Thank you all for a most excellent year.  It’s been a great ride in Second Life, and I look forward to more fun.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all good night….

Love,

Veyron

So Law and Order: SVU has a show with a virtual world in it. And surprise, surprise, anyone who uses or plays in it is a sicko. I didn’t bother watching it because the plot was predictable, but Zoe did, and confirmed my suspicions. Of course now, we all are kinda perverted in a normal sick sort of way. But in a much better healthier out in the virtual open way. So let’s compare Second Life to Real Life.

Real Life has life and death

Second Life has prim babies that look like Pokemons and if you die you get teleported home.

Real Life has violent crimes

Second Life’s idea of a violent crime is giant penis’s being virtually flung at you on stage, embarrassing you.

Real Life has finiancial crimes and fraud

 Anyone dumb enough to believe they were going to get 400% return on an investment with no risk….  well, you knew better, didn’t you?

Real Life has cops, lawyers and judges

Second Life has none….  ummm, but we do have Linden Labs (how do we get those cops, lawyers and judges now?)

Real Life has people starving, homeless, and in poor living conditions

Avatars do not need, food, water, light, or air (even can go into orbit).   They can survive falls from incredible heights.  Survive being thrown in hot lava.  Being folded up like an origami doll.  Even walk around with your hair up your ass.  Wearing shoes from Dark Eden for extended periods of time without permanent back injury.  And dang, they don’t even need to go potty.

Real Life men usually have one orgasm, and roll over and either go to sleep or turn on the TV (or would secretly like to).

 Second Life men enjoy demonstrating their prowess and want to make sure their partner is having a good time and well satisfied.

Real Life primping for a party up can take hours.

Second Life primping involves shopping through your inventory, clicking a few buttons, and waiting for them to rez.  Shoes that would themselves take 20 minutes to put on take 10 seconds in Second Life.

Real Life tanning requires multiple sessions outside or in a tanning studio.

Second Life requires you to change your skins.  And you can decide if you want tan lines or not in seconds.

Real Life criminalizes or ostracizes lots of deviant sexual behavior.

Second Life usually rates it on a sliding quality scale.

Real Life takes itself very seriously.

Second Life tries to take itself seriously, but can never quite wipe the silly smirk off it’s face from the that impossible sexual escapade last night.

Real Life has campers.  Like in national parks and places of great beauty.

Second Life has campers in casinos speakeasies, clubs and empty malls.

Real Life sex carries (albit small now) risk of getting a STD and maybe even dying from it.

In Second Life you might make a mess on or around your computer.

In Real Life if I go into a dangerous place I might get really hurt.

Second Life’s idea of a dangerous place is a sim when you get notice it’s about to be restarted.

Real Life has corporate consumerism fueling massive expenditure of money on lots of frivolous items.

Second Life has mom & pop consumerism fueling massive expenditure of  a toy currency on lots of frivolous virtual items.  (Okay, I think that one is a wash….)

But let’s be clear, to paraphrase the NRA, avatars don’t make perverts, people make perverts.  And since I’m an avatar, I’m in the clear.  (I like that logic…)

-Veyron

A new issue of OMG is out and I have an article in this issue.  It’s a reworked version of some of my previous blog entries about how to take your avatar into cyberspace.  It was fun to write and fun to do put together.  Hopefully it will be helpful to some of the new people in Second Life.  Most of you already know these tricks and tips.

You can get your own copy of OMG in world at the OMG Headquarters http://slurl.com/secondlife/Edgerley/248/7/57

I think Korbin also enjoyed taking the pictures too….

-Veyron

(Oh and the guns work - they are from Aubretec.  They’re called Widow Makers.)

As anticipated, the old Second Life rating system is now gone from the latest client. This new client and server upgrade has a number of new “features” we all really love, but rather than start ranting about that, I’ve been looking into a replacement for the rating system. I decided to give TrustNet a try. Its cost is low, I like how the logic of it works and it has what I would consider to be a useful HUD. You can get the HUD in world in the Sprawler Sim. The cost is free. It appears to be subscription based, but it’s not very clear on that upfront. It looks to be L$50 a month, with is pretty cheap.

TrustNet has a web site for your account to manage your ratings and you can rate other skills than just behavior of an avatar, such as building, appearance, scripting, buying and selling.

They are also promising a security orb that uses the TrustNet data. This might be very useful. I use a Home Security Orb by Psyke’s Defense Systems, which I have found to be very useful, but this may be more useful, as it could be self-maintaining in the list of people who get access. It appears to have most of the features of Psyke’s Security Orb.

Maybe it might be a good idea to get together in world and start to build up a trust net?

-Veyron.

Last week an active member of the Second Life libsecondlife software library, Jesse Higginbotham, who’s avatar was Jesse Malthus died in an automobile accident. It is always tragic to see someone that young die. It brought up another interesting and often disturbing thought, what happens when the person behind the avatar suddenly dies or is disabled, and no one in real life knows about there Second Life? I am sure it has already happened, given the size of the population in Second Life.

I suppose the avatar just does not sign on ever again. Sort of vanish without a trace. A rather tragic way to go actually, since know one would know why they are gone. Some close friends in Second Life would never have a wake or a get together to pay tribute.

Even more disturbing, what would a family member think or do if they logged in with the decedent’s account? What might they find they might not want to find?

Interestingly, I have seen a service to address this sort of problem on the Web, MyLastEmail.com. Maybe Second Life needs something similar, but what would it really say or do? Even more troublesome, people disappear from Second Life for other reasons.

-Veyron

With the upcoming imminent demise of the Second Life ratings, there is now a review of some of the 3rd party rating systems at SLNN. I’m less than thrill with this entire situation. First, it means people who have accumulated a large positive rating will see it disappear, so much for that investment. Next there is obviously a large group of competing rating systems, all incompatible with each other. Lastly, they all have some degree of cost at some level to be useful.

I’m also not happy with yet-another-HUD to try to run, install and fit on my already cluttered screen. Or some obnoxious close to an advertisement balloon hanging over my head, screaming “rate me”.

Why couldn’t Linden Labs come up with a better solution? Or at least some sort of common API for these vendors to plug their rating systems into so that the scores would show up on avatar profile and being able to rate them through the client. But then that would have defeated the purpose that they eliminated the rating systems in the first place, they didn’t want to host the data. Fine, then extend the API to plug into someone else’s database. Seems like a dump and run on Linden Labs’ part.

Now I feel slightly compelled to try to pick one of these services out and use it. Anyone else feel the same way? Any going to use one over another? Forget ratings entirely?

-Veyron