BnT Failure Fallout Sends Players to Surreal Estates
by Alphaville Herald on 18/10/09 at 2:01 pm
Are other land businesses at risk?
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
As word spread that IntLibber Brautigan’s BnT virtual land business is effectively bankrupt, displaced residents considered their options. For some, the unwinding of BnT’s affairs has been chaotic - residents were given 24 hours Friday to retrieve their objects from the sims Linden Lab seized, then the sims were again taken offline – perhaps permanently.
BnT in liquidation?
Those who live on sims Mr. Brautigan leased from the Surreal Estates were more fortunate and continue to have access to their land. Surreal Estates General Manager Deuce Marjeta distributed a notecard Saturday explaining that Surreal was taking over control of some of the sims formerly leased by Mr. Brautigan. The note pointed to debt as the cause of BnT’s problems, saying “Put simply, the sims were not profitable and so significant debts accumulated over time”.
When I spoke with Mr. Marjeta about the situation, he said, “Anyone in the land game must realize, don’t get in over your head, buy only what you can afford to pay for on your own, never count on partners unless its a rl one – one you can take to court easy”.
Deuce Marjeta says he has 150 sims and is doing well
As the difficult real life and second life economic environment impacts a number of virtual land businesses, experienced players keep a close eye on their landlord’s status in the "find people" search as an indication of the risk of landlord default. Mr. Brautigan's various BnT alt accounts were frequently missing from search over the last year, but problems may not be limited to BnT.
Earlier this weekend, Herald staff were concerned to see Random Unsung of Ravenglass Rentalshas gone missing from the people search again this month – although exactly why this happened is unclear. Linden Lab typically removes accounts from the "find people" search for those behind on payments, those with billing issues, and those subject to disciplinary suspensions.
The lack of transparency about the financial state of independent land resellers leaves residents with a limited view into the risk of landlord default – but this may be acceptable in a game environment. As a matter of policy, Linden Lab does not disclose the status of individual resident businesses, although the Lab certainly knows who is behind on payments.
With AzureIslands shrinking 5% at the end of this month and the failure of BnT, how much further the virtual land business will consolidate is an open question. Mr. Marjeta claims Surreal Estates is doing well, but went on to say, “LL needs to get involved in corporate law and help those ripped off by people like BnT. At least it would show they care and will try to help the people, but I bet they took their money out of frozen accounts from BnT, so the people get screwed again”.
Meanwhile, Woodbury community leader Tizzy Teardrop told the Herald that her community was pooling their resources and scouting out new sims, after saving copies of their builds from the now defunct Metaversity, Woodburyland, and Longcat sims, so the charms of the virtual world remain, even for homeless residents.
Deuce Marjeta's notecard:
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URGENT MESSAGE FOR ALL BnT RESIDENTS
From: The Surreal Management Team
To: All former and current BnT land owners / tier payers / renters
Regarding: The BnT Sim Situation
Hello everyone,
This message will help those of you who are confused or aggrieved over recent issues with the BnT sims. Our aim is to let everyone know the facts, as we understand them, so that you can take whatever steps you feel are appropriate under the circumstances.
THE BACKGROUND
BnT “owned” 50 sims and these were grouped in two ways. Several BnT sims were being Leased from Surreal (our group) using a Pay per month plan, while the others were SL sims purchased by BnT from Linden Labs using the usual method.
Large amounts of money were owed on all of the BnT sims in the form of unpaid tiers etc. As we are not affiliated with BnT (other than the sim purchase agreement noted above) we are unable to account for the details of BnT’s financial situation. What we can say is that, contrary to the many rumours flying about, BnT did not undertake any illegal dealings that we are aware of or ‘steal’ anyone’s money. Put simply, the sims were not profitable and so significant debts accumulated over time.
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THE CURRENT POSITION
Unfortunately BnT effectively went bankrupt on [Oct 15th 2009]. On the strength of the unpaid tiers, Linden Labs reclaimed 40 of the sims owned by BnT. Also, after a thorough analysis of the situation we, at Surreal, found ourselves with no other choice than to take back ownership of the sims that we were leasing to BnT.
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TWO BnT GROUPS
As such there are two key groups of BnT renters and they are each affected differently by the bankruptcy. Please refer to the following part of the message that refers to you. This will be based which sim your property is/was located.
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GROUP 1: SURREAL SIMS
SIM NAMES: Lorrey, Babiarz,Friedman,Nolan,Rothbard,Ruwart.Sorens,Stephenson,Salamis,Badnarik
The above sims are now under Surreal management. We are currently investigating all aspects of these sims – such as how they are set up and prim counts. As matters are still unfolding we will not be able to answer all residents’ questions immediately but we are committed to honouring the arrangements that you had in place with BnT, wherever practible.
Important Note! Please do not pay any rental tiers to BnT mail boxes. We will be setting up a Surreal payment system as soon as possible. We can confirm that no one will be out of pocket while this transition takes place.
Please be understanding if we are unable to provide you with immediate assistance. We ask for your patience during this difficult time and assure you that we will address any issues that you may have in due course.
Surreal contact: Deuce Marjeta, Nothing Nightfire, Duchess Shepherd, Theresa Alexandria, Ariah Macalroy, Cerze Ophelia
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GROUP 2: BnT’s SL SIMS
SIM NAMES: Sadly, these sims no longer exist. Residents will have had their items returned to their inventory. Or they picked up thier items during the 24hrs LL opened the sims to do so.
As these sims are not part of the Surreal group we are not able to assist with any prepaid rental owing, missing inventory or other matters. Our recommendation is to take one or both of the following actions:
- submit a ticket to LL, and/or
- raise the matter in forums. and/or Outside legal advice
What we can do is offer you land on one of the sims we now manage (as noted under Group 1 above). Of course you are under no obligation to accept this offer but we would be more than happy to find a new location that meets your needs if possible.
Depending on the number of people who take up this offer, we may not have enough to land relocate all. Having said that, we will endeavour to do our very best to accommodate everyone.
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ABOUT SURREAL
Surreal Estate exist to deliver freedom to the people of Second Life with no risk. We identify ourselves by our stablity and trust because of our long standing history in Second Life combined with great customer support, quality living and cheap prices. Our core business is to deliver a wide variaty of land together with a great community. The primary target for us is the people that live in our estate, we supply them the best quality service. Im one of our sales team for you're land needs!
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JOIN THE NEW GROUP
A new group for Surreal residents and those who may wish to relocate to one of our sims is set up. We encourage all to join this group as soon as possible to post general questions and to ensure you are kept up-to-date with the latest information.
[Surreal Estates Land Owners]
Again, please be patient if we are not able to respond as quickly as you’d like. We are trying to assist many people and will get in touch with each of you as soon as we can.
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Hopefully this communication has helped you to understand the facts more clearly. It is a very unfortunate situation for everyone but Surreal Management will try to assist all of you as best we can.
Sincerely,
Deuce Marjeta
Surreal Estates General Manager
Gordon Wendt
Oct 18th, 2009
Seems that Surreal is trying to do the right thing and even helping people who own BNT owned sims relocate so this’ll end up as good PR for them. Int has done some shady stuff before though so hopefully LL will take him down and keep him down this time so more residents don’t lose their money to him.
Ranma Tardis
Oct 18th, 2009
Linden Labs does not care about the “herd”. This has been demonstrated time and time again by their uncaring management style. Ripping off your customers is not against the TOS. I feel for those who lost all so next time stick to a landlord with a great reputation.
Witness X
Oct 18th, 2009
Tizzers should know. All he needs to do is ask his roomie. What happened to IntLibber’s scholarship to Woodbury? There was a nice backroom deal to give IntLibber a free ride to school if he gave BnT over to Woodbury.
How about IntLibber being overzealous to residents when he stated that BnT and ACE would have millions in assets in a few years?
Where’s this story? That’s the real meat behind it.
R. Roizman
Oct 18th, 2009
Now, months and months before this. I 100% knew for a fact this was going to happen, a couple of years ago – Ive personally worked for IntLibber and BnT (Brautigan&Tuck)
Tuck was the last name of his in-world wife. But who left him because he was quote “going crazy” and “pathetic”. In which I soon left him, and his closest under management. Anyhow, this was forecasted a while ago.
And now, its come to reality. Most back when people noticed that IntLibber had more empty sims than he had full, we knew that this was going to happen sooner or later.
Surreal is being a big help in the effort of recalling all of thier sims back in their hands.
Ewan Mureaux
Oct 19th, 2009
Some people should concentrate more on making tier than making a name for themselves.
Ari Blackthorne
Oct 19th, 2009
I’ve said before and I’ll say again, the only landlord worth trusting *at all* is Governor Linden.
‘Nuff said.
theunkownpersonreturns
Oct 19th, 2009
Ive just noticed one of the ex emoplyees from BnT now works at surrel, she provided me with alot of abuse even when i was paying the tier. glad im not with BnT anymore.
theunkownpersonreturns
LOL
Oct 21st, 2009
Pennies for Pixels = Pathetic
Suggestion for all the Second Life Residents out there… Use your Real Life Dollars in a more inteligent way. Remember, SL is just a Videogame Sim for Small business. Ever wonder why all the SL Business owers do not own a business in the Real World? Perhaps it is beacuse none of them know how to run a business in the real world and are only doing it in the virtual world because, they are spending YOUR MONEY!
obvious alt is obvious
Oct 22nd, 2009
Tizzy Teardrop = IntLibber Brautigan
IntLibber, in an article on here, was found to be funding the infamous “PN” and allowing them to use a sim of his for their own base of Op. LL found out and IB got in deep shit for it. It is not suprising that he would go about ripping people off with his sims and up to this point, go into hiding for his actions.
Swythe Quirksettle
Oct 23rd, 2009
Not all land business are floundering. My place, Draconian Enterprises on Drachen & Grand Junction is doing fine. Money is tight, but I’m small and am a much smaller risk then these larger companies.
In fact, my risk was so small I charge the same rates as mainland for 4096sq meters with 10% more prims. I never saw the open spaces and homesteads as a good idea (mostly because the cost per prim is insanely high), and have outright sought after lower cost regions on grandfathered rates.
Unlike some business owners I see in the herald lately. I think in long term before I invest and know exactly when enough is enough.