20 August, 2011

somebody feels the knife and somebody calls the cops

From the SL Freebie Hunters blog, because Shadow recently switched from Phoenix (v.1-based) to Firestorm (v.2-based):
In all seriousness, tho, folks - I had been dreading making the switch, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was not as painful as I had feared. Certain elements blow, and blow badly, but overall I am finding that it loads much faster for me and puts less of a load on my computer than Phoenix did. Almost enough to compensate for the annoying things...such as light settings that don't hold from session to session, or losing all the changes to tabs and whatnot when I crash, oh, and lets not forget the apparent need to change all the icon images so that things in inventory take longer to figure out....not that I am complaining (overly much), Firestorm developers - I think you guys did a great job in trying to make V2 better.
Keeping in mind that I still can't use Firestorm, what I've heard from folks (with the exception of Fawkes, for whom using Firestorm is akin to asking a large, gruff man with dental problems to lean in close and pull out his fingernails slowly with a pair of rusty pliers) tends to reflect this: the structure itself of viewer 2 hurts people, but the Firestorm wrappings make it nearly bearable...save for all the nonsense in new places, the changes that make no sense, and the icon shifts.

Basically, outside of a few staunch adherents (Fawkes, some estate owners, most educators, and nearly all newcomer instructors among them), everyone I've spoken with about v.2 loathes it with the sort of shuddering disregard seen in staunch feminists towards pornography, or millenarian cultists towards anyone not in their particular cult. And I think most of us know now why that is: the Lindens contracted out, to a company who'd never played Second Life before, and didn't particularly care to learn. They put things where they felt they should go, changed things because they could, and held out their hands to get paid at the end of things, and rather than arguing, the Lindens simply paid.

And, despite many protests, both in and out of world, the Lindens aren't budging on this. So what's our best option to cope with this monstrosity being forced down our throats?

My initial choice was to try to adapt. That failed miserably. So I jumped to CoolVL, since I can't use most of the alternatives (and that's not won't, that's literally can't). Only now CoolVL is showing the strain. Namely:
  • at least one friend of mine who I convinced to use CoolVL has been unable to load her inventory fully past that date;
  • Alpha layers sometimes work, but usually don't;
  • on occasion after typing things on the chat bar, I cannot move unless I hit Escape to minimize the bar, and then I can only move with the W-A-S-D keys;
  • and there's one terrifying (literally) glitch that occurs in the Search function that I keep meaning to list on the CoolVL forums, but even there, I'm afraid that if it gets out, there's going to be a run on CoolVL by some really bad types we don't want to use CoolVL (and yeah, totally not kidding on that one; it's BAD)
I'm hoping that these problems will resolve themselves as Henri Beauchamp applies patches, but they're enough to get me to drop by the Imprudence blog again, and wait impatiently for an update there.

And back to the Escapist; at some point, gods willing, we will travel beyond the 10th!

knight steel:

Replace the word music with gaming.
We didn't donate for this drama we just wanted Alison to get well.
Can we get all the pride and butt hurt out of the way.
All this was due to miscommunication and both parties are at fault.
Is their
[sic] no way you can simply talk this out.
How about you pay for Alison surgery [if you haven't already]
Keep the pay they owe you and then give the escapist the money they want.
And if there any money left over give it to someplace like the red shield.
Please we love you both and don't want you to fight ^_^.


(Also, I should add a note on that--at the time of this writing, YouTubeVEVO seemed to be down, so I grabbed the acoustic version of the song. The original JessieJVEVO piece was linked in the forums, but wasn't loading for me.)

GoddyofAus: Wow, I've walked into a fire here.

Escapist, what the fuck is your problem? You went after Allisons donation money? Seriously? Have you sunk that low?

I would much like to hear Yahtzee's opinion of all this, but it's likely he's not willing to put his word in for fear of being sacked.


(Quoted solely because I really doubt we'll hear anything from Croshaw about this situation.)

xXSnowyXx:
From media

Jabberwock zeno: So, can somone post the emails in a place where people without a facebook can read them?

And in response to that, TypeSD said: They'll go up here.

So I spawned a new window, and...didn't find anything. At all. So I'll keep you posted for when those emails surface...which still isn't now. Disappointing.

On the plus side, that brings us to page 40! ...of 94. Ohgodsthisiseatingmyblog...

Uszi:
(from the media album)

For.I.Am.Mad: quoted Uszi and added this:
(from the media album)

Uszi came back a bit later and linked the Meet Yahtzee at PAX forum thread, for which this was the quotable gem for me:
de5gravity: I'd like to repost here a message from the rockethub comment page which I feel reflects my opinion completely.

"Frankly, it looks to me like you're jumping on the bandwagon of Extra Credits' success in gaining a huge donation for its artist's vital surgery. That was a good cause: there's no reason why a young woman should have to suffer when her fans could combine funds to help her. This seems rather ignoble by comparison. Don't get me wrong: I have donated to people trying to get to PAX in the past (namely, a very talented bunch of Mass Effect cosplayers who, following that exposure, have been hired by Bioware for physical special effects). But people like those are hardly in the same league in terms of money and available resources. Can Yahtzee really not afford to pay for himself - or can the Escapist not afford to send him by itself? Even if not, are we expected to believe that $20,000 is the sum required to send him? Ultimately, no one is forcing anyone to contribute. I get that. People will give if they want to, and won't if they don't. But I can't help feeling that the Escapist is trying to replicate the success of a noble endeavour simply to save themselves money on a normal expense. On the other hand, one last thought occurs to me. I recall that some rewards for making donations to the Extra Credits RocketHub page were Publisher's Club memberships. If these were donated by the Escapist to help Allison, then that reflects very well on the website - though I do wonder, if that incentive made many people donate for Allison's surgery, why isn't it repeated here? The rewards on offer for donations here are rather paltry by comparison to those for the Extra Credits initiative. Not that such things should ultimately be the main motivating factor in cases where a good charitable cause is the main purpose... But since this doesn't seem to be the case quite so much here, one would almost think that further incentives would be in order. Most puzzling. Well, ultimately, I can't claim to understand this move. All I can say is that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This does not, of course, reflect badly on anyone who chooses to donate, as each person is free to do with their money as they wish. By Siobhan Mooney"
But trust me, for the supremely interested, there's a lot of good "WTF, Escapist?" moments in that thread.

How'ver, back to August 10th! ...again. But wait--porn was detected (No, seriously--it was modded out nearly immediately, but caused some hue and cry over why it was posted in the first place)! Which caused quite a bit of controversy on its own, until Uszi posted this in response:

(from the main blog's album)

Yeah, pretty much. And the thread remained derailed for about a third of a page. Kudos to all the Escapist commenters, though, for pulling it back from what would have been, elsewhere, a complete loss of structural cohesion.

I picked up again nearly at the bottom of page 47, though, because of a Critical Miss comic someone posted.

Owyn_Merrilin: While reading the thread, I remembered a certain Critical Miss comic:

(from the media album; Copyright, All Rights Reserved, Cory Rydell and Grey Carter of Critical Miss)

I always thought Sharon was a thinly veiled parody of Susan, but this situation, coupled with this comic, pretty much confirms that if Sharon wasn't based on Susan, she was based on one of the other big wigs at Themis. Last night I was willing to hear what TE had to say, and I'm still willing to look at the e-mails when they get released, but this just isn't looking good for TE -- especially not after ECs rebuttal.

Wau. So I went looking.

Susan Arendt Throws Imps at PAX East 2011 // 1

This is the clearest image I was able to find, and--outside of the hair color--the hair style is dead on, so I may tend to agree, at least tenuously, that Sharon's character is at least influenced by Susan Arendt.

Which makes this Critical Miss comic extraordinarily relevant, if bitchy.

And--especially with all the graphics--that's about as long as I want this entry to get--more later. Unfortunately.

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hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...