Month: May 2013

Lab launches Authorised L$ Resellers

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update: May 18th: Podex and Gyndex have indicated they have applied for Authorised Reseller status with Linden Lab.

Upate May 17th: Gwyneth Llewellyn provides an analysis of LL’s move – very much worth a read.

secondlifeLinden Lab has issued a further statement on the recent changes to the Second Life Terms of Service relating to the buying and selling of Linden Dollars.

The blog post, which covers the fact that Linden Dollars can be purchased via credit card in using some 27 currencies and which includes the Lab’s “Getting and Spending Linden Dollars” Quicktips video, reveals that the Lab is launching a new programme of “Authorised Resellers” of Linden Dollars – a move which is likely to spake the most reaction.

The post reads in part::

Now, to give users more options and make it easier to purchase L$, we’re launching a pilot program of Authorized Resellers of L$. These sites are authorized by Linden Lab to purchase L$ on the LindeX and then resell those L$ using a variety of international currencies and payment methods. To be clear: per the Terms of Service, these resellers will not be allowed to purchase L$ outside of the LindeX (i.e. they will not be able to buy L$ back from users and cash people out). The list of Authorized Resellers participating in the pilot program is available here.

 If you would like to receive an application to the program when it formally launches, please send an email to LDollarSeller@lindenlab.com.

The initial list of Authorised Resellers comprises AnsheX, Buildo, VForEx Inc, VirWoX, and Zoha Islands, with more potentially to be added to the scheme – there is an invitation for other exchanges wishing to join the programme to e-mail Linden Lab.

The full terms and conditions for the new programme can be found on the SL wiki.

Related Links

The Drax Files 6: An animated Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

The sixth episode (webisode?) of The Drax Files come relatively close to home for me, as the focus of the segment is Edinburgh, Scotland, where Abramelin Wolfe of Abranimations fame has both his home and his base of operations.

I’d never actually really considered the amount of work which goes into creating in-world animations – or the real-world expense. Obviously, I’m aware that it involves motion-capture and digtising movement, but when hearing how Abramelin’s first motion-capture outfit cost him £14,000 ($21,300), I admit my jaw flapped somewhat.

Going through the mitions: at work
Going through the motions: Abramelin at work

“Body language and human motion is something that we see every day,” Abramelin says, explaining why he started creating animation in Second Life. “If we’re very rigid and not moving, it stands out like a sore thumb; it’s very unnatural, there’s lot’s of subtleties. I mean, if you say to someone ‘stand still’, they’ll probably in their head think that they are rigid and not moving. But in reality, people are actually moving a lot; a subtle shake of arms and the way that weight displaces. So I think that by having a very fluid motion which is very life-like helps people feel immersed in that universe.”

Operating their business out of Edinburgh, Abramelin and his wife focus on Second Life as their primary market, producing not only animations, but also a range of avatars and other creations, very much working as a team; he creates the animations and rigs them, she creates the avatars.

Abramelin and his wife in Edinburgh
Abramelin and his wife in Edinburgh

Abramelin very much regards Second Life as a frontier and those using it as pioneers.

“It’s such a world of possibilities for invention and innovation,” he says, still as enthusiastic and engaged with the platform as when he started in 2004. “Pioneers? Yeah! We want a universe we can step into and actually be there!”

Animations are something almost all of us use in SL, yet we perhaps seldom give any of the creative process which goes into them more than a passing thought; as such this segment serves as a fascinating insight into a brand which is something of an SL household name (my very first AO was from Abranimations!), and on the entire creative process involved in developing life-like animations – as well as yet another look through the eyes of others at why Second Life is so engaging.

A Conversation with Drax (part 2)

The Drax Files have taken Second Life by storm. After seeing the first segment, I took time out with Drax to find out more about the man behind the show and also about the series itself. In the first part of our conversation, we discussed what led to the creation of The Drax Files and how reaction to the series has affected him before touching on future plans – which is the starting point for continuing our chat.

