Tag Archives: Second Life

Linden Labs Announces Sponsorship of the Drax Files: World Makers

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Linden Labs has announced that they will be sponsoring The Drax Files: World Makers. In these videos, Draxtor Despres creates videos that highlight and present the stories of some of the many talented people who are creating incredible things in Second Life.

Contrary to popular opinion, Second Life is more than a bunch of depraved sex addicts and married people looking for a disease-free way to cheat on their spouses. Second Life is full of creative people with amazing things to offer. There are artists to educators, game makers, fashion designers, community builders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, musicians, magicians, and more who are making and doing wonderful things in Second Life. I’ve enjoyed watching the videos that the Drax Files: World Makers produces.

“[Drax manages to present] their stories in a way that shows not only the creative power of the platform, but also the unique personalities that make up the global community of Second Life users.” says Linden Labs in their press release. “As compelling as the series is for those of us already familiar with Second Life and stories like these, it’s also extremely powerful in communicating the magic of Second Life to those who haven’t yet experienced it firsthand.”

Having been in Second Life for five and a half years, I see myself, as well as a lot of people around the grid, developing a kind of blasé attitude. You can’t be in world for more than a year or two without being touched by some kind of person who rips you off emotionally or financially, because just like in RL, there are people who use and abuse you, and who love to stir up and create drama. It is very easy to get jaded. I used to run a club in Second Life, and don’t get me started about temperamental artists…. ugh.

Recently I have had a really fun experience — introducing someone to Second Life for the very first time. I’d forgotten about how exciting this virtual world appears to someone who has never experienced it before. Her genuine excitement and awe about all that SL has to offer has been contagious. I’ve started looking at SL through her eyes, and remembering and enjoying that sense of wonder and amazement I used to feel in SL. My friend has been in world now for about a month and a half, and interestingly enough people do not believe she is a noob. They think she is an alt account, because thanks to me, she looks amazing. However, all you have to do is watch her try to manipulate her avie in world, and you will know she is a noob! She’s been coming over to my house in RL and using my computer while she becomes familiar with SL, and I sit over her shoulder and help her. We have laughed until the tears come over watching her try and move around SL. I had forgotten how difficult it can be. She falls off stairs, runs into walls, loses her camera inside things. and runs into people.

One of the things that the Drax Files videos do is remind us about all that is good and wonderful about SL. That there is more good than evil in SL. Second Life is amazing place full of marvelous and wonderful content creators of all types. Draxtor really looks for people to interview who contribute some of these amazing things in SL.  He focuses on the many talented people in SL, many of whom make their entire living from businesses such as estate owners, services such as wedding planners, and content creators who sell their items in SL and in the marketplace.

In order to ensure that the Drax Files continues, Linden Labs has elected to sponsor it. The Drax Files is a labor of love for Draxtor, but there are real production costs associated with creating something of this quality.  Linden Labs was quick to point out, however, that this sponsorship has no impact on Draxtor’s editorial independence. They do not plan on taking control or trying to dictate what stories are told or how they are presented in the series. They wanted to reassure the audience that their agreement does not have any impact on his other work (his podcasts, for example). All it means is that Draxtor will be able to continue to produce new episodes of The Drax Files: World Makers series each month, which we can all enjoy and which Linden Lab can use in support of their Second Life marketing efforts.

Below is a fun video entitled: The Drax Files World Makers: Stories from Second Life. It is self-described as: “In the digital universe known as Second Life, a vibrant global community transcends boundaries of cultural, ethnic and generational nature: with unlimited possibilities to explore, make or sell anything one can imagine, stories of individual empowerment abound.

Watch the video and remember the wonder and beauty that Second Life is meant to be. Look at it through the eyes of my noob friend. Don’t dwell on the negative; but rather focus on the positive. I encourage you to use the Destination Guide and visit some of the most amazing user created content in the Virtual Universe!

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager

Curio Obscura: Home of the Strange and Wonderful

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I was wandering around the ZoHa Islands Business District and stumbled across probably the most unique store I’ve ever seen in Second Life!  Curio Obscura grabs your attention immediately with this unique build, and draws you inside. You can’t wait to see what might be inside this curious store!

On the website for Curio Obscura, they are self-described as: “Come to Curio Obscura for Strange and Wonderful creations in Second Life.  At Curio Obscura, you will find Steampunk, Gothic Lolita, Clockwork, Dollism, Humor, Hairstyles, Fashion, Historical Recreation/Reinterpretation, Animation, Typing Overrides, Vehicles, and whatever else pops into my twisted imagination. ”

Pandora Wrigglesworth is the creative genius behind this steampunk-themed build and items. The biggest fun is simply exploring the puzzle that is this store. It is a magical adventure as you explore this store, using all sorts of means to get from one area to another. There are jumping letters on the ground at one place, and click on the various arrows, walk through “doors” that teleport you to another area of the store. Don’t forget to look for the door that takes you to the roof. There, you will find a rocket. Click and sit and see what happens!

She even has a rezzer that will rez some of her items that allow you to try them out before you buy. But even this seemingly mundane item in SL is uniquely positioned, as the rezzers are in the corner windows of the store, and once you’re inside, you see nothing but curtains around you, and the puzzle is trying to find the way out! If you cam out, you can see yourself with the item through the windows of the store.

This is a must see, as exploring this store is a whole lot of fun! Here are some pics. Enjoy!

I remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager

 

 

 

MadPea Productions Presents UNIA!

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Squeee! The newest MadPea immersive experience is almost here!! This promises to be the biggest and best game on SL. I think MadPea has outdone themselves. MadPea has been working on this game for over a year. Read more about it on their website here.

MadPea Productions Unia game nearly died an early death, causing no small amount of panic among their fans (yours truly included!). Two months into the game development they lost their sponsor, and have had to find ways to keep funding the two islands they need for UNIA. Since the CEO is in Finland there is a 24% tax added to the cost of each full island. That is $70.80 USD in addition to the usual $295.00 tier fee so the monthly cost of the two MadPea islands is $731.50 USD.  After much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth, they made the difficult decision to hold a fundraiser to raise funds so the development of UNIA could continue. They raised the funds they needed through a GoFundMe site. Hallelujah!

Check out the UNIA Facebook page here and keep your eyes peeled to this blog. I will definitely be posting about UNIA!

Here’s a sneak preview. Looks like this is MadPea at it’s finest!

And check out this wonderful interview with Kiana Madpea, the inspiration behind the games! The video is from The Drax Files. There is a whole YouTube channel of  machinima by award-winning media maker Draxtor and home of “The Drax Files World Makers” series.

I remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager

World Goth Fair in Second Life

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World Goth Fair HeaderAs I was logging into the grid tonight, I saw a notification about the World Goth Fair was in full swing, and that it was a benefit for a charity. It intrigued me enough to go check it out, and see if it was worth blogging about. I am only vaguely familiar with Goth, and so I thought I would explore what Goth really was all about. I didn’t know if it was wanna-be vampires, or a passing fad like my son when he was 16, with his black fingernail polish and black hair, and black clothes. Was he really into an alternative lifestyle or simply part of teenage angst? (I assume it was the latter, because he’s 26 and in college now, thankfully all vestiges of black nail polish are gone.)

The link that I received when I logged in was a link to a website, so I clicked on it to check it out.

Apparently within the Goth subculture is a RL event called “World Goth Day.” World Goth Fair is an annual Second Life event, officially sanctioned by the folks at  World Goth Day to benefit the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

On August 24th 2007, Sophie Lancaster and her partner Rob, who were part of the Goth subculture, were victims of a horrific hate crime in Stubbeylee Park, Bacup, Lancashire, England, simply because of the way they were dressed. A group of people saw Sophie and Rob in the park, and attacked them, pushing them down and kicking them, hurling epithets at them. “Freak!” “Weirdo!” Sophie died saving Rob, who survived the attack. Sophie’s grief-stricken mother wanted to find a way to raise awareness, and she created The Sophie Foundation. Their motto is Stamp Out Prejudice Hatred & Intolerance Everywhere (or S.O.P.H.I.E).

