Word reaches us that Lupe’s may be in its final days. Scheduled to close over last weekend, it got a ‘stay of execution’ for another week while its owner, Darkness Papp, figures out what to do next.

(This is where we miss Ella, who zooms around the naturist sims, seems to know everything before it has been officially announced, and is ready with a post on whatever subject is current).

Group messages suggest the decision, as always, is financial. These are hard economic times, folks, and we need to be grateful and supportive of the sims we enjoy and use. That said, Linden Labs could also recognise these are hard economic times and maybe reduce the costs of running a parcel or sim to ensure that builders -and Darkness has built such a beautiful place- aren’t lost to the world we enjoy inhabiting. Throwing real money at a pastime/hobby cannot be sustained indefinitely if there are other pressing economic matters at hand. We’ve all drawn our horns in in our RL ‘disposable income’, and maybe thought twice about eating out, going to the theatre, the cinema, to concerts. I know I have. I know my mind set has changed through this Second Great Depression (which is what it is, but with politicians too cute to declare it as such). Of course, things aren’t just as deep as in 1929, because society now has some sort of support network and social care systems in place, but its as bad, in its own way, as the last one. It’s just a case of working through it without mentioning it. 

Will Lupes survive? Spanish naturist Pablo doesn’t know, and neither do we.

So we need to support Darkness and other builders where we can. We need to ensure the sims we enjoy survive. And we do need to be vocal in demanding LL rethink their economics to ensure their investment, and ours, survives.

Barbara