Outside Companies Should Create Their Own Second Life Faires

Fantasy Faire is over for this year, but what this year’s event has left me wondering is why aren’t there more faires and why aren’t there more faires with outsiders involved? Now by outsiders I’m talking about people who don’t see Second Life as being their natural place, such as people who don’t really use Second Life but could use it for promotional purposes.

Now let’s just pause for a moment here, Linden Lab have brought advertising to their website and a lot of this advertising is from people who don’t see Second Life as their natural place, there are adverts from all sorts of different companies there. Why not harness that advertising potential and point advertisers in the direction of the Fantasy Faire website and say, hey, here’s what you can do in Second Life to make feature rich advertising.

Now there are a few reasons why this sort of thing generally doesn’t happen. The first is that Second Life is a rather small subset of potential consumers for any organisation to be concerned with, I mean there are plenty of us here but there are not eye popping amounts. Another reason is that Second Life users get a bit uppity at times about outsiders advertising on Second Life properties, some of the feedback about the website adverts demonstrates that. Another reason is that advertisers don’t want to be associated with dodgy content.

Some of these factors can be overcome, but let’s just imagine what could be done with a Fantasy Faire for fantasy authors and MMO companies. This could bring new users to Second Life, a short faire on this scale would mean people weren’t tied to tier in Second Life to display their wares, but they could get some damn good promotional material out of a short term event. The game companies should have no problem making avatars for Second Life, whereas the authors could work with, Linden Lab or even, shock horror, Second Life residents to help them build displays to promote their books.

Continue reading “Outside Companies Should Create Their Own Second Life Faires”

Beta Viewer To Be Replaced By Multiple Beta Viewers

In what is a rather odd sounding move, Linden Lab have announced that the beta viewer is to be replaced by multiple beta viewers. The idea seems to be akin to how they release new code on the servers where they have a main channel and then other channels such as Le Tigre, Blue Steel and Magnum.

The reason this all sounds a bit odd is that there have long been project viewers for specific projects, so I’m not sure how this is going to drastically change much. In the blog post Linden Lab tell us that the problem with having only one beta channel is:

In the past, we have used the ‘Second Life Beta Viewer’ channel for this final user validation, but because we had only one Beta channel, some features and fixes have been significantly delayed waiting for their ‘turn’ in the channel. We will now be able to put those Viewers in the regular Release channel to a smaller randomly chosen group, allowing us to test and release new features more quickly.

Hmm, I’m still struggling to see why this is different from having project viewers, other than the fact that they may get more feedback by getting rid of the main beta viewer and replacing it with multiple ones.

Continue reading “Beta Viewer To Be Replaced By Multiple Beta Viewers”

Fantasy Faire 2013 – The Quest For The Golden Prim Introduction

Saffia Widdershins

I’m stood outside an explorer’s club in the Lotus Valley Dream sim at Fantasy Faire, Saffia Widdershins is asking me to conduct an interview in voice, I play my trump card “I speak Brummie, you may not be able to understand me“.

I speak fluent Brummie” replies Saffia, I’m out of excuses and turn to voice.

Explorers Club Entrance

The interview for The Quest For The Golden Prim turns into an adventure of its own. First of all the sims are being reset, we need to teleport out, but we can’t, the servers won’t let us at first. Then another sim is full, with the clock ticking and time running out, we manage to teleport to another sim in the nick of time.

Now I need to find Saffia, I can see her on the map, she can see me, we walk towards each other and realise we’re separated by a see-thru wall, we’re physically separated, we touch the wall either side and start the interview, Saffia’s accent is the sort that suits her elegant avatar every step of the way and has me enthralled as she enthuses about this project and others of bygone days. If Linden Lab are looking for an enthusiastic supporter of Second Life in the form of someone who has exemplified several use cases, Saffia Widdershins is the lady for the job.

The Quest For The Golden Prim isn’t an item you can buy, it’s a web comic with the presentation at Fantasy Faire a promotional tool to announce the relaunch of the web comic. The presentation itself is an interactive experience, you can click items and collect trading cards, learn about the story by finding books with previous chapters. There are hidden entrances to be found and, as Saffia proudly told me, the only wash room in the Faire lands is inside the build!

Golden Prim washroom

I’ll allow Saffia to explain the story of the quest below the cut, if you’re already below the cut, there isn’t another one, just read on.

Continue reading “Fantasy Faire 2013 – The Quest For The Golden Prim Introduction”

Fantasy Faire 2013 – Dwarfins Introduction

I’ve blogged about Dwarfins before, indeed I own Dwarfins. As part of my Fantasy Faire 2013 assigned missions, I’ve been asked to blog some more about Dwarfins and this was a welcome task, and not just because they’re releasing wizard avatars and Dwarfins at Fantasy Faire 2013 but that sure helps!

An Image Should Be Here
Wizard And Enchantress Avatars

The first thing to remember here is that as well as being a great event for the fantasy community in Second Life, Fantasy Faire is also part of the relay for life fundraising effort. Judy Chestnut explains why this is important for her:

I have lost a lot of people close to me that were much too young. In particular my mother who was only 48 when she found out she had breast cancer and 50 when she lost her fight. She participated in a clinical trial after she was diagnosed, for a drug that is now widely used and helping other women. My uncle who passed away from brain cancer at the age of 50, was misdiagnosed for 2 years before they correctly diagnosed him. My sister in law who passed away at the age of 36 from breast cancer, her cancer had spread to her brain and had not been found there until it was too late.

 Research, diagnostic training for doctors, support for survivors and caregivers and the fight for one more birthday, because by that next birthday, there may be a cure. Those are the reasons that I support relay for life.

Dwarfins is a breedables venture in Second Life, where you breed, well Dwarfins! They create birthrocks together that have traits when they are birthed and of course, some traits are more valuable than others.These traits have the potential to be passed on to their offsprings. Jaimy Hancroft, artist for Dwarfins has created some pictures to advertise some of the features of Dwarfins.

An Image Should Be Here
Dwarfins Traits

Dwarfins also have interactive items, they like a drink that’s for sure!

Continue reading “Fantasy Faire 2013 – Dwarfins Introduction”

Sneaking Into Fantasy Faire 2013

So I managed to sneak into a cave and find the secret entrance that took me to the entrance to Fantasy Faire 2013, but in my path I saw two Giants guarding the way, I tried to hide but they saw me and crossed their arms, frowining at me. Then one of them roared:

Fee-fi-fo-fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman,

Be he live, or be he dead

I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.

I stood there, frozen, too afraid to move when one of the giants started laughing “I’ve always wanted to say that!” he roared.

The other giant replied “I’m waiting for the chance to say ‘Unleash The Kraken’

Ooh that’s a good one!” said the first Giant “Ok in you go, Sonya Marmurek said you’d be coming, come on move along quickly…. and remember, no SLURL’s allowed in previews.” I hurriedly moved through the entrance but couldn’t help overhear their conversation.

Do you think it will rain?

No idea, I hope not, I want to hang my washing out.

Washing, blah, that means ironing.

Oh I hate ironing, but it has to be done, I’ve got some new fabric conditioner.

Oh really, which brand?

Thankfully I was now out of range to hear the rest of the conversation, but I wasn’t quite there yet, barring my path was a witch, pointing her finger at me, “You!” she exclaimed “It was foretold in the prophecies that you would arrive!

I looked behind me to see if anyone else was there, then looked questioningly at the witch “Did Sonya Marmurek mention my name?

Ah, you know the prophecies too!” exclaimed the witch.

I groaned and moved on and finally, I found myself at sneak peek Fantasy Faire 2013. I had to choose a portal:

Portals

Continue reading “Sneaking Into Fantasy Faire 2013”

Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: