Virtual Worlds – Page 275

September 3, 2011September 3, 2011

More Options Could Help Premium Membership

New Premium Features have been introduced for Premium Members, as announced on the official Second Life blog, which you can read here. The features include sandboxes for premium members only and some gifts exclusive to premium members.

I am a premium member but always have a bugbear when it comes to premium membership that people who are estate owners but not premium members should be taken into consideration. They don’t get the stipend and they don’t get a Linden Home, but they can buy an island, now considering how much they pay for their island, I think they should be included in perks such as these new ones and I asked that in the comments …. and got answered indirectly by Tateru Nino! Tateru’s blog post on the new premium features includes this comment:

“While it says premium only, Linden Lab spokesperson, Peter Gray, assures me that these two benefits are also extended to non-premium, ‘concierge’ customers.”

Good to see that response. However I think it’s a sign of getting old that I’m not up in arms about the free advertising for The Loft. Colleen Desmoulins has a highly regarded store there but these freebies do compete with other furniture makers and this is wonderful advertising for Colleen, usually I’d be all disgusted of Tunbridge Wells over this, but I’m not, maybe I’m used to it now, or maybe it’s because Rodvik is a Villa fan, whatever the reason I’m not too bothered about it.

Continue reading “More Options Could Help Premium Membership”

September 2, 2011September 3, 2011

JLU – Responses, Criticism And The Phantom Zone

The fallout, criticism, claim and counter claim from JLUGate continue to ripple through the Second Life Blogsphere and Forumsphere …. I made that one up!

Tracer Graves linked to a petition in my recent blog post on the JLU issue, the petition can be read here. Whether you agree with the petition or not, it’s worth reading as it has some background as to why this issue has blown up.

The JLU have made an official response on to the allegations on their site, which you can read here. This is an important development because JLU have been quite quiet in official mode, GreenLantern Excelsior has been making a lot of comments, he’s made some here too which I’ll come to later but he has never claimed to be an official spokesperson. This is an official statement.

GreenLantern Excelsior was interviewed by Prok, which can be read here.

The Alphaville Herald have an interview with the Prime Minister of Antiquity who explains why he regrets asking the JLU for help, which can be read here.

Continue reading “JLU – Responses, Criticism And The Phantom Zone”

August 30, 2011August 30, 2011

Grendel’s Children – Birthday Parties, Mesh And Downsizing

Grendel’s Children are in the news for their decision to downsize, now you may never heard of Grendel’s Children, or visited, but trust me this is a big Second Life brand and was one of the first places to appear on the revamped showcase. Prim Perfect, Tateru Nino, Daniel Voyager and New World Notes have all covered this story, there’s good commentary there, I decided to ask about a couple of other things whilst I had the ear of Toady Nakamura.

Now I’m sure there will be speculation about the reasons for their decision to downsize, but Toady Nakamura of Grendel’s children contacted me to assure me that this is due to frustration with support and that it is nothing to do with the inworld economy:

“Our sales are solid. We downsized due to frustration with Lab non response to fixing sim problems. We sold and got rid of the problem as it was taking too much time from staff making avatars.”

Well having the ear of Toady I decided to get some more information, namely birthday parties and Mesh!

Continue reading “Grendel’s Children – Birthday Parties, Mesh And Downsizing”

August 30, 2011August 30, 2011

When Did Will Wright Join The Board Of Directors?

Whilst reading the epic JLU thread over at SLUniverse, with one eye open because it’s such a busy thread, my skim reading found its way to a conversation about Rod Humble (Linden Lab CEO), where someone thought Mr Humble created The Sims, however Stroker Serpentine corrected this person, pointing out that Will Wright created The Sims, and also pointing out that Will Wright is on the Linden Lab board of directors ….. WAIT! When did this happen?

Now I don’t know what the board of directors do, obviously some important stuff, possibly in the super secret hidden bunker of Linden World, but more likely in an office or the odd email or telephone call, the real impetus behind Second Life is from the management and staff, we don’t hear much at all from the board of directors, but they must do something!

Continue reading “When Did Will Wright Join The Board Of Directors?”

August 29, 2011August 29, 2011

JLU Appear To Be Far Off Track

The unseemly spectacle of the latest Justice League Unlimited hoopla is not doing anyone any favours. Allegations, counter allegations, revelations about contacting realtives of people on their deathbed, Linden off the record chat logs shared and the brainiac wiki itself. The men in tights have been caught with their pants around their ankles and are desperately trying to pull them back up to avoid further indecent exposure.

The JLU are not roleplaying superheroes, they aim to protect and serve within Second Life to make the Second Life experince better for all, the Second Life Wiki listing for them has noble aims and it’s not surprising that groups who have been thwarted by the JLU relish opportunities to embarrass them, howver the JLU make it all too easy. They appear to go way beyond their remit with some of their actions, especially with allegations that the brainiac wiki stores Second Life and real life information on people and the Deadly Codec incident really is beyond the pale, contacting a relative on Facebook, apparently out of compassion but how compassionate would you be if someone contacted you about a dying relative and you later found out they’d been fishing for confirmation of the condition of your relative for such a group?

Continue reading “JLU Appear To Be Far Off Track”