Alphaville Herald

Metaplace Worlds Now Embed Into Any Web Page

1.) build a world    2.) add it to your web site    3.) profit?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

If the name of the game in MMOs is to grow the user population in preparation for an eventual IPO, Metaplace took a significant step forward this week by allowing Metaplace spaces to be inserted into players' web sites. For example, the Herald's Metaplace offices are embedded below, and can be freely explored - after logging into the service - without leaving this page.

Enter the world, find the television and click to see Larry Lessig YouTube video embedded in Herald Metaplace offices embedded in Herald web page

Why is this move significant? First, it has the potential to harness viral marketing forces.  To see the Metaplace worlds, visitors to websites with embedded MP spaces need to have an MP account -- and each web site with an MP embedded space becomes an advertisement for Metaplace.

Embeddable MP spaces may also help jumpstart acceptance of Metaplace now that existing web-based advertising and payment mechanisms can be used alongside MP spaces. We expect to see MP game designers, musicians, and DJs employ PayPal tipjars on their web pages along with Google AdSence in an attempt to monetize their gameplay.

Linden Land Stats Coverup Enters 5th Month

Lab too embarrassed to publish land data?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

In February, Linden Lab halted publication of resident land "ownership" statistics after what is believed to be thousands of regions were returned by players reeling from October's surprise OpenSpace price increase. In the aftermath of the negative economic news and removal of the raw statistical data feed, the Lab promised the land stats hiatus was a temporary measure while "we correct our reporting mechanisms to account for the recent addition of Openspaces and Homesteads" and went on to apologize for the "inconvenience".

Five months later, the Lab still refrains from sharing land ownership statistics, leading to speculation that the land market has yet to recover from the Lab's price hikes and a down real life economy. Shocks to the land market are far from over, with concerns that the forced migration to the new Adult-only continent and devaluation of existing Mainland holdings are unlikely to improve the situation as players are reminded that the Lindens changes the rules of the game to suit Lab interests - generally at player's expense.

Given how willing the Lindens are to publish other economic statistics here, we have to ask how bad things look on the land front. If the current statistics are able provide information on land in the process of being auctioned, why remain silent on the actual size of the world?

 

We'll let you know when there is good news

Support Virtuality -- Help Game A Netflix Popularity Contest!!!

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

The Netflix "Find Your Voice film competition" is a great new game where everyone can participate by forming gangs to vote for the independent film maker that best represents their community and interests. Consider this a more positive version of the gang abuse report used in Second Life to get the Linden Governance team to ban enemy players. However, instead of helping bring the ban hammer down, in the Netflix Find Your Voice game, you can help a few lucky filmmakers receive some financial and in-kind support for filmmaking.

To play the Netflix game, you'll need a working e-mail address - but Google, Yahoo, and Hotmail and others are happy to hand out spare alt account e-mail addresses for a reason -- so you can play games that want e-mail addresses! What are you waiting for? Vote early and vote often.

Here at the Herald we are partial to SARAHN_12 - an entry from Sasie Sealy with a plot that should strike a chord among the Second Life players. The director's statement tells the tale:

Op/Ed: Who is Being Edged Out?

by Jessica Holyoke

As Zindra edged closer to completion, one of my Feminist groups popped up saying that now was the time to remove rape from Second Life, or at least its advertisement or feature in Groups.  They said now was the time to focus on how rape is a violent crime against women.  The description always bothered me because it ignores same sex rape for either gender or if a man were raped by a woman.  I tried at the time to visit gay sims that presented rape as a possibility but apparently no girls were allowed. 

Another one of my groups, Stop Violence Against Women, pointed out another group that stated as its goal the promotion of rape and violent torture of young girls.  That group was abuse reported and closed due to its content but the Anti Violence group was surprised to see another group mentioning rape, torture and dolcett was allowed to stay. 

In response to the other torture group being allowed to stay, a member responded how, as a practitioner of BDSM, most members of that community were opposed to rape, death porn and scat, even though no one brought up excrement as a possible violent act against women. 

Metaplace Founder Raph Koster Chats Up Linden Lab Co-Founder Cory Ondrejka

The hairy edge of augmented reality colliding with virtual worlds

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

At a much anticipated game god gabfest yesterday, Raph Koster and Cory Ondrejka neatly avoided the controversy over Metaplace male's second-class sit animations - possibly the most vital issue facing the metaverse today - by standing throughout the event. Rather than focusing on avatar emotes and poses, the Raph and Cory chose to discuss smaller issues - presence in new media, how virtual worlds are affecting the web, user generated content, the role of economies in sorting the gold from a sea of user created dross, and music in the virtual realm.

As predicted, a touching Linden Lab alumni scene was played out with Sunchaser - Robin Linden Harper - in attendance. A full transcript of the event (courtesy of Cuppycake) is reproduced below, and the Herald's own Urizenus Sklar was pressed into duty as a photographer.

(left to right - Raph Koster, Cory Ondrekja, Sunchaser )

Raph: Well, Cory, I'm glad to have you here today...
Raph: Seems like several years since I first told you about this crazy Metaplace idea!
CoryOndrejka: Great to "see" you after catching up at state of play
CoryOndrejka: Austin Game Conference, 06 right?
Raph: Yup... a long time ago :)
Raph: So our goal back then was to build a next generation virtual world platform, something that worked mor elike the web
Raph: It is fitting that you are the first guest at an event in the remote embed :)
CoryOndrejka: I think being able to toss up not only a pointer to the event and the event itself on my blog is great
Raph: It seems like a lot of the discussion around VWs is about "pleateaus
CoryOndrejka: Kudos to your team for getting this working so smoothly
Raph: lately.er, plateaus. What do you think about that?
CoryOndrejka: I'm just glad I don't have to spell plateau :-)
Raph: Yeah, kinda tricky :)
CoryOndrejka: Interesting choice, given the explosion of interest in "real time"
CoryOndrejka: and "presence" on the web
CoryOndrejka: we've seen some key elements of VWs and games coopted by Twitter, FB, et al
CoryOndrejka: so I'm not sure that Plateau is accurate at all
Raph: It does seem like many previously asynch experiences are becoming synchronous or at least a lot faster
CoryOndrejka: How about "a lot less asynchronous"?

Senban Babii -- Post 6 Grrrl

[Senban Babii is, to my knowledge, the only Post 6 Girl to get hit by a train during her shoot. She was there on the tracks, she saw it coming, she threatened to haunt me if it hit her and then it hit her. Later in the shoot she accidentally started an animation that caused her head to explode, which, oddly enough, was probably not a first in the annals of Post 6. I am thrilled to have made the acquaintance of the funny and charming Senban Babii, and am equally pleased that she's modeling for us. I only hope I do her justice. Timothy Morpork]

Hmm, "write something up for your bio" says Timothy, like I can just do that!  I mean, how do you sum up who you are and two years of SL experiences in three or four paragraphs?  The truth is, I can't.  No matter what I tried to write, I couldn't do it justice.  So instead, I'll start with why I came here in the first place.  When I first heard about SL, I had no preconceptions of what it was.  I went into it with a sense of exploration; both of this new space and myself.

Pornosophy and Philip Linden - The Renaissance of Porn Part 2

by Bunny Brickworks

She called and they all followed. Loglady Loon is one of the most banned non-griefing avatars in SecondLife. She is highly disputed, either loved or hated and the creative mastermind behind Freak Show. The first exhibition of Freak Show was called Beauty vs. Paranoia and all SL artists were invited to participate by simply handing in a full perm picture representing their vision of a freak.

In a virtual world where everyone is beautiful, well-built and dressed to kill, this was quite a task. The show was a success and encouraged her to start a new project called Pornosophy – SL’s first explicit porn show, uncensored and without any limitations.

More than 60 artists heeded her call and handed in their interpretation of porn. No limits… one would think this might be a dangerous thing. Rape, child porn, there’s a lot of sensitive subjects you rather don’t want to see digitalized but it wouldn’t be the Loglady if she had imposed any censorship on her artists. And no, there was no child porn, we might be digital imagery pervs but we have well-functioning hearts and minds.

Sim Boundary White Line Fever - Bad Roads in Zindra

by Suzie Skybeam

In Second Life, crossing a boundary between sims is slow, and, to be honest, a bit buggy. So most designers create their builds so that the sim boundaries are in places where there will be as few people as possible crossing across them, or where people won't mind a few seconds of lag as they cross - but not in the new adults-only continent of Zindra.

As I was driving east along the highway in Zindra, I sped through Tovaris, Ironauld, Pfeiffer, Uxert and Tyrnaeur. I was, of course, driving on the right-hand side of the road - British drivers please take note!

Meanwhile, the sim on the other side of the white line down the middle of the road was respectively Morgarsen, Keraxic, Van Tessa, Jonesford Heights and Gianno. If I had pulled out to overtake someone, my vehicle and I would have been handed off to another sim - after a second or two of delay, and with a distinct risk of being transported somewhere else entirely.

Locks of Love -- Hair Fair 2009

Four sims and 134 hair designers for the next two weeks

by Tenshi Vielle

Hair Fair 2009 has successfully kicked off! Another year of raising L$ to donate to Locks of Love, a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

SLUniverse.com forums has a thread going currently where people are showing off their favorite must-have purchases and freebies.

By early friday night, the four sims attempting to handle the crush of avatar traffic coming and going had gone through two or three sim reboots already. If you choose to attend, please be considerate to others and make your avatar primless or at the very least, drop the excess prims you might have.

PhotoLife Drama In Second Life

You mean I need permission to sell your Flickr photos in SL?

by Tenshi Vielle

Besides nameless SLobrities showing up at SL6B friday evening, the talk of SL6B has been claims that PhotoLife's recently violated the Flickr standards - and Darkley Aeon's artistic rights.

The back story:  Darkley Aeon was using PhotoLife's stage system - I beg refusal to call it anything but - to use her photographs, performed occasional customer service for the PhotoLife group - without pay - and was in their in-world group and Flickr group.

Somehow, this meant that Gregg Paslong thought he could take Darkley's photographs off of Flickr, upload them into Second Life, and use them at the PhotoLife booth without permission. It is also alleged that these photographs were set for sale at the PhotoLife booth.

SLB6 Is a Crypto Copycat

Mysterious rot13 and secret decoder rings at SL birthday party

by Tenshi Vielle

SL6B is a copycat! Some darn robots copied Gigs Taggart's Shanti encoded promotion from last year for the Meerkat viewer, but twisted it, turned it, put it up on its side and included lots of fun puzzles - including a slider! Resident Joshua Nightshade was one of the first to discover and report this strange robot code from Epoch Aeon:

"-- Instant message logging enabled --
[11:16] Epoch Aeon: (Saved Thu Jun 25 03:35:02 2009) }%? :)99? @12? %}
[11:16] Epoch Aeon: (Saved Thu Jun 25 03:35:08 2009) 01110011011101000110111101110000001000000110100001 1001010111001000101110
[11:16] Epoch Aeon: (Saved Thu Jun 25 03:35:14 2009) 01110000011011000110010101100001011100110110010100 10000001101000011001010110110001110000
[11:16] Epoch Aeon: (Saved Thu Jun 25 03:35:19 2009) SL6B Callisto 182.851,115.018,22.077

I was gonna ignore it until I paid attention and got the binary part (Save her, please help, etc) and the location of the sim so for kicks I teleported in. I've no idea what the first line means or what it is.

Shortly after getting there I saw a notice saying to click the robot and got this along with an object (look by the flowers!):

SL Ban in Oz Worries Chicken Little

by Tenshi Vielle

Concerned Australians in Second Life are donning chicken little avatars and chirping that the sky is falling, with news of Australia's proposed ban on adult online games including Second Life circulating. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has been nominated by the British ISP industry for its annual "internet villain" award. Meanwhile, the Inquisitr.com, which sounds well suited for a supermarket checkout lane, has this report:

"The Australian Minister for Censorship has today confirmed what I’ve been reporting for nearly two years: online adult games including Second Life will be banned in Australia.

A spokesman for Censorship Minister Stephen “Goebbels” Conroy confirmed to Fairfax newspapers that “under the filtering plan, it will be extended to downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard.” In Australia, the MA15+ rating means that the content is restricted to those aged 15 and above. Australia does not have a R 18+ or similar rating for computer games, with all adult games automatically being classified as RC (Refused Classification.)"

This shocking news has also been confirmed at the Gamasutra.

A ban on Second Life in Australia would deprive the metaverse of such favorite hair creators as Aemilia Case and Truth Hawks, and Second Life character favorites Adam Zaius and Joshua Nightshade.

Jack Linden: Child Avatars Welcome In Adults-only Continent!

But sexual ageplay is not

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Friday, Jack Linden delivered a stunning rebuke to anti-child avatar advocates, saying

“Child avatars are allowed on adult land as long as they are account verified like any other Resident. Those choosing to represent themselves with a child avatar do not represent a minor as the account holder. Not all adult land is going to be hosting adult content either. There is plenty of protected land on Zindra that will technically be adult but safe in terms of content.”

The Lab’s Zindra update was serious setback for those who would impose minimum height requirements on avatars visiting the Zindra Adults-only continent. Jack Linden did take pains to point out that sexual ageplay is forbidden everywhere on the grid - but this is unlikely to appease the anti-child avatar activists. Look for Jack's child-friendly news to inspire even more incoherent outrage concise, closely reasoned think pieces such as an audio soliloquy published, then removed by well known community activist and protest group disorganizer Vryl Valkyrie.

Sources speculate that some of the uproar over virtual children may be motivated by certain players’ economic interests - and for those who depend on land values on the Mainland or running sex-based businesses, fighting the children has a certain logic. For porn moguls, keeping Second Life from developing a pedo-playland image is important to avoid bad publicity-driven real life crackdowns on the Lab's virtual garden of cyber delights.

Are Mainland IM and Chat Doomed To LL's Naughty Word Filter?

Linden's new Community Standards include broad Adult Content powers

by Jessica Holyoke

Linden Lab uses the Big Six of the Community Standards as an addendum to the Terms of Service (ToS).  Until now, the Big Six were Intolerance, Harrassment, Assault, Disclosure, Disturbing the Peace and Indecency.  Now Indecency has been replaced by Adult Content.  With the new Adult Content policy included in the Community Standards, and by extension, the ToS, the actual enforcement and meaning is a bit different than before.   

This is the old standard:

5. Indecency
Second Life is an adult community, but Mature material is not necessarily appropriate in all areas (see Global Standards below). Content, communication, or behavior which involves intense language or expletives, nudity or sexual content, the depiction of sex or violence, or anything else broadly offensive must be contained within private land in areas rated Mature (M). Names of Residents, objects, places and groups are broadly viewable in Second Life directories and on the Second Life website, and must adhere to PG guidelines.

This seems to mean that public land rated mature cannot have nudity or sexual content or have violent or sexual depictions - but this has changed in the new standard:

Adult Regions, Groups, and Listings
Second Life is an adult community, but 'Adult' content, activity and communication are not permitted on the Second Life 'mainland.' Such material is permitted on private regions, or on the Adult Continent, Zindra. In either case, any Adult content, activity, or communication, that falls under our Adult Maturity Definition must be on regions designated as 'Adult,' and will be filtered from non-verified accounts. Other regions may be designated as either 'Mature' or 'PG.' For more information on how to designate land, events, groups, and classified listings, please carefully read the 'Maturity Definitions.'

If Linden Lab is following through on what they have told residents previously, when the Lab is saying any type of communication, what they are really saying are land descriptions, event descriptions, group descriptions and classified listings.  But the policy as written above is broader than anything that they have stated before and is much more inclusive as to what is covered.  It seems to prohibit any adult communication received  by anyone not age verified.  

The Renaissance of Porn – Part 1

by Bunny Brickworks

If Second Life residents are one big family, www.flickr.com surely is their family album. Whenever something important happens, we take a snapshot and share the pictures with the community – our first, second and third wedding, a trip to a tropical beach, a party with friends and the fourth or fifth wedding.  But as in every decent family album we do not post our porn pictures on flickr. Never, that’s a no-go!

Cuddling on the beach or in front of a fireplace was acceptable, as the cheeky ones uploaded some naughty lingerie shots from time to time - but full front nudity and explicit sexual actions – whether alone or with two or more partners - those were out of the question. After all, what would Aunt Bettie say? ]

But something changed and suddenly porn was there - everywhere - on Flickr.  Couples, threesomes, orgies, blowjobs, BDSM – you name it, Flickr had it. What happened?

Secret Shadow Settings in New SL Viewer?

PCs with DirectX10 video might already have it made in the shade

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Are the Lindens sneaking support for shadows into the Second Life viewer? Rumors of a shadowy Second Life in the near future could be true, if the notecard Jenny Thielt sent the Herald is accurate. The notecard contained instructions for enabling dynamic shadows in the newest Second Life viewers - at least for PCs with DirectX 10 video. But does it work?

The Herald adheres to the highest standards of journalistic integrity, and I have to report that I was unable to verify that the instructions actually do anything other than make the fan start running very fast on my MacbookPro. Attempts to locate someone - anyone - with a DirectX 10 capable video card on my friends list was futile, so this may be another case of the Lab adding a feature that is beyond the reach of everyday avatars. I was surprised at how many of my friends run Macs and how reluctant the PC owners were to change anything - but that is a another story altogether.

In any case, the notecard is reproduced below the fold. If there are any readers who can make this work it would be interesting to see a screenshot - and Macintosh owners will certainly enjoy running their computer's fan on high.

Paying For Free SL Love

How Linden Lab profits from adult verification

by Jessica Holyoke

The Internet and Virtual Worlds have tried to monetize pornography in different ways.  Red Light Center, and other pornography web sites charge a monthly fee to access the naughty parts.   IMVU has made the same types of overtures.  In the past, I've seen one time payment of an access fee to guarantee that you are an adult.  But Second Life was always good about relatively free love.  You would pay to look good and for bits that work, but otherwise, you didn't have to pay to have access to sex.  What if Linden Lab came up with a new model to get money from Adult Content?

When Linden Lab rolled out the initial discussion of Adult Verification, they stated that while it would be free for paying customers, they might charge for the basic residents that don't pay a fee of any kind to access Second Life.  So far, in order to encourage use of the AV system, its been a free service.  How does the Lab make money from it?  For that, you can look no further than the new search and classifieds system.

As it stands right now, as reported many times by Ciaran Laval at your2ndplace.com, Search will be dependent on what type of content you tick that you want to see.  PG, Mature and Adult have to all be ticked in order to see all types of advertisements.  The better option for a marketer is to buy classifieds and land to hit all three search types.  Previously, if you wanted to search and include Mature content, you would see Mature and PG content.  Now you need to say specifically that you want all three types to see all three options.  

Linden Lab Co-Founder Cory Ondrejka to Visit Metaplace

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

 

Cory's Second Life profile

After parting company with Linden Lab last year, Cory Linden Ondrejka joined EMI, where he seems to be doing well - and was recently promoted to senior vice president for digital strategy. Given Cory's credentials as a co-founder of Linden Lab and creator of many core technologies in Second Life and his work in the digital music industry at EMI, the Metaplace event should be fascinating.

Beyond an erudite discussion new media, look for a Metaplace in-world reunion between Cory and Sunchaser - ex-Linden game god Robin Linden Harper. The event is scheduled for 2:00 PM PDT June 30th at TheStage.

Of course, the most important question is whether Cory will opt for a male or female avatar in Metaplace.  Experts agree - girls are more relaxed than boys when seated in Metaplace. Given Cory's calm and confident Second Life profile, we have a good idea of what to expect.

Vaneeesa Blaylock Pushes Second Life's Limits

I am a unique individual. And so am I.

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

My graphics card has nearly recovered from attending Vaneeesa Blaylock's "I Rez Therefore I Am" performance art event in early June. The artwork consisted of 25 silent female avatars wearing identical shoes and their own shapes - an invitation for viewers to ponder identity, the speed of rezing, and the whine of your computer's cooling fan as the GPU tries to save itself from death by meltdown and skins slowly materialize on the motionless avatars.

 

The artist's willingness to push the outer limits of what Second Life can handle was part of the performance's charm. While hoping for skins to snap into focus your expectations are reset - I cheered quietly each time a skin rendered and there was plenty of time to ponder how much of our time in SL is spent waiting -- and how much effort is put into constructing an SL persona. 

Aspiring SL designers may want to consider participating in a new piece involving a scarf design contest which will feature 16 performers helping Ms. Blaylock illustrate her tag line: I am a unique individual. And so am I.

Jenna Thurston -- Post 6 Grrrrl

[Jenna Thurston has one of those avatars that you see and you just have to stop and look, which is exactly how I found her and begged her to pose for us this week. I was thrilled she said yes and I hope my pictures do her justice. I should mention that she showed me some of her other avies and any of them were worthy of a Post 6 feature. Timothy Morpork]

Hi, I'm Jenna Thurston.

I chose this name when I first created my avie because I like the name Jenna. I didn't know much about SL when I created my account, but I was drawn to SL because of the sex, and Thurston, my last name, sounded like something nasty, so it fits me. Jenna loves dancing, shopping, cuddling, chatting, kissing, sex and teasing but only when applied properly.

From the start I loved creating shapes and reshaping them into something I think is sexy. With many avies I see I feel an urge to mold them. If newbies talk to me I often ask them if they want to shop with me, most don't have too much cash, so it's freebie shopping time. Most of the time I mod their shape for them for free, it's nice to help newbies, most seem satisfied.

MetaPRIDE Celebration - June 22

by Idorua Wellman, staff writer

MetaPRIDE is a day-long Metaplace celebration of the diversity (racial, cultural, demographical, gender, and sexual orientation) featuring a variety of performers and speakers all day Monday June 22.  The event will take place in the north area of Metaplace Central (the event area), the Lotus Club, Chooseareality's Metaequality Center, and the Alphaville Herald offices where meta-DJ Pixeleen Mistral will run the gamut from jazz to j-pop to rock to hip hop.  You can access the schedule of events and the links to the participating worlds by heading to Metaplace Central and walking north.

The full schedule of events:

All times are in PST:
9am – 10am: meta-DJ Pixeleen Mistral at the Alphaville Herald offices
10am – 12pm: Karel Hallard – DJ (Rock Music)
12pm – 1pm: Sara Beth Brooks - Speaker, Executive Chair of the San Diego Equality Campaign
1pm – 2pm: Winter Mullenix – Transgender speaker, GenderVoice project
2pm – 4pm: Tank Thibedaux – DJ
4pm – 5pm: Colin Seraphina Brennan – Contributing Editor at Massively, transgender speaker
5pm – 6pm: Grace McDunnough – live musician
6pm – 8pm: Romeo Reardon - DJ
8pm – 9pm: Elron Priestman – Comedian

There will also be an art gallery in Metaplace Central by artist Marcel Reyes.

ADV: Metaplace Needs Hugs

You can dance. You can give balloons. But where is the love?

What if you lived in a world where shaking hands was impossible?
A world where you couldn't even hug your best friends?
A world without love... what kind of pixelated life would that be?

Sadly, such a world exists today - in Metaplace.

But we can - we must - do better.
Ask for avatar hug emotes in Metaplace - and show the love!

this is a paid political ad sponsored by the Committee of Concerned Metaplace Players

Mystery Inside Investor Sells Stake in Linden Lab

Someone unloaded their Linden Lab holdings - but who?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

With reports circulating that an individual investor's equity stake in the Lab had been sold to Stratim Capital, the rumor mill can be expected to go into overdrive speculating about exactly which insider sold their shares - and why.

Stratim Managing Partner Zach Abrams is reported to have said his firm "bought almost the entire position of an existing shareholder". Abrams also said the shareholder who sold out was not one of the venture capital firms that have funded Linden Lab to date. Avoiding the VCs may make some sense from Stratim's point of view - their web site claims "to target individual investments of $3-5 million".

While Stratim specializes in "late stage companies with profitable opertations and strong business prospects" at least one current or former Lab insider has apparently decided that their personal financial interests and the Lab's have diverged. The whirring sound you hear is the Second Life fanboi press revving up their spin - as well they might.

As M Linden continues to place his mark on Second Life there have been a number of recent high profile departures from top management - Cory, Robin, Zee, and Ginsu Linden come to mind - a group the previously handled technology, community, finance, and legal/business development areas. The equity stake sell off is sure to add a certain frisson to the speculation -- was the sell off for personal cash flow or due to bad feelings about future prospects for the Lab?

Op/Ed: But What About The Children?

by Jessica Holyoke

In the U.S., the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the re-hearing of a man who was convicted for e-mailing child sexual fantasies that he had.  Dwight Whorely is currently serving 20 years in prison for 74 counts of child pornography and obscenity, including 20 counts of obscenity involving writing about his fantasies with no pictures. 

When discussing the issue about sexualized underaged ageplay content, usually the U.S. is held up as the beacon of tolerance.  However, Dwight Whorely's case demonstrates how the Lab was right to ban sexualized underaged ageplay content.  But the reason why it is relevent now to our community is what is happening to SL child avatar resident, Marianne McCann.

The Lab invited residents to preview the upcoming Adult Continent, Zindra.  As one of many residents to attend the opening, was Marianne McCann.  Also present at the time she was was a number of Lindens and a resident who donned a giant prim penis avatar.   And all the parties involved started dancing and photographs were taken. 

Lab Moles Dig Up Second Life Adult Mainland

Empty adult storefronts just as boring as PG/mature mainland

by Jessica Holyoke

 

Mixed messages from LL: a safe hub on the new Adults-only continent

Today I had a chance to travel to Zindra, the new adults-only continent, and plumbed new depths of dullness for what was supposed to be a continent of sex and violence. Granted, this was the preview period where residents who have adult content plots on the older PG and Mature mainland continents are able to scout out where they would like to be placed when they have to be get to be moved in the upcoming weeks.

