Alphaville Herald

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in SL

by Lavinia Carver

While I was browsing around the other day, something just caught my eye. According to the advertisement, it was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in Second Life. Now, at first I was skeptical. I thought, "Come on, the Macy's parade in Second Life? I know almost anything is possible in SL, but wouldn't it be more fun to watch it in RL?"

A view of the parade

But I was wrong about that! This parade was fun to watch. Perhaps it didn't have the interesting camera angles or fun commentary of the real one, but it was still fun all the same. See, what the owners did, was set up the parade, and then built a miniature version of New York around it! It was just too much fun! Of course I stayed and watched it twice! (while I folded napkins and placed them on the table. :D )

Dean’s Vegas Club: Cher Celebration

Cher - Believe!

by Lavinia Carver

Dean’s Vegas Club - what a Cher celebration it was! First of all, there was a pretty good turnout, but of course, I came fairly late in the day. There may have been a bigger crowd earlier - you might expect that from a Cher crowd. What I do know is this was the hottest party on SL I’ve been to in a long time. After all the drama and woes of the SL land problem, this was really a nice break - and I’m not really keeping track of the land situation. I don’t even own land! Too much financial liability; I would be so behind on payments! :D.

The Cher celebration at Dean’s was one of the few times I have seen people on SL in a while. To tell you the truth, it seems that a boycott of SL seems to be in effect, or at least on the sims I go to.

Music Not Politics - An All-Weekend Live Music Event

by Jessica Holyoke

Starting Friday night, Money Island and the neighboring Money Tree Island and Freebie Island are holding a 48 hour event celebrating live music.

Chelseamarie Noel

While listening to the silky smooth stylings of Chelseamarie Noel, I had a chat with Throughthesewalls Moody, a promoter/manager of live musical acts on Second Life. Throughthesewalls talked about the Music Not Politics Group.

"Music Not Politics is about bringing music and fans together. Live Music is spontaneous, unpredictable, fresh. It wraps its arms around the audience and embraces them as part of whole, giving everyone the experience of belonging, a sense of ownership of the day or night . It lives, it breaths. This is what you will find at every MUSIC NOT POLITICS promoted show."

Chelseamarie's set was followed by Shamrod Watanabe, and Throughthesewalls and I continued to talk about how the major labels are not doing enough to get these voices to their fans. But there is hope, as Throughthesewalls points out, "Through the internet, we have the ability to play to more people than any concert hall could ever hold." If you are a fan of pop, rap, jazz or even opera, check out the live music event this weekend on Money Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Money%20Island/234/18/22

Unstable Platform Rocks SL Markets?

Bank run on Ginko Financial, Dreamland fingers Linden Lab for unstable grid

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Dollars spent in Second Life - as tracked by Reuters

Residents who play the fictional financial markets in Second Life were hard pressed to decide if the precipitous drop in in-world spending since Thursday is a rational reaction to Linden Lab’s shiny new world wide gambling ban - or a reminder that even virtual commerce requires some stability in the world. Reuters’ charts of in-world economic activity suggested a serious slowdown since Thursday - but was this triggered by a gambling ban, or a combination of factors?

Benjamin Duranske reported Friday at the Virtually Blind site that an in-world “bank” - Ginko Financial - had suspended withdrawals - then re-instated them with a cap on how much money could be withdrawn from the “bank” after 1% of the Ginko Financial’s claimed assets were withdrawn over the course of two hours. Nicholas Portocarrero - head honcho of Ginko Financial is reported to have said the SL gambling ban had “caused a panic”.

Combine jittery citizens, a lack of transparency about the state of Ginko’s investments, and on-going speculation about ponzi-schemes, and nearly any shock the the SL economy has the potential for destabilizing Ginko. Hopefully Mr. Portocarrero has found some high-yield camp chairs to help replenish Ginko’s reserves - but the Herald was unable to confirm this - Mr. Portocarrero is not returning our calls. This is a shame - we'd like to ask how he manages to earn a good return on his investments when few individuals in SL have profitable businesses - only a few hundred earned over $5000 USD last month - before tier payments to the Lab.

Bluebird of Unhappiness

Prokofy Neva, Walking 47 Miles of Barbed Wire/Got a Cobra Snake for a Neck-Tie/Got Me a Brand-New House by the Road-Side/Made Out of Rattle-Snake Hide

We need a music critic here at the Herald. Ever since Quentinesqe Paine, the college emo dude who used to get an expense account from the paper but never wrote anything and locked himself in his room and wrote death poetry all night on MySpace and then cut himself one too many times and went into rehab, we haven't had anybody. So seeing as how I am not ashamed to turn on the C&W streams on the radio driving out West or down South and don't find anything to be ashamed of in liking country, I thought I'd check out the SL Bluebird Cafe, adapted from the RL Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, TN.

When Boliver Oddfellow, CEO of IVM, Designer of the Dublin sim famous for its live-music shows, said on Twitter, "went to the bluebird cafe in SL 750L for a badly mic'd live feed. These folks have a lot to learn about SL," I figured he might have an agenda. $750 *did* seem a bit steep, but then a RL cover charge at my local Irish pub with live bands is $5.00, so $1000 or $1350 didn't seem like such a terrible price to pay for RL people doing the RL work of playing live, original music for our entertainment, even if we are in Second Life.

I'm surprised when I see the big spenders of Second Life giving live musicians only $100 at a show -- that's 27 US cents, and we all know they deserve more than that, because they're better than that. So much more the professional musicians of something like the Blue Bird in RL, no?

Perhaps in response to this sort of comment -- which has been common as I discovered talking to people around SL, some shows put on recently at the Bluebird have been free of charge. I dropped in on Sunday Writer's Night tonight on Nashville Music island and didn't have to pay anything. But I discovered Boliver may have a point.

Casino Allegedly Pays Jack Squat on $16000 US Jackpot

by Flimflam Edelman, Bureau of Casinos, Scams, and Dodgy Dealings

Second Life resident Rhonda Bosen is charging that a casino owned by Hunter Noland failed to pay out on her big win of over 400,000 Linden Dollars -- roughly $16,000 $1600 US Dollars. Ms. Bosen has produced chat logs and screen shots in support of her claim against Mr. Noland who is associated with SL corporation Sc Design, and claims to own the following casinos.

Sc Design City Mall & Poker & Casino
Sc Design Mall & Casino at Freihafen
The Caribbean Pearl Mall & Casino
Ocean Casino & Mall (we are informed that he is only manager of this one)

According to Ms. Bosen, Mr. Nolandhas not replied to her inquires nor to those of several witnesses to the win, and has even declined her notecard outlining the lack of payout.

Word of Mouth Marketing a Winning Strategy for Post Sixx Contest

by Muffin K. Smith, Herald grrrl about town.

Fox Cavern- Post Sixx grrls are learning that beauty is more than pixel deep, because last week's Post Sixx grrrl pageant seemed to come down to personality and brains as the beauties who took the stage were “really too close to call” according to pageant judge Marilyn Murphy. Now in its fourth week, the SL Herald's Post Sixx Pageant is becoming one of the most popular events in the Second Life Week. Between the beautiful swimsuit clad models and the witty banter of judges Murphy and Jaime Wheeler, the audience and the models come prepared to be both entertained and entertaining.

“The best part is that the growth of this contest has been all word of mouth,” said Wheeler. “We've done very little advertising and yet every week we have more and more people here. I have a lot of fun, and I think the contestants and the audience do too and it's that sense of fun that makes it popular. Heck, last week we even attracted a griefer, so I guess that's a sign we've hit the big time,” Wheeler added with a laugh.

Casino Owners Unimpressed With Linden Crackdown

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

While Azno Simons seems particularly eager to comply with the Linden lab staffers attempt to clean up at least the gambling aspect of Second Life - other metaverse casino owners have a different perspective. Mr. Simons may be a unique case, since he more interested in advertising his web-based gambling empire than running a serious in-world operation. I visited a few more conventional SL casinos to get reactions to the Linden’s casino ad-word ban.

the FBI cannot touch Anthonymark Alcott

Anthonymark Alcott owns the "Casino World" sim, and I caught up with him earlier today for comment on the Linden’s actions. Mr. Alcott said, “I am UK citizen so FBI can’t touch us”. This does raise the issue that non-US citizens are out of bounds for the FBI - although the Linden Lab servers are not.

Mr. Alcott told me that rather than advertising the casino, he will run ads for other parts of his club. When I pointed out that his sim has the word casino in the name, Mr. Alcott said, “they can’t change that. We could call it rape club. It doesn’t mean anyone is going to be raped here, it is just a name”. Fair enough - let’s hope Robin Linden agrees with that analysis.

Interview with PalmVegas Honcho Azno Simons

Sim owner uses off-limits casino to promote web gambling site -
lures noobies with innovative automated SL cybersex classroom

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Azno Simons on duty keeping US Citizens out of the PalmVegas Casino

Hoping to explore the motivations for an SL casino owner who sent out high profile press releases to media outlets about banning US citizens from his casino, I spent a day tracking down Azno Simons. After sitting with his lifeless away-from-keyboard avatar thursday - apparently acting as doorman/security for his casino had worn him out - I finally managed to contact him live and in-world friday morning.

Mr. Simons’ PalmVegas Island sim seems to get very little gambling traffic - his casino plot had traffic of only 217 as of this writing. The main draw for the PalmVegas appears to be a noobie-oriented SexEd101 classroom with 20 times the casino's traffic, and an optional gym and nurse's office for those eager to experiment with their newfound cyber-sex skills - or just enjoy a metaversal hookup. Pathfinder Linden may want to share the news with the SL education community that the sex college included RL-style classroom desks to sit in - nothing says innovative education like a virtual high school desk.

In the interest of journalistic objectivity, I skipped the hands-on lab section of the course and sat in the classroom while IM'ing Mr. Simons. The juxtaposition of Mr. Simons’ IMs about the gambling business and the continuous automated classroom sex instruction narration created a slightly surreal scene. Perhaps this is what the new immersive new media is meant to be? The chat history and IMs are reproduced here so that readers can get a sense of multitasking immersive classroom learning and the gambling business - an important part of our brave new world.

Simulating A Gambling Crackdown

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Thursday Robin Linden stimulated metaverse simulated casino owners to come up with an acceptable euphemism for simulated gambling today with the announcement that the Lab will no longer “accept any classified ads, place listings, or event listings that appear to relate to simulated casino activity”. A few Second Life casino owners noted that the world simulated gives them a great excuse to continue their ads - as long as the gambling in-world is real. With things of value being wagered, that argument may have some merit - but could raise other thorny issues.

Observers expect casino owners to take a page from the metaverse pedo-community - which simply changed their group names from “ageplay” to “roleplay” in response to a similar Linden crackdown - as reported earlier in the Herald.

It was probably pure coincidence that the Lindex L$ to hard currency exchange was seriously broken earlier Thursday - limiting options for those who feel that a simulated crackdown on metaverse casinos might affect the in-world economy. It seems hardly worth comment that the same company that lost a number of resident's billing information has promised to “implement features that will enable Residents to optionally confirm aspects of each other’s identity, including age and jurisdictions”.

With the Lab's nearly stellar record of security and reliability, most residents don’t expect any problems with the promised verification/categorization services - which would depend on the Linden Lab being able to retain records consistently. As Herald correspondent Inigo Chamberlin - a victim of the Lindens loss of his billing information this week - said, “my account was disabled, all payment info snuffed... And people told me having money in GINKO was risky? Bah - having money in SECOND LIFE is an unacceptable risk! They just broke the ONE THING that has to work”.

Dark Siders Rejoice: Beyond the Void Announces Tour of SL Goth Clubs

by Nolan Void, Dark Places Bureau

Beyond the Void Announces an in-world Concert Tour.

Enough with the sensitive new age guys stumming their little guitars and whining about a little lag. Away with posers like Ben Folds and phakers like Jay-Z. Screw the losers pining away for that glorified wet dream for accountants known as Duran Duran. We finally have a band with some edge to it in Second Life. German goth rockers Beyond the Void have announced a "tour" of six second life venues. I haven't been this happy since I learned about the dark poetry readings in SL.

Here are the tour dates. Press Release is below the fold. Some tunes are here. Hail Satan!

Mo. March 26th 2007 13:00, Tempt an Angel
Fr. March 30th 2007 14:30, Club Gothic
Sa. March 31st 2007 12:00, Deutscher Gothic Club
Tu. April 10th 2007 23:30, Hot Licks
Sa. April 14th 2007 23:30, Club Gothica
So. April 15th 2007 14:30, Castle Rock Times are Second Life Time = Pacific Standard Time = GMT -8

SHAME! Two Herald Reporters Jailed!

Disgraced Mistral and Breaker serve time in SLAB Prison

by Denise Levertov, New Media Observer

In a development sure to roil the metaverse journalistic scene, Herald Editrix Pixeleen Mistral and advice columnist Heartun Breaker were caught serving time in the SLAB Prison in Albata sim Thursday evening.

Both journalists we captured on prison surveillance video wearing the orange prison coveralls that SLAB inmates are required to wear to pay their debt to society - and earn small L$ camp chair payments. Ms. Mistral claimed she was serving time for “protecting her sources” and “contempt of court”. Ms. Breaker was said to be a virtual meth addict, and shrieked several times about rats in the cell while working on a love and sex advice column for the prison newspaper.

The SLAB prison complex is a part of Pompo Bombacci and Giada Visconti’s store and is used to rehabilitate avatars with L$ addictions, as well as those who have committed role play crimes in the metaverse.

SLAB warden Pompo Bombacci told the Herald, “All I can say is for developers/builders to get creative with camping chairs instead of slapping them in a secluded room”. Bombacci also pointed out that inmates get a free outfit - although Ms. Mistral did not feel the orange coveralls were very flattering for redheads and muttered something about liking green prisoner uniforms better as she shuffled off to change clothes after being released from prison.

After bribing one of the prison guards, the Herald obtained this exclusive chat transcript from inside the lockup.

Fear and Loathing in Second Life, Part 7: The Sordid History of the Big Brother Fiasco, Day 1

[Readers of the Herald will recall our earlier reports on the disaster that was Big Brother in Second Life. Perhaps you *didn't* know that our faithful correspondent, Gideon Television was there, as a contestant! Well it is so. Today Gideon begins retelling (in day-by-day "blow"-by-"blow" fashion) the whole sordid tale. Sorry we didn't publish this as it happened. --Ed.]

And so it begins. 15 avatars, one house, one month. And this is my confessional.

Not Quite On The Road: Motorcycling Undies of Doom

by Jimbo Quality

[Editor's Note: Below, Jimbo Quality continues his Traveling With the Idiot series, in which at the moment he is attempting to spend some time racing virtual motorcycles. Even if you don't enjoy the story, we hope you appreciate the fact that we're doing a community service by employing the mentally challenged.
--Walker Spaight]

As I left the offices of the Second Life Herald for my second attempt at journalism, I was bound and determined to find actual racing motorcycles. I mean, I'd taken the assignment to write about them, and damn it, I was going to find some. My journalistic reputation and integrity depended on it. Plus, I was hoping to meet hot chicks.

You see, dear reader, when the motorcycle story came to me I was thrilled, because the one person in SL I knew with a motorcycle is my delectable friend Jaime Wheeler, pictured above. You know the person who helps you get on your feet when you land here? The one that first tells you your shoes are up your ass and that your cool new Newbie Hair looks ridiculous? That was her for me. And did I mention she's attractive and rides a motorcycle? In my mind then, getting this story meant I would find the place where hundreds of helpful and beautiful biker babes cavort, frolic, and other things best left to the imagination.

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]

Roleplay or Landgrab? As the Elf Council Debates, only the Orcs Know for Sure!!!

Are these guys fugly or what?

In the hall of mirrors that is Second Life, what does it mean when a band of plug ugly Orcs invite the peaceful elven folk to a game of combat roleplay? Is it all in fun, or does something more sinister lurk beneath the surface? Elven Queen Forcythia, seeing the good in all, says it is all in fun. But wise -- some would say jaded -- Elven King Wayfinder is not so sanguine, as documents exposing a deep rift in the Elven council were leaked to the Herald:

Role play? What role play? Don't buy that story. The Orcs are trying to take over Elven Lands, pure and simple. Forcythia is always ready to believe the best in everyone. Don't buy the Orc claim that this is role play. Elven are not so easily fooled. --Wayfinder

When the battle finally took place, of course the servers were overloaded, prims vanished, and the Elvenlands server had to be reset. Gosh, now there's a surprise.

This Orc pretends to be engaged in RPG. Would you trust him? Not me!

;-)

Party On! The SLH is Turning Two!

Help celebrate at the second birthday party of that most august newspaper of cyberspace, the Second Life Herald! (And Jeff Brown thought we wouldn't see our second month, tsk tsk.)

Hosted by the illustrious _blacklibrary, located in Second Life's Furness sim, the Herald birthday party will commence on Saturday, October 22, at noon game-time (that's 3pm Eastern), and will feature--well, we're not quite sure what it will feature exactly, except we're hoping it will include some choice reading material from over the last year, assembled in that inimitable always_black style (with our undying gratitude, it must be said). Meet Herald Editorial Director Walker Spaight (that's me), Herald Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Urizenus Sklar and the rest of the Herald staff (are there any left?), as well as many of the people we've featured in our pages over the years (hopefully). We'll remind you as the big day nears, but for now, save the date. And expect the sparks to fly.

(Yes, Cory, there will be goldfish!)

Getting Your Burn On

Walker confronts The Man

There's still one more weekend to go before the third annual Burning Life festival gets wiped from the face of Second Life. By now, of course, you've missed most of the virtual hallucinogens that were being handed out on the six Burning Life sims, as well as the wild cybering we hear was going on in skytents that hung far above the virtual desert. But the Herald looked in as the party got under way on Monday, and spoke with Vicero Lambert, builder and burner of the man himself, as he stood ready to light the fire under Second Life's you-know-what.

[UPDATE: Burning Life has been extended another week! Builds will be up until September 19, according to the SL forums.]

Vicero Lambert

Vicero, who in RL does Web developement in Washington State, spent three weeks putting the man together ahead of the event, basing his work on his real-life experience of the Burning Man festival held every year in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Built from "way too many" prims (about 200), the man began burning at 3pm on Monday, much to the delight of the assembed, who packed the sim to its limit of 40 and even managed to squeeze one or two extra avatars in.

Burn, baby, burn!

According to Vicero, the man will burn "till the sim is destroyed or my items are returned."

At Burning Man in Nevada, Vicero designs work for Camp Subline, a theme camp devoted to modern, structural works of art. In other words, "a camp with style," Vicero said.

The wonders of virtual worlds were not lost on this veteran of the event's real-life analogue. "Burning Man and Burning Life are in my opinion totally different," Vicero said. "Burning Life is a better way for people who can't afford Burning Man to be able to make art so that everyone may see it. And you can do anything at Burning Life. Burning Man is so restrictive." Really? "Well, they no longer allow motorized vehicles on the playa."

Vicero surveys his destruction

While the burning of the virtual man himself got off to a slow start, the particle effects and technoesque dance music soon had the crowd oohing, ahhing and shaking their virtual booties.

Burning Life's Dance Dance Revolution

Ashes to ashes, prims to prims

Though the man himself has been burned, there are still several dozen art projects spread over the six Burning Life sims to see.

Wandering Yaffle asks, "But is it art?"

Creations range from pirate ships to the hand of God, political statements, inside jokes, a really fun Bouncey Castle, abstract sculptures, a Hiroshima memorial and much much more, including a sculpture of Second Life's main man, Philip Linden.

Philip Linden at his Burning Life desk. The button reads, "Press to crash any random sim"

Gravity Space Station Returns

Gravity Space Station was one of the most popular clubs to ever grace the face of SecondLife when it first opened last November, and stayed open for approximately 9 weeks. Yesterday, it was re-opened in Nyna Slate's Dragon Moon sim for a 3 day birthday bash for the Bedazzle team. Many know Bedazzle as the group that first brought Sim Horror to a reality last Halloween, then Gravity Space Station, and most recently, the Unreal: SL/Chinatown project. They are also currently working on a full-length western machinema movie filmed wholly in SecondLife that's due out later this year entitled "Golden Bells and Silver Spurs," a trailer of which has been released, and looks promising. For a three day weekend, they (at least) slowed production for this special birthday extravaganza. I was excited to get to be at the re-opening last night, along with some awesome DJs and an amazing number of raffles!

The space station is perhaps one of SecondLife's most amazing builds ever, especially for a club. Hovering over 200 meters above the Dragon Moon telehub, it's quite small, but it's amazing how many people can dance comfortably in such a small area, even with the huge rotating light system! Local lighting even enhances the look of the club even further. Yes, it is quite laggy, but the look is amazing (all the pictures contained in this article use local lighting, just to give you an idea).

A view of part of the space station

The party opened up at 7 PM last night with Jason Spinnaker DJing, and kicked off with a "space trivia" contest, at which Govindira Galatea proved to be quite a driving force. The raffles were plentiful, and it was announced that over the three evenings of parties this weekend, over L$150,000 worth of prizes would be given away! Both Nyna Slate and Demian Caldera had simultaneous raffle balls going in order to distribute the prizes in such a short amount of time.

The entire reason that Gravity Space Station is back up in orbit - and our old buddy MAX

Later on in the evening at 9 PM, DNA Prototype took over the airwaves and held a "message t-shirt" contest. Unfortunately, because of the excessive lag, it was extremely hard to get any t-shirts to rez, let alone where they could be read! The party continued late into the night, with the large raffle prize being a lighting system by DNA worth L$8500, won by Maelstrom Baphomet!

Nyna Slate, the owner of Dragon Moon

At times, the party at the Gravity Space Station seemed like a bit of a meeting of the ever-notorious FIC, but it didn't last too long when it did. Cameo appearances were made during the evening by si Money, Mistress Midnight, Torrid Midnight, and even everyone's favorite winged Aimee Weber. Other appearances were made by the so-called "skin goddess" Govindira Galatea, and Foxy Xevious and Jimmy Thompson, the "brains behind Bedazzle."

Foxy Xevious and Jimmy Thompson, the brains behind Bedazzle

I didn't expect to keep a quote list of the night, but after seeing the following quote from si Money when he first landed, I couldn't resist. "I can just hear my gpu crying." Though the Gravity Space Station is a wonderful build, it is quite taxing on the computer. I was personally running between .7 and 1.7 frames per second the entire night with a maximum of 41 people in the sim. Even tonight with local lighting off, I've only run at 3.1 FPS with a maximum of 49 people in the sim. Yes, clubs in SecondLife are laggy as a whole, but this one takes it to the extreme. It's a gorgeous build, but for maximum enjoyment, should be seen with no one else in the sim at that point and with local lighting on.

The "skin goddess" Govindira Galatea in the foreground, and yours truly hard at work in the background

The Gravity Space Station is a club that will long remain in the hearts and minds of serious clubbers in SecondLife. I'd go so far as to call it the most memorable club that has ever been in SL, but not the most influential (either Phantasie Isle or Club Elite would take that honor). The ambiance of the lighting system and the environment, complete with the space view of the Earth and MAX the astronaut creates an awesome atmosphere that cannot be duplicated. It's a shame that this landmark will not persist, as well as there not being any plans at the current time to bring it back.

The Mystery of Chicago 1900

The Chicago machine: Martin Magpie and Claire Glitterbuck in their world within a world within a world

by Jill Mackenzie

Chicago 1900, the vast new project headed by Martin Magpie and located in the Faded Reality sim, opened Friday to rave reviews from residents delighted to be transported to another time and place within the already once-removed-from-reality world of Second Life.

From the moment you rez in the arrivals room of the Faded Reality sim, you enter another dimension, almost a world within a world within a world. Rather than arriving in a vast, open telehub mall, avs find themselves in a small room with a swinging lamp that dangles from the ceiling. In one corner is a simple bed that holds two round boxes. Closer inspection finds them filled with clothing fit for the turn-of-the-century Chicago theme.

The scene on arrival – no telehub mall here

As you step through the door you notice a desk and some posters on the wall. One is a Private Detective license and the other is a warning that states if you go further you will be in a different time.

As you walk down the cobbled street you will notice the tremendous attention that has been paid to every detail. An almost tangible mystery fills ever corner of this sim, from the trolley car that is driven by the ever-smiling Red Frodgers to the hush-lipped owner of the Cotton Club, Miss Claire Glitterbuck.

Miss Glitterbuck's Cotton Club

To unravel the real story, there are obvious clues available to read, and then there are the not-so-obvious ones that you have to look carefully for, or click on unmarked objects to find. In fact, the city is interactive and full of ever-changing events. As people begin to spend time there and interact with the actors, who knows what kind of mysteries will unfold!

A number of roles are filled by real live avatars in Chicago 1900, including the hat-check girl at the Cotton Club and a deep-pocketed mayor who likes to pretend he is blind and deaf. Martin Magpie noted that there are still openings for actors to keep the project going (IM Martin Magpie or Claire Glitterbuck for details).

Early visitors have reported seeing a rough-and-tumble group known as The Linden Gang causing havoc and likely bootlegging in the moonlit hours. One Phil Linden in particular is a wanted man in Chicago 1900, and rumors would suggest there are people laying in wait for his return. One source reported seeing a coffin with his name on it and cement shoes near by.

Other attractions of the project include a theatre that will show period films on Friday nights at 7pm game-time. The Cotton Club will host comedy nights on Saturdays.

Scenes of yesteryear

According to proprietor Martin Magpie, the project is strictly non-profit. In many ways it is reminiscent of previous themed builds in SL, like Old London or Neverland, which achieved similar levels of quality builds and thematic coherence. The expectations for the project are great, and Martin and his crew will be hard-pressed to live up to them. The theme will remain the same, according to Martin, but the mysteries found within the sim will be constantly changing, and it is not likely to be a place you would visit only once.

The W-Hat Birthday: Cake, Ice Cream and Murdered-Hooker Bloodbath (2/2)

By Neal Stewart

It's the quick and the dead in Second Life. The murdered hooker I found at Baku today is not the murdered hooker she was yesterday. Yesterday's corpse had character. A furry, she lay there with eyes closed and brows wrenched, as though her eternal sleep was wrought by nightmares. And who could blame her? But in today's new face there is nobody home. The eyes stare wide open with the good-natured 2-dimensional expression of a vacant, non-furry, latex sex-doll.

I guess that's celebrity make-overs for you.

In a crowded room, the situation was a bit different 48 hours ago...

Continued from Part 1.

*****

"Oh yeah, take it, take it hard" yells Loksr Mysterio, a W-Hat, pumping away at the bloody, avatar-less, furry hermaphrodite corpse. "Unf unf unf."

"The hand twitches!!!", one observer comments. Then, remembering it's a furry, "Paw?". "I KNEW I saw the foot move" says W-Hat Operating Thetan. Dave Eisenberg explains, "Yeah I made her twitch."

"THERE IT GOES AGAIN"

"I saw the eyes open and close once..." another W-Hat says, "Never saw it again."

"Wait, if her eyes are closed how can I stick my penis in them?" Operating asks.

"Stick it in da mouth," suggests Eisenberg.

Some of the other W-Hats have a go at the corpse. Several at once.

"They kinda look like a rowing team" one onlooker declares.

She's right. They do.

The Australian journalist Hugh Lunn says that one of the hallmarks of bad writers is that they start an article by just asking lots of questions in a row.

Because generally it ensures that they're not actually going to provide any answers.

So here goes:

- Should artists have the right to decide what context their work is used in, once it's been sold? In this case, does a builder have a leg to stand on if their avatar-creation is begenitalled, disembowled and covered in blood?

- To what extent can a group be blamed or held responsible for the conduct of it's members? And under what circumstances?

- Do these pants make me look fat?

- At what point does a private build become public? How many walls must surround it and how thick must they be? If it has windows, what is an appropriate gap to have between blinds?

- Is it valid to be offended by an artwork if the artist claims that it was not their intention? To what extent does an unidentifiable red liquid become real blood, red paint, or Hollywood blood, when the artist designates it as such?

One W-Hat criticized the blood splatter in Dave Eisenberg's murder-scene and characterized it as unrealistic-looking.

Another W-Hat asks, "How the hell is a dead furry transvestite hooker with two dicks unrealistic?"

This is the edited transcript. The unrealism has been preserved but some bits are removed for brev. There were also some parts where I explete and say out loud how much I like the build. These have been removed to make me look less like an embedded U.S. war-correspondent who garrottes one of Saddam's Republican Guards with his camera-strap and then storms the palace.

*****

Dave Eisenberg: Just to clear things up - It's not anti-furry [the murder-scene]. It's the only all-prim av [avatar] that I could find. The only all-prims avs are furries.
Neal Stewart: I've seen human ones before. Starax does some I think. And Stormy Roentgen.

Neal Stewart: How long did it take to make, Dave?
Dave Eisenberg: Couple of days.

Neal Stewart: Why did you make it?
Dave Eisenberg: It was a simple idea. We created an e-Detective agency next door and figured it would be funny to create a crime scene right next door and a dead hooker in bed is the classic crime scene and then we just kept on adding to it.
The whole point is to be morbid and ridiculous at the same time.

Neal Stewart: Who made the original furry?
Dave Eisenberg: She wasn't too happy about it. Lucah. That's why we're going to replace the hooker with someone else.

Neal Stewart: What are you going to replace it with?
Dave Eisenberg: Another hooker. Probably furry too. Someone else is actually going to make me one specifically for this scene.

Neal Stewart: How will it be different?
Dave Eisenberg: It'll have all the blood textures on it already. And it'll actually look like an over-exaggerated hooker with bright red lipstick and lots of make up.

Neal Stewart: Where'd you get the animations?
Dave Eisenberg: Made them myself.
There's also 2 jerk off balls. For more people.

Neal Stewart: Do you think Furrys will be annoyed or upset by this?
Dave Eisenberg: Some probably. But it's not anti-furry so they shouldn't be. A lot of people in W-Hat are furries and they like it.

Neal Stewart: Do you see how it can appear anti-furry?
Dave Eisenberg: The fact that I've used a furry av, yeah.

Neal Stewart: Why use a furry av and not a human one?
Dave Eisenberg: Because I can't find any all prim human avatars and I suck at making my own.

Neal Stewart: Would you use an all prim human avatar if you could find one?
Dave Eisenberg: Definitely, then people wouldn't mistake that it's a dead hooker.

Neal Stewart: Is this the avatar you always wear?
Dave Eisenberg: No, I just got it recently. I modified it, and like how it looks like.

Neal Stewart: What av did you have before?
Dave Eisenberg: Uh, lets see...
9 year old kid

Neal Stewart: :) Why 9?
Dave Eisenberg: Because it's funny.

Neal Stewart: Are you going to keep your new avatar from now on?
Dave Eisenberg: For now yeah. I like it. I change them when I get bored of them or find something new.

Neal Stewart: So you're basically a furry yourself at the moment? :)
Dave Eisenberg: I guess.

Neal Stewart: What do you think about Furries?
Dave Eisenberg: They're furries. I don't know am I supposed to think something about them?

Neal Stewart: Do you dislike them, like them, indifferent, what?
Dave Eisenberg: As indifferent as I would be to anyone else. It depends on the personality.

Neal Stewart: Who else helped you with this build?
Dave Eisenberg: A couple of people from W-Hat and another furry from the forest.

Neal Stewart: Are they a W-hat [the furry]?
Dave Eisenberg: Yeah.

Neal Stewart: Is all the red stuff paint?
Dave Eisenberg: I put the bucket of paint as an inside joke because Feem didn't like how unrealistic this scene looks with blood splatter and wouldn't shut up about it, so I just put a bucket of paint here and told him that it's all paint.

Neal Stewart: I see. So it is all meant to be blood on the walls etc?
Dave Eisenberg: Yeah.

Neal Stewart: There's some conflict between you and some of the other W-hats because of this is there?
Dave Eisenberg: Not really. They all like it.

Neal Stewart: All of them?
Dave Eisenberg: Some are indifferent. Some are worried that it'll get me in trouble with the TOS.
But considering how much stuff I see around SL...
The fact that it's in a mature sim and covered, I don't think there should be any problems. After all, it's just art.

Neal Stewart: What have you seen worse than this?
Dave Eisenberg: Disgusting porn. All of these depraved sexballs, this scene is an over-exaggerated parody of it all.

Neal Stewart: Do you think that porn is worse than gore?
Dave Eisenberg: Not really.
I'm pushing some buttons here.
However this is entirely fake

Neal Stewart: How do you mean it's fake?
Dave Eisenberg: Well like gore you see in movies. Gore in movies is more acceptable than porn.

Neal Stewart: So this blood on the walls is not real furry blood, it's fake - movie blood?
Dave Eisenberg: Well obviously.

Neal Stewart: So, what is the point of the build? To stir up some controversy?
Dave Eisenberg: It wasn't intended like that. And so far there isn't much havok going on. It started as a crime scene next door to an e-Detective agency, as a joke and ended up as this.

Neal Stewart: You mentioned before about 'pushing buttons'. Whose buttons is it intended to push?
Dave Eisenberg: This build is generally pushing the concept of what's allowed and isn't in this game.

Neal Stewart: I see, so it's a joke that evolved into a statement about art and censorship in SL?
Dave Eisenberg: No, it's still pretty much a joke. Some might take it offending, and that's fine but if it's covered, not many people will be seeking this stuff out.

Neal Stewart: Are you confident you won't be banned? Because of this build?
Dave Eisenberg: I probably will, but if Lindens give me a reason on how it breaks the TOS I'll tone it down, or take it off.

Neal Stewart: So how long has it been here for?
Dave Eisenberg: I think a week so far.

Neal Stewart: How is the detective agency going?
Dave Eisenberg: Well, we're still hard at work trying to figure out who did this!
Other than that the e-Detective agency is a joke just as well.

Neal Stewart: Heh heh. So, you don't have clients or anything?
Dave Eisenberg: Nope. It started when someone showed up claiming to be a Detective researching W-Hat. So we decided to make our own e-Detective agency.

*****

I stand there in the W-Hat Super Happy Fun Time Land and look towards the detective agency and crime-scene apartments. I try to see the blood through the blinds in the distance. Next to me, hovering in mid-air without reason or context is a photo of Al from Home Improvement. In a building nearby is a picture of Adebisi the rapist in Oz, the television show about a maximum security prison facility. There's a DragonballZ-style picture of Colonel Sanders and Ronald McDonald, who are about to do battle. There's a beautifully-drawn picture of a female Furry with huge breasts and a solemn expression, saluting with one hand and holding the American flag in the other. The cartoon is superimposed over a photo of the two-towers New York city skyline.

The audio-stream for the land is playing a song that talks about children watching inhumanity, bloodshed and violence on television.

"T.V. is not reality", the song says.

"Neal, for what it's worth," Feem Lomax told me at the party, "We spend an awful lot of time making fun of how people view us as terrorists/griefers".

He then paused to sing the chorus to the Facts of Life theme song. To win L$500.

You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.

"In Star Wars Galaxies, the Goon Squad used to run around making people sing the Charles in Charge theme when they wanted to join."

"Please step away from the vehicle" says the red and yellow W-Hat TERROR Truck parked near-by.

"Neal: We make fun of people who think we're griefers and terrorists. That's what all the 'cyber-terrorists' propaganda is about."

One W-Hat shouts over the din at the party, "Oh shit who is this 'Neal' fellow? I heard he likes boys confirm/deny?"

"In fact, we make fun of just about everyone," Feem continues.

"Do you make fun of W-Hat though?" I ask.

"Actually yeah, we do."

There's more W-Hat banter. One of them shouts, "FEEM LOVES BUTTSEX. HE TOLD ME TO KEEP IT A SECRET".

RIP Club Elite

Big John Jade hovers over the old Club Elite

As reported in the SL Forums, Club Elite finally bit the dust. People will talk about when it began its downhill plunge from the number one club on the grid, but there really is nothing to debate: they jumped the shark when Big John Jade blew a gasket right here in the Herald. The club declined, swtiched hands, declined some more, and now this. Still, this is our second nostalgia attack of the week. How can we forget the Herald Classics, which included reports on the Elite Escorts, the Elite Dancers, our interview with Escort Supervisor Daphne Molinari, their move to a private island, the grand opening party for their new island. *Sniff*... tissue please!

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There will be more matches and appearances on the event!

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Tringo Star

Congratulations to SL resident Kermitt Quirk, inventor of Tringo, the game that's swept Second Life over the last several months. After developing the game on his time off, Kermitt found Tringo becoming one of the grid's most popular pastimes. Now it's about to hit RL, as Kermitt has cut a licensing deal with SF's Donnerwood Media, which plans to develop the game for cell phones and the Web.

Clickable Culture blogs the story here, complete with a clickable link to the Wall Street Journal report, and Linden Lab provides more detail in the current edition of the SL newsletter.

Will this lead to a flood of in-world game development? There's already quite a bit of it, according to Pirate Cotton's Game SLave, a wiki listing all the in-world games SL has to offer. But none have proved as popular (or as annoying to the non-fan, judging from recent forum traffic) as Tringo, which is perhaps not surprising. By combining one of the most addictive computer games (Tetris) with one of the most addicitive of RL (Bingo), Kermitt has managed to create a seemingly perfect game for a virtual world that closely mimics our real one.

Which leads us to the only possible conclusion: Forty years from now, if LL is lucky, Second Life will be filled with blue-haired-old-lady avatars hunched over their Tringo cards muttering over how damn hard it is to fit that "S" shape into the grid and weren't things better back in the 1.5 days anyhow...

"It"s Not Illegal Yet!" -- Opening the Sports Book in SL

by Walker Spaight

As the rash of Tringo parlors makes clear, gambling is a not unpopular activity in Second Life. Now, just in time for March Madness, a full sports book is coming to SL that will allow residents to indulge their taste for wagering on RL sports like NCAA basketball, Major League Baseball, and whatever else happens to be in season.

The brainchild of TSO refugee Kingey Oz, The Grid Sportsbook will launch as soon as this weekend, offering the chance to bet on NBA and NCAA basketball at first, and expanding to other major sports as they come into season. The Herald spoke to Kingey outside the Second Life Network Building in Atlas as Kingey was considering final touches to put on The Grid Sportsbook vendors (pictured here without data).

The project, which is financed by backers who will remain nameless, will launch with a single vendor at James Miller's lotto terminal in Noyo, but should soon expand to locations all over the grid, according to Kingey.

The project is scripted by Marc Eisenberg, who has created a Web interface that will store games, spreads and results. Fearless Leader is responsible for the prim design of the vendor itself.

Kingey comes to SL's betting scene with similar experience from TSO, where he helped run the MotorCity Sports Book in 2003. "Casinos are big here, and it worked in TSO," Kingey said. "With enough persistence, I don't see why it shouldn't work here."

Previous grid experience with sports betting has not been a smashing success. Usher Caldera, who ran a scripted NFL book last season, told the Herald, "There are lots of gamblers in SL but very few sports fans." (Forum postings show that Satchmo Prototype also briefly ran an NFL book last year.)

Usher, who was kind enough to share his stats with the Herald, said he barely broke even on the venture, and "absolutely didn't make back my investment of time." Usher said his system took in about L$200,000 in wagers over the NFL season, 85 percent of which was paid out to winning bettors. Another 12 percent was paid out to "partners" who hosted his vendors on their land.

However, Usher was not discouraging when it came to future projects: "If it's promoted correctly, it could work, definitely," he said.

The Grid Sportsbook will operate through an XyText display that will allow bettors to scroll through available sports and games and place their bets. As a security measure, bettors receive a receipt which they will have to bring back to the vendor in order to collect their winning bets. Asked about the inventory-eating bugs that have cropped up lately in SL, Kingey said bettors would be free to IM him with any problems, as a full record of bets would also be stored by the vendor.

In the first implementation, bettors will be able to wager only on the point spread on games, but a future version should allow money line and over/under bets as well. Spreads and money lines will be determined from a composite of various Internet sources.

Payout on winning bets will be L$10 for each L$11 wagered. (I.e., total payout on a winning L$11 bet would be L$21.)

Asked about the legality of the operation, Kingey said he had informally polled a Linden about it, and gotten the following response: "It's not illegal yet!"

Bash and Crash on Unreal:SL's Opening Night

Bedazzle's much-anticipated Unreal:SL kicked off its weekend-long opening festivities last night with a crowded dance party that had everyone in attendance kicking up their heels -- so much so that the sim crashed before the party was much more than an hour old.

Despite the sentiments expressed above, the dancing re-booted itself soon enough, and there was no shortage of residents eager to bump elbows in the streets of Unreal level Chinatown, amid the sounds of rain, the crackle of neon and the clucking of chickens that had strayed into the sim's back alleys.

For more details on the opening festivities, click here. Or just tp over to the Chinatown sim. (Mature, to be sure.)

The wet streets of Chinatown

The view from Abraxas

In development since October 2004, Unreal is Second Life's first in-world first-person shooter. With the success of past Bedazzled projects like Sim Horror and the Gravity Space Station, the game is getting more attention than perhaps any project in the grid's recent memory.

Asked how the party was going from Bedazzled's point of view, chief developer Foxy Xevious responded enthusiastically: "It rocks! We are pleased with the results. One day is all we need to feel proud of what we've accomplished."

Jimmy Thomson, Unreal's chief developer, tuckered out after all his hard work

Your correspondent at work

The Mandarin of Watermelons

Cousin Vincenzo's Looking Glass War

In the hall of mirrors that is the SL mafia scene, alliegances come and go quickly and deception and betrayal are the order of the day. Vincenzo Gillespie worked for Vincent Stravinsky who in turn was in business with underworld power couple Gina Fatale and Marsellus Wallace. Vincenzo says he was hired to hit Cinda Valentino's casino, as well as a half dozen other clubs in SL. Stravinsky says no such hit was authorized and that Vincenzo is trying to cause trouble for the Stravinsky group because he was fired. All parties agree that Vincenzo was fired, but was it just a cover yer ass firing? In this four-way interview, I talk with Vincenzo, Vincent, and Cinda Valentino associate and Herald employee Mr. Fairplay. What really happened? You decide.

Vincenzo Gillespie: Make it quick I think I be suspended again roflmao
Urizenus Sklar: suspended? for what?
Vincenzo Gillespie: For shooting bombs during the attack
Vincenzo Gillespie: His neighbors he said are going to report me lol
Urizenus Sklar: Vincenzo, rumor has it that you've been chasing around to different club owners and gang leaders claiming that Gina Fatale ordered you to hit them. why?
Vincenzo Gillespie: You mean Cinda Valentino lol
Vincenzo Gillespie: I only hurt her, since Gina did ask for it to be done, she said it will help her club to get more visitors if the competition is dropped :-)
Vincenzo Gillespie: I only hit Cinda
Vincenzo Gillespie: She will deny it and most will believe her but hey, I do not give a rat's ass
Urizenus Sklar: What is the name of Cinda's club?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Some club Valentino club
Vincenzo Gillespie: Payment was well, thanks Gina
Mr Fairplay: So how could that possibly be helping Gina?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Some Valentino club, was a club or some shit I can not remember
Vincenzo Gillespie: All I remember is Gina asking for it to be done, so me being a polite man I was happy to oblige :-)
Vincenzo Gillespie: Was in some person picks, hell if I remember
Urizenus Sklar: Gina says you are angry because you were kicked out of Marsellus Wallace's group
Vincenzo Gillespie: lol
Urizenus Sklar: is that true?
Vincenzo Gillespie: I could care less about that, I got kicked cause I shot Vincent
Mr Fairplay: Valentino Nightclub Casino he is referring to Uri
Urizenus Sklar: Vincent Stravinsky?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Gina and Marsellus aka dick blower
Vincenzo Gillespie: Yes Vincent Stravinsky
Urizenus Sklar: so did you try to frame Gina because you were angry?
Vincenzo Gillespie: After I shot him, Marsellus and Gina got pissed, which I could care less, I also then shot Gina :-) that was when Marsellus kicked me he can blow my left nut
Vincenzo Gillespie: I was not trying to frame anyone, just trying to finish a hit :-)
Vincenzo Gillespie: Not angry hell I do not find anything in this game to get me angry just entertain me
Urizenus Sklar: I understand that you are plotting to fubar the opening of Stavinsky's club, is that true?
Vincenzo Gillespie: What do you think?
Urizenus Sklar: If I had the answer I wouldn't ask
Vincenzo Gillespie: got me on that one
Vincenzo Gillespie: I plead the 5th to that question :-)
Urizenus Sklar: So you are at war with Marsellus Wallace
Vincenzo Gillespie: lol I am one person what can I do.
Vincenzo Gillespie: But ya I will go to war with him lol one man army hahaha
Urizenus Sklar: you can try to frame them and to secure weapons for a global attack
Urizenus Sklar: I overheard you offering to buy a nuke from One Song
Vincenzo Gillespie: Ya I asked him infront of you
Urizenus Sklar: did you want to nuke Stavinsky club?
Vincenzo Gillespie: lol I would if I had a nuke ;-)
Vincenzo Gillespie: Would give you more to write about then eh?
Urizenus Sklar: well then is it fair to say that you are actively trying to find weapons to nuke Stavinsy's club?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Just do what I can to make sure I have entertainment for this game
Urizenus Sklar: Does that include attempting to frame former friends and employers?
Vincenzo Gillespie: I plead the 5th
Mr Fairplay: Ok so let me get this straight who exactly "payed" u to hit on Cinda's place?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Gina
Mr Fairplay: But you mentioned that you ended up shooting her also, now that doesn't make much sense does it?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Sure it does, put shit together my friend, I was working as a Hitman for vincent and Gina they asked me to complete certain jobs
Vincenzo Gillespie: Despite the fact I ended up turning my back on them, i wanted to make sure I completed the jobs they gave me so i could have more people attacking them as well :-)
Vincenzo Gillespie: Though they will deny it but hell why do I care anymore
Mr Fairplay: heya Vincent welcome to this interview
Vincent Stravinsky: Hey
Vincenzo Gillespie: Hello Vincent
Vincenzo Gillespie: So nice to join us :-)
Vincent Stravinsky: So is Vincenzo telling some more fictional tales?
Mr Fairplay: Sure sounds like it.
Vincenzo Gillespie: No fictional tales, just the truth
Vincent Stravinsky: Yeah ok.
Vincenzo Gillespie: If it was lies, why is Marsellus and other trying hard to take me out?
Urizenus Sklar: Vincenzo says he is seeking nukes to demo your club opening, do you have a comment on that vincent?
Vincent Stravinsky: Well... go ahead and do it.
Vincenzo Gillespie: Pass me a nuke? lol
Vincent Stravinsky: My club is in a public PG sim.
Urizenus Sklar: Mr., F, are those nukes still on the market?
Mr Fairplay: As it goes, they aren't I try to not disclose without my client's consent but a big time mafioso in SL has bought rights to it, for L$100K so that I don't resell
Mr Fairplay: so nope they aren't currently available for purchasing
Vincenzo Gillespie: lol
Urizenus Sklar: Vincenzo, why are yo uso angry with Mr. Wallace?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Just never cared for him honestly
Vincenzo Gillespie: He seems to be a load of shit
Urizenus Sklar: but you worked for him
Vincenzo Gillespie: Hell no
Vincent Stravinsky: Vincenzo claims to have gone "legit".
Urizenus Sklar: IC
Urizenus Sklar: So you don't like him, why is that a reason to frame him?
Vincenzo Gillespie: I did not frame anyone.
Urizenus Sklar: you claimed Gina offered you 2K to hit Cinda
Vincenzo Gillespie: I never said Gina offered any money
Mr Fairplay: eh?
Urizenus Sklar: well what did you say then?
Vincenzo Gillespie: In 2k range
Vincent Stravinsky: lol we all have the card
Vincenzo Gillespie: I said gina and Vincent paid me :-)
Vincenzo Gillespie: I did hits for Vincent and Gina
Mr Fairplay: Is that true Vincent?
Urizenus Sklar: 2K to hit Cinda?
Urizenus Sklar: and what does that mean? shoot her once?
Vincenzo Gillespie: never said 2k i just said I got a payment
Urizenus Sklar: well how much was the payment?
Vincenzo Gillespie: That is between me and Gina and Vince
Urizenus Sklar: well they say zero
Urizenus Sklar: what do you say?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Never ask a man how much he has in his wallet, and how much he gets for a job :-)
Mr Fairplay: Vince how much would it cost me to get u talking?
Urizenus Sklar: what I really want to understand is why you are so angry with vincent, Marsellus and Gina
Vincenzo Gillespie: Of course they will say zero...they want to make it look like I hit Cinda for my own reason
Vincenzo Gillespie: Not angry with them, was just Vince
Vincenzo Gillespie: You see Vince was paying me to do things, he later then ripped me off
Vincenzo Gillespie: I was not happy with that, so I shot vince
Vincenzo Gillespie: Then one thing lead to another.
Mr Fairplay: So why is Marsellus after you now?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Since Gina cried to him claiming I am framing her and Vince
Vincenzo Gillespie: Marsellus is there to try and clean things up, what did he do in TSO supposedly?
Vincent Stravinsky: And no it's not true. We didn't hire Vincenzo. He was fired from both Russian Mob and KingPin when he hit Cinda.
Vincenzo Gillespie: Yes to make it look like I did it on my own
Vincent Stravinsky: Vincenzo you're so bad at this.
Vincenzo Gillespie: You see how quick I get fired from kingPin and Mob after completing a job?
Mr Fairplay: Why was he fired Vincent?
Vincenzo Gillespie: So bad at what, the truth?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Look at how Marsellus was in the election scandal on tso
Urizenus Sklar: Vincenzo, why would Gina be angry with Cinda?
Vincent Stravinsky: He was fired because he shot me while I was working.
Vincent Stravinsky: And then insulted the family.
Vincenzo Gillespie: But I always completed the Hits you asked for
Vincenzo Gillespie: And do not deny it
Vincent Stravinsky: Yeah, you did.
Vincent Stravinsky: One hit.
Mr Fairplay: lol
Vincenzo Gillespie: More than one
Vincent Stravinsky: Which was, I believe, Renox Templar.
Vincenzo Gillespie: More than that now :-)
Vincent Stravinsky: Because you framed him to start a war.
Mr Fairplay: Urizenus Sklar: Vincenzo, why would Gina be angry with Cinda??
Mr Fairplay: Answer the question about please Vincenzo
Vincenzo Gillespie: Was business wise my friend, think about it clubs :-)
Vincent Stravinsky: She's not. They don't know eachother.
Mr Fairplay: So why was she contribution towards getting Cinda hit?
Vincenzo Gillespie: I still have a few more clubs to hit for Vincent and Gina
Vincenzo Gillespie: But will have to put them on hold
Vincenzo Gillespie: Since I do not want to get banned so quickly
Vincent Stravinsky: Like I said, Gina and I had nothing to do with it.
Vincent Stravinsky: Vincenzo's been family hopping, trying to start shit.
Vincenzo Gillespie: I have been in one family
Vincenzo Gillespie: I just worked for you as securty/hitman
Vincent Stravinsky: You were in the main group.
Vincenzo Gillespie: Yes
Mr Fairplay: So tell me about Gina again Vincezo
Mr Fairplay: why did she want to hit on Cinda
Mr Fairplay: u still haven't answered the question
Vincenzo Gillespie: Goodness man
Vincenzo Gillespie: Scroll up
Vincenzo Gillespie: I answered it 6 times
Mr Fairplay: still doesn't compute
Mr Fairplay: maybe u want to do a really lengthy explanation over it
Vincenzo Gillespie: Nope
Mr Fairplay: then I say you're lying
Vincenzo Gillespie: I read about ya in the herald, when Tank hired you to get land
Mr Fairplay: and?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Vince and Gina hired me to take out clubs to help them get to the top
Vincent Stravinsky: How would that get us to the top?
Mr Fairplay: gotcha
Vincent Stravinsky: I did a fine job at fixing my club after you bombed it.
Vincenzo Gillespie: Taking out competition my young friend
Mr Fairplay: so how many clubs was it asked for u to hit in total?
Vincenzo Gillespie: Yes but it took you a while :-)
Vincenzo Gillespie: About 6
Urizenus Sklar: which clubs
Mr Fairplay: just for $4000?
Mr Fairplay: and which clubs....
Vincenzo Gillespie: I never said any price
Vincenzo Gillespie: The clubs will stay unknown, since I still need to pay them a visit
Vincent Stravinsky: ::waits for vincenzo to find a few clubs on search::
Vincenzo Gillespie: Do not want to be on ban list so quickly now do I?
Mr Fairplay: Ok I think I got this straight
Mr Fairplay: Vincenzo your a liar
Mr Fairplay: there was never a specific club hit list
Mr Fairplay: Vincent and Gina never hired you to do shit for them
Vincenzo Gillespie: lol how stupid are you man
Mr Fairplay: well maybe 1 time
Mr Fairplay: Vincent might have done
Vincenzo Gillespie: More than once
Vincenzo Gillespie: Plenty of times
Mr Fairplay: to the contrary, its obvious that you made this stuff up
Vincent Stravinsky: Dude, you suck at your job. I'd never hire you to do something important.
Vincent Stravinsky: You let people shoot and throw up in my club when you were on duty for security.
Vincenzo Gillespie: How could i just blow some shit like this out of my ass
Mr Fairplay: Think of it this way why would Vincent pay you money, then want to kill you, for letting the public know that you were hired?
Vincenzo Gillespie: THink of it this way how does a goverment do it?
Mr Fairplay: Doesn't make anysense unless you real go was to stir this shit up?
Vincenzo Gillespie: It's a russian mob
Mr Fairplay: Nope dude, you're really creating an illusion here for us
Vincenzo Gillespie: How do you think mobs, "mafias" "goverments" take care of shit
Vincenzo Gillespie: Why would I do that?
Mr Fairplay: We won't buy it, you're out on your own
Mr Fairplay: This is your private revenge, against Marsellus and maybe Vincent
Mr Fairplay: that much is obvious
Vincenzo Gillespie: The Herald is out to cover it up lol since Marsellus and Gina are in the herald
Mr Fairplay: and I think we heard enough from everyone
Vincenzo Gillespie: ok
Mr Fairplay: have a good day all
Urizenus Sklar: ok, I've heard enough. Vincenzo you get the last word. Anyting you want to add
Vincenzo Gillespie: Yup
Vincenzo Gillespie: Yes all have a good Day :-)
Mr Fairplay: and Vincenzo I want to talk to u in private

Hellsing Hath no Fury Like Jenna Scorned

Jenna Fairplay: dethroned dwell queen, but still queen of negs given

In a story that has it all -- adult clubs, jealousy, specious abuse reporting, alleged Linden favoratism, and Arab-American tensions -- it appears that dethroned dwell queen Jenna Fairplay has successfully organized an abuse reporting campaign against rival club owner Hellsing King (owner of current #1 dwell location, Paradise Island). Jenna would not talk to the Herald (she was busy catching softballs from Hamlet Linden) but reached for comment by telephone in The United Arab Emirates, Hellsing King insists that he has instigated no griefing and that his path to #1 has been paved by payouts to lucky customers. One highly placed source in the King organization insists that if Hellsing's suspension turns into a ban, Hellsing will pursue legal action. Meanwhile, Hellsing has two sims on order in connection with the Dream City project -- a project that now appears to be in jeopardy. We continue to follow this evolving story.

Luck Has Nothing To Do With It

A Second Life Herald parable

The following is a chat log of an actual SL conversation, submitted by a pair of luckless gamblers for your edification. Not one word has been changed.

Poker Player #1: you wanna hear a funny story?

Poker Player #2: sure

Poker Player #1: since 2 days im playing poker a bit
Poker Player #1: loving it
Poker Player #1: i used to play a lil bit here and there
Poker Player #1: texas holdem on them fairplay tables

Poker Player #2: at the edge?

Poker Player #1: nah
Poker Player #1: at fairplays casino and aka fools place
Poker Player #1: anyways only minor games

Poker Player #2: nah play at the edge

Poker Player #1: since i dont know the tables

Poker Player #2: ok

Poker Player #1: so like theres an event going on 4am my time
Poker Player #1: a 50k holdem tournament
Poker Player #1: buyin 5k
Poker Player #1: play till last man standing
Poker Player #1: winner takes all
Poker Player #1: no rakes
Poker Player #1: so im like OMG i wanna try

Poker Player #2: DAMN

Poker Player #1: i will get my ass handed to me but i will play that table dammit
Poker Player #1: so i powernap 3 hours from 12 to 3ish
Poker Player #1: get up
Poker Player #1: make some coffee and wait for the game
Poker Player #1: so im likechilling
Poker Player #1: playing it slow
Poker Player #1: checking out how pplz play
Poker Player #1: 10pplz playing
Poker Player #1: 5k a piece
Poker Player #1: 50k on the table
Poker Player #1: it all goes well im like staying aroudn 5k
Poker Player #1: then suddenly someone starts playing like a madman
Poker Player #1: just rushing raising doing crazy shit on no cards
Poker Player #1: and the whole game gets fucked up
Poker Player #1: pplz flip out
Poker Player #1: get nervous etc
Poker Player #1: really weird atmosphere
Poker Player #1: the blinds started at 10/20
Poker Player #1: but moved up
Poker Player #1: doubled every 10 hands

Poker Player #2: damn

Poker Player #1: so around 100/50 blinds pplz were paying more attention and calming down
Poker Player #1: so im like picking my fights
Poker Player #1: all goes well ish
Poker Player #1: and i take a dive on some stupid hand
Poker Player #1: someone had an impossible to get combination
Poker Player #1: and im close to going below blind rate
Poker Player #1: then with my last 3k i go ALL OUT on this hand
Poker Player #1: and win a 10k pot
Poker Player #1: so im back in the game
Poker Player #1: chilling
Poker Player #1: still playing it slow
Poker Player #1: and one by one pplz drop out
Poker Player #1: tired
Poker Player #1: broken
Poker Player #1: etc
Poker Player #1: this was 3hours into the game
Poker Player #1: im still staying alive
Poker Player #1: picking my pots
Poker Player #1: then we played for an hour with the madman outplaying pplz
Poker Player #1: just on the amount of money he has
Poker Player #1: me just chilling watching him take pplz out
Poker Player #1: and suddenly im sitting against this lunatic
Poker Player #1: that has insane luck combined with superb strats
Poker Player #1: me on 12k he on 28k
Poker Player #1: blinds at this point were aroudn 500/250

Poker Player #2: DAMN

Poker Player #1: so we playing with 4-8k pots
Poker Player #1: exchanging blinds etc
Poker Player #1: just fucking with each others head
Poker Player #1: and finally i see a shot
Poker Player #1: and i go
Poker Player #1: FULL OUT
Poker Player #1: the blinds were 1.3k+
Poker Player #1: so this was this 30k pot
Poker Player #1: and whoever lost would drop below buyin limit

Poker Player #2: walkd

Poker Player #1: and automatically get disqualified
Poker Player #1: so im doing it
Poker Player #1: going for 2 pairs
Poker Player #1: he is raising my ass off
Poker Player #1: we both go all out
Poker Player #1: and on the last card
Poker Player #1: the river i get
Poker Player #1: a flush
Poker Player #1: im like OMG RAISE RAISE RAISE
Poker Player #1: slamming the button
Poker Player #1: pplz start screaming around the table
Poker Player #1: OMG THIS IS IT
Poker Player #1: for 50k WHO TAKES IT HOME

*Not* a Second Life poker game

Poker Player #1: and as i try to hit the raise button
Poker Player #1: it disapears
Poker Player #1: and the fold button
Poker Player #1: shoves over
Poker Player #1: into its place
Poker Player #1: before i realise this
Poker Player #1: i click
Poker Player #1: on where the raise button used to be
Poker Player #1: and fold

Poker Player #2: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo

Poker Player #1: i had the winning hand
Poker Player #1: to0

Poker Player #2: JACK ASS

Poker Player #1: the guy felt sorry

Poker Player #1: and gave me my buyin
Poker Player #1: +2k
Poker Player #1: he walked away

Poker Player #2: come here so i kick you in the balls

Poker Player #1: with 43k
Poker Player #1: this game lasted
Poker Player #1: 5 hours
Poker Player #1: i outplay him
Poker Player #1: and i win
Poker Player #1: but due to the table that i didnt know i lost the pot

Poker Player #2: damn

Op/Ed: Business Girl vs. Griefer Kin

by A Concerned Reader

Like her or dislike her, Anshe Chung is one of the richest and most famous (or infamous) people in Second Life. So when she posted in the SL forums complaining about the actions of her W-Hat neighbors in Baku where she had just bought land, there were some predictable jeers, but also a surprising amount of sympathy displayed by the forum patrons. Obvious things like leaving litter on her property and objects that overlap the boundary lines are blatant offences but the main dispute is definitely centered around the recently erected build known as Club Mo-Ran.

W-Hat officers insist that the offending signs were always there. Funny then, that they show the same amount of money as in Anshe's screen shot.

Calling Mo-ran a "club" may be bending the standards of even Second Life architecture as I have a hard time imagining even the most obsessive club-goer wanting to patronize it. W-Hat builds tend towards headache-inducing animated textures and lag-inducing spinning objects along with random examples of what one W-Hat member referred to as "classy art" and others have referred to as "ugly". (For reference, one piece of "classy art" that I observed while hovering over their Baku headquarters was a giant pair of plywood deer engaged in sexual intercourse).

Deer Humping on W-Hat Land. Hey, where's the Buck?

Some former Baku residents have come forward corroborating Anshe's claim that the W-Hat members in question are probably trying to extort her into selling out to them while W-Hatter Ned Ludd and his friends have denied the charges. Some people have said that it's not a problem as long as it's not on Anshe's land and others have accused Anshe of calling the kettle black for opposing tactics they say she has allegedly employed herself. (While she has been known to land-ban people who bother her, most of these accusations remain unproven.)

However, recent signs that have appeared over Mo-Ran (see above) seem to indicate that the W-Hats involved want to make the debate personal.

W-Hat's reputation seems to center around the trick of dancing the narrow line between griefing and actual TOS violations. While it has been claimed that the W-Hat builds as they currently stand are TOS-legal, I found several things on W-Hat property that could be taken as violations of SL's community standards, most notable being:

- The aforementioned signs targeting Anshe

- The rutting deer (even in mature areas, sexually-explicit material is required to be kept in closed spaces and not in the open).

- The multiple raucous and unceasing sound-loops from the Mo-Ran property: this isn't streaming land music but sound clips played by scripts that can be heard from some distance away. This is "disturbing the peace" and explicitly disallowed by the community standards.

For that mater, "disturbing the peace" also includes "objects that intentionally slow server performance or inhibit another Resident's ability to enjoy Second Life". While the W-Hat builds in Baku are certainly lag-inducing and displeasing, intent is difficult to prove without access to the W-Hat inner circle. Buying the land in Baku may have been a dubious or careless business choice on Anshe's part considering that W-Hat was in Baku first. She might have eventually lowered the price and sold to W-Hat on her own if they had left her alone and no one else purchased the plots. But Anshe takes a hard stance against people whom she believes to be griefing her and this is likely to be a long standoff unless there is Linden intervention.

And it is griefing that these W-Hat members are engaging in. There's no doubt in my mind that Mo-ran needs to be taken down or at least remodeled if the landowner intends to keep it as a legitimate club. Even the dreaded black box (a common club design by people with little building skill) would be an improvement over what they've built.

And if they are deliberately targeting Anshe, they're guilty of inhibiting a small part of her Second Life, regardless of how much money she has or how much land she owns. The land business is Anshe's way of enjoying Second Life and as long as she remains honest in it, it's her right to be able to continue doing so.

Golden Calf Bleats No More. Are More Club Closings Far Behind?

by Walker Spaight

Even before the economic changes recently announced by the Lindens went into effect, at least one club owner in Second Life had abandoned his nightspot when faced with having to maintain it in the absence of Linden event support, according to his landlord.

"Panzer Bixby, owner of the Golden Calf decided he couldn't pay his rent for the land anymore, since he was using event hosting to make his money," TinaStar Dawn told the Herald after Tuesday's meeting with Robin Linden.

The club, formerly located on TinaStar's land in the Alta sim, had opened only three months ago, but has now been torn down, TinaStar says. Without the rental income from the Golden Calf, which amounted to L$4,000 a month, TinaStar is now planning to tier down her land holdings to only enough for personal use.

Another resident told the Herald she planned to sell 6,000 square meters of land as a result of the changes.

While some changes to the economy were probably necessary, the path chosen has left club owners scrambling for ways to make ends meet. Other club and business owners expressed similar concerns to the Herald after the meeting.

Interviewed at a scantily-clad sexiest avatar contest at Club Belle Feu, owner Liv Karuna told the Herald that she plans to adapt to the new changes. "I plan to do what I need to do to continue to be successful," she said,
"but I'm confident there is a middle ground that we might be able to explore."

Liv cited a proposal brought up in a meeting with Philip Linden on Tuesday. Under that idea, which the Lindens are reportedly considering, event support would be reinstated in return for a L$100 reduction in base stipends. But a poll being conducted on the forums was running 52 percent against the idea to 40 percent in favor on Wednesday afternoon.

Though club closings would satisfy the concerns of some residents that club culture in Second Life has been getting out of hand, Karuna and others also cited the burden that ending event support would put on club owners' payrolls.

"I'm as worried about my Lindens
as I am about losing good event managers," Karuna said.

Designer Shiryu Musashi, who attended the meeting with Philip, pointed out to the Herald that "clubs offer jobs to MANY people that can't afford to have their own business for one reason or another. Cutting event support would throw a good thousand people out of jobs. Designers and builders will be badly affected as well."

Debate has raged in the forums over the last day or so on how well residents would take to being charged to go to a club. Some were concerned that a lack of patrons would mean not only the loss of Linden event support, but sharply reduced dwell payments as well.

But as Liv put it, "Trust me, dwell pays squat."

SL Residents Riot Over Proposed Stipend Cuts

Actually, it was more of a loud kvetchy protest, but if the incident in A Tale in the Dessert counts as a riot, then this does too, and then some. Yesterday, at least six protest events were held by my count, and a town meeting with Robin Linden had to be moved to a larger venue to contain the crowd, and the chat logs quickly filled up with blistering criticism of the Linden proposal, while other protests took the form of signs, petitions, new groups (e.g. Outraged SL Citizens) that vented all night long, and, as the pics below show, really tight T-shirts (woot!, more of that please!). I was stuck on a machine with a bad graphics card, so the following pics are suboptimal. We hope to get more pics from our paparazzi soon. Calling Taco.

A False Economy? Lindens Fight for Economic Stability

by Matthias Zander

Bonus decreases. Ratings price hikes. Event support disappearances. These three things that could be seen as catastrophies are the Lindens' latest solution to the less-than-beautiful economy of Second Life. Robin Linden took the time to speak to a crowd of around 100 SL residents onthe afternoon of January 11.

"We think it's important to keep a close eye on the economy," Robin told the gathering of avatars, some of whom carried signs protesting the changes.

"The changes are pretty simple, and are meant to do a couple of things," she explained. "First, to manage the flow of money into the SL economy, and second, to start to deal with some of the problems we're seeing in events and in ratings, the economy being the main issue."

Her comments were met with so much chatter from the crowd--some in protest and some in support--that Robin often had trouble making herself heard. But eventually she was able to get across "the facts."

Here is how she laid it out:

Robin Linden: 1. rating bonuses will start to ratchet down starting next week
Robin Linden: rating bonuses account for about a third of the money going into the system each month
Robin Linden: 2. event support will be discontinued except for classes and such
Robin Linden: 3. it will cost L$25 to rate someone
Robin Linden: 4. there is no change to any fees you currently pay for land or membership
Robin Linden: 5. there is no change to weekly stipends payments, which are by far the largest source of Linden currency

Robin's five "facts" can be grouped into two different categories. The first three state what IS going to happen. The final two state what is NOT going to happen.

First, rating bonuses will begin to decline. This is the amount that each user gains per week above their base stipend because of the ratings they have received over time. For premium members, this is anything over their $L500 stipend per week, but for basic account holders, it is anything over the low $L50 per week that they are entitled to. The figure that has been stated by the Lindens for this decline is 50%. The speed of the decline has not been stated, only the fact that it will happen and that it will begin starting with the patch that is to be released the morning of January 12th.

Second, event support will be discontinued besides "classes and such." This essentially means that if your event is not educational, it will not receive any funding at all from the Lindens. Perhaps we shall soon see "Pimping 101 at Club Lotsa HOs" popping up on the events list instead of "Come Dance at Club Lotsa HOs" from now on. Hey, as long as they teach something, this vague term will apply to it. Perhaps the Lindens need to work on developing an exact definition of this.

Third, the price of ratings will increase from $L1 to $L25. Now, while this may seem like a good thing, all it means is that the people who are currently far ahead in the ratings will never be reached. With it costing 25 times more to rate someone, those people in the top ten have secure places unless the Lindens decide to wipe or reduce ratings, something that Robin said would not be done at this time. This also means that you have to think harder about rating someone because you like their clothing. Do you honestly like it enough to spend $L25 telling them that?

The two things that will not be changed in these changes are pretty similar. There will be no increase or decrease in the price to use Second Life. This includes land tier fees as specifically asked by multiple audience members. The actual stipend amount given out per week will also not change. This means that those who currently have a basic account will keep getting only $L50, plus their reduced bonus, each week. The effects of this could be astronomical, making it so that the rich of Second Life get richer while the poor get poorer.

The changes were inspired by concerns among the Lindens that Second Life's economy had been growing out of balance. Money supply has indeed been rising in recent months, and there is also concern about property prices.

The announced changes had a significant impact on the price of the Linden dollar compared to the US dollar today. Yesterday, a bundle of $L1000 was trading on the Gaming Open Market for US$3.78. During the meeting with Robin, the price rose to US$4.00 per bundle of $L1000. In response to a question from the Herald, Robin indicated that the Lindens' target price for the Linden dollar is just that, US$4 per L$1,000.

But the rise of US$.22, while seeming small, is actually quite large compared to historical fluctuation patterns, and there is some concern that fears of changes to come will lead to an even higher US$/L$ exchange rate.

SL residents have been comparing this announcement by the Lindens to the announcement that There.com made on May 21, 2004. This announcement that their product would no longer be supported eventually led to the downfall of the There system in the eyes of most. Only the future will tell whether or not the decisions made by the Lindens will have a positive or negative impact on the system. All that we can do as users of Second Life is to express our opinions to the Lindens in an informative and respectful manner so that they can obtain accurate feedback on what they are doing.

The Herald has secured the promise of an interview with Robin Linden, but it remains to be seen when that will take place. Robin told the crowd of almost 100 residents gathered at Stage 4 today that she would be back in-world over the next few days to field more questions, complaints, and even some support, which was also to be heard at the meeting. Changes to event support did not stop a protest meeting that was planned for 6:00pm on Tuesday, however.

Continue to expect full coverage of these changes from the Herald in the hours, days, and perhaps even weeks to come.

Op/Ed: Enough with the Clubs!

Artemis Fate

The following essay by Artemis Fate appeared in Players, vol. 9. We are grateful to both Marilyn Murphy and to Artemis for permission to republish it here. It is, in our humble opinion, a spot on critique of the rise of club culture in SL, and how it signals a kind of failure of the SL vision.

Enough with the Clubs

by Artemis Fate

As of today, there are over 200 clubs listed in Find.

Now, needless to say, that's a whole lot of clubs. What exactly happened? When did the world of SL, the world I knew and loved in the pre-1.2 days, a world where when people bought their plots, the first idea would be to see what kind of stuff they could build on it. I used to fly around and look at all the new builds, everything was original and exciting. Anyone remember the 50 foot toilet in Hawthorne? It was a time that didnt want or need clubs, there was only one successful club then; Club Vogue. A club that got mention in Hamlet's NWN for being a seedy strip club, after all, something like that was unique.

After some time Club Elite was made, and after the controversy of his land holdings was washed out by a wave of incoming new players, it began to prosper. Now here, to me, is where things started going bad. Two clubs of course, isnt entirely that bad, but little by little, new players came in seeing the prosperity of Club Elite and decided that they too wanted a piece. So little by little, new players put away their creativity, their originality, their sense of adventure in the new world, and instead of seeing what they could do with their land in the new world, they instead turned to the idea of profits, plopping down a slipshod doppleganger of the latest prosperous club.

So SL went from a game that catered to the creative element of the technical community, programmers, engineers, and technicians, as well as just the everyday person with the rather risque areas of M areas, (at that time less than 25% of the entire land mass) to a lame imitation of Las Vegas life -- a landscape speckled with gaggles of near-identical people boxes, religiously frequented by an evergrowing community of new players.

What may I say, happened to all the adventurers? The people who play the game to test how far they can take it. Seems like every new creative building, every new original object, and every step into the unknown in SL, is being done by long-time players. Whilst the growing population of new faces is little by little getting absorbed in joining a club, or making their own copy of a current popular club.

But I cant really blame them, I can see how a lost new player would get involved in this, I've heard from some new friends who managed to stay out of the club scene that some clubs send represtenatives to the welcome center, and try to lure any lost avatar to their establishments, with promise of money and information on the workings of the game. Infact, if anything pulls new players into the clubs, it's a promise of money. Looking at my event list today, there are 33 events promising free money, that is, of 45 events. 6 more of these events are for clubs that are advertising a theme night. So out of 45 events in a day, 39 of them are club related, and only a feeble 3 events run by SL's Mentor's offering help to new players. Not to mention that all of these mentor events run early morning, when not as many new players are jumping into the game. So sadly enough, it seems that the majority of the new avatar population is destined to be parasitically absorbed by the club scene.

Second Life's website used to advertise how you could be anything in this world, a scrolling list of fantasy job ocupations, a varitable plethora of child-hood dreams of what you'd grow up to be. But SL actually offers that you can be anything you want, a wonderful outtake of a person's Id, the dreams of a child that didnt come true in life. So how come so many seem to have chosen a profession like Stripper or Hooker -- professions that, decidedly, are not exactly bespeckled with what i'd call glory. Sure, I've known some people who've done it part time for money or maybe for fun, but these people do it all the time, all day of their SL time.

It's simply.....displeasing to me, how club obsessed, how MONEY obsessed SL has become in these months. With the GoM turning SL's play money into RL money, the world seems to have been plagued by greed, land barony, overpriced clothing and objects, and clubs trying anyway they can to get your dwell.

I really didnt want to see myself turn into that old lady who talks about the "good ol' days" but personally; I prefer a gigantic toilet to a new club any day.

Artemis tending bar at the former Jessie dive: Dirty Dicks.

Avatar of the Year: One Song/Mr. Fairplay

One Song, in his golden battle suit, raises his corporate flag in Jessie

Dedicated readers of the Herald know that our coveted Avatar of the Year Award (the "Avi") goes to the avatar+alts that did the most to change the virtual news over the past year, for better for worse. This year the selection was an easy one: One Song/Mr. Fairplay. Indeed, the only competition he had was from his own scripted intersim ballistic missile that can deliver sim-crashing nukes to selected targets in SL. How could you vote against a guy who torched the Reichstag and raised his corporate flag over the still flaming structure? But there was so much more...

One Song firing away

I first saw One Song when I was visiting a member of the Diad mafia (run by the ex Vince Soprano of tso) and a shootout with the neighboring W Hats erupted. Shortly thereafter, One Song arrived and issued a stern warning to the Diads, telling them that they didn't know who they were messing with. Not sure the Diads heeded the advice, but it did typify the kind of underground conflict resolution that one sees in Second Life -- leading figures (sometimes gang leaders or respected group leaders) interceding directly to talk sense into one or both of the parties (similar roles are played by Chaunsey Crash (in the Pancake Stryker incident)and Cinda Valentino).

The next time I saw One Song, it was at the outbreak of the Second Jessie War. He and Tank Levy were busy acquiring most of the Stamford sim, with an eye to building a megamall between the teleport station and Club Elite. When the WWIIOLers took umbrage at the project and built a giant wall, One Song was incensed. When they called him a pussy, war broke out, leading to a series of global attacks between One Song and his allies in The Cartel on one side, and the WWIIOLers and the Techsols on the other.

At the time of the Second Jessie War, One Song was operating a club/cyberbrothel called Diamonds, and while there were other cyberbrothels, no one was so brazen about it, posting prices for all the services.

Prices posted at One Song's erotic dance/cyber club

Club Diamonds was also interesting because of the dancers’ tables that One Song had scripted.

Diamonds dancer Cathy Curie, at a dance table scripted by One Song

What I didn't know at the time of the Second Jessie War was that One Song had also done most of his own scripting, including the invisible armor that made him impervious to gunfire and turret fire in Jessie. Even the fully armed flying mechanical moose couldn't bring him down!

Even the moose couldn't bring down One Song

But of course his big scripting project at the time was his intersim nuke weapon, which he boasted could bring down the entire SL grid if he wanted it to.

One Song's intersim nuke delivery device

Was the nuke ever used? That is a good question, since there are rumors that it was used in BallerMoMo's attack on Reno Parks and the Bad Boys gang in their private sim, crashing it and 5 other sims as well. And there are other rumors, for example surrounding the autoreturn of all objects at club X-tacy. Microscopic scripted objects infected the sim and turned the land into lag hell, forcing the club owners to autoreturn everything on the property. Was One Song involved? He certainly had a motive after his break with Tank Levy, but the world may never know for sure.

Of course the break with Tank Levy led to further drama, including the controversial boxing match between One Song and Tank Levy and David Jacobs at Second Life boxing. When One Song won the match, it appeared that David Jacobs became incensed with his SLB partner Tommy Rampal for organizing the event and pulled out of SLB, trashing the boxing venue in protest.

But then One Song, or should I say Mr. Fairplay, went clean. More or less. He devoted much of his energy to scripting his infamous poker table, which today is one of the most complex (and fun) objects in SL and is a staple at better clubs and casinos.

One Song at the poker table he scripted

His big project of late has been attempting to organize a private mini-grid of sims off the mainland, which will have its own set of rules and governance structure. Called Dream City, if carried off, it will become, in effect, the first true Virtual City State in the metaverse.

Of course the One Song avi is still called out of retirement to flex some muscle and slap down miscreants, the most recent case being when Sasami Wishbringer attempted to enlist SL gangs in a harassment campaign against the Herald because of our reporting on Sasami's sales of hentai porn and his roleplaying as an 8 year old slave/prostitute.

Often he can be seen at Linden Town Meetings in the persona of Mr. Fairplay, the politician: passionate defender of the rights of land barons, critic of SL's plans to introduce a kiddie grid, and advocate of a bottom-up approach to conflict resolution (i.e. Lindens butt out).

For all these reasons, One Song/Mr. Fairplay is our avi of the year!

Avatars of the Year, 3rd Place: Ashley and Pez

Before the year closes out, the Herald is going to hand out its avatars of the year awards, beginning with third place. The award goes to the avatars+alts that changed virtual news the most (for better or worse) during the past year. This year, third place is a tie between Ashley Richardson and Mr-President, both formerly of Alphaville.

Mr-President, of course, deserves credit for creating the Alphaville Government and organizing the elections. Probably having Ashley as his challenger was key in helping the election to get international press, ranging from Wired News, to an NPR interview, to the New York Times. But on the dark side, Pez was caught up in election fixing charges, and of course his reputation was tarnished by his association with gang leader JC Soprano. Meanwhile, Ashley helped lead the charge for an investigation into election corruption, but then made news herself when the Miss Alphaville pagent that she organized was allegedly rigged, and shocked citisims by enlisting famous scammers as judges in the finals of her contest. Both were big big newsmakers, and added much to tso gameplay. Congrats!

BallerMoMo King: "they know they can"t fuck with me"

In this interview we visit BallerMoMo King (aka sexypimp, aka YourHighness) in his private sim mansion and talk about his devastating sim-crashing attack on Reno Parks (a location we last visited to report on the Parks/Fatale nuptials). He tells all, from the reasons for the attack (dissed by Reno), to the other five sims that went down, and the aftermath of suspensions and bannings of his avi's. He also confirms that Sasami Wishbringer approached him about strong arming the Herald into pulling the story about Sasami's 8 yr old slave/cyberprostitute avi (naughty Sasami, tsk tsk).

BallerMoMo, in casual attire, relaxes in front of his fireplace.

You: I wanna ask about your operations, your club, your attacks
BallerMoMo King: I dont have a club :)
BallerMoMo King: never wanted to have 1
You: casino?
BallerMoMo King: Casino is for me and my friends only
You: haha
You: ok, then about ur big fucking house!
BallerMoMo King: LOL

BallerMoMo strolls through one of the understated rooms in his mansion.

BallerMoMo King: u can ask me anything u wanna know
You: u have a gang here no?
You: a crew, whatever
BallerMoMo King: I have bodyGuards
BallerMoMo King: but for attacks
BallerMoMo King: i do them myself
BallerMoMo King: Just the way One Song did in the Second war of Jessie.
You: what do the bodyGuards do?
BallerMoMo King: My bodyguards: i ask them 2 take snapshots of the attacks i do
BallerMoMo King: they dont do anything special
BallerMoMo King: cuz i do the attacks
BallerMoMo King: and they guard me when i go 2 clubs
You: gotcha
BallerMoMo King: cuz many fuckin newbie's try 2 act cool
BallerMoMo King: by holding guns and shooting everyone
You: meaning newbs wanna test BallerMomo?
BallerMoMo King: LOL ... No one can test me ...everybody knows me here ...
BallerMoMo King: and they know they cant fuck with me
BallerMoMo King: U can ask One Song

Bodyguards Chad and Dan

BallerMoMo King gave you Snapshot.
BallerMoMo King: look at that hill
You: terraforming attack?

BallerMoMo King: Just fucking around with reno land
You: why did you want to attack Reno? were u working for someone?
BallerMoMo King: i was talking To reno in IM .....
BallerMoMo King: and i was telling him
BallerMoMo King: that his men wanna join me and be my bodyguards
BallerMoMo King: instead of being in bad Boys group
You: and he didn't like that idea?
BallerMoMo King: at that time he was making fun of me in public and i never knew till my girl IMED me and told me that
You: you mean he would dis you at clubs and shit?
BallerMoMo King: i was like wtf ...im a man talking to a man in IM and he is trying 2 act cool in front of girls
BallerMoMo King: i was in his island
BallerMoMo King: he started talking big .....
BallerMoMo King: it was like im not into holding guns ....and shooting around like newbie's do
BallerMoMo King: i was like reno ur dead i will send u a gift soooon
BallerMoMo King: 2 days later ....i started the attack ....and crashed his sim with other 5 sims
You: were the other sims an accident?
BallerMoMo King: Yep :) i wanted 2 bring one sim down
You: oops
BallerMoMo King: things went wrong so 6 sims went down
BallerMoMo King: i know that it could fuck the other sims
BallerMoMo King: but i thought that things were fixed 2 bring only one sim down
You: so the attack was personal between you and Reno and had nothing to do with Gina.
BallerMoMo King: Well it had nothing to do with Gina ...it was about him talking big
BallerMoMo King: when all what they can do is use guns and start shooting
You: well, you were trying to get his gang to defect to you
BallerMoMo King: Nope they wanted to work for me ..cuz i pay goood
BallerMoMo King: i pay everybody guard between 500linden to 1k for an hour
You: they came to you and asked to work for you?
BallerMoMo King: Someone told them that im looking for bodyguards
BallerMoMo King: then they told me that they are interested
You: so they must not have had much loyalty or respect for Reno
BallerMoMo King: Some of them ....when they saw me around they traded cards with me
BallerMoMo King: and was like please we don’t want u to tell reno that we did
You: wow, well tell me about the global attack
You: did you use One's nukes?
BallerMoMo King: I used Nukes ..... u dont have to be in the sim to attack the sim
BallerMoMo King: u can be somewhere else and do the attack
BallerMoMo King: and i had scripters help me with that
You: I think I've seen the weapon
You: so why did the Lindens suspect you if u weren't present
BallerMoMo King: Cuz reno knew that i didnt like him ..so he told the lindens
BallerMoMo King: even Chad
BallerMoMo King: he was force tped By andrew linden
Chad Bard: yea i got banned for about an hour

Chad observes as the fun starts

You: so they just took Reno's word for it?
BallerMoMo King: Nope i got drunk
BallerMoMo King: and i told lindens to suck my dick
BallerMoMo King: and i told lindens that it was me who did that attack
BallerMoMo King: and i told them fuck u and fuck ur SL cuz i have a first life
You: u shouldn't tease them like that!
BallerMoMo King: i was drunk
BallerMoMo King: so they knew it was me
You: fair enough
BallerMoMo King: and i got banned
BallerMoMo King: i came back 2 them later
BallerMoMo King: got naked and told them 2 suck my dick ......
BallerMoMo King: and i told them that next attack will be on them
You: very political
You: what did they say to that?
BallerMoMo King: thats what i did :) when i was drunk
BallerMoMo King: they ignored me ...and suspended my accounts
BallerMoMo King: till i called them on phone
You: how many accounts did you have
BallerMoMo King: 6 or 7
You: and how many did they suspend?
BallerMoMo King: 4 of them
You: did they suspend this one?
BallerMoMo King: Nope never :)
BallerMoMo King: i didnt do the attack with this av
You: is this your main acct?
BallerMoMo King: Main av was sexypimp
You: gotcha
BallerMoMo King: and YourHighness
You: is that one still suspended?
BallerMoMo King: It was ..not till i talked to them on the phone
BallerMoMo King: and they contacted me 4 weeks ago
BallerMoMo King: and they told me they wanna suspend sexypimp
BallerMoMo King: Ian linden told me he wanna suspend sexypimp .....
BallerMoMo King: cuz there was a Nuke attack happened
You: what sense does it make to only suspend *some* of your avis?
BallerMoMo King: Well One Song talked to andrew linden
BallerMoMo King: and andrew linden knows me very well
BallerMoMo King: they said no use from banning me anymore
BallerMoMo King: cuz i will come back with another av
You: right, cuz you would keep coming back
BallerMoMo King: yes and would use different credit cards
BallerMoMo King: for the new av's
You: Isn't kind of expensive, having this island, this house, paying your bodyguards, and having all these accts?
BallerMoMo King: Hmmmmmmmm not for me lol
You: lol, ok
You: what do you think went wrong with the global attack -- why did so many sims go down?
BallerMoMo King: I never figured it out ...since i didnt do the script :)
BallerMoMo King: i used it
You: did you ask the scriptor?
BallerMoMo King: Nope ... i didnt ....the attack happened ...and sims went down ..i didnt care
You: Did you pay for the script? for the nuke?
BallerMoMo King: I paid for both ..... i paid 100k
You: so it is a scripted object that flies to the target sim and crashes it?
BallerMoMo King: Yes it is .... i have some small nukes i can show u here
BallerMoMo King: i never use them
You: sure!
You: do they crash the server? or do they reterraform the land/
BallerMoMo King: They make the sim laggggy ....those are small ones

BallerMoMo King: i can set one now it will kill u and i will tp u back
BallerMoMo King: Thats a briefcase
BallerMoMo King: small one
You: a briefcase nuke
BallerMoMo King: i was fixing 2day
BallerMoMo King: Nuke Ready
You died and have been teleported to your home location
The SimCast Evil Eye: Has fixed it's gaze upon you, mere mortal!
BallerMoMo King: i will tp them back
BallerMoMo King: If i used it a lot in a sim it can bring it down
You: by lagging it do death?

BallerMoMo King: Yep it makes it for u impossible to move
You: what was the pic of the terraforming attack on Reno then...
Chad Bard: yea i can vouch for that considering i had to take pics. of the mess
You: that looked like something else
You: haha
BallerMoMo King: No thats a small nuke ...... My nukes are not on This avi
BallerMoMo King: let me show u pics of the attack
BallerMoMo King: and how reno island looked
You: i don't understand how the nukes re-terra an island
BallerMoMo King: i will send u the pics
BallerMoMo King: That one is just like the One One Song used in The second world war of Jessie
BallerMoMo King: which have been used in Reno island
BallerMoMo King: Sometimes .i wanted to see the attack myself
BallerMoMo King: which made me give one of my av's to someone to do the attack while i watch the sim goes down
Chad Bard: It was a brilliant attack just lagged the hell outta me...but it was interesting to see
BallerMoMo King: The attack happened long time ago
BallerMoMo King: after that i stopped
BallerMoMo King: and became a peacefull guy with this av

BallerMoMo King: unlesss someone fucks with me thats something else
You: like Reno did
BallerMoMo King: Yep..... so when i saw JC talking about baller i thought he meant me
BallerMoMo King: and i was ready to start a new attack on him ...which was gonna be way much bigger then the attack which happened to Reno
You: hard to attack a guy that isn't in SL
BallerMoMo King: Yep :)
BallerMoMo King: thats what i figured out
BallerMoMo King: i thought he meant me
You: haha. what if someone comes to you asking you to attack someone for them?
BallerMoMo King: i found out later that he didn’t mean BallerMoMo ..He meant Baller who’s in TSO
BallerMoMo King: i never do that
BallerMoMo King: Unless he is my SL bro or friend
BallerMoMo King: i will do it for him
You: Well people ask you to...
You: why do u think Sasami Wishbringer came to you
BallerMoMo King: Cuz of my contacts in SL
BallerMoMo King: and cuz people know who i am
You: Did Sasami ask you to conduct a global attack on me?
BallerMoMo King: She never did :) but she thought that if i asked someone to erase the article they will just do it ..since nobody wanna fuck with me
BallerMoMo King: then i talked to One Song
BallerMoMo King: he told me ur his friend ........ and asked me to stay away from it
You: ok, so she figured you could intimidate me into removing the article?
BallerMoMo King: Yep she thought that
BallerMoMo King: untill i told her i wont do anything for u anymore
BallerMoMo King: i tped One Song
You: Did she want On Song to do the same?
BallerMoMo King: she talked to him but she was not nice to him ..so i was like fuck that i won’t help her
BallerMoMo King: No ..she wanted to convince One Song to ask u to take the article away
You: yeah One showed me the log
You: she was pretty fresh with him, I thought
BallerMoMo King: she was not talking in a nice way
You: no, considering who she was talking too
BallerMoMo King: and she didn’t appreciate me trying to help her
You: that was clear from the logs
BallerMoMo King: and one song wanted to post the article
You: I know
BallerMoMo King: to show her view of point
BallerMoMo King: and she never wanted
BallerMoMo King: so it was all waste of time
You: I offered to interview her too, but she would rather start neg rating parties against innocent people like Artemis
You: so she wouldn't do an interview
BallerMoMo King: she wont appreciate the help
You: nope, sometimes people don't know when you are trying to help them
BallerMoMo King: so i stopped helping her from that day
You: alright Baller, I gotta run now...
You: this was a great interview
BallerMoMo King: Ok nice to meet u
You: It will be up by New Years...

It's Christmas Eve in SL. Do you know where your churches are?

For a variety of complex reasons I found myself stuck in the Westin Hotel in Warsaw Poland on Christmas Eve, so I thought I would check in on SL for some holiday cheer. My first thought was that I should check out some churches and see what was happening. I searched on 'church', found five hits, and visited all (though one was a desanctified goth place). The churches were empty, of course, but Club Edge was hopping and the cyberescorts were hard at work. Pictures follow.

And meanwhile, back at Club Edge...

Hmmm, looks like Minato stole Sasami's hair. Well hey, whatever works.

Black Hand Mafia Opens Club in SL

by Gina Fatale

Former denizens of TSO remember the Black Hand Mafia. Sonny Satriale, as the Godfather of the BlackHand Mafia was known in TSO, has been spending his days in SecondLife under the name Santino Molinari. Santino has started a chapter of the BlackHand mafia in SL his first family operated business is the club which had its grand opening last night.

ClubBlackHand is owned and operated by the very sexy BlackHand Underboss, Blaydon Loveless. Mr. Loveless was kind enough to show me around the mobsters' joint before the grand opening party began.

Blaydon Loveless, Underboss, Club Owner,….mmmmmm

(here Blaydon takes me to the secret entrance to the “private area” as he called it, as you can see I was admiring his ass oops I mean the hand work on the wall….)

Passing thru the red hand brings us to a small corridor with 4 doors in each corner, so me being the inquisitive reporter I wanted to see what was behind one of these doors….

(all them balls on the bed was more than I could handle so I stayed back)

(I felt so dirty after viewing the sex rooms I decided to take a bath in the “romantic themed room”)

Drunk mobsters dancing

Club Euphoria Grand Opening

Pat the Rat has been pretty much shirking his/her duties of late, but s/he did manage to drop in on the the grand opening of Club Euphoria earlier this week. Pictures follow.


Manage Luvgun Levy.

The owner shows us some heel kickin'.

Undead DJ Stormy Wilde

The Club Woot! boss stops by to check out the competition.

Tek Bijoux makes a subtle statement.

Butterflies or fairies or moths or something.

The Dancer Floor is showered with hearts and pentangles.

Master of his domain. The boss observes the dance floor from his mack daddy club owner perch.

The Vampires of Second Life

By Miravoir Psaltry (reprinted from Players, volume 11)

In this story Miravoir, our intrepid chronicler of Second Life dancers, escorts, and furries meets some of the local vampires, and gets a great story, but also gets tapped! I warned her, I warned her?


A friendly SL vamp-- Dargost Volos.

It's been said that vampires are a figment dreamed up by the Catholic Church to scare young girls into being chaste. They aren't really true, but simple fairy tales that kept the superstitious populace in fear, and the young virgins in doors.

Yet, the presence of bloodsucking creatures has existed in cultures and religions far older than the Catholic Church. The Babylonians had their Lilu and Lilitu. The Hebrews had Lilith. The Lamia and Empusa of the Greeks scared young men into being chaste. There are vampire myths in India, in the British Isles, and all around the world. So, it's interesting to speculate why the vampire legend has been so enduring, and so entrancing to us mortals.

The vampire mystique, over the years, has become further couched in sensuality and charisma. People have a fascination with them even now, but it has become more friendly, more welcoming, even though the hint of fear still exists. Here in Second Life I would come across perhaps one Furry in a day, one alien, one D/s master and slave, but at least 5 or 6 vampires. Some are very free with their lifestyle, some, when questioned reticent, and some hide their true natures behind terse answers or cheeky jokes.

Vampire Seeki hangs out while Gweem stalks helpless Mir!

I put on my armor plated turtleneck and braved the streets of Transylvania and various nightclubs I knew vampires liked to haunt. What I found, curiously, is although female vampires are so prevalent in myth, it was next to impossible to get any to answer my questions. So, this vampire article is from a male perspective. Perhaps, later, I'll do a second one from the female perspective.

I spoke to five toothy gentlemen about their particular existence as children of the night in SL. Gweem Engel and Dargost Volos were the most free in their information, but Sox Rampal, Enigma Stravinsky, and M.Z (he didn't want me to give his full name) offered a nice picture of the variations of vampire personality and were thus, quite useful and all wonderful people to have taken the time to answer my questions.

Vampires in SL run the gamut of people simply interested in the fashion statement, to those so deeply entrenched in the role that they would frown greatly to be called mere mortals. I found those that fully embraced the lifestyle to be the most interesting, of course, and sought them out. Mira as vampire hunter - are you fanged ones trembling yet?

I love to hear the history of vampires, Dargost was a knight in england. sometime in the middleages, that was dying upon the battlefield when a (kind?) vampire soul came and turned him. Gweem, sadly, had a more horrifying experience, a big, rat-headed, snaggly-toothed Ductus waylaid him on the way home from a party. Fortunately, he was so inebriated that he didn't even remember it until he was scrabbling out of the wood and dirt of his grave. Enigma quietly stated that he was turned by a master vampire (whom, he would not say - Nosferatu himself?). Sox said that he fell into a group of vampires called The Fang Gang, and seems to, by all accounts, willingly been turned. (It's hard to say, he was a reticent one.) However, MZ wouldn't tell me how he turned at all - very sad.

Why the attraction to the vampire mystique? I posed this burning question to my hosts. The major consensus is that vampires are seen as romantic and powerful. Gweem was especially amusing in saying, "We're sex, we're the act of violation. We're rockstar gods." He also went on to say that, "The Vampire life is a shot at immortality, it's a shot at something bigger than yourself. Some people want to be vampires because it?s a somewhat exclusive club. Others want to be vampires because it gives them an excuse to indulge in their basest desires."

Of course, the reasons to be a vampire are far more apparent than those that want to be the victim of a vampire. Why on earth someone would want to be a victim is beyond me. But, there are those that live to be a "blood doll" as Gweem says. Enigma does not feel a sane person would want to be a victim, so, i suppose a sense of madness exists in those that actively seek out the damned. I was asked by one of the vampires myself why I *didn't* want to be a vampire. I saucily replied that pale ghostly white just isn't Mira's color. What can I say - I prefer a bit of health in my visage. I guess I'm not drawn in enough to throw away the need for life in return for being eternally undead. But we're not here to talk about me. Dargost says that his victims have a certain quality that makes them readily visible to him. They have a submissive mien, a need to be controlled. Gweem laughingly replied that, " The kiss (biting into someone, and feeding) packs a hell of an emotional/erotic punch. For a mortal it feels like a sustained orgasm, pumped up to a power of 10 or so. Most are deluded enough to think that their regent actually cares about them, which I suppose can happen from time to time. For the most part, a blood doll is seen like a prized calf, or a shiny new car. While it's pretty, or useful, it will be showered with affection, esteem, and gifts. When it starts to get old, or the blood doll just isn't keeping the lick interested, then the 'relationship' can go south pretty quick. I mean, it really sucks when your favorite car decides to put a stick in your chest just because she thought you were looking at another juice box." So, the victim is seen as slightly divorced from reality, submissive, and perhaps, wanting to be turned into the vampires immortal beloved.

I noticed that the current vampire legend seemed to be loosely related to the BDSM lifestyle, so I asked the men about this too. Dargost said this was definitely a vampire thing. However, Enigma disagreed, he said that while vampires had a thrall over their victims, they weren't out to control them. Gweem replied that it can go either way. Blood Dolls can tend to be conditioned to be submissive by their constantly being fed upon. And some vampires, because of the loss of their humanity, can tend to become full on Domitors while in human form they were merely pushy. So, my assumptions seem to be met with some validity. Part of the vampire mystique is control, in a sense.

I, having my curiosity piqued, asked my vampires what they looked for in victims. Gweem said he wasn't a "chat up your meal" sort of vampire. He's in, he's out. There isn't going to be a relationship there. You're food - doesn't matter what you're like. Sorry folks. Dargost, on the other hand, looks for passion in his prey. He's looking for that sublimely sensual mark that would draw a vampire in to feed... perhaps for hours. Sox says he's only looking to feed on evil doers, (though he tried to welcome me into a nice vampire kiss... hmm... now I know reporters are about as loved as lawyers.. but really Sox!) Enigma, like Gweem isn't looking for a relationship with his food. He looks for those weak, scared people walking alone in the dark. Now, I can see their point. Would you fall in love with your caesar salad? Your hamburger? Still, there's a measure of seduction in the vampire's kiss. I would say, beware ladies and gentlemen.

The physical characteristics of vampires in SL tend towards the Gothic, though Sox's crew tend to wear heavy peach makeup and roam around SL as mortals. To those that naysay his group as being vampires at all, he replied that no one knows what they do and they like remaining a mystery. Let the naysayers neigh. They don't care. Personality wise, Dargost claims that vampires exude sex, and Gweem agrees. "Vampires were made from sex, " he says. But Gweem said that vampires also tend to have bad tempers and are slightly emotionally unstable. Not good friends to have, especially if you're a mortal. Rather hard to maintain a friendship with a vampire when he's chasing you around the room. I suppose that would tend to be tiring.

When I asked what irritated these vampiric gentlemen about other vampires, most said that arrogance was the primary quality in other vampires that upset them most. Gweem said, " We're all below someone. Somewhere theres a person or creature that doesn't care about you or your politics or your clothes, and if you find yourself between them and a goal... Well, your ash." Dargost complained, " Some vampires feel that knowing all things vampire is the most important thing. They get so couched in acedemia that they miss the point of what it's all about - seduction. And any that they feel do not know enough of the vampire history are deemed below them." Enigma didn't like the way some vampires like to show off to the mortals. He didn't think it's in good form to advertise. I must agree - easy way to get a nice stake in your heart by waving your arms about and saying, "Look at Me! Look at me! I'm a vampire!" But, I'm glad I found some forthcoming enough to let me know of their lifestyle.

Finally, most vampires would like to be treated with the same respect any other person in SL would like. As to how would they like us to see them, I think Gweem stated this the best in saying, "Boys, Girls, Children of all ages, understand that we were all mortal once. We were similar to you. There?s a chance that you could be just like us eventually. We've got super powers, cool clothes, and a really good dental plan.

Everyone one of us is an individual. That doesn't mean we are all unique, far from it, but it does mean that some of us will be just like I've described, and others will be nothing like written."

And that is that, make your own impressions about vampires but if there is a chance that you felt a bite on your way home one day, and suddenly you've become sensitive to light, and need spf factor 1 million sunscreen, we have included a lovely set of fangs, courtesy of Gweem Engel, as well.

Gween takes a turn on the cross.

Bedazzling Gravity Space Station

I gather that the Gravity Space Station is just a place to chill while the Bedazzled group works on their development of Unreal Tournament (or a version of it) inside SL (and with Francis Chung's Seburo compact exploder no less), but it is noteworthy for the texturing and all. While I was visiting Phillip Linden showed up and pronounced it a "Sweet Build" so what more can I say?


The view from outside. We must be pretty high up!

Yikes this passage is so... nvm

Developer Chiccio Molinari chills, but like why did they need to steal the furniture from my dentist's waiting room?

Strife Onizuka -- former scriptor on the Tartarus project is now with the Bedazzled group.

Phillip approves!

One Song's Poker Table

Infamous land baron, strip club/escort service operator, and virtual arsonist One Song (aka Mr. Fairplay) has finished his long awaited poker table -- and the result is one of the most complexly scripted single objects in Second Life. We have seen it in operation at The Edge, and at the Red River Valley Saloon. Following are some pics to give you a taste. If you are a high roller you may want to check this out for yourself. Bring lots of Linden Dollars.


On the outside looking in at the Red River Valley Saloon

Appropriate lighting is everything -- gotta save the eyes.

Only the hardcore players are there on Thanksgiving day, but still the pots are over 1K Lindens (around $5) -- when the table fills up the pots get up to 10K Lindens, and Mr. Fairplay envisions pots of 50K ($250 US for the math impaired). But here we start at 60 Lindens. Like, nothing!

Mr. Fairplay and the very distracting manager Terri Bancroft.

Blaze Spinakker folds.

Amazon warrior Haley Mandala waits for the flop. Or something like that.

One Song/Mr. Fairplay himself. Note that he has retired his white suit for a nice plaid "red state" look.

Only dogs play the low stakes table.

Meanwhile, back at The Edge, dealer Evil Fool holds court over a One Song scripted table.

Camping Noobs in Second Life

In combat based MMOs, when players camp newbies they hang out at entry points and slaughter them -- n00bs being such easy kills and all. Now in a social MMO like Second Life it's the same basic idea only more subtle. Club officers pounce on n00bs, drag them to their clubs and entertain them to death (or at least keep them there until death). A few weeks ago we saw many complaints about the Club Elite practice of camping n00bs, but we recently sent a cub reporter to the entry point and found that the practice is quite widespread.

Second Life Boxing to Reopen

By Gina Fatale

After all the drama from Boxingmania, SLB is once again opening its doors for Friday Night Fights only this time around Tommy Rampal is the one and only manager of the complex, leaving out his former business partner/drama queen, David Jacobs. I was able to catch Tommy while he was preparing for the upcoming grand re-opening of the complex.

