Tempura Island Back - Update: Will Be Preserved By Linden Lab

 

It was several days ago in which the Tempura Island sim closed following an announcement in the group a few days before. But it seems the sim has returned. A reader alerted the Newser the place was back and open to the public to explore: Tempura Island (124/46/33)

Exactly what happened as of the writing of this article is unknown. There was no announcement in the sim's group. The area remains owned by it's longtime owners. The person contacting the Newser hoped both the sim and the recent Tempura Project would remain up. 

Update: At 7AM, it was posted in the Tempura group that the sim would be maintained by Linden Lab under it's Preservation Society.

Dear Tempura Island friends, lovers and visitors.

We like to inform you, that after our decisions to close TEMPURA, we have been reached by LL and made decision and accept to maintain our region by joining "The Second Life Region Preservation Society" provided by Linden Lab. We have received so many messages from SL residents about closing TEMPURA and we are very happy that TEMPURA will still exist.

Please enjoy TEMPURA sim as you have been for all these years.  We like to express our grateful to Linden Lab who recognize and decide to keep TEMPURA as part of SL existence.

Thank you everyone who love TEMPURA sim!  

　　　　　　　菊之介王子 (kikunosuke Eel) / Tempura Island team

So it seems Tempura joins the ranks of The Shelter, Chouchou, The Lost Gardens of Apollo, Mont Saint-Michel, the SS Galaxy, and Svarga as places (mostly well-designed sims) that will be maintained by Linden Lab.

Hat tip: Eliza Cabassoun, Spiffy Voxel

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Chouchou Sims To Be Preserved By Linden Lab

Good news for fans of the Chouchou sims. In May, the owners Juliet Heberle and Arabesque Choche had announced they would soon be closing down. Fans protested in the forums, and Patch Linden responded by asking the owners to contact him about preserving the sims in cooperation with Linden Lab. Recently in the sims' fan group, and their Facebook page, there was a post announcing that the sims would be preserved through the Second Life Region Preservation Society, joining already preserved areas such as Svarga and the SS Galaxy. A third sim of theirs, Chouchou XVI, also known as "The Babel," which was closed in 2013 would also be brought back.

Regarding the closure of the region Chouchou (Chouchou sim, Chouchou V sim) in Second Life, we'd like to report some progress. As a result of our discussion with Linden Lab, we made a decision to maintain our region by joining The Second Life Region Preservation Society provided by Linden Lab. And it is also decided that one of our sims, Chouchou XVI - The Babel - which was closed in 2013 will be back in Second Life thanks to Linden Lab's kind arrangements. 10223 Resident (Tofu), the staff of our team will continue to take charge of the management of all our sims. Please enjoy our region that will remain unchanged including the music and video effects.

Right now, we’re in the middle of exchanging contracts with Linden Lab, and it's taking time for the contract procedures. We’re very sorry for the late announcement.

At first, we were not going to change our plan for the closure of the region Chouchou because of a variety of issues that the region is encountering, but as we received many messages hoping for the survival of our sims, we came to a decision to maintain our region as it is and to continue to work to resolve these issues. However, there is a limit to what we can do. Please respect others with morals and help us to make the place better and comfortable for many people visiting there.



For a video of The Babel, Click Here.


That the owners would still be among those managing the sims would be something new for areas preserved under Linden Lab's preservation program. Areas such as the SS Galaxy essentially became static museum areas in which change had stopped. Talking to Hamlet Au, the owners stated

"We will manage our sims just like before we participated in [Linden Lab's preservation program] ... We will stream music and videos to the sims, do the maintenance if needed and handle troubles if there's a griefer or harassment. ... "[w]e always add new music some time after its release, but only if the songs match the atmosphere of the sims."

In real life, the two owners are a musical duo, vocalist Juliet Heberle and composer Arabesque Choche, who had met in Second Life, performed a number of events there, eventually met in real life, and got married. While they continued to expand their audience over the Internet, their performances in the virtual world declined. That led to their original decision to close the sim. But thankfully both they and Linden Lab listened to their fans, and these artistically well done sims will be preserved.

Source: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Has Seraph City Been Saved?

On February 27, it was announced that Seraph City, the "dieselpunk" sim made in the style of how science fiction from the 1930s saw the future, was all set to close (link). Edward Pearce wrote in his blog that the sim's owner Bromo Ivory had decided to shut the place down on March 21st. A few days ago, the show Designing Worlds dropped in for what looked like a final look at this unique city area before it was gone.



But word is, someone has stepped in to help. Chatting with Fuzzball Ortega of the Steelhead Community, he told me someone from the Steampunk community was about to take ownership of the place. If the plan goes through, fans of the sim will be able to keep on visiting. Second Life Newser will have more once we have talked to the new owner.

Bixyl Shuftan