Wandering around, I got to see long beaches and unfilled plots, except for those with buildings that would look perfect as stores near the Mosh infohub - I am certain other adult content landlords are happy that the Lindens are providing that service.  For some reason, there are at least 5 sims of ocean.  Really, if I am going to do a Red Light District, do I want 5 sims of ocean? [Lindens expect strong demand for adult watersports? - the Editrx]

Zonra Darkmatter -- Post 6 Furry

[I bumped into Zonra Darkmatter one day,  fell in love with his kittycat avie and I was thrilled that he agreed to pose for us this week. During the course of explaining the Herald, and Post 6, I learned that Zonra is very new to Second Life but seems to be having a good time. I hope you enjoy the pictures of this beautiful person. -Timothy Morpork]

Hi there Second Life Herald, my name is Zonra Darkmatter

I was approached and asked to take part in this by Timothy, who made me curious about this Post 6 thing. After learning about this blog and Post 6, I was willing to try it out, and so I did. I guess I should start introducing and talking about myself a bit, so here goes.

First of I am quite new to Second Life and still testing out the waters. So far I have had a really good time. I have met a lot of nice and interesting people, made a few nice friends and done a few interesting things as I explore SL. I got pulled into it by a very close friend of mine who has been playing for over 4 years and finally succeeded in convincing me to get into it, and now I don't think I will stop for years to come.

Transworld Omnigendered in Metaplace

Will avatar poses lead to matriarchal society? It works for hyenas!

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Fiend sits uncomfortably

The story of how Fiend Ludwig and I discovered of the transworld omnigendered nature of Metaplace started simply enough. Fiend was in the Herald offices sitting uncomfortably on a couch, leaning slightly forward and rubbing his hands together. He seemed ill at ease, and confessed a certain discomfort with Raph’s Koster’s worlds - why did I look so relaxed while Fiend’s avatar looked dorky? Could there be some sort of gender bias at play in the avatar animations?

There was only one way to be sure, so we both opened a second web browser window and stopped by The New You shop in Metaplace Central. This is where Fiend's avatar underwent a sex change operation, and emerged with a new more feminine form. However, in the other window Fiend and I were still sitting on the couch at the Herald - where Fiend was still a boy. We realized that whether by design or by accident Metaplace was fundamentally a transworld omnigendered experience.

As Fiend got in touch with her feelings about himself, we speculated on what conclusions might be drawn about the Metaplace developers based on their avatar animations - were they consciously trying to create a world to attract more girls - or was the boys nervousness an unconscious mirroring of real life attitudes?

SLchan.com -- W-Hat.com’s Bratty Little Brother?

New media watch

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Our attention was recently drawn to www.SLchan.com - an image-driven site catering to the tastes of Second Life’s /b/tard community - mixing the ironic hypercute, the profane, and a smattering of iconic griefers as the community collectively defines an internet subculture with random pictures and short comments.

While the SLchan site mimics the 4chan approach with primarily anonymous posting, the focus is on Second Life and maintaining the memes that define the group zeitgeist.

Presumably the SLchan organizers hope to grow their community by recruiting at the site.

Until recently, SLchan.com incorporated a Second Life account sign-up page. Will more accounts please the Lab as the /b/ work to improve the human condition using Second Life? Or is there some other agenda at work?  Images on the site are a very mixed bag - anyone easily offended will want to give SLchan.com and 4chan a miss.

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While the SLchan site is a recent development, the W-Hat goons' www.w-hat.com site is the elder statesmen of un-serious Second Life business. W-hat.com has been a fixture in the Second Life blogosphere since 2007, and it shows. The look is slick and professional, illustrating a basic tension between the /b/tards and the goons.

Residents Join Flickr Photo Fight for Same-Sex Marriage Rights

NoH8 Proposition 8 silent protest picture campaign comes to Second Life

by Bunny Brickworks

The ordinary Second Life resident is a lazy, unmotivated and unpolitical slob hiding in mom’s basement without knowing or caring what is happening in the real world. That might be true for some - but a growing number of residents are voicing their opinions on California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. With real life grassroots campaigns taking on a new urgency - driven in part by a California Supreme Court ruling upholding Proposition 8 - protests are now spilling over into Second Life..

This online movement is powered by word of mouth, in-world groups, and notecards [text after the jump] as the virtual world social media are harnessed in-world and via flickr to explain Proposition 8 -- and call on residents to join  the NoH8 campaign - a photo project and silent protest started by RL celebrity photographer Adam Brouska. Trace Osterham and Kristen Pick are organizing Second Life in-world activity with some success. Yesterday Trace Osterham had already taken more than 180 pictures of individuals, all wearing the face paint and duct tape in support of the cause.

A flickr group has been established for all those who create their own pictures and post them on their streams http://www.flickr.com/groups/noh8onsl/pool/. Free face paint and duct tape attachments are available at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zion/121/80/699. On days like these I am more than proud of my fellow residents, artists and flickrites!

Plurk Players Warn Against An Internet Casanova

Don't date guys who think brushed out perms are hot, and evaluate their success on the number of levels their EQ2 elf -❋Łƚƪą❋

by Dr. Penelope Hydra - Internet love and sex expert

It all started so innocently. A Plurk line began by Delora Starbook that said, "Hi Dancien!" (Graves) turned into a 1300-reply plurk thread ripping into a would-be Second Life and Internet casanova, Sands Leavitt. Insults flew, ex-girlfriends jumped into the fray and even worse - questions were raised about Sands' boasts that he is good looking.  Photographs of Sands from Sands himself are a bit grainy - perhaps the lighting in the basement was lacking. Are these the signs of a true ladies' man?

None of this drama will make sense without understanding that Sands has a reputation for preying on women online.

What kind of women? The gossip says the more emotionally gimped they appear to be, the better - he's been known to skip over the pretty young single Second Life girls - yes, they do exist - to obsess over a married woman with children. Some claim his last four girlfriends have been married with children and the ones who are not don't last long with him. Sands will find new victims, send countless complimentary messages, kiss their feet, and won't stop until he has decided that he "has" them -- after spending many energy points talking the woman's real life significant other down while talking himself up, all to secure a better position in that woman's life.

Some of Sands' targets tell me that he has no problem giving out his cell phone number to women - but his work location is something he keeps more secure. While he has been known to get women he's had relationships with on webcam, he has never been seen on webcam himself. This raises the question of whether the pictures floating around the internet of Sands aka, EQ2 Zhouyu The Great, from The Highlight are real.

If the woman breaks off an affair with Sands, the insults fly. He's been known to call his ex's "whores", "trash", "leftovers", and worse. No matter who broke the relationship off, Sands claims he was the one who broke it off. Internet romantic breakups can be rocky enough without this sort of abuse - so beware.

Sands often mentions the girl's children after breakup. He sends one of these children (Ex #4 in the plurk threads below) gifts. As an internet advice columnist, my professional opinion is that mothers should reject the presents, or at least put then through in the dishwasher - there may be meth residue.

Excerpts from the record-setting plurk thread:

Underground in Gor: A Kinder, Gentler Counter-Earth?

Part 6 in a series

by the Wanderer

“Welcome, stranger.”

I was not in Gor anymore, at least the Gor I'd known.

Maybe it was the kajirae, dressed in their finest silks and not rags. Maybe it was the “wedding” cake they were serving. 

Or maybe “welcome” and “stranger” used together, in a world where “stranger” and “enemy” mean the same thing. It seemed that I'd come to town on an auspicious day. 

By the time I strolled up, a man and woman had become free companions. From what I have gleaned online, it's probably easier to be a slave-girl on Gor than the free companion of a Gorean male.  

The city notes it is a by-the-book region, but the woman was breaking Gorean rules left and right by speaking to other men and being rather bubbly. Their SL profiles showed that they professed love for each other in terms that would make John Norman squirm.  In previous cities I'd seen male profiles with a “chain of slaves” listed, like some sort of perverse set of jewelry.

Ulaa Coronet -- Post 6 Grrrl

[I was walking through the park one day, in the merry merry month of May, and I spotted this week's Post 6 Grrl, Ulaa Coronet as you see her here in the first picture. I thought her avie was great- part cupcake, part faun, all fun. When she finally said yes to posing, she offered up the second avatar, the one in the pictures after the fold. The contrast sealed Ulaa's place in the Post 6 pantheon. I hope I've done her justice, as Ulaa is as gorgeous as she is unique. -Timothy Morpork]

I am a gamer at heart through and through, the list of games goes on and on, most recently my love is for EQ2.  I have been in SL for quite some time now and like a lot of people I came here out of curiosity, looking to see if the rumors of debauchery were true.

Almost 3 years later I'm hooked and I'm still here!  I love SL mainly because it's similar to The Sims in a disgusting and twisted kind of way, and well, it's fun to play virtual dress up dolly.  Mainly though, it's my way of keeping connected to my friends in SL and from other games I've played over the years.

Meerkat Viewer Runs Wild in Second Life - And Beyond

Is unleashed client a threat to Linden Lab supremacy?

by Tenshi Vielle

The long anticipated Meerkat viewer has been released for both Windows and Mac - and features radical goals such as cross grid access without a central authentication authority and cross grid content import/export - goals that may ultimately threaten Linden Lab's control this corner of the metaverse. Given the number of viewers already out there, here's hoping this one is both stable enough and feature-worthy to give us something to depend on, since LL's viewers are so crashtastic.

The Meerkat viewer is being developed by the Open Metaverse Foundation. Beyond clever coding, a smart Meerket marketing effort began with a viral campaign called "Shanti" that left internet cryptographers scratching their heads at the SLUniverse forums for some time in a marathon 2200 post thread last year.

The Meerkat Viewer goals:

• To create a fully GPL viewer (no proprietary dependencies)
• To encourage a community of developers that will submit patches for prompt integration
• To have the freedom to make the sort of changes that Linden Lab has traditionally been unable to integrate (translation patches, refactoring, fixing intentionally crippled features, changes that touch many files)
• To retain compatibility with Linden Lab's grid and protocols, present and future
• To implement a loosely coupled cross-grid functionality that requires no central authentication authority.

Adrenaline Lite - Adventure Sports in Second Life

by Fiend Ludwig

I like that you can't die when skydiving in SL. The blood pool animation when you hit the ground (much) too hard is about as real as it gets. Or is it. Why would anyone want to skydive in SL when you can fly...?

With a healthy dose of virtual trepidation, I strapped on my Terra Sport III PRO parachute, took my place on the Abbot's Aerodrome Skydiving Pod (vaguely resembling the seats in an airport departure lounge), and held on. The Pod launched me to 4000 meters into the sky then unceremoniously ejected me into free fall. After a bit of expert-looking plummeting, I pulled the ripcord and, held aloft by my Canada flag-emblazoned canopy, drifted slowly back to earth. The view was pretty good - once the details rezzed - and the parachute reacted to my control actions like I would imagine a real one would.  My landing was rated ("CRUNCH! Hard Landing") and the distance from my launch point was recorded (quite a long way away).

DJ Cuppycake vs Bruce Schneier - Event Showdown Part 2

Dancing to DJ Cuppycake's tunes in an embedded Metaplace world

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Thursday night, after a disappointing Bruce Schneier event in Second Life, I stopped by Metaplace community manager Cuppycake's blog to see how well embedding a Metaplace space into an independent web site would work - and what sort of beats Cuppycake would throw down.

Players in Metaplace have begged for the ability to embed worlds into third party web pages for some time, and Raph Koster and company finally provided a first public look at this feature late Thursday. The effect was something like going to a web page with an embedded YouTube video, but instead of passively watching videos, you click on the image, log into Metaplace, jump into the world, and join in the fun. Being an active participant rather than a passive viewer is much of the magic of virtual worlds - it is surprising that more events aren't better structured to take advantage of this.

Cuppycake took requests from the dancers, and there was plenty of interaction between DJ Cuppycake and the text chatting players -- I'm still a bit concerned about Cuppycake and Luke's dog, but her dinner sounded great. Overall, the event felt like stopping by a friends apartment for a rent party, and this sort of community feel has been part of what made live music and DJs a mainstay of the Second Life social scene for years. Let us hope for better support for these sorts of events now that Metaplace is in open beta.

Richard Bartle in Metaplace -- MMOs FTW & WTF

The best way to get into it is to go where it isn't and wait for it to come - Richard Bartle

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

[Richard Bartle recently visited Metaplace, and although the most of the Herald staff were unable to attend, one of Urizenus Sklar's contacts provided this transcript.  Cuppycake (Metaplace community manager and part time DJ) attempted to keep order as Sunchaser (formerly Robin Linden of Second Life) acted as MC for the event.]

Cuppycake: Okay I'm going to repeat the rules once again
Sunchaser: hehe nice crowd huh!
asarazan: I'm hungry and just wanted a meal
Obo: I better get my XP!

Cuppycake: Everyone please be quiet
JasonGee zips lip
Cuppycake: There is no moderation system here, so we will be doing it manually.
Cuppycake: The center aisle is where you go if you have a question. Please form a neat line.
Cuppycake: No one should be talking except for Richard, and the person who is asking the question (after waiting in line)
Cuppycake: You don't get a warning, so don't test it. ;)

Sunchaser: OK - I'm going to introduce Richard, not that he needs an extensive intro
Sunchaser: I'm really excited and pleased to welcome Richard Bartle to Metaplace today.
Sunchaser: Richard is a professor and teaching fellow at the university of Essex in the Dept of Computing and Electronic Systems, specializing in game design.
Sunchaser: Richard is best known as the co-author of MUD, the first multi-user dungeon, and for his research into player personality types. Want to know what type you are? Take the Bartle Test! http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/bartle-test-of-gamer-psychology
Sunchaser: You can also find Richard blogging on Terra Nova about virtual worlds.
Sunchaser: We're planning a Q&A session for the next hour. So let's start with the first question!

Bruce Schneier vs DJ Cuppycake - Event Showdown Part 1

No questions from the audience makes for a bad show

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Security guru sinks into his chair while talking to disembodied voices in virtual world

Second Life - a fancy dress party trying to become serious business - came in a poor second place to Metaplace in Thursday night’s virtual event showdown between security guru Bruce Schneier and DJ Cuppycake. At least in terms of event interactivity for in-world players, Metaplace won this round easily.

In the news business it is important to both look good and be prepared, so I stopped by the in-world set for Jimbo Hoyer’s Virtually Speaking show several hours early and ran into Widget Whiteberry. Ms. Whiteberry assured me that audience questions would be entertained during the Bruce Schneier interview, so I dropped off four questions with her that would be of particular interest to residents of Second Life. Ms. Whiteberry promised to pass the questions on, and I braced myself for the usual live event scuffle to get the moderator to pay attention to hard questions -- something I first learned about when covering Hamlet Au interviewing Julian Dibble several years ago.

But by the time the show was running events had taken a turn for the worse. Jimbo Hoyer’s computer wouldn’t run Second Life and Bruce Schneier was ignoring IMs from the engineering staff, so we were treated to what might as well have been a pre-recorded interview.

The telephone interview between Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Schneier was piped in world, but there was no interaction with the audience. The in-world audience's view of the event was a pony tailed Bruce Schneier avatar sunk into a chair, all alone on stage, talking to an invisible interviewer. Eventually CS Kappler decided to sit in the interviewer’s chair to help keep up appearances. At times like these, the cognitive dissonance becomes overwhelming and I wonder at the wisdom of holding events in any sort of virtual world.

XStreetSL Hates on Yo Ass Sometimes

Inconsistent Linden Lab censor can't make up his mind

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Orion Shamroy was surprised earlier this week to learn that all of his XStreet offerings had been pulled by Linden Lab for a ToS violation - using the word “ass” in the product description. But as of this writing, “Bukkake Sperm Sex Ass Arsch” underpants were not categorized as mature content at the wildly inconsistent virtual storefront.

The Herald was alerted to the issue when Orion called to say,

“Woke up this morning to find that all of my items have been removed from XStreet because the item descriptions contain the word "ass" in an attempt to make them sound more sexy or racy.  Certainly not pornographic or "adult" as surely you'd see worse things on MTV or even in any pop song on the radio.  Statement thought to be profane was: "Straight from my locker to yo ass! Come on gym rat, show off your hot stuff!  You won't help but be noticed wearin this hot jock boy's gear! "”

Could there be a bit of selective - or ineffective - enforcement at work at the Lab’s web-based storefront?