Closing Woodland County Project (yes, really)

[Psihusky]

Priority Zero Gaming
Woodland County

Closing Woodland County Project

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Howdy all,

This has not been an easy decision to make but we've decided that we're wrapping up the Woodland County Project to venture onto new options. There are multiple reasons for this in which we have carefully discussed with the administration team and have come to this conclusion.

The Reasons

The Cost

Some of you may or may not know that running a Second Life community is a very costly exercise, with sims costing roughly $300 USD per month each. We currently have two full sims and one homestead. Our currently expenses for Second Life are $600/month, when in comparison to other games, this is roughly $540 more expensive.

In saying that, this is just the monthly sim hosting costs and does not include the cost of buying items on marketplace, modeling, texturing, scripting, etc. which can go well into the hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of items and time from numerous people.

We've never been able to off-set these costs to a number that is sufficient and with the core focus of being an urban roleplay community in Second Life, and that's something we've focused on from the start and build from the communities feedback and decisions.

Other roleplay communities have a focus on family friendly residential, and that's not to everyone's tastes and doesn't always have a focus on you, the roleplayers, and more so care about lining the pockets of the community owners.

The Culture

It's been our research and proven numerous times that this is how Second Life is. Not all, but from what we've seen is most people are focused on living, don't wish to put time into character development, hold grudges against other players causing conflict, aren't dedicated to a community, and there are a lot of sims (roleplays, themes, communities, events) in Second Life of a flooded market. Where it's easy to just teleport somewhere else.

This brings me to the core issue of roleplay in Second Life. There are a lot of options, and the "good ol' days", are long gone. Those days you had a handful of roleplay communities to choose from, people stuck with a community even if they didn't like people, and they just roleplayed. They were creative, initiative, determined and patient. People put time into their characters, put time into moving up the chain of command and if something was bad pretty much "just sucked it up and got over it".

Now, the culture in Second Life is of precious people who feel they have a right to everything, are lazy, little imagination and expect to be spoon fed everything they need, and if they don't get it; they'll go somewhere else or "start their own sim", "I'll go be my own chief", and then we have too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. This is not entirely the fault of Second Life, but as with other better games and options being available, most of which don't involve money (i.e. FiveM, you buy GTA V for $60 and you have over 600 vehicles. Second Life, you pay $60 for 3 vehicles).All of this has been given to us on a golden platter, no work necessary and it's expected the same to happen in Second Life, but it's just not feasible. It's a culture and mindset that has set into the new players, and the older players are either fed up with it, or on newer said avenues. Everyone wants everything, but don't want to put the effort into getting it.

The Effort

Within the admin and development team, we've discussed multiple options we could do of implementing scripted events (such as the automatic fire rezzer, speed camera, etc), to "spoon feed" people, hosted events, however we've decided that there's only so much we can do before we hit this wall again. People underestimate the effect it can have on a community if they're not there, whether intentional or unintentional, we've often heard "I'm bored" but rarely "Hey who wants to try or do this".

Now this isn't to speak of everyone, and is only the opinion of a few who have been around to see this type of change and agree, those who have stayed around have little decent avenues to go in Second Life, and it really is a dying time for Urban Roleplay in Second Life.

It's a lot of work to run any community in Second Life, but in this case the pros just don't outweigh the cons.

The Positive?

The positive take home from this is we've provided a safe and relatively drama free community in which some call their home, where they can relax, be themselves, free from discrimination. We've learned a lot from running the community, and hope you guys have too. So thanks for all the memories!

Why the change in decision?

We discussed things again between the team, and while we're not happy with the decision, we feel it's the best course of action. A lot of stress was happening with this project, in which the team wanted the best possible roleplay community for you guys in Second Life, but unfortunately the cost, resources and time needed, is simply unreachable. I personally feel we have one of the best teams in Second Life, and I greatly thank my team for all the effort, time, money and energy they've poured into making Woodland County a great place for those to enjoy. We have flexible working conditions, loose deadlines, good delegation, and a great team, but there are other factors contributing to different issues. With all this focus on creating a great place, and the issues arising, came a great cost of stress to all in the team, myself included, so which we've decided to close up this project for the health of the team.

The team will still be valued members of the Priority Zero Gaming community, we're not going anywhere, we're simply closing one door to open another one. So we hope to see you around!

When is it wrapping up?

The sim tier has been paid until Sunday 14th April 2019, in which the sims will be handed back over to the real estate. We apologize for the inconvenience this will cause, and will offer refunds to those at the end of this period.

Rentals

For those who are renting you have two options:

1. We will be keeping Diamondback Lake (Homestead) as a small living sim. This will not be a community, roleplay will not be the focus, it's simply for living in. If this interests you, please let a staff member know so we can arrange to move you.
2. At the closing of Sunday 14th April 2019, we will offer refunds to those who have remaining tier. We're not thiefs after all. If you wish to redeem a refund, please contact us via the Support Center with your rental address.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

For some, this may mean goodbye and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

It would be great for those who have photos or wish to take photos as memories, to put them up on our Gallery.

Priority Zero Gaming will still be around, and still venturing on projects to bring fair and long term roleplay experience to players.

Our next project will be FiveM, so those interested in GTA V Roleplay, watch this space.

If you have any other ideas for project, we'd love to hear them!

Kind regards,
Psihusky
Community Director

[Will Raccoon]

Bleh. So much for trying to start up a comic shop. >_<

[Matt Henry Robertson]

Will we get refunds (the renters)?

[Psihusky]

1 minute ago, Matt Henry Robertson said:

Will we get refunds (the renters)?

 

6 minutes ago, Psihusky said:

The sim tier has been paid until Sunday 14th April 2019, in which the sims will be handed back over to the real estate. We apologize for the inconvenience this will cause, and will offer refunds to those at the end of this period. 

 

[rsd58 Congrejo]

awww hugs all - but i am sure Psihusky tried be best so what you will be around on SL?

[Psihusky]

We've revised our decision to remain open, and have decided to finalise and close up the project.

Reasons are edited in the original post.

Thanks everyone!

[cam dirtie underland]

I'm gonna miss having fun and getting arrested but I can't wait to join the fivem server

[rsd58 Congrejo]

10 minutes ago, Psihusky said:

We've revised our decision to remain open, and have decided to finalise and close up the project.

Reasons are edited in the original post.

Thanks everyone!

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

well you can always ask me if you need help with it - but you can always have project ideas - dont let woodland county die but you can shrink to diamnondback lake - that would be idea

also i might take over lightining cause i am looking to expand - replacing my homestead atm

and fivem sounds good but i dont have game yet

Edited April 11, 2019 by rsd58 Congrejo

[Firegirl621]

Yeah Remind open for how long never know what the Future will lead to

[Firegirl621]

Ideas is to start with 1 Fullsim 

[HarleyQuinn]

It is unfortunate that you could not work it out, but i am completely in agreeance with the reason PSI gave 

"A lot of stress was happening with this project,...  the issues arising, came a great cost of stress to all in the team, myself included, so which we've decided to close up this project for the health of the team. " 

this is the reason I opted out myself, I could see there was a lot of tension and stress in the sim when I joined, and for the health and wellbeing of people I didn't want to see further hurt I left the community. 

I sincerely hope that those who are under stress are able to get the break they need from this, but if any of you find yourself under stress from anything in your life think about having a chat to your RL GP it doesn't mean your nuts sometimes you just need balance in your life.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
“How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
“You must be," said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here."

[rsd58 Congrejo]

13 minutes ago, HarleyQuinn said:

It is unfortunate that you could not work it out, but i am completely in agreeance with the reason PSI gave 

"A lot of stress was happening with this project,...  the issues arising, came a great cost of stress to all in the team, myself included, so which we've decided to close up this project for the health of the team. " 

this is the reason I opted out myself, I could see there was a lot of tension and stress in the sim when I joined, and for the health and wellbeing of people I didn't want to see further hurt I left the community. 

I sincerely hope that those who are under stress are able to get the break they need from this, but if any of you find yourself under stress from anything in your life think about having a chat to your RL GP it doesn't mean your nuts sometimes you just need balance in your life.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
“How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
“You must be," said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here."

 

i agree - however people who have mental problems - they should seek GP or someone to talk - i will happy to offer support for people who needs it - i am here to listen and talk :3

[Bill R. Smit]

Do BEAR in mind, the FiveM project will be making a comeback. I know this shutdown feels a bit GRIZZLY, but I think in the end it will be the POLAR opposite of bad. It'll be good. FiveM tends to allow for fast paced, enjoyable RP with lots of supportive features and a MUCH larger map to utilize! I look forward, and hope, to seeing you all there!