Islandz Discord Server Taken Down, Questions and Comments Continue

Sometime yesterday on Monday January 28, the Discord channel for Islandz was shut down. On Saturday, Elenia Llewellyn (Beth Reischl) announced that the virtual world, which was set up in November as the replacement grid for Inworldz, was closing down due to her running out of money. While there are articles about Elenia's announcement, such as the Newser's, the announcement itself and the following comments are gone.

The Inworldz Disporia Discord group ( https://discord.gg/aTDyn9U ) that was set up before the closing of the virtual world in July 2018, remains up. And numerous comments have been coming in. Many are angry and upset, such as content creators who never game permission for the goods they designed not to be used outside InWorldz who were unhappy to hear about Elenia deciding she would send back the items residents saved in OARs without going through them to see which content had the okay to use elsewhere and which didn't. But their options are limited as a lawsuit would require hiring a lawyer, and Elenia has stated she's broke and has no cash to give as compensation.

The impending closure of Islandz has brought back the sad memories of former residents of InWorldz when that grid closed in July 2018, as well as reviving discussion of why it closed. Elenia had stated that she had taken out a loan to keep the grid running, though claimed something went wrong in repaying the lender despite having the funds to do so. No one else on the team at the time seems to have been told this decision. Exactly how this came to be is only speculation, though one can guess the departure of certain members of the team that helped Elenia keep it running over the years, things went downhill. With the confusion and questions surrounding the closure, and doubts following it, only a fraction of InWorldz's users chose to move to the new grid to make their virtual home. Some people who kept the faith in the owner did move in, and Jim Tarber did join in to help out despite his earlier talk of staying out. But it wasn't enough. Instead of a new beginning, it was a sad last chapter.

Hypergrid Business, as well as Ryan Schultz and Daniel Voyager have also written about the closure of Islandz. Some people have also left comments. While Elenia may have left virtual worlds, it's fair to say the discussion of what she left behind will be talked about for a little longer.

Bixyl Shuftan