Some More April Foolery In, And Out, of Second Life

 

Wednesday was April Fools Day, and the posting of a yearly Newser tradition, the April Fool article. But it wasn't the only April Fool going around. Linden Lab would play one, and there were a couple others inworld I caught wind of. And there were a few in computer gaming as well.

 

Read the story in Extra.  

 

More April Fools

 

A couple days ago when we wrote about April Fools in Second Life, Spiffy Voxel would comment there was much more.

 

There were some other good Second Life pranks yesterday. The biggest one was the reveal of the 'revolutionary' new mesh body that Salt & Pepper had been teasing... which turned out to be a flat cardboard avatar. However, the joke appears to be on Salt and the other creators who got involved, as both Cardy and Cardo proved to be rather popular! 🤣 They should definitely be easier to make clothing and accessories for, which is perhaps a commentary on the state of working with all the other mesh bodies and heads out there...

Gorean Whip Radio announced their sale to iHeart Radio — no more DJ interruptions, nothing but Top 40 Big Band songs on repeat. 🤣 Apparently, a few people fell for it, while others (like myself) played along. 🙂

More subtle, however, was the April Fool pulled by Luke Rowley, owner of the Primfeed photo-sharing social network — various menu items were rendered in Comic Sans yesterday. 😉

 

Of the Salt and Pepper avie, someone on Virtualverse would say, "It was a very elaborate April Fool's joke. And folks are either 'That was a good one' or they are very very angry on the interwebz about it. However, it is my new shopping event avatar. It's pretty cool. There are clothes and hair for it as well"

 

In gaming there were a couple April Fools I heard about. One was an "Out Meow" for Ark Survival Ascended, a cat update which showed cats going about whistfuly around, either attacking players or casually destroying things without a care. For World of Warcraft, there was the 11.4.1 Patch Notes, "The More Herein," A play on the latest expansion "The War Within."

If there’s anything we know about WoW players, it’s that you want more. In this patch, we’re adding more of everything. More dungeons, more classes, more races, more pets and more mounts and more flight paths and more words on the screen. Unless you want more empty spaces, in which case—we've cut the words and we’re adding more empty spaces! “More more more” is our motto. Read on for more.

Among the "updates" was the new raid "The Deeper Cave Below The Bottom."

After years of going down into Azeroth, we’re going to go below that! What’s below the deepest depth? Only our friends the Digger Miners know for sure, so we’re accompanying them as they go straight down to The Bottom and then go down from there.

In the Deeper Cave Below the Bottom, there’s no light whatsoever except when you cast spells, and the extreme temperature and pressure means the enemies that live there are in a really bad mood! Defeat the lowest final boss—Ugh the Complainer—and look around on the floor of his chamber. Is that a door that leads downward??

 

On a personal note, one friend of mine commented "We need to cancel April Fools Day until sanity returns to the world." I disagree because when has the world ever been truly sane? There have always been evil men, and women, up to evil schemes, there has always been corruption, and there have always been selfish people out only for themselves. If we took ourselves too seriously all the time, we'd go nuts. So let's all take a little time to laugh.

 

Happy April Fools.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

April Fools in Second Life

 

Some people love April Fool's Day. Others hate "International Crawl Under a Rock Day" as one called it. Either way, quite a number or pranks happen. Some go well. Some don't. And a few go truly epic. The Newser got into the act with it's April Fool article. But we weren't the only ones having fun. So were many others, including the Linden Lab Moles with their "UFO" stunt.

Read more in Extra.

April Fools & St Stupid Day Parade!

 

When: Tomorrow April 1st, at 12pm & 9pm SLT
Who: Your supreme Stupid and Fool Self! [and props]
Where: Meet in the Parking Lot at Baker Beach
How: TBA

More details to follow as they become available..

April Fools in Second Life

 

As it had for the previous nine years, the Second Life Newser posted a gag article. One reader felt we went slightly too far. But I also overheard plenty of compliments. One commented it was the scariest April Fool since the joke about Disney buying the virtual world a few years ago.

