Second Life – Page 164

November 13, 2013November 17, 2013

Sunday Night At The Movies – Machinima Expo 6

Machinima Expo 6 will be taking place on Sunday November 17th from 10am – 4pm. Familiar names to some in Second Life circles will include Draxtor Despres, Pooky Amsterdam and Hypatia Pickens amongst others. However this is not just about Second Life and machinima made on other platforms will also be showcased and up for awards. The event does however end with a party in Second Life.

I’ll post the official press release, schedule, include a reel featuring Draxtor Despres and Jo Yardley and embed the official trailer below.

The official press release informs us:

November 13, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT PERSON: RICKY GROVE

grovericky@gmail.com

MACHINIMA EXPO 6 SET TO OPEN THIS SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH

Los Angeles, CA. – The sixth annual Machinima Expo will take place this Sunday, November 17th, from 10am to 4pm (PST). The Expo is a virtual film festival dedicated to the art of machinima, a digital-born 3D medium created inside of a virtual world or game engine. Machinima (a combination of the words “machine” + “cinema”) came originally from game hackers, but has evolved into a unique contemporary digital art form with an international community. The Machinima Expo is designed to bring this community together for a virtual film festival which will feature over 6 hours of machinima film screenings, programming and an awards ceremony.

“We created the Expo to share the best machinima submitted to us from all over the world and to inspire the community to tell their own stories using this unique digital medium”

Ricky Grove, Executive Producer, Machinima Expo 6

Since the Machinima Expo is a virtual film festival (it takes place on the internet) all anyone needs to attend the Expo is an internet connection and a web-browser. The Expo will stream the festival via their Ustream page which is embedded on their website (www.machinima-expo.com), their Facebook page, Twitter page and at Ustream itself. Live chat will be available right next to the streaming video screen.

Expo 6 sponsors include Reallusion (www.reallusion.com), makers of iClone and CrazyTalk, and iPi Soft (ipisoft.com), a company dedicated to creating “motion capture for the masses”.

To find out more about the Machinima Expo 6 or to view any of the 50 machinima films being screened for the festival, visit www.machinima-expo.com

Continue reading “Sunday Night At The Movies – Machinima Expo 6”

November 12, 2013

More On PrimBay

Thanks to Lelani Carver, I have more information on CasperTech’s PrimBay. Lelani has updated her blog post to include a link to the PrimBay Wiki, which has a lot more information than I was originally able to relay.

I said in my previous post that the site looked a bit sparse, the Wiki informs me that this is by intent:

“The front page of PrimBay is simple. Just a search box. Find what you need, quickly and easily.”

I’m afraid I have to give that a thumbs down, largely because it doesn’t draw curious users in. However other features are certainly worth a thumbs up and they include:

A demo button will be available on listings, no need for a separate listing!
Ability to share listings in social media.
Full purchase support, by L$, Credit Card, or PayPal, including an (optional) device which can make payments automatically, similar to the marketplace.

However where PrimBay really gets interesting is with regards to the future (the current roll out is still officially in the beta phase). Some of the proposed future features:

A special edition of caspervend designed for primbay-only merchants.
Auctions – PrimBay has been designed with auctions in mind, and we will implement these in the coming time.
Multiple store fronts – Multiple brands, one avatar.

There’s more to read on the wiki but PrimBay seems to be throwing down the gauntlet to the SL Marketplace team by introducing features that SL Marketplace merchants have long wanted to see. Multiple store fronts and a demo on the listing being two large feature requests that the SL Marketplace has not yet implemented but which would prove extremely popular for merchants and shoppers alike.

Another feature that SL Marketplace merchants may welcome is via the listing process. As I said in my previous post, you need to be a merchant using CasperVend to list your items on PrimBay, but in order for your items to appear on PrimBay all you need to do is have your account set to enabled and the items will, after a period of up to one hour, appear on the PrimBay website. No need to create a new listing on the site and inworld, one listing will make your item appear inworld and on the site.

Continue reading “More On PrimBay”

November 11, 2013

CasperTech’s PrimBay To Provide Web Based Virtual Shopping Experience

I’d heard a few whispers about something called PrimBay from Caspertech but details were thin on the ground. However I’ve unearthed a bit more information via a blog post from Steampunk enthusiast Lelani Carver. Now the first thing to note is that you have to be using CasperVend to sell items on PrimBay, Lelani gives a little bit of blurb about the venture in her post:

“For anyone using Caspervend products, there’s now an online marketplace where your products are listed, similar to the Second Life Marketplace, but scripted to be much faster, easier to search, and with better options for showing color variations and demos. ”

I’m not sure what stage this venture is at, the actual website (which can be found at https://www.primbay.com/) looks rather sparse and lacks information. However if you browse categories you will see, as you’d expect, categories and if you click within those categories, for example buildings & prefabs, you will see listings. Alternatively you can just search for items by Lelani Carver!

According to Lelani’s post there are plans for banners and storefronts. I also suspect this may be used to sell items on other grids, for example there’s talk of Avination currency in the terms of service and when you click login there are options to login as a Second Life customer or Avination customer.

Continue reading “CasperTech’s PrimBay To Provide Web Based Virtual Shopping Experience”

November 11, 2013November 11, 2013

New Marketplace Merchants Will Need PIOF

Linden Lab have announced that those who want to open new stores on the Second Life Marketplace will be required to provide payment info on file (PIOF). The move has been warmly received by merchants, many of whom who seem to view it as a beefing up of security.

This will, once one or two teething issues and quirks are ironed out, undoubtedly reduce the amount of throwaway alts used to practice questionable behaviour on the marketplace. Obviously it won’t cut down on all questionable behaviour but it will greatly reduce it and we should see less of the most brazen scams taking place … one would hope!

The blog post states:

“Only newly created accounts will be required to meet this requirement at this time, and existing Merchant accounts will not be affected. However, we strongly recommend that all merchants complete the steps necessary to meet this new requirement.”

If they ever do get around to requiring PIOF for exisitng merchants, I think we’ll see a few more complaints, but as it currently doesn’t seem to have any implications for exisiting merchants, the news has been well received.

Continue reading “New Marketplace Merchants Will Need PIOF”

November 9, 2013

Disrespecting Hedgehogs, Mafia Hits, Trolling Forums – A Look At The Old Police Blotter

Back in the day Second Life used to list the 25 most recent offences in what was known as the Police Blotter. Later on it became the incident report. These reports looked like this:

Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Violation: Community Standards: Indecency, Global Standards
Region: Ahern
Description: Offensive language in IM.
Action taken: Warning issued.

Being as that offence took place in Ahern you can’t help but wonder whether the issue was using offensive language in IM, whereas in Ahern it’s traditional to be abusive in local chat. Some of the offences fall into the bizarre category, such as what appears to have been the St Patrick’s day massacre:

Date: Friday, March 17, 2006
Violation: Community Standards: Violations using Alternate Accounts
Region: —
Description: Use of primary and alternate accounts for mafia “hits” on residents.
Action taken: Suspended 14 days.

We see examples of offences that were serious enough to be listed but had a touch of humour about them:

Date: Friday, June 30, 2006
Violation: Second Life: Respect, Pets
Region: Arabian Nights
Description: Hedgehogs will be respected, dammit!
Action taken: Warning issued.

Date: Saturday, July 8, 2006
Violation: Terms of Service: Adult Allowing Teen Access to MG
Region: Hawaii
Description: “My little brother did it.”
Action taken: Suspended 14 days.

Then we see examples of action being taken because of abusive behaviour in the forums, spamming event listings, nudity in profiles and using real world trademarks to sell goods in Second Life:

Continue reading “Disrespecting Hedgehogs, Mafia Hits, Trolling Forums – A Look At The Old Police Blotter”