More News In Brief

There's a lot going on, but only so much time to write about it. Here's a few things that have been going on.

A Second Life fraternity, Mu Sigma Nu, has been working with an inworld sorority Zeta Nu Chi on a "Facebook Photo Drive" to raise awareness for kidney disease (their page here).

Skywind Kitsune (Gravity Wright) of United Furry Outpost showed me an inworld racing game called AGRA (Anti-Gravity Racing Association) that's been around, and updated for some years. Until the article, you can check it out at Topaz Oasis (104/218/2005).

The Gacha Guild Spring is going on. Among the items there is a small and cute feral avatar known as the Chibi Dragon Noodle which has been quite popular. Dew Drop (112/116/1738). Another recommended to me were the "Curious Critters" avatars by XuXu (Xulael Resident).

With anti-vaxxer misinformation being enough of a problem to help cause a resurgence in measles, Youtube has recently started to remove ad placements on videos that discourage people to get vaccinated or vaccinate their children, saying they fall under it's policy of not making videos with "dangerous and harmful" material monetized, or having ads placed with money going to the producer (link). One computer game, Plague Inc., is getting an anti-vaxxer scenarito thanks to an online petition (link).

Youtube has also been in the news for disabling comments on most videos that feature children due to increasing concerns about pedophiles (link).

Last month, in the video game Fortnite, a virtual DJ named :Marshmello played to a virtual audience of about ten million. While some such as Rolling Stone Magazine (link) and BBC (link) mentioned Second Life when reporting on it, some called it "the first ever live performance in a video game."