Second Life Book Club Islands to Vanish Friday July 11

 

 Remember the Second Life Book Club, hosted by Draxor Despres, that went on for years but ended in November 2024?  Unfortunately, the islands, or archipelago, it took place on, will soon be going away, this Friday, July 11. Draxtor went to take one last look at them, this video of the first island airing last night. 

 

More videos will appear on Draxtor's channel (here).

 

Second Life Book Club to End.

 

 

After some years, the Second Life Book Club, hosted by Draxtor Despres, will be coming to a close. Last night, Draxtor announced the news.  The final show will be November 9 at 3PM SL time.

 

 Alright folks, most everybody should know by now but the SL Book Club is closing its doors. I HOPE LL will not take down the 4 islands, fingers crossed. One last hang is the GRAND FINALE on 11/09 = https://youtube.com/live/adWq3kTmtbA = keep an eye on the blog as well https://draxtor.substack.com/ + the group will be changed to DRAX DOCUMENTARY NEWS soonish

 

In group chat, Draxtor would go on say the reason for no longer hosting the show was economic. He simply couldn't go on doing so for free, not just upkeep for the sims, but time and money helping the authors prepare for the show, including thousands of Lindens for custom avatars, now that he was no longer being supported by Linden Lab. 

 

But this wasn't the end of Draxtor's endevors. He would go back to doing documentaries about Second Life.

Cartoon of The Day: Big Snake

 

Taken at the Second Life Book Club. Someone had a huuuuuuge snake avie that was brought out when the show was winding down. Most snakes don't care that much for people, but apparently this one was an exception.

By Bixyl Shuftan
 

EOTB: "SL18B Talk Show Specials"

 

From Monday to Friday at the Second Life Birthday, there will be discussions at the auditorium at the Second Life Birthday. These are a special Lab Gab, a special episode of the Second Life Book Club, and four "Meet the Lindens" events.   

Monday June 21

8AM SL time: The Second Life Book Club - "Special with the founder of Second Life Philip Rosedale, and Professor of Anthropology at UC Irvine Tom Boellstorff. They will be talking about 18 years of Second Life!" SLB Awesome (31/232/23) (Youtube link)

2PM SL time: Lab Gab  - "SL18B Special with the Linden Lab Leadership Team" (Check here) 

Tuesday June 22

1PM SL time: Meet the Lindens with VP of Product Operations, Patch Linden - "Patch works to bring the best of product and support-based decisions on a daily operational basis to the virtual world platform for Second Life, while maintaining oversight on how all of the various teams within Linden Lab can best work together for the highest good of the Residents and the business." SLB Awesome (31/232/23) (Youtube link) 

Wednesday June 23

2PM SL time: Meet the Lindens with VP of Product, Grumpity Linden -. "Grumpity will speak in-depth about several Second Life initiatives including recent efforts focusing on growth, a stronger, more balanced economy, movement towards better community cohesion, and an overall forward-looking approach." SLB Awesome (31/232/23) (Youtube link) 

Thursday June 24

1PM SL time: Meet the Lindens with VP of Marketing, Brett Linden - "Brett will speak on recent acquisition and retention efforts for Second Life including advertising, public relations, content strategy, and social media." SLB Awesome (31/232/23) (Youtube link)

Friday June 25

1PM SL time: Meet the Moles - "The Moles are builders, scripters, and content creators employed by Linden Lab to work in the Linden Department of Public Works" SLB Awesome (31/232/23) (Youtube link)
 
To check the Linden blog post in full, Click Here.
 

Interview With Draxtor Despres

 

Draxtor Despres is among the best known video producers in Second Life, if not the best known, for his work going back more than a decade. He first became widely known through his "Flufee" videos, then his "Drax Radio Hour," "Drax Files" videos, and his documentary "Our DIgital Selves." Today he hosts the weekly "Second Life Book Club" events, and continues to do videos for Linden Lab's "Second Life Destinations." Recently I met up with Draxtor, and he had a number of things to say about how he got his start in Second Life and his productions.

Read the interview in People.

Man of the Year: Draxtor Despress

 
There's been plenty of news this year in Second Life, and plenty of men and women behind it. In real life, the Coronavirus Pandemic cast a dark shadow over the world, and more people than before found themselves looking for things to do online. To bring them to Second Life, there had to be something to advertise the virtual world, and show them what was going on.

Someone helping out with both was Draxtor Despress, (Bernhard Drax in real life). Not just this year, but for the past several. Originally known for his "Flufee" videos made with Pooky Amsterdam, in 2013 he started a new series of informative videos about Second Life, "The Drax Files." This was followed in 2013 with "The Drax Files Radio Hour." In 2018, he produced a documentary film, "Our Digital Selves: My Avatar Is Me," which was about 13 Second Life residents whom overcame their various disabilities and made a home for themselves here. His work continued with the Second Life Destination videos in 2019, and this year he began hosting the Second Life Book Club.

For his work this year and in years past, Draxtor Despress is judged to be the Newser's Man of the Year.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor, SL Newser

SL Video: "The Second Life Book Club with Draxtor - A Conversation With Larry Niven"

Some science-fiction fans among Second Life residents may recall when noted author Larry Niven was inworld in 2008. Twelve years later, he was in the virtual world again, appearing at Draxtor Despres' Book Club. The man behind novels such as "Ringworld" and "The Man-Kzin Wars" was in a new account and a new avatar, this one was of a "Motie" from "The Mote in God's Eye." Niven would talk some about his writing. And at one point Philip Rosedale, who was in the audience, was invited on stage.

Yours truly planned to write about this in detail, but was delayed. So for now, here is the video.

The Second Life Book Club

Last week, Linden Lab announced the start of the "Second Life Book Club," or "Virtual Book Tours" in both the official blog and a press release.

As book publishers adjust to coronavirus-era restrictions, Linden Lab is launching the Second Life Book Club, a new “virtual world book tour” initiative that enables authors to have real-time book readings, engage in meet-and-greets with their fans and promote their publications in front of a live audience within the Internet’s largest user-created virtual world.

The first of what will presumably be a number of events of this theme took place on Wednesday April 8. It was hosted, as well as filmed, by Draxtor Despres, "in partnership with Linden Lab." The event was described as "a multi-author panel that will discuss the new reality of writing and selling books in the age of COVID-19," and had writers Matt Ruff, Ken Liu, SL Huang, and CB Lee.

Upcoming shows will feature guests such as Tad Williams, Christopher Brown, Qiufan Chen, Kelly Robson, Chana Porter and Premee Mohamed.

“When I first reached out to authors, some of them very high profile, I was surprised to get super enthusiastic feedback like: ‘Of course I will come on the show. Can I be a tentacle monster? Can I be a parrot? Can I fly?’,” says Despres. “It’s a dream come true for a book nerd like me!” 

Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg adds, “Second Life offers a safe, fun retreat during a time of great anxiety, stress, and social isolation. Through the virtual world, people can stay connected and engage in friendly conversations and fun social activities such as visiting live music performances, virtual nightclubs and deejay events and now even book readings. Virtual world interactions offer a much deeper connection with other human beings than for example video conferencing: through the avatar and the shared space we feel as if we are fully present together.”

The Newser may have an article about what happened in the near future, time permitting. In the meantime, here's the video.



(Click here if the video does not play - starting at 1:20 )

The event took place at BookClub Island (128/115/23)

For more information, check out the official blog here.