And so SL's land costs strikes again. It's such a shame to see two beautiful and unique RP sims closing. It's hard to find this type of "niche" RP, here hoping Kingdom of Sand won't follow their destiny.

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ANNOUNCEMENT FROM BAAL AND KORA

It is with great regret that once again the ever present financial burden of the extreme costs of maintaining sims in second life means that we will be forced to close both Venexia and Goatswood.
These closures will take place on 13th June for Venexia and 19th June for Goatswood.
Any rentals outstanding will of course be refunded.
As Kos still has some active players we will try to keep it running for a while longer.
We would like to say a huge thank you to all those who have over the years contributed so much time and creativity towards the great success of these projects.
They have provided us with many lasting memories, and we have derived immense enjoyment from seeing them brought to life by those who have spent time playing there.
We hope that you have enjoyed using as much as we have enjoyed creating them.
For us though this is not the end by any means.
We fully intend to continue what we have begun here in what we consider to be a far more user friendly and far less financially restricting environment.

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updated by @leopoldina: 30 May 2017 11:00:18PM

What a magnificent build!

So sorry this is happening. Points to threads about historical rp on other grids. We must all consider these alternatives.

Yes, they are so talented. All of their sims are so full of detail, both the story and the appearance of them. I think ultimately the complexity of the stories could even scare some people away, but I like how passionate they seem to be with their projects.

You're right, I have visited both Venexia and Goatswood recently and both seemed to be struggling to gather enough players. And as you said, those sims without people to interact with are unfortunately nothing. Its hard enough to bring people to a sim these days it seems, let alone those with more specific and niche settings, like the royal courts for example. That is one of the main problems in keeping a sim in Second life.

I'm hoping that with Project Sansar , or "SL2", there will be a new big influx of people, something to the likes of Second Life during its height of popularity. Maybe with that not only more communities devoted to the most different settings could begin, but also remain active and stable for longer periods of time.

Mecury wrote: "Without life, it's not worth to finance it, I agree."

I have only spent a little more than two years in SL, but have literally grew up in the virtual world and communities and over and over you see enormous creativity, technical brilliance, real commitment and passion for a project that is in the words of someone whose RL experience with the rise and fall of many commercial ventures in VR is unsurpassed say that sadly it is all casting pearls before swine for the most part. (Gad! That was a LONG sentence....sorry!)

We live in a RL (and SL) world--increasingly so--of consumers not doers. Passive, not active. GOOD RP takes work, a backstory, a willingness to leave your ego outside the door and collaborate, compromise, problem solve and innovate.

When was the last time in RL you saw a bunch of people willing to put forth that much effort? So much "easier" for them to sit in front of a green screen and command a joystick for a packaged video game...or come inworld to place like SL and hop on a poseball and etc., etc.

What I see people in this forum do in SL and other places is wonderfully creative. Since it's never going to appeal to the "masses" in all likelihood, it would seem to me that the more we all work together, explore, and strengthen the ties between communities, the better our chances to survive and transition to new platforms and ways of creating in the future. Change is a given. Adapt to it or fail to survive.

Land costs are an issue...a genuine impediment. But I don't think it's the whole problem. "We have met the problem and it is us." People.

Brilliantly, said, Lorsagne. You echo my thoughts on the matters at hand. Yes, money is a problem, but it is not the whole problem. So is an increasingly lazy consumer public. GOOD RP is work, so it does not have mass appeal. That means those of us who love it have to foot the bills, splitting the expense among fewer and fewer participants. It would seem to me to make sense to A. Look to more affordable alternatives for virtual land and B. Cooperate on period RP venues, trying very darned hard not to duplicate one another's efforts.

I think that's one of the great tragedies of SL: so much creativity, so much brilliance, so often lost, either because it's too expensive to maintain in dollar terms, or because people just can't dedicate the time needed to keep an RP community active and alive.

I don't think we can blame the issue of time commitment on laziness or passivity, at least not entirely. People do have real world commitments, and the qualities that make a person a good builder, sim community leader or inspirer of brilliant RP are also qualities that place demands on their time in real life - and everyone has to earn an income, and look after family needs. Real life sucks time, and also energy. It would be great if everyone was active and creative in their commitments, but we have to respect their need to put their active energy elsewhere.

It's a shame that we can't keep more of these great creations alive, but that's life, and pixels. But I do wish some millionaire would offer to fund an archive for the benefit of future SL archaeologists.

--
Antiquity Hedgewitch

There was recently a discussion on Hypergrid News about doing that very thing, establishing some sort of OAR archive. I am not at all sure it is feasible, but am intrigued with the idea.

And, yes, I realize people have *things* going on, that we are all busy. At the same time, I see us, as a people, becoming less and less active in recreational pursuits. We have become more often receptacles than catalysts.

You both make excellent points.

RL takes time...SL takes time. And always each at the expense of the other.

And as somebody once quipped to me when I was going around feeling rather pleased with myself for being labled a catalyst for a RL project, "catalysts are consumed; there gone without a trace." Sort of like a lot of builds.

I am very sorry to hear this as well, both beautiful sims.

I agree with the posts here, sadly there's only so much time in a day to get things done.

However, Linden Lab does need to recognize that cost is a factor, whether they listen to it or not, I guess time will tell.

I been to both of these Sims, Esquisit.
It a Great loss and a Sad day to see them go.
I did have troble in both of themm, the graphic load lugging my computer down, but each view , once resed was a Painting worth the effort.

Steph passed this to me in an e-mail a few minutes ago....

https://miyarpjournal.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/venexia-and-goatwood-sim-closure/

I suspect this move will motivate a lot of folks to seriously consider alternate platforms for their RP and creative building.