Linden Lab – Page 21 – Ciaran Laval

March 8, 2017

Sansar Springs Closer

Linden Lab’s Sansar is said to be heading for an Open Beta spring release, this has been exemplified by a new video (which I will embed at the end of this post) and a slew of articles on the subject.

The articles show some of the hopes, aspirations and excitement surrounding Sansar. We also see that some people appreciate the work done by Linden Lab and its community when it comes to Second Life, as well as pointing out that Second Life got some things wrong.

Ben Lang over at Road To VR writes : New ‘Sansar’ Video Glimpses More Virtual Worlds Made on the Social VR Platform. The article starts with Second Life, which is a very good place to start :

There’s no denying that Linden Lab did some things right with Second Life, a $500 million GDP in 2016 is a testament to that. But they also did some things wrong, even Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg will admit.

“Between the Creator and the Consumer, Second Life never really settled on which was our primary customer,” Altberg told Road to VR in an interview at the company’s San Francisco headquarters in January.

The article also touches upon something that will feel different to Second Life users, which the eagle eyed may notice in the video. Visting Sansar experiences looks like it will be a case of visiting individual experiences, in a similar manner to High Fidelity and back in the day, Cloud Party.

Unlike with Second Life, the Linden Lab is shifting away from having a single massive virtual world, choosing instead to set itself up as an enabler of creators by making Sansar a platform, rather than an all encompassing virtual landscape.

This will feel different to Second Life users initially, but a lot of Second Life is already similar to this model with Islands that can only be reached via teleport. The lack of a contiguous mainland may disappoint but I’m sure people will soon get over that if the experiences are engaging.

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January 17, 2017

The Art of Second Life Brings Better News

Second Life in the media is a strange beast. When it comes to technology sites people talk about “Second Life, is that still around?” and people talk about how Second Life was a thing, but no longer is, even though it is still very much around.

When it comes to what people do in Second Life, especially in the arts, it’s a different story. These articles talk about Second Life as a thing and don’t talk about how there’s nothing to do there.

These differences came to my mind as I was reading an article by Kembrew Mcleod over at Prairie Pop : Bibbe Hansen’s rebellious history and dynamic legacy.

The article is about Bibbe Hansen, mother of Beck and Channing Hansen but it’s in the final, almost throwaway paragraph, that we read about Second Life :

Nowadays Bibbe Hansen is a member of Second Life, a performance art group that exists in the online world of Second Life. There, her avatar Bibbe Oh can be seen playing virtual sound collage concerts culled from Fluxus audio sources (though she also does live performances, most recently with Lydia Lunch in New York City).

Which causes me to have a “Wait … what?” moment. However it’s the way that there’s no negative comments about Second Life in the article that really stands out.

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January 13, 2017

Of Mice, Men and Ready Player One

The Alexandrian Free Library in Second Life have a couple of literary book discussion events scheduled over the next fortnight. The books involved will be Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Below are details of the events.

Sunday, 15 January, 2017

WELLINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Wellington Cultural Society Monthly Discussion
When: 1:00pm – 2:00pm SLT
Where: Wellington County Library, Polkadot
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Polkadot/162/193/97

Description: This month we discuss “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck (originally published in 1937)

The compelling story of two outsiders striving to find their place in an unforgiving world. Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie have nothing in the world except each other and a dream–a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in California’s Salinas Valley, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie, struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and feelings of jealousy, becomes a victim of his own strength. Tackling universal themes such as the friendship of a shared vision, and giving voice to America’s lonely and dispossessed, Of Mice and Men has proved one of Steinbeck’s most popular works, achieving success as a novel, a Broadway play and three acclaimed films. (Goodreads summary).

Join us for a relaxing hour.
Available in a variety of formats.

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January 11, 2017January 11, 2017

Art, Physics And Cloudy Avatars in Second Life and Beyond

Art has quite a good following in Second Life, Draxtor Despres covered the work of Rose Borchovski in episode 14 of The Drax Files : World Makers. There’s the Linden Endowment for the Arts. The Second Life destination guide has an arts category and bloggers such as Inara Pey regularly cover the arts, a recent post appeared on Inara’s blog regarding Dathúil: visions of desire in Second Life.

The mixture of arts and technology also sees Second Life turning up in articles about artists who have gone beyond Second Life, or have exhibitions inworld and outside. Second Life of course does not have a monopoly on creativity in virtual spaces and we see this exemplified in an article over at The Huffington Post : What Can Virtual Reality Bring To Art?

The article covers the work of Adham Faramawy and Jessy Jetpacks for an already sold out show by the Royal Academy of the Arts : Virtually Real. The technology being used here includes HTC Vive which might indicate a bright VR future for art, but the Huffington Post article also sees Adham Faramawy mention Second Life and physics :

I was never a gamer but this was always my problem with Second Life. So many people wanted to replicate something that already exists, when actually these technologies can be quite useful speculative tools. Even though the way platforms are designed guides how you use them, they can still be used to visualise a variety of possibilities. And what’s wrong with imagining new ways to be situated in the world?

Indeed, virtual worlds and spaces do not have to be inhibited by the physics that apply to the physical world and we see this sort of issue raised again in an article by Christian Petersen over at Art Slant :Wednesday Web Artist of the Week: Martina Menegon. Martina, it’s fair to say, is a lot more enthusiastic about Second Life, even though she doesn’t login much these days, partially due to a cloudy avatar but I’ll come to that later.

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January 6, 2017

A Visit To Fogs End In Second Life

Vampires, Demons, Undead, Humans, Magic users make up the races in the roleplaying community of Fogs End in Second Life. This is a mature roleplaying region and it should be pointed out that child avatars are not allowed. This is made clear at the entrance.

Whilst at the entrance you will be able to pick up an out of character (OOC) tag but you should also take time to read the rules of roleplay etiquette that the region embraces if you want to go beyond OOC.

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