Just JJ: Shall we get started?
Lara: Sure..I'm game :)
Just JJ: How long have you been an active user in Active Worlds?
Lara: I've used this program since April 1996, almost 6 yrs now
Just JJ: So you have seen allot of changes?
Lara: Oh yes, the program has come a long way since back when it was called Alpha world, and Alpha world was the default landing spot. ;)
Lara: the "good old days", in many ways :)
Just JJ: Ah yes the good old days, what ever happened :)
Just JJ: What prompted you to start an Object Yard?
Lara: Actually, I started it just for myself just so I could see what the various walls and floors looked like.
Just JJ: It is became a really vast project?
Lara: That's all it was at first....I just put the things out there for me to see, myself.
Lara: That was about 4 years ago.
Just JJ: I must say your yard is very well organized
Just JJ: That must have taken you quite a bit of time
Lara: I never set out to make it be a "project" I just gradually kept adding to it, anytime I'd hear that they (the company) had added more objects or textures.
Lara: LOL, Well any "organization" it has is due to my laziness about "walking" around in here...I love to click my way around to things. :)
Just JJ: It's a guilty pleasure most of us have :)
Just JJ: With all the new objects that have been added lately, do you look at it as a trap to keep users with the situation as the way it is?
Lara: The only times the object yard has been a chore was when a whole bunch of objects were added at once like when they added several hundred back in May 2000, the X objects, and now this huge load of new object sets from the 3D home page sets.
Lara: The timing was certainly interesting. One could view the sudden addition of all those things as a sop thrown to the many citizens who have been very upset over the way the company changed things so drastically.
Just JJ: how do you feel about all of this anyway?
Just JJ: let me generalize the question, what do you think is going to happen in the long run?
Lara: I am very sorry to see tourists knocked out of this. I think unlimited free tryout of this program is essential to adding new registered users.
Just JJ: If it weren't for that most of us would probably not be here
Lara: I think AWCorp needed to brainstorm with a lot of the experienced users to get ideas on how to get more of the existing tourists to register, and get input on how to get new tourists to register instead of going the route of this new pricing plan.
Just JJ: The pricing plan has been a big upset, if this does cause AW to close it's doors with users leaving do you have plans to join another universe?
Lara: No, I won't be going to any other "universe". Alpha world has always been "it" for me. If Alpha world goes, I will just spend my computer time doing other things.
Lara: JJ, I will say this...
Lara: As much as I've always enjoyed this program...and love building in it, I will not have one moment of "missing it", if it goes down the drain.
Lara: I hope that doesn't happen. I'd like to continue building "in 3D" in alpha world. But if it goes I have plenty of other things I enjoy doing.
Just JJ: the only problem i really see is that allot of great people will most likely be leaving
Just JJ: What do YOU think the future is of AW, since other people have had their say?
Lara: I think the new pricing makes it especially hard on families who have bought citizenships for several children (not the case for me, since I don't have children).
Lara: I think if management doesn't start looking for free ways to advertise this get the word out about it more (and of course, bring back free tourist mode), the program won't make it.
Just JJ: I have noticed you are wearing a tourist avatar, is that because of the "murder" of tourists?
Lara: Heh, you noticed my "new" clothes? Well, it's my "fashion statement" for the time being. :)
Just JJ: as with many people
Lara: I miss the little tourists running around they made this program "active". ;)
Just JJ: The school and gate is very quiet
Just JJ: I thank you for your time; do you have any final thoughts? You can say anything you want :)
Lara: Wasn't there a line in a movie... "Too quiet"?
Just JJ: I believe there was
Lara: Well, only this...
Lara: I think this program was still is...such a cool concept. Online community of people chatting, building... and it seems that the original concept has been knocked down little by little, over the years.
Just JJ: It gets knocked down more than built up anymore
Lara: It takes all kinds of personalities to make an interesting community... and if you try to get them all to be just cheerleaders, the vibrancy goes away.