Before…
After…
Today, the region that Kennyland resided in has closed. This screenshot was taken while they were returning all of the objects, there is nothing left now. With a single day’s notice, less than a day after I paid for another week’s rent(I was refunded some of it) and about an hour after Second Life charged me to list the park in their directory for another week(13 cents). Thankfully that was enough notice for me to pack parts of Kennyland together for easier re-deployment. Stray bits can be difficult to reposition. I wish I could have given advance notice to you about this, but I didn’t have much notice myself. This wouldn’t be the first time a FurNation region containing Kennyland has shut down without notice.
I don’t know that I’ll re-open Kennyland. The park got fewer than 10 visitors per day, attracted fewer than 200 subscribers over the course of 3 years(Barely anybody clicks the link in the notice), and nobody buys anything from it. I check my transaction history occasionally, and all of my Second Life sales are through the Second Life Marketplace, which doesn’t require any land. Anymore, I only get on Second Life to update the comic subscription notices and the comic display in the park, and very occasional tweaks to the park. I don’t socialize there AT ALL, and that’s what Second Life is really for. For me, Second Life was for building things. Well, I’ve graduated to Blender, now. And for the cost of keeping land there, I could invest that money more effectively in banner ads on other websites. I definitely got new readers from it, but for US$6 per month and the added complication to the comic updating process(slightly longer than updating a website with the comic), there really isn’t enough return on the investment. Especially with how the comic’s update schedule is right now. If I were to re-open Kennyland, it will inevitably cost more than before, because Furnation really did have the best price in Second Life(L$1 per prim per week, 350 prims in a 28x28m parcel). Adding to that, Furnation had a LOT of traffic(people could read the comic without actually entering the park), so there isn’t a chance of losing less money on this than before.
If you’re subscribed to the comic through Second Life(they’ll be email notices for most of you), you’ll have to re-subscribe via rss or email. There’s also my FurAffinity page, if you prefer to subscribe there.
Even though I might be through with Second Life, I still hope to create more products, because for the past few weeks I’ve actually been making back that US$1.50 per week that I spend on the park. The more products I have, the higher that profit will be. Without Kennyland, I might actually make back what I spend on web hosting! It’s sad that this is the highest-earning thing I do, not including my fast food job. Hopefully I can monetize the BlendShow software more than that.
I will miss having the only theme park based on a webcomic, though.
