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.  

 

BREAKING NEWS: Second Life Hacked, Iranian "Cyberwarriors" Claim Responsibility

 

 ** Update : April Fool's! **

 

If you had trouble staying online yesterday, or couldn't access the website, you were not alone. The website was down for a short time, and for some time afterwards hard to access. People were also crashing more often and having trouble getting back online. 

 

But that wasn't the only trouble. Whole sims were hacked and covered with Iranian flags. There were also signs with pictures of hot dogs & ham and pictures of dogs, with the international "not allowed" sign over them. 

 

*Addition*: There are stories of a few women whom when knocked offline and finally able to log back in found themselves wearing a burka and found themselves unable to remove it until they relogged using another viewer. 

 

A group of self-proclaimed Iranian "cyberwarriors" took responsibility, saying this was part of their fight against America. 

 

There has been no official comment from Linden Lab, though there were some comments from individual Lindens. To read them, head to the forum thread here.  

 

 

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

Reader Submitted Picture: The Linden Topsy-Turvy Home

 

 

 From Alden Cortes, a picture of one of the "TopsyTurvy" Linden Homes in the demo area during their April Fools prank.

 

Some April Fools Pranks In Second Life, and Elsewhere

 

Yesterday was one of the Newser's traditions, the April Fools joke story. Sometimes it's poking fun at something done by the Lindens, and sometimes it's poking fun at real-life news. This year, it was the later, poking fun at a certain President's insistence that America "most have" a certain island. A couple readers didn't like it. Others thought it was hilarious, "Good thing I wasn't drinking my tea when I read this. Thanks for the scoop Bixyl, and maaaybeee check your calendar after reading this, folks."

But this wasn't the only April Foolery. Far from it.

 

 Those using Firestorm yesterday probably noticed things weren't quite right. Once, the viewer seemed slanted. Other times, there was a face poking up in the corner "I heard a mouse click.:And the bird had googly eyes. But there were also various messages in the popup window in the center.

Attention residents: An epidemic of uncontrollable laughter has broken out in Second Life! Proceed with caution, as spontaneous giggles may occur at any moment.

 

Fashion emergency: All virtual clothing has been replaced with banana peels and coconut shells. Embrace the tropical chic look!

 

Beware of rogue teleportation portals appearing randomly across Second Life. You never know where you might end up!

Due to a coding hiccup, all avatar voices have been replaced with chipmunk squeaks. Happy chatting!

 

And Linden Labs got into the act as well. Patch Linden would announce on the forums a new Linden Home theme.  

We are excited to introduce the latest addition to the Linden Homes family, now available for preview in the Welcome Hub Linden Homes Demo region. Residents have long awaited something fresh, and today we are unveiling a surprising new direction with the gravity-defying Topsy-Turvy Homes. Every detail of these homes has been carefully crafted to provide a completely inverted living experience. Gardens sprout beneath floorboards, welcome mats hang proudly from the ceiling, and chimneys point straight to the ground. These homes offer a whimsical and truly one-of-a-kind perspective of Bellisseria, inviting you to see the world from a whole new angle. Staying true to our finest traditions, the Topsy-Turvy Homes arrive as part of a broader effort to create more dynamic and evolving environments.

 

But this wasn't all.  "Along the coastlines, residents may notice the arrival of Offshore Oil Rigs. These towering structures have quickly become part of the seascape, giving a more industrial touch to the otherwise serene Bellisserian waters." 

 

Thankfully there were no reports of oil soaked birds. 

 

There were also reports of volcanoes, "In the Thousand Islands regions, volcanic activity has stirred, adding glowing rivers of lava and drifting ash to the air. Some believe it to be a sign of seasonal shifts within the grid itself."

 

The response so far to the Lindens' April foolery has been mostly positive, "Love the new houses, so much more interesting than the old ones/" "I want one of those homes!" "Just needs a little early 80's Lionel Richie music, and we'd be right at home!" A couple people didn't think much of the oil rigs, but the volcanoes seemed popular, "LOL - it's regurgitating cows!" "I'm a bit disappointed that I can't catch the volcano cows for my Ranch." "I'm a bit disappointed that I can't catch the volcano cows for my Ranch." "Great April Fool "

 

More later on April Fools in gaming.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Announcement: April Fools At Grendels

 

 

APRIL FOOLS ~ Touch everything, trust nothing!! 

** April 1 - 31, 2024 **

Take the rockets from the store!  

Brought to you for mostly the 12th time 

by Frog-n-Cat Productions! 

Breaking News: PBR Mirror Bug Results in Mirrors Breaking, Seven Days of Bad Luck

 Update: April Fool's!

 

Linden Lab just announced there's a glitch in the PBR (Physical Based Rendering) code that affects mirrors in Second Life. Part of the glitch is that bumping into mirrors, touching them with an object, or dropping a mirror onto the ground can result in them breaking. 

 

And when the mirrors break, the person who caused it will go through a number of glitches, such as trouble rezzing, teleporting failures, crashing at sim crossings, difficulties in shopping at Marketplace, and more, for a period of several days. 

 

Supposedly for most involved, the period of time is seven days. Then the issues all clear up. 

To see Linden Lab's statement, Click Here.

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.

UFOs Over Bellisseria

 

 

Saturday April 1 saw it's fair share of April Fool gags, but perhaps the biggest were the numerous UFO sightings over Bellisseria. There were numerous pictures taken, and plenty of chatter in the Bellisseria group. 

We'll have more later. At the moment, there's quite a bit to write about.

Pictures from Bixyl Shuftan and Gemma Cleanslate.

More April Foolery, Including Themed Last Names

 
The reaction to the Newser's April Fools article a few days ago was mostly positive. "Well played," one put it in one Discord thread. Another responded "Joker!" In Cyrillic. Still, I did get one mild complaint about the time the hack started not being right, and one angry reader whom felt I was making light of the Ukraine invasion. The answer is no I wasn't, but poking fun at the dictator and his trolls. I did think the joke had some risk, though felt just as many would appreciate an oppressor being made the butt of a joke. Still, it wasn't the one parody over the years that had gotten the most flak. Those that describe Second Life as about to be shut down due to glitches tend to get the most chuckles and the most boos.

And I'm sure the Uighurs and the people of Hong Kong appreciate a good "Winne the Pooh" joke.

As for Linden Lab's April Fool, what they did this year was more clever than their "Rick Roll" a few years ago. It was a step above their "Pandemonium" avatar insurance joke, this time poking Facebook/Meta in the ribs with it's virtual world Horizons having a very obvious flaw - nothing below the waist. They did three Youtube shorts, and mentioned them in three forum threads. The reaction to them was very positive. In my opinion, they were Linden Lab's best April Fool joke ever: a poke at the obvious flaw of the other virtual world that was genuinely funny. 

Besides the April Fool joke in the form of a few videos and forum posts, Linden Lab had something else on April 1st, They had six new last names, with a humorous theme.

Happy April Fool’s Day! The following Limited Edition last names are available until April 15th:

Joker
OwO
UwU
Hoax
Quirky
Shenanigans

Some may remember OwO and UwU from last year as the April Fool themed limited edition surnames for 2021. It seems they proved to be popular enough for the Lab to bring them back. But they won't be available again for too long. As the announcement stated, after April 15th, they'll be gone.

There were more examples of funnery. The Juicybomb blog posted a joke article of Linden Lab being bought by Facebook/Meta. The news was delivered by a Half Linden, “This transition will take place over the next few months, and we will do everything we can to make it as smooth as possible. Don’t be alarmed if you notice your legs disappearing; this is a new user function.”

Some games also had some April Fools stunts. Among them, the WW2 shooter "Enlisted" had a "Battle For The Moon" campaign. 

That's all for now with the April Foolery. Hope yours was a good one.

Source: PC Gamer

Bixyl Shuftan
 

SL Videos: Linden Lab's April Fool

 

(Click here if the video does not play)

The Newser's April Fool yesterday wasn't the only one around. Linden Lab had one of it's own that was a poke at Facebook/Meta's Horizon. Or rather, three, in the form of a few Youtube videos. One also parodied the "Lifelock" videos (forum post).

"Brand new from the creators of Second Life comes our latest premium feature: LEGLOCK!

"Second Life is the ONLY metaverse that will actually guarantee your legs will be right here where you left them upon your return!  We consider it our sacred duty to give all our customers the whole metaverse experience. We care about our residents and what they care about, and we know one thing they care about are legs. In Second Life you can have all the legs you want, One leg, two legs, four legs, eight… a hundred… be a human centipede if you desire. Actually, I don’t think anyone really wants that last one, but you can!

"And the best part is, it is so easy! Here’s a helpful video explaining just how this handy tool works and how you can keep your avatar protected." 

(Click here if the video does not play)

"Finding one's other half" is an expression meaning to find one's soulmate. Though with avatars looking like Horizon ones, it takes on a new meaning (forum post).

"At Linden Lab, we’re all about bringing people together. We’ve heard countless stories from individuals that discovered their other halves in Second Life. Today we’re floating you a spotlight featuring a union that was love at first sight.

"If you feel like something is missing in your life, we hope we can help you find it in Second Life."

 (Click here if the video does not play)

Abnor Mole stared in this one as a used leg salesman. Guess his joke had a few legs to stand on, unlike Facebook/Horizon's virtual world (forum post).

Happy April Fools.

Addition: There were three threads in the forums about the videos, so they're now included.
 

BREAKING NEWS: Hackers Redirecting Residents From Second Life to "Putin World"

* Update - April Fool's*

In what is either an escilation in the growing tensions between Russia and the West, a massive troll by pro-Putin hackers, or perhaps both, residents of Second Life are getting re-routed to the wrong virtual world.

Starting at 1 PM SL time March 31 (Midnight Moscow time), a few residents in Russia, Turkey, and east Africa were finding trying to login to Second Life, they ended up in another virtual world entirely. The entry area looked like Red Square in Moscow, complete with the Kremlin and Lenin's tomb. As time went on, more and more residents in more and more countries, starting when their own region reached Midnight, found themselves in this place as well. As of the writing of this article, a few residents in Eastern Standard Time in the Eastern US, Quebec & Ontario, and Columbia & Peru are posting on Facebook that they've somehow logged onto there. Logging out and logging back in, they end up back in this other virtual world.

This copy of Second Life is called "Putin World." Going beyond the Red Square area, there's a much smaller number of sims than Second Life. There are Russian cities with cheerful workers, Russian towns with happy locals, Russian farms with happy peasants, slums with banks flying American and European flags, with unhappy masses, WW2 battle scenes showing retreating German soldiers fleeing from T-34 tanks, and woods with builds of a bare-chested Putin riding a bear. Everywhere are signs describing Putin as the "glorious leader" who made Russia great again, and that anyone opposed to him is either a fool needing institutionalization, or a criminal needing prison.

So far, only a tiny fraction of residents have been re-routed. But the number has been growing as time goes on. Linden Lab is investigating the hacking, and trying to come up with a solution.

Update. Linden Lab has announced that they've come up with a patch that will prevent residents from being sent to Putin World, and should fix affected accounts and send them back to Second Life.

To read more on the patch and to download it, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Firestorm April Fool

 

Readers have probably noticed the Newser's April Fool article in the newsletter today. But we're not the only ones up to a bit of foolery. In the Firestorm viewer, the phoenix was sporting "googly eyes." And there was someone peeking over the edge in the lower-left corner.

April Fool, Team Firestorm.
 

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"?
 

Video: "Warthunder's Strange History of April Fools"

 

 From ZoltanSultan on March 20. On April 1 2013, Fans of the "War Thunder" MMO were surprised to see the developers had added flying ponies in the style of "My Little Pony"armed with machine guns and candy bombs. While this only lasted one day, it continues to be talked about years later. But this would only be the first of many stunts pulled by War Thunder ever year. Perhaps none were as funny as the ponies, but most were interesting and some amusing.
 

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, Part Two

Last week's April Fool story in the Newser was one of our more successful ones in terms of response. The first picture was the Newser building in Nydia Tungsten's Minecraft server, built by Jasmine Dawn. "Sneaky and clever" one reader called it."You got me," commented another. Still another deadpaningly suggested I delete the article in the grounds Linden Lab with their mentality might actually do what was in the joke article. Most just laughed, or groaned.

With this April being a particularly bad time, with the world in the worst epidemic since the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, pretty much everyone agreed that joking about spreading the virus wasn't funny at all. Some countries warned that spreading "Coronavirus misinformation on April Fools Day" was punishable by jail time. There were also a few suggestions from some that April Fools jokes shouldn't be done, period. But with so many essentially trapped in their homes on the verge of going stir crazy, more felt the country needed a chuckle more than ever.

As it turned out, the Newser's prank article wasn't the only April Fool played in Second Life. Gemma Cleanslate was witness to the Moles pulling some foolery of their own. Firestorm got into the act, with it's "Message of the Day" appearing scrambled, but I was told was actual languages (and unfortunately I never got a screenshot).

In the world of gaming, World of Tanks had a game called "Turret Town." War Thunder had a special game for the next few days : "Space Thunder." In Guild Wars, giant cats appeared in various places in the game. In Overwatch, googly-eyes appeared on characters.



(click here if the video fails to play)

Minecraft added a new feature that at first looked like a clever joke, tossing signed books into nether portals creating new dimensions. But it looks like an actual new feature.

There are a few more listed in PC Gamer and  Destructoid, such as a supposed "Ducktales" game in the making that turned out to be just "April Fool."


Sources: CCN, CNN, The Hill, PhlyDaily, PC Gamer,

Bixyl Shuftan

Breaking News: Linden Lab to Downgrade Second Life Graphics in Response to Coronovirus Internet Slowdown

*Updated: April Fool!*

As many of us know, with more people staying home due to the Coronovirus Crisis, the Internet has been taxed more than ever before. Nexflix has had to downgrade the quality of it's movies. Youtube has had to do the same with it's videos. And Sony has decreased the download rate of it's games. And now, Second Life has been added to the list as Linden Lab announced that due to the ammount of people using the Internet these days, in a few days the quality of it's graphics will be significantly downgraded.

"We had hoped that the situation would be temporary," Linden Lab's CEO Ebbe Altberg/Ebbe Linden stated in the announcement, "But it is becoming clear that with the growing numbers of people, the Internet is being slowed down almost to the point of Los Angeles at rush hour. So unfortunately, we'll have to reduce graphics quality for the forseable future."

The changes are expected to take hold in a week. For those wishing to take an early peek, the viewer for the downgraded SL is available. Yours truly downloaded it, and took a few pictures. The results were the graphics quality were, severely cut, to put it mildly. Rather blocky like a 1980s eight bit game in three dimensions. But there was no more lag.

To read the statement from Linden Lab, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

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