Are a lot of the old stores and places closing down?

I have talked to several people and many are saying that a lot of the stores that have
been here forever are closing down or are planning to do so.

I tried to find a ballroom the other night with some real people in it and found only one or two. One was the Titanic and it only had about two people in each of the three nights I went there. Wow--and that is an impressive place!

Is anybody else seeing this or is it my imagination?

it seems to cycle

depends on what someone would consider forever LOL

I personally have not seen any of the big names close down

as for clubs and such, do not go to them anymore (never was big on them to start with) so would not know if they closed down

Just tonight I heard of big clothing store--and skins I think that was shutting down

What I meant by forever was at least a year.

ah
never heard anything myself... then again, who knows

rumors get started a lot in SL (and RL heh)

I would just wait and see if it does shut down


so I guess my store has been here forever, def over a year.

gosh I should see if I can find the first thing I made and what the date was (yes I remember the first thing I made, heh)

Well I hope not--these people helped build SL and were the original creators of a lot of the things a lot of us still have in our inventories.

I am hearing it a lot though from old friends and my customers.

I really am.

Lots are I'm seeing many of them pop up in many different opensims
http://www.osgrid.org/ is a good place to start
With LL's game its no longer viable to stay and sell in SL makes more scence to goto one of the opensims where you have freedom to be rather get heavey handed games

I am confused isn't http://www.osgrid.org using the Second Life's Client which is a part of LL?
I didn't know that the opensims was viable to do business on at this time. You have no inventory to keep the items you'd buy.

Hi Lion, I think SecondLife changes quickly anyway. People change with it, for whatever reason. The VAT debacle sent a shockwave through land pricing resulting in some giving up but some have just moved on I guess. Clubs have dropped in droves. One of my alts had two jobs in clubs. They shut within a couple of months of each other. A friend has had two go also. Two of my big favourites went. I've only been aware of one or two at most content creators closing. I assume two reasons why they are more resilient: the satisfaction of creating and comparably cheaper/easier to staff but yes, nobody's here forever I guess

It's not an epidemic. The grid is always changing.

Two of the places that I hung out at A LOT have both closed this New Year. They were both places that had been around for years in SL. I think it's partly people feeling the pinch with the increased VAT but also the new year is a time for reflection and change. In both cases the owners aren't leaving SL but changing what they do here.

Myself I'm going through a big SL evaluation too but rather than closing down I've reopened my store. So I think it works both ways, but I agree that this time of year is when stuff changes.

Things really do change all the time, though.

NONE of the social hangouts I was so fond of remain from my almost two years. Having said that, it's hard to keep social tabs when people make alts and just totally revamp their lives sometimes.

I was quite tempted to do just that lately, start over from scratch telling only my very closest of friends and my partner, but in the end I decided I am who I am and my life is what it is whether it's liked or not. Turns out that I do like it so ... monkey face stays.

Scale that up from just av and personal SL and you have constant change. It is hard to stay optimistic and focussed sometimes esp. when all you hear is moaning about SL and everyone seems happy to take your buck but not give much back. No doubt that's how a lot of people are feeling, plus there's so much more free market competition and as has been stated VAT made a big inroad.

There's only so much stuff you can buy so unless you are new and innovative ... you're stuffed. A lot of the older people carry on churning out new and improved things, stay on the ball and keep sharp. BUT a lot equally have not innovated anything much in ages ... dinosaurs become extinct in this reality too maybe.

Clubs come and go like the changing of the seasons. Most clubs are not financially self-supporting, and eventually the club owner gets tired of throwing money and time into a venture that never even breaks even.

Shops change a lot too. People's interests or free time shift. They decide they are better at something else, or it's more fun to do something else. Or they just decide that particular location isn't viable for them - not enough sales to be worth it. More often than not, they start a new store with a new line of merchandise somewhere else. But bear in mind that the vast majority of SL residents, over 98%, do not make a profit in SL each month. So that would imply that many, if not most, of the store owners also don't break even on a regular basis. So like the club owners, they fold and move on to other interests.

As for that http://www.osgrid.org/ place? As a content creator I don't see any reason to go there yet. There's nowhere near enough information on their website for me to invest time and effort into what appears to be a lose collection of simulators running on who knows what servers, in who knows whose back bedroom or basement...

