New Revenue Proposal: Premium 1, 2, and 3-Letter Legacy First Name Release Total Revenue Potential: $25,510,000 USD (6.37 Billion L$)
tracked
rottweiler Lednev
Suggestion: example of name would be single-word username like fox
I would like to propose an expanded high-revenue premium feature for Second Life: a limited, paid system release of ultra-short 1, 2, and 3-character legacy usernames. While standard alphabet releases are highly lucrative, expanding the allowed pool to include numbers and specific premium special symbols/signs exponentially scales the revenue potential for Linden Lab.
The Math & Revenue Tiers (At $200 USD Per Character Slot):
Tier 1: Letters Only (26-Character Pool)
Total unique names: 18,278
Total Revenue Potential: $3,655,600 USD (913.9 Million L$)
Tier 2: Alphanumeric (26 Letters + 10 Numbers = 36-Character Pool)
Total unique names: 47,988
Total Revenue Potential: $9,597,600 USD (2.39 Billion L$)
Tier 3: Premium Set with Special Signs (Letters + Numbers + 14 Symbols = 50-Character Pool)
Total unique names: 127,550
Total Revenue Potential: $25,510,000 USD (6.37 Billion L$)
Why It Makes Sense:
By expanding the character criteria to include high-demand symbols (like stars, hearts, or currency symbols), the total pool of available short names scales up dramatically due to exponential combinations. Residents are already paying hundreds of dollars on the secondary black market for rare, short aesthetic names. Capturing this market via a $200 direct system fee provides Linden Lab with millions in low-overhead revenue while introducing a highly sought-after status symbol asset back into the economy.
Minecraft's "Accidental" Hype: In its early days, Minecraft didn't let you change your username at all. Because of this, OG (Original Gangster) names—like simple single words ("Sword", "Alex", "Ghost") or short 2-3 letter names—became legendary status symbols. When Mojang finally introduced name changes years later, it triggered an absolute frenzy. Forums like OGUsers blew up, and people were tracking expiring names to sniper-register them. It kept the game at the center of social media discourse for months, completely for free.
Hytale's Pre-Launch Hype: Hytale brilliantly weaponized this before the game even came out. By allowing users to reserve their usernames early, they forced a massive influx of account creations. Players rushed to secure their digital identity and rare handles, creating a massive wave of "Look what name I got!" posts across Twitter, Reddit, and forums. It cost the developers almost nothing to implement, but it secured millions of early sign-ups and guaranteed a built-in audience before launch day.
Charging to change a basic account name feels predatory
Charging for a rare, premium feature feels exclusive.
Just one feature can afford to employ the right staff to make amazing changes for all.
Log In
Oatmeal Linden
marked this post as
tracked
Hello, and thank you for your feature request.
Incoming suggestions are reviewed in the order they are received by a team of Lindens with diverse areas of expertise. We consider a number of factors: Is this change possible? Will it increase lag? Will it break existing content? Is it likely that the number of residents using this feature will justify the time to develop it? This wiki page further describes the reasoning we use: Feature Requests
This particular suggestion, unfortunately, cannot be tackled at this time. However, we regularly review previously deferred suggestions when circumstances change or resources become available.
We are grateful for the time you took to submit this feature request. We hope that you are not discouraged from submitting others in the future. Many excellent ideas to improve Second Life come from you, our residents. We can’t do it alone.
Thank you for your continued commitment to Second Life.
Cuddles Supply
I like this in theory but when there is a stronger preference for using display names over usernames in viewers and scripts, it takes the shine off. Why pay a premium for a special username when I can make the same name as Display Name fo free?
rottweiler Lednev
Cuddles Supply That is a completely fair point, and it’s exactly why the current system feels flawed. However, there is still a massive mechanical and social difference between a free Display Name and a true, hard-coded Username:
The Scripting & Identity Factor: Display Names can be duplicated by anyone instantly, leading to impersonation, and they constantly break or get stripped away in older viewer scripts, database logs, and combat/RP meters. A hard-coded Username is unique, un-replicable, and permanently burned into the grid's database.
The "OG Status" Market: As we see on external platforms and the SL black market, players don't pay for what people see above their heads—they pay for the absolute ownership of a rare, short database string. It’s pure digital real estate.
That said, you hit on the exact reason why a proposal like this is a double-edged sword. Forums like this are crucial to gauge just how frustrated the user base actually is. Personally, as a 19-year veteran who pays for expensive land options, I would be incredibly angry if the Lab rolled out a massive new cash-grab feature before fixing the broken, long-standing issues we’ve been begging them to solve for years.
If a company prioritizes new profit loops over fundamental game enjoyment and basic land/market quality-of-life solutions, it stops feeling like a virtual world and starts feeling like real life inflation.