Mm20051206

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

A Second Life Publication

Free

Winter Festival coming to SL

Inside

By KATIER REITVELD Staff writer

katier.reitveld @metaversemessenger.com

Sim of the Week Page 9

FYI Jeska Linden announced in a recent forum post that LL “is putting the finishing touches on the permanent build on Help Island and will be 'under construction' for the next few days. This means that the build currently on Help Island will be returned and the new build will be up soon.” She added that LL will be implementing the new and improved Greeter program in-world.

She also said that LL is behind on Volunteer applications at the moment, given the recent increase in interest in volunteering.

Index Perspectives . . . . . Page 3 The Line . . .. . . . . . Page 4 Comics .. . . . . . . . . Page7 Entertainment. . . . . Page 7 Resident/Week . . . . Page 7

Web Poll

A group of avatars, including Don Linden [seated, front center] socialize aboard a floating dock in the newly opened SL 1.8 preview grid. - Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

Version 1.8 now in testing

By PHOENIX PSALTERY Staff writer To the surprise of nearly everyone in Second Life, Linden Labs unveiled a preview version of SL 1.8 late on the evening of Dec. 2. Many avatars were soon gathered, excitedly discussing the new version and its promised updates.

Chief in the list of new features in 1.8 is the advent of point-to-point teleporting, or P2PT. This longrequested feature allows an avatar to teleport directly to any spot on the map that they are permitted to access. In addition, teleporting now recognizes the Z coordinate as well, allowing teleporting to locations in the sky, for example.

The actual location that a teleport will land is determined by the landing point set by the parcel owner. If none has been specified, the TP will be delivered as close to the location specified on the map as possible.

Estate owners may choose whether to allow teleport via P2P or via the old telehub system.

During the time spent in the preview grid during the first few hours that it was open, most of the avatars interviewed reported good results with P2PT. The other significant update in 1.8 is the implementation of an optional ripple effect for water which can be activated in the Graphics preference window.

Ripple water uses the graphics card’s pixel shading function to create more realistic looking water; however, the function is only available on computers with video cards that support pixel shading. It is reported that enabling this feature will cause FPS to drop somewhat, so it is not the default setting.

A number of LSL scripting changes are also being implemented. More information is available at http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=7506 8.

Don Linden, who was present at the impromptu avatar gathering, said that he has high hopes for many other new features to be implemented in later versions of 1.8, including llTeleportAgent, which would allow a function similar to today’s teleport devices, but without the limits of being restricted to a 300m distance and teleporting only within the same sim.

According to Nathan Stewart, who has been helping test the preview grids for some time, “It will work exactly as a [present day TP device], i.e. click an object, accept permission and go,” adding that “In theory you could have it detect you via collision,” so that you could have pad that detects when an avatar walks onto it or lands on it, which then automatically asks permission to teleport.

No projected date has been given for when LL expects version 1.8 to go live.

Christmas time is drawing near, and as part of this year’s festivities, Jeska Linden announced a Linden Labs supported event on Dec. 3.

The second annual Winter Festival has two special ways for residents to become part of the festivities, which are to be held from Dec. 14 to 21. When asked about these dates, Jeska Linden added, “The Winter Expo will remain up until the first week of January, but I wanted the Festival itself to be chock full of events instead of spaced out over several weeks.”

The first of these ways is the Winter Expo. This is a winter themed version of Burning Life.

Burning Life, was a large exhibition based on the principle of the first world Burning Man event. A number, roughly 50-60, of residents and resident groups, created themed creations on small plots of lands in a sim set aside for the purpose.

The Winter expo is reserved for those who want to build snow and ice sculptures and other winter holiday tradition creations. Linden added that “This winter version of Burning Life (Burning Snow?) will rise up near the Ski Chalet at Wengren 20, 200. We will try to accommodate all requests in a limited space so the size of plots and number of prims will be relative small.”

Linden said, “If you would like to participate in this event, simply post to [the announcement thread on the official Linden Labs forums] by Wednesday, December 7th, at 2 pm SLT.” Linden said that the bids will be chosen via blind lottery and that Nova Linden would be handling the lots. As such Jeska Linden asked that people speak to Nova Linden regarding any queries.

See FESTIVAL, Page 8

Go to our website at www.metaversemessenger.com

to participate in our online poll.

Meeting on hubs held

By KATT KONGO This week’s question: Staff writer "The SL Forums recent katt.kongo ly made the Classified @metaversemessenger.com Forum post-only. What A meeting to discuss possible uses is your opinion of this?" for telehubs was held Dec. 1 at the Look for the results from corner of Borrowdale, Pooley, last week’s poll on Seascale and Brampton. Approximately 50 residents attended the Page 3.

About Us Volume 1, No.17 Second Life The Metaverse Messenger Sido (169, 195) Rose from Ash Publishing

meeting, which lasted slightly over two hours.

Prior to opening the floor for residents’ comments, Robin Linden told those present that point to point (p2p) teleporting will be implemented within the next two weeks.

She said that while LL believes p2p teleporting to be the best move for Second Life, they also realized that telehubs have been “one of the most important organizing structures in SL.” Linden asked residents to focus on ideas for the telehubs land instead of debating P2P teleporting. “I do want to talk about how we can repurpose the telehub land so that it continues to be land that helps to organize zoning,” she said.

Each telehub location will be initially converted into a public space with information kiosks, she said, with places for residents to post ads and messages, an InfoNet terminal and free content. She added that former telehub spaces will still show up on the map, with an “I” icon for “information.”

Linden asked those in attendance if they thought groups in each telehub region would be interested in designing the public space near them, but the majority of those at the meeting seemed doubtful that members of the telehub group would participate fully and cooperate. Instead, most of those present agreed that a better solution would be to award the design of the new spaces to resident groups who compete for the job.

The soapbox was then set up to facilitate the opportunity for residents to speak. Though residents kept their comments brief, this portion of the meeting lasted over an hour.

In a Dec. 5 forum post, Linden listed a few of the ideas presented by

See HUBS, Page 8

RESIDENTS GATHERED AT the corner of Borrowdale, Pooley, Seascale and Brampton on Dec. 1 to discuss the future of telehub locations once version 1.8 arrives with point to point teleporting. The new feature will render telehubs useless, and many residents are concerned about the commercial properties they own near such hubs. - Photo by KATT KONGO.

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Perspectives Page 3

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December 6, 2005

A Bird’s Eye View Observations on Second Life and its denizens

By Phoenix Psaltery

A Christmas List He’s making a list, checking it twice asking is for you to examine your Gonna find out who’s naughty or heart and your motivation, and see what would fulfill you in SL. nice…

My personal desire, for example, Second Lifers, I have a question is to see everybody in Second Life for you. Christmas, Chanukah and get along as friends and associates.

Kwanzaa are coming up… so what is You see, the “Golden Rule,” contrary it that you want from your Second to popular belief, is NOT “He who Life? It seems to me as though most has the gold makes the rules.” of the population of SL is polarized The idea of treating others as you in one of two directions: towards would like to be treated is not unique having a ton of fun in SL (and noth- to the teachings of Jesus — it ing else — let’s call it the “it’s just a appears in the teachings of many difgame” mentality), or being a huge ferent faiths and philosophies. So financial success (the “SL is a busi- why is it so hard to implement this ness platform” point of view). concept in Second Life?

These two points of view are epitEven those of us who seem to omized by the archetypical SL busi- spend more time in Second Life than nessperson, who I will call Botif in First Life can’t seem to get along Divoh*, who by some combination — at least not according to the way of talent, luck, and skill has built most threads on the SL forums seem their SL business into a huge suc- to degenerate into name-calling, cess, and the joker from a griefer until they end with the dreaded mesgroup, who I will call Griefman666 sage that the thread has been closed.

Arsehat, who thinks it’d be great fun Think of it this way: in SL, we to see if he can create a scripted have the rather unique opportunity to object that will enable him to bring live in a society that we can actually down the Second Life grid single- build ourselves, without undue influhandedly. These are two extremes, ence from outside forces or governobviously, and most residents of SL ment regulation. fall somewhere in between (thankAnd yet many of us still are fully!). unhappy with the way things are in And yet, when I ask you what you Second Life. Oh, I know, things want from your Second Life, I’m not aren’t perfect. Even after several really asking you for something that updates, there are still long rez times, involves financial or social eleva- and interminable lag, and things just tion, or an achievement of some sort, aren’t perfect… but, as I have said whether it’s in regards to power or position or money or fame. What I’m See BIRD’S EYE, Page 17

The Metaverse Messenger Sido (169, 195) E-mail: mm@metaversemessenger.com Website: www.metaversemessenger.com Publisher: Katt Kongo News editor: Katier Associate Publisher: Reitveld Phoenix Psaltery Staff Writers: Composition: Katt Kongo Katier Reitveld Sarg Bjornson Phoenix Psaltery Account Executives: Gabe Lippmann Phoenix Psaltery Angelo Walcott Office Manager: George Norinn Richard Backbite Fleep Tuque Distribution: Lola Rosebud Garret Bakalava The Metaverse Messenger is published once each week on Tuesday for $L0 per year in Second Life. Subscribers send notecard or instant message to publishers. Any erroneous reflection upon the character, standing or reputation of any person, firm or corporation, which may occur in the columns of The Metaverse Messenger, will be gladly corrected upon being brought to the attention of the publisher(s). The publisher is not responsible for copy ommissions or typographical errors which may occur other than to correct them in the nearest issue after it is brought to the publisher’s attention and in no case does the publisher hold him/herself liable for damages further than the amount received by him for actual space covering the error.

Copyright © 2005.The entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by The Metaverse Messenger and the Rose from Ash Publishing Company. No material may be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the publisher

Katt’s Meow

By Katt Kongo

There is so much debate about point to point teleporting on the forums. I happen to think that point to point teleporting is a bonus. Every other MMORPG I have been a part of has had this feature.

I’ve heard all of the arguments. I think the one that frustrates me the most is that those who have bought land near the telehubs will suffer.

Land purchases, whether in reality or a virtual world, are always a risky proposition.

A city near my real world location is building a loop around the city. When the city first announced the tentative layout of this loop, several people bought property in that area. Later, the city, on advice of engineers, changed the plan for the loop.

The people who had rushed to buy the property they thought would be in a valuable location were then holding land that proved to be very difficult to unload.

Real estate is all about location, location, location... but what is popular and in demand is so very fickle.

The phrase that really irritates me is “Linden Lab should make

point to point teleporting work like [insert suggestion here].” It annoys me because these people can’t seem to understand that point to point teleporting, and all the details of the feature, is a done deal. Linden Lab is not asking for the residents’ input.

At the recent meeting on the morphing of telehubs spaces, residents kept debating whether or nor p2p teleporting was a good idea and how it should work, even though Robin Linden stated several times, “We are not here to debate p2p teleporting.”

The company is, however, asking for resident input on what to do with the spaces formerly known as telehubs. Whether you choose to call Second Life a game, platform or Metaverse, I know of none other that asks for residents’ thoughts and then actually listens.

LL is also listening to those who complain that p2p teleporting will reduce traffic flow in former hub areas and are looking for ways to continue to draw people to those areas.

Complaints abound about this and that, but when an opportunity arises, no one seems to step up and

grab it (that I have seen anyway).

This is in great contrast to the “see a niche, fill it” mentality that makes Second Life so inspiring.

Instead of focusing on what point to point teleporting should or shouldn’t be, residents should move on, and focus on making the former telehubs a vital part of Second Life.

Residents have shown real creativity in discussing how p2p teleporting should work and what will happen as a result of the feature (as an example, see this forum thread: http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.ph p?t=75235).

If this same creativity were applied to revamping the telehub areas, perhaps no losses would be felt by the residents who own land near telehubs.

I haven’t been a resident of Second Life for very long, but I imagine that previous introductions of new features resulted in some ground breaking content. The content creators took what others viewed in a negative way and created a positive outcome. In so doing, they have ensured a place for themselves in the Metaverse — and made lemonade out of lemons.

