The MXM-Lively-Room from outside

I always felt so-lala about Lively. It was not bad but it also was far away from being really cool. I will never understand why multi-billion Dollar companies release such unfinished projects that are neither fish nor flesh, neither water nor wine.

At least Lively was free for everybody and simple to use – but a strong and lively community didn’t grow up anyway.

I don’t want to talk about the reasons for Lively`s failure, i only want to show you some pictures i took from the MXM-Room shortly before it was closed forever…

MXM-Room closed its doors forever!

There has been a MXM-Room on lively.com. It was a nice one that featured many sexy pictures of my famous sims-models, as well as lots of pretty furniture and funky accessories.

I originally planned to create a meeting point for those of you who feel chatty and want to spend some funny time with a couple of friends.

I also had planned to create a second room to promote “Luisa & The Elfish Spell” (BTW: Big news are coming soon!)…

But all those plans are digged now and a few pictures are everything that remained:

My avatar is checking the room and waiting for guests

The info-sign was my idea. It contained hints for lively-beginners; how to move the avatar, how to gesture and such stuff.

It was a great moment when the photo-frames finally worked

These interactive photo-frames were the only way to add a personal branding, art, photos or logos to a room.

But the frames turned off after only 1 or 2 days. Then it took 3 weeks (or even more) to bring them back online (with no notable change).

In that time all guys with serious or professional ideas had just left lively. Everybody but me.

These boxes also contained help files of mine and even PDF-Downloads

Houseplants for a comfortable atmosphere

There was a huge “shop” in Lively where you could “buy” all kind of furniture and decoration for your room(s).

Maybe it was another problem that many people thought they needed to spend real money. In truth it only was a virtual shop..

On the other hand i’ve met people who spent the whole day to decorate their rooms until everything was really perfect… just like in The Sims ;)

Of course there was a special corner for a Lena Luv gallery

The other side of the gallery

You probably notice the poor quality of the Lena Luv pictures. This was another problem of Lively. You only could upload very (!) small files (64 x 64) to let them fit into the frames.

All (!) other formats had been cropped randomly somehow… nobody never ever did understand how this process worked. I guess even the developers didn’t know.

Imagine a cool photographer who wants to create a virtual gallery or something like that – no way. Lively totally sucked in this point.

The whole room from above: Chilling area, bar and gallery

Sitting at the bar, watching videos, wasting time, still waiting for guests

That's the first floor, the balcony

Goodbye my room, i'm going to leave you through the secret door

Do you see the door on the wall, head over heels? That was a secret gate to another room of mine, the “Downside Up” Room.

Unfortunately i don’t have pics of the Downside Up room, but imagine an apartment where everything is turned upside down:

Lamps “hanging” from the floor, the sofa and table “standing” on the ceiling; it was great and people loved it.

So the experiment is over. It was a nice time, much too silent though.

But gladly i’m running further more projects which help me to get over the loss of my beautiful Lively-Room.

Typical Lively: Anonymous Authors, Standard Rooms, 0 Visitors...

Not everything that Google touches turns into gold immediately.

Personally i liked Google’s 3D-Chat Lively when it launched in early July. Now, only 4 and a half months later, it’s over. Google is shutting down Lively on December 31.

It’s a tough decision - but isn’t it a bit too harsh?

I mean, Lively was far from being perfect or innovative. I always thought it was launched way too soon. Too many bugs (really terrible ones) a strange login/logoff/login/logoff-procedure and not the quickest support on board…

But it wasn’t that bad! Not bad enough to be killed after such a short term! I’m wondering why they not only put Lively back into Google Labs and give it time to improve and grow in silence…

OK, after all i think it’s a money decision. There’s no money to earn in Lively, not for Google and not for occupants with professional or semi-professional ambitions. Those are still in Second Life…

Who cares, it’s over.

The MXM-Room will stay open until the very last second. Soon i will visit the room and make some screenshots that i will post here. Just to remember…

I’m sorry for all who joined Lively and are getting homeless again ;)