and I dream of the sea, broken machinery

"We have found an unknown branch of the tree of life that lives in this lake. It is unique! So far we know of no other group of organisms that descend from closer to the roots of the tree of life than this species," study researcher Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, of the University of Oslo, in Norway, said in a statement.

Really amazing. And if new scientific advances prove out, they'll be able to cultivate already discovered strains of eukaryotes, and see if they fit this new discovery's pattern.

I came across this post yesterday, which is essentially an open letter to Wizards of the Coast, who are the current publishers of Dungeons & Dragons. And it's a really, really good letter--if you're interested in paper gaming, or even gaming as women in general, it's well worth the read.

But it started me thinking about portrayals of women in gaming, in general. For example:

(from the media album)

(You can see the huge version on Diq's wallpaper site, or you can see more examples of game art on Runes' official site.)

Push aside anything you might know about the game. What are you looking at? Gladiator on the left; wizard on the right; some sort of sorceress in the center. So how are they attired? The gladiator has full golden armor--full helm (with what looks like a dyed horsehair-brush crest), detailed cuirass and pauldrons, vambraces, relief-work tassets, cuisses, kneeguards shaped like the heads of lions in full roar, greaves, sabatons, a relief-work groinguard, and a circular wooden shield. Oh, and those silly little silk pieces fluttering from the groinguard.

Likely he also has a full chain hauberk--it's not visible, but we do see chain hose, so it's likely.

He's carrying at least a broadsword, though more likely a longsword--it looks long enough to qualify as a two-handed cavalry weapon, but this is a fantasy realm, so it's likely enchanted to make him capable of swinging it with one hand, on the ground.

On the right, some sort of court wizard. He's holding an orb of fire and a very ornate staff; there's no visible runes on his robes, but let's assume it has all that metalwork because metal's easy to enchant. He doesn't really need armor (and in many games, wearing armor actually drains a wizard's endurance, so it's in their best interest to ditch as much weight as possible), but he's got a hood to protect against inclement weather, a full robe to cover him in all conditions, and sturdy walking boots.

Which brings us to the sorceress. It could be an energy orb she's holding, or a charged ball of water waiting to be thrown at an enemy to distract or destroy. That doesn't so much matter as what else she's wearing--or not, as the case seems to be.

This is essentially a bikini with ornamentation. For some bizarre reason, she has full greaves, detailed in some white metal and brass with wings--or perhaps, that's white leather. Looks more like enameled metal to me, though. Then, above that, she's got purple enameled pauldrons, embroidered gloves, and...um...what else is she wearing? She's got sort of a companion piece to the wizard's belt, so we'll go with the theory that that's a runestone in both, keeping their energy charged and contained. But above that, she's pretty much got a corset comprised of a center piece (possibly to protect against direct chest strikes, but I have doubt) and several metallic strands. You'd think those would start to cut into her torso if she moved at all during combat.

Above that, she has a formed breastplate...if we can even call it that, because it's essentially two cups, out of either enameled metal, or leather with metal chasing, and a collar. No idea why the collar is there. Is she in service to some court? We can't tell from the image.

She also has some pretty nifty stockings, apparently held up by metal wings, and...a very minimal pair of purple leather panties. Joy. And hanging from either the belt or the back of the bikini are four trailing cloth strips. More joy.

She couldn't have been dressed like the druids, for instance? That's a very feminine outfit, and manages to enhance her waist, hips, and cleavage while being fully covered. Why couldn't that have been the symbol for the game?

(from the media album)

This is the Sorceress class from the Pathfinder RPG. (You can see the full-size version here.)

Now, whether or not this depends on any particular racial privilege, most gamers cut tribal cultures a bit more slack in terms of attire. Tribal societies, in our minds, need to move more, be able to run, leap, climb trees, shoot arrows, kill with hunting knives, track down game...whatever it is that that particular society needs, heavy robes and heavier armor generally just gets in the way.

Plus, as previously established, this is a magic-user. A priestess of her people, one might say. This may be her society's version of clerical robes, or what shamans wear in whatever culture this is supposed to represent.

Save for a couple problems. First, she's not wearing anything under that loose robe. It's held to her body by virtue of a fitted, yet extraordinarily stripped-down corset (which, with those sharp edges, looks positively lethal for bending forward, or even sitting down), a thin black leather belt, and a heavy collar comprised of folds of fabric and, mysteriously, armor bits.

Maybe vampires and ghouls are more prevalent in her world than in most fantasy realms. Consider the left side of the wallpaper, after all.

But everything else is bare--tattooed, but bare. And I just don't buy that the tattoos have to be exposed to air and sunlight to work. That's not feasible.

The other immediate problem I have is the leggings. Or rather, the half-leggings. They look like someone made a pair of harem pants, then chopped them in half, and retained only the bottom legs of the pair. In fact, the same thing's going on with her sleeve--both half-sleeves and half-pants are belted to her, as if having bare shoulders and bare knees is more important.

And yet this is from the same game. There's a hint of cleavage, there's a suggestion of shape; there's a visible (and reinforced, and studded, and belted!) corset; there are attractive little details that both hint at gender, and hint at femininity. But she doesn't have to lose ninety-five percent of her attire to do so!

What about World of Warcraft? Not surprisingly, WoW is rife with examples, both in terms of animation as well as actual costume options. But I'm still mostly talking about what they choose to release as the main images of their game:

(from the media album)

(You can see the full wallpaper version here.)

Again, put aside any preconceptions you may have (if you play in WoW, say). Just to hazard a guess, looking at her, I'd assume sorceress, again, save that she has a tri-bladed weapon. Which makes the standard magic-using lack-of-all-weaponry stance confusing, to say the least.

But let's say magicians in this world can use bladed weapons. Nifty (save that she seems to be wearing it as a shield). What else is she using? It seems predominantly quilted armor pieces--shoulders (I don't quite have the gall to name those pauldrons; they're essentially just archaic shoulder-pads with metal bits), greaves (they at least seem decently protective), high quilted boots with kneeguards...and...yeah, that's pretty much it. Everything else is in the wisps-and-nothingness fantasy lingerie camp.

There's a similar wallpaper out there that seems to feature an elf with slightly more clothing...at least, until we break it down. That high-collared coat only features a high collar around the back of the neck, and the coat itself is comprised of brassiere cups and jeweled straps. We have no idea what she's wearing below the waist, but considering the long arrowing-in along the hips, I'd assume not much.

The men of Warcraft get much more in the way of coverings, and I'd even add an additional regarding that particular image--there are at least three women in that picture, or two and a very lithe male; but of those three, the only decent detailing is on the men. The women, all of whom are wearing fully covering robes, or full quilted armor and hauberk, are pretty much slapdash simplicity that I guarantee the player characters are going to want to ditch as soon as possible.

That's the other thing I've learned about fantasy gaming, at least in terms of video games. The higher your character level, if you're playing a female, the less clothes you get. That's pretty much standard across the board, as if your armor class goes up as a woman the less you wear.

Do I even have to mention T.E.R.A. Online? It's become pretty much the laughingstock of fantasy gaming, in terms of how they handle female modes of dress. Watching this video for instance (it's twelve minutes long in total, but trust me, before you're two minutes in you'll see all you need to see) initially displays a male elf character, who's clad in modest, simple robes. Then the gender is changed. While the very next image shown is that of someone wearing a full gown, it's very thin, and cut very close to her figure, showing very deep cleavage. And that's as good as it gets--every outfit on every character class shown after is more revealing, comprised of less material, and involves steadily increasing stripper animations.

In TERA's world, the sorceress wears as little as possible (and rides side-saddle); the berserker wears even less (and prances when she walks); the mystic minces and wears a shift dress; the archer...dear gods, the archer. But the archer isn't the worst of them--the heavy fighter is pretty much a battle poppet. Practically nothing on the fighter is designed to protect or injure save for the pauldrons, and even then, the fighter herself would get more injured by them than any opponent.

(from the media album)

I can't imagine they gained any new female players with this campaign.

Two women shown with traditional fantasy trappings in the background. The one on the left I'd take for a sorceress of some kind, considering the staff. She has horns, she has not-quite-as-huge elven antenna ears, a coat that barely qualifies as "coat", with a strappy set of panties and laced-up, heelless stocking boots underneath. I think we can definitely categorize this under stripper couture.

The second female is even more problematic. She's wearing a catsuit, which my brain refuses to excuse out of some mystic fetish-y fantasy element; it's a catsuit, goddamn it, it doesn't go with the theme in any way. Beyond that, she's pretty much clad just in exotic metal adornments. And while her white lips aren't blowjob-preparation parted, the way she's holding the hilt of the whatever-it-is she's holding (...sword? Your guess is as good as mine), it's definitely suggestive as hell.

But that was just the intro image. What about when TERA formally launched?

(from the media album)

Yeah, that's not better.

(from the media album)

And now we're pretty much talking pedophilia.

Even in Skyrim things get crazy now and again. Note in this video how a character with a high pickpocketing skill can take everything but the underwear from males, but takes absolutely everything from females. Inevitably, this tells the player character one of two things--either women don't wear underwear (thus painting them as sluts or tramps), or women just don't matter enough to leave them with even thin, fragile underwear layers (thus demeaning them as characters worthy in their own right).

Not to leave the guys out entirely, though, I want to bring up Hennet.

(from the media album)

Hennet surfaced in the 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons books, as pretty much the only male who's presented as pure eye candy. He's wearing straps. A whole lot of straps. There's a sketch of Hennet in the same pose that shows the straps off to better detail. There's a lot of straps--straps along his abdomen, straps along one leg, straps along his ankles, straps along his upper arms. But he's pretty much just wearing pants under that, and they look like harem pants, at that, if tied down (and, on the one side, heavily buckled) ones.

They even take it farther, and feature Hennet being seduced by something awful later on. I don't care who you are, having your nipple licked is pretty much a sexualized image. What is unusual is that it's an image of a male.

What does all this tell us? Nothing we didn't know--namely, that games are still being marketed to straight males, and pretty much the female demographic is still mostly ignored. Which is a shame, because we're becoming a vocal--and significantly financed--contingent.

Want to have more females in your games? The best way to do that is to give us costume options. Because if we're being presented with the choice of playing a game that makes no gender choices (like Farmville, like Bejeweled, like Angry Birds, like TripleTown) and games that do (like TERA)...especially if they're gender choices that we profoundly cannot support...guess where we'll be.

like the spider spins its rings between the trees

And back to the last names JIRA, mentioned earlier.

If LL's goal was to somehow attract new users by eradicating last names and introducing display names, they miscalculated ... once again. Instead Linden Lab created a two tier class system where veteran users look down on the 'Residents' and avoid interaction with them. Good job, LL!

Pretty much what I've been saying all along.

I feel sorry for the people stuck with one of the "Resident" names. They are hard to refer to, hard to remember, hard to feel as a real others in human relationships. So many long term SL residents love and identify with the names we have chosen for ourselves.

That's a great way of putting it...hard to refer to, hard to remember, hard to feel as a real [other] in relationships...Yeah. Isn't the whole point of a "second life" in the first place to feel as if we have more opportunities, not more restrictions?

3) Oldbies need to start paying attention to Display Names. When a person sets a DN, that's the name they want to go by, and it's kind of rude to ignore it unless you are unable to see it. And along those lines, TPVs need to accommodate Display Names.

This one's from a list that someone else posted of their suggestions on how to get around this, and I have to say, this one just baffles me. Maybe it's me and where I go, but the whole "that's my chosen name" vibe here? How does that work, exactly? I mean, sure, if someone's named "Becky1984 Resident", and her display name says "Beckiah", or hells, even "Becky" without the numbers...okay, yeah, that's fair, we have a clue. We have a way to refer to her that she seems to prefer. But if that selfsame person is named "Becky1984 Resident", and her display name says "ƤŏρˠƇąŦ ĴƐĽĹȳ"...first off, how am I supposed to take that seriously, "oldbie" or not, and second, that's only assuming a) I can tell it's a name, and b), I can even see the Unicode characters chosen! What if it's something like "rapemeallnightlong" (which I've seen) or "Justy's lil whoregirl" (which I've also seen). There is no way, in any version of life, I'm going to talk to anyone and call them "whoregirl" for the whole conversation. Screw that.

I must comment on #3 about display names. If the person with the DN uses unreadable characters or flips the name backwards or upside down they I ignore them. That was cute for awhile now its just silly.

Obviously, I wasn't the only person with a problem with #3. There was also this one:

I don't think it's any more rude to ignore display names than it is to put up a display name that is unreadable, which too many do. After several frustrating weeks, I turned them off. And I'm not about to go hunting ASCII characters whenever I want to talk to someone. Now that the majority of new account names are just as hard to read, it's rather a lose-lose situation.

They're not wrong.

With regards to everyone who is supporting this JIRA because they dislike the last name "Resident": That's not visible in any v2 viewer.

That's not true. I've seen it both in CoolVL (a TPV with Viewer 2 integration) and under the actual Second Life Viewer 2 (which I use until it eats my brain and I have to flee again). I never know what makes Resident show up in both my chosen TPV and Viewer 2; I do know it doesn't do it all the time. But it does still show "Resident" as a last name, with some people, under Viewer 2.

I need to make mention of this "placeholder" thing in v2. The "Resident" last name IS visible in v2 if (a) whoever is looking has "usernames" turned on under Preferences > General, and (b) whenever any object is scripted to output an avatar's username instead of it's display name.

A-ha! And that could be why I've seen it.

As it stands, every user name made from here on IS unique, no two people can have the same name. At least with a last name to differentiate, two or more people can have the same first name eg. Sara Pickering, Sara Modine, etc... otherwise anyone else wanting to use Sara either has to try a different spelling eg. Sarah, Sarra, Sarrah, or be forced to add other letters or numbers eg. SaraJane, SaraLee, Sara1987, etc. I do not think it is fair to be forced to make a name in this fashion. No one in RL has to add numbers to their name, and while I realise this is not RL, new residents should not have to become numbers, unless they really want and so willingly choose.

Precisely.

I always saw the surname concept as a cradle for pseudonymity. Obviously the new and fast throw-away name concept has no significant impact in usage, so LL should encourage the use of proper pseudonyms, against the social network hype. It's fun to get use of it, establish an identity and maybe use it for everything else on the web. I think that's a powerful approach to make us get attached with the grid and even a way of subtle viral marketing.

The Lindens never really got viral marketing, I doubt they'll learn at this point.

About this time folks began mentioning other JIRAs that--while they do not directly relate--do contribute to the general problem. Like the new sign-up process, which no longer explains that the chosen log-in name will BE the user's name. That's on the huge side.