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Last night I got a real shock. Out of the blue, I got an IM from someone I didn’t know. Apparently they had read one of my Sim Of The Week pieces and wanted to tell me how much they liked it. I was really surprised. This was the first proof I had that anyone other then my editors and my wife were reading my work.

As we chatted, my first fan stated that she did have one piece of constructive criticism. She didn’t think that randomly picking sims for the article was a good idea. “What are you going to do when you draw a boring place? You almost had that problem this week. The column was good, but there wasn’t really anything there interesting enough for me to want to go see,” she said.

My first reaction to this was that the column wasn’t so good after all.

True, that week’s column had been about a residential sim, so there wasn’t any shopping or clubs to attract visitors. But there were some really nice homes there. One of them was the best private residence I had seen.

It could easily have been a tourist attraction or club in its own right!

However, she did have a valid point. Sooner or later, I was going to draw out a sim that had nothing or next to nothing in it. Perhaps I would draw a sim that had just been established, and didn’t have any res-

idents yet, or I might draw one of the ‘test’ sims or ‘sandbox’ sims, or what is, in my mind, the worst case scenario, a sim that was totally in the hands of land barons. A field of For Sale signs doesn’t make for a very interesting read.

I don’t plan to change how I choose the Sim Of The Week because of this, though. I like to plan ahead, so I’ve got an idea for what to do in each of those cases. If I draw a new sim, I’ll do a piece on all the potential it has. In the case of a sandbox, I’ll chat with the folks working there and write about the projects they are undertaking. When one of the test sims comes up, I’ll bug the Lindens to give me a scoop on what is being tested there.

You see, one of the points I hope to make with Sim Of The Week is that there are no boring sims. Every sim is an interesting place, you just have to take to time to look and see what it is that’s interesting about it.

That’s one of the advantages that SL has over RL. Everywhere is neat.

But is there really a difference there? I got to thinking about the most boring place on Earth that I knew, the small rural town I grew up in. Luke Skywalker described his home with the following statement: “If there is a bright center to the universe, you are at the point farthest

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The Metaverse Messenger

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Entertainment Page 7

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December 6, 2005

Resident of the Week FlipperPA Peregrine Name: FlipperPA Peregrine Occupation in SL: Owner of SLBoutique.com and Indigo, and Social Whore/Geek Date You Joined SL: November 14th, 2003

Geez, to narrow it down to one? If I could show you the list of requested features I’ve made to various Lindens over the years, it would be akin to reading War and Peace. If it were just one, my request-du-jour is for much better privacy controls, more like an Instant Messaging program.

Do you have an SL partner? If so, tell us a little about him/her.

I don’t have an SL partner, although Jennyfur Peregrine is my wife. She’s my best friend and one of the nicest, funniest people I’ve ever met, with What is your favorite thing about being a resident of SL? My favorite thing would be the friendships you can make. I can’t quite put an incredibly creative mind. We didn’t partner in SL because it seems most my finger on it, but the fabric of SL is unlike any other long distance com- SL partnerships last just a few days or weeks! munication medium I’ve ever seen. It creates extremely strong emotions and bonds, and that is the greatest part of its magical pull.

What do you hope to see in future SL upgrades?

I’m really excited to see the new rendering engine, but for now really just What is the one thing in your inventory that you would be the most devas- want a higher level of stability and “flow.” Things like crossing borders and exploring are currently a far too jarring experience. tated to lose?

That would have to be my skin. It was created by Munchflower Zaius, who has become a great friend of Jennyfur and mine; she even came to our real Who is your favorite person (non-partner) in SL, and why? life wedding! She custom designed it for me with the same kind of make- Everyone who’s ever been in Indigo Crew has really been a wonderfully up I wore during my glory days as a goth-boi guitarist in college in real close friend at some point, and I love them all for their various personalilife. It also has a dolphin tattoo on the shoulder, and let’s just say the blinds ty quirks. match the curtains when it comes to my avatar’s hair!

Do you have a favorite Linden? If so, who, and why?

I have several, but the most important thing? I’ve never met a Linden I What is your favorite location in SL? Indigo is as much home to me as ANY place in real life. It’s a great place didn’t like, and have always seen them being incredibly friendly, fun, and to have a scotch. most of the time, wonderfully goofy!

What would you like the outside world to know about SL? Pie or cheese, and why?

SL’s strength is its citizens. Getting the individual stories out is the mes- Cheese! Without cheese, there is no pizza, and without pizza, I might sage that should be sent, in my opinion. never have learned to code. I actually have written code for pizza in the past... although cheesecake is another personal favorite of mine!

What one thing about SL would you change, if you could?

Rules of event posting change

By KATIER REITVELD Staff writer

katier.reitveld @metaversemessenger.com New and updated event posting rules were announced by Jesse Linden on Nov. 30 which immediately raised questions from some residents. These new rules begin by outlining who is permitted to post events and how many events can be posted.

Linden announced, “You may currently post up to five events per day, including event edits. In addition, your friends will now be able to post events on a parcel that you own.

However, you must set that parcel to show up in Find Places as a Meeting Place.

If your parcel is not set up as a Meeting Place, the parcel will not be available to your friends, but will continue to be subject to other availability rules.” He added that the use of alts to bypass the five event limit was strictly prohibited.

Linden clarified this by explaining that residents are permitted to post an event if they personally own the land parcel, if the parcel is owned by a group of which the poster is a member, or if it is a private island to which the poster is permitted access.

He concluded by saying that parcels owned by Governor Linden may also be used as long as they are listed in Find Places as a meeting place. In addition, the land parcel must be 512 sq. m. or more in size to be used as a meeting place.

An event, Linden said, is defined as “a special group activity that is led by a host, on land owned either by the host or by a group the host belongs to.

Examples include discussions, group meetings, hosted dances, classes, tours, and competitions. An event is framed by a beginning and an end time. Thus ‘24 hour sales’ and ‘Non-Stop Casinos’ are not events.”

Linden said that the new rules are being implemented in order to avoid the Event List being used to advertise permanent commercial enterprises such as stores.

However, Linden did say that if you are holding a grand opening event you may advertise it in the Events List, as long as it fulfills the other criteria and is set as “Commercial” under “Event Type.”

Descriptions of events must conform to PG standards, and mature events must be listed as Mature, and held in M-rated sims.

The final part of the announcement brought some inquiring

responses, when Linden said, “Respect the work of others — respect copyrights and trademarks!

Event hosts are responsible for making sure that all applicable rights and permissions are in order. See [the] Digital Millennium Copyright Act for more information about copyrights and Second Life.”

This last statement has many hosts concerned about implications concerning who is considered responsible for breaches of copyright.

Several posts on the official hotline forum and inquires directly to the Lindens have failed to clear this area up.

Robin Linden summed up her position by saying, “Not being an expert on copyright, I can’t answer this question with respect to how the DMCA filing might be evaluated.

You can get more information about what constitutes a copyright at www.copyright.gov.

“The permissions system was designed to create a record of who created an object or design and what their intention was for its reuse. It works largely because it’s associated directly with the object. It doesn’t seem likely that a notecard would serve the same purpose, but, again, you’d be best served to consult an expert.”

FUNDRAISING EFFORTS for Toys for Tots continue on the Awesometastic sim with a building contest featuring holiday and winter themes. Builders are competing to see whose build can raise the most $L. At the end of the event, the builder who has the most $L in their barrel will win a special prize. - Photo by KATT KONGO.

Advertising works!

December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 8

FESTIVAL The second way that Residents can participate is by Hosting Linden Approved events. Linden said that “We will have several Linden-sponsored events during the festival, but we want YOU to become involved,” adding, “Perhaps you’d like to have a best dressed Santa Costume Party, or maybe a Winter Holiday Themed Parade?”

Linden made it clear that whatever your winter traditions are, they would be taken into consideration.

Residents should submit event ideas directly to Jeska Linden. The best events will be listed alongside the “official” Linden Winter Festival Events and be part of this year’s

Winter Festival.

All events must be winter-themed, PG in nature and abide by the Community Standards. Events must occur during the Winter Festival (Dec. 14-21) and be available for all Residents to attend.

When asked about the possibilities of additional events on New Years’ Eve (Dec. 31) and Boxing Day (Dec. 26), which are traditional days for parties and events in parts of First Life, as official Linden supported events, Linden said, “If there are any residents who are interested in proposing events for those two days, I’d be open to adding them to the ‘official’ calendar.”

HUBS residents at the meeting. One such idea was that “having a regional or local flavor to the converted telehub regions may be too idealistic,” while another was to “give resident groups contracts to build out the new spaces.”

The forum post also listed residents’ suggestions on ways to continue to attract traffic to former hub areas.

Such ideas included allowing people to make it a homepoint, maintaining business and commercial support with directories and better advertising options, finding new ways to use the space and offering a new collection of free items, including collectibles.

Linden’s Dec. 5 post also announced what will happen to telehubs with the arrival of version 1.8,

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stating that “all the telehubs will be replaced by ‘Infohubs.’”

She said that initially all info hubs will have the same appearance and content, including a community bulletin board for local ads, job postings and messages, an InfoNet terminal with Linden news channel, information about land sales, all new free content, the ability to set events and home points and the hub’s location marked on map with a new Info icon.

Also with the arrival of version 1.8 and p2p teleporting, LL will request bids for the creation of five unique designs. The winning designs will be placed in mainland hub locations instead of the LL plazas.

A complete transcript of the Dec. 1 meeting is available at http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.ph p?t=73209&page=23&pp=15.

WIN L$1000 IN THE M2’S EAGLE EYE Photo ID Contest! If you think you know where this picture was taken, e-mail your answer to mm@metaversemessenger.com along with your avatar name. The deadline for this week’s contest is Dec. 12. Shockedfrog Shriner correctly identified last week's photo of the yellow brick road outside the Svelte buildings in Sido and won L$1000!

Sp e n d y o u r m o n e y w i s e l y Buy an ad in the Messenger today

December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 9

2ND Life Styles

AN A-FRAME HOUSE AND incomplete castle are currently the only structures on the sim Nerice. Leia Lulu was surprised to win the sim, with four others, in an auction and has decided to keep Nerice. - Photos by NORINN RICHARD.

Sim of the Week: Nerice a work in progress

By NORINN RICHARD Staff writer

norinn.richard @metaversemessenger.com All of us have had plans go astray. Every now and then, that turns out to be a good thing. That was the case for Leia Lulu and the Nerice sim.

Lulu was simply experimenting with the auction system when she placed a few bids. She was extremely shocked when she actually won many of them and found herself the proud owner of five new sims, Nerice among them.

When Lulu took a better look at what she had bought, she began the process of selling most of them off. But when she came to Nerice, she was taken with it. “(It was) because of the landscape.

I love the water,” she says. So while she has sold or will sell the other sims she won, Nerice will remain hers.

I’ve got to say that I have to agree with Lulu’s opinion. Nerice is a beautiful place. A lake dominates the area. Hills rise unevenly from the lake on all sides, and any of them provide you with an excellent view of the lake below. Thus far, Lulu has avoided altering the land in any major way. Though Nerice has no residents yet, it is not empty. Lulu invited her friend Shyblueguy Geer to practice his building skills in the sim while she formulates her long term plans.

Thus far he has primarily built a system of walkways around part of the lake, with Windsong Charming placing some fountains and gardens among the walk. Two major structures, an A-frame house and an incomplete castle, fill out the current contents of the sim. Both structures are very will made, a tribute to Geer’s skill as a builder.

Lulu still isn’t completely sure what she will do with the land long term, but she says she

knows that she would like to see it become a thriving community. “I don’t think I want it to be a ghost town for much longer. Not that I have anything against ghosts.”

So, dead or alive, you may want to give Lulu a call. She is currently seeking out renters to start this community, and says that she does not know what form it will take in the long term. It would be very interesting to return in three to six months and see what Lulu has managed to accomplish.

So now Nerice has been covered; next on our tour will be the private sim Rainbow Island. I have already been in contact with the island’s owner, and should be able to chat with him in detail soon. Cup-Of-Sims 2.0 has also been fired up, and this time it’s sending us to TeaZer Isle.

This is also a private sim, so if you live or work in either of these sims please IM me or e-mail norinn.richard@metaversemessenger.com.

Until next time, see you at the telehub!

By ANGELO WALCOTT Staff writer Melting Snowman Devlin Gallant shows off his very nice snowman avatar, hat, pipe and scarf included. “I feel lonely,” he explains, “in this Second Life I can’t find any snowwomen.” But being a snowman in here is such an experience! “Yes, absolutely, a chilling experience.”

He brings this avatar out every year, but never capitalized on it, as far as doing it for a living, showing off his presence in a garden or something: “[It] is more [for] hooking up [and] stuff, but I [would] probably have to pick up an icicle and two snowballs [to] really attract someone.” His plan for Christmas vacation is “to stand in there until I melt, I guess… global warming should accelerate the process.” Gift suggested: a walk-in refrigerator.

Christmas tree Tubby Trumbo wears a Christmas tree avatar with big cartoon eyes, blinking yellow lights and decorations, bought in a little shop called Pirate Kitties. “Everyone comes by and says something. It [creates] the whole Christmassy mood here.” He probably will spend Christmas vaca-

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December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 10

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Send your news, engagement and wedding announcements, and events to: mm@metaversemessenger.com

We’ll publish them free of charge.

2ND

SELENE DEFARGE, left, participates in a blood ritual ceremony with friends who also role play. - Photo by KATT KONGO

Meta-roleplaying in Second Life

By ANGELO WALCOTT Staff writer

angelo.walcott @metaversemessenger.com Everybody knows how funny and involving it can be playing a role.

Many people do not play it in real life, they play it here, in Second life.

So, it sounds confusing? It is: bringing an role play campaign into a virtual world is such a meta-metaverse projection of effective human being, one or two steps away from the regular theory-of-the-mind we usually refer to in our common thoughts.

But, in a certain way, it's exactly what's happening here and now.

"I have a role play going on with a real life friend in here, and we are around 50 maybe more in the game

we are running," said Selene DeFarge. "We play a Vampire Chronicle based on World Of Darkness. That’s what I use most my time for on here."

As she explains, the story of the role she's playing with friends is based on WOD, a campaign scenario of WhiteWolf RPG Vampires. In particular, it takes place after the Gehenna, the final WhiteWolf scenario of Vampires, or so the players are to believe.

All the elders of the vampiric clans, including the prince, are actually in torpor, so there is chaos while all vampires have to try work things out. The two traditional factions, the lawful Camarillics and the chaotic of the Sabbat, have to deal with the lack

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From Page 9

tion surrounded by gifts. “I have thought about making a few and placing them around me. I certainly wouldn’t mind it!” But does a Christmas tree wait for Santa, too?

“Since I’m a raccoon, I really hope he will bring me chocolate covered acorns.” Aside from posing in the yard, he plans to spend time at Blue Stone, enjoying the holidays with all his friends.

“Santa comes to everyone, even schizophrenic paranoid robots with delusions of piehood.”

A good gift for him? “Some land, I suppose. I’ve considered renting some to put up a Space Station for my Shuttle,” he explains. “Barring that, a properly working llRotLookAt could be fine, last time I tried mine it just affected the avatar instead of the attachment.”

Tailed Furs Llewelyn Mistral wears a winged fox fur and classy glasses. He likes to hang out and build stuff. “What I do mostly depends on if I have an idea I want to get done, or if I’m getting frustrated and need to take a break from the building.”

He is not much for dancing and clubbing, though he likes the conversations. The weirdest thing he ever did in SL? “Going to Rocky Horror would count, I guess.” Earlier today had a “chibifox” stampede with some friends, and several of them made helmets for a “Chibi Sentai Foxranger” team to go with the fur colors: red, yellow, blue, black, and pink.

His favorite SL locations are Lost Furest, Furnation, and Lost Lake. “I certainly seem to be lost a lot.” He doesn’t have anything in particular planned for Christmas right now, but even winged furries wait for Santa.

Lil Jerk Jemima Jurgens is titled ‘Lil Jerk,’ and it is on purpose. She wears a red mantle over a green dress, with red stockings and red high platform pumps. Her skin is white as snow, she has black hair, and a couple of fangs popping out of her mouth. “I look scary? Sure, [it] is done on purpose!” she explains, showing off her bloody knife.

“Why did I pay L$500 for a stupid elf avatar? So I can get this outfit, well actually just the jacket!” She mixed things up to match the scary movie child type, but this does not mean at all that men are instinctively repulsed.

“Actually I got five boyfriends,” she says, “I have a single time slot remaining for a sixth,” she points out, “between 11:30 AM and 1:30 PM.” Not so bad… two full hours.

“And I promise not to bury him in my backyard when I get tired.”

The Metaverse Messenger

December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 12

CORRECTION: The Nov. 29 Messenger included a story on the Iris sim that included information that indicated that the building which houses the EX{POSE}URE club was built by Ivie Bijoux. In fact, it is a prefab building that was created by Baron Grayson, currently available for purchase to the public at the RELIC store in Sanctum Sanctorum.

LINE from.” Well, I grew up one exit further down the road. The town itself had two stoplights, one grocery store, and no nightlife. The name of the town came from the carpetbagger that bought up all the local land. Its founding fathers were that desperate to find something to identify with.

And yet, just up the road from the town is the ruins of an old railroad bridge. In the closing days of the American Civil War, a pitched battle was fought there. The government of the Confederacy was fleeing the Union army that had just captured Richmond. They were heading west by train to the city of Danville, where they briefly reconvened to formally accept the surrender General Lee signed over in Appomattox. If that bridge had been taken, their escape route would have been cut off and history would have changed a bit. And just one town over in the county seat, there is a pretty extraordinary courthouse. If my memory serves me correctly, that is the only building still in public use which was designed by Thomas Jefferson.

I’m sure that anywhere you could think of as “dull” is just as interesting, if you really look hard enough.

Perhaps it’s something that isn’t extremely interesting to you personally. Were I not a history buff, those

From Page 4 two facts about my old home town wouldn’t mean much to me. Even Antarctica, the most desolate and inhospitable place on earth is interesting to someone. Scientists spend a fortune and risk their lives to visit Antarctica every year.

If you’re not convinced yet, here is one final fact that should do it.

You see, I stole the idea for Sim Of The Week. There is a radio show on National Public Radio called “Whad’ya Know?” Every week Michael Feldman, the host of the show, tosses a dart at a minced up map of the United States. The town that dart lands on gets featured in the next week’s show. They get a copy of the local paper and read through it on the air. They research its history to learn how it was founded and give a summary, and they call up a local resident to find out what the town is really like. To my knowledge, they haven’t hit a dull spot yet.

This is another example of how similar our two worlds are. No matter which world you’re in, no matter where in that world you’re standing at the moment, you are in an interesting place. You just need to take a moment to look around and find what about it is interesting to you.

Think about that the next time you are bored — on either side of The Line.

For information on buying a display ad, contact Phoenix Psaltery

December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 13

December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 14

December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 15

Money Chairs: Work for Newbies, or Zombie Creators?

By SARG BJORNSON Staff writer

sarg.bjornson @metaversemessenger.com In Second Life, Linden Lab rewards property owners who attract large masses of people to their territories. The total amount of people visiting a given place is measured by a concept called ‘traffic’(previously known as ‘dwell’), which is translated into Linden dollars and given to the place owners as an incentive. In addition, the places with the most traffic in Second Life are selected to appear in the ‘Popular Places’ list, within the Find screen.

A rather recent invention seems to be completely changing the paradigm of traffic and the logic behind the system. Up until now, places that wanted to get a lot of traffic had to create attractive enough environments to attract the interest of a large number of residents. Now, these residents are being paid in exchange for traffic.

As almost any resident who frequents the forums at least occasionally has heard, the invention is the money chair. Money chairs have a very simple function: when an avatar sits on a money chair, she is given a certain amount of money every few minutes. This amount is usually small, such as L$6 every 10 minutes.

Obviously, this money is taken from the chair owner’s account balance.

It could be said that people using money chairs (commonly known as ‘campers’) are getting free money just for sitting in a chair, while the owner of the chair gets traffic for his or her place in return. It must be said that this isn’t the first time this has happened. Both money balls and money trees have a similar effect.

The only difference with money chairs lies in the scale of the system being used.

The increasing use of money chairs has drawn a great deal of criticism. Many people think that money chairs increase lag due to the timer scripts that control the periodic giv-

RPG of authority and to work along to maintain values, morals and power "that leaves the story open to make a lot of conflicts as there is always some who strikes for power."

Each clan elder is also a gamemaster so its a big job making it work "I'm just all around making the game run and try to help all: me and Akasha DeFarge started this with Rain Williamson," said DeFarge.

ing away of money. Another concern is that people using money chairs commonly abuse the system, leaving their avatars online while they are not playing, either by using a continuous clicking program or other fraudulent means, and thus creating an effect that is detrimental to the social aspect of Second Life. Yet another downside of the new invention is the falsification of traffic measures, since a place listed on the Popular Places list no longer has to be a nice and attractive environment, but just a place that pays money chair users more money than others.

Jubilation Aridian, a new user who joined Second Life on Nov. 9, posted in the forums this negative comment regarding camping chairs: “I won’t be ‘farming’ money trees or camp chairs again. It’s boring. I didn’t learn anything new about how things work or where things are. And it became painfully obvious that falsely boosting the dwell for those places has created a BIG lie. People

See CHAIRS, Page 18

From Page 11

And now the kindred group is growing everyday. "There are new members every day but many miss the actual mission of a vampire rpg, so we have to give a lot of help in all of this," she said.

"Beside this, I try to have a normal SL, just hanging out with my wife and husband and kids and friends, keeping my Second Life and the RPG apart as Second Life and Real Life," she explains.

It seems that she has a well established Second Life, and the role play character she's playing is an expression of it.

It’s also, in a certain way, a Third Life, in the order that comes down from Real Life to Second Life, from Second Life to the RPG. But, what if that vampire role play character starts an AdD&D campaign? Stay tuned for the fourth level of metaplay (and counting).

Note to advertisers: Effective January 1, 2006, the advertising rates for display ads in the Metaverse Messenger will increase.

More information will be provided as it becomes available.

Business Page 16

The Metaverse Messenger Sido (169, 195)

Changes made to classified forums AN EDITORIAL

By GARRET BAKALAVA Staff writer I set out to write a simple news article about the recent change to the SL Classified Forum and the fact that many SL residents were less than happy with the changes, most notably that the classifieds were, as of Dec. 1, “post only” threads.

I did write such an article, a fairly simple piece that talked about the fact that many content creators like to receive feedback on products, and that many SLers like to give it.

However, things were not to be that simple, it seems, because just as I was finishing, a friend informed me that the whole issue had “exploded.”

Sure enough, while I was writing, a new “twist” arose. I tried adding in the new twist, but it was too darn twisty to write easily and the more I tried the more “twisted” my simple story became.

The more twisted the story became, the more “twisted” my mind became as well, and I decided that either I wasn’t going to be able to get any sleep, or I was going to turn in a story that I was dissatisfied with, if I turned it in at all. I didn’t like any of

those options. So even though no one asked me for my opinion, I decided to give it anyway.

There are several things that have become clear to me. First, Linden Lab intended to close the classified section of the forums for one reason — they hoped to obtain revenue from residents buying paid in-world classified ads at a rate of L$250 per two-week period. It seems to have had little to do with anything else.

Linden Lab is a business, and businesses exist to make money.

When LL announced that the classified forums were closing, they received a lot of negative feedback, and they soon relented and announced that the “New Products” section of the SL forum classifieds would stay open, but all others would close. That decision didn’t last long, either. A few days later, it was announced that all of the classified forums would remain, but that, with the exception of “Products Wanted,” all would be made postonly. Why? Negative feedback from community members.

It makes no sense to me to change the new product, new services, or any classified forum to “post only,”

See FORUMS, Page 18

December 6, 2005

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THE METAVERSE MESSENGER is seeking a motivated and responsible person to perform duties as an advertising executive.

The position requires excellent communication skills, willingness to work and available time to contact potential clients. Ad execs at M2 earn a commission of 20 percent on all ads they sell. IM Phoenix Psaltery or e-mail mm@metaversemessenger.com.

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and entertainment. This position requires reasonable writing skills, willingness to work and the desire to learn. Staff writers at M2 start off with a base pay of L$200 per article. After a one-month probation period of quality work, base pay goes up to L$350. IM Katt Kongo or e-mail mm@metaversemessenger.com.

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December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 17

BIRD’S EYE

TORLEY TORGESON kneels in prayer to Linden Lab CEO and SL Founder Philip Linden. - Photo courtesy of TORELY TORGESON.

All Hail Queen Watermelon

By PHOENIX PSALTERY Staff Writer Torley Torgeson is one of the most colorful (literally AND figuratively) residents of Second Life. Her wit, her insight, and her love for all things watermelon are widely known. I had a chance to sit down with Torgeson for a one-on-one chat recently, and try to learn a little more about her.

She isn’t a longtime resident of SL, compared to some. She was just one year old in mid-September, and yet many in SL look up to Torley Torgeson as a mentor, a forward thinker, and a shining example of what Second Life is all about. “I may not be the oldest Resi, but I feel like I’m getting up there, at least insofar as the experiential angle goes,” laughs Torgeson.

There are very few residents that seem to embody the whole “SL-ISmy-life” thing any better than Torgeson. When asked how it made

her feel to know that so many hold her in high esteem, she replied, “As James Brown at his funkiest said and I can’t put it better - I feel gooooood! It’s difficult to describe.

The way I envision it, if I didn’t do this, nobody else would - it’s life to me, to be, to be me.”

In other words, Torley is Torley, and “there ain’t nobody else can be” Torley. She smiles and replies, “Sometimes the way I view myself is I’m like one of those funny shapes that only fits in a really odd compartment, and I’ve been looking all of my existence for which ‘lock’ I’m the ‘key’ to.”

Torgeson is very open about the fact that she is affected by Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. In many cases, persons with Asperger’s find themselves inclined to withdraw from society, sometimes to the point of being non-verbal. This clearly isn’t the case with Torgeson, whose wit and amazing communica-

See TORLEY, Page 18

time and time again, things are getting better. Really they are.

“Oh my gawd, there he goes again,” I hear you say, “sticking up for Linden Labs.” Hell, yes, I am.

And no, I’m not on the LL payroll — I could only wish!

All I’m saying is that there are growing pains with any great enterprise. Neither Rome, nor Apple, nor Microsoft, were built in a day, and neither shall Second Life be.

If you want a pre-packaged, static, hack-em, slash-em, boxed game that runs smoothly all the time, go buy Call Of Duty, Quake IV, or Everquest 2 at Best Buy. I’m sticking with Second Life, where I am free to be me, and to conceive my own future, not be forced to choose from a cookie-cutter character.

You see, I don’t WANT to be a 17th level Paladin in WoW, or an engineer in Wolfenstein:ET, or a ranger in Ultima Online.

Those are fine for those who want to be those things — nothing at all wrong with those games, for those who prefer them — but in my Second Life, I want to be who I really am in my real life — a creator, an innovator, and someone who uses his mind to find new ways to do things, and chart unknown territory, albeit younger, slimmer, and definitely better looking.

Only in Second Life can I have so many areas of interest and growing expertise. Could I release an mp3 file to Internet radio and hear it broadcast in WoW? Well, maybe I could, but it would be a little incongruous.

But in SL, I have had the experience of being in a club and, without warn-

From Page 3

ing, hearing my song come on the radio, which was quite an interesting experience.

Only in Second Life could I be flying along and happen to see another avatar pass by, wearing a garment that I had designed.

Only in Second Life can I continually get positive comments about how much people enjoy the M2. (For what it’s worth, people, my beautiful, brainy Katt is the real genius behind this paper. But we both appreciate the kind words.)

Only in Second Life can I participate in helping to create a world that has such a future as this one does.

Why do you think that other game software companies release sequels?

Doom II, 3, Quake II, III, IV, Everquest II, Battlefield 2, Call Of Duty 2, Civilization IV… the list goes on and on.

The constant need to reinvent the same game is proof that eventually, any “game” dead ends and becomes stale.

But Second Life is always reinventing itself, because we are constantly creating its “sequel,” as I have said before, by our constant innovation and re-creation of new things within SL, yet another indicator that SL really is not a game at all.

So what do you want from your Second Life? OK, I hear some of you clamoring for Havok2, but that’ll have to wait a bit longer. Santa Linden says we can have P2P teleporting soon, though.

In the spirit of the season, I wish you peace on Lindenworld, and good will among avies. *A clue: HAL = IBM

We are hiring!

December 6, 2005 The Metaverse Messenger Page 18

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CHAIRS looking for a truly popular place are being misled. And it wastes your time.”

Yet other groups of people feel that even though the social, traffic and bandwidth impact of money chair camps is not great enough to cause panic, there should be some sort of alternative to the huge expanses of seated “zombies” now present in many clubs, malls and other places around Second Life.

Aki Montale, another new user that joined SL on Oct. 21, gave a few ideas to improve this situation: “Although the money chair thing is a

bit of a disturbing concept, owners could make the chairs more interesting and funny by changing them to, say, exercise bikes where avatars would cycle endlessly, or make the avatars transform to statues of different poses. Alternatively one could make the chairs a la [the] Matrix, meaning that the avatars’ spine would be connected to some kind of monstrous machine that would appear to suck their bio-energy or whatever. Something along these lines might actually attract more workers and tourists too...”

Missy Martin, one of the man-

FORUMS or to do away with them on the SL forums.

There were very few threads that received a lot of replies, certainly not enough to be able to say that replies were taking up too much room on the server. In fact, SL forum moderator Jeska Linden even posted that replies to individual classifieds could be posted on a corresponding thread in other forum sections. That’s just plain inconvenient.

Furthermore, there is a whole section of the SL Forums devoted to offtopic posts that have little or nothing to do with SL. That certainly takes up space. (Before anyone bites my head off, I see no reason for that section to close either. I encourage the fair exchange of ideas — any ideas.)

LL encourages content creation, and we all know that most of that content is going to be put up for sale.

Without new content, SL would become stagnant, and that, even more than lag, is what will cause people to leave SL. Without classifieds, especially the New Products classifieds, how are we as residents ever going to know what new products are out there?

Is a content creator really going to pay L$250 a shot to advertise each and every new product for a two week period? Is there ever going to be a searchable archive of new product ads? Are we going to fly sim to sim every day searching for new items? The answer to all these questions is no. Everyone, including LL, benefits from having new products listed on the SL forums.

Do we as a community want to see new businesses succeed? Of course we do. If we want to see growth, then we should all want to see anything that’s new. Everyone, including LL,

From Page 18 agers of the Blarney Stone Irish Pub in Agriopis, is one of the many people who either actively support the money chairs or simply think that they are another innocuous item that won’t damage either socializing or the bandwidth. “They pay us with their own money. If they want our people there, it’s their own choice. I see it as if we were renting our avatars... for traffic,” said Missy.

“Also, the Lindens I asked, Pathfinder and Harry, said it’s good for active players. They said there was nothing wrong with me sitting there. I asked about it before.”

From Page 16

benefits from “new stuff” in SL. Changing the forums to post-only has only created more problems.

First, since content creators who regularly post new products like the idea of being able to receive feedback, people were encouraged to begin using the rating system that had always existed as a way to deliver feedback The rating system merely allows readers to rate the thread with a simple five-star rating, from one star — “terrible” — through five — “excellent.”

As soon as that began to happen, people began to get their feelings hurt if they seemed to be getting lower ratings than others. It might seem childish, but human emotions are seldom rational. Then the accusations began to fly: people were only rating their friends. People were trying to “kiss-up” to well known people (I’m not sure how that would work, since the “ratings” are anonymous). People were purposefully giving low ratings to others to make themselves look better.

The fact is that it’s the ratings themselves that are the problem. We have no way of knowing what anyone meant by a rating. Maybe they liked the design but didn’t like the price? Maybe to them, a three star rating is good! Who knows? The problem is, no one knows.

Furthermore, we don’t even know how many “votes” a thread has received, from what I can tell. So is the “three star rating” one person’s opinion, or is it the average of ten people’s opinion of something? It’s a mess. So as with any mess, wellmeaning posters who want to keep the new products classifieds open, decided to try to fix the mess by tak-

ing a poll asking for opinions on how to fix the mess.

Somewhere along the line, many people came to the conclusion that the “post only” option was enabled to prevent the “bumping” of posts so that some people’s posts got to stay on top longer.

However, when I go to the forums, all threads with posts I have not read show up as bold, and as a person inclined to visit all the new products threads, I go through them all until I get to ones that aren’t bold.

Easy enough.

Am I influenced by stars or what name made a comment on a thread?

No. Are some people? I suppose. But the fact remains simple: if we are going to have forums, then all forums should allow dialogue. That’s what a forum is: dialogue. Do not silence people from expressing their opinions or their likes and dislikes!

Very few people posted a dislike. If people want to post, WOOT! to dozens of posts, what’s the problem with cheering?

Further, most of the posts and comments to “New Products” were and are made by women. Is there a further reason to silence women? On top of that, many of the posters to New Products are people who don’t regularly post in the other sections.

Are these people who we don’t welcome on the SL community forums?

LL: it wasn’t broke, so please don’t fix it.

I realize, LL, that you would like to make money from your in-world classifieds. I don’t have the answer to that. I have a few suggestions, but that would take a whole other opinion piece, and I am out of time, tired and over my word-count. Another time, maybe.

TORLEY tion skills are nearly legendary.

It’s interesting to note that there has been research by some physicians concerning the possible use of Second Life as a tool for assisting those with Asperger’s in developing a level of social interaction that they have been unable to develop in their real lives because of their condition.

Torgeson acknowledges, “It often surprises people that I can be talkative, but even nowadays, I have spans of silence. Just not as often as before,” she smiles. “I know what the pain of isolation and being alone is like... I’m not going back there.”

On a personal level, she says, there was a lot of baggage in her life that had to be dealt with, ranging from issues that had to do with her Asperger’s condition to the death of her father a few years ago. But, she says, “Second Life has been fundamentally healing to me.”

“What really continues to excite and frustrate me is that an online society is only as good as the people involved,” she continues. “You can have the most beautiful orchestral arrangement ever, set up on a world class stage, but unless you’ve got a coordinated team of virtuosic performers and a conductor to lead them harmoniously through the dark nights, they might as well be using cellos as firewood and bashing each others’ skulls in with the bows.”

Working together to build a better SL, Torgeson says, is something that needs to be a concerted, combined effort on the part of every SLer. “Accumulate knowledge through [the] flow, and attain power that flows from you to others, so they

From Page 17

may benefit too… Then, you can be aiming for big issues to solve, like a movie monster demolishes buildings… Recognizing all this is crucial to coming together and using Second Life as a healing tool!”

“This is why I love avatars in SL,” Torgeson continues, “we can get personal. We aren’t freakin’ disembodied voices. So what’s next? What about sharing emotions more freely, like freebies? It ain’t so sci-fi, we’ve already got biometric feedback.” She cites the misinterpretation of a post’s tone on the SL forums as a frequent issue. “If more avs could go inworld and channel what a crappy day they just had and why they’re on SL to have fun, it would certainly go towards increasing understanding of each other, towards a greater global consciousness!”

When asked how SLers can learn to coexist more harmoniously, Torgeson responds, “In the spirit of my timetravelling heroes Bill and Ted, I’d like to encourage my fellow Residents of Second Life to be most excellent to each other and to party on. Never forget our ancestors, polygonal snakes and primitars they be! I encourage more generational bridging, and am joyous when new and old Resis get together to learn from each other. Especially when it comes to dealing with forthcoming versions of SL... hehehe, you know how the reactions to THAT go!

We’re ultimately better united than divided.”

The full text of the M2 interview with Torley Torgeson is available at the paper’s website, www.metaversemessenger.com.

The Metaverse Messenger A real newspaper for a virtual world