Announcement: April Fools At Grendels

 

 

APRIL FOOLS ~ Touch everything, trust nothing!! 

** April 1 - 31, 2024 **

Take the rockets from the store!  

Brought to you for mostly the 12th time 

by Frog-n-Cat Productions! 

Cartoon of the Day: Santa Grinch

Taken at Grendel's Children. The Grinch was a sour character before his change of heart about Christmas. But maybe he just needed the right incentive.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Tiny Carolers At Grendels

Christmas had many activities of all kinds in many places. On Christmas Day, while some venues were closed, some residents were still entertaining others who happened to be on. At the Grendel's Children mall, there were some tinies who were doing their own special kind of carols.

Read more in Extra.

Gifting Pumpkins at Grendel's Children

Almost lost in the Halloween rush, the classic mall Grendel's Children is offering some freebies in "Gifting Pumpkins." The pumpkins are scattered around the store, and when clicked on, you get the contents, often one of their avatars.

"We always do it, and this year it's three of us putting stuff out," Grendles' co-owner Toady Nakamura told the Newser, "so will be amazingly Grendel's!! We put out stuff and people find it ..."

Grendel's Children, Dragons, Mon, Avaria Tor (133, 134, 305)

Resceduled: Songbird At Grendle's Today, "Bid Me" Events For Sunbeamers Extended

Due to unforeseen events, two events in Second Life will be happening at different times than originally scheduled.

On Saturday April 8, Songbird (Songbird1028 Sorbet) was scheduled to give a live music performance at Castel Bufo (AKA the "Fool's Castle") over Grendel's Children in the Avaria Tor sim. Unfortunately, the event was postponed due to technical difficulties. It has been rescheduled to today, April 20, at 12Noon SL time, "One last chance to break the dinosaurs while listening to the Amazing Songbird!!"

To get there, get to the Grendel's telehub, then sit on the nearby rocket for a quick ride to the castle.

Avaria Tor (133/135/302)

*  *  *  *  *

The "Bid Me" events being held by the Relay for Life's Team Sunbeamers were originally scheduled to end last night at 8PM following the conclusion of the party at Club Cutlass, where the kiosks for the event are located. But team Captain Rita Mariner is in the hospital for kidney stones, possibly for a few days. So the conclusion of the "Bid Me" events has been postponed until her return, possibly at 8PM Friday April 21, or Saturday April 22.

The Newser wishes Rita Mariner a quick and reasonably painless recovery (at least as painless a recovery one can expect from kidney stones). In the meantime, people are encouraged to make further donations for the Relay for Life at Club Cutlass's "Bid Me" events.

Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757).

Bixyl Shuftan

April Fool's In and Out of Second Life

Last Saturday was April Fools Day, a day which is noted for people, and occasionally media and other businesses, playing jokes and harmless pranks. Second Life would see a few as Furry Fashion, Grendel's Children, Bay City, and the Newser itself got in the act. Online games have also played some fun jokes in the past few years, including some special games that were up for just a day. But this year, there was a surprising lack of foolery in online gaming.

Read more in Events.

Announcement: Songbird Rocks the Castle at Grendels Children

WHAT:  Concert by Songbird Sorbet !!

Grendel's Children is proud to announce a concert by
the incomparable singer Songbird1028 Sorbet

WHEN:  Saturday, April 8th, at 12 Noon SLT .... 2017

WHERE:
at Avaria Tor sim, Home of Grendel's Children since 2006. The concert is in the new yuge castle of April Foolin'... ''Catsel Bufo'' - a play on "Frog-and-Cat" productions and the icons of the two founding builders. 

HOW to get there:
Arrive at Grendels' telehub:>
 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Avaria%20Tor/133/135/302
and sit on the Rocket to the April Fools ''Catsel Bufo''

MORE:
* Builders are your Cat-Toad-Octopus-and-Dragon friends from Grendels!  Clover Dezno, Toady Nakamura, Cacia Escape, Flea Bussy, RaptonX Zorger, DannyG Grun, and Lim Raeth.  

*  Wear Anything but you have to wear Something; it's a G-rated sim !!
 
*Over than 165 presents are hidden among the tricks, magic cards, fussy doors, silly games, odd art gallery and those ever-so-fragile dinosaurs... :) 

WEBLINKS

**>   Songbird !!
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT0W6HlTzSM
 
**> Grendels !!
  http://secondlife.com/destination/36  official SL link
  http://world.secondlife.com/place/eb968fa8-f34c-b18f-452c-485f0c4b346d    CATALOG via "show in search" of the store

  http://grendelschildren.net/  links to our videos
and
  https://grendelschildren.wordpress.com/  blog about our classes.

A Busy Weekend

Quite a lot happened this weekend, and there was just so much to do and not enough time to see it all. The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference came to it's conclusion, though the exhibits are still up for now. The "Filling the Cauldron" event (above) organized by Inara Pey and Saffia Widdershins started, and will go on all week. There were Relay events, such as the "Sea of Gold Medieval Faire." The Furry Fashion Lounge and Grendel's Children held "April Fool's Day" events. And there were other events across the Grid.

We'll have more on some of these events, and more later on.

Grendel's Owner's Computer Lost in Fire

Almost a year after being suspended by Linden Lab for technicalities, Flea Bussy, the owner of the noted Grendles' Children store, has found himself in trouble again. This time, the problem was a real-life one when the apartment complex he lived in caught fire. Thankfully no one was killed, and the damage to Flea's apartment was from smoke and not heat. But the smoke was enough to render his computer damaged beyond repair.

"The old one is toast," Toady Nakamura, Flea's partner and co-owner of Grendle's told the Newser. "He has an off-the-shelf one at the moment, which isn't truly his. But it's not enough to run well or fast in SL, and we're hoping to change that as soon as possible." Today thought that Flea could get a new computer in about a week, maybe less, if people bought more at the store, "we have some really great new avis, all mesh ... The Wing Chairs, which let you ride your friends along sitting in them. Really neat." Unlike the crisis last year, there is no real danger to the store this time, "We're fine on business. We have so much fun stuff that people keep coming to get it. The only request was to bring friends, buy stuff, take freebies, find the secret passage in the library which leads to the sleeping dragon, have fun."

Flea had been absent for four days before he had a chance to explain what happened through a phone call. His apartment complex is not a small one, but a "U-shaped" structure three stories high on one side and more on the other, with more than two hundred people. "He went upstairs to get someone out," Toady informed, "Way beyond what he needed to do to save himself. And got himself and the other down all the stairs and outside, then tried to persuade a pile of people who were plugging up the entry, because it was minus 20 degrees outside and snow, to exit before the smoke flared up into full flame. I think people who don't just save themselves are special. Especially how he described it, and of course everyone was sick with worry for not hearing from him for the four days he was in the Red Cross shelter before being let back in. Some people were rescued by the fire department off the balconies by the long ladders. It was one of those freezing cold fire events. ... Many of the building residents are elderly and so there was more than the usual pressure for rehousing and saving things."

Toady went on to say about half the apartments are occupied again. The other half will need repairs first, "everyone else is going to need to wait or move to a different apartment. ... I think they're moving as fast as they can given all the circumstances. Up where I live, that would be a huge disaster and people would be sleeping in RVs and barns because we couldn't rehouse 100 people overnight. But perhaps in a metro area, that is not much; it's all perspective."

Before going about her way, Toady reminded that she has been giving out building lessons at Grendle's, the times of which can be found in the store's blog: https://grendelschildren.wordpress.com/.

Grendle's is at Avaria Tor (133/135/302)

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: Grendle's Children Launches April Fool's Event: "Trust Nothing"

On the blog of the popular avatar and accessory store "Grendle's Children," Toady Nakumara announced the venue's fifth annual April Fool's themed event, "Trust Nothing." The event is credited to "Frog and Cat Productions."

Touch everything, sit on stuff, knock things over – have a blast -> watch out for the Kraken!  Presents everywhere !! Featuring the art of SkyCat Ranger.

