2025: Year in Review

 

2026 is here, a new year and the second half of the decade and the start of the second quarter of the century. But before we truly say goodbye to 2025, let's have a look back at what happened, a year full of triumphs and tragedies, of good news and blunders.

 

AI was a subject that got plenty of talk in real-life news, and made Second Life news as well.  Only days before the year started, the Lab had announced then paused an AI character designer. In late February, it was brought back, though just for designing a "personal companion." But in August, it announced it would once again pause development in September and those made couldn't be used any more until further notice. 

 

There would be an AI "Town Hall" in April for the Lab to answer some questions and concerns by the residents, one who would express, "If we let these AI run rampant, they will take our very humanity from us," and another who felt "An AI character can be a useful social outlet." Philip Linden would also answer questions about it at the SL22B, which was shortly after he wrote an essay "Ultraviolet Catastrophe" in which he suggested in the near future AI bots could overwhelm the Internet social media to the point people will drastically change how they use it. Two Lindens would leave the Lab, Runitai Linden, and Signal Linden.

 

There was a minor controversy in which what looked like AI generated commercials for Second Life made it to Facebook. Brad Oberwager, the head of Linden Lab, would respond those were never intended to be actual commercials but were tests that would be replaced with inworld content, "We f***ed up." 

 

A few readers submitted AI-generated fanart to the Newser. The majority of comments were positive, though not everyone was pleased, one calling it "supporting theft." There were also some music videos done in Second Life that were finished with the assistance of AI. There would be an event in Second Life, "AI Land" which displayed AI-generated art. The debate on the Internet about AI art would make it to the Newser in the form of a commentary by Nydia Tungsten. 

 

In February, Linden Lab announced "Membership Mania," in which residents got more perks, everyone getting a higher group limit, and Plus and above getting a few more such as Linden Home options, a higher stored IM limit, and more prim space at Linden Homes. They also had a computer giveaway. In March was "March Mobile Millions," which gave residents logging onto the mobile viewer a chance to spin a money wheel which had prizes up to one million Linden Dollars. April would offer the "Dash for Cash" just for logging into the mobile viewer. For a brief time in April, Linden Lab reduced purchase fees for Linden dollars to one cent. Also in April, Linden Labs would give all residents new and old the Avatar Welcome Pack, and make it a feature for new accounts. In May, Linden Lab would fully reverse the ban on gachas it enacted four years earlier and partially lifted in November 2024. The Lab would also occasionally offer gifts to Premium and Premium Plus residents. 

There was some expansion of Bellisseria in February, April, and September with the continued tradition of many of the sims having funny names. There would be four new types of Linden Homes. In February came the Tiki, underwater, which were perfect for Second Life's merfolk community. April had the Aspen Ridge Linden Home. In September came the Ridgewood Linden Home. While these expansions were taking place, areas with older pre-Belisseria Linden Homes would close down. Bellisseria would celebrate it's sixth anniversary in April, with the B6B event. 

 

Brad Oberwager would announced the number of monthly users had gone up to 620,000 in December.  This was further up from 500,000 last year. In November, the Second Life University videos by Linden Lab would resume after a two year hiatus This year, there were some changes to billing and financial systems for buying and selling Linden dollars. The Lab made progress on it's mobile and webbrowser viewers. Firestorm would also launch a browser-based viewer, but like the Linden one, one needed to pay to use it.  

 

In September, the last member of the Lumiya Viewer staff announced she was trying to restore the platform, which it is believed may be ready sometime in 2026. The creator of one popular third-party viewer, Black Dragon, announced in October that he may have to stop updating it due to real-life, which will eventually render it obsolete.  

 

For owners of breedable pets, the owners of ABC horses got a shock when in January, Awesome Breed Creations, better known as ABC, effectively shut down when three members of it's staff left, saying they hadn't been paid in months, including the scriptor, who turned off the scripts and effectively turned off the breedables. Many horse owners were saddened, some who had invested tens of thousands of Linden dollars into their pets. Amaretto horses responded with a message of sympathy and an offer of a free starter pack. There was no sign of ABC's owner, who is thought to have "taken the money and ran."

 

Another controversy was when the store Bella Epoque was evicted from it's land when the owner Jani La Belle (Janire Coba) was suddenly told by her landlord to leave, her saying she was angrily told to depart because of the "gang of homo" she invited for an event. Unfazed, she made a shirt with the phrase "Gang of Homos," and she and supporters were wearing it as an act of pride in defiance. 

In August came some unwelcome news for the owners of "prim babies." Zooby, which made them, announced it was discontinuing support for them in January after switching production to mesh ones six years earlier. But in November, they announced support would continue.

Tripp Foxtail, announced he would be closing the Travellers Station and his other places in August, but within a few days stated a partial retraction, saying while others were still closing, the Travellers Station would stay. In October, Emerald City Golf Course announced it was facing financial trouble, but after a few weeks announced they had raised enough to continue, at least for now. But not all places in trouble got a reprieve. In late August, it was announced the Rosehaven community estates would be closing. Sadly it would get no break. 

Belisseria would be the subject of the Newser's April Fool joke. Firestorm had some joke warning alerts, "Due to a coding hiccup, all avatar voices have been replaced with chipmunk squeaks. Happy chatting!" Linden Lab got into the act by announcing they were offering upside down Linden Homes. One joke that went better than expected was one avatar maker offering cardboard avatars as a joke, and were surprised when people kept buying them up.  

 

There were many events across Second Life. Among them were Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education in late March and early April, Mole Day, Hug and Dunk A Linden, the Love Train, Bellisseria's anniversary or B6B, the Bay City anniversary, the Sci-Fi con, Bay City Oktoberfest, Team Diabetes Scare Me Silly, Bellisseria Spooktober, The Multiverse Fair, Luna's Empire Ghost Hunt, The Dickens Project, Bay City Tree Trimming, Raglan Shire events such as Shocktober and Wootstock, Autism Australia, and the monthly Homes For Our Troops Benefits.

 

There were the Valentine, SL Birthday, Halloween, and Christmas Shop and Hops. There were Burn2 events, the winter, spring, and summer spinoff events and the main one in October, the theme being "Tomorrow Today."  One SL Burner got a surprise when her build in Second Life was being replicated at the real-life Burning Man. Bay City Prim Drop and various other New Year's Eve events.  And of course there was the Second Life Twenty Second Birthday, or SL22B, of which the theme was Myths and Legends. 

 

There were the events at the PBC, such as International Women's Day, Juneteenth, Fright Fest, and the "Meet the Author" event for yours truly and the novel I published, "The Corsean Encounter."

 

The Relay for Life would hold many events, not just during it's main fundraising season from February to June but across the year, the RFL Living Expo, the Relaystock (which took place early this year), Fly For Life, Bid the Lindens Bald, the Fantasy Faire, Outshop Cancer, Making Strides, the Christmas Expo, and of course, the Relay Weekend. 

 

Two events would not happen this year. One was the Renaissance Festival in fall to raise money for the American Cancer Society. The other was the Veterans Tribute in November. Late November would see the end of the weekly Science Circle events. 

 

Among other places and groups having anniversaries the International Space Museum would turn twenty. So would the Second Life Coast Guard group.  Team Firestorm would turn fifteen. 

 

Sadly, some residents of Second Life would pass away this year. They included SL musician Reno Jones, artist Solana Python , club owner Jodi Eyre, commentator on SL and other virtual worlds Mal Burns, Crim Mip of Rosthaven and Wooburn, Melanippe of Themiscyra (Melanippe Karas), Tanarian Davies and Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (Klauswulfenbach Outlander) who were the same person behind the computer, builder and writer Luna Lunaria (apelles.luna), dancer Josiane Auster (Josiane Llewellyn), designer and decorator Crito Galtier, and singer Beccca Baxton.

 

For the Sunweaver community where the Newser office makes it's home, it would shine during the Relay season with it's Sunbeamer team, with the Sunbeamers Air Show and weekly Moon Dance. "The little team that could" would pass the one million Linden dollar and make Ruby.  Besides yours truly getting a book event at the Premier Business Center, in February, Nydia Tungsten would announce the third book in her Switched Destinies series, "Acceptance of Fate," was published. A friend of the Sunweavers/Angels would reopen the Urban Furry club. But sadly Club Squeaks would stop having regular events. 

 

There was also some Internet news. There was the continued debate about AI and if it was putting the economy at risk with a "bubble" due to burst soon, as well as debates about data centers and their demand for water. Skype would shut down in May. There was gaming controversy in the summer when it was discovered Steam was unlisting a number of Adult-rated games following pressure by credit card companies. In response, Paypal started blocking Steam in much of the world. October 2025 was a month some computer users dreaded. Microsoft was ending support for Windows 10. Users had the choice of filing for a one year extension, paying for a business version of the operating system, upgrading to Windows 11, or ditching Windows altogether and installing Linux. Most chose upgrading to 11. But there were complaints about bugs and unwanted instillation of AI. 

