I was reading Inara Pey’s blog recently when I noticed an article entitled : The passing of places in Second Life. The post deals with the sad news that two absolutely stunning roleplay locations in Second Life are going to shortly disappear. The Regions of Goatswood and Venexia are going to sail off the side of the Second Life in the next ten days or so. I’d advise people to go visit quickly and take snapshots if you want.

As Inara points out, both regions are very photogenic.

Inara’s post links to another blog post on the matter from Miya’s Journal, which also contains the text of the official announcement. The first part of the announcement reads :

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM BAAL AND KORA

It is with great regret that once again the ever present financial burden of the extreme costs of maintaining sims in second life means that we will be forced to close both Venexia and Goatswood.

These closures will take place on 13th June for Venexia and 19th June for Goatswood. Any rentals outstanding will of course be refunded. As Kos still has some active players we will try to keep it running for a while longer.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all those who have over the years contributed so much time and creativity towards the great success of these projects. They have provided us with many lasting memories, and we have derived immense enjoyment from seeing them brought to life by those who have spent time playing there.

We hope that you have enjoyed using as much as we have enjoyed creating them.

Baal and Kora, for those wondering, are Baal Zobel and Kora Zenovka, the duo behind these excellent builds.

Goatswood’s description in the destination guide states :

Delve deep into the dark past of Goatswood, a SGS Victorian role-play sim set in a mysterious English village. Goatswood features an incredibly intricate, detailed world, a unique story system, multiple character possibilities, Victorian social classes, structured role-play and magic systems, covens to join and plenty to explore and do. Will Goatswood be your escape, or is it what you’re escaping from?

Visiting as a visitor is pretty easy, and one that I found a pleasure. There’s information at the landing point and then they have this neat vendor which gives you a three day visitor’s pass, which you wear to indicate you’re OOC. Then you walk to a train, left click and as long as you have the OOC tag on, you will be teleported to the main sim. The three day pass is free by the way and can be renewed when the three days have expired.

Bear in mind that you have until June 19th to visit Goatswood.

SLURL To Goatswood : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/NeverlandX/33/52/2002/

Venexia has a different theme, but is another stunning build. Visiting works in a very similar fashion to Goatswood, once more you will need to obtain the three day pass, and once again this is free. However instead of travel by train, you get on a boat.

Venexia’s destination guide description states :

Visit this SGS-enabled (Socionex Game System) vampire role-play sim, where fantasy meets reality. The location offers a gothic interpretation of Venice, Italy, built with vampires in mind. Investigate the unique vampire clan-based storyline, offering many new types of character possibilities. There is plenty to explore and do. Check out more at http://www.socionex.com/game.

The way these regions are designed is extremely impressive. They feel like regions where people would live and interact. They have a busy vibe about them and they really are well worth a visit. However if you want to visit Venexia do bear in mind that this region is scheduled to close its doors on June 13th, so you may want to visit Venexia before you visit Goatswood, as Goatswood is open until June 19th.

However it should also be noted that Baal and Kora have plans to create games on their own servers, as the announcement states :

For us though this is not the end by any means.

We fully intend to continue what we have begun here in what we consider to be a far more user friendly and far less financially restricting environment.

Welcome to NeverworldX!

In brief, Neverworld X is to be a much improved and expanded series of role play environments hosted on our own grid using our own game system. This environment will be almost exactly the same as that found in SL, so will take little or no adjustment at all for regular players in our sims.

The RP game will be our main focus, but we will also be able to provide a standard sim rental service, at massively reduced prices, for anyone who wishes to own their own sims. We hope to also be able to provide an on line market place for the sale and exchange of items related to our game, such as clothing weapons animations etc, so we would love to hear from any content creators looking for new avenues to explore.

This is of course a huge undertaking that will take quite some time to expand and grow as we hope it will. So why the big move? After many years struggling to maintain a presence in SL, regularly loosing great chunks of creativity to the ever present fear of financial viability we have finally decided that we would much rather take control of our own destiny and build a world where our creative freedom is unhindered by forces beyond our control.

We very much hope many of you will come take a look at what we are doing hopefully stick around and help us build a better (virtual) world. Hope to see you there soon.

If you would like to be one of the first to get the latest news and media related to the project Kora has set up a web page where those who wish may sign up to get the latest info and be part of any early access beta testing that might be needed etc. There is also a FAQ section where we will post replies to any questions you might have related to the project.

The announcement does, without any shadow of a doubt, contain more than an element of “The Tier Is Too Damn High!” This is an issue that many Roleplaying communities in Second Life face. Some roleplaying communities in Second Life however, do thrive, it’s not all doom and gloom for roleplaying communities, but for others, it’s a long struggle. However it should be said that Second Life has provided Baal and Zora the opportunity to develop their vision, extend their reach and try new ventures.

I’ll be interested to see how their new venture gets on, there are definitely challenges with moving outside Second Life, but they are challenges that many have embraced. OpenSim based worlds face different challenges to Second Life regions. Whereas tier is a bugbear in Second Life, OpenSim does not have the same sort of reach as Second Life. However OpenSim certainly has far lower financial costs.

Linden Lab are working away to continue to improve Second Life as well as working on other projects, such as Project Sansar, Linden Lab’s nextgen virtual world, so it’s perfectly understandable that costs in Second Life are higher than OpenSim.

Goatswood and Venexia have provided Second Life users with many an hour of fun and are really good examples of creativity in Second Life. NeverworldX is the next step in the adventure for the creativity of those behind these builds and I wish them all the very best with their future venture. I am of course disappointed that these two gorgeous builds will soon no longer be part of Second Life though.

Catch them whilst you can.

SLURL To Venexia : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Venexia/32/246/609/

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