As a builder in Second Life®, there are plenty of daily woes, mainly due to the asset server and the overall fragility of the platform. These issues have been spoken about ad nauseam that I now just chalk them up to bleeding edge technology issues and try to build enough of a deadline buffer so not to be stressed when they will occur.

(Banana Builder Hint - Don’t think you have all day Sunday for a Monday deadline)

Instead today I am talking about the builder woes that come when the work you have done no longer exists. Nothing in the metaverse is permanent, which is the beauty of this ever changing landscape. But as a builder to see one of you major builds vanish is a little sad.

A little over six months ago, I completed a project for a corporate client that had SL Brand (now Meta Magic Studio) develope a private sim in order to teach their executives about Second Life. The build was simple but IMNSHO beautiful. The sim consisted of a reception (rez / arrival) area, two 10 seat class rooms, a library (link resource area), a large out door 40 seat theater, a lake with sail boats, jet skies, a sandbox and lots of landscaping. We also placed a large prim at 200m to “hide” the build from the SL map.

As a part of the contract, I was asked not to take pictures and not to be public about this company’s undertaking. The company simply wanted just to check out Second Life and to start the process of understanding how the metaverse will become part of their work reality. And since they were writing the check, I had no problems with not taking pictures and while keeping quiet was not easy, all I had to remember was that they were writing the check. I like checks!

For four months, this sim was busy with education and collaborative talks. I was astonished to see people there on the weekends, some just chatting and a few venturing into the sandbox (I LOVE SAND BOXES!). I would pop in to see if any assistance was needed and was happy to see the growth of usage and expertise of many of the new residents.

I even saw some of them “out in the world” exploring. A couple of them started golfing on a regular basis and many discovered places to shop, where to hear great music and I am sure some discovered the other more non pg-rated areas. By all accounts reported to me, they were very happy with their first steps into Second Life.

Then last week, I popped over and “BANG” - NO MORE SIM. Not there. Gone. Turns out that they have decided to “wait and see” what happens next. So no more sim. No more build.

And I never took any pictures….