Along with that, this:

If LL wants more (dedicated) users, the burden of finding a good available name should not be on the newcomers.
Providing a choice of last names lessens that burden, if explained properly.

which is also a damned good point.

At the time display names were announced there were hundreds of well-reasoned responses by residents expressing concerns over the way this new "feature" was being implemented. LL chose to ignore most of those concerns and plowed ahead. After living with the "feature" for nearly a year we see that those concerns were indeed justified.

Absolutely.

Bring back last names, keep the display names if they really serve a purpose, and leave display names out of search since people change them every day.

Short and to the point.

Don't you also have to "watch" a Jira in order to be taken into account? I thought so.

YES. Remember, WATCH, don't VOTE. I simply can't say that enough.

InWorldz allows you to choose whichever first and last name you wish.

Halfway through the comment chain, and someone finally brings up InWorldz. I'm surprised it took so long.

WE @$%&@% HATE THE RESIDENT LAST NAMES! You've had MONTHS to hear from us about it, before, and after, it was shoved into place!

You've turned what was something classy, into just another second-rate site like all the others. The "Resident" situation, creates nothing but ill will, and it simply has to stop.

Aggressively stated, but also brings up two good points--first, that the removal of last names only causes unnecessary division, and secondly, that the Lindens just don't listen to even constructive criticism. I was on the Ursula/Zindra front lines, too, with blog posts, at office hours, and speaking with Lindens via notecard and IM: and in the end, they listened to none of us, even those of us who were solid paying residents who owned multiple sims.

In a sense, the Lindens haven't changed...they still don't learn, they still don't listen. Sad.

The lower casing of existing names is stupid and is just cover code, seeing as LSL still returns the proper capitalization, even if the person signed up with RanDomnAme Lastname, thus making useless code and creating a social rift.

Yes.

It is just lazy programming for sure. They could have implemented all of the name changing code for their internal purposes and interoperability with other systems, without changing a single thing in the way we see and use the names in game, with no controversy, and little notice by the rest of us.

But, they didn't... they made a big public fiasco out of it, all because the programmers chose to take the shoddy approach, and inconvenience all of us, instead of writing a little bit more code on their end to accommodate their interoperability plan.

Yes as well.

I don't like the two 'classes' of users this change is creating inworld.

I don't either.

While "Resident" is not and has never been a last name (it's placeholder for backwards compatibility with clients and scripts that do not understand single-name-usernames), I have to agree with the community aspects people are talking about. It used to be cool to bump into somebody with the same last name as you, now... not so cool. If you want people to join Second Life and stick around, they have to feel like they're part of something greater than themselves. You don't get an e-mail address to be part of a community, but you do get a Second Life account for that reason.

Also accurate.

In a year of frequent and rather dumb initiatives the introduction of user names rises to the very top of the charts. Many others have expressed why they have to go. Bring back second names please.

Also yes. And then this to tie this one up:

I often have felt second class. There's and automatic "noob" stigma attached to me, but I'm far from a noob. I decided to start over, and even though I'm a well-rounded, experienced SL citizen, I get treated otherwise because of the Resident name.

It even drives me crazy when greeter bots and other scripts in SL identify me in open chat with my Resident name. Let's just broadcast it to the whole world shall we?

This is something that's been puzzling me for a bit--we used to have to sign in to the JIRA using our first and last name. That's no longer the case? Save that when I sign into the JIRA, I still have to use my first and last name.

So what name do no-name "Residents" use? And isn't that also part of the problem?

get off the ledge and drop the knife, not a victim of a victim's life

Around and about the grid this week, following two very different hunts.

Seen at the Secret Shelf: Mr. Giles' Apprentice.



Guh. L$129, comes in both colors shown (view the larger image for the racier skirt): this black, and the pale brown (or buff), which is on the larger view.

Right next to it? A set of aged rag stockings, with prim garters in several different colors. L$59. Whee!

Seen at the Think Kink Warehaus: Norby Willis, the first rubber fox I've ever seen. With a rubber fox gasmask, no less. In shiny, shiny pink.

From Blogger Pictures

I had to be fairly careful with the angle, he had...bits. Shiny shiny pink, rubber-covered bits, to be sure, but...bits.

Seen at Xtreme Restrained Life Toys: something only known as SAW.

From Blogger Pictures

HARD LIMIT. Oh HELL no.

Seen at Brickwerkz:

From Blogger Pictures

I know it's technically from a copyrighted work, but if image =/= copyright, there are no direct character names involved. Plus, it makes a great logo. And the flag moves, so it's even better.

Also at Brickwerkz:

From Blogger Pictures

*snickers* On a billboard, no less.

Seen at Coca & Wolf:



Wau. That's a ton of options for rougher play (and click the small pic for the larger image, which shows the female layers). And looks like front and back, everything from scrapes and scratches to...well...removal of bits, in a couple places at least. Still. For the darker-themed roleplayer, this would be ideal, and they only want L$75 for it.

Seen at Devil's Trade:

From Blogger Pictures

the "Steamy Victorian" mouse. (Amusingly, the maker of the mouse? Miss Reghan Straaf. I'd contact her if you want your own.)

Seen at the place with the ice cream bunnies:

From Blogger Pictures

Damn straight.

More as I travel about.

In sadder news, I am going to be removing the Runes of Magic link on the sidebar. A multitude of complicating reasons are behind this move, but the overriding concern is safety: a hacker is currently holding some older data "hostage", with the intent to release the more than three million data points if his demands aren't met. While what he's asking for isn't precisely unreasonable, even so, I don't feel like I can casually stroll back into the game.

This does pain me on a few levels, the most practical of which is: I have diamonds I can't transfer off to other players, and at least one special winter pack I likely won't log in to ever see. I still think it's a beautiful world, and I was happy to be a part of it both in beta, and in full release.

here's some mud made of blood and these teeth are decayed

In the middle of taking pics for this entry, a sudden surge of multi-text spam crawled across the DV8 store group:

[03:19 PM] Georgia Verino: :*☆*.:*★*.:*☆*:..:*☆*:.
┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ❤ ◥◣FENIX CLUB ◥◣
┊ ┊ ┊ ☆ DJ FLAVIO BELO
┊ ┊ ❤ FESTA FERVENDOOOOOO
┊ ☆ ILHA FENIX O MELHOR POINT DO SL
❤ SÓ FALTA VOCÊ!!!! ENTÃO VEM LOGO!!!
╔═══╗ ♪
║██ ║ ♫
║(●) ♫ I ♥ SE JOGA NESSA VIAGEM
╚═══╝ ♪♪
♪ [slurl I'm not even BOTHERING to give out] ♬

And that's why you got muted, Georgia. Born in 2009, you should know better by now. Tch.

Runes of Magic has released a new "slim client"--they say it will take up only half as much space as the original, and has compressed many features to give you the same game experience without the total system shutdown some of those experiences required...

This sounds like a good thing, but it still leaves me in a slight quandary. Part of the reason for the lack of Runes mentions on the blog is that for two months, I was unable to play it, due to the dying hard drive. By the time I came back, I had been kicked out of my guild again, whereupon that guild subsequently dissolved, and my main play partner hasn't been interested in logging in for...well, ever.

Past level 50 in Runes, it's pretty much essential to have a guild, or at least a working relationship with folks on my same schedule to advance at all...so...I'm somewhat stuck.

Not sure how--or if--that's ever going to resolve. But a client that draws on less computer resources is never a bad thing for an MMO.

Aggressive femininity. There's a fun concept. (And if you want to hear some of these songs, just click the link at the bottom of the article. Everything's clickable for an instant dose of early sixties girlpop.)

I have several questions regarding this:

1. Why is Professor Sputnik in this picture?
2. Does this mean we'll be seeing in-world advertising from companies that don't have an in-world presence?
3. To be blunt, this is who they see as their target audience to show companies that may be curious about buying in--urchins, catbois and old guys? Seriously?

If you're any serious fan of horror, and you haven't seen each of the ten films on Roger Ebert's non-list...well, Ebert's thought ahead. You can watch each of them at the links provided, with a click of a button. (And he's right. These are all classic, enduring, and on occasion still very scary films.)

Next few stops on the Unknown Hunt. (See part one and part two if you're coming in to this now.)

Also--**WARNING**!! This is a PICTURE-HEAVY post! If you think I'm kidding, the caps hit TWENTY on this one.

Yeah. LOTS of pictures. Thankfully, they aren't huge, though they are clickable in case you want to see larger versions...

#22: YaYo. The clue: "This little birdy flew right inside...perhaps someone should have duct taped his wings..."



The prize: A tattoo of bats in flight on all layers (including the 2.0 tattoo layer), and:



a makeup tattoo layer of diluted blood tears. The tears are oddly realistic/not so realistic--I mean, they look like tears, is the thing, not streaming blood down the face. It's a more subtle effect that I personally think works, and it's handy to have in the arsenal...whenever one might need, um, bloody tears...

Worn: Still the BriarRose eyes from the last shoot, with the additions of the Candyass Geisha skin in Grape from Malfean Visions, bought during their Wear Purple promotion, and Mania hair in Candy Corn from Calico Ingmann Creations, acquired during their pumpkin hunt (still going!).

#23: Blue Goose. The clue: "Not here Yet." (The hell, I thought. Then I wandered, and I got it. Very clever.)



The prize: Multiple. The "Chole" aged jeans miniskirt, and an "I'm a Cat" costume t-shirt.



There's also a male prize, which makes the costume t-shirt red. At least they're not cut-offs for the guys...

Worn: So, I snapped the pic of the prizes from #22 last night, and this morning--as is my wont--I changed everything. The hair is Eleanor 1 in Pumpkin Patch from the Calico Ingmann pumpkin hunt (ongoing). Eyes are from MiaSnow; they may still be available in her "prizebomb" thingy. The color is "XPRESSIVE hazel"--silly name, but lovely, lovely rich color. Skin is House of Ruin's CBH Exclusive "Raven & the Sun" in Palomino (doubly sad because even the business has closed up shop. I will sincerely miss Ruina Kessel's work on the grid). Shoes are DV8's Morrhigan Bitchboots in Rust--I believe acquired through their profile picks system. And the outfit is out for today only, the Gor Gurls' "Gor Likes Stripes" outfit in Orange (L$25, today, Tuesday, only--comes in five colors total).

(Forget most of that passage--that was written before I skipped this and half of everything else to photograph items lower on the list....Um, oops? Everything I've worn on this shoot IS labeled, just...not accurately in all cases. Ask me if you really want to know what exactly tracks up to which SLUrl or which business.)

#24: Gestures by Mi. (Oh, gods. Not a gesture shop.) The clue: "Search every corner".

The prize: more gestures. Animaniacs, Invader Zim, I think one from Friends, and most of them in a font that is rendered occasionally unreadable. Whee.)

#25: Secret October. No hint really needed, it's pretty obvious.



The prize: "Hip to be Square" earrings. I'm not keen on most accessories--I don't, as a rule, wear much for adornments RL or SL, and in SL, especially, with the amount of times I change from cat ears to elf ears to human and back again...assuming my av has ears at all...I've gotten in the habit of just not bothering.

These are cute, though. Simple, fun, definitely costume jewelry...but pretty.

#26: Incendia. The clue: "Have a seat and Meditate, Careful you might get wet!"



The prize: Hay bales with poses. The poses are pretty dorky (and admittedly, it would be a better showing over ground, rather than the blue tiles of my work studio), and the thing as a whole is no copy/no mod. But interestingly enough, the pose sets themselves (found in each of the four blankets) can be edited, because the pose script is full perm (you, uh, might want to look into that, Incendia) and, since that is, you could easily drop in your own poses to work with the script.

Store #27 seems to have left the hunt. We move on, then, to:

#28: The Grungey Hole. The clue: "Time is Running Out." (Wander around, you'll get it.)



The prize: "Sabrina" skin and shape, and "GrungeyHole Female" black jeans (there's also a male skin and shape in the box, with jeans for him). The skin obscurely flashes me back to Alice Cooper, but the shape is...

Well, I've seen worse on this hunt. I guess that's a good thing.



(Amusingly, I tried on the male skin, though I didn't feel like shifting gender so didn't try the shape. It's not half bad on the female shape, though with the Miasnow eyes, 'he' does look scarily intent and stalkerish.)

#29: ViLada. The clue: None given. None really needed, either.



The prize: Um...it's...a...babydoll halter top in orange, tenuously, but...I think the babydoll portion is sculpted. At the very least, the scallops look exceedingly odd.

Worn: The Golden Angel Ghost skin from Ello Poppet, which is in one of five pumpkins at the Calico Ingmann pumpkin hunt you can get for free. Just search around the sim.

#30: Halloween Memories. The clue: "May they Rest in Peace." (This one took a long time to find, only because I was searching the main store. The main store is fun--this is sort of a Hallows party place, with flashing lights and a lot of prop pieces--but it's not in the main store.)



The prize: Three fedora hats, one of which I rezzed out, thinking it was a set of eye prims (Come on. It said "Halloween glowing eyes". What would you think? "Fedora" wasn't in the object name!); I'll get it later.



This is "Halloween Fedora kife in head". I am not a fedora person, but I have to admit, the handle on the "kife" is wonderfully well done. (There's also one more not pictured, the "candy corn" variant.)

(Why yes, the observant will note that I took pics of item #29 before changing into other hunt items. I'm in an odd mood today. I also screwed up both attribution and picture order for Blue Goose. Ergh.)

#31: is Gauzed Patches, and they seem to be missing. There's no word on the blog, so I'm jumping to the next store:

#32: Hypnotizing Creations. The clue: You need to chill.



The prize: Two 'haunted window' shadowboxes; they aren't the best capture of the items because the items are partially transparent. That being said, I ended up taking my work studio back rather than the picture windows, so I didn't want to rez them out again. How'ver, all have ghosts flickering in and out, a neat little shattered-glass motif, and there are bands of flickering color around the witches hats adorning each one.



Just as an aside, this is a very small shop, but she has amazing designs. Simple, most of them, but highly effective--mobile, color-shifting art. But don't think of typical mainland animation pieces; this is deeply subtle, with fading glow and liquid fluidity. Her prices are very reasonable, and after I found the hunt item, I stayed, just looking at what she's offering up for sale.

#33: Homes with a Heart. The clue: "Take a dive!"



The prize: A Halloween snowglobe with deep flaws, which is sad, and I'll explain why.

First, the prize itself is lovely. Putting it out by itself as a snowglobe decoration would work beautifully. The base is an intriguing wood-trunk texture, the inside 'glass' work is very nice, the props are appropriate and delighful.

But there's a sit pose. Why is this bad? Because the object's no-copy/no-mod, and that sit desperately cries out to be adjusted. I'll poke at it, because I like it, but I'm really afraid this is going to go into the 'maybe' pile of Hallows keepables, because of the no-mod permissions.

#34: iHoliday Bliss. The clue: Not really needed, just look around.



The prize: A Halloween 'breaking barrel'. This one's odd, I tried to capture a pic of the effect (and yes, until I went through these, I didn't realize I still had an alpha layer obscuring things. So yes, my feet are missing. Move on.)

The barrel never exactly breaks. What happens is, the animation sends you partially into the barrel, while the barrel says (in green text):

[04:40 PM] Barrel: What have you done, you broke me!!!

So...intriguing roleplay item? Maybe?

#35: Twat-Waffle. (I loathe the name of this store, but hey, I'm not too keen on SN@TCH as a name, either, and I wear her stuph...) The clue: "I have a Sweet Tooth." (Look around, this one's pretty obvious too.)



The prize: Black Queen Style piercings (fit for chin and mouth, though I'm not sure what size of head they're after, because no matter how I adjusted this, something is wrong somewhere). When I have the time--they are completely modifiable--to actually hang out on a pose stand and adjust this piece by piece, it will likely be fine.



Also, there's two different tattoos--the "Die, Die, Kill" tattoo--though I'm, err, not entirely sure what that would say about anyone who got to see that one...and a neck tattoo version saying Shi Ni Goroshi, which translates directly to "Death, Death, Murder"...but can be brought closer to the vernacular of "Die, Die, Kill". Huh.



Finally, there's the Uoki shape in human variety (note the "Shi Ni Goroshi" tattoo, almost visible). Wau, she is pouty. And the jaw's a bit underslung. Otherwise, it's okay. Hippy, but okay. :)

(There's also an elven style. It took me a bit to figure out what had changed. Finally had to take off the hair to do it. She's made no body style changes, but she's minimized to bud ears the ear slider. I can only imagine, so it is easier to put on Asian "Look Ma I can pull in CHINA!" antenna ears.)

Worn: A Netherworld's Lia dress in purple, because otherwise, I'd have been standing around in my underwear.

#36: Wonderland. The clue: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" (This one's on the obscure side unless you know where--in the Alice books--the quote originates. But look around, it is there.)



The prize: Four different styles of eyeball chairs (only one shown). I'm not entirely sure how comfortable I am with Sauron blinking underneath my butt, but it's a cute concept and a cute pose.

Worn: Salem Boots in Pewter from DV8, which I think was a straight-out purchase, not a profile pick gift; Forsaken Velvet Noir stockings in Purple, also from DV8, bought the weekend they came out; the Witches' Brew skin from Ello Poppet, found on the Calico Ingmann pumpkin hunt; and the Jill Hair in Spooky from the same hunt.)

#37: Skat Cat Neko. The clue: "So many little kitties". (Your guess is as good as mine. Also? I never found a bird anywhere in the store. I found a box, hidden in a very obscure place, that I could only get to by camming...that was buyable for the hunt prize. So I have no clue if the bird is actually out.)



The prize: A single tail. Yes, seriously. (The "42-42-564" is part of the "Shi Ni Goroshi" tattoo, along with back wings, and...I'm only assuming those are meant as a joke, on measurements? Because first, the wide-hipped shade is in no one's reality 564 inches around on her hips, and secondly, she has breasts, so the 42-42 doesn't match, either...)

How'ver, I want to be fair to the maker, so here's the good and bad of it, honestly.

Good: It's black, with grey and white streaks. This means you can wear it with black, grey or white fur and ears. That's a plus.

Bad: it doesn't come with matching ears. Come on now. Just a tail? Just a tail?!?

Good: The teddy bear open-heart surgery taking place on the tail bondage section is both vividly detailed, cute, and disturbing as all get-out. Five out of five skulls for that one.

Bad: It's a tail bondage tail. Not every neko on the grid is into tail bondage. Junking up the back of your tail just doesn't make sense--to me, at least. (Yes, I know, tail bondage hides the inevitable seam line division between non-flexible base and flexi-tail, but get real--it doesn't make sense.)

I'd say honestly, it runs 50/50 for good and bad, so...pick it up if you really like the concept of stuffed animal surgery.

#38: Robotic Arms. The clue: "I have a bone to pick with you." (Two things to keep in mind: if the SLUrl dumps you at a preset store point, go upstairs; and second, there is a VERY ANNOYING SOUND that will make you want to kill people. Don't. Turn off sounds if repeated, high-pitched whining sounds bother you.)



The prize: "Flytrap", an original painting brought into SL, copyright Nick Francel. That is so going in next year's haunt.

#39: Maven Haus. The clue: The forbidden fruit.



The prize: "Heiress of the Galaxy" hair. Wau. Slap in a headjack, I could broadcast to a concert hall! I given Maven Haus full points for invention, hands down, but...damn, where would even I wear this??

And finally...

#40: Gestures by FM. Gods, no, not another gestures shop. The clue: Hiding in the shadows of performers.


The prize: Gestures, what else? Two from Vincent Price, a clip from the original film "The Fly", a clip from Disney's "Haunted Mansion" ride...and all terrifyingly low-quality as far as the sounds themselves go. Dim and muffled, and in the case of the "Tales of Horror" gesture, really badly edited.

Also, a bit of warning: the shop is barely large enough to turn around completely without knocking something over. So, while you're standing in the postage stamp of doom, there's a greeter script that will keep offering you a chance to go to FM Gestures' website. Over. And over. And goddamn over. I had to click to close that bothersome thing thirty-seven times, just porting in, finding the raven, and getting my ass out again.

I hate gesture shops. And he packaged the gift wrong--it gives out in a box you have to take home and unpack, instead of a folder you can click open and click on the next landmark. (Which was, btw, specified more than a few times as being against the rules of the hunt.)

Really displeased with this one and will delete it as soon as the hunt's over.

More later. I may--or may not--finish this hunt. We're running out of time!

it's just that wild old wind that tears us all apart

Massively takes on a common assumption among resentful gamers, the phrase Free to play is pay to win. I--as they--take issue with this statement, but I'm trying to deconstruct it rationally.

So let's take Runes of Magic as an example, since it's what I used to play when I don't play SL. Runes of Magic is very much typical of the breed--free to play, free to download, free to wander through the world, cash shop for mini-transactions.

* Mounts:

Can you buy mounts (horses, ferrets, snow berhu, tigers, whatever) through the cash shop? Yes. Are there other ways to get them? Also yes. Will riding from place to place improve time spent in the game? Definitely. Is it game-altering; for example, will owning a mount be the difference between one level and another? No.

* Weapons:

Can you buy weaponry through the cash shop? Yes, but none of them are very good, and certainly few of them are game-changing.

* Equipment:

Can you buy armor? Absolutely. Are there other ways to get armor? Yes, but it requires tons of gold for the good stuph. Can you buy gold? No. Can you buy diamonds and turn those diamonds into gold? That answer's interesting. It used to be: yes. So anyone with a trust fund and a yen to succeed could have the Best Armor EVAR and outclass those around them.

Then Korean and Chinese data-farmers got involved in the game. Over the year that they've been joining, and trying to woo people into trying their services, the Runes staff has gone from intolerant, to impolite, to lethal. At this point:

* use a gold-for-cash service external to the game, your account is banned. No appeal.
* use a gold-for-cash service to buy things on the Auction house, your account is banned. No appeal.
* use a diamonds-for-gold exchange service to buy things on the Auction house, your account is banned. No appeal.
* Buy diamonds for use in the game with a credit card: you cannot use those to buy items in the Auction house. No exceptions.
* Get diamonds through answering consumer surveys: you cannot use those to buy items in the Auction house. No exceptions.
* Get diamonds through purchase of an authorized diamond card: you can use those to buy items in the Auction house, BUT you cannot sell diamonds on the Auction house.
* Offer up diamonds, gold or unlocked clean rune stones for sale in world chat, and if you are noticed, your account is banned. No appeal.
* Buy diamonds, gold, or unlocked clean rune stones offered for sale in world chat, while it's not automatic, if someone's paying attention, your account is banned. No appeal.

So, for the most part, there's not a lot of buying-in taking place, now. There are people who have the best armor and the best weapons, and some of them are doing it illegally, and by and large there's so many accounts in Runes, the mods don't notice. These people are in the minority, though. Most people who have the really spiffy armor sets worked their asses off to get them.

It does become--as so many MMOs do--a money game for higher levels, which is another reason I'm not as highly involved, these days. If you have the gold to throw at the Auction house for clean rune stones, and the gold to buy good equipment with the stats you want to combine with those rune stones, you can get some incredible armor out of it. And frankly, without that incredible armor, you're pretty much toast against some of the higher-level bosses.

Still, even with that, you can manage a good many fights just by going on all the quests, going on all the daily quests, and leveling up that way, enhancing the armor you're given along the way. It's slower, sure; but it can be done.

somewhere up in these hills awaits the darkest chills; can you hear?

Readers, writers, you are welcome to peruse the index of banned words. Sadly, several words I like using are on that list. Even more tragically--for my readers at least--I'm not going to stop using them.

After some small amount of personal consideration, and a fair bit of worry and hand-wringing, I have decided to allow only registered users (Google accounts and/or OpenID accounts) to comment, with an additional Captcha setting (those odd words you have to type in additionally on certain blogs to send your comment). I may lift the registered users restriction in a while, but today was the absolute last straw in Anonymous commenting.

On this entry, Anonymous Whomever sent this:

chicago pornstars
xposed chicks
anatuer chick
paris hilton and blowjob
black ob blonde redtube

which started his comment (and yes, typos and all, that's how I received it), followed by a very long list of porn URLs, all tracing back to a specific fly-by-night site.

I am not anti-sex; far from it, and anyone who knows me knows that. What I am against is having people decide my blog is a great place to park their spam. This is not that forum; move on. Hopefully a few weeks of not being allowed to spam my blog will convince them to cruise on to the next hapless service.

Sphynx, I apologize in advance, I know you have problems with Captcha, and they are understood ones. But I've hit the end of my ability to tolerate the spammers with a smile.



Just so you know? These are lovelier in person.

In person, they're also 81 prims. Complete with slowly falling black rose petals, a charming cut crystal vase, containing three drooping blooms on withered stems. A small drift of fallen petals curves around the base of the vase.

Loveliness incarnate, truly; excellent work. And all for L$200 at Belle Amie.

But...81 prims. Ouch. You pay for pretty.

"Already the writers are complaining that there is too much freedom. They need some pressure. The worse your daily life, the better your art. If you have to be careful because of oppression and censorship, this pressure produces diamonds."

Tatyana Tolstoya wrote that. Is it surprising to anyone that she's a writer--a Russian writer, at that? (Though Tolstoya as a last name is a giveaway. Tatyana, for that matter, also.)

More oddity from Blizzard:

From: wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com
Sent: 2:56 AM (GMT+08:00).
To: emilly.orr@gmail.com
Date: Sun, Aug 15, 2010; 2:56 AM
Subject: Survey of World of Warcraft account
Mailed-by: hotmail.com

Hello dear players

Your account by other players reported using illegal plug-ins, that is, robots! If not, you use the robot, I hope you work with our survey! Here we need to verify your account information, please visit: battle.net/login leave your phone number, we will contact you the first time! Solve the problem!

World of Warcraft Support
Blizzard Entertainment

At least this one sounds like spam on the face of it. (Note the actual send-from stamp of "Hotmail" on the missive, f'rinstance.) Still...so odd. And again, I exchanged the words in blue for what they actually wanted me to visit to "confirm" this mysterious account I do not possess--namely, wow-account-battle.dipns.com. (I don't recommend anyone goes, by the way. Just putting it up for reference.)

I mean, I'm all for people trying to make a living, but spamming people who don't even have the accounts they're trying to hack to gain...what? WoW gold? Can you get WoW gold from someone who doesn't have it? I just don't get it.

It's like all the spammers infesting Runes of Magic. Runes has now made it impossible to buy diamonds and use them to transfer gifts or purchase things in the Auction House; and they auto-ban anyone who happens to follow one of the spammer's screamed chats for whatever website they're top-hawking this week, so...what's the point? How are they making money?

Seriously, I'm starting to think all spam websites are codes by secret government organizations. Like, every time you see an advertisement for that simple/easy/effective/ teeth whitening formula, it's actually a CIA agent checking in with their field office, or something.

Hey, it makes more sense than the alternative of people actually buying the "cheap and simple" tooth whitening formula--whatever it is this week--over, and over, and over again...Doesn't it?

a disease of the mind, it can control you

Frogster, the owner/partial distributor of Runes of Magic, has been acquired by Gameforge, which is causing a few negative ripples through the gaming community. They maintain they're letting Frogster continue to innovate and control Runes, so...we'll see what happens.

I admit, this is the link I've been sending to all my friends of late, because, in and amongst all the other brief mentions of Comic-Con 2010 hype, there was mention of the Avengers movie. Why is this cool? Because leading up to the Avengers movie, there will be other films, including a redoing of Thor. Why is that cool?

Because Marvel, to support their talk, brought a glass case with props made for the movie (one surmises). There were four. Odin's helmet; Thor's helmet; Loki's helm, complete with the dorky curving horns; and...the Infinity Gauntlet. And that, friends and neighbors, has "summer blockbuster/geekgasm" written allll over it.

In further comics news, sometimes comic storylines make your brain cringe. Case in point: the history of Rachel Summers. (And yes, for anyone who doesn't know--that's an accurate recounting of the storyline through several years--and several comic lines. If you really enjoy brain cramps, try on the history of Hawkman for size. Though I would recommend Xorn's comic timeline only for the foolhardy, or for those who hate their brains and want them to die.)

At 2:49 pm, on Wednesday, 4 August, Azriel Demain announced this in a group notice to the FallnAngels:

I'm Back!!!!!
Finally LL has let me back on!
I want to thank each one of you for your support with all of this. For your kind words, gracious thoughts, positive energies, and continued shopping.
A very special thank you goes out to my Tomoyuki Batra for handling everything for me.
I am a very lucky man to have such beautiful Angels backing me.
Thank you all!

So, it's not as bad as it could have been--since he was being told the eighth--but likely he's still scrambling to reallocate funds, unless Des' recommended trick of being put on 'administrative hold' worked. And then there's this:

[17:55] Azriel Demain: whether things are straightened out or not i have no idea.. no linden has ever replied to me yet

So...does that mean he could be banned again? For no perceptible reason? Or does that mean the ban is over? Did the Lindens just forget and lift the ban on a whim? Did they react to pressure from patrons or in-world sources? Was this a reasoned, responsible, reaction to the situation, or was it completely random?

