Plan changes in Kitely

[Selby Evans]

My reaction to the plans discussed at the Mentor's meeting on Wed. Nov 6.

The main problem being addressed seemed to be that Kitely payment arrangements are too complicated and turn off potential customers.

The discussion I heard suggested to me that the new plan is no less complicated.

My suggestions:
Give people only the information they need at the time.
Focus first on people rather than land

For starters
Design a simple and free plan.
Market that as a welcome plan.
Point to other plans, but don't detail them.

Example:
Under the current structure,
there are free places (No time charges).
List them as the free world of Kitely.
Promote this list as "just like the other grids"
Add a footnote: Want more? Go to [web link}

People focus
Instead of free (and lonely) land
Give new people a free plot in New City (megaregion)
Gather new people in one populated place
With newcomer help places and TP's
Freebie places and TP's
Shops and TP's
TP's to all the free places
Free event space (music, performances, etc)
Events on the Hypergrid
More--TBD
Could get promotional payments for some things

********************

For the paying plans:
Think of what the customers want
Make packages that fit those wants.

People places: Familiar
like the fixed cost region now.
Use like other grids.
Suggested size 2x2, 100 avs, 100,000 prims
Like 4 regulat sims with 25,000 prims each
Packages are available for lower cost or more space
Market this as just what people are used to,
but maybe more prims, lower cost, or more space.

***************

Regions: Specialised uses needing land
Like the time-charged regions now.
For customers who need regions more than people
Could stick with time charge on people
Or time-charge on region up (the direct cost item)
(Charge for direct cost item tells people to save on that)
On region up plan, owner could set closed time.
Or go to av number (limit 10 per region)
Av number would allow fixed cost, an advantage
Best keep a low cost alternative, like the bronze plan
and a higer cost option, like the gold plan
There could be several packages here.

Selby Evans/Thinkerer Melville

[Rikku Cosplay]

Hi Selby,

The long (5 hours) discussion held yesterday was to see various ways the existing system could be changed so that the following goals could be achieved:

- Eliminate the uncertainty that scares away people who aren't already familiar with how our time-based system works. The monthly subscription model has been replaced by freemium models in most online games and virtual worlds. That mindset is not compatible with people paying to visit other people's worlds. If we want to attract a lot of people to create an inworld community, events and potential buyers for Kitely Market items then people need to be able to spend as much time as they like in other people's worlds without having to pay anything for it.

- Our existing options are too hard for most potential world managers to quickly understand. They also create situations where many people use Kitely for only certain types of activities because they mistakingly think it will cost them more to do those activities here than in other grids (where they end up paying higher fixed costs than the ones they can pay in Kitely using time-based billing). This isn't good for community growth and this isn't good for our company's continued development.

- Metered Worlds (currently called time-based billing worlds) are a great way to provide people with the option to own a lot of land and they enable future on-demand usage scenarios that we'd like to be able to support. We intend to continue to provide them.

- Many people who do understand our system choose the cheapest option they can for their needs. That's very understandable but it reduces the amount of money we have left after expenses to accelerate the rate at which we develop Kitely. Most of those people started off paying us more than they currently do because even the more conventional options they started with (unlimited personal time, or worlds that provide unlimited free access) are still cheaper than alternatives they can get in other grids or with third-party region hosting providers.

- Most people don't need to have 100,000 prims and 100 avatars in their world while some may like to have big public worlds on a lower budget than the prices we currently charge for Unlimited Free Access worlds. We'd like to be able to address those needs.

Yesterday's meeting was not an announcement of imminent billing changes it was an open discussion about how we see things and how we believe they can be improved.

[Sarge Misfit]

...
Give new people a free plot in New City (megaregion) ...

I wasn't able to attend the meeting, but this statement of yours concerns me.
How big of a plot? How many prims?

I rely on the current free world setup with 100,000 prims. I am ambitious, with ideas much larger than my bank account. I simply cannot afford to pay for a region, here or anywhere. To change to a plot and fewer prims would mean the end of Regio Excelsior.

But that's me.

One of the biggest draws for Kitely is thet free world plan. There are other grids that have a system such as the one you describe, a plot on the grid's main continent. They do not have a prim allowance of 20,000 let alone what Kitely has. I do not know of a single other grid out there that gives a person a free 256x256 region, let alone a prim allowance of 100,000.

If the problem is that of things being confusing or difficult to understand, then the solution is to change how that information is presented, not reduce the amount of land.

[Sierra Jakob]

***The Current System
I think the current system we have is quite good. The system itself is solid. If any changes are made, I think it is important to not penalize the folks who are creating worlds & other content for others to enjoy. These are the folks who are building Kitely--they should be treated as valuable resources. I am very uncomfortable with allowing anyone to use Kitely for free--someone is going to pay, it should be the user. I don't think major changes should be made--don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Address the particular needs instead.

***Confusion about Plans:
I do think that the presentation of the payment plan choices could be vastly improved so there is much less confusion.

***Encouraging the Higher End Plans
If Kitely needs people to choose particular (i.e. more expensive plans), coming up with additional clever incentives (that don't actually cost Kitely much over time) would be the most effective choice.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

Kitely currently offers freedom This is a big deal
Freedom to have as many prims as is needed, and as many people as is needed.
Being ABLE to use 100000 prims is awesome, even if you only use 10000. It means not WORRYING about prims.

The current bronze/silver/gold plans are awesome - they give huge amounts of space, huge amounts of prims and enough time to develop them, and even more so, at a low fixed cost.
It is awesome you can have one region up indefinitely to show off your work and for people to visit at no cost (free plan)
It is also good you can have the option for fixed cost as well, that gives a different kind of freedom, one that helps others.

Personally, I see Kitely as somewhere that gives a lot of choices, and a lot of freedom. The more choices the better.
People also need to be encouraged to upgrade

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

We (Kitely) never raised the option (and aren't considering) to reduce the amount of land, the prim allowance or the avatar capacity of Metered Worlds (e.g. such as the free time-based billing world all Kitely users get just by opening an account). We also specifically stated that we intend to continue giving all Kitely users 1 free Metered region, with 100K prims and 100 avatar capacity - exactly like we do now.

This discussion in the forums now is over most people's heads as they are lacking all the important information to understand it. That is why I specifically asked the people who attended the meeting to not discuss this with people who didn't attend as it was obvious that without us providing actual pricing and feature details this entire discussion can only create fear uncertainty and doubt amongst people. Those details are the difference between a deal that many people would love to use and one that sends our users to other grids.

We will be opening to the hypergrid soon, it has always been stated that hypergrid visitors would be paid for by world managers (who allow such visitors to their worlds) either by paying for usage in time-based billing worlds or by having the world set for Unlimited Free Access (i.e. paying a fixed cost per month for hosting that world). The entire concept of visitors paying for access is only relevant for people who are actually Kitely users. If a world is free to access for hypergrid visitors and costs time/KC to visit for Kitely users then we'll be incentivizing people to not be Kitely users.

[Jean Swashbuckler]

This discussion in the forums now is over most people's heads as they are lacking all the important information to understand it. That is why I specifically asked the people who attended the meeting to not discuss this with people who didn't attend as it was obvious that without us providing actual pricing and feature details this entire discussion can only create fear uncertainty and doubt amongst people. Those details are the difference between a deal that many people would love to use and one that sends our users to other grids..

Yep, just read this and deleted my post

I will add some the Tyche Shepard data in another quick post. This doesn't relate to yesterday's session.

[Jean Swashbuckler]

This probably isn't the right place for this, and it does not address the plan changes...but it does address something I have not see in the Kitely Forums. Didn't want to add a new thread but can do so if useful.

SL's continued downsizing [migration] is an opportunity for Kitely and those of us in Kitely. The data comes from Tyche Sherperd's grid survey at http://gridsurvey.com and in her reports in SLU.

Tyche's data, and I read each of her reports, documents something is happening in SL - a very real downsizing is taking place in SL. As of 11/3/2103, Year To Date Private Estate Region losses are at 1,500 regions. This is down 7.1% since 12/31/2102. The LL Cash Cow [business term] is downsizing. That is a loss of $295 for each full sim and $125 for each Homestead taken off the grid - per month. Currently, there are 19,492 private estates in SL. As Tyche notes in SLU, the large bump in estate gains during the "no set up fee" summer were lost a long time ago. Private estate levels are back to where they were in Jun '08.

The reason there is not a steeper loss in regions is LL can't consolidate the mainland graveyard regions. There are currently 7,075 Linden mainland regions in SL. Many have only one or a few active parcels. Few avatars are on the Sim on a regular basis. There are large swath's of mainland in maintenance. In June 2013, Tyche did her last Mainland Census Report. There were 6,726 mainland regions at that time. That was unchanged from the previous quarter. What stands out in the report is that Linden Lab now owns even more mainland and currently abandoned land than previously. These are the highest percentages since data started to be publicly collected with 13.4% to 14.2% of mainland abandoned. Last quarter this figure was 11.7% to 12.6%. The Total Significant Linden holdings come to 49% of the mainland, up 1.6 percent since March.

It would be a disastrous public relations mess for SL to consolidate. Maria's contrast in Hypergrid growth to SL decline in regions provides anecdotal evidence that there is a slow migration taking place from SL to OS. I suspect many are former SL landowners, mainland or private estate. Anyone who has owned mainland, and especially private estates in SL will understand and feel what has been going on the last three years. This is especially true for private estate owners.

There is an opportunity for Kitely, which impacts each of us. There is also an opportunity for each of us individually. Interesting times we live in.

[Sherrie Melody]

We (Kitely) never raised the option (and aren't considering) to reduce the amount of land, the prim allowance or the avatar capacity of Metered Worlds (e.g. such as the free time-based billing world all Kitely users get just by opening an account).

What I heard you say is that you were considering grandfathering in the Gold time-based plans, and cancelling bronze and silver plans. And that, regardless of plan, the intent is to move toward, one way or the other, having world owners always paying for visitor time spent in world, whether in KCs minute-by-minute or by having a fixed-cost plan. I totally understand if Kitely wants its plans to look more like SL and most other grids, moving to the freemium model, where most users don't pay anything and world owners bare the costs for the freemium accounts. If that makes Kitely profitable, then that is definitely what should be done. Personally, I really liked having the option to let others pay for their own time, but I understand that customers like me are not helping the profit any. For now, I am just stepping back, dropping from silver to the free account, and waiting to see what happens. Kitely is going to succeed I am confident of that. It is excellently managed and developed.

[Rikku Cosplay]

My feedback from others in other grids people have always viewed the free worlds as something of a scam even as they are NOT & useful I believe this is do to so many things in life advertised as free then later on unseen charges added so my view is free worlds no matter how good the intent & facts it will always be viewed with suspension, so moving away from them also moves kitely away from its detractors & puts people in a position of what they can pay vs what they can get without any investment as free now days seem to cheapen a brand.

Getting away from the minute plans are a great idea becouse in north America minute plans are so often tied to cell phone plans that really draw big debates
that often leaves the customers feeling cheated on the cell phone plans thru overcharges / roaming & data usage, so leaving that behind will keep the detractors at bay plus is allows visitors the chance to enjoy new places without feeling kitely is charging just to access the service from just what an average visitors view might be.

I like the idea of metered & unmetered, I just do not like the name as it reminds me of parking meters & restrictions & the fear of getting a ticket.

I like the present options but aware that for many to many option leaves them confused, ultimately frustrated & then they do not invest in kitely.

I did like DD options of sliders it is a great idea but it would have to be marketed at its simplest form otherwise we are just in a marketing loop with no new advantages .

This study of prim usage by a grid resident has been done in many grids the average is 10K to 15K at max so that's a good baseline but many still need the higher prim allocation of 100k right now those are the ones who are building compelling worlds for people to visit and mostly former secondlife builders getting the chances they never had & expressions never brought to life ,

I followed the discussion you lead you & nothing wrote showed any negative changes even happening if they were on the $5 plan or gold plan so hard to understand somes panic

so for me Sliders is great its just what the options are offered, are they viable for both consumer & stable for the business model .

I am thankful that we have a voice in discussions here & offered the chances to speak & that our residents thoughts matter ,
this stopped happening in secondlife long ago & when we were in inworldz we found ourselves living under the stress of a caste system,
so this is all refreshing for me & glad to be back to help