ElvenMyst, the sim owned by Elf Clan will be closing on November 23rd as the clan head to Inworldz full time, the full story is detailed here. There are a few points to note, first of all not all Elves are leaving Second Life, indeed my chief Elf has just poked me telling me I need to update the covenant on a sim. Secondly not all of Elf Clan are Elves!
The blog post by Wafinder Wishbringer is a harsh one, a tale of frustration, woe and cold harsh realities about running costs, Inworldz is cheaper, a lot cheaper and for some people it may seem like the better option, for me I still think Linden Lab are heading in the right direction under Rodvik but I have been to Inworldz where Lady Sakai tries to get me to rent land, one of the reasons I haven’t so far is because I’m at my limit with how much Im prepared to invest financially as well as time wise, days aren’t long enough but one day I will rent a plot from Lady Sakai, if she lets me! I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement. I’m a fan of virtual worlds so the more the merrier is fine by me.
I do have sympathy with some of the complaints Wayfinder makes, tiers costs, marketplace impact on inworld sales, the openspace fiasco, these are all issues I have concerns about, or have had concerns about in the past. However I do think Wayfinder is wearing rose tinted glasses when it comes to Inworldz, yes it is cheaper, but in terms of performance, lag, support, it is a long way from being tried and tested due to the smaller numbers of people there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Inworldz is rubbish, I was there at a party last week and didn’t creak a bit, but it doesn’t have the same sort of challenges as Second Life does yet and that’s fine, they are growing over there and do have a friendly crowd.
One area where Inworldz could make inroads is in terms of roleplaying. I’ve discussed before how it’s difficult to get roleplaying going in Second Life due to the tier costs, this is a reality check here rather than a criticism of Linden Lab, the model is difficult to sustain in Second Life, I see in the roleplaying forum that the adult oriented cyberpunk Midian City has rebooted after downsizing and is now looking for new roleplayers. The good thing about roleplaying in Second Life is that the roleplay can be open ended, Inworldz offers a cheaper solution but is in a bit of a chicken and egg situation of not having anywhere near the userbase to appeal to people to join lots of roleplaying communities, the costs however are at a more affordable level for roleplaying communities.
Elf Clan will be holding some parties around November 11th – 13th, if you fancy popping in to see what they’re all about then keep an eye on ElvenMyst, it’s disappointing to see them go but people make decisions based on what they feel is best, I still think Second Life has the greatest potential but competition from Inworldz is good for Linden Lab, it’s also good for Inworldz to keep raising their game, I hope Elf Clan do well in Inworldz and I hope those of us in Second Life prosper along with Linden Lab too.
Second Life is still on top when it comes to technology and support, they have a larger number of staff than Inworldz, of course to maintain that level of staffing there are costs for customers but that’s a reality of life, Linden Lab can’t charge USD$50 a month for a sim, we’d all be sailing off the edge of the world if they tried that so we do have to be sensible about how these things work. I would love to see cheaper tier but as I’ve said before, Linden Lab need other income streams before they can do that.
I read the whole story also in the blog of Elf Clan. It is sad that these wonderful role-players that meant so much are drifting to other worlds as there is no notion anymore in the Mother space Ship.
My self are wondering around the worlds and got stuck on Avination. For me my second home now and a grid that is table for indeed lower prices. Indeed open sim solutions are developing.
Hope you sailing will not stay only on one world but explore also other solutions.
Goodluck!!
JoJa Dhara
It is sad but they have to do what they feel is best for them, I do agree with you that people should experience more worlds.
You raise thoughts I’ve held for some time as to high-volume performance in InWorldz. That said, I like the way the InWorldz team are approaching their development – one step at a time; there is always the temptation to go racing out and grabbing as much as possible in order to be seen as offering everything SL does – and more – but Tranquility and the team at IW have their heads screwed on right. It’s going to be interesting to see how their joint venture deal with their hosting company develops, and how the adoption of PhysX goes as well. Having a fully-functional physics engine will be a huge boon.
As to role-play environments, leave us not forget, and to balance the scales, Avination offer a dedicated role-play / combat service. Simare are slightly more expensive ($75 a month, I believe, haven’t actually looked lately), which includes CDS. Avination offer a similar overall package sim-wise to SL (prim-wise (or is that land impact-wise now!)), so are a little more conservative than IW, but they are again supported by a cooperative hosting company (effectively their own!), and offer and oferall similar deal to IW, but are looking to Havok (it appears) rather than nVidia for their long-term physics engine.
Avination and IW are fairly closely matched in terms of sim count and total user numbers. Neither is anywhere near being genuine competition to SL – as you say, there are many questions yet to be answered; but given the development going on in both and the step-by-step approach being taken, it’s probably fair to say that with fair seas and and following tide, the time will come when they’ll be able to do so, not just in terms of outlay for those getting involved, but also in terms of developing in-world businesses that can pay their way and generate a positive cash-flow for their owners. LL will need to be better positioned to handle that time, or they could, by contrast, face some very turbulent seas.
I’m not so keen on avination, although it has been fine when I visited, there seems more drama there but if they build a good virtual world that won’t be so important.
I do like Inworldz, don’t get me wrong, and I agree that both worlds are doing the right thing by not trying to grow too fast. They both seem to be taking the steady as she goes approach.
i own the sim sycity and we have redesigned it into the elven capital city calling it “Alfheimr and Rapture ” we do not have an established rp here but the enviroment that we have created is stunning please come and visit we are looking to connect with other elven rp groups. it would be great to meet other like minded people in inworldz
Sylar Quinto