Category: News-Opinion

Second Life Skill Gaming applications re-open

Posted on by Inara Pey
via and C Linden Lab

On Tuesday, March 24th, 2020, Linden Lab announced they would be accepting a new round of applications from those interested in becoming Skill Gaming Operators and / or Skill Gaming Creators.

While gambling and games of chance that provide a Linden Dollar Token payouts are prohibited in Second Life, skill games that offer Linden Dollar Token payouts are allowed in Second Life, providing they are only available within approved Skill Gaming Regions, and both the creator of such games and the operator of any Skill Gaming region (often, but nor always, one in the same) must also be approved by Linden Lab.

Changes were made to the Second Life Gaming Policy in 2014 to reflect the provisioning of skill games in Second Life and the introduction of the Lab’s Skill Gaming regions, and from time-to-time the Lab has opened its doors to applications from those wishing to become skill game creators and / or operators (the last being at the. The last time this was done was in 2017, when applications remained open for a month.

Skill Gaming is covered by the Second Life Skill Gaming Policy, which in turn is supported by a Skill Gaming FAQ. In short, Skill Games are games which, in the Lab’s words:

1) whose outcome is determined by skill and is not contingent, in whole or in material part, upon chance; 2) requires or permits the payment of Linden Dollars to play; 3) provides a payout in Linden Dollars; and 4) is legally authorized by applicable United States and international law.

All Skill Games in Second Life must be created and / or operated by Lab approved Skill Gaming Creators (SGCs) and / or Skill Gaming Operators (SGOs), and must be located within Skill Gaming Regions. The latter must be Full regions, which cannot be located on the Mainland, and cannot be located adjacent to non-Skill Gaming Regions. They have an increased maintenance fee (tier) compared to Full regions.

Applications for those wishing to become Skill Gaming Operators and / or Skill Gaming Creators re-open on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017
Applications for those wishing to become Skill Gaming Operators and / or Skill Gaming Creators re-open on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017

The Skill Gaming Policy sets out all requirements in full, and should be read, along with the FAQ, by anyone wishing to become a Skill Gaming Operator and / or Creator, or who wishes to access Skill Gaming regions and participate in the games on offer.

Links

Advanced notice for Lab Gab 19: how the Lab is dealing with the health crisis

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The 19th edition of Lab Gab will be live streamed on Friday, March 27th at 10:00 SLT (17:00 UK; 18:00 CET). The segment will feature Ebbe Linden (aka Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg) and Brett Linden, Senior Director of Marketing, two recent guests on the show (see here and here for summaries of their prior interviews). They are returning to address, as the official blog post states:

Discussing how Linden Lab is responding to the public health crisis to ensure uninterrupted Second Life operations, as well as how the company is offering new remote turnkey solutions for conferences, events, or classes.

This is once more a segment during which questions from Second Life users will be put to Ebbe and Brett, so if you have anything you’d like to ask  – particularly in relation to the SARS novel-coronavirus pandemic and Second Life / Linden Lab operations, although not necessarily restricted to that topic – be sure to submit them via the Lab Gab Episode 19 Questions form. Not all the questions may be asked / answered, but if you don’t try, there’s a greater chance your question may not be asked anyway!

The programmed will be streamed via YouTube, Facebook, Mixer, or Periscope, and if all goes according to plan, I’ll have a summary of the video (and the video itself) available soon after the the broadcast, for those unable to watch live.

Second Norway & Sailor’s Cove East: rumours & statements

Posted on by Inara Pey
Second Norway, March 2020

Update, April 27th: Second Norway is now under the management of Luxory Estates, read more in Second Norway: the future is bright.

Update, April 2nd: Ey Ren, founder of Second Norway, has created a website to keep people appraised of the situation. For the latest news and updates, please go to: Bad Elf Blog, or see my update.

Update, March 26th: Speaking at the VWBPE Conference Above the Book session, Patch linden commented on the SN / SCE estates situation saying:

Region owners are absolutely encouraged to approach my support team, if you find yourself in a situation of difficulty because of what’s going on.

And specifically for Second Norway, we are working with Ey on that situation, and actually, I think we’re going to see a really good outcome there.

Patch’s comment can be heard at the 1:11:16 point in the session video, and a summary of the session itself can be found here: VWBPE 2020: Above the Book with Ebbe and Patch – summary.

 

There have been several rumours that the estates of Second Norway and Sailor’s Cove East are closing, with one of the reasons being given as “high vacancy rates”.

Both estates are operated by Ey Ren and Mialinn Telling, and form an important part of the environment connected to Blake Sea, offering private homes to many as well as open waters and skies for the Second Life boating / sailing communities and the aviation community.

Currently, as far as I’ve been able to ascertain, the precise future of both estates is unclear. The only official statement on the matter has been posted on Mialinn’s Second Life profile:

I am sorry to inform that due to year of deficit and the current corona crisis, job loss and failing krone exchange rate, Ey Ren are no longer able to keep the ship afloat. LL has closed his account. Ey has contacted LL and the other owners of Blake Sea in hopes of reaching an agreement for further existence of SN and SCE. Unfortunately, I have no more information at this time.

I’ve reached out to Mialinn in the hopes of learning more – if there is indeed further news to be had at this point – and if I do hear back, I will provide an update.

Second Life: operating with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Posted on by Inara Pey

With the world-wide concern over the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg blogged a message concerning the situation, social distancing and Second Life operations on Wednesday, March 18th. In particular he noted:

As concerns about the current coronavirus outbreak continue, we want to assure the community that we have taken steps to ensure that the Second Life operations stay steady while also helping our employees stay safe through this public health crisis. Our hearts and thoughts go out to those who have been affected by this unprecedented event.

