Things are not what they seem

I’m sure plenty of us already know that something really unsavory has happened, and it will be a long while for Linden to stand up and recover from this blow. At first glance, it’s easy to see the outer layer of anger and disgust at what our beloved company that brought Second Life has done.

When I first found out of Jack Linden’s decision to increase Openspaces rates, I was livid like the rest. I find out Eshi won’t be able to afford to create her magnificent art in Desperado due to this move, and I also read of the rest who won’t be able to build anymore because of this. At the onset, doing this will be a big mistake.

However, this turn of events is like an onion, once sliced and diced, it brings tears to the one holding the knife, but as Nexeus Fatale and some few others have said, this change will bring good in the long run. Those whose opinion differ are now unpopular, but objectively, and upon peeling this onion further, they have a point. 

The changes the Lab has brought upon us is very sudden, and well, it touches our very emotions, as we certainly love Second Life. It’s hard to be rational at the start when SL is such an emotional and creative experience for everyone, and when you get caught up when people build their dreams in SL, you begin to dream with them. You start to build roots in this really magnificent virtual world, but sooner or later, that dream can soon be created out of SL, and you can bet that LL will make sure that they are still the innovators behind it. 

My friend gave a really succinct explanation to analyze Linden’s move, and it made me see the motives behind the decision better. He said that LL is not in the gaming business or is in the virtual world business, and that is the error of our perception. According to him, most people, me included,  are not in the know that LL is actually pushing itself towards the business of being a DATA CENTER.

It really does make sense, for why are they also pushing ahead teleportation to other virtual worlds? Why do they want to open source the server code? Heck, why did they create Immersive Spaces with Rivers Run Red? If Second Life is one big game to them, and they aspire to be as great as WoW’s Blizzard, they should not have desire to open source the server code. 

This is the start. 

Linden Research has given us Second Life, the experience, the dream, the beauty, the hype. They gave us a great way to interact and create a world. They may not be the first one to create a virtual world, but they certainly are the first to create something like Second Life. Philip Rosedale is an innovator, and the company is moving towards releasing their baby into the wild. Second Life is no longer their game to manage, it will be ours eventually. Like in the 2d internet world, Linden Research will be running like a webserver, something like Geocities. Indeed, LL is often compared to AOL, and that comparison is most accurate, because once again, LL IS NOT A GAMING COMPANY. Their business is into selling spaces (land) to put our data (prims). 

Things are not what they seem, and after the pain and tears of slicing through the onion, the recipe for cooking up OUR OWN VIRTUAL WORLD is set. However, can LL make the pain and tears less? Perhaps with this jira they will find a way.

Sending objects made easy with The Deliverator!

 

Jacek Antonelli

Jacek Antonelli, whose Plurk timeline I have been following ever since I joined Plurk has invented a nifty object delivery system that makes manually sendding objects and notecards ONE BY ONE to people in your friends list a thing of the past. It’s called The Deliverator.

 

According to her blog, Antonelli points out the advantages of her product. As always, she has enough foresight to realize that her invention will be used for abuse, and promptly says that those who take advantage of it are subject to SL’s ToS. 

Upon hearing its release, I immediately bought myself one, tested it and found it to be REALLY helpful. It is a time-saving way to send your objects and notecards. I recommend it to anyone who always sends items to many people. I anticipate The Deliverator to really help me reach everyone at AVENUE Magazine better, for sometimes group notices don’t deliver my announcements and items properly to the the people involved. As long as the group notice system continues to perform inefficiently, I can use her object as my backup. 

Jacek Antonelli has always been great with scripts, and her creative use of it can be seen in her objects being sold in Cuddefish Junction. Recently, she has took on a huge project–that of creating an alternative Second Life viewer. She dubs this viewer, The Imprudence Viewer, and one read on the manifesto shows why the viewer is called Imprudence. 

I fully support her and other people participating in making our Second Life easier. Please support her endeavors to make a viewer that is easy and convenient to use by EVERYBODY. Visit her forums and make suggestions, and if you are good with code, volunteer your skills! Everybody should do their part to make THEIR Second Life easier and better!

AVENUE Magazine Launches!

Oct 1 marked the debut of AVENUE Inc’s fashion and lifestyle magazine. Featuring Stiletto Moody, Torley Linden, Dousa Dragonash of MBC News, SL events, places, and more…AVENUE Magazine brings to you superb visuals and writing about what we love in SL. 

Please come over to our headquarters to get the inworld edition. Look for the beautiful glowing vendor!  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Royal%20Properties/217/189/36

For the web edition, you can go to: http://avenuemagazine.blogspot.com/2008/10/avenue-magazine-oct-08.html

I am very happy to be part of AVENUE Inc, and to be the magazine’s Managing Editor. We hope that AVENUE Magazine will be part of your SL reading leisure, and that you will look forward to our every issue. We likewise look forward to bringing SL to you!  

We hope you enjoy the magazine! 

The end of SL’s Age of Innocence

In many ways, the age of innocence in Second Life has long been over. With scams and controversies hitting the banking and stocks exchanges sector, with griefing, and with other kinds of scams, it looks like SL is starting to become our FL or RL.

But nothing like this sort of news to really confirm that cold, hard fact.

So now a discussion ensues on who is really to blame for this kind of event. One person thinks that SL is a kind of enabler, while others think that Second Life is another place where one can also meet all sorts of people, a really public place like the park or library, so SL cannot be blamed.

I tend to agree that SL has become too open for everyone, including those who can be sick in the head, to come in. In a way, I also agree that Second Life also empowers, enables and feeds to their deluded mind, in a way that is different to us. True, Second Life affect all of us in one way or another, and such changes that SL has injected into our real lives impacts us in ways we don’t really understand. We hear of stories about how people with disabilities turn to Second Life and feel that they are equal to us abled bodied people in the grid, that people are able to unleash their inner creativity, find true love, learn to actualize their great SL to their FL, and change for the better.  

However, it doesn’t impact us in a way that makes us want to hurt people and animals.     

There is this train of thought that the ease of accessibility to Second Life has been its bane. It used to be that SL is this closed community, now it is very easy to get into SL. Heck, I got into SL thanks to its being free, but I am no scammer, I am not sick in the head (though family may think otherwise–lol), nor am I the violent kind. 

Yet, that argument can also be debunked. Even if SL charges for access, there will still be untrustworthy people coming in. Insane and evil people can have access to money to buy a computer, and a credit card in order to join Second Life, and thus unleash themselves into the virtual wild. So no getting away with that argument now.

Thus, only one thing remains as fact and no matter how or why, the age of innocence in SL is TRULY OVER. It was already over years ago, but the after effects can only be felt now, and yes not all can feel this and be victims by it. Most of us can sit comfortably oblivious, for SL is a BIG BIG world, and really, how can this happen to us? But it can, and it probably will if we aren’t careful. Now we have to watch our backs in SL too, as if doing the same thing in RL is already tedious unless you plan on living inside a cave and never get out.

How many more news stories like this will come up? I’m sure there will be plenty more, however, the disturbing factor was that SL has become involved with it. Many people think SL is an addictive activity, senseless fun, unrealistic, etc., but the shock that came as a reaction to this news is the effect of the people becoming jarred at the reality that it can also happen in SL, where everything is supposed to be fun and games, or that geeks don’t go around hurting fellow geeks.

But soon, the fact that it occurs in SL will no longer be a troubling thing as time passes. With news such as this, I really don’t care where or how it happened, what matters is the fact that something like this still happens and that evil has no boundaries. The virtual world is just part of its haunts now.

Rez Town brings The Sims Online to SL

I never really bring this up until now, but my RL used to make up playing The Sims and The Sims 2. I have heard of The Sims Online, but I never got to try it until I’m already deep into into Second Life months ago and discovered that TSO has become more accessible through becoming EA Land.

So I logged in EA Land, tried it three times and concluded I’ve become way too spoiled by SL.

Graphics-wise, they could have done better if they used the same graphics technology EA Games used for The Sims 2. I’ve always found the UI in both SIMS games easy, so that’s a great bonus for them, but the limitations in game, like not being able to create content freely, has become a bane to the game’s longevity. People needed more to do than just socialize and make sure all their needs are green, so as other games started to come up showing more promise, people left, and EA Land failed to attract people in, and ultimately closed down.

But people who used to play TSO and are now in Second Life really miss the game. I don’t blame them, for Will Wright, the game’s creator, who also happens to be the creator of Spore, has a goldmine of a concept. Its just that EA Games failed to see what else can be done for TSO, and Yo Brewster, former TSO player and a very active SL resident saw opportunity to recreate the game in SL. Thus, Rez Town is born.

Rez Town in SL is essentially a role-playing game mimicking the TSO environment. Like many role-playing sims, they also have  a HUD that monitors your needs, but like The Sims, each object has the capability of increasing the avatar’s skill in something. One can paint, create and socialize in order to keep their needs in the green.

