Category Archives: NEWS

Linden Lab Announces Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller Program to End

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In the official Second Life blog, Linden Lab announces that they will be ending the Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller program.

In 2013, LL introduced a pilot program for Authorized Linden Dollar (L$) Resellers. This pilot program was designed to give Second Life Residents additional options for purchasing Linden Dollars, particularly for those based outside the US.

Since then, LL has expanded the payment options for Second Life users, and today, you can easily purchase L$ in more countries than ever before, using a credit card, PayPal, or Skrill, which supports a wide range of payment methods. Since these options support the vast majority of Second Life users, they made the business decision to close the Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller pilot program.

As an Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller, ZoHa Islands will be contacted directly by Linden Lab with the details for the next steps, and we will have approximately six weeks to sell off our L$ inventory. As of August 1, 2015, the Authorized L$ Reseller pilot program will be closed, and the LindeX will be the only authorized place to purchase L$.

How to Buy L$
If you’re used to using an Authorized L$ Reseller, such as ZoHa Islands, you will still have many options for purchasing L$ as of August 1, 2015. If you put payment info on file for your Second Life account, you can purchase L$ in the Viewer with the “Buy L$” button. If you’ve never done it before, check out this quick video:

Among the options for payment information you can put on file in your account are:

• Credit Card: Using your credit card, you can purchase L$ on the LindeX using multiple currencies, including EUR, GBP, JPY, and AUD.

• PayPal: PayPal can be connected directly to a bank account in more than 193 countries and regions.

• Skrill: Skrill supports a wide variety of payment methods. To start using Skrill for Second Life, just login at SecondLife.com, click “Billing Information” under “Account,” and then select “Add a Skrill Account.”

If you have been using ZoHa Islands to purchase Lindens, stay tuned to this blog for more information as this program is phased out.

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Blogger and Social Media

VR In Project Sansar

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Living In a ModemWorld by Inara Pey posted a blog post about the future of virtual reality (VR) in Linden Lab’s newest platform, Project Sansar.

Ebbe Altberg gave a 20-minute talk titled “The future of VR is user-created” at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR) Conference, which opened on May 18th, 2015.

“Those who may have been hoping to gain more of an insight into the Lab’s Next Generation Platform (aka Project SANSAR) will perhaps be disappointed by this presentation. As the title suggests, it isn’t so much focused on the Lab’s NGP, but rather on user generated content (UGC).” says Inara in her post.

Ebbe touched on SANSAR during the third part of his speech, but he really didn’t give much more away about the platform than has already been revealed by the Lab in statements made about it to date: That it is in development, that it will be running in a closed alpha from summer 2015, etc.

Read the full article by clicking here: Ebbe Altberg: “The Future of VR is User-Created” (a look at SL + SANSAR from the VR perspective)

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, Blogger/Social Media

Project Sansar Is Linden Lab’s New Platform

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Ever since Linden Lab let it slip that they are working on a new project, dubbed “Second Life 2” by speculators, rumors have abounded regarding this mysterious project. Hoopla ensued; people were in a panic over whether Linden Lab was going to stop supporting Second Life once the new world was up and running; content creators and residents alike were up in arms over the fact that the new world would not be backwards-compatible and user-created content from SL would not be transferable to the new world.

Recent rumblings in the forums and blogs have indicated that the nickname is Project Sansar. Indeed, patents have been applied for that use the name Sansar, and Project Sansar.

Inara Pey, in her blog “Living in the ModemWorld” (that’s a clickable link) speculated that: “Sansara was one of the early names considered for Second life (being derived from Samsāra, which occurs in both Buddhism and Hinduism, and, perhaps more particularly where SL is concerned, was used by Hermann Hesse in his 1922 novel Siddhartha as a reference to the “world of illusion”), and currently lives on as the name of SL ‘s oldest and largest mainland continent. Whether “SANSAR” is a play on this is unclear – it might just as easily be an acronym.”

Apparently both “Sansar” and “Project Sansar” are being bandied about, and threads point to the fact that both names have had patents applied for by the Lab:

• US Serial no 86593254 – for “Project SANSAR”
• US serial no 86593259 – for “SANSAR”

In addition, in October 2014, Ascio Technologies, Inc., filed a domain name registration for projectsansar.com listing Linden Research as the Domain Administrator.

A few days after this information was beginning to leak out, Linden Lab tweeted:

ProjectSansar

Stay tuned to this blog; we will post more as information becomes available.

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Blogger/Social Media

Oculus Announces Rift Launch in 2016

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Oculus has announced their plans to debut their highly-anticipated VR (virtual reality) headset in the first quarter of 2016, saying that it hopes to “transform gaming, film, entertainment, communication and much more.”

It is anticipated that VR headsets will revolutionize virtual environments such as Second Life (it is my understanding that the “Second Life II” is being built with virtual reality in mind) and High Fidelity, the VR virtual world project currently in alpha testing by former SL CEO Philip Rosedale.

Oculus is probably the most well-known name in the pool of Virtual Reality headset makers, as their Rift headset has been in development for several years. Until now, most virtual reality technology has come in the form of prototypes and development devices shown at trade shows and high-profile announcements. Rift’s launch has been highly anticipated, with some analysts speculating that if Oculus didn’t hurry up and launch, that other companies such as the Vive, a brainchild of a collaboration between Valve and HTC, would edge them out as a contender.

Meanwhile, Sony announced intentions to launch its own virtual reality headset for its PlayStation 4 video game console, called Project Morpheus. Samsung has also thrown their hat in the ring, with their announcement that they plan to launch Gear VR, a version of the headset made to be compatible with Samsung smartphones.

Oculus itself was the brainchild of a virtual reality enthusiast Palmer Luckey, who co-founded the company in 2012 after a mix of money and encouragement from industry veterans. Oculus held a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter that generated more than $2.4 million in pre-orders for its prototype. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in 2014.

According to an article on CNET.com, “Analysts say they aren’t worried which company launches first. Part of the reason is that the resources and investment necessary to attract game developers to make specialized content, as well as the cost of research into next generation technology, leave a lot of opportunity for deep-pocketed companies to duke it out for a while.”

Here is C|NET’s review of the Oculus Rift headset.

Click here: C|NET’s First Look at the Oculus Rift Crescent Bay Prototype

Click here for complete article on cnet.com: Oculus to launch long-awaited Rift virtual reality headset in 2016

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Blogger/Social Media.

Viewer Managed Marketplace In-world Feedback Session on Fri., May 1st!

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Linden Lab is hosting an in-world feedback session tomorrow (Friday, May 1, 2015) at 11:00 a.m. SLT! Read more here:

From the desk of Jessica Lyon, Project Manager for Firestorm Viewer:

“If you create and sell content in Second Life and you haven’t heard of the upcoming “Viewer Managed Marketplace” changes; listen up because this impacts you! We’ve all ranted at some point or another that Linden Lab doesn’t listen to our feedback enough. Well things have changed and LL HAS been listening and asking, but getting very little return from it. Now is your chance to have a voice, be heard and be part of the development process! While this is not a vote, the expression still fits “If you don’t vote you can’t complain”.

“This Friday LL is hosting an inworld feedback session in hopes to hear from merchants and viewer developers about the upcoming marketplace changes. If you aren’t familiar with Viewer Managed marketplace there is plenty of information available. LL Links below! Please try out their beta and provide feedback on Friday!

“LL Invitation to their feedback session. Click here to request invitation

“LL Info about the beta launch including a Torley Video! — Click here for info and video

“Members of the Firestorm team will be there and we hope to see some merchants too!”

Jessica Lyon
Project Manager
The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Inc.

The post on Firestorm’s Website can be found here: SL Marketplace Merchants Listen Up!

If you’re an in-world merchant, consider going to the link provided and requesting an invitation to Friday’s feedback session!

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Blogger/Social Media

OnLive Sold, SL Go To End April 30th

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Sadly, a product that was filling a gap for people with older computers and people who wanted to access SL on their tablets is being discontinued.

The folks at Firestorm announced that OnLive issued a press release revealing that their company has just been acquired by Sony, and that Sony will not be continuing the SL Go service. In fact, it appears Sony has purchased OnLive for its patent portfolio in cloud gaming for their PlayStation product only. OnLive has stated that they will continue the SL Go Service until April 30th and that any new subscriptions will be free until their last day.

See the article on Firestorm’s website here: OnLive Sold, SL Go To End April 30th

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Blogger and Social Media