Second Life Herald

Please cancel the "Reuters" surname. It's not worth the hassle

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Reuters names no longer worth $500 USD?

Reuters may no longer be reporting from Second Life, but Linden Lab does not seem willing to let go of one Reuters staff member’s billing information, and is now enhancing Evan Maloney’s real life by posting $500 USD charges to a credit card the Lab assured him last year would only to be used for verifying Evan Reuters’ virtual identity - if a series of e-mails posted to a Second Life developer mailing list can be believed.

This sad tale is detailed in the RegAPI mailing list archives today and last january where a plaintive Evan begs the Lab to stop charging his personal credit card for the exclusive rights to the Reuters surname in Second Life. What a terrible price to pay for a corporate vanity.

Evan appeared to take last year’s last name billing mishap in reasonably good humor, but today’s unauthorized charges seemed to leave him in a less pleasant mood, as he posted an e-mail titled “Linden can't be trusted with your credit card information†to the RegAPI developer mailing list, and suggested the Lab cancel the Reuters surname [full text after the jump].

Despite the “no billing information on file†notation on Evan Reuters’ profile, the Lab is finding even more creative ways to enhances revenues - perhaps the 66% OpenSpace land price hikes weren’t enough to cover M Linden’s new staff salaries? How will a Reuters name deletion affect the fate of the 17 avatars in Second Life named Reuters - or Reuters position on the hand picked Second Life Showcase? We await Evan's response to our inquiries, and wish him the best of luck in getting a credit posted to his credit card in time for the holidays.

[It was Darkley Aeon, a former Post 6 Grrl, who drew my attention to Ayumi Shinn's profile. The petite girl in the profile pic looked extremely cute and different and I was curious to meet her. I knew immediately that there was only one place for our photo shoot – Dirty Cute, which is where the second and third pics were taken. The location of the first one was the Creamshop, a place so dark and gloomy that it was the perfect match for her wonderful demon outfit. I hope you enjoy the pictures and the interview with the little angel as much as I did. Thanks for a wonderful evening Ayumi! – Bunny Brickworks]

Bunny: I just looked into your profile; you haven't been in SL for that long.

Ayumi: Ah, no I haven't :) I created my very first Av around the end of May '08 at the behest of some first life friends of mine. The aesthetic results were… a bit disastrous. I actually didn't actively start playing SL until a couple months ago when I created the avi "Kitty Mai".

Bunny: And Ayumi was just your working alt?

Ayumi: Ayumi Shinn was intended to be the business alt for Sinnocent Clothing, I was worried that I would be constantly IM capped by people wanting freebies and things, so I made an Alt to keep track of everything business related... but somewhere in between, I feel in love with her, and I've been using her actively ever since!

Marine mech sub-division, railguns, fleet refit could lead to more immersive combat experience

by Metallicoe Dezno

The Alliance Navy mech being developed

I was contacted today by Alliance Navy officer luca Vasilopita, who asked if i would be interested in seeing and reporting on some new AN equipment. Of course, being a gadgets and technology fanatic, I couldn't decline his offer.

I was teleported into the AN research and development area, which many called the Motor Pool. On first glance, I could see various builds surrounding me, each very interesting and highly detailed. Here is a snippet of my chat with Officer Vasilopita;

Dezno: So Officer Vasilopita, what has the AN got in store for their members?
Vasilopita: Right, well there's quite a big forward surge recently in recruitment. For all of the problems in the world(s) (Digital and Real), we seem to be seeing a lot of advancements here in the Alliance Navy.

Dezno: Is that an AN mech?
Vasilopita: Yes, the re-designing of the Alliance Navy's armored projects is one of the new 'advancements' we're working on to bring the AN back up to scratch with the demand for high tech gash and fluff. Things that are already in service, such as the new fatigues are available for viewing all around us. The mech is still in the development stage, however there is a working model that the creation team are fiddling with animation wise.

by Sigmund Leominster

There is a world of difference between the real world press and the Second Life press. Forgetting this can be fatal, as is evidenced by the recent departure of two journalistic organs, the Avastar and Reuters Second Life. The Herald reported the arrival of Reuters back in October 2006 and its departure in October 2008.

Sigmund Leominster delivers eulogy to empty house on Reuters island

Since then, Eric Reuters, aka Eric Krangel, has moved on to write for Silicon Alley Insider, a move that many in the blogosphere have used as proof that the entire Second Life virtual world is about to shuffle off its mortal coil and leave to join the choir invisible. A smaller number of writers in the same blogosphere – including this one – see nothing of the sort. The decline or otherwise of life-as-we-know it is a different issue than the closing of Reuters Island and the un-embedding of a reporter.

So why did Reuters actually leave? Was it some kind of protest against the policies and procedures of Linden Lab executives or could the reason be much more mundane? Curiously, Krangel’s most recent – and much quoted/vaulted article, Why Reuters Left Second Life, And How Linden Lab Can Fix It, doesn’t actually tell us anything about the why. In fact, all it does is tell us part of why Eric Krangel left, and what Eric Krangel thinks Linden Lab should be doing, whether or not Reuters has a presence in-world or not.

Why is LL powerless to remove “friendly greetings†left by Torley Linden’s wife Ravenelle?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Linden wife and contractor Ravenelle's megaprim wall blocks the Bear InfoHub view of one resident's business

When you teleport to the Bear sim InfoHub, you won’t see Lias Leandros’s business - it is hidden behind a 40 meter tall virtual spite fence created by Ravenelle Zugzwang and located on Linden property. While these sorts of fences are a reasonably common symptom of resident disputes in some neighborhoods, it is unusual to see Linden Lab’s land being used for visual blockades. However, with game gods all things are possible, and Ravenelle Zugzwang has a special relationship with part of the Lab -- she is married to Torley Linden. This suggests Ravenelle has a nearly infinite capacity to tolerate Torley chirping, "Friendly greetings!". Could this be what pushed Ravenelle into a visual smack at Lias Leandros business?

According to an account published by Ms. Leandros here, the virtual fence appeared about a year ago, after repeated abuse reports by Ms. Leandros against the Bear InfoHub for unfair use of sim resources. With a capacity of 40 avatars on the sim, and a large group of regulars that park at the InfoHub, the sim lags and sometimes fills to capacity making it difficult or impossible for Ms. Leandros to run her DJ and club employee training school business.

After a long running campaign of abuse reports and complaints to the Abuse Report Team, the Community Team, and the Linden Concierge, Ms. Leandros was eventually offered the option of tearing down her buildings and moving to another sim - an offer she declined. Within days, Ravenelle Zugzwang has erected her 40 meter wall on Linden-owned land, sending a not so subtle message -- it's good to be married to the Lab, and tier paying customers can like it or leave.

Presumably this sort of message will go down well with the education and corporate clients the Lab is now courting - assuming they can get someone to marry into the Linden family to get inside information and special treatment. Run of the mill players will have to get used to surprise 66% land price increases - but look on the bright side - as the Lab hires staff, the pool of potential marriage partners grows!

by Lavinia Carver

While I was browsing around the other day, something just caught my eye. According to the advertisement, it was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in Second Life. Now, at first I was skeptical. I thought, "Come on, the Macy's parade in Second Life? I know almost anything is possible in SL, but wouldn't it be more fun to watch it in RL?"

A view of the parade

But I was wrong about that! This parade was fun to watch. Perhaps it didn't have the interesting camera angles or fun commentary of the real one, but it was still fun all the same. See, what the owners did, was set up the parade, and then built a miniature version of New York around it! It was just too much fun! Of course I stayed and watched it twice! (while I folded napkins and placed them on the table. :D )

[Sometimes you only have to be patient and wait … I have been looking for quite some time for a woman with a darker skin. This is about diversity, right? All I found was girls meeting all bad clichés – big booty bling chicks who looked like straight out of a 50 Cent video clip. And all the time I wondered where the ebony beauties with style and class and brains were. The answer was easy: right in front of my nose. GoSpeed – I knew her name from Plurk, her pictures from Flickr but I would have never imagined she would like to be featured as a Post 6. During last week's shoot at Night Flower, I managed to sneak a picture of her and when it rezzed I saw this beautiful avatar on my screen. And much to my surprise she agreed to pose for me, I jumped with joy! The pictures were taken in Aintree Common, one of the OpenSpace sims the future of which is still unknown. – Bunny Brickworks]

Oh where do I begin? Who I am and what I do seem like the best things to talk about in this article. I am a pretty straightforward person. I'll tell you how I feel about something even if it makes you mad. I am a very loyal person and will protect my friends when they are being attacked; I am not, however, their mother either. I will protect your honor, but not your sensibilities.

I feel I am also a generous and compassionate person. I'll give my time when you need help or are lonely. It bothers me very much when my friends are sad. Feeling sad and alone is a terrible place to be and I do what I can help. I used to help a lot of newbies but that has decreased a bit, as I have gotten much busier in my activities.

La Performance and Ballet Pixelle present virtual ballet controlled by arrow keys

by Lora Constantine

Two virtual world ballet companies premiered new productions on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - with a little help from IBM and Second Life.

At 2 PM, "La Performance," a new dance company, opened its high school gym-style performance of "You Are So Beautiful" in Shakespeare. La Performance's "You Are So Beautiful" featured several acts of modern dances on a large sky platform, "SL Style" with music by Zucchero, and choreography by Jie Loon.

"Ballet Pixelle (formerly known as Second Life Ballet)" opened their Winter Season at 5 PM with a formal production of "The Nut: A Slightly Abridged Telling of The Nutcracker" in IBM 10. Ballet Pixelle's "Nut" featured a more traditional rendition of the familiar story of The Nutcracker with music by the Bolshoi Ballet Theatre Orchestra, and choreography by Inarra Saarien.

Anya Ristow visits 524 sims, measures 50% bot/camper population

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Opting for science rather than being gulled by Zee Linden’s claims, Anya Ristow of Project Green Dots spend two days visiting 524 sims selected at random for a bot census. The census revealed unlike Zee Linden's claim of 10-15% bots in the resident population, half of the avatars present were either bots or campers. Ms. Ristow also noticed an interesting correlation between sims with more than 5 avatars present and gaming of the sim traffic statistics:

This news contradicts the spin ex-Linden staffer Hamlet Au puts on the issue at New World Notes, where math-challenged Hamlet is just like so totally impressed that Vlad Bjornson took Linden Lab’s propaganda at face value, assumed that traffic boosting bots would be run 24 hours a day, and worked out that assuming 10-15% of the players are bots means assuming 10-15% of the hours online are bot-hours, so 10-15% of the population are -- wait for it -- bots!

Isn't it amazing what you can do with circular logic and mathematics? The next thing you know, Hamlet will reveal that Urizenus Sklar is identical with himself.

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Internet ad agency discontinues virtual robot closet sex platform to focus on core business, spend more time with family

by By Sigmund Leominster

Reports of Lively’s death turn out not to have been exaggerated after all. After the fanfare, hoop-la, bell and whistles of the Second Life killer’s opening, Google have just announced that Lively is dead. Well, if not death, in the terminal stages and destined to limp on flaccidly until the end of the year.

Back in September, Lively’s project director, Kevin Hanna, it was at the Austin Game Developers Conference where he announced that, “Our user-base exceeded every number that we had put down. So, in that sense, our beta is more successful than most launched products.†Tragically, the “success†was simply the ability to generate enough curiosity for people to visit the world at least once. The “New Frontier†turned out to be little more than a side road with nothing at the end of it and bugger all to look at on the way.

Hanna also pointed out that, “Google has no interest in virtual dollars. It’s never been our intent to make money that way.†Well, at least they got that one right.

Compete.com’s site analytics engine showed that Lively peaked at around 370,000 unique visitors in August 2008, but then dropped to 100,000 by September and stood at around 75,000 in October – about one night in Second Life on a busy evening. With Google’s stock price having dropped on a monthly basis since June 2008, from around 600 to under 300, it’s no surprise that projects that don’t offer any sort of return on investment would be facing the chop. Poor Lively didn’t really stand much of a chance.

Pay no attention to the player hours logged in September

by Jessica Holyoke

Fresh out of the Herald's Money office, (unfortunately located right next to Jimbo's) is the 2008 Quarter 3 Herald financial report.  The compilation of this particular report was a bit harder to compile as a key piece of data was missing.  Zee Linden reported how the hours logged in for October of 2008 grew 11.4% over the hours of September to a record 37 million hours.  However, the number of hours logged in for September are not located on the Economic Statistics page.  And the graph used to show the amount of user hours logged in shows an aggregate for the quarter, not the individual month.

But algebra helps out this time.  If October's logged in hours equals September's plus 11.4% and 37 million, then September's hours would be 33.2 million hours logged in -- the fewest number of hours logged in per month for Q3 and lower than the amount logged in in June. 

Looking at the Total Hours Logged Growth Chart, the total logged in from the first month of the quarter to the last month of the quarter declined by 4.37%.   This follows two quarters of steady growth over the quarter.  Why this is being reported is that overall for a platform that needs to grow, more people should be using the service over time and from August to September, they didn't.  In comparison, at the end of June and Quarter 2, THL grew by 16%.