My time inworld has been limited for the past few months, due to a big #firstlife #homerenovation project that’s had me and my spouse upending our lives and home since February. My ability to get inworld has been limited, since the big desktop computer was disconnected and stored in a guestroom/dumping ground, and I’m using an older laptop with a terrible onboard Intel GPU.

This will change soon! The project is complete, although some large furniture including my computer desk remains to be moved around with actual muscle power. It’s so much easier moving, redecorating, and renovating in #SecondLife…

I managed to get inworld in the mornings to mess around with DigitalFarmSystems and even managed to breed a couple of specialty animals, but could not make it to big events like FantasyFaire      which bothered me, as I’d been looking forward to it all year.

My plan is still to reduce my participation in DFS since I’ve spent way too much real-life coin on buying gadgets and tools for it, and before the reno project started I was attempting to sell off collectibles in the various DFS auction events.With my limited insight, it seems like the bottom is falling out of the market – more and more Second Life farming and lifestyle systems are showing up, and there continue to be a lot of big “I’m leaving DFS, everything must go” announcements for yard sales. And when you check out the sale, you see that the seller has some of the newer farm systems stuff set up and active, and they’re dumping the DFS stuff. I’ve blogged and “tooted” about this on my Mastodon account. It’s also documented on my Second Life “feed” (a feature that is probably going away soon, unless I’m wrong).

My new neighbor in Tweddle, who like me picked up abandoned land and cut out a reasonable parcel for farming, is using a completely different farming system. From what I can tell, it doesn’t require “tending” or topping up energy every day. It’s possible to go every other day but you could lose some virtual livestock that way if you cut it too fine. This probably makes it more attractive than DFS for a lot of people.

Just now I’ve reduced the amount that I pay for DFS “extras” in Patreon, as part of my drawing-down process. It’s clear that I was overpaying for game resources that I just wasn’t coming close to needing, especially after picking up more than half of my fields (and more reducing is in order. A couple of months ago I bought a lot of bulk stuff in a sale on a whim; it made me realize how addictive this damn game can be when you can just buy what you need instead of spending the time growing or crafting it, and I was spending $20 a month for the extras, too.

So I have stepped down to a “maintenance dose” of stuff for $3 per month, with the goal of getting down to about 4 active fields by October. The trees and plants can stay, as they can be “turned off” and be decorative. I do enjoy the tending and to some extent, the “cooking.” But I hate the pressure to sell and market, so will keep trying to sell stuff off as I get properly “inworld” at the auctions again. I was about to do that when the renovation project took precedence.

Can’t wait to socialize and have good graphics again, too.