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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Vampire Succubus Club Closes

On Friday, February 12th, the Vampire Succubus Club held it’s last party. At 10 AM, DJ Antarias Gothly started the event, with a 500 Linden prize up for grabs. Antarias invited all who could, “Make sure you come, and say your goodbyes, and share your memories.”

The Vampire Succubus Club, or the VSC as it was called for short, was built in the Giorna Kel sim. The sim was the setting for a vampire RP, the Caprionian vampires, but the club was a “fun area,” a “gothic burlesque club” where the vampires, friends of the vamps, friends of friends, or the simply curious could drop by and have fun. People were invited to stop by to “drink, dance, or get bitten.” But aside from vamp couples nibbling on one another, nobody was being a pain in the neck.

The music was generally goth, punk, techno, metal, and alternative, but other tunes were also played. Smogg Valois was the owner of the club, with Mistressbubbles Bondar as manager. Besides Antarias, DJs at the club included TessaFae and Sakura.

Talking with Mistressbubbles, of the club closing, “It was coming on for a while. Closing it gives us more time and energy for a new and better project. ... But it is a ways down the line still. ... The club is still standing for now. It's part of the RP of this place. But it has been modded to look abandoned. We plan to keep it up for a while at least. Have the occasional party or clan function. ... Closing the club will give us the time to focus on the lands and to invest in role-play. Also, I am working on building up the Faelands a bit more and adding some shops and hopefully soon 7Seas fishing.”

And so, the candlelight in the club went out for the last time, the creatures of the night slinking away to other things.

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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