asked Questions page: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Skill_Gaming_FAQ

Skill Gaming Thread in the official forums: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Skill-Gaming-Policy-Thread/td-p/2771090

SL Universe Skill Gaming thread: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/97651-incoming-pages-pages-rules-skill.html

Another Linden Blunder Hits a Resident

With the harsh treatment Alleara Snoodle got last month from Linden Lab still on my mind, another of my friends came forward with another story. "Thanks to Linden Labs and a accounting error," she told me "I'm going to lose my primary account."

My friend went on, "Thanks to a error in their accounting computer my account got switched from a basic account to a Premium Annual account." I asked if she could switch it back, and she told me that wasn't the big problem, "they locked and disabled the account until I pay the $72 dollars they say I owe." She had never been notified of the account's status change, "I have till the 24th of (June) to take care of it though, or the account will be cancelled and wiped from the server."

My friend requested that her name not be listed, either her primary account or the one she has been using currently, " hate to even think I'd lose the account over something as retarded as Linden Lab."

The friend in question is pretty much devoted to Second Life thanks to a few individuals whose friendships she values, so she plans on sticking around regardless. But what does this say to those thinking of getting land from the Lab, or expanding their holdings?

Linden Lab, how much money can you expect to make in the long run if your customers lose your trust in you?


Bixyl Shuftan