Metered Worlds to be removed, introducing Premium Worlds

[Shandon Loring]

Ilan and Oren need to make a reasonable living from this; they certainly work hard enough for it. I wish them well.

I wholeheartedly agree with you Dot. Seanchai had to change our setup a fair bit to accomodate new Kitely structure. But we're there, and I am very grateul to Ilan, Oren, and all the folks of Kitely community that support this wondeful place.

Ilan, Oren... I offer a personal Thank You to you both for your hard work, dedication, persistence, and patience with us all. And for making Kitely the wondeful place it is, and for taking necessary steps to keep it viable and productive. It's a very exciting time right now, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it, and to be onboard with such a stellar team!

[Carlos Loff]

Hi Mark,

We haven't deleted anyone's KC and you can still pay for all our services using the KC in your account.

We haven't charged anyone more retroactively.

We haven't made any changes to the services people have already paid for during the duration of their subscription. All future changes were announced in advance to give people time to decide how they wish to react. Whenever we've made pricing changes (which were almost always price reductions) people who had existing subscriptions either got to retain them at previous prices or, in the past case of the old Bronze Plan, had those monthly subscriptions canceled without any other effect on their Kitely Account (at which point they could decide whether or not they wanted to sign up for new subscriptions).

We didn't eliminate the option of using Metered Worlds or paying for them using KC, we simply renamed them and changed their terms of use. The cost of using them is now higher than it was before (requiring a Premium Account) but you don't have to pay that price if you don't want to, you can also switch to using Starter Worlds or keep them as Premium Worlds but not be able to enter them yourself.

Enabling people to continue using Metered Worlds with a Regular Account while they still had KC they bought before the changes, but preventing them from doing so with KC they bought after the changes would be too complicated (without even considering how KC bought by other people before the changes should be handled when they are given to other people). It was not a feasible solution considering the significant R&D and customer support expenses it would have required and the negative effects Metered Worlds were having on our profitability.

Finally, our terms of service clearly state that we may, from time to time modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, Kitely Services (or any part thereof) with or without notice and that if we do so we'll strive to provide advance notice to our users. We were forced to increase prices for some usage scenarios which affected you but we made sure you could still use your KC to get time-based worlds, to pay for content inworld and in Kitely Market, and to pay for all our other services. In other words, while I understand you're upset please don't claim we stole your money. We did our utmost to make sure that your KC will continue to have as much value as possible.