Alphaville Herald

Metaplace - Pools Closed Due to Lack of Traction

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tizzers Foxchase got in the last word in Metaplace Central -  “POOLS CLOSED DUE TO AIDS” - and seconds later Raph Koster’s user generated virtual world creation service closed permanently last weekend. What went wrong - and how did the end of the virtual world affect the community?

Informed analysis has been in short supply since Koster announced the end of the virtual world. Eager to file stories and get on with the holidays, Metaplace tourists role-playing new media pundits shook their heads sadly and offered superficial analysis - Metaplace is teh fail because the avatars weren't realistic enough! 2.5 D fixed perspective is not immersive enough!!  Flash based games are everywhere - and Metaplace was too late!!! Blue Mars!!!! Farmville and YoVille on Facebook!!!!!!

Perhaps this is the best that can be expected with the less than exquisite timing of the December 21st Metaplace announcement and New Years day apocalypse. Players seriously engaged in Metaplace scrambled to establish alternate connections to preserve the community and salvage what content they could from the platform. Meanwhile, those with minimal connections to the world indulged in a bit of smug Schadenfreud.

Try All Your Chance - Banlink Passwords Were An Open Book

Rainbow tables, SQL injection, and why you want to use a different password for e-mail

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

The new Try All Your Chance blog details the frightening extent of the BanLink security problems that led to the Second Life ban list sharing site's apparent demise - and suggests that BanLink user passwords might as well have been stored in plain text given the lack of site security.

"Names, passwords, email addresses; 100% of the data the site had, anyone could view and even modify. Even without access to the members area of the site."

BanLink was a popular shared Second Life ban list service that was ultimately neglected by its creators and afflicted with fundamental serious security issues - a story the Herald broke in September after being tipped to the fact that certain URLs caused the BanLink site to share supposedly secret ban information with  world+dog on teh interwebs.

The Try All Your Chance coverage is notable for a lucid discussion of the moral dilemma that is responsible disclosure of exploits - followed by a hands-on detective story that explains exactly how poorly protected BanLink user passwords were and how the BanLink web site was ultimately put in perma-maintenance mode.

Is ToToM the Metaverse Soundtrack?

Balancing creator, mixer, and consumer rights

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

While I was visiting Soviet Woodbury Saturday, the resident communists took time away from building their new workers’ paradise to rez a brightly colored dance floor and an impromptu worker’s dance party took place to an audio stream from http://www.maxxhitsbootlegs.com - a French mashup site that seems to be  on the way to becoming the metaverse soundtrack of choice for both Second Life and Metaplace. At the Metaplace Fashion Show event on Friday we were also dancing to a stream from the site, and I can confirm maxxhitsbootlegs is an in-theme choice for user-generated content worlds in either 2.5D or 3D.

I've begun to wonder if audio mashups are the aural equivalent of the W-Hat goons' and Woodbury /b/tard's builds - unexpected juxtapositions of diverse elements to create a new and typically ironic work - sometimes for fun and sometimes as social commentary. A mashup like Black Butterfly Busters combining Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with Butterfly Wings + Ram Jam – Black Betty + Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters seems to be saying something, but can the copyright laws and the sampled content creators keep up?

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.

Browser Based 3D Worlds: Are the Pieces Finally Falling in Place?

by Urizenus Sklar, Contributing Editor

Raph Koster is expressing a kind of jaded been-there-done-that-saw-it-coming attitude about what he is seeing at the Game Developers Conference this year, and I’m not surprised. One year you are the crazy nut describing the future to an audience of twelve other nuts, and the next year the room is full of hundreds of suited up, panting, business people who just last year were marketing Band-Aids and motor oil and are now world-wide experts on the great promise of virtual worlds.

But even in the face of this dreary spectacle of suits in rut, Raph can barely disguise his glee over recent developments in the development of 3D browser technology. And who can blame him? The infrastructure of Metaplace is lying there waiting for web based technology to bring it with the 3D. When that happens then life gets very interesting indeed. While virtual worlds like Second Life have proved the concept of 3D virtual worlds, they are still not “of the web”. What happens when robust 3D  virtual worlds accessible through a web browser? When the only application you need is Firefox? We’ve seen attempts to push "of the web" virtual worlds before before (remember Trevor Smith’s Ogoglio project?), but now things are heating up.

Wikipedia Helps You Create Your Own Bots -- For Free!

Wikipedia links to ready-to-use Copybot V4 download

by Kris Dibou, part-time bot

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CopyBot - external links section includes open source copybot

So you've visited some of the big stores in SL, and noticed the models who look exactly like avatars, but never say anything; in fact, they may even have a tag over their heads saying 'Bot'.  How do they do that?

I am no expert, but through my research I have found that bot programs and similar programs such as SecondInventory, seem to be based on the same program. 

What is a bot?

The first thing you need to realize is that a bot is just an avatar.  Usually it is an alt and 'bot' status is not necessarily permanent.  Hypothetically, you could log into SL on your regular account, turn off the inactivity switch and walk away.  Suddenly, you are a bot. 

Easiest Course of Action

Of course, you will want to have a bot while you are doing other things with your main character.  You can log two or more avs in on your computer if you have the power and memory to handle it all.  Simply go to your SL icon, right click and go to properties, and go into the target line.  At the end of the target line add a space, two dashes and the word multiple.  I will look like this- " --multiple".  Now you can open more than one instance of SL on your computer.  The downside is massive use of your resources.  This brings us to the bot programs.

Pop Bots of Second Life

e-Business demands bots!

by Idoru Wellman, e-business consultant

 

bots done right - a stylish addition to any business

A flair for witty and artistic placement of population boosting bots -- pop bots -- can enhance not only your in-world shop’s traffic, but is also crucial in projecting a professional image. The Herald visited several shops to illustrate pop bot does and dont's - a vital part of your e-business success formula.

Why Pop Bot?

The traffic enhancement game of Second Life has leveled up to dizzying heights over the last year, and with bots now making up about half the online players, can you really afford NOT to use bots? With search results ranked by traffic, and casual players attracted to hue piles of green dots on the map, this is a game you have to play as a serious e-business owner.

The economics are favorable, because bots are a one-time investment. The alternative - paying human-controlled avatars to camp in place - brings with it the headache of customer service for players that are just to cheap to actually go buy L$s with real money. Do you really want to argue with someone who was shorted L$10 (about $0.04 USD) because a sim crashed? I didn’t think so.

New Torley Linden Documentary Features Mitch Kapor

An all too accurate picture of the state of SL

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

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Mitch Kapor promises less novelty, less freedom, uneasy transition as Torley Linden signals disapproval with bad sound, gray textures, low framerates

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Noted virtual filmmaker Torley Linden’s latest production is a documentary of the closing keynote address from the SL5B 5th “birthday” celebration. The largely nipple free PG celebration ended on a downbeat note monday, as mighty Mitch Kapor went out of his way to insult current metaverse residents by implying they are socially inept outsiders soon to be swept away in a flood of “pragmatic” business, education, and non-profit players -- though impartial observers wonder how this will happen, given the dismal peak concurrent user growth rate, unstable platform, and general lack of professionalism on the part of Linden Lab.

opening credits - Torley is nearly as important as Mitch

Given the difficult subject matter Torley Linden chose for his latest epic, the film works surprisingly well, as Torley pulls out all the stops in a largely successful effort to provide a ironic counterpoint to a corporate message Torley clearly disagrees with.

We applaud this brave young filmmaker and hope to see more of his creative use of up-the-nose camera angles, over-modulated voice, hyperkinetic pans, and subtle use of un- rezed gray textures - all groundbreaking SL filmmaking techniques that point out the obvious limits of Second Life. Hopefully, as Torley continues to perfect his subversive artform he will be able to retain his position as lab mascot and court videographer for the Linden empire.

Network Culture Challenge

by Jessica Holyoke

Cory Ondrejka and Doctor Ludovico recently announced the Network Culture Challenge from the International Island sim.  The University of Southern California's Network Culture Project, in conjunction with the MacArthur Foundation, is inviting the residents of Second Life to imagine new ways that virtual worlds can be used to make contributions to the public good.

The Network Culture Challenge is currently accepting proposals from groups, organizations, or individuals for projects that show how Second Life can enhance, develop, or sustain the public good. The best submissions will be selected based on how well they demonstrate the significance of virtual worlds for making an impact on society or culture.

Up to three finalists will be selected by a community vote. The finalists will be provided with a $100,000L per month building stipend (and land, if required) for three months to execute their proposal. The projects will be showcased on October 16th, 2008 at the State of Play conference to be held in Chicago.

Primjackers Trash LL's Digital Rights Management

Copy "protected" prim hair, motorcycles now easy to copy -
In-world economy threatened?

by d3adlyc0d3c, ex griefer

video demonstrating use of a prim replicator for potential customers on onrez

Recently it came to our attention that certain devices have begun to circulate inside Second Life that allow object owners to circumvent Linden Lab's digital rights management/permissions system. These new products are simply LSL scripts that are able to copy themselves into every prim in a linkset, and then they use the llGetPrimitiveParams function to detect prim shapes and position within a linkset.

Once the target prims have been "enhanced" by the addition of the prim copy script, they can communicate the prim's size and position information to another object which then rezzes a number of cubes that automatically change shape, adopting the shapes and colors of the original prims and position and link themselves -- making exact copies of linked objects. The only missing elements are the textures and the original scripts, which current prim replicators do not currently steal duplicate.

Pixel Clothes, Virtual Fashion Summit, IMVU, and HiPiHi

The Celebrity Trollop interview

by Pixeleen Mistral, fashionable reporter

IMVU fashionista

Recently, Celebrity Trollop took time from her busy schedule for an interview about the pixel clothes scene in SL, IMVU, HiPiHi and elsewhere. Celebrity also mentioned what promises to be a very interesting event - The Virtual Fashion Summit - a conference for virtual fashion designers, texture artists, prim sculptors, committed virtual fashion watchers and shoppers this coming June.

Pixeleen Mistral: Celebrity, you have been a huge figure in the SL fashion scene - where do you see that going? what is next?
Celebrity Trollop: I think Havok4 and Windlight are going to be the next major technical things coming down the pipe from Linden Lab. A lot of content creators are going to have to adjust to those differences between the SL of now and the SL of 3-4 months in the future.