 

For the Newser, it's been a productive year which was more productive with the return of Netera Landar, as well as the many submissions sent by readers. And we look forward to delivering you the news about the people, places, and events in Second Life in 2026.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

Editor

SL Newser

 

2023 Year In Review

 

 2023 was a year in Second Life full of triumphs and tragedies, accomplishments and pitfalls, and a number of other noteworthy happenings. 

 

Probably the top news story of 2023 was Second Life's Twentieth Anniversary.  It was in June 2003 in which the virtual world officially went online, and there was plenty of talk about how much had changed over time, as well as defying expectations of critics. To celebrate, the Lab had a contests with a number of computers as prizes, and one lucky winner got a new car. Some real-life publications took a moment to write about the virtual world for the first time in a while, in some cases many years. There were numerous exhibits, some were encores that had appeared in past SLB events, while others reflected the theme "Our Fantastic Future." This included the Newser's exhibit by Silvia Ametza, who made a depiction of a near future astronaut base on a moon of Jupiter. As part of the celebration, Draxtor Despres had a movie-length documentary "Made in Second Life."

It didn't take very long for the year to come up with a burning issue. In January, the Bonniebots suddenly became an issue of controversy as they went from sim to sim gathering information. Some considered them harmless, some simply annoying, and others a threat to privacy, the latter group demanding the Lab do something about them. The owners of the bots were saying they were not trying to spy on people, but the calls for action persisted, notably on the official forums. Linden Lab's initial response was to close down a thread on the issue, but a second quickly popped up, followed by another. Eventually the Lindens stated they were looking into what they could do on the matter. In late March, the Lab would announce they were introducing new tools for residents to deal with unwanted bots, as well as a new policy about them. 

In March, Linden Lab would lower sim tiers, but raise Linden Dollar purchase and sell fees. This would be a continuation of the Lab relying less on money from sims and more on income from transaction fees. In June, they started offering Premium accounts for life with a onetime fee. They also started offering certain Linden Homes reserved for Premium Plus residents, first the Ranch style homes, then the Mediterranean. They would prove highly popular. The Lab would also create a new line of Mesh starter avatars: the Senra. It invited merchants to make products for them, and some did. In November, Linden Lab launched the PBR update to the Grid, which promised residents reflective surfaces in Second Life soon, including eventually working mirrors.

For years, many residents had asked Linden Lab to come up with a mobile viewer. While the Lab had partnered with others in the past to develop one, it had yet to come up with one that was truly it's own. In March, it finally released footage of it's own viewer. In December, it announced it was finally ready to offer a "private alpha" version to Premium Plus residents, but warned users to expect glitches.

 

Belliseria would see more additions, with the Ranch and then Mediterranean Linden Home areas for Premium Plus residents. The Fantasy Linden Homes would also get a treehouse option. The continent would also see the addition of the Bellihub from Linden Lab, a way to encourage residents to move to the continent. Bellisseria would also see it's Haunted Neighborhood and Trick or Treat event for Halloween. With Bellisseria in the news so much, eventually the Newser would open a satellite office there. 

 

Linden Lab would make a place consisting of several sims that would both show newcomers what Second Life had to offer but still appeal to longterm residents: The WelcomeHub. It would open in June with a party at the Motown sim, which was a partnership with two music groups. It would have a lasertag arena, the Cinema, and some shopping areas. It would be connected to Bellisseria by a rail line. Later in the year, Motown would hold another large event, a trivia party. In November, the WelcomeHub Cinema would show a short film by Saffia Widdershins inspired by the Fantasy Faire, "Harland Quinn and the Omega Hex." In December, the Cinema would show "Scrooge: A Second Life Christmas Carol," a faithful rendition of the Dickens classic made entirely in the virtual world done late last year by Caligula Aquila and AVTV.

 

One part of the WelcomeHub was a little controversial, the Social Casino. It had appeared on it's own a few months before. Offering blackjack tables and slot machines for which players could use Linden dollars to buy (nonrefundable) chips, there were charges of hypocrisy a couple years earlier the Lab had banned gachas as they resembled gambling.

While glitches have always been part of Second Life, there was an especially bad day in February with numerous sims offline and many people clouded for hours. In March, the Purfection sim had a major glitch which wrecked the Happy Vixen club, but thankfully a rollback fixed the damage. In August was some "Unscheduled Maintenance" that had people unable to rezz, log in, or put things on the ground for hours. 

Besides the Second Life Anniversary celebrations, there were many other events. Probably the biggest among them was the Relay for Life in Second Life, which officially went from February to June. Various teams big and small held events to raise money for cancer research and treatments and have fun doing so ("putting the fun in fundraising"). The high point would be the Relay Weekend in June in which hundreds walked along a track along American Cancer Society and almost 40 other sims, described as the most intense 24 hours in Second Life.

The Relay for Life would have a number of spinoff events. There was the SL Living Expo, which replaced the longtime running "Home and Garden Expo/" Sci-fi Con (which had Slime A Linden). In the spring was the Fantasy Faire that had many detailed sims to explore and many events such as the Childrens' Roleplay. In fall, there was "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer," which ran alongside events such as "Outshop Cancer" and the SL Renaissance Festival. The Lindens would appear at the later, in a bidding event in which the losing team got pilloried. And for December there was the Christmas Expo.

 

There was the VWBPE conference in the spring, which brought attention to how Second Life could be used for education. Burn2 would have it's "Animalia" event in October and several spinoff events across the year. The Seachai Library would hold the Bradbury event in October and the Dickens Project in December.

One annual event, One Billion Rising, was canceled for the first time since it started. The Sci-Fi Expo, a Relay event, would announce further seasons would be "indefinitely postponed."  Virtual Ability would have a number of conferences to educate and inform about the disabled. "Bid The Lindens Bald" at the Relaystock would raise almost three-quarters of a million Linden dollars. There was the Fandom Con, which took place in late July a few weeks after the SLB. Raglan Shire would have it's Artwalk and Wootstock. Team Firestorm would hold it's thirteenth anniversary bash. Halloween would see a number of events. Veterans Day would see the annual Veterans Tribute and "Tracks to Trenches."

Besides the Relay, there were numerous other Fundraisers. In February, there was a fundraiser for an earthquake that hit Turkey, and one for Ukraine in it's war against Russian invasion. In the summer, there was the "Forget ME Not" fundraiser for "research of ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), Long Covid, Fibromyalgia and related chronic conditions." In August was a fundraiser to help the people left homeless by a devastating fire on the Hawaiian island of Maui. It would raise about two million Lindens. There was the Spoonful of Sugar event to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. Luna's Empire would hold a Ghost Hunt event for Halloween.

 

Veterans Isle would hold benefit concerts every month to raise money to keep roofs over the heads of vets. Creations for Parkinson's and Team Diabetes would have a number of events, such as "Scare Me Silly" for Halloween.

On April Fools Day the Lab pulled on on Bellisseria with UFOs all over the island. The April Fool the Newser would pull was a playful poke at Patch Linden. There were also shopping events such as Abnormality, and Linden Lab's "Shop and Hop" events.

Besides Linden Lab's new starter avatars, one other body made the news. The popular Maitreya mesh body would get it's first major update ever, the Laura X. For owners of virtual pets, there was one less company as Biobreeds shut down in February due to a dispute between the co-owners.

 

The Mieville community was facing an uncertain future following the confirmed death of it's founder Perryn Peterson in later 2022. Fortunately Linden Lab intervened, in February offering residents the chance to take over the sims. So the community went on, celebrating it's 15th year that summer.

 

Caledon would celebrate it's 17th anniversary in March. The next month it was announcing it was closing a few sims, though it had many more. It's founder, Desmond Shang, would step down as leader later in the year, with NeoBokrug Elytis taking his place.

The Newser would check numerous sims this year. Some were old favorites such as Calas with it's great scenery and Montecito Bay with it's stores and arcade. There were others we came across for the first time such as the New Genesis Bay sim with a riding track that was so long it took hours to finish. Echovets would create a gateway sim aimed at US Military veteran newcomers. Besides sims, we would check out groups, such as Drivers of SL.

 

Outside Second Life, one other world that was making mainstream headline news a couple years earlier, Facebook's Horizon, after months of being heavily promoted by it's owner was quietly "left behind" as it made little money compared to what had been invested in it, and Mark Zuckerburg turned his attention to other projects such as AI.

Among those lost, Palomma Cassanova, the owner of the Free Dove freebie store which had been helping newcomers for years. There were worries the place would be gone, but it was saved. Bree Himmel, noted for being one of Raglan Shire's "Basement Kitties of Doom" had passed in January as well. Xzavia Yifu of Timeless Textures passed in February. Ariel Loonie of Luskwood was gone. FrannyDJ, the lady who brought a tribute to Macy's Thanksgiving Parade to Second Life, and other parades, had died. Fans who enjoyed her parades would keep the Thanksgiving one alive. Allian Blackwell, a Commandant of the Second Life Coast Guard, was gone. New Citizens Incorporated lost Beverly Montgomery. 

Among the places that closed down was the WEDCOT Center Park, a tribute to Disneyland and Disney World. A couple years earlier, it got attention as Patch Linden held a Christmas music event there. But sadly the sim would close after ten years of operation. 

Live performer Keeba Tammas, the singer of the "Keeba Tammas and The Tiny Maniacs" band would retire from live performances, though the band would go on, renaming itself as just the Tiny Maniacs. Music video maker Furrex ended up banned from Second Life, and it seemed his days of making videos were over. But he was soon making them once more. 

For the Newser office's neighbors, the Sunweavers, it was an eventful year with a number of events. It was especially so during the Relay season in which there were events such as the annual Air Show and Ren-Faire, in which people dropping by had a chance to play games and courses set up by Cynthia Farshore and Shockwave Yareach. There were the Bid Me events in which team captain Rita Mariner went skunk, one team member became a clone of Luskwood's founder Michi, new team member Charlee Shuftan went panda for a few weeks. At the Relaystock, they would make over 100,000 Linden dollars at Cynthia's set alone. And there was Cynthia's weekly Moon Dance. The team would reach the one million Linden mark in May. Encouraged, the team reached further and hit Ruby Level (1,250,000 Lindens) for the first time ever. It was a record year. At other times of the year, "A Little Odd Place" at Sunweaver Bay would change for the holiday at the time. For Linden Lab's Halloween video contest, Nydia Tungsten would send in an entry. And one certain fox would find love and after a courtship they would be husband and wife.

For the Newser, it's been quite a year covering events here in Second Life. And we'll be continuing to cover it for 2024. Special thanks to our sponsors at Montecito Bay, Lorena Chung Estates, The Safe Waters Foundation, and Farshore Radio.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor, SL Newser

EOTB: Linden Lab Gives 2023 Year In Review, "What To Expect" For 2024

 

 

A few days ago on the official blog, Linden Lab posted what they felt were the highlights of the past year, and a few things on "what to expect" for the next. 

As the end of 2023 approaches, Second Life is entering an exciting and pivotal moment in its development and evolution. The past year has seen the release of several new features and breakthroughs ...

Of the "new features and breakthroughs," they first mentioned their mobile viewer, which a few days ago an alpha version was available to Premium Plus residents. They also talked about PBR (Physically Based Rendering) Materials which offer the promise of working mirrors, and other reflective surfaces, in Second Life. They also mentioned the new Ranch and upcoming Mediterranean Linden Homes for Premium Plus residents, and the new Senra starter avatars, replacing the previous ones with better-made mesh. There was the new WelcomeHub area and Motown.

There were also smaller things such as improvements to chat history and Marketplace search. They also mentioned "a certain Linden executive cameo during a pivotal scene that prominently featured Second Life in the season finale ... of the popular Apple+ program 'The Morning Show'."

Finally there was also the 20th anniversary celebration, along with some media outlets using the milestone to write about the virtual world for the first time in years.  

For 2024, the Lab promises more developments with it's mobile viewer. It also says they plan "something spicy" with some "new adult-friendly initiatives." They plan on improving the new user experience. And they plan to make use of AI technology.

In the coming year, we plan to carefully explore some cutting-edge use of AI in Second Life including experimental use of smart AI-driven chatbots to help greet, educate, and mentor newcomers. We know that there are additional opportunities to integrate AI across all aspects of Second Life, but we also know that AI can be a polarizing topic and there are many sensitivities on how (and if) we should explore AI integration at all. We've already established internal policies governing the selection and use of AI tools with user privacy as the foremost consideration. Our goal is to find the right balance to bring some AI advancements and innovations into the virtual world – but only in a way that respects the rights of content creators, while also advancing the overall Second Life creator ecosystem and quality of the overall community experience.

 

 At the end, they wished the residents Happy Holidays

On behalf of the entire Second Life team, we would like to wish you and your loved ones a happy new year! We are thankful to be part of your virtual family and send you blessings from both the virtual (and physical) worlds!

But not everything newsworthy would make the Lab's official word. The Newser will make it's own year in review later. 

 

 Source: Linden blog

Bixyl Shuftan

2022 Year in Review

 

 2022 saw it's share of triumphs and tragedies, breakthroughs and pitfalls, and other things that stood out. Before closing the door, it's time for a look back at what happened.

