Ciaran Laval

August 2, 2014

On Reflection, Business Insider Article On Second Life Contains Some Fair Criticism

Karyne Levy, Senior West Coast Tech Editor fir Business Insider, has penned an article about Second Life : Second Life Has Devolved Into A Post-Apocalyptic Virtual World, And The Weirdest Thing Is How Many People Still Use It. The article starts badly with the headine and on first reading doesn’t get any better when you read the body.

Now the easy thing to do here would be to don full Second Life fanboi suit and rip the article to shreds, but upon reflection there are positives and fair criticism within the article. However some of the article remains bemusing, for example Karyne says :

When I open the events tab, I see listings ranging from night clubs to pornographic classified ads and little else. Yes, avatars can get naked in the game, with special nude skins available for purchase.

Now unless something has changed, new users need to opt in to be able to see and visit adult content, so I’m a tad bemused why someone would opt in to being able to access adult content and then comment on the fact that they are seeing adult content. Obviously if things have changed and by default those who vouch that they are over 18 are automatically able to see adult content then this would be a fair point to raise.

However this article is at its heart a love story. The person who shows Karyne around Second Life met and married her husband inside and later outside, Second Life. The article is as much about the story of Karyne’s guide as it is about Second Life itself, it’s a personal article in many ways. Karyne’s guide points out that many of her favourite Second Life locations are now closed, which is something many Second Life users can emphasise with, places do come and go.

The article also delves into the issue of the new user experience. Although Karyne isn’t technically a new user, having first tried Second Life many years ago for a couple of days, she does go through the new user experience with all its flaws.

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August 1, 2014

The Drax Files Radio Hour Show 29 – Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before

Draxtor Despres is on holiday, a very busy holiday by the looks of it. However he’s been involved in a documentary for SPIEGEL TV regarding Second Life that will air later in the year, Madpea Games and Frau Yardley may be in it too.

As well as this, Draxtor has added show 30 of The Drax Files Radio Hour and a new Drax Files World Makers : Editorial Clarity. I’ll hopefully get to both of them during the next week! However I’m going to talk about last week’s Drax Files Radio Hour – Show 29 : terms, terms, terms AGAIN [rerun]. This is a repeat …. ok ok international audience, I’ll call it a bloody rerun, this is a rerun of part of show #13: terms, terms, terms…., it’s a very relevant part, it’s the interview with Richard A Goldberg who has a long history of experience when it comes to TOS for content creators. Richard is also a creator for Madpea games.

This is the show that Ebbe Altberg and the people drawing up Linden Lab’s controversial and still extremely disappointing TOS, should listen to, this way they may get a far better understanding of just why the TOS remains a major disappointment.

Richard starts off in positive fashion : “The old terms of service was a very reasonable document for content creators.” This is very true, the old terms of service gave Linden Lab the rights to run and promote the Second Life service and that was pretty much it. In all reality, that’s all they should really need.

Richard points out that the terms Linden Lab have unveiled are not unique to Linden Lab, he points out that these terms are more and more common and are beneficial to companies like Linden Lab. However they are not good for freelance creators. Richard does not believe that Linden Lab want to sell his content, and this is something I also agree with. I do not believe that Linden Lab want to sell anyone’s content. However, like Richard, I also agree that in the future if Linden Lab is sold, the new company may decide it’s a great opportunity to sell that content. This may be a far fetched scenario, but the new TOS allows for that scenario and that’s why some of us remain unhappy.

I still believe that part of the problem here is that Linden Lab want a one size fits all TOS and that by claiming as many rights as they can, it reduces the prospect of problems for Linden Lab. However this is a somewhat lazy approach and is unfriendly to content creators.

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August 1, 2014

Linden Lab Tax And Account Requirements Still Proving Taxing

An Image Should Be Here — Update tax Information

Back in November 2013 I blogged that Linden Lab should be asking new Marketplace merchants to fill in a W8-BEN or W9 form as part of the registration process. At that time Linden Lab had announced that new marketplace merchants would require a status of payment info on file.

My thinking behind this was based on the fact that this was a requirement to sell on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Therefore Linden Lab would be killing two birds with one stone, they would be gathering required information that may later be required for tax and account purposes and asking for information to try and discourage people from selling dodgy content on the marketplace.

I have been reminded of these issues this evening because security orb creator Psyke Phaeton has announced : HSOrb now Open Source. Psyke Phaeton acct terminated Aug 28th by LL. Psyke is not American and does not want to fill in the required documentation. The orb will now be open sourced and released with a Creative Commons 4.0 licence. The Orb is available now on the SL Marketplace.

Now of course, were new marketplace merchants required to fill in a W8-BEN, that would make no difference to Psyke’s position. However it may well have meant more people were familiar with the processes and more people were in a position to offer advice and assistance to those who are receiving these requests.

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July 31, 2014

Exploring Oculus Rift Locations In Second Life Without The Oculus Rift

The Weimar Reupblic may well be a place people would like to immerse themselves in virtual reality, but it’s not really the sort of place you’d expect to see new fangled gadgets such as the Oculus Rift being demonstrated. However that’s exactly what’s happening in a small corner of Jo Yardley’s 1920’s Berlin sim.

I stumbled across this and many other destinations because I was taking a look at the Exceptional with Oculus Rift section of The Second Life Destination Guide. However my exploration was somewhat nerfed due to the fact that I don’t own an Oculus Rift. However don’t let that put you off, it’s still interesting to explore these locations.

However the important aspect of visiting 1920’s Berlin is that it raises the scale issue, this is undoubtedly an issue for Oculus Rift usage and a handy notecard in the area makes this point :

Welcome to the Oculus Rift and Real Scale Test area.

In this little corner of Second Life you can explore a street, a bar and a house that have all been build to a real world scale. A lot of places in Second Life have been build to different ideas of scale, often just guesses or estimations based on how large some of the avatars are. By using a realistic scale, things feel more natural. We use the scale of the “prim”, the building blocks of Second Life, translating real world scale straight into Second Life Centimeters.

When using the Oculus Rift, realism and realistic scale becomes very important. You will be seeing Second Life trough the eyes of your avatar, while normally you would see the virtual world trough a camera view high above the head of your avatar. This makes visiting a lot of places in SL a strange experience as doors and ceilings appear to be made for giants.

This Test area allows you to see what the use of realistic scale looks and feels like without having to change your avatar or your avatar’s clothes so you can visit the actual 1920s Berlin sim. If you would like to visit an entire city build to this scale and with immersion as one of its main goals, please change into some of the (free) 1920s clothes and get on the train behind the little station.

The scale issue is something I’ve seen raised plenty of times and is one of the main reasons that people feel that worlds and games should be built from the ground up with Oculus Rift usage in mind, rather than trying to retro fit Oculus Rift usage. However the dynamic nature of Second Life does allow people to build with Oculus Rift in mind, but it will also mean many parts of Second Life not being optimised, which may make for a frustrating experience.

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July 30, 2014

Staff And Students Leave Positive Feedback Regarding The MA Education in Virtual Worlds

Staff and students have both left glowing testimonials regarding the University Of The West Of England’s MA Education in Virtual Worlds postgraduate course, which is taught entirely within Second Life. The course is produced via the Education Innovation Centre.

Liz Falconer, Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning at the UWE gave a little bit more background information regarding the University, explaining that the University has had its own charter since 1992 and covers a wide range of subjects. The University is also home to the world renowned Bristol Robotics Lab. The professor also elaborated a little more about the University’s use of virtual worlds, stating :

We use virtual environments to ready our students for practice in the real world, from law to forensics.

Senior Lecturer in Virtual Worlds, Dr Mari Carmen Gil Ortega said :

The quality of the students in the MA Education in Virtual Worlds, run by the University of the West of England, is unquestionable. I am impressed by the creativity of their work, their analytical skills and their insight and intuition. This shows in their work and assessments results which are outstanding. They also form a real community of practice and have lots of amazing skills to share with the real and the virtual world population. I consider myself privileged and fortunate to work with these talented people and observe their progress as they move through the programme.

I’ll have more from Dr Mari Carmen Gil Ortega later in this post, including a YouTube interview she recently gave. However the positive feedback came not just from staff members, students also joined in :

I am a PhD student having just completed 4 modules in this MA Programme as part of my degree requirements. My research is based on using the virtual world to enhance the learning of Computer Science at the HE level…….

I was privileged to have the opportunity to benefit from the wide range of skills, support and dedication of the academic staff on this programme, who built and advanced my expertise in employing this emerging technology in Higher Education, and well-prepared me to successfully achieve my PhD. – Beslam

Another student on the course to leave positive feedback was Aaron Griffiths. Aaron is Lecturer: Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology – Multiuser Virtual Environments and is also Director of the very interesting F/Xual Education Services. Aaron said of the course :

Its relevancy for educational practice goes far beyond virtual environments but obviously, given its focus, it does apply much of its theoretical knowledge towards the development of best practice in virtual worlds.

Aaron also explained that he has first hand knowledge of the course, having already completed the eight compulsory modules he is now into the final extended project.

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