Our Story - Four

When I left Second Life at the end of 2006, I truly thought that was it - I'd never go back. There were a few business matters to attend to, land and possessions to be sold off, Lindens to be cashed in for real-life money, and as I hung about for a couple of weeks, some genuine SL friends (we did have a few) tried to persuade me to keep on building, as much for the money as anything. I talked it over with my husband, but in the end, decided a clean break was the best option.

I didn't delete my avatar. I was too fond of her! She was still earning me 1000 Lindens a week at that time, so I'd pop on briefly to put the money into a SL bank, where it was earning interest at around 45 percent, a good return which I could cash in for much-needed pounds in real life.

New Land, New House - AGAIN!

This time, we vowed, we wouldn't be so foolish as to end up paying real money for monthly "tier" (monthly payments to Linden Labs for owning land) but we still wanted a home base. We would combine our free allowance of land, we thought, and get 512 sq meters just for a little home.

I came across a lovely tropical island on a Sim named GOA with small pieces to buy, and we set up again there - on land owned by Su Brando (and that turned out to be a huge mistake).

At first we kept to our principles and joined our two free land allowances, so that we did not pay the Lindens any extra money. However, the land itself cost several thousand "Lindens" in the first place, and on top of that we were now bound into a contract with the land owner to pay her "rental" every month. So nothing had changed. On the basis of that, there was no point sticking to such a small plot of land, and when a gorgeous larger beach-side piece came up for rent, we moved immediately.

All building there had to conform (according to the rules of the land contract) to the overall feel of the island, which was tropical and Eastern in feel. We decided we'd like a Japanese house. In the end we had a house complete with cherry tree on the porch, beachfront, gardens, and a stream with a bridge leading to a Summer House (with hot tub underneath). It was perfect and very peaceful.

This new house gave us the opportunity (when at home at least) to get new costumes to fit the part. I first bought Japanese silks, but then realising it didn't quite work on my very Western avatar, I bought a shape, hair and everything else to go with the clothes.

My husband also kitted himself out, as you see below. He is seen inside the house, and the other picture is us in the Summer House at the end of the beach. We had wonderful views over the sea, rolling waves, the sound of gulls and other birds and a miniature oriental garden with a fully functional waterfall as an ornament on our coffee table.

It was fun to play the dressing-up game; it was wonderful to watch the sun set over the sea and listen to the sound of the waves. But just as before, the whole thing began to feel empty and pointless. We spent less and less time at our home, and more time amongst the people gathering on "Truth" - because the REAL action was now there.

Read about the TRUTH sim, starting on this page

By the end of August 2007 we realised we were again paying real-life money for a virtual home which (while wonderful) was a white elephant. We needed to sell up and move on, so I approached the landowner and told her we could not longer afford the monthly rental and wanted to sell the land back to her or sell to to somebody else. At this point the previously smarmy landowner (Su Brando) turned into the witch she professes to be, and laid into me from all sides, telling me that it wasn't her policy to allow the land to be re-sold.

HUH? We had paid good money for the land, on top of that paid a monthly land fee to her, and now couldn't recoup our cash by selling it to another SL user??? Whereabouts was that in the contact that Su Brando began talking about?

I received some abusive and threatening messages, and tried hard to maintain a polite face in replying, eventually getting permission to sell the land if I could "bring a buyer" to HER by the end of the week (and she would charge us 15 percent as commission). I was then told to take down the sale sign that I'd erected on the land! (so nobody could know it was for sale.)

I was so angry that I posted a message in the SL user's forum, as follows:

PIGS IN PARADISE

I want to warn people thinking of renting Estate land on SL not to be seduced by a certain couple of landowners of a tropical island system. Even if you get past the sick pornographic photo (real life one) that the Asian lovely and her ex-sheffield boyfriend have in their profile, and even if you can overlook the fact that there is nothing but eroticism, hedonism, witchcraft, fetish and sex in all their groups - even then alarm bells ought to be ringing loud and clear when you find that the land they are "renting" (over and over and over again) is being billed at over 12 lindens per square metre for the initial sale, and then (on top) costs a tier of once cent per square metre.

In real terms, you are paying twice - once for buying the land at a high price, then paying real US dollars every month for the privilege of living on your land. These people sure know how to make money.

And (surprise!) it turns out they only thing they are interested in is the money. NOT their tenants. Once they have clinked your dollars into the till, you'll get nothing but hassle and abuse. Your complaints will fall on deaf ears and you'll get a mouthful of abuse for your trouble.

Is there a contract settling out the terms? NO. There's a (sort-of) covenant that you have to agree to when you buy. When we moved in, that covenant specified that the sim was themed (tropical/asian) and buildings had to be in keeping. The owner was quick to point out that our temporary privacy hedge of trees was "not suitable" for the island. However, a month later when she found passing off these pieces of land a bit harder than she'd hoped, she changed the covenant without informing her tenants, so ugly monstrosities of all kinds were allowed to spring up all around us. (The only reason we moved there was to avoid the mainland problem of commercial buildings, ad farms and clubs. So much for THAT dream, then. Did we get anywhere with our complaints? You know we didn't.)

But that wasn't the worst of it. A few months down the line we could no longer afford the monthly tier, and decided to give up the land. I politely informed the land manager of this three days before the tier was due, expecting to make arrangements to pass the land back and get our refund. We had spent nearly 50,000 Lindens and needed the money back to pay our RL bills. That was when I was told "oh, I never said I'd buy the land back."

HUH? where was the contract that said we had to (1) buy it, (2) rent it and then (3) give it back free and gratis for her to sell all over again? But no, there wasn't a contract. She could make this up on the hoof. She told us, as a favour to us, we could bring a buyer and then she'd sell it to them instead and take a 15 percent cut out of the deal for herself. So we had to find a buyer in three days!

We put in a classified advert, and put a "for sale" sign on the land, and told our friends about the need for a buyer. That evening I suddenly got a nasty IM from the owner, (who owns a fetish club on Paradise Island, and has a group called Eve's Fetish VIP for hedonism, bdsm, fetish, erotic experience and "all kinds of erotic arts"). It told me to remove the "For Sale" sign off the land immediately because "advertising" on her land is strictly forbidden. (NB: this is the same person who runs a fetish club on that same island and advertises it in classified ads...)

Well that was a lovely end to my evening, then I had another fruitless day searching for a buyer. By the 14th I realised I'd have to walk away and take a loss of the entire sum of money we'd laid out for it. But even that choice was removed from us. My husband suddenly had a strange email out of the blue from the land manager saying "so the last lie is I will not sell?" (we said to eachother - HUH???) and without another word, both of us were ejected from the owners group and the land was taken back by this delightful pair.

I would not want anybody else to have anything to do with this couple of money-obsessed crooks, nor to try to reason with them. I'm told they are now buying yet another island and the best payback I can imagine is that they price themselves totally off the map and it sinks without trace into the sea of their own all-consuming greed and corruption. I am glad I no longer fund their "fun-filled life of erotic hedonism" and I advise everyone else on Second Life to steer clear of them. (PS, yes I did abuse report them, but I'm not holding my breath for the Lindens to care about my fate nor the fate of many like me.)

So once again we had been stung by Second Life - defrauded, lied about and discouraged. It was becoming a pattern. Once more we had no land or home and few friends.

Read on...