The virtual version of Amsterdam has been sold ... at last !! Or should I say, again. Last march, the owner of this landmark on the grid, Stroker Serpentine put up his very life-like version of this Dutch city for sale on eBay. Not huge news, except that the bid ended on March 26th at a staggering US$ 50,000. But, only 2 months later, it came out that the sale was cancelled. The buyer couldn't live with the fact that he wouldn't own the intellectual rights to the design of the city. At that time, there was another bidder who came in too late and was not able to grab hold of Amsterdam. This bidder was the Dutch Arnhem-based company 3dutch and now it seems that they have come to an agreement anyway.3dutch is a company that already provides various services for real life companies who want to enter SL in a professional way. So they do have experience with SL and doing business in this metaverse, and they seem to be in it for the long term. Today they were not available for comments (either in RL or SL), so we talked to the creator and seller of this city. He was bound by a non-disclosure agreement about details of the sale (including the price), but it seems that he has gotten himself a pretty good deal. We talked to him about it.Dixie Barbosa: I am curious if you will still be involved with Amsterdam (and maybe the Eros sims). For design, maintenance, management or whatever.Stroker Serpentine: We have an excellent relationship with 3Dutch. I am looking forward to collaberating with them on an ongoing basis. We intend to get them up and running as quickly as possible with events and exciting new features. Since they are a Dutch Company they have a unique perspective on what their countrymen (and women) find attractive.Dixie Barbosa: as i've understood, you're not dutch yourself. what drove you to build a virtual version of Amsterdam in the first place?Stroker Serpentine: As a tribute to my SexGen Partner Briggi Bard...who lives there in real life. Not to mention it is the Sexiest City in the world (in my opinion)Dixie Barbosa: I bet you are a very busy man at the moment. One more question. What are your future plans? Will you be doing more building jobs similar to the Amsterdam sim?Stroker Serpentine: Well, 3Dutch will add the touches that will make Amsterdam a complete immersive version. I have been told that the phonebooths I made were English...they were the first thing to be redone :)All in all it seems that Amsterdam might get even more commercial in the future and will have more RL company presence, since that is the core business. And to what Mr. Serpentine got out of it? I bet nobody will ever know. But considering the issue that the sale went sour over before (copyrights etc), and the future collaboration between the old sim owner and the new one, I bet he will be doing very well in the future. He closed our conversation with the words ...Stroker Serpentine: Im excited :))
0 comments:
Post a Comment