26 September, 2011

how 'bout the tree back your house where the owls go

It's always on the unnerving side when something we expect to forever be a market on the landscape leaves. Back in August, there was an announcement that Grendel's was closing two of their sims: in particular, the two I've enjoyed wandering the most. Somehow, I missed it, and yet, now, at this point, it's striking me as still relevant--both personally, and for the grid as a whole.

Recently, Ayesha Lytton, the owner of Solace Beach Estates, suffered a financial setback. In addition to selling off some of her properties, she also made the decision to downsize in terms of staff--I and many others were discharged from our duties. I'm also contrasting this with recent notices of closure, or sim "reassignments", in Caledon and other places, and I'm thinking it's going to be very difficult to be a land baron on Second Life over the next couple years.

But while much of the setbacks involve personal finances, and tenants moving on, I tend to agree with what I've heard of the Grendel's situation; that if the Labs had anything resembling consistent customer service, paired with understandable policies, they'd be keeping more people--and more sims--than they are now.

Bottom line, I don't know the exact details; no one who's not on the ground and part of them will likely ever know them. But I know that 99% of the companies out there, when facing a client paying them over fourteen thousand dollars per year (or more, in the case of larger sim chains) planning on ceasing those payments due to a customer service issue? Or an inability to contact customer service at all?

I, for one, would not be staying out of contact; I'd be doing everything I could to ensure that those clients felt that their needs were being met, or, in situations where I couldn't do that, I would at least ensure that they had the sense that I was hearing what they were saying, and doing my best to help them, within my corporate structure.

Instead, it sounds like yet another case of the Great Linden Stone Wall never being breached. When the last thing a client wants to do, when there's a problem, is talk to the company...or when the client perceives that talking to the company will serve no purpose...that company is in the downward spiral.

And the biggest problem in all of this? The Lindens have been there for more than a year now, with zero corrections to their fall. Eventually, they're going to run out of airspace and hit ground. Everyone does.

I no longer have such deep dread about the coming Dark Shadows remake; CERN researchers may have discovered faster-than-light particles; the Toyota Prius is so quiet, they actually had to add in sound for people; and if you wanted to hear Freddie Mercury sing again, well...you sort of can.

From Creator Allen:

I love when people ask if I have a LM to my shop.
"[4:38:46 AM] Fawkes Allen: No, every time I want to go to my shop I go to a secret locale on the mainland and trek my way across the wilderness. An elaborate set of clutes and cryptic messages guide me as I travel across mountins and under ancient ruins long abandoned. Eventually when I reach the shore of the Mainland I set out on a boat across the uncharted seas following a compass that doesn't point north to find my way to the fabled Island of Solace Beach. There I rez a skyship that I use to travel the skies using specific currents to eventually lead me to my Lab above my store."
Insert sound of cackling laughter.

And there's a huge bug of staggering proportions in the upcoming 1.9 Adventure Update of Minecraft--namely, in 1.8 Notch changed the frequency of animals spawning, so if I go out and kill two pigs, three chickens and a cow for food, they won't respawn in that area for at least three days--and that's not gameplay ten-minute days, that's three REAL days.

Instead, in 1.9, Notch planned to have people offer a sheaf of wheat to two animals near to each other, to 'force spawn' new animal mobs in an area.

The glitch? It, err, works better than advertised. In short: once the animals start "mating"...they don't stop. That could be very bad...

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hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...