Day: November 22, 2018

NEW: I Have Joined Patreon!

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Well, as you can see, it’s been a week of expansion here on RyanSchultz.com! In addition to launching my new Discord server, I have joined Patreon! Here’s my new Patreon page.

I myself am a proud $5-a-month Patreon supporter of the creator of the wonderful Piggu Second Life mesh avatars, Jonathan and June (here’s a link to her Patreon page). And I’ve finally decided it’s time for me to take the fund-raising plunge myself!

In case you’re wondering, Patreon is a simple way for you to contribute to support my blogging (as well as the upcoming Metaverse Newscast show), and get great rewards in return:

Bronze Patron

(if you donate $1 or more per month)

Every single dollar helps support RyanSchultz.com! Your rewards:

  • Read patron-only content on my Patreon page: special messages, news, and views only for my patrons!
  • Participate in special patron-only text Discord channels on my Discord server! Think of it as your own members-only salon 😉

Silver Patron

(if you donate $5 or more per month)

This is where you really start to see benefits! Your rewards:

  • Read patron-only content on my Patreon page
  • Participate in patron-only text Discord channels
  • Participate in regularly-scheduled live Discord voice discussions, with Ryan hosting! PARTY LINE! 🙂

Gold Patron

(if you donate $10 or more per month)

The complete package! Your rewards:

  • Read patron-only content here on my Patreon page
  • Participate in patron-only text Discord channels
  • Participate in regularly-scheduled live Discord voice discussions with Ryan hosting
  • Your name will be included in the Gold and Platinum Patrons page prominently displayed on the RyanSchultz.com blog (along with a photograph/picture of your choice and a personal message)!

Platinum Patron

(if you donate $25 or more per month)

The ULTIMATE package! Your rewards:

  • Read patron-only content here on my Patreon page
  • Participate in patron-only text Discord channels
  • Participate in regularly-scheduled live Discord voice discussions with Ryan hosting
  • Your name will be included in the Gold and Platinum Patrons page prominently displayed on the RyanSchultz.com blog (along with a photograph/picture of your choice and a personal message)
  • An exclusive monthly one-hour consult with Ryan (via voice on Discord or Skype) on any topic relating to social VR platforms and virtual worlds. Pick my brains, ask me questions, find out my opinions about various products. Let me be your personal tour guide to the metaverse, with customized advice and recommendations on where to go, what to do, and what to see!

So, as you can see, membership has its benefits 😉

I hope that you will consider supporting me as I continue to write what some people are calling the best blog on the internet about social VR:

Hey Ryan, I’m an avid reader of your blog… As a fellow VR enthusiast, I share your mix of excitement and trepidation – I’ve spent so much time and money trying to find my own place in this emerging medium, and sometimes it’s great and other times it feels like an uphill battle. I’d just remind you that your blog is, as far as I’ve seen, the number one blog on social VR out there. You have something valuable here, even if it’s not always that clear to you. You have many readers and we all look up to you and look forward to your pieces. You’ve done a great job of sharing much-needed information about all these different worlds and the people in them. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say you are one of the leading experts on social VR.

Jason Moore (in a comment to a recent blogpost)

And whether or not you choose to support me financially, I do want to say, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you for reading this blog! I really do appreciate it!

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Image by geralt on Pixabay

(And a special thank-you to my friend Galen, who provided me with expert advice on how to set up my Patreon page with links to my new Discord server!)

The Historical Pfaffenthal 1867 Sims Move from Second Life to Sansar

Have you joined the RyanSchultz.com Discord yet? More details here. 

Pfaffenthal 1867
Image of Pfaffenthal 1867 taken from the Second Life Destination Guide

Blogger and irrepressible 1920s Berlin landlady Jo Yardley (whom I have written about on my blog before here and here) reports that the seven-sim virtual reconstruction of the historical quarter of central Luxembourg City, Pfaffenthal 1867, is moving from Second Life to Sansar:

Members in the group received this note:

Dear citizens,

The moment has finally arrived, for the 1867 project to move on to Sansar, where land is free, where we can have better graphics, VR headsets and real physical interactivity. Note that Sansar works very well on a normal PC, for desktop mode you do NOT need a gamer PC.

IMPORTANT! All the 1867 sims in Second Life will be shut down next Monday, on the 26th of November. Please pack all your stuff by then.

We will have a good-bye party, Saturday the 24th of November at 10 a.m. at Café Neuen.

Please join us in Sansar and be among the first to get a new house there! We have 4×4 km!

Now, this is notable because it is, as far as I am aware, the first (but probably not the last) such wholesale move of virtual land from Second Life directly to Sansar. I know that they’ve been working on the Sansar experience for quite a little while now. Obviously, they think they are ready to make the switch. However, there’s still very little Victorian-era period clothing in the Sansar Store.

But, as Hauptmann Weydert says in his group note to the members of the Pfaffenthal 1867 group in SL, they have a 4 kilometre-by-4 kilometre space in Sansar for free, which is certainly a lot cheaper than what they have been paying to maintain seven sims in Second Life! In fact, you can now have up to twenty 4 km-by-4 km experiences in Sansar for free.

Here is a lovely machinima created by the talented SL videographer Pepa Cometa which gives a real flavour of the Pfaffenthal sims:

Here is a SLURL to the Pfaffenthal 1867 sims in Second Life, and here is a Sansar Atlas link to the new Pfaffenthal 1867 experience in Sansar. I would strongly encourage you to visit and explore Pfaffenthal in Second Life before it shuts down next Monday (as the video shows, it’s a beautifully crafted and lovingly detailed virtual historical recreation). Be sure to dress in Victorian-era clothing or you’ll stand out like a sore thumb!  And, I would equally encourage you to check out their new digs in Sansar.

Draxtor Despres also profiled the Pfaffenthal 1867 sims in an episode of his Drax Files series of vignettes on Second Life creators: