Wednesday 1 August 2018

Breaking News! Ex-InWorldz Staff to Launch New Grid

In the wake of the InWorldz shut down, the exodus of refugees to Opensim grids and the declared aim of Beth Reischl (Elenia Llewellyn) and those close to her to launch InWorldz II, other ex-InWorldz staff members say they plan to launch a new grid as well and they intend to port the best of Halcyon code to their Open Simulator version. The grid is called Infiniti and the slogan being toyed with is "Infinite Dreams, Infinite Possibilities - Yours at Infiniti Grid" 

Infinite Dreams, Infinite Possibilities
Lecktor Hannibal, one of the founding members of InWorldz from 2009 and departed in 2010, said he is working with a small team of other ex-InWorldz staff and residents to set this up. He told me, "Infiniti will be open to all residents, however the target audience has been initiated based on ideas and information that residents of InWorldz had always wanted but never were able to experience."   He told me they did not have aspirations for profit in this endeavour, just to set things right so to speak to our reputations and how we wished InWorldz had been run for the long haul. 

Presently, the team are running a private Opensim standalone instance where they are meeting and fleshing out their plans. "We have a loose tentative goal to have something online by the weekend. If nothing else than to get started on the infrastructure."

Legion Heinrichs (John Arnolde) and Lecktor Hinnibal were part of the original six founders of InWorldz along with Beth Reischl and others who Lecktor says he has lost contact with. He said, "Over the years, Beth's strong type A personality, managed to alienate all of us. As time went on she added David and Jim to her team as technical folks." Neither David (Tranquillity Dexler), former CTO who left in 2016, or Jim Tarber, who says he won't be involved with InWorldz any longer after helping to recover content, are involved in the Infiniti project.

Lecktor continued "It is with great sadness and pain that we've watched InWorldz deteriorate over the years and what motivates us to this project. We are all excited however with the prospect of helping the Opensim/InWorldz community heal from the hurt." 

Infiniti Grid Team Meet-up July 2018
There were some things I wanted to know from Lecktor and he was forthcoming in his replies. For one I asked, "How do you and your team feel about Hypergrid?" I know there was never any real interest from Beth Reischl and it seems a lot of people from InWorldz would argue against it on Hypergrid Business comments thread when ever the subject came up. I'm also sure that many residents and merchants probably had a presence in the Opensim grids anyway and are familiar with Hypergrid and the huge network of connections it offers."
 
"Well," he replied "I have basically been a denizen of the Hypergrid Opensim Metaverse since leaving the staff of InWorldz sometime in 2010. Hypergrid will be available with our project. Most likely enabled by default with opt out on a case by case. Easier to manage the backend that way."

I suggested Gloebit would be a good currency choice and a lot less hassle as they handle the legal aspects and the currency is universal so plenty of Hypergrid users have it and many grids enable it now as well. I also suggested enabling Infiniti grid to accept Kitely Market deliveries too as Open Metaverse merchants, residents and grid hoppers expect a full set of services now which all serve to make the Hypergrid such a powerful feature of Opensim.

"Another fork in the road we'll be taking is NOT having a grid currency." Lecktor said, "Gloebits is a strong runner, PayPal will be likely available, Podex is up in the air." And he confirmed "The Kitely Market point made is and was in considerations for our business plan."

I am staying in touch with Lecktor and I will visit Infiniti grid via Hypergrid from my office at Farworldz grid for further insightful discussion and a first hand look at what they are doing. I am promised exclusive early access so stay tuned!