Category: Second Life

The elven realm of Firith Galad in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Firith Galad, November 2021 – click any image for full size

It has been a while since I’ve dropped in to a region designed by Camila Runo – the last was her take on the bayou lands of Louisiana back in May 2021 (see: A trip to the Bayou in Second Life), although my first encounter with her work came back in 2020 with the original Jambo! (A voyage to Africa in Second Life). Quite what caused the break in my visits I’ve no idea; but seeing Firith Galad a Forgotten Elven Realm listed in the Editor’s Picks of the Destination Guide immediately had me scurrying to pay a visit.

As anyone with an abiding love of Tolkien’s mythology (like me!) will know, Firith Galad is Sindarin (Grey Elven) in origin, and can be literally translated as “Fading Light” (Firith also being the last quarter of the Sindarin / elven year, and so give the time at which this build is available, that name also fits quite nicely).  indeed, in respect of “fading”, a further layer of meaning might be found within the region’s name, as quick look at the About Land description reveals:

Surrounded by high mountains and cataracts lies Firith Galad, an ancient elven realm fallen into oblivion. The light is fading, winter is near …
Firith Galad, November 2021

Again, as those familiar with Tolkien’s mythology, the War of the Ring brought to an end the time of Elves, and the start of the Fourth Age, and the ascendancy of Man. At this time, many of the elves of Middle Earth departed into the West, and those left behind recognised they were doomed to fade with the passage of time. While no actual time-frame (before / after the War) is given, the title of the setting nicely fits with this idea of an elven enclave tucked away, perhaps high in Ered Luin (the Blue Mountains) of Lindon, the last remnant of their beloved Beleriand, and a place where they could escape the passing of time in the world around then, content to remain in isolation.

This is an ethereal setting caught in a ghostly light that, with the surrounding walls of rock, serves to separate the realm from the rest of the world, isolating it in a unique fashion whilst bathing it in a cool light mindful of winter, and in which the enclave is gently revealed as one approaches it. Set within a deep mountain valley, the setting is reached far  path that clings to one side of the valley walls. It emerges from a tunnel – a hidden passage leading from the world beyond and into the valley. This tunnel is guarded by two gates bearing symbols of the gold and silver Trees of Valinor, Telperion and Laurelin, the first indication that in offering this build, Camila has perhaps cast her net of inspiration wider than Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, (and certainly Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Tolkien’s world).

Firith Galad, November 2021

The path clings to the valley side as it runs from tunnel opening to a single stone bridge that gracefully spans the deep chasm of the valley to reach the enclave as it in turn hugs the far side of the valley’s steep walls. Here, beyond the banners bearing what might be an image of Telperion,, the enclave offers a tiered build, making use of shoulder and island of rock extending outward from the high peaks, with the core buildings reached via stair or bridge (or both), all sounds drowned by the thunder of the great falls that tumble to the valley floor far below.

Dominating the realm is a great house, placed at the top of a broad stairway and occupying a large stone-flagged square. Climbing the stairs towards it, visitors are greeted by the sound of harp music, the house itself a place of meeting, feasting, music, and seeing – a basin of water mindful of the one that once belonged to Galadriel sits within it, light glittering above its slowly shimmering water as it appears to wait its time to reveal the future to those who look into it.

More steps rise upwards from one side of the house, climbing to where a great stone edifice rises, curtains of water falling from some of its buttresses in time to the falls behind it. A single span of stone reaches across the pool that collects this water to reach the centre of the structure. This is home to a tall carven figure, undoubtedly Varda Elentári, known to the Sindarin as Elbereth Gilthoniel, as she holds aloft the vessels holding the light silver and gold light of the corrupted Two Trees of Valinor in vessels fashioned by Manwe and Aulë, that they might become the Sun and Moon of Middle Earth.

Firith Galad, November 2021

Elsewhere within the setting, one might find a meeting place, its horseshoe table doubtless the place of many councils and meetings of fellowships, while across a bridge from the arrival point and its gazebo stands a smaller hall, given over a place of learning / research / study, albeit one with furnishing that are perhaps of distinctly “Mannish” origins in difference to the furniture to be found elsewhere. Then, between this library and the main house there can be found a stone pavilion in which water drops from the high roof to enter a rectangular pool at the pavilion’s centre, what appears to the face of Ulmo, Lord of Waters, and second to Manwe and Elbereth in leadership of the Valar.

With a richness of trees and greenery as befitting the Sindar, who also settled in the forests of Middle Earth during the Second Age, Firith Galad is one of the well-executed settings drawn from Tolkien’s mythology. The attention to detail in referencing The Silmarillion far more than The Lord of the Rings, gives this setting a uniqueness that is hard to deny, and which is a delight to visit and spend time within for any Tolkienite. And even if your interest doesn’t run so deep, Firith Galad is nevertheless captivating in its presentation and sheer photogenic nature.

Firith Galad, November 2021

My utter respect to Camila for her work with this 80-days build.

SLuel Details

A fond “farewell” to our favourite Second Life Gridbun

Posted on by Inara Pey
April Linden’s info page in the SL17B “Meet the Lindens” campaign designed to provide SL residents with short profiles on 47 Lab employees who volunteered to take part. Image courtesy of Linden Lab

November 5th 2021 finds me an unhappy / happy bunny Second Life bunny supporter.

Unhappy, because the day marks the last working day April Linden has with Linden Lab, and the grid will be the poorer for her departure. Happy, because the day marks the start of a new chapter in her life and career.

For those (can there be any?) unfamiliar with April, she has, for the last seven years, been a member of the Lab’s Engineering Team, the group of engineers responsible for keeping the servers that run all of SL’s various services purring (or grinding) along.

For the last few years she has been managing that entire team – and has used that position to keep Second Life users informed of all that goes on – the good and the bad – with SL’s servers and systems. In this regard, she has been our Number One Gridbun – so called because of her instantly-recognisable purple bunny avatar.

I’m the manager of the Second Life Operations team! It’s my team that helps keep the servers that run Second Life running. It’s my job to make sure they’re well fed, have the coolest toys, and know that going on vacation is okay!

– April Linden, in her official profile

With some 20 years experience in systems engineering environments, April was one of the many Lab employees who came to the company by way of first being a resident user of Second Life. Her attraction to the platform came via the empowerment it gives people to express themselves positively in a variety of ways. For April this was both the freedom to create (she had her own regions as a user), and – perhaps more importantly – because Second Life gave her the opportunity to undertake self-exploration in a safe, open environment without fear of repercussion, as she noted in 2018:

I come from a background – well, I’ll just be frank, where LGBT issues were not to be discussed, and it was through Second Life that gave me the power and the anonymity and the courage, really, to learn more about myself. And Second Life gave me the power to make my life so much better.

– April Linden

In this respect, April is a living example of the Lab’s recognition and support of people’s right to positively express themselves within an environment that embraces diversity.

April probably came to the notice of many Second Life users through her informative and insightful blog posts that would explain What Went Wrong and Why (what I call her W4 blog posts) after significant issues.

The bunny and the wizard: April Linden poses with her former boss, Oz Linden for an SL16B  session

Reporting on technical issues and resolution had always been somewhat spotty where the Lab was concerned.  During the “old, old” days of the Second Life website and blog, updates were fairly frequent – potentially due to the need for “Black Wednesdays”, when the grid would be down for between 6 and 8 hours on that day for deployment purposes (and often longer if things did go sideways). However, some time around 2008/9, communications became somewhat splotchy across the board, and technical updates a rate thing. Frank Ambrose (F.J. Linden) attempted to reverse this, up until his departure from the Lab at the end of 2011, but it was not until April took up the mantle once more that we were given informative and engaging blog posts on W4 situations.

And I really do mean informative and engaging – April has a way with words coupled with a deep understanding of the hardware and architecture running Second Life that she could communicate what had happened and what had been done to both rectify a situation and to try to prevent its recurrence in a way that many, many, users came to appreciate. So much so that, after particularly disruptive events, the first question that tended to be asked at User Group meetings tended to be, “Will April be blogging about what happened?”

In this respect, April did much to follow through on the re-opening of Lab / user communications initiated by Ebbe Altberg after he took over as the company’s CEO, and helped give users the confidence that communications really were opening up after a noticeable period without them.

April’s farewell announcement

Most recently, April has been key to leading the Engineering Team through out Project Uplift – the work to lift, transition and place all of SL’s complex systems and services from a dedicated operational environment and into “the cloud” and Amazon AWS hardware and infrastructure. With the completion of the physical moves, she and her team have been engaged in the post-uplift work to better bed systems into their new environment and leverage new monitoring and engineering capabilities offered by AWS.

April announced her departure via Twitter, and the news was immediately responded to with a wave of well-wishing mixed with regret at see her leave the Lab. And it its true, April will be missed – not just because of her blog posts, but also because of her bright outlook and irrepressible positivity.  Whoever takes over from her has some awfully big (bunny) shoes to fill.

To April, I can only repeat what I said in my own reply to her tweet – that I wish her every success with her new career path and all the very best for the future. BUT – I’m not going to say “goodbye”, as I’m absolutely sure that she’s find the time to remain a part of Second Life as an active resident.

An Accidental No Exit in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – No Exit

No Exit is the title of the latest 2D art exhibition hosted by Dido Haas at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. It features the images and words of Milena Carbone, and is very much something of an “accidental” exhibition which still nevertheless offers food for thought – something Milena is prone to do with her art.

I’ll let Dido explain why No Exit might be considered an “accidental” exhibit:

[Milena] initially intended to work on a totally different project. However, this was cancelled due to her RL work as well as to her lack of motivation. So the images shown at the walls of the gallery this month were not created for an exhibition. Instead they were taken from the stream of images which Milena regularly produces for herself.
I made the selection and pointed out to Milena that there were always two characters in each image, .which made Milena think of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “No exit” (“Huis clos” in French). And voila the title for this exhibition was born.

– Dido Haas, explaining the origins of No Exit

The connection between Satre and images is important to understand, because – as if so often the case with Milena’s work, there is a philosophical theme running through No Exit that invites consideration and, by nature of the framing of the play’s own central theme.

The title of the play actual comes from the French legal term “in camera”, denoting a private discussion behind closed doors; within it, three deceased people find themselves trapped in a room with no exit, doomed to face eternity with only one another’s company. Thus they are faced with Satre’s truth that “hell is other people” (L’enfer, c’est les autres), itself a reflection of his fascination with existentialism (perhaps most notably through L’Être et le néant), and of the internal struggle that arises when forced to view oneself from both the point of view (that is solely from how they see you in a particular moment) and the perspective (i.e. how they perceive you and your actions within the broader context of their own cultural and societal influences and personal biases / experiences) of another consciousness.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – No Exit

However, before delving into these deeper themes,  I would emphasise that these are images that can be seen and appreciated entirely in their own right and free from any more layer thinking. In fact, I would say they should be seen in this manner before being contextualised within the broader scope of theme and Satre’s world of ontological thinking; there is a beautiful minimalism to every piece that renders it fully as moment of narrative, encouraging us to freely construct a story around it, or to simply appreciate its form, tone, framing and expression.

When Milena’s theme and Satre’s ideas are taken into consideration, these are images that taken on an entirely new depth. Take, for example, XXI Century. On the surface, a simple image of two women with different cultural heritages posing for a photograph – be they friends or relatives, it makes no difference. But, add the title of the piece into the equation, together with the fact one of the women is wearing an al-amira, and a more complex narrative emerges, that invokes thoughts of the manner in which during the first 21 years of the 21st century has continued to see the impact of “otherism” – the ostracising of those whose dress, system of belief and place of origin mark them as “different” and thus not to be trusted or allowed. It’s a negative attitude that has gripped many to the point of being without any exit; yet, were they to step outside of the strictures of peer / societal pressure, then the reality that we are all of one, single unique race would become that much harder to ignore.

Elsewhere, the questioning of self, and other others see is more direct (e.g. within Difference, Asymmetry, and The Invitation (the latter’s use of Black and white being particularly effective in bringing for the idea of differencing outlooks / perspectives that challenge our own). Whilst 7 Billion Bullets most clearly questions our entire attitude towards the preciousness of an individual life.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – No Exit

This image also leans itself to the central cube that sits between the two arms of the exhibition hall. Apparently open from the outside, in stepping in, it becomes a closed room with no exit – a physical representation of the room from Huis clos. Here we are forced to confront the fact that we are all essentially locked in rooms of self – everything we see or experience generates our world-view, making us all, in essence selfish; the imprint of those around us, through their thoughts and actions, rightly or wrongly, shaping our own views and outlooks, thus trapping us in our own hell of thought and convictions.

