News

Compiled by KATT KONGO

The end of the year provides a unique perspective for most people, in that we look back at the year we just finished while celebrating the dawn of a new one. And since the Metaverse Messenger is no different, here is the annual review of the closing year.

The year in M2 news started with an article on avatar transparency, by Drake Bacon, who wrote, "Non-human avatars will have a better alternative to their looks come later this year, according to Linden Labs employee Nyx Linden on a post to the Second Life JIRA page covering avatar transparency.

"Nyx Linden has taken control of JIRA issue VWR-812, and produced screen shots of two different types of transparency: A full body invisibility with a major caveat, and a partial masking out of avatar limbs with limitations. Both, however, do not require the use of invisiprims."

He also wrote, "Those wanting full body invisibility will be able to implement thin or skeletal avatars, but at the cost of having their name tag forced on to discourage griefers, a limitation talked about before the announcement."

That same issue announced the retirement of Phoenix Psaltery from the newspaper. His departure was due to health issues; in August 2008, Psaltery was hospitalized for six weeks due to acute kidney failure. Since he then had to start dialysis treatments three times a week, he had little time for the paper.

Also making headlines was the controversy over the location choice of the 2009 Second Life Community Convention. Organizers picked San Francisco, CA., as the location, with the Marriot San Francisco (MSF) as the venue. While many were displeased that the convention would not be held in Las Vegas, many more were upset about holding the event at the MSF, a facility which supported Proposition 8.

Resident Stroker Serpentine decided against holding a ball at the SLCC, citing expense as a primary factor. However, he did add, ""I am sure the Marriott is a beautiful hotel with fine amenities. I doubt very seriously they would be receptive to 'Strokerz Ball,' however."

He also added, "I cannot help but feel that the 'Community' has somehow been removed from 'Second Life Community Convention' and replaced with 'Corporate,' however."

In March of 2009, Teddi Shamrock wrote an article about the popular game of Bloodlines (a game still just as popular as it was almost a year ago). Liquid Designs, in agreement with Linden Lab, operates this interactive addition to Second Life where participants become vampires.

Like the mythic vampires of First Life, they hunt for blood. But here, they also hunt for souls to build their "Bloodline." For those involved, the game is heady, and perhaps a bit addictive. Some players, in their zeal to add to their vampire pedigree, have taken to preying on new residents at freebie shopping areas or even at orientation sites.

According to their website, Bloodlines "offers a full line of products that interact with the game, including blood storage containers, spikes for draining blood quickly, medals to display... rank and honors, free bite marks, and protective amulets," including the ultimate protective charm, a garlic necklace.

Once bitten, there is no salvation- the name of the victim is summarily added to the Bloodlines database, never to be removed. Bloodlines provides garlic necklaces at no charge for protection from this new scourge of vampires haunting Second Life. Once activated, the necklace protects the recipient from all bite requests, until deactivated, whether the necklace continues to be worn or not.

In an unanticipated twist, once the garlic necklace is activated, that player is also added to the Bloodlines database. Neither the "bite" victim, nor the resident being protected by the garlic necklace, has an opportunity to know what they are being pulled into. There are no terms and conditions presented when putting on the garlic necklace, or with the "bite" request letting the participant know they will summarily be added to a database, from which they can never be removed.

That same issue reported a lecture which was held on Virtual Ability Island, with the topic of  "How to Communicate with People with Hearing Loss, in Second Life and Real Life."

Treasure Ballinger, estate manager for Cape Able, which is a sim for the Deaf and Disabled, was the featured speaker. Ballinger is an advocate for people with hearing loss in First Life. She is also president of the board of directors of the SayWhatClub, a worldwide online hearing loss support group whose mission is to enhance interpersonal communication for people who are hard of hearing, deafened, or have a serious interest in hearing loss.

In April, Pam Renoir reported on the sudden popularity of gridwide hunts. She wrote, "For those participating in Gridwide Hunts, the good deals and great fun just got a whole lot better. In the past, Grid-wide hunts seemed organized around holidays, lasted about a month, and involved holiday-themed items hidden in locations throughout Second Life.

"In between these larger events, hunters kept their searching skills in shape by visiting the few hunts limited to individual sims. But with the dawning of Spring, enough Grid-wide hunts have emerged to offer residents a seemingly never-ending search across Second Life."

Cutey Magic, organizer of the Bunny Hop Hunt, offered her idea of why Grid-wide hunts have become so popular: "I believe it is the idea of freebies from so many stores that attracts many people."

Such hunts have continued to grow in scope and popularity.

In that same issue, Sherrie Shepherd wrote about Paradise Dream Hideaway, a romantic hideaway to fulfill all SL dreams. Estate owners and SL partners, Desne Aabye and Pova Rustamova, have dedicated themselves to making sure that their residents have the best that SL can offer in terms of peace, beauty and tranquility, as well as a multitude of recreational activities.

In May, several representatives from Linden Labs were present at a press conference on PR Island.The conference sought to clarify any misunderstandings on Linden policy as announced in the company's blog on March 12 and April 21 of 2009. In attendance were Cyn, Ken and Jack Linden.

Linden Lab's plans included the creation of a new 'Adult' tag for content, a filtered search engine and a new continent where all Adult-rated content will eventually be relocated. In order for users to gain access to these areas, as well as adult-themed search items, they will have to undergo an age verification process.

Age verification had been discussed in the past, with many users expressing doubts or outright rejecting towards the age verification companies and their reliability.

With this in mind, the company decided to allow users to use alternate methods for verification, such as Paypal or through credit cards.

Accusations of censorship were frequent after the announcement was published, with some users speculating that this was but one step in Linden Lab's plans towards the complete eradication of adult material on the grid.

Ken Linden had addressed these misgivings by pointing out that the main focus of the strategy was accommodating different interest groups, not suppressing them. "There are a number of people, organizations [and] residents, [who] want a way to control their experience a bit better," he said, "and make it a bit more predictable when they run into adult content."

The overall strategy, he concluded, would end up benefiting both sides by reducing the chance of involuntary exposure to adult content for those who do not wish to make it part of their Second Life experience, and it would ensure that everyone involved in adult endeavors was age-verified.

Studio Wikitecture and Virtual Ability island are two innovative examples of how virtual worlds can be used to enhance lives and improve both virtual and real world living spaces. And in May of 2009, each project added one more accomplishment to their list of achievements with the winning of the first annual Linden Prize and an award of $10,000.

The prize, handed out by Linden Lab, honors Second Life projects that have a tangible impact on the world. After receiving more than 230 applications, the voting committee narrowed down the entries to 10 finalists before declaring Studio Wikitecture and Virtual Ability co-winners of the award.

Also in May, residents expressed concern over underage residents on the main grid. A report was filed at http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-2729, and Bizet Sorbet wrote, "If minors are to be allowed into Second Life, we need to know they are minors."

Bizet stated this was important for several reasons:

- Individuals could unknowingly become engaged in a relationship with a minor that could constitute a felony in many jurisdictions in the United States and in many other countries.

- Makers of adult entertainment devices must be able to protect themselves against possible litigation or legal actions against them for minors using their products.

- Children should be able to know that they are dealing with other children, [and] not pedophiles.

Sorbet followed this report up with one asking for scripting support for the same issues, so that a script can check if an avatar is a minor.

The question, however, was whether or not Linden Lab would merge the two grids. Blue Linden, who does a lot of work with the Teen Grid, said, "Our current position on grid merge hasn't changed. We'd like to someday, but there are [currently] no plans."

In June, Stroker Serpentine, the owner and operator of Eros LLC/Strokerz Toys, which makes the line of SexGen beds considered by many to be the best sex animations in Second Life, announced that an action by an unidentified member of the Linden Lab staff had resulted in one of the crucial scripts that power the SexGen line having been blacklisted, causing virtually every Sex-Gen product on the grid to break.

When Data Linden looked into the matter, he discovered that the asset ID (UUID) had been blacklisted, but was at a loss as to why. He informed Serpentine that despite the fact that he could remove the UUID from the blacklist, this would not solve the problems which already existed. Strangely, the version of the script which had been compiled in LSL was blacklisted, but not a newer version.

The Second Life Land Expo opened for the first time last on June 9, for a five-day run of displays, presentations and tours of Linden Lab sim designs for private region purchases.

The event was held on a total of 13 sims, with the four central sims hosting displays built by Linden Lab and over 70 land-related groups and companies.

In June, a JIRA opened in May of 2007 was updated. The JIRA asked for more groups than the 25 currently allowed to residents. The request, opened by Mano Nevadan, has not been granted yet, but the JIRA was updated when he wrote, "Groups are far too useful and used to be limited to only 25."

The sixth anniversary of Second Life was celebrated in June, by looking into the crystal ball and predicting where SL might be in five years.

The party opened with a keynote speech from Linden Lab Chairman and Founder Philip Linden. Unfortunately Tweet.tv, despite apparently trying to have some form of scalability with their feed, found their bandwidth swamped.

And unlike previous years, last year's party was themed. Exhibitors were asked to do two things. First, look into the future: what would Second Life be like in Five years time? Second, the exhibits were asked to consider the surroundings.

Plants had to go into biospheres, glow and light was very much in evidence, and the builds really had to stand out from a black canvas. Some builds failed to do this, and black/dark unlit builds were really hard to spot.

Other exhibits such as Tweet's, the M2's or the exhibit created by Mia Linden were very bright and easy to spot from a distance.

One surprise was the cake. In previous years, it was very central to the whole exhibit area and visible from anywhere on the birthday sims. Last year, however, it was quite a low build, about half the height of last year, and was tucked away in a corner sim.

Many residents, when asked, didn't even know there was a cake. Others found it by mistake or only after being told of its existence.

And rounding out the first half of 2009 was a report on an article by Duncan Riley of The Inquisitr, an Australian based news' source, indicating that the Australian government would ban Second Life.

In a June 25 post, Riley wrote, "The Australian Minister for Censorship has today confirmed what I've been reporting for nearly two years: online adult games including Second Life will be banned in Australia."

The M2 article went on to explain that the Australian government has not signed into law anything that bans Second Life or similar games, nor has Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (BCDE) stated any intention of doing so.

The next issue of the Metaverse Messenger will cover headlines from July through December of 2009.