Yet another virtual world closes down as the people behind There.com shut their virtual doors on March 9th. Yet another victim of the economic recession, the virtual platform simply didn’t have enough customers who were putting money into their coffers.
You got to feel for the There.com team, who put a lot of effort into their virtual platform, but in the end, they couldn’t sustain the promise they’d once shown.
After the closure of Metaplace, and seeing other virtual platforms hit the wall, it makes you question the economic viability of smaller online worlds, and if they have the niche markets to be able to sustain themselves.
At the end of the day, we can’t cure the recession, and at some point we have to stop writing checks to keep the world open. There’s nothing more we would like to avoid this, but There is a business, and a business that can’t support itself doesn’t work. Before the recession hit, we were incredibly confident and all indicators were “directionally correct” and we had every reason to believe growth would continue. But, as many of you know personally, the downturn has been prolonged and severe, and ultimately pervasive.
I imagine they’re not the only ones suffering a rough patch right now.
SecondLie Scribe on March 2, 2010
I’m imagining Raph Koster walking Battery Street, wearing sandwichboards that spell out THE END OF THE VIRTUAL WORLD IS NIGH!
Valiant Westland on March 2, 2010
Virtual Darwinism is alive and well. It’s always sad to see the dreams of a young company die, but that’s the nature of competition and the free market.
If There.com was smart, they would strike a deal with Linden Lab to point the There.com domain to SecondLife.com. SecondLife would do well to create a portal page that explained the differences between the two platforms and tips for migrating from There to “Here.”
Ravishal Bentham on March 2, 2010
Sad to see it go but I suppose their clientele didn’t have enough disposable income to spare. I have an account there but there is no compelling reason to go back. The graphics are dated ( circa 2003) and the content is slanted to a G-rated audience, young teens. Some aspects were fun like the buggy races, hover-boards and the occasional music event. Basically they failed to innovate like SL has.
Emerald Wynn on March 3, 2010
But . . . their avatars look like the discount “Barbies” my grandma would buy me in the toy aisle of Safeway (grocery store) because we couldn’t afford real Barbies.
Yeah, virtual worlds shutting down left and right. I always wonder what would happen if Second Life had to throw in the towel and close down. Like, would some people get the shakes and have a complete breakdown? Would the people who are inworld ALL the friggin’ time all run over to World of Warcraft (did I get that name right)? Would people stubbornly cling to their SL identities in “PlurkLife”?
The possibilities are ENDLESS and FASCINATING!!!
*runs like hell outta this blog*
Bareges on March 10, 2010
Well put.
HUGSaLOT on March 3, 2010
This is a sad story but I’m also rather relieved that they are shutting down. Feels like apart of me is on it’s death bed about to pass away. It’s like waiting for a sick loved one to finally pass on, because they had been suffering for years with a quality of life that had been complete crap.
With that said i also resent There for not learning from their mistakes over the past 7+ years. So it’s about time they passed on and cleared up the internet’s bandwidth for something else.
Read my blog, please, about my thoughts from an old beta user from There.com.
Sasha on March 4, 2010
I agree about the graphics and such but my sympathy goes out to all of those members. Especially the long time members. I was never a member of There. It sounds like there were a few problems and was outdated.
I think SL is pretty safe, but who knows in this economy. There and SL seem pretty different as far as business models and user creations go. I’m not sure if SL is a good place for There.com members to go. Seems like There has a lot more young users, and SL doesn’t allow anyone over 18, for good reason.
I did find an pros and cons article about some possible sites There.com members might be able to find. It’s available if you click on my name.
Good luck to all those There users!
nimil on March 4, 2010
aw.. there was my first virtual world.. back when you needed a credit card to join sl, i tried to find an alternative to satisfy my curiosity of virtual worlds and there ended up being the one i picked.
honestly i’m suprised it lasted as long as it did. it was way limited compared to SL.
Vultures Who Feed on the Death of a Metaverse « Metaversally Speaking.. on March 4, 2010
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