Second Life Science Fiction Convention

From Friday February 20 to Sunday March 1, the Second Life Science-Fiction Convention will be taking place.

"Attention all sci-fi lovers, join the 2015 Sci-Fi Convention! This annual event returns with 6 regions with 10 days of exhibits, sci-fi-based creations, and events in support of Relay For Life of Second Life, an official charity of the American Cancer Society. For more information, be sure to visit."

For information, check out the official website at: https://slscificonvention.wordpress.com/

Fhloston Parside (130/128/22)

Cartoon of the Day

By Bixyl Shuftan

Firefly RP Sim Closes

There was some sad news for sci-fi fans in Second Life last weekend. It was announced that the "Firefly" roleplay community Washtown at Burnet would be closing down. The place had been running for over five years.

Sim owners Anastascia Christiansen and Jadi Goodliffe announced the decision on March 22, saying the reasons for the closing were financial, they could no longer afford to keep it running.

Sunday was the last day the sim was certain to still be around. I dropped by, and ran into a few people, among then Anastascia, " ...it does deserve to be remembered and it will always be remembered in my heart."

"This sim was started by me and Jadi, and a friend named Deiter. We use to play on a firefly mush together and then it closed. I found SL and dragged them in. At that time there was nothing for Firefly in one area, just a bunch of scattered fans. So we bought a little piece of ground and built a little club and called it the Hoban. Soon people started coming. We bought the big Firefly and more people came to see it."

"It grew from there to be a full sim. We got more people coming here and well we tried to add and add to bring the firefly community together. The RP evolved from that. But it was just a way to connect fans of the show in whatever way they wanted to enjoy the place."

Cobb Compton had this to say of the area, speaking somewhat 'in-character,' "I've only rented here several times Bixyl. I can tell ye, I scanned the map as a noob for days, lookin' for 'home' and that big Firefly down yonder at the spaceport - named the 'Raven' got me out of bein a help area hobo to a straighter line focus."

"I know what you're going through," Makiya Nightfire told one girl, "I haven't been here all that long, but I have had to leave behind a fond gaming area with many players I cared about. At least there's still other areas to play and life can go on if you wish."

Asking about eventful moments, some residents mention a spontaneous striptease show, and a hanging tree made into a gallows. Anastasia added, "We also had the producer of Eureka (a cable TV show) visit us once here in Washtown." Washtown was named after the pilot "Wash" whom died near the end of the movie based on the show, Serenity.

In the RP, residents had just a few days to wrap up plotlines. The final event was the nuclear reactor blowing, and the town having to evacuate. One of the residents passed me a screenshot of the radiation leak and the ship "Raven" taking off with the last evacuees.

Anastasia was sad to see the place go, but happy for the time put in, "Lots of memories and lots of friendships that I am sure we all will hold onto for a very long time."

Sources: New World Notes, The Verse Voice

Bixyl Shuftan

Multtiverse MMO Platform Closes, Becomes Open Source

According to Gamasutra, The MMO/virtual world development platform Multiverse had shut down last month. Started by a team of Netscape workers in July 2004, the platform was designed to allow people to "build and launch their projects more quickly and for less money than ever before."

Over the years, it took in several million in funding, and even had “Avatar” filmmaker James Cameron in its advisory board. It acquired the rights for multiplayer online games based on the “Firefly” sci-fi show, as well as Cameron’s “Titanic” and “Avatar,” but delayed development. Despite attracting the interest of “thousands of developers,” they weren’t “able to achieve a profitable business model” and so in December 2011 had effectively closed.

But the place will not be completely going away. Multiverse released their source code to their community, which made the Multiverse platform open source, “we have been updating and altering the code ever since, with the aim of carrying on the original dream - to give small-time developers the chance to make something big, and to show the development community that you didn't need to have millions of dollars to make the next World of Warcraft, or the next Eve Online. With the tools we provide, you can be just as good, if not better.”

In New World Notes, Hamlet Au thought the open source platform might be useful for Second Life builders, who could intigrate what they built on it into their builds on the Grid. He also mentioned that Second Life residents had created a “Firefly” roleplay community, as well as an “Avatar” inspired one.

To get the code, Click Here. You can also check their community on their forums.

Sources: Gamusutra, New World Notes, Multiverse

Bixyl Shuftan