By Guest Writer Tenchi Morigi
Location: Pontiac’s Motorati

Part 1 of 2

Another major corporation (known as “majors” in Second Life shorthand) announced the closing of his Sims by years end and this time I was quite disappointed. The Motorati Sim complex will be shut down by its owner Pontiac on the 31st of December this year. In my eyes they made everything right. The complex, made up of seven linked regions, was the perfect place to give your ride a spin, race against others and meet other car-or-bike-crazy people on the grid. You never had the impression that you would have to buy a Pontiac when you stay longer then half an hour there. Additionally they organized events like a 50 Cent concert (which I think is cool when you like his music *G*) or connect with virtual celeb Callie Cline as a public face. Motorati had a constant stream of users so what went wrong?

When you are looking for the borders of possibilities in SL you will be having a hard time. Everything you can imagine will most likely exist somewhere.

Apart from fan projects and stuff done by lovers of creative chaos some RL companies found their way into SL, but somehow it seems they do not fit into the concept. The usual corporate Sim often looks like sterile collections of skyscrapers with massive corporate advertising, without a consequent theme or the much needed love to the detail.

Iggy’s Note: Tomorrow, in “Building Less Excitement,“ Tenchi and I will continue to speculate about this and why corporate presence are often sterile or, as in Pontiac’s case, well done but short-lived.

I’ve not heard about AOL, but such departures are not unusual. American Apparel was one of the first “majors” to leave SL.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

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