Numbakulla changes and help wanted!

This thread could go in half a dozen different places, so I decided to post it here....

For those who haven't been keeping up, Numbakulla belongs at present to Moopf Murray, who ran a competition for a group to develop it. My team, the Pot Healers, won the competition, and the pot healers quest is now on numbakulla. It is a game, a questing exploratory type of game along the lines of Myst, but it is possible to simply go and enjoy exploring, if you don't like those sorts of games.

The original plan was for the Pot Healers to close at the end of June, as Moopf would rather like his sim back...but a group of explorers were very keen to try to keep the pot healers in place, and have been fund-raising their avatar's fingers to the bone. We now have pledges for $975 US dollars, we have more than 50,000 lindens in a fund, and so we have enough money to buy the sim and pay for the first month's tier.

That's the easy bit . I have already collected pledges for 12K a month in lindens and $75 US a month, towards the payment of the monthly tier. If anyone else would like to invest in Numbakulla, we are dividing the assets between the investors at one share for 1000 lindens or $4US, but this will be a decreasing share as the number of people investing towards the tier payment goes up.

As I am struggling financially in RL, I really need to get the tier income sorted, preferably with a cushion of several months' tier in hand so that we can weather any people dropping out, or any unforeseen circumstances. I have great faith in the players who have expressed support for the project, and so I thought I would post here asking for the help we require:

* I need more pledges for monthly support. Any amount is welcomed, shares will be awared for every 1000 donated, please contact Caliandris Pendragon. One-off donations of lindens can be dropped on the donations pot in numbakulla (by the telehub) or on Incognita Lumiere.

* We are planning an auction of goods in aid of the tier "cushion" fund. We would ask creators to please donate goods in aid of Numbakulla. Please drop any donations on Syber Stryker.

*We have opened a small shop in one of the town shops in Numbakulla. At the moment this contains my ivy and clematis textures and one or two others. It would be great if other creators would donate an item to be sold in aid of Numbakulla. Please send any donations to Caliandris Pendragon.

* We are organising events, and welcome any ideas for future events to be held in the sim. Lots of people still don't know about Numbakulla and the game which is there. If you have ideas for publicising it, please let me know. Once the fundraising effort achieves its target, then we will be organising a regular list of events.

*We welcome sponsors. Obviously this would have to be done sensitively, in order not to destroy what we are trying to preserve.

*I would like to set up a greeter group, to help people with the game, especially new people who arrive without many SL skills and get confused. Many people are already acting as unofficial guides.

I can't tell you how touched and grateful I am to the people who have already donated to this project. First and foremost Moopf, without whom the Pot Healers would never have existed, but the group of people who have donated real money have made an astonishing commitment to the game, and have earned my heartfelt gratitude. I shall publish a list of investors when I have obtained their permission.

If you haven't already visited Numbakulla, please do pay us a visit.
Thank you
Cali

After paying a visit to Numbakulla the other night, I can honestly say it's one of the most artistic areas in all of Second Life. Despite a certain neg rate I received over forum drama (ahem), I feel your cause is a good one, as builds like these are the few that genuinely make our world interesting.

As such, here are a few ideas off the top of my head to help you.



On finances:

Your group is off to a good start. Coincidentally, a friend and I left roughly L$500 in donations in the donation pot the other day (each). However, that's a long ways from paying for the long haul.



In no particular order, here are some suggestions:


- Sell more "Numbakulla-themed" content.

I realize many of these objects should be kept as the freebie prizes for completing the adventure, but allowing for more salable objects would be a plus.

In particular, the vehicle(s) I saw flying through the sim looked very interesting to me. The "larger than life" gardens and hut designs were also fairly eye-catching and might do well with sold versions.

Of course, this depends on how far your group wishes to "sell" the idea to keep it alive.



- Offer special puzzles and adventures for donators

More room for content, and more incentives to donate.



- Hold more events

See below.





On Events:

Like Telador Island, Numbakulla is very much a sim built on adventure gaming in the Myst style. Unfortunately, Telador and Numbakulla fall short of "grabbing" the player.

The reasons for this are simple. First, it should feel like a living, breathing world. The existing content of Numba goes a long way toward that goal, but it could see some improvements. Second, Myst (and many other adventure games) featured rich backstories that made them worthwhile.

I feel if Numbakulla were imbued with more lore and goings-on, it would be a more interesting experience. One way to see this through would be to hold events based around this. For example, contests to advance the storyline of the region or simple random occurances that shape the island in new ways.

The bottom line is make Numbakulla appear as though it's a living, changing place. This would ensure people come back.




On Advertising:

Word of mouth has already done well, as has the ad on the main page of the site. Still, it's a long shot from the sort of dwell clubs see.

One problem here is that Numbakulla catters to a niche. As sad as this may be, only a portion of the population is concerned with anything artistic in the world.

Therefore, your best bet would be to cultivate this niche. A good start would be to speak with Woody Blair and Rizpah Galatea. This pair runs Telador Island, the Myst-themed sim, and would bring in many people interested in what Numba has to offer.

I'm sure you know several other areas of the world that are themed similarly and have a decent userbase. Try advertising along these lines.




That's my L$2. Good luck keeping it going.

What's in it for the investor?

Is this a cooperative like Neualtenburg, where folks own a share of the sim, their own land, and have a say in how it's run, or are you looking for recurring monthly donations for a shared space for themed art with no official ownership?

~Ulrika~

.

This may be of interest to your group:
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I would also be willing to swap Moopf a new sim for the sim your current build is on so as you would not have to move the build.

Sorry for the self promotion, but I beleive it may be a viable alternative for this type of project.

Most supporters of such creative builds and projects do not have the means to match the generosity exhibited here by Moopf. It's good to see efforts being made to develop alternative support methods.

I'm guessing that all available prims were utilized in the project but what is the feasibility of incorporating some thematically appropriate housing structures? In addition to a small amount of rental income, it would add to the living, breathing feel of the build.

I should mention that LL has the ability to clone an entire sim without difficulty. When we moved from the mainland to a private sim, they were able to clone Anzere perfectly, land, prims, and all.

~Ulrika~

What do you define as an asset? Will you be deeding parcels of land to individual owners, where the parcel area is proportional to the number of shares? Is there a theme? Can people live there or is it simply an artistic group sandbox? What form of government will you use to handle disputes between shareholders (simply democracy, oligarchy, autocracy, democratic republic)?

If you follow the link in my quote above, you'll see the kind of information provided that I'm interested in. I'd like to help but I would like to know what I'm getting myself into first.

~Ulrika~

Hi there Ulrika, Schwanson,
Firstly Schwanson, I am not sure that the people investing in Numbakulla would want the sim to be owned by anyone else, as the whole point of the fundraising was to own it ourselves, but I will certainly put your offer to them and see what they say.

Ulrika...the only point of ownership of Numbakulla, is to preserve something that people think is worth preserving - and hopefully, improving as we go. People who have an affection for the build on Numbakulla and the game, wanted to have an opportunity to save it when the competition period ended.

Some people are donating $200US dollars, and it didn't seem right to me to accept that money without offering some stake in the assets of the sim. On the other hand, it didn't seem right that some people were donating 1000 lindens, which was comparitively a large amount to them, and yet would have no stake. So the idea of having a share per 1000 was born. This also solves the problem of what to do if we can't pay the tier in the future and the sim has to be sold, as the proceeds would be divided along those lines.

Shares in the sim do not include shares in the build on numbakulla for the very good reason that the different parts belong to their different builders and not to me. Shares in the sim do not include land parcels or land rights for the reason that this would destroy what we are setting out to preserve. The reason that numbakulla has such a lot of charm is, I believe, that there are not lots of shops and houses.

We are considering renting out some of the empty huts, but this will be a decision which has to be taken carefully. It rather undermines the storyline that you are shipwrecked on a deserted island if 20 people are living there. However, I take the point that it is possible we could move the storyline on, and decide that there are people who are living on the island...maybe from a previous expedition, or previous shipwreck (treacherous coasts).

I never set out to run a co-operative, and I accpet that it may be flawed in its conception, but I am trying to be as fair as possible, and to achieve the aim of keeping Numbakulla for people to enjoy in the future. I have tried to keep things as simple as possible too.
I am convinced that things would mature and improve if only given time, and maybe this project will give us the time to devote to improving the game and the build, and seeing if a loyal group of players can achieve what is rarely achieved in SL it seems....stability.

People who have played the game and visited Numbakulla can see how much we achieved by being able to give it time and care. They feel passionately fond of it, as do I, and don't want to see it lost. That's all. If you don't feel the same way, that's fine, and I wouldn't expect you to invest or donate to the project. It isn't everyone's cup of tea, and that's OK.
thanks
Cali

How very efficiently you outline the alternatives.

I would say that benevolent dictatorship is the style of government at the moment. I have learned from being involved in two big group projects so far that government by committee is generally poor and difficult, and leading with a vision is much better. I believe in democracy, but I also have experience in running things by committee. Committee democracy can be a licence to do nothing at all, or to spend a lot of time in boring meetings trying to decide what to do. I listen to what people say and then try to do whatever is in the best interests of the game, using my judgement. I can be wrong, but so can a committee. It takes less time and is less boring though.

Fortunately for me, so far those investors who have expressed a preference have said that they prefer not to have to get involved in the administration of the sim or the game and are happy to leave it to me. If that changes, then obviously we would have to hold a meeting and discuss it, in which case our style might well change to democracy or "those who can be arsed to think about it"ocy. I will be setting up a group for the supporters, and that would be subject to SL's rules. At present I am trying to disentangle the three existing groups and work out what will be the fairest and most workable combination of groups.

I try to be open in my thinking and discuss things openly, and I will react to changes in the attitude of the people donating and supporting Numbakulla, accordingly. If someone wants something which isn't currently covered by our agreement, we will discuss it, is all I can say. I don't want my SL to be a constant round of meetings and discussions.
Cali