Chic at Ebbe's Place

In the news this month is AviWorlds, in its latest reincarnation. I first read about AviWorlds on Hypergrid Business. Aviworlds made the news again recently when it merged with Next Reality grid.

Not needing yet another avatar account, the hypergrid was my travel method of choice. Happily there were portals at the entry point and the map was working so I had the ability to hop around. There is some outstanding content! I suspect the typical freebie spots are somewhere on the grid, but along with them there are huge regions -- a racetrack, a free to use university and a soon to arrive 36 region outer space area.

There are also free quarter sim plots for commercial (put that in quotes) and residential builds. Buy them for a dollar (you get a dollar with your AviWorlds account). When I journeyed around the commercial plot sims I found less commerce and more -- public works show and tell projects, so I am not clear on what "commercial" means for that grid. Best to ask before beginning your next large project.

There are also extremely well built free shops to use. Modern and centered around a plaza they are large enough for many small businesses. You apparently don't have to prove you are a great content creator. Even fledgling folks can have shops there and that is nice to see.

Talking to a couple of English speaking folks I found, here is the scoop -- at least from there point of view.

The grid works well and seems to be most always up.

The biggest problem for English speaking folks is the apparent majority of Portuguese speakers. Hence, going with your Google Translator open is a good idea. It is managable and eventually folks understand each other.

The grid owner speaks English, so if he is around and hanging out at the entry point, you will be in luck.

** Making an account and logging in seems quite tricky as both folks mentioned this. So take a screenshot of the login page maybe?  Evidently there is something there that is confusing and figuring out what to type into the viewer to get your account going is a hit and miss type of thing. Maybe the powers that be can work on that as I suspect it is keeping folks away that would otherwise join.
 
Then general sense that I came away with is that folks feel wanted at Aviworlds and that the grid hierarchy is doing all that they can to make their stay their pleasant and worthwhile.

And MY grids:

Second Life

As I already mentioned October seemed slow for me this year. Many designers were quiet or just churning out stuff while a few produced some wondrous things. I had less to blog on Chic at Phil's Place and noted that other frequent bloggers were also on semi-hiatus.

It wasn't a big money month for me but let's call it "stable"; that works. According to the US real world reports, this could simply be a mirror of our corporeal lives.

InWorldz

Fright Fest was a big event in October. I didn't attend other than creating a half sim build, but with the amount of group announcements going out I have to assume it went well.

Numbers are down somewhat and that may be because the Inshape beta is completed?  I stay out of the fray these days, so can't speak with authority there.

Avination

Also slower than previously (a theme is forming I think) the folks are still very friendly. Numbers down a bit there also but that seems to be slowing so perhaps a new baseline has been formed.

Virtual Life

People come and people go and you notice that more on a small grid. The main (or maybe I should say "my") shopping center was taken over with some great improvements in look and style. Number seemed to have improved some for the now 45 region grid and logins seem stable.

The Great Canadian Grid

Things have not been good for Canada this month. Trying to appease those that wanted money the warm-hearted grid owner has been plagued with problems. Whether it is trying to work the money system into the grid or simply some bad code, the devs have seemingly been working hard with no permanent fix.

I get in very seldom these days and now and then the log in process changes a bunch of Firestorm settings which is disconcerting. A reboot usually fixes the issue. Still, it will be a game of catchup when things get fixed. Sometimes even seemingly good decisions turn out to have a problematic side. I wish them well.

Later note:  Money appears to be working now for those that have opted in and I also found out while chatting with the grid owner that lots of folks that had free many plots have opted to get their own sim. So evidently not everyone cares that much about the money thing. That's good to hear!