Re: Metered Worlds to be removed, introducing Premium Worlds

[Mark Gallagher]

Thanks for your reply Ilan,
First, I'd like to say, I like the service and support you provide. It has been excellent and I certainly understand the need to modify terms and fees. I didn't intend to accuse anyone of stealing. I'm certain that was never your intent.
My use is infrequent since I do most of my developing offline and then upload to the region for testing, demonstration and development. I found the regular account with metered world pricing structure very reasonable and easy to use. Basically, with your new pricing structure, I will be locked out of my region unless I upgrade to at least Starter World pricing ($15/mo), then I can use up my remaining KCs somehow visiting premium worlds.
Your new pricing structure seems overly complex. I don't understand why you would offer a free regular account to build a premium world to use for 6 hours that you can't use unless you upgrade to a premium account (19.95/mo)...that's not free. What could you really accomplish in 6 hours? A Starter world provides 1 region (world size) but a regular account is unlimited number of fixed worlds?... What?
In effect you now require a fixed monthly cost commitment to continue or participate in Kitely at all. Unfortunately the fixed cost is where I have the issue. Pay for use/time provides the flexibility some find suits their purpose best and that may be why you noticed a trend of users changing to that option. Did you consider adjusting the value of the KCs instead of eliminating the flexibility. Either way, the small amount of dollar value lost in KCs is insignificant. I still think you should reconsider how you can best increase your return.
Best wishes and kind regards,
Mark

[Carlos Loff]

Having Quality Land is hugely cheaper than ever at Kitely

I can't see how this price plans can be problematic for anyone who wishes to own land - A Full Estate - total control with no install fees - for 15$ a month wile staying regular ??? Is a gift from heaven compared with SL - Many seem to forget how it was there (SL)

Whatever plan we choose, Kitely is infinitely cheaper yet stable, fluid and professional - No excuse, sorry to be so aggressive but damm... What else do people want - Professional Land service for Free ???

Cumon people lets create and stop complaining, no excuses now

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Mark,

Visiting other people's worlds is always free to the visitor so you won't need to spend KC to visit them. The only thing world-related you may need KC for is hosting your own worlds and, in the case of Premium Worlds, having non-premium users visit them.

We offer a 6-hour world hosting trial period for people to experience the value of our world hosting service. The world is worthy of being labeled free as it remains available indefinitely for visits by Premium Account users without the world manager needing to pay us or even give us his or her billing information. People who want to temporarily cease paying for a subscription but have the world continue to be ready and waiting for them can also find this useful.

The a-la-carte service we used to provide was indeed very useful but its existence caused us to lose subscription fees from people who were otherwise willing to pay them. Ideally we would have gotten people who were willing to pay subscriptions to continue using them and having people who weren't willing to do so to use the a-la-carte option. The problem was that a growing number of people who were willing to pay subscriptions were switching to the a-la-carte option once they understood its value and we couldn't find a price for metered worlds that could replace that lost revenue while remaining competitive.

[Dot Matrix]

Perhaps an alternative way of thinking of the initial world is as a "Free Trial World" -- the "trial" hinting that it is for a limited time for Regular account holders.