The event takes place from today to the 15th.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Avaria%20Tor/133/135/302

Community of the Year

There were no shortage of people whom had an impact on Second Life in ways large and small in the past year. Project Sansar, earlier referred to as "SL 2.0" by residents, was seldom far from out collective minds, wondering how it's eventual release would affect the Grid we've gone about in and invested so much time and effort in for so long. But Sansar isn't here yet, not much is known about it, and residents have gone about their business.

In April, unknown griefers struck the SS Galaxy, and the lack of customer service from Linden Lab led the owners of the ship to retire the ship. It was arranged for the Lab to take ownership of the build, but it was a museum piece, no more would there be a crew and community behind it. These griefers, and the clumsiness of the Lab, caused no shortage of sad faces.

Linden Lab's clumsiness would continue, locking out Flea Bussy, the owner of the noted "Grendle's Children" mall, and bringing it in danger of shutting down as while offline he wouldn't be able to make the tier payments. Fortunately a number of residents stepped in, and helped the store in which Philip Linden allegedly stated, "As goes Grendle's, so goes the Grid."

With the end of SL GO this year, people wondered if this meant they could no longer access Second Life with tablets and older computers. Fortunately there was "Bright Canopy," created by Chaos Priestman and Bethsael Robbiani, which offered to do what it did. It wasn't as low priced, and there were some problems getting it up and running. But eventually they did. Chaos and Bethsael, for preserving access to Second Life via iPads and other tablets, are deserving of runner-up.

Also getting the lockout treatment was TotalLunar Eclipse, the owner to the Steelhead Estates. As he was already having a number of real-life issues, this was the last straw, and he made his decision to take an indefinite break from Second Life, and so his estates would be closing down. This would have killed off many other communities in this virtual world. But the Steelheader's held together. There were a number of offers to help out, and eventually one of the sims was saved., and a new location found for the other club. It was not a perfect ending as the rest of the sims went offline., and many of those in the group moved to other places in the Steamlands. But the community group is still together. Their Relay for Life team is still together. So there's hope that the antics the Steelhead community us note for will continue.

So the residents of Steelhead collectively are named Second Life Newser's "Man of the Year," or in this case, "Community of the Year."

Bixyl Shuftan

Tiny Carolers at Grendel's

Remember last week's music video from Raglan Shire? There's more Tiny music to come. On Wednesday night, the noted Grendel's Children shopping mall had some visitors, a group of Tinies, or to be more precise, Tiny carolers. Singing with chat gestures, they entertained co-owner Toady Nakamura and others there.

~*~ You Better Watch Out, ~*~
~*~ You Better Not Cry,~*~
~*~ You Better Not Pout, I'm Telling You Why, ~*~
~*~ Santa PAWS Is Coming To Town,~*~
~*~ He's Making A List, And Checking It Twice ~*~
~*~ Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice,~*~
~*~ Santa PAWS Is Coming To Town,~*~
~*~ He Sees When You Eat WAFFLES, ~*~
~*~ He Knows When You Eat CAKE,~*~
~*~ He Knows If You've Been Bad Or Good,~*~
~*~ So Be Good For Goodness Sake! ~*~
~*~ You Better Watch Out,~*~
~*~ You Better Not Cry, ~*~
~*~ You Better Not Pout, I'm Telling You Why, ~*~
~*~ Santa PAWS Is Coming, ~*~
~*~ Santa PAWS Is Coming,~*~
~*~ Santa PAWS is Coming To Towwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnn, ~*~ SANTA PAWS IS COMING TO TOWN! ~*~

 Toady Nakamura put on her own Tiny avatar and joined the bunch, "We're hardcore carolers!!"

 ~*~ It's beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~
~*~ Take a look at the village chalet, ~*~
~*~ The snowmen and the sleigh, ~*~
~*~ With candy canes and tinsel all aglow! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look a lot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ Tinies in every store! ~*~
~*~ But the nommiest site to see ~*~
~*~ Is the waffles that will be ~*~
~*~ Inside your own front door. ~*~
 ~*~ A pair of bunny hop shoes and lazors that shoot ~*~
~*~ Is the wish of Copper and Reign! ~*~
~*~ Dolls that will talk and go for a walk ~*~
~*~ Is the hope of Jillan and Jane! ~*~
~*~ And Kayak and Toady can hardly wait ~*~
~*~ Till Raglan U opens agaaain! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look alot like Wootmas ~*~
~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~
~*~ Theres a great tree name of Steve, ~*~
~*~ That all the tinies can see, ~*~
~*~ He's GINORMOUS, and doesnt mind the snow! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ Soon the bells will start! ~*~
~*~ And the thing that will make them ring, ~*~
~*~ When all the tinies sing, ~*~
~*~ Is right within your heart!!! ~*~

~*~ Jelly Beans, Hunks of Cheese, Sugar Frosted Ham. All Deep-fried, Toast on the Side with Wootberry Jam.. ~*~
~*~ Chocolate Cake all wrapped in Bacon, Nachos on a Stick! Come Along, Let's eat some Noms & Hope we don't get Sick... HEY!! ~*~
~*~ Nomming Treats & Sweets, from Our Raglan Shire Buffet, Fills our little tummies, with Food this Holiday! ~*~
~*~ Just singing 'bout it now, Make's our Hunger Rise! We can't wait to grab a Plate & Stack it real High.. Withhh.. ~*~
~*~ Jelly Beans, Hunks of Cheese, Sugar Frosted Ham. All Deep-fried, Toast on the Side with Wootberry Jam.. ~*~
~*~ Chocolate Cake all wrapped in Bacon, Nachos on a Stick! Come Along, Let's eat some Noms & Hope we don't get SICKKKKKKK! ~*~

As they paused for a break, one of the Tinies bumped against the Christmas tree, resulting in many of it's decorations falling to the ground, some breaking, "AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" And a number of the Tinies scattered. Fortunetly Toady wasn't upset.

Grendel's Children has been in Second Life for several years, noted for it's large selection of discount quality avatars and items.

Commentary: Linden Lab Continues to Shoot Itself in the Foot

By Bixyl Shuftan

With the Relay for Life now over, time to focus more on other issues, such as Linden Labs and its recent blunders.

When Ebbe Altberg took over as CEO of Linden Lab, at the time a number of residents were having serious doubts as to its commitment to the residents of Second Life, the content creator rights controversy being the big issue at the time. When the new leader of the Lab spoke more on the issue in five minutes than the company had in five months, many residents became hopeful things were changing for the better. When the controversial section of the new terms of service that had created the mess was rewritten, more felt certain better times had arrived. A few longtimers held their enthusiasm in check though, commenting they'd seen hopeful signs followed by disappointment before, saying chances were, this was just a honeymoon period for the new CEO.

It would seem the honeymoon has ended.

A few months ago in April, residents were surpised to hear about the closing of the SS Galaxy, the three sim ocean liner which had been around for over eight years, the largest build on the grid. It came as an even greater shock as to what led to the closing: a severe griefing assault followed by Linden Lab telling the ship's managers they would get only one sim rollback to repair damage, and then no more. All that money spent by a longtime customer, and when they asked for customer service were essentially told to stuff it. No surprise the owners decided they could no longer promise the experience they offered to Second Life's cruise liner fans before, and announced they were closing.

Sadly, the closing of the SS Galaxy would not be the only Linden blunder in recent weeks. In June, Linden Lab announced they would be calling off the deal they made with third party currency exchangers two years before, telling them after July to leave Second Life. They stated they had improved their Lindex and solved the problems people complained about the previous time they tried closing down the exchangers two years earlier. However, Second Life residents, notably those outside the United States, have complained about problems with Lindex, saying their ability to buy Linden dollars will be compromised, if not outright shut down, once the third party exchangers are. Despite two petitions totaling over 1200 signatures, Linden Lab shows no sign of backing down from it's course, leaving those dependent on third party exchangers with an uncertain future in Second Life.

