As I have previously stated, I went to grocery bagger school in the Philadelphia area. (I must be a grocery bagger, I read it on the Internet.) And one of the funny things about Philadelphia, besides that the best cheese steaks are neither Pat’s nor Geno’s, is that the rest of Pennsylvania is pretty damn rural while Philly is like the sixth borough of New York City. So when it comes to gun control, its always the people dying in Philly who are exposed to the constant threat of gun violence versus the rest of the commonwealth (look it up) who want to be able to take their guns to their kid’s soccer games.
So why the hell am I bringing it up here? Because of what some other SL commentators have mentioned and this article over at Slate, regarding a couple that neglected their baby in favor of the one they had on Prius Online.
Now the baby was born premature and the parents might not have known how to deal with it. But guess what, the parents were still at fault. The parents were neglectful of their child. They deserve whatever punishment comes their way for letting their baby die from not being fed so that they can escape into whatever virtual world that they found.
But of course, there comes the other side, saying video games or the Internets are not addicting. And there is reasonable argument whether or not the Internet is addicting. However, things *on* the Internet can be addicting even if *the INTERNET* is not addicting, like oh say naughty gambling or dirty pornography.
Now here comes the online games, which in many instances can be….*drum roll*…..*extra drum roll*……MORE COWBELL……addicting. And sometimes that is done by design. One of my big peeves about World of Warcraft is that it obscures your computer clock and it has no internal game clock. So you can be playing for hours, getting that rush of leveling or completing quests and suddenly its the next morning.
Which leads us back to Second Life and the supposedly addicting game that the Lindens made. After all, nothing is more addicting than sitting in a big grassy field looking moderately attractive while you lag while putting out boxes. Because essentially, that’s what the Lindens made. Sure, there are games in SL that involve staying on and leveling, Dark Life comes to mind, but the Lindens didn’t create it. Is that SL’s fault?
Now there is a voice in my head that is yelling at me; "Of course, SL is addicting you dumb slut, what about all these Goreans and BDSM’er deathstylers you glorify in your obscene writings? What about the woman who stopped taking her medication because of her evil gorean relationship? What about articles that you have written dealing with the woman who became morbidly obese and then dying because she didn’t take care of herself in RL and immersed herself in SL? Which of course I never read because this rag will be destroyed soon enough and never see the longevity of something like the Avastar."
The thing is SL is like the Internet, and if you are addicted to SL then really you are addicted to some aspect of the Internet and any treatment should be focused on the underlying roots. Pornography and gambling are obvious…no wait, there can’t be any porn or gambling on SL…nope, not now, not ever.
But that relationship obsession, the need to just be on and explore because nothing else is going on in your life, that isn’t a fault of the platform, its the fault of the person. And some of those things need to be controlled by the User and not some nanny state, or company.
Hamlet raised the question of what can we, as residents of SL or other virtual worlds, do for the person. I didn’t read the results but the thing to consider is that sometimes, you can’t do something for someone when you are separated by space. Sometimes tragedies happen. You might notice people spending more time on than they should, but that’s a really subjective statement. What is "more than they should?"
I believe that the best thing a resident can do is watch out, offer help and referrals when they can but realize that they might not make their feelings or situation known.
Warner Bros.' family-friendly take on storied fantasy series will now support motion control on Sony's console; previously only for Wii, PS2, PSP, and DS.
Pathfinder Linden announced today that his game god position has gone missing, leading the longtime Linden Lab staff member to consider other opportunities. The unfortunate news was made public in a post to the Second Life Educators mailing list, continuing a pattern staff turnover as game emperor M Linden’s cadre consolidates their positions of power in the wake of the departure of Second Life founders Philip and Cory Linden.
Pathfinder is apparently a victim of an internal game god reorganization – his announcement said in part, "Due to recent reorganizations at Linden Lab, my current position (Evangelist, Market Development) has ceased to exist. There are no alternative positions available to me, so as of March 12th I will be leaving the company".
As for the future, Pathfinder is keeping his options open saying "I am not sure what the future holds for me, but it will probably involve something at the intersection of online communities, virtual worlds and neuroscience. I will be remaining open to new opportunities."
Speculation about the Lab’s next move was the order of the day in-world, as members of the performing arts world were concerned at the loss of a patron. Other residents questioned the net present value of Torley Linden’s contributions to the Lab’s bottom line and asked if continuously parroting "friendly greetings" counts for more than Pathfinder’s contributions.
best friends Prokofy Neva and Pathfinder Linden party down (file photo)
Players point to pedo and paintball moderation as possible causes
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
there gone
The PG-oriented virtual world There.com is to be closed March 9, a victim of hard economic times, according to There CEO Michael Wilson’s announcement. An FAQ at the site states that the company is buying back virtual currency from players with a "Therebucks buyback" program for those who purchased Therebucks in the last month and for developers who made Therebucks by selling developer items. Therebucks collected from Sparkles, Tips, or give trades from other members are not eligible – so virtual escorts and other personal service industry workers appear to be out of luck.
did There.com’s paintballer moderation policies hurt the game?
The FAQ hints at significant levels of player dissatisfaction with hard-to-control end-game emergent behavior. Player profiles have been disabled, and the FAQ explains, "So many members were using profiles to post pornographic links and images out C/S staff couldn’t keep up. We’ve temporarily disabled profiles until we can catch up and find a better solution."
Unfortunately, disabled player profiles make it difficult for in-game groups to coordinate moves to other virtual worlds. A source in Second Life informed the Herald that Therians in Second Life are considering organizing an event at Starlust for There refugees. Given the demographics of There, the Teen Grid is likely to see more refugees than the main grid.
According to our source, speculation among There players is that some of There.com’s financial woes may have been due to sponsors pulling out after a recently public incident with a player named Brad Mitchell who was permabanned from There.com, but ended up in the news after a cross country rendezvous with a 16 year old girl he met on the Internet.
Second Life is like the Internet in many respects; its on the computer, no one knows that you are a fairy tale blind mouse and there is a heavy text and graphical basis for our interactions. And it looks like a video game; you can fly, you can be in space, you can be underwater without SCUBA gear, and you can have sex with strange creatures that shouldn't be reproducing with humans. But combine the video game looks with the Internet aspects and suddenly people take it as an excuse for being a dick or bitch.
"Oh, I stole all your spacebucks? Too bad its a game!"
"Oh I said I would be your boyfriend and I'm having fake sex with aliens? Its in my game rules."
"I want to spend time with you, sure, right after I am done spending time in Zindra gambling your spacebucks away."
These are typical things that are said to me. Especially by my dick ex-boyfriend Steve*. Jerk.
Now granted, there are aspects of SL that are games, role playing sims and actual video games like Dark Life. And on role playing sims, you are expected to play a character. But on those sims, if you 'role play a dick or bitch,' then you are treated like a dick or bitch AND they understand that you are playing a character. People present know the difference between In-Character or Out Of Character.
On the rest of the grid, if you are a dick or bitch, then expect to be treated like a dick or bitch because you are being a dick or a bitch. Residents sometimes just use SL as a communications tool, a heavy resource using, laggy, picking up a phone would be quicker, communication tool. And don't try to cop out by saying "its only a game! bawwwwww." Man or Woman up and say "too fucking bad, bawwwww." Just because you are on the Internet doesn't give you an excuse to be a dick or a bitch. People are dicks and bitches in Real Life too, like my dick ex-boyfriend Darryl*. Jerk.
If you are going to do it, do it with respect and dignity and not hide behind "its only a game."
*names changed to protect the Herald from DMCA wielding losers who couldn't litigate their way out of an open phone booth.
Drunk and disorderly? Kalel Venkman and GreenLantern Excelsior particle spamming a club in New Grayson Station on January 1, 2010
While the Justice League Unlimited's formerly secret wiki claims that on January 5th 2010 a
"Woodbury University raiding party" descended on the Ahern infohub and
engaged in "taunting and harassing residents",
the truth may not be so clear cut – if a chatlog of the event obtained by the Herald can be believed. While the JLU's incident report paints a picture of superheros fighting griefer harassment, the situation seems to have been escalated by JLU member
Maverick Grunfeld with threats, intimidation
and boasts.
Our story begins when Woodbury University members Information Core and Robble Rubble ran
across Mr. Grunfeld in his famous Batman avatar (which bear a remarkable resemblance to those
of the Batman character found in the Arkham Asylum computer game) at the
Ahern infohub. Grunfeld was accompanied by Haruhi
Thespian, later to be revealed as a mole.
The JLU wiki states that Ugly Blokke, Whats Gruppman, Bebbs Frakture, Tizzy
Teardrop and Information Core were behind the taunts and harassing
behaviour that Maverick Grunfeld felt constituted a "raid", yet the Herald has come into possession of evidence which tells a
very different version of events — evidence that forces us to ask
whether Maverick Grunfeld is worthy of wearing the cowl of the Caped
Crusader he purports to emulate.
While most players agree the members of Woodbury University are meta-gaming trolls lovable scamps who have been compared to Karl Marx the Marx
Brothers, claims of "taunting and harassment of residents" are called
into question by chatlogs which tell a story at odds with the JLU's account. (readers should note that the background chatter of
the infohub has been removed for clarity).
[16:26] lnformation Core: Hey batman [16:26] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: Yo
dude! [16:26] Maverick Grunfeld: Evening. [16:26] lnformation
Core: I love the av [16:26] Maverick Grunfeld: Thanks. [16:26]
lnformation Core: Where did you buy it? [16:26] Robble Rubble: hey
toast [16:26] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: Looking good! [16:26]
lnformation Core: Because i would like to buy that too [16:27]
Maverick Grunfeld: Hm, I don't remember where I got it actually. [16:27]
lnformation Core: and then hunt sculpted animals wearing the batman
av… Would be totaly chill
Already we can see that Information Core was paying Mr Grunfeld a
compliment and asking perfectly normal questions and even Hydrogen2
Oxygen, a fellow WU member joined in complimenting Mr. Grunfeld's
Batman avatar, of which he is known to be proud - yet he claims to not know where he obtained it?
Information Core went on to discuss arranging a simulated hunting trip
with Mr Grunfeld, suggesting they both wear similar Batman costumes in a show of superhero solidarity. Mr
Core even went so far as to offer to be Mr Grunfeld's friend so that
they could arrange such ventures. Mr Grunfeld however was dismissive of
the idea.
454c39e961c8 OwnerID
= bab277e2-55a2-49cb-b2c3-98f24e703084 ObjectID =
bab277e2-55a2-49cb-b2c3-98f24e703084 [16:29] lnformation Core:
Man your so pro at this game [16:29] Apollyon Sciavo: i saw mr
linden whus making a sound
Readers should note that the logs show that there was some kind of
griefing incident in progress at the time with several residents
shouting at this person in open chat – yet no mention is made of this
in the JLU wiki. Perhaps because this person wasn't a member of the
"Woodbury University raiding party" their transgressions were overlooked?
[16:29] lnformation Core: Wanna be friends 8D ? [16:29] Apollyon
Sciavo: … [16:29] Apollyon Sciavo: o.0' [16:30] Maverick
Grunfeld: Not especially. [16:30] lnformation Core: :C [16:30]
Apollyon Sciavo: . [16:30] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: :< [16:30]
lnformation Core: Aww come on [16:30] lnformation Core: Dont be rude [16:30]
Hydrogen2 Oxygen: Don't be mean to info [16:30] Maverick Grunfeld:
I'm not a social type. Just how I am man. [16:30] Hydrogen2 Oxygen:
Yeah info. [16:30] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: He's batman remember? [16:30]
lnformation Core: Ohh right [16:31] Apollyon Sciavo is Offline [16:31]
Apollyon Sciavo is Online [16:31] lnformation Core: Soo batman what
ya doing here? I dont see any sculpted animals around [16:32]
Maverick Grunfeld: The animals weren't what I was hunting.
Just what was it that Mr Grunfeld was hunting?
[16:32] lnformation Core: Ohh [16:32] lnformation Core: But like if
you would be my friend I could tp you to other partys and stuff [16:32]
lnformation Core: wouldent that be nice? [16:33] Maverick Grunfeld:
I don't really party either. [16:33] lnformation Core: But the
sculpted animal hunting was a great party and you joined too! [16:33]
Ugly Blokke: wow well this blows [16:33] lnformation Core: So whats
the problem? [16:34] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: He's a party crasher. [16:34]
lnformation Core: Aww [16:34] Maverick Grunfeld: I am the nightlife
after all. [16:34] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: Hey tizzy [16:34] Tizzy
Teardrop: hai! [16:34] lnformation Core: Well there are alot of
night partys that we plan [16:34] lnformation Core: Its sad that you
cant join :C [16:35] lnformation Core: Couldent you like be a
superman for a day and just join us for something? [16:35] Maverick
Grunfeld: I join you guys a lot anyway. I've already been to two of your
parties.
Now Mr Grunfeld appears to be boasting of his previous exploits?
Unperturbed, Mr Core returned to asking about the Batman outfit he had
obviously taken something of a shine to.
[16:36] lnformation Core: How much did the av cost? I mean if its cheap
i could be a partycrashing batman too [16:36] Venom Silverfall is
Offline [16:36] Maverick Grunfeld: I forget how much I got for it.
You look pretty impressive though as is. [16:37] lnformation Core:
Thanks!
At least now, Mr Grunfeld is being more sociable, returning the
compliment about Mr Core's instantly recognizable avatar. At this point, the conversation turned to Mr Grunfeld's partner, one
Haruhi Thespian.
[16:37] lnformation Core: Hey supergirl [16:37] CmdrBlackCatz Xue
is Online [16:38] lnformation Core: Do you like partys? [16:38]
lnformation Core: Maybe hunt some sculpted animals with us? [16:38]
lnformation Core: :C [16:38] Maverick Grunfeld: Some of you may have
a hard time visiting there again. [16:39] Apollyon Sciavo: why dont
u just mute him?
The readers should note that this point was in relation to the person
actually griefing the infohub during this entire conversation.
Apollyon, an alleged griefer, was in fact helping residents to counter
the activities of a griefer. And yet Maverick Grunfeld offered no help
to the residents in the slightest, preferring to focus on a group of
people simply talking.
[16:39] Robble Rubble: hey broheim [16:39] lnformation Core: Your
just like batman! Such a meaner [16:39] Apollyon Sciavo: than he
doesnt spam u anymore… [16:39] Robble Rubble: pretty hard [16:39]
Robble Rubble: mwah mwah [16:39] Maverick Grunfeld: Sorry, I live
in a cave afterall. [16:39] Maverick Grunfeld: You can't have high
expectations.
Already Mr Grunfeld is returning to boasts of previous encounters with
these people who, so far, have simply asked polite questions.
[16:40] Robble Rubble: hey tizz [16:40] Robble Rubble: Hi5! [16:41]
Robble Rubble: hey batman [16:41] Maverick Grunfeld: Evening. [16:41]
Robble Rubble: howyoudoin? [16:41] Maverick Grunfeld: Not bad,
yourself? [16:41] Navi Gearz is Online [16:41] lnformation Core:
Robble this batman is rude :C [16:41] Robble Rubble: I'm pretty
good [16:41] Robble Rubble: oh man how is batman rude? [16:42]
lnformation Core: I LOVED THE OLD BATMAN BETTER [16:42] Maverick
Grunfeld: I'm allegeric to hugs. [16:42] Parchment Chatterbox is
Offline
The reader is no doubt puzzled about this alleged co-ordinated raid by
Woodbury University, given the fact that there is no evidence of
engaging in "taunting and harassment of residents". In fact, most of
the WU members are hardly acknowledging either the JLU members or the
other residents nearby. In fact, the closest so far to confrontational
behaviour would be Information Core's attempt to inspire discussion
regarding which Batman was best, in a variation of the old Kirk vs
Picard debate. It was at this point that Robble Rubble began to help
maintain the cover of the spy he had helped plant within the JLU ranks.
[16:43] Robble Rubble: Hey Haruhi are you a new jlu member or
something? [16:43] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: I'm guessing that's what a
recruit is [16:44] Robble Rubble: yeah I guess [16:44]
lnformation Core: Why would anyone join the supermans with such a mean
batman in theyr group? [16:44] Robble Rubble: welp even if she
dosen't respond I'm gonna give her a gift [16:45] lnformation Core:
this lag is so bad [16:45] Robble Rubble: batman do you feel left
out do you want something too? [16:46] Maverick Grunfeld: Depends
what you have in mind. [16:46] Parchment Chatterbox is Online [16:46]
Maverick Grunfeld: Can I add these to my trophy case? [16:46]
Robble Rubble: that's creepy [16:46] lnformation Core: ya dude [16:47]
Robble Rubble: your a creeper adding people's things to a trophy case [16:47]
Hydrogen2 Oxygen: Indeed [16:47] lnformation Core: like what man
would keep another dudes underoos? [16:47] Robble Rubble: esp my
underpants! [16:47] Robble Rubble: creeper batman
It was at this time that the conversation turned sour. The reader can
see for themselves the cause.
[16:47] Maverick Grunfeld: Hey, you must not want them. I'd rather have
your hide tacted to them, but I'll take what I can get. [16:47]
Haruhi Thespian: hehe [16:48] Robble Rubble: is that threat batman? [16:48]
Robble Rubble: batman are you threatening me? [16:48] Maverick
Grunfeld: Nope, just admiring your skin. [16:48] Robble Rubble:
trying to intimidate me? [16:49] Maverick Grunfeld: I'm sad if
that's all it took. I thought you were tougher than that. I'm sorry.
The reader will note that despite implied threats and boasts, the
alleged villains in this drama had so far done nothing wrong.
[16:49] lnformation Core: Batman is supergirl there your girlfriend? [16:49]
Robble Rubble: batman your little sidekick is a cutie [16:49]
Hydrogen2 Oxygen: She's pretty hot [16:49] Robble Rubble: mwah mwah [16:49]
Maverick Grunfeld: Nope. Glad you like her. [16:49] Hydrogen2
Oxygen: I must say [16:49] Haruhi Thespian: >.< [16:49]
Maverick Grunfeld: I guess Tizzy needs to get better eye candy in Wu. [16:49]
Robble Rubble: hey babbi how you doin gurrrrl? [16:50] Haruhi
Thespian: I'm good, its laggy here though [16:50] Maverick Grunfeld:
I guess she doesn't like your underoos. [16:50] lnformation Core:
batman can we maybe keep your little supergirl? [16:50] Hydrogen2
Oxygen: Gotta love welcome areas [16:50] Haruhi Thespian: I'm
Shadowcat [16:50] lnformation Core: shush [16:50] Apollyon
Sciavo: wow a batman [16:50] lnformation Core: talking with batman
here [16:50] Robble Rubble: it's ok maybe I can slip into her's
instead [16:50] Apollyon Sciavo: can we squash it? [16:52]
Robble Rubble: welp I got stuf to do [16:52] Robble Rubble: later! [16:52]
Tizzy Teardrop: These JLU people are boring, they just stand there and
look stupid. [16:52] Maverick Grunfeld: Take care. [16:52]
Hydrogen2 Oxygen: Same here kinda boring [16:52] Robble Rubble: you
too
The reader will note that Tizzy Teardrop, whom Mr Grunfeld felt worthy
of a written report in the wiki (already renowned for its unhealthy
level of detail regarding this person) has barely said a word to anyone
so far in this entire encounter.
[16:52] Apollyon Sciavo: stupid? is kinda soft said… [16:52]
Hydrogen2 Oxygen: But I have to say [16:52] Robble Rubble: have a
good one batman [16:53] Haruhi Thespian: I loove beautiful tiz, tyvm [16:53]
Apollyon Sciavo: they got noy! friends so they report everyone [16:53]
Robble Rubble: have fun playing superhero [16:53] Hydrogen2 Oxygen:
I enjoyed my time in in Justice Island. [16:53] Robble Rubble:
whatevs [16:53] lnformation Core: I dont like you as much as the
last batman… He was prety cool but still please accept my frund
request! [16:53] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: But, you should have WU rebuild
it sometime. [16:53] Tizzy Teardrop: What are you talking about that
doesn't even make sense Haruhi. [16:53] Hydrogen2 Oxygen: No
offense, but are builders are a bit more skilled…
So there you have it readers. The infamous "Woodbury
University raiding party" at Ahern infohub. A co-ordinated raid? Or a
co-ordinated attempt to blacken the names of fellow residents, several
of whom never even spoke during the event? And observant readers will
already be comparing the names in these above chat log excerpts to the
listings in the JLU wiki and questioning whether the JLU's reporting procedures can be trusted
for veracity.
At a time when members of the general public are making comments like
"and he seemed like a sort of idiot to me, showing up in his hero
outfit, but with no power to do anything" and "they sounded like a bunch
of ridiculous tools" when questioned about the actions of the JLU they
had witnessed recently. However, it may surprise the reader to learn
that one member of Woodbury University actually has some regard for JLU
member GreenLantern Excelsior who is considered "not that bad of a guy".
Now the reader will no doubt be realizing that the JLU wiki files are
filled with inaccuracies and perhaps deliberate mischief but things get
even worse. For the Herald has come into possession of a photo showing
JLU members Kalel Venkman and GreenLantern Excelsior particle spamming
at a club in New Grayson Station on 1st January 2010. Are JLU members above the rules they attempt to enforce on others?
[With Post 6 as popular as it is, it is rare that I have to go searching for models these days. I certainly do that, but most of the models you see here from week to week have approached me and patiently waited until I had a chance to meet with them. This week’s model, Terra Price, is an exception. I spotted her one day and immediately begged her to pose for us. That was months ago, and my persistence has finally paid off. To make life even better for me, it turns out that in real life she is talented in the digital graphic arts and wanted to do her own pictures. I step out of the way and present the beautiful and talented Terra Price. –Timothy Morpork]
I guess i should say hi to everyone even though I never knew, well not until now, about this blog and its people reading it, so hello! Don’t know where or with what to start but I guess I should probably tell something little about myself. I’m 28 and honestly I still don’t know much about myself, which is why SL is a good get away place for me to explore my mind in ways I can’t in the evil world of RL.
Terra Price
I don’t really do much in SL compared to some really interesting people I’ve met like fashion designers, builders, scripters or business people, some of them are really amazing individuals and I just admire people that create with passion. But I do really like to play with my avi and its looks, and I love to keep adding things, and then tweaking and changing them to make it look pleasant. That requires a lot of shopping which I also love to do, even though it’s really damn addictive, time consuming and it costs! I tried to build but didn’t stick with it for too long, I’m just probably lacking patience for such things but don’t let that make you think I have a short temper, I’m really friendly to people. Over all I just like to hang out with friends and meet new people, I’m pretty easy going.
And I also like to dance, and yes, I’m a TG and love it with no shame, I’m an exotic dancer in one of the best clubs which is also female/male friendly, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to advertise it here but if you take another good look at the pictures, you might find out, or you can feel free to IM me in-world if you wish to know about it or about me. I’m probably just writing a lot of uninteresting stuff but thanks to Timothy and a lot of his patience with me- I finally managed to write this little article and provide three pics of my avatar which I hope you’ll all like.
Terra Price3
This last pic was taken by someone I met just recently but I didn’t want to post her name since I dont know if she’d like it.
[Corsi Mousehold has been awarded the “commie” or comment-of-the-week award for her explanation of why the Justice League Unlimited superheros are not welcome in Furnation. The award winning comment is reproduced below. ]
Here’s a bit of a story. IN years past the JLU were a welcomed member of the FurNation community. They didn’t bother anyone and no one really bothered them. That was until we were under a griefer attack and the JLU came over to ‘assist’ and the first thing they did was report ME to the lab for griefing. They approached me and yelled at me for causing the issue. I asked them why they reported me of all people. By this time I had already deleted all the offensive material. They told me that I was the one putting it all out and they had seen me doing it. Basically they had watched me selecting objects to return them. They were extremely rude to me at the time and informed me that they would have reports go up on me. I contacted Kalel and he too said I was being reported and then for harassment as well. I was not rude to these people at all. It was several days later that I was contacted by Kalel informing me that the ‘charges’ had been dropped because they did not realize I was the sim owner. My response of course was to point to the info hub I had in the center of the sandbox that had my name clearly displayed as the sim owner and if his comrades had taken a moment to look they would have seen I was in the admin team.
He called me ungrateful and abuse reported me again. I was informed of this by him as well as he had several of his friends make the same report. All reports were dismissed by the GOV team as illegitimate. Soon I had JLU members ‘patrolling’ the sandboxes and abuse reporting anyone that they felt was disobeying my rules. They started to get several members of my community banned. I was forced to add a new sim rule that the JLU were not allowed in the sim for any reason. When they had seen this, I was reported again for griefing. Again the report was dismissed.
In the end I was approached months later by Green Lantern Corps asking if it was okay for them to be there. They apologized for the treatment the JLU had given me and asked if they would be allowed to just come and build.
Green Lantern Corps are allowed to visit and act if they wish. But they are not allowed to be in tag or act as a part of the Corps while visiting. If they are the subject of a griefing they are to come to me and I would take care of it. They can then file all the reports they like.
In the end the JLU are a bunch of power hungry crazed nutjobs that think being an SL Police force gives them the right to get away with whatever they want. The GLC on the other hand have always been very respectful to me and my residents.
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're going to take a selection of reader questions that we've received in comments and in the virtual mailbag and do our best to offer up some useful answers. Join us as we whirl through the mail. Not surprisingly, the two most frequently asked questions involve the demise of virtual environment, There.com.
This isn't an article about a role-play sim, this is an article in which one reporter tackles a delicate topic and probably pisses off a few readers. Hopefully, beyond just pissing off a few people, I can make people think about an often underrepresented feminist view.
I spoke to Pixeleen today about beginning another article series, in which I interview a number of people in SL about the job they hold. I'm excited about this topic, because just like role-playing sims there are a wide variety of professions available in SL and a lot of them are unique things you'd never really think about in your day to day explorations of SL. The other side of the coin is, just like role-playing sims, a lot of SL professions have a sexual component.
In my covering of role-playing sims, I've elected not to cover sex dominated sims. There are many reasons that contribute to this decision and I may re-evaluate it later, but the largest reason for this decision is that my goal in this article series is to expose opportunities for role-play in SL that you might not otherwise be aware of, and sex-based role-playing in SL is easier to find than a virgin in a Star Trek convention.
However, I don't feel that this logic holds water when applied to the topic of people. I find that while it's certainly true that there are more dancers than curators of art museums, one individual dancer's experience is no less valid than a curator. I appreciate that I have gathered a few vocal feminist supporters in my writing about role-playing sims, and I appreciate that to some of these supporters the people I chose to interview may prove to be offensive. So before I chase you off I wanted to offer my point of view on feminism.
I am a feminist, but I'm the kind of feminist that gets pissed off by a lot of other feminists, and in turn I can tend to piss other feminists off. In the non-pixelated world, I worked construction to put myself through college. I got my college degree in Computer Science and Psychology from a private school that wasn't co-ed until 1977 and two out of the three Computer Science professors had been teaching there since before the school was co-ed. One of my professors even gave me the sincere advice that “women often have trouble with math” when I questioned a formula that was presented. I graduated from this environment to take a job in a brokerage firm, where I was the only women on my floor who wasn't a secretary and most of my peers had children my age. I promise the feminists out there that I have fought the good fight and I appreciate the women who fought before me to give me the opportunities I had.
That being said, I feel like modern feminism has stumbled over itself a fair amount recently. We've stood up, gained the right to vote, the right to work outside of the home without raising eyebrows, the right to an equal opportunity for education; we've gained many rights that sadly a large portion of our sisters across the globe do not enjoy. But now it seems to me like a lot of feminists have moved away from giving women opportunities and now want to take things away from women. Some feminist are quick to chastise strippers, alternate lifestyles, stay-at-home moms, etc as hurting the feminist movement. However, in my opinion these feminists hurt the moment worse than all of the others put together. Why did we fight for the right to give women the right to chose their lifestyle only to condemn them for the decisions they make?
Certainly if a woman feels like she has no other option than to strip for a living, then we want to create alternatives for her. But what about the woman who loves the exhilaration she gets from holding men captive in their desire for a chance to glimpse one more inch of her flesh; in the cultivated movements of her well toned hips, standing safely on the stage given the opportunity to indulge her sexuality and chose when and if she chooses to take a lover? Why did we push for reforms in this industry to create an environment where this woman is safe in her exploration of her sexuality, only to chastise her for taking advantage of that effort?
What I find more repugnant than feminists who want to limit options or shame women who make decisions other than their approved idea of what a woman is, are women who want to stand up and define for others how I should be treated as a female. I was given a link in college by a well meaning professor about “HOWTO encourage Women in Linux” This article basically put women in a box labeled “fragile handle with care” and to this day makes me nauseous when I read it. I know the women who worked on this article did so with the best of intentions. I know they wanted to give others tools to make women more comfortable in their field. But in this case, applying the advice they offer and treating me like a timid field mouse, would have driven me from the profession. While the advice they offer would certainly help some females feel more comfortable, they present this information as if they have been vested the authority to speak for all females and I certainly don't remember signing off on that.
For me personally, this whole approach seems counterproductive. Yes, I am female and that affects my world view, but I'm also left-handed. I grew up on a farm. I'm the oldest of three kids with eleven years between my age and my youngest sibling. My parents are divorced. I moved out of my house when I was sixteen. All of these things affect who I am, how I see the world and what I need from the world as much, if not more than, my possession of two X chromosomes. I don't think being a woman means I need a self help group or that my peers need a class on how to handle me. If they do need that class, I think I'm the most qualified person to teach it. (Pro-tip, bring me an offering of tea and perhaps a video game of some sort.) I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, but my point in a nutshell is, after freeing women from these preconceived notion of what it means to be feminine, it seems quite silly for women to be standing up and painting us all with the same brush stroke.
So, back to the title, what's a positive feminist, and why does choosing to write about people with different ideals or lifestyles, make me one. I think a positive feminist, is a person who focuses on giving women things rather than taking them away. I have served as a mentor to two young women in technology and in both cases, I tried to give them tools. I encouraged them to think for themselves. Rather than give them answers to their questions, I helped them find their own answers. I helped them feel comfortable asking for the things they need from their peers and authority figures, instead going to these peers and authority figures and speaking for them. I know my experience with these two women left me better off, and it is my sincere hope that they too are better for the time we spent together. I also see giving a wide cross-section of women (and men for that matter) a chance to speak, regardless of their profession as an act of feminism and my duty as a journalist.
So, I hope it is in that light that you will take my first article in which will focus on the manager of a club that features pole-dancing and a cage. I hope you'll chose to read it and be exposed to a lovely woman and see second life through the eyes of a unique individual for a brief moment, If that isn't your cup of tea, I suggest skipping it and waiting for an article that discusses a profession that is more inline with what you wish to consume. I promise to find a museum curator to interview as well.
Until next time this is Mel the over-opinionated over and out.
Onyx project goes public with copybot client reviews
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
The Emerald developers have gone public with Onyx – a previously secret project to catalog and potentially fix exploits in various unofficial Second Life viewers.
In a blog post at the ModularSystems web site, Mr. Fractured Crystal states "These
viewers generally remain private, closely guarded and shared either with
close friends or for a significant fee, the reason being that exploits
are quickly identified and neutralized when released in a public manner. The
result of this is that nobody can be sure of the capabilities of these
viewers, information posted on blogs and forums is woefully inaccurate
at the best of times, and even more often misinformation spread by those
who want the public to remain in the dark."
Will naming and shaming rouge viewers developers cut down on content theft and sim crashes in Second Life – or will Onyx act as a consumer guide to unofficial viewers with certain capabilities that Linden Lab does not sanction? Expect to see some controversy over what is likely to become a counterpoint to Linden Lab's official third party viewer list.
I teleported into the sim and was greeted by the now familiar note card of information and vendor market. Though this time with two distinctions, I was standing in front of a shuttle and the note card included a quick overview of the overall thrust of the role-playing story on Planet Thyferra. In a nutshell, Bacta; Thyferra has it thus the Sith have claimed the planet as their own Bacta ranch. The information was concise and well organized enough to make me overlook the spelling errors that the writer in me normally cannot overcome.
I chose to start my exploration in Thyferra Valley, which lacked the beauty of glowing Pandora, but was refreshingly free of lag. In my wandering through the valley I found only one other person. I would have attempted to make conversation but this person was unconscious and had a menacing red bot standing over them. I also found a cute little android who shot at me. I'm sure it would have hurt if I wasn't just a visitor, but I couldn't help but be impressed and think the little guy was kinda cute. After a quick run around the mostly empty valley I wandered back to the ship to travel to a hopefully more populated area.
I then traveled to Xucphra City where I did see eight people lined up in uniform, but their lack of conversation and silence in my arrival gave me the impression that these characters were not currently being attended. I wandered forward toward an impressive doorway lined with red glowing light and was shot at. At first I found this as adorable as the the valley, but then a force weapon shoved me over the edge of the walkway into an unplanned skydive. After falling many feet downward and landing on the roof of an impenetrable structure, I decided to take a break and come back later when there might be more people and less inanimate objects pushing for my demise.
When I returned recharged by several days of not being thrown off platforms, I decided to start my visit with the PDS temple. I straightened my shoulders and exited the transport shuttle, hoping to be treated with more dignity this visit. My majestic cloak billowed behind me as I stepped onto a Gothic bridge approaching a doorway lined with glowing red vertical stripes.
An uneasy sense of dread filled me as I neared the doorway, though a glance in either direction assured me I didn't have far to fall should the force be against me. As I entered the building safely and my radar was flooded by numerous avatars entering the sim, causing my hopes for the days visit to soar. The lava pit in the middle of the room combined with the red and black banners on the wall left me with no doubt that this temple was of Sith design. I explored every room of this empty temple, thoroughly fascinated by the fact that each teleport consumed my avatar in flame and smoke.
I quickly teleported through several other options looking for the numerous other people on my radar
I found two caged prisoners, who again had no profiles and were not responsive to my presence. I returned to Xucphra City and carefully avoided the door of force-y death, instead opted to explore the less intimidating parts of the city. I found an empty restaurant and then a cargo bay door. I clicked on the cargo bay door and found myself stuck in a vast open white space unable to stand an unable to teleport to another location within the sim. I took a deep angry breath and teleported home.
Undaunted I returned to Planet Thyferra and scowled angrily at the traps. I warily clicked on a door labeled “med” and found myself in a lovely but empty medical bay. At this point I raised my fist to the sky and screamed “Richards” I felt better and decided to go through the list of twenty six avatars in the sim, in search of someone to interview. I discovered the creator Silver Bonetto was online. He gracefully agreed to sate my curiosity and help me make sense of this richly detailed but curiously empty sim
Mel:
What inspired you to build Planet Thyferra? Silver :
Planet Thyferra is the Bacta Producing Planet of Starwars Galaxy. We wanted to make it a Pawn for control of the Bacta in SWRP.
Mel:
Who is this “we”? Silver:
We is a complicated answer, I own a Sith Clan named Obsidian Dominion which is about 2.5 years old but this group and myself are part of a grander scale RP based on an Empire RP which I play the part of DLOTS. Many other Sith clan groups, such as “COR” Cult of Ragnos, are allies with the Empire. The Empire obviously wants control of key elements of the galaxy.
Mel: Ah, so do you alone decide the iterations that the sim takes or are the decisions made by the empire? Silver :
What happens in Thyferra is under the control of Evalla Taurog and myself. What happens in the Empire is more democratic control. Well, an OOC democracy otherwise it's an oxymoron.
Mel:
So Planet Thyferra is a part of a string of sims in SWRP? Silver :
Yes and no, unfortunately SWRP in SL isn't 100% unified, Its getting better thanks to people like Chrome Heron which have devised systems that all the planets share and are common interest to everyone. His System is called RPI. It allows you to mine for ore and build weapons and sabers from the ore you collect. Each planet has their specific ores.
Mel:
Ah that's edifying! So how long has Planet Thyferra been in existence and who is the "we" you referenced? Silver :
The sim has been around for almost three years, always owned by me, has gone through many names. Its current RP name obviously is Planet Thyferra, and we are about to make its new grand opening.
Mel:
What prompted you to select the FCRS combat system for this sim? Silver :
We have been long time supporters of FCRS and its a great Combat system but due to its creator having to be out of SL for extended amounts of time the system is starting to lack support. So as of yesterday we made the sim RCS default and FCRS backup.
Mel:
What advice do you have for new people interested in role-playing on Planet Thyferra? Silver :
Depends what kind of new we are referring to, If they are new to SL they should ask anyone in the sim for help. If they are seasoned role-players then they can come in and assume a relevant role to SWRP and enjoy the different things to do.
Mel:
How would they go about establishing a relevant role to SWRP? Silver :
Well, if they are completely new, The first thing to do is align yourself with an order be it Sith, Jedi, Bounty Hunters, Mando etc. The Order will help them get clothes correctly and teach them how to defend themselves. And RP etiquette.
Mel:
I've wandered this vast sim and I noticed three things I wondered if I could get your comments on them Silver:
Sure.
Mel:
Number the first – inanimate objects sometimes shoot me, one time off the edge of your bridge. Is there a way to ingrate myself to these wielders of lasers? Silver :
Yes and no, you must remember this place isn't 100% friendly like a Jedi sim. I do this because I want people to have fun most things that shoot at you can be shot back to and destroyed. Also, if you are an Obsidian Dominion Clan Member then you are not shot.
Mel:
Check. Number the second – I haven't actually come across anyone else in my wanderings. Where do people congregate or are there events where I could find more people? Silver :
Since the sim hasn't had its grand opening, its mostly OOC. Once it opens it will be strictly IC and you will see more people. Plus since we are Sith we tend to just be in the Sith strong hold , you wouldn't catch a Sith picking flowers in the valley really. That being said, we have an event on the weekends called the "GST" Which is a 3 year running Tournament of Saber dueling which Evalla Taurog runs on Sundays at 1pm SLT. The event alternates between the FCRS and RCS systems and there is a 1000 Linden prize to the winner.
Mel:
Nifty! When is the grand opening planned for? Silver :
Within the next few weeks, if nothing gets complicated.
Mel:
This article will be published before then, is there anything my readers can look for to know that the grand opening has occurred if they chose to visit? Silver :
I will make a poster or banner for the sim entry
Mel:
Number the last – when I finally got frustrated looking for people in the sim, I ran a check of the profiles of every avatar in the sim looking for a human to speak with. I noticed that twenty one of the twenty six people in the sim didn't have profiles at the time I read through them, are you using placeholders in the sim? Silver :
Yes, These accounts are part of a larger project which I have taken to a local college. The college students are in and out of them but are left in the sim because of an interactive system that Chrome Heron will be installing to make the avatars respond to a quest that the sim visitor can choose to play. So these accounts serve various roles.
Mel:
Ah that makes a lot more sense. I was sitting here thinking "Is this guy playing in a sim of one?" How can my readers tell the difference between these quest NPCs and other role-players, other than the lack of profiles? Silver :
That's the magic of it, these avatars sometimes will be autonomous and other times be in other sims acting out their normal roles. So the actual idea is for not to be able to distinguish the difference. It brings up the level of realism that you aren't just dealing with an NPC.
Mel:
That sounds intriguing, when do you expect to see this process implemented?
Silver :
Well, Chrome is extremely busy with the RPI system right now so it would be unfair of me to try and get this out of him right now. So I estimate within the next month or two.
After the interview Silver was kind enough to take me on a tour of the planet, including the area behind the doorway that had previously eluded me. He continued to answer questions and was a gracious host. Unfortunately, I'm afraid if this article grows any longer, Pixeleen will shake her editing fist at me.
The Imprudence project has released version 1.3(beta 1) of their Second Life viewer. Imprudence is one of our favorite after-market Second Lifeviewers, and the only third-party viewer that we're certain complies with all of the source and asset licensing.
This edition merges all things Imprudence with the codebase for 1.23, providing one of the fastest and smoothest viewers currently available that we're aware of, along with the usual featureful experience.
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're looking at virtual environments (and their subset of virtual worlds) as products and platforms.
As their developers and operators seek to grow and mature their markets, they carry the risk of rendering themselves irrelevant to the very customers that they court.
The hallmark of a good license is that it is clear, easy to understand and unambiguous. The gold-standard for a good contract is that it is all of the above and provides all parties with equal amounts of protection. There are bonus points for not conflicting with rights guaranteed by law, or with other prerequisite licenses or agreements.
Linden Lab'sThird Party Viewer (TPV) policies, as published on Tuesday, regrettably reflect none of these ideals. We'd go so far as to say that it's the worst day's work that we've seen come out of the Lab to-date. So much so that almost immediately after publishing them the Lab has sent them back to legal for both clarification and rewriting.
Over about the last 60-90 minutes, Tom Hale's been delivering a keynote at the SL Pro! conference held in Second Life. There are multiple hefty announcements from Linden Lab involved, and some of that should be reaching the official Second Lifeblogs as you read this.
Golly, what do we have among all of this? We've got the Second Life 2.0 viewer public beta, which should be available right now. We've got the new third-party viewer registry and third-party policies being announced today; We've got changes in the names of content-ratings. We've got the official release of open source viewer Snowglobe and the announcement of Snowglobe 2; and all capped off with a slew of supporting FAQs, guides, video tutorials, wiki pages and what-have-you!
Sharp-eyed Massively readers spotted Linden Lab Brighton office staffers hard at work shifting premises over the weekend, with everything being moved upstairs. Was this some sort of fiery, demonstrative protest where office furniture would be flung from the roof? Could it have been some penthouse variant on the yard-sale, and we could get a deal on that slightly balky laser-printer that we've had our eye on for a while?
Alas, neither was actually the case. The Lab was moving to larger premises within Brighton's prominent Tower Point building.
Over the last few weeks, Linden Lab staff have been talking about a few upcoming Second Life projects during their in-world office-hours sessions. Now the Lab has always been quick to stress that the accuracy and reliability of information obtained through those venues is questionable, and that we shouldn't assume that anything said at them is actually accurate.
With that in mind, we went back to the Lab about several identifiable (or at least apparent) projects to get the skinny on them and find out what's actually happening with them, and where they're at.
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're taking a look at the vigilante side of intellectual property rights.
For many, it seems like a good idea to mass-report or name-and-shame intellectual property rights violators whenever and wherever you see them ... but is it really?
Linden Lab's pushing Valentine's day in Second Life pretty hard this year, particularly the commercial aspects of it. In fact, it feels like it's being pushed hard enough that it has taken on a slightly creepy and embarrassing air, rather like that guy at the Christmas party who won't shut up about the mistletoe.
Nevertheless, the Lab's implemented an open beta of product wishlists on their Web-based shopping portal, Xstreet. There doesn't seem to be much that is overtly difficult, weird or special about the implementation, though we'd question the wisdom of launching a public beta of the feature right on the verge of the heavily-promoted Valentine's day. Far better, we'd think, to let it settle a while first and get the inevitable kinks out of it before a major commercial date rolls around.
According to previous figures from Linden Lab staff, fewer than 700 of 18.1 million registered Second Lifeaccounts ever participated in the official forums provided by the Lab. The partial closure of many of the most heavily trafficked areas of those forums when Lab announcements were migrated back out to the blog in 2006 did little to boost participation in the official forums.
The official vbulletin-based forums "did not scale" according to Linden Lab and were difficult to maintain, even for such modest usage levels as they experienced.
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're going to take a selection of reader questions that we've received in comments and in the virtual mailbag and do our best to offer up some useful answers. Join us as we whirl through the mail.
A number of you wrote in asking us about that yesterday, and we contacted Linden Lab for you to get an answer one way or another. That line of questioning bore some definitive fruit.
"Get a life", "Get a first life", and so on, and so forth. If you're involved in virtual environments, you've probably heard this phrase a lot. Wagner James Au of New World Notes suggests that people who use those phrases are among the least likely to 'have a life' themselves.
Well, we'd say he's half right. It's more that the people you hear it from don't really have much of an idea of what life is all about and how it works. It's not an uncommon theme. Botgirl Questi points out that in order to see something more clearly, sometimes you have to look at it from a very different perspective.
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're going to take a couple perspectives for a spin, and talk about the meaning of life actually is, insofar as the phrase "get a life" is concerned.
In a move that will no doubt perplex, flummox and befuddle many media commentators and technology columnists who erroneously believed that Second Life was a Web 2.0 social networking tool, Linden Lab has acquired social networking site, Avatars United (and developers of same, Enemy Unknown AB). This also has the side-effect of shooting down any semblance of Wallace Linden's identity piece last week being an overture of a conversation, instead making it look like the usual introduction to a Linden Lab fait accompli.
We've written about Avatars United on a couple of previous occasions, but never really had much call to get involved ourselves. The social networking tool includes a large number of MMOGs and non-game virtual environments, being best known for it's strong application support of open-ended space-based MMOG, EVE Online.
Traditionally, Linden Lab'sblog communications have seemed to be reserved for things that had been finalized, were being finalized but already set in stone, or may not have been set in stone but gave that appearance by being nearly identical both before and after user-feedback. All this punctuated by a smattering of video tutorials, infomercials and statistics.
One of the matters of concern would be how event rules are actually applied this time around. If we were to divide events listings into quality events and spammy junk, quite a large number of the quality events don't actually comply with the posting rules - usually due to the number of events being held, and limits on the number of listings (or of listing changes) that the events system will tolerate.
Welcome to The Virtual Whirl, a new weekly Massively column covering virtual environments generally. The term 'virtual world' is slowly seeing less use, being supplanted by the more general 'virtual environment', but the world term still has a fair bit of life left in it.
Virtual environments covers a whole lot of ground. From William Crowther's original efforts in 1976 that based a game in a virtual version of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, virtual environments have been a part of gaming, artificial intelligence and behavioral research, modeling, telemetry and process control and more.
Nowadays we're seeing Second Life, Blue Mars, There.com, IMVU and others trying to find places in non-game contexts, like content-development and prototyping, publishing and performance, entertainment and social, education and business; efforts that are met with varying amounts of success.
Registrations are presently open for SL Pro! a two day conference being run by Linden Lab for 'serious' professional Second Life content-creators to take place in late February this year, in Second Life itself, with a bit of help from NMC (the New Media Consortium).
Unfortunately, it's a conference with more than one track, where the two tracks generally have a fair bit of overlap, so that's a bit of an issue. The two tracks are building and scripting, each with eight sessions.
Linden Lab says it hopes to have a public beta of the Second Life 2.0 viewer in February, presumably targeting an official release in March. Given that the Lab wants to move forward with quarterly planned viewer releases, this means that the current Second Life 1.23 viewer will lose official support at approximately the end of June.
Linden Lab says it has already finalized features and the user-interface at this stage, and is not planning on making any substantive changes between now and release. Any work beyond bug-fixes and stabilization for the viewer is to be deferred to the mid-year 2.1 release.
That's a lot of work, especially as the data published in the quarterly/annual reports doesn't follow the same definitions as the ongoing statistical feeds or is not represented in them.
So we thought, well sod that for a game of soldiers. Instead, let's talk about the report's claim that the Second Lifeeconomy has grown 65% in 2009 over 2008, and why that's just rubbish.
Reuters has closed its Second Life bureau after more than two years of in-depth coverage on the virtual world’s business and economy. Our technology team will continue to cover Second Life on Reuters.com.
Please explore this archive of our ground-breaking Second Life coverage.
SECOND LIFE, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Will the marketing of real world brands in Second Life find a second life?
Maybe. Nestea, a Coca-Cola brand, announced today it’s sponsoring Second Life’s “Junkyard Blues” venue.
Neither Nestea nor Junkyard Blues’ owners were available for immediate comment. But a visit to Junkyard Blues shows a “Sponsored by Nestea” banner over the main stage. Don’t try clicking on the banner though — it’s non-interactive.
The sponsorship, while modest, represents an affirmation of Second Life as a continued destination for real-world companies to market their goods. A recent survey by BusinessWeek ranked Coca-Cola as the most valuable brand in the world.
Nor does the choice by Coca-Cola of a Second Life blues venue seem coincidental. Last month, Second Life bluesman Von Johin signed a record deal in what’s believed to be the first virtual musician to break into the real-life mainstream.
Coca-Cola was among the companies that made a strong entrance into Second Life during the first wave of corporate marketing with a “virtual thirst” campaign. However in recent months, the company has stepped back its Second Life profile, taking the virtualthirst.com website offline.
Many Second Life users cherish their avatar identity so highly they sign up for other online networks, like LinkedIn or Twitter, under their avatar name. But Second Life enthusiasts who register for Facebook under their avatar name should watch out: the Syndey Morning Herald is reporting Facebook is terminating accounts it suspects don’t represent real-life names.
The SMH follows the story of Sydneysider Elmo Keep, who got banned from the site with no warning when Facebook officials suspected her name (which is real) was fake. Only by supplying copies of government-issued identity documents to Facebook was she able to get her account restored.
Valleywag has video of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg laying down the law. “You can’t be on Facebook without being yourself,” Sandberg says. “We kick you off.”
How many Facebook users are registered under their Second Life name, and could be banned at any moment under the policy? It’s impossible to tell, but even a casual search reveals that there could be more than a handful.
The latest poll average at RealClearPolitics has Barack Obama up 2.5 points over John McCain in the tight race for the White House, at 48.1 percent to 45.6 percent. But if the election was being held today in Second Life, Obama would win in a landslide.
Researcher Andrew Mallon of the Social Research Foundation, known in avatar form as Andy Evans, polled over 1,000 Second Life residents about their usage of Linden’s virtual world. But while he had an audience, Mallon threw in another question:
In the upcoming election, who do you plan to vote for (USA Citizens), or prefer (International residents)?
Among American citizens, Obama beats McCain handily in the unscientific poll.
Candidate
Respondents
Percent
Obama
224
45.6%
McCain
102
20.8%
Undecided
79
16.1%
I don’t plan to vote
29
5.9%
I prefer not to say
29
5.9%
Other
28
5.7%
491
100.0%
Among Second Life’s large population of non-American citizens, the preference for Obama is even stronger.
Candidate
Respondents
Percent
Obama
330
57.5%
McCain
41
7.1%
Undecided
41
7.1%
I don’t plan to vote
109
19.0%
I prefer not to say
37
6.4%
Other
16
2.8%
574
100.0%
Mallon’s poll remains open to the public until September 30, at which point he’ll publish his data about Second Life usage. Second Life residents can take the poll by clicking here.
SECOND LIFE, Sept 11 (Reuters) - OpenSim remains in pre-release and the interoperability standards to allow avatars to travel between virtual worlds are still being drafted. But that’s not stopping entrepreneurs from creating a fledgling industry around what’s to come.
Enter Metaverse Ink, which its creators say is the first search engine to find objects on both the Second Life Grid and in OpenSim worlds.
The product presents both a vindication and challenge for Linden Lab. OpenSim-using startups demonstrate the enduring faith of many in Linden founder Philip Rosedale’s vision for virtual worlds. But Metaverse Ink is also a competitive threat. In a July interview with Reuters Linden VP Joe Miller named “search services” as a potential revenue stream for his company in the coming age of interoperability.
Traditionally within Second Life, as residents grow more adept at building content they form in-world businesses and sell their creations to other users. Linden Lab frequently touts the number of users with a positive currency inflow — over 61,000 according to the latest statistics — in its marketing.
But with OpenSim in the works, some of Second Life’s most talented programmers are beginning to form businesses that compete directly against Linden Lab.
“Linden Lab’s search is bad, it’s like AltaVista in the old days,” said Metaverse Ink co-founder William Cook (Second Life: Felix Wakmann), a computer science professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Cook and co-founder Cristina Videira Lopes (Second Life: Diva Canto), a computer science professor at the University of California at Irvine, have designed a series of automated programs, called “bots,” to search through both Second Life and OpenSim. The results of their searches are indexed and made searchable to users, in much the same way Google does for the World Wide Web.
To date the MI database catalogs over two million virtual objects, spread over 100,000 regions.
Problems with Linden’s built-in search functionality have been ongoing, and this isn’t the first time a third party has tried to create an independent virtual worlds search engine. A similar attempt to index Second Life by the Electric Sheep Company last year was abandoned after a protest campaign by Second Life users over privacy concerns.
MI says their product respects user wishes. “We’re only publishing things marked ‘for search,’” Lopes said. “These bots can ’see’ everything, but not everything should be seen.”
Cook said his new company isn’t yet looking for venture capital, and is currently focusing on attracting users beyond MI’s current average of about 900 a day. A third MI partner from Techcoastworks, a California-based incubator, is helping to commercialize the product.
But Cook, a serial entrepreneur, has worked with VC firms in the past, having raised US$60 million for a previous start-up from sources including Benchmark Capital, which also funded Linden Lab.
Lopes said MI is the first company to be indexing OpenSim worlds for search. But how does she feel that Linden Lab has said search is an area it wants to explore in the future?
Lopes paused. “Well, we’re doing it already,” she said.
SECOND LIFE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - As they have every year for four years, the Second Life faithful tore themselves away from their computers for a weekend of real-life travel to celebrate Linden Lab’s virtual world at SLCC, the Second Life Community Convention.
But this year far fewer of them came out.
SLCC was in Tampa this year, and some said hurricane fears were keeping people at home. Others blamed a sluggish real-world economy and rising airfare prices. Event organizers said only 400 people attended SLCC this year, half of last year’s attendance in Chicago.
Notably absent from the conference were any real-world businesses from outside the virtual worlds industry, or the consulting firms that only last year built Second Life presences for real-world brands. “We invited the Electric Sheep Company and Rivers Run Red, but both apparently decided they didn’t want to attend,” said SLCC organizer Peter Lokke (Second Life: Crucial Armitage).
“In terms of external business use of Second Life, what we see now isn’t marketing but businesses using Second Life for things like training and meetings,” said Linden Lab’s Glenn Fisher at a panel on SLCC’s sparsely-attended business track. Unlike last year’s conference in Chicago, most of the discussions revolved around issues of relevance only to in-world L$-based enterprises.
Fisher argued businesses were still using his company’s virtual world despite the lack of attendance at SLCC. “Businesses are keeping it quiet because they see being in Second Life as a competitive advantage.”
Second Life founder Philip Rosedale kicked off the event at a Saturday morning breakfast where he was received with warm but not ecstatic applause.
“Last year when I was here I had the ‘Missing Image’ T-shirt,” Rosedale said, alluding to his apology for bugs at SLCC 2007. “I think we made pretty good progress.”
The Second Life community has its own ideas. New Linden CEO Mark Kingdon followed Rosedale and asked the crowd: “We’re working hard to improve stability. Are you seeing that?” But Kingdon’s question was met with a stony silence from the crowd.
A handful of sessions about open source attracted large crowds with people sitting in the aisles and standing in the back of the room.
But the breakout star of SLCC was the burgeoning virtual world educational community. Second Life’s teachers ran three tracks simultaneously all weekend and held an extra full day of sessions on Friday before SLCC formally started. The educators had their own parties, programs, and event name (”SLEDcc”), acting as a conference-within-a-conference.
While the interest of real-world companies and the consulting firms catering to them has waned, most attendees weren’t bothered. Talks formal and informal ran all weekend, with attendees bragging to each other about scoring invites to the exclusive Linden Lab corporate party. And on Saturday night, Second Life dressed up for a night of kinky fun at Kevin Alderman’s (Second Life: Stroker Serpentine) annual “Leather & Lace Ball.”
But even Alderman’s masquerade ball reflected the more modest nature of SLCC this year. Fewer partygoers dressed up in costume than last year, and there was nary a furry in sight.
Nicolas Barrial (Second Life: Nick Rhodes) claims to have been among the first 1000 users of Second Life and the first French national with an avatar. He traveled 14 hours from Paris to Tampa for the event.
Barrial reveled in the chance to link with friends old and new. “First and foremost, SLCC is like a family gathering,” he said.
A year ago at the Second Life Community Convention in Chicago, Reuters asked: What will the next year bring in Second Life?
Some of those predictions didn’t come true. Jeska Linden’s hope for open-sourced servers didn’t happen (although OpenSim is doing something very similar), and Izzy Linden’s prediction of 20 million avatars didn’t materialize (total registrations just topped 15 million). Other forecasts, like whether Second Life residents enjoy better sex or a more stable environment than they did a year ago, remain a matter of personal opinion.
But with an eye towards the future, once again Reuters asked SLCC: What will the next year bring in Second Life?
Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life.
“More use of Second Life to support education and business collaboration.”
Dick Dillon (”Coughran Mayo”), Addiction Recovery Professional
“OpenSim is a reality which is coming. The Second Life Grid isn’t the only place avatars will hang out.”
Chadrick Baker, virtual worlds consultant, former Linden Lab employee
“It depends on what Linden does! I see Linden having some serious competition.”
“Phoenix Linden” (declined to give real-life name), Linden Lab employee
“We’ll go six months without a central server crash.”
“We see virtual worlds going in the same direction the World Wide Web did. A company like Reuters will be able to host its own virtual world without relying on Second Life.”
Peter Lokke (”Crucial Armitage”), SLCC Chief Organizer
“There’s a lot more competition in-world. People aren’t going to be making as much money in Second Life as they used to.”
Chris Collins (”Fleep Tuque”), SL Education Track Organizer
“The development of the metaverse moves as slow as molasses. I don’t expect much change at all.”
When a question was asked on Saturday about poor Second Life performance on the Apple Macintosh, Philip Rosedale leapt up from the SLCC audience and took the microphone.
“We’re serious about support for the Mac,” Rosedale said. “But we’ve had our problems with Apple.”
Linden employee “Phoenix Linden” joined in, saying Apple doesn’t release information about their proprietary video card drivers in a timely fashion, making it hard for Linden to keep the Mac version of the viewer running smoothly.
Rosedale said Linden had done a good job with the Mac viewer despite the difficulty working with Apple. “We have access to crash rates,” Rosedale said. “Crash rates on the Mac are the same as on the PC. Frame rates too.”
Linden Lab and OpenSim developers shared the stage at an SLCC panel called “Open Software For Open Worlds,” and said there was nothing in the works to support spending Linden dollars anywhere but on the Second Life Grid.
During Q&A, Mike Lorrey (Second Life: Intlibber Brautigan) told the panelists he thought Second Life’s “killer app” was money — Linden’s own virtual currency and residents’ ability to start a Second Life business and turn a profit.
Could the Linden Dollar ever come to OpenSim worlds? Linden’s director of open source development Rob Lanphier said he had no idea how to make that work.
“We’re not going to pretend we know how to export that in a way that protects Second Life’s economy,” Lanphier said. “I can’t project a timeline.”
Leading OpenSim developer Adam Frisby disagreed with Lorrey on the importance of virtual currency to the Second Life experience.
“Money doesn’t belong in the core [OpenSim] product build,” Frisby said. “Better to ask again in six or nine months.”
So what has Second Life founder Philip Rosedale been up to since handing over control of Linden Lab to new CEO Mark Kingdon four months ago?
Hanging out, mostly. “I’ve had a really relaxing summer,” a broadly smiling Rosedale told Reuters.
Rosedale had just come out of the morning breakfast at the Second Life Community Convention in Tampa, where he praised Kingdon’s leadership of the company he started. But Rosedale was quick to add he wasn’t done with Second Life or Linden Lab. These days, he’s concentrating on two projects: Working on improving Second Life’s user interface, and efforts to spread Second Life technology to developing nations.
But Second Life fans shouldn’t expect interface problems to be solved soon. “Look at Lively or Vivaty, they’re dealing with the same thing. This is a hard problem,” Rosedale said. “If there was a trivial solution, we would have done it already.”
SECOND LIFE, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Second Life users who frequently access the Internet from consumer-grade computers and laptops are about to find keeping touch with other avatars a lot easier.
Yesterday Linden Lab announced the launch of “SLim,” pronounced “slim,” an instant-messaging client that allows users to communicate with users inside Linden’s virtual world without running Second Life.
“When you’re running a system that doesn’t have a 3D card, SLim allows you to take your friends list with you,” said Linden VP Joe Miller. “Visually it looks a lot like other IM apps.”
Second Life only runs well on high-end gaming machines. On many computers, particularly laptops, the Second Life viewer software runs so slowly even typing can be difficult. Miller said SLim was designed to tackle that problem.
The software will tie to an avatar’s friends list of contacts, and users inside Second Life will be able to see who’s on SLim but not in 3D virtual space.
In addition to sending text messages in and out of Second Life (or to other SLim users) like AOL’s AIM or Google’s Gtalk, the SLim client will support voice-over-IP calls in a manner similar to eBay’s Skype.
One notable feature of SLim will be support for VoIP voicemail. Users who register for the service will be able to set up a voicemail greeting and accept VoIP messages of up to five minutes in length while offline, Miller said. Linden’s servers will email the voice message to its recipient as an MP3 file.
Miller said the service is expected to debut in a “First Look” version of the Second Life client software next week. Participation in SLim and voicemail will be on an opt-in basis, and users can set the destination email address for voicemail to a different address than the payment contact for their secondlife.com account.
The service will be available on all platforms which support Second Life, including Windows, Macintosh, and Linux environments.
SECOND LIFE, Sept 3 (Reuters) - IBM, a company long at the forefront of exploring the business applications of virtual worlds, announced on Wednesday it has added support for 3D chat to its Lotus Sametime instant messaging software.
Users of “Sametime 3D” who are collaborating on a business document will be able to meet in a variety of virtual worlds, with IBM’s software handling the logins transparently, said Neil Katz, a company spokesman who worked on the project. Platforms supported by IBM include OpenSim, SecondLife, Forterra, and ActiveWorlds.
Katz said IBM will initially be working with select customers to test the new software’s capabilities, before rolling it out to the mainstream.
IBM foresees uses for corporate 3D chat such as walking customers through the replacement of a computer part by rezzing a 3D model. The Sametime 3D integration also smooths the process of importing data from an application such as Powerpoint into a virtual world.
While reliability issues have plagued virtual worlds such as Second Life, corporate applications may be made to run in a more stable manner, particularly using OpenSim.
“We’re creating a room with 20 or 30 users, we’re not building a persistent virtual world with thousands or hundreds of thousands of concurrent users,” he said.
SECOND LIFE, August 26 (Reuters) - The real-world economy may be slipping into recession, but the global slowdown isn’t impacting Second Life. According to recently released company statistics, Linden Lab’s in-world economy is larger than ever.
Over 61,000 avatars earned more Linden dollars (Second Life’s in-world currency) in July than they spent. That’s a 5.7 percent month-to-month gain in the number of profitable in-world businesses and the most on record.
User hours grew for the fourth consecutive month to 34.7 million in July, also a new record. However, the user hours number may be unreliable given the proliferation of computer-run avatars, or “bots,” throughout the Grid.
Economic activity grew briskly. Over US$9.5 million was traded on the LindeX, a 5.5 percent gain from June and a new record. User-to-user transactions in July stood at L$8.4 billion (about US$31.3 million), a 7.3 percent gain from June and the most currency transactions since the gambling ban in July of last year.
The sole dark spot for Second Life was the continuing decline in premium accounts. Linden shed an additional 1,410 premiums in July — over 45 a day and the seventh consecutive month premiums declined.
The principal benefit of a premium account is land-ownership privileges on Second Life’s mainland, where avatars have neighbors and enjoy a sense of community. Linden Lab has been unable to grow the mainland for three months due to weak demand, but private islands have grown to occupy 1.7 billion square meters, an 8.7 percent gain from June.
In recent months Linden Lab has announced a series of beautification and zoning initiatives in an attempt to restore user interest in the mainland.
SECOND LIFE, August 21 (Reuters) - Browser-based virtual world Vivaty, currently accessible through Facebook and AOL Instant Messenger will be embeddable by users on blogs and pages throughout the Web within the next two months, CEO Keith McCurdy said this week.
McCurdy also said Vivaty is internally testing the technology on the Firefox web browser, and expects to announce official support for Mozilla’s browser “in the next few weeks.” Presently Vivaty only runs within the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser on Windows.
There’s no timetable at present to extend support for Vivaty to the Macintosh, he said.
While every virtual world is scrambling for users and attention, the competition closest to Vivaty may be Lively by Google. Like Vivaty, Lively is a browser-based virtual world embedded in IE. Vivaty and Lively launched on the same day.
McCurdy said Google’s presence only validates Vivaty’s idea. “Before we launched, people asked: Why be in the browser?” he said. “After Google launched — or echo-launched — we get almost none of those questions.”
“Their product looks very different. They have a cartoon look, we have more of a Sims look,” he said.
Vivaty’s goal is to allow avatars to create a virtual space that ties into the rest of their web presence. Already users can hang a virtual picture frame on their wall, and have it display images from a Flickr account. Tighter integration between Vivaty and Facebook (already a partner) and Twitter are all in the works.
“People will have a lot more ability to pull stuff in from the rest of the Internet,” he said. “Brands love that.”
Coke Zero and Target are early Vivaty branding partners. “Second Life has brands coming into Second Life, but then they’re locked in,” McCurdy said. “We turned that inside out.”
Embedding a Vivaty scene on a corporate web site is more attractive to advertisers, he said.
Further expansion of Vivaty Create, a user-generated content tool, is planned. McCurdy doesn’t expect problems with pornography or griefing. “We’ll have people who will check content, and you’ll have the community check content,” he said.
But while McCurdy wants to further open up his virtual world to outside developers and add more avatar customization, he doesn’t see that as Vivaty’s draw.
“We’re not trying to be a 3D modeling program,” he said. “We’re erring on the side of simple, easy-to-use, and mass-market.”
The newest destination for talent scouts looking to sign fresh acts is Second Life.
Boutique label Reality Entertainment has signed popular Second Life musician Von Johin to a record deal. Wagner James Au runs a lengthy interview with Johin, who performs weekly shows in the virtual world.
For the most part, however, he no longer has any interest playing live in person. “This is more fun,” he says, referring to his virtual stage. “No gas costs, no travel, worldwide audience, exciting new people, no smoke, no drunks on the road, no hassles.”
But what does “sign a record deal” really mean in 2008? The Metaverse Journal takes a contrarian approach to the news: “Any individual can now publish their music worldwide on iTunes using services like TuneCore for the princely sum of US $9.99 per year.”
Regardless, any deal can only be seen as encouraging news for Second Life’s burgeoning music scene.
In This Issue: SLCC 2007 and Het-Grid | Civic Center: Casinos Away | Name Dropping: Robbie Dingo | As We See It: New Features vs. Bug Fixing: A defense of features | Your Letters: SL Voice: Another Valuable Choice | Developer Focus: Real Estate in Second Life: Coldwell Banker Enters the Market | Teen Grid: Interview with Katharine Berry | Tips & Tricks: Don't Miss the Active Speakers Window | Fab Five: Outstanding EDU Spots | Best Bets: Romantic Spots
In This Issue: Virtual Fundraiser | Name Dropping: Second Life Birthday Volunteers | As We See It: SL Voice - Another Valuable Choice | Your Letters: Missed Opportunities | Teen Grid: Second Life Best Practices in Education | Tips & Tricks: The Public Issue Tracker | Fab Five: Sculpted Prim Contest Winenrs | Best Bets: Nashville's Blurbird Cafe & The Avastar!
In This Issue: Second Life Turns 4! | Civic Center: Local Governance Control to the Grid | Name Dropping: Thanks are in Order | As We See It: Missed Opportunities | Your Letters: Education in Different Forms | Developer Focus: Second Life: Sitting High on Capitol Hill | Teen Grid: Teen Grid gets a remake | Tips & Tricks | Fab Five: Five Outstanding Environments | Best Bets: Live Music Venues!
In This Issue Radio Linden Is Being Replaced With Podcasts! | Civic Center: If It Sounds Too Good To Be True | Name Dropping: Thanks are in Order | As We See It: Education Is An Essential Part Of The Second Life Experience | Your Letters: Lindens Need Parties Too | Developer Focus: Dublin: Creating Community One Pint at a Time | Teen Grid: Eye4You Alliance | Tips & Tricks: Knowledgebase | Fab Five: Role Playing Games | Best Bets: Voice in Second Life: Beta Test Opens!
In This Issue SECOND LIFE GOES OPEN SOURCE! | Better World: Never Underestimate the Value of a Virtual Yak | Civic Center: The DMCA and YOU | Name Dropping: Thanks are in Order | As We See It: Linden Presence in Second Life | Your Letters: Diversity and an Open Community | Developer Focus: Cybraries: More than Just an Online Library | Teen Grid: Private Islands: Teen Grid Style | Tips & Tricks: Knowledgebase
In This Issue --> The Winter Festival: Join Us In Celebration | The Teen Grid: Campus Visit | Name Dropping: Teaching Others | Developer Focus: Infinite Expression | Civic Center: Bigger and Better | Tips and Tricks: Torley's Video Tips - Take Two | As We See It: Diversity and an Open Community | Your Letters: Growing the Community
In This Issue --> End Real World Hunger in SL? Help the UN | Virtual News: Now Read This! | The Teen Grid: Checking In | Name Dropping: Welcoming New Friends | Developer Focus: Need Advice? | Police Blotter: Renewing Customer Support | Tips and Tricks: Advanced Snapshot Magic | Editorial: Growing the Community | Your Letters: Serendipity in Disaster
In This Issue --> Burning Life: Burn Baby Burn | Global: We're Going International | Teen Grid: Claudia's Tour, Part Two | Name Dropping: Beyond Helpful | Developer Focus: Goin' Fishin' | Police Blotter: Alt Accounts and Griefing | Tips and Tricks: Account Security | Editorial: Serendipity in Disaster | Your Letters: Blog Your Way to the Future
In This Issue --> Second Life Movie Trailer Contest Winner: Second Life - Get One | Developer Resources: Learn How to be a Developer Superstar | Teen Grid: What Ming Chen did on his Summer Vacation | Name Dropping: Superstar Groups | Developer Focus: Architecture and Second Life | Police Blotter: Disclosure!! | Tips and Tricks: Lateral Features for Better Second Living | Editorial: Blog the Way | Your Letters: Open Channels
In This Issue --> Trailer Contest: Call for Entries | Spreading Hope: Second Annual Relay for Life | Teen Grid: Teen Grid Fly-Over | Name Dropping: Thanks are in Order | Developer Focus: Coming Soon - Second Life Developer University | Police Blotter: Disturbing the Peace | Tips and Tricks: Taking Snapshots | Editorial: Welcome to the Free Press | Your Letters: How Much Growth is Enough?
In This Issue --> Second Life Community Convention: Register Now! | Call for Entries: Submit Your Art | Teen Grid: Making Learning Fun | Name Dropping: Helping Residents Find Their Niche | Developer Focus: American Apparel Breaks New Ground | Police Blotter: Assault | Tips and Tricks: Creating Machinima | Editorial: How Much Growth is Enough? | Your Letters: Open Channels
In This Issue --> Radio Linden: Its Live | Teen Grid: Earning Money | Name Dropping: Who Let the Dogs Out? | Police Blotter: Indecency | Editorial: The Evolution of a Self-Sustaining Economy | Your Letters: Linden Subsidies
In This Issue --> Teen Grid: First Anniversary | Developer Focus: Marvin the Robot Comes to Life | Name Dropping: Stroke Support, Helping Partners | Police Blotter: Intolerance | Editorial: Linden Subsidies | Your Letters: Bush Signs in SL
In This Issue --> The Second Opinion Gets a Facelift | Getting Creative: Study The Artistic Promise of Digital Life | Name Dropping: Do Unto Others | Police Blotter: Getting Terminated | Developer Focus: Attach a HUD | Editorial: A Sign of the Times
In This Issue --> FREE Account Giveaway | In-world Video Simulcast on Second Life Website | Cory Doctorow Book Signing | SL in the Press | New World Notes
In This Issue --> Coming Soon: Mozilla-powered web browsing in Second Life | Hair to Share: Big hair and big hair discounts | Breaking into the Game Industry with Second Life | SL in the Press | New World Notes
In This Issue --> Private Detectives Come to Second Life! | Numbakulla Adventure Game | Developers Corner: Export Poser Animations | SL in the Press | New World Notes
In This Issue --> Resident Profile: Chip Midnight, Master of Skins | Snapzilla Conquers Second Life! | Movie Magic - Stream Quicktime Movies into Second Life | GDC: Post-Party Report | SL in the Press | New World Notes
In This Issue --> Fall Fashion | For Sale! | Bush vs. Kerry | Philip Linden's Blog | New World Notes
11-9-6
This is going to be my journal of my doings in Second Life®. If you don't know Second Life is a virtual world, technically a MMORPG (Massively Multi-user Online Role Playing Game). I've heard stories of people quitting their real job and just surviving on the money they make in Second Life®. Now that's something that gets my attention. Not that I want to quit my job, but I like making money. I think there has to be a way to make some money off this site since so many other people are doing it. If Scion has a car dealership in this world, selling 3d models of their cars and Lexus is considering it, then I have to think that there can be some money made here. My plan is to create some 3d applications and sell them through a kiosk based store. So I never have to be there and as long as I make more money than my monthly charge, I'm in the gravy.
So I created my character yesterday and of course I had to give him a mohawk. You can really chose every aspect of the character to customize, from the angle of the eyebrows to the amount of wrinkles in their pants. There are a lot of people selling virtual clothes and people offering to make the avatars (that's the character that represents you on the screen) look just like you or anything else you like. I've also heard that there are people that are walking around looking like a T-Rex but I haven't seen that yet. I have seen elephants for sale here. I don't know what I'd do with it but I'm thinking about it because it sounds pretty cool.
So I'm thinking of all the ways that I can make money in this virtual world and I've got a few good ones. I was amazed at all the porn related shops that there are, so I don't want to milk a dead cow so I'm not going down that road, but I did have to investigate it and people are actually paying for sex in this game. Not for real world sex but for cyber sex with 3d characters. I couldn't believe it when I stumbled across a section of town that was filled with escorts! So I had to check it out. I wasn't looking to have cybersex so I was able to talk her down to 100L (1 cent US) to have her play the lapdance animations and the blowjob animations.
