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 

 

Total Number of Sims Over 28,000, First Time In Over A Decade

 

Some good news for those who take pride in how large Second Life is in how much virtual land it has.  The Second Life Grid Survey (https://gridsurvey.com/) , run by Tyche Shepherd, in it's latest numbers announced that the total number of sims had climbed to over the 28,000 mark.

 

Breaking the number down, 18,220 were private sims, and 9801 were "Linden owned." This includes the growing number of Bellisseria Linden Home sims. 

The last time the total number of sims was this large was in 2012. There was a peak close to 32,000 in 2010, then it went on a long and slow decline until about 2018 to about 23,000 before it began to slowly rise again. This is partially due to more people getting private sims, but also the popularity of Linden Homes, of which one needs a Premium account to get. 

Will the total number get to 29,000, then 30,000 again? Time will tell.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Sim Total Number Growth, Slight Decline In Private Estates, Continues

 

The current number of sims is 27,735 according to the Second Life Grid Survey. That's more than the number there were at the start of the year according to an article by Daniel Voyager, 27,659. But there is one small detail with the statistics: the number of private sims.

 

As most residents know, some sims are outright owned by Linden Lab while the majority are run by private residents. At the start of the year, January 1, 2023, there were 18,370 private sims and 9289 Linden-owned sims. By July 2, the number of private sims had dipped to 18,330 and the number of Linden owned once had rose to 9360. As of the last report in November 19, the number of Linden run sims had once again risen, to 9542. But once again, the amount of private sims dropped slightly, to 18,193. 

 

So there are 177 fewer private sims and 253 more Linden-run sims than at the beginning of the year. This trend isn't necessarily a bad thing for Linden Lab. While private sims do bring in a lot of money, $210 USD a month, the Linden Home sims on Bellisseria can hold plenty of Linden Homes, and plenty of Premium residents, who pay $12 each a month. And then there's the money they spend, of which the easiest way to get is to buy Linden dollars. On the other hand, private sims can be used to create great and interesting builds, which can attract curious people to Second Life by word of mouth.

So will these trends continue? Time will tell.

Sources: Daniel Voyager's Blog, Second Life Grid Survey

Bixyl Shuftan

Grid Statistics Show Slight Increase In Total Sims, Slight Drop in Private Sim Numbers

 

 With Second Life having recently turned 20 years old, one might wonder how have the sim numbers been lately? According to an article by Daniel Voyager, based on statistics from Tyche Shepard, there's been an overall increase in the number of sims since January. But the rate different kinds has been going up has been uneven.

 

According to the article, the number of private and Linden-owned sims combined, as of July 2, is 27,690. This is 31 sims higher than the figure of 27,659 on January 1. The growth was due in part to more Linden-owned sims, notably the ones in Bellisseria, from 9289 to 9360, an increase of 71. The number of private sims shrank a little from 18,370 to 18,330, a decrease of 40.

 

Of the numbers of people getting online, there's been a slight drop. In March, the concurrency averaged from a minimum of 28,000 to a maximum of 52,000. In July 2, it had gone to an average of a minimum of 27,000 to a maximum of 49,000. Daniel commented this was no reason for worry as this fit typical tends each year of fewer residents in the summertime, and more coming in for fall and winter. 

It was stated since the start of the year, 200,000 new accounts have been created. How many are alts and how many new people stayed is unknown.

 

Source: Daniel Voyager

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

News and Commentary: Logins Slightly Down, Sim Numbers Slightly Up Over 2022

 

 During the Coronaviris/Covid-19 Pandemic, the number of people using Second Life rose. Linden Lab stated in April 2020 that signups had gone up sixty percent since it started. In June 2020, CEO Ebbe Altberg stated the number of active users, those who were logging in at least once a month, had gone up to 900,000, a one-eighth of an increase over the previous year. 

Since then, the Lab has been quiet on just how many are coming in and staying in. There has been some speculation that with the Pandemic over, people have been leaving once more. In an article by Daniel Voyager, he stated that the daily peak has gone down slightly, from 55,000 about a year ago to about 48 to 53,000 this month. Checking the Second Life Grid Survey, this was the case. 

