1.) Islands disappeared in the beginning of February 2010

2.) Islands reappeared one by one on the evening of 8 March 2010

3.) Normally if you try to teleport to the islands (hoping that someone forgot to “lock the door”), the pop-up window reads “Can not teleport. You do not have access to the region”.

4.) Yours truely has been “banned” from all four Island sims (join me inworld for a real-time pic as proof and to learn more of the source)!

Greetings to All True Duranians and Last Men Standing!

Zooming In,
Desire

And yes .. two years and counting still waiting with all the ups and downs of SL

Yours always
Lady

yours with love lol……..Paul stuchka (aka paul birkenfeld, new av’s name)

Incredible. since August 10th, 2006, there’s 166 comments. The last on the 3rd of June, 2008 … Let’s just take a balance of what has happened so far with Duran Duran in Second life so far. Here’s a summary of the itsy-bitsy details, for those who may or not be in Second Life:

1.) The “Fan Hangout” on Avalon opened in August 2006, went through some relocation and interior changes, then shut down in January 2007 …

2.) Rivers Run Red’s Fizik Baskerville relinquished the “Duran Duran Fan Club” group ownership in Second Life to Donald Sutherland shortly afterwards …

3.) The Duran Duran Islands have been viewable yet unaccessible to this date. Now and then, little green “blips”, or people present on the islands, can be seen darting about there – building or looking around …

4.) The “official” Duran Duran Fan Club in Second Life has 776 members …

… and that’s it. Basically Nothing. There has also been Second Life members who claim that they’ve actually “met” Nick Rhodes’ avatar and perhaps other band members at events or parties. Apparently these can be dismissed as rumors from attention seekers and can not be considered as fact.

A positive note is the diversity of fan groups that sprouted up after the closure of the Duran Duran hangout in 2007 – dance club groups, wedding party guest groups, groups for concert meet-ups with other Duran Duran fans – to name a few. Interestingly, the largest fan group is Duran Duran Germany, a multi-language and timezone-free group with over 1770 members for newcomers in the metaverse.

Clubs and hangouts have kept the die-hard fan community united over the past 22 months of waiting for Duran Duran. The “Rum Runner” has undeniably been the meeting point for Duran Duran fans in Second Life since the curtains fell on Avalon. This virtual club is a reconstruction of the historic Rum Runner Club in Birmingham where Duran Duran started its “Global Domination”, as Nick Rhodes modestly states. As a true Beatlemaniac idolizes the Star Club in Hamburg, the Rum Runner is the same for a Second Life Duranie in comparison.

Hopefully there will be some “real” news soon of Duran Duran in Second Life. There is a widely used phrase in Second Life about Duran Duran and when they will officially get in-world: “Duran Duran Time”. Meaning today, tomorrow, next week or next year – who knows for sure – not even Duran Duran knows! Good news is that Duran Duran will be in Second Life – after spending such enormous amounts of cash for advertising agencies, island purchases and upkeep fees (Duran Duran doesn’t own the 4 islands – the islands own them!).

See you in Second Life,
Desire Duesenburg (in-world since August 2006)

P.S.: I’ll look at this blog and the comments this time next year again and probably die laughing at the responses – this time next year, we could still be waiting for the islands to open!

I enjoy dropping in every day and chatting with the friendliest av’s in sl! We’ve all become very tight. We keep ourselves amused by throwing spur-of-the-moment dance parties, interesting chat sessions, and rallies. And Nick Rhodes’ lovely deep voice is not bad either!

RRR is doing a fantastic job. Avalon is simply amazing, so I CANNOT WAIT to see all of the love and energy they have poured into the new islands!

I’m sure that some of them probably are truly spiritually impoverished (but then, the same argument could be used for ANYONE who spends a lot of time on SL on a regular basis).

As a whole – don’t judge. We’re no different than any other “group” that’s formed on SL. I’d say the only difference is that we all decided to check out SL because of the band (rather than just hearing about SL from friends or in a magazine, etc).

Being a Duran Duran fan is about more than the band or their music. I think for most of us, it has just as much to do with friendship as the band itself. Spiritually impoverished? No, most fans I know of are outgoing and love to meet new people while “waiting for the band,” whether it’s in RL at a concert or while waiting for a new album to come out or in SL – waiting for the promises to materialize.

The one thing that non-fans can’t possibly understand is why we wait & will continue to do so. Ask any of us about “Duran time” and then you’ll understand. They always take longer than promised to deliver – but they always come through.

But above all – for those of us who are still “waiting,” the wait is more about exploring SL and all it has to offer. I don’t think any of us are here just to wait for the band. Not many fans would stick around at a place like SL if there weren’t more to offer than just Duran Duran. I know I wouldn’t. In fact, my original SL “plan” was to check it out & learn how to use it enough that I’d know how to attend the concert when it occurs. It didn’t take long for me to get sucked in. Who can resist a “place” where anything is possible?

The SL experience is different for each avatar. After all, SL is what you want it to be. I doubt many (if any) of the fans have stuck around just because of the band – we’ve all managed to turn OUR SL into something greater than Duran Duran.

PS. Forgive me for rambling. I’ve got a cold. I also apologize if I’m not making any sense. It’s hard to explain the whole phenomenon of Duran Duran to those who don’t “get it.”

I’m not for protectionism or keeping big corporations out of Second Life. It’s the way of the world, like RL. You *can’t* keep them out, unless you want SL to be a little snowglobe which will die anyway (that’s what the FIC “no business but my business” pushed so long trying to trample US out of the way, not brooking any competition, and now I see why — they were trying to position themselves for this big windfall coming down the pike.)

No, I don’t oppose a free market. I am, however, going to chronicle it as a terrible erosion of culture when it *is* that — without being utopian about the possibilities for making viable culture. I thin there is such a thing as social responsibility.

If Century 21 wants to open 400 sims, let them! There is enough business for everyone, if the rate of growth continues, and I think you’re probabably just spoofing on that one, because the last I read, they were only fooling around with Google sketch-up or something.

The fact is, while at first, something like Ravenglass Rentals can go on providing customized good customer service, in the end, these big companies will kill us off, just like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble killed off small, offbeat book stores. They will kill us off like all indigenous, small, vulnerable things are killed off in RL. And I do think we should expose and protest this process because SL is supposed to be a better world.

There are a lot of other ways these companies could be landing with a lighter footprint. They could be using a wider variety of companies for services, and be advertising through malls and ad space inworld more than they do. They could be buying more local goods and not trying to get bulk discounts when the prices are already so ridiculously low in RL terms.

Ultimately, however, it is happening too fast and there is too much greed and hysteria to imagine it can happen too much differently. I do think it’s important to stand by and bear witness to this sad thing and keep a crime file.

The people waiting for DuranDuran strike me as more impoverished spirtually than those waiting for Godot, but, perhaps it’s merely the form it takes in this age.

Your double standards are amazing, you run a ‘company’ in SL, and you bemoan commercial activity.

These are fans and they have a passion, not everyone is a dried up cynic. Let them enjoy.

When Century21 get that sim rental enclave open, hence the shortage of sims as they have ordered over 400, the better!

I am starting to see the shape of the future.

Big, roiling mobs, crowdsourced, um…”wise” and all those social softwarey stuff, all coagulating on a big corporate-owned island.

All completely propagandized, spun, controlled.

All able to speak the corporate hype at a heartbeat, sincerely, movingly, with feeling.

Mobs of loyal fans turning to big corporate entities to get entertainment, in exchange for “a life,” i.e. “a second life” with room for camping or even elaborate residential housing, perhaps even a little economy with stores to sell rock t-shirts — hey, it’s starting to sound like second life! Only as franchulated.

The big corporation supplies cars, clothes — maybe even land of your own — or at least big holding pens to socialize in. You wait for attractions and entertainment patiently. In exchange for endurance and loyalty, you are rewarded with being made to feel that you are “interacting” or “are part of the group” and even “making the content”.

It’s like a company town model, where you will owe your soul to the company store — I’m really not kidding.