The Drax Files – Ciaran Laval

June 5, 2017

The Drax Files: World Makers Ep 45 -Arduenn Schwartzmann And His Flying Machines

Linden Lab have brought us news of the latest edition of The Drax Files : World Makers series, informing us that :

Long-time Resident Arduenn Schwartzman has developed quite the reputation as a prominent inventor, scripter and builder in Second Life. With a career that includes stints as a both a molecular biologist and assistant professor outside Second Life, Arduenn is perhaps best known inworld as creator of the air combat game WarBug.

Enthusiastic is an understatement when it comes to Arduenn.

The episode, which in traditional style I’ll embed near the bottom of this post, explains how the creativity of Second Life can be so appealing, especially to someone such as Arduenn who had climbed the career ladder only to find more responsibility means more administrative work and less creative work.

Arduenn enthuses about creating a plywood box, an enthusiasm that many of us experienced when we first entered Second Life and realised just how much of a sandbox the virtual world of Second Life truly is.

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September 10, 2016

New Season Coming Soon

A new exciting season of blogging on this website is coming soon, if I can escape Azeroth.

In the meantime, here’s Drax

July 15, 2016

The Drax Files: World Makers Episode 39: Sergio Delacruz

Episode 39 of The Drax Files: World Makers introduces us to Sergio Delacruz and Delacruz Park. I’ll embed the video at the end of the post.

Sergio hails from the Italian island of Sicily and is a content creator who creates experiences within Second Life. His latest example being the multiplayer inworld game Susan’s Diary. The blurb for Susan’s Diary informs us :

Susan’s diary is a creepy horror game where you must find the lost pages of an old diary in a haunted house and find what happened to little Susan. Visit rooms, secret passages and solve puzzles to reach the end of this experience.

I am not in a position to comment on the game as I haven’t played it. Games and experiences are an under reported aspect of Second Life, so I did enjoy this episode.

Sergio has embraced content creation in Second Life in a very large way, he creates and scripts everything for his projects.

However this doesn’t mean that Sergio doesn’t appreciate collaboration or shared content. Sergio informs us that he learnt how to build in sandboxes and studied free scripts to help him learn how to script.

Sandboxes are a resource in Second Life that don’t get anywhere near the attention or thanks they really deserve. They allow you to build and learn alone if you want but you’ll often find people happy to share tips with you at Sandboxes too.

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June 8, 2016

The Drax Files Episode 38 – Eboni Khan And Her Inspiring Smile

Episode 38 of The Drax Files : World Makers takes us to the world of Second Life fashion in the shape and form of the wonderfully inspiring story of Eboni Khan, owner of The House of Hucci brand.

Eboni simply radiates throughout the episode as she tells us how she overcame a rather large degree of adversity to prosper inside and outside of Second Life.

Eboni, a single Mom went to a Management Information School and progressed to a job as an IT Manager. Unfortunately, Eboni was laid off and it was then that Second Life and Eboni’s creative skills came to the fore. Eboni explains :

If it wasn’t for Second Life, I don’t know how I would have made it through the recession.

Eboni points out that Second Life has a low barrier to entry, which is more true today than it was many years ago because with the Second Life Marketplace, you don’t even need to own a plot of land to start selling your wares.

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Eboni also discusses how it’s volume of sales that provides her with an income she can live on. Most items in Eboni’s store cost around a dollar, so you can quickly see that Eboni sells a lot of items and that there’s a market in Second Life that consists of plenty of people who are willing to engage in microtransactions.

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April 23, 2016

The Drax Files Episode 37 – The Nonprofit Commons

Episode 37 of The Drax Files opens the door on The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life. The episode opens with Drax asking Rhiannon Chatnoir (AKA Joyce Bettencourt) to quickly explain what the Nonprofit Commons is. The answer is that the Nonprofit commons consists over 60 global nonprofit organisations using the virtual world to fight for social good. This sounds very noble.

We get to learn a little about the sort of organisations that are part of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life with people talking about organisations such as :

Transgender American Veterans Association, which plays a role in ensuring transgender veterans receive care for any medical conditions that may arise and that they are treated with respect and dignity.

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