Last month, the first of the new commercial districts in Bellisseria opened. They were placed in the blank sims in the Linden Home continent's Ridgewood area. A few days ago, Zada Bury messaged me about an interesting possibility, are the blank sims in the Ranch Linden Home region next?
She gave the Two Step sim as an example, and here it is (picture above), a huge patch of grass and spots of dirt surrounded by ranch homes. And checking the map (left), there are a few other places on this corner of Belliseria without homes.
So are these going to be future commercial areas, perhaps "Farmers Market" themed as Zada suggested? I would ask a Linden or Mole about this in Belli chat. But I'd likely be given a two-step of an explanation.
On Monday June 23, the first of the Meet The Lindens events took place. Missy Mole, in a tiny avatar with a top hat, welcomed the audience and introduced a few of the Products Operations team, Patch Linden, Kira Linden, and Izzy Linden.
Missy would say that residents had sent in over a hundred questions. When asked about what the plans for Linden Homes were (4:42), Patch answered, "There's a lot of stuff in the works. ,,, we just recently released Aspen Ridge, and we also released updates to the log homes by adding some additional floor plans." He went on to say they've been in the process of updating Linden Homes in Bellisseria over time, calling it "a challenge because of how big everything is now."
Patch would then say the next Linden Home theme "is right around the corner. ,,, it will be called Ridgewave Conclave." It will be for Premium-Plus residents. Patch would give no further details, "let you imagine what that might be."
Patch would also mention "our foray into commercial," saying there would soon be commercial parcels on Bellisseria "with this theme rolling out.... it will be separate and kind of it's own thing. It will take advantage of using your land allotment where you can split it between home and commercial." There would be more information, "as we get closer to launch." But the Linden Homes would have a priority over the commercial areas.
Patch would go on to say further into the year, there would be more updates, including a "big" Linden Home theme "at the end of the year," saying it was "a mix of both" Premium and Premium Plus and promised "exciting features baked into it as well."
Yesterday, we wrote about the Second Life commercial done by Linden Lab, in cooperation with Levitate Media. While the commercial's been in development for months, no doubt the idea of one has been floated about among the residents for years. In the days of M Linden in early 2010, for amusement I came up with a couple ideas that were part of a "creative fiction" story I did for JamesT Juno and Dana Vanmoer's Second Life Newspaper then.
If you're traveling beyond this life, where the weight of tradition cannot follow, do not fear re-invention. The design is your liberation. Between the planes where our dreams are built, where the mind reigns and the light bends, and the children of creation dance in time. If you're traveling beyond this life, you are not alone. We are waiting.
Levitate would say the commercial won four Telly awards, two gold, People's Telly Award and Visual Effects, and two silver, Directing and Music Score. Evan Scott of Levitate Media was listed as the producer and Kanin Guntzleman the director.
I have yet to see a thread in the Second Life forums about "Children of Creation" as the ad has been called. Hamlet Au would say of it, "Overall, it's quite a bit better than I originally feared from the homepage imagery." But, "with its use of real world models, heavy post-production effects, and
only a smattering of actual SL-based 3D content, it feels like something
of a bait-and-switch: Anyone who excitedly creates an SL account after
watching this is bound to be disappointed! Even more off, it doesn't
actually show any of the actual creative building tools of
Second Life, leaving the random viewer to wonder if the creation
referred to is only about customizing avatars."
Inara Pey would have some comments about it as well, " ... I think the advert as shown works pretty well; the images are
well-matched to the narration, and the overall impact is the idea of
liberation and freedom of expression. The intercuts of changing avatar
appearances particularly underscores this, as do more subtle elements ... " On the other hand, she called "If you're traveling beyond this life" a poor choice of words, comparing it to someone dying, "perhaps 'beyond this world' might have been a better choice of words."
Personally, I feel an ad campaign of some kind by Linden Lab is necessary if it wants to retain the numbers it gained during the Pandemic. I've also been hearing that young adults these days with an interest in virtual worlds are more likely to head to other places such as VRChat. But could the ad have been done better? As mentioned before, there's not much actual SL content used in the ad. It could have a similar effect that the CSI television show episode that took place in Second Life had in which TV viewers were given an idealized description: everyone talking in Voice and no lag. While it encourages users to check out the virtual world, it may be setting them up for a small disappointment.
How it will ultimately work? So far it has yet to appear on television or elsewhere on the Internet other than Youtube or Viemo. So we'll have to wait a while, days, weeks, perhaps months, before we find out.
According to an article in New World Notes, those whom use screenshots stored on Flickr to promote their Second Life business will have to upgrade their accounts to "Pro" if they haven't already. When Hayden Pierce asked if using pictures from the virtual world applied to it's rules concerning commercial activity and free accounts, he got the following answer.
For free accounts, linking to a store in Second Life is considered commercial activity. Linking to a blog that links to a store is also considered commercial activity. If you were to link to a separate place in the blog, it would need to be clear it has nothing to do with purchasing poses, accessories, clothes, etc.
Why is Flickr forcing free users whom use their service to help advertise their wares to get Pro accounts? It seems they've been having some financial difficulties. In December, they were pleading for more users to upgrade their accounts. "We cannot continue to operate it at a loss as we’ve been doing." So it appears the move is to get more cash from it's Second Life users.
The responses to Hamlet Au's article were mostly accepting or supportive of Flickr's move. One commented, "it is
only a clarification to all the folks who ignored Flickr's rules on
commercial activity. It has been forbidden a while by now and many SL
users ignored it. Can't say I am surprised they decided to take action." Another thought clever Second Life business owners might write it off on their taxes as an "advertising expense."
So it seems for Second Life business owners who use Flickr, it's go Pro or go home.
Just opened three months ago and is already a point of reference for many Spanish speakers, Project Latino is innovative and willing for all those who come to enjoy the facilities and the variety of services that this place offers. It's a commercial area with a diversity of stores focused on kemono fashion, an area of free items such as can not be missing today in most social areas.
Among other things this site has locker rooms, a site aimed at dictating classes, and a cinema where movies are designed daily in a very good quality and in a very familiar environment with the only requirement to be users of the Firestorm Viewer. A very pleasant experience.
And what makes this site different from other sites and Spanish-speaking places to socialize? Shiroe NignTяoad (f1729) stated, "Personally I like to create spaces that give the same experience as real life." That's what makes this place different, says one of the administrators of this great place.
Pooky Amsterdam, once an active member of Second Life's video media, has been quieter in recent years. But she still works on occasional projects. Here, she uses Second Life as the media for a commercial for HealthlinkNY, a medical information exchange network in New York state.
"The commercial of Podex Exchange - official Linden Lab reseller of
lindens. Visit our web page to buy, sell and exchange linden dollars.
Thousands of satisfied customers can not be wrong! http://www.podex.info/ "
It's been something of a wild week with sim closing and coming back, then another sim set to close, still another apparently having quietly faded away (more on that tomorrow), and finally Linden Lab's move on Third-Party Viewers that's raised more than a little alarm. So maybe it's time for something to inspire both a little brainstorming and maybe a few chuckles. Tateru Nino recently asked her readers "how would you advertise Second Life." That got me thinking of a story I wrote for Dana Vanmoer in my days at Second Life Newspaper. The section it was in closed when the paper did, so here it is again in the Newser.
Read the editor's attempt at fictional writing in Extra.
When I started out in World of Warcraft as a Horde player, I soon became familiar with the "Barrens chat," the chatter of new players in the game. And one common feature were the Chuck Norris jokes, "Chuck Norris is so tough ..." While obviously some never got bored of them, others found them annoying. Still, they became part of how we remembered the Barrens.
It was probably just a matter of time Chuck Norris would be approached to do a commercial for Blizzard.
Chuck Norris didn't break a sweat filming the newest World of Warcraft television spot. Instead, he made the director cry and then cooled himself with the tears.
This World of Warcraft television commercial debuted on CBS during the first half of the Chargers-Bears NFL game Sunday, November 20, 2011.
It's funny on one hand after all those hours listening to Barrens chat. On the other, Chuck Norris seems not like a hunter as the commercial calls him, but like the new "monk" character class in the next expansion as he fights with his hands (more on that later). Plus, there's just something about this commercial that makes me want to get my Bloodelf hunter, and shoot his character in the ...
Naturally, this has become the talk of WoWers. Their forum thread as of today has 27 pages, and no doubt more are to come as players continue to comment on this in-game joke turning into a commercial.
