Word on the virtual street(and from one admin) is that the Furnation Vista region on Second Life is gone forever. This is backed up by the fact that all of Kennyland was returned to me, and from another sim name. Also, there were a LOT of empty parcels in the final weeks, therefore a lack of rent revenue. Kennyland is now offline.
I was NOT notified beforehand. When I got on Second Life Monday morning to update my comic display prim & notify the groups, I thought the region was just rebooting, so I waited. And waited. After a few minutes, I asked the FN group & nobody knew, not even one admin who thanked me for letting him/her know and promptly filed a trouble ticket. I just now found out that the region is now lost. I had to ASK for this info.
SO, I’m now looking for a new region to put Kennyland in.
Previously, I was paying L$400/week(US$1.58/week) for a 28×28 meter parcel with a 400 prim limit, and I had 2 of these parcels. The new land must be close to that(total of L$800/week, I only used 400 prims), because I never made a profit with Kennyland. I know that price is hard to match, so I’m setting my aim at 400+ prims, at least 30×30 meters, less than L$800 per week if the traffic is good.
I might wait until I’ve started building a new ride before buying new land, just so it can start fresh. For that ride, I first have to finish building the shopping district of Ook Island, which is right in the center of the island. This will be the scenery for a significant portion of the roller coaster.
I’m looking for suggestions for a new region to build in. Keep these factors in mind for your suggestions…
- High traffic. The main goal of Kennyland is to promote my comics. I can’t do that in a dead region, no matter the price, and I can’t do that in a region that never gets new visitors. Kennyland had an average of 7 actual visitors per day, with a LOT more people just passing by where they can see the latest comic on display. If there’s a region you frequent, that’s a good starting point.
- Furry-friendly. Furries are a significant portion of my readership, PLUS people using animal avatars will only enhance the setting. If they aren’t welcome in the region, nobody who previously visited Kennyland in FURNATION would be welcome(with only a few exceptions).
- Not furry-exclusive. I want an area where people can use human avatars as well.
- An amusement park must fit in. It can’t be a residential-only area. There will be a large water slide & eventually a roller coaster. If this would be an eyesore in the area, like if the area is in a 1930’s England theme, I don’t want it there & neither do the owners of that region.
- At least 28×28 meters, but not more than 64 meters on any side(unless of course it’s under L$800 & over 400 prims, in which case it would be an awesome deal). I once tried to build a Kenny World into a 40×256 meter area and didn’t know what to do with it all. I’ve been doing well with a single 28×28 parcel, but it’s just a LITTLE cramped. My previous 400 prim limit might still be okay, considering the new mesh capability and a higher prim size limit than when it was built. It WAS possible to OBTAIN bigger prims(still is), but you couldn’t resize purchased objects past 10 meters until recently. The swimming pool was purchased & uses non-copy-able scripts.
- No adult-themed stores nearby. I want the park to be friendly to people who shy away from such things. I can tolerate a small kiosk with such wares, but I had to turn down the Furnation Hell region because of that huge sex bed store in the corner that’s visible from EVERYWHERE. Also, I don’t want to see penises every time I visit Kennyland.
- Must have a Moderate rating. Not Adult, not General. It can’t be an adult region because of the previous rule. It also can’t be a General audience region because my comic isn’t kid-friendly. Kennyland’s code of conduct is much more lax than the rules for a General rated region.
A theme park region might be good, although theme parks often create lag, so I want to be careful about that. Also, building next to a much larger theme park would make mine look wimpy. I’ve been to a region with several independent attractions, and that seemed okay, although it was also more of a spooky atmosphere. A furry region would also be good, considering where Kennyland was previously. A waterside parcel would be great, but it’s nowhere near as important as traffic.
Whatever region I build in, I’ll have to visit it several times before I decide on it. I have to know what the community is like before building there. I did this before building Kennyland in FurNation & have been happy with that community.
It’s nice to be saving the roughly US$12.50 per month charge, though. Kennyland really wasn’t making me any money(it basically lowered my out-of-pocket expense a few dollars a month), and I question the effectiveness of the advertising power. The theme park was fun to build, and even more fun to brag about, though. Just the status of having the only internet-only comic with a theme park, albeit ALSO internet-only, is plenty of reason to keep the park going. More importantly, I have 96 subscribers via Second Life, which is more subscribers than I have on any website, if you assume more than 10 Twitter followers are just bots, and I’d say that’s a safe assumption. So yeah, I’ll keep sending updates to my Second Life groups. Right now, I’m setting up a mini-store at FurNation Alpha’s mall(link) to keep things active and at least have a comic display somewhere. It’s 1/16th of what I’ve been spending for land, so I might as well set up a temporary base of operations.