Gina Fatale: Hello again Tommy :) ty for taking the time out once again to chat with me
Tommy Rampal: Its ok!
Gina Fatale: So it's true you and David have made amends and are reopening SLB>?
Tommy Rampal: Well i am reopening SLB. But dave will have nothing to do with it anymore.
Gina Fatale: I thought he was going too be involved again?
Tommy Rampal: Nope, if he wanted to come back, I would let him be a boxer/ head boxer. Because he did a hell of a job at it.
Tommy Rampal: But i am working alone in this business now
Tommy Rampal: I will hire head of staff (eg. Boxers, security) to sort parts of the staff out
Gina Fatale: Great for you, so now I hear you have a new and improved boxing system - tell me a little about it
Tommy Rampal: Yes we do. Well its improved a hell of alot.
Tommy Rampal: It doesnt depend on 50 - 50 chance winning (dice rolling), and it has a sensor in the script so its more realistic
Tommy Rampal: It has 5 skills that improve boxers to fight. Strength, Defense, Stamina, Speed, Accuracy
Gina Fatale: This does sound more fun to watch and take part in. Who created the new gloves?
Tommy Rampal: Boxers can improve on those skills at any time.
Tommy Rampal: The new gloves and most of our scripts were made by Lordjason Kiesler and it wasn't cheap.
Gina Fatale: So the boxers actually have to skill to improve their fighting?
Tommy Rampal: yes
Gina Fatale: Nothing is cheap my dear lol
Tommy Rampal: Also, fans who want to help their favourite boxer out, they can pay a icon on the stats board during a match
Tommy Rampal: and raise the boxer's skill level to help win the match
Gina Fatale: This will attract even more visitors I bet
Tommy Rampal: Hopefully.
Tommy Rampal: hehe
Gina Fatale: Seems more ways to be involved this time around
Gina Fatale: When is the big opening
Gina Fatale: err re-opening
Tommy Rampal: heh it is on friday hopfully
Gina Fatale: Is the SLB website still running?
Tommy Rampal: yes it is.
Tommy Rampal: It hasn't been updated much
Gina Fatale: Can you give that address again so readers may check it out as well
Tommy Rampal: www.SecondLifeBoxing.tk
Gina Fatale: Great thanks, look forward to Friday's night Fights again, anything else you would like to ad to this before i leave?
Tommy Rampal: We have more improvements to the Arena and getting more improvements (eg. New ticket system)
Tommy Rampal: And we have bingo nights at slb on Every Thursday and Satuday 12pm SL Time
Gina Fatale: okay great! see that people get your asses over to SLB there is always something goin on lol
Gina Fatale: TY tommy again for your time :)
Tommy Rampal: NP anytime :)

SL Escorts: Good Times or Virtual Sex Slavery?

In a topic recently opened on the Second Life Forums, Hiro Pendragon has raised the issue of whether the escorts in second life are not being exploited by club owners. As Hiro framed the problem: ?I think there are many clubs that exploit players, most of them new players, many female, that are "escorts". Let's make no beans about this - they sell cybersex. They are paid poorly (literally a couple bucks if you convert L$ -> US$). It is unregulated. Clubs get, if nothing else, great dwell.?

I am in a difficult spot on this one, since my friend One Song has operated (operates?) a cyberbrothel and my friend Daphne Molinari co-manages the escorts at Club Elite. I?m not sure what to do with this other than open the topic for discussion, but read on for some issues to consider.


A price list for escort services at Club Diamonds. Picture taken August 23rd of this year.

Just to get things started, let me say this. We all know on the one hand that no one is forced to stay at a club or work at a club. There is no physical coercion in cyberspace. In the worst case you can turn off your computer. But the issue seems to be this: You land in a strange place, utterly unable to navigate. Someone from a club meets you at the welcome area and welcomes you into their ?family?. Over and over you will hear the word family. If you chose to leave, you are leaving your family. So the social pressure to stay in the club/group is great. If you become an escort you will probably work long hours, and most of the money you make cybering will go back to the club (which is also collecting dwell points in the meantime). Your pay will be a pittance compared to what r/l phone sex workers get for the same effort.

Now no one I know has come forward with charges of exploitation, and I suspect that for most escorts it is just a way to safely play out a certain fantasy life. But? I *do* think that the escorts are grossly underpaid in r/l terms, and I wonder if some consciousness raising isn?t in order for all of us (escorts, johns, club managers, newspaper reporters, and Lindens).

SL Boxing Partnership Implodes. David Jacobs demos complex.

By Gina Fatale

After the success of SLB's Boxingmania it comes as somewhat of a shock to learn that one half of the partnership that owns Second Life Boxing has become a traitor and demolished the boxing complex. David Jacobs (for whatever reason we cannot confirm yet) has backed out of SLB cursing his long time partner Tommy Rampal basically destroyed everything he possibly could at SLB. I was able to obtain some chat logs exchanged between the two men, read on:

Tommy Rampal: u not going to come back to slb?
David Jacobs: Probably not
Tommy Rampal: whys that
David Jacobs: Time to move on
Tommy Rampal: ...
Tommy Rampal: and that means
Tommy Rampal: so what u working on now?
Tommy Rampal: btw dave
Tommy Rampal: u gonna leave the groups if u quit then?
David Jacobs: No
Tommy Rampal: whys that?
David Jacobs: Don't want to yet
Tommy Rampal: whys that
David Jacobs: Because you can't make me
Tommy Rampal: i know
Tommy Rampal: but if u quit why arent u leaving the groups
Tommy Rampal: and also, i will need you to let me buy the stuff (for free) eg walls, ring etc
David Jacobs: Well since the land is group owned, when u sell the land the money is split evenly
Tommy Rampal: well since i paid for it, i will get the money
Tommy Rampal: and since the business has not died, it will not be sold.
David Jacobs: Yes, but it's group owned.. It automaticaly gets split hehe
Tommy Rampal: also, if i wanna sell it, i will first sell it to me for free
Tommy Rampal: then sell it
David Jacobs: Never thought of that one
Tommy Rampal: anyways
Tommy Rampal: since you have betrayed slb and left you wont get any profits or splits of the land if its sold
David Jacobs: Fair enough, I'll return all my stuff then :)
Tommy Rampal: ok
Tommy Rampal: sell it to me
Tommy Rampal: i will keep it
David Jacobs: Ha.. No
Tommy Rampal: Whys that?
David Jacobs: So much more fun this way
Tommy Rampal: what are you on about
Tommy Rampal: Dave have a heart
Tommy Rampal: let me keep the ring.
David Jacobs: Was going to.. I'm deleting the stuff i own

*David destroys the slb arena*
(you = Tommy)
You shout: Dave... Wtf?!
You: Well david
You: this place is easily repairable
You: i got a copy of the wall.
David Jacobs: There you go.. Anything I've built you can replace :D
You: I will now be working side with one song if he wants to help
You: he will help me out
David Jacobs: rofl good luck :D you'll need it :)
You: Yep
You: David
You: put the ring stuff for sale please?
David Jacobs: Ah.. No :)
You: this building does need a redo over
You: well as youve destroyed it
David Jacobs: Gl Tommy, this aint personal. This is to proove a point.
You: the point was?
David Jacobs: For you to figure out :)
You: Oh...
You: Dont mess with david?
David Jacobs: For once.. No
David Jacobs: If I wanted that to happen I'd have simply returned all the objects.
You: anyways
David Jacobs: This is to proove what the difference between a friend and a business relationship is.
You: i have the ring.
You: well dave
You: i believe what u did to my business
You: was personal
David Jacobs: Before we was friends until you started to fuck around with One.. Now I don't want to even know about you.
You: this is what i do on SL and youve destroyed it
You: and youve made a enemy of the process
You: fuck around with one?
David Jacobs: I can afford to have you as a enemy T :)
You: heh.
You: well aslong as your around, i will make your sl life a living hell
David Jacobs: Good good
David Jacobs: I don't take kindly to threats T :)
David Jacobs: You should know this by now.
You: heh
You: Well
You: Get the fuck off my land
*gets seburo out and shoots the fucker flying LOL*

Violence erupts at Park/Fatale Wedding Reception

Seems Pat the Rat was busy covering Elite drama before and after the wedding and hence missed the big shootouts. Ms. Fatale, the reporter/mobster/bride was kind enough to file the unbiased report herself. -Uri

By Gina Fatale

Before the grand ceremony at the home of Bad-Boy Don Reno Parks and crew, the Bad-Boys received a special visit from arch enemies the Un-Touchables. Mike Tomba showed up on and undercover avatar in female form (some say he enjoyed it as a female too much) and began to teleport a few of the Untouchable members into the sim. All hell broke loose as the Bad-Boys and Untouchables went at it in a shootout. The result? Well you guessed it, Bad-Boys cleared house and Untouchables went running home to Mommy.

In a separate incident, after the wedding ceremony (which went smoothly with no interruptions) a hot headed wench, Katja Eisenberg (as far as we know just a random ho) arrived outside the chapel and began to talk some smack to Bad-Boy Don EJ Street. Not a good move on her part considering the entire crew and family was present. The newlyweds and entourage opened fire on the poor ho, who was blown away to the other side of the island. She decided to make another stupid move by particularly firing back at just the bride. The result? Well you guessed it (*laughs*), Bad-Boys cleared her out as well. That what you get when you try to mess with the Bad-Boy crew.

Streaming the Prez Debate in SL -- sort of

Hamlet Linden has a story in New World Notes about tonight's presidential debate that is catching air time in the blogosphere. Some folks are gonna stream the debate into the game via NPR, hang out, yak about it, and in Hamlet's case blog it (yes another Linden sucked into the blogspace vortex). I guess that's cool, but basically it amounts everyone listening to the same radio station while they play SL. It would be more impressive if they could run a video feed in the game. but then again how would that be different from putting a television next to your monitor? (or opening a window next to your SL window). This gets my vote for much ado about not much.

One Song Wins Boxingmania! But not without Controversy?

By Gina Fatale

The results from Friday?s Boxingmania at SLB in the One Song vs Tank Levy match are in, and as I predicted, the winner was One Song. The night started off with alot of trash talking between the two rivals and jumping in on the One-Song-hater band wagon was none other than one half owner of SLB himself, David Jacobs! David, who eventually teamed up with Tank Levy in the ring to box against One Song was also beat. I was able to grab the gracious Mr. Song for a little one on one interview and some kind words about his vanquished opponents:


Back in the hot seat! Another deeply probing interview by crack reporter Gina Fatale.

Gina Fatale: ok One lets hear it cuz from what I witnessed at Friday nights Boxingmania you not only had words with your arch enemy Tank but David Jacobs as well what started the trash talk between u and David
One Song: David Jacobs....I will start this interview by telling the audience a bit about who he is
Gina Fatale: ok
One Song: well David once worked for me about 3 or 4 months ago, he was trialing to be my right hand man and failed within 3 days
One Song: at first I thought he was an ambitious dude who could do well, but once we got to know him not just me the dancers at Diamonds back then, they all grew to hate him within 3 days inclusive of my general manager at the time
Gina Fatale: I see so is this how he went and began the SLB?
One Song: so by popular demand he got sacked, it was evident not soley to me but everyone who worked for me at the time that he was merely a brainless scheming snidely 2 faced character
One Song: and we quickly grown sick of him...not only that he has no respect towards anyone
One Song: precisely SLB was formed approximately 2 weeks after
One Song: where him and another ex Associates member who was also sacked not long before him, Tommy Rampal was a sales man of gambling equipment at the time
One Song: in the past Tommy asked me what he could do in SL, when I sacked him it wasn?t under bad terms
One Song: I have no real problems with Tommy, so I helped him out I listed some ideas
One Song: of what SL could use. I came up with naked girls fighting on a mud ring, which admittedly would be very hard to implement with detail
Gina Fatale: lol
One Song: and another what of my ideas was the official SL boxing ring
One Song: where all major boxing matches and tournaments could be held
One Song: Tommy was particularly found of this idea
Gina Fatale: SLB seems to be very popular
One Song: they are reasonably popular, I am sure after my fight with Tank and David the public will take more notice of it
Gina Fatale: yes many would agree to that the turn out to Boxingmania was unreal
Gina Fatale: now bring us to that night of Boxingmania
One Song: and I hope Tommy does well but that David is a back stabber, I feel sorry for Tommy that he said to partner with someone that has those personality traits to do well
One Song: ok sure
Gina Fatale: what was this rumor that David quit slb as the matches were going on
One Song: well my mind was pretty set that night
One Song: yes I don't know if that was part of the script or not but the whole night was dodgy, David having worked for Tank for a while
One Song: it was pretty evident David was bought out by Tank to make sure he would win the fight
Gina Fatale: this is where u and David began exchanging words
One Song: when I heard David was going to referee the match, I told them there is no way in hell I would allow David to referee having the past we had
One Song: and him being allied to one of my Rivals
One Song: thats right
Gina Fatale: you had every right then to be skeptical about that
One Song: it started when he got emotionally affected about what I was letting the crowed know about the situation he used his land tool to eject me from the parcel twice
One Song: eventually I got annoyed and I knew I was being put into a trap where they would make sure I would lose the fight
One Song: so I came up with a plan of my own
Gina Fatale: didn?t u say at one point someone hit u with a script while u were backstage
One Song: yup
Gina Fatale: who do u think did that
One Song: Tank Levy did, it bounced me all the to the Clouds
One Song: when that happened I knew what they were planning to do
Gina Fatale: was it because u think he was afraid to fight you and that u realized David could be in with him
One Song: Tank pre-prepared this script for the eventuality if he were about to lose the fight
One Song: would make me look like I teleported home or to another location
One Song: he was going to try to make me look like the cheater
One Song: very clever. but he was stupid to use it b4 the fight that gave me sufficient time to think and come up of a way of getting a fair fight
Gina Fatale: and what did u do
One Song: and so I did I searched for any online Liasons explained the scenario and the magnitude of this boxing match
One Song: and Michael Linden happened to be online
One Song: me and Michael have argued for hours about theoretical problems regarding land
One Song: and such
One Song: we go back quite a while
One Song: so I asked him for a favor
One Song: and he happily obliged
One Song: I asked him to be present in the match to make sure no illegal bouncing scripts activity went on
One Song: so he asked me if I could teleport him, so I did he said he was busy but would try to stay as long as he could
Gina Fatale: ok then what happened
One Song: when I announced that Michael Linden was there to supervise the referees they shit themselves including David
One Song: so they decided not to use anything involving malicious scripts to make them win the fight
One Song: even if they were about to lose
One Song: this had just bought me a seem fair match
One Song: they forced me to fight in a locked cage both Tank and David if I didn?t want David refereeing
Gina Fatale: and u accepted
One Song: obviously that had brought down the chances of me winning the match to 33%
Gina Fatale: definitely
One Song: but it was better than not getting a fair fight at all
One Song: at least I still had a chance of winning
One Song: and due to sods law, they trying to be smart about it
One Song: didn?t pay off
Gina Fatale: and so the fight began with u against two in a cage
One Song: Liaison was there to take care of bs scripts used for chatting and luckily I won both rounds
One Song: meaning I won the match
One Song: just using 2 out of the 3 possible rounds
One Song: yup correct.
Gina Fatale: congratulations on that by t he way
One Song: thank u very much
Gina Fatale: well I guess you shut them up lol
One Song: I have a theory
Gina Fatale: do tell
One Song: if I believe in something strongly enough and ur cause is justified and a good one
One Song: chances are you will prevail no matter how much the odds are against u
One Song: self-belief is the key
Gina Fatale: and u certainly prevailed
One Song: I knew I would
One Song: I always do
One Song: I know it sounds highly arrogant
One Song: but I?ve done things like this more times than I can count
Gina Fatale: I think you won the right to arrogance just my opinion tho lol
One Song: its part of who I am
One Song: lol :)
One Song: any more questions dear?
Gina Fatale: well One again I Thank you for your time and is there any last remarks u would like to say?
One Song: sure
One Song: Just a message to all my haters, and jealous mother fuckers...
Gina Fatale: and that is
One Song: "You fucking with me, your fucking with the best!" Tony Montana (Scarface)
Gina Fatale: hahah nice
One Song: thats all thank u for ur time lovy ;)
Gina Fatale: ty One again :)

Hopefully I can get in touch with Tank and David to hear their side of the story on this, but this reporter has a feeling Tank won?t be coming near her (*giggles*).