Ciaran Laval

The LindeX Should Not Be So Uncompetitive

Second Life, Virtual Worlds 4 Responses »

May 092013

In all the fallout of the Third Party Exchange issue, the LindeX has came under the spotlight and is found to be extremely short of providing the service users crave. There’s no doubt now that Linden Lab are disallowing the use of third party exchanges, Virwox have updated their page to state:

“Linden Lab has recently changed their Terms of Service. Under the new rules, we will no longer be able to offer our service to Second Life residents. Linden Lab insists that our in-world terminals (ATMs) have to be removed.

This means that we can currently not accept Linden Dollars from Second Life or pay Linden Dollars to Second Life. Other virtual currencies are not affected.”

This should really put an end to questions about the blog post contradicting the terms of service, the blog post was correct, use of third party exchanges is not allowed and actions are exemplifying this. However why are people miffed about the end of third party exchanges? The reason is simple, third party exchanges offered a more efficient service with a wider range of payment options. The question therefore is why can Linden Lab not compete?

I’ll give a personal example, this TOS change has left me in a rather large pickle because a transfer to Paypal I was planning via VirWox now can’t take place. Why does this leave me in a pickle? Well that’s my own fault, I wanted to transfer funds before this weekend and was waiting for as much to transfer as possible, by using VirWox I would have been able to do this. However now that I have to use the LindeX, my plans have all gone tits up.

However this isn’t Linden Lab’s fault, it’s my fault because I should know by now that Linden Lab are quite happy to make announcements with no forethought, no warning, no consideration and no respect and as I have long known this, I should make all plans related to Second Life with that in mind, so it’s my fault for forgetting how Linden Lab operate. However the question remains, why on earth do Linden Lab take so long to transfer funds?

Third Party Exchanges Fallout In Progress

Second Life, Virtual Worlds 12 Responses »

May 082013

The fallout from yesterday’s terms of service change blog post is now in full swing. The outlook for third party exchanges looks bleak from the posts I’ve seen, but confusion still reigns due to the discrepancy between the blog post, which explicitly stated trading on thier party exchanges is not allowed and the actual new terms of service, which make no such reference. This issue is not just in the area of third party exchanges either, third party viewer developers have also been sent a message relating to the Buy L$ feature in their viewers.

The problems started rather quickly, Maria Korolov over at Hypergrid business reported that First Meta Exchange had announced :

“We are really sad to announce that we will not be doing any linden exchanges from now onwards. Due to the recent changes in SecondLife’s Terms of Service we must SUSPEND ALL LINDEN TRADING IMMEDIATELY. We will be updating you via email with more information soon.”

Meanwhile other exchanges have ceased trading whilst seekig clarification on what the terms of service changes mean, ELDEXchange announced:

“you might have seen the changes of ToS regarding exchanges other than the Lindex. We try to get more information about the consequences. Meanwhile we cant accept new sell orders. We will inform you as soon as we have more information.”

VIRWOX, arguably the largest third party exchange announced:

“We have asked Linden Lab for clarification. Until we know what this all means, we have disabled deposits of Linden Dollars (the terminals will send them back), disabled the “Currency Shop” for Linden Dollar purchases, and disabled the withdrawal of Linden Dollars to Second Life. Other virtual currencies are not affected.”

Moneyslex announced:

“Linden Lab has recently changed their Terms of Service.Trading L$ as Third Party exchange Linden Lab interprets as “unauthorized” as “not permitted”.This would mean that we can at the moment not offer our service to Second Life residents.”

However as the confusion reigns, some third part exchanges are still operating.

TOS Change As Clear As Mud

Relay For Life, Second Life 13 Responses »

May 072013

There’s much angst around regarding Linden Lab’s updated terms of service and part of that angst has been caused by Linden Lab not being clear about what they claim to be being clear about. The blog post, seems straight forward enough:

“When you log in to the Second Life Viewer today, you’ll be asked to accept an updated Terms of Service. As with any legal document, it’s important to read in its entirety before accepting, but we wanted to highlight one of the changes we’ve made in this update: to better protect Second Life users against fraud, the updated Terms of Service make it clear that trading of Linden dollars (L$) on exchanges other than the LindeX, Second Life’s official L$ exchange, is not authorized or allowed.

As the official exchange owned and operated by Linden Lab, the LindeX is the best place to buy and sell L$ for use in Second Life. It consistently offers the best rates for both buyers and sellers, and by limiting L$ trading to the exchange we operate, we are better able to protect users against fraudulent activity.”

That to me sounds like Linden Lab are limiting trading of Linden Dollars to the Lindex, that the likes of Virwox are not allowed and that if I do trade on Virwox, I’m doing something that is not allowed and in breach of the terms of service. However the relevant section of the new Terms Of Service makes no reference whatsoever to trading on third party exchanges being forbidden:

“5.3 There are other exchanges that are operated by third parties on which Linden dollars are exchanged.

Third party exchanges are not authorized by Linden Lab and Buying or Selling Linden dollars on third party exchanges are not authorized transactions. Third party exchanges are wholly distinct from both the LindeX exchange and Linden Lab and they have no affiliation with Linden Lab. We do not endorse or otherwise guarantee the legitimacy of the Linden dollar transfers offered on them, and we are not liable for purchases of such Linden dollars. Buying or Selling Linden dollars anywhere other than the LindeX is done so solely at your own risk. If you Buy Linden dollars that are traced to unauthorized credit card activity or other fraudulent activity, we will recoup these Linden dollars from your Account. The only authorized exchange is the LindeX.”

This suggests that if I purchase Linden Dollars on a third party exchange, I do so at my own risk, which I always thought was the case anyway, but nowhere does it say it’s not allowed and that is rather an important discrepancy which Linden Lab should be looking to clear up because I don’t want to trade on a third party exchange at my own risk and then find my account is in jeopardy because Linden Lab consider it a breach of the Terms Of Service.

The Dick Van Dyke No Show – Part 2

Second Life, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

May 072013

There’s a great episode of Family guy called PTV, basically Peter sets up his own television station after the FCC censor all sorts of things after someone has a wardrobe malfunction at the Emmy awards, Peter is aghast at the censorship, which includes Dick Van Dyke having Dick and Dyke blanked out. So where Family Guy treads, it seems Linden Lab follow.

The above may sound familiar to older readers, it’s from this post of mine from March 2011. Eventually the issue was fixed, however it’s back, well partially back, if you type Dick Van Dyke on the Second Life forums, you now get Dick Van **bleep**. Now you might feel that only having part of Dick Van Dyke shows there’s a small chink in armour of the Second Life forum word filter, alas a small chink in the armour would actually be a small **bleep** in the armour, as Perrie Juran discovered when he typed the following:

“Going back to Andrew’s explanation, what it amounts to was that there was a tiny chink in the Viewer that has now opened up into a big gaping hole. The Server is doing it’s job correctly, the Viewer is asleep at the wheel.”

An innocuous looking statement discussing the issue of prims not appearing in the viewer. However what now appears on the forum is:

“Going back to Andrew’s explanation, what it amounts to was that there was a tiny **bleep** (eta: I don’t believe that c.h.i.n.k. got bleeped!) in the Viewer that has now opened up into a big gaping hole. The Server is doing it’s job correctly, the Viewer is asleep at the wheel.”

We’re back knee deep in the silliness of word filters and the silliness exemplified in the Family Guy episode. The worst thing about word filters like this is that they highlight the negative context some words can be used in, whereas if they left them alone, nobody would bat an eyelid.

Tyche Shepherd’s Private Estate Survey For April 2013

Second Life, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

May 072013

Tyche “Statto” Shepherd has some really interesting reports going around right now and I think I’m going to have to poke her about using some of them, but the results of her private estate survey for April are in. As usual I won’t report all the findings, you can find them in the link. There isn’t anything eye catching in terms of changes in land holdings this month, the grid has shrunk and at a faster rate than in March but one interesting point to note is the change in class of Servers, there has been a leap, a rather significant one, in class 8 hardware.

Now remember this is a survey, not a census, so there are margins of error.

The key points I will highlight for this survey are:

Private Regions down 158 regions (0.8% since last month)
Total private regions now stand at 20,324
Estimated monthly tier income – US$4,091,000 +/- US$51,000 (Down around $45,000 or 1.1% on last month).
Top 20 landowners own 38.3% of private regions (Up 0.8% on last month).
Top 20 landowners pay 30.7% of private region tier (Up 0.4% on last month).

Nothing earth shattering in these figures, although the decline in private regions was higher during April at 0.8%, when compare to March where it was 0.3%.

Whereas the top 20 landowners holdings are up slightly, the Top 10 are down slightly, very slightly at 0.1%.

From Tier To Eternity

Second Life, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

May 052013

You will hear it being whispered in darkened corners of Second Life. Shadowy figures are abroad, they may even be coming to a mainland sim near you and with them they carry no tier contributions, but they will be in the possession of mainland parcels.

There’s something amiss and according to the whispered reports, there has long been something amiss. These shadowy figures are allegedly taking advantage of a rumoured exploit and getting for free, something that others pay through the nose for. I should be outraged, for some reason, and I’m not quite sure why, I’m not.

One reason perhaps is that some people will inadverently be taking advantage of this loophole. I’ll give an example, I’m frustrated that Linden Lab have made no moves to address the tier issue, tier remains too damn high. I have taken steps to downgrade my land holdings. During the course of this I started to unload some mainland parcels, then I decided to check my group contributions in case I had tier donations above and beyond what was needed. I found that I didn’t have enough tier donations in one particular land group, I found myself 2 metres under. Now 2 metres is neither here nor there and it may have only happened as I unloaded parcels owned by that land group due to losing land in tier bonus, or I may have long been 2 metres under and not realised it. I had more than 2 metres of tier available, so it was easy to put that right.

Another reason I’m not outraged is that even if Linden Lab send round the tax collectors and plug this hole, they won’t shift a damn inch on their tier pricing. The shadowy figures aren’t likely to pay for their tier, they are more likely to abandon, so the net result would be nil.

Are The Foreign Language Forums As Vicious As The English Speaking Forums?

Second Life, Virtual Worlds 2 Responses »

May 052013

I will shortly be embarking on a much needed holiday to Majorca, to prepare myself for this I decided to delve into the Spanish Forums to polish up my reading skills. I don’t need to do this, the part of Majorca I’m going to speaks fluent English, indeed during my holiday I will pop along to a place called Paguera, which is largely full of German tourists but where I know from previous experience, despite not knowing German at all, the bar staff will be able to speak English too.

When I read the Spanish forums, a cursory glance suggests they are helpful, indeed I see references in some posts to English speaking blogs, such as Del Blog De Strawberry Singh. Now if someone pointed me to a Spanish speaking blog, my limited Spanish would leave me lost.

However what I really wonder is, are these foreign language forums as vicious as the English speaking forums? I see posts in the English speaking forums that make me wince, someone posts for help and they receive abuse. I’m no angel when it comes to forums, indeed some of my past history of forum responses in the old days makes me cringe, but I do wonder if the foreign language forums have their trolls, trouble makers and unhelpful folk or whether they are more supportive.

Outside Companies Should Create Their Own Second Life Faires

Entertainment, Fantasy Faire, Second Life, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds 3 Responses »

May 032013

Fantasy Faire is over for this year, but what this year’s event has left me wondering is why aren’t there more faires and why aren’t there more faires with outsiders involved? Now by outsiders I’m talking about people who don’t see Second Life as being their natural place, such as people who don’t really use Second Life but could use it for promotional purposes.

Now let’s just pause for a moment here, Linden Lab have brought advertising to their website and a lot of this advertising is from people who don’t see Second Life as their natural place, there are adverts from all sorts of different companies there. Why not harness that advertising potential and point advertisers in the direction of the Fantasy Faire website and say, hey, here’s what you can do in Second Life to make feature rich advertising.

Now there are a few reasons why this sort of thing generally doesn’t happen. The first is that Second Life is a rather small subset of potential consumers for any organisation to be concerned with, I mean there are plenty of us here but there are not eye popping amounts. Another reason is that Second Life users get a bit uppity at times about outsiders advertising on Second Life properties, some of the feedback about the website adverts demonstrates that. Another reason is that advertisers don’t want to be associated with dodgy content.

Some of these factors can be overcome, but let’s just imagine what could be done with a Fantasy Faire for fantasy authors and MMO companies. This could bring new users to Second Life, a short faire on this scale would mean people weren’t tied to tier in Second Life to display their wares, but they could get some damn good promotional material out of a short term event. The game companies should have no problem making avatars for Second Life, whereas the authors could work with, Linden Lab or even, shock horror, Second Life residents to help them build displays to promote their books.

The Drax Files Episode 5 – Engrama

Second Life, Virtual Worlds 2 Responses »

May 032013

May 26th 1982, Aston Villa defeated Bayern Munich in the European Cup final to become champions of Europe. The following season, Aston Villa defeated Barcelona over two legs to win the European Super Cup, which whilst not quite as impressive, was still a mighty success for The Villa.

This week in The Champions League, Bayern Munich completed a stunning 7-0 success over two legs against Barcelona to reach this year’s final. Buenos Aires isn’t in Europe so there are no European football games to link in, patience, I’m getting there.

What on earth has this got to do with Second Life I hear you ask, well other than an excuse for reliving Villa’s glory days, Barcelona, Bavaria, Birmingham, Buenos Aires, different parts of the globe all brought together in Second Life and in the case of Bavaria, Barcelona and Buenos Aires it also points to the latest episode of The Drax Files.

This week Draxtor Despres has published an edition where he talks to a couple who live in Spain, one half of the duo is originally from Spain and the other half originally from Buenos Aires, I believe. Together the couple play live music in Second Life and also play live music in Barcelona … see, there was a link! I’ll post the video at the end of the post but yet again Drax has done a fine job here and we have yet another good example of use cases for Second Life.

The male and female duo of Pupito Helstein and Lakua Arriaga have joined together to form a group called Engrama. They perform live in Second Life by using an electronic guitar, electronic drums and a mixer, which they then stream into Second Life. When it comes to Second Life some people play live and others use backing tracks, Engrama don’t use backing tracks, they prefer their music to be live and unique. They also prefer to play original songs and will, if the mood takes them, improvise and create their own new songs during their performances.

May Festival In Dee

Second Life, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

May 012013

May Festival In Dee

I’m a tad concerned about my chief Elf, she seems to have started writing in the style of me! Anyway, we’re having a festival on my roleplaying sim, it would be better if you tried to fit in with the surroundings if you do visit, there are free outfits available. Details at this point are a bit sketchy, but it seems to involve beer, women and dancing round the Maypole! Official notice below:

MAY FESTIVAL IN DEE

Come and join our celebrations of the return of the sun from its long winter slumber and the re-awakening of the land.

Quaff tankards of foaming ale in the ‘Cock a Hoop’ Tavern; Dance around the Maypole with lusty maidens; drag one off and throw up in the bushes…. no hold on that should be ‘drag one off and throw her in the bushes.

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