March 13, 2010 by Ciaran Laval
Fresh from the rumour mill comes the rumour that something is happening to Azure Islands. Over at SL Universe in a thread about Pathfinder leaving, Nika Talaj says:
"But this brings up the question of Azure:
We’ve got some fairly big news for the residents of the Azure Islands, as of March 16th, the Azure Islands will be transferring from us, over to a new management team run by Metaverse Services Limited."
This doesn't half bring up the question of Azure Islands, who are Metaverse Services Limited for a start, is it Anshe? Is Adam Zaius getting out of Second Life completely or is he just taking a different direction? I know he's been busy with OpenSim and maybe that's taking up too much of his time now but this is a rather shocking rumour to be going around. Maybe some Azure Islands tenants will be able to shed some light on it, as I said this is fresh from the rumour mill so maybe everything is fine and the wrong end of a stick is being grasped.
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[...] thread Some info at these links: Azure: assurances and questions Living in the Modem World What's happening to Azure Islands? | Your2ndPlace Azure Islands Takeover - No need for panic | [...]
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[...] Services Limited Thanks to the respondents on my previous blog post regarding Azure Islands being transferred to metaverse services limited I've been able to piece some parts of the puzzle [...]
Re: What's happening to Azure Islands?
Not only can I confirm the change of hands, but also that I must have been the first parcel owner-turned-tenant to have been invited to move to another region from Skat, which will be wiped off the map in the next few days.
And moreover, I learned this by mere chance because I was surprised to see my parcel surrounded by meters turned red on land owned by Azureislands Ambassador, the Azure Islands' corporate avatar, so I asked what happened and was told: "I am sorry, the region where you are is not profitable for us, you should move."
Alternatives offered are few, more expensive and less pretty, and although the tone of the customer care rep was very kind, it was clear I was hurried to make a decision, so I left in total disgust for the way customers like me (small parcel owners) are treated in SL nowadays.
In fact, my feeling is that MSL is looking for big spenders who wish to acquire large regions. In this period of recession, it does not seem to me like a good move, but we all know that the rich always will be rich and the Lehmann Brothers case showed us that after all, delinquents can legally get away with the money they stole from the same tax payers who will save their banks thanks to delinquent governments, so that the rich (aka delinquents) can become richer and save their copulating backsides while the rest of us rot in poverty.
2,000 dollars' worth of fees in two years, no compensation for the trouble, no way to sue anyone for being stolen a land I PAID for! This would be virtually impossible in real life! It is also the first time I am not leaving a place of my own free will ever since becoming a resident (I signed up in 2007.)
Also, this MSL is totally unknown to me and has no website to name of, while the Azure Islands website has not been updated for a very long time.
I smell fraud from miles away. And I am pretty sick and mad.
Sandor Balczo
Re: What's happening to Azure Islands?
Sandor I understand your frustrations but I am told that MSL is actually an arm of Anshe Chung's empire (I too looked for a website and couldn't find one). I couldn't see the guys behind Azure engaging in fraud, they have too much to lose as they are in different virtual world scenarios too but none of this makes it easier for you as one of the people greatly inconvenienced.
Re: What's happening to Azure Islands?
Well, Ciaran, no one confirmed your info inworld but if it is Anshe Chung taking over, I am glad I left.
I used to live in Dreamland, spent 3 days out of 7 every week handling griefing coming from nearby islands, and was forced to leave by a neighbor building an eyesore in front of my island which did not respect the covenant OR the setting, but the management of ACS had different opinions and banned me from the group. What do you expect from the Chinese of Mainland China, after all?
My accusation of fraud was not directed at Adam Frisby or Azure, they did an excellent job as long as they managed the estate.
If I had to judge a book by the cover, the way MSL managed (or failed to manage) the land transfer last night, which caused returns of inventory, sudden relocations near other islands and a general sense of chaos, is indicative of ASC's typical approach towards customers: be patient or else...
Sandor
Re: What's happening to Azure Islands?
Dear Azure Islands resident,
As already announced to you a while ago by the current owners, Azure Islands will soon change ownership: from March 16th our company Metaverse Services Ltd. will take over management of the estate.
Our team has been developing and renting land in Second Life for more than 5 years. We know your special virtual home means a lot to you. We also know how important stability and continuity is when it comes to land.
We will continue to operate the Azure Islands estate for years to come and honor your land ownership, prim allotments, tier rates and tier fees you prepaid to the previous owners!
During all those years managing estates in Second Life we have had to learn, however, that sometimes estates must adapt to remain viable in an ever changing land economy. As you know, Second Life is a dynamic place. We are committed to serve you to the best of our abilities for hopefully years to come - providing you a beautiful home in the Azure Islands. To ensure the long term viability of the estate we will, however, have to make two major adjustments:
1. A number of (mostly residential) sims, especially in the Micronesia area, but also some other parts of the Azure Islands, will be detached and placed as standalone islands.
2. Residents in a small number of under populated and unprofitable regions - accounting for less than 5% of the Azure Islands - will need to relocate to other parts of the estate.
The reason for the first change is that recently there has been a strong trend towards detached islands for reasons of privacy and less lag. We also want to provide residents of a sim more control over their region, which is only possible when it is not attached to other regions. We will still maintain some areas of Azure as continents in order to provide the widest range of choices.
The second change we know is something that is highly inconvenient for several dozen land owners who will be affected by this. We promise to do our best to find everyone who needs to relocate really nice alternative parcel - no purchase fees will apply. Any tier currently paid for old land will be transferred to the new land. Still we want to apologize for this inconvenience. However, it will be essential to the long term viability of the estate as a whole.
We will move ahead very fast with these two adjustments: the sim realignment should happen simultaneously with the transfer of the estate to our company, today or tomorrow. Also within the next days we will contact those affected by the second adjustment. Once we are done with this we can fully focus our energy on marketing available land, improvements of the estate and your land ownership experience!
Thank you for reading thus far. We are honored to have you as a customer and welcome you to contact us personally (e.g. Meta Azure, Nana Azure, Cherry Azure or Candy Azure) with whatever questions you may have.
Yours
MSL Azure Islands Team
Re: What's happening to Azure Islands?
http://azureislands.com/notice.html
This rumour is true.
They've already began closing some islands too, mainly residential so far
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Re: What's happening to Azure Islands?
Metaverse Services Ltd is Anshe's Hong Kong registered company.
If this is true, it comes at a time when about 85% of all Azure Island full regions where moved on to the new Class 7 Servers. These servers are currently running 8 mainland full regions each. As of yesterday the 141 Azure Island full regions hosted on Class 7s were still running 4 to a server. Aside from the VWBPE regions and 20 or so other full regions, no other estate has been moved to Class 7s yet.
Re: What's happening to Azure Islands?
... Opps the Last post was by Tyche Shepherd ... as was this one
Re: What's happening to Azure Islands?
That was a great spot Tyche....and makes one wonder exactly what is going on behind the scenes at the Lab as well as with the bigger Estate players. It is a tough time at the moment for land and any positive future seems to be reliant on SL attracting a lot more active new residents and that is no foregone conclusion at the moment. My feeling is that e are at a critical point in SL's evolution.
The more I look at how the real estate part of SL is going the more precarious it looks. For a while I was listening to LL's reassurances that they were committed to "playing fair" I am beginning to doubt my faith. I see too many incidents of huge differentials in sim pricing that are difficult to fathom and the appearance on the grid of homesteads that are being offered at less that cost (that is cost to some of us). I am not against larger customers receiving better deals , that is normal practice but there seems to be a whole philosophy change going on here and only a few are party to it.
DW