Inara Pey (IP): The current series has focused very much on content creation, covering the work of some of the top content creation merchants, and the use of SL to create immersive environments such as the 1920s Berlin Project. You’ve more recently moved on to look at SL as a means of global action with the very excellent piece on Fantasy Faire and Relay for Life, and also examined music and live performance in SL.  In the past, you’ve also looked at art and design – I’m thinking here specifically about your piece from November 2011 on IDIALAB at Ball State Uni, Nov 2011. Did you opt to tackle content creation first, as you felt it was a better means of helping people grasp the potential of SL, and where might we be seeing future segments of the show going?

Draxtor Despres (DD): Oh, the Art and Design thing! That was basically a one-off thing back then. It was a great project with IDIALAB. I just called it “The Drax Files”, a play on “The X Files” and it was fun. But yeah, the initial approach with content creation was to grasp the potential of SL for an audience outside of SL.

Continue reading “The Drax Files 6: An animated Second Life” →

What dreams may come: Kirstenlee further updates S19

Posted on by Inara Pey

kirstensKirstenlee Cinquetti has issued a further update to the S19 version of Kirsten’s Viewer – version S19 1.19.4 (407). Released on Thursday May 16th, 2013, the update primarily fixes a nasty cache crash when user settings and local cache are manually deleted.

There have been a lot of questions as to why the S19 (v1-style) viewer from Kirsten’s stable is being updates rather than the S22/S23 viewers. In a blog post accompanying the release, Kirsten/Lee gives an answer:

So I guess the most pertinent question is why? It is probably the most pointless one to answer also.

But lets just take a wild stab at it!

I need to be in SL occasionally so I need a viewer (Duh), V2 is dead sorry S22 it was fun, V3 is well lets just say it’s not my cup of tea. I could just download someone else’s viewer but thats not what I want.

I LIKE S19 it was and still is quick, its code in comparison to newer clients is simpler it has much more modest hardware demands I can merge from many sources more rapidly etc, etc, etc..
It ticks all my boxes, on a more personal note it’s NOT limited to Second Life.

That is important to me, so it may have bugs, it may not compile on macs very well… sorry.

But if I wish to drift around SL or jump into Opensim I can.. anyway hope that kinda answers some of my motivations, and why I share the corresponding installer.

As mentioned in my last piece marking the “return” of the S19 viewer, and people shouldn’t anticipate routine updates and improvements; as Lee indicates in his bog post, this viewer has been updated and is being tweaked purely to suit his needs – and rightly so.

A couple of notable changes have been made since version S19.1.19.4.(404), the last version I used. Preferences have been moved from their “traditional” location in the File menu to appear under the S19 menu, and Depth of Field (DoF) has been added to the Graphics tab, in a dedicated sub-tab.

DoF is back!
DoF is back!

Sadly for me, I’m unable to test DoF, as deferred will not run on my hardware set-up, no matter how I fiddle with AA (which was Lee’s suggestion to me after I’d encountered problems with the 404 build). But then, as I noted last time, while I’ve always like Kirsten’s Viewer, my hardware has tended to sulk badly when using it.

However, for those of you missing Kirsten’s Viewer, here’s yet another update for you! Going on feedback following my original piece on S19’s return (in comments, IMs and DMs), it’s good to know the viewer still has loyal fans!

Related Links

World Goth Fair underway

Posted on by Inara Pey

World-Goth-Fair

The World Goth Fair started in Second Life on Wednesday May 15th, and will run through until the end of the month.

Some 75 merchants from across Second Life are participating in the fair, which is being held across two regions: Cursed (Adult) and Port Seraphine (Moderate).

As well as showcasing some of the top designers in Second Life who supply the goth market, the primary aim of the event is to raise funds for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a UK-based charity that was founded in the wake of the brutal murder of Sophie Lancaster, a young woman who was killed for being a goth. The event is also officially sanctioned by the organisers of  World Goth Day.

World Goth Fair, Port Seraphine (image courtesy Broxelf / World Goth Fair)

To mark World Goth Day itself on May 22nd, 2013, and to further raise money for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, Club Gothika on Cursed will hold a special musical event, which will run for about 14 hours and include numerous contests with hosts of prizes. All donations received at the event will go directly to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

Anyone wishing to contribute prize items to the event (RL or SL items) can do so via the World Goth Day at Club Gothika web page.

Related Links

 

SL ToS changes: Lab contacts TPEs; some get account suspensions

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update 17th May 18:45 BST: The Lab has launched an “Authorised Reseller of L$” programme. Initial report here.

Update: 17th May: Gwyneth Llewelwyn provides an interesting and thoughtful analysis on the entire situation. DXEchange has indicated it has received LL’s e-mail of a potential solution, and is considering the matter.

Update: 16:55 BST: The e-mail to TPEs is apparently light on details, but includes the following statement: “We have approached several organizations to discuss a potential solution that would allow them to serve their customers within the bounds of the updated Second Life Terms of Service. We will soon blog to share more information about this solution, which we plan to extend more broadly as well.” So it would appear that the “potential solution” may initially be made on a limited basis.

MBKash has also indicated it has received the e-mail from Linden Lab, as has Gyndex.

secondlifeThere appears to be new movement on the situation involving third-party exchanges dealing in Linden Dollars following the recent change to the Second Life Terms of Service, and movement of a most confusing kind.

On the one hand, blog posts have started appearing on various exchange websites noting that they have received further information from the Lab, and that matters may be resolved in a manner which would allow them to resume the provisioning and exchange of Linden Dollars to Second Life users.

ToS Change

On the other hand, some exchanges are indicating that the SL accounts they use to handle their in-world dealings have all been suspended by the Lab.

On May 7th 2013, Linden Lab updated section 5.3 of the Terms of Service, which deals with the buying / selling of Linden Dollars and third-party exchanges (TPEs). While the ToS appeared to indicate that while such exchanges were not “authorised” by the Lab, the re-wording gave the impression that users could still use such exchanges while re-emphasising that doing so was entirely at the user’s own risk.

However, a blog post announcing the updated ToS change stated the that use of third-party exchanges was “not allowed” under the new ToS, and shortly thereafter TPEs started to receive e-mails from Linden Lab ordering them to cease dealing in Linden Dollars and also to remove / disable all in-world ATMs from SL with immediate effect. Third-party viewer developers were also contacted and told to remove any links to TPEs within their viewers.

As well as leading to a lot of speculation as to the reasons behind the move, the combination of mis-matched ToS update and accompanying blog post, together with the e-mail to TPEs has led to a lot of confusion and upset.

The Good

However, a number of exchanges have indicated that they have had further communication from the Lab which may allow their to resume operations. These include, at the time of writing, VirWox, CrossWorlds and Virtuateq (the latter’s update is in Dutch).

The VirWox update reads in full:

Good News: Linden Lab has approached us with a potential solution that would allow us to serve our customers within the bounds of the updated Second Life Terms of Service. We are in discussions with them and look forward to being able to share more information very soon.

Similarly, CrossWorlds also  reported:

We have received an e-mail today with regards the problem from Linden Lab. It informs us that there may be a potential solution that would allow us to serve our customers within the bounds of the updated Second Life Terms of Service.

As soon as I hear more I will let you know… and fingers crossed we can fix this problem.

It is not currently clear how many other exchanges have received similar e-mails from Linden Lab, which appeared to start issuing them late on Wednesday the 15th May, PDT, and so it is possible that updates may be forthcoming from other exchanges as the day goes on.

Quite what the “potential solution” might be is unclear. There has already been some speculation that it could be for TPEs to register as MSBs with the US Treasury Department’s FinCEN or perhaps providing evidence that they are properly registered under / adhere to any corresponding requirements within their country of operation.

The Bad

Elsewhere the news is not so good. In the early hours of the morning on Thursday May 16th (European time), Jacek Shuftan reported on the Podex blog that:

Tonight  at 2.00 o’clock all my accounts related to Podex Exchange were put on hold by Linden Lab.

I really believed that the new ToS is meant to protect avatars from the risk of fraud.  That was my goal as well so I was looking forward to cooperate with Linden Lab. I could not imagine that over one night they would want to destroy our cooperation and everything what I built for 6 years of my virtual life. They did.

I believed that they would answer my requests to start discussion. They did not.

Similarly, DX Exchange are also reporting they have had accounts suspended:

Our avatars for our exchange activities are put on hold by Linden Lab, so there is no room for interpretation that Linden Lab wants to enforce the new TOS effective immediately.

That means that we are closed permanently as of today.We expect Linden Lab to enforce the TOS on all other exchanges today.

Defying the ToS?

There has been some speculation that Podex accounts may have been blocked as a result of a decision by the exchange to continue to offer L$ in defiance of the ToS change  / e-mail, with Podex citing the 30-day “grace” period prior to changes to the ToS coming into force.

What is interesting here is that DX Exchange appears to have suffered the same fate as Podex (at least for the moment) after they had initially suspended operations, and then, according to Hypergrid Business, decided to follow suit alongside of Podex and others. This move apparently led to Bart Bockhoudt, co-owner of Gyndex indicting to Hypergrid Business that he would be objecting to the move by DX Exchange and seeking further clarification from the Lab. Whether this prompted some exchanges receiving account suspensions or not is also unclear.

However, one of the other exchanges which also opted, according the Hypergrid Business, to continue to offer Linden Dollars under the 30-day grace period cited in the ToS was CrossWorlds – who are one of the exchanges who have received the e-mail citing a “potential solution” from Linden Lab. Again, whether this is indicative that the likes of Podex and DX Exchange have / will also receive similar e-mails, and that the current account suspensions will be lifted / are the result of confused communications within the Lab, remains to be seen.

Still Confused

Overall, the result of these moves appears to leave the entire situation as confused as ever, and doubtless open to further interpretation and speculation. Expect further updates  as / when matters become clearer either via the Lab or through contact with the various exchanges.

Related Links

SL10BCC: Last chance to apply to be a part of the celebrations!

Posted on by Inara Pey

sl10b-enchant-2

There are just a few short days left to be part of the team at Second Life 10th Birthday Community Celebrations!

Applications to be a part of the SL10B Community Celebration will be closing at midnight SLT on Monday, May 20th. So, if you want to be a part of the celebrations an exhibitor, performer or volunteer or if you wish to book a slot in the Community Celebrations Auditorium, now is the time to do so!

Here’s How

  • First: please make sure you read the event policies and understand all requirements
  • Second: Read the notes below and follow the links for any of the applications you wish to submit.

Exhibitors

If you want to exhibit any of the following:

  • Art installation
  • Informative exhibition
  • Community group
  • Instructional
  • Media (writing, machinima, photography, etc.)

You need an EXHIBITOR APPLICATION.

When applying, you’ll need to have a good idea of what you are proposing to build – it should be community-orientated and celebratory. The clearer the information you can give, the easier it will be to assess your application. Remember, all exhibition builds must conform to the requirements specified in the event policies, in particular note that:

  • All exhibitor plots are 32×32 metres in size, and larger parcels cannot be provided
  • Parcels have a total prim allotment / land impact of 234. No additional prims can be supplied.

Performers

If you want to be involved in the musical celebration as a live performer or as a DJ, you need to fill-out our PERFORMER APPLICATION. Please remember to not only to give the details of your performance (live / DJ), but also the times that would suit you best for appearing on stage.

Presenters

If you want to:

  • Talk on a topic
  • Run a workshop
  • Teach a class
  • Do performance art
  • Put on a media event

Then you need an AUDITORIUM APPLICATION.

When applying , please remember to not only to give the details of your event, but also the times that would suit you best for hosting it.

Volunteers

Events like the SL10B Community Celebration need help – lots of help. So even if you don’t feel you can be an exhibitor, performer or presenter but want to be more of a part of things – then why not volunteer to help out? It’s a great way to be an essential part of things, make friends and get to see all that goes on throughout the celebrations. Orientation and training is given for many of the roles, so there’s no danger of simply being chucked into the deep end (although you’ll have to give up a little time to attend training sessions, obviously!).

We’re looking for keen, outgoing, friendly people to volunteer as Greeters / Hosts, Moderators, Exhibitor Assistants, and Stage Managers. If you’re interested, check-out our Role Descriptions and see what might best suit you, then fill-out our VOLUNTEER APPLICATION.

Once You’ve Applied

All applications will be carefully considered, and acceptances will be sent out in the week starting May 20th. But don’t worry if you don’t hear immediately – it will probably take the whole week to let everyone know.

In the meantime, the countdown has begun! Applications close at midnight on Monday May 20th, 2013! Make sure you get yours in before the deadline!

Related Links