Reaction to the Return of "The Lost Gardens of Apollo"

Since we (or rather Anne Brightstar and Shin Klaar) revealed that the beloved classic sim "The Lost Gardens of Apollo" was back online, there's been a number of reactions. Among them from Dane Zander, the sim's creator, whom thanked us for letting him know the location was back online.

Hamlet Au in his article about the return of the Gardens reminded readers what had happened to cause the location to close. Dane had been having financial problems at the time, bad enough for him to apply for debt relief, and "Doing so involves detailed scrutiny of my personal finances," he stated. Counting the European Value Added Tax, the sim was costing him $250 USD a month, and on his limited income, he couldn't afford it. While he had been able to cover most of his expenses through donations, he was far from alone in being hit by financial troubles, and the amount of Lindens in his donation jars dwindled.

Zander had written to Linden Lab at the time, suggesting to them they could take the sim and keep it running. But he never did hear from them. Nor is there anything to suggest that he had been contacted by the Lab before they restarted his sim. He was quoted as saying, "I only just heard about it. I am pretty shocked ... I had no idea. I'll have to ask LL what is going on. Thanks for the heads up though!"

The reactions from residents have been overwhelmingly positive, many fans happy to see it back. That the sim could be brought back years after it's fading away apparently without the permission of the owner was brought up by a person or two, which brought up the question of does this mean Linden Lab could do this with any sim. But that one person thought some statues seemed to be missing suggested that perhaps some data could have been lost.

And what of the "Lost Gardens of Apollo Memorial" by Delphi Bernard? She says she plans to keep her sim up as long as she is able to. She feels with the restored sim's broken animations and the lack of music, people will want to head to hers.

So will Linden Lab bring back another sim anytime soon? Right now, that's something only the Lab can answer, and it's probable they haven't decided whether or not to yet. Already some residents are making suggestions such as Forgotten City and Starry Night. Anne Brightstar had one other suggestion, one aimed not at bringing back a place but putting some activity back in one it already had: the SS Galaxy. She felt Linden Lab could easily get a few people to help organize parties on the ship, keep an eye on the music stream, and rent out rooms to people interested. While bringing the ship back by itself was better than nothing, no activity at all made it simply a museum piece, which to longtime fans of the ship was a sad reminder of once was.

For longtime residents whom once could only look at screenshots and old articles about favorite places which had vanished years ago, the return of the "Lost Gardens of Apollo" offers hope that maybe, just maybe, they will someday return.

Addition: Hamlet got in touch with Dane, and he had a few more things to say, about the return of his masterpiece.

Image credit: Hamlet Au

Bixyl Shuftan