UPDATED: The Quad sims, aka Ginny, Starley, Elika, Canimal.

UPDATED: They're baaaaaack. With this enigmatic phrase: "it was something we simply had to do." Again, IMHO, it wasn't. Except for new content, the businesses run themselves for the most part. Need to take a break, fine, but there's no need to shut down the entire sim for a short break. And frankly RL businesses couldn't get away with shutting down without some good reason stated publicly.


Original Post:

The quad sims are closed, no reason given, no hints on how long, nothing except for a "respect our decision" Well I can respect their decision to do so while still being of the mindset to say.....It's a dumb decision.

Yes, that's right, it's dumb, and not necessary at all.

Suppose I was a designer, and I needed to take a break for some RL reason, why with automated payments for sims and the like I wouldn't have to shut down at all. Just say, hey, going on vacation no customer service for two weeks. I wouldn't even have to do that if I did one thing that designers in SL do not do enough of:

Delegate.

Who needs to shut down if one has trusted managers/assistants that can handle customer requests. In particular, doesn't Dazzle have "design associates" now?

As an example, I could give my bosses at Linden Lifestyles, one of whom is still on hiatus.(Come back, Sabrina!) During their hiatus, did they shut down their sims? Nope, Did they shut down their businesses? Nope. I could log into SL and be in a fully in business Chez Petite in Calla, in two shakes of a lambs tail.

And if the shutdown is for a branding/image/store rebuild, then why shut down totally at all. Invite your customers to kibbitz and perhaps lend advice during the build ie. "No Ginny, don't drop the Dazzle branding, yes I know how you want to change the image built you've built up brand equity and people are still going to call your store Dazzle anyway."

And one final thing, when you shut down, you're giving free money to your competitors. Remember Ginny's hiatus when she shut down Dazzle? Remember all those new designers that showed up and got blogged? It would have been harder for those people to break into the SL fashion market if Ginny had still been putting out hordes of stuffage. Her absence created opportunity.

Now, I doubt that all four of the Quad sim folks are having RL issues at the same time. Odds are they're going to do some kind of joint "Ginny, Starley, Elika, Cani 2.0" thing, god forbid. IMHO personal opinion it was a bad idea to move those four busy (and often laggy) sims right next to each other anyway It could be possible that one is having RL issues an dthe others are closed in solidarity. That would be nice for a few hours or a day, but perhaps not very business savvy for days on end.

Moo! and some commentary.

I've seen Moo Money around the grid, but never really had the chance to talk to her until I saw her at Tete a Pied in Nouveau, she was after the recently released Automne set, which she says she likes better in the lighter skin shades. We got to talking about the fashion business, about how some designers are under-appreciated (especially Roslin and CJ of Tete a Pied). And how some designers have changed their output so much that she doesn't shop from them anymore, she misses the "old stuff". The example she gave was Dazzle/Last Call. She prefers the older Dazzle stuff, and some of the early grungier-grittier Last Call releases. Me, I like the new "upper class lady who lunches" stuff over the old "yet another babydoll cocktail dress in a dozen pastel colors". That was one thing we both agreed on, that Ginny shouldn't focus on just one overall style and "run it into the ground." We also dislike the major lag at Dazzle, which is one of the reasons I rarely go there, but that probably can't be helped. The build itself is too "Midnight City" for my taste, my favorite Dazzle build was the old Warehouse across from Luxe, but I like this one better than the one just previous with the transparent walls and stuff.

One thing we also discussed was that there should be more communication between shoppers/consumers and designers. How are they to know what we like/don't like/wish they'd change/what the shopping experience is like unless we tell them. But we both thought that people, especially bloggers like us might be afraid to do so because they don't want to "piss people off" and cause "drama" I've probably ticked of Ginny with this post, but I'm one of the ones who said she should have never dropped the "Dazzle" brand name to begin with. I'm also one of the ones that says she should co-locate her store, she's one of the few designers who could benefit from having a second location to cut down the lag, but that would increase her land expenses of course.

The conversation with Moo was one if the best fashion convo's I've had in a while. I didn't get any really juicy Moo quotes though. Moo is one of the most quotable fashionistas in SL, truly.

Vamp CC!

I was TP'd by Rose Farina to Alienbear Gupta's store to mob a Mobvend to get the Halloween themed Dracula's heart set down to it's minimum price of 299 (max is 2000) Since I have a great red/black gothy vampy gown I bought it myself, and I also have a great vampy skin in Tete a Pied Boudoir 3 (Miriel eyes, of course, and ETD Anisa hair in crimson, the dress is Midnight Goth from the old Dazzle)



I have fangs too! I vant your blood!



Aren't I the most perfect seductive vampiress? Yes, Yes I am.