Second Life – Page 148

January 6, 2014January 6, 2014

The Drax Files Episode 15 – Scottius Polke

I’m still catching up with the end of 2013, such is life. Episode 15 of The Drax Files aired on December 27th, complete with the traditional theme tune and opening credits. I’ll embed the video at the end of the post, as usual.

This episode features an artist and a tiny otter, whom happen to be one and the same being in the shape and form of Second Life’s Scottius Polke, AKA Scott Rolfe. Art in Second Life is quite popular, the platform lends itself to the artistic and in this episode we can see why. Scottius discovered Second Life in 2008, he was at this stage already an artist. Therefore he saw the opportunity to create virtual world art based on his real world art, by using the building tools available within Second Life. Scottius also spotted the potential to use scripts to add something to his virtual world art.

What this episode manages to capture so very well is how art within the virtual world becomes part of the scenery, as opposed to when you walk into an art gallery say, where art is on the walls but might not grasp the visitor’s attention. The way Second Life is constructed lends itself to artists being able to make their art very immersive, making the world that the avatar is within a strong focus.

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January 4, 2014January 5, 2014

Net Private Region Losses Slow Down During 2013

Tyche Shepherd’s last report of the year revealed a distinct slow down in the net number of private region losses during 2013 when compared to 2012. The report also reveals that despite net losses, the overall number of adult rated sims is on the rise. The usual caveats should apply here, just because sim is adult rated it doesn’t mean it’s a den of iniquity. Setting your sim as a rating of adult means that only people who have age verified should be able to visit.

An adult rating also gives a sim owner the greatest flexibility. This is the reason why moderate sims have always been the rating of choice. When LL added adult as a rating, many people still felt moderate was a high enough rating but some have clearly moved to adult. This shouldn’t be taken to mean that adult content or activities in Second Life are on the rise.

The report also shows that Linden Lab have definitely been rolling out newer hardware to support the service, hurrah!

Let’s first take a look at the number of sim losses during 2012 and 2013.

2012 Net Private Region Losess – 2865 (12.0%)
2013 Net Private Region Losses – 1719 (8.2%)

The overall number of private region losses over the two year period stands at 4584 (19.2%), so down by almost one fifth in two years, which is definitely cause for concern but the fact that losses are slowing down should be welcomed. A point to note here is that these are net losses, so more than 4584 sims have gone, some have been renamed, some have been sold and some have been replaced by new purchases.

Now let’s take a look at maturity ratings. These figures are for the year ending, so year ending 2012, year ending 2013. I should also point out that I haven’t double checked my calculations and figures can make my eyes go funny, so I may have made an error in my calculations. I apologise therefore in advance in case I have made an error, don’t be shy about pointing out errors. I’ve also included tables, which hopefully display properly! Ok on with the show.

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December 30, 2013December 31, 2013

2013 Reviewed

The challenge with a review of the year is to try and make it worth reading. There’s a balance between including information and including too much information. This year’s review is largely based on Second Life and my own posts, so there’s plenty of information that I will be missing. For those who want a more in depth review, Inara Pey has been reviewing 2013 too.

For me personally it was a difficult year, Reed, Dee, Izzy and TJ Linden all gave me wonderful support, even when I myself was more than a tad grouchy with them but I do appreciate the efforts they made to accommodate me.

This post is not as long as it looks, if you skip the pictures, links and embedded videos it won’t take as long to read as you may think at first glance. I did consider breaking this down in to different posts, as I did last year. However at the end of the day it is what it is, so it looks like it’s epic in length but it’s really not. However to aid people I’ve decided to go back to HTML school and create a table of contents! Hurrah.

Contents

January – March
April – June
July – August
September – December
Summary

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December 28, 2013

2013 – The Meme Version

When I was a lad and I used to play on Livejournal we’d do an end of year post where you’d take the first few lines or paragraph of the first post of each month and that would be your review of the year. I’ll do proper reviews of the year over the next few days or so but for now I’ll turn back to that old Livejournal meme. This won’t make that much sense but it is a bit of fun.

January

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.

February

Ok so I’m enjoying playing around with dio and The Search For Hod Rumble (see previous post for details) is well under way, whether it ever goes from private to public is another matter. My intention with this project is largely to play around with the features and get a good understanding of the platform whilst having fun at the expense of Rod Humble. However, even though I’m only at the start of my project, I have picked up some tips.

*NOTE* – The search for Hod Rumble remains unpublished.

March

Draxtor Despres, of Metareality Podcast, Superflufee machinima and other stuff I don’t know about but probably should fame, has today launched a new monthly show titled: “The Drax Files“.

April

Back on March 12th Linden Lab blogged about advertising on Second Life properties. There has been no further update but the people behind Fennux breedables have managed to take advantage of Google advertising by getting an advert for their product and website onto the Second Life website, well the forums in my case, that’s where I saw the advert.

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December 24, 2013

A Christmas Mystery – Whatever Happened To MySecondLife Private Messaging?

Twas the night before Christmas and good wishes were meant,

But within my Second Life no new messages could be sent,

Where have they gone to, what can we do?

At this time of year LL operate a skeleton crew,

One user sent in a ticket only for LL to purport,

This is a feature we no longer support,

Users were confused and chose to berate,

Once again The Lab had failed to communicate,

What has really happened, will answers ever be found?

Or will users have to accept the speculation that is abound?

A Christmas mystery has emerged regarding messaging on Second Life Web Profiles at https://my.secondlife.com , in a nutshell, the ability to be able to send other users direct messages seems to have vanished! Play creepy music now.

The issue was reported by Sonja Smedley On The Official Second Life Forums. Others in the thread observed the same mysterious behaviour, they were unable to send messages via My Second Life.

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