AviWorlds, the grid with the most ups and downs in the OpenSim metaverse, has changed course again.
In a reversal of last month’s announcement that the grid would turn off hypergrid access and no longer accept deliveries from the Kitely Market, AviWorlds will now continue to be hypergrid-accessible, will allow its residents to buy goods on the Kitely Market, and will lower land prices by 75 percent — from $40 per month for a standard region to just $10.
The changes put the grid back in line with general OpenSim trends towards more openness, more connectivity, and lower prices.
The reason for the change? A major new investor, Lysa Schneider.
“She is paying 50 percent of the server costs but she did make a request and wanted a ‘yes’ for an answer if I wanted her investment,” AviWorlds owner Alexsandro Pomposelli told Hypergrid Business. “Hypergrid must be open. Kitely Market must be accessible. Region prices down.”
Another partner, Logan Hunter, is also contributing to the grid financially — and also supported hypergrid accessibility and lower prices.
“I’m outvoted two to one,” said Pomposelli. “I must comply.”
Pomposelli said that he’s redoing the grid website now to correspond with the changes.
Shift to the hypergrid
There are only two major grids left that do not allow hypergrid access — TAG and DreamNation.
As of May, hypergrid-enabled grids accounted for 98.6 percent of OpenSim’s land area, for 93 percent of its active users, and for 23 of the top 25 grids by traffic.
Even merchants have decided to adopt the hypergrid since selling items only on closed grids does little to reduce privacy while significantly reducing the customer base.
On the Kitely Market, for example, all the growth over the past four years has been in content that is allowed to be exported to other grids.
Lower prices
By allowing users to rent lands on the grids that do the best job at combining performance and efficiency while being able to enjoy events, shopping, and friends on almost any other grid, the hypergrid has also made OpenSim land prices more affordable, while improving performance.
Many grids now offer prim limits of up to 100,000, can support up to 100 simultaneous visitors on a region, and offer variable-sized regions.
AviWorlds is also offering variable-sized regions and higher prim counts.
While a standard 15,000-prim single-sized AviWorlds region is $10, a 25,000-prim region is just $15, and a two-by-two region with 100,000 prims is $35.
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