Despite the un ease we fell into the accepted pattern at OneFinalDarkness and tried to make things at least interesting for the 'People!!' who camped with us. In some odd way much of the layout and attractive vista's which abound on OneFinalDarkness were born in this time as we often tested the camping ourselves and asked questions of each other like "Would you sit looking at that view for several hours??".
It was around this time that Babette and I had the good fortune to meet two people who would soon become great friends and real champions of the OneFinalDarkness Sims and our attempts to promote them. The first of these people is Shelly Macchi; we started talking, ironically, because there were issues with the early camping systems and both Babette and I felt that if people were putting the time in then they should be paid so we asked people to tell us if they had any problems receiving their camping money.
The first purely business like conversations we had soon blossomed into regular chats which led us inevitably to a friend of Shelly's who had also started on the camping; Thanatos796 McCallen. Quite an unusual name ... but many names in Second Life are ... and it turned out he is also quite a DJ. There were undoubtedly many more conversations than my ageing memory can recall before the topic arose of Than (as he is affectionately known) becoming a regular DJ for us. Once Than was doing some regular slots for us it was only a short time before Shelly joined him on a regular basis as a host for the events and quite honestly they are such a good team and have gone from strength to strength.
I have of course digressed a little there!
In addition to our newly found friendships, what Than and Shelly also gave us was an insight into what was actually happening with the camping!! It turns out that Babette and I had naively assumed that the avatars we saw camping where linked to real people on a one to one basis .... they weren't!! Shelly and Than were able to show us incidents were as many as 10 avatars were being run by the same person using what are referred to as 'Bot' programs. To say we felt used is an understatement!! The first step was to try different 'Anti-Bot' camping systems but once alerted by Shelly and Than's warnings Babette and I regularly checked for 'Bot' activity ... at almost each turn we discovered Bots taking our money!!!
We still have camping on the Main Sim today ... but it is controlled by a closed, invitation only, group and we insist that any one wishing to join is seen as being a regular visitor to the Sims and taking part in events; it's not that much to ask really as the events are often themed music events and have prize money for best in theme.
At one time we were probably paying out 15000 Lindens per month in camping fees and in reality receiving nothing in return. Some people complained when the way sim popularity, as measured by the Lindens, changed and traffic became less important as an indicator. Since then better ways of getting people to see the Sims have arisen, Earn2Life is a good example of earning opportunities within Second Life and it's companion SLBiz2Life (for the business owners wanting to invest in effective marketting campaigns); these initiatives have bought us some good, solid, genuine traffic some of which has turned into regular shop renters and indeed friends.
Overall I don't regret the camping and it's various skirmishes because of the tangible benefits in terms of friendships that have arisen as a result ... the only disappointing thing is realising that, in what should be an ideal world where everyone has a chance to excel and be the best they can, real life intrudes and the darker side of human nature shows through with some individuals choosing despicable means to further their own personal gain.
The camping will continue on OneFinalDarkness ... the difference these days is that it is more a way of saying thank you to all the regular people who help to make the Sims here what they are, full of life and fun, and as a result keep inspiring Babette and myself to keep modifying little bits and trying to make things even nicer for you all .... One last thought ... Please!!
NO Camp Fires !!! LoLoLoL
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment