Versu » Ciaran Laval

Versu Debuts On The iPad

Entertainment, Social Networking No Responses »

Feb 142013

I have been checking the Versu website regularly for updates on Linden Lab’s interactive fiction venture from Emily Short and Richard Evans to see whether Versu was available. The site merely said “Coming Soon” but today I see a blog post from Hamlet Au over at New World Notes announcing that it is now available, but only on the iPad, although an Android version is promised.

I must confess to being bitterly disappointed to learn that Versu is a tablet app. I hadn’t noticed this in any of the previous articles about the product, although to be fair they were few and far between. Swings and roundabouts here, I wasn’t expecting much from Dio and that turned out to be surprisingly engaging for me. However having looked forward to seeing Versu, I am totally deflated. However it still looks like an interesting product and from Linden Lab’s perspective, they now have products available on the web, Steam, iTunes App Store with applications for desktops and tablets, so the company is covering more ground than ever before.

As well as Hamlet’s post there’s also an official press release from Linden Lab detailing the product and a video on the Versu website, which I’ll embed later in this post.

Versu launches with some stories, as you’d expect. Initially you will get:

An Introduction To Society – Designed as an introduction to Versu.
The Unwelcome Proposal – A scene from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice where you can change the outcome.
The House On The Cliff – An original playable ghost story from Emily Short.

They are bundled with Versu for free, another title “A Family Supper” will be available for USD$4.99. This is billed as a murder mystery by Emily Short and looks as if it’s the title that was erroneously put on the Versu website when details about the product were posted for a day or two at the start of the year.

Linden Lab Empire Expands As They Acquire iPad Game Blocksworld

Second Life, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

Jan 242013

Linden Lab’s empire grows by the day, as they announce they’ve acquired the iPad game Blocksworld, the full press release can be read here. I may follow suit and issue a press release everytime I buy a new game … oh wait they haven’t just purchased the game to play in the Lab, they’ve purchased the whole kit and caboodle along with plans to globally release the game!

Rod Humble is quoted in the press release as saying: “Blocksworld is a great fit with what we do at Linden Lab, It’s a very user-friendly complement to our portfolio of shared creative spaces. We’re happy to have the Blocksworld team join Linden Lab and are looking forward to bringing Blocksworld to the App Store worldwide soon!”

I’m really pleased to see Rod Humble speaking, I wondered where the bloody hell he’d gone! I did wonder if he was in hiding due to the nightmare season Aston Villa are having. Anyway, the next question is, what the bloody hell is Blocksworld? This is a genuine question as I’ve never heard of it!

Versu Goes Undercover

Social Networking No Responses »

Jan 022013

So yesterday myself and Inara Pey both blogged about Linden Lab’s forthcoming title of Versu. After digging around the official website, we found some information about the title. However it would appear that the information we blogged about wasn’t quite ready for public consumption because, the links to the information relating to the content, have now been removed!

Is this a scurrilous plot? Is this part of the mystery? Did some poor Linden get too many emails? Did someone get overexcited with their links? They would have got away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky kids!

I don’t know why the information has been removed, all I’m saying is, Inara Pey started it all by telling me where the website is in the first place, it wasn’t me Guv, honest!

Is It Time For A Linden Lab Login Account?

Second Life, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds 6 Responses »

Jan 012013

Back in 2009 Argent Stonecutter created a Jira suggestion that I very much agree with. SVC-6212 Create Master Account Name, Linking to Avatar Names. The idea here is that you’d login to Second Life and then select an avatar name to go inworld with, this would mean linking your alts, which could have benefits for issues such as Mesh uploads, which are currently on an avatar basis, so even though the person behind Ciaran Laval meets the requirements to upload Mesh, my alts don’t, this despite the fact that my alts are known by Linden Lab as they linked them for the cases of being adult verified back in the day when the requirements were more stringent.

I shouldn’t need to have payment info on all my avatars, having payment info on my overall account deals with this. However whereas this has merit for Second Life, it has even more merit now that Linden Lab are releasing new products. Patterns, Creatoverse, Dio and Versu are all Linden Lab products. There are different ways these products are delivered with some aimed at the mobile community and some web based but with Linden Lab producing multiple products doesn’t it make some sense for me to have a Linden Lab account, rather than a product specific account?

Blizzard do this, I have one login for World of Warcraft, the same one works for Diablo III and would also work for Starcraft II. This just makes the process of purchasing products easier, it makes billing easier. I’m already a Linden Lab customer, a bird in the hand and all that.

Versu Looks Like It Will Contain A Murder Mystery Story

Social Networking, Virtual Worlds 7 Responses »

Jan 012013

I’m about to embark on a series of posts about accounts, Linden Lab and their forthcoming interactive story of Versu. Inara Pey, with her eye firmly on the ball has noticed that websites have appeared for Dio and Versu. I’m not so much interested in Dio, although I might be once it gets going. However Versu is something I like the look of and I’ve been digging around the website for Versu. At first glance it seems bereft of information, but a closer look reveals that Versu has a cut down version of the Second Life terms and conditions, a DMCA link and a very handy FAQ.

Now unless that FAQ is some sort of boiler plate FAQ, it reveals some clues to the storyline and content. There are plans for three stories at launch, a ghost story, a romance story and a murder mystery story set in Regency England, so that should be the pre Victorian era of the 1800′s. The murder mystery story appears to be leading the way with information more specific to that story in the FAQ, where we’re informed that you will be able to play a female character, Lucy or Miss Bates.

Now Lucy and Miss Bates are detective characters according to the FAQ, so I would imagine the aim is to solve the crime, however maybe it isn’t and the aim is to fling bread rolls at Mr Quinn. The thing to bear in mind is that the story is interactive with several endings and will develop depending upon the actions you set for your characters, so this is something you can play more than once.

Versu Is Starting To Look Very Interesting

Second Life, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds 2 Responses »

Nov 212012

The Guardian have gained such a reputation for typos that their nickname is The Grauniad. Indeed if you type in grauniad.co.uk into a web browser you’ll end up at The Guardian’s website. Linden Lab are so often called Linden Labs that, typing lindenlabs.com into a web browser takes you to … http://lindenlabs.com/ … which is the same website as http://lindenlab.com/ I mean, people just cannot help but call the company Linden Labs.

Which brings us to a Techcrunch article entitled : How Linden Lab Hopes To Find Second Life In Mobile Creative Play aha! They got the name right? Well not quite, there’s a comment telling the author that the company is called Linden Lab, the URL has LindenLabs in it and a google search lists the story with Linden Labs in the headline. Now, is it important that people get the name right? Well not really, people know who they’re talking about, so with that over, let’s move on.

Creatoverse and Patterns have been getting a lot of coverage lately, Inara Pey takes a look at Creatoverse here. However Dio and Versu have been a bit more vague, I mean we know Emily Short is involved in Versu and that it’s interactive fiction. The TechCrunch article puts a bit more meat on the bones, although it’s not exactly clear what’s on the horizon.

Dio is hard to explain apparently, it sounds a bit like Google’s Lively from that article, involving doors to get to other spaces, having an avatar and an inventory. Apparently you can create a MUSH (multi user shared hack) and a hobby space very easily.

Versu …. this is starting to look very interesting.