Anyone that wants to can add a simulator to that grid? Sounds like a security nightmare, to me. Linden Labs hasn't yet officially released the server code. That means that this group has to be running a reverse-engineered, hacked version of the server code. No telling what they have done to it. Or what any one individual might do to it. Might be a fun place to experiment with building in a server that you own yourself, or to set up a venue that LL won't allow. But with no information about asset servers, financial transactions in and out of those sims, or anything else, I wouldn't be interested in it for any serious development.

I haven't seen this really....but a lot of places do sort of go thru steady changes in appearance....they update the shop or relocate....that's common.

What I will say tho......you mentioned looking for a dance club...... nothing is ever really busy on a steady basis....most places are 'busy' during scheduled events. The best thing to do if you want to socialize at a club....is look under events in search......choose either live music.....or night life/entertainmnet in the drop down......and look at everything that is happening that day. Pick one that looks interesting that's happening at that time in SL.....and check it out!

I hear (read lol) so many folsk complain about empty clubs......but the fact is many of them hold scheduled DJ'd events and contests and unless you are a member or keep an eye on the events search....you're not going to hit them during a busy time. People that run SL clubs do not have the time IRL to keep the joint hopping 24/7. One of the few places I do know of that just always seems busy is Toby's Juke Joint Blues. It's a really cool blues club and when ever I go, there's at least a handful of peeps hanging out.

Just figured I'd throw that out there....I'm not big on clubs....but I know many folks are.

Ceera you have no idea how relieved I am to read that you have some reservations about that site. Im the 1st to admit I have very little clue about tech type things but.....when I used the url link and got the homepage of this site all that hit my old brain was seeing somewhere in the blurb....'give SL username and password' and I immediately thought .....hmmm handy way to scam here.

Like others have mentioned - SL is a constantly changing environment. Hate your neighbor? Wait a while - odds of him moving are very, very strong. New club in your sim? Wait it out, very few last more than a couple of months. As for stores - a lot of things can happen. The store can take off and need more land or be able to afford their own sim -- and they are gone. The creator can decide that SL isn't worth it and bail. And there is always that RL thing that can intervene at any point in time - any one of us are a RL crisis away from needing to leave SL.

There are a whole lot of content creators who have left SL for various reasons and that churn is what provides opportunities for new content creators to take their place. Where one door closes another opens in its place.

I guess you could stick an alt in just to check it out... from a cost perspective it doesn't cost much these days to rent a dedicated linux box somewhere - alot less than a monthly tier on a sim for example. Maybe I'll have a look

What's to prevent sim owner X from duplicating all your assets? I don't see how the opensims can have any sort of sustainable economy.

QFT

I do not see that on the site... it asks you to "Create an Account to the left on the menu." but it uses the SL Client. whatever you do DO NOT USE YOUR SL PASSWORD!!!!



Well the fact you really don't have any assets helps but I figure it will be the same as the internet in general. Anybody can get a server and make a hosting biz and copy say a program your selling. If you get a bad rep word will get around and I'm sure that person will be removed from the grid.



I don't see that myself. I'd think of it more like a personal sandbox/playground.

BTW i just created an account there and took a short look around.. The idea that many of the old stores/places are popping up there is silly. (and their Ruth is even uglier that SL's Ruth... and you cant change it.

I've been here nearly five years, and I have plenty of landmarks that go to defunct locations. There are very few places in SL that are the same as they were 5 years ago.

Of course, people close stores. Here are possible reasons:

1- They are not making sexbeds
2- They are not making penis and vagina attachments
3- They are not making clothing
4- They are not making tatoos
5- They are not using campers

If you don't do any of the items above, your ability to make money in SL is tiny. And of course, any business sense will bring you to close down your shop.

Good responces here. I will try out a few of the clubs that were mentioned.

I can understand cycles and other interests taking the forefront. I simply hope the Economic Darwinism has not taken over completely. If it is driving a lot of the talented artists away, SL in general will be the loser.

Anyway great comments. Thanks.

even those who make those items mentioned above, are not guaranteed to make any money at SL

I sell clothing, some shoes, a few prefabs, a couple skins I made, tiny bit of jewelry, and now body modification items. For the first time in a LONG time, I have actually gotten some sales (in world, and slex and onrez) will it cover tier, nahhh
but it does feel good when ppl buy something, it tells me that I did a good quality job.

(now the items that seem to not sell, scares me, cuz I think they are good, and they do not sell)

Funny. The only one of those that I do is clothing, and my clothing sales are barely breaking even. Yet I manage to make a nice profit every month selling textures, and doing building, terraforming, and other creative services.