The Annual "Gor Sims" Update!

[Aphris]

https://gyazo.com/888df17741975abc0c0207db3632b556

-mic drop-

Not an inaccurate list! House of V 'daddy doms' and 'babygirls' are what you find in Gor now anyway.

[Danika Stenvaag]

What sim owners and admins sometimes overlook is the importance of keywords and tags for SL and web search engines for their sims. I'll see sims using wasteful words like: "new rules month/day/year" or "no hogties" or "on climbing walls" or "no cheating" ... and so on. No one uses those kinds of words to search for roleplay sims and no one cares if your sim has new rules or applications or what not. Kinda like a real estate company patting themselves on the back and saying we're Number 1 ... no one cares. Use relevant but simple keywords.

I'll give you examples for what works for Valkyrie Forest. Maybe you can use this for your sim. The Valkyrie has been around eight years in SL, our sim six years, and our sim is consistent in getting high traffic ranging from 20k to the 30,000s and we attribute our success to what I've been doing for years. The recipe for success is treat people well and kindly and respectfully and they will reciprocate. Bring something fresh and unique to the game like Valkyrie did and you will draw people to you. Be consistent and people will appreciate that. My sim tier costs about $300 USD per month after paying Linden Lab their market exchange/conversion fees. I can't afford to pay that kind of money for my sim, I'm just a girl in college. And I've never had to pay a dime from my own pocket in all the years I've owned the sim. The sim pays for itself. We get so many visitors, have many residents, and they generously donate to the sim. Without my people, this kind of traffic, I'm nothing. I couldn't pull this off. This is how you too will know your sim is successful - if it pays for itself and you never have to pull money out of your own pocket.

Search engines are also your friend. So here are some screen shots I've taken on puu.sh for today's traffic report which was 26,421. In the first image, I used "panther" in search, and we come out on top of all panther searches. We always do. Second screen shot, I used "panthers" plural and still on top. Why? Because I've covered all bases and included these words in our land group tag. Third image, I used keyword "torvie" and we still come out top dog in the search engine. Fourth image I used "torvaldsland" as a keyword and you can see we dropped down to number 3. Helheim and Jarnskog overtake us as top Torvaldsland. Know what? I don't mind. We used to be number 1 in Torvaldsland searches, but these two sims have creeped up from behind and good for them! See? At least I use it in search, and people seeking a torvie themed sim can find us because we are northern, on the border between the Northern Forest and Torvaldsland in the region of the ravens, the Valkyrie Forest. Annnd finally number five, I used "gorean" and we drop down to number 9 (same if you use "gor" in search) and that's still pretty good. We have tied or surpassed Ar a few times, but realistically, we know they'll usually do better and props to them. We also accept the fact that the Gor Hub, BDSM sites and stores and non-gorean places, non-roleplay sites will beat everyone in the search engines. But we still have our bases covered with the right keywords. Here are the images:


https://puu.sh/th3yD/f7cced73d7.jpg


https://puu.sh/th3CX/e94547c319.jpg


https://puu.sh/th3Gj/b358964e99.jpg


https://puu.sh/th3IA/81ddf14fb0.jpg


https://puu.sh/th3L3/4cf18d6577.jpg

Last month, we suffered a split. A couple of former leaders decided they wanted to do things their way and got their own sim and made their own tribe. They have been doing pretty good with some of the former Valkyrie they manage to take with them. They've been doing pretty well with traffic, but like all splits, we both are stretched thin now and it has hurt our traffic somewhat. It comes down to a power struggle. They wanted to seize control. And like Lagertha in Vikings, I intend to recover my people and take back what is mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71SUASZbdqw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71SUASZbdqw

The Second Life grid suffered a major blow today with their servers and log ins going down. This lasted for hours and Valkyrie Forest was down all morning. So I expect our traffic to suffer tomorrow. Stuff like this happens. But if you remain strong, consistent, and are smart, you and your group and sim can come out ahead.

[Sasi]

What sim owners and admins sometimes overlook is the importance of keywords and tags for SL and web search engines for their sims. I'll see sims using wasteful words like: "new rules month/day/year" or "no hogties" or "on climbing walls" or "no cheating" ... and so on. No one uses those kinds of words to search for roleplay sims and no one cares if your sim has new rules or applications or what not. Kinda like a real estate company patting themselves on the back and saying we're Number 1 ... no one cares. Use relevant but simple keywords.

These words are not keywords used as search... They are merely an information that sim owners want people to see immediately, information they enlighten.

[Danika Stenvaag]

The screen shots I posted above you each contain a specific search term such as "panther" or "torvie" and are contained in the Valkyrie Forest "About Land" text field so people can find our sim related to their interests. Yes, of course a sim owner can use whatever information they want people to see immediately about their sim, colloquially or formally. But the words used in the sentences in your About Land text field become your key words. That's just how the system works. SL search is not as intuitive as the big search engines like Google and Yahoo. If you say "the", "this", "sim", "is", those words become your search words and they compete with everyone else using those same words.

Whatever you choose to do, always be honest with your terms. Don't use "gor hub" or "torvaldsland" or "northern" if you're a city in the south, if you aren't the Gor Hub or a torvie/northern themed sim. If your sim is getting traffic less than 10K daily, you might be doing something wrong and you should consider using relevant but simple on point descriptions. It may or may not help your sim, but what do you have to lose? Your more detailed descriptions of the sim can be offered when visitors arrive and see your signs, rules, notecards, and actual Land Group linked to the sim.

[Glaucon]

If you say "the", "this", "sim", "is", those words become your search words and they compete with everyone else using those same words.

That is why, every time I look for a specific sim, I type 'sim' in search.

[Danika Stenvaag]

Ha ha, clever man. You make me smile. But it's pretty ah-mazing how some sims do use generic words in their Land Group description like "the" and "sim"... It's kinda like shooting blanks at wild game. A waste. I'm being ironic when I say you're competing with everyone else using those kinda words. Sadly, there are sims that do that when they could use relevant search terms and get better exposure to people searching for that sim's theme. Some people try hard at being Kafkaesque in the game but when it comes to practical reality, they ignore the door of opportunity that was open to them till it's too late.

[Sasi]

If you want to get a big traffic on your Gorean sim, the method is actually very simple:

- Be tolerant with any non sense (use the ridiculous excuse that after all, Norman didn't describe each people of the books, so, there is a large -very large- part left to free interpretation for other characters)
- Accept that people dress as they want, even in a non Gorean fashion
- Don't give a fuck about the RP etiquette
- Accept and encourage pew pew fights and raids.
- Label your sim BTB or not, but consider that you're BTB enough once your people use some Gorean vocabulary (panther, kajira, free man, free woman, tal)

And there, you're doing it right. You have a shitty sim, which is a very-very free interpretation of the books and would make Norman bangs his head on his desk, but you have a decent traffic and your crap will last for years. Congratulations!

[Qingwen]

So Vault 99 has closed, and turned into Tales of Omar. The build can be seen on the iRoleplay sim, which is about to go live. I get the sense they're aiming for tabletop-style group adventuring.

If they can manage a mix of PvE and RP, I'll make an outfit for it!

I'm trying out Tales of Omar. Just had one RP so far but it was fun. Cool build - the evil guys have some nifty torture chambers. If you go exploring, be careful of the firey pit of doom (you'll know it when you fall in and immolate yourself )

[Tantus]

I'm trying out Tales of Omar. Just had one RP so far but it was fun. Cool build - the evil guys have some nifty torture chambers. If you go exploring, be careful of the firey pit of doom (you'll know it when you fall in and immolate yourself )

I haven't gotten to look into it yet, but what is the deal with handing in NCs of roleplay to level up?!

[Tamar Luminos]

Let's see...in the past few months I've had about three nice scenes in Illyros (coordinating with folks OOC to meet up for a scene), 1 epic scene in Crest of Vrek'mar (unexpected pick up scene), and an interesting bit of solo play (running around snagging parts from nodes and vendors) in Remnants of Earth.

Given my lack of RP time, that's probably about all I can hope for is a good scene every once in awhile. I do miss my old days of being on daily and being able to get some fantastic long-term story lines going but I sadly just don't seem to have the time these days and my RP partner even less so. I do miss it, though!

Omar sounds interesting. Bookmarked the page, been reading over it ('s a bit of a slog, but I guess they're going for that tabletop RP feel). Seems like a unique approach, been wanting to check it out.