Real-Life News: Burning Man 2023 A Muddy Mess

 

 For fans of Burning Man, this was a year that will be remembered not so much for the art, music, and the Burning of The Man, but for the mud.

Last weekend was the high point of the Burning Man art and music festival in Black Rock Nevada, which normally has the high point of the event, the Burning of The Man, a huge wooden effigy, on Saturday night. But then the normally dry desert ended up getting heavy rains. The result was ground turning into a muddy mess. People ended up covering their shoes in plastic bags so they wouldn't get stuck in the thick muck. With people unable to leave, or order fresh supplies, people were asked to conserve food and water. Some grumbled at their festival quite literally dampened. Others just took things it stride. There was also a death at the event when a man was discovered having died for reasons still unknown. The Burning of The Man ended up postponed until Monday so things could dry out. But by then, many had taken advantage of the roads finally being driveable again, and there was a jam of people trying to leave.

For Second Life, Burning Man has had a long-lasting connection. In the late 1990s, many of the original staff of Linden Lab, including it's founder and first CEO Philip Rosedale, would attend and be impressed by the temporary city of attendees having been so quickly created out of nothing, which helped inspire the creation of Second Life. Second Life would have reflections of the Burning Man festival almost since the beginning, taking place in October. They would be sponsored by Linden Lab until 2010, called Burning Life. In 2010, Linden Lab would cut off it's support, and the Burners would run the event on their own, renaming it Burn2. Eventually there would be spinoff events at other times of the year. In 2022, a split among Burning Man fans in real life would be reflected in Second Life with a "Renegade" Burn being held in the virtual world, as well as real life.

 

 Image credit: BBC

Sources: BBC, AP News

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the new continent. Someone was driving down the streets of the Linden Homes, and her face was the last thing to rezz. You can guess what was the first thing I thought of.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Getting Ready For The Relaystock

 This weekend marks the Relay for Life in Second Life's tribute to the Woodstock festival of 1969: The Relaystock. Three days of music, fun, and mud. The fun begins at 3PM SL time today, the schedule can be found here.

Various teams are set up in vans and tents around the grounds. This includes Team Sunbeamers, sho has their tent near the pond at Relay dAlliez (161, 129, 21). So if you have some time and a taste for classic rock, come on over. Just watch those mud puddles as some are deeper than they look.

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Relaystock. It seems for one girl, one mud puddle was a little deeper than she thought.

Bixyl Shuftan

Relaystock 2015 Going on this Weekend

Yesterday was an active, and muddy, day at the Relay dAlliez sim for Relaystock 2015. DJs such as Madelyn Majestic and Fuzzball Ortega performed on stage as the Relayers danced in the mud, and less muddy spots on the ground, some in 60s period hippie style outfits. For those who haven't seen it yet, don't despair. The Relaystock continues on today.

To go directly to the stage, head here:  Relay dAlliez (120/185/22)

Linden Lab Launches Dio, "Creative and Social Experience"

Just a few days after announcing it's purchase of Blocksworld, Linden Labs unveiled it's latest product: "dio."

In the video Linden released in time for dio, it was branded as a "creative and social experience that allows anyone to make and explore places based on anything." The press release stated users could "create places by adding text, photos, videos, and interactive objects into interconnected 'rooms' that give spatial context to the content you share. You can keep your places private, share them with friends and family, or allow everyone to explore and enjoy them." It also states there was an online chat feature with other users, and in the future one would be able to make money off the places they created.



Rod Humble was quoted as saying, "dio is a new shared creative space on the web. Based around the concept of linked spaces, dio makes it easy and fun to create  or visit experiences of all kinds." He described dio as still being in development, in beta, "but so far our testers have created a vast range of spaces." He also brought up the future ability to make money by mentioning what Second Life's content creators have done, "One of the things that's made Second Life successful is that users were able to monetize their own creativity by selling their creations. Second Life's economy was extremely robots with over $500 million worth of user to user transactions last year." He hoped that by sharing ad revenue with dio space crators and allowing them to sell their spaces, "this will encourage the kid of incredible dedication and creativity we've seen in Second Life."

Forbes writer Carol Pinchefsky wrote about someone from the Linden Lab staff showing some of what dio had to offer, saying it could be used for personal pages, games , and more. He suggested the same features that could be used for a game could be used to make an advertisement for a hotel's page. Of the plans to allow dio users to make money, Pinchefsky called it a welcome contrast to the Instagram service changing it's fine print to sell the pictures uploaded by it's users without permission or giving them a dime, "Linden Lab will be giving rather than taking. It's a great concept, one that I can't wait to see implemented."

Hamlet Au expressed similar optimism about dio. He also noted that in the terms of agreement, transactions would be done in Linden dollars, and mentioned the LindeX exchange. He felt this was a sign there would be some future interaction between Second Life and dio "at least through commerce." Hamlet reported on a dio space created by SL blogger Inara Pey, "it seems to be the most detailed and interactive by far, though there seems to be no sign of it now.

Not everyone has been impressed with dio. Iris Ophelia commented that the hype made it look like "possibly the latest and greatest thing." But sitting down to take a look at it, her impression changed. She described the video as misinforming, feeling it suggested moving a character around. She, and a number of other readers, felt "dio is more like a MUCK/MUD/MUSH with pictures than anything else." The idea of using dio to make a store for Second Life merchants she thought "would be one of the least effective uses of the platform," contrasting the "dynamic social experience" of the Bare Rose store to the "comparatively static spaces of dio." She felt dio was easy to use and had much potential, "but it's not the only option, nor is it the best tool for the job."

If you want to check out dio for  yourself (and yes, it really is spelled with a lower case 'd'), go to https://www.dio.com. One of the spaces there is a new rendidtion of a classic computer game from the late 70s, "Adventure the Colossal Cave." There's also a list of tutorial videos Here.

Sources: Linden Lab, Forbes, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan