Squee!!
As those of you know who read this blog regularly, I am a huge MadPea fan. They just finished “Buried.” Coming up on April 20th is Unia. I cannot wait!!
(p.s. I hope you realized that Wednesday’s Post was an April Fool’s joke by Linden Lab. 🙂 )
I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Blogger/Social Media
April 1, 2015: Second Life’s Official Blog posted about a new Project Viewer! They are introducing 2DSS Mode — or 2D Side Scrolling Mode. Think Mario Brothers in Second Life.
Screenshot of 2DSS Viewer
“There’s been a lot of excitement recently around our integration of the Oculus Rift with Second Life. The addition of HMD (head-mounted display) mode offers a new level of immersion for 3D experiences, but what about people who want less immersion?
“Today, we’re happy to announce a new way to explore the wide variety of community-created experiences in Second Life, without the complexity of the third dimension: 2D side-scrolling (2DSS) mode. Without the third dimension, you can enjoy Second Life just like your favorite 8-bit games from the past!
“Note: while this new mode is compatible with HMD mode, we do not recommend trying both simultaneously. If you were to turn your head 90 degrees while doing so, the world may simply disappear from view – causing a rather jarring experience that might make you feel a bit foolish.
“The new 2DSS mode is available as of April 1, 2015, and you can now download the Project Viewer to start enjoying some retro-future fun in Second Life!”
Download the Project Viewer here: 2DSS Project Viewer
Hurry! This viewer will not be available after April 1st!
I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager
I know I have been doing a lot of reposting of articles lately but there are a lot of good ones out there.
Second Life’s Facebook page posted a link to an excellent article recently posted in an e-Zine called “Good,” about the life cycle of Second Life, and that despite it’s detractors, Second Life is alive and well and thriving! It’s really nice to read some positive things about Second Life, instead of the usual articles decrying that SL is nothing but a den of iniquity and ruiner of RL marriages and relationships.
It also has some interesting information about SL. For instance, did you know that SL was inspired by the Metaverse in Neil Stephenson’s 1992 seminal sci-fi hit Snow Crash?
The article talks about SL’s rapid rise to fame: “From 2006 to 2009, optimism about this new space reached a fever pitch, with dedicated reporters, travel guides, and hundreds of businesses clamoring to get in on the excitement of a whole new universe within our own. Researchers flooded into this alternate world as well, examining all the ways one could use Second Life to, say, help Asperger’s patients develop their social skills in a specially tailored, therapeutic safe space.”
The article also refers to the notion that SL became a dystopian, dirty, and absurd world in a post-2009 crash as humans fled back to the predictable dynamism of the real world.
But then the article takes a hopeful turn. It states:
“Though that’s not quite the whole story. In truth, Second Life remains quite alive, clocking a million active users per month as of 2013 and up to 13,000 new users ever day. The site may actually have a larger, more stable population as of today than it did at its 2006-to-2008 peak of popularity and respectability. Yet we don’t hear about this continued vibrancy in Second Life, mainly because it’s no longer thought of as a space for general populations to enhance their lives. Instead it has generated a second life of its own as a uniquely attractive hub for globally dispersed subcultures to join together. These groups can create whole worlds that unite them, transcending role-playing and turning their ideologies into a comprehensive society.”
You can find the article in it’s entirety by clicking on this link: Second Life is Staying Alive.
And try getting that song out of your head after reading the title of the article. Excuse me for now; I’m going to dust off my Bee Gees album!
I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media
Firestorm needs your help!
Here is a copy of the post on Firestorm’s blog regarding helping them convince Linden Lab that blocking the “Restore to Last Position” functionality is not a good idea, and that does more good than harm.
“In a recent meeting, LL mentioned that they are considering blocking the “Restore to Last Position” functionality at the server level. This is because it results in permanent content loss if it fails when using it on no copy items. Since version 4.6.7 Firestorm prevents the feature from being used on no copy items as a simple measure to prevent loss, but the underlying issue here is that LL doesn’t understand the feature’s value to residents who use or rely on it.
“Kicking, screaming and calling foul will not save this feature, nor will criticizing LL or anyone else for not understanding the feature. In fact actions like that will speed up its demise. What WILL save it however is a well structured set of use cases that demonstrate clearly and concisely how useful and valuable this feature is to you.
“If you use this feature and would like to see it stick around please leave a comment on this post detailing how you use it and why it is valuable to you. In a week’s time we will extract the best use cases and formulate an email to LL that will demonstrate both the feature’s value and its usefulness.
“Please be civil in your comments and with each other!”
You can go the blog post and leave your comments with your good experience with “Restore to Last Position” and they will select the best cases to take to LL to try and save that feature. Click on the link here: Restore To Last Position Needs You!
I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media
Move over, Oculus, there is a new virtual reality (VR) headset in town. Valve and HTC have officially announced their partnership to produce the Vive, a VR headset that will launch later this year. It will feature pretty much the same specs as the Oculus Rift, while adding a couple of features, such as room mapping. The biggest difference between the Vive and the Oculus Rift however, is that the former has an official release date this year, while the latter is still muddled in rumor and speculation.
Oculus is facing the prospect of becoming pushed aside, similar to the way that Oreos did with Hydrox. Hydrox was a sandwich style cookie nearly identical to Oreos and was first introduced in 1908, with Oreos arriving in 1912. However, due to fancy marketing and a slightly sweeter taste, Oreo took over and Hydrox was pushed to second place. This is exactly the scenario that Oculus Rift is teetering on at the moment.
According to an article on the Attack of the Fanboy blog, Oculus Rift is about to be left in the dirt by Vive. The question that remains to be seen is the quality of product that Vive plans to release. Is the reason that Oculus is late to the table with a release date because it needs refinement and development before being released to the public? Perhaps Vive is rushing to produce a product that isn’t fully tested or developed?
The article states:
“With Valve entering the fray, Oculus is on the verge of becoming the Hydrox to Valve’s Oreo. Players who have been primed to buy thanks to Oculus Rift will flock to the Vive if it offers even a fraction of the experience that the Oculus Rift has promised. If it ends up being on the market for months ahead of the Oculus Rift, and offers a better experience in any way, then it will have cemented itself as the premiere VR headset.
The big question for Valve at the moment is how easy will it be to move from Oculus Rift development to the Vive. Can you simply take the work you’ve done and pop it onto the HTC developed headset? If so, it is easy to see how developers will push their game for both devices, at least until one becomes the market leader. If additional work is required then they’ll likely develop for whichever hits the market first, which for now looks to be the Vive. This isn’t to say that there is no room for a second, or even third competitor in the VR game. But Oculus Rift has had the market to themselves for years now, and they have unfortunately not taken advantage of it.”
“None of this is to say that the Oculus Rift will be a bad product, on the contrary it might be the best VR headset out there once it releases. But it’s that last part that is the major sticking point, and it always has been for Oculus. With no official release date for the consumer edition of the Oculus Rift, and multiple competing VR headsets heading to the market soon, the Oculus is in grave danger of missing its window of opportunity. If the Vive hits the market first it is pretty easy to see how consumers a few years from now might look on it as the great innovator of VR. Fans can argue all they want, but once that feeling sets in, there is very little that can change it. If that happens then the Oculus Rift could, like Hydrox cookies before them, fade quickly into irrelevancy.”
Read the full article by clicking here: The Oculus Rift is in danger of becoming irrelevant
I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media
” Second Life is not a fart in a crowded elevator; it’s a fun, virtual world. Don’t be afraid to admit that you dig it, even if it can stink sometimes.”
I recently stumbled across a wonderful article about SL written on a hard-core gamer blog called “MMORPG” (that’s a clickable link). Many people, myself included, have considered SL to be the red headed stepchild of the gamer world and something that you admit only in shameful tones.
Several years ago, I needed to upgrade my computer to keep up with the ever-changing and fast-moving developments of Second Life graphics. I was using a laptop at the time (I’ve since gotten smart and switched to a desktop, but that’s another post for another day). I walked into the store, and a sales associate asked me how he could help me. I told him I was looking for a gaming laptop. “Oh, for your son?” said this 12-year-old (not really but geez). My cheeks burning in embarrassment, I said “No…umm… for me.” He looked at me oddly (me being this middle aged woman with grey in her hair) and said, “Oh…of course. What game do you play?”
I cringed. This was the question I’d been dreading. I hung my head. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. “Second Life” I mumbled.
He craned his neck forward, brow crinkling in concentration as he tried to understand what I’d said. “I’m sorry?” he inquired.
“Not as sorry as me” I mumbled to myself. Cheeks aflame, I looked into this young man’s face and stated, too loudly, “Second Life!”
Several patrons on the other side of the store looked up, startled. The clerk smirked. Then he snickered.
Oh God. I just wanted to die. Will the floor please open up and swallow me? Now? I covered my face with one hand and sighed.
Still smirking, the young man showed me several laptops. I chose one, made the purchase and scurried out of the store as fast as I could, the snickers following me out the door. I could just imagine the chat amongst the 20-something sales associates. “Oh god, look at that pathetic old lady gettin’ her jollies in Second Life” they would guffaw.
Oy.
However, as most SLers know, Second Life is more about just a 3-D sex site. Yes, there’s that too, but the user created content is what keeps Second Life alive and flourishing. The content creators. The musicians, the clubs, the landscapers, the causes that raise thousands of RL dollars from SL events — There is so much more to SL than just sex.
This article in the MMORPG website talks about the bad rep that SL has and how this platform needs to be taken seriously in the world of gaming and 3-D creation.
My favorite quote from the article is this: ” Second Life is not a fart in a crowded elevator; it’s a fun, virtual world. Don’t be afraid to admit that you dig it, even if it can stink sometimes.”
Read the article and see the Drax File episode that Beau Hindman did. Let’s all come out of the virtual closet and quit being ashamed of something that is so amazingly beautiful.
Here’s the link to the article: “There’s No Shame In Playing Second Life.”
Here’s the DRAX file episode:
I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Social Media