The words here carry both a startling reality of creating our own hell and – conversely – of allowing ourselves to become trapped in thinking that encourages us to retain that hell. The former is most succinctly stated through the commentary that global ammunition production means that each year, sufficient bullets are produced to wipe out all of humanity. Whether or not one is rooted in “the right to bear arms”, this is a grotesque factoid.; how much better might it be if the money poured into arms and ammunition were to be devoted to green sources of energy, improved food production, medicine and education?

Conversely, the fact that we are trapped within this one world is not an argument against attempting to expand elsewhere. For one thing, we are a naturally expansive race – and right now, we have nowhere else to go – a point of increasing concern given Earth’s finite resources. More to the point, space has more than anything else, given us the means to truly understand the fragility of this world and to actually start to take constructive (if limited) action to curtail damaging activities. For 60+ years, we have simply failed to more properly respond to what as been revealed, trapped as we have become in a materialistic, selfish need to have with no apparent exit – and pointing the finger of blame to a billionaire or two isn’t going to change (much less reverse) that; we – you, me, Milena, et al, are equally as guilty.

Milena is, I understand, absent from Second Life due to those physical world commitments mentioned above, and is liable to remain so for a while. As such, whether or not you are drawn to the philosophical / ontological expressions found with No Exit, or if you would simply like to again experience the attractiveness of her art for its own sake, this is an exhibition well worth witnessing.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – No Exit

SLURL DETAILS

2021 Content Creation User Group week #44 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
L2 Studio and LLOOQ Gallery, July 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, November 4th 2021 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, etc, are are available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

AVAILABLE VIEWERS

This list reflects those viewers available via Linden Lab.

  • Release viewer: version version 6.4.23.564172, formerly the Apple Notarisation Fix RC viewer, issued September 24 and promoted October 15.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • 360 Snapshot RC viewer, version 6.5.0.564863, issued October 21.
    • Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.5.0.564805, on October 20.
    • Simplified Cache RC viewer, version 6.4.23.562623, dated September 17, issued September 20.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Improvements project viewer, version 6.4.23.564530, dated October 12.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.4.23.562614, issued September 1.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

Graphics Work

  • As has been previously reported in my user group meeting summaries, a core focus of work at the Lab is on performance improvements, both on the back-end and in the viewer.
  • With the viewer, the work is very much on improving graphics / frame rate performance (utilising the Tracy analyser). Much of this work has been to move non-rendering operations currently in the main rendering thread to their own / other threads.
    • In October, the first cut of a project viewer featuring the fruits of this work was issue (see Performance Improvements Viewer in the list above), and an update to this viewer is expected in the next working day or so.
    • Once the updated version of the viewer is available, users are encouraged to take it for a test and see if they can see improvements in rendering / FPS rates.
  • Overall, the Graphics team plan to spend around two more weeks in general performance updates. before the work will shift to stabilising the changes so far made to the viewer (which has been acknowledged as being “crashy” at this point in time).
  • Once the stabilisation work has been completed, the hope is that the viewer will be in a position to progress forward through the RC cycle to enter the queue for promotion to release status around the the end of the year, with actual promotion coming in early 2022.
  • Separate to the above, Runitai is currently working on the fork of the render pipe inside the avatar draw pool that handles the rendering of avatar rigged meshes. The aim is to move this work to the same machinery that handles the other draw pools, and so hopefully enable rigged mesh rendering to be handled on a batch basis, rather than one face at a time as is currently the case, thus giving a potentially substantial performance boost.

In Brief

  • WRT to performance, it was pointed out that the baseline hardware specifications LL give for Second Life are route in hardware between 10-15 years old, and so many users tend to stick to outdated hardware. Thus the situation is somewhat double-edged: ending support for older systems would allow LL to focus more on updating and improving SL to run on more recent hardware; however, by the same measure, it risks “locking out” users who may be unable to move on to more recent hardware in order to stay reasonably “current”.
  • Work is still in progress trying to overcome the Apple Notarisation / media issues and outlined here. Part of the problem was the result of LL using a very old VLC. However, getting a new VLC to be recognised by the notarisation process is also proving problematic.
  • A request was made to all region owners to be able to automatically drop a general information package on preferred viewer settings, etc., on users arriving in a region. Given automated notecard givers can already do this, and many of the “recommendations” are completely over the top for many systems (e.g. “set your graphics to Ultra, enable shadows and set your draw distance to 500+ m”), no advantage is seen in providing  a capability to provide this information (presumably via a chat channel).
  • Similarly, pro-actively scanning viewer settings using LSL as visitors arrive and “advising” them about the recommended settings for a region should some of their own be “below” the recommendation, was also seen as not particularly advantageous unless it was somehow made an opt-in capability that those who do wish to receive such information can do so.
  • It is recognised that Pathfinding is overdue for some improvements, and it *might* be that it gets looked at in the future; however there are no definite plans beyond considering what might be done, and poking at feature requests, etc., that have been filed for Pathfinding.

A Daydream Believer in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Daydream Believer, November 2021

With Halloween now behind us, many in Second Life will be looking towards US Thanksgiving as it sits waiting at the end November 2021. However, being from Europe, Janna Reed (Janna Blackwood) has understandably decided to skip over that particular event and jump straight into an end-of-year winter setting within her Homestead region.

Daydreamer Believer is an easy-going and understated setting where winter has draped a blanket of snow over the landscape as it sits cupped in the protective hands of surrounding peaks. With broad lowlands that are marked by scattered trees, a small cottage, and cut through by a frozen inlet, the island is marked by two tall hills towards its centre, each neatly sliced into a flat top. Each is also topped by a single structure – an old wooden lighthouse on one, and an almost fairy tale-like tower where Christmas presents are piled within the lower halls and a cosy bed awaits on the upper.

Daydream Believer, November 2021 – click any image for full size

The two hilltops are connected via a bridge that offers its own sense of fantasy, being held aloft by balloons. Whilst it crosses the gap from one hilltop to the other, and sits just outside the door to the tower, the bridge doesn’t provide direct access to the lighthouse on its far side. This sits elevated above bridge and path on a heel of almost completely vertical rock. However, the path from the bridge does provide access to a high cavern and a possible escape from the snow – although it is not without its own surprise.

Running from west to east, the inlet that cuts deeply into the island in a small band of land that prevents it from entirely cutting the land in two. This humpbacked band forms the backdrop for the region’s landing point as it sits on the frozen water. Close by is the first clue to this being something of an interactive environment: a skating stand for couples awaits those who wish to use it. Those visiting on their own can also join the fun via a skate giver located close by, between frozen inlet and a small staking rink. Group membership is required for the skates, but also gives rez rights; however, if you have your own, you can of course wear them.

Daydream Believer, November 2021

A short walk south and west from the landing point and rink, the land rises slightly in the lee of the central hills. Here, two snow forts face one another across the snowy ground, each complete with a snowball-firing canon, allowing for fun and games to be had. Both could do with sitting a little better on the ground, but can be used by sitting on them and then following the the instructions in local chat. As well is these forts and the skating, the region also offers opportunities for riding either via horse (there is a rezzer at the cottage) or polar bear, a number of which can be found around the region.

Given this is a winter setting, Daydream Believer would not be complete without some form of winter sports, and those exploring the region can find a couple of options available to them. The first is a snowboard rezzer waiting at the far end of the ski lifts that connects two low-lying hills tucked into the north-east corner of the region, whilst the second – a sledge rezzer – sits on the snowy plain separating the ski lift’s hills from their much higher brethren. Finally, for those who fancy an airborne look at the region, a bubble rezzer can be found close to the one for snowboards.

Daydream Believer, November 2021

Also awaiting discovery are numerous places to sit, both indoors (the cottage and hilltop tower are open to the public) and out, most with singles and couples options.  Those seeking respite from the slowly falling snow are best heading for the cottage or the open-sided pavilion, each of which has a roaring fire  that allows toes suffering from walking the snows to be comfortably toasted back to warmth.  Even so, the snow might not be entirely left behind as flurries are close enough to the cottage they cab slightly slide inside as their mesh element turns. Said snow can also interfere with sitting in places, so be sure to cam carefully.

With deer, foxes, and penguins waiting to be found, the region offers plenty of wildlife to see, broadening opportunities for photography. As noted, those joining the local group also get rezzing rights for props etc., – but (as always) a gentle reminder to make sure you pick bits up when done!

