I think I am supposed to be seeing a black page right now, but I’m still seeing my blog. Just in case my blackout plugin never kicks in I’m leaving this here for your consideration.
I got a pleasant surprise today as I went to log back in to second life. I opened up the Second Life viewer to find an updated log in screen. It is certainly the epitome of modern web design. Rounded corners… check. Large image-rich features section…check. Lots of featured destinations. Awesome. An upcoming events and Linden Blog section. Cool. No more worries about people not seeing important updates.
I’m really excited and ready to get started.
If only there was a way to scroll down...
Hmm… Ok… I just need to get down to the log in section now and check some things out. Hmm… Ok… It seems that the log in screen is now below my toolbar, and I can’t actually get to it. Alrighty. If only there were a way to scroll down to the log in section. I guess I’ll try adjusting my screen resolution. Maybe that will help?
UPDATE: I adjusted my resolution and that gave me access to the log in screen. Apparently 1280 by 800 is no longer a good idea…at least not for the Mac client. If you’re seeing something that looks like the image above, push your resolution to 1440 by 900. That should get you all set.
The Free Town of Helvellyn
Indigo Mertel uploaded some amazing images of the Free Town of Helvellyn to the Mainland Renaissance Project group on Koinup. One look and I knew I’d found the perfect inaugural Mainland Renaissance Project feature for this blog.
The Free Town of Helvellyn is modeled after coastal towns in southern Europe. It is part of a larger community, known as the East River Community managed by a group with the same name. The entire area is quite beautiful and well worth paying a visit. The Free Town of Helvellyn was designed as an artist community and safe harbor for sailing vessels. A few more images follow. I highly recommend checking it out for yourself.
By the docks
Another riverside view
Visit the Free Town of Helvellyn here:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Helvellyn/38/152/31
Indigo Mertel’s shots of the Free Town of Helvellyn can be seen here:
http://www.koinup.com/IndigoMertel/work/93598/
http://www.koinup.com/IndigoMertel/work/93597/
Got Mainland recommendations of your own? Share them in the comments or share pictures at the Koinup group.
I will be showing off a few of my other favorite mainland finds and talking a bit about this project on the upcoming episode of Designing Worlds. Check it out for more Mainland magic.
crime scene chalk by miikkahoo, on Flickr
When I announced the Mainland Renaissance Project just over a week ago, I had a renewed optimism for Second Life and high hopes about doing something good for the mainland. Unfortunately I didn’t anticipate being locked out of my account the next day, and potentially losing my account, my land, my creations, and a part of my virtual identity altogether on October 26th unless the trouble ticket that I filed a week ago is dealt with quickly.
I’d like to apologize to anyone who has sent me any landmarks to check out for this project. Should I be allowed to return to Second Life, I fully intend to go forward with this project, even though it has now been a bit delayed.
Unfortunately I find myself in a position that is far too common with Linden Lab’s customer support, a sort of limbo where I’ve jumped through every hoop requested to correct a mistake that they partially share the blame for… and waited…wand waited…and waited. That is essentially the TL;DR version of the situation, but for those who are curious, I provide you with all of the sordid details (minus names and other identifying info of course)…
Around June of this year I became the victim of identity theft. An unauthorized charge from a driving school in England showed up on my bank statement from out of nowhere. Of course, when stuff like this happens, you immediately cancel the card, and get a new one issued. When the new card comes, you change all of your automatic debits over to the new card, and check to see if any of your automatic debits failed to go through in the mean time. I did all of those checks and after going through the process, nothing was showing up amiss (more on that later).
Apparently my $10 membership fee on June 20 didn’t actually go through. Between the time of the failed charge and October 15…
- Several charges for both tier and membership went through without issue.
- My account never reflected an outstanding balance.
- I received no email or other notification that I had an outstanding balance.
On October 15, having had no prior knowledge that anything was amiss, I found that my account was locked out, and that worse still my girlfriend had her account locked out for the crime of surfing from the same household and therefore having the same IP. Having no idea what was going on, I didn’t wind up putting in a ticket for the issue until Sunday October 16. As of Monday the 17th at the end of the day the ticket had not been touched. I made a call to Linden Lab, and was finally informed of what the issue was, but was given no easy way to take care of the issue while on the line. In fact I was told that I’d have to jump through many hoops to actually make arrangements to fix this, and repeated requests to speak with a manager that COULD fix the issue were denied. So I jumped through all of the hoops that evening and updated my ticket. That night I was informed on the ticket that I needed to update my billing information and then the bill would go through and the issue would be resolved. On October 18, I updated the requested billing information, made a note of it in the ticket, and I waited…and I waited…and I waited. Two other requests for updates to the ticket have been ignored. Here we are a week after my initial contact, 5 days after my last contact, and I remain in limbo.
This is really not the way to run a company.
Could this be the end of Nexus Burbclave? Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Just got some good news. The issue has been resolved, and I will be able to return in-world. I look forward to getting going on the Mainland Renaissance Project.
At the top of this article is a widget for the Koinup group Mainland Renaissance Project. This is the photo submission group for an in world/Web project of the same name that I am starting to celebrate the amazing things still happening on the mainland and to foster amazing public mainland uses of all sorts. As the name suggests, I believe Second Life is about due for a mainland renaissance.
Lets not mince words, there are lots of abandoned land and ban lines as far as the eye can see in much of the mainland. There are also builds that many will view as garish. Though here I respectfully disagree with the mainstream opinion. One person’s garish build is another person’s DIY paradise, an opportunity to create, build and learn. I enjoy the creative chaos of the mainland and love the fact that it isn’t all built to one person’s taste. I can practically guarantee that you will see builds that you hate on the mainland, but I also think that is partially the point of the mainland…learning to tolerate and even celebrate the diversity of aesthetics that make Second Life what it is. End mainland rant…
The mainland still has a lot going on that is worth sharing, promoting, and growing. That is the main point of this project that I am starting. Commercial, residential, parks, hangouts, what have you. All interesting publicly accessible mainland plots can be a part of this initiative. My goal is to create a directory of all such land and to promote some of the cooler plots here on this blog as well as in the koinup group. I am just getting started with this initiative so some of these goals will probably change over time and new ones may be added. What I need most right now are places to begin exploring. If you know of any publicly accessible mainland plots that you think should be promoted, please let me know, by submitting them in the comments, submitting a picture with a SLURL to the koinup group or even sending a notecard with a LM attached to Nexus Burbclave inworld.
It seems like everywhere you turn these days, there is another story about about old favorite sims that are closing or on the verge of doing so. In fact, New World Notes now has a sim deathwatch tag dedicated to this topic. This parallels what is happening outside of the confines of virtual space. I was shocked to find out that Borders books would be closing its doors and just found out that my favorite independent music store, Criminal Records is now caught in the cross-hairs of its own “sim deathwatch”. As much as I’d like to see Criminal Records saved, there probably isn’t much value to be found for them here on this little blog. Sim deathwatches, on the other hand, do fit the virtual theme here rather nicely.
Are things as bad as they seem? How big is the impact of the recession on Virtual Worlds. Is there anything that we can do to help save our favorite in-world locations and brands? What can location owners do to make their properties more recession-resistant if not recession-proof? “Adapt or die” is a common business adage. Is it possible to adapt when the changes are as rapid and severe as they seem to have been during this recession? I plan on going in-depth on some of these topics in upcoming posts. For now, I leave you with these questions, and would love to hear any thoughts that you have or survival tips that you would like to share in the comments.
6 foot 2, eyes of blue
I recently read an interesting discussion of scale in second life (tip of the hat to Tateru Nino for pointing it out). This argument did something that most arguments about size in Second Life don’t accomplish. It gave me things to actually think about regarding Scale Inworld. It was refreshing not having to read through an article that simultaneously recounted all of the ways that people of real life height are oppressed and called for some sort of forced resizing for all avatars, blind to their own hypocrisy. For once this was not just about avatars and actual human size. This article says something substantive regarding the scale of builds…something worth giving some serious thought.
I know that I will be rethinking my own builds as a result of this. I will probably attempt to make some builds that do fit “actual human scale”, but perhaps more importantly, I intend to tune my existing builds so that each build has exactly one scale that all items are built to, whether that scale is Average avatar height, average human height or something altogether different. I’ve also adopted a 6’2″ avatar to use as my primary avatar for the next month to walk a mile in the Real Height Avatar shoes and help me think about scale by giving me a new perspective from which to view it. This is just a tad taller than my RL height and roughly 6 to 8 inches shorter than my typical SL height.
If you are starting from the viewpoint that your own worldview should be compulsory, you’ve already lost me, even if I might otherwise be sympathetic to your cause. If you make some good points and give me something to think about, you might win yourself an ally, even if I don’t share your viewpoints 100%. I think this post accomplished that, and I’m going to try and practice mindful scaling going forward (though not always to real human height).
Possible in Real LIfe
Often people (particularly people with little or no virtual world experience) talk about virtual worlds as things that take away from real life, but I’ve found at least one real world hobby thanks to a hobby I picked up in Second Life.
This is a picture that I took with my digital camera from my parking lot, a captured moment that I owe at least in part to Second Life. When I was much younger, I took photos with a borrowed SLR camera for a time, but it was a hobby that I quickly moved on from.
X years later (where X is some number that I refuse to admit to) I discovered the joy of virtual worlds, the thrill of creating and enjoying other people’s creations. One thing I discovered very quickly is that builds in virtual worlds are ephemeral… “Here today, gone tomorrow” writ large. To preserve the memories of the niftier places that I found I got into Screen Caps. Because I was particularly interested in builds, seascapes and landscapes, my inworld hobby really took off when WindLight was introduced. At the same time that my collection of virtual photos started to build (it continues to build as I have stuck with my virtual hobby), I started thinking about getting a digital camera. I had recently started going on urban walkabouts to get some much needed exercise, and having the camera might give me an additional excuse to make those walks. I got myself a decent digital camera, and the plan has worked. I’ve been getting more exercise and taking lots of pictures. Hard as it may be to believe, I’m actually getting out more and getting more exercise thanks in part to Second Life.
I was hoping to add a brand new social option for those who interact with the digital world through pseudonyms if/when my invite ever arrives, but it looks like Google Plus is one option that I can’t recommend for avatars or others for whom their online identity is a nick name. Despite recommending that the name you use on the system should be one “that you commonly go by in daily life”, Google fails to recognize that people from many walks of life do go primarily by a pseudonym online. In other words that pseudonym is how they are commonly identified in their daily life. Actors, bloggers, pro gamers, Indie Game developers, role-players, whistle blowers and people with creepy stalker exes are just a few of the myriad of use-cases for pseudonyms. Screen names and nicknames are the Nome de Plume of the online world, and publishers knew better than to force their best-selling writers to use their real name. Why can’t at least one social network figure this out?
There are many people that I interact with that I know primarily or solely by their screen name/ nickname. Sure some people will know to look for Sean Plott if they are trying to connect with Day 9, or to look for Markus Persson if they are trying to connect with Notch. I suspect that many will simply give up though. And what about the Opensource Obscures of the world? These are people who have identities, identities that they “go by in daily life” even. Google of all companies should get this. Their search algorithms certainly seem to:
- Notch vs. Markus Persson.
- Day 9 vs. Sean Plott.
- Opensource Obscure: 39,000 results
- Botgirl Questi: 20,500 results
- Nexus Burbclave: 1,220 results (yes, I feel like a speck of dust in this list)
More info on the issue including a rather embarrassing case of a Google spokesperson being caught in a lie…err clarification…in this article by Hamlet Au.
Edit 8:10 EDT: I have finally gotten in to Google Plus and had a chance to check out the product. From a technical implementation standpoint, I am quite impressed and see a lot of potential, so while I can’t fully recommend Google Plus within the context of this post, I do think it deserves the same strong asterisk that facebook gets. Potentially useful, but requiring some compromises that may not work for you.
Note: The original article used a less accurate search method to arrive at the larger numbers that I first published. Per the suggestion by Opensource Obscure in the comments, I have updated those numbers using more accurate methods. I believe they still tell a compelling story.
Update 7/13: I have decided to add Google Plus to my list of social networking options, but it receives the same asterisk treatment that FaceBook does. It is a shame that they do not understand that all identities are constructs regardless of their legal certification.
My 30 Days of Creativity Calendar as seen from inworld
Last Month I participated in the 30 Days of Creativity Challenge. You are encouraged to create something, anything really, each day of the thirty. For most of the days, my projects involved virtual creations in Second Life. I did a couple of days worth of builds in Minecraft and took a break from Virtual Environments one day to capture a breathtaking sunset with my Camera. On the last day, I put together a web page of My 30 Days of Creativity for 2011.
One place that I frequented during this month of creativity was the Linden Endowment for the Arts Sandbox, a sandbox and self-curated gallery where I built and temporarily displayed several of my virtual creations (tip of the hat to Hamlet Au for mentioning this place on New World Notes). If you wish to pay the place a visit for yourself you can do so via http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA5/122/129/24 or read more about it here. I highly recommend it as an art focused sandbox, a place to display your creations, and a place to explore the creations of others.
There is something about sandbox environments that helps get my imagination working. Even the constraints of my available tools present their own creative opportunities. Indeed, I’ve often found that one of the fastest ways to get over creator’s block is to impose some sort of artificial constraints, rules that you will follow for a particular build. I plan on participating again next year, but I also don’t plan on waiting until next year to recapture my creative spark.
