There will re-open update 05/20/2011

Here’s the promised update.

Looking around, we think we can have the first phase of re-opening – ThereIM – done by the end of June. This is a GUESS at this point, but by then we think you will be able to:

1. Go through the sign-up process.
2. Pay the subscription fee.
3. Claim your old avatar name(s)
4. Log into ThereIm.
5. Request restoration of your inventory. It should arrive in a day or so.

Please note, Item #1 is PAY THE SUBSCRIPTION FEE (of course you can always cancel later, subject to some refund policy). We will be working on a way to gift subscriptions to other folks.

We’re still considering the ideas of “Alternate Avatars” or “Mules”. Don’t have the answer yet, but we know it needs to be addressed.

We have not considered unbanning anyone at this time.

You must be over 18 to play. We understand that many people under 18 will be disappointed, and may wish to claim their avatars later. That’s certainly something we will take into account.

Now, for some details about your belongings:

• You will get them all back.
• You will get your Therebucks back, minus any you cashed in in the Therebucks buyback. We bought them back, remember?
• Some things, like Quest Kits, may lose their in-game state. It may just be too much of a PITA to get all that state back, which means you will have to lay them out again.
• We are still working out PAZs, especially their placement. Here’s the issue: We can re-place the PAZ until it’s owner decides to re-appear in world, and re-claim their PAZ. Until then, the PAZ spot is “open”, which means someone else could claim jump them. We’re considering putting a moratorium on dropping PAZs, at least in those special places, until some amount of time has passed to allow the old owners to show up. Then, they’ll still have thier PAZ, but there’s no guarantee they will keep their place. That seems fair.
• We’re still working out “when” servers which hold PAZs and Real Estate will be “up” as opposed to “sleeping”. Unlike the old There, where we kept literally hundreds of servers running for places with nobody in them (for much of the time), the new There is only going to run them if someone is paying for them. So, if hood rental, or PAZ rental covers keeping the Cloud server up 24X7, then we will. Otherwise, we’ll have to work out a way to bring it up “on demand”. By the way, remember the zone price increase in 2009? That was to raise the rent prices of zones so they would cover the costs of running the servers the zones were on – cover, NOT make a profit. Now it will cost much less to cover it, but we still need to cover it.
• Dogs may forget who you are (as in, they may have forgotten how nice you were to them, and need to be retrained). Still working on that.
• You will of course get your skills back, including the pathetic flailing around that some of you called “Paintball”. My 14-year old dog could paintball better than you!

I hope this has been helpful.

P.S. I hear the Raptors are coming today. I hope they’re Velociraptors, because we all know they can’t open doors.