So it seems some people are leaving, though it appears to be a smaller number than those who joined during the Pandemic. Some who came back are sticking around, at least for now.

Of the number of sims, things looked more encouraging according to Daniel. With the growth of Belisseria, it should be no surprise to most that the total number of sims has continued to go up. He reported the total number at 27,659. This is an increase of over 2000 from two years ago. What will surprise some is that the majority of these, at least from two years ago, were private sims, from 17,024 to 18,370. But it should be noted almost all this increase was in 2021. The number of private sims didn't change much in just 2022, an overall increase of thirty-eight. But the number of Linden-owned sims grew at almost the same number, 378 more in 2021 and 380 more in 2022. 

 

So the number of private sims is still growing, but it appears economic troubles such as inflation causing the prices of everything from food and energy to rise and cut back on the amount of cash available for entertainment is resulting in fewer people getting new ones. 

So what do things have in store over the course of 2023? Difficult to say. If inflation drops and the global economy avoids a recession, we may see a few more people logging in and more people getting private sims. But if we end up with 1979-1980 style "stagflation," the news over the next several months may have some sim closings.

Source: Daniel Voyager's Blog

Bixyl Shuftan

Total Number of Sims Up By Over 300 This Year

 

With the amount of work being done on Bellisseria, it should come across as no surprise the number of Linden-owned sims has been growing. In a recent post, Daniel Voyager stated that on January 2, there were a total of 27,231 sims, with 8909 of them Linden owned and 18,326 private. In Tyche Shepard's latest report on her Grid Survey on July 24, there were a total of 27,575 sims, with 9249 of them Linden owned. The number of private sims held steady with a very tiny drop from 18,332 to 18,326. This is an overall increase of 344.

The number of Linden-owned sims will continue to grow as Bellisseria expands. As for private sims, Daniel Voyager speculated there was the potential in real life of rising inflation, recession, or both in the near future. This could lead some landowners to cut back, which would result in a decrease in the number. If not, there was the probability of the total number of sims approaching the 28,000 mark. Second Life hasn't seen a total number of sims of that size in about a decade. 

Stay tuned for further details.

Sources: Daniel Voyager, Tyche Shepard

Bixyl Shuftan

 

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
   

Press Release: Join Us for One Billion Rising in Second Life 2020!

For the seventh year, on February 14, 2020, men and women in Second Life will join activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and people across the world to Rise, Resist and Unite as a show of unity, individual strength, and the need for change.

1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we rise – in countries across the world – to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.

We call on you this year to be braver, go deeper, reflect, study, listen, learn, awaken to what you don’t know, ask the difficult questions, engage, take actions, and push yourselves out of your comfort zones physically and intellectually. We call on you to commit to resistance and solidarity.

Because Rising is no longer a campaign – it is a way of life.

RISE! RESIST! UNITE!

The Second Life event will feature a four-region stage where 200 people can come together to dance, surrounded by an area of art installations, an arena for poetry and dramatic productions, and informational exhibits. A variety of amazing live performers and DJs will play over the 24-hour period and poetry and dramatic events will be held at different times, enabling people all over the world to attend this virtual event no matter their timezone. The regions will have a General maturity rating to allow all residents an opportunity to participate. Pictures are welcome on the event’s Flickr group.

This year, One Billion Rising in Second Life is especially saluting the work and courage of female heroes from across the world. We’ll be posting more details over the coming month.

If you would like to volunteer to support the event, go here to find out how you can join in.

If you would like to report on the event as a member of the press, go here.

If you would like to create an art installation for the event, go here.

The objective of the event is to raise awareness, not to raise funds; however, information about real-world organizations will be available for those wishing to donate.

We will be announcing the sponsors for One Billion Rising shortly. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, go here. Please note, as we are not a fundraising event, we have a limited number of sponsorship spaces to cover costs of the 4 regions used for the 24 hours of music, dance, poetry, literature, art installations and shows.

To read more on One Billion Rising, Click Here.

Petition To Linden Lab on Change.Org About Cashout Fee Hikes

On Wednesday May 29, Linden Lab would announce significant hikes to both the price of Premium accounts and the cashout fees for Linden dollars. The move has triggered quite a bit of discussion among the residents. While some are reacting by canceling Premium accounts, one person calling himself or herself "Second Life Residents" started a petition on change.org, "An Open Letter to Linden Lab."

While the person thanked Linden Lab for retracting their decision to cut back basic account group limits, "We are, however, disheartened by the other changes that you have announced that are scheduled to be implemented this month, specifically the doubling of the processing fee from 2.5% to 5%. While we understand that Linden Lab is a business that needs to profit in order to thrive, we feel it is necessary to remind you that we are running businesses, too. As you know, many of us are more than just hobbyists, we rely on the money we earn in Second Life to pay our bills, feed our children, and survive. Rather than simply protest the changes you have made, we come to you hoping for an open dialogue to both understand your needs to implement such a drastic and high percentage and possibly come up with alternative solutions for Linden Lab to generate profits without punishing those you depend on the most to keep Second Life going."

"if your creators and other earners in Second Life are not kept happy and confident in your decisions, you risk a great loss that would eventually render Second Life obsolete. We believe that the decisions you make should not be done in a vacuum. The voices of residents have given you guidance in some of the best choices you've made in the last several years. Bento, Linden Homes, new default avatars, animesh... all of this was achieved with input from resident creators. We feel there is a place for resident consultations beyond content creation. Second Life residents understand this platform on a level that Linden Lab employees cannot achieve without becoming immersive residents who shop, live, and love. We are the ones immersed. We are the community. We are the culture. We have a keen insight into our own needs and many of us are competent, intelligent, and capable enough to advocate skillfully on behalf of the residents."

The writer would go on to suggest Linden Lab hire consultants, "residents who can demonstrate competence and expertise in various Second Life areas ... and real life practical areas ..." and "discuss the possibility of negotiating the 5% processing fee. We understand that Linden Lab does have a final say, but we have a long list of innovative and insightful ideas of how Linden Lab might increase profits without relying on land and without creators having to bear such a severe financial burden."

The petition had already reached over 1600 signatures as of the writing of this article.

To read the petition in full, Click Here.

Addition, as of 2PM SL time, the petition had reached 1900 signatures.

Hat tip: Lia, Braelove

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.

One Billion Rising

By Gemma Cleanslate

Heads up to the returning One Billion Rising in second life  that will make its reappearance on February 14 . Read about the history and plans for this year on the website. Get involved if you can or plan on attending activities .

https://onebillionrisingsl.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/join-us-for-one-billion-rising-in-second-life-2018/


I went over to view the sims where preparations are going on .

I found one of the leads of the event, Judi Newell , fixing up the Poetry Stage site . “The events will be at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm SLT and will include booked performers followed by open mic, so people are invited to come along and join in. All forms of writing are welcome with a limit of 5 or 10 minutes depending on the number of people participating each hour. The event is in voice ."

Stevie Basevi, another lead , was working on one of the four gardens that grace the four outer corners of the four sims. She did not take the easy way of creating one garden and dropping it in each corner ... each one is very different so make your way around the outer roadway not only to visit the gardens but to enjoy the works of art the creators have dropped there . The exhibits are always in keeping with the theme of the day but lovely each in its own way. Every one of the leads has been working very hard to prepare for this event that has so much meaning to survivors and deserve a big thanks.

I have been involved since the first year as a greeter and a dancer in the videos and enjoy it very much and always learn from the activity. There is a rose hunt this year on the sims. This is a 24 hour event with djs on the center stage at varied hours and live  performances planned during the day and night . Keep an eye on the website for more information on artists appearing and when. There is a lot going on all over the grid this day but make time to get there!

The four sims have names that suit the day so well, Rise, Dance, Unite, Resist!


OBR - One Billion Rising in Second Life 2016.


https://vimeo.com/155103784  2016's video!!

