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Jan 2, 2005, 6:34pm

On January 2, 2002, ENZO announced that Activeworlds was raising its
prices from $19.95 to the current scheme. I would venture that this
event was perhaps the single most important event of AW's history up to
this point.

I'm not going to pass judgement, but does anyone care to share their
thoughts on how AW has improved and how it has disappointed people since
this momentus decision? It would also be interesting if someone could
dredge up the original letter that was posted on activeworlds.com.

Jan 2, 2005, 7:01pm

[View Quote]
The letter was at:

http://www.activeworlds.com/letter.html

But seems to have fell into the bog

Well I be sure to say all VR places have taken a decline without
exception to any of them, plus even at 69 bucks aw.inc could afford to
lose 1/3rd of membership without felling the cost and many free
homepages went to reduce worlds from around 2k to under 1k now.

but then aw used to have 600+ in on weekends now 350 tops inc tourists


If I remember right the letter said something like it was to employ more
programmers to make the produce better lol seems a lot of other staff
have left.

To be sure this year will make or break aw in the market, and remember
what happened on the price hype? el pirates came out in force. Its a
cert if aw.inc ceased the many out there will boom or everyone will have
there own universe lol

Jan 2, 2005, 7:38pm

350% Increase in price, and I still want to see AW like it used to be in
2000-2001. For me at least, it is not worth paying over 3 times the
previous price. That's why I have only payed $20 for this cit.
I was expressing my concern in AWGate, along with others, and chrispeg was
just ignoring me, and others, joking around with Veger (despite Veger going
apesh*te on everyone a minute before.) He said it was my tone of voice/word
choice. Heh, right. Tone of voice in text form. It seems that veger
calling people "FAGOT" in all caps was the right word choice to get you,
chrispeg, to listen?
Seems that AWI just hangs out there, and lurks around elsewhere. When
chrispeg specifically said "No, I can't, sorry," or something along those
lines regarding whether he was going to hype up 4.0, I knew that AWI was
doomed. They have no idea how to run a business.
Here's the simple question: You're paying 3.5 times the price. Is Active
Worlds really 3.5 times better than it was?

[View Quote]

Jan 2, 2005, 7:55pm

I think the reason they can't hype AW 4.0 is because they haven't finalized
what it will have yet. In other words, they've barely even started it, but
they wouldn't want to tell the public that for obvious reasons.


[View Quote]

Jan 2, 2005, 8:07pm

My thoughts on how AW has improved though? Well...it hasn't. On the
browser developement side, if your a world owner - great. AWI likes you.
If your a common builder, well, sux2bu. Browser upgrades haven't really
kept them in mind. AW seems to be focusing on new elements for their
browser without attempting to make previous updates available for everyone,
like terrain for example.

On the community side, bad for everybody, it's too damn small for AW's size.
Price is the obvious culprit but besides that there's no advertising and
worse is AW ignores free advertising services that I know have been
suggested to them through email.

And despite that I pay 350% more like everybody else, public worlds are
still largely neglected when it comes to content. In fact I tried to help
out recently. On November 6th I offered to donate some textures I made to
be uploaded into AW OP. Since then I have sent them 8 emails and have yet
to get an answer about my donation. Great service -_-



[View Quote]

Jan 2, 2005, 8:19pm

The letter now lives in the Internet Archive:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030224070238/http://www.activeworlds.com/letter.html

Unfortunately, the 6 Feb 2002 version is all we have; the other revisions of the letter seem to have forever vanished.

[View Quote]

Jan 2, 2005, 8:31pm

I can olny address this one point of Ferruccio's.

In defense of chrispeg, he's a programmer, not a GK. Yes, he has privs, but
I don't think he is there to monitor The Gate for content. He is probably in
The Gate testing whatever it is he's working on.

Tart Sugar

[View Quote]

Jan 2, 2005, 8:51pm

Chris is permitted personal time you know :O Hell with the length of time I
bug him he needs one, however like all AWI staff he can keep AWLD rights on
in AWI worlds just to ensure that nothing 'happens' if you know what I mean.

- MR

[View Quote]

Jan 3, 2005, 8:40pm

[View Quote] "
January 2, 2002

Greetings to the Citizens of Activeworlds,

Since Activeworlds was founded it has been our goal to offer the best and most advanced interactive experience possible. Our
development has always been fueled by our passion for what we consider to be the best 3D software available on the web. We like to
think that the Active Worlds software makes it possible for anyone to create their dreams in 3D and share them with their friends.
The worlds you have created and shared have made AW worthy of a place in Internet history. It has become much more than an Internet
3D application, it is a unique destination for millions of visitors over the years.

The love that you, the citizens, have for AW is obvious to all of us here. You are the settlers and colonists of a new kind of
reality. You have discovered a new world and have turned it into a living place. From the homes you have built to the worlds you
have dreamed, you continue to inspire us with what is possible. You are the ones who have forged the friendships that breathe the
life into the Active Worlds software. Your citizen groups and events have grown AW into a true community. We look forward to
continuing to work with you in keeping AW ahead of its time.

Anyone who has been in AW for more than a few months has already seen the many changes we have added to the platform. Anyone who can
look back for a couple of years will tell you that AW has grown in ways they only imagined back in 1996. We have improved frame rate
with the introduction of hardware acceleration, we have added lighting effects, fog, MP3 support for superior sounds, Truespace COB
format, and firewall support, to name just a few. Our next version 3.3 will contain many features you have been asking for. There is
an enhanced contact list and privacy controls, DirectX 8 support, you will also be able to rotate and build objects using all 3
axis, there will even be an additional tab which will allow searching the world list. Add to this in the eye-candy department:
on-the-fly terrain, coronas and new rotate, move and sound commands. There are even new SDK features which will make your bots much
more functional. This new version will make all previous versions look rather limited. The worlds you will be able to build using
these features will surely astound and inspire anyone who visits them.

These significant strides and improvements would not be possible without programmers, artists, support and staff. Activeworlds has
grown in each of these areas over the past few years. Where we once had a programming staff of 1 lonely superhero, Roland, we now
have 5 programmers, we have hired artists, customer service representatives and many more, most of them people from the AW community
who you know a on a first name (or at least an AW name :) basis. Almost everyone here at the office was once a citizen who loved AW
and wanted to make it better!

As many of you remember, Activeworlds began charging a fee for citizenship back in 1997. It was a flat fee and helped get us over
the financial hurdle we then faced. We have not changed this pricing in almost 5 years. In our early days of slow development and
largely volunteer workforce it was much easier to keep our costs at breakeven. Since those days, we have expanded all areas of our
staff and hardware. To say it in business terms, the cost to revenue ratio has grown disproportionately over the last year. The
costs of adding staff, hardware and connectivity, along with a sagging economy have eaten into our revenues, much like many other
software companies. Contracts we counted on have lapsed as companies have gone out of business. While we firmly believe that markets
for our product will develop and grow, we are increasingly in a position where we have to make very difficult decisions.

To put it simply, we need to increase revenue so that we can be profitable or at least break even. Although our software and
community are unlike any other, Activeworlds is also a business, very much like every other.

The choice is this; continue making these great enhancements to the Activeworlds technology and change our pricing structure to
support it, or stay with our current pricing and almost certainly AW 3.3 becomes our last version. Now you see why I said there were
difficult decisions to make.

Our preferred choice would be, change the pricing structure and keep AW at the forefront of Internet 3D.

The following is our proposed new pricing model:

Tourist mode would be eliminated.
New users, who log in, would have to input a credit card number and would be able to enjoy Active Worlds for free as a citizen for 2
weeks.
After the 2-week period, they would be charged $9.50 per month until they cancel their subscription.
This new pricing structure would go into effect on the 3rd of January, but no existing users would be affected for this initial
period. Renewals would still be done at the regular $19.95, per year and sometime in early February we would announce what kind of
pricing program we can offer the existing user base. We certainly appreciate all the years of dedicated loyalty you have offered to
both the AW software and the community, and we will do everything in our power to offer you the best possible rate while still being
able to provide regular upgrades to the Active Worlds software.

This plan comes out to a little over $2.00 a week per new user. This weekly cost is less then a cup of coffee and a donut, which
some of us get every day. There are many things we all buy weekly or daily that cost a lot more than this and yet give far less
enjoyment than our time in AW. We realize this is a large increase over our original pricing, and yet we see no other way we can
continue our current level of support with less.

You are the voice, and ultimately you will decide if Active Worlds is worth $2.00 per week. We respect your opinions, but please
understand that without this change, 3.3 will probably be the final upgrade for Active Worlds. It is our hope that you will feel
that Active Worlds is worth enhancing and that together we can help make it better with each new version release.

We know we are asking for a tremendous amount of understanding from all of you, and we hope we will continue to earn your business
by providing you with even greater things in the future of Active Worlds. We truly believe this is the best approach to take that
will ensure the long-term success of the Active Worlds technology and its community. We hope you will all agree.

Thank you once again for all your support and loyalty these past years, it has been a great journey together and we shall forever
remain grateful.

Rick Noll
President
Activeworlds Corp.
"

--
Mauz
http://mauz.info

Jan 3, 2005, 8:52pm

I think they actually NEEDED the money when 3.3 came out but now I don't
think they need $70 a year from everyone O_O I realize what all they need
money for (servers, etc) but still...the price is too much and AW isn't
worth that much IMO. Just my two cents.

-Jaguar Hahn
348341

Jan 4, 2005, 7:03am

> My thoughts on how AW has improved though? Well...it hasn't.

I don't entirely agree. There have been some good features added,
notably the ability to rotate objects on all three axes. But that
feature has now been implemented for quite some time. There is so much
more that could be done but hasn't. Recent browser updates have had
bugfixes, but nothing new or startling. I, for one, would love to have
a proper scripting language to add some more sophisticated interactivity
to my builds. That's my own personal hobby horse, of course -- but just
look at the "wishlist" group for all the other stuff that people want
and aren't getting. There are thousands of posts containing hundreds of
ideas, most of which remain nothing but vapor:

Custom avatars. Scaling objects. Ogg Vorbis support. GIF support
(those patents expired last June, boys, all ya have to do is link in a
GIF library!). Improved physics. Fullscreen mode. Truly dockable tool
palettes. Better integration with the embedded web browser (like, being
able to "activate" objects from a web page!). A larger alphaworld
ground object. Profanity filters for those with tender ears (err,
eyes). A configurable chase cam. A screen-shot button. A "seed
object" button. Skeletal avatars. A fix for "cracks" between objects.
A Linux client and a Mac OS X client (they've got OpenGL you know,
just have to ditch the embedded IE -- maybe replace it with embedded
Mozilla). I could go on.

The most galling thing is that there HAVE been a lot of advances that
haven't been made available in Alphaworld, which is still the largest
and best attended building world, despite years of neglect. Terrain is
one example.

But it's not just fancy bells and whistles like scripting languages or
terrain. Alphaworld still doesn't even have a bookshelf object, for
heaven's sake. There've been perfectly nice ones available for YEARS in
other worlds. It would take all of sixty seconds -- if that -- to copy
some shelves from the AW Teen object path over Alphaworld. Is a
bookcase.rwx so much to ask? Really?

> On the community side, bad for everybody, it's too damn small for
AW's size.

Yeah. In fact, I'm pretty sure the community has shrunk over the last
three years. People come and go in any online community; increasingly,
in AW, it's felt more like people just go. The rate of immigration is
not matching the rate of emigration. This is what is commonly known as
Bad News.

So basically, I'm profoundly disheartened by the last three years. Our
increased fees have bought us a drop in participation and technical
stagnation. What a deal.

Selanit

P.S. If this is a dupe message, it's because I was working out my new
newsgroup software.

Jan 4, 2005, 1:40pm

They finally got a single person to advertise with them!

! at Mart remains dead, opportunity lost
NewAW remains dead, opportunity lost
No Gor universe w/ higher charges, opportunity lost
No package citizenships, opportunity lost
No plugin servers, opportunity lost
No tech talks, opportunity lost

Mountain Myst gone, image weakened
Tourist building gone in AW, image weakened
E N Z O acting like a muppet on Newsgroup, image weakened
Major Gatekeeper abuse, image weakened

Christmas offers, image strengthened

Chrispeg arrived, abilities strengthened
Ray arrived, abilities strengthened

Question is, where is all of this money going to? presuming anything about
340,000 is active, and has been for 2 years we have:

Citizenships: $70
Worlds: 1000, averages about P-40/10: $220
Universes Hosted: $900

Income (approx):
-----------------------------------
Citizenships: $70 x 20,0000 = $1,400,000
Uni Hosts: $900 x 20 (approx) = $18,000
Worlds: $220 x 1000 = $220,000
Various misc projects: $500,000
Total: $2,138,000

Staff (approx):
-----------------------------------
Coders: 2x $50,000 p/a
Support: 1x $30,000 p/a
Art and Such: 1x $30,000 p/a
CEO / CFO: 2x $80,000
Total: $320,000

Opperating (approx):
-----------------------------------
Servers: $30,000
Offices: $50,000
Misc: $50,000 (most likely wayy over-estimate)
Total: $130,000

Approximate Total
-----------------------------------
Total: $1,688,000

Misc:
-----------------------------------
Browsers Released: 2
Special Browsers: > 2
Advertisers Gained: 1 [I mean what the hell happened to Josh C?]
AWI Staffers up at 1am: 1 (Stacee)

All at my best approximation, of course.

- Mark R





[View Quote]

Jan 4, 2005, 3:08pm

Hehehe at

These significant strides and improvements would not be possible without
programmers, artists, support and staff. Activeworlds has
grown in each of these areas over the past few years. Where we once had a
programming staff of 1 lonely superhero, Roland, we now
have 5 programmers, we have hired artists, customer service representatives
and many more, most of them people from the AW community
who you know a on a first name (or at least an AW name :) basis. Almost
everyone here at the office was once a citizen who loved AW
and wanted to make it better!

Now they have 2 coders, and their primary support person had to leave :O

- MR

Jan 4, 2005, 3:23pm

[View Quote]
Almost everyone here at the office was once a citizen who loved AW
> and wanted to make it better!

I take it you are a paid employee?

>
> Now they have 2 coders, and their primary support person had to leave :O
>
> - MR
>
>

Jan 4, 2005, 3:42pm

No, im not.

- Mark R

[View Quote]

Jan 7, 2005, 8:32pm

lol, he was quoting the letter :)

-SWE

[View Quote] >
> I take it you are a paid employee?
>

Jan 7, 2005, 8:55pm

programmers only make $50,000 p/a? O_o thought it was alot more? like
$100,000 or so?
anyyway just a few things:
-Taxes
-Royalties (not sure how it works with JPEG, MP3, WMV, renderware engine,
etc, but guessing they have to pay abit every release or so?
-Maintainance fees
-Office supply fees
-Water/electric/etc bills
-Bandwidth
-The extra money CEO/CFO spend. It's thier company, whos gonna stop them?

Well guesing it's more then the $50,000 estimate you put down as the
estimate :)

and some other random charges, such as say, accounts, lawyers, and any other
form of professional advise/services they need.
As for the money they make, i find it hard to believe that the average world
size is a p-40/10. ya, there are a couple of big privatly owned worlds, but
most are small p-10s and 20s.
and, out of the 1000 worlds, like 100 of them are AW-sponsered worlds, like
all the AW worlds, and then ones like Godzilla, x-files, etc.
So just my guess, but by the end of the year, and after all the wages,bills,
taxes, etc are paid, i doubt they make more then $150,000 profit, and thats
an over estimate.
and with that, i'm guessing that they try to reinvest it into the company,
just not very well it seams. but every once in awhile, you must admit that
AW do hire a new programmer, or do something which obviouly costs money.

So just my guess, but i doubt AW has that big a cash reserve, and so doubt
that they can comfortably lower the price of cits.

-SWE


[View Quote]

Jan 7, 2005, 9:18pm

I think the paycheck reflects the amount of change the browser has seen the
past version or two...integrated video and some GUI changes...eehhh I dunno,
not overly impressive :P
AWI's lack of talk about AW 4.0 leads to me to believe the project has
barely even started, too.


[View Quote]

Jan 7, 2005, 9:35pm

well, about the work, i'm guessing thats just because AW is totally shit at
organising thier programmers, and getting them to work efficently. by the
looks of it, they just let the programmers roam around activeworlds while
programming, and so not much work gets done. just my guess though.
but anyway you're right. for 2 programmers, they sure as hell don't get much
done.
-SWE

[View Quote]

Feb 4, 2005, 5:03pm

No, it's not. However, Second Life is at $10 for LIFE. AW can't even come close...

[View Quote]

Feb 6, 2005, 8:51pm

$10 for life is business suicide - its a simple business fact, if you can
only support x users, and those x pay for life, you are screwed.

- MR

[View Quote]

Feb 8, 2005, 2:29am

I'm with Strike on that one.....doesnt sound like a feasable business plan
to me, I think I'd much rather stick with a company that will still be there
5 years later, not one whos going to take the money and run as thats the
only way they could make money on that pricing scheme.



[View Quote]

Feb 8, 2005, 2:51pm

[View Quote] Well the Basic account is $9.95, but if you actually
want to own land to build on, you must pay monthly.
There are no tourists, except for those on 1 week trial.
You must be 18 years or older and pay with credit card.
You can trade virtual money to real but also vice versa.
I think JP would be pleased with that kind of cash flow.

--
Mauz
http://mauz.info

Feb 9, 2005, 9:07pm

So what happens if you don't pay your monthly "rent", would one lose all
their peoperty?

[View Quote]

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