THe Sophie Lancaster Foundation’s mission is:

• To create a lasting legacy to Sophie

• To provide educational group-works that will challenge the prejudice and intolerance towards people from alternative subcultures

• To campaign to have the UK Hate Crime legislation expanded to include people from “alternative subcultures” and “lifestyle and dress.”‘

This amazing video is from the Foundation’s website:

In Second Life, a group of individuals decided to put on a World Goth Fair (WGF) in order to raise awareness for the Goth subculture and to raise funds for this worthy cause. World Goth Fair is produced by Cursed Events.  The team consists of Axi Kurmin, Lokii Violet, Sonya Marmurek, Nephilaine Protaganist, and CruelBritannia. WGF 2014 takes place on three sims- Cursed (adult), Sium (moderate) and Port Seraphine (general).  Cursed and Sium are adjacent. Port Seraphine is not attached and requires a teleport to reach.

WGF CURSED (adult) – http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cursed/65/129/1020

WGF SIUM (moderate) – http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sium/127/200/1001

WGF PORT SERAPHINE (general) – http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Port%20Seraphine/99/132/25

I hopped around to all three sims, and they are hauntingly beautiful. Kind of creepy to me, but I am not into Goth. However, you can’t help but appreciate the amount of detail that went into these builds. I wandered around all three sims, even going into some of the stores. Naturally, most of the stores were of a goth theme, but there were also a fair number of non-goth stores. It was fun to wander around and see what everyone was offering. There was some really beautiful enchanted landscape around the sim, also. It is very well done.

I took several photos, which I will display here. Most of the sims were quite dark, and I didn’t want to ruin the ambience by changing my windlight settings. My apologies if you can’t see much in the photos. You’ll just have to go visit the sims themselves! And drop a few lindens in the donation jar. Whether you agree with someone’s lifestyle choices or not, it is not okay for people to express their dislike with violence.

Enjoy!

World Goth Fair Seraphine_001 World Goth Fair Seraphine_003 World Goth Fair Seraphine_005 World Goth Fair Seraphine_006 World Goth Fair Seraphine_009 World Goth Fair Seraphine_010 World Goth Fair Seraphine_011 World Goth Fair Seraphine_014 World Goth Fair Seraphine_015 World Goth Fair Sium_003 World Goth Fair_002 World Goth Fair_003 World Goth Fair_006 World Goth Fair_008 World Goth Fair_012

I remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers

ZoHa Islands Social Media Manager

Around the Grid with Suzanne

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It’s Sunday evening, and another weekend has come and gone. We are facing another Monday tomorrow, but meanwhile I thought I’d close out the weekend with some highlights of things that are happening around the grid, and that are coming up soon.

And here we go…

New Mesh Default Avatars

Mesh default avatars resizedOn Linden Lab’s blog, they posted about new default avatar options they are offering. Linden Labs has updated Second Life’s default avatars with 24 brand new mesh avatars. In the Second Life blog, it states,”These avatars are designed to give new users a more appealing set of choices as they start their time in Second Life. Based on the most popular avatars picked at registration, these new options are much better-looking and take advantage of technology incorporated into Second Life over the past year (like fitted mesh and materials) for a more modern feel.” Maybe noobs won’t look so noob-y anymore!

Even if you’re a current SL user, you can check out the new default avatars in the SL viewer by opening the Avatar Selector in the viewer. Under the People tab, you’ll see a great variety of male and female mesh avatars to pick from. They even have mesh Vampires, along with some other monsters like zombies, werewolves, and winged beasts. 

Project Interesting

Early in May, Lindens Lab announced the latest update to their viewer — Project Interesting. This viewer completes the series of improvements they began several months ago with a series of server updates. This update reduces the load and time it takes to draw objects in regions, meaning scenes appear more quickly and smoothly as you move throughout Second Life. The always-entertaining Torley Linden explains Project Interesting in the, well, interesting video below. Have a look!

SL11B is coming!

SL11B resizedAs I reported earlier, SL11B, SL’s 11th birthay celebration, is quickly approaching! June 22-29 are the dates. If you want to participate as an exhibitor, performer or volunteer, applications are due May 20th, so hurry and get those applications in! They are not accepting applications from commercial enterprises to promote business. Watch the Destination Guide as it approaches, because all of the events during this wonderful celebration will be listed there. Or you can follow their website here. This year’s theme is “The Empires of the Future.”

Relay for Life

2014 RFL SL Logo resizedRelay for Life, (or RFL as it is colloquially known in SL) is a huge grid-wide series of events designed to raise funds for cancer research. These events run parallel to the RL American Cancer Society’s “Relay for Life” fundraising events. All proceeds raised in SL at these events go directly to the American Cancer Society for their Relay for Life fundraiser. You can see their website here.

According to the Relay for Life Wiki, “Relay For Life of Second Life (RFL of SL) is an annual activity that takes place in Second Life in July each year. Volunteers form or join teams to have fun while fundraising and raising awareness from mid-March through mid-July. In July teams build campsites and walk a track, just like in a Real World Relay. Since 2005, Relay For Life of Second Life has raised over $1 million USD for the American Cancer Society. Relay For Life has become an international movement in RL and in SL.”

RFL has been active in SL since 2004, where they had the first volunteer driven fundraiser for the American Cancer Society ever in Second Life. Ninety-nine Avatars participated, and they raised a total of $2,000 US dollars. In 2013, the ninth RFL of SL saw 3,549 avatars participating, with 200 teams walking 2,898 laps. They raised $393,000 US dollars! This is a whopping $98,250,000 Linden dollars!! (based on an average exchange rate of $250L to $1.00 US). This is truly mind-boggling.

In 2014, the 10th RFL of SL will take place on Saturday, July 19 through Sunday, July 20, 2014. The Event Chair is Nikki Matheson and the theme is “A Journey of Promise.”

Please visit the RFL of SL website and take a look at how huge this event has become. This enormous effort raises hundreds of thousands of US dollars a year, and is a very worthwhile effort. Nearly everyone’s lives have been touched by cancer — either through their own diagnosis or a friend or loved one. Please consider participating, either with your time, or your linden dollar donations.

I remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager

 

Second Life System Requirement Changes

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 Update post itAs we all know, having an updated operating system and other various computer hardware is key to having a positive experience in SL. The faster your processor, the better your graphics card, the faster your internet speed — then the better your experience in SL. You’ll experience less lag and less crashing, and faster rez times. Sometimes the technology for SL moves in leaps and bounds, creating a dichotomy. We want SL to improve itself, making avatars better, graphics better, etc. However, this also creates a problem where a computer can become quickly outdated. You can purchase the best of the best, only to find in a year or two that you are back to having the same problems. Every time a viewer updates, you both cringe and look forward to  changes. You cringe because you know your computer will be a little less responsive because of the updates, and you look forward to seeing the newest updates. It is a double edged sword.

Woman frustrated computerI personally used to have a laptop, and that worked for awhile, until it didn’t. Then I purchased a newer, better laptop, but it too quickly became outdated. Finally, in 2010 I got smart and purchased a desktop. While it isn’t portable and makes getting into SL impossible while traveling (that is, until they get the SL Go app from OnLive for the iPad), at least it is more easily updated. I have updated with extra memory here, a new graphics card there. I am sure it won’t be long before I’ll need a faster processor chip in a year or so, but so far I’ve been able to more or less keep up with SL. Not bad for a four year old computer!

man frustratred computerSL has recently announced a couple of important system requirements; one regarding dropping of support for both Windows XP and Mac OSX 10.6 operating systems. The other is an announcement about keeping up with Microsoft’s service pack updates.

Below is the actual announcement by Linden Labs regarding Second Life System Requirements. Windows 8 users want to pay particular attention to a requirement to update to the latest 8.1, otherwise the latest viewer update coming out soon will not download.

Read on, MacDuff!

by Community Manager Linden Lab ‎04-29-2014 11:50 AM – edited ‎04-29-2014 11:50 AM

We have made some changes to the Second Life System Requirements to bring them more up to date, and are making some related changes to the Viewer:

  • We have removed Windows XP and Mac OSX 10.6 from the list of supported operating systems. Microsoft has announced the end of support for XP, and it has been some time since Apple has released updates for 10.6. For some time now, the Viewer has been significantly less stable on these older systems, and the lack of security updates to them make them more hazardous to use. We have no plans to actually block those systems, but problems reported on them that cannot be reproduced on supported systems will not likely be fixed.

  • The Windows installer has been modified to verify that the system has been updated with the most recent Service Packs from Microsoft. While we will not block installation on Windows 8 at this time, we strongly recommend upgrading to 8.1 for greater stability. Our data shows that the Viewer is significantly less stable on systems that have not been kept up to date, so the installer will now block installation until the updates have been applied. This change will be effective in a Viewer version to be released in the next few weeks, so it would be a good idea to get your system up to date before then. You can find information on how to install the latest updates at the Microsoft Windows Update page.

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager