Insilico Saved -- Second Life's Landmark Cyberpunk City Announces Last-Moment Funding, New Roleplay-Only Focus

Set to close last month due to mounting financial losses, the official site to Insilico, Second Life's cyberpunk masterpiece, reportedly received some 11th hour funding to remain open:

SURPRISE and Merry Giftmas! INSILICO is here to stay (again)! It just took a while to get all these ducks lined up. Suffice to say though, it’s pretty much official. We live on.

No word on where those ducks came from, or who's paying for them, but good news all the same. Also interesting that the funding is enough that Insilico reportedly no longer needs typical revenue streams for paying monthly sim tier, and instead, can focus on its cyberpunk roleplaying community:

The biggest change coming through is that we can now strive be nearly 100% RP focused. Without the need to continually generate revenue from rentals/sales/donations, we have been freed to divert our energies into more important things. Traditional rentals will be replaced with residential/RP locations made available to active players...BUT more on that later as we actually work out those details.

So -- saved by an anonymous wealthy donor, or an investor hoping to turn Insilico into a more traditional MMO with recurring players fees... or both? More news when it arrives.

Hat tip: /SecondLife.

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Comments

[JohnC]

The only thing I never liked about Insilico was that it is a skybox. I never much liked sims where the outer edges just cease to exist. Virtual worlds are all about creating the illusion of some kind of reality. Reality does not just stop at some point. If it does it breaks the illusion. I am not a fan of the new sim surround craze. But at least it attempts to give the illusion that the world exists beyond the boundary of the sim.
If I were the creator of Insilico and someone offered me the chance to prolong it's life, I would make it a condition that I could re build it. I was never so much in love with anything I built that I did not know that given the chance I could build it much better given the opportunity to do so.

[I Remember Phoenix]

If only they hadn't treated all the good roleplayers like dirt and driven them off in the first place.

I guess the local school bully can prosper if he gets rich enough to buy the playground.

[jack]

I like how this 'JohnC' character above has the gall to tell people what VR should and shouldn't be.

Another budding VR dictator in the making for this a%^&*$clown.

Tell us more Fuhrer johnC?

[Rin]

I very much apploud the move to more RP. When there is one thing missing in SL then it is decent sci-fi and cyberpunk roleplay. And insilicos case the first step is to get rid of meters and get beyond combat and out of the cliques that so far made everyone who played there I talked it describe it with *it was good once long time ago*

But a fresh start with hopefully new people deciding things might be exactly what is needed (a rebuild here and there might be a good idea too and the mall would need to be moved out of the city too for the new RP focus).

[Mondy]

I quite liked looking round the mall as long as the stores sold items in keeping with the theme. A city usually has stores somewhere right ?

[Rin]

Indeed Mondy, cities have stores. But RP has specific needs and mixing out of character areas where people can walk around who are not part of the RP and in character areas where people are expected to take part in the play or flag themsleves as OOC and remain on the side and observing in silence if they wish so is usually a very bad idea.
And than you might be the problem of having stores that are in a IC area and that sell items that the setting might daclare to be illegal or difficult to get. Weapons are a usual example but it can be anything from tools to special clothing items.

Malls in RP areas work best as part of the OOC-entry area where people can also get information about the setting, rules and everything else they need to know before joining in.