They could also be called other worlds though, but I feel that each simulation (sim) is a new world just in SL. But there are other grids like SL out there and I hang out on a few of them. So let's talk about the differences between these grids and why would anyone want to hang out there anyway?
Probably the most sensible reason to visit another virtual grid is cost. SL is a very expensive place to 'live'. Land, clothing, furniture, gadgets, vehicles, entertainment, all cost. Everything you can imagine is for sale in SL and it is mostly relatively expensive. Oh sure, I've purchased fully furnished houses for around L$300, which works out to about $1.25 US dollars. And that is becoming more and more common. Lots of things such as beds, cost thousands of L$ (Linden dollars). In the 'old days' ( four years ago for me) a fully furnished house would cost upwards of L$3000 or more for something with some good size to it. Now a house with even more features and fully animated furniture costs about 10% of that. Why? I think people are realizing how easy it is to learn to make your own home with some time and learning effort. The days of over-priced items in SL are nearly over but not quite. There are a few clothing places that are not keeping pace with the more affordable economy. Nadas fashions are very reasonably priced and of high quality, but there are other creators out there that commonly ask L$400 to L$600 per outfit. Their competition will have them going out of business soon if they keep that up. Most quality outfits now cost anywhere from L$60 to L$200. Items with animations in them are still pretty expensive for the most part. Animations require a L$10 upload fee for each one. So a couple's animated bed with roughly 400 animations in it can cost quite a bit to create. Clothing does not cost so much to make anymore.
So why is SL still considered the most expensive virtual world out there? Because their virtual property costs are so high. A regular sim is roughly 65,000 square meters (sq m) and can contain 15,000 primitives (prims) or objects. The monthly cost for a sim like this is $300 US dollars. That's a lot really for not owning anything that's real and solid. You can place (rezz) nearly 15,000 prims on it but you really do not have them. They can vanish tomorrow if you don't pay your monthly tier. But that's true of any virtual land. What if you could own a sim for only $75 per month and it could contain 45,000 prims? And there were no limits on how large you could make a prim? That's where these other virtual worlds come in.
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| Otto Turbo at Open Sim |
I think the first one I tried years ago was Open Sim. I went there because Linden Labs increased the cost of land in SL and I was upset. I just wanted a nice virtual house to live in on some nice virtual land and to throw nightly parties that wouldn't cost too much money. That's all I wanted or so I thought. When I arrived on Open Sim I found my avatar looked really really bad. I ran into a woman there who looked really good though and she was patient and showed me a shopping mall where I could get some free stuff. The only problem was, it was mostly all for women and the guy stuff there looked really bad. I ended up making my own pants and shirt. I picked up some freebie boots and I probably never did anything about the hair. But the main thing I found on Open Sim is there is no economy. At least I cannot find one. In Open Sim, anyone can own a full sim. All you have to do is pick a location on the map for it and you run it off of your own computer as if it were a server. No out of pocket cost to you! It's 45,000 prims and all free. At the time of this writing, I have yet to find out if you can acquire other people's creations for free, but I'm thinking that you can. So on a sim that you own, you can build your house and your world and have parties every night! The only problem is, there are probably 200 people online at one time as compared to SL's 50,000. That means you will need to go out and make a bunch of friends to have parties. It sounds like an awful lot of work to me. Also, if you shut your computer off, which is acting as a server for your sim, your sim vanishes. You can create your sim again once your computer is powered up, but it won't likely be in the same spot on the grid map. People will have a hard time finding you if you keep that up. So it was back to SL for me. I paid their inflated fees but I had a very richly and heavily populated virtual world to live in for the time being.
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| Otto Turbo in InWorldz |
Then came InWorldz. I can't quite remember how I found InWorldz. I knew there were other grids out there but I figured they were all like Open Sim so I ignored it. But someone or something got me curious so I opened an InWorldz account. I rezzed in there looking really new. No skin tone, slight build, bad hair and awful clolthes. But everyone there greeted me and they were friendly and pointed out the freebie shops all around where I was, so I went 'shopping' with no money. Come to find out, at least one of the avis who greeted me was one of the owners of IWz. I think it's pretty cool that they care that much for their customers. It is one of the main reasons I'll keep hanging out there. So I got myself together and ended up purchasing a skin and making my own shape. But I was able to find my SL hair creator's shop in IWz! So not only does my avi have the same name and shape as my SL avi, it also has the same hair. Both avis in both worlds look very much the same, but the SL one has much better skin and looks, along with a much better choice in wardrobe. But there are other differences between the two worlds.
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Jaynee Turbo in InWorldz for modeling my ladies creations.
Please guys, stop hitting on me. It's creepy! |
In IWz, you can own a sim for $75 US per month. You can also have up to 45,000 prims. Much more than SL. There is also no size restrictions to your prims. One of the bad things about IWz is that there's hardly anyone there. Probably 200 maximum is all I've ever seen at any one time. The IWz web site claims there are lots more users than that though, and they will all need clothes and that's one thing I can make. So I struck out to make an income in IWz so I would not need to bring in anymore real money. I made a couple of tee shirts and pants and even a leather and lace scanty ladies outfit to sell there. Well, I didn't have a shop to put the vendors out in but I was approached by a woman who had just purchased a sim and she wanted a shopping mall. Shopping malls are great because it's a place for creators to gather and sell all of their creations and it's great for the shopper because everything is all in one place. Just like real life. And the sim owner collects rental on all the shops so her costs are offset too. It's all good. This sim owner was offering me a free shop for life if I built her shopping mall. That is a good deal. The only problem is, she had a say in everything, every step of the way. Don't get me wrong, I truly did value her input, but it sure did slow me down and I had only 2 weeks to build it. As it turned out, she wanted it completed in one week. That was a very tall order because as it turned out, the mall covered the entire sim, and not on the ground either. I built it over 1000 meters in the sky. Like I said, tall order. So I finished her mall but I have yet to get a free shop as she is filled up solid with shop renters and that doesn't bother me that much. I'm happy that she's doing well. But until I get my free shop, I won't mention any names ;-)
So I broke down and purchased my own 1/4 sim and had my friend Whisper and her man move in with me. I did that for about 8 months and while I had a vendor or two in Whisper's shop at another mall, I didn't sell enough to offset the cost of the land, so I let the land go. About a month after that, Whisper purchased her own sim, a full one and offered to let me have a skybox home on it for free. I still pay her I$50 (Izzies) per month for my little kiosk shop there, but that's my only expense. I sell an item or two once in a while there and that pretty much covers my expenses. But I cannot wait to get into my friend's shopping mall. That should increase business enough to work on expanding. So it pays to be in InWorldz, but the parties there are few and far between. Ichie sings there live once per week where my kiosk is, but I have to DJ in SL at the same time of night so I can hardly ever make it to one of her performances. InWorldz also does not have a method for scripts to run across sim borders. So if you have a HUD operating and you go across sim lines, the scrips all reset and it's quite a pain in the ass. Also, no vehicle scripts there. Despite all those shortcomings, IWz is a fun place to visit and you should check it out. If enough of us SL people went over there, they would expand enough where they could invest in fixing these shortcomings and it would be more of a feature rich environment.
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| Otto Turbo in Island Oaisis |
Island Oasis is another nice virtual grid to not only visit but live on. I have just recently started an IO account but so far I'm having difficulties in creating a decent looking avatar. But one thing about IO that stands out above all the rest is free land! That's right, you can live there for free. You get a small parcel which has a rental box on it. Just click on that box at least once per week and you are living for free. You get 250 prims you can use on that parcel too. So I'm starting to build a house there. I might put up a skybox too as a place to entertain guests. I have already made 2 friends there in 2 visits. I told them I was looking for some decent hair, mine was really bad, and one of them gave me free hair, but it was attached to a cowboy hat... and it was blonde. I like darker hair. So I graciously accepted the offered gift and I am now in the process of changing the hair color and I will soon be removing the hat from the hair. This is the first time I've ever worked with avi hair and it's a bit tricky, but the hair I come up with will be much better than the free hair I had. I'm still not yet certain what I'll be doing in Island Oasis, but I'm liking it so far. The cost of a sim there is $75 US which is exactly like the other places with 45,000 prims supported too. So much more affordable than SL. Unfortunately, there never seem to be more than 400 people logged in there at any one time. Still, that's a fair number of potential friends to make.
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| Otto Rocco in AviNation |
Finally, AviNation is another grid I'm on. I've only recently started an account there too and have not brought in any real money there, so I'm having a hard time making my avatar look okay, but it's a nice place to explore and again, it's probably not easy to live for free there. I did find a bunch of freebies but they are also less than top quality items. I will probably be making my own clothes there too. Unlike the other places, I have not met anyone at AviNation. I believe it is European run so my time of night was probably not their prime time. So it's hard to say how many people are online at any one time. But I do enjoy trying to find bits and pieces to help build my avatar up to looking half way decent. One of the first things I did was get a free Animation Override (AO). Your avatar can look pretty silly walking around with stick-like movements. Then it was skin that was not pasty and hair. I have the worst luck with hair. I look really bad but given time I'll either make some or find some. AviNation is by far the least expensive place to live. It costs less than $29 US to live on a full 45,000 prim sim for a month. But a big problem with AviNation is there is nobody there. Last time I logged on, the viewer informed me there were 67 other residents there. It would be difficult to earn back your investment by selling stuff on your sim when there are only 67 people at a time on the entire grid. It remains to be seen what I'll do with my account there. Another bad thing is I was unable to choose my surname, so it's one of the only grids I'm not known as Otto Turbo on.
So why is SL so much different? Why do they charge so much for their land fees? $300 per month vs. $75 per month or even $29? They were the first. They led the way. But I can already see signs of costs going down in SL. They keep adding features such as mesh objects, which makes for a much richer environment, but they also cost a lot. I suppose that they will keep charging a lot too, just so long as they have users willing to pay it. What I do to offset my costs is to DJ three nights a week. The tips and payments from those events cut my expenses down to a reasonable amount. No, they do not cover my expenses completely, but they make it so I can afford a nice rich environment to share with .:cat:. and Neva. Unless I could come up with a comparable environment on any of these other grids, I doubt the girls would enjoy them very much. But we'll see. It's very possible one of these grids might get serious about competing with SL and begin to provide a rich virtual world as well.
