I'm not a blogger, I'm a builder. I don't club, I create. I used to own sims in SL, the maximum at one time was 12 sims, and I bought my first two full sims at a setup cost of $1600 EACH and paid just shy of $300 a month for each one for about 4 years. Soon after I bought these sims to be used as rental property, SL reduced the setup cost to $1000, still outrageous to me now that I'm no longer gainfully employed, but ensuring that I would never be able to rent out parcels to make my tier, let alone recoup the setup price. For years, there were alternative grids that had virtually nothing. No animations, no decent vehicles or physics, no decent hair, no events, etc., so there was really no other place to go. That has changed.
I've since abandoned my beautiful beach sims rather than sell for the cost of a transfer to a new owner ($100) because (and pardon my bitter tone) I don't believe anybody ought to be able to get a sim for $100 that I paid $1600 for. Times have changed and LL continues to make global, sweeping changes at will, reversing policy changes (like not competing with the residents by offering free land, rental houses, free avatar clothing and skins, etc.). Now they want to keep the JIRA at a private level so we can't see if someone else has had a similar problem (and see how long it's been a problem.. so they can ignore us less publicly.)
As for alternative worlds, the current OpenSim version of 0.7 and up is totally workable. I have products in several grids now, and my favorite is the place that now feels most like home, Virtual Highway. I joined the enthusiastic residents there and I can build to my heart's delight with far less overhead and virtually unlimited prims. VH now has a global search, groups, solid permissions, classified advertising, physics, water sims, and of course, money. Is it as good as SL? There is really nothing I miss from SL, everything works here. I would invite other content creators, animators and scripters who are tired of the endless sea of competition for every L in SL to come bring their creations to VH and get that pioneer spirit back. Importing works, mesh works, use pretty much any viewer you like.
What does VH have that SL does not? The OpenSim platform has the capability to set region WindLight defaults, a concept know as LightShare. VH is LightShare enabled (many other OpenSim grids are not.) - This means region owners and estate managers can set the windlight settings for sky and water, and make it the Region default so everyone entering the sim sees the same animated sky settings. Talk about setting the mood for your sim! There is a DEMO of this every Saturday at 2pm PDT on different sims in VH if you would like to see this in action.
I'm grateful to SL for allowing me to build and script and learn all about virtual worlds, it will always be my "roots" but it came at an unbelievably HUGE price. I will never buy more land in SL, they're priced totally out of consideration, and I really don't see how reducing their pricing at this point won't anger every current land owner in SL, so I don't see it getting less expensive any time soon. Virtual Highway and other OpenSim grids' memberships and sold regions are on the rise as people become more ALT-aware, and SL's stats are on the decline.
When I win the lottery (any day now).. I won't invest more in SL... but I will have a few nice continents with my new family in Virtual Highway! Thanks for reading
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr