Today at the Virtual Worlds London Convention one of the panel members - don’t ask me _which one, RaR took home my Smarties and ate my notes - mentioned that a great story line - be it a television series, a game or something else - should have the power to make you cry, emotionally involve you. I must say, I did not stumble over such content in Second Life yet. Except for our virtual roaches maybe. Aurakyo Insoo’s Viva la Vida might be one of the first virtual world art works that has such a huge influence on avatars and the humans watching over their shoulders.

Go take a look at the original size!

A Tribute to Life

Viva la Vida - a tribute to life, as creator AuraKyo Insoo puts it - is a sequenced performance, taking up a complete (Rezzable) sim. As part of the Visions project, where artists get the chance and scripting-, promo- and whatever-else-they-need-support to port their virtual artistic vision to a whole-sim-build, AuraKyo created an engaging pathway through birth, life, suffering, death and in the end, salvation. Containing tons of little secrets, symbols such as a giant ark, a sound excerpts, compelling images, ups and downs, and things to click - hear, hear, Prok! - this ‘virtual ride’ with Miss Insoo as your guide is something that will definitely not disappoint you. If you have a mind willing and/or capable to think about what it sees & experiences, that is.

In this performance I want to tell what I feel with humility, because I believe that we must do something by the suffering of others and this world that dissolves in fragments. I really hope that you can live a beautiful moment of your life here. “Come on, the Ark will start the trip!” True the exhibition it becomes very clear AuraKyo Insoo is not a native English speaker, but rather than taking away from the experience, it adds to it, making it more easy to get to the essence of what she wants to share with us, in the mean while leaving some of the interpretation of her words & sentences to the audience, forcing our - sometimes tired brains - to think.

Visiting Viva La Vida

I advise taking some friends - or even complete strangers - along on your visit of this celebration of life, because you are bound to stumble over, into and under things, which will make you go ‘huh?’ and where you will want to consult others on what they think it means. I took Loaf and Roxette, whom made excellent companions! ;)

AuraKyo Insoo stipulated some rules - that make lots of sense, btw! - for photography/machinima which you should read before visiting: All the content of this installation has copyright reserved, that means that you can take photographs and video and show them only if you mentioned the creator and the place, but you can not manipulate and sell them because this is a non commercial creation. Thanks for understanding. For more information see: DMCA Copyright Legislation.

Of course you need to know, where the exhibition is. Rezzable 10 is your virtual world destination to teleport to! ;)

Thanking AuraKyo for her Viva La Vida

If you appreciate AuraKyo’s work of art - 100% guaranteed you will - make sure to leave a small - or huge - donation in her tip jar. I’ll add a little non-L$ donation to that. As her Viva La Vida inspired me to make my own interpretation of her work by adding some image & pixel manipulation, I return to her the idea & result that originally belong to her. I ’shot’ the snapshot above, but by this transfer all rights to the full, giant version go to AuraKyo (& corresponding human). It’s all hers now, to do with as she pleases. Does that make sense as a ‘thank you’?

PS. I’m not including much pictures, although Viva la Vida is definitely worth taking them. It’s my opinion you should see & experience this yourself!

PPS. Credits go to Madame Maracas and Ana Lutetia for helping me with the title of this blogpost! ;) The other optional title I had in mind was: ‘This is what Second Life was created for’.

PPPS. I left a secret behind when visiting the ark. Guess which is mine?

Tags: aurakyo insoo, rezzable, SLart, virtual art, viva la vida
Categories: Art, Rezzable, Second Life
1 Comment »

Already a while ago, someone proclaimed ‘virtual winter’ ahead. Well, probably, lots of people proclaimed that in the last few months, and even more probably, those were exact the same people that predicted Second Life would be the next internet a few years ago. And now even the CEO of the Electric Sheep joins in with some predictions of Virtual Doom. Mr Verbeck this our Real Life recession will lead to amongst others: Elimination of at least 80% of Virtual World advertising, marketing, and sponsorship efforts, Kids’ Worlds will Continue to Grow at a Healthy Rate and Many Startups Will Fail. Can we conclude from that Second Life opens it’s borders & lets the teens & kids unto the Main Grid, we’ll get through this virtual drinking hot chocolate, unwrapping gifts & new features and wishing each other a great 2009? Or aren’t things that simple? ;)

In the mean while, Lindens communicated (!!!!) with AFP and said the real life recession is not influencing - which is probably Second Life’s trump card - our virtual economy:

PARIS (AFP) — In contrast with the turmoil rattling global financial markets, it’s all smooth sailing in the virtual economy of Second Life, the California-based creators of the Internet-based universe said Wednesday.

“Despite the chaos in the world’s economies, lead indicators for the Second Life economy remain strong” said John Zdanowski, financial director of Linden Lab, which set up Second Life in 2003.

“Second Life as a whole has been so far unaffected by the recent turmoil in real world markets,” he added in a written response to AFP.

The exchange rate of the Linden dollar to the US dollar had remained stable, he said, as had trading on the LindeX exchange.

The commercial online world, in which people are represented by animated avatars and can do everything from social activities to shopping, has attracted more than 10 million subscribers, though only five percent are considered active users.

Is this denial? The kind of denial that makes that during wintertime, you go outside in just a tshirt, which is rather fun, until you end up suffering pneumonia? Probably. More discussion on the real life crisis and it’s influence on Virtual Worlds in general at Terra Nova. There, some interesting ‘bank game run’ scenario’s are mentioned:

1. People attempting to liquidate all their virtual assets - this includes L$ in Second Life’s case - at once (this would include the black market sites or under-the-table deals). Theoretically, this might equate to massive deflation (following temporary hyper-inflation)but, in game terms, would effectively strip the games of value.
2. People quit paying their monthly fee. Again, in theoretic terms this would be similar to production (or investment?) shutting down but in reality would be a run situation once panic sets in. That’s the key, I think, not the institutional aspects of a bank but the panic aspect of a run. (For SL, I think most people already stopped paying their monthly fee.)

Gaia’s CEO expects the opposite to happen: “As the ‘real world’ gets worse, virtual worlds get better,” Gaia CEO Craig Sherman told Forbes.com. “As things get worse, people spend more time at movies or spend more time on a site like Gaia Online, which provides a relatively inexpensive respite from the offline world.”

The boss recently blogged a Top 10 Cool things about Second Life* - for which he head to admit there were more then would fit a top 10 list - as well as a Top 10 List of Things that Need Urgent Fixture if Second Life wishes to have a meaningful future and wants to keep is place as #1 Real Virtual World. Both are highly commented, and everybody has it’s own opinion.

With so many different opinions floating about, the panel discussions at Virtual Worlds London surely promise to be interesting. Maybe even M’s speech will be about the future of Second Life, containing - hopefully - some concrete ideas about how that future will look like. But let’s throw those facts & figures Lindens quarterly might or might not publish out of the virtual window, and take a look at what the ‘residents’ experience. Not the VC companies, not Lindens, but those ’smaller’ one person (multiple avie? ;)) based companies: a single person making it’s living in Second Life selling skins, another person paying it’s rent by what he or she produces in Second Life, and even those only making a few extra bucks inSL. Did your revenue go up or down? And for the rest of us, do you spend more or less inSL than let’s say a year ago?

Why the SLex goods/services vs. non slex goods/services? I felt like it. That and they say sex is of all times & cultures, regardless financial crisis or not. ;) Also mind that, other things could be influencing more or less sales. I am selling less than I did a year ago, but that’s because I don’t produce new in-world products any more, and spend 0 time promoting the old ones I have. If you feel the need to give more information with your vote, feel free to do so in the comments!

And your opinion about the SLeconomy in general:

Again, share your further thoughts on this in the comments, please!

Tags: linden dollar, SLeconomy, virtual worlds
Categories: Second Life
5 Comments »

Beautiful, isn’t it? Innocent but passionate, lovely but a bit macabre, fascinating and bewitching, cute but with a sick twist.. I don’t know how to exactly describe the avatar and matching accessories Four Yip created as a gift for Passions of Crimson Shadow, and named ‘Lune-atic Yipsie’. It’s quite a complete set which contains a skin - based on Eloh Eliot’s skins -, shape, horns with or without candles, astonishing detailed red hair which you can wear with bats and flowers as well as without, a body skinsuit and a scarf made of rats. Accessoires include the table, chair & teddy bear to pose, as well as a backdrop with moon and apple to kneel down for. Lune-atic Yipsie hides under the table and sings, in a state of sleepwalking. Four Yip suggest you rezz her nightmare, so it becomes yours. Mind that this proves that nightmares can be beauty.

This astonishing ensemble of avatar & accessories - as far as you can call a table, chair and moon accessories - is freely available starting October 18th, after the invite-only fashion show, at the Crimson Shadow sim. Update: Instructions how to get to this stunning Freebie on the Rezzable Blog. Passions of Crimson Shadow surely got to Four Yip! ;)

(For people who heard rumours about Vint naked artfully nude on top and under a table, this is it. Another photograph, taken by the wonderful - and Belgian - SL ‘photographess’ Kynne.)

Tags: avatar, crimson shadow, fashion, four yip, photography
Categories: Art, Fashion, Second Life
1 Comment »

Continuing the search for great machinima’s 2008 there’s ‘Carnival of Doom - Noobs Welcome’ filmed by PG Broadbent from Ididthisfilm.com. PG ((with some aid from his human Pier Giorgio Provenzano) shot this movie for Rezzable’s - which is, yes, my employee - ‘15 fps of Fame’ series. Regardless if they pay me or not - of course, I prefer that they do - this film definitely deserves a mention as notable Second Life machinima production 2008: Story line is fun, sound overlay is awesome - watch out for the cutting knife sound - and then there’s the exellent ‘noob’ performance by Miss Lokum Shilova. Starring more than 10 avatars in total, such as there are Griete Rasmuson, Vampires Bulloch and Pie Darkstone, and a whole lot of freaky carnival folks, puppets on strings and one innocent noob, this is definitely one to watch (over and over again)!

If you want to enjoy this one in better quality - and of course you do - click ‘watch in high quality’ on the youtube page, or (in) even better (quality) check the whole ‘15 FPS of Fame’ series out at rezzable.com/machinima.

Carnival of Doom is one of the Rezzable sims that make me really go ‘woooow!’ skilfully prim-tortured and assembled by Beatrix Newt, it’s a delicacy for the eye and snapshot function! And then I’m not even mentioning the fun carnival games, hell and the freaky but oh-so sexy (ok, except for the evil clowns maybe) fashion & costume possibilities you find there. Follow the TP to go there. Not convinced yet? See this:

Tags: 15 FPS of fame, carnival of doom, lokum shilova, machinima, PG broadbent, rezzable
Categories: Art, Fashion, Rezzable, Second Life
1 Comment »

How would you like to be remembered?

More and more people are leaving ‘orders’ for their real life memorial service / funeral, be it with friends or in a will. I remember that when we were 16, my friends and I had a list of songs that just had to be played at the funeral, and person that should certainly - or absolutely not - receive an invitation to the service. There have been some ‘memorable‘ gatherings in Second Life as to honour persons - their human as well as their avatar - who passed away. I was wondering, if something should happen to my human self, would someone organise an in-world memorial service for her & Vint, and what should it be like? Some thoughts:

1. Free red prim hair for everyone!
2. Speeches by Veyron & Tiessa, please.
3. ‘Best & worst of Vint’ photographs on display. Certainly include this, this and this one.
4. No voice, so all friends & acquaintances can attend comfortably.
5. Readings Typings from vintfalken.com. ;)
6. Stream compiled from my ‘Top Charts’ / ‘Loved Songs’ at last.fm.
7. Dresscode: greyscale.
8. Cute pink prim coffin, carried by Greenies, with a particle ‘vapour’ hoovering over it to represent the avatar soul.
9. ..

And you? Any special wishes? And how would you like to be remembered? A cute neko with big mouth and some useful tutorials would do fine for me! ;)

Tags: death, memorial service, rant, real life, second life
Categories: Rant, Second Life, Vint Falken
9 Comments »

Remember how every atomic financial newspaper had a blast when our banks & stock exchange failed and the Second Life economy got a serious hit? ‘Second Life residents lost savings’, ‘Virtual economy is a scam’, … . I can’t recall if back then any of them wrote that this should serve as a warning for the humans. We could almost say ‘look who’s laughing now’, that is, if we were not highly depending on our humans’ financial statuses. Anyway, the conclusion is that our real life money is probably just as virtual and vapourish as those ‘Linden Dollars’ of which atomics always claim it has no real value. So, guess SL is a great ‘testing ground’ for - fairly important - RL stuff after all? Anyway, thought my virtual banking image needed a quick update:

Tags: linden dollar, real life, SLeconomy
Categories: Rant
3 Comments »

Peter Stindberg opened a new JIRA (What’s JIRA & how to vote?) issue, VWR-9597 ‘Optional text for payments to show up in transaction history’, which is a suggestion to Lindens to add the following functionality to our SLives & transaction history:

1. An extra input field in the ‘Pay Dialogue’ where one can add the ‘reason’ for the payment. Where this information is entered, it will show up in the transaction history in stead of the vague ‘gift’. Now avatar to avatar L$ transactions show up in the history as ‘gift’. However when buying services, paying staff or other non-vendor transactions, it might be good to know what the payment was actually made for.
2. llGiveMoney(key destination, integer amount) could get an optional 3rd string parameter with the subject/description line as well. That way we could thus get rid of the “Object pays” nuisance in transaction histories.

An example* of how my transaction history would look like if implemented:

Good idea** by Peter or great idea***? ;)

* I just found out exactly _how_ easy it is to forge Second Life transaction history screenshot in photoshop. Font type: Verdana. Font size: 11px Font style: normal.
** In case of ‘good idea’, go vote for the ‘Optional text for payments to show up in transaction history’ JIRA issue. (How to vote on SL JIRA.)
** Great idea? Don’t just go vote, but encourage your friends to do so too! ;)

Tags: jira, second life, SLinovation, transaction history
Categories: Second Life
13 Comments »

Jira?! What JIRA is for.

Jira is a bowser-based bug, issue, task and defect tracking system, and project management software solution used for open source and enterprise projects. Lindens use it for internal communication on bugs & other issues, as well as for letting residents file bug reports, functionality suggestions and other issues. Residents can keep track of - part - of the project statuses, fixes and possible solutions and can even offer their own solutions for - SL related - problems and patches to the Second Life code.

How to vote on JIRA

Voting on the JIRA shows you suffer from the same bug, or wish the same functionality as is described in the JIRA issue. The more residents vote, the more likely the JIRA Issue is to jump to Linden’s attention. But votes are not a miracle worker, there is for instance on issue that has over 500 votes, and is still not fixed: SVC-2833 ‘More than 25 groups‘ has over 1300 votes now, but Lindens are not planning on changing that anywhere in the near future.

1. Go to your JIRA issue. ( https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/ISSUE-NUMBER )
2. In the upper right hand corner it says log in, click this.
3. Type in your full SL name, first_name last_name. (eg. Vint Falken) Enter your password. (This is a SL run site so your password is safe.) Click Login.
4. You should now be back at the original page.
5. On the left side bar, find the option that says Voting. Under that tab it says Vote for It. Click that!
6. You have now helped many people by helping move this issue closer to the attention of the Lindens. (And you get to see who also voted).

