In the last days i’ve been exploring, exploring other metaverses (OMG! I feel like Cpt. Picard!).

Even we all know Linden Lab’s customer policy sucks lately i think their software is quite good (although the bad performance, issues and bugs we can find sometimes), that’s why i wanted to explore other metaverses using “similar” technology. This technology is OpenSimulator, a 3D Application Server that works similar to the Second Life server application but is licensed under a BSD License. With that application you can even run a sim in your own computer. This application is considered and Alpha release so… you know, is a bit crashy and buggy.

There are a lot of grids, even some standalone sims, using that technology, you can see a list of them, but i decided to explore two of them for different reasons.

First, Openlife Grid. I’m Raul Crimsons there (i created an account before with my SL name but lost the password, so created a new one). My dear friend Eric Quimby has a Full Region there and really wanted to explore it, he offered me the possibility of building and playing in his sim and wanted to visit it. Openlife is the Opensimulator grid with more residents in this moment, around 36800, is also running right now for some months. The “general flavor” of Openlife is a bit… how to say it?… savage. I presume is like being one of the pioneers in Far West. That can be exciting but at the same time adds some “uglyness” and sensation of chaos. I presume is a bit like SL in its first times.

• Good things of Openlife: Land is cheaper than SL Grid (even you have to buy full regions for the moment), the prim allowance for sims are 40000 prims (YAY!), is a full place by users for users, uploads of images are free, they still don’t have an economy system (no money) what is good someway, specially for the ones who doesn’t like much the economy side of SL. You can choose your first and second name freely (YAY!). You can have more than one avatar in your account.
• Bad things of Openlife: No nice default avatars (well, SL ones are really cute next to Ruth and “Rutho” of Openlife), performance may be quite unstable and crashy in some moments (remember server software is alpha), even inventory is stable appearance seems to be lost at log off, so you need to wear again shape, hair, skin and clothes everytime you’re back. Friends list don’t seem to work correctly, is deleted in every log on, maybe is a temporary issue.

Was fun to be there, and create some stuff, like a decent shape, skin, some clothing, some objects and scripts… but there exist some like a loneliness, a peace what is good and bad at the same time. Didn’t see shops or even freebie areas (possibly there are some but didn’t find them).

Being there i built this big “HELLO” sign to make notice Eric my visit, hehehe, thanks god he gave me permission to build in his land. Now is even bigger and laying in the ground, so i think it will be seen soon in the map.

Also made run some simple scripts and they seem to work just fine, no much delay. The sim performance is generally better than SL Grid, having higher frame rates, not only in client side, also in server side. Although this performance is a bit unstable. Object creation and deleting is quite fast too generally, but land edition is slow (maybe was also a temporary issue).

Second, Legend City Online. Raul Crimson, like in SL there. Ana Lutetia told about that place and wanted to explore it. Having visited before Openlife i was really surprised with Legend City, even is quite “younger” seems more developed, but i think is becuase the people creating Legend City is more on the “business model” Linden Lab had some time ago (not the one now, where M is making me miss P). The people behing Legend City is contacting with SL creators and offering them the possibility of being in Legend City, so just in the Welcome Center you can find GREAT freebies from creators like Simone Stern, and mentors helping people arriving. Building in welcoming areas are quite nice and the staff is really nice and helpful. The general feeling on Legend City is more “ordenated” than Openlife, is more like SL in its middle times. They have an economy system and virtual money, you can buy it in their home page or transfer it from SL Grid in a sim called Legend City, that’s quite interesting i think, the intergrid money transfers.

• Good things of Legend City: Even you have to choose a second name from a list when creating your account you can change your name to the one you are using in SL easily with some ATM located in the SL Grid, in Legend City sim. The default avatars are really good, even i miss maybe some furry one. Staff is helpful and you can find them around easily (at least the times i was on). Land is cheap, a “Openspace” sim with 3750 prims is 25US$ per month, full sims with 20000 prims are 100 US$/month. Legend City staff works on server side updates. Appearance remains after relogs.
• Bad things of Legend City: Again stability, even is a bit better than Openlife they are using an Alpha software, so even performance uses to be quite acceptable is a bit unstable and simulators crash often. Friends list have to be fixed, is deleted in every relog. “Hair-on-bum” syndrome, not always, but it happens. Some problems with physics and collision maps (underground feet, weird legs,…).

Was nice to meet some great people in the Welcome Center (this image above). Really is a place to visit that Welcome Center, not only becuase you can meet people there, also for the freebies and is where is easier to find mentors and Legends (the staff). By the way, i bought an Openspace sim there, just to try. Is a sim called Solaris, fell free to visit (even is quite empty right now).

So this is part of my two explorations. Of course there is much more and you should explore yourself to have your own vision about it. You can use the SL viewer, the one Linden Lab releases, but you should do some changes in configuration. To avoid that i was using a viewer “resident created”, is one where you can choose what grid you want to connect in the opening screen.

This viewer is named Hippo Opensim Viewer, you can find more information about it and download it here.

After the last Linden Lab PR mistakes, like the hike on the price of Openspaces sims, like M Linden declarations about how important Premium accounts are for them (no important at all), a lot of people is trying to find new places to develope and enjoy their second life. This other grids will grow fast from now possibly, they offer better prices, friendly staff in some cases. Even the performance is a bit unstable still and physics have to be improved they will be better soon. I’m not moving for the moment, but who knows what will happen in the future? As every resident, i will decide depending the Linden Lab’s policy and relationship with their customers… all of us.

UPDATE (Dec, 28th 2008): In the last weeks some comments appeared about Legend City Online manegement and business practices, you can see about them also in the comments of this post. Please, find more information in this post by Prad Prathivi or this other or in others around the SLblogosphere.