this is how we talk to the world

{Demi-roleplay entry, but it still counts.}

A friend of mine mentioned I should tour the Doomed ship, as it seems to be dying again. I said, that wasn't a haunt, but it did make me curious. Is it still there? How has it changed since I was running around as a repair tech aboard? Let's go see.

The description, before anything else:

SL's oldest cyberpunk sim, now home to Doomed Ship, SL's oldest and most immersive sci-fi horror environment.

Come explore and role-play in the bloody halls of this immense spaceship!

/*Windlight Sky @ 500m to 4000m: "Doomed Spaceship"*/

Right. Makes sense.



Apparently, I'm a little over average for an American woman, according to this chart. (The average for an SL avatar, btw, they give as 6"8". The bar just before the end one on the left? Is apparently Chewbacca's height.)



The swirling, orange-red portal to the NCS Persephone.



Cargo bay seems intact.



I remember this level. This is maintenance.



Took a wrong turn, fell through a null-gravity tube and found a small bay with a schematic of the ship? Useful, but I didn't know this was here.



Ah, the ship's chapel.



...where, it seems, there's been an accident.

In all honesty, everything seems functional, still, if very empty and echoing. But even in its heyday, large sections of it were. Some went there for straight-up Mass Effect/Dead Space style survival horror roleplay, some went for sex with demons, others--I fell into this camp--picked the role of a functionary and worked on the periphery--always there, rarely involved in the main storylines, just living a day-to-day life on a haunted spaceship. I don't know if it ever worked this way on Doomed, but on Necronomm, its former companion set, you could go to the command center and play the part of the ship's computer, sending out notices that people all over the build would see.

The rules have not substantially changed, it seems, either:

Welcome to the NCS Persephone.

Doomed Ship is primarily designed as a role-play area based around a ship which had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Nastrand Corporation's experimental long-range starship, the Persephone.

THE SETTING

As the distances between Earth and its colonies increased, so to did the time it took to travel between them. Travel could take decades between one colony and the next. The NCS Persephone was designed as a generational colonial transport, capable of carrying hundreds of passengers and plenty of cargo between worlds.

While still in the early stages of construction, changes were made to implement a brand new technology, a "gravity drive", capable of opening a temporary wormhole and so allowing the ship to travel vast distances in an instant, bypassing speed of light limitations. Due to power and space requirements, a large ship was required for this new technology.

During its maiden voyage, after making several such space-folds, the ship failed to reappear. The official report released to the media was that the reactor exploded and the ship was lost with all hands. About 200 crew members and upwards of 500 passengers in stasis.

Thirteen years later, rumours and stories begin to circulate about the ship. Reports of distress signals and disappearing salvage attempts. Some claim to have been aboard the supposedly destroyed vessel. 58 years after the ship disappeared, a distress signal is received near the Solar system.

WHAT HAPPENED (OOC Backstory)

The Gravity Drive used by the ship to cross the vast distances of space in the blink of an eye works by punching the a hole in the fabric of space in two points. The passage is nearly instantaneous, with only a few moments where the ship is outside the universe. What was not known is that where the ship is when it is outside the universe is, quite literally, Hell.

Each time the ship jumped, a little more of Hell came with it.

YOUR CHARACTER

There are many options for the sort of character you wish to play. Movies such as Alien and Event Horizon, as well as games like Doom or Dead Space, are all good sources of inspiration.

Maybe you are most likely a random salvager or explorer who happened upon the cursed ship in your travels and, after boarding, found there was no way back to your own ship.

You may be an employee of the Nastrand corporation whose ship has come across the derelict Persephone, with instructions to investigate under penalty of termination if you failed to do so.

It is not entirely common knowledge that all corporate craft, and most government ships tend to carry at least on synthetic being. Possibly an obvious robot, or maybe a synthetic human passed off as just another member of the crew, but obedient to corporate directives, even if it places the crew in danger to achieve their directive.

Maybe you are a corporate advisor, accompanying a salvage/rescue mission. Unknown to most of the marines who accompany you, you are under orders to keep the ship safe, to return it, and any unknown life forms, to Corporate space at any cost.

Or possibly, you lie in wait on the ship, something it has brought back from the other side.

Group titles are available, but not required for role-play. Some visitors have begun unofficial Doomed Ship groups to provide a greater variety of role-play titles.

LOOKING THE PART

There are two complimentary avatars in the arrival area. One for men, one for women. There are also several inexpensive space suits sold in the shop.

Beyond that, one need only look towards the inspiration suggested above for ideas as to the look of your character. Much of the look of Doomed Ship has been derived from Event Horizon, Dead Space, Doom 3, and the Alien movies. Human avatars for the crew are strongly encouraged, with a fairly free hand for those playing the roles of the demonic creatures which stalk the darker corners of the ship, and the alien beasts which have escaped SciLab containment.

A word about body shapes. Doomed Ship is fairly unique in SL as the environment is designed to scale. Vending machines are 6'/1.83m tall. Desks, tables, beds, and chairs are all made to scale with realistic human proportions. Ceilings and doorways are taller than realistic to allow for the default SL camera, and so that avatars of all sizes might wander the ship.

The average avatar in SL is usually somewhere between 6'6"/1.98m to 8'6"/2.59m. Even the default avatars provided by Linden Lab range in height from 6'8"/203cm (the shortest of the woman avatars) to 7'1"/216cm (the tallest of the mens avatars). To add to the confusion, the appearance editor in Linden Lab's viewer and many resident-made height detectors are broken, using an avatar attribute named AgentHeight, which is not your avatar's size at all.

Human avatars well over 6'/1.83m will look out of place within the Doomed Ship environment. The average avatar may find tables not quite coming up to their knees, chairs so low that their feet sink into the ground. To better fit within the Doomed Ship role-play, it is encouraged that visitors adopt avatars in scale with the environment. The complimentary avatars at the entrance each include a body shape with realistic scale and proportions. These shapes are full-perm and may be shared with others. More variety in body shapes will be made in the future.

A note on the Doomed Ship role-play.

It is impossible, as well as undesirable, for the admin to police and mediate all role-play within the ship. At present there are no plans whatsoever to discourage those who wish to use the Doomed Ship environment for their own role-play so long as they do not attempt to interfere with other visitors, or attempt to present their role-play scenario as official or compulsory.

Additionally, the administration cannot be present to mediate all cases of "power-gaming" or "god-modding". More often than not, those complaining of such acts are the subject of similar complaints from others, as everyone has their own ideas of suitable conduct in free-form role-play such as that found at Doomed Ship. It is recommended that visitors learn who they are most comfortable playing with, and avoid those they have problems with.

And that's pretty much that. If you're interested, go to the main ship's portal; grab an avatar if you need one; decide on a good concept; and see how it goes. Avoid the trolls. Have fun if that's what you're there for. It is a spaceship that's been to Hell and back, after all.

all the sweet green trees of Atlanta burst like little bombs

Necronomm VI is going away--may, in fact, already have been taken down by the writing of this missive. It was a highly technical, detailed build, that underwent many revisions in both structure and storyline over the years, but it was always intriguing, and always worth a visit. I was never more than an occasional bit player, but I tried to keep tabs now and again. I will genuinely miss the build.

No word yet on whether this means the Doomed ship is also leaving, as--while they're operated by separate people--they occupied the same sim, and I just don't know so far whether the sim itself is leaving, or just Oni Horan's section of it.

Also, I don't know whether or not Oni's Marketplace store is going to stay up, but for now it seems to be functional. Do with that information what you will.

In slightly brighter news, due to the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, many groups from the 70s are finding themselves suddenly back on the charts. You can get Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix 1 (AKA, the soundtrack to the film) on Amazon, iTunes, and, one would assume, most record stores.

If you bear any level of love for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the word is out to avoid the film, as though it's a rabid dog with rocket-powered teeth that can lunge forward and bite from miles away. Apparently--at least according to that reviewer, though other reports I've heard sound equally as dire--it makes TMNT II look watchable by comparison.



Yeah. It makes Vanilla ICE watchable. It's THAT BAD.

Want to know how your state measures up, internet-wise? Here, have at. (For the rest of the world, feel free to point and laugh at how bad our net connections really are. They're only matched by our abysmal social programs and slipshod medical coverage.)

Finally, prepare to have your mind blown by a Lord of the Rings theory regarding the giant eagles. Though it's been a bit since I've last read the source material, I don't recall the eagles were specifically mentioned outside of existing, so the fact that Gandalf's iconic line could potentially relate to them made me headtilt in a good way.

I don't know if it was intended to be that way; but it does make that line very, very intriguing.

bleed for a sinner; I just need a few pennies more

Insidious is getting a sequel! Though I'm not sure what that means in terms of the deaths from the original...

(from the haunts album; one of the command stations on the Doomed ship's interior)

Continuing from a couple days ago, we were covering the rules for Doomed...

4. We do ask that visitors at least attempt to look in-theme so as not to detract from the experience of others. There is a free set of uniforms near the entrance teleporter. All Doomed Ship avatars are designed around realistically sized human shapes and will require editing if you prefer to use a larger shape.

(from the haunts album; the main embarkation point for the Doomed ship)

For me, this is the big one, and it's seemingly the biggest one for people missing the point, too. "Realistically sized human" means "human". Or, "alien with a believable explanation as to why they're non-human, while still appearing humanoid/human". Acceptable reasons could include:

• escaped experiment from one of the science labs
• interdimensional entity who means harm
• twining lab plant which has achieved sentience
• reanimated person/animal/mineral/specimen with an agenda

(from the haunts album; alien infestation along a lower corridor)

Choosing your own adventure is the heart of all RP, but make sure that your vision doesn't destroy or diminish the vision inherent in the surroundings. On the Doomed ship, everyone's human; the (very) few who aren't (aliens, travelers, demonic entities) are generally corrupt and evil, through and through. And it's fine to be corrupt and evil, as long as you understand the dividing line. There are no "good" demons, though there can be "bad" humans, but above all else, there are no furs without a reasonable explanation.

Let's play the matching game again.


On the one side, Isaac Clarke from Dead Space 2; on the other, a random anime babe in shiny pink with some sort of unreasonably cute alien pet. See the difference?

Or let's talk about Ulrich K's various sf/fantasy pinups. On the left, his "Alien Hunter". On the right, his "Astronaut Girl". Which one fits the Doomed ship more? Big hint: it's not the lady in the bubble-helmet.

5. Limit scripted attachments where possible. Avoid attachments that cause excessive lag.

In other words, don't wear your resize-scripted, 100% particle-spewing, realistic-movement fur coat with your 217-prim hair, your 98-prim animated tail, and your intricately designed blinged-out beltbuckle that can be seen from Mars to the Doomed ship. You'll make several people--including the owners and anyone who gets near the perfect storm of lag you'll be creating--unhappy.

6. Limit use of over-sized avatars to large, open areas of the ship. Remove if asked.

Note: "large, open areas" does not mean "mess hall" or central gathering area. It means that if you're twelve feet tall, and want to play on Doomed, you'll either have to track down an avatar that's more realistically proportioned, or confine yourself to the docking bay, period. And since there are freebie skins and uniforms available on beaming in to Doomed, there's literally no excuse for tromping around, too tall for the ship.

7. Work and residential areas outside the role-play area are not public.

And not that that one really needs more explanation, but I'll make it simple: if you have to fly up to get there, or cam in from the outside to get there, it's likely not a place you're supposed to be. Don't go there.

Now I'm curious, so I'm going to be hopping about some over the next few weeks, seeing if I can get rules lists for other RP sims, and see if their rules make as much sense as the Doomed ship rules do.

let me spin you a yarn for a cent

Ken Lowery offered a suggestion on Twitter some few days back: "Take a real blues song title, with the world 'blues' in it, and replace 'blues' with 'feels'." What happens when you do that? This.

So, as happens some days, my attention drifts back to Doomed...I think mainly because I know people who play there, and there seems to be this nigh-constant battle between the RP the creators want, and the RP SL avatars give them.

Today, I want to go over the basic rules for the sim.

F(from the haunts album; interior corridor of the Doomed Ship)

Welcome to Doomed Ship, one of SL's largest and most immersive sci-fi/horror environments.

What is Doomed Ship? On one hand it is a role-play environment where players can immerse themselves in a space rescue/salvage mission gone horribly wrong. On the other hand, you can think of it as a haunted house in space, where visitors are free to wander the dark corridors, with friends or alone, exploring SL's most interactive environment, avoiding the dangers, and discovering the secrets of the NCS Persephone.

Now that it's been rebuilt, there are more hidden levels than ever. And you're free to wander the ship solely as an observer, just to experience the Persephone; but the owners of Doomed do ask that if you want to participate in the roleplay, that you accept the few rules that exist for the ship.

Namely...

(from the haunts album; Doomed Ship's...resident??...raver kitten)

The Rules:

1. Do NOT disrupt the role-play of others.

This, to me, would seem self-explanatory, but apparently some people miss it. For example, some people insist on showing up as petite kittens garbed in a modern logo t-shirt and a denim mini instead of, say, something that actually makes sense on the ship. Why do these people play on Doomed? No one knows.

2. There are scattered adult elements but this is not an adult sim. If you are looking for sex-focused RP I recommend Necronom VI.

Now, this is somewhat new--as in, only in the last six to eight months or so. Prior to that, the owners of the sim had Adult playtoys scattered about the sim, but the owners saw a distinct diminishing of ongoing storylines in the RP, and fewer steady players. Any RP sim wants steady players, as well as an influx of interesting new ones, but without that, sims get pretty desolate.

Play on Doomed gets dark, frequently, gets frightening frequently--it is, after all, a survival horror sim--but as the owners sat down and evaluated what they wanted the sim to be, they decided that keeping the dark and horrific aspects were fine, they'd just eliminate the sex. (And to be fair, most people weren't treating Doomed as a gang orgy sim, anyway.)

(from the haunts album; the child of darkness at play atop the dome above Doomed)

3. No child avatars in inappropriate situations as per the SL TOS.

What determines a child avatar, anyway? Because I'd as soon toss out the raver kitten as inappropriate, than this particular child, as long as she stays in non-Adult zones...but still, I'd have reservations about her attire.

Some side by side shots for comparison.

--=APPROPRIATE=--	--=INAPPROPRIATE=--

Seems fairly self-explanatory, right? Let me see if I can find more.


Seems to work.


See what I mean? Their point isn't that you can't RP a child on the Doomed ship, but come up with a good reason why a child would be on the Doomed ship. Like...a generation ship drifted into the Persephone's path, limping along on one engine, and the crew frantically scrambled aboard via [something scientific sounding]. Ergo, children on Doomed.

Or an entity was drawn to the distress beacon (alien origin)/an entity came through the portal (demonic origin), and proceeds to wreak havoc on the ship. Thus, children on Doomed.

Pick your poison; with a little bit of creativity, it can work in your favor, but you have to commit to the position. The position, in this case, being no happy, bouncy, lithping kids poking lollipops into the faces of the corpses in the halls; there has to be a solid reason for a child to be on Doomed, and it has to be a specific kind of child.

And you can't do anything not authorized by the Lindens; so no children in zones with Adult toys, and no children ageplaying with adults in sexual ways. Keep that in mind, and you'll be fine (and the owners of Doomed will breathe a great sigh of relief, too).

I think this one's getting long, so I'll do more with it later. Look for part II soon!

now hush, love, hush. here's your gown. there's the bed; lanterns down.

[21:30] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: Someone is *breaking* a spanker at Doomed Ship.
[21:30] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: gotta love people. :D
[21:30] Emilly Orr: How...does one break a spanker?
[21:30] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: By setting it to spank -way- too many times.
[21:30] Emilly Orr facepalms
[21:31] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: I can't honestly bring myself to believe that they're using it as part of some perverse RP.
[21:32] Emilly Orr: Honestly, is there just a higher percentage of idiots on the Doomed ship than anywhere else? Because I swear, I know some of the people who hang out there, and they all SEEM to have functional brains.
[21:32] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: XD
[21:33] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: I think the sex tentacles help bring'em out.
[21:33] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: Even though they removed that whole portion of the ship with the most of them.
[21:33] Emilly Orr: Yeah, exactly. You'd think that would DROP the percentage of dumb, not increase it.

Questions for the ages. Perhaps we lowly mortals are not truly meant to know.

And it's official, people--Oskar Linden has left the Lab.

And if you need ideas for next Hallows--or your next costume party--you could always go greyscale for an evening. (Amusingly, I've been collecting greyscale skins in SL, so I could conceivably do this in-world, too.)

And news of the latest invasion force infiltrating the grid: GIANT MEN IN LEDERHOSEN. Run! Hide the children!

And now for the last bit of eye-centricity: the last set of the Cassiopeia eyes from Rue.

(from the Avatars album; the Woodland set from the Cassiopeia eyes from Rue)

The "Dryad" eyes remind me of ivy shadows in dim and mossy groves, as the harvest moon (in this case, in triplicate) rises overhead.

(from the Avatars album; the Woodland set from the Cassiopeia eyes from Rue)

The "Forest" eyes continue this conceit, replacing the ivy with multilimbed, multibarked trees by a green rill.

(from the Avatars album; the Woodland set from the Cassiopeia eyes from Rue)

The "Hunter" eyes are a strong and sure Loden green, with just a hint of lantern gold.

(from the Avatars album; the Woodland set from the Cassiopeia eyes from Rue)

The "Meadow" eyes fascinate me. If I'm looking to my left, they're rose, silver and gold will-o-the-wisps, drifting through a green meadow just lightly touched with autumn frost. But if I'm looking to the right, it's all thick moss on green stones dappled by moonlight and wine.

(from the Avatars album; the Woodland set from the Cassiopeia eyes from Rue)

The "Pear" eyes don't so much remind me of pears, per se, as they do of traditional French pear brandy.

(from the Avatars album; the Woodland set from the Cassiopeia eyes from Rue)

And finally, the "Swamp eyes", which are perfectly reminiscent of peat bogs, deep swamps, with little glowing traceries of swamp gas and eldritch glow. All of these are from the Woodland set.

(And the final style notations: The hair you don't see is from Ploom. Outfit's multilayered, but the fishnets are from Insolence, the boots are from Show Me On the Doll (back when they existed), the high-waist shorts are from 1-800-Bettie's, and the cropped jacket is from Somnia and was acquired during one of Hellbop's cart sales. And the forehead jewels are from the Arachnos skin set at Fallen Gods [it came with spider back-arms and the Arachnos skin as well, and it's no longer available].)

plan your attack, yeah, I'm still waiting

[22:05] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: Things you discover when highlighting transparencies at a combat sim:
[22:05] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: [22:01] Friend: oh my god.
[22:01] Friend: um
[22:01] Friend: highlight transparent
[22:02] Friend: and look at [exxx].
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: LOL
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: please
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: please
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: Go tell her something
[22:02] Friend: i did.
[22:02] Friend: did you fucking see it?
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: like "Half the scripts are probably in your dick."
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: Nope
[22:02] Friend: not a penis.
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: Dildo
[22:02] Friend: it's a pregnancy attachment
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: ?
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: LOL
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: EW
[22:02] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: FUCKING A
[22:02] Friend: so there's a transparent set of babies coming out of her vagina

Why? That's my only question? Why? Why would anyone want this??

[22:03] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: HAHAHAHA
[22:06] Sxxxxx Bxxx: hahahahahaha
[22:06] Axx Txxxxx: LOL
[22:06] Emilly Orr blinkblinks
[22:06] Emilly Orr: I think I've offically heard everything now. WTF.
[22:06] Emilly Orr: My brain is going, why would you even WANT a stream of babies...
[22:06] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: Because they make you feel MOTHERLY
[22:07] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: obviously
[22:07] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: Apparently they were also 160 scripts
[22:07] Emilly Orr facepalms

"Motherly". Seriously. And they're scripted, which means she's carting around individually posed and primmed babies around in front of her. For...reasons.

Reasons I can't, obviously, find a way to comprehend.

[22:07] Axx Txxxxx: i'm pretty sure there's a pic of that on the What the Fug flickr group.
[22:07] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: I feel like I've seen it there before too
[22:07] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: first time seeing it in person, though!
[22:08] Axx Txxxxx: XD
[22:09] Axx Txxxxx: Emilly, I think the stream of babies is the different baby positions from the womb to birth.
[22:10] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: I think that may've just given me the hiccups
[22:12] Axx Txxxxx: here! i found it!
[22:15] Emilly Orr: I...don't...my brain has a fail.
[22:15] Axx Txxxxx: *patspats*

But that wasn't bad enough. A few days later:

[20:01] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: ...I am at doomedship, and there is a toddler neko here.
[20:01] Emilly Orr facepalms
[20:01] Emilly Orr: Why? For the love of all gods, why?

(from the bizarre album; toddler on Doomed)

PEOPLE. SERIOUSLY, now. WTF is the draw to go traipsing about Doomed as a CHILD?!? I mean, I have enough problems with credulity to accept someone that looks like a teenager, but THIS?!? This toddler with a pacifier in sock feet?!?

[20:04] Axx Txxxxx: what is it doing now?
[20:04] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: I think it may have TPed out, but I'm -not- sure.
[20:05] Cxxxx Nxxxxxxx: I went back to buy the cam hud and it's no longer here.
[20:07] Emilly Orr: Or it got bounced.

See, here's the thing. Granted, now that the designer behind Doomed wants to take it into wider roleplay, the Adult poses are slowly disappearing from the winding chambers and substructures that make up the ship. So it's very much a structure in transition, and I do understand that--there's going to be a mix of old and new players, there will be clashes, likely drama, mayhap controversy. Obviously, there are going to be players who want to keep the Adult content, arguing with those who don't want it on the ship. It's going to become a heated debate.

But there is a line, and I feel this is one that is drawn quite decisively--the Doomed ship is not a childrens' playspace! Grow the hell up and GET OFF THE DAMNED SHIP!

paralyzed, no clarity

So, over the last few months the folks behind the Doomed sim have been making a concerted effort to remove all Adult poses, all sex beds, all interactive Adult props (including the lovely Sensual Stoneworks pieces that charmed more than a few players). I'm not really sure why, though I am tempted to drop a line and see what response I get to asking the question. But alongside that, they've also revised their rules.

The one revision that comes strongest to mind is rule four:

4. APPEARANCES - Visitors are asked to dress up in theme. No cel shaded avatars, My Little Ponies, cheerleaders, etcetera. Think of the films Alien or Event Horizon, or videogames such as Doom 3 or Dead Space. There is a free maintenance uniform for those lacking an appropriate outfit for their avatar.

Also, while furries are not banned and are welcome to explore we do ask, for the sake of maintaining the theme, that you adopt human/demon/creature avatars in theme with the environment if you wish to join the ongoing role-play.

Actually, they have ones tailored to gender, even--there's a male and a female version, both including skins, shape, complete outfit, animation overrides, and I think hair (and if not, hair's easy to track down). But here's what confuses me--didn't they go Adult several months back? Did that change? And also, if they're not interested in Adult-rated play, then why still offer Adult props on the Marketplace? (I'm referring specifically to the Breeding Drone, the Altar of Corruption, and the first part of the Corrupted Water System.)

Maybe they're just that tired of having My Little Pony avatars walking around trying to roleplay with dizzily blonde cheerleaders and infants. Maybe the hope is to get down to the core of what they want their group to be--and they've always been more closely centered to survival horror over sex.

For just slightly over three thousand US dollars, the USS Enterprise can be yours. Or at least a hand-carved and finished replica, coffee-table size. It's crafted from ash, poplar and cherry wood, and it took the artist, Barry Shields, a full month to create--including cutting and finishing the sweeping 1/4" thick glass tabletop that sits over the ship itself.

There's a very good reason why the Chief Operations Officer behind Facebook--and a large part of the reason why Facebook is such a huge success--should stand up for what she believes in...but as eloquent as that article is, I truly don't believe it will ever happen.

Why? Because being that close to the top of an otherwise all-male company still means she's that close to the top of an otherwise all-male company, and all Zuckerberg needs to do if she becomes problematic is fire her. As much as it would be an amazing act of gender equality for her to say "Hire more of us, or I walk"...she won't.

Meanwhile, over at MIT, scientists have developed something that may very well revolutionize power and technology. And by "power", I don't mean political, I mean electrical. From the introductory paragraph of the article:

Researchers at MIT have developed photonic crystals that, in as little as two years, could enable the use of hydrocarbon reactors in portable electronic devices, and nuclear power sources everywhere else.

They're not kidding. And while some surely will be wary of carting around mini-reactors in their back pocket, think of how many people could power their entire house with one of these in five years. What about countries that are without power now? How many people would this help to save, help to feed, help to treat?

Finally, Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza's put together a (nearly) comprehensive presentation of every product Apple's ever made. (If you want the slightly more sarcastic version, there's also a video featuring every NEXT product in 30 seconds. Of course, I'm fairly sure they left out one...) And both are worth watching for the technophiles in the audience.

I got a place where all my dreams are dead

Punxatawney Phil apparently saw his shadow. So six more weeks of winter, at least off the grid. (On the grid, well, when I left Caledon and Winterfell, both were saying winter was soon to end. Since I haven't been back to either place yet, I truly don't know.)

In other news off the grid, mutant chickens are growing toothlike nubs. But mostly, I like this story for the very first line of it:

Working late in the developmental biology lab one night, Matthew Harris of the University of Wisconsin noticed that the beak of a mutant chicken embryo he was examining had fallen off.

Errrr. What does a thinking being say to that?

The rest of the story goes a little bit into why this mutant chicken began growing teeth, but the first three questions that popped into my mind were

• Wait. You're mutating chickens for educational reasons now?
• The beak fell off? The hell? How do beaks just fall off??
• So chickens can't grow teeth normally, but you've managed to reinvent the chicken so successfully they can grow teeth on their own? What's next, the pocket shark?

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the grid...

[19:57] [Fxxxxx Axxxx]: There are two MLP ponies inside the elevator at Doomed.
[19:57] [Fxxxxx Axxxx]: One's titler is "My dad just died in RL let me be PLX"

Man, that would be a hard call. On the one hand, you want to support people...ponies...people in ponies...wau, that sounded bad...in their hour of whatever.

On the other hand, My Little Pony avatars DO NOT BELONG ON DOOMED, so...yeah. There's that fine line, painted in bright, sparkly neon, and likely glowing in the dark.

Lofty Pursuits' long-sought-after goal of acquisition and restoration of Victorian-era candy-making equipment will be funded! That's just amazing. Do read the whole story, it's inspirational, and yes, feel free to fund if you can--they set a low fund limit, because they're doing most of the restoration work in-house, but absolutely anything would help. (Oh, and this just in--there's a Girl Genius link, in more than one way. So yes, anyone steampunk-inclined or Girl Genius fan, give to the project! Or spread the word! And remember that website--bookmark it so in six months to a year, when the Victorian equipment is fully restored and in use, you can order authentic Victorian candy! Woot!)

Unfortunately, Mother Henriot's Absinthe Elixir is not doing so well. I and eighteen other individuals are backers, but that's only raised $980 of their stated $10,000 goal. It ould be a shame for that one to fail.

Meanwhile, there's a new form of visual "muting" on the grid. It's not an actual mute, as all it does is count the number of attachments, or the surface area on which those attachments are used, and then render anyone above your chosen figures as a grey ghost in the world.

Of course, my mind immediately leaps to two places: furs, and the catgirls with the big stompy feet and the fluffy tails with the prim-everything wrapped around the base. I can see either category easily falling off the radar with either debug setting.

But we'll see how it goes. I still have trouble seeing this as actual discrimination because you're still able to see their name, interact with them, have them interact with you--there's no actual "muting", per se. But, if they're wearing too many attachments, or there are more attachments covering their avatar than system layers...these settings would remove them from rezzing in for you.

Ever.

This is going to make crowd photography problematic, I think...

now baby, we could shoot a Russian unicorn

(from the bizarre album)

This is Athon. Apparently, Athon plays a "Planewalker"--someone who can teleport at will, and can't be killed. Oh, and he's a doctor, so he helps people. On occasion. Oh, and he's bright blue. Oh, and he's a demon. Oh, and he's fond of narcoleptic partners.

Yeah. Great guy. Godmodder and alternatively helpful and evil in turns. Remind me never to run into him for the foreseeable...EVER.

Meanwhile, this was overheard in Atlas Park (in City of Heroes):

[Broadcast] Jack Smooth XXX: WE ARE RPSG Lycans Of Avalon.Recruting new members and to help build our base.memebrs must be Active all times. have fun.Our Theme is Werebeast Academy.We have an website.Online Radio station also.PST for info or an Invite.

Um. Okay then. Just for future reference, spell-check is your friend.

But my actual reply was:

[Broadcast] Literal Lass: "We have an website" might have to become a catchphrase, temporarily. That's as good as "the intarwebs".

It really is.

Of course, there are still fun things in CoH. Witness, the bio of "Lizardo", a level 50 Mutation Controller.

"Ricardo Ricardo Lizardo, in an unlikely twist of fate, was born a mutant displaying elements of lizard dna. Although at birth his mutation was barely noticeable, it advanced very rapidly such that by his first birthday he was no longer recognisable as human. Abandoned by fearful parents, he was left in the wilderness where he was raised by a pack of lizards. During this time his mutation continued to advance and he developed an affinity for the earth, which grew to become full blown control.

"Now for some generic reason that seems kinda forced, he is in Paragon City taking on the role of hero and protector."

I like heroes that admit their origin stories have flaws. It's amusing.

BioWare, the makers of Mass Effect 3, are letting their players decide the next feminine version of Colonel Shepard in the game--but only if they have Facebook accounts. All of them look profoundly angry at having been tapped to play Shepard. Is that a good thing?

Meanwhile, the first steps are being taken for human cloning in Japan. Oh, not really, but it's pretty much your face on a doll, from a 3D printer. Which means they're getting very very good at human reproduction in synthetic forms. And they're already pretty good with robotics...

Maybe the goal isn't to clone humans into better versions of themselves. Maybe the goal is to go completely synthetic and leave the meat behind. Is that a good thing?

Echo Bazaar has suffered a case of accidental lesbianism, apparently. Now, the article is well worth reading for many reasons, not the least of it the accurate breakdown of character developments in games and RPGs. But the intriguing thing--for me, at least--is the player behind that particular character instantly assuming that the final line of text for that quest indicated her character had become a lesbian.

Why couldn't it mean that her character went over to warn the other woman about what she'd discovered? Or to commiserate with her? Maybe make a nice soothing pot of tea, talk about inconsequentials of the day, and stroll off home, nary a garter rumpled?

What happens when rock and roll gets crossed with comics? This. Is it sad I'd love to see this as a full-fledged book?

The Google+ disintegration is getting chilling; not because they're deleting Google+ accounts, because--for me personally--I really could not care less.

The unsettling thing for me is the reports of Google shutting off all Google services. And I've had this account for five years. My bank has this account name. My insurance has this account name. My family writes to Emilly, not an account tied to my "real name".

If I lose it all...it's just painful to contemplate.

Friend of mine, in separate research, ran across Joe Clark's contact page. Have no idea who he is, really, but I adore his clauses for contact.

Random images from wandering over the past few days.

(from the shopping album)

Remember a while back, while in Curious Kitties, I found an example of really well-done prim feet?

Yeah. These aren't them. But I don't entirely think it's the fault of the avatar (admittedly, even with a HUD, tinting can be tricky). I think it's the fault of the shoes, frankly. This is an example of bad prim feet.

Unfortunately, I have no idea who made them, because shortly after snapping that pic, the feet--and the avatar in them--ported off. But seriously, if you saw prim shoes made this badly, would you buy them?

(from the shopping album)

Some of the folks behind the Seasons hunt have gotten very...whimsical...with shark placement.

(from the shopping album)

Witness what's happened at Willow, for instance. Land sharks, indeed.

Finally, seen at this year's ComicCon--brace yourselves if you're going to click, this may leave mental scars: Hello Kitty, slave Leia version. You're...welcome?

one thousand umbrellas opened to spoil the view

[Insert from the Editrix: After this published, I heard from a friend that {smallroyalty} actually argued with a Doomed ship moderator, over whether or not she knew what roleplay was. Conclusion: she knew what roleplay was, at the time she said she didn't on the ship. Yeah. So that's annoying...]

More from the Doomed controversy; an explanation, I think, of...sorts? All identifying names have, again, been changed per request of avatar.

[16:42] [smallroyalty]: (Saved Mon Jul 18 14:25:44 2011)hi
[16:42] [smallroyalty]: (Saved Mon Jul 18 14:33:20 2011)sorry that day
[16:45] Emilly Orr: I'm sorry, I have no reference. Sorry for what day?
[16:46] [smallroyalty]: on domed
[16:46] [smallroyalty]: i read u blog
[16:46] Emilly Orr: Oh. Well, you do understand what you did wrong, right?
[16:47] [smallroyalty]: a croos rl
[16:47] [smallroyalty]: mine RL croosed domed
[16:47] Emilly Orr: Croosed? I don't understand
[16:48] [smallroyalty]: mine RL is : a 12 old girl curious and likes to explore places
[16:48] Emilly Orr: Wait. You're 12 RL? Seriously?
[16:49] [smallroyalty]: RL = role play
[16:49] [smallroyalty]: in real life i an 25 yrs old
[16:49] Emilly Orr: Generally speaking, that's referred to as RP
[16:49] Emilly Orr: RP = Role Play
[16:49] Emilly Orr: Because of the R and the P, see
[16:50] Emilly Orr: RL hits most people as Real Life

Okay, so it's a difference in terms, and keeping in mind that [smallroyalty] is new to SL, sometimes these things slip through the cracks. She seems to basically be saying that her roleplay would have included questions about what roleplay is, because her roleplay is that she doesn't understand roleplay.

....Yeah, I have no words. But that's her concept.

[16:50] [smallroyalty]: yes i not talk very good english
[16:50] [smallroyalty]: so may im now
[16:50] Emilly Orr: But here's the thing. If you UNDERSTAND the concept of roleplay, why did you say you didn't?
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Because *that* is what got you booted from Doomed that day.
[16:51] [smallroyalty]: because i was roleplaying that the avi not understand it
[16:51] Emilly Orr: ....
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Okay, apart from being almost incomprehensibly dumb, the avatar would understand RP
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Because she was existing in RP
[16:51] Emilly Orr: It would be all around her, that would be her reality
[16:51] [smallroyalty]: whell
[16:52] Emilly Orr: ASKING 'what's OOC' or 'what's RP' means you're breaking OUT of the RP
[16:52] [smallroyalty]: s othis what hapened whe both was breaking each other roleplays xD

This, I still don't understand. But she seems kind of fixated on the topic, that her roleplay is that she doesn't roleplay, or rather, that her roleplay is that of a 12-year-old who doesn't understand roleplay, and...bwuh.

I mean, okay, sure, someone tosses those terms into open conversation--and I have no verification that they did or didn't either way--maybe her character would react, and ask. But if not, she was....I don't even know. How does that even come up?

"I don't understand roleplay. What's roleplay?"
"((OOC: you're in one.))"
"What's OOC?"

I mean, I can, sort of, wrap my mind around how the conversation took place, but...I still don't get it. Plus, there's that rules card, which EVERYONE is handed upon entering the sim.

[16:53] [smallroyalty]: i read the rules after ..
[16:53] [smallroyalty]: and get what u said
[16:53] Emilly Orr: How did they break your roleplay? Because again, saying you don't get it is demonstrating you really don't understand how to play a character
[16:53] Emilly Orr: ....
[16:53] Emilly Orr: you read the rules after?

Oh. I, err...Oh. What?

[16:53] Emilly Orr: why?
[16:53] Emilly Orr: why not before?
[16:54] [smallroyalty]: i an new on sl
[16:54] Emilly Orr: Right.
[16:54] [smallroyalty]: all places i go sent me a messgae

And if I'm understanding that correctly, this is the fault of Viewer 2, because they take each incoming thing, pop it down in the lower-right-hand corner, and new people ignore it.

I know I harp on Viewer 2 a lot, but this one seems entirely deserved. It is harder to figure out when you've been given a message at all, and place that on top of not distinguishing between important messages to read RIGHT NOW and hey, you came by our sim, neat messages, makes the entire incoming-message-system profoundly pointless.

[16:54] Emilly Orr: Okay, so...the card came in, you saved it, but you didn't understand you were supposed to read it beforehand?
[16:55] [smallroyalty]: yea ... i an doing this now
[16:55] Emilly Orr: Ah.
[16:55] [smallroyalty]: for not broke any more a RP
[16:55] Emilly Orr: Well, as far as it goes, I don't think you're banned from Doomed, but they'll likely be wary if you return.
[16:56] Emilly Orr: Because, again, survival horror sim. Space-based. If you're not dressed for the sim, they're going to be trying to figure out where you fit.
[16:56] [smallroyalty]: ok

Okay. So, good, we're done here. Understanding was achieved. I feel relatively comfortable that accord has been reached, and--

Wait. She's typing.

[16:56] [smallroyalty]: well i came to u to aske to change names on u blog
[16:56] Emilly Orr: Why?
[16:56] [smallroyalty]: i an not a alt of [someone else mentioned on the earlier blog entry which has since been redacted]
[16:56] [smallroyalty]: i an age verified
[16:57] Emilly Orr: Okay.
[16:57] [smallroyalty]: i rp a family
[16:57] Emilly Orr ponders briefly why all the people playing kids in SL are age verified, but lets it go.

Yeah, because there really aren't enough hours in the day to figure out why people playing kids on SL, age verify so they can get into Adult sims. I mean, sure, player behind the screen, not a kid, I get that, but it still just strikes me as...creepy.

[16:58] Emilly Orr: If you're just upset that your name's out there, all right. But that also means a rewrite of that entry.
[16:58] Emilly Orr: I can do that, it just makes it odd.
[16:58] [smallroyalty]: yes .. i think was a kind confusing what u writed
[16:59] Emilly Orr: I don't think so, but all right.
[16:59] Emilly Orr: I'll change it.
[16:59] [smallroyalty]: thanks

And for the second time, I thought that was the end of everything. All names changed, no identifying linkage--even assumed--retained, the prior entry was edited and republished at this point, and I went about my day. Most of which, at this point, consisted of answering emails, so as far as SL was concerned, I was just standing on the build platform above my Winterfell parcel, not moving.

And then this came in.

[17:09] [smallroyalty]: can add u as friend to tell me about nice steampunk places?
[17:09] [smallroyalty]: stores
[17:09] [smallroyalty]: and markets
[17:10] Emilly Orr: Well, your best bet is to go to Oxbridge Village--I think you can still get to it here: Caledon Oxbridge Village (128,128,2)
[17:10] Emilly Orr: and ask around. I know they also have free outfits that are more steampunk/Victorian aligned.
[17:11] Emilly Orr: I generally don't friend on the first meeting, but if you really want to, sure.

I used to have this staunch policy about not friending people unless I knew them really well. Because I wanted to know everyone on my friendslist in Second Life.

At this point, I must get three friend offers a day, though, just from people who want an EM in their callbox, so to speak, and it's just enervating to try to parse through everything. Plus the fact that currently, I'm not even talking that often to people I do know that well, and mostly, it creates a situation where I just don't even care, anymore. Sure, friend me, what the hell.

[17:11] Quer ser meu amigo?

And now we know she's Portuguese, so yes, her English fluency is not that high (because her native tongue is Portuguese, not English). Though to be absolutely fair, here, she's choosing to communicate in English throughout this entire conversation. She may be bad at the language, but she's trying to improve her comprehension. I support that wholly; I can't say anything negative about trying to learn a new language. That, and English is hard; if you're not born a native speaker of it, it's confusing as hell.

[17:14] Friendship offer accepted.
[17:14] [smallroyalty] is Online

And that's that, then. Apart from accepting any and all suggestions for "steampunk" stores--beyond the ones I know (and please leave them in the comments)--I think we've tied things up in a confusing, but acceptable place. She didn't understand the rules (because she didn't read them); she didn't understand that rp containing the concept of no rp would not be understood--or even accepted very well; and English is not her first language, so she's struggling to communicate all these concepts in the first place.

I'm going to set the language thing aside for the moment, because there are bigger questions here. How do roleplay sims communicate their rules and prohibitions effectively post-viewer 2? Generally, most sims (that I've been to, at least; I haven't been to ALL of them) have a drop-down when you enter the sim that offers a copy of the rules, or at least tells you that there are rules and expectations for visitors to that sim.

But if the resident in question just brushes past that--yet another notification in an endlessly-seeming stream of notifications--how does that RP sim grab their attention?

Some have a secondary prim rezzed out with hovertext saying Touch me for a copy of the rules, but that doesn't always work, either. And RP sims in general can't afford to hire specifically-trained 'helper' avatars to staff the entry zones twenty-four hours a day.

Is there any setting that will give an actual blue-text drop-down anymore? Because I still see them in Viewer 1; is the code still there in Viewer 2? For that matter, is any "legacy" coding still available in Viewer 2? Because maybe, just maybe, there's a coding work-around that could be found, that would force the drop-down for all viewers?

Or is that too much to ask? And there's no guarantee that would work, either, people being people. It's hard to know what's the best way to move forward, because as I've learned, most residents don't read notecards anyway...

you're just a cannibal and I'm afraid I won't get out alive

[Note from the Editrix: names have been changed to protect the identity of the guilty, and the confusing. See the follow-up entry for why.]

It's a dark night. Well, it's always a dark night in space. You can hear the creaks and groans of metal under strain as you creep along the darkened corridor, hoping not to be noticed by whatever it ws you saw crashing around earlier in one of the destroyed labs. Before that, you found bodies, and after that, all you found were bloodstains, and you have a feeling this could mean your end if you don't get to safety in the next few minutes.

And very little, on this ship, is safe.

You dodge the expected loops of live wires, sparking through the dim air. It seems more of the ship is breaking down every day, almost as if it were...alive, and in the process of...dying. You do not go down the darker corridors that seem to breathe temptation as you creep past them. You have a goal, and you are trying to reach it intact. But it takes everything in you not to flee in abject horror as you creep closer to your destination--because what you see is so far out of your expected experience it makes your flesh crawl and your internal warning system go on full alert.

You have dealt with strange mutations. You have dealt with possessed souls. You've dealt with mad doctors, cruel sadists and giant insects. And also panicked military, flailing alien appendages, and predatory passengers and crew. But this...this tiny terror...It cannot be borne.

It is small, this horrific thing. It is dressed in colors that sear across your vision. It is bearing a pack shaped like a lumpy, slain animal, shackled to it, one might say, with large, somehow bloated straps that look genuinely uncomfortable.

It is dressed in pastel tones, some strange pierced-cloth construction of ruffles, and small wraps for its smaller feet made of only slightly stiffened cloth and lacing. They appear to have no magnetic functions in the least, and they are not reinforced at any point. In fact, what it wears appears to have no protective abilities for deep-space work.

There is no recognizeable consortium identification anywhere along its perplexing uniform. And it appears to be...smiling.

You creep closer still, delicately unsnapping your stun pistol from its holster, in case you'll need to draw it soon. And you hear the words that drip from its small, pink lips:

[18:32] [smallroyalty]: but this one is soo cool for kids

If readers are gathering that I'm mentioning the Doomed ship more often these days, it's because, for whatever reason, it seems to be emerging as the testing ground for Adult activities on the grid. And I don't mean that in terms of sexual innovation, though there's a fair amount of that going on.

No, I mean things like yesterday's Cow Woman, or today's small child wandering the corridors of Doomed because it was "fun for children". Hells, I'll even take Cow Woman off the table, because even if what she did didn't fit, it was a definite presentation that required work, and devotion to craft, and a strong vision of what, exactly, she wanted to be in Second Life. Even more pointed, she was a character that radiated sensual energy; that avatar was an adult damn it, and no mistaking her for anything else. More power to her bovine self; moove along.

But...children? On Doomed? This is where the processors melt down.

Now let me speak this, and speak this plainly: to the best of my knowledge, there is no child on Second Life that is actually owned and operated by a real, honest-to-goodness child. In terms of age, at least. Outlook and education we have zero control over.

Let me say this again, since I believe it's vaguely important: No child on Second Life is a child in real life. Because children don't want to be kids in Second Life. They want to be adults, with adult bodies, and occasionally adult interests. They want to interact with people and be accepted as older than the thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen-year-olds they might be in reality. Okay?

But even saying that, this goes back to the McCann Problem--namely, if your gig is to play a child in Second Life, then play a child. Don't port into Adult-rated sims--even if you have age-verified to do so--and wander around playing a goddamned child.

(And seriously, if you're playing a child in SL anyway, unless we're talking pedophilia, you don't have any reason to be in the Adult-rated areas! And if we're talking pedophilia, that--even in the virtual sense, when both participants are consenting adults--is highly frowned upon by the Labs, to the point that it's a Terms of Service violation! Just don't do it!)

[Insert from the Editrix: I am informed by a reliable participant that the Doomed ship isn't in an Adult sim anymore. They and Necronomm decided jointly to change their rating to Adult; noticed a deliberate drop in participation; and switched back to Moderate. So okay, they're Moderate now...but you can still RP sex and graphic horror there, and aren't both of those activities generally child-free?

[Barring, you know, the kids from The Ring, The Bad Seed, The Grudge, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, F.E.A.R., Pet Sematary, Children of the Corn, The Exorcist, Village of the Damned, 30 Days of Night, REC, The Sixth Sense, The Orphanage (as well as Orphan, Salem's Lot, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Omen, Dark Water, The Shining, Firestarter...okay, okay, fine, kids have a well-established place in horror.

[Just not when sex is thrown in. Unless you're talking, you know, all those films and games that do...but the sex featured in those works is...disturbed, usually on more than one level. Which again, fine, survival horror...but remember that Terms of Service violation mentioned? Yeah.]

Or at the least, in places like Doomed, which allows children if there is no entry into areas in which sexual activity can take place (which, as I seem to recall, excludes most of the ship), and then be all wide-eyed and innocent and ask "What's RP? What's OOC?"

In short: [smallroyalty], I know you're new at this. Your profile says 34 days old, and okay, fine, if you're not an alt, you've barely got a month of SLife under your tiny belt.

It should be noted that [smallroyalty] wasn't bounced from Doomed because she was a child avatar. She was bounced for pretending she had no concept of OOC/RP. If you don't have any clue what those two terms mean--especially since there's a rules card when you port into the sim--there's no excuse for not knowing. Get your ass home.

But then, with the Doomed ship being on the Destinations page, maybe it's not surprising that they're getting lots of idiots and kids skipping around the place. Just ask Siggy Romulus how well that works.

[20:32] Emilly Orr gets around to reading the notecard while waiting and watches her brain fall out and bounce for a bit.
[20:32] [EXXXXX]: What notecard?
[20:32] Emilly Orr: "This all seemed like someone's idea of a piratical joke"?
[20:32] [EXXXXX]: Oh.
[20:33] [EXXXXX]: I do love that typo, though.
[20:33] [EXXXXX]: What exactly is a Piractical joke?
[20:33] [EXXXXX]: Does it involve a plank?
[20:33] Emilly Orr: ARRR, me hearties, we be takin' yer jests now! Hand 'em over, an' all japes and pretensions, an' be quick about it, arrrr!
[20:35] [EXXXXX]: And don' be thinking we know not a knock-knock when we a'hear one! First man to try will get a plankover! "What's a Plankover?" Shark-infested water you blasted scallywags.

This was the passage in question:

[20:56] [DXXXXX]: grew tired of the charade that was going on. This all seemed like someone's idea of a piratical joke and she wasn't going to take any of it seriously. "Hmph!" she said outloud, turning and heading towards the elevator.

WHEN ROLEPLAYING:

• Please spell as close to accurately as you can. If at all possible. If not, keep a dictionary next to your keyboard.


• Please understand your terms. If at all possible. If not, keep a dictionary next to your keyboard.


• Please accept that when you make baffling and hysterical typos like the one above, people well may call you on it. You'll just have to deal with that.

That is all.

[Actually, not quite. The names in the above passages were changed by request from the avatars involved. Yes, I will do this if asked. You just have to ask. :p ]

too simple to trust me, too dull to engage, too shallow to please me

There's a lengthy excerpt from the recent Supreme Court case on what makes a video game too violent for the under-eighteens to play; I found myself surprised at how knowledgeable about video games, and the current (accurate) research ongoing on the presumed link between violent games and violence in children the Court was; especially since I thought Scalia was on the conservative side.

Go them.

In other news, I now get to add the word "neutrois" to "cisgender" on my list of Terms That Only Complicate Everything, because of a complaint over a bonehead error that DeviantArt recently pulled (and even then, it wasn't so much the mistake made, which was minor, but the way their cackhanded PR department handled it). Especially Daniel Sowers Jr., who is DeviantArt's designated agent. Bonehead that he is.

I'm not specifically trying to be exclusionary with this stance, it just bugs me. It's like the whole controversy around the gay movement. First gay, then gay and lesbian. Then gay, lesbian and bisexual. Then it was LGBT--the T for transsexual/transgender. Then 'queer' got added, and now intersexed is in there, which means pretty much the only expressions excluded from the community are strict heterosexuals (who are non-supportive, because supportive straights are apparently on board) and people who have pathological sexualities (see pedophiles, for instance). At what point does it just boil back down to "different people"? Or even better, just "people"? We're people. We want the same rights. Everybody should have these rights. Right?

Just stop inventing words, especially if there are already other terms in place that work with less effort. Get real.

The new CEO of Undead Games has decided his massive multiplayer zombie game will ship to consoles, not PCs. Interesting stance. Let's see if it works for him.

Finally, more oddity from Doomed. There's apparently a roleplayer (I shall leave off the hapless unfortunate's name, for once, because she may just be this clueless, not actively stupid) on the Doomed ship who thinks demons are big, fluffy puppies with bad teeth.

Or, to put it closer to what she said to a friend, because her (demonic) character is "nice".

How shall I best break this to the lass...In the story arc of the Doomed ship, demons are the enemy. There are no "nice" demons. If, out of sheer incongruent whimsy, a "nice" demon happens upon the ship, one of two things will happen:

1. The inhabitants of the ship will do their best to kill the demon, because of their prior experience. These are battle-scarred survivors on a ship that has literally been to Hell, and back (or local equivalent), and the inhabitants are paranoid, frightened, and occasionally insane.

or

2. The demons aboard the ship will rip the "nice" demon apart because the so-called "nice" demon is an aberration and must be destroyed.

Period. End of sentence. No negotiation. There are no nice demons on Doomed, just as their are no pure, untouched innocents on Doomed.

Or, put another way, if you are taking on one of these roles, on the Doomed ship? You're dragging in your own mythological subset, because on Doomed, neither virginal purity nor sweet, kind demonology is in evidence. (Because, as said, any evidence of either of these astounding creatures? Would be killed/raped/eaten instantly, before, after or during.)

Move on. Get a new character, dear. You'll just keep dying if you don't.

So what the hell happened to Katharine Berry and megaprim.sl? What new fresh hell are the Phoenix/Emerald devs responsible for now?

It's not going to be without its pitfalls, and likely severe ones, but when mesh uploads finally crawl their way onto the grid (assuming the grid's still there when that eventual day comes), the ten meter limit on prim size is apparently being raised to sixty-four meters.

While this will definitely help builders, especially with the loss of megaprim.sl, I'm fairly sure that's also only to be enabled on "official" SL viewers. Because we all "should" be using the official viewers, natch.

Meanwhile, for those specific-prim needs, there's always Prim Search Login. It sort of works.

At least, it's what we've got for now.

here it comes now, sure as silence follows rain

"My cybernetic children will feed on your flesh, and none will ever know your deeds, or even your name...Enjoy your victory, human, for the remainder of your...short...life..."

Friend of mine is trying to talk me into downloading and playing System Shock. To interest me in doing this, he's linked me to the Xerxes transcripts and I found a link to Shodan quotes on my own (and then found this version with some backstory included).

"Look at you, hacker...a pathetic creature of meat and bone...panting and sweating as you run through my corridors...how can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"

All I know now is, whether I play it or not, it reminds me strongly of Pulse's haunted space station last October, as well as the current story arc from the Doomed ship.

Now, first, let me speak plainly: I haven't been to the Doomed ship in months; possibly even one full year. But I hear things. And one of the things I'm hearing, over and over, is that the story is changing.

It used to be the deeper you went into the ship, the closer you got to the alien menace that scuttled in the darkness, looking for victims. Half of everyone you encounter would be mad, or feral; the other half would be frightened, or predatory; and there used to be a demonic angle to the whole thing; in true Event Horizon style, the ship had gone to Hell and returned to tell the tale.

Apparently, this has changed. The ship's been rebuilt, for one thing. It's bigger, but no less labyrinthine, and it still has levels built on levels built on levels (frankly, that's always been part of its charm, that it's a station that seems to be evolving, inorganic bits and organic bits alike). Secondly, though, while I'm sure there are still players in the demonic storyline, the main theme seems to be mutating (aheh) from its past into something akin to System Shock 2: while System Shock and its sequel both had references to "The Many", the player in either game rarely found actual evidence of this.

In Doomed? The evidence is there--if you go down far enough, if you survive. The biomass is living, pulsing, growing tissue, and it seems to be absorbing cast and crew alike.

And there now seem to be appearing 'rejects' from that biomass, partially absorbed, partially changed beings who may or may not be working for the guiding brain of that biomass--wherever that brain might be. One thing's for certain: they're no longer sane, no matter which side they're on.

The Doomed Ship
William Morris

The doomed ship drives on helpless through the sea,
All that the mariners may do is done
And death is left for men to gaze upon,
While side by side two friends sit silently;
Friends once, foes once, and now by death made free
Of Love and Hate, of all things lost or won;
Yet still the wonder of that strife bygone
Clouds all the hope or horror that may be.

Thus, Sorrow, are we sitting side by side
Amid this welter of the grey despair,
Nor have we images of foul or fair
To vex, save of thy kissed face of a bride,
Thy scornful face of tears when I was tried,
And failed neath pain I was not made to bear.

All I know is, if you go there...be careful. Question everything. At least some of the rejects seem to be communicating through the station's intercom system, so...even stationwide announcements may not be safe.

Of course, it is the Doomed ship. Announcements from that station may never have been "safe" in the first place...

===

[Late insert from the Editrix: as of 7:28 pm, 15 July 2010, confirmation: T Linden is gone. Never did get around to following up on the conversation I wanted to have with him on how Second Life is not being run by madmen. Guess it doesn't matter now. As a plus to the PR side of this particular layoff, they let him go while he was engaged in supporting an SL client with several dozen estates. Way to go, LL!]