Eighteen Years of Writing About Second Life

 

It was eighteen years ago this month in which my time in SL as I know it began. 

 

While I had first logged in on December the previous year, for months my time here was on and off as my one friend here at the time was busy, and I didn't know where to go. The "Destination Guide" we know today did not exist then. So I just randomly TPed to a few locations. Then I heard about the Relay for Life Weekend Track. While the event was over, the exhibits got my attention. So I began to log on more often, eventually coming across my first hangouts, Luskwood, then the STA, and began making a few friends. Also at Luskwood I would get a red fox avatar and finally upgrade from the starter avatar. 

 

Wanting to know more about this wacky and wonderful virtual world, searching around on the Internet I came across blogs and newsletters. One was the "Second Life Newspaper" run by JamesT Juno the owner and Dana Vanmoer the editor. Once in a while, they would ask for reader submissions. Eventually, I emailed them a story, then a picture, then another picture. They then asked me to show up at their office for a job interview. 

 

And I got the job, the "fox reporter" among this team of newswriters.

 

It took a little time for me to "get in the groove," but I was soon able to easily come out with one, sometimes two stories a week, along with at least one screenshot cartoon picture. I would document events, review places, and interview people of all kinds. After about to and a half years, things took a sad turn when James left SL, then Dana announced she would have to close down the paper due to real life. Saddened, but determined to keep on writing about the news, I would get together with Gemma Cleanslate, Shelie Sands, and Grey Lupindo and form the Second Life Newser. "One man's dream" had become a shared dream, and I along with my teammates would continue it. 

 

Year after year, I've continued to write about the people and places of this fantastic, sometimes weird, virtual world as Second Life's fox reporter. While I've come across some chicanery and selfishness, there's been no shortage of people wanting to build great things for others to see or do great things for others. The Relay for Life is certainly an example of this, with unforgettable well-designed sims in the Fantasy Faire, and great camps and hundreds getting together in comradery on the Relay Weekend. To me it is this, and not a few point to old scandalous stories a few people for some reason still point to, that is the real face of Second Life.

 

By all means not everyone's been happy. There have been a very few over the past 18 years who expressed dissatisfaction, notably the partner of one person who was caught robbing a charity.. But for the most part, I've received praise and applause. And to you I thank you. You have been the big reason I've kept going for all these years. 

 

Unfortunately, I have had to slow down from the amount I was doing a few years ago. After my real-life job at a depot ended several years ago, I had more time to write. While I took the time to finally make progress on and complete the novel I published several months ago, I also had time for a few more stories. Finding full-time work again got delayed for several reasons, including the Pandemic. But eventually I did. But unfortunately that means not quite the time for writing I once did. There's also that when I came to SL, I was a relatively young man. Today, I'm not that far from real-life retirement. So that may be slowing me down a little as well. While I am spending a little time on more novels to publish, most of my writing time still goes to Newser articles and briefs. 

 

That doesn't mean I like writing about here less, I'm always finding something. It's just that Real Life has a way of tapping me on the shoulder, a lot. Some mornings all I can do is put up the "Later today" sign, and finish whatever I'm working on in the late morning or early afternoon. 

 

The paper will keep getting updated every day. That will not change. But it's looking like there won't be quite as many longer articles from me.

 

In any event, it's been quite "a long strange trip" writing about this wacky and wonderful virtual world, and looking forward to writing more in the years to come. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

Editor and Reporter 

SL Newser 

 

Eighteen Years ago ...

 

My avatar would be considered old enough to vote, and legally a mature man in real life.

 

It was eighteen years ago today, in which yours truly first came to this virtual world, December 17, 2006. I had only recently gotten high-speed Internet, finally getting off the old "dial-up" telephone modem. So I was free to check out two places online my friends were talking about: World of Warcraft and Second Life. 

Today, World of Warcraft has become more or less a happy memory to me, still around but no longer the king of MMOs that it used to be. But Second Life is still very much around and I'm still very much going. As any parent can tell you, a LOT can happen in eighteen years, and it has. A year later, I had a number of friends and found my purpose here: online journalism. And over time, my path has taken me to a few communities, many friends, and a couple years ago a loving SL wife. Second Life has also changed much, going through a number of CEOs and being bought up, going from prim building to mesh and then other forms of mesh, the Lindens went from involved with the residents to hardly involved to somewhat involved again. Corporations and celebrities would take an interest early on, but then began to leave. Over time, the residents would change as well, new ones coming in constantly, and older ones leaving due to real life or dying. 

So what does the future hold? Baring a catastrophe of some kind, Second Life will be around for years to come. And me, baring an accident or some other medical emergency, I'll continue to be around for a few years more. But retirement is several years away, and once that happens I'll have my physical and financial health to think about. But that's in the future. In the meantime, I'll still be coming on to support my friends and SL family, and write about this virtual world.

 

To read more about my first days, check out my 2021 article.

Bixyl Shuftan.  

Reflections on The SL18B

 

"Ebbe is gone, but Second Life goes on." That was the message the Lindens were sending at this year's Second Life Birthday. There were other details. But the recent death of CEO Ebbe Altberg overshadowed them.

Last year, there were no great revelations at the SL17B Linden and Mole discussions. The Lab wanted to reassure the residents the move to The Cloud was going smoothly, and it was offering new types of Linden Homes and expanding the Bellisseria continent. But those details would soon be overlooked as days later came news of Linden Lab being acquired. So for two years in a row, the announcements made by the Lab were in the shadow of other news around the time. 

But what the Lab did have to say this year was noteworthy. They announced the new class of upcoming Linden Homes: fantasy. They also announced the continued expansion of Bellisseria to place the neighborhoods of these now homes. There would be new starter avatars and a new starting area for new residents. The Lab stated it was getting closer to having a chat app available for mobile devices (and a few weeks later they would announce Apple had accepted one). There was an acknowledgement by Brett Linden that the Lab hadn't done quite enough to promote nonhuman avatars, such as furries, in the past. And of course there was the first time one of the Lab's new owners appeared in an interview to speak to the residents. 

The overall layout of the sims seemed similar to last year's to me, especially the entry area. While it wasn't the exact same layout as the trees had some giant mushrooms mixed in with them, it did have much the same feel (As my viewer does not see the EEP feature for skies, perhaps there was effort in there that I missed). It was notable that for the first time, the sims didn't have a number in their names, called "SLB" instead of SL18B." Perhaps the latter will be how the Lab names the sims from now on.

While the Cake Stage from previous SLB events is still missed, the design of this year's stage to look a little like a turtle got some compliments. For the first time, there was a Skill Game area.

And of course there were the exhibits. Like last year, the Lab informed the exhibitors they weren't going to be overly strict to keeping in theme. While some took advantage of that, other exhibitors tried to stay within it. The result was an interesting mix of exhibits that helped make "The Birthday" worth going to, notably once the music events were all over.

It was noteable that soon after the celebration ended came the announcement from the Lab that it's chat app for mobile devices would soon be ready. If not for the passing of the late CEO, this might have been what the event would have been remembered for.

Despite the overall layout being so similar to last year, it was a good SL18B. Exactly what next year has in store, who knows. Probably a new kind of Linden home. Perhaps a new game, or maybe a new continent (unless they keep growing Bellisseria). 

And thank you for what you've done, Ebbe Altberg.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Second Life Birthday Sims Closed

 

Since Thursday June 17, the sims of the Second Life 18th Birthday were open to the public. That is, until sometime in the morning of Friday July 9. Checking a little after Noon, I found the sims to be closed, and later on checking the map, they were shown to be offline. 

Checking around the day before, many of the exhibits had been cleared out.  

I came across one exhibitor, Pixels Sideways, in the middle of her takedown. She would post in group chat, "All tidied up.  Thank you Moles for all your creative work and help.  Ya did good! :-)  Thank you to the exhibitors and performers for your creative visions and music.   TY to the Shop n Hop merchants for all the fab swag,  And TY Linden Lab for keeping the lights on and the plumbing intact.  Raises a glass - to Ebbe.  TY for guiding us here.  We'll keep the engines running & the creative juices flowing and continue to create merry mayhem throughout Second Life.   Ciao everyone.  Stay safe out there. Hope to see you around the playground. xoxo"

And so, another Second Life Birthday is now history. For some, there is Burn2 Conception and Burning Man to look forward to. But for others, already people are looking forward to SL19B. Among them, Marianne McCann, "As one might say among Burning Man folks, 'Next Year Was Better!' You will always look fondly on SL18B... but next year, just *imagine* what may come! All the things you learned at 18B, and another year of exploration." 
 
Bixyl Shuftan
 

Second Life Birthday Sims To Close Today (For Most)

 

Yesterday, Tuesday July 6, was the last day the SLB sims were scheduled to be open for the Second Life Eighteenth Birthday. So the sims had a number of people going about for one last look at the exhibits. Group chat was full of people saying how much they enjoyed the event, and more than one commented they were going to have to leave some exhibits unseen as they didn't have enough time to see them all.

An alt of mine was able to get in the sims after Midnight. So it's possible the sims will be accessible for part of the day. But the schedule is for the sims to be closed and the exhibitors to take what they want picked up. 

Yours truly was up late last night exploring around, so before writing more, it's time for some much-needed rest.

Addition: My alt was still able to get to the sims at 9AM SL time, but the main music stream was turned off and some exhibits were already gone.  

Addition 2: At 1PM, my alt could no longer get into the SLB sim. So presumably they were closed to the general public at Noon.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

SL18B Update: Map Names Changed, Newser Officially In As Exhibitor

In our last update about the Second Life Birthday sims, they were back up, but still having their SL17B names.  Checking again after a tip, the "17" was gone, and some water sims at the edges were added. 

Yesterday, the Newser was contacted by Linden Lab, informing us that we were once again welcome as an exhibitor. This marks the tenth year we've been doing so. In the Second Life Exhibitor's group, it was stated, "We had 275 applications for 175 spots." So competition for the spots was fierce. 

The announcement also stated the sims should be open to exhibitors sometime today, May 24. Unfortunately, one thing they won't be open to is published photographs of the area, even teasers of placeholders and closeups of Linden builds that reveal next to nothing about the whole thing. Which is unfortunate as teasers we've done in the past such as the bathroom with the three sea shells stirred up interest without revealing much of anything.

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager 

Bixyl Shuftan
 

SL18B Update

The Second Life 18th Birthday, or SL18B, is a little more than a month from now. So where are the sims? It looks like they're up, but most are still labeled SL17B from last year. Including the still unlabeled ones, there are a total of 22, though this could change.  There's another sim called "SLB Dev" a little to the north of these, though is likely just a place for building things and not to be part of the exhibit.

The celebration will be held from  Thursday June 17 to Thursday July 1, though the sims will probably be up for a few more days.

Stay tuned for more updates.