Second Life will continue to be available without interruption as we get through this tough time together. Due to our previous crisis contingency planning and the flexible nature of our distributed workforce, we are not expecting any changes to response times for support inquiries and payment processing.

We know that Second Life serves a great purpose for our community as people seek ways to stay in touch with their friends and co-workers, as they grapple with new social distancing protocols, mandated remote work requirements, and other precautionary measures. …

Like many companies across the globe, we’ve put into action new remote work policies for our employees to ensure that they can take care of themselves and their families while continuing to work from home. Prior to this incident, a large percentage of our company was already working from the “Moonlab” (that’s what we call remote employees’ locations), so we have been able to transition quickly and efficiently to a fully remote setup.

The blog post also noted the recent reduction in tier fees that has been made for educational organisations and non-profits (see: Second Life: support for remote working & reduced education / non-profit fees – updated), and goes on to indicate that Second Life is seeing a resurgence of interest in the platform as a result of the outbreak, with an increase in new user registrations and in returning users.

As a pair of purely anecdotal comments on this latter point, out of the attendees at the Tuesday, March 17th SUG meeting, one indicated they were a returning user, brought back to SL as a result of the pandemic. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, March 18th, I was able to assist a student trying to reach lessons at NOVA, the Northern Virginia Community College. He was on his first day in SL, his classes having shifted to being on-line / in-world and had managed to get himself somewhat lost! It only took a moment to look-up the college in Search, provide a link in chat and explain to him how to use it, and he was on his way! So, as the blog notes, it’s worth taking the time to make newcomers welcome and provide a little support to help them feel comfortable.

 

Second Life: support for remote working & reduced education / non-profit fees – updated

Posted on by Inara Pey
Via and C Linden Lab

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We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about how Second Life can help organizations, events, and conferences continue to safely and efficiently operate during the coronavirus outbreak.

Many individuals and organizations are being affected by this unprecedented public health crisis, and we recognize that Second Life can provide an important and valuable way for people to stay in touch with their friends and co-workers amidst new social distancing protocols, mandated remote work requirements, and other precautionary measures.

– from Second Life to Expand Support & Reduce Prices for Education & Nonprofits

Questions have been asked of late how Linden Lab can assist in the growing crisis surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic that is affecting the world. When asked about promoting Second Life as a platform for meetings, etc., Brett Linden, speaking during the Lab Gab #16 session featuring the Marketing Team noted that the company was aware of SL’s unique capabilities, but also of the need to respond to the growing crisis responsibly and in a manner that is not seen to be a crude attempt to simply leverage the situation for their own advantage.

On Friday, March 13th, the company issued a blog post announcing a new imitative that is aimed at helping promote the platform as a platform for remote working, and to announce the reduction in region fees for registered educationals and non-profits.

In the latter regard, the blog post announces a reduction in tier fees:

One of the first things we’ve implemented to help is a reduction in pricing to a flat $99/month per region to qualified accredited non-profit or educational institutions. Effective immediately, this limited-time price reduction is applicable to any new or added regions including renewals of existing regions. See our Terms & Conditions for more information.

No time frame for the fee reduction (or applications for receiving the fee reduction, if this is what is meant) is provided, and I’ve asked the Lab for general clarification on this; if I receive a reply, I will update this post.

The post goes on to note practical steps those wishing to use the platform for remote solutions for conferences, events or classes can go about getting started, which also introduces the Lab’s new micro-website connect.secondlife.com, and an accompanying updated FAQ on working in Second Life.

Please refer to the blog post for full details.

Updates:

  • Patch Linden has confirmed that it is the period of the reduced fee offer on educational / non-profit regions that is limited. He added that the US $99 / month fee “will remain in place as long as their [the organisation’s  / individual’s] invoicing is current.” My thanks to Brett Linden for co-ordinating the clarification.
  • I noted to Linden Lab that the links within the knowledge base FAQ are (at the time of writing), not working. These are in the process of being fixed, in the meantime, Brett has asked me to refer people to the wiki version of the information.

Lab Gab 17: Luca Resident

Posted on by Inara Pey

via Linden Lab

Lab Gab turns its attention back towards resident guests on Friday, March 13th, with episode 17 announced as featuring lucagrabacr, who has been involved in Second Life for almost eight years.

Luca is a content creator, although she is probably best known for her SL videos, many of which seek to positively promote Second Life to the world at large. Her interview comes on the heels of a forum discussion she initiated about SL Marketing which was mentioned in the Lab Gab segment featuring the Second Life Marketing team.

Luca is also the co-founder of the Virtual Existence Society, a non-profit group of like-minded individuals who find value in the practice of virtual embodiment and the philosophy of virtual existentialism who and want to preserve, and promote those things. As a part of this, the VES recognises those who contribute to the practice of virtual embodiment and the cause of virtual existentialism, and in 2019, I was honoured by VES bestowing me with an Amicus award. You can find out more about VES, including its structure on the Virtual Existence Society website, and visitors are welcome at the society’s in-world headquarters.

As this is a resident interview, there is no process for submitting questions, but do be sure to tune in via the usual channels: YouTube, Facebook, Mixer, or Periscope, at 10:00am SLT (that’s 5:00pm UK and 6:00pm Europe, due to the US having moved to summer time) on Friday 13th March 2020.