Star Trek Museum to Close

I am sorry to announce that unless things drastically change (like my winning the lottery) I will be closing the Star Trek Museum as of July 31, and will be giving up these islands. Its been a great nearly 4-year run, but it is time to move on. I hope you will continue to visit until then.

For a long time our house sales and donations have been inadequate to pay the huge Linden Labs bills. On top of that, Linden Labs has made it more difficult to attract people to the museum. We cannot be in the Showcase because we use copyrighted material. Our events, which brought hundreds of new visitors a week, and donations, have been disallowed, while yard sales, nude beaches, penis stores and fake contests are allowed to flourish) and it is especially difficult to sell homes with all the limitations and expense of advertising.

Without visitor donations and house sales, it is impossible to pay the bills. I have hung on as long as possible to try to save the museum, all the hard work by the staff and volunteers, and all the homes.

Besides the monetary cost of running this place, taking care of the museum, fixing and finding things, helping visitors and residents, advertising, bookkeeping, all require a huge amount of time and energy, and I cannot afford the expense or the many hours per day any longer. To be honest, I am really looking forward to having more time for my real life ;-)

To all of you who have been helpful around the museum, supported the museum with your tiers and rents, and generous with donations, you know who you are and how appreciative I am. I sincerely thank you again. To others, my only advice is to donate to the places you love in SL, or they may disappear too, as so many have.

With our home-world gone, Tsora and I will most likely be retiring to our little corner of the universe, the Vulcan colony in Eridani, and do look forward to your visits.

P.S. Although the museum per se is not for sale (we could not bear to see it taken over and changed by others), if anyone knows somebody looking to purchase a used island, either empty or including the homes, scuba, and non-museum things, please give them my name. I will pay 10% finders fee on sale of a sim. Tsora Enoch indicates she will entertain offers regarding her creations. I would just like to recoup a little of my investment.

Live Long and Prosper!
Wabisabi Matahari

The Star Trek Museum is at the TovaDok sim at (24, 212, 34)

"Second star to the right and straight on till morning..."

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Virtual World There.com to Close

In an announcement on March 2, 2010, There.com’s CEO Mike Wilson announced the virtual world would be shutting down on March 9. Wilson cited the troubled real-life economy as the reason for the decision.

There.com's customers were hardest hit by the recession, and, so was There. While our membership numbers and the number of people in the world have continued to grow, there has been a marked decrease in revenue ... at the end of the day, we can't cure the recession, and at some point we have to stop writing checks to keep the world open. There's nothing more we would like to avoid this, but There is a business, and a business that can't support itself doesn't work. Before the recession hit, we were incredibly confident and all indicators were "directionally correct" and we had every reason to believe growth would continue. But, as many of you know personally, the downturn has been prolonged and severe, and ultimately pervasive.

There was launched in October 2003, not long after Second Life. It was founded by Will Harvey, whom was noted for writing the first commercial sheet music processor for home computers “Music Construction Set,” and work on several computer games. The Instant Messenger IMVU was also founded by Harvey. Jeffrey Ventrella was There’s co-founder, noted for his programs on artificial life, whom later worked as a developer at Linden Lab.

In it’s early days, There did well, possibly because of the prestige of it’s founder and starting out with more funding than Second Life. But it soon ran low on finances, and Second Life gained the media spotlight. It ran into trouble starting in 2004, and in 2005 the company split in two, Makena Technologies which continued to operate the virtual world, and Forterra Systems, which concentrated on “private and secure” virtual worlds for government and corporate clients.

There distinguished itself from Second Life as a more family-friendly place with “controls on adult content and griefers,” which attracted some users too edgy for it’s more noted competitor. It also aimed at teenagers, whom were too young for Second Life’s main grid. The language on it’s info page included, “Feeling awesome today? You can look awesome. Feeling like you want to make some heads snap around? You can look knock-down gorgeous and totally buff.”

There also advertised itself as more corparite freindly, having places such as Club Scion and Coca-Cola Skate Park. In 2006, There partnered with MTV. Other brands with a presence in There include Cosmogirl, The Humane Society, Paramount Studios, and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Like Second Life, residents of there moved about in avatars, and could communicate in text and private Instant Messaging, or voice for those with Premium accounts. Unlike Second Life, avatars could only be modified from a basic human form: hair, skin, and eye colors, head and body shapes, etc. Avatar graphics were a little simpler than those on Second Life as well. People could get around on foot, or on vehicles such as buggys and hoverboards. There was an emphasis on sports, such as the paintball games in the video on There’s introduction page on it’s website. There were also virtual pets, although limited to two breeds of dogs.

There also had it’s own virtual economy, with it’s currency called “Therebucks,” which could be bought and sold from and to the company, with one US dollar equal to 1,800 T. There were also virtual banks, which unlike Second Life remained legal on There. People with Premium memberships could build and sell items, such as buildings and vehicles, as well as being able to own and rent homes. There had it’s own newsletter at www.therefuntimes.com.

Unlike Second Life, There was never available to Mac users.

In Second Life, Torley Linden named his personal sim “Here” as a tribute to There. The surname “Thereian” is used by a few Second Life residents.

In the statement, Wilson stated there would be refunds on “All purchases of Therebucks and member program updates” between February 1 and the moment the closing was announced, “We will attempt to continue a Therebucks buyback for developers.” There also appeared to be a subtle jab at Second Life, “many things ... made There special, accessible, and attractive to people from all over the United States and the world -- not just the privileged with high-end machines and broadband connections.”

There have been a number of comments by former users. One “on again off again” user felt there were several reasons for it’’s decline, including that suggestions for new activities were often ignored, and the corporate endorsements to make up for a stagnant membership might have brought in cash but also ruined the “ambiance” of There, and some changes “helped kill off some of it’s most popular activities and communities ... One of the last lingering, saddest memories I had before quitting There was to see the once thriving hoverboard park a ghost town.” More common were expressions of sadness over the loss of the virtual world.

Of final thoughts, those from CNet writer Daniel Terdiman are as good as any, “For me, though I hadn't gone into There for quite some time, I always enjoyed the idea that I could go back in, jump in my wonderful hoverboat and go for a nice long ride. I recall the early days of There when there were regular hoverboat flotillas and when you could easily find people riding around on flying dragons. To all the fans of There who will now be without a digital home, there is perhaps only one suitable salutation: 'wave. “

For the announcement of There's closing, Click Here.

Sources: CNet, Massively

Bixyl Shuftan

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Virtual World “Metaplace” to Close

On December 21, 2009, there was an announcement on the forum of the virtual world “Metaplace,” stating that at 11:59 PM on January 1, 2010, the place would be shutting down.

Raph Koster, the designer of Metaplace, had a shorter statement on his own website (raphkoster.com):

Today we announced that the consumer-facing Metaplace service, the one you all know as the user-generated worlds website at Metaplace.com, is closing on January 1st. There’s a FAQ and an official letter on the site.

The reason? Well, it just hasn’t gotten traction. I have many thoughts on why, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t go into all of them right now. It is a sad day for us here, and I know many users are going to be very disappointed by this turn of events.

Metaplace Inc isn’t going away – in fact, we have some pretty exciting plans. But those plans are best shared on a future day.

If we have to sunset the service, we want to do it right. So for the next two weeks – come visit, and enjoy and celebrate all of the amazing creativity and work users put into their worlds. We’re providing a way for users to grab the data that makes up their worlds. We’ll be opening a website for the community so that you don’t lose touch with your Metaplace friends. And we’ll have a big party on the last day – because Metaplace.com will not go quietly, but with the sound of meeps and music and laughter.

It was a wonderful world full of wonderful people, and I will miss it more than I can say.

Raph Koster worked at Ultima Online, and later Star Wars Galaxies before creating Metaplace.

Metaplace was released in 2007. Unlike Second Life, Metaplace did not need the user to download any sofware. Using Flash for display, it was entirely “web based.” Graphics and controls were simple compared to Second Life. It was similar to Gaia Online in some ways, the avatars appearing a bit cartoonish. But unlike Gaia, Metaverse failed to break into the teen and young adults markets.

Somewhat like Second Life, one could modify one’s own space, provided for free, into either a game area, personal home, or wilderness area. But compared to SL, one was quite limited in options. Characters could level and receive gold as they went about, Level 101 being the top rank. First available as a Beta, a “final version” was supposed to be available later, but it never came.

The post on the Metaplace forum was filled with users expressing shock, and wondering what they would do. Hopefully some will head over here to Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan

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Club Zero Closes

Due to the Sunweaver region cutting back on it’s number of sims, Club Zero is having to close it’s doors. The final party was Saturday November 28th at 8 PM SL time, with Lsai Aeon as the DJ. The “Farewell Bash” had the announcement:

“Come one, come all. Come bid a fond farewell to our beloved Zero Gravity. Come as you are. Come to party. Come to blow this place out of space. DJ Purple Puppy (Lsai) spinning the tunes. Who knows what she will do... Party starts at 8. Get up here. “

The party lasted late into the night, with people determined to have fun while they still could at the space club. Among the highlights, 2000 Lindens were up for grabs in the “Come as You Are” contest. Tippers were also generous, one poledancer getting 2000L. Club Manager Ranchan Weidman will be asking another club in the area not affected by the cutbacks to take up its time slot.

Club Zero has been in it’s current form since spring 2009 after it was placed under the management of Ranchan, and was created over a year ago, run by Spectra Ninetails. The space club has been known for it’s unique design and it’s lively Saturday night dance parties.

Although Club Zero's regulars have other clubs, notably Cutlass, the space station will clearly be missed.

Bixyl Shuftan

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Rezzable to Move to OpenSim, Close Most Sims in Second Life

Rezzable will be moving-on from SL in July. We have decided to close down all our sims on the Second Life grid except for Greenies Home. We will drop Crimson Shadow, Tunnel of Light and Carnival of Doom mid-July. Greenies Lawn is already gone. The Hobo Island is being transferred over to Thinkerer Melville. Black Swan will be deleted from the SL Grid after the Swan Song fashion event closes in mid-August. We will be focusing our efforts on Heritage Key, where we invite you to GoVirtual (VX) with King Tut. We will re-open the Rezzable Grid for people to help us test/improve OpenSim as well as showcase things that work there. We will continue to operate http://rezzable.com and cover metaverse topics and our virtual locations directory.

Heritage Key is a very exciting new opportunity and we really want/need to focus on this. We have a job position open for a designer/builder. We have tried to find ways to make our investment in time and resources profitable on the SL grid, including participating in the SL Gateway program, but at this point we cannot justify further effort. More than 40 sims and 2 years since first opening the Cannery, we are looking beyond the SL grid and see a bright future.

We would like to thank the SL community for welcoming us when we started and putting up with us while we were active. We have had the privilege to work with some of the best builders, scripters, designers and creators. Our sim staff members have been great and they really added the magical ingredient to why so many people have enjoyed visiting our areas. We have hosted tons of events, parties, art shows and general randomness. More than 2.5 million avatar visits have hit our areas. No idea how many freebies we gave out, but some are still/will be setting sims ablaze.

While we have not made the kind of money we would have liked to have generated from our work in SL, we have gained a lot. We have learned a lot. We are glad to have encountered so many truly unique people. We hope to make all our supporters, friends and metaverse enthusiasts proud with Heritage Key, which is a combination of quality content, unique virtual online experience and web community.

We are organizing a set of events and of course special sales promotions. More info about the Rezzable grid will be posted soon.

Statement by Rezzable CEO Jon Himoff at rezzable.com

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