Capital Exchange Suspends Activity Until Further Notice Due To Skill Gaming Policy

SL Capital Exchange have announced that are suspending activity until further notice as they await approval on their application to be an approved skill gaming operator. The announcement states :

On July 16, 2014, I filled out the first form for the Skill Gaming Application for Capital Exchange Stock Market Simulation Game. From that point until today, there have been numerous correspondences between me, my law firm, and Linden Lab. As of today we still do not have an official determination, positive or negative, on our application.

I was hoping that because much of the delay has been on the part of Linden Lab, that we would be allowed to operate past the November 1, 2014 deadline set forth in a recent post by Linden Lab. Unfortunately I was informed by Rowan Linden that we cannot. So therefore effective immediately, I am suspending all trading at Capital Exchange until our application is approved or denied by Linden Lab.

I do not know how long this might take, because honestly I thought this would all have been resolved already, however I hear there is a backlog of applications and Linden Lab needs the proper time to review them all thoroughly. So we need to be patient, and wait for Linden Lab’s counsel to do their job.

I’m a bit bemused as to just why CapEx are having such difficulty in getting a reply on approval, I’m also a bit bemused as to why they are seeking approval in the first place but more on that later. CapEx, for those who don’t know, is a fictional stock exchange where Second Life business owners list their business on the stock exchange and the value of shares rise and fall. I’ve engaged with this in the distant past by buying and selling shares and have never had bad experiences with it. I would imagine there have been issues when a Second Life business ceases to be, but I haven’t fell victim to that.

The suspension is due to the Skill Gaming Policy from Linden Lab which had a deadline of November 1st for people to cease activities even if they had an application pending, as explained in a blog post from Linden Lab at the end of September :

Beginning November 1, 2014, the enforcement of our Policy will apply to all Residents, including those with pending Skill Gaming applications that await Linden Lab review and approval. As of that date, any objects or regions found in violation of our Policy will be taken down.We strongly encourage all applicants to submit any outstanding materials for our review as soon as possible so that their applications may be processed before the deadline.

Whereas I have sympathies for both Linden Lab and applicants during this process, as new issues arise during the process, it seems a bit off that a venture that applied as far back as July are still left dangling in the wind in November.

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So How’s Second Life Performing For You?

Linden Lab have posted a new blog post : Performance, Performance, Performance! The post details some impressive improvements to Second Life from Linden Lab’s metrics. In terms of the Second Life Marketplace the post informs us :

We recently deployed infrastructure upgrades for the Marketplace, and the site has since shown some of the best performance we’ve ever seen from it. Even during peak usage periods over the weekend, when in the past performance would degrade, we’re seeing response times that average 70% faster and page load times that are 30% faster than before the changes.

Then we see a bold claim, I mean this is a very bold claims, it’s so bold that I’m almost speechless, but Linden Lab are improving Group Chat! Indeed they’ve recently deployed new chat server configurations which metrics show have resulted in dramatic improvements in group chat performance. Now before we all get too excited, they also acknowledge that some groups are still seeing a reduction in performance but early indications suggest that group chat is improving. Linden Lab aren’t washing their hands on this matter though, they are still very much working on continuing to improve group chat.

Faster texture and mesh loading has been facilitated by Linden Lab utilising a content delivery network to the whole grid. This is more likely to be felt by people further away from Linden Lab’s data centres in the USA and the initial reports do indeed sound very impressive :

Our testing showed dramatic improvements: average download times for textures and meshes have been reduced by more than 50% on average, and the improvement is even more dramatic outside of North America.

The final improvement mentioned in the blog post is with regards to the HTTP Project. This has been a long ongoing project that has slowly but surely brought improvements to Second Life. The basic concepts is that the way the viewer communicates with grid services has been improved. The blog post once again posts some impressive stats :

With the HTTP Project Viewer out now, the faster content download times you’ll see thanks to the CDN change get even better – we’re talking 80% faster!

However there is one more improvement highlighted via this blog post, although it’s not one Linden Lab are blowing their own trumpet about.

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Have Yourself A Merry Little Halloween

Halloween in Second Life has always been a popular time of year and this year is no exception. Whereas many of you will already have plans for parties events and such like, the Second Life Destination Guide will also help you to find some gems which will be around for a few days at least, after the event.

Linden Lab have added a new attraction to their impressive Portal Park, a Haunted Halloween Tour.


Haunted Halloween Tour

What will you do this Halloween? Help children with a sugar fix? Buy overpriced masks from big-box stores? Do something different, something frightening and fun. Linden Lab is proud to present the Haunted Halloween Tour. Strap in and prepare to experience haunts, ghouls, death, scares, and a descent through madness itself. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart!

Visit in Second Life

This is an attraction that takes advantage once more of the experience tools and allows you to ride a coffin up to the house and get spooked with shadowy figures appearing in the windows and much more.

Haunted Halloween

SLURL To Portal Park : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LR%20Portal%20Park1/113/126/23/

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High Fidelity Wants People To Interact In An Emotionally Normal Way

Whilst I was on holiday an excellent article on High Fidelity appeared in MIT Technology Review : The Quest to Put More Reality in Virtual Reality. Ok first of all let’s get a couple of questionable parts of the article out of the way. Tom Simonite seems to talk of Second Life in the past sense, which will rub many a Second Life user up the wrong way as Second Life is still going pretty strong, despite reports to the contrary. Then there’s this claim :

Some of what his company is creating is much the same as Second Life. You download some software and then enter a virtual space where you can steer your avatar around and build stuff. This time, though, building is much easier, the lag mostly eliminated, and the graphics more impressive.

Anyone who has had a peek at High Fidelity will know that the building is not much easier and nor are the graphics more impressive at this stage in the development of the platform. High Fidelity is making some bloody impressive strides right now but it’s still very much an Alpha product.

Then there’s the stock photograph of Philip Rosedale that is used, we need a new modern Philip photo, I’ve seen that one umpteen times! However the above aside, it’s an excellent article that captures so very well the fantastic enthusiasm Philip Rosedale has for virtual worlds. Admittedly I’m an unashamed Philip Rosedale fanboi, despite not always agreeing with him, but the man has a long held dream and it’s one that captivates me. Whereas some may think of Philip Rosedale; “Dreamer, you’re nothing but a dreamer, well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!” the answer to that is that with the right peripherals, in High Fidelity you can put your virtual hands in your virtual head, oh yes!

The article explains how High Fidelity is taking a very different approach from Second Life in some areas and this is where I believe that High Fidelity is most definitely on the right track :

High Fidelity’s business model is less developed. Most of its software and platform will be open source, so anyone can use it or set up a virtual world using its technology. High Fidelity plans to make money by charging people to include their worlds in a kind of directory for the metaverse, similar to the domain name system for the Web.

I’ve said this before, more than once, but where I feel Second Life failed to adopt mass appeal is because it’s Second Life. Mass appeal may well come for a Linden Lab product running Linden Lab created technology, but I’m not convinced that mass appeal will come for any virtual world being a one stop shop. In terms of Second Life I’ve said that it needed to reach the stage where people weren’t thinking they were visiting Second Life, they were thinking of playing an elf on a platform running Second Life technology, or going to a concert, running Second Life technology. The technology being a discussion area for techie types and the experience itself being something people enjoy for the experience itself.

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Second Life Payout Requests Delayed Due To Significant Number Of Payout Requests

A few days ago I blogged about the delays people are experiencing in getting their accounts verified for account and tax information requests issued by Linden Lab. However new information has came to light which suggests that it’s not just an issue for account and tax information requests, it seems that the broader issue is that off payout requests full stop.

The tax and account information requests are often tied to payout requests, so this explains why there are delays there. The information was relayed to me via Pete Linden in a comment on my earlier blog post :

Due to a significant volume of payout request in recent weeks, payout requests may take longer to process than expected. We apologize for the delay, and we are working hard on clearing the backlog and process requests as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we advise residents to please address any specific questions through their Support cases. We appreciate the cooperation and patience from all residents, and hope to have payout request processing times back to normal soon.

I’m not sure why there is a significant volume of payout requests in recent weeks, some people have suggested it is related to the new skill gaming policy and there will be people who are putting payment information on file in order to engage with skill gaming regions.

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