But as far as Second Life goes, that was just the start of the April Foolery.

Team Firestorm got in on the act. At one point in the day they gave their logo on their viewer "googly eyes."

Linden Lab also got into the act. On the Second Life Blog, they announced two "Limited Edition" last names.

In appreciation of our Anthro/Furry community in Second Life, we are releasing two new limited edition last names today, only available until April 8th:
UwU
OwO

Checking the "Change Name" page, it appears the option is a real one. Someone on the Second Life forums also stated they saw two others use it.

But this gag last name wasn't the end. On the Second Life Flickr, there was a picture of four tenement apartment buildings.

Come get a sneak peek at our new theme for Linden Homes, on the Millbank region in #SecondLife - just for today!

Checking the Millbank sim at with an alt, the apartment buildings were there. They also had a number of old Soviet Propaganda posters. finding the parking garage entrance, there were no stairs, just "The People's Great and Glorious Elevator." But stepping inside, I ended shot up to the top, falling down, and once I got back up shot up once more. Moving around, I finally managed to get into the top floor. There were a number of markers around to point out where to place objects. On top of the building was a LDPW helicopter.

So why the Soviet theme? Maybe this was a dig at the "Woodburry" griefers of years ago whom occasionally pretended to be Communists.

Run of the mill residents got in on the act as well. Yours truly overheard a singer say to her fans that Linden Lab was asking residents to wear masks, stating it was a way to encourage people in real life to do so.

So despite that things have been rough over the past year with lots of tragedy, April Fools Day is alive and well. And the Lab isn't afraid to get in on it. 

Hat Tip: Hamlet Au, Jasmine Dawn

Bixyl Shuftan

Editor's Note: Just how does one pronounce "UwU" and "OwO"?
 

Breaking News: Second Life's Cloud Servers Degrading, Lag And Other Issues To Get Significantly Worse

 Update: April Fools

In a stunning development, Linden Lab announced an unexpected and severe problem with the Amazon Cloud Servers that now house Second Life's data. The servers have been deteriorating and glitching, and the problem is going to get much worse.

"It turns out the servers that Amazon provided us with weren't meant to take the strain of a virtual world as active as Second Life is," the statement by the Lab explained, "Not only are we not getting the performance improvements we were hoping for, the lag and other issues such as teleport fails and inventory issues have been slowly getting worse over the past few months."

The statement went on to say that the servers are starting to deteriorate faster,  and so the issues will start to get even worse, and fast. It's estimated that within two weeks, viewers will need four to five times to load information around an avatar after TPing or logging on. Crashes an teleport fails will be several more times likely to happen as well, and items will start vanishing from inventories. Within three weeks, viewers will take ten times as long to process information after logging on or teleporting. That is if people can log on or teleport at all as fails will start to keep people from doing so for five to ten minutes. And within a month, Second Life will become unusable to those without newer and more powerful computers.

Linden Lab is working with Amazon to get better servers and transfer the data to them, but this will take time. For now, the Lab is offering a downloadable code that will allow the servers to better recognize users and their data and not suffer quite as much lag.

For more information and to download the code: Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Announcement: April Fools Welcome Mat

 

✯⁂ ~  April Fools Welcome Mat ~ ⁂ ✯ New!  Two Prim  / 1 LI welcome mat.  Stomp on it and it has a message for you!! See the photo!!  Everything provided! Picture, location, times & TP links! http://bit.ly/29VVWOI    

Tuesday, March 30>
*9am - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dreams%20East/177/43/21

*5pm -   
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cathedral/55/99/59

History of class:
First time ever!

Weds March 31 - Script Class 9am > each class stands alone, but it helps you to be at all/most of them. This week -- food for everyone !! Texture animations!!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pandorus/102/146/3251 

April Fools In And Out of Second Life At A Glance

The April Fools joke article that we at the Newser pulled last Monday got a bit of chatter. Some loved it, "Hilarious!" Many just gave a chuckle or "laughing out loud." And some didn't like it, "Bix. Yur courting getting murdered here." Thank you all for the comments. For those who loved it, we'll try to be just as funny next year. For those who didn't like it, well, feel free to offer suggestions.

But this wasn't the only April Fools joke around, even in Second Life. Nydia Tungsten made an announcement that she would soon be doing a special calendar, but instead of her usual 12 pictures of anthro females it would be of the new Yinglet avatars. There were a few chuckles, and there were a few asking what a Yinglet was, but everyone quickly realized it was a joke. Marianne McCann of Bay City told me she'd made a joke announcement of leaving Second Life in a group IM chat. Draxtor Despress posted on his Twitter that he was leaving Sansar, followed later by "April Fool."


In the past, Linden Lab had done a couple jokes such as the "Rick Roll" and their parody of the "Mayhem" insurance commercials. But not this year.

In real life, there were some April Fool joke announcements. Probably the one that got the most chuckles was the one from McDonalds about a burger that was all pickles. One Australian city announced they were getting a drug-sniffing bunny on it's force. Australia's Twitter page made a joke image about a koala being born with leopard spots.

In the world of online comics, two I follow had a couple April Fool strips. In "Freefall," cartoonist Mark Stanley included a number of cameos with characters of several other strips. Those going to "General Protection Fault" found a parody of a default page that basically stated "if you can read this, the webmaster needs to get a clue." "The Belfry," which is a list of online comics, had it's page upside down.

With online games, World of Tanks and World of Warships didn't have the joke games they had in the past. But they did have a couple chuckles. World of Tanks had a joke video about the first tank on the Russian field, the MS-1, with the narrator praising it in ways that a used car salesman would be making notes of. For World of Warships, their April Fool was "Skipper," a matchmaking system to assist in making more compatable teams that was a parody of current dating software, "the socially-alienating swipe-based system behind today's hottest dating apps will be your ticket to the perfect team!" As in previous years, "War Thunder" had another April Fools game: "Earth Thunder." In this special game, players fought air battles in flying saucers shooting energy beams at one another over an abandoned city taken over by the aliens (video). Probably the joke game of War Thunder remembered the most was one of their first, the "My Little Pony" fighters in 2013. Years later, I still hear pony fans say they wish the company would bring it back.

So there's April Fool's 2019 at a glance. Hopefully you the readers had a lot of fun, and we'll be back next year with some

new foolery.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "Raglan Shire April Fools Town 2014"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

From Nitwacket in April, 2014, "Clover and Toady built this great town at Raglan Shire - Keeba Tammas and the Tiny Maniacs performed - Stunt Doubles - The NCI Zonk Team."

Examples of April Foolery Across the Internet

If you're reading this, chances are by now you've seen the April Fool's article from us, our yearly tradition. But we're far from being the only ones pulling an April Fool.

World of Warships announced a new "Jacuzzi Mode" for four toy "Tier Zero" ships, the "Bottlesheep," the "Bathyscrap," the "Pokeyboat," and the "Das Boot." Taking place in a bathtub, matches could be either two teams in PvP or one in PvE against bots, pooting toy cannons against one another in sounds that compared to the rest of the game are rather cutsie. While players couldn't earn experience points or credits, there were missions to be done for rewards. (Click here for a video).

War Thunder continues to get comments over it's putting "My Little Pony" fighters in the game for April 1 a few years ago. This year, they've brought pirate ships into the game. There's only one kind of ship of for play, and aiming the cannons can be tricky as the ocean waves are rolling. But it is possible to fire at one enemy on one side, then switch to the other immediety and give another a broadside. For all the laughs about "Yo-ho-ho!" and "15 Men on a Dead Man's Chest," it's believed this is an open test to see how the game and the players handle ocean action. So this April Foolery has some seriousness behind it. (Click here for a video).

And then there are webcomics. Many engage in April Fools pranks such as the artists of two doing a one-shot joke comic for one another's strip. "General Protection Fault" by Jeff Darlington did something different this year, an ode to old time text-based computer adventure games.

April Fool's Day pranks have a long tradition here at GPF. For 2016, I had the idea of replacing the front page with an old style computer screen, like and old DOS oe UNIX prompt, or, even better, something related to old home computers like the Commodore 64 or TRS-80 Color Computer. I wanted it to be able to play a game of some sort, something that would hearken back to the simple games I played as a kid.

The comic itself started in 1998, and after almost two decades has gone through a number of plots with characters going through a lot of changes. One can also find April Foolery in other comics, but Darlington's 1980's throwback is almost certainly the most unique.

That's all for now with the foolery. Happy April Fool's.

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: Grendle's Children Launches April Fool's Event: "Trust Nothing"

On the blog of the popular avatar and accessory store "Grendle's Children," Toady Nakumara announced the venue's fifth annual April Fool's themed event, "Trust Nothing." The event is credited to "Frog and Cat Productions."

Touch everything, sit on stuff, knock things over – have a blast -> watch out for the Kraken!  Presents everywhere !! Featuring the art of SkyCat Ranger.

The event takes place from today to the 15th.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Avaria%20Tor/133/135/302

April Fools Jokes by Linden Lab, And Others

The April Fool's article Second Life Newser did on Wednesday, about Luskwood's founder supposedly getting a job as a TV news anchorwoman, got some chatter on Facebook and in Second Life group chat (though none in the comment section of the article). Michi herself (who was in on the joke) reportedly was asked about it all day, so as usual we fooled a number of people who didn't bother clicking the link at the bottom.

But the Newser wasn't alone in pulling April Fools jokes. Linden Lab itself got into the act by saying there was a new retro 2-D viewer: "Introducing 2DSS."

There’s been a lot of excitement recently around our integration of the Oculus Rift with Second Life. The addition of HMD (head-mounted display) mode offers a new level of immersion for 3D experiences, but what about people who want less immersion? Today, we’re happy to announce a new way to explore the wide variety of community-created experiences in Second Life, without the complexity of the third dimension: 2D side-scrolling (2DSS) mode. Without the third dimension, you can enjoy Second Life just like your favorite 8-bit games from the past!

Note: while this new mode is compatible with HMD mode, we do not recommend trying both simultaneously. If you were to  turn your head 90 degrees while doing so, the world may simply disappear from view - causing a rather jarring experience that might make you feel a bit foolish. The new 2DSS mode is available as of April 1, 2015, and you can now download the Project Viewer to start enjoying some retro-future fun in Second Life!

And of course the link led to an "April Fool."

Among Second Life blogs, Jo Yardley told her readers, "A Linden Lab employee who wants to remain anonymous today send me this video that is top secret and shows what Second Life Next Generation will look like, it also seems to suggest it will be called ‘Digital World’. The video is apparently some sort of introduction video. I for one am very excited and think it looks stunning although I am a bit worried about the Sesamestreet-ish style." The link at the bottom led to the Wikipedia entry of April Fools Day.

Of other Second Life newsletters, the Enquirer didn't do an April Fool of their own, but did an article about pranks people had played on one another. New World Notes commented that with incidents such as people getting the help of a drag queen in trying to keep Facebook accounts in their avatar names, there was no need for "smartass April Fools posts."

Outside Second Life, various games had their own April Fools pranks and stunts. Blizzard announced a "Patch 6.1.4" that supposedly offered options such as a "T.I.N.D.R. Box" for matchmaking Garrison followers for romance, and changes in the rules such as "All Worgen characters must wear a collar and carry around little blue baggies." "Star Wars: The Old Republic" announced they were offering "stationary mounts" for characters, such as tree logs, "why go anywhere when you can go nowhere?" Star Trek Online announced they were starting the game over, "After over 5 years and countless updates, Holodeck is going to be retired. The old girl has had a good run, but she’s tired, and it’s time to begin again."

"World of Tanks" announced that those destroying ten enemy tanks on April 1st would get a special suitcase that allowed them reguardless of tank to go into artillery mode and send a rainbow beam that would beam down to smite their enemies.They also announced that inspired by the jokes about TOG II tanks being run aground boats, they were doing a new "Waterworld of Tanks" game. They also had an actual minigame: "Operation Undead."

"War Thunder's April Fool joke was actually a one day stunt with two temporary scenarios. One was "Unrealistic Battles," in which players fought in rubber tanks and pelted one another with potatoes and carrots. If a tank was clobbered, the X-Ray revealed men on bicycles. Then there was the "March to Victory" which allowed the players to enter a battlefield as a walking tank, the "ST-1." They went as far as to claim it was an actual experimental tank, "The first world war, which was also called “the trench war”, showed an inefficiency in the usual infantry breakthrough and required the creation of an absolutely new type of ground vehicle - something that could cross destroyed roads and ground torn apart from explosions. This is what the ST-1 was about - the first and the only model of a walking tank."

Playing "War Thunder" that day, the balloon tanks were a chuckle to fight in, with their rubbery cannons flopping around as they scooted. As for "March to Victory" the ST-1s were one of several vehicles one could take to the battle, though you had to choose one of two smaller tanks first and had to earn enough points to bring the walker onto the field once you were clobbered. But taking the 1940s equivalent of an Imperial Scoutwalker, I soon found why gamers prefer low profile tanks like the Hetzer. Those tall things were a bigger target and quicker to take down. Too bad, those things looked cool, but coolness doesn't always win on the battlefield, especially once the surprise wears off.

For more April Foolery, check the article on PC Gamer.

It was a fun April Fools.

Bixyl Shuftan

April Fools Across Online Places

Second Life saw quite it's share of funnery on April Fools Day. But what about elsewhere online? There was  no shortage of jokes and pranks in places on the Internet and online games.

Blizzard, the creators of World of Warcraft, did a number of April Fools gags for their games, including a bogus anouncement of a combat game for rejected characters. For WoW itself, there was a joke patch update and a supposed rework of the female Dranei that those in the forums called "derpy." Longtime Warcraft players will recall that the Pandaren started out as an April Fool's joke announcement, but the reaction turned out to be positive, so Blizzard eventually added them to the game.

World of Tanks had a couple examples of April Fools funnery. One was a little game "The Crayfish," in which the players tank had to shoot giant crayfish before they clobbered his tank. But the main event was the eight bit throwback, what one friend dubbed "8 Bit Thunder." Players logging in on April 1st found a new tier 1 tank in their arsenals, the "Karl." But the Karl looked like it had crawled out of a 1990s Nintendo game with it's blocky graphics seen in no game today aside from Minecraft. Selecting that tank and taking it to battle, one found themselves in a cartoonish Nintendo like area, with the sound effects simple blips and beeps. The Karl could either shoot forward like an spg, or like an artillery gun. One didn't get experience points, though did get the "Operation Nostalgia" achievement.

April Fools weren't limited to ground combat games. World of Airplanes, made by the same company as WoT, had a joke announcement about flying saucers being introduced as possible targets and/or flyable craft. War Thunder offered "Gaijila," a giant snail reminiscent of those from 1950s monster movies, with energy beams coming from it's eyes. But it could only be encountered on a Development server, and there you had to have progressed to a higher teir. Still, some were able to fight it and post about it on youtube. 

Star Wars "The Old Republic" joked to it's players that they were offering asteroids as playable craft. "Lord of the Rings Online" had a phony announcement they were starting a sports league. DC Universe offered a Unicorn Trinket. Massively.com did an article showing some of these foolish stunts, and more.

Lots of foolery across the 'net on April Fools.

Bixyl Shuftan

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

SL Video: "April Fools House 2013"

(Click Here if the video fails to load)

The "April Fools House," built at Raglan Shire by Toady Nakamura and Clover Denzo. Flea Bussy of Grendles called it, "a wacky fun build."