Pixeleen Mistral: is this going to help the fashion scene or hurt it?
Celebrity Trollop: In general I think it'll be huge leap forward in terms of framerates, avatar appearance and general grid stability. But on the other hand, most fashionistas have a pretty huge wishlist of flaws they wish would be addressed.

Pixeleen Mistral: *nods* how are you spending your time lately? is SL your main thing?
Celebrity Trollop: Mostly I've been running around IRL looking for a new job; but when I've been in SL its been mostly on Second Style business. I do spend most of my time in SL, but I also like checking out some of the other VWs - IMVU, or the really rudimentary fashions in places like hiphiphi

Pixeleen Mistral: tell me about the fashion scene in IMVU
Celebrity Trollop: It's pretty active. One big difference between SL and IMVU is that in IMVU you can use some other's creators work as a basis for your own extension. This is called a "derivation" and when you sell a work like that both you and the original creator get some of the fake money they use.

Ad Farmers Face Game-God Induced Drought!

Resident urged to conserve ads as abuse reports fly!!!
Visual Spam cleanup - or ban on unreasonably land value increases?

by Jessica Holyoke

fewer roadside attractions?

Jack Linden announced a new ban on Ad Farms this past week. While advertising is still allowed, it will be an abuse reportable offense when "it crosses the line into harassing behavior or visual spam, where the intent is purely to compel another resident to pay an unreasonable price to restore their view - then this will be covered under Harassment in our Community Standards." After studying Jack Linden's dispatch, the consensus in the newsroom is the Lindens will now use their highly developed aesthetic sense to improve the state of the metaverse. This new program seems to be off to a fast start, as Patch Linden reported receiving 500 abuse reports regarding Ad Spam as of 9am the morning after the policy was announced. Let us hope the game gods are up to the challenge now that the fallout and possible motivations of the new policy are becoming more visible.

After studying the report formerly known as the Police Blotter, I went to Sallow to try to deduce which Ad Farms were being warned regarding being spam. None of them were the Umnik Hax scheme, but rather a combination of ad towers, some of which had advertisements, some of which did not. Some of the plots were for sale at approximately L$46 per sq. m. and some as high as L$520 per sq.m.

The following day, both Tyrian Camilo and ROBO Marx were warned against violating the Ad Farm policy via e-mail from Harry Linden. The alleged ad farmers were given until Monday to remove any visual spam/land sale notices, lest their accounts be suspended. The location of specific plots where the advertisement network would be considered spam was not provided, perhaps so that residents would not be tempted into second-guessing the Linden game gods' infallible judgment.

IBM Jilts SL - Now Dating ActiveWorlds!?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Activeworlds, conference calls, and interactive web pages - but no SL

It is hard to know exactly what to make of this, but a reliable source pointed us to the Kauffman foundation's web site where this page http://www.kauffman.org/3D announces a "3-D Internet for Learning Summit" hosted not on Second Life - but on ActiveWorlds.

It would not do to speculate on what Philip Linden thinks of this development - but speculation is sure to follow as the announcement promises "a first-ever public demonstration of IBM’S privately-developed capability" where participants will "experience a real-time, seamless and simultaneous environment that combines telephony, wiki and virtual world environments. This will allow global participants to collaborate in building some of the next-generation capabilities of the 3-D Internet."

This summit is to be open to all - and the Herald expects strong representation from the furry and babyfur metaverse demographic - assuming fur avatars are avalable in ActiveWorlds. The event will take place February 19th and 20th, 2008, in three spaces simultaneously - a toll free conference call, within IBM's Active Worlds based Extraverse, and on the web through an interactive wiki environment.

Scrooge McSheep Cans 22 ESC Employees One Week Before Christmas

Tiny Tim despondent - lumps of coal and company restructuring for the holidays

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Jeremy Vaught reports on the Second Life Podcast blog that 22 employees of the Electric Sheep Company will have a permanent holiday this Christmas - leaving them plenty of time to select and wrap presents and visit their families, now that they have been sacked by the metaverse development company.

Reportedly, ESC cited financial problems and is "refocusing the business". The group working on MTV projects is apparently still intact, but speculation is that they may be discarded at a later date now that the company is focusing on "technology like onRez". OnRez is a shopping site for purchasing virtual clothing and accessorizing SL lifestyles with possible holiday gifts such as latex school girl outfits, and whip marks and everhard prim genitalia.

OnRez sells milk and cookies, too

Joel Greenberg's Virtual World Ad Network has also been shutdown as part of the ESC company restructuring. According to an e-mail send by Mr. Greenburg to those who had signed up for updates on the project the ad network was about a month away from going into beta test. Tiny Tim was unavailable for comment at press time, but the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future were reportedly planning a midnight visit to the ESC headquarters.

Life 2.0 Summit Receives Royal Reproach

Unexplained avatar bans draw imperial frown

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

The Dr Dobbs Life 2.0 fall summit concluded yesterday, but was marred by what may become an international incident - Princess Manqo of Yaximixche's expression of pleasure at meeting virtual world experts is mixed with strongly worded warnings to event organizers about how to treat royalty - and commoners - if the goal of the meeting is a positive experience.

We learned of the royal displeasure in a press release from the Royal Press office of Yaximixche in which her royal highness Princess Manqo expresses delight in learning more of virtual worlds from experts such as Xconomy, Acceleration Studies Foundation (Ogoglio, Photosynth), Forterra Systems, SLBrowser, Gridocity, Linden Lab, Electric Sheep, Code4 Software, Sun Microsystems, Clear Ink, Eolus, Involve, ESC, AWA, IBM, libSecondLife, Croquet Consortium (Croquet video), Maya Realities, Borland Codegear, Tateru Nino, Multiverse, Pixeltrix, Questar, Intel, and Weather Channel.

However, the Princess also expressed grave concern at the organization of Dr. Dobbs/CMP’s event, saying the organizers were “more concerned in pleasing their sponsors marketing objectives rather than being good hosts by creating a unforgettable experience for visitors and potential customers. Some attendees had to use alternative avatars in order to continue in this event as the committee decided unilaterally that some questions or behaviours were not appropriate. Additionally, the committee did not provide any justification of avatar ban cases or simply they refuse replying to any request for explanation.”

The Herald was shocked to learn that the Princess was asked by event organizers to refrain from wearing her own environment awareness non-for-profit tag because they felt "she was selling". This amazingly cheeky behavior is simply not how one treats royalty. The Herald calls on both Dr Dobbs and the Life 2.0 event organizers to issue an apology to the princess - lest an international inter-world conflict erupt. Metaverse wars have started over less.

Which SL Software is Best? - 4 Viewers Reviewed

An expert's guide to SL client software - including the Nicholaz Beresford options
4 great ways to a better SL experience!

by JayR Cela, SL viewer connoisseur

After living in the Second Life metaverse for 2 years, I have seen quite a few changes take place. Sometimes it seems to me the Lindens are hell bent on shooting themselves directly in the foot. Other times I can actually see some forward progress being made, a bit slowly, but forward none the less. One such area I seldom see discussed outside of a few blogs and in-world meetings is the SL client application -or- SL viewer. The recent addition of voice chat to the main grid, starting with the 1.18.xxxx series warrants a look at exactly what sort of progress is being made. Let's look at the recent history of the SL client software - and decide what works best.

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Version 1.18.0.6

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This probably will be the last official non-voice version released. This was a mixed upgrade, more of a move sideways in preparation for for the 1.18.1.2 voice enabled release. It was certainly a great place for the open source community to provide some wonderful improvements of their own to this little gem - as is definitely evident with the Nicholaz Beresford Edition. Mr. Beresford has a blog I highly recommend reading available here. Versions 18a to 18k2 - the current incarnation - are his way to differentiate the incremental improvements.

Nicholaz has done so much behind the scenes improvements, not evident to the casual SL lifer. One of the biggest obstacles he has managed to overcome is the incessant memory leaks that have proven so elusive for the Lindens to solve. For those unfamiliar with the term, a memory leak is a bug or series of interconnected bugs that cause the running program to actually seem to grow larger and consume more or your computers memory resources.

Exclusive Pix from the Developer Grid: SL's New Zone Concepts Interface

The next version of SL?

by Pixeleen Mistral, food critic

Zone Concepts Interface: brighten the corners

I considered having another glass of wine while waiting for the wild coho salmon filet slathered in finely chopped fresh organic parsley to finish steaming over a what I hoped would become a Grey Goose vodka and sicilian blood orange reduction -- if my calculations were correct. However, the calculus of culinary choice suddenly narrowed. The iMojo wire was demanding attention with breaking news from the betaverse - an exclusive photo of the new look and feel for Second Life. Maybe.

Readers are cautioned that the iMojo is not always completely reliable, but our source provided what appears to be a screen shot of the next version of SL - or at least a mock up - reproduced here so that long suffering citizens can begin preparing for another forced march into the future, as envisioned by the game gods of our “better world” - the physics experts at Linden Lab. If our source is to be believed, this is a picture from the developer grid.

LA Times Joins the SL Hater Parade

The Hate Just Keeps on Comin'!

It seems like just last month (well, ok, it was last month) that Forbes did its 180 and started hating on Second Life. Now the LA Times joins the hate parade with a story of its own. Herald Summary (tm): Businesses came in, saw, and decided it was a bust, a waste of time, a veritable Bushian anti-insurgent surge of marketing failures. Now we have two things to say about this: First and foremost, WTF? The corporations who are now reportedly pulling out (American Apparel, Skywood Aloft, etc. etc.) and/or losing interest, came in, didn't listen to one fucking thing residents said, did it their 20th century push media meatspace way, and now... and now they are all befuzzled that it didn't work out and they think SL is a bust!!?? Well, good bye and good riddance. Maybe they are making more room for the corporations that are nimble enough to adjust to this very dynamic environment.

Oh and by the way, while I am quoted in the LA Times article, I don't think it entirely got the drift of what I said OR my position, which is this: Some of the corporations that came in early were doing it for impact outside second life, but others are committed to learning how to operate in this new environment and are making adjustments (I sited the case of Nissan and provided a link to how they had retooled). My impression is that no one really knows how to proceed here, but we are all learning as we go along. Or, in any case, those that stay will learn. 'cuz, yah know, quitters never prosper. (Someone told me that once.) --Uri

Here Comes Second Earth! Or not.

WTF? 120 Servers (480 new sims) per Week?

MIT’s Technology Review has a (registration required) disappointingly fanboyish, hyperventilating story about Second Life and the possibility of linking up worlds like Second Life with Google Earth. Oddly, while the article talks about how swell and kewl this would be (and includes interviews with developers who live off the hype -- Aimee, Sibley, and Reuben – AND includes the obligatory word “mashup”), no one claims to be working on such a mashup and the figures in the article show why:

At one region per server, simulating just the 29.2 percent of the planet's surface that's dry land would require 2.3 billion servers and 150 dedicated nuclear power plants to keep them running. It's the kind of system that "doesn't scale well," to use the jargon of information technology.

But what caught my eye was the following passage citing Cory (Ondrejka) Linden:

According to Ondrejka, Linden Lab must purchase and install more than 120 servers every week to keep up with all the new members pouring into Second Life, who increase the computational load by creating new objects and demanding their own slices of land.

Elsewhere, Nelson Minar calls BULLROAR on this:

Let's reality check that. 120 servers a week is 6000 servers a year, or roughly $25 million a year in hardware expenses alone, not to mention power. I sure hope they're not actually spending that.

On the bright side, if they ARE expanding that fast they will have enough servers to simulate the land surface of the earth in only 383,333 years! Par-tay! -Uri

Open Letter to Linden Lab

Metaverse residents ask LL to fix the game

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

In an attempt to entice game maker Linden Lab into fixing problems with Second Life, an open letter asking that long term problems with the virtual world be fixed before more new features are added has been signed by over 600 players and virtual world entrepreneurs.

The open letter comes in response to both stability problems with the world and Linden Lab’s retreat from contact with their customers - the world's residents. This retreat has been in progress for some time as the Lab has removed resident forums, and most direct customer contact - apparently in an attempt to cut support costs.

The cost cutting measures and focus on new features at the expense of stability may exact a toll as Cristiano Midnight points out, “it is much easier to retain customers when things work as promised”.

However, the social network effect - or wanting to hang with your friends - tends to blunt criticism of the Linden’s product, and those with significant investments in the game are not likely to migrate out of Second Life in a hurry. This platform stickiness may be what the Linden game gods depend on as they continue to rework their world despite the protests from its residents. It should be clear to all that Second Life is a never ending beta test - but it is significant that residents are organizing large scale protests of the way in which the beta test is being conducted.

Here is the text of the open letter:

Virtual Worlds 2007, Report #5: Venture Capital and The New School of Athens

by Urizenus Sklar

As I reported Wednesday, much of the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference reeked of the anxiety of marketing guys and gals trying to catch up with the next wave. The fear was palpable. Why else would those people be sitting in that auditorium taking notes like they were Gorean slaves pressed into service as scribes? And all they seem to want to know – at least all they wanted to ask - is this: What is the return on investment? How many eyeballs do we get? How long do we keep them? Are they the kind of eyeballs that spend money?

Thursday I lasted for about 30 seconds of that. I walked into the auditorium – steaming hot and stacked to the rafters with suits -- and the first thing I heard was the interesting factoid that when you create NPC salespeople you want them to mimic the animations of the customer. Psychological studies show that mimicking gestures is more likely to make the customer trust and like the salesperson whether an NPC or a human. And it only takes a simple script to do this! Joy. What a brave new virtual world we live in. Would someone please penis this event?

Virtual Worlds 2007, report #1

By Urizenus Sklar

All quotes guaranteed to possibly be accurate.

I climbed out my cab in Battery Park, eager to take in Virtual Worlds 2007 conference and hear the latest developments in virtual worlds. But what is this? The other taxis pulling up are not yielding scruffy game devs and virtual platform development geeks, but are disgorging middle aged men in dark suits. Is there something else going on? A conference on accounting strategies in the packaging industry? Perhaps a meeting on optimizing your real estate portfolio? Nope, these are Fortune 500 marketing guys, here to harness the technology of virtual worlds for their harvest of eyeballs.

I enter the venue auditorium and it is packed with at least 600 suits. Maybe more. You can feel the poplin-filtered sweat of middle-aged anxiety. You know, that anxiety you feel when you get the vague sense that the kidz are passing you by – that you won’t catch this wave and you’ll be left bobbing offshore while jellyfish sting the shit out of you and sharks circle you. And meanwhile the kidz that caught the wave are already on the beach doing the limbo by the bonfire and drinking sugary carbonated sodas with Annette Funicello? You know. *That* sort of anxiety.

Julian Lombardi: Second Life's Technical Problems "Inevitable"

Second Life not Scalable?

Image stolen from Lombardi's blog.
Julian Lombardi, one of the six original architects of Croquet and executive director of the Croquet Consortium AND the original designer of ViOS (Visual internet Operating System) has posted a rather sobering assessment of the scalability prospects for Second Life. Lombardi observes that ViOS went though similar scalability problems back in the day. His description sounds scarily like the current situation in SL:

Our strategy back at ViOS, Inc. was to simply re-tune the system and put up more servers as the loads increased - hoping for the best. That approach would work well for Intranet applications that serviced relatively small numbers of clients. It even worked well for ViOS' initial user base of around 15,000 unique users. Problem was that once we had several thousand simultaneous Viosians tooling about in the landscape, they began to overload our interactivity servers, resulting in performance problems and service interruptions.

The prospects for Second Life?

Second Life ... has a very similar technical architecture to that of ViOS - a vintage twentieth century client-server architecture with with single points of failure, inertia, and control. It's been interesting to watch Linden Lab's struggle with the inevitable technical problems faced by Second Life as a result of its recent popularity, constrained architecture, and non-scaling technical approach.

Yeah, it's been interesting all right. Damned fascinating.

Alternatives To Second Life

by Onder Skall, courtesy of Second Life Games

Let me start this off by stating that I have no interest in the “world vs. platform” debate. It’s boring and played out, so don’t you dare try to draw me in. What I’m trying to do here is answer the simple question:

Where are the best candidates as viable alternatives to Second Life?

In order to answer this question, I’ve come up with the three things that in my opinion make Second Life irreplaceable at the moment. Since these are entirely formed from my little brain, we’ll call them “Onder’s Big Three”. They are:

1. Cash transactions must be easy and readily accommodated flowing both into and out from the system.
2. Users must be able to create unique content and retain some form of ownership over it.
3. The fabric of the world itself must be possible to affect. IE: land ownership, room decoration, or some other content that remains viable even when the player who created it is logged off. (”Pervasive” is the word I’m groping for here…)

Hell is Other People: The LA Times Gets to the Bottom of SL's Growing Pains

If you are coming from the Feb. 22 LA Times article... I dunno...just know that we really really hate the Lakers. Or as we call them, the Hollywood Fakers. If you already read the article, then let me save you some trouble, and suggest that you use this link for sex, cybersex, and beyond.

If you haven't read the article by Alana Semuels, which has been long in the works, I guess the key thing to know is that it is a reasonable MSM attempt at covering the current growing pains in Second Life, as the meatspace corporations invade and the indigenous tribes protest. Cyberlebrities quoted include the ever sensible Second Life Liberation Army's Marshal Cahill, the meek and soft-spoken Prokofy Neva, the oh so modest Urizenus Sklar, and Electric Sheep's luddite ruler Sibley Verbeck and many others including Nimrod Yaffle. If you needed more reason to think that the LA Times was highbrow, there is also the infamous quote from John Paul Sartre -- "Hell is Other People" -- which, come to think of it, is a good one line explanation of why Second Life sucks, but then again it also explains why the whole world sucks unless you find a platform that no one else is using.

By the way, the online article (requires registration) features a picture of Prok's RL typist and it will probaby feature in a major way in future Something Awful productions, but I couldn't help but think that this is how 9 out of 10 women in Ann Arbor look. Which just goes to show...something or other.

Ludlow Joins Shirkeyjerk

Hotspur, Glendower, Mortimer and Worcester arguing over the future division of the kingdom at Bangor, in 'Henry IV'. Painting by Henry Fuseli.

Let's see if we can reconstruct what happened. First, there was all the fluff and hyperventilation about Second life having 100k then 1 million then 2 million "residents", followed by much ridicule in the SL Blogosphere. This was followed by Clay Shirkey coming along a year later saying there aren't really that many "residents." To which we said "no shit Sherlock" but of course Clay was then feted as the ubergenius of the new millenium by Dan Hunter and other Eggheads on Terra Nova. This was followed by cries of indignation from the SL Blogosphere and cries of hyper-indignation from Clay Shirkey, and then the heavy guns got involved -- as when Henry Jenkins, Beth Coleman and Clay got into a three-way convo about it. Apparently the debate is about played out, because Ludlow is involved now, in part two of an interview on Jenkin's Blog. A few excerpts are below the fold.

Bearded Eggheads Talk about Virtual Journalism and Stuff

Henry Jenkins just posted part one of a two-part interview with our own Nutty Professor -- Peter Ludlow. In it Ludlow has some not very nice things to say about the Avastar, and some marginally interesting things to say about civic responsibility and virtual journalism, and also where the Herald fits in the magic circle ("on the circumference" it turns out), but what might be discussion-worthy is this:

The more interesting question is why people keep repeating "“only a game"” so much. If you google "“only a game”" and “Second Life” together, you get nearly 12,000 hits. It is like a mantra that people keep repeating to keep some thought or idea at bay – and I think the dangerous idea that Second Life shoves in your face every day is this: our wealth is virtual, our property is transient, and our social lives are mediated by technology, nomadic, and often fleeting. I think that when people keep saying “it’'s only a game” they are really saying “the rest of my world isn’'t like this: my wealth is tangible and permanent, my friendships are unmediated and also permanent.” Saying “it’'s only a game” is like saying “this isn’'t how things really are, this is just a bad dream.” People need to pinch themselves, because this ain’'t no dream. This is reality; deal with it.

more quotes below the fold:

Avatar of the Year, Second Place: Anshe Chung

Second place in the Herald's coveted Avatar of the Year award traditionally goes to the avi who has had the most impact on the virtual world's economic scene. Last year's winner, Sir/Father Callahan, was a master of the simolean trade in TSO, as well as a collector of rare cannons and press secretary for the corrupt administration of Mr-President. This year, our second place award winner has made a similar transformation, from self-proclaimed "business girl" to budding political activist. You may admire her or you may just find her omnipresent signs annoying, but either way, there's no avoiding Anshe Chung.

