A Second Life Alternative?

After it has been officially announced, that Linden Lab fired 30% of their employees, I, like many, started to look out for an alternative to Second Life, before the ship finally sinks. I already tried out Openlife 2 years ago, and it was mainly a pain in the ass, since nothing really worked over there. It still hasn't been successful until today, which confirms the poor performance. I even visited that grid again a few weeks ago, and it was empty. So it's actually not worth another visit.

Now I read some people talking about a new grid called "Inworldz" and they are quite enthusiastic, that it's gonna be the "next" Second Life. So I went there to check what the hype was all about. The registration was quite easy and quick, and it doesn't require your real name. There are no starter avatars available, so it's mainly back to the "ruth". So this is how I looked like, as soon as I rezzed there for the first time (click images to enlarge):

There are lots of bugs and glitches, and this one was quite creepy, cuz I had transparent holes on some parts of my body *shudder*. Some avatars were also affected by this bug.

One good thing about going to a new grid, is that "noobie" experience that you go through again. It was quite exciting to feel that way again, after 3 1/2 years in Second Life (Ahh the joys of a noobie!). My first task was, to wash off the "ruth", as soon as possible. So after I was greeted by the friendly residents, who were hanging out at the welcome spot, I immediately went to the freebie store, which was nearly located and easy to spot.

I got my first "friend" too, whom I met at the freebie shop, who also just rezzed like me. It was fun to pick up the freebies for a quick make-over, but then every newbie of course looked the same too, since there weren't many freebies available yet. So I thought, I'll just get a quick make-over, before I start uploading my own stuff later on.

But then I was crashing every 5 minutes and there are just too many bugs, which are very annoying, if you're trying to get things right. For example, if you edit a linked part that you are wearing, it will simply disappear. If you are lucky, it will appear again next time, but I unfortunately lost some stuff I was working on, caused by this bug.

There is of course a work around, which is, when the item has been rezzed, you have to unlink everything, before you start working on it. This means lots of fun if you are e.g. creating hair with more than 20 prims. Well you need to have lots of time and patience for that too.

You can basically use a viewer (e.g. Imprudence viewer) that can export stuff from Second Life and import it to Inworldz. But take note that according to the TOS, it is only possible to export stuff that you own and created. This means, if you mostly create and build stuff using an alt, you need to recreate all of these again, with your main, or the one you are using for Inworldz.

Another thing is, the other viewers I use for Inworldz, which are the Inworldz viewer, Imprudence and Hippo, the recommended ones according to the download site, are buggy and unstable. I've been crashing every 5 min. and most of the time, for no reason (silent crash). So if you are working on stuff, the more chances that you crash too. So I've been going there once in a while to proceed with some work, if I know I got some patience and time on that day, otherwise, it's a no go.

So this is how I looked like, after my first attempt of a real make-over:

I'm wearing one of the 3 female freebie hairs available from the freebie shop, since I found out, that nobody actually saw the hair I was wearing (my own creation), cuz I was the only one using the Emerald viewer, and I can see everything correctly. But others who were using the "standard" viewers, actually saw me, looking like a complete idiot. This was suppose to be my appearance, using the Emerald viewer:

But all they saw, was me wearing white colored balls attached on my head. One of the mentors at the welcome area, which is of course my "home", kept on telling me to adjust my hair. I thought, what the fuck she want? So I basically looked like a fucking imbecile, without me knowing it, since I was seeing myself correctly.

I had to figure out later on, that it's not enough to export a sculpted object from Second Life and import it to Inworldz. You also need to import all the sculpt maps, and redo the object once again.

But of course, people over there won't tell you that. Even if you keep asking what is wrong. One expects a so called "mentor" should at least have knowledge about those things. When I mentioned about the problems, that were occurring, regarding sculpties, all that mentor told me was, "Oh I love sculpties!" (insert Twilight Zone theme) jeez wtf?!

So this is an example of how they actually saw me, wearing my shoes ("hello stoopid noob!"):

After a couple of attempts and patience, this is how I finally look like:

Here's to summarize:

The Pros

• Friendly residents
• Cheaper Sims (65 US $ per month for Mainland which is only PG / 75 US$ per month for an Estate which is Mature)
• No set-up fee (yet) for a Sim purchase
• More prims available (35000 - 45000)
• Supports mega prims
• Free upload
• Working at a Sandbox is peaceful. No disturbances of griefers and such.
• Ability to transfer your lindens to your Inworldz account (if you use the same name) by paying one of the ATMs in Second Life, then withdrawing it from an ATM in Inworldz.

The Cons

• No real registered legit company for RL contact purposes
• No Physics
• Very buggy (constant crashes)
• Population is still sparse but growing rapidly (approximately 6000 total registers and 97 online during peak hours)
• Very laggy when a sim is crowded (I'd say 10 upwards).
• Items disappear when editing. I even experienced that some disappeared from my inventory
• Search is not available
• Map does not function correctly (you can't see the world map and green dots also don't appear even if marked)
• Scripts don't work correctly (e.g. the available free AO from the freebie store never works, thus no escape from the "duck" walk)
• Not possible to cash out yet (work around is to transfer the I'z to your SL account, through an ATM)
• Copybotters - which are still rare (I hope), but seeing someone who imported her complete Second Life avatar to Inworldz, and I'm certain, she didn't create everything, since the skin is a LAQ skin. I knew then, that many are using copybot viewers, to import loads of stuff to Inworldz.
• More bugs etc.

I first thought of opening up a small shop at Inworldz, by renting a small plot first, but then after experiencing all the constant crashes and bugs, I had second thoughts. I mean, who on earth would invest 75 US$ monthly, during those circumstances? I guess only people, who got enough cash to play with. Cuz it's not an investment at the moment, in my opinion. It's just a "playground" for experimenting, and you need to have lots of time in your hands (one has to be unemployed in real life, to have time for SL and other grids). I'd rather spend those 75 US$ monthly on the new iPhone.

Let me put it in this scenario, I import my stuff, recreate/modify them for Inworldz, rent a small plot, do the shots for the ads, build a shop, box up the items, put it up in the store for sale. But who the hell is gonna buy my products?

If:

• you crash when you teleport
• you can't be found using search, since it's not functioning
• just a few residents are there
• too buggy that I already got a horror scenario of customers, complaining about failed purchases
• one could finally purchase cool stuff to wear, but for what?

And so on and so forth. So since I only got very little time anyway, that I hardly log on to SL, well perhaps just twice a week, to get some work done, I came to the conclusion, that Inworldz is not the adequate alternative for Second Life yet. Well not for me. But still has potential to succeed, if the founders stay dedicated and passionate about their product.

My only concern is, since the Devs/Owners/Founders, which are only 3 people, are the ones who take care of every single thing, especially one of them, it will not be possible, to cater to all, especially, the rapid growing population. Imagine if the responsible gets sick or RL gets in the way (see Slapt.me for example), then that grid will be shut down just like that.

Of course they need to hire, professionals for certain positions, to accomodate the growing population, but believe me, once it goes up to the 10s and 20s of ks, it won't be that friendly anymore, since it will become a corporate and corporate is about business and most of all, profit. No personal greetings and catering to residents anymore. And then people will start whining, how bad everything is, and how wonderful it used to be, when there were only like 40 residents, just like what you read everyday in SL forums. Well wake up people, that's how it goes! It all belongs to progress!

All I know is, after experiencing all those discomfort, logging in to Second Life, to work on stuff for hours and hours without crashing, was all of a sudden, such a relief. And I learned more to treasure SL. Now that Philip Linden is back, I'm hoping for improvements and fixes. Also that the Lindex stabilizes again. I'ved been trying to cash out now for more than a month, and it still didn't went through, well hopefully soon.

I know Philip is not as innocent about the Linden Lab fuck-ups, as we all want to believe, but at least he knows what SL is about. And if Second Life goes down, sometime in the future, then it would be bye bye virtual worlds for me, cuz I will spend all my time then on my music, and many more other projects, when the time comes.

Anyway, I wish Inworldz much luck and success. I might give them a visit again in a year or so, if they still exist.