Survey: Will You Pay $15-50 to Change Your Second Life Account Name?

August 9, 2022

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New Linden Lab offer, new SL user survey (above, take on laptop/desktop for best results):

That’s right, as [last week] everyone can change their avatar name regardless of their subscription level. Not just the Premium subscribers that have always been able to do so, but all of our Basic accounts as well! This is something we’ve been trying to offer for a long time, and something that we get requests for on a consistent basis, so we couldn’t be more pleased to finally be able to announce it.

As an exciting new option for Basic accounts, here’s what it looks like today. Not only do you have the option to change your avatar’s first name to anything you can imagine, but we also offer a rotating list of last names to give your avatar (even if you don’t already have one) that are updated on a regular basis. We will continue to make updates to the available last name pool, so if these options aren’t for you, stay tuned for future updates. You can also suggest your favorite name on our suggestion form, new names are chosen from there!

Will be interesting to compare/contrast the results with our resent survey on Premium+ upgrades.

Please take and share; results to be published next week!

Posted in Economics of SL, Survey

8 responses to “Survey: Will You Pay $15-50 to Change Your Second Life Account Name?”

Mondy

August 9, 2022

I selected no, but I had already planned to. So I’ll have to explain. haha.
I think that the price for Premium plus is ok, but considering the amount they pay for plus it should be cheap. If they only have to pay $15 to pay whenever they want. Great!.
But the price for Basic. Are you kidding me? I’m actually Premium. Perhaps as a one off some might go for it to change their first name if they’ve been stuck with a dumb first name for years and don’t want a resident anymore but I really do think it’s too high.
But as I said I had considered it already so why NO in the survey? Well if the gap in price between Premium and Basic is $15 why is it $20 between Plus and Premium, and $35 between Plus and Basic?
I just look at those price and think, wait? Wouldn’t a more attractive price be 15-25-40 ($10 – $15 higher per tier) or perhaps 15-30-45? ($15 per tier)
I get that Premium plus having the much lower price is a perk for the amount they pay each month but the amount for ‘standard’ premium doesn’t seem like there’s any significant ‘perk’ over Basic and it just looks like Basic account holders are being fleeced.
Here’s an idea..Basic account holder pays premium for one month at $11.99, pay for your name change at $34.99 then cancel Premium and still save $3!

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Mondy

August 9, 2022

Actually realised you can take premium plus for £29.99 and change your name for $15. Save $5. Plus enjoy the benefits of Premium plus for a whole month even if you cancel as soon as your name is changed! People asked if they had to stay premium when the ability to change names came in and the answer was no. Did LL take this into account?

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Spiffy Voxel

August 9, 2022

The question is moot for me, since I already changed my name back when it became available again. I did that primarily because the username I’d originally gone with back in 2015 no longer fitted me, but I did so with reluctance due to the $39.99 price tag. I get that Linden Lab want people to use this responsibly and not keep changing names on every whim, but even the reduced price for Premium members feels steep. I can’t see many Basic members forking out close to $50, and newcomers are going to feel particularly aggrieved since Linden Lab are (from what I can gather) not allowing a Last Name choice at sign-up.

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Nadeja

August 9, 2022

Summing up (and rounding up the misleading .99s):
Basic + name change: USD 0 + 50 (+ taxes)
1 month Premium + name change + : USD 12 + 35 = 47 (+ taxes)
1 month Premium Plus + name change: USD 30 + 15 = 45 or with the current limited promo 25 + 15 = 40 (+ taxes)
(see https://secondlife.com/premium )
Therefore, with premium plus you pay less and have more benefits.
So they call it “an exciting new option for Basic accounts”, but in fact they mean “come on, basic users, if you want to change your name, subscribe to premium plus for one month (and hopefully you like it and you keep paying for it), okay?”.
That’s marketing psychology.
And I feel kind of tempted… Good job, marketing team! LOL

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Adeon Writer

August 10, 2022

I really don’t understand why this needs to cost money. There is no justification for this.

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sirhc desantis

August 10, 2022

Well, had to go ‘maybe’ on this. If it was possible for another premium to pay for me to change mine (there are three in this casa but none of them are ahem me) then …
Well hell – close on 16 years ago I fancied one that was close to de’Ath (as in Sir TP) not knowing what a poor choice that turned out to be. Politics eh?

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Lyndka Cochrane

August 11, 2022

I’m with Adeon – why does it cost money? It’s not like the labs are employing someone to sit there and mash through a pile of paperwork forms.

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clarkson

December 21, 2022

It’s a cash grab – and at a time when people around the world – who deserve some kind of escape from the horrors of reality – are struggling financially.
The more people struggle, the more corporate knobs like these kick them in the wallet for greater profit margins.
Premium Plus simply isn’t worth it – I’ve had it since the plus side of it began but have had premium for years – all of which I cancelled. None of it is worth a damn.
They charge far too much and give far too little, but want YOU to believe they’re somehow doing you a favor.
But it’s of even less value when you’re trying to create an alt for blogging and you’ve been stuck on the ‘choose a name’ screen for an hour and a half simply because every name you pick has already been taken – even really obscure ones.
I call bs on that. I think they’re deliberately blocking all names in the hope of forcing people to pay for them.
Very poor form, LL – very poor form – you have the audacity to hold your grubby mitts out for MORE fees just to change a name you can’t even get in the first place!

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