Second Life – Page 6 – Ciaran Laval

March 21, 2018

Second Life Heads For 15th Birthday With 15 Reasons To Be Cheerful

Linden Lab have blogged Happy 15th Birthday, Second Life! Fifteen Reasons To Celebrate. Two of those reasons are long term issues. Linden Lab are addressing the issue of the tier being too damn high and they are also planning to bring back last names.

Linden Lab recently announced reductions to mainland tier pricing as well as allowing premium members 1,024m of free tier, a doubling of the old 512m limit. The latest blog post points out that this isn’t the end of addressing tier pricing though :

Currently, Land costs can be quite high, and make up a lopsided portion of our Second Life revenues. To improve this imbalance, we plan to increase revenues in other ways so that we can lower land costs further. In order to avoid shocks to the in-world economy and to take care that we keep the business healthy, we plan to make these changes in a measured way, taking time to assess the impacts of each change as we go.

I’ve long said that Linden Lab need more revenue sources and that tier was far too large a part of their business model, so I’m definitely encouraged by this.

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March 15, 2018March 15, 2018

Philip Rosedale Wants His Old Second Life Avatar Back

When Second Life turned three, Torley took the above photo, it shows Philip Rosedale, founder of Linden Lab, in his iconic avatar.

Moving on far more years than most of us want to admit, Philip Rosedale can be found in High Fidelity, looking much more like Philip Rosedale does outside the virtual world. In the below image, Philip is on the left side of the stage talking to Kent Bye of Voices of VR Podcast.

The video of that chat can be found here by the way, it was a fascinating and very interesting discussion, if you have time I definitely recommend that you watch it.

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March 14, 2018

Second Life Mainland Tier Prices Cut and Added Free Tier Bonus Increase

Linden Lab have announced changes to tier prices for Second Life mainland which result in a cut in tier prices, a new pricing point in the tier table and an increase in the amount of mainland you can own as part of your premium member free tier allowance. They’ve made this announcement on Pi Day too.

Here’s an overview of the pricing changes :

Old land allowance (m²)	Old Price	New land allowance (m²)	New Price
512	Free with Premium account	1,024	Free with Premium account
1,024	$5.00	1,536	$4.00
1,536	$8.00	2,048	$7.00
2,560	$15.00	3,072	$13.00
4,608	$25.00	5,120	$22.00
8,704	$40.00	9,216	$35.00
16,896	$75.00	17,408	$67.00
33,280	$125.00	33,792	$112.00
Not available	Not available	49,152	$150.00
66,048	$195.00	66,560	$175.00

Official details can be found here, and that’s an important link to go to because there’s an additional point regarding the tier table :

Above the maximum shown on this table, tier allotment increases in quarter-Region increments at $44.00 each.

That suggests that owning a full second region worth of tier would cost you an extra $166.00 a month, but I also thought that you could only go up in half region increments before, maybe that had already changed.

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November 15, 2017

The Atlantic’s Leslie Jamison Looks At Second Life and Virtual Living

Back in June I asked Leslie Jamison what her Second Life article for The Atlantic would be about, Leslie replied; “The piece is focused on why SL is meaningful to particular residents, as well as the kinds of relationships & community it makes possible.”

The article; The Digital Ruins of a Forgotten Future, was published on November 10th and certainly highlights why SL is meaningful to particular residents, as well as the kinds of relationship & community it makes possible, the article also goes much further, deeper and beyond Second Life into the concept of living online.

The article is long (although there’s a soundcloud recording on the article page if you would prefer to listen), beautifully written, honest, written for an intended audience who may not be familiar with Second Life and exemplifies the type of journalism I admire greatly because it allows Second Life residents the opportunity to voice why they enjoy or embrace Second Life.

The article has largely received positive feedback but is not without its critics, as can be exemplified by the comments of show 162: war of the social worlds, The Drax Files Radio Hour (with Jo Yardley). The critical comments avoid being abusive, which is both welcome and constructive.

The article features a number of interviews with Second Life residents and I’m particularly pleased to see Gentle Heron, of the excellent Virtual Ability Inc. featured because accessibility is such an important subject that doesn’t get anywhere near the attention it warrants.

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November 3, 2017

Second Life Destination Guide Highlights Diversity and History

This week’s Highlights From The Second Life Destination Guide features the usual mix of art, fun and adventure and it also includes diversity and history. I’m going to take a brief look at some of those destinations, starting with the Virtual Black History Museum.

The blurb from the Destination Guide informs us :

The Virtual Black History Museum is an awareness project that takes a look at the timeline of events that led from the first group of slaves in what is now the United States through the brutality of Rodney King in 1992. There will also be scheduled discussions on the current events that the past has led to, as well as the impact of those who have contributed to the growth of the community.

The installment itself was created by Bria Oceanside and features a series of boards inside the hall filled with text and pictures. Some of the imagery and text is shocking, so be warned, but that’s part of history and is definitely very informative and achieves the stated goal of raising awareness.

There’s also a nice outdoor cafe area where you can sit, reflect and engage in discussion with friends regarding the installation if you wish.

SLURL : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Herald/43/193/122/

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