SL Video: "Furry Angels"

(Click here to see the video)

Posted by Nydia Tungsten on November 9, 2015, "I would like to thank my Angels Brandi and Mato for their help with this as my dancers and thank The Rift' for letting us use their club, if you get a chance to visit it in Second Life I recommend it, this video was made for fun and NOT money, we just have a lot of fun doing them and I hope you enjoy watching them as well."

The Furry Wrestling Federation

Wrestling has a number of fans in Second Life, and comes in various styles. But as the virtual world allows one to be other than human, what place do nonhumans have in the wrestling scene here? One such place is the Fury Wrestling Federation, also known simply as the FWF. Becky Shamen, after hearing about the group from a couple friends, decided to take a closer look at them. They are not a new group, but have been around a few years, and their matches can have some twists and turns.

Read Becky's article in People.

Eye on the Blog: "Lab Chat" Q and A Show to Begin Nov. 19

A few days ago on their official blog, Linden Lab announced details about a new show inworld in which residents will get the chance to have questions about Second Life and Sansar answered by individual Lindens. Called "Lab Chat," the Lab called it a "resident-driven" show done "in the spirit" of conferences such as those at the VWBPE and the "Meet the Lindens" events at the SL12B earlier this year.

In the spirit of the open Q&A sessions held at inworld events like the VWBPE conference and the Meet the Lindens series, we’re pleased to participate in a new Resident-driven initiative called “Lab Chat.”
Lab Chat is an opportunity for you to ask Lindens your questions during a live taping that will be recorded and archived for everyone to view. 

The first Lab Chat will be Thursday, November 19th, at 10:30am SLT at the Linden Endowment for the Arts Theatre - with guest Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. 

Residents from the Lab Chat production team - Draxtor Despres, Gentle Heron, Marianne McCann, Elrik Merlin, Petlove Petshop, Inara Pey, Arduenn Schwartzmann, Aisling Sinclair, Devin Vaughan, Saffia Widdershins, and Jo Yardley - will pick questions to ask Ebbe from this forum thread - so be sure to get your questions into the thread no later than Friday November 13th, 2015. Authors of selected questions will be invited to ask their question live at the inworld show. Time permitting - additional questions from the audience will be answered.

If you are unable to attend the live show, a recording will be available shortly after the first Lab Chat wraps, so no one will miss out!

Inara Pey, a noted blogger whom is part of the production team, called her role "relatively minor ... producing transcripts of each Lab Chat session, which will be available, possibly with audio extracts, on these pages most likely on a forthcoming Lab Chat website." She stated it's hoped that Lab Chat will be a monthly series.

The location of the November 19, 10:30 AM SL time show will be at LEA3 (33/78/35 )

SL Video: "Second Life - A Much Closer Look Into The Virtual World"

(Click here if the video fails to load)

Earlier this month, Luca Grabacr did an infographic video of various statistics about Second Life, such as it's size and numbers. A few days ago, she decided to follow up with another trying to describe what the virtual world can be, in ways the mainstream media often miss.

"Have we looked beyond what have been shown to us about Second Life and give enough time to make sense of the more intricate meanings behind the virtual things that resides inside it? Maybe now's the time.

"Look and presentation are very important factors in how we perceive and see things. And back then, SL might look 'unpleasantly weird' to take its place as "the Virtual World" we have dreamed of for decades. To the majority of its users, media people trying to cover it, and therefore the mass public in general. As a result, SL didn't get the prolonged mainstream attention it deserves, and initial hype died out.

"But times have changed, people are getting more and more tech-savvy each day, technology are getting better, hardware availability and computing power are growing exponentially, channels to show and present things have branched out far beyond the mainstream media of the old, and powerful computers are getting cheaper and more accessible even as you read this.

"If there's a time to make Second Life, and the concept of Virtual Worlds cool again, now's the time. This is my attempt."

 Luca posted the video on threads on the SL Universe forum, and Reddit. So far, it's the Reddit thread which has gotten the most responses. One wondered if Luca's depiction was also inaccurate, albeit with "the best of intentions; you show it at its finest. You show the carefully landscaped lawns and delicate topiaries of some properties while ignoring the windmills, gnomes, and pink flamingos decorating others. SL is a raucous place. It isn't just a contemplative escape from mundane FL, it's parties and sex and combat and music. Art and vision. Steampunk running into Star Trek -- it's a cacophony of colliding creative concepts -- an atom-smasher of ideas!"

Other people had other thoughts, such as Saffia Widdershins' response to Hamlet Au's article on New World Notes, "Second Life is an elephant inspected by the blindfolded. ... there are more people with more diverse ways of enjoying Second Life that there are wrinkles on the hide of the elephant. One of the joys of doing Designing Worlds is that we discover new ones all the time. Some people's Second Lives will focus on one thing, many people's will overlap a range of areas." Saffia brought up Pooky Amsterdam's "A Year in the Life - Second Life" (2011) as another example.

So what are the thoughts of you, the readers?

Bixyl Shuftan

Peter Pan on Stage Tonight

Fans of "Peter Pan" are in for good news. The story has been brought to the Second Life stage. You might want to hurry though, as their next performance is today at 1PM SL time. Gemma Cleanslate was at an earlier showing of the play. So what did she think?

Read Gemma's review in Events.

Winter Festival at Creations for Parkinson's

This week, Creations for Parkinson's is having it's Winter Festival. There already have been a number of events, attracting many people over to enjoy the music and dance.

Have fun with your friends in the ice and snow at the Winter Festival for Team Fox November 6-15th on Creations Park. Enjoy Ice skating over a full sim of frozen ice. Sled or ski down the mountain. Dance to the daily live music. Experience the finest amusement rides, many you have never seen before. Get a head start on Holiday shopping. Best of all feel the joy at this special place built with love.

Activities include live music events, including some international musicians, ice skating, "We don't have just a little frozen pond, we have created an entire sim for ice skating," shopping, "there are 10 shops with high quality fashions and festive creations," a hunt with free gifts, and amusement rides, "The very finest Fun Fair Rides are provide by the amazing D.A.R.E. team (Dutch Amusement Ride and Entertainment). You will experience rides you have never seen before in SL!"

For those who missed "Back to the Future Day" on October 21, Barbie Alchemi, the owner of Creations, pictured left with her mother enjoying the events, says they'll be having a "Back to the Future" event in April, in honor of Michael J. Fox, for whom Team Fox is named after.

For more information: https://creationspark.wordpress.com/winter-festival-for-team-fox-information/

Bixyl Shuftan

Virtual Ability Conference This Friday and Saturday

This year, Virtual Ability's International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC 2015) will be held Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14. Sessions both days will take place between 9am and 4pm Pacific time (SLT).
The conference will be held at Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

You can see the full conference schedule, including synopses of presentations and presenter biographies, here:

http://blog.virtualability.org/

The theme for this year's conference is "It's All About the People."

We invite you to attend the conference and tell your friends about it. You might consider bringing them along, especially if they are skeptical about the value of virtual worlds.

This year's presenters come from the United Kingdom, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and the US. Please join us on the 13th and 14th of November as we celebrate successes, identify issues and re-affirm the rights of people with disabilities across the world.

Alice Krueger (SL: Gentle Heron)
President, Virtual Ability, Inc.
gentle@virtualability.org

Veterans Day/Remembrance Day

To those who served to defend Democracy, thank you from Second Life Newser.

Cartoon of the Day

From Club Cutlass on Pony Night

By Bixyl Shuftan

Creations Park Revisit

Before starting her tour to see various winter and Christmas themed places in Second Life, Gemma Cleanslate decided to revisit a place the Newser looked at before: Creations Park, created by Barbie Alchemi and her friends. Noted for being the home of Team Fox, which raises money for Parkinson's research, and Fran Seranade, who suffers from the illness but whose virtual experiences have helped her recover in real life, the place is very beautiful and picturesque, with it's wilderness, castles, and marble structures. Gemma took a look around, and there was plenty to keep her attention.

Read Gemma's article in Places.

Veterans Tribute in Second Life

It's Veterans Day, and what's become a yearly tradition has returned to the Grid, the Second Life Veterans Tribute. Made up of a memorial wall to honor American and other veterans of wars current and over history, the Tribute has appeared in some form every year for several years, built and set up by the Second Life Veteran's Tribute Group.

The Tribute itself is non-political and serves one purpose and one purpose only and that is to honor all the men and women that have given willing of their time to protect the lives we enjoy today.

The goal of the Tribute is to provide a non-political, content filled, educational, interactive SIM inside Second Life where men and women of all walks of life can visit and provide remembrance and honor to those who have served in the Armed Services.

The tribute operates on a zero dollar budget and are non-profit; the entire tribute is built, funded, organized and executed on a purely volunteer basis. We have an organized group on SL called the “SL Veteran’s Tribute” if you would like to look it up.  This group will be used as the basis of our planning and scheduling for the Tribute.

The main feature of the Veteran's Tribute is the memorial wall. Each brick represents a veteran or group of veterans. Visitors can request a new brick be built in honor of someone by putting the name and some information on a notecard, and putting it in one of the mailboxes there. There are hundreds of named bricks, and some room for more. The wall is set up around a central fountain with the US Armed Forces flags flying overhead. The main entrance is at a landing craft, leading to one section of wall decorated with a number of nations' flags. One can also place flowers, flags, or yellow ribbons at the wall.

Besides the memorial wall, there are smaller memorials around, such as the Canadian Veterans in Afghanistan memorial, the Fort Hood plaque, and the POW empty chair tribute.

The Tribute has been the scene of events in the past. This year, there will be several musicians, live and DJs, performing there.

4PM: Strum Diesel

5PM: DJ MaxPower Gordic

6PM: Lee Winegarden

7PM: DJ Bannock Ogg

8PM: Tristyn Homewood

9PM: Gibson

The Newser has covered the Tribute each year since 2010.  There have been a number of stories about it from Lohti Aeon/Jacob Burton, to one Marine whom made sure his fallen comrades would be honored, and more.

The Tribute this year is at Thundering Falls (248/12/22)

Bixyl Shuftan

Events This Week at the Sunweaver Clubs

It's another week of events at the Sunweaver and Angel Clubs. At Club Cutlass, it's "Best in G," then they dress down with "Shorts and Ts," and relax with swimwear in "Life's a Beach." Speaking of beaches, the Happy Vixen has a little friendly rivalry with "Cats and Dogs," followed by it's tribute to Veterans, as well as police, firefighters, and medicals with "Best in Uniform," and what picture wouldn't be better than a Playboy Bunny as the club holds it's "Bunny Night."

Read the schedule in Events this Week.

Eye on the Blog: New Classic Avatars

A few days ago on their blog, Linden Lab announced a new set of starter mesh avatars was available for newcomers to Second Life. Linden Lab explained these were improvements over the set that was introduced last year, which some complained had problems such as with changing clothes.

Introducing the latest offering from our Starter Avatar Modernization project… 16 New Classic Avatars!

These new avatars are built combining mesh attachments with the original “system” process. Not only are compatibility issues being addressed, but the avatars are more performant and they look great! They can also be tweaked with the system sliders and easily dressed. 

Last year, you may remember, we launched a number of new mesh avatars. They included both vampires and everyday people avatars that were built completely using mesh. While they looked good, they made outfit changes difficult and some of our internal tools were incompatible with the assets. 

The new great-looking and efficient avatars will be available through the carousel during registration. Existing Residents can also access them through the “Me > Choose an Avatar” menu in the Viewer.

Comments on the thread about the new avatars on the official forums have been overall positive. On the thread in the SL Universe forums, there was more of a mixed reception, one complaint that they were too tall. Hamlet Au complained that this was less of a variety of options than a few years ago, "These avatars feel less like Second Life, and more like, well, The Sims Online. Which might be a good move, market-wise, but it does distinctly change new users' perception of what Second Life could (and frankly should) be." Fuzzball Ortega wasn't inclined to share his criticism, "I did think 'The Sims' when I saw the picture of the avatars, but nothing wrong with that. They start out with those avatars, then, once in world and after a bit of exploring, they create themselves. Buying different clothing, different skins, etc."

Do you the readers have any comments? Please add them below.

For the full post on the Linden Blog: Click here.

Bixyl Shuftan

Tantari Kim's "Journey of Sound"

Grease Coakes is back, and his article for today deals with someone who's became a familiar face around the Sunweaver/Angel Estates: Tantari Kim. Once known mainly for being an interesting character with longterm experience of the grid going back to it's Beta days, Tantari's been learning a new talent: DJing. Grease Coakes recently interviewed her about her style of the art, which she describes as her "Journey of Sound."

Read Grease's interview in People.

Garden of Dreams

Bloodykitty is back from another exploration of Second Life. Today, she reviews the "Garden of Dreams." Located in the sim of the same name, while technically a store, it's very easy to forget that with all of the wilderness and forest. One can take walks along the trails, or just find a spot to just sit and relax.

Read Bloodykitty's article in Design.

Press Release: August/September 2015 HFOT Benefit Results

The October numbers are in for our benefit efforts for Homes For Our Troops in Second Life. I am proud to announce that we will be sending HFOT right around $375 for October, 2015. Thank you to everyone who helped and supported. A special thanks to our monthly benefit performers and their managers. Thank you Veronica Weksler, Shannon Oherlihy and Tristyn Homewood and Mckenzie Wells. Also thank you to Dahlea Milena and Gjackie Winkler who make my life so much easier at these benefits. Without your help we could not have done this.

It is a pleasure and an honor to be a part of this project. Our extremely wounded veterans

deserve it.

Frets Nirvana

Cartoon of the Day

Becky "Sha" Shamen at the entrance of the Newser office, a few hours before the equine event at nearby Club Cutlass. The best punch lines I've found are the dialogue of the subject.

Bixyl Shuftan

World of Warcraft Drops to 5.5 Million Active Players, Blizzard Will No Longer Report Numbers

Shortly after the release of the total subscription numbers of "Guild Wars 2" put into question if "World of Warcraft" was still the top MMO, on November 2, Activision/Blizzard announced in it's quarterly report that it's subscriptions "remained relatively stable, ending the quarter at 5.5 million subscribers." Although a slight drop compared to it's earlier plummet from ten million to 5.6 in several months, it was another sign that the game's best days are long behind it.

As it turns out, this will likely be the last time World of Warcraft's current numbers will be given out. Blizzard stated it will do so no more, "this is the last quarter that we plan to provide subscriber numbers," the company stated. "There are other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance."

It seems even Blizzard has concluded "World of Warcraft" will no longer have draw it once had.

For years since it was released in 2003, "World of Warcraft" was more than just a game. It wasn't just the leader in the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game genere, it was seen as *the* game. It became a part of pop-culture, characters in TV shows playing the game, stories of people playing the game until falling unconscious from exhaustion, and more. Many of it's features, such as players being divided into two opposing factions, talent trees, quests and quest giving NPCs, became more or less standard in MMOs as a whole. With over 12 million at it's peak, companies tried and failed to come up with a "WoW killer," and instead settled into nich markets, such as based on popular sci-fi franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars, and developed along the "Free to Play" model instead of requiring a montly subcription.

Of the news, Hamlet Au commented "The King is dead." That's a bit of an exaggeration as the game is still number one in it's genre. "World of Warcraft" isn't entirely done in popular culture. In June 2016, Legendary Pictures will be showing a movie based on the game "Warcraft" in theaters nationwide. And there is another expansion of the game in the works, "Legion." But Blizzard's announcement is clearly a turning point for the once unmatched MMO that will be seen less and less for what's going on with it now, and more and more as a historic game like "Doom," "Pac Man," and "Space Invaders" were the games of their times.

Sources: Gamespot,  Breitbart,

Bixyl Shuftan

"Toys for Tots" Breedables Auction on Sunday

Every year in Second Life, there's been an event to help "Toys for Tots." This Sunday, it was announced there will be a breedables auction with proceeds going to the charity.

The event takes place on Sunday, Nov 8, at 12PM SL time.

"Help make a child's Christmas Magical"

E&S Breedables, Miniconjou (192, 59, 25)

Organized by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots has distributed millions of toys to needy children.

Scenes From The "Creepy Crawl"

Last weekend, there were a number of events across Second Life. Among them was one organized by Linden Lab, the "Creepy Crawl." Here, those taking part would travel from venue to venue every half hour. So people got to enjoy several places, in addition to saying they partied with some Lindens.

See the pictures in Events.