Linden Realms - Abandoment?
Before I get to that, fashion news especially for the feeds. This cute, barely there outfit is from Paradisis. And congrats to designer ankhari tammas who JUST turned five! Parts from the So Sexy set come separately and there are many colors to choose from. The purse will come in handy of course for storing all those crystals.
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I like to think that this blog goes beyond fashion, at least from time to time. Something is amiss in our world and simply put, I would like a chronicle for history's sake.
Here's the deal. Linden Realms opened the first of December. I journeyed over mid month when my desktop was down and I was oh so bored (Graphics on my notebook? No way!) I thought it might be a game my RL girlfriend and I could play together. Eventually that came to pass. Things looked very odd though on my 1.23.5 viewer. No mesh! Oh my.
Eventually I made it over on my rebuilt computer and Firestorm 3.22. MUCH better. My alt visits often. I am not embarrassed to be there hunting crystals but I have way too many IMs and mail; so disruptive when you are running from rock monsters. At first it was fun and things worked well, but the last month or so? No so much. There are six "regions" of Tyrah's made up of twelve sims each. If you zoom out on the map you can see that there are many MORE instances of Tyrah's -- not accessible. They may have been made for the future; I know not.
What I DO know is that things are breaking in the Realms. They are breaking and not getting fixed. Currently there are only two portals that lead to instances of Tyrah's that will load your HUD. The hud let's new folks know what they need to do for their quest. A couple of months ago people were questing up a storm. Colored bubbles with avatars inside covered the landscape as they raced against rock monsters to reach canons along the edge of the region. I haven't seen a colored bubble in many weeks.
Whole sims are not working. The sim is still there with trees and sometimes buildings, but there are no crystals to collect and most often no rock monsters to run from. Even while the sims fail to deliver their optimum enjoyment, attendance is increasing. Between fewer crystals and more people, the challenge is escalating. Not necessarily a bad thing.
I have a few friends that visit the Realms. Some have just joined after seeing what fun it is to hunt those crystals, some have returned to the fold after long absences. So in that way, the Realms have been a success. But why are things breaking and WHY are they not being fixed? I see reports on the Answer Forum from folks wanting to report Realm sims that are down. Obviously, I am not the only one that has noticed.
The general consensus among my friends is that The Labs have a popular game within a game; so popular it is costing them too much money. So when things break, they simply don't fix them. There are a few with more dire ideas that The Labs are purposefully turning off sims to keep the cost of payout down.
I of course don't know the answer. I DO know that folks are noticing. It doesn't send a good message. According to New World Notes, LL says that the new user base has increased. The idea that most of the new users are younger seems likely to me. There is a lot of cheating going on in the Realms. I can't see forty year olds playing the game that way.
It seems like The Labs have abandoned their brainchild of 2011 in favor of the new Wilderness regions made for premium members. I can't visit as I am not premium, but I can look over my RL friend's shoulders and I plan to do that some day. I am having difficulty getting excited about the Wilderness. From the press it seems like some regions where you can meet and chat and such without worrying about the "no payment info on file" folks, indeed without even us with payment info on file but not used :D.
That's my tirade for the eve. I just wanted this down so that I could refer to it in the future. It will be interesting to see what happens to the Realms.
Later note: Since I was at the realms and had a bunch of crystals to turn in that I had forgotten about AND a quest to finish, I tried to do that. While I tried both doors where the hud still works, it appears that the quest is broken and you cannot actually continue or indeed ever get paid for your efforts. This has been a long time issue, but one I thought had been fixed. Silly me. Good to know though as my girlfriend can just hunt for crystals tomorrow when she comes to visit. No point in questing it seems. So much effort gone to waste. Sad.
Pose by: Nigotine
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