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Mon, 10 Jul 2023 18:17:00 +0200

Hawaii@mastodon.world

Logged an alt into @SecondLife and found a spam from a #SecondLife competitor called #AvatarLife. Looked at it on Tor browser, and Avatar Life looks like a crypto scam. Hard pass.

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Wed, 02 Aug 2023 00:29:47 +0200

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

#AvatarLife is a #grid based on #OpenSimulator (see also the official wiki/website and Hypergrid Business).

#OpenSim itself is absolutely legit. It's a free and open-source re-implementation of the technology of #SecondLife, created in 2007, and largely compatible with Second Life viewers. It serves as the technological base for over 400 grids, most of which are inter-connected in the so-called #Hypergrid, including large ones such as non-commercial OSgrid or commercial Kitely.

Avatar Life looks like someone wanted to jump upon the "#Metaverse get-rich-quick scheme" bandwagon and launch yet another 3-D virtual world with a blockchain, a cryptocurrency and NFTs, even more so by offering in-world crypto-gambling. But developing a virtual world platform would have been too costly and taken too much time. So they took OpenSim which is free-of-charge to use and at least tried to bolt a cryptocurrency onto it.

Two things are interesting. One, they offer free land. That's only logical. Look at Second Life land prices. Look at what you pay for a standard region. Most OpenSim grids offer you a standard region with a whopping 15,000 prims for around $10/month. The only way to beat this is by offering free land.

Two, they claim that Avatar Life is connected to the Hypergrid. In theory, it is. In practice, they seem to have blocked all other grids. It's impossible to get there. The Hypergrid connection claim is only there to gain people's trust and whet their appetites and to eventually get them to create an avatar on Avatar Life.

Avatar Life brazenly advertises their sims on OpenSimWorld which is only allowed for sims which can be reached from the Hypergrid. But I've yet to hear of one grid whose avatars are allowed to enter Avatar Life.

I think "fishy" doesn't begin to describe this.

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 01:53:13 +0200

Polychrome :clockworkheart:

Polychrome@poly.cybre.city

@jupiter_rowland could try to report them.

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 02:09:25 +0200

Noodles

Noodles@universeodon.com

@Polychrome @jupiter_rowland I thought Avatar Life was that social network for avatars. Now I wonder if they pivoted to this or if these guys are also bumping up against that social network.

Also, its very similar in name to the mobile VW Avakin life, but probably different enough that it wouldn't be meaningful.

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 08:06:26 +0200

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Noodles That's something else entirely and fully independent from that crypto-gambling grid. Or rather, it was because it shut down recently without giving an explanation.