1. It would be well worth it to dump the "Mariner" part of my own name and get the desired name of "Mister Crap" but will the Lindens have a list of banned names in addition to the antipoaching/authentication procedures?

Posted at 3:29PM on Apr 4th 2007 by Crap Mariner

2. Isn't this just LL making public something that corporate customers have had access to for a while - the creation of a 'family' surname that each employee or associate can use?

As an annual expense for one of the more successful SL businesses it's a neglible cost but increases your customer recognition. If you're the kind of person that would pay for vanity license plates then you'll probably pay for this too. How many of the rest of us will bother?

Posted at 4:09PM on Apr 4th 2007 by Hal Massimo

3. This rant in a nutshell: Linden sells features at really high prices. It's bad.

Bullshit. Like everything in SL, the custom last name feature is just another way to part people from their money for features that should have been there from Day 1.

WTF would we have to pay $100 just to have our own last name in SL?! It costs them NOTHING to make a new one over the cost of a regular user. Is the SL hype dying down too quickly?

Seriously. Tell me any reason(s) why giving someone a custom last name would warrant even a $10 fee, and more importantly, why the monthly fee. The closest thing I can think of is avoiding inappropriate names, but considering the fact that we can already do inappropriate first names, and all the sex on SL... it's just another way to milk for profits. Of course, a lot of stuff on SL is pure profit too...

* Most "virtual items" on SL. A bunch of prims you put together and call a vehicle is NOT worth five dollars. SL is chock full of shops selling cheap, 10-prim chairs for 5 to 10 bucks. Since the metaphor that you're buying a "chair" exists, people are more likely to pay for it.
* Land. But a subscription to own virtual land! Then buy virtual dollars to pay for virtual land!

Fortunatly, there's still plenty of cheap or free items out there. Still, it seems most SL users don't know what Horse Armor is.

If you think this is a troll, that's your opinion. That rant was my opinion. You can have one, so can I.

Posted at 5:18PM on Apr 4th 2007 by KirbyMeister

4. Bwahahahaaa! Horse armor! You hit it on the head, KM!

Posted at 5:23PM on Apr 4th 2007 by akela.talamasca

5. KirbyMeister makes a valid point, the fees seem rather random sometimes.
Still, real world money HAS to enter the system from SOMEWHERE , since the bottom line here is that server power - or manpower - just aint for free. Not anywhere.

Shilling out for the privilege of using your own name is actually no less ridiculous than paying up for the privilege of putting new hats on your avatars head. SL´s real fuel is VANITY, and the Lindens have just found a new way to tap into it. It is their game after all - so they get to make up any rules they feel like.

Posted at 12:30PM on Apr 5th 2007 by Eeyore

6. Hehe... That Oblivion reference never gets old. ^^

Um, Akela? You're a bit off in your post... It's an ANNUAL fee, not a MONTHLY fee. ^^;

I see both sides of the argument:
1) Maintaining an entire virtual world isn't easy, or cheap. This is just another way for them to get funds. Not to mention, to put up a barrier against people would just want to make accounts with vulgar names

2) Having your own last name is such a trivial thing. Heck, it doesn't cost that much to get your REAL, LEGAL surname changed!

As the old saying goes, vote with your wallets. Don't like? Don't buy.

I know I'm happy with the name "Chaud Metty," and have no plans to change it. ^^

Posted at 5:59AM on Apr 6th 2007 by Chaud Metty

7. real name on SL? blaw...

Posted at 11:10AM on Apr 6th 2007 by Ana Lutetia

8. The way I see it, they're just steadily opening another nice feature to the general public, probably after some significant degree of planning about how to avoid its abuse. It's not like the average user has much need for it; this is directed toward those various people who have already made quite a name for themselves outside of SL, and would be that much more recognizable with their real or company name. And the additional $50/year charge? Probably to dissuade people from sitting around taking up a name they don't need and aren't using. The fact that Linden Lab gets a bit more cash out of the system (and in this case, probably from the people most able to afford it) is just a good bonus (gotta help them fix up those servers somehow).

So, the whole system makes perfect sense to me. Unless you're that famous, you should be reasonably happy with a regular SL name.

Posted at 4:44PM on Apr 6th 2007 by Al Sonic