Something To Do Sims Need Some Linden Loving

Protest Gnomes

The first thing to note when it comes to issues surrounding tier payments is that Linden Lab have to pay their bills, they have to pay their staff and in order to pay their staff and maximise their income they need tier payments as they remain the largest slice of the income pudding. Therefore there are no easy answers to the tier issue. However tier remains an issue that stifles devel0pment.

Content creators have the Marketplace whereby they can sell their wares in a low risk environment. This is great, it means people can create content without having to worry if they’re going to meet tier and they only get dinged for fees if they sell an item and even then, the fee is low at 5%. However there are other costs for content creators that should not be ignored. Software, training, hardware and time, let’s not forget that time is money, but content creators do have a place where they can offer their wares without the worry of upfront fees for using Second Life.

I’ve posted before how the rise of The Marketplace has came at the cost of hurting something to do sims, because merchants used to rent space to merchants to help subsidise those something to do ventures. There has been a trade off, The Marketplace has pro’s and cons for Second Life as a whole but in the main, I support it, it’s also easier for customers to find items on the Marketplace, so it’s not just of benefit to merchants, but there is a cost associated with this. However I can recall in days gone by, people discussing in the Second Life forums how they were discouraged from creating content because of tier or rental costs, so The Marketplace certainly helps with a wide range of diverse content being available, it should also be noted that one of the complaints in the past was that Second Life had too many malls and stores and not enough something to do places.

Many Marketplace merchants, it should be noted, have an inworld presence and do have tier worries, but The Marketplace is a place they can engage without tier worries. When it comes to the arts, there’s no Marketplace option, but there is the Linden Endownment for the Arts. Inara Pey recently covered the fact that applications are now open to apply for land there, the applications are still open. The LEA have around thirty regions, twenty of which are available via these applications for inworld artists to display their wares for five or six months, Linden Lab donate these regions.

The number of LEA regions is nowhere near enough to satisfy the huge range of diverse art installations that Second Life could attract, but it’s better than nothing. However many in the artistic community are in the position merchants were before the rise of The Marketplace, tier and rental costs stifle engagement.

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The Drax Files Episode 8 – Madpea Games

Storytelling is an art form that I often think doesn’t realise anywhere near its potential in Second Life. However, when you stop and think a bit longer, we see lots of roleplaying, which is a form of storytelling and then we have interactive games from producers such as Madpea Games and that’s the focus of this blog post, because the lastest episode of The Drax Files involves an interview with Kiana Writer of Madpea Games. I’ll embed the interview at the end of the post, along with some trailers from Madpea Games, as long as the Shockwave Flash plugin doesn’t crash again, all should be well!

This episode has a twist, a bit like those films where cartoon characters appear, in this episode we see Kiana’s avatar but Drax in all his RL glory. However we do see some of the content creators for Madpea Games in action, including an amusing scene where one of them holds up a help sign!

Kiana starts by saying that she thinks Second Life is the perfect platform for designing games, something that I really can’t agree with. However Madpea have produced some excellent examples of storytelling and games on the Second Life platform. Kiana explains how Second Life has allowed her to bring her stories to life. That’s a really impressive point to note.

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The Material World

When Linden Lab urged people to download the Materials viewer recently, the blog post also included some links to some very useful resources for content creators. Once again I find myself plugging The Good Building Practices Wiki.

Materials can be very shiny, but you don’t want them too shiny, they can be funky, but you don’t want them too funky. Now whereas the Good Building Practices Wiki isn’t going to turn you into an overnight star in the content creation stakes, there are some very useful Materials related pages there:

Now bear in mind that some of those case studies are older than others, the Katana case study was one of the first to appear and things have moved on. Also bear in mind that Brooke Linden is adding sequins to her Linden bear with this new system ….. that’s what it says, honest! Although it looks like Runtai Linden was roped in to help there too.

Personally I’d suggest starting with the example wood crate, not just because it’s a nice one to get your head around, but also because it has links to Wood Workshop (Windows only I’m afraid), which is a free seamless wood texture generator. There are also links to Gimp, which is a free paint/image package and there’s also a link to an add in for Gimp that creates normal maps. Therefore not only is it a nice case study, it also introduces nice tools for your creations too.

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Farewell Misty Mole

After five years, Misty Mole is no longer working freelance for Linden Lab. Misty, who has a very impressive list of credits has put a video up on YouTube highlighting her work, I’ll embed it at the end of the post.

The Moles are a team who help Linden Lab to create content, involving repairing roads, creating buildings, sound effects, musical scores etc. They aren’t as well known as Lindens of course but you’ll find their work around the grid.

Misty’s rather impressive list of work includes:

  • Build and objects for Nautilus continent.
  • Interior build for Hau Koda airport.
  • Memorial – build of the central monument, build of some personal monuments and music.
  • Small builds to fill in abandoned land.
  • Linden Homes sims and transitionals – decorating and original games hidden in some of the sims I built.
  • Pyri – build of the throne and burial room.
  • Cape Ekim, original concept and project management and music (dragon by Garden Mole).
  • Build for Sea of Fables sims.
  • Build for Coastal Waterways sims, including the White Islands game.
  • Project management and music for the experimental game build Kneph.
  • Project Management, building and original music for Linden Realms.
  • Sounds and music for the Grid Hunt.
  • Fireworks for SL10B.

The music used in the video is Misty’s work.

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Plenty Of Leagues Under The Sea

Sea Scenery

Now you might think that the under the sea expo is all about mermaids, well it’s not, I mean there are mermaids….

More Mermaids

Not all of them are in glass tubes either, some are in settings that leave you expecting a man to start shouting “Roll up roll up” and invite you to a circus show due to their Steampunk surroundings:

Steampunk Mermaids

However there’s more to the sea than Mermaids, although I must admit I’m a tad disappointed that during my travels at the expo I haven’t seen a Hydra or heard anyone shout “Unleash The Kraken!” there are many wonderful sights under the sea, including flora, fish and some underwater giant Kittycats!

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