Rez Town has tokens, and this constitutes as their currency within the sim. One can earn tokens by selling their painting (the more skill, the more value your painting), organize events, creating content, and selling them. In a nutshell, TSO meets SL, but can it actually be successful? One will find out.

Space Junky’s new music video

I just finished interviewing Shakti Cianci, lead singer for the band Space Junky. I first got the opportunity to interview the band for one of my projects and an encounter with them is a refreshing and cosmic one each time.

Space Junky gives a rousing performance each time that makes great use of particle effects that makes their concerts a rich visual experience, their music is catchy, creative and also relatable to Second Life culture.

Such is the song Killer Coat, the anthem for fashionistas in Second Life…:) Enjoy!

Avenue Modeling Agency’s taste of IP theft

Intellectual Property theft is a grave misconduct in the Second Life community, however unfortunately, it is rampant. Most I hear of theft consist of texture stealing and copying of objects or prims, I know of one whose building concept was stolen as well. However, the latest to hit is AVENUE MODELS, and they were hit in a different manner.

Read the entire post here, from AVENUE’s blog, and read on the stupidity of one Vanessa Knoller. This latest theft in the community exudes pure stupidity, that among the things I did (after saying “Damn, AVENUE??!” and recovering from shock, I also laughed because it was so stupidly done. Imagine copying and pasting a whole notecard without changing the infos in it! To top it all off, she makes a blog, puts another model’s photo on the header, and imitates AVENUE’s blog layout!

Avatars of Second Life, I present to you VANESSA KNOLLER OF SL MODELS AGENCY as the latest recipient of the first ever STUPIDEST ATTEMPT AT IP THEFT! She’s so devoid of originality, she dares use SL without the registered or trademark sign that all of us are now required to use. How clueless is she?

Indeed, in this instance, greed can make you stupid as well.

AVENUE was lucky to have caught wind of this situation the way they did, other victims of content theft are not so lucky. Nonetheless, the blow it strikes, regardless of how stupidly done the theft, is just as bad. It is a grave misconduct and a testimony that the concept of IP theft is so wide, everyone wonders what Linden Lab is doing about it.

It is also distressing to realize that some do not care of other people’s IP rights and do not hesitate to take it away. Not only is this wrong, it is DISHONORABLE, and more and more individuals are not caring about their statuses in SL just so they can do this nefarious acts against the COMMUNITY. For them, SL is just a game, another platform to for their racketeering schemes. They are just avatars with random names, copybots, misguided ingenuity and little to none talent. Until IP theft is addressed, the Second Life community won’t feel secure in the platform they feel most at their creative best. We will always not trust, always watch our backs, always be wary, and that is not good. For SL to thrive, its communities must feel secure and supported.

So please, Lindens, do something.

ATTENTION

AUGUST 11, 2008

6PM SLT

Please let it be known that as of tonight, I AM NO LONGER AFFILIATED WITH METANETWORK MEDIA (MNM).

The recent events and the useless conference call have served as a tipping point to the already distressing anomalies that the CEO has committed. There was little accomplished and some people have wasted money just to get into the conference call, only to hear more fluff.

As its creator, and largely because I want to cut all ties to MNM, I have decided to stop publishing HodgePodge Variety. The last issue of the magazine will be the July/August double issue due out before the month ends, in order to accommodate the clients who have extended or made a new short term contract with us.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may caused, rest assured, HodgePodge Variety has always operated professionally, cordially and with the most transparency. We hope in the short period that this magazine existed, we were able to make your SL easier and more informed.

Thank you very much for your kind patronage.

Plurk timeline

Plurk.com

frustrations

It has been 4 days a week since HodgePodge’s website has been down and my MetaNetwork Media email not working. I am frustrated and all the rumors on the SLCAPEX website are now starting to bother me. Seriously.

To think I just did some work on the website and is starting to get the hang of Joomla!

It has been said that MetaNetwork Media has been under a lot of scrutiny because of the lack of activities in world, however, not everybody knows or notices that HodgePodge Variety is part of MNM, and has been working steadily on it’s own even if it has affiliated itself with MNM. HodgePodge has achieved so much despite of little propaganda. I get a lot of feedback that the magazine is very useful, informative and easy to digest. However, I also get feedback that we can stand to improve on the visuals, considering that most magazines in SL are visually stimulating in nature.

And now this.

A turn for the worse? What can I do?