Progress, Promises and Pipe Dreams

I'm busy getting my ducks in a row for a new chapter -- some of you know that. Beginnings oftentimes come with reflections attached and so it is with this one. I've been looking back as well as ahead and then of course there is the middle.

What progress has been made in the three months I have been in Fantastic?

We can now usually log into to world -- sometimes even to the region we are aiming for -- without having to spend a lot of time in the chat room asking which regions are up. We even sometimes get shuttled to an alternate region if the one we are trying to reach is down.

After two plus months, the new forums have been introduced to the website. True, rich text editing isn't there yet and we have lost the ability -- so far -- to send personal messages to each other using the forum interface.

The world is more stable -- at least it seems so from the layman's perspective. We often walk with our feet in the correct angle and on terra firma, on a good day we can get up from our couch (if the script engine is working) and not fly into the ethers.

We have an updated viewer with less intrusiveness and more security.

All good.

A lot of "promises" haven't come to pass.

The Foundation Residents meetings which have been going on since the beginning of Openlife and will continue -- have not. Four no shows in a row by Sakai was enough for some people to leave the world. There have been hastily called "casual meetups" and a few spur of the moment (???) group meetings, but those that chose sims on the mainland especially to be a part of this long time process are still waiting for it to resume. Instead we have P.O.O.L (People of OpenLife) which DOES manage to have two meetings a week. Is it the same? No. But for some people it works.

Currency, groups and permissions -- all to be fixed "soon" are not implemented. Indeed, they seem further away than when I moved to Fantastic -- or that may just be my more realistic point of view. We were told in November that currency would be online and functional around mid December. It is now the end of January and the next scheduled roll-out is for the end of February ( See this article. )

The article states in part: Steve says that this was decided after a careful consideration: “We found the general consensus amongst users is they didn’t want the implementation of credits to affect the goodwill amongst the grid. One of the mechanisms in place to keep the balance will be the exchange of credits for real dollars only being available to region owners.”

I guess I've missed something along they way or this decision was made long before I came, but there has been a lot of discussion -- as early as November -- about the landowner only clause. I can't say I felt it was "a general consensus" by any means.

It doesn't take too long a stay in Openlife to become aware that things simply don't move as fast as planned / promised / possible. So most of us aren't expecting the currency, groups and permissions to be functional by this next announced target date.

All that is really OK. Those of us here understand it. But what about the people newly joining?


When I came during the first rush ( late October - early November), it took a few days to a few weeks to get your mainland or private cluster land. Most of us assumed the delay was because of the huge influx of people. Hence that 24 hours after set up confirmation note was not correct.

Note: I had a screenshot here, but decided it might be against the TOU to use it, so your just going to have to trust me on this one or go to THIS page.

PCs are still often taking a month to deliver (this from numerous forum posts). 24 hours in indeed a pipe dream. People ARE willing to wait patiently, but not when they are given incorrect information. I can't tell you how many times I have answered a query with the theme of "so sorry but that 24 hours still on the website is incorrect and it is taking up to a month. Please be patient. Yes, they need to change that graphic."

Some people came to Openlife because of the 3D mesh avatars that will supposedly be integrated. That keeps getting pushed back also. There are a lot of things that need to be worked on. There is only so much time in a day and so much knowledge in a mind. There are new devs in the new China office now and hopefully that will spur thing along.

Meanwhile it is good to remember that things move more slowly than "promised", so adjusting your plans with that in mind will lead to YOUR greater stability :D