Talk about bad customer service, this is now How to Terrify Customers, parts I through XIV.

However it went, welcome back, Az! Let's hope this is the first and last time you'll be banned.

Thinking from the other side of things for a moment, though, this has confirmed two things, inescapably, in my mind:

• no one is safe, no matter how many sims they own; if there is content deemed infringing by the Labs, they will, sooner or later, act on that information and ban.
• we now have no clue and no good 'warning' system in place for when this happens. If our content, as creators of content, is deemed infringing, we're gone--with no appeals process, and no good inroads to Customer Service. Oh, wait, this is the Labs--there is no Customer Service.

I am a small-time creator even for small-time creators, but I am now going to go through everything I've ever had up for sale to ensure that nothing can be seen by anyone to be actionable. This whole thing scared the hell out of me, and I wasn't the one banned.

At one point during all of this--because we were concerned, we asked Tomo how Azriel was doing--Tomo told us that Az had taken every doll in the house and drowned it in the tub.

I related this tale to Neome, who wasn't online for it, and she first shook her head, the gravity of such an act singing in. Then she pouted.

"I want a drowned doll dress," she said. I honestly think I'll suggest that to Az.

Technology takes odd turns sometimes. Found by William Gibson's wife, and posted on @GreatDismal's Twitter feed (@GreatDismal happens to be William Gibson, for anyone not following along), the Eco-Hime is a sound mask. Which makes the sound of falling water.

Not that odd--I can genuinely see applications for this in spy-to-spy conversations, because turning on the tap or shower acts as a great low-tech way to distort the human voice--but this one's designed to mask the sound of...well...peeing. With falling water.

Isn't there going to be a watery sound either way?

(Also from the Lovelyish blog: four ways to be less clingy. I'd say this works equally well for either gender, and in truth, may well apply more to SL than RL.)

And, getting back to SL matters:

"The simple fact is that, outside of niche activities, as stated, Second Life simply isn't ready for big business to pay anything more than a cursory interest in it; there is simply nothing here that is compelling for big business to invest time, effort and money in SL on an ongoing basis."

She's not wrong.

Finally, one of the staffers over at MMORPG is pondering the concept of detective MMOs. Now, me, I read those words and immediately I started thinking about all the tropes in noir and pulp circulars, powerful hook-nosed men who skulked in the shadows in trenchcoats and felt hats, devastatingly sexy femme fatales with poisoned lipstick and coded messages.

Instead? I got Police Quest, which always made me think of Leslie Nielson. Errrgh.

Still, it is an intriguing question, noir influences or not--would a mystery premise sustain for a full MMO? That's half the fun of BioShock after all; and a lot of simpler games have used finding clues as a way to push story elements along. Even Octoberville works on a mystery motif--and finding those clues is the challenge each year!

It might not work, in the large sense that MMOs seem to function on. But it's worth a try. I'm hoping someone considers the idea, and guns for funding.

So to speak.

the unknown troubles on your mind

Runes of Magic is going to host a bit of Gamescom, Germany's largest MMO/game convention. They're hosting a fashion show where the winners win specially-built CaseMod PCs with a specific Runes of Magic theme.

Oh, to be closer to Germany...

All I want is an admission, the writer says, but will she get it? I have serious doubts. (So does Tateru Nino, who also took on the topic of the office hours meet.)

How'ver, the points Bronxelf makes are undeniable, and I want to expand on her post a bit.

Her list, as it exists:

1. Sim owners/concierge service.

I don't deny, this should be her, our, and LL's PRIMARY concern. These are the people paying the bills, funding new development, keeping people at the Labs employed, and providing space so everyone can say all the wonderful things we say about Second Life as a whole. Anyone who owns a lot of land, anyone who owns a lot of sims, anyone who rents whole servers--these are the Labs' base.

Of course, the problem is the Labs are renowned far and wide for terrible customer service, and especially now, these are the people getting shafted. And if you're an individual laying out $100-$350 per month for a sim, and getting it back from renters, that's one thing; if you're that same individual laying out $100-$350 per month for a sim, and being, to put it bluntly, screwed by the Labs in some fashion...sooner or later it stops being in any way fun, and people start to wonder why they're bothering.

This is completely antithetical to what the Labs should want; it behooves them to wake up and keep this point glaringly in mid.

2. Business owners and content creators.

This is second on Bronxelf's list, and I agree with this placement, too--beyond making it harder for sim owners to stay in business, the last thing the Labs should be doing is making it harder for business owners to stay in business. Most business owners, if they're any good at what they're doing at all, eventually want to raise their game and buy a sim to really get their vision of whatever in place. This is not a bad thing--desire creates opportunity, always. So the Labs should listen to business owners, pay attention to their needs, because at any moment, any one of them can pony up the price of a sim--or more than one sim--and join that vaunted group that allows for employees and health insurance and investment plans and vacations. The Labs should want to be nice to these people, because they may become the people listed above.

Yet, they seem to be trying very hard to interfere in every way with business owners. From the requirement to move to Zindra (and the subsequant mangling of Search entirely which allowed Zindra-based sales to drop on average 40% per merchant who moved) to the current refusal to allow picks information to be used in search metrics (when search is STILL largely broken), they're hobbling the people who create on SL. And here's the problem: the people who create on SL are a large part of why people stay in SL. In addition to virtual scuba-diving, virtual parachuting, virtual climbing, swimming, hiking, running, walking, dancing and ROLEPLAY--shopping is a large part of what people come into world to do, and a larger part of what people choose to invest in, Linden-wise. It's pretty much 50% of why people buy Lindens in the first place--to shop.

3. RL business concerns with presence within SL.

I'm still not entirely convinced educators and students shouldn't be higher, and this group lower, but as far as it goes, RL business concerns oddly are a mix of position 1 and position 2, with needs of their own. Their biggest need, though, is good, solid, dependable customer service.

And, as we've already established, "good customer service" are words that turn to so much static when perceived by Linden Labs. It's practically--or for all established intents and purposes--nonexistent. Even the Concierge Team doesn't have it together these days--reports back from people who've spoken with them are that they are friendly, with a deep desire to help, but ultimately do very little, if anything. And the rest of the Linden help team? The outside perception still remains: fundamentally useless in nearly every regard.

This needs to change now. This needs to change yesterday. Virtual worlds are still seen as "the wave of the future", but more companies than the Labs may know are choosing to develop their own virtual worlds in-house, rather than go through Linden Labs. Word has gotten out.

Now, to change the perception of the Labs as a bad deal, that's going to take a lot of work, mostly on the part of the Labs. But that's neither here nor there--currently, that is the perception. Linden Labs need to change that perception if they're going to survive.

4. Educators, and their students.

Without substantially developing an "Educational Enterprise" package (considering the bulk of the Enterprise team got sacked), keeping educators in SL is going to be challenging enough. For once, the problems surrounding education in SL is at least 40% on the educators--they need to make their courses approachable enough, and their virtual 'classrooms', for lack of a better word, enough of a draw on their own, to make SL being part of the package an attractive one. To this end, owning a sim, and making it over in their image is not a bad thing, putting them at least partially in the first group.

Here's the essential problem: what educators on SL really need (in an ideal world, because this won't ever, ever happen) is to sit down with the developers of the Restrained Life Viewer, and customer service representatives on SL, and see if something can be worked out to allow students to access certain regions of SL ONLY during class time (which would include blocking logging into anything BUT the campus during class), receive notecards but no IMs, and be restricted in movement during the educational period, with the understanding that these restrictions would drop once the time of the class was over.

