2012: a year in review – Part 1

April

• In lieu of solid feedback from the Commerce Team, merchants continued investigating ongoing issues with the Marketplace, although feedback of a kind from the CT did follow
• Scammers attempted to hit SL users, both through a log-in scam and by abusing the Phoenix / Firestorm team’s good name
• The Lab announced they were implementing a Havok sub-licence agreement
• Fed-up with the state of the Marketplace, merchants voiced their concerns on Twitter, and received little more than platitudes from Rod Humble, and I later questioned whether part of the philosophy at the Lab might be being taken too literally
• Having taken a large number of knocks for the poor presentation of the SL sign-on page, LL reach out to SL photographers for help – and got knocked for doing so …
• In my ongoing series on viewers and clients, I delved into “what might have been” with an early attempt at a graphical viewer for the iPhone – if only I’d known what Lumiya had in store!

• LL pulled out of the 2012 SLB celebrations, news which doesn’t go down well, and I found it regretful while Tateru threw out a challenge; the entire situation percolated with me for a while before I further posted on the matter
• It appeared as if LL might be considering developing an AO system for SL. If they were, we’ve heard little since
• Fantasy Faire opened, featuring a series of breathtaking builds

• Qarl updated the deformer and then issued version 0.3
• The first of the major changes relating to the deployment of pathfinding arrived, with llVolumeDetect(TRUE) and Land Impact changes
• I rounded-out the month with an open letter to Rod Humble
• On the personal front, I started playing with using water as a mirror in SL, with a little help from Chestnut Rau, Whiskey Monday and Zonja Capalini; I also re-establish Fallingwater on a full region on Kitely
• Away from Second Life, Kitely got NPCs and I discovered SunAeon, which kicked-off a modest collaboration for me.

May

• The month started with the news that Fantasy Faire has raised $25K for Relay for Life – an amazing figure
• More news broke on the proposed land impact changes
• Mistletoe Ethaniel and I got silly on Twitter and started a hashtag on SL novel titles
• The Lab entered into a promo offer with ACS over houses / land
• The deformer gained a further update & a request from Oz Linden, which was repeated later in the month, while Qarl spoke up about standard sizes & the deformer
• Ongoing problems with the grid led to three days of scheduled maintenance, post-maintenance comments were so caveated, I speculated whether internal communications at the Lab were as lousy as external communications

• The first regions donated to SL9B were announced (later rising to 20), followed shortly thereafter by the opening of the SL9B website, and I started my detailed coverage of SL9B activities
• Lumiya on the Android platform launched a 3D, real-time, in-world rendering capability
• LL announced they would be adopting Vaalith Jinn’s Local Textures support, an enhancement of his Local Bitmap Browser found in TPVs; Local Textures duly arrive at the end of the month
• The Lab also sought feedback on the Premium Wilderness Experience
• Ongoing issues with the Marketplace saw compulsory Direct Delivery migration pushed back to August
• Tateru Nino caught word of the end of SL Solution Provider programme
• Very early clues  – spotted by Miro Collas and Tateru Nino – on one of LL’s possible new products appeared when a website was accidentally made public
• The advanced creation tools were deployed on the Magnum RC channel … briefly …
• On the personal side: I became a monster-bashing elf, joining a host of SL users (and others) on Tweenk (now Tweeria) I shared my enjoyment of the Piano Guys and their music; I previewed the Transit of Venus using SunAeon, as well as sharing the year’s annular elcipse with friends on Twitter; I also moved to what was to be my last home in SL on land rented from an estate

June

• The month kicked-off with a request from Viale Linden that I take a look at the revamped SL website splash screen and WhatIs page
• Things came down to Earth with a bump as the advanced creation tools were exploited for griefing, prompting their withdrawal from the Magnum RC channel; further information on the situation became available later in the month
• Tateru Nino and I discussed the thorny issue of land tier and declining private regions, leading to a “shared post” with us each looking at the issue from slightly different angles but drawing the same conclusion. Tateru’s piece is available here, and mine available here
• I cogitated on the idea of “Second Life 2.0“, prompted by a Metareality podcast on the subject
• SL9B kicked off! As well as continuing to cover the central event, I also visited other celebrations, such as the SL9B Story

• At SL9B, Saffia Widdershins interviewed Qarl Fizz about the mesh deformer while Redpoly Inventor offered-up a potential alternative, which is in turn discussed in a Metareality podcast
• Elsewhere, I poked my nose into the initial release of Cloud Party
• SL9B drew to a close all-too-quickly after all the hard work from a fantastic team and their sponsors and volunteers

• MetaHarpers offered an alternative take on new user orientation with an exhibit at LEA
• Daden unveil a web-based means of building learning scenarios for use in virtual worlds
• The Lab announces the Shining Project, which is intended to bring much-needed improvements to the SL in-world experience
• On the personal side: I (again) shared the first SpaceX Dragon rendezvous with the ISS with SL / VW friends via Twitter, alongside the transit of Venus; I also had fun in the air and on the ground in SL; SunAeon update their solar system model, which includes input from me

2012 SL Destination Reviews

• January:
  • Annon, Athan, Aear and Selidor (M)
  • Enchanted Unicorn / Enchanted Swansong (M)
• February:
  • Koelner Dom (G)
• April:
  • Crimarizon (M)
• May:
  • Cerridwen’s Cauldron (M)
  • Alpha and Omega (M)
  • Matanzas (M)

2012 SL Art Reviews

• January:
  • The Human(oid) side of art – Wendy Xeno
• February
  • Spirit at Art Screamer – Claudia222 Jewell
  • UWA kick-off their 2012 machinima challenge
  • Hazardous – Wendy Xeno
• May
  • Art in motion: a walk in the Shire
• June
  • Almost Flast Land – Tyrehl Byk and Ultraviolet Ultra
  • The art of new user orientation – MetaHarpers
  • Celebrity Blow Your Own Tits Off – Maya Paris

SL Events

• Fantasy Faire 2012 – March 2012
• Fifth Annual Home & Garden Expo – May 2012
• SL9B – May / June 2012
• The SLSF Convention 2012 – June 2012

Part 2 of this review will appear on New Year’s eve.

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