Friday, September 14, 2018

First day at Infiniti grid.. we got this!

So, how did the first day of our soft opening go on Infiniti Grid? Good! Thanks for asking. :D

We had a protective day. We had just the right amount of new people you want to see on a first day and everyone got to have a great time at the Morning Coffee Cafe that rests by our Welcome area. Much joking, laughing and of course dancing was happening. The times I flew by I saw lots of fun happening in the local chat. Made me jealous lol.

We had a few people join our mainland as renters. Very nice and patient people. Welcome to Infiniti :)

One thing I am proud to say is that Founders worked as a team as the obligatory first day  things came up. Individual strengths came together to tackle the day. I am proud to work with them. I am also even more proud to say that we have some awesome residents in our world. They were amazing rolling with the restarts, rental snags and so many have gave of their time and talent to give us a great opening day experience. We are really lucky.

Thank you to everyone that helped make our opening experience a positive experience.

We look forward to years of good times and even those things that pop up unexpected. We will all grow together.

Monday, September 3, 2018

So, I have been a little quiet lately...

I know I have been neglecting this blog. There is a really good reason for that. But first some back story. Way back in days of SL old, there was a Linden sponsored official forum where you could go and get info on how to do things, where to find things but most fun for many of us, we could go there to enjoy the general discussion areas. There I met many people from SL. Even if we didn't always cross paths within the Virtual World, we had that forum to communicate.

One such person who I had the good pleasure of meeting was Lecktor Hannibal. Many others as well, some sadly have passed. I never knew a virtual world could make you so close to people. Of course, it was not the world that did that. It was the people. People willing to give of themselves and if you did not act like a jerk, you could eventually cement some lasting relationships.

Now, what I have been doing. Leck sent me a message via SLU that simply said "we need to tallk". I already knew what was on his mind. He has dreamed of starting a opensim grid for a very long time. He, though the history tries to cover it, was an original force in getting what used to be InWorldz off the ground. Back then, he asked me to come along. As much as I wanted to do something on that scale with Leck and blinded by the bull that the grid we were on (Openlife) was shoving, I declined. There was someone involved that I wanted nothing to do with. That someone alienated the original group that gave her a start. But that is another story.. today I want to just point out that Leck has wanted to start a grid that long. So flash forward to a few weeks ago.

Leck asked me if I wanted to be a part of a new grid. At the time I doubted myself (RL issues FTW) and again, turned him down. He put no pressure on me, no ill will and I rooted for him and what would become his team down the line. Never did I think I would eventually find myself involved anyway. But, I am. I am part of what is going to be Infiniti Grid. There is so much excitement around us as we prepare. So much testing, building, etc trying to make sure it is ready for an opening. It is a labor of love.

This grid is not going to be thrown together. There seems to be desperation from some of the "big" opensim grids to rake up the users that were so callously denied of their regions, builds, purchases, money and all that time they invested. It is like sharks thrashing in the blood of victims of a shipwreck. It is disgusting.

Infiniti has a goal to be different. There are people behind it with lots of virtual world experience and passions for the things they oversee in preparation of the grid. I have told Leck, and I mean this, Mac is retiring there. It will be my home, my hobby and my passion. We are trying to make this something unique and fun. And it will be hypergrid enabled.

So that is what I have been doing lately. When we launch it will all be worth it. :)

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Seanchai Library in Kitely. Go for the stories, stay for the ambiance.

Today I want to talk about a fun area in Kitely called The Seanchai Library. It is also located in Second Life. Seanchai Library features live story telling or reading from books. One can become immersed by sitting in themed areas while the storytelling is happening.

grid.kitely.com:8002:Seanchai

The next event will be a suspenseful story called "Flaming Angel". It will be told in a dark alley behind the Seanchai library. The story telling is done in voice. The synopsis for Flaming Angel is "Out of the burning flames of his ghastly crime came the searing realization that he would have to kill the same woman twice." This is by Author Frederick C Davis from the Big Book of Black Mask Stories. Shandon Loring will be the storyteller. It will take place this Aug 16,2018 from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm grid time. 

Even if you can't make it to the storytelling event, the regions are prime for exploration. I even hear there are special freebies hidden along your exploration of the various worlds. There are other freebies you can find in the open as well, like avatars. 



When you arrive you are greeted with hypergates to various areas that are themed. The first one you will be greeted with is "Westworld". Since I am a fan of the show and watched the movie as a young Mac, I decided to explore there a little first.









The pictures came out a bit dark, but I felt they added to the over all ambiance of the area.  