Daydream Believer, November 2021

Gentle, relaxing and with a taste of winter that is not Christmas-heavy, Daydream Believer makes for an easy-going visit. With thanks to Shawn Shakespeare for the LM.

SLurl Details

November 2021 Web User Group summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby

The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021.

These meetings are generally held on the first Wednesday of the month, with dates and venue details available via the SL public calendar. A video of the meeting, courtesy of Pantera, can be found embedded at the end of this article (my thanks to her as always!), and the following is a summary of key topics / discussions.

Web Properties

  • Search: The front-end of search has been given a facelift which among other things, is designed to make web search returns easier to read. This should be deployed in the next couple of weeks.
    • Note that the actual search algorithm has not been altered at this point – so search results, relevancy, etc., should not change.
    • A further overhaul of search which does include tightening the algorithm and improving results / relevancy and general performance will be initiated in the New Year, and will apparently utilise third-party expertise external to LL in an attempt to get a “first class” search implementation.
  • Marketplace has continued to see bugs being fixed – although no specific details on which bugs.

SL Mobile

  • It was reiterated (as per Mojo Linden’s comments at the end of October TPVD meeting) that while development work has paused, LL are not “giving up” on a Mobile solution.
  • The pause is liable to last “a number of weeks”.
  • There is a “lot going in” and the Lab is “excited” about what will hopefully be forthcoming, and is very aware there has been a degree of disappointment that nothing has been publicly released thus far.

In Brief

  • Some MP store owners are stating they have seen between a 30% and 50% drop in sales in the latter half of October, LL start they have not seen anything to indicate an across-the board decline in MP sales volumes – in fact, they have seen the reverse.
  • The next batch of new Premium Last Names will be made available at Christmas.
  • Bug Questions – it was asked why the following were allowed to persist for “two weeks”:
    • BUG-231218 “Boolean search terms in Marketplace result in error page” – LL’s view is that the fix was available within a few days of the report being filed, and deployed shortly thereafter.
    • BUG-231307 “[Marketplace] – Favourite stores layout change now shows listings that are not active.” – again, a fix was developed relatively quickly, and is currently awaiting deployment.
  • A bug that results in 0 traffic reports for regions that have received visitors is not the result of any changes to the traffic count algorithm, but likely the result of the database that handles traffic having had some issues recently.
  • There have been complaints about MP listings / pages getting blocked by ad blockers. This is not something LL can control; those services providing ad blockers can change their own algorithms as they please, and LL cannot test for everything – a certain about of action on the users’ side will always be required.
  • New Starter Avatars: although outside the scope the Web Team, it was reiterated that this is something under discussion, but not something liable to be surfaced in the immediate future.

LL / Zenescope / Epik / NFT Sweepstake

Also not the responsibility of the Web Team but Brett Linden, VP of Marketing was present at the meeting an commented on the recent NFT sweepstake, run in conjunction with Zenescope and Epik (see:  Zenescope x Second Life NFT Sweepstakes Official Rules).

  • LL are very aware of the response,
  • The company had and is looking at the whole NFT situation “guardedly”,
    • They are aware NFTs are polarising.
    • LL has received multiple requests to partner with others to offer NFTs, but outside of the sweepstake have thus far “avoided every single one”.
    • As a whole, LL have “no plans” to get into the “NFT business” itself; the sweepstake was purely a cross-platform / partnership promotion, apparently in part to try to call attention to SL / LL given the general “metaverse” hype that is going on.
  • In terms of Zenescope itself:
    • It was re-iterated that this is a licensed deal, of which the NFTs offered through the sweepstake do not form a central part.
    • However, Epik (outside of their EpikPrime marketplace) is the agency handling the IP for Zenescope to market virtual goods, etc., thought their presence in SL.
    • In terms of the Zenescope Metaverse, further roll-outs of content, etc., to enhance the experience will be made in due course.
  • The end of the meeting includes a brief discussion on the Facebook / Meta name change and what it might mean for Second Life / LL (particularly the concern – also raised at the TPVD meeting on October 29th – that Facebook might buy Linden Lab, something to which my personal view is simply, “no, they won’t”; something I may elaborate on in a future post) and “metaverse” hype in general.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, December 8th, 14:00 SLT, with a core subject of Place Pages.