Gemma Cleanslate

Linden Lab Starts Increasing Prim Limits of Private Sims

On Thursday November 3, Linden Lab announced that they were in the process of increasing the prim limits of Mainland sims. They also stated that while private sims would also be seeing a similar increase, it would not be right away, but "within a couple months." On Tuesday November 29, the Lab announced that they were finally starting these increases.

As of today, we are extending this benefit to Private Estate Regions. Full Regions, Homesteads, and Openspace Regions on Private Estates will get a 33% increase in Land Impact allowance at no additional charge! Now everyone will have more prims to enjoy!


As with the Mainland sims, the private island prim capacity increases are being done through their weekly rolling restarts. So the process should be done by next Monday.

Linden Lab also brought up their plans to allow private sim owners the option to boost their prim allowance by an additional 10,000 to 30,000, saying it would be "starting next week" and details would be soon. In their announcement earlier this month, they stated it would cost a $30 USD fee up front and a monthly $30 USD fee thereafter.

Among the first private sims to benefit from the boost is Purrfection Estates, best known for the "Happy Vixen" beach club. There was a general feeling of optimism that night in chat groups, though one person did express reservations, wondering if a few people might go overboard and engage in "prim wars" over the holidays, decorating their places to the max.

Do you the readers have any stories about how you, or your neighbors, are taking advantage of the prim capacity increases, or not? If so, let the us at the Newser know.

Linden Lab Gives Full Details On Sim Prim Increases: All Will Go Up, Eventually

And now we know. Yes, both Mainland and Private Estate sims will see boosts in their prim capacity. No, Private Estate sims will not be getting it for a while.

Over the course of Monday Tuesday and Wednesday, it's been revealed that Linden Lab was increasing the amount of prims that mainland sims could handle. The questions people were asking the most were would Private Estate sims be included, and just by how much would prim capacities be going up? But Linden Lab wouldn't say on those matters until yesterday, Thursday November 4 at 2PM when Patch Linden and Saffia Widdershins hosted an audience of about a hundred residents. Dropping in at 1:40PM, the place was already packed, with lots of grey lingering for a while.

Eventually, Saffia asked everyone to click on the white screen, asking people to check out (this video) if the screen wouldn't work for them. The recording was of a chat Saffia and Designing Worlds co-host Elrik Merlin had with Patch Linden (Dee Linden was there, but spoke little). Patch would go on to state that yes, the Mainland sims were getting a prim capacity increase, and so would Private Estates, homesteads, and openspace sims.

Mainland sims would get a boost from 15,000 to 22,500
Private Estate sims would go up from 15,000 to 20,000
Homestead sims would go up from 3750 to 5000
Openspace sims would go up from 750 to 1000

Patch Linden confirmed reports on the Linden Blog and elsewhere that Mainland sims were in the process of having their prim allowance increased, saying it was going up through their usual weekly restarts. For Private Estates however, the change would not come right away but "within a couple months, could be sooner, hopefully not later."

Patch also mentioned that eventually full Private sims would have the option for even greater capacity, but for a price. They could have their prim allowance boosted to 30,000, but only if a $30 fee was paid up front and a monthly $30 fee charged in addition to the usual monthly tier.

Patch stated Linden Lab would announce when they would be ready to boost Private sims and offer the further increased capacity on separate dates in the future.

Would there be a downside? Patch stated there was the possibility of older computers taking more time to process the extra prims, but assured Linden Lab had been doing much testing and felt the extra lag should be minimal to most.

After the meeting, I asked Saffia about these changes, she answered, "I'm really excited by this. I think it opens up huge possibilities for creators - both in building more objects and in building with better use of LOD."

Inara Pey of Modem World posted about the time of the meeting an interview with Patch Linden about the Prim increases. Linden Lab would also mention it on their latest blog post.

And so, we have the full story on a topic that's gotten Second Life abuzz all week.

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: Group Limit Extended to Sixty for Premium Accounts

Late last week on May 28, Linden Lab announced they were expanding the number of groups for premium accounts. The new limit for these has gone from 42, which remains the limit for normal accounts, to sixty.

