Reader Submission: Moving About the Metaverse

 

Longtime readers will likely remember DrFran Babcock whom wrote for the Newser several years ago. Since then, she's gone on to other virtual worlds, first High Fidelity, then others. Recently, she sent us an article about the state of three other virtual worlds. These are Sansar, which used to be owned by Linden Lab, Horizons, which is owned by Facebook, and Vircadia. So how are these virtual worlds doing? DrFran had some observations.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.
 

Sansar Update: A New Direction, Torley, And Account Issues

For years, Linden Lab had been trying to make it's "next generation virtual world" of Sansar a success. But it only attracted a tiny number of regular users. So earlier this year they sold it to Wookey Productions. So how is the world doing? It's still around, with a few from Linden Lab still there such as Torley. And it's found a new path, with an emphasis on being a place for live events. But as one former Newser writer discovered, there are still some customer service issues.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Great Canadian Grid Owner Announces Closure

In December, the Great Canadian Grid, an Opensim world, went offline. The reason was a dispute between it's owner, Roddie Macchi, and that of Digiworldz's, Terry Ford, which handled the other grid's management services. Macchi started a Gofundme to raise money to get it going. But it was not enough. On the grid's webpage, Macchi has announced the Great Canadian Grid will be closing for good.

I enjoyed my virtual travels and managing GCG in the last 7 years. But it is time to move on.

Since GCG started out as a hobby I decided not to sell the grid but to close it permanently.


Machi went on to say those people who had a place on his grid could get the oars from gevolutionworld.com, "I have made arrangements with Cliff Hopkins aka Shadow to be sure to hand over only those whose names were owners ... He has an entire list of who owns what, and if successful on the corrupted database ... he may also be able to retrieve your .iars." Machi stated he no longer had the database, as "the new hosting company maintains it in their servers," so people would have to contact gevolutionworld.com.


I hope you all find your way and enjoy the opensim world like i did.

Thank you all for supporting GCG and me,

Roddie Macchi

The final line was another swipe at Ford and Digiworldz, whom he has blamed for the grid's closure.

There's been a great deal of chatter on the "Hypergrid Explorers and Creators" Discord thread (link) in the "Great Canadian Grid" channel. "The level of drama in OpenSim just boggles the mind." "Well so much for being nice on opensim. ... time to ruin hypergrid." "i seen this from the very beginning when he started begging for money .. having folks pay tier ahead of time and the go fund me ?? i feel for each and every one of you .. its like a old Inworldz nightmare all over again." One person was particuarly angry, accusing Macchi of stealing his virtual property. It was also stated that the recovery effort of the grid had been 70 percent complete when Macchi made the announcement, and due to accusations of theft the handing over of oars files would be suspended.

And so, another virtual world fades away.

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: The Survivor

YadNi Monde, whom is continuing to replicate his noted Junkyard in the TAG grid, recently sent me a couple screenshots. They were of several kiosks of various Second Life newsletters, including the Second Life Newser and it's predecessor the Second Life Newspaper.

"I took the freedom to get your very ancient dispenser here and to recreate script to link to your page," YadNi told, then noted that one, the Newser, stood out, "Green dot indicates you are LIVE. I guess you are the only real survivor amongst all those old newspapers I had at the junkyard."

We're still writing away after all those years, still finding reasons to enjoy Second Life, and still telling you about them.

A Few Words From Junkyard Owner YadNi Monde

Most Longtime residents are familiar with YadNi Monde. For eleven of Second Life's first twelve years, he ran "YadNi's Junkyard," the best known freebie place back then. But in June 2015, he had to close it down. The place is still fondly remembered, and some of the items can still be found today. YadNi himself went into a "3D personal enterprise" and then drawing, not going back into Second Life much.

I recently came across YadNi in Second Life, and we had a few words. He had put his artwork on hold for a few months. Hewas focusing more on virtual worlds, but it wasn't Second Life that was his main focus. "I am setting my foot on another grid, coming here to grab my stuff," he told me with a smile, "I'm going to TAG with all my old stuff." I asked if he meant The Adult Grid. He laughed, "Hahah! Well, there's nothing offensive on that grid (smile). It's only a name. It changed owners years ago. So, I dunno what it was before. But now, I could take my kids there if I had any."

I asked YadNi what he found so far in TAG. He called it a "cool place, a warm welcome. And I do know Constanza Amsterdam since quite a long time too. She is the owner, with her husband. ... I have an infinite number of prims ahead of me," he smiled, "One single sim can go up to 50 000 prims, and (I) have my OAR s from InWorldz." After I brought up that his Junkyard is still well remembered in Second Life, he told me, "my plan is to revive my junkyard there. It won't have all the freebies and all, but it will be the place." He did say the TAG grid did have it's own freebie sim, "with awesome quality. And some nice sims to visit too with little details everywhere, hidden places, easter eggs."

Other plans of his included building Mont Saint Michel, "we're going to revive my most beautiful child, as well as InWorld's Jackson Square that used to be IDI. I'm also building the whole timeline of all the sims I ever built on all grids. I'm reaching year five and it's already a quarter sim long. ... Wait 'til I reach my actual 15th year."

So a few years later, YadNi is keeping himself busy.

Bixyl Shuftan

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