Amazon & the Hoverboard

Today's news from The Lab (Web) that Second Life goods are available on the hugely popular shopping Web site Amazon (here) has so many ramifications and possibilities. Let's explore some:

You can sign up for a Second Life account via Amazon and download the client or you can use an existing account.

Residents who wish to take advantage of this partnership need to "link" their Second Life account to their Amazon account. What? You have one Amazon account for your household but several in your family with different Second Life accounts. Sorry, you'll have to have a separate Amazon account to take full advantage of the partnership. That could mean splitting your Kindle library, your AmazonCloud service, and so on.

Don't worry, folks outside the United States. This is not for you to worry about yet.

The free Vehicle Starter Pack (here) includes L$1000 dropped on your "linked" account and a hoverboard. With a new appearance, this is the same board you could have gotten at the Georgean Test Track (SLurl) before Halloween when the vendor was taken away. If you don't mind a the 2009 style, drop by CC's Pouloco Station (SLurl) and click the box under the snack bar for a free copy. You'll also get an LM for the Test Track, one of the best places to play with your board, on the track or off. Hopefully you'll buy a soda or frozen drink while you are there.

At this time, two other packages are available.

The Premium Vehicle Pack - Soar, Sail, and Drive for $24.95 USD (here) includes the same hoverboard, a sailboat that was the Premium account gift in December 2011, and the Dune Buggy that was the Premium account gift in September 2012.  How many $Lindens could that much RL currency buy? At the moment I write this, some L$6162 virtual cash. A "free" hoverboard and two vehicles you could otherwise buy very similar or better versions of elswhere in Our World.

The Deluxe Vehicle Pack has the hoverboard (again) and the sailboat, nothing else, here for $14.95 USD. Based on a peek at purchasing $Lindens at the moment I write this, that amount of Real Life currency is worth about L$3692 ... they value that boat rather darned highly. As good as it is, I don't think it is as nice as my MLCC Loonetta (see this blog post) or other boats from that maker.

No word about the Rail Handcar gift that you can still grab free in the Premium Rez Zone in Saminekim (SLurl) or the currently available airplane or even the first gift, some nice furniture (read about them all on my blog here.

And  lastly (for now), more questions: Will the other two Premium gifts be bundled into packages? Will future Premium gifts get bundled up? Will Lassie get help for little Timmy laying with a broken leg at the bottom of the well before it is too late or the episode ends?

Certainly, the value here can be questioned, but I think that The Lab is taking a positive step in growing Our World. Prices can always be adjusted and packages can always be jiggered for different content. That's retail for you. It is just nice to see that they haven't forgotten about their core constituency, Second Life Residents. I hope to see what they do next. Until then, check out Tateru Nino's opinion on this development (here).