March 2014 – Page 5 – Ciaran Laval

March 14, 2014

Draxtor Despres – A Dish Best Served Independent

Second Life’s public image could be revolutionized through a PR campaign with stories like those in the Drax Files. http://t.co/niVgJRBx66

— Botgirl Questi (@botgirlq) March 12, 2014

Botgirl Questi recently tweeted the above and whereas I wholeheartedly agree that Second Life’s public image could be revolutionised via such a campaign, I would hope it would be one done without Draxtor Despres and I say this for totally selfish reasons.

The Drax Files and The Drax Files Radio Hour are absolutely superb mediums of promoting Second Life. However one of the reasons Drax can reach the parts other mediums cannot reach is because he’s editorially independent. I doubt this would be the case were Draxtor working on behalf of Linden Lab, rather than working on behalf of his love of Second Life.

An example here is that Drax will soon be talking to Emily Short who was a lead developer of Versu. Linden Lab have of course, very disappointingly ditched Versu, but I would certainly fear that a Linden Lab sponsored Draxtor Despres would be unable to engage in an interview like that or with any other former Linden due to a conflict of interests.

This works in other ways too, for example on The Drax Files, Drax has interviewed content creators, would he be able to do this were he sponsored by Linden Lab? I ask this question because I feel a lot of content creators would cry foul about Linden Lab playing favourites by promoting certain content creators if Drax was endorsed by Linden Lab. However as Draxtor is independent, he can interview who he likes, when he likes and not be questioned over his choices. This allows for some superbly positive interviews and Draxtor delving into all sorts of areas.

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March 14, 2014

Second Life Grid Experiences Largest Week On Week Growth Since 17th June 2012

Over a fortnight ago Tyche “Statto” Shepherd reported that the Second Life grid had experienced net growth of 14 regions, 15 for private regions, with Linden Lab dropping a region. This was the first net growth on the grid since March 31st 2013.

A week later the grid returned to losses, although it wasn’t an awful decline with the grid experiencing a net loss of 10 regions, 11 private regions and a Linden region appearing, possibly the missing one from the week before. However this did buck a trend of sorts, the grid growth of 31/03/13 was followed by a net loss of 16 regions, meaning the grid was smaller than it had been before the growth.

Prior to that, the grid had last grown on 24th June 2012, this is an important date. That week the grid grew by 30 regions, which was the third consecutive week of growth. However the week after that, the grid shrunk by a whopping 237 regions, wiping out all of that three week growth, which in total stood at 149 regions. This is why people shouldn’t get too excited about signs of growth too quickly.

Last weekend, Tyche was busy, it should be remembered that Tyche is pretty much a one woman band, she does have assistance from her survey bot, but a survey bot can only do so much. Therefore there has been no report from Tyche on the scores on the doors last weekend. However there is a backup plan, it comes in the shape and form of Tyche’s fantastic website : http://gridsurvey.com/

There we can see the scores on the doors for last weekend. The total number of Main Grid regions on March 9th was 26,176 ( 19,193 private estates & 6,983 Linden owned). This meant a net rise of 41 regions, all of them amongst private regions, there was no change in Linden owned regions. This is the largest single week rise since the 17th June 2012, although it should be noted the grid has only showed week on week growth four times since then, with last week being the fourth.

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March 14, 2014

Whoops! Your Everything search for “Desura” did not return any matches

For a long long time people bemoaned the fact that Linden Lab did not advertise Second Life. This has changed in the last couple of years, Linden Lab have embraced advertising, but there’s another oddity. Linden Lab aren’t exactly embracing Second Life when it comes to their other products.

For example a search inside Second Life for Desura gives us these results :

Image for Desura search — Search results for Desura

If you have to squint, the results for a Desura search within Second Life provides us with “Whoops! Your Everything search for “Desura” did not return any matches” Ok let’s try this again, surely there will be something in Second Life regarding Blocksworld, right? Wrong :

Search for Blcoksworld image — Search results for Blocksworld

Blocksworld is of course a different product but it seems odd to me that you can’t easily find any information about this product within Second Life, which is Linden Lab’s premier product.

Desura is a different platform too, but Desura actually seems to be a bit more switched on when it comes to being friendly to their sister products.

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March 13, 2014March 13, 2014

The Hypergrid Stories Project – Interacting With The Fiction

Nara Malone greets me as I return to Nara’s Nook to start my quest on The Hypergrid Stories Project. Nara recognises that I’m a Hypergrid noob and tells me that if I want to keep my clothes on during this journey, I’m going to have to pack a suitcase. This troubles me but Nara simply explains that if I haven’t got a folder in my inventory entitled “My Suitcase”, then I need to make one and drag my worn items into said folder. This is how you keep your clothes when you travel to a different Hypergrid region. So suitcase duly packed I follow Nara.

Next up Nara points out the books and poetry offerings and almost dares me to walk through one. I hesitate but I’m not one to shy away from a challenge. I walk into Dear Charlie, a story by Tina Glasneck, who recently wrote about the project at Hypergrid Business. Without clicking anything, I’m teleported. However at this stage I haven’t left Greyville Writer’s Colony. However this soon changes.

I’m greeted with chat :

Dear Charlie, You can’t change a monster into a man and I should have known that when Otto walked into the club and smiled at me. [please proceed to Red Light Club in the provided teleporter] [1 of 21]

Walking into said teleporter and again without having to click to teleport, I find myself in the mysterious universe of Hypergrid travel. I arrive safely at my destination and my suitcase was indeed packed, as I am still fully clothed. Phew!

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March 12, 2014

Linden Lab Announce Limited Beta For Second Life Oculus Rift Intergration

Linden Lab have blogged regarding a limited beta for Oculus Rift intergration in Second Life : Second Life’s Oculus Rift Integration is Ready for Beta Testers. This of course suggests that Linden Lab are well into their Oculus Rift intergration. However it should be noted that the beta is a limited beta and to take part, you will need access to the Oculus Rift development hardware.

The point there being that Oculus Rift isn’t yet at the consumer stage, you can’t buy it in the shops. However you can order the development kit, it’s currently priced at USD$300.00. However that’s aimed at developers, such as Linden Lab, rather than consumers so don’t go buying it if you’re not a developer!!!!

The blog post announces:

The Oculus Rift offers exciting possibilities for Second Life – the stereoscopic virtual reality headset brings a new level of immersion to our 3D world, making Second Life a more compelling experience than ever before.

Though a consumer version of the headset isn’t available yet, we’ve been working with the development kit to integrate the Oculus Rift with the Second Life Viewer. We now have a Viewer ready for beta testers, and if you have an Oculus Rift headset, we’d love to get your feedback.

If you have the Oculus Rift development hardware and would like to help us with feedback on the Viewer integration, please write to sl_oculus_beta@lindenlab.com to apply for the limited beta.

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