Said to have earned the equivalent of $100,000 or more in Second Life's real estate business, Anshe has been featured in The New York Times, the L.A. Times, and Fortune magazine, among other dead-tree publications. (Of course, all of these stories cam after the Herald profile of Anshe earlier this year.) But since her rise to the top of her heap of Linden$, Anshe has taken it upon herself to make an impact on the political scene as well, speaking out against P2P teleporting and the Ginko investment bank, as well as getting involved in the budding lobbying efforts that residents have mounted in recent months.

In all, few avatars have had as big an impact on the Grid and the news over the last 12 months as Anshe has. Of course, one av has created bigger waves. To find out who (as if you don't already know), stay tuned for the Herald's first-place award, coming to you in a week or so.

Second Life Running on Linux?

Acording to a comment he posted on Boing Boing, this week Cory Linden is going to be at the Chaos Computer ClubCon (ah ok, so now it is upscale and is called the Chaos Communication Congress) in Berlin. Plus he promises to be giving a public demo of the SL client running on Linux. That would be pretty cool, but it is more interesting to speculate about the long term impact of this.

Good Riddance: SL Says Goodbye to Dwelloper Awards

Uri and Prok do Some Last Minute Christmas Camping

by Dow Jonas

With the advent of camp chairs in the last month, Robin Linden’s announcement of the end of the Developer Incentive Awards (DIA), or the “Dwelloper Awards,” as they were dubbed, came as no surprise to most of the hundred-odd recipients of the cash prizes, who make up the two percent of landowners in Second Life with the most dwell, reflecting the numbers of people who came and remained on their properties for a minimum of five minutes.

The awards are to be ended in March 2006, and with this three-month lead time, camp chairs, money trees, money balls, and every other magnetizing object for sticky avatars have been deployed in an even greater frenzy to soak Linden Lab of its last “dwellopment” dollars.

Some forums debaters blamed the camp chairs, which pay out anywhere from $1-$50, depending on whether the sitter also plays (and often loses) various casino games during the session. Others said the elimination of the program, which last month cost LL some US $120,000 to pay SL dwellopers, was a belt-tightening measure.

A glance at the list of winners in recent months shows that many of SL’s top land barons, club owners, and casino hosts are on the list, along with a handful of special themed-sim project leaders.

In a year that has brought removal of events grants, ratings stipends, telehubs, and GOM, SL forums criticism about the latest stripping away of subsidies appeared muted. A number of major businesses appeared to greet the action as consistent with a “capitalist” model for the virtual world, and a rational move in view of widespread gaming of the system that drained dollars through the use of AFK-devices like camp chairs, rather than creation of compelling content. Said Cyberland CEO Shaun Altman, “Good riddance, developer incentive! Let's replace [this] with something that actually incentivizes developers, rather than those who bribe people for their dwell.”

Aimee Weber, a prominent SL clothing designer, told the Herald that she had never been on the Developers’ Award list because she did not own land (she said she had just purchased a new island named Midnight City for her stores). The presence in SL of various artists and designers with interesting builds and events seems evidence for some that the DIA was not achieving its purpose. Asked about any possible replacement for the DIA, Weber said, “I think an automated system will always be vulnerable to being gamed, and some kind of Linden-decided award program may be forever haunted by claims of favoritism. So I don't know that I can think of a good one off the top of my head.”

In the past, the Lindens have held a few contests, with one or few participants, for themed sims or games, and suffered criticism for appearing to show bias.

“The camping chairs exposed the weakness of the system enough where it was embarrassing,” said Weber. Asked if she thought the Lindens lost a lot of money paying out awards based merely on camping, she said, “If anything, they raised the priority of fixing the system.”

Some forums contributors suggested substituting the DIA system with a voting mechanism to collect votes for good lots; old hands at SL recall a time when such a system was used and then abandoned as it, too, was gamed by people setting up flash mobs of their friends.

Weber suggested that the SL world map could have a mode “where areas of high traffic were painted certain colors. Like some kind of thermal chart LOL. That would be pretty cool! You can see the ‘hot spots,’” she commented.

While such a system could arguably be networked and flash-mobbed as well, it would likely serve as a more accurate picture of avatar flows than dwell created by friends and alts logging in and staying AFK on land to drive up the traffic numbers.

At times, the Lindens have discussed forming some kind of Council of the Arts to administer a grants system through applications. “It will be painfully political, but if they could make it work, it would be a great idea,” said Weber. Of course, with so many people joining SL and having trouble gaining visibility for their work, scouting talent could be difficult for short-staffed and busy Lindens. “It means some people will be left out, and that means there will be accusations, conspiracy theories, etc,” said Weber. “It would get messy.”

Top SL club manager Jenna Fairplay, owner of the Edge, told the Herald about the end of DIA, “I prepared for this as I do with all SL changes good or bad. I know there are those who were greatly affected negatively from the change and do feel for them as well.” Fairplay has put her club in DaBoom up for sale for a requested $20,000 US – and confirmed that the offer for the 100-meter terraformable original sim would not include the building. (Coming Soon: an in-depth interview with Jenna on club management in SL.)

Others reeled from the first impact of the announcement. “It is possible that my club will go to the wall without the DIA, which paid for my tier & membership fees as well as part payment for my radio stream. The way I feel right now is 6 months work down the toilet because I can’t fund that from my monthly RL income,” said Stacey Sugar, owner of the Barbie Club in Refugio.

Rallying later, Sugar subsequently told the Herald, “I have called a meeting of all my friends who own some of the high dwell projects in SL…to discuss the scrapping of the DIA and what we can do to minimize the impact and maybe come up with some alternative suggestions we can suggest to LL.”

Travis Lambert, owner of the Shelter, a club for newbies, commented, “The larger enterprises that receive Developer Incentive will likely only be marginally affected by this change. This is because the DI only made up a small percentage of their monthly budget.

Winners of the awards ranged from Prokofy Neva, who said he began at about $35 US and worked his way up eventually to $125 in recent months, to land baroness Anshe Chung who has earned thousands of US dollars.

“For a long time, the program appeared to discriminate against those with group land because it rewards only those with the most tier on one account; if your tier is spread out in a group then you may not come up on the radar,” said Neva. The Lindens recently adjusted the formulas to better include group owners.

”It is the small-to-medium sized venues that will be hit hardest by this change - not those you see on the Popular Places list every day,” said Lambert. “The DI made up 90-100% of the budget of the smaller venues, and those are the ones we are in jeopardy of losing.”

One effort the Lindens have promoted as a substitution of the “Dwelloper Awards”is the Developers’ Directory, a project that has drawn mixed reviews as some residents have praised the Lindens for making more transparent the process of bidding and being awarded content contracts in SL, and others have complained that the list is incomplete.

The Lindens have asked residents with ideas for how to provide incentives for content to replace the DIA to write to [email protected]

Extra!!: Philip Calls the FBI. W-Hats Shit Themselves

by Dow Jonas

Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, announced at a resident virtual winter holiday party in Second Life's Wengen today that he is turning to real-world authorities to investigate Monday's deliberate crashing of his virtual world's grid.

When the party was bombed today by a griefer with pixelated C-4, Rosedale, whose avatar is Philip Linden, was bumped around the sim. The overcrowded Linden-run sims appeared to be a prime target for an attack during the season's top event.

Bedecked in a red Santa's cap and blue shirt, the Monetarized Socializing Platform Mogul danced around a roaring bonfire set for the occasion and said, "This seems about a good a time as any to tell you that I am turning over names to the FBI."

Linden said that he viewed Monday's grid crash like any denial-of-service attack on an Internet web page.

The CEO's announcement was greeted with cheers by residents toasting marshmallows around the virtual fire.

Asked by a reporter to clarify what kind of prosecution he might seek, Linden said, "Yes, we will turn over data to the FBI. That is what we are doing. Already in progress."

Hastening away to a real-life party with investors, Philip Linden declined to comment on queries about whether the 14-day suspension handed out to an unnamed resident for a "global attack" reported on the Police Blotter this week was related to the grid crash, or whether it was the limit of Linden Lab's actions.

He did not name the attackers nor specify whether they were related to members of W-Hat responsible for 2 other global attacks this year.

LINDEN ADMITS TO INSIDER SNOW SIM DEAL ON TEEN GRID

By Dow Jonas

In a fascinating glimpse into the life of teen-agers in Second Life and the internal pressures with which Lindens cope in their San Francisco office, a land scandal has emerged on the Teen Grid (TG) involving confirmed charges that Blue Linden gave a teen land buyer an unfair insiders' heads-up about a valued snow sim he was releasing.

"I sure hope that I am wrong here," was the title of a post on the teen forum with a poignant plea by a young girl who questioned a brewing land scandal early on December 7.

She noticed upon logging in that a large amount of snow land was released for sale and quickly purchased. Unlike the main grid, where adults have land scanners to seize abandoned land, land frequently abandoned by kids who can't get their parents to pay the tier can sit for days at $1/meter with no takers.

At first the sharp-eyed teen chalked up the windfall to "the luck of the draw," but then upon reflection began to wonder.

"I have reached the conclusion that at least one teen was given preferential treatment by LL in this land purchase process in the snow sims." Snow sims are still a novelty on the TG.

"The extent of this preferential treatment includes prior knowledge of the exact timing of the land release and posting of it as public --- and POSSIBLY allowing that person (and possibly even a cohort or two) to log on before normal log on time to get the land before anyone else could," said the teen.

In an interesting mirroring of the trends on the adult forums, other fans rushed to the Lindens defense and even grew indignant with the poster. "I doubt that this happened, simply because it would ruin LL's credibility on the TG, and would lose a lot of business if word got out," said one response.

While the original poster speculated that her bold comments might be deleted, the discussion was allowed to continue, with most people trying to rationalize how the kiddie barons had managed to snag the coveted land so quickly ahead of the pack. Inworld, teens flew around buzzing about the incident and chatting on Yahoo, putting together clues.

Unexpectedly, at 10:25 p.m., Blue Linden appeared on SL's teen forum with a surprising admission.

As you probably realize, the Teen Grid is not profitable...it would be nice if Linden Lab was a charity, but it's a business. Because Second Life is free, the only way we make a profit is to sell land. As it happens, land sales on the teen grid are very low. So whenever there is a board meeting and the investors are in the building I get nervous and wonder what we could possibly do to encourage people to buy more land. This is not the fun part of the job, obviously.

We try to make it as easy as possible for residents to own a whole sim, but realize that it's prohibitively expensive for teens to do so. I thought I should at least attempt to make it easier for teens to buy large plots of land, and in doing so receive the same concierge support that private estate owners receive. I looked up the top land owners and offered some of them the opportunity to reserve some land while we were setting up new regions. If we were able to sell enough land it would make sense to add new regions specifically for large landholders. People could get as much land as they wanted, receive the same treatment, in a scaled way, that MG estate owners receive, and the TG would grow faster. Everyone gets more right? Good idea?

Bottom line? It wasn't a good idea.

It didn't result in the sale of one entire sim, and people have been more upset than I'm willing to accept as 'growing pains'. We won't be doing that again. I'm sorry if it came across as favoritism and not a hard look at the numbers of the teen grid. I'm VERY sorry if anyone felt personally neglected in the way the choices were made. I'm MORE than happy to talk to anyone 1 on 1 about it or have a community meeting regarding the way we add regions to the teen grid. We'd like the grid to be something that every resident, parent, Lindens and investor agrees is worth every penny.

Some young residents wondered why the Lindens would likely net anything with such new land sales in terms of tier, since teen buyers kept on strict tier limits by parents worried about credit-cards sometimes end up releasing land to the public when they make new purchases. While no mini-version of Anshe Chung appears to have occupied the teen grid, there are several kids who reportedly have amassed as much as half a sim or more than 32,000 m2, for a monthly fee of $125 US.

In response to Blue's statement, the original poster said she was "stunned" and said she had become "leery" of the game.

For some adults hearing of the story, which began to make the rounds of the SL forums yesterday, Blue's startling but defensive admission speaks volumes; others yawned and dismissed the incident as minor.

"I'm not surprised this went on, and I'm proud of the teens who got wise to Linden favoritism," one parent who asked not to be named told the Herald.

"It's good that Blue was so quick with his explanation, but I worry about what this 'pressure of investors' is doing to the Lindens, and wonder if it accounts for the haste with which they are pushing through p2p," said the parent.

The existence of a teen FIC has been discounted by some, but as Picabo Hedges, an adult resident since 2004 with a child on the TG, explains, "the TG FIC" received preferential treatment/favoured status for whatever reason "whether for their skills, their having been part of the TG Beta or simply because they chatted up X or Y Linden while violating the MG TOS and then 'turning themselves in' during Amnesty Week."

A number of parents and children have complained that amnestied teens were able to keep their accounts to SLBoutique.com and continue downloading goods not available on the TG.

"First it was inventory and $L account transfers by former MG residents as they moved to the TG," said one disgruntled teen. "Then it was found that certain TG'ers were maintaining accounts on both grids and transferring items, scripts and money here (and vice versa). Then it was SL Boutique access and sale of those MG items on the TG. Now it's sweetheart land deals. Seems to be a pattern of preferential treatment for residents who did not start out their SL 'careers' on the TG like some of us have," said the teen.

The Blue Linden scandal has provided an interesting glimpse into the preoccupation of both adults and teens about perceived or actual favoritism by the Lindens.

"As an employee of LL I believe you should remain neutral to every customer. No matter what their tier rate is. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to own land in the sim of their choosing. There should be no under the table deals going on," said a youngster.

"Considering the extent of the FIC controversy my Dad has told me about during his time on the MG and the comments made here on the TG about it, the issue of 'level-playing field' continues to raise its head everytime I turn around," said a teen.

"My trust level has been shaken," concluded another.

"I view TSL as a way to step away from the social ranking system of the real world and play as who i want to be. This is a bit of a cruel wake up call because now it seems as if this is less of a community and more of a buisness or shop or something.I hope i can put out the Snow Sim Scandal out of my mind and I hope I can forget this," lamented still another player.

A few teens queried the Lindens as to why an auction system wasn't in place for the teen as well as the adult grid but there was no word from the Lindens on any consideration of such a proposal .

Rate my Linden .com

How's my driving? Rate Second Life Support:

by Pat the Rat

Are you concerned about Linden behavior? Have you ever gotten mad at the way a Linden has treated you?

Most people are so grateful that the Lindens are *there* that they don't think of them as problematic, behavior-wise. They are so earnest, and so ever-present, that you sometimes wonder if they ever sleep. Still, there are those who believe even such good Lindens should be held to some kind of code of conduct. A little-known episode has passed in the annals of Second Life without much commentary (except from the graphomanic Prokofy Neva). After much pestering by several lobbying groups this summer ranging from the apparently now-defunct (or hijacked) Metaverse Justice Watch founded by Anshe Chung and the more respected but evidently inactive Residents Action Committee founded by Lordfly Digeridoo, the Lindens finally produced something approximately some "ethics guidelines."

Published inworld near a sign showing a man juggling (what are we supposed to make of *that* visual message?), the guidelines have some meat-and-potatoes sort of behavioral guidelines like the threshold for when you "kick" (i.e. suddenly log off) a customer.

Scant and meager stuff indeed, with nothing about sexual harassment or conflicts of interest in running one's own business or touting other residents' businesses who may have been on one's friends' rolladex in a previous lifetime.

Rumor has it that the guidelines were deployed inworld -- then suddenly removed for rewriting -- then put out again. We've already gotten used to myriad variations on the TOS dropping down in front of us like parking meter flags each time we load SL.

Taking some 60 days to appear with the documents, the Lindens no doubt had at least some haggling amongst themselves, looking at the different balls they have to keep in the air -- their desire to have Lindens mix it up with residents inworld and be a part of it themselves; their desire to have residents participate in world-creation but yet not get in the way of selling the product to still more residents; their desire to promote creativity even as they co-opt it in the name of creating *more* options for competitive edge and creativity; their desire to uphold the image on their corporate website where they hammer home that "the product is cool, the work is cool, the people are cool, the company is cool, the location is cool." Hey, cool!

But...whenever something is just so...gosh...cool...what happens when it is not? Can it *not* be cool?

Everyone knows that Lindens are sometimes bad. They can get snappish late at night in their telecommuter jobs dealing with cranky customers. They play favorites, we are told, with bits like Jeska and the modeling for SLBoutique.com. There's that time a Linden was seen holding down dwell for Bad Girls in Smoky...or the time a Linden at a community meeting started tellling a customer arrogantly "this isn't about you,"or even the time a new Linden was reported *gasp* taunting a resident for getting a stiffy over Philip Linden's lovely hair.

Has anything really serious ever happened with a Linden? And if it did...would we know? Lindens -- like Colin Linden -- disappear from the list completely, and no one knows why. Others who we know said goodbye like Haney Linden remain in the list. There are all kinds of Lindens with funny names like RealEstate Linden who is even in some resident project groups and GoodCop and BadCop Linden (can't wait to meet them!).

Still, the Lindens are trying! Some of them, who have been targeted in forums for particularly difficult interactions, are even sporting siggies these days, like the one a contributor found on Lee Linden's email:

How's my driving? Rate Second Life Support:

Hilariously, ticks can be placed by boxes with descriptions like "grumpy" or "bureaucratic". We can't help hoping residents, who were likely not to have noticed this link before, will go wild with it ; )

Meanwhile, we'd like to hear your stories -- if you have them -- in competely confidence -- about any Linden misbehavior you find -- under existing ethic guidelines or under moral standards you believe ought to be applied to our life on the grid.

Anshe Declares War on Ginko: "It"s a Ponzi Scheme!" (Lindens block discussion. Transparency is first casualty.)

SL Power Player and Business Girl, Anshe Chung

By Dow Jonas

A fierce debate about trust in financial institutions is rocking the business community of SL, pitting SL’s largest land baron, Anshe Chung, said to own SL properties valued at U.S. $200,000,against Nicholas Portocarrero, SL’s largest savings and investment bank owner, reportedly holding more than US $60,000 in resident savings accounts.

In a series of forum posts, Chung has accused Portocarrero of running a Ponzi-style operation promising high yields for depositors but using up new investments to pay existing depositors, a scheme likely to lead to collapse. Such scams are named for Carlo Ponzi, an Italian immigrant to the U.S. in the early 20th century who bilked thousands of people of what was then U.S. $15 million in a double-your-money stamp investment plan. Ultimately, authorities and irate customers caught up with him, he was unable to refund deposits and served time in jail for fraud -- only to emerge later to perpetrate a swamp-land scam.

Portocarrero has blandly denied the charges, and despite recent accusations, has added a feature of LL $100 free for new accounts, while reducing the interest to 0.15 percent interest per day. He says that in the country he lives in (which Anshe has claimed to be in South America, in violation of SL rules against first-life disclosure), he is unable to get a bank account due to excessive regulation and cronyism.

Chung is currently accusing Portocarrero of taking $LL 16 million, currently valued at at about US $63,000 on the LindEx, out of Second Life platform to points unknown, leaving $2 million to cover any withdrawals.

Anshe Chung is a German citizen of Chinese heritage whose real-life name and Paypal account address are known to her customers. In addition to her land sales and island rentals business, she operates a currency exchange business that has absorbed some of the customers from the failure of GOM in the summer. She also owns a percentage of SLExchange.com, a popular third-party catalogue site for purchasing avatar accessories.

No RL name or location is known for Nicholas Portocarrero but by an in-world presence of a year, and consistent payouts on deposits has earned him numerous customers. While his claim to have received $LL 16 million in deposits is unverifiable, several weeks ago, Cyberland Equities, the only company listed on SL’s Metaverse Stock Exchange, reportedly withdrew $LL 3 million in deposits after forums disputes about reputation and financial practices flung on both sides. Cyberland’s directors acknowledge that the high return on their Ginko deposit helped cushion the impact of GOM’s failure on their land business.

“Who’s Winning Losing?” is the title of a typically clever but biased and poorly-spelled forums poll accessed by less than five percent of the SL population -- but an avid and influential percent. Bommerang aptly sums up the community’s concerns with poll options for losers like “Anshe Chung, due to self induced image damage for good of the community,”; “ blaze Spinnaker, due to beleiving in a sinking ship; and “Second Life as a whole, for a 'trust and succeed' ideal seemingly disappearing down a drain.”

In a record-setting day with five threads locked by forums moderator Jeska Linden, SL residents refuse to stop debating the pros and cons of Chung versus Ginko, as many felt driven to support one of the other in SL’s nervous economy.

Meanwhile traffic to Ginko terminals for both deposits and withdrawals appeared normal, and Ansheland continues to sell like hot-cakes especially in the newest sims in the north and on her private islands.

In closing the offending posts, Jeska Linden has invoked an oft-cited TOS rule about not starting threads devoted to one person and engaging in personal attacks.

But residents object that when businesses involving millions of dollars are being traded, the public has a right to demand more transparency.

Currently, Anshe has thrown down a challenge that many forum-watchers have seen as a threat by offering to bail out all existing Ginko depositors while urging Portocarrero to close Ginko, apologize, and explain where the money is -- in the interests of the good of Second Life as a whole. Detractors have rushed to accuse her of a blatant bid to undermine another business and take it over.

Insiders say Anshe has said she has no plans to start a bank, although she is willing to temporarily provide some interest on former Ginko accounts. Analysts have pointed out, however, that Apotheus Silverman, owner of SLEXchange.com where Anshe has part interest, has contemplated in the past adding a banking feature to his new currency exchange. His site already has numerous deposits from shoppers which currently sit in accounts without interest, as many people find it inconvenient to go back inworld from work during their lunchtime shopping sprees to withdraw the few hundred or thousand they have remaining after their catalogue purchases. The notion seems quite plausible that these small depositors, coupled with the larger amounts from content-sellers often calculated in thousands of U.S. dollars, could be lured to add more to SLExchange.com with interest-bearing accounts. Seen in that light, Anshe’s offer of a bail-out seem to some not only to be an altruistic image move, but a shrewd business move.

The acrimonious forum fights have prompted numerous parodies of Anshe’s original post alleging foul play, leading to the sort of racist and sexist baiting the land baroness has weathered before when references to are made to her early SL days of “private entertainment for lonely men”.

Chung questions whether it is right for Ginko to remove so much LL cash from the game and cites her own investments ploughed back into world infrastructure; critics point out that any cashout through LindEx or anshechung.com, both of which have caps on withdrawals, or IGE, are merely providing Lindens for players who want to buy content therefore helping the economy in another way to be more liquid. One practice reduces inflation; the other increases, say some commentators.

Any sudden cashout, such as began to happen with GOM last summer, however, destabilizes the fragile toy-like economy of SL, with it’s US $40,000-60,000 US per day handled by no more than 4,000 people logged on at any one time.

Many finance-watchers have been disturbed to find the Lindens taking a neutral position on the financial scandals. In a November 17 announcement, Linden Lab’s attorney Ginsu Linden said, “We applaud the continued innovation and entrepreneurship of our community....please keep in mind that Linden Lab does not own, operate or insure these [financial] services.”

Travis Lambert, one of SL’s most trusted figures for his work at the newbie Shelter, announced he had withdrawn his account of 75 percent of the Shelter’s donated funds from Ginko, while keeping in 10 percent.

Political Speech or Land Extortion? Or Both?

by Prokofy Neva

Huge, bright blue spinning signs calling on Americans to IMPEACH BUSH and RESTORE U.S. CREDIBILITY have spread like kudzu all over the Second Life grid in recent weeks on numerous plots for sale. Many residents -- even those who share the billboard artist's sentiments about the U.S. president -- are increasingly angered by the intrusion into their view. They've been especially exasperated to click on the signs and see them go away -- only to reappear 20 minutes later.

Lazarus Divine, a 10-month-old avatar who belongs to just two groups, Scripters of SL and Impeach Bush!, has peppered the SL landscape with the large signs which have alternately drawn approval -- especially from some Europeans who marvel that so many Americans could have voted for Bush, whom many loath -- and annoyance from others who believe politics should be kept out of SL or at least should not be allowed to make the virtual world's landscape more blight-filled than it already is with competing notions of beauty, commerce, and efficiency.

While some residents have pushed the abuse-report button on the creator of the anti-Bush signs, and the Lindens acknowledge receiving many such reports, no action has been taken and call for impeachment spreads to each new sim as fast as land goes for sale on them. Unless it incites hatred or racism, the expression of even radical political sentiment is tolerated by Linden Lab, provider of the SL platform, and it appears to fall within the Terms of Service. Yet because Divine is also setting the land upon which the signs hover to what many view to be extortionist prices of $3000 for 64 m, or $46/meter, some residents feel he has gone too far in violating the spirit, if not the letter of the law in SL.

At a vigorous discussion Tuesday evening at the Gilded Cage Club in Derwent, residents both debated the validity of interpreting the annoying signs as political expression and enjoyment of the liberties of the free land market.

On the forums, debate was brisk between those who favoured the signs, as a form of legitimate and necessary political dissent and a means of sparking discussion in SL, and those who felt the political message was merely a gimmick, meant to hook liberals into guiltily paying for the land under the signs to make the sign go away in order to preserve their view. The Land for Sale list on the user panel contains hundreds of listings of the Impeach Bush! sign parcels, with parcels selling constantly.

Land for sale in SL is usually parceled in sizes of 512 m2 or larger, but since the land market crash in the summer and ensuing difficulty for people in selling their land, there has been a trend to mark up smaller lots to appeal to a growing industry of billboard advertisers, who then often set the land to very high prices per meter, which are sometimes still affordable as the lots are small, to capitalize on the desire of most people to preserve their view.

Lindens contacted about the signs said they were legal under the TOS, unless the build could be shown to violate Community Standards in some fashion. Appeals to a notion of "substantial interference in the enjoyment of Second Life" fall on deaf ears -- the Lindens are not willing to intervene to such an extent in player-made content. "If "ugly" is a TOS violation, then we're in serious trouble," said one Linden, implying that one man's ugly could be another man's beauty, and efforts to adjudicate such values would lead to lack of freedom for creativity in SL and numerous citations.

Unpersuaded by Linden logic, some residents are taking matters into their own hands. Suggestions have been made to start a counter-campaign, and one enterprising sign-maker, Jonny Dingo, is causing double takes with his bright blue spinning facsimile sign that spells out IMPEACH LAZARUS DIVINE and RESTORE BEAUTY TO SECOND LIFE. Lenin Camus, another activist, had earlier joined Divine's Impeach Bush group, but then left when he discovered it was being used as a cover for exhorbitant land deals. He has since made a sign highlighting what many feel to be the extortionist nature of the Divine invasion of the SL landscape, with a graphic of a gun at a dog's head and the slogan "Don't Extort Land or We Will Shoot This Dog".

Aliasi Stonebender, another activist who is critical of Bush but dismayed by the pressure tactics to sell land, purchased one tiny plot amidst Divine's signs and deployed Dingo's parody; Divine summoned Lindens but it was determined her sign was as permissable under the TOS as his. Faced with a mounting sign war, land owners are trying to come up with other strategies, such as banning Divine from their land parcels and also IMing him regularly with protests about his defacement of the view.

"You can't buy the view," is an oft-repeated adage in SL; now that the view has come to cost nearly $50/meter to keep it free of anti-Bush signs, some people are fleeing to the more controlled island havens of residential communities managed by land baroness Anshe Chung. Indeed, some observers have pointed out that Divine would be unable to deploy so many anti-Bush signs across the land if it weren't for the liklihood that SL's top land dealers were cutting off strips to sell to him probably at a rather profitable price, which he is likely able to pay because he can easily recoup it at the high prices he is charging.

Book Review: Synthetic Worlds

Author Ted Castronova demonstrates approximate size of words used in his new book (photo by Cory Linden)

Run, don't walk, to Amazon.com (is that even possible?) and order your copy of Edward Castronova's Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games today. For anyone interested in deeper thinking about MMOs than just whether the latest patch nerfed your favorite class in your favorite game, it's a must-read.

While Castronova doesn't write with the same juicy style that we all know Herald readers prefer (he writes for a more sober blog, after all), he does deliver just as many thought-provoking ideas, and has a lot to say about one of our favorite subjects: where these things we call virtual worlds may be headed in the future.

Castronova's view of VWs is deeply influenced by his being an economist. But he is just as deeply an MMO player, and he draws freely on his experiences in EverQuest and World of Warcraft to illustrate his arguments.

His perspective is very much his own, though, and not one everyone will agree with. For instance, use of the word "nigger," in Castronova's view, should always be a bannable offense. While it's reprehensible in most cases, I'm not sure all VWs should be so constrained. Such speech is not always a crime in the real world, after all. But then, we're not talking about the real world, are we?

That's an interesting question. Castronova is one of the staunchest supporters of the preservation of play spaces as removed from the real world (thus he's more or less anti-RMT for most VWs). Yet he also posits a scenario in which MMOs can add to people's real-world income, as already happens in some cases. For that to be possible on any large scale, though, game worlds would have to become work worlds. When it becomes more or less easy for many people to earn a living in the world of swords and spells, won't that world become as drudge-like as the world of staplers and sales meetings? At that point we'll start looking elsewhere for our entertainment.

Synthetic Worlds also has a lot to say about the potential of game worlds to improve the lives of their residents. Castronova even envisions a mass exodus to game worlds, should many people start to prefer them to the real one. That's a pretty dark vision, if you ask me. If the only thing you're getting out of the real world is food and shelter, there's something deeply wrong. Game worlds certainly have huge potential to enhance one's physical existence, but I'd argue that they will never become a substitute in the way that Castronova's book seems to hold.

At one point, Castronova claims that NPCs with exceptional AI could provide emotional experiences that might be harder to get in the real world. But while they could certainly provide simulated experiences of whatever sort, the mere fact of interacting with an NPC changes the experience. No one mistakes an NPC for a real person. If the NPC has been programmed to admire or respect your formidable deeds, you still know it's an NPC; that takes away from the weight of that interaction. That's why fighting another player is a totally different experience from fighting a computer-controlled character. There just isn't another person on the other end, as good as the simulation may be. And it's the other people that make these places special.

There's a lot to debate in this book, but there's also a lot to think about. Significantly, Castronova tacitly challenges Richard Bartle's contention that virtual worlds are all about identity. To Castronova, they're about economics and the joy of acquisition; fun equals getting something you desire. But what if the thing you desire is a gripping narrative that unfolds over months or even years? I'm not sure the economic explanation of virtual worlds can contain that motive. The economic explanation of the real world has enough trouble with it.

The great thing about Synthetic Worlds is that it attempts, for pretty much the first time, to take a comprehensive look at these things we call virtual worlds. Hopefully it will be read by more than just the people who already know and love these places. So buy it now and start reading--especially since you'll have to finish it by the spring so you can start reading Only A Game.

EXCLUSIVE: "Actual" Reality Invades Virtual World

by Walker Spaight

Second Life residents view first images from the "real" world

You viewed it here first, folks: The Herald was on hand in Second Life this evening to witness the first live streaming video from a place people have taken to calling "actual" reality or, in some cases, the "real" world.

Avatars Hudson Stryker and Mizuko Stormwind showed off their creation, a live video stream that displays the three-dimensional "typists" behind their avatars (that's Hudson's av on the left side of the screen).

The typists exist in a place much like the virtual world of Second Life, an "actual" world where an avatar's 3D representative can move around just as SL avatars can -- though in more limited fashion. (Real-world avatars require a number of expensive attachments in order to achieve flight, for instance.)

Apparently, real-world avatars engage in many of the same activities that can be found in Second Life, though again, most of these, such as building and scripting, are accomplished in more laborious fashion. There are even a number of "actual" currencies in circulation in the real world, many of which can be freely exchanged for Linden dollars on sites like IGE.com and the new SL currency exchange. Many avatars even hold jobs (Hudson and Mizuko's, for instance, maintain Servercave.com), and some reportedly earn annual incomes that are the equivalent of seven-, eight- or even nine-figure Linden incomes.

Not surprisingly, there is also a thriving dating scene in real life, and avatars have even been known to be "married" in elaborate ceremonies not unlike the ones held in Second Life. And despite the lack of skyboxes, it is even possible to approximate sex in actual reality. Your correspondent plans more research in this area, so look for updates as they develop.

For now, the new technology that lets SL residents view this curious world will be used to stream video into SL of this weekend's Second Life Community Convention, where many SL residents' real-world avatars will gather to explore the social interactions that are possible in actual reality. Don't miss it.

State of Debauchery III beta test: Ludium 1

One of the corrupt, pirate luffing judges at Ludium 1.

While I am busy crafting my report on the scandals and miscarriages of justice that dominated Ted Castronova's Ludium, I thought I would point you all to some pics from the event. The ones currently showing seem to have been snapped by Cory (Linden) Ondrejka, so naturally they are in the center of the debauchery if not the judging scandals. They also fail to accurately reflect the way the Sysland guild DOMINATED the conference (if not the highly corrupt judging system).

Wells Fargo Harnesses FIC Labor for Stagecoach Island

A few days ago Clickable Culture reported the opening of Stagecoach Island, a private island built expressly for Wells Fargo, and not accessible via the mainland. It’s stated goal is to "help young people learn financial responsibility" (translation: the goal is to establish brand loyalty at an early age). Now our friend Daniel Terdiman has fleshed out the details a bit, confirming that the project was built by FIC labor. From the article:

According to David Fleck, Linden Lab's vice president of marketing, all of the design and programming work for Stagecoach Island was done by "Second Life" members.

"The core development was done by developers in 'Second Life,'" Fleck said, "that run successful businesses and have great design skills based on our tool set."

Our friends Julian Dibbell and Betsy Book also get quoted, Betsy providing some insight into why you need to go inner core for a project like this:

“They have to trust their members and who they refer this company to. You're talking about big brand names, and you want to make sure they're professionals."

RAC 'Em Up -- Virtual Lobbyists Push On

by Seldon Metropolitan

Second Life's new Resident Action Committee met for a second time early Monday morning for a conference between RAC members and Robin and Phillip Linden to discuss the concerns mulled over during last Sunday’s inaugural session. Notably absent from the proceedings was RAC founder Lordfly Didgeridoo, as the unusually early meeting time conflicted with his RL responsibilities. Notably absent, as well, was much substantial progress on the issues the RAC is seeking movement on -- but remember, folks, it's early days in the history of what could become an important new avenue for residents to make their voices heard.

The meeting time proved seemingly prohibitive for many interested parties, as the attendance for this session was tame compared to the impressive numbers posted for the first meeting. Prokofy Neva, attending with the intent of observing the discussion, found himself suddenly in a leading role as the RAC members floundered without a guiding voice. Though much of the early discussion was steered by Prok, eventually the other attendees warmed up to discussion and all were able to speak their mind.

Despite this lack of resident attention, the Lindens discussed the three major concerns raised last week, specifically the 1.) Lack of LL attention to the voting tool; 2.) Possible fixes associated with texture and object permissions and appropriate use; and 3.) The general improvement of communications between the residents and administrators of SL. A fourth topic, ways to introduce new residents to SL and make them feel welcome was added to the agenda and discussed at some length. The answers given by the executives were fairly broad and diffusive, but it was interesting to hear Phillip’s specific lack of inspiration regarding some of the more difficult proposals. With the exception of the discussion of the voting tool, which has already seen a major elevation in the amount of LL attention it receives, "I don’t know, but I’d be open to suggestions" seemed to be the answer of the day.

Herald gossip columnist Pat the Rat has learned that the meeting was scheduled for an early hour in order to give RAC members a rare glimpse of Philip's "bed-head"

The transcript of the meeting is available on the Second Life Forums, and Prok’s commentary and transcript are available here. There has been no further RAC meeting announced at this time.

Kremlinden Lab Rejects User Bill of Rights

In a disappointing ruling by Chairman Rosedale and Kremlinden Lab, a popular user-initiated proposal to institutionalize avatar rights has been rejected without credible justification. The proposal, called for the following rights:

freedom of speech
freedom of expression in builds
freedom of press
freedom to bear arms in combat areas
the right to know charges against oneself
the right to self-representation and appeal

Kremlinden Lab, rejected the proposal, classifying it as “Can’t Do”, stating that “it [would] require development time.” Yep, allowing free press and free speech sure eats up those programmers’ time cards. Geez guys, if you are going to lie, could you at least try to come up with a halfway credible lie?

GREAT BUILDERS OF SL: PART 2: GURGON GRUMBY, A MAN AND HIS DOG

GURGON AND BETA

In this article, the Herald continues its series of interviews with great builders of SL (actually we didn't know there was a series, but what the hey -- I guess there is now!). In the last interview we talked to Yadni Monde, in this interview Monsterrat Snakeankle speaks with his protege Gurgon Grumby.

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: I am here today with Gurgon Grumby, the man who has been described by YadNi Monde as "my greatest apprentice". Thanks for coming, Gurgon, how you doing today?

Gurgon Grumby: I'm very well thank you.

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: Tell us about your pal, here. what's his name?

Gurgon Grumby: the dog? Well I call him Beta, which is not to be confused with a Beta version, but rather meaning second, not Alpha.

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: yes. tell us about Beta, please.

Gurgon Grumby: but people who buy him call him whatever they want. You can Rename Beta by just telling him his name is something else. Well... I started Beta sometime early this year. Yadni Monde asked me to attempt some of the scripting I had been doing with a pet, I was skeptical it could be done when I started, but it ended up turning out fairly well. When I first saw most followers in second life I was really disappointed, nothing more than floating statues that could take only very specific basic commands. Beta is animated, his legs, tail head and ears move using a variety of plotted movements. I've had a handful of people comment on the price being too much, it's actually been a small minority, usually people who are new to SL, or have not seen him perform. Beta represents weeks or months of work

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: Beta is very expressive

Gurgon Grumby: he has a complex chat parsing and dialog script for control that allows you to give him a wide variety of basic dog like commands

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: does Beta chase cats?

Gurgon Grumby: Beta could chase a cat if a scripted cat was in range and moving and you told him to follow it

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: LOL I guess maybe you could make one of those next?

Gurgon Grumby: but he doesn't have his own behaviors aside from some basic movements. An early version I did and decided the bench had its own behaviors, another task that made him check the are around him for targets and then he would interact based on a bunch of integers, based on his mood, what the object was doing etc -- but I decided to put of selling the version that version

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: what I find interesting about Beta is that it is easy to develop an emotional relationship based on his responses. it is easy to respond to him as if he were an actual pet.

Gurgon Grumby: That may have something to do with his head and tail movements...

Gurgon Grumby: I based his general responses on my own dog

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: well you did a great job, I have to say. if a person wants to buy a dog, where would they go?

Gurgon Grumby: Well Yadni Monde, Nani Nino, and myself currently own 75% of Leda, I have a shop there, but we are about to remodel the simulator. Another good friend and great creator Ferran Brodsky has given me shop space at Phobos Design in Chaos.

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: kk so they could go to phobos?

Gurgon Grumby: Yes I have a spot at Phobos Design in Chaos but mostly I sell things from Leda near the junk yard

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: ah ok. now here you seem to have a very complicated set up. what is this desk for?

Gurgon Grumby: Well behind me here is what I'm currently working on, it's a few weeks from being ready to sell. It's basically a Simulator control interface, I call it Sim Sim Simulated Simulator, but that may just be a working name. basically it's a tool set for island owners to give them better control over their islands. Basically it deploys 4 communications and sensor posts which feed information back to this device, it then produces a 3d 1/100 scale representation of all the avatars or active objects in the sim, depending on what it is scanning for

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: does it record what it sees?

Gurgon Grumby: You can teleport to any prim representing any avatar or object. You can also grant security access, or teleport home any icon. Additionally there is a variable detail topographical display, visitor counter, terraforming and multi security level access list and a few other features. it will record the last 250 avatars it has tracked currently that may increase -- I'm planning on waiting for 1.7 to be released before I release this, I want to include a HUD interface.

GURGON AT THE SIM SIM DECK

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: now the question I am asking all builders: what is your opinion of the situation with the GOM tellers and Linden attempted takeover?

Gurgon Grumby: I haven't been following it as closely as I should/could. I have mixed feelings on it, on one hand I see this as a small step forward for Linden labs making second life use real money, on the other hand it may in the short term hurt the economy

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: how does it feel for a builder, though? does the idea that lindens could leverage your work affect your desire to build in SL

Gurgon Grumby: Not too much really, I’m not really a professional content builder, SL represents a small amount of my RL income, perhaps $300-$500 a month. I usually build and script to learn and to test the limits, to see what I can get do, somewhat like someone would do needle point or something I imagine. I'm here for the long hall anyways, I do believe that SL has a huge potential to become the new interface for the future internet. I feel in a sense we are pioneers of Neil Stephenson’s snow crash metavers

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: say more about that please

Gurgon Grumby: I think a lot of people in SL see the potential use of this for a tool Well. It's the 3d avatar based interface imagined by visionaries since the late 80's. I dreamed of this when I owned my first commodore 64

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: what is your reaction to the idea that people have experiences here that are both psychologically and emotionally "real" to them?

Gurgon Grumby: Uh, duh. heheh Of course they have experience that are real to them. There is no doubt at all the what happens in second life is real. You and I are having a text conversation which we will both have mental record of, and it will then be placed on the internet for thousands to read. That makes it real

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: well there is that argument made by some scholars that it is "screen life"

Gurgon Grumby: is this outside in the real world, with wind and rain and sun? No but experience had here are very real -- and the argument about what is in fact real is a very long and pointless debate. The point is that people are actually interacting here, maybe not in the way many people normally do.

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: that's true. sometimes feels like a lucid dream to me. now tell me: how did you come to SL?

Gurgon Grumby: Lets see. A good friend of mine told me I just had to check it out, and I did. At first I had a tough time seeing what the point of second life as a game is. There is no real objectives, no real games in the traditional sense at all.

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: yes that's something that people say about SL. how do you think it works, as a game?

Gurgon Grumby: I wondered around trying to figure out what the point was. I asked maybe a hundred people what they thought it was, and why the played. Some said it's a building game, some said it's avatar based chat, but then it just hit me it's a data interface, the data payload that is carried is really up to the users, it's a user designed world, a dynamic environment, and I just had a gut feeling that in 10 years this would replace Internet Explorer. I would much rather run around in second life than "search the web" and to me it's very much the same sort of thing

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: what about system requirements though? right now the machines that can do SL are expensive.

Gurgon Grumby: ya but 10 years ago they didn't exist. In 10 years they will be cheaper than an old Nintendo if the world doesn't blow itself to hell before then

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: LOL

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: kk any last thoughts for the trusty readers of the Herald, anything you'd like them to know?

Gurgon Grumby: heheh not really

Montserrat Snakeankle {RdS}: I've been talking this morning with Gurgon Grumby and his dog, Beta. I really appreciate the time you've taken to talk with me, Gurgon, thanks!

Gurgon Grumby: Thank you have a good day.

Cores and Watches and Committees, Oh My!

story and photo by Seldon Metropolitan

If a Feted Inner Core and a Metaverse Justice Watch weren't enough for you, there's now the Resident Action Committee, a new cabal formed in response to the MJW's contentious recent meeting with Philip Linden, which looks to test the new era of Linden-lobbying that seems to be dawning on the world of Second Life.

Sunday night saw the first meeting of the RAC, which aims to be an open forum for the discussion of issues important to the residents of Second Life, and free to as great a degree as possible from favoritism, politics and moderation. Founded by original FOP* Lordfly Digeridoo, the inaugurual session of the RAC got off to an initially rocky start due to its unstructured format, but once some ground rules were in place the discussion that ensued was vigorous and full of the deep thought, colorful banter and well-placed personal attacks that are the trademark of SL society.

The meeting lasted three hours and was attended by about 45 avatars, including SL notables Aimee Weber, Hiro Pendrago, Pendari Lorentz, Schwanson Schlegel and Prok himself. Anyone with a pair of those green rubber rain boots can wade through a full transcript is of the meeting here, though Blueman Steele was kind enough to post a summary in the same thread.

According to the forum thread, discussion revolved around three main issues: the voting system recently implemented by Linden Lab for feedback on new features; various aspects of the texture and object permissions systems; and how to get a clearer and consistently enforced code of conduct out of the Lindens.

The group plans on meeting with Linden Lab staff this week to discuss the issues brought up at the assembly, and has every intent of making this two-meeting cycle a weekly event.

Additional reporting and editorializing by Walker Spaight

*Friend of Prokofy

The FIC is Dead! Long Live the MJW!

Too many Second Life forum threads to count in recent days have been focusing on a meeting between head honcho Philip Linden and a shadowy group of conspirators who've dubbed themselves the Metaverse Justice Watch.

Actually, they're not all that shadowy, and they don't seem to be conspiring over much at all. Their membership is open and you can read all about them not just on the forums but on Prokofy Neva's Second Thoughts blog. It seems Prok, Anshe Chung and a couple of other residents got together to lobby the Lindens for more openness and honesty in their dealings with the Grid, among other things. (I'm sure I'm misrepresenting here, so go to the site for the real story.) Of course, forum reaction has run largely to the "how dare you sneak around behind our backs" style, but it isn't clear any sneaking was actually done. Moreover, Philip sounds like he'd welcome other lobbying groups from among the population.

Is the MJW just the FIC reborn? Will Lindens really listen, or is it just a clever animation? And what does it mean that Walker's typist's initials are the same as the Justice Watch's acronym? For the answer to these and other burning questions, stay tuned. To what channel we're not sure, but do not attempt to adjust your set.

Bringing the Fight Against Cancer to Second Life

The New York Times has an article today about the Second Life Relay for Life that's being put together by Jade Lily and SnoopyBROWN Zamboni to benefit the American Cancer Society. The benefit is a week away, August 27-28, so save the date.

The article marks the latest RL press appearance of that guy Mark Wallace (or here). It's also interesting to note that the arm of the ACS that's coordinating with Jade and Snoopy on the project is called the Futuring and Innovation Center. Acronym, anyone?

Seriously, though, we're looking forward to more good works like this coming to Second Life in future. The Relay isn't the first benefit to hit SL, and hopefully it won't be the last.

Text Rulez!

Richard Bartle paid a visit to the SL Future Salon last week, under the sponsorship of Salon Host with the Most, SNOOPYBrown Zamboni, and of course the usual salonistas. I was busy fishing for walleyes at the Herald hunting retreat in northern Minnesota, but there is a transcript on Terra Nova, and a review by Hammie Linden. Looks like it was a good session, with Richard pushing his line that 3D graphic environments just ain't all that, and reminding us that we shouldn't sell text short. And other stuff too.

The Messenger's Message: There's A New Newspaper in Second Life

No, the Herald hasn't gone to a broadsheet format. The picture above is cropped from the positively newspaper-sized new entrant into Second Life's fourth estate, the Metaverse Messenger, which launched today. A weekly that will start at six pages, the Messenger is the brainchild of Katt Kongo , an SL avatar with RL journalism experience under her belt who has also hired a healthy editorial staff to help get things under way. Phoenix Psaltery, earlier reported to have been the RL journalist, serves as the paper's associate publisher. The pair will split editing duties between them for the moment.

The Messenger's inaugural number features Herald favorite Squagmire Stravinsky above the fold on the front page, and inside reminisces about the Memoirs of a Salesman in a department called Notecards from the Grid. Planned features include a Linden spotlight recognizing those Lindens that have been most handy at making life easier on the Grid, and plenty of space for advertisements, which the Messenger's sales staff seems to have done a bang-up job of selling into the first issue.

Laying out the Messenger's plans in a front-page feature, publisher Katt Kongo pointed out that the paper will be a strictly PG publication. "There are other venues for more X-rated news and features," Katt said. (Hmm, now who could she have been talking about there?)

The Messenger joins a Second Life media scene which, if not growing by leaps and bounds, is at least not gasping for breath. Besides the Second Life Herald, local papers that have been spotted recently in SL include the Orwood Hour and the Nova Albion News, and there are probably more out there that we don't yet know about. (Please get in touch if you're putting something out; we want to know.) And on the meta-metaverse front, there's Squagmire's own InfoNet FreePress, coming soon to an R4 terminal near you.

Herald publisher Urizenus Sklar, currently engaged in a long undercover investigative assignment in Monaco (the Pope, you know), was unavailable for comment. But we know that if he were here in the Herald's flea-bit offices at the moment, he'd join us in raising a glass to the Metaverse Messenger in the spirit of friendly competition. We look forward to such additions making the Grid a more and more vibrant place to spend time.

We apologize for this interruption. We now return you to our regularly scheduled X-rated news and features.

Sheeeeit! 1.8 billion for online game development in China.

Terra Nova and several other sources are reporting on a story in the Shanghi Youth Daily the Chinese government is about to invest $1.8 billion in on-line game development.

I'm not sure what kinds of virtual worlds those efforts will yield, but if the result are some robust online worlds, and we turn Anshe loose in those worlds as a real estate mogul, how long before she is richer than Bill Gates? And if I opened a Chinese version of the Herald, how long before I got thrown in prison?

Goodbye LSL, hello Mono

In case you weren't paying attention (like I wasn't), Linden poobah Jim Purdick Purbrick (aka Babage Babbage Linden) has announced (and it’s already in the Wikipedia so it must be true) that in version 2.0 of SL is going to move from the much malaigned Linden Scripting Language to the open source (yet a bit Microsofty) develpment platform Mono. But of course careful readers of the Herald will have seen this telegraphed in the comment section of the Herald.

While this change will lead to much gnashing of teeth and breaking of scripts in the short term in the long term it seems like an excellent, and perhaps necessary, move. See also Clickable Culture for reportage on this important development.

Teledildonics Comes to SL!!?

Tired of typing with one hand? Well, maybe this is another teledildonics hoax and maybe it isn't (I'll ask our ever vigilent readers to do the requisite research) but Slashdong.org claims to have introduced hardware (and requisite interface software) that will maker your SL Sexy Skybox cybering liasons more... well, more vibrant and penetrating. Since this is a family tabloid I can't go into the details, but suffice it to say that you buy a piece of hardware that you connect to your computer and which can respond to certain forced feedback features of SL. I refer you to the slashdong website for the hard and fast details. (Thanks to Clark Ambassador for the pointer, and we invite readers to submit product reviews).