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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RSKennan" data-source="post: 4733019" data-attributes="member: 8256">The Pros of a free account: If you enjoy randomly exploring an interactive and constantly changing museum/amusement park, go for it. If you want to casually create 3d devices with option of adding scripted gamelike behaviors (guns that shoot and do damage in damage-enabled areas), go for it.If you like the idea of flying or teleporting at will, go for it. The Cons of a free account: If you don't know or want to learn how to build it, you're stuck with whatever's free.  Even if you can build, uploading textures and animations costs money. These are microtransactions of a few cents. If you want things to DO, you either have to get them started, or find someone who already has. Many long-term projects get abandoned, such as my idea for a stand up comedy club that would let people perform over the then new voice feature. I built the club, but never went further.You can't own land, and if you get money to rent land, you're at the whim of your landlord.  That's the big one, and the reason I got my paid accounts. Griefers suck. Pros of a paid account: You get a weekly stipend of Linden Dollars. Over time this allows you to do nothing and acrue enough money to buy cool stuff. I had a jetpack that I bought that let me go higher and faster than the game tried to allow (I could pass through ban lines, which are meant to stop people from flying through. I never used it for griefing, of course. You can own land. If you have a lot of expendable income, you can pay for a private island to do a project that treats SL as a game engine. Cons of a paid account:Linden Labs has serious security issues, in my experience. I've had my account stolen twice and now they're telling me I owe them money. I'm not going back with a paid account until they fix their payment system and I have enough money that I could start a debit card just for SL. If you don't have any ideas for a project, owning land isn't worth it. Jerks tend to buy up newly opened areas from the newbies they're set up for, and even if you hold out, you might end up with incredibly obnoxious neighbors. I had billboards, random ugliness, and overly....exhibitionist... neighbors (Edit: surrounding) my comedy club. Luckily it was supposed to be a dive, but my neighbor to the south hated it. She was trying to build a quiet cottage. she was actually the worst, however... outwardly friendly but passive aggressive inside. The exhibitionist guys were actually nice people who didn't realize I could see and hear them as I was building. I put up my club's walls well inside my property, as far underground as SL let me to it wouldn't be a blight. I even textured the wall facing her cottage lot to be more appropriate to her theme. She still had her objects intersecting with my land (bushes passing through my wall, etc) using exploits that I couldn't stop with the tools available. The above is not meant as a whine or a rant, but rather an honest appraisal as I see it. Sl is fun, and a great concept. It does have drawbacks, but its potential keeps people coming back. I'd love to see a next generation program with similar functionality.</blockquote>

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