Are you the last guy in Second Life who doesn't have an alt (alternate avatar)? If so I have bad news for you. From now on your alts are going to cost you. Not a lot mind you, just a one time fee of $9.95 USD. This of course comes on the heals of hitting the million user mark. Tony Walsh over at Clickable Culture reminds us that while the decision to remove the sign up fee has sparked huge growth in Second Life, it unfortunately has also led to an increase in griefing and downtime. Possibly the charge being applied only to alts will help stop griefers. Of course, they could just lie and say it is a new account.
One thing is for sure, there will be less alt accounts created, and that will in turn slow down the growth of the virtual world. I think this is a reasonable change and hopefully will provide Linden Lab with some cash all be it small. As I said before you could lie. However, with the increase in companies entering Second Life I suspect they will want to stay on the up in up to avoid backlash from Linden Lab.
1. Oh my god. A sane decision by Linden Labs. This is a happy day.
Posted at 3:33AM on Nov 7th 2006 by Saint Paul