InWorldz.com Now A Gambling Website

It's been over two years since the virtual world of InWorldz, once Second Life's strongest competitor, closed down. The website closed down soon after. It was recently revealed in Virtual Ability group chat that somebody had bought the website, and changed it into something that may be "click at your own risk."

Please be aware, everyone, that if you still have any saved links for InWorldz, that the domain name inworldz.com has been taken over by a Thai gambling and online-betting site.  Be careful as gambling sites are absolutely notorious for hidden malware.  (reposted from another group)

With this in mind, one should express caution to going to any InWolrdz links on websites.

Bixyl Shuftan

Top Stories of The 2010s, Part Four

The 2010s are over. But as we say goodbye to the decade, there's some looking back at what happened. The Newser has covered much in the past ten years, and we're looking at some of the top stories that made the news and got more attention than most.

Read the fourth part of the series in Extra.

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

Islandz, Successor Grid to Inworldz, Closing Down

Following the closing of the InWorldz grid in July 2018, once second only in Second Life in size among open-ended virtual worlds, there were hopes among many of it's residents that Beth Reischl (Elenia Llewellyn) would get a new grid up and running. Finally on November 14, her new virtual world Islandz was online and open to all, especially former residents. Over time, some of InWorldz' residents moved in, and the grid grew slowly, eventually encompassing a few dozen sims.

Then on Saturday, Elenia dropped a bombshell. Islandz would soon be closing as she had run out of money to the point of being about to lose her home.


I'm just going to throw this out there now... the grid is not sustainable. We knew what our break even point was, we're not even remotely close. I'm being evicted from my home, my date of move out is Feb. 11. My mother is about to be evicted from her home because I'm working up here so they hiked her rent up as it's the same landlady. My phone is completely shut off. I have no electricity, hence why I'm up by my Mother's condo during the day. I've tried to sell my motorcycle in the States to no avail as it's not riding season.

People are disheartened at the lack of content we could restore, and I don't blame them
So, this is where we are at right now.

I woke up at 7 am trying to figure out the best way to say all this and I'm just beyond stressed, depressed and disheartened at this point.

Elenia stated she had kept things going about as long as she could, "That is where I'm at right now. I'm tired of crying every day, tired of stressing every day. ... I'm maxed out, in every way shape and form. ... I can't do this fight anymore. I have cried myself to sleep more times this past month than I care to admit to." Of the OARs content files, as she had to concentrate on her real-life family's needs, she didn't have the time to go through them to determine which content the creators had given their okay to use outside InWorldz and which didn't, "so I will simply email them out. ... no matter what I do, some of you will not be happy. ... I'd LOVE to give you all filtered oars, really, but I can't."

The response was some people upset that once again their grid was closing, plus content creators upset that their protection was gone. Elina thanked her fans for their continuing support over the months, "you guys have been great, seriously." To those who were upset at her, "I'm done with the metaverse. ... I have zero, zilch, zip, nada, just maxed out credit cards. ... I'm done. I have literally lost everything. Sorry if you all don't get that." After about an hour, Elenia made her last comment.

Over the weekend, people would continue to comment in Discord chat. Some were confused, "can someone tell me please what is going on, the only thing I read when I scroll back is that a lot of ppl are upset." Some were upset, "I am a consumer who was screwed royally." But there were many comments expressing sadness with little or no anger over their home closing once more and sadness for Elina's financial state. "Give Ele time to get over the emotion of what she told us today. It's a harder blow for her than for any of us." "This is very sad news. I have the greatest respect and admiration for Jim and Ele for fighting like lions to get Islandz up and running. I have the greatest respect for all the people I have met in Islandz who worked like Trojans to provide us all with free content. I have nothing but respect for all the selfless work done by so many here. It has been an amazing community and I am proud to have known you all." "My heart goes out to you Jim Tarber  and especially to Elenia. You have both moved heaven and earth to try to bring us back all together in Islandz. I appreciate all the months of hard work, sweat and tears you have put in. You both have my full respect for what you have done so far and tried to accomplish FOR ALL OF US."

Jim Tarber told people not to start another Gofundme to keep the grid afloat. He would go on to say, "I actually had a plan after IW shutdown to just fire up a couple of recovery servers and provide filtered OAR exports for folks for other grids. I didn't think it was realistic to try to recover everything on a new grid, with all the legal and ethical headaches (and costs) associated with that.  In hindsight, that would have saved a lot of trouble. However, Ele was so moved by the support of the community that she decided to try anyway. I'll give her credit for continuing when I didn't think it possible. But the real world has finally caught up."

There is some talk of a final farewell party. But unlike the last days of InWorldz, there is no talk of a successor grid. The only options are to choose between the Opensim worlds, or perhaps somewhere else like VRChat, Sansar, and of course Second Life. As for Elenia Llewellyn/Beth Reischl, it looks like sadly this will be the last we hear of her, at least for a long time.

Hat tip: Oldesoul Eldemar

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: Has the Collapse of InWorldz Stopped Many Second Life Residents From Considering Another Virtual World

"If Second Life shut down, where would you go?" That's a question we residents ponder time to time. But five years ago when many residents had strong doubts about Linden Lab's concern for their wants and needs, some were thinking maybe they should make plans to leave if their fears came to pass. Most often, these residents thought about the InWorldz grid to head to. But as the concerns faded, people didn't talk so much about heading to the second-largest virtual world. Five years later, it wasn't Second Life that shut down, but InWorldz. So with the "backup" virtual world gone, where would residents head if their home grid was shut down? The answer seems to be that they'd be scattered across a number of tiny grids, that is those whom were still interested in virtual worlds. Many it seems would give up on them.

Read the commentary in Extra.

A Virtual Traveller Speaks On The Split Future of InWorldz's Residents

It was last week that Islandz, the virtual world created by the Inworldz team following the closure of their previous virtual world in July, came online. A number of InWorldz's old residents promptly headed over to log on. But the question remains: will the new virtual world recover the numbers of it's predecessor. Bain Finch didn't think so. While we at the Newser know Bain best for his being part of the Relay for Life in Second Life, he's also been in InWorldz and other places. He made the following commentary on Facebook about where the residents of InWorldz would go.


Islandz will never be the size of InWorldz for a simple reason. The existing residents of InWorldz is forever fractured into two main camps. Those that will not go back and those that will. And of those that will, that camp further broken down into two, those that will check it out but not 'home' there, and those that will make Islandz their primary (virtual world).

The other wave that happened, many of the other ranking open sims, benefited by the exodus. All the grids that are benefiting by the hyper connectivity to facilitate grid hopping, will drive the development cross grid technology for security and commerce. And there is a new focus in those directions, with the addition of all these new residents. Just taking the combined total of residents on all the hyper connected grids, is I'm guessing, is now a rather large population, taking the uniqueness of the individual and not duplicate accounts on multiple grids, into account. Then add to the mix, new open sim grids, such as Infinity further dipping into the pool of people. Many of the grid have registered spikes in new residents, the open sim market place also noted a huge spike in sales, and people are not going to walk away from those investments.

And then, there is all the whispers, one hears on the song of birds, of things in the works, in far away rooms. So in the end, what will have happened, people that enjoy virtual life, will have several options. Life in the big city of SL, or the small town feel or themed community, of a bunch of smaller girds. A few will be closed grids that will require separate logins, but would offer unique benefits, the inter connected, hyper open sim, can't do.

The friendships, that was established in InWorldz, will mature all these grid together, and a good many folks will explore across many grids and be involved on those grids. Sounds like fun to me.


So despite the disporia, Bain feels everything will work out for the better for the former residents of InWorldz, and other residents of virtual worlds.

What do you the readers think? Feel free to comment below.

InWorldz' Sucessor Islandz Comes Online

On July 27, the virtual world on Inworldz shut down. Beth Reischl (Elenia Llewellyn) had promised that a new grid would arise. After almost four months, it arrived. The Islandz virtual grid was open to the former residents of the virtual world on November 14 at 3PM. Elenia had a message for the former residents of the closed virtual world whom had anxiously awaited the new one.

Well, it's taken a while, but we've finally managed to get to the point where we can open our doors to show our residents that we are indeed alive and well! 

First, let me thank everyone for their hard work, their patience and their determination to help us see this through. Without you, we would never have gotten this far! I've watched our community be absolutely amazing, stunning, graceful, patient and so helpful to the myriad of questions from so many.

To begin with, former Inworldz residents should not start new accounts, but login with their old account names and passwords at https://app.islandzvw.com/account. Once they successfully log in on the website, then they can try logging in the virtual world via the viewer, which can be downloaded at https://islandzvw.com/download.php.

For those expecting to appear as what they looked like in Inworldz, they will be in for a disappointment as they appear in the Welcome Area. With inventories completely empty, they won't have so much as a "Ruth" avatar, appearing as a cloud. There are some freebie avatars, clothes, and accessories nearby, so you can at least have a newbie look. But the OARS, or the items residents left at sandboxes to save, are not around yet. There's also only a few sims accessible for most residents.

And so, the success to Inworldz is finally online. How well it does at making the residents of it's predecessor happy, and how successful it is as a virtual world, will take many weeks, probably months, to figure out.

Bixyl Shuftan

Logo Chosen For InWorldz's Successor Islandz

While development on Islandz, the successor of the closed virtual world InWorldz, continues, there is a little news. They now have a logo. It shows the letters big and bold, with an outline of a palm tree and a fish. There's also a wooden sign with the letters "Virtual World," in front of tropical plant leaves.

Earlier on the Islandz Discord chat, it was announced three logos were being considered, and opinions on which was best were welcome. The one that eventually was chosen got complements from several people. When I asked if this was now going to be the logo, I was told this was most likely it, though there is the possibility of a small change or two.

Also, it looks like there will be no need for former residents of InWorldz to register new accounts on Islandz. They should be able to use their old account names and passwords when it opens.

No date for the opening of Islandz has yet been set, official or closed beta, has been set.

Bixyl Shuftan

"Islandz" To Be Name of Inworldz's Successor, Other OpenSim News

It seems a new name has been picked for InWorldz's successor. On the Discord group of the now-defunct virtual world, it was announced that the name of the future grid of it's owners will be called "Islandz."

There's little more information about the new world. As of the writing of this article, they have yet to get a webpage for it, although that is likely to soon change. The name of the Discord group has been changed to that of the planned grid. The website of InWorldz itself went down almost two weeks ago. Beth Reischl/Elenia did say on Sunday August 19 that she "started setup for Database recovery this morning. ... As soon as we have Database backup ... we can work on the OARS" There has been no date set for the opening of Islandz.

Other developments in OpenSim include Han Held announcing that this year's Avatarfest would be the last one.  There was an announcement on the Kitely grid's blog that it's marketplace sales have gone up 300% since the folding of InWorldz, a clear sign that many former InWorldz residents have moved there. The announcement also hinted at similar gains by Digiworldz and Discovery.

Artwork by SimonaStick Judy 

Source: Hyperrid Business  , Kitely,

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Ex-InWorldz Staff Launching "Infiniti" OpenSim World

Following the demise of their virtual home, InWorldz fans have been either checking out other virtual worlds, waiting patiently for it's owner Beth Reischl to make another place, or both. But several days ago, it was announced on the Metaverse Traveller that some former members of the InWorldz team have been getting together to make their own virtual world: Infiniti.

Talla Adam talked to Lecktor Hannibal, who told him that he and two others on the Infiniti team, Legion Heinrichs (John Arnolde), and April Chung "were part of the original six founders of InWorldz along with Beth Reischl." Lecktor stated he and others left the team due to differences with Reischl. Neither David Daeshler, whom left in late 2016, and Jim Tarber whom was on the team when InWorldz closed and has stated he will not be involved in Reischl's new virtual world, are involved with Infiniti. "It is with great sadness and pain that we've watched InWorldz deteriorate over the years and what motivates us to this project," Lecktor stated, "We are all excited however with the prospect of helping the Opensim/InWorldz community heal from the hurt."

The link to the website Talla gave, http://www.infinitigrid.com, was broken when this article was being written. But there was some information on a Google Plus post.

Our Vision

Our customers will be our existence. We strive to be recognized and respected by our customer as providing the highest level of quality service and value through accountability, innovation, integrity, and commitments to our community.

Our Mission

To provide reliable, competitively priced parcels, regions and related services to our customer and maximum value consistent with the latest technology and resources. We will work with our customers to improve the social and economic well being of our grid.

Our Organizational Values

We will strive to provide services that exceed our customer expectations, emphasizing honesty, quality, and sound business principles.

As we conduct our business, we will be responsible leaders for our grid, while focusing on continuous improvement for our processes and services.

Practicing fiscal responsibility and working together, will have the power to make a difference.

There has been no date set for the opening of Infiniti.

Sources: Metaverse Traveller 

Bixyl Shuftan

Weekend in Brief

A few things happened this weekend. From Friday to Sunday, the "Burnstock" took place. Also the Gallery Graine had a closing party. There were further developments on the aftermath of the InWorldz shutdown. It was also a little more than a year ago since Sansar was officially opened.

Stories on these, and more, later on.

Giving Tranquility A Try, But ...

With the demise of InWorldz, and it's residents heading to other places, one of the top destinations is the Tranquility Grid. This required downloading a new OS compatible Firestorm. As Tranquility wasn't among the list of grids included, I had to add it in, and then register for a Tranquility account. And then ... this.

"Could not authenticate your avatar. Please check your username and password and check the Grid if problems persist."

After a couple of hours of frustrating work, I decided to call it a day. Anything related to Tranquility will have to be from someone else, for now.

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: More On InWorldz's Closing

The InWorldz grid is gone. On Friday afternoon, most of their residents found themselves no longer able to log in, and by Saturday morning the place had completely shut down. The closing has left many sad former users with a decision: where do I go now? From both InWorldz and Second Life residents, there have been a number of other questions such as "How could this happen?" "Will there be another InWorldz?" "Could this happen to Second Life?" Yours truly offers a few answers, or partial answers, based on my observations.

Read the article in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Weekend in Review

A number of things happened this weekend. On late Friday and Saturday morning, the InWorldz Grid shut down. On Saturday, there was a memorial concert for musician Maxx Sabretooth. On Sunday, the Relay for Life in Second Life had the closing event of it's 2018 fundraising season, the Relay Wrap-Up.

Stay tune for more on these, and other events, in the Newser

SL Video: "InWorldz' Farewell Party"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

From Holocluck Henley in July 27, "inWorld's final day and its final party. Towards the end as the party sim became unavailable we had to move to public land (which wasn't so bad). Best of luck to IW friends, acquaintances and colleagues wherever you end up."

InWorldz Fades Away

Friday July 27 was InWorldz last day. Logging in at 2:30PM PST, people were gathering at InWorldz Desert Island, one of the last sims still up.Most of the rest of the sims had been shut down. Some were lamenting the downfall of the grid, others were looking back at the fun they had, and perhaps later on in another virtual world.

Ten minutes later, as the radio was playing, "Closing Time," the sim crashed.

I relogged, and was moved to InWorldz Sandbox2. This would be the last place in the grid I would see. Minutes later at 2:55PM PST, my viewer quit working. When I restarted, it listed 66 people still online, but I never could get on again. And in Discord chat, the number still there was getting smaller and smaller.

InWorldz, after over nine years in operation, and a week of raised and dashed hopes and plenty of confusion, has finally been shut down.

Closing time, time for you to go out
To the places you will be from
Closing time, this room won't be open
Till your brothers or your sisters come.

So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits
I hope you have found a friend
Closing time, every new beginning
Comes from some other beginning's end, yeah.

I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: An InWorldz Resident Speaks

I was informed of the closing when I logged in yesterday.  I normally get emails from InWorldz, but nope not on this.  So I was surprised by Sam Leader in my inbox the minute I logged in and no one seemed to know a thing about when things were closing.

 So everyone is scrounging to pull up stakes.  Someone said it was a sudden eviction and the only ones who really knew about anything were the inner click and they didn't start spilling anything until a few days ago I guess everyone was in the same boat logged in usual time yesterday and slammed with closing announcements.  Not nice.

There are a lot of disabled people and older people who play here.  That sort of sudden "get out" message is hard for someone not in great health to stay up for two days straight and download 8 years of their life....type of thing.

Then you have the creators that took a chance here like Pulse skins, Twisted Thorn Textures, Katy's Creations, Seda's Creations, Seer's FP, and the rest.  If they didn't keep .xml's on the hard drive then it is come in and delete their whole inventory so they do not get ripped off by the back up of servers.  type of thing.

We all felt so safe here because of dcma's being taken serious....griefers were handled.  How do we know they won't just take what we all leave to this new as their own property?  This is teaching all of us how flimsy our hold is on our creations in truth.  If some grid like Second Life closed, how do we prove the inventory and assets are not theirs?  The best I can do personally is just let what I do not get out go and wish for the best....I will make more new things in the future....just sort of sad if I run across one of my builds in another grid by someone else.  I had that happen in SL before.  I didn't understand permissions when I started and had a whole set of clothing packs ended up in the free bie areas.  It was sad all the hours I spent on them to have them show up given away for free by someone else.  I learned (laughter).

This is teaching me also (grin), the do not sweat the small stuff and just have fun when I am in Virtual Worlds.

Zia Cruor (IW)/Zia Larnia (SL)

Zia Cruor of InWorldz is also Zia Larnia of Second Life, whom was the manager of the Grid Walkers Welcome Center in 2014.

InWorldz Prepares For The End

By Thursday July 27, it was becoming increasingly clear that there would be no saving of the InWorldz Grid, at least in it's current form. Instead, the plan was to for people to rezz their items at sandboxes where they would be saved and accounted for when owner Beth Reischl and her staff make a new one. Deciding to check things for myself, I headed to InWorldz Desert Island, where I first entered the place more than seven years ago.

There were others around, and I chatted with a few. Some hadn't heard the news about the Grid's closing until a day or two ago, and asked me (and others) for the latest news. Others were more or less up to date, and much like me were coming on for some last looks.

Some clubs were making the most of it, having a final bash where longtime friends could spend their last moments in the grid they knew together, or take a break between exploring around.

