Lab Gab Episode Three: Kess Crystal

On Wednesday September 25, the third episode of "Lab Gab" took place at 3PM SL time. On the show, Strawberry and Xiola Linden interviewed Kess Crystal. Kess writes a blog, "The Glamour Sauce," as well as running the Blogger and Vlogger Network (BVN), "a group and website built specifically for networking and education purposes. ... strives to provide bloggers and vloggers with the most pertinent, up-to-date, and interactive information available."

If you can't see the video above, click on the link Here.

Review of Lab Gab Episode Two With Reed Linden

Last week, the new Second Life show hosted by Xiola and Strawberry Linden, Lab Gab, had it's first guest: Reed Linden. As Second Life's Product Manager, Reed talked about a few things recently developed, and a few things in the works such as some upcoming changes to Marketplace.

Read the review in Design.

Lab Gab Episode Two: Reed Linden

On Wednesday September 11, the new "Lab Gab" youtube program by Linden Lab featuring Ziola and Strawberry Linden had it's second episode, airing at 3PM SL time. The guest for this episode was Reed Linden, the Product Manager.

We'll have a summary of the show soon. For now, if you want to hear what Reed had to say, watch the above video, or Click Here.

"Lab Gab" Live Streaming Show Debuts Tomorrow

Good news for fans of Xiola and Strawberry Linden (formerly Strawberry Singh). Xiola announced on the official Second Life blog that she and Strawberry will be co-hosting a live-streamed show, "Lab Gab." Their first episode is tomorrow, August 28, 2019 at 3PM SL time. Further episodes are planned "every two weeks or so."

We’re excited to announce our very first live-streaming show - “Lab Gab” with Xiola and Strawberry Linden. We’ll be coming to you live on YouTube every two weeks or so, starting Wednesday, August 28th at 3 pm SLT/PT. You can join us for these live streams on our Official YouTube Channel here when we go live! (We’re working on bringing Lab Gab to more streaming platforms in the very near future - so stay tuned!)

What’s Lab Gab? Well, it will be a variety show of sorts - we want to explore Second Life, answer your questions, talk to Residents from all over the world, and stream it through the internet and into your homes, phones, and wherever you get your quality entertainment.

In our first show, we’ll be introducing ourselves, talking a little bit about what Lab Gab is, and interacting with you through YouTube live. In the future, we will invite special guests to come visit us on the set and talk about events and issues that impact the communities in Second Life.

As Xiola stated, the first episode is basically an introduction. What will further shows "gab" about? Will the show last longer than "Lab Chat" a few years ago? Time will tell.

Source: Linden Blog

Responding to Readers: Why Is Second Life Banned on Twitch

One of our readers, followed by a few others, posed a question on Facebook recently: "Why is Second Life Banned From Twitch?" For those who don't know, Twitch is a streaming service aimed at gamers. But not everything can be streamed on there, as one New World Notes reader commented in a letter she shared in which Twitch temporarily banned her for streaming Second Life. Taking a look at the Kotaku article cited by our reader, and the list given by Twitch itself, Second Life finds itself among some rather odd company with games such as "Battle Raper" and "The Guy Game," which involve lots of sex, violence, or both.

So why is Second Life on this list? Sadly, it has to do with the griefers and trolls.

Most every experienced Second Life user is familiar with griefers harassing people and trying to shock people with adult content, such as the obscene particle attacks that yours truly has witnessed at a few sandboxes. Unfortunately, not content just to troll people, sometimes the griefers post their dirty deeds on youtube. Plus there have been a few instances of live recording being interrupted by such griefings, the most known example being the "flying penis barrage" that happened when CNET tried to interview Anshe Chung, the noted Second Life Land baroness. So despite everything else that had, and has, been going on here from charities, to Dungeons and Dragons style roleplaying, to education classes, what Second Life is best known for to many who have yet to set foot inside and know about the virtual world only through what they've heard now and then through social media is that people use the place for "strange and weird porn."

Twitch would not respond when New World Notes tried to contact them, though Hamlet Au commented that they had a former employee of Linden Lab among their staff shot down arguments that Twitch was operating solely through bias, saying despite places being designated as G-rated, violent and pornographic content can potentially appear anytime and anywhere, "no matter what the region rating." But critics of the ban who are familiar with MMO survival gaming can always point to Rust, in which players start out nude, male characters with their genitalia exposed, and the game is not banned from Twitch.

Fortunately there are other options for streaming. Ciaran Laval pointed out one named "Hitbox," which did respond to questions about allowing content from Second Life, "We are more than happy to allow broadcasters to stream Second Life on hitbox granted they are responsible about the content being presented to the viewers. We don’t tolerate our broadcasters to present mature, sexual content that isn’t the intention of the game. ... we are okay with broadcasters streaming Second Life as long as it’s done responsibly."

But for the use of the more popular Twitch, the issue seems not up for discussion, which is a shame. Just as there's more to Amsterdam than it's red light district, there's a lot more to Second Life than just the shenanigans of a handful of trolls and griefers.

Sources: Twitch, Kotaku, New World Notes, Warcry, Ciaran Laval,  

Bixyl Shuftan

"Bright Canopy," Sucessor to SL GO, "Go For Launch" on August 29

By Bixyl Shuftan

Second Life users with tablets remember SL GO, the application made by Onlive in cooperation with Linden Lab that allowed them to access Second Life and go about inworld normally without the need for a computer. But in April this year, Onlive announced the end of the service following Sony purchasing their company. It was the end of what one Second Life newsletter writer called, "one of the best things to happen to Second Life in a long time."Later this month, a successor to SL GO will finally be ready for people to download and use: "Bright Canopy."

Bill Glover, the founder of Bright Canopy, credited Inara Pey's post on her blog, about SL GO's shutdown and suggestion that someone else could provide it's service, for his decision to post a survey asking if anyone would be interested in helping him start such a streaming service. The response was the founder of a company handling streaming for some of the largest companies in the world, Nikola Bozinovic, offering to help him out, and "over one hundred SL and OpenSim residents ... offering to help with testing, docomentation, bug tracking, and even development. ... With a team like that, it's no wonder we had the core features, working in beta in less than seven days."

The monthly fee, at least for the first 90 days, will be $17 a month, "Our early bird price is going to be an experiment for 90 days. If you’ve been following the blog, you know we’ve seen price fluctuations on the back end, and we still need to watch actual usage of the service. $17 is a sustainable price if the instance costs return to their typical, historical values. It is not a sustainable price with the current spike in instance price. We may need to get creative with how we split instances, or we may need to raise prices. We intend to remain transparent as always and will keep you posted. Our goal is to continue to maintain a sustainable, affordable service."

While $17 a month is a little more expensive than the $9.95 a month SL GO was at for most of it's history, it is much cheaper than the $3 an hour it was when first released. 

The company plans to soon have an "East Coast Cloud" for faster ping rates for users on the eastern time zone of the US, and is offering free time for those whom have friends sign up. They are also planning a release party.

Like SL GO, the company says Bright Canopy will improve the Second Life experience on older computers.

For more information, check their website: http://www.brightcanopy.com/ or their blog:  http://www.brightcanopy.com/blog/

 Hat tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

SLGo To Be Gone May 1, Free Until April 30

By Bixyl Shuftan

Some sad news for users of SL Go, the program that allowed users of tablets to use Second Life, in addition to improving the performance on older computers. The service was not truly a product by Linden Lab, but done by OnLive in cooperation with the Lab. Unfortunetly, this product's days are numbered. Yesterday on April 2, OnLive announced they had been bought by Sony, and SL Go and other services of theirs would soon be coming to an end.

After five years of uninterrupted service, the OnLive Game Service will be coming to an end. Sony is acquiring important parts of OnLive, and their plans don’t include a continuation of the game service in its current form. Your service should continue uninterrupted until April 30, 2015. No further subscription fees will be charged, and you can continue to play all of your games until that date.

As the first-ever game streaming service of its kind, everyone who has ever played a game using OnLive has contributed to the technology and its evolution in some way. We’re immensely proud of what’s been achieved and extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for being a part of the OnLive Game Service.

Onlive had their own message for users of SLGo, saying they would continue the service until April 30, and they would no longer charge for their services, "no further subscription fees will be charged."

In our year of SL Go service, we have become quite close to the Second Life® community. Thanks to your patronage and constructive feedback, SL Go became one of OnLive’s most successful services. We know how important SL Go is for many of you, and it saddens us to bring the service to a close. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for being a part of “SL Go by OnLive” and wish you all the best.


So why did OnLive fail as a company? Kyle Orland, the senior gaming editor of Ars Technica, wrote, "Looking back, it seems OnLive was just a little bit too far ahead of the curve, both in terms of market readiness and the Internet infrastructure necessary for streaming games. As low-latency bandwidth continues to become cheaper and more accessible around the world, it seems likely someone will nail the correct combination of business model, game selection, and easy-to-use interface to become the industry's answer to Netflix. That company will owe a debt to OnLive for getting the ball rolling and proving that streaming gaming was something that was worth trying in the first place."

Of SL Go closing down, Inara Pey wrote, "This is and unfortunate end, not just for SL Go, but also for everyone at OnLive, a company which had come through a lot to provide a unique on-line gaming service and which has tried to enter a very unique environment with SL Go, and has done so by providing a very successful approach to providing Second Life to people while on the move through their delivery to Android and iPad devices, and to those using older, lower-specification hardware.


"I’ve been fortunate enough to be somewhat closely involved in SL Go, initially being offered the opportunity to help beta the product, and then in helping to report on and promote the service, and (hopefully) provide OnLive, through Dennis and his team with useful feedback, support and advice.
As such, I’d like to take this opportunity to offer Dennis, Jeff, Shae, Jersey, Robby and everyone else at OnLive involved in SL Go – including Jane Anderson in the US and Mark Bevan here in the UK,  my thanks and my heartfelt best wishes for the future. I do, however hope that we’ll continue to able to see one another in-world, at the very least."

Hamlet Au commented, " I once consulted for OnLive, and SL Go was a media partner, but now that the company is ceasing operations, I can say without even having to make a full disclosure that SL Go was just about the best thing to happen to Second Life in a long time, and I'm sorry to see it go." He did suggest there was a possibility that Sony might enable Playstation owners to stream Second Life from their consoles.

So after a year, the platform that brought Second Life to tablets is being put to pasture. But there may be a last chance for it. Fans of SL Go started a petition on change.org , calling on Sony to continue it. For those interested: Click here to sign the petition.


Sources: Onlive, Modem World, New World Notes, arstechnica,


Bixyl Shuftan