The most recent announcement of the firing of 30% of Linden Labs’ staff and creating a “browser-based experience” with extending into “popular social networks” is just the latest in a long series of changes happening during the last year. It already created a heated debate, causing even more people to think about alternatives to Second Life.

One of the closest and most promising ones of these is Open Simulator. If it can serve as a haven for Second Life exilantes will depend on everyone’s personal use of SL, though. To avoid confusion, OpenSim is not a place, it is a software project. The software is free and enables everyone to create and run a second life comparable service on their own computers. Thus, its usage can vary broadly.

There are many small communities that started their own grids. Some of them, like Inworldz, 3rd rock grid or the New World Grid are closed and will host everything for their users, from their avatars to inventories, to regions. Others, like OSGrid or Metropolis are more open and allow anyone to connect their own remote region running on their own computers, while only hosting avatar accounts and inventories. And finally, there is the possibility to use OpenSim as a ‘standalone’ private mini-grid for yourself.

Thus, a user thinking about switching to the OpenSim metaverse will have to keep several things in mind and adjust accordingly:

• Your Second Life inventory will be gone. While you can export your own creations with viewers like Imprudence, for example, all the things you bought will not be able to travel with you. Also, your contacts will be gone as well, unless you find some way to keep in touch with them outside of SL (or you will exile together). This is the part that keeps most people in Second Life, but getting away is not as bad as it seems.
• Content is not as abundant as in SL, and economies are fledgling. The permissions system is not as reliable and many grids do not have a payment system implemented. However, sites like this can provide you with some things you can use and upload to any grid (including your own) and use freely.
• While grids are separate, there is a technology called Hypergrid, which enables users to teleport between them (if the operators enabled it) without registering accounts for all grids they visit. Also, your inventory travels with you.
• Even though communities are small and scattered, they are usually very friendly, welcoming and helpful. Many users are SL expatriots as well and know already about the struggle of moving away from SL, and thus can provide a lot of helpful tips.
• OpenSim grids usually make heavy use of web-based community tools like forums or web shops. Don’t rely on inworld exploration alone but be sure to search the web for information.
• Setting up and running your own region / standalone grid requires some technical understanding, but is very rewarding, as the cost to run and play with your own regions is close to zero. Also, there are professional hosting services that can provide managed regions at a fraction of the price of a SL region.
• Also, the OpenSim software itself is still in heavy development and some functions do not work yet, or are unstable. This is part of the excitement on working with an open sourced project that tries to push the boundaries of the web.
• Your views on what a grid is about and what you can do with it are bound to change once you get engaged with OpenSim. Please keep an open mind, as it is much more rewarding than approaching it with preconceived ideas of what you want. In the end, the software is a tool, and what you can do with it is up to you.

Disclaimer: I had wanted to write this article for a long while now, and am still hesitant to do so, but I believe it’s of interest to the public and may help others who might run into the same situation as myself.

I joined Second Life (SL) on 31st March 2007. I made myself a couple of avatars back then, which I deleted shortly thereafter, so my main avatar in SL was Shyft Sands, registered on 1st of July 2007. At the time of the events of this article, I had one other avatar, going by the name of Vanish Tomorrow (VT). However, all my assets were with Shyft Sands, VT was simply used to keep land tier low.¹ I was quite engaged in SL; I joined Second Life Mentors in 2008, I had a fair share of creations and ran a small business, I owned a whole mainland region worth of land, distributed over several regions. I performed as a musician and DJ inworld at a number of events (most importantly on the Burning Life festival 2009). I never made any kind of profit. Most of the things I did, I did for free, simply because I enjoyed doing them.² I had my place inworld, I had a small circle of good friends, I had (and still have) a wonderful partner, and I had sufficient tools, land and prims to build to my hearts content.

There were some things that I was sceptical about, though. Ever since I joined SL, I felt uncomfortable with the simple fact that this very advanced (and, in my eyes, really important and revolutionary) concept was controlled by a single company, in whose hands all the inventories, all the infrastructure, all the money transactions, all data and – along with all that – all policies and decisions lay. I was not a notorious critic, I never went public with my opinions about their policies or anything else, I simply tried to be wary, and help others be aware of the risks and policies they would have to deal with, when they joined or lived in SL. All in all, however, I believed Linden Labs (LL) to be aware of their power and responsibility, and I trusted them to deal wisely and carefully with the money and virtual property they were entrusted with.

Over time, I saw a couple of changes happening, which enraged residents to some extent, and I noticed the company and community to change as well. I never was too affected with these changes though, I simply noticed them. I made it a habit to watch the SL blogs for upcoming changes to policies, as well as stay informed about them through several in-world groups I belonged to. That way, I had heard that by November 4th 2009, usage of the CryoLife client, which allows making backups and copies of textures and objects, would be disallowed by LL.³ As the fact that I had no control over my own inventory, that loss of inventory (sometimes loss of the whole inventory) had occured to several people I knew personally (as well as myself), and that I could not transfer things I bought for myself (some of them several times, as I have had several avatars) on to a new avatar of mine, if I ever should retire Shyft had been bothering me all the time I was in SL⁴, I thought that this would probably be the last chance to make backups of my own things as good as I could, and so I downloaded the CryoLife client on November 3rd 2009.

It wasn’t hard to get actually, all it took was to ask google about it. Being a Mac user, I had to run it on a virtual windows environment on my machine, and I tried it a bit. I was mainly curious about what it could do, and got intrigued by some features I had never before seen in SL or thought possible. I read about CryoLife on the Alphaville Herald and still was amazed that it could do what it was notorious for doing: I could open and save any texture on any avatar I encountered (including myself), I could backup .xml files of any object that was rezzed inworld, and re-upload them. It was a backup tool, but could also be used as a copybot to get assets without the consent of their creator or owner. I experimented a little with it, teleporting all over the grid (using VT for that) and tried to find out how it worked, and what it could copy. Many, if not most shop owners already had installed a defense mechanism which identified CryoLife Users from their shop as soon as they teleported in, but it seemed the client worked over great distances (actually as far as the drawing distance would rezz objects). I copied some avatars and objects just because it was interesting to see what other avatars consisted of. I never gave anything of these things away, or used it for myself, and I never intended to.

On November 4th 2009, while still trying the client out, VT was disconnected from SL. Up to that point, I had thought that when LL stated that “Residents who use third party viewers with the functionality described above to violate our Terms of Service or Community Standards, will be warned and then suspended from the service”, they meant that residents would be warned and then suspended from the service. If they gave me a warning, I never received it. I need to add that the email registered for VT was obsolete at that point, so if LL tried to contact me via VT’s email, I am to blame that I didn’t get it. After this incident, and after I found that I was unable to log in as VT, I thought about what happened, and how I should adress it. VT was a premium account, and paid 25 US-$ per month on tier fees, and I was not sure what would happen about these fees or the associated land holings, would they not be paid anymore. I could not access the VT account on the SL-site either, it simply told me to contact them via phone to verify my account. So I did.

After going through the verification, the call center told me that the only thing I could do to get the account back, was to submit a ticket to LL. So I did. I submitted the ticket, using my main avatar Shyft Sands, stating what I did and what happened and asked what I would need to do to re-enable VT’s account, offering any help neccessary to undo whatever I had done wrong. As a ‘reply’ to this ticket, my account Shyft Sands got terminated as well, and I was permanently banned from accessing SL through any computer I accessed it with ever since I joined (and, probably, from any network I accessed it with, too, but that’s unconfirmed). I got a statement from LL, stating that they had reviewed my appeal, and found that the permanent closure of my accounts was “was justified and correctly applied”. There would be “no refunds or exchanges for any unused time on your subscription, Island purchases, Linden Dollars, or inworld objects, items, or content.”. The ticket was signed with ‘Customer Support, Linden Lab’. It did not tell me, which part of the TOS or CS I violated, nor did it tell me how this conclusion had been reached and what I could do if I felt unjustly accused.

I made myself a new avatar the same day, using my correct RL name, as well as the very same credit card I used for Shyft Sands. I could not access SL using the native Mac environment, but found that I could log into it without problems using a virtual windows machine (of which I can make an infinite number using virtualization software; however, operating SL is awkward, not only because of windows). I got in contact with my partner and friends, telling them what happened and talking about how to deal with it. It was a serious blow to me, and the first thing I worked on was to try to keep damage as low as possible. I found that I could still access the beta grid using my old avatars, and thus make a backup of my inventory, especially of my own creations. Also, the land holdings were still there, as they were group owned, and obviously would remain with the group as long as the tier was covered. Also, some of my objects which were still rezzed in-world, could be taken by my partner, as she had the ‘privilege’ to edit and take my objects. (Not everything could be transferred that way, though, even if the original object was transferable.) On the bottom line, I lost all my inventory, and was forced to access SL in a way which made it hard to enjoy.

After the initial shock waned, we had to think about how we could go on. I thought it pointless to appeal to LL any more, as the two previous tickets did not have any positive effect. So, the first impulse was to start with a new avatar, and keep my head down and be more cautious. At the same time, I started looking for alternatives to SL, only to find that there weren’t any that were appealing to me – all of the alternatives lacked at one or more aspects. Either the graphics were bad, or the interaction and creation tools were too restrictive (or not there at all), or the terms of service or setting was not what I was looking for. What I wanted, was an open, virtual world, where I could do whatever I wanted, as long as I would not violate RL laws.⁵

1. I’ll probably explain the concept behind this in another blogpost regarding land and tier, for now you’ll have to trust me on that.
2. In fact, I paid a monthly sum of 195 US-$ to Linden Labs for tier fees (in addition to two premium accounts).
3. I really can’t find the blogpost that said so, as it’s impossible to find anything on the SL Blogs anymore. The closest I could find was the post on LL’s third party policies.
4. my inventory consisted of around 14.000 items for which I paid between 500 to 800 US-$ over the course of 2 years, including one of the few complete collections of Primout Cars
5. And, given my above explanation, I do believe I didn’t break any RL laws – at least not those relevant to the country I live in. And yes, I know the law.

The closest thing to what I was looking for was OSGrid, which I joined just a few days after the incident on 9th of November 2009. I have to admit, I was sceptical at first, as the project appeared to be very bleak and years and years behind of SL by number of residents, performance of the grid, technology available and in-world creations and economy. It took me a while (and still does, I think) to open myself to what OSGrid is and the different approach it takes on virtual reality. As of the time of this writing, however, I am certain that OSGrid and the Open Simulator project is what I really need and had wanted SL to be all along.

My one base belief is that more free is always better, both for an individual, as well as for society as a whole. The web itself is built around free and open technologies and software, so I am most certain that the future of the web will always take the path of freedom. For a long time I had assumed that LL knows about this, and will eventually open up and become free (just as M Linden stated in his new year’s blog post), but despite all their claims at being open, I had to realize that LL can not, and will never become open. This is not because they’re evil or misguided or plain ignorant, it is due to the nature of their business.

Linden Labs is a webspace provider. They make money (a lot of money, in fact) by renting out servers. That’s the core service behind the Second Life software. In the end, it all revolves around land tiers, and land is nothing else than server space, and tiers are the rental fees for that server space. Linden Labs controls all land in Second Life, and will never open that market up to others (as their competitors will be much cheaper and much better). And most long-term residents own land. Even if they don’t rent it from LL directly, they will pay indirectly for it, as their landlords will have to pay their tiers to LL. In fact, the biggest businesses (and most profitable ones) in SL revolve around land trade.

Even if you don’t have any land for yourself, you still contribute to it whenever you buy something from an inworld store, as the shop owners will have to pay tier for their stores. Actually, to be a profitable business in SL, you’ll have to overcome a certain ‘critical mass’ that will cover your land tiers first. Only then, you’ll make profit. (Not many of the shop owners I know make much profit beyond covering their own tiers. I certainly never did.) Every other aspect of the service serves to bring people to eventually pay tier to LL. And to understand all the improvements and changes that were and will be made, you have to keep one thing in mind: LL’s business always comes first.¹That’s not as heartless as it sounds when remembering that LL is a capitalist venture, and it’s the nature of such to strive for revenue and nothing else. But this also means that: a) there will never be any changes to the SL service which will threaten this business model (which means, there will especially never be a way to rent server space from someone else than LL for use in SL) and b) no matter how things are being promoted on the blog or website, in the end, the driving force will be to further LL’s business. It is not, and never has been, about the residents, unless it means that these residents will in one way or another be drawn to spend some more money on SL.

To make some kind of comparison, think of LL as the AOL of virtual worlds. AOL had the same business model when the internet became mainstream, giving its customers all kinds of content on their own servers, and offering them everything the web had to offer through their own services. Needless to say, in the end the customers didn’t want that protected and walled garden, and left off to the wild spaces that are the real world wide web, and LL knows that the very same thing will happen, once SL starts to open up. Therefor, I think it’s safe to say: they never will.

And that’s alright, because others will. Just as the WWW is based on free and open technologies, so will the future of virtual worlds be based on free and open technologies. Any closed source, proprietory approach is eventually a dead end, as it will lead to a secluded portion of virtual worlds, which will keep some people entertained, but will never further the development of the internet, no matter how good the services are. And for this reason, I decided to stick with the service, that works on building an open sourced and free platform for the virtual reality to come. It certainly will move beyond Second Life, integrating technologies and services which LL will not. Simply because it can, simply because it doesn’t have to make business considerations and fear for losing its hold on it’s ‘product’. As there is no hold. It’s with us all.

1. Some examples for this are the openspace pricing changes of early 2008, the acquisition of XStreet SL in 2009, which was a threat to tiers, as the marketplace offered merchants the ability to sell their goods without needing to have a shop inworld.