Art for art’s sake, money for God’s sake …. I love that line! Anyway, on with the show. Bryn Oh’s Immersiva has had to close due to financial difficulties. The sim had previously been very generously backed by Dusan Writer, who has gone very quiet lately, does anyone know what he’s doing? I hope he’s ok, I liked his blogs on Second Life a lot. Anyway, unfortunately, for whatever reason, the backing no longer exists, there’s a link here to another sim which hosted Madpea production games.
The good news is that Kiana Writer of Madpea productions and Bryn Oh have both stated in comments on blog posts that they have no desire to leave Second Life. They did request special support from Linden Lab but that request was turned down and I agree with turning it down, not because I don’t think Madpea productions or Bryn Oh don’t add anything to Second Life, quite the opposite, I just get uncomfortable with the idea of Linden Lab subsidising experiences when other people’s creativity is stifled by the same issues at play here, namely how difficult it is for artists, game makers, roleplayers etc. to make ends meet to have a Second Life presence.
This doesn’t mean I don’t have sympathy, I have great sympathy, I just feel the discussion needs to be opened up to looking at ways to making it so that artists and their creativity can thrive.