Today we’re thrilled to be rolling out another perk for Premium members: now you can be a member of 60 groups! Groups have been a consistently popular feature among the Residents of Second Life. It may not be obvious, but group membership can have an impact on the performance of a number of systems. That's why in Second Life's early days, Residents could only join a maximum of 10 groups. Over the years, we've made improvements that enabled us to raise the group limit to a maximum of 42, but we know that for some power users, even that isn't quite enough, and today we're happy to raise the bar for Premium subscribers.

The Lab stated while they would like to raise the limit further, "We must make sure that the recent gains in group performance are not jeopardized." The group limit raise took place immediately. The Lab went on to say "Downgrading from Premium membership will not remove you from any of your groups, but it will mean that you cannot join any new groups until you remove yourself from enough groups to get below the Basic account limit, which remains at 42."

Daniel Voyager wrote on his blog that over the years, the group limit has gone up over time from Second Life's beginnings. When the Grid officially opened, residents were limited to just ten groups. Compared to today, some of today's residents would consider this a ridiculously small number as there's all kinds of groups, for music and dance clubs, combat roleplay squads and platoons, estate community announcements, breedable pet fans, political discussion clubs, stores, even for Second Life families and circles of friends. Jo Yardley commented in the official blog that she thought "I think we have almost 20 just for our sim alone."

But over time, the limit would go up. In 2004, it was raised to 15. In 2006, it was raised to 25. In 2011, it was raised to the limit it was for all accounts until recently, 42.

Linden Lab has tried a number of ways over the years to encourage residents with basic free accounts, which were introduced in 2006. This has included offering them free gifts, sims only residents with premium accounts could access, discounts for the first month when signing up, and more. Some residents have commented these perks have seemed a bit small. But for some whose group limit keeps maxing out, raising it to 60 may be a very welcome convenience they're willing to pay more for.

For the comments in the Linden forums, Click Here.

World of Warcraft Numbers Soar to Over Ten Million

Over time, "World of Warcraft," the world's most popular Multiplayer Online Game, has declined in numbers since it's peak of twelve million in 2010. It's numbers would briefly climb after an expansion, then fall again. While still the envy of other game companies, by June 2014 numbers had fallen to 6.8 million, about half of it's peak.

It was known that the latest expansion "Warlords of Draenor" was providing some boost, as 600,000 gamers signed up ahead of time. As it turns out, far more did. On November 19, Blizzard announced that the number of people subscribing to their game had passed ten million. "Blizzard Entertainment today announced that as of the first 24 hours of the expansion’s availability, more than 3.3 million copies had sold-through^† and the game’s global subscriber base had passed 10 million, with growth across all major regions." Blizzard had not seen these numbers since early 2012.

Mike Fulter of Game Informer commented, "I strongly suspected WoW would rebound, but not by this much. Whether Blizzard can hold onto these returned players in the long-term remains to be seen. Even if numbers start to trail off once more, it shows that there is still great interest in new content for the decade-old MMO." The magazine also mentioned that day that Activision, which is part of the same corporation as Blizzard but exists as a separate entity, settled a lawsuit concerning a buyout a year ago.

The opening day of the fifth expansion of the game was plagued with technical problems, blamed in part due to a Denial of Service attack traced to China. The size of the numbers of people signing up suggests that the problems were at least somewhat less due to hackers, and somewhat more about the expansion being a bigger success than Blizzard expected.

Sources: PC Gamer, Game Informer, Blizzard 

Bixyl Shuftan

Star Hunting

TheonlyJohnny recently heard about a hud-based game with an unusual theme. It's like a scavenger hunt. So how does it play and what's the appeal to the players?  Theonlyjohnny went to find out.

Read Johnny's article in Design.

One Billion Still Rising

Last weekend, Gemma Cleanslate attended a discussion about last month's One Billion Rising event at Virtual Ability Island, where Saffia Widdershins talked to an audience. Gemma looks back at both the discussion and the event, and what she felt was accomplished.

Read Gemma's article in People.