Newbie 2 Newbie
Flying Houses and Vanishing Primitives: Building in Second Life

By ROSE KARUNA
SecondLIFE Magazine

I waited for notification on the availability of my 512 square meters of land in Second Life with the same anticipatory delight as a five-year old waiting for Sea Monkeys. When I finally got notice and teleported to the coveted piece of land, I was struck with the same degree of disappointment that I'd had when I put the much-touted Sea Monkeys in water and realized that they were brine shrimp and would never wear little crowns or perform cute tricks.

By now, most Newbie’s have figured out that the best way to get a chunk of land is to go to the Second Life Forum and note their request in Land for the Landless. It’s best to make sure you are really posting in the correct forum, so here is the link: http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10109

I am a madly optimistic person, so when I took possession and teleported hubby in to look at the land, his dead pan comment was, "Oh boy, I can see what your so excited about. It’s a cliff wall." Smirking as though I’d purchased swampland in Florida. (I must find the avatar gesture for the bow finger salute). Ultimately, I responded by trying to build something magnificent on the land.

With my land editing tool in hand, I realized that the land itself could only be modified to the extent that it conforms to the parameters of the neighboring land adjacent to it. In other words, once a cliff, always a cliff.

In real life, a woman has to know her limitations --this applies in Second Life as well and after two days of trying to build my own contraption on a sheer cliff wall with limited building and scripting skills, I turned to a little pre-fab help from my Second Life friends. I found a lot of good free designs at the Free Bazaar, the GNU Architects Store and Newbie Central.

It was during the erection of my first pre-fabricated house that I realized the value of a “prim” and “object” count. I had a great house, but it took up so many prims that I had to strip just to walk in it. (Hubby thought this was cool, but I just found it annoying.)



Newbie building lesson one: Buy or create LOW PRIM items.

After learning the prim lesson, I moved onto positioning all the housing pieces on my land. Erecting a pre-fab on a sheer cliff wall presented some challenges. One was positioning the house once it was erected. I began this challenge shortly after the new Second Life version upgrade and I was only mildly surprised to see my entire house vanish while using the positioning tool to place it on the foundation. Oh well, I simply pulled another copy from my inventory placed it.

It was not until a very angry avatar came knocking on my door the next day that I realized my terrible mistake. My frazzled neighbor teleported me to her land, where my pre-fab house lay skewered on her property like Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz. I apologized profusely and removed the offending object. Fortunately, she was a tolerant soul and I walked away with a new Second Life friend and an adorable little red dragon.

Lesson two: Careful with the positioning tool. Use the viewer tool to move in and out and to orbit your object.

Once the house was up, I wanted to personalize the color and texture. The house, of course, was linked -- so I unlinked it. Big mistake. At one point, I confused my ALT and CTL key and thought I was using the viewer but ended up rotating critical parts of the house. In trying to re-position them, I of course, lost them. I have not had another angry neighbor show up to return the errant pieces, but the week is still young.

Lesson three: Use the Select Individual before unlinking.

Lesson three and a half: Drinking and Building do not mix!

So after putting up and tearing down about five or six houses, hubby teleported me to the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives. It can be found at Noyo 207, 189. I can’t recommend this place enough to anyone who wants to build in Second Life. In less than an hour, I figured out what most of my mistakes were and learned much more to boot.

Two days later my house was up. I’m still falling through the floor and rolling down the cliff when I walk near the front door, but I don’t want to waste prims on bracing the house against the cliff. So unless I’m flying, I stay away from the front door. I don’t always tell everyone who visits me though, I had lots of fun watching hubby roll down the cliff three or four times. I can’t apply physics, because I actually stuck the foundation right into the cliff wall and physics cannot be applied to objects buried within other objects. All in all, it’s still a pretty cool house and I even have a yard.

Coming up next: Avatar related protocol (why it’s not a good idea to do your yard work naked on PG land) and cool resources for the Newbie.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor
In recent days, there has been some drama. You may say, "Yes, and the week before that, and the one before that.” Only occasionally drama overlaps onto its succeeding week. True as that may be, this week’s drama was SUPER-DUPER SPECIAL. Now is that time where you realize I'm talking about land.

A certain unnamed resident certainly isn't a small charecter in the Second Life community. He gives away 512 meter plots to newbies for FREE! What a philanthropist.

Wait up, rewind that back a bit. He lives in the same world as we do (one of very little land, and almost no public land), and, without applying for the Land for the Landless program, he can give 512 meter plots to newbies? How does he manage that? Oh, I see. He has an advantage.

It was revealed a few weeks ago on the forums that this particular resident had mysterious scripts placed all over the world, high in the sky, called "Acidic Flight." It burns just thinking about all the things that it might be... Oh, I see it maps out the sim it's in for public land, then snatches it up for our resident-in-spotlight. No one else can get the land, of course, but this isn't a TOS violation, right? And besides, it's his land he has his scripts on. Oh, wait, hold up... no, it's not. Sometimes, perchance our resident can't put his script on his own land, he'll put it on someone else’s, notching one prim off their allocation meter. Oops, tee hee.

And wait a second, these people that he's using for their land (without their knowledge, mind you) are also entitled to the land that our resident is snooping with his scripts. No, actually, they're not. Not anymore. So changes have been made, as changes usually are, and now all public land will go straight to auction. Hurray, problem solved! Win one for the gipper! Well, THIS problem's solved...

They say there's only two types of theft in Second Life:
1) Linking an item to a prim of your creation to change the "creator" name and claim you made it.
2) To sell an item without the original creator's permission.

Let's add a third one really quickly:
3) Using the prim allocation on someone else's land for your own benefit.

"But you're not actually STEALING anything from them, are you?" Yes, yes you are. If you have 4000m of land, it's pretty useless if you have no prims at all to build on that land. That's right, worthless. No one would buy it. Stealing prims is stealing the worth of the land. Trusting souls leave their land at build-enabled. Just to be kind, and friendly. But people take advantage of that. And it isn't pretty when it happens. The sneaky often take advantage of the trusting.

So now we have a 3rd way of stealing stuff in place. (Note to script kiddies: OMG I R TEH FOUND TEH N3w W4y TO TEH ST33L I R l337 LOLOLOLOLOL!!!1111!1!eleventyone). What does this mean for our community? It means an age of people tallying their prim count every day out of paranoia... scanning way up high in the air for scripts and objects... everyone having their land set to no build... and is this really good for the community? I'll let you decide that one.

(To Chance Small and supporters: Flames to Darwin Appleby, please.)

Hot Spots

Hot Spots
Break your curfew to enjoy Club Midnight
Club Midnight (Umber, 205,111). I know what you're thinking: another club? Yet Club Midnight sets itself apart by it's great use of the new in-world animation features by creating dances so realistic and stylish that anyone who can dance will immediately feel the moves in their bones, and anyone who can't will twitch in envy. The club's top-rate dance machine ensures any Avie can participate, and the moves repeat so infrequently, only the most obsessive of partygoers will notice. -- Ethan Therian

Demonstrating intent: Second Lifers find their activist voice

Demonstrating intent: Second Lifers find their activist voice
By ETHAN THERIAN


Hank Ramos, balloonist and resident since November of 2003 holds a one-man protest to decry the state of the Linden Balloon that no longer provides tours for new residents. A new campaign headquarters opens for U.S. Presidential Candidate John Kerry, and soon lawn-signs exhorting Kerry 2004 are spotted throughout Second Life. The first of a series of in-world town hall meetings convenes, held by Second Life luminary Khamon Fate, to discuss the future expansion of Linden Continent.



These are a few examples of what seems to be a new trend: activism in Second Life. A growing number of both new and longtime residents have been engaged in debate and events aimed at changing minds and inspiring action; and the issues tackled are not restricted to within the world of Second Life.

On June 30th, IceRink Zamboni presided over the opening of an election headquarters for Kerry. Decorated with campaign paraphernalia such as posters, red, white and blue balloons, and a letter from Kerry on the wall, the site was strikingly similar to campaign sites you might find in any small town. Of course, this being Second Life, there were touches of the outlandish: a girl with cat ears and a tail followed by a small floating demon, for one. Her name was Mimi Therian. When asked why she had decided to come to the rally, Therian replied "[I] do know this election will affect Second Life [and] Real Life, because every person here is a real person and I want Kerry to win."

Within a day of the opening of the headquarters, at which lawn-signs extolling candidate Kerry were distributed, it has become a common site to see residents' houses with the placards displayed out front, as in any suburban neighborhood.

Zamboni (who has since held several pro-Kerry events) when asked if she thinks Second Life activism will have any affect on real world behavior, replied "it will allow for some Real Life discussion in Second Life -- something that I haven't found before. I would hope that this does serve to educate, and if it is indeed possible to change minds in Second Life, I will try!"

Some of this activity may be attributed to the fact that this is a particularly contentious political season in Real Life, and the two sides are highly polarized -- an effect that bleeds into what seems to be predominantly liberal Second Life.

The recently erected Iraqi War Memorial [see related story] also provides silent witness to the increasing expression residents are giving to their real-life concerns, beliefs and opinions within Second Life.

However, the new shift toward personal activism is also seeing growth in the realm of in-world matters. One example is Ramos' Balloon protest.

Declaring "Let residents give tours! We are not the enemy! We are here to help!", Hank Ramos single-handedly maintained a picket line for several consecutive hours to express his grievances that the Linden Balloon, designed to give tours to new residents was not working and was taking up space that could be used to allow residents to park and give tours. Moreover, claimed Ramos, until last week, tours had been advertised despite the fact that officially sanctioned guides were rarely available.

The protest seemed to have an effect, as a visibly irritated Lee Linden fixed the balloon within hours of the small but vocal demonstration. Afterward, when asked why he was remaining on the protest, now that the bug was fixed, Ramos replied that the purpose of the protest went beyond the balloon. It dealt with what he sees as the growing inattention to newbies and residents by the Lindens.


“If you own an island sim, you have Philip Linden's ear... they ignore forums, ignore personal comments, IMs, emails. I'm protesting the unheard suggestions.”


Ramos was apparently heard, as in addition to Lee Linden, Liason Jill Linden agreed to bring up the issue of the deficiencies in the Welcome Area, and the balloon tours specifically, in the Real World, at the next Linden Labs meetings, but made no promises regarding results.

Not all in-world activism took the form of protests, however. Khamon Fate sponsored, in Godeltron, what is billed as the first in-world forums to discuss the future of our online world. The intention of the first of the town-hall style meetings was to attract residents who may not post to the forums and send the resulting transcripts to the Lindens. During the course of the forum discussion, suggestions were raised that Linden Labs could license the software to host small, specialized worlds dedicated to either specific audiences (such as education) led to concerns about the possibilities of establishing commercial presences and advertisers to Second Life.

"I think [Second Life] players supporting Second Life players is a grand thing. I think anyone who is here solely to make a buck misses the entire point of Second Life... I don't think companies belong on the same grid." commented Catherine Cotton during the meeting.

One possible reason for the surge in activism on in-world issue growing pains created by the influx of new users, and the growth of Linden Labs itself. Much of the content of the apprehension and discussion in the in-world forum, among onlookers to the Ramos protest, and positions espoused by Hank Ramos himself, revolved around the decreasing responsiveness of the Lindens to resident concerns and attention to forums and resident suggestions.

Indeed, Fate's town-hall meeting series, of which there have been multiple sessions since the first, have the avowed purpose of providing an alternative method to the web-based forums in the quest to catch the ear of a Linden.

Does activism in Second Life have an effect? The answer may lay in an announcement made in the forums on July 23, declaring "The limitations of the balloon have come to an end. The group formerly known as Baloon Guides will now adopt the stylish new moniker or Sky Guide Tours - and flight path and flying craft are now left to the imagination of the Guides. the Balloon itself has been removed so that the Sky Guides [formerly the Balloon Guides] might dock their tour craft at is former berth."

It seems that Ramos' protest action resulted in change extending beyond the purely virtual. Jill Linden, who had made the commitment to Ramos bring up the balloon issue in a Real Life Linden Labs meeting, confirmed: "I kept my promise to Hank and brought it up in the meeting. The dialog contributed to changes that were already be considered...and now I had sky guide tours."

In response to the news, Hank Ramos declared "I always knew that Linden Lab listens to their customers, and I knew that protests were a time honored way to influence change, both in Real Life and Second Life."

As Second Life matures, evidence points to a gradual thinning of the membrane between residents' First and Second lives, resulting in both an increase in in-world activism that reflects users' in-world concerns and the importation of First Life concerns into the environs of our online world.

The Winter Content of our Continent

The Winter Content of our Continent
By GUNNAR OLSEN


A storm hit Second Life in July. With it came alterations to the landscape that left some residents marveling in wonder, others dumbstruck, and yet others deftly preparing to capitalize on the awesome changes.

The storm, or to put it perhaps more aptly, the onset of a new climate, was of course the appearance of snow. Heretofore, the weather throughout Second Life generally resembled a balmy Southern California summer day. Now residents have the options of tramping through a tundra wilderness, schussing the slopes from the top of a chairlift station, or warming their digital digits by the fireplace of a winter lodge.

Lying in the southeast region of the world, Linden Lab has christened new sims with evocative names such as Chamonix, Garmisch, Kitzbuhel, and Zermatt.

Rumors had begun to circulate on the forums about an impending winter region and by Tuesday night residents were proclaiming their joy at the winter wonderland. On June 29th Magellan Linden had reported that indications of a "...place where snow and ice have taken hold of the land, where even the trees shine white in the heatless rays of a mocking, cold sun. I will endeavor to find this frigid land and, fates be willing, report back to you."

As with any environmental change, entrepreneurs were quick to capitalize on the new reality.

Some, such as Adam Zaius (apparently prescient though actually benefiting from previous inside intelligence), presented their new wares to the new and rapidly-developing market of winter lovers. Saying he had known about the snow for "about a month now," Zaius told us that "Maxx Monde suggested it would be a good idea to make some snow-related items for the new sims when they come up."

Zaius displayed a line of snowboards that were a cut above the public domain model offered by Linden. Currently, Zaius has in development a set of skis that will be available to the market soon.






Artemis Fate was overheard to say, "Someone would so make a killing off of winter clothes now."

So began the rush to market of clothing for cold climates.

By Wednesday afternoon, designer Cydonia Llewelyn was offering a line of apparel that would have made any Nordic or Alpine citizen comfortable. She said "I spent the evening looking up stuff online and creating them, taking pix in the snow sims, then worked on boxing it all up and throwing it into a vendor...was up very late that night, but I wanted to get them out so people had clothes to wear."

Asked about how many units she had sold, Llewelyn said "Let's just say I made back my uploading costs within a few minutes of the buy/sell event."

Hip businesswoman DragonChiq Therian had set up her vendor stand at the top of the mountain snagging snow enthusiasts with a line of cool clothes that promised to keep one warm. She is also a charter member of the Snow Bunnies, a group that will "just plan to have fun and ski or snowboard down as many mountains as we can find and have fun as a group!"





Events planner, Madison Blanc is already developing new ideas for her business. She mused that "it would be wonderful to have some events here ... in fact I could see a Winter Wonderland."

Model Talla Guillaume is moving to France in real life and posed for SecondLIFE Magazine against the winter backdrop. She mentioned that, "Yes, I will maybe do a bit of skiing in the French Alps this winter."

"They stole my idea!" proclaimed Takan Hannibal seemingly more in good nature than in wrath. Hannibal, who had been pining for something more than eternal sunny paradise had previously created "Christmas in July" and was mountainside showing his snow machine to any who asked.

(Rumors that Hannibal will bring suit against Linden Labs for a royalty on every snowflake that falls had still not been confirmed at press time.)

Another resident had also apparently missed something more than constant sunny paradise. Commented Gracie Greenacre, "I own a forest in Federal and we turned it to snow at Christmas but wasn't the same as here."

Other reactions to the wintry sims were varied and almost exclusively positive.

Zeke Casanova "loved it" and Darwin Appleby exulted: "I love them, they're amazing."

Some, though, warned of the perils of overdevelopment that are always present.

Baccara Rhodes called them "very beautiful," but mentioned her hope "that at least some of it is left natural and not sold off."

The Huddled Masses

The Huddled Masses
Influx of newcomers from There and CNN viewers fill Second Life to the rafters
By ELEK CASANOVA

It’s hard not to notice the influx of new people into our virtual world. What has influenced this new surge of people? There are several factors.

One great wave of new players arrived on Second Life’s shores when a competitor cast doubt on its future as an online game.

The online game industry is a very competitive business, and companies strive for their share of the player base. When one company’s product is doing well it attracts new players from other products. When one company’s product is not doing so well – or perceived as not doing so well – it loses subscribers to other media.

The online world known simply as "There" made an announcement on May 21 that it would make drastic changes to how it handled its product. Although they didn’t say they were closing their doors, they also avoided saying they weren’t.

To answer the question "Is There going to close?" they replied: "No. The company has just received new funding and will continue to operate; only we will now be focusing most of our resources on building out our platform."

Asked specifically about the consumer service, they replied, "… [We] will be evaluating its financial performance on an ongoing basis."

They followed up this notice with a drastic cut to service and support, and the most dreaded notice of all: "We will no longer be making regular updates to the software, and we will not be fixing bugs."

So, Therians flocked to Second Life like never before. Abandoning There they came to Second Life to start anew.

In the words of Prelisa Casinova, who’s taking her first steps in this online world, "This is an incredible game. It’s everything Will Wright envisioned for The Sims Online, but better than they were able to successfully implement."

But Second Life’s new residents are not only from There. Some of them are taking their first steps in an online world. Others are arriving from The Sims Online or other platforms.

What could have fueled this portion of our new residents?

One possible reason for the arrival of these new players is the article that
appeared on CNN’s Website on June 3. Though not a game review in the traditional sense, it made the Second Life name be heard around the globe.

The article compared the acquisition of Second Life real estate to that of real life real estate. People are willing to spend hundreds of real dollars for a piece of virtual real estate, or spend thousands of in-game dollars, which can be translated into real money like a commodity that some people watch as closely as any real-world commodity.

Regardless of the reasons, there’s little doubt that more people are trying out Second life than ever before. As other games struggle to retain their players, Second Life is experiencing a snowball effect: more people refer more people who in turn refer more people.

It’s a winning situation for the producers of Second Life, and – in the long run – it could be a winning situation for those of us who think of this virtual world as our second home.

Entrepreneur with a heart

Entrepreneur with a heart
Rent-free landlord, merchant and designer - It's all in a day's work for Briana Dawson
By THEA DONOVAN

When Briana Dawson first visited Second Life, she thought she'd never return.

"My expectations were very low, which made it easy for this world to blow my mind." Seven weeks passed before she progressed beyond making simple plywood boxes, but these days she is a successful entrepreneur.

Dawson's primary activity at the moment is expanding her Second Life Residents Program, through which she provides land at her expense to couples, groups, and homeless citizens. There are currently six residents living on land purchased exclusively for them, and some have even been provided with houses ranging from L$1 to L$1000 in cost. Her latest addition to the program is 2Stylez Apartment Living @ Aqua, where each tenant is provided with a spacious 3-room flat and a generous prim limit of 200, free of charge. "The idea [for the Second Life Residents Program] began in Aqua," Dawson explained. "I had about 2200 prims doing nothing so I figured I might as well let someone use it if I am not."



"When I started Second Life, I couldnt imagine how I was going to earn a dollar, let alone earn ten-thousand dollars.."


The cost of land was another factor. "When I started Second Life, I couldnt imagine how I was going to earn a dollar, let alone earn ten-thousand dollars like you need now to buy a 1,024 meter plot in a mature region. I wanted to alleviate this worry for some people and help them to have a more enjoyable Second Life."

Santana Lumiere has been living on Second Life Resident land for the last several weeks. She and her partner started out with 1,024 square meters in order to open a shop, and couldn't afford to expand when they decided to build a home.

Dawson bought 2,056 square meters especially for them, and even bought them more land so they could have a higher prim limit. As well as a shop and a home, Lumiere and partner are building a new club and hope to hold events when the building process is complete.

Currently they have no plans to leave the program and buy their own land. "I think so long as Briana allows us to live here, we will stay. It's very cozy here."

When asked what she considers her greatest in-world achievement, Dawson described the popular Aqua Galleria.

"Every day I go there I am amazed that I was able to cobble that together." The inspiration for that project stemmed from an unfortunate experience as a new vendor in Luna. She misread a memo from Char Linden explaining when her lease would be up, went on vacation, and returned to find that her store had vanished.


"My first thought was that I needed someplace popular where people know to go. Of course, Aqua being the first shopping sim in Second Life sprang into my mind, so I went there and grabbed all the land I could. A whopping 160 square meters."

After four weeks of contacting landowners in Aqua she was the proud owner of 20,000 square meters, and a beautiful galleria built by Maxx Monde. The latest addition to the Galleria is the Animation Repository, where animation artists are given free vendor space to sell or give away their creations until July 1.

Her own creations can be found throughout the world, from a collection of photosourced clothing at Club Elite, to her Go! Go! Jewelry line at the Aqua Galleria, Club Elite, and Half Moon Couture.

Sunny Buttercup has been a loyal customer since she joined Second Life three months ago, and especially appreciates Dawson's realistic jewelry design. "She puts a lot of time and effort into her work and that is why she is one of my favorite designers," Buttercup said.


"Who knew that inside this stupid box I sit at every day I would find such beauty, amazing creativity, and... the wonderful depth of a virtual life with such people."


Amongst Dawson's favorite aspects of LindenWorld, its citizens rank at the top of the list.

"Who knew that inside this stupid box I sit at every day I would find such beauty, amazing creativity, and... the wonderful depth of a virtual life with such people," she said.

The secret to her success is fairly simple. "I just sort of do what I can do, and don't do what I can't."