This month, Linden Lab almost had a public relations disaster when the noted Grendel's Children store was almost taken down along with it's sims because of it's co-owner Flea Bussy, the one who paid for the virtual land, being locked out due to a technicality. Flea and his partner Toady Nakamura are topnotch builders whom recently got attention with Toady's exhibit at the Second Life birthday. Bussy so impressed Philip Linden, he was quoted as saying, "As goes Grendles, so goes the Grid. Imagine what it would have looked like if the store once seen as symbolic of Second Life had been shut down due to a technicality?

Incidents like this are nothing new. One friend told me she once lived on a Fantasy roleplay community of which the sims suddenly went offline, and when they didn't go backup, the owners suspended payment. After two months, Linden Lab told the sim owners they were ready to bring them back online, but demanded the teir for the two months the sims had been offline. They refused, and the sims were reopened just long enough for the community members to gather their items before the land went down for good. Granted this didn't happen recently, the sims in question going down a few years ago, but it was a reminder of Linden Lab's "customer no service," to borrow an expression from financial commentator Clark Howard.

Linden Lab, what is going on?

Despite some raised eyebrows of your announcement of SL 2.0, or Project Sansar as you insist on calling it, your reputation had recovered from the messes you'd gotten into earlier. And now with two high profile failures plus a strategic move that will make it more difficult for residents outisde the US to purchase Linden dollars, once again you're looking like the uncaring, incompetant beast criticss accused you of being. Such incidents do not make you look well when people think about whether or not to buy a sim or renew one, or purchase Linden dollars to help their Second Life experience.

You've worked on bells and whistles to improve how things look around here, to try to get things to rezz more smoothly, to get the items closer to someone to rezz first to him. her. This of course is great, but how good is it if residents can't be sure the Lab will help if something goes wrong?

There's more to this then just Second Life, but your planned sequel to it, Project Sansar. You say you're going to make it "so good, people will want to leave Second Life for it." But if they see you as goofing up with Second Life, why will they trust you with it's sequel?

I've stated it before in previous commentaries. For businesses, trust is a valuable commodity. Trust that you will honor your commitments. Trust that you have the competence to run your business and manage your product well. It cannout be gained quickly or bought, only earned over time.

And right now, the trust you're regained over the course of a year is being lost.

Bixyl Shuftan

Grendel's Children Saved From Shutdown

This week, Grendel's Children, a well-known avatar and accessory store, came close to being shut down due to Paypal, and then Linden Lab, bureaucratic stubornness over technical details.

When I asked Toady Nakamura, one of the co-owners of the place, about the problem, she answered, "we seemed to have fixed it. Some snafu in the billing caused the Lindens to lock Flea (Bussy) out right after the holiday weekend, and it took a few days to sort it out. ... today (at) 9:35 am, they let Flea back in.  It was kinda Miracle on Avaria Street, all our old friends and customers came out of the woodwork and between the good energy and their shopping energy, they helped us get around the PayPal/Linden snafu. So (it) was very scary for a while, because they really weren't listening. And even today 'when the fix was in,' it still took 3 calls to get thru to someone down there who had read the memo."

Toady went on, "Ah yes, Paypal (not known to us) decided that all accounts must be VERIFIED. That means something like cellphone or chargecard. Well, (Flea) doesn't have cellphone and the chargecard had rolled over with new expiration date. And kaboom, no good says Paypal, (and the) Lindens go 'no good' and lock him out. So he couldn't get to his linden balance to pay. (It) was annoying, catch 22 and a half,  subsection (really annoying 1.34.c)."

"So finally this morning it all got straightened out, but only after SEVERAL people had run it all up the flag pole and back down. ... We were a couple hours from losing the sims. It was a bit of an overreaction. We wouldn't have raised holy hell without it being so close. It's always around holidays that their billing department goes kukaburra. They did similar to me around Memorial Day 2014. My credit card did same thing, rolled over, new expiration date. And they wouldn't take my premium membership and the letter I got was all full of threats. ... Which was amazing stupid cuz not one week before they'd told me to send in copy of my drivers license and utility bills (which I did) for 'personal verification' and during that time they also threatened to close my account if I didn't comply. So two times in less than 30 days. Their problem solving department was apparently trained by 500-lb canaries."

"The Lab wouldn't listen to you?" I asked. Today answered, "I sent in all my stuff initially, but it wasn't good enough, driver's license and utility bill showing HOME address. They wanted (a) cellphone.  I don't have one. So I was being threatened for verification of something I don't have. And no they didn't listen very well. Ifilled out ticket after ticket and finally one of them was read well enough for comprehension to trickle down. I told them I'd be delighted to get cellphone, but they'd have to pay for it. Then I'd be so happy to give them the # for their files. They stopped being so demanding."

"This time, the Lab listened to a LOT of people freaking out all at one time.  I don't know if they'd have listened to us individually, but I would hope they would have."

"So what happens now?" I asked. Toady answered, "We have to straighten out the Paypal problem. But we have some time now... Hopefully Lindens take look at system that makes 9 year paying customers feel like they went in and out of SingSing. Not nice. But I can't tell them what to do, I can only hold up my end and wish they'd play nicer." She commented of Linden Lab's behavior, " 'plays well with others,' D- this week. 'Takes care of pets and toys,' F. 'Runs with scissors in stairways' (PLEASE!!)."

Toady called the effort by others to prove their worth to Linden Lab a "miracle," "Our customers and old friends, and people we never met before got enough $L in our accounts by buying things to render the PayPal snafu moot for now.  That's miraculous, and MUCHLY appreciated. A total wonderful flock of angels descended on our store and literally saved us. And PS, I never got so much $L in so short a time, even in the old days when sales were wonderful."

Toady had been one of the volunteers at the Second Life Birthday celebration, the builder of their live music stage, and was in the process of dismantling it as the cash flow came in, "I was taking down the birthday sim, prim by prim, set by set. And almost as I was taking prims, the balance of $ was going up up up, inverse, was utterly amazing."

Toady added, "And you could also thank the Lindens who were contacted. I don't know their names, but I know some of the people that heard about this contacted them. One twittered the CEO, others got strings pulled somehow so he didn't have to go thru the 'outsourced billing department' but got bounced 'up into Linden billing,' whatever that difference is. Again I don't know, but those were things we were told to tell him ... when he calls, insist to be transferred to 'Linden billing.' It's just a paperwork/computer problem that got really way too big, and way too out of hand."

Toady stated, "And if I had one wish in all this, is the Lindens would have some sort of algorithm for their customers. Anyone paying for one or two sims for 9 years is not your enemy. They don't deserve to be treated badly. So like have some account history for these poor people in billing. 'Oh gee, 9 years, at least two sims, maybe I should take that into account and skip the threats,' ... yanno really, they should just skip the threats, no matter how long someone been (a) customer. In truth, today's 1 month old sim owner who is late for snafu is just as important as 9 year old member, yanno?"

Toady did say that she wasn't bitter toward the Lab, "I am really grateful that the Lindens did listen, cuz the alternative would be watching 1600 of Flea's avatars disappear totally, plus all his other zany stuff. ... Just today one linden said they remember getting our 'new Linden gift pack' in 2007(?) or 6, and still having all the contents. You know Flea has two avatars in your library? (The) Box Bot (which the Lindens use in their premium adverts), and Fae Dragon ... You have Library > Clothing > Box bot, 'cardboard box bot' and 'dragonlet.' "

Today went on, "Back in the ooooold days, they flew Flea out to San Francisco to receive a Linden award, in 2006, and Philip said 'As goes Grendel's so goes the grid.' I then brought up a few years ago the quote had been used when Grendel's had some trouble. "We had four sims," Toady answered, "two of them went utterly wonky and we couldn't get customer service at all. So Flea sold them. THEN we got customer service for a while. Apparently there was a LOT of press."

Toady would then show me around Grendel's hidden areas, in addition to the roleplay area beneath the store. It was a reminder a lot more would have been lost than just a store had this bureaucratic snafu not been broken.

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Grendel's Bids Farewell to the SL12B

Toady Nakamura, who was the builder of the Live Stage in Spellbound, sent in this picture of how she left the sim after taking the stage down.

Toady, and her partner Flea Bussy, run Grendel's Children, a huge store long known for discount avatars and other goods. There's also a prehistoric roleplay area in the sims.

SL Video: "The Wizard and the Ozimal"

(Click here if video fails to load)

A video by Pyewacket Bellman about a tiny wizard on a quest to rescue his pet bunny. A number of avatars by Grendel's Children are featured here.

Grendel's "Grungeboardin"

The "Grungeboarding" track at the Grendle's Children area. Created by Nitwacket, "Grundgeboardin is Constantine Riel's 'fault' - according to Flea Bussy - who created the rest of the stuff in the machinima."

Noted Avatar Store “Grendel’s Children” Turns Five, Cuts Four-Sim Area to Two

One of the more noted avatar stores in Second Life is “Grendel’s Children. The venue is well known for it’s selection of avatars and other goods at cheaper than usual prices. Some of the items have been discounted to near-free or freebies. One can come here and get a number of avies. Quoting Tateru Nino’s article in Massively:


There are things on sale here from Thrulls and Liches to Medusae and genetic horrors - and things I don't even know enough about to name. ... There are dragons, gryphons, drakes, spiders, scorpions, birds (legendary, mundane, gigantic, or plush), necromancers, shadow-mancers, plague monks, incubi, succubi, assorted demons and devils, trolls, fae, angels, imps (elemental, and paralegal), treants (all seasons), dryads, myconids, chelonians, molluscs, a certain famous yellow submarine, mermaids, goldfish, therapods, dinosaurs and mammoths, aliens, and Lord only knows what else. Lots and lots of what else.


The store was just part of the fun in the region. Below Grendel’s were four sims: Avaria, Avaria Tor (directly under the store), Avaria Kro, and Avaria Sav. There, residents could engage in roleplay (including some dinosaur RP that I witnessed). They could play games such as “Grungeboarding,” and a resource-gathering game Xymbers Slade showed me that the HUD would take materials gathered and would make them in to various processed goods and clothing. And of course they could explore the various caves and other hiding places.

Grendel’s has been around since 2006, and has its fifth anniversary today. Sept 1, 2006 was the date of the store’s founding. But unfortunately, Grendel’s fans have less to celebrate. The region is half what it used to be.

Prim Perfect reported on August 29th that two of the sims, Avaria Kro and Avaria Sav were sold. A look at the map shows them still there, but offline. Inworld, they are nowhere to be seen.Grendel’s made more than enough for the $14,400 they paid Linden Lab every year. Unfortunately, according to Grendels’ team, the Lab hasn’t been providing the technical support they paid for.


“I can get spam from Cafe Press, but no answers from Linden Lab,” says Flea Bussy, the leader janitor of Grendel’s (and owner of the Avarian sims) wearily. There is no response to his tickets, and having been told “we’ll call you back” by concierge, there are no replies. “They don’t care.” After years of patience with Linden Lab, Flea is disappointed in the failure of the Lab to support what is a thriving business in one of the most important areas of the grid – the development of amazing content. “We took this problem all the way to the CEO,” says Toady, “and it was fixed for 3 days. Then it broke again. We can’t keep going to the top for routine things like ‘we cannot move in our sim’.”


Saddia Widdershins quoted Philip Linden, meeting with Second Life content creators, as saying, “As goes Grendel’s, so goes the Grid.” Of half of Grendel’s now sold because of lack of support from Linden Lab, “what does that say about the Grid?”

At a time when a number of sims have been up for sale or vanishing, it’s a question that more residents are likely to be asking.

The Grendel's website is at http://grendelschildren.net/

Sources: Prim Perfect, New World Notes, Tateru Nino

Bixyl Shuftan