Other handy things to do on and to know about JIRA

Watching - Clicking ‘Watch it!’ will make you subscribe to email notifications whenever somebody adds a comment to this JIRA issue or changes it’s status, to ‘resolved’ for instance. Emails are delivered to the email address linked to your Second Life account.

Status - 3 different choices here: Bug (A problem which impairs or prevents the functions of the product.), Meta Issue (Describes a general category of problems rather than a specific problem) and New Feature (A new feature of the product, which has yet to be developed. We mainly use it for ‘we want more functionality! ;)).

Environment - If you are posting a ‘Bug’ JIRA issue or replying to one, it’s always interesting for your fellow residents & the Lindens to know what kind of system you are using, where you were at in SL, etc… . To easily retrieve that information, in the Second Life client, go to the following menu: ‘ Help > About Second Life ‘ and then you just copy paste the upper part. Example:

You are at 265018.2, 312549.6, 21.9 in Sierra Nevada located at sim3174.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.20.163:13001)
Second Life Server 1.24.9.98659
CPU: Intel Pentium III/Pentium III Xeon (0.25 micron process) with external L2 cache (2494 MHz)
Memory: 3070 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 9650M GS/PCI/SSE2
OpenGL Version: 2.1.2
LLMozLib Version: [LLMediaImplLLMozLib] - 2.01.18664 (Mozilla GRE version 1.8.1.13_0000000000)
Packets Lost: 0/4969 (0.0%)

If you suffer from a bug or have a great idea, and there is already an Issue for it on JIRA, don’t be afraid to speak up! Who knows, your system information or your suggestion might be exactly what Lindens - or your fellow residents - need to get it fixed/rolling! Happy JIRAing! ;)

Tags: how to, jira
Categories: SL Web Resources, Second Life
4 Comments »

Whilst the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe in London that had to take place *now* was cancelled due to ‘an unrelated incident at the venue in which a member of the public was shot’ and Virtual Worlds London is ‘upcoming’ October 21-22 (Boss speaking!), the ‘Second Life Business and Social Expo’ that will take place June 4-9, 2009 at Portland, Oregon is ready to accept track proposals. From SL-base.com (am I the only one thinking ‘all your base are belong to us’? ;)):

Join us in the City of Roses for the most comprehensive conference and exposition of Second Life. Two conferences in one, combining both the social and business elements of the fascinating world and citizenry that makes up Second Life. Five separate tracks each for business and social exploration and an exhibit floor with over 40 companies showing their Second Life.

Now Accepting Track Proposals: The volume of information and applications for and about Second Life are overwhelming. However, we have decided to focus on the following areas in each of the social and business days.

1. Business:Education, Business, Technology, Not For Profit and Sponsor Track.
2. Social: Machinma (film and TV), Art and Culture, In SL Business, Community and Technical.

To submit a proposal, send a synopsis including:

1. Topic and placement (eg. - Business, Education)
2. Format (Panel discussion, presentation, forum)
3. Relevance and backup

Tags: conference, real life, second life
Categories: Vint Falken
No Comments »

1. standard agreement for design related thingies - Ok, I could not remember the full title. But it’s a draft to start working from when making a ‘design’ agreement. Worth a read for those who charge RL money for SL ads, logo’s, … .
2. Designers developing virtual-reality ‘Cocoon’ - Telepresence Options - Looks sweet, no? Did Lindesn not (try to?) patent something like this? Anyway, I’m volunteer for testing once it comes into existence! ;)
3. visualcomplexity.com | Social Networks - Who says statistics can’t be beautiful? (Ok, me, normally, but when they get visualised - so no obvious maths on the surface - they sometimes become astonishing!)

Categories: Links
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