A Story From Fairelands Chat

 

There isn't quite anything like the Fantasy Faire in Second Life, and over time, this annual two and a half week event in the virtual world has attracted it's own group of fans. As the time to the event gets closer, various fans in the group are inspired to write poetry, or stories. Among the chatter last night was one tale from Pookie Wolfsong (Helixer Resident).

Read the take in Extra.

 

Update on Bellisserria

As Bellisserria's Linden homes are slowly completed and filled up, more and more interesting details are appearing. Some people are taking the land of their homes and making them places for builds such as coffee houses and merfolk hangouts. One small problem, to get a Linden home in Bellisserria you have to wait, sometimes for a while.

Read Gemma's story in Places.

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

A Look at Linden Lab's "Patterns"

Last week, Linden Lab revealed two of the projects they were working on, "Creatorverse" and "Patterns." Seeing the pictures and description of Patterns, some dismissed it as the Lab trying to rip off Minecraft without coming up with anything original. Just after the announcement, gaming Internet magazine IGN published an article by Anthony Gallegos in which he looked at the game and had a few words with Rod Humble about it. His observation was that it was "dramatically different" from the familiar sandbox game.

Rod Humble admitted Minecraft was an influence, "So the notion was you take a very simple 3D Creation tool you take that lovely elegance of the resources that's in Minecraft, and them make the whole thing have physics from the ground up." In both, one has an avatar in a world gathering up resources. But in Minecraft the avatar builds tools which it can use. It doesn't in Patterns. Nor are there monsters and hot lava to make survival a question. The world itself is different, alien looking compared to the familiar grass, trees, and hills. And instead of cubes, the world is made up of triangular tiles, as is the avatar.

What can one do with the triangular tiles? They can be used to create three dimensional blocks. And these blocks can be used to build larger structures. The tiles can come from a variety of materials, wood, stone, clay, etc. And the hardness and weight of the cubes can have an effect on what one can build. Physics and gravity matter here much more than Minecraft. If one keeps extending a horizontal column of blocks, it will eventually break and fall. And a mostly stone column with a clay base will break sooner than a clay column with a stone one.

When working with the world, sometimes the physics acted in ways that surprised the Linden team. The Lindens are hoping to get users on board to continue to see what can be done with the place, as Humble stated in the video trailer from Linden Lab, he wanted "creators in from the earliest possible moment." A few days after the  IGN article was published, Linden Lab began taking pre-orders for the game's "Genesis version" for $9.95. The page stated those buying would be "entitled to have your name featured in the credits of the game in version 1.0."

Hamlet Au commented that  in giving an advance peek to IGN, it looked like Linden Lab was aiming at gamers rather than users of Second Life as more likely to give Patterns a try. He also states he managed to get in touch with Minecraft's creator Markus Persson. Of Patterns, he thought, "Looks great."





Once again, Patterns Genesis can be pre-ordered at: http://buildpatterns.com/buy/.

Sources: IGN, New World Notes  

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Youtube: Tadao Video - The M6A1 "Sky Storm" Submarine-Launched Torpedo Bomber

Tadao video, "The work is an airplane, but the attatchment is a submarine. Have you seen such a combination before? Tetsugame and Myuki achieved that."

In real life, the Imperial Japanese Aichi M6A1 "Clear Sky Storm" was an ingenious design meant to be launched from the huge I-400 submarines to make surprise strikes at strategic targets, notably the Panama Canal. Although the plane had twin floats, it would have been ditched after making such a mission and the pilot picked up by the sub. But the aircraft wasn't perfected until late in the war. Only one mission by submarine was carried out in August 1945, and along the way the submarine received word of Japan's surrender.

Raglan Shire and the 2011 ArtWalk

Last month, the tiny community of Raglan Shire hosted a major art show, the 2011 ArtWalk, which attracted people from across the Grid. Before the end, I took a look at the art show, as well as a few of the locals, whom proved to be a lively bunch.

Readmore in Places.

The Creative Christmas Hunt

Grey Lupindo reports on the "Creative Christmas Hunt." Unlike most hunts, the goodies here are aimed at builders, things "you can use to create your own special items." One just has to agree not to sell items made from them.

Read Grey's story in Extra.