The other area I explored, which is my favorite is SpaceWorld. There you will find a cool Sci-Fi setting complete with a recreation of the Star Wars Cantina from Mos Eisley Space Port. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. You must be cautious.






And then you can explore the Sci-Fi library.


That is a brief look at just 2 of the many areas you can explore. Others include WaterWorld, OctoberWorld, SwampWorld, BeachWorld and more. Bring a friend along for safety though. You never know what can be lurking around the worlds. I mean, what could go wrong, right?

I had been to a couple story events before when I was pretty new to Kitely. Shandon and team really go all out to bring a great time to all who attend. I will try to be there for Flaming Angel.

So, check out this amazing area, take in a story when they are live or you can listen to stories that are pre-recorded from other events. Great place to go if you love books, or just want to RP or hang out in quality builds. Have fun. :)

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Fun in the virtual life!

I remember back in the old days (adjusts glasses, rocks in the rocking chair) of SL. People had so much fun. You could prank each other and it was all good. After all, SL was kind of a game no matter what Philip Linden thought.

So, tonight I log into my Kitely World. I notice something different over by the freebies area. I walk around it and see this:


Good one, Lecktor Hannibal. It made me think that we really don't prank each other much in OpenSim and SL has become such serious business that it is hard to find someone with a good nature that would get in on stuff like this.

I was the sort of Avie (and I use the term avie to describe the guy on the screen, if you get to know me you will find I am the same in Virtual worlds as I am in RL as far as personality, etc) who laughed in SL as the region I lived on rained those batman cubes with the animations and the sound. Some took griefing to heart. I don't blame them a bit, your virtual life is your own to lead, I just never sweat the small stuff when it came to griefing. I mean, I knew how to TP away, mute someone or what have you. Oddly, in OpenSim I don't see griefers. Not that I wish for them, I don't.. it just seems people are pretty mellow.

And believe me, this was not a griefing thing Leck did. It was hilarious to me. It took me back and also made me realize that the old SL spirit is alive and well in the Metaverse. We may be longer in the tooth than the early 2000's era, but our humor has remained in tact. And that is a good thing.
One of the things I miss most about Second Life (besides the old days when my wife would play with me there...she has left permanently to hear her tell it, but I hold out a little hope she will be back), was our property in Cartmel. We had The Magic Box, that key location in Sunnydale in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer series. Some people would come in there and buy some wares, while some, to my delight would use it to RP Buffy stuff. Right now my Kitely world (we call them worlds there because that is just what they are.. our worlds) is open to visitors and hypergriders, though there is really nothing there at this time besides a couple freebies. I am steadily adding stuff around the region as I get time. You can look up Cartmel if you want to visit, or hypergridders can use this address to get there: grid.kitely.com:8002:Cartmel

Maybe someday people can RP and visit, though RP was never something I did. I still enjoy when others do it though. I tend to be the real me personality wise in Virtual.  My long term plan is to flesh the world out with other Sunnydale notable locations. I have been buying a lot in the Kitely market to get things that fit the theme. There are some amazing talents on Kitely. I have easily found a great skin and some great hair along with lots of other stuff. I am having a really good time. Ilan and Oren, the grid owners are amazing. Support issues are dealt with in a matter of hours, often less than an hour. The forum is watched by Ilan and he has even offered help to someone who wasn't even buying a world there, but wanted help on running a region from their own computer.

There is no "us and them" mentality with Ilan. Kitely worlds can be open to hypergrid if the owner of the world wants it to be and the market can sell to other grids and standalones and whatever will allow access. The days of the closed grids, keeping the walled garden and making the scare tactic posts that Opensim is so unstable, etc are about over, as was evidenced by the closing of InWorldz and the migration of users out into the metaverse. Those tactics were designed to stop the people that are paying much more for a region from venturing out and seeing what freedom is out there. It isn't working anymore though. I have run into many who have left those worlds and seen for themselves how great it is to hop from grid to grid. I will post more on that later, really I just wanted to share a couple pictures of my very slow progress on my first full build.

It is far from finished, and even farther from professional. I don't worry about prim counts since I have tons to use. Therefore my approach to this has been likely backward from every good builder out there. But it is mine. For all it's warts.. I love it. And I can't wait to finish it. But that will be a bit into the future.

If you don't have a place to call home and want a nice region for as low as 14.95 (and can get even better ones as you look through the options), give Kitely a try. And with the ability to hypergrid to other places, it is not hard to find something happening somewhere. Just join a couple Opensim google + groups and you will see plenty of announcements of activities and grids to visit.