And exploring around, sometimes one could find a vehicle and drive it around. Some sims were already closed to entry, in the process of being shut down.

As  went around and listened in on a few chats, people talked about what they'd loose from various items, to of course their money as withdraws had been frozen. But one man was upset about his pet horse as despite that items could be copied, scripts could not be and so any pets were basically doomed, "My oldest horse, the one I've had since I first arrived in InWorldz, Bandette, an Infinitude, I adore that horse, he's so realistic (sad) and listen'n to him 'talk' and prance 'n paw the ground right now, breaks my heart (sad expression)."

Some of the people I ran into also had accounts on Second Life, and at least one told others they could meet her there. Others looked forward to the replacement grid, whenever that will be. Others talked about various smaller girds they'd be going to. As someone in "Free Script Library" chat put it, "Seems we are destined to scatter to the four winds." Another woman thought InWorldz's collapse would have a chilling effect on peoples' confidence to invest in smaller virtual worlds, "Question is if people will be able to trust the grid owners after the issues and stunts with IW that has happened, to be honest."

There's still a lot of uncertainly about inWorldz's shutting down, and the Gofundme that started out as an effort to save InWorldz and then was changed after most of the money was raised confused many and angered some. A number of people I've talked to on the matter feel there's something fishy about how the shutdown is going about. Others instead express confidence in InWorldz's owner and staff and look forward to the new virtual world. About the only thing that can be spoken for certainty at this point is that today, Friday July 27, the sun sets on the virtual world on InWorldz for the last time.

Bixyl Shuftan

Addition: Someone asked me how things look for the 2018 Relay for Life in InWorldz season. Sorry to say without an InWorldz to hold it in, and no date given for the grid that we're told will take it's place, it's looking like it will be called off.

InWorldz's Rise and Decline

When it comes to virtual worlds, to many residents there's Second Life and then there's everybody else. But some among the "everybody else" stood out. For several years, the largest alternative to Second Life was the InWorldz grid, which stood over other OpenSpace worlds in terms of both active and total accounts. A few years ago, with rumors of Linden Lab thinking about an "exit strategy," a number of residents were taking a closer look at the smaller virtual world. So what happened?

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

InWorldz Gofundme Halts Donations, Co-Founder Issues Statement

In the latest in the developing story about the impending shutdown of InWorldz, the Gofundme that owner Beth Reisch set up for the virtual world is no longer accepting donations. She had  originally stated the money would be going to save the virtual world. But after most of it had been raised, she had apparently changed her goal to instead establishing a new one, and moving things from InWorldz to this new one. While some people were supportive, others were confused or angry. And comments were disabled.

Also, there was a statement in Hypergrid Business by InWorldz co-founder David Daeshler on the situation. As he had left the staff over a year ago, he wasn't sure what was going on.

For all those that have been asking me what is going on with InWorldz, I’d like to make a public statement.

I have not been involved in the management or operation of InWorldz since the end of 2016. I have not been privy to company information regarding finances or operational factors since at least that time. I don’t know the state of the loan agreement that was executed by Beth Reischl alone. I do not know if the creditors that are owed money by Beth and InWorldz, LLC have been repaid, or if they are still seeking final resolution to what sounds like a loan default.

Further, I don’t know where the funds from the GoFundMe campaign that Beth Reischl started are going. Since the decision has now been made to start a new grid, I do not know if those funds that were collected under the name of InWorldz, LLC are now being funneled to a new business entity, or personal accounts.

I feel very badly for all residents that are at the risk of losing their home and their things. I have missed being a part of the InWorldz community and spirit for the past few years, but the business has struggled due to a constant push for the lowest possible price against competition with no business model. We have all had to make sacrifices and, in some cases, move on to make ends meet.

I hope the Beth can clarify how this new grid will operate, and how InWorldz, LLC’s creditors will be repaid given a possible move to a new business entity.

I miss you all. I miss hearing how InWorldz improved your life. I miss hearing about the new love and real-life marriages that happened because of our service. InWorldz will always hold a special place in my heart, and I’ll always remember what you all taught me…

Always, just one more dance.

Sincerely,

David C Daeschler

In the meantime, the hours tick away for the virtual world, the day the servers set to expire being Friday July 27.

Update: InWorldz has provided a Schedule of OARS , "After we produce the OAR file, the items will be cleared from the region and it will be taken down. This way you'll know when the OAR file has been done. I know everyone wants more time, but we don't have any more time to give. So by producing a full OAR, we can process them over the next week to get items filtered out and moved on to their region owners."

Sources: Hypergrid Business, Gofundme, InWorldz

Bixyl Shuftan