This, unfortunately, is dependent on three things. First, that the educators would meet with RLV developers. Second, that RLV developers would meet with educators. And third, that customer service representatives for educators exist at the Labs.

5. New Residents.

Why are new residents left until nearly the end? I think it's something of an oversight by both Bronxelf and the Labs, honestly, but consider: several years ago (back when we had wood-burning cats), there was something called Orientation Island. The standard neophyte user couldn't get off OI until they had completed a range of tasks, meant to demonstrate their understanding of the basic principles behind Second Life.

And we are talking basic, here, things like:

Ω	choosing an avatar	Ω	changing clothes	Ω	acquiring new clothes
Ω	rezzing out a box prim	Ω	interacting with objects	Ω	the basics of flying
Ω	the basics of sim-crossing	Ω	buying objects	Ω	opening objects
Ω	searching inventory	Ω	searching in-world inventory	Ω	teleportation

All of which matters not a whit if these students aren't taught these things, but rather pick them up in whatever slipshod fashion the particular log-in they've found allows. Because, about a year after I walked through Orientation Island, someone with a grudge proposed to the Lindens that really, honestly, OI was a pain, and businessmen didn't have the time to spend an hour, or two, or more on what was essentially character creation. They wanted to get in there, get working, have fun--that magic word again. And Linden Labs, in their infinite something, thought this was just the coolest concept since raw toast. And they implemented it on the spot.

Why do I say someone with a grudge? Because this, beyond any other feature that's changed since the game was first designed, has been the single largest threat to the game. I do mean that.

Listen. Take ten average people. We're not talking NASA engineers, here, we're not even talking college students. Just ten people who've heard about Second Life and want in.

At least one of those, I guarantee you, will be 1) gay or 2) into steampunk or 3) both. They'll likely end up in the steamlands, somewhere.

Two of our average set will be players of WoW, or another big MMO. They'll wander a bit, make jokes, sneer at everything, never figure out how to change their clothes, or shop the mens' armor section of Bare Rose nigh to the exclusion of all else. Without quests, fun new gear, or leveling,

One, you will ponder 'til your brain hurts the very concept that they own a computer, and knows how to use it--because he or she types that badly. This usually isn't even an international issue--I mean, they literally cannot spell, cannot seem to think, and wander around with boxes on their heads or hands for hours. Sometimes they can be helped, though it's always a puzzlement how they manage things on the other side of their screens. Most of the time? They can't learn, they don't interact well, and unless they have a specific agenda (rape fantasy, serving girl, sword-swinging barbarian, whatever), they soon fade from world.

This leaves six. And while the Lindens are likely right in that three of those six got frustrated on OI and left in disgust, that still left the final three turned out with at least rudimentary skills. At this point? All six log in, choose an av, and are out roaming within the first half hour. And, depending on what they're told, by anyone they come across, they'll either stick for a week, or leave the first day. Why?

Because they can't do anything. People get frustrated--if they can't use the viewer (which is now default viewer 2.0 or 2.1, depending), they can't figure out how to access things, they can't figure out how to type back to people that type to them--or, worse, they wander around yelling "Hellooo!" on voice for hours...let alone shopping, understanding the difference between 'demo' and 'full purchase', and that, of course, is assuming they logged into the game WITH Lindens....they're really, really lost.

There are some places where they can still get a good basic education--Oxbridge Village comes to mind, Solace Beach has an orientation area, and if they're lucky enough to come across someone with a landmark to Help Island, that's a godsend. But for the most part? There's not a lot in world that will talk newcomers, step by step, through learning SL.

When I'm asked, I answer what I can, but I'm not that different from anyone else--I don't automatically friend, I won't go with them on long shopping trips, I'll help them with landmarks, but I won't hold their hand through getting them outfitted and up to date--and I don't date, anymore.

Now, I'll help out friends of friends--who wouldn't? But whatever genetic quirk is responsible for really, deeply caring about people I don't know, it's missing in me. Give me a name, a liking for dark chocolate, a favorite color--something to hang what I see of that avatar's personality, and I'm good. Don't give me that? I don't know you, don't ask.

I'd say this is an American failing, but I've been talking with groups containing international typists, and a newcomer duck-walks up and asks for help, there's that mutual--and observable--drawing back. Just about everyone does it. And it doesn't mean we're bad people--most everyone I know on SL will help, and some groups I'm in go overboard with landmarks, script assistance, advice--it's heartwarming to see.

But if you're a university, and you're thinking about buying land on SL to put up a college and show the value of the experiment to course-takers? Think about this. Maybe put up a place they can learn about SL, first, or have ways to send them there, before you expect them to know everything and attend your class.

Which brings us to:

6. Genpop.

Which is Bronxelf's handy catch-all for established residents, whether that's six months in or six years. And we're a diverse group with an insane number of different motivations, psychological impairments, and interests, but we're the easiest of just about everyone to program a viewer for. We want a viewer that WORKS, more than anything else, and works UNOBTRUSIVELY; whatever else we want the viewer to do from there diverges (and wildly). But what almost every person on SL wants more than anything else is a viewer that isn't so code-heavy, a viewer that lets things rez in decently well, a viewer that lets us move, shop, build, talk, listen to music or media, WITHOUT CRASHING.

But maybe that's too much to ask.

7. (and this really is added at the end because it’s real, but it’s a strange duck) people who are running SL on limited computer resources.

I don't know that this is really a separate group, but maybe there's enough people now where it really does count: and if so, the killing of the Ajax text-only viewer becomes relevant, because it was one of the few well-known--and, more importantly, cleared, alternate viewers for SL. While it had its drawbacks--a security bypass as a scripted 'feature' that was huger than the plot hole in Citizen Kane--it did apparently work on some mobile devices, as well as from lower-graphics-enabled computers.

The whole point of a viewer, for any game, is (or should be): does it work on a computer five years old? Because if it doesn't, not everyone being in the land of shiny SOTA newness, then there won't be mass adoption of that game.

Of course there are arguments to the other side as well--if you don't play to the money, you don't make the money. Everyone knows that. But if it's just a money game, then hold that focus--because the minute that focus is lost (through, say, TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE 24/7), you might as well start playing to the cheap seats again.

And here's the real difficulty with that level of either/or thinking--if the Labs want the game to be popularly adopted, it's in their best interests to encourage playing for free (and their current ads reflect this). But if all they want is the money, then they need to earn that--by respecting their customers, working on anticipating their needs, or at the very least being there when they try to contact the Labs with problems.

As far as we can tell, there's at least one avatar whose typist has lost her mind entirely. Which is nothing short of sad, and also, kind of scary. Plus, first she's using a Homestead page--I thought Homestead pages went out in the '90s--and second, my gods, the color scheme. And the emphasis. And I'm sure the picture included is to show us how normal she is, but all I see is a woman in black leather sitting in a rusted-out car, and I think Oh good. Backwoods sociopath.

I'm still trying to track down the rest of the story; unfortunately, I can't contact Miss Tuqiri, because...I don't want her any closer to me than I can throw her typist. Maybe far less close.

Lastly, ponder the puzzle of the Mysterious Box! I have two thoughts on this video:

1. What was in that thing?

2. Did they stop filming and repack it to ship later, or did they just retrieve it, pass it further down the line, and X customer got the highly-thumped-and-rotated box later from Amazon?

Concerned viewers want to know.