Kitely pricing on HGB

[Graham Mills]

Maria Korolov article http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2013/1 ... confusing/

[Deuce Halsey]

I agree with parts of Maria's article, and disagree with other parts.

Are Kitely's pricing options confusing? Well, yes. The pricing options were kind of complicated to begin with, and the changes just make the situation more confusing. The decision to announce part of the pricing changes ahead of time, while keeping other parts of the changes under wraps didn't help matters at all. In fact I strongly suspect it scares a lot of people. Ilan may have been going for two bites of the publicity apple by splitting the announcements up, but I can't help wondering if it might backfire on him in the end.

I'm not sure why Maria is so confused by other aspects of the Kitely offering. It has always been crystal clear to me that Kitely is primarily a virtual world hosting company that happens to run its own grid. Given the differences in the way Kitely operates its virtual worlds (loaded on demand rather than always on) compared to other hosts, Kitely having their own grid was simply a necessity.

[Ilan Tochner]

I was not happy with Maria writing an article about how our pricing is confusing when she knows it's in the process of being changed and that the full details of the changes have yet to be published. See my response here: http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2013/1 ... 1172194053

[Boo Rojyo]

Whilst I do feel that Maria's article is harsh and unbalanced, I do also agree with Deuce that only partially revealing the new pricing plan hasn't helped restore clarity or simplicity to the pricing plan.

Personally as ex Bronze accounts my RL partner and I still feel unable to make any decision on our future in Kitely because we have no firm idea what exactly any future 'metered' would offering be, if there are any such offerings.

OK, this may only result in the loss to Kitely of our combined 10 Dollars a month, 600 KC a month for extra regions, and the Kitely Market sales I made, but personally I kinda liked this place and it's ethos.

Ilan has been patience himself answering mine and others pricing queries, and I'm sure his intentions for the new pricing have the interests of the sustainability of Kitely in mind. However I do feel this process of revealing only part of the picture of future pricing is a bit of an 'home goal'.

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Boo,

There are 3 fixed-price world options which we don't want to fully disclose before they are made available. However, we've already announced the full details of how the Metered worlds will work.

The concept of Minutes is going aways. They won't appear in the interface or anywhere else. The only way you'll ever be charged for time is in your own Metered worlds and that will be done using KC. People on Premium Accounts don't get charged for time so they can visit thier own time-based worlds for free and they don't cost other world managers KC when they visit their time-based (Metered) worlds.

If you don't go on a Premium Account then you're on a Regular Account. In both cases you'll no longer need to spend money to pay for a plan or buy KC to visit other people's worlds. The only worlds you will need to spend money for time inworld is in your own worlds (which you already did using your Bronze plans). Right now your partner paid for that time using Bronze, she can give you KC inworld to cover her time inside your world if you still want to split the world hosting bill. The price for having 4 Metered regions (like you have now) will be $3/month worth of KC (you'll continue to get 1 free Metered region). In either case you'll most likely need to spend less money on time spent inworld as you will no longer need to pay us for the time you spend in other people's worlds (they are the ones footing the bill either by paying for use or going for a fixed-price option).

This is really not as big a change in your Kitely-related expenses as you fear it is, it may even save you money

[Dot Matrix]

Because change is on the way, and we're not sure of the details, it makes a lot of us uneasy.

For those of us on Gold or Silver plans, one worry is how much it's going to cost us to fully open up our worlds to everyone, including those using Regular accounts.

Yet, when one thinks about it, it is no different to what we're doing now with time-based worlds set to Free access, where the world owner already pays for the time visitors spend in the world.

I know from experience over the past year, running quite a few worlds set to Free access, that it is affordable and sustainable -- of the order of one or two dollars a month (so approx. 10 hours inworld time).

I also know from the plan change announcements so far that, in the New Year, I will not need to pay for inworld time for those using Premium accounts, making it even more affordable.

If the worlds concerned do suddenly become very popular with lots of visitors, I know that I can switch them to be visited by Premium account holders only, or use some other way of controlling access (e.g. specified times or groups, open days, ...).

And on that basis I feel that I can make plans.

[Graham Mills]

Personally I find the tone of Maria's article somewhat patronising. A couple of weeks ago Kitely was rated top overall grid by its users and now it is simplifying matters for those wanting to take advantage of their excellent service. The company is providing attractive grandfathering options for most current residents, all the while keeping a weather eye on the consequences of scaling-up and the hypergrid. What's not to like?

Some folk are uneasy because of the liability engendered by open access to metered worlds -- even if that were a problem some merchants would like to have, Tully's suggestion to use an alt as banker/buffer deals with it simply and effectively. Dot's suggestion of holding Open Days is a good one and I've been talking to a few educators about one-off guided tours of their works-in-progress early in 2014 with hopefully more to follow.

Another problem is FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. For me the issue is whether to acquire an unmetered world in time to have it grandfathered in so that it could be used in the future for educator rentals, classes, training (with sandbox, educator freebie shop), conferences, etc. Much as I think the idea is awesome, in reality I don't have the time to make it happen because, well, I already had ideas based on my Silver Plan (which I will keep). Just say no to FOMO.

Two groups may be missing out, Bronze Plan holders like Boo (for whom other options will materialise shortly) and those, like Ener Hax, wanting to charge entry. I doubt Ener's problems are insurmountable and am reminded how Rezzable used a paid-for scripted attachment to mediate access to its Black Swan region in SL.

My particular issues with Maria's article are the way she states and then lightly dismisses firstly the utility of multiple metered worlds for educators (they are invaluable!) and secondly the need to accommodate visitors from the hypergrid (bring it on!). The community aspects of Kitely are also given short shrift. Personally, I rather like them, not least the ready access to Ilan and Oren but also the support of my fellow residents.

So can I just say that I am very happy with the way that Ilan and Oren ran Kitely in 2013 (the odd glitch notwithstanding) and I trust them on that basis to deliver an even more awesome 2014.

Because change is on the way, and we're not sure of the details, it makes a lot of us uneasy.

For those of us on Gold or Silver plans, one worry is how much it's going to cost us to fully open up our worlds to everyone, including those using Regular accounts.

Yet, when one thinks about it, it is no different to what we're doing now with time-based worlds set to Free access, where the world owner already pays for the time visitors spend in the world.

I know from experience over the past year, running quite a few worlds set to Free access, that it is affordable and sustainable -- of the order of one or two dollars a month (so approx. 10 hours inworld time).

I also know from the plan change announcements so far that, in the New Year, I will not need to pay for inworld time for those using Premium accounts, making it even more affordable.

If the worlds concerned do suddenly become very popular with lots of visitors, I know that I can switch them to be visited by Premium account holders only, or use some other way of controlling access (e.g. specified times or groups, open days, ...).

And on that basis I feel that I can make plans.

[Dot Matrix]

So can I just say that I am very happy with the way that Ilan and Oren ran Kitely in 2013 (the odd glitch notwithstanding) and I trust them on that basis to deliver an even more awesome 2014.

Amen to that! Here's to 2014!

[Dot Matrix]

Apologies for the double post, but there's a snippet of information about the new Regular accounts in one of Ilan's comments that I don't remember seeing elsewhere (highlighted in bold).

The new Regular Account includes 1 Metered region supporting up to 100K prims and 100 avatars, X free hours worth of personal minutes to use in your Metered world (they don't expire at the end of the month like the current minutes do) and no free hours worth of personal minutes per month after that.

That overcomes one of the difficulties I've heard expressed by several: What is the point of having a free region if you can't set it up inworld without buying KC?

[Ilan Tochner]

Thank you for the love people