Japanese-Themed Hosoi Ichiba Sims Leave SL for Kitely

Hosoi Ichiba, a Japanese-themed SL market which supported six very beautiful sims, has entirely left Second Life, moving to the OpenSim-based Kitely. The sims had attracted a community of some 150-200 SLers, owner Amiryu Hosoi tells me, "All very active in samurai, geisha and villagers roles", but the collapsing real world economy made it difficult for Hosoi to maintain those islands.

During its heyday, he says, "There were months Hosoi Ichiba earned about $4000 USD/month and every dime flooded back in the project... I had 5 people working for me assisting customers and helping them find what they needed." Then the bottom started to fall out:

"When the real life economy came to a halt customers kept visiting but didn’t spend that much money anymore. SL is a game and Linden Dollars is 'hobby money'. When people in real life start to earn less the first thing they do is cutting on expenses like magazines, games, etc. That was what has happened. People just didn’t have the money for my products let alone to buy or rent a sim in SL where they could use my products that are mainly scenery, sim design products."

Now he's moving to Kitely, which sells virtual land at much cheaper rates than Second Life: "I already have 300 products transferred to their marketplace and made a few great sales... I will start rebuilding my regions very soon." The question is whether how much of the community created in Second Life will follow him there. Read more on the Hosoi Ichiba blog.

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Comments

[Informer]

DROP TIER PRICES BEFORE NOTHING IS LEFT! How many times do they have to be told and how many times are they going to ignore the obvious?

[Ooopsie Doodle]

Isn't she the one who has rage-quit SL about 8 times in the last 6 years? Glad to see she's starting over somewhere else.

At least until the next rage-quit.

[Minethere Always]

This is actually a very smart move for content creators.

I expect others will expand on that soon here.

[Graham Mills]

The Hosoi Mura regions are already open on Kitely, albeit not fully built-out. Stuff to buy is on the Kitely Market which is a very smooth operation; many (all?) of the items have the option to buy for Export which is important on OpenSim grids IMO. As you say, all-in-all, very nice.

[VirtualMediaDev]

The Hosoi Mura resions were wonderful to visit and
explore everywhere had hidden details were presented in stark simplicity that made you feel the environment so much more.I think one of the feature's that convinced me this was a designer that liked to create a challenge was the three overpasses. How does a designer express multi-level intersecting paths which are seen in modern cities with bridges over highways and sidewalks. The designer did this in a rural agricultural area, that was simply perfect.

[Oink]

First comes Concurrent Users (customer satisfaction) and the Use Case, then comes the Tool (platform satisfaction is not the point) > Tools are exchangeable...

[Emperor Norton]

"Hosoi Ichiba earned about $4000 USD/month and every dime flooded back in the project."

ROFL and no one can see what is basically wrong with Second life now?

[2103]

Looks like a bad business model to me, saved no money, then recession hit and caught them off guard.

I'm sure the "tier is to high" party will say different.

[pussycat catnap]

My only problem with this is that again, we're left with a split choice between SL, InWorldz, Kitely, and Cloud Party.

So as users... we have to wonder where to go...

I don't see myself jumping until one of them can top 10,000 concurrency - and in so stating recognize that I am contributing to the problem of them not topping said concurrency.

But I might dabble here and there. Though Kitely being on a metered clock pay system gives me pause. Its a pay model I don't like at any price (I may pay over $100/mo to SL, but its not on a pay-for-time so it bothers me less than even putting quarters in a parking meter does).

ps: Can I use a V3-based viewer in either Kitely or InWorldz? I know some of you hate that UI, fine. But I love it - and its another thing holding me back from trying these things out.

[Graham Mills]

No problem with v3 though there is an OpenSim-specific Firestorm edition. Others recommend Singularity though I prefer Kokua.

[Graham Mills]

That's for Kitely -- can't speak to Inwz

[Val kendal]

and they were gorgeous sims, explored by many, used in many ads and photographs. Another sad loss of beauty in our world.

[Pussycat Catnap]

@Graham Mills: Thanks for that tidbit. If V3 works for one it likely works for the others. Hopefully that won't change as SL forks one way and Open Sim another.

[Madeliefste Oh]

What do you mean with 'entirely left Second Life'? With still more then 500 items on the SL Marketplace someone has not left entirly.

[zzpearlbottom]

in all i wander, in all i found joy, friends in a few even the freedom of being a God!
In the end i return, to Hell where i truly belong!

[Pussycat Catnap]

@Madeliefste:

Heh. Oops.

And here in lies the worst rub for us users of SL with the Marketplace. A merchant who formerly was a great contributor to the community, with a series of beautiful places to visit. Is now just a leeching parasite - taking but not contributing.

Because there is no longer any need to have or even rent land for a shop.

For about a year now I've noticed the most interesting place in SL is my SL Home. I suspect this will get more and more true for more and more people. Nowhere to go but your own Barbie Doll house.

That's fine - nothing wrong with playing with dolls. Kind of relaxing actually to play dress up and pose about.

But its not going to be much of a shared world given that.

[Archangel Mortenwold]

More regions lost no thanks to Linden Lab's poor decision-making. The economy is in the toilet with no sign of recovery. People can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars a month on a virtual space when they have to choose between buying private health insurance under penalty of law and buying food with which to feed themselves and their families. It is simply stupid for Linden Lab to keep prices this high.

To the person who implied that it was foolish to take the money people put into the regions and put it right back into them, that is standard business practice. If you want your business to grow, you take your earnings and reinvest in the business. Money can't be saved when the amount paid by visitors keeps declining because their real-world incomes keep declining. The simple, unpleasant truth is that Linden Lab is gradually pricing itself out of business, and doesn't even have sense enough to care.

[Archangel Mortenwold]

@Pussycat Catnap -

You're correct about the Marketplace killing any and all need for in-world presence. That Linden Lab decided to kill the Magic Boxes is just another example of bad decision-making in business. Why shell out money for virtual land, even if only to keep a Magic Box that no longer works, when you can just build in a sandbox and upload the finished package directly to the Marketplace web site?

One solution would be to provide a significant discount to Marketplace sellers who maintain a comparable in-world presence. The more land they buy, the deeper the discount, so that in the end both Linden Lab and Marketplace retailers bring in money enough to make a profit. It would make sense from a business point of view, but then, when was the last time Linden Lab did anything that makes such sense?

[zzpearlbottom]

I real don't belong here, My Sl is nothing like this one any keep posting here, it is a full vibrant alive and always amazing one!

[Emperor Norton]

@ " People can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars a month on a virtual space when they have to choose between buying private health insurance under penalty of law and buying food with which to feed themselves and their families" Archangel

Excellent reasoning Archangel; my health insurance is to high so my solution is to kill off my business and source of income. What is it called "Going Gaultard?"

[Archangel Mortenwold]

What I was saying, Emperor Norton, is that with all the real-world expenses people have today, spending money on luxuries such as Second Life is simply untenable. When the economy was in marginally better shape, one could run a region effectively enough that it paid for itself -- literally. That's no longer the case. The real-world income people used to spend in SL simply is no longer there.

[iisingh]

I like toast

[Masami]

@pussycat

Unmetered Kitely regions are $40/month and were introduced more than a year ago.

[Baal]

No matter how big a wall is , or how many the bricks within it, when the foundations start to crumble it is doomed, or at lest damaged beyond repair. I think so many people in SL do not understand that it is a visual experience. No? then it is nothing more than a failed chat room. when the beauty starts to slip away you will be left with an expensive lego land of happy sexual day trippers.

[Minethere Always]

I was just following entry stats to my own blog back here, read the latest comments, and just thought it would be useful to help answer some Kitely MP questions by providing this link.

http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-news/2013/10/05/the-content-liberation-front/

[Carlos Loff]

I was very sad after a long history as world and content creator, always had to give up my lands - Yesterday I discovered Kitely and less than 10h later Im happy building a 4 Islands World (full sims) for only 40$ per month - Everything works like on SL so I dont have to learn any single trick using Firestorm Viewer - Uploading textures is free, worlds are faster and what else can I say ??? DONT THINK TWICE - JUST DONT - Migrate to Kitely Now - Today - The ONLY challenge is the lack of goods for sale so CREATORS - Go there and make money - I need to buy stuff I cant build