This is the most important post in Holly Kai Golf Club (HKGC) history.
HKGC began in July 2006 when Philip Linden played in the opening foursome. At the time he said said about golf at Holly Kai Golf Club “so cool I can’t believe it”. Since then thousands of rounds have been played at the most realistic golf course in SL. Now HKGC is facing a big challenge. Up to this point, even with green fees that were as high as 250L a round (in the early days) and 165L (until recently), we never have been able to to avoid losing money each month (not surprising given that HKGC takes up all or part of 10 sims). And now golf at Holly Kai now only costs 50L. The problem is, to realistically simulate 18 holes of golf in SL you cannot do it in one or two sims.
Because of all the negative choices that LL has made about pricing over the past two years we find that the SL economy has been so poor that we can no longer afford to support HKGC golf from profits elsewhere in our other projects.
On June 26th, at the beginning of the June Tournament, MarkTwain White made the following speech:
MarkTwain White: I find it very interesting and satisfying that most of the core players are here this morning, because this is a from the heart speech…
so here we go…
“Welcome to the HKGC June Golf Tournament….Before we do pairings I want to update you…on the status of golf at HKGC. As you know we have a parcel at the SL7 Birthday sim…To my knowledge six of us have gone over to…work the booth: Seaone, Derrick, Pussy, Deej, Nber, and myself. I want to thank those folks and let you know there is..still a day and a half to go over and help out.
We had a dance on the patio last night that Derrick DJed…Juan was the only member to attend outside of Nber and myself…not sure what that means.
I plan to run 250,000 impressions of a banner ad on XStreet SL… I will announce to everone when those ads start running. Iif that does not bring much response in the way of members coming to HKGC to help with folks that respond to the ad, then we will begin an orderly shut down of HKC. So please help out and ask other golfers to help out…lets see if there is any interest to continue this project. We have lowered the price of golf to 50L which should remove price as a barrier to growing HKC…Lets do our best to preserve HKGC.”
In the comments that followed it was pointed out that the Party on the Patio” event was not at a European friendly time…and Mark responded that there are over 600 members in SLGA, and surely not all of them are European time zone.
[8:15] MarkTwain White: so i feel safe in saying that we dont have a viable number of golfers active to support the project…
[8:16] MarkTwain White: i am doing what i can and those here today have been helping as much as they can….
[8:16] Pussy Fanshaw: it would..very sadly……seem that way
[8:16] seaone Bunyip: yes
[8:16] MarkTwain White: so we will try this one last effort…
[8:16] MarkTwain White: to say we did our best….
[8:16] Pussy Fanshaw: HKC Golf is the best game play on the grid
[8:16] Deej Kasshiki: I agree
[8:16] MarkTwain White: and hope that fortune shines upon us and reverses the trend
[8:16] JuanCruz Zarco: agree
[8:16] seaone Bunyip: yes
[8:17] Deej Kasshiki: and this is the best sports venue in SL
Mark will be sending Ad Objects to members of the HKGC and SLGA groups to see if they want to rezz the ads in their venues.
So everyone, there it is. If you have enjoyed HKGC golf in the past and want to see it continue, we need you to reconnect to the Club. Come back for some damn cheap golf (50L) at the most realistic golf courses in Second Life. Get some new friends to bring with you. Let’s revive HKGC!
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Mark,
I don’t think that blaming the club members is the right way to get them to play more.
Here’s my 2 cent on the situation:
- Lately it has become quite close to impossible to play decent golf, due to lag. Might be because of LL’s asinine decision to put more homesteads on one processor. For every sim that is part of the golf course there are SEVEN malls or similar out there eating the ressources. This also greatly influences sailing in the USS. Just look at the sim stats (ctrl-shift-1) on Santa Cruz… Lately I’ve been seeing time dliations between 0.8 and 0.5 there, but WITH LOTS OF SPARE TIME. I’d say there’s some major brokenness there… On the other hand, there’s almost always some crashed vehicles around, maybe autoreturn wouldn’t be such a bad idea?
- Events at “unfriendly” times. Yes I know, this has been mentioned any number of times. Here’s the gist of it: You have TWO groups of people in the club: the ones that don’t attend parties because 4am their time just won’t do, and the ones that don’t attend parties at all. Which ones would be easier to persuade to attend parties?
- The “pros”… where are they?
- What happened to the idea if having that putting tournament again, that was FUN!
I would have to agree with Yuukie.
Price wasn’t MY reason for curtailing golf, tho I think charging 165 for “members” to play a NINE hole mini could have been thought out a little better.
What caused me to “quit” was the LAG that was prevalent all the time . I was told that one of the causes for this was the “fact” that most of HK’s GOLF SIMS were played on Homesteaded Sims and therefore were hosted on Class IV servers. This is/was a great cost saving. BUT at the expense of playing a truly “realistic” round of golf. Again this is not something I actually know and is therefore is subject to hearsay.
NOW – on the verso – not all can be blamed on poor servers, lag, sailing, and flying! We all don’t have the best and fastest ISP / connections nor do we all have the best and fastest Computers! All those do have an effect on playing virtual golf. I just think it can be better from SL’s (MTW’s) side.
On the reduction of price – hmmm… it seems to me that HK now needs to TRIPLE it’s golfing base to , essentially, make the same amount of money as before….? Hence …if it wasn’t making costs before it’s not going to make them now.
And PARTIES !? LOL – like there aren’t any in SL!? So why get “upset” that people (golfers) didn’t/don’t attend regardless of time?
IMHO – Golf is #4 in MTW’s SL business profile ; #1 – Sailing #2 – Flying #3 – Rentals #4 – GOLF
I’ll be sorry to see it go but it wasn’t what is keeping me in SL
My ideas? Well, cut back to nine holes on Class V servers away from sailing and airports. 150L for a great golfing experience isn’t to much to pay.
MTW Inc. gets back 5 or more sims to rent out to help defray the cost of keeping golf alive in SL.
IMHO,
Guy
Clarification, There are no class 4 servers in SL anymore.
Thanks for your imput Yuukie and Guy. I dont see how I could change any of the situations you have described. You have pretty much helped me make up my mind on the proper course of action here.
“I dont see how I could change any of the situations you have described.”
… bring back the putting tournament
… have events at times that are doable by people who would actualy attent, instead of at times doable by people who don’t attend anyways
… get back to the old prices. 165L greenfee is no problem if it helps to keep HKGC open.
there, that wasn’t that hard, was it?
Yuukie suggested:
… bring back the putting tournament
… have events at times that are doable by people who would actualy attent, instead of at times doable by people who don’t attend anyways
… get back to the old prices. 165L greenfee is no problem if it helps to keep HKGC open.
There will be a putting tournament this Saturday.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison when it comes to scheduling. No matter when we hold an event half the world cannot make it. Most of our tournaments are help in the AM hours of SL which is traditionally the best time for the largest number of players around the world. What times would you suggest?