April Fools Across Second Life

Yesterday's April Fool's prank article on the Newser got a number of comments both in the story's feedback section and on my Facebook page. It also got a few comments when I shared it with friends, "Bix ... just so you know, I'm gonna kill you." A SL Newser tradition that never gets old, and yes, the writer pulled a number of jokes on real-life coworkers that day as well.

But the Newser wasn't the only one pulling a prank. Far from it.

Gwyneth Llewelyn and Jo Yardley ended up pulling almost the same exact prank. With Facebook having recently bought Oculus Rift, suppose it went after Second Life next? That was the joke pulled by these two bloggers. Gwyenth did a fairly long article that looked believable, complete with photos.  Jo Yardley had an official looking picture, which was posted to both her blog and Facebook page, "Told you so." One woman commented, "I will have to wear a burka on stage now!"

The Second Life Enquirer decided not to go with a joke story, and instead tried pranking some residents inworld (link contains mature subject matter). The results were, mixed.

And as it turned out, Linden Lab itself got into the act. They announced an "Analglyph 3D Mode," in which viewers could supposedly get the illusion of a three dimensional view with disposable red and blue glasses like those used for 1950's 3D movies. The announcement stated, "While we look forward to bringing Second Life into the future with exciting new technologies like VR headsets, we also think it's important to balance cutting edge innovation with tried and true last-century technology." The last line, "at least on April 1st," would be when the readers would facepalm.

Inara Pey covered the joke announcement on her blog matter of factly, stating in the comments, "it shows the Lab's sense of humor hasn't totally died."

So Second Life had it's share of general foolery. There was plenty of it going around the Internet, such as World of Tanks and War Thunder, but that is for another article.

*Addition* The Green Lanterns also did a joke article, saying they'd just been given official enforcement powers by Linden Lab. 

Bixyl Shuftan