The Challenge of Saving Beloved But Financially Unsustainable Virtual Places

April 4, 2022

Tempura, the popular and much-loved Second Life island, is now gone from the grid, with only screenshots and video to remember it by, another victim of SL's high monthly server maintenance fees. As when any other beloved virtual place meets a digital death like this, community members post well-meaning if belated ideas on how to save it:

Could these amazing regions be resurrected in OpenSim (Kitely)? Seems such a shame to lose them altogether. – Kaylee West

Hypergrid and OpenSims are using SL's open source software and are in most cases entirely free. SL has the largest infrastructure but its been killing creativity and beauty in the name of profit for over a decade. Tempura can exist at no cost or $5 a month really. — Domino Effect

OpenSim definitely is an option! The first challenge there is, the original owner/creator would have to expedite that process, and be prepared to see their works "ripped" and copied by others for uses in other worlds — content theft in OpenSim remains an ongoing problem. The other challenge is that OpenSim continues to have a small active userbase, with the top 10 OS grids attracting fewer than 20,000 active users. (Active users in the aforementioned Kitely: Fewer than 1300.) An OpenSim version of Tempura may not attract enough regular visitors to justify even a $5/month fee, especially when you add on the (presumably free) community management time.

Another option, as longtime SLer Saffia Widdershins writes, is plead for patronage from Linden Lab:

There are a number of regions that Linden Lab has saved as being of historical importance. Offhand I can think of the Galaxy (three regions), Mont St Michel, Svarga and a romantic one whose name I forget, but I’m sure someone can supply!

In all cases, I think Linden Lab has basically bought the region/s in their entirety. That does preserve them, but it means the creator surrendering them – something they may not want to do.

In addition, preserving them doesn’t mean they necessarily retain a high level of visitors. People may talk about their regret at seeing places go, but in recent years, whenever I have visited Svarga, it’s been deserted.

Her last point underlines the key challenge here: Even when Linden Lab takes a sim over, that doesn't mean what's meaningful about it will continue on. An active user community, first and foremost, brings meaning to the virtual world. And in Svarga's case, technology: Originally conceived as a self-contained ecosystem, the scripting behind Svarga soon broke after Linden Lab took it over.

But I don't mean to end this post on a negative note, because there's at least two other, perhaps more reliable ways to save a place like Tempura:

Have a successful event group in Second Life take it over from the original owner, and add a gamification/revenue mechanic which is profitable enough to cover sim tier and compensate people for community management.
Work with the original owner to copy and move the sim to another metaverse platform with an even larger userbase with existing/upcoming monetization options. VRChat comes to mind, as does ROBLOX, Core, or a "sons of Second Life" platform like Sinespace. (Which may not have as large a user base, but does have more direct crossover with SL.)

To be honest, combination A and B is probably the best solution — keep Tempura sustainable in Second Life while expanding its audience and community in other platforms!

Posted in Comment of the Week, Economics of SL, Sim Deathwatch

6 responses to “The Challenge of Saving Beloved But Financially Unsustainable Virtual Places”

Nodoka Hanamura

April 4, 2022

I actually wrote about similar matters to this on my blog when East River closed up: http://nodo.kahanamura.com/2022/03/the-reality-about-east-river.html
In real life, unlike in SL, cities do not exist within a vacuum. They rely on state and federal funding as well as local taxes and other things such as Occupational License fees (OLF) and other financial endeavors to survive. They also depend on regional and federal agencies and entities to do things such as maintain the power grid, build and maintain roads, establish and regulate infrastructure.
To run a city in Second Life is a wholly independent endeavor, which is offered little to no support by Linden Lab. Now, some will point to the SL Region Preservation Society, or SLRPS, but the reality is that SLRPS does not support infrastructure in Second Life in any capacity outside of the protection of historically important properties.
Hotel Chelsea was such an example, owned and operated by the late Enola Vaher. The Hotel was a replica of its’ real life counterpart which hosted great artistic and musical minds such as Stanley Kubrick, Andy Warhol, and Pink Floyd. In SL it did much of the same, offering room and board to Second Life artists, Hotel Chelsea became a hub for the cultural arts in Second Life.
When Enola died, the Hotel entered into dire straits, and Linden Lab stepped into defer it from being seized, and in turn, the property was handed over to SLRPS.
The same was done with Hangers Liquides, when it was facing closure after Djehann Kidd reported facing financial hardships. SLRPS offered to take partial ownership of Hangers Liquides to help offset costs and keep it going.
Now, this is great for historical builds and preserving SL history.. but not so much for keeping cities operational. When SLRPS is transferred control of property, you are not allowed to make income from it. You can’t even modify it without Linden Lab’s overt authorization. This should be a last resort for cities to preserve at least part of their land for historical purposes should they become as historically valuable as East River was.
While Tempura was easily eligible for SLRPS protection, it shouldn’t be the only option.

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Guybrush Treepwood

April 4, 2022

I think you don’t follow the events, you probably don’t read the right sources or read the sources you prefer, as always, besides Opensim, there are many grids, and an Italian one that adopts the custom EgoCore has recreated through some builders an inspired island called Ego Serenity. is AlterEgo Grid. The sim has obviously been offered for free and already boasts many daily visits.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=529322371885881&set=pcb.954506178593940
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=530372168447568&set=pcb.955486578495900

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Tizzy Canucci

April 5, 2022

While it is beloved, is it really transferable? In a new place it ceases to have the memories it built up in the old place where it was made: without that meaning it is in danger of just looking dated and archaic.
The emphasis has to be on the question of whether it is as worth keeping as another suburban estate of premium homes for rent.

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Bavid Dailey

April 7, 2022

As Saffia points out, Svarga is there, but dysfunctional. Maintenance of a highly scripted environment is a lot of work , even if it’s the script creator. For other scripters, its even harder. But most environments need a bit of tweaking from time to time , as the underlying Linden software changes. I expect in most cases, trying to preserve old, beloved sims is doomed to loss-of-audience failure. Entropy always wins

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ems

April 7, 2022

I do not know how all was solved, but the sim of tempura is open in the same place that before, i was able to visit today.

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Dr. Juice

April 9, 2022

That is crazy, I disagree completely! The truth is you need use a good radar detector like this one from escort otherwise you will for sure be pulled over by the police in the real world. Get with the program people!

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