In real-life, Europe would see it's bloodiest conflict since the Second World War with the invasion of the Ukraine by Russian dictator Putin's forces. People would protest across the world, and many in Second Life would show their support with demonstrations, fundraisers, flying Ukrainian flags, and the wearing of it's colors. Although there were less flags and people wearing blue and gold over time, moths later some places and people still were. When Britain's Queen Elizabeth passed, a memorial was set up in London City. Dana Vanmoer, the editor of the closed SL Newspaper, would make real-life news when her mailbox "toppers" were mentioned in the Daily Mail website.

Twenty years ago, Second Life was in beta. And this year, the oldest objects on the grid would start to turn twenty. On January 25, the first prim to be created (and remain) turned twenty. On February 11 came the oldest textured object's 20th anniversary. In July was the 20th anniversary of Second Life's oldest existing structure, "The Man."

 

Linden Lab and Second Life would see some developments. There would be two new levels of accounts in addition to Basic and Premium. There was Premium Plus which offered perks such as fewer fees and higher weekly Linden dollar allowances. Later in the year, Premium Plus residents could get a low-capacity homestead sim without getting a full one first. The Lab also stated there would eventually be Linden Home lots in a new 2048 square-meter size just for Premium Plus residents, though they hadn't arrived by year's end. There was also a Plus account option, which basically allowed people to get land for cheaper outside the Linden Home area. 

 

The price of Mainland was lowered. Europeans no longer had to pay VAT tax. Name change fees were changed so one no longer had to get a Premium account to do so. High Capacity sims announced in April, offered to residents in May, the initial high price of $999 and $899 a month after lowered the following month to $499. Linden Lab announced Puppetry feature was being worked on for avatars. It was also announced new starter avatars, NUX avatars, were in development, but six months after the SLB have yet to be released. In January, the 360 snapshot feature available already in the Linden viewer was accessible to more when it became part of the Firestorm Viewer. Not all changes were for the better. Sim rollbacks would no longer be free, but cost $25, each. 

The Grid has always seen glitches. But in late January there were so many that on January 31 the Lab felt compelled to issue a statement apologizing for them. Linden Lab would get it's founder Philip Rosedale/Philip Linden back in January as an advisor, and would add a Chief Marketing Officer and Information Security Officer in May. In September, Linden Lab would acquire Caspertech, an inworld company best known for it's rental-fee vendors. In October, a deal was worked out with the makers of the Speedlight text viewer, making it free for those with Premium Plus. 

 

Also in October, a deal was worked out between Tilia and JP Morgan bank, in which it would get a cash investment in exchange for a share of the profits. Tilia had been created by Linden Lab a few years ago, but was now separate though still controlled by it's owners the Waterfield Network.

The Bellisseria continent would continue to grow. In May, a new type of Linden Home, the Asian-themed Sakura, would be released in a new area with a tall, snow-capped mountain in the middle. In April, around the time of it's third anniversary, there would be more of the Newbrooke (suburban style) homes made available. Expansions in August made it possible to not just sail from Bellisseria to the older mainland, but continue traveling up the shore.

A couple feature-length movies made in Second Life would get attention. Draxtor's "Virtual Cultures in Pandemic Times" depicted people going to SL and Animal Crossing as ways to socialize while it was unsafe to do so in real life. In December came "Waarheid," a science-fiction cyberpunk film made entirely in Second Life. Both were featured at the Film Threat theater. 

Second Life would see many events over the course of the year. The Lab would host some, including "Hug or Dunk a Linden," two Linden snowball fights, The Music Fest, and of course the Second Life Birthday - the SL19B. The theme for the anniversary event was Steampunk. Bay City would hold some, such as Mole Day, the Bay City Parade, the Bay City Christmas party, and the Prim Drop. There was also the One Billion Rising, the Bellisserian Valentine's Day boat cruise, the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference, Naturecon, New Babbage's Burning Barrel Race, and more. The Relay for Life would host many events, such as the Home and Garden Expo, the Sci-Fi Expo and Con, the Fantasy Faire, the Christmas Expo, the Renniasance Festival, and of course the Relay Weekend, in which over a thousand avatars braved the lag on an "H" shaped track that when through over a few dozen sims. Patch Linden would host a barbecue on the Relay track in the "Days of Relay" a few days before that. 

 

One notable location in Second Life, Tempura Island, closed down after 14 years. But a tribute place quickly emerged, and the Lab would bring the place back under it's preservation program. But other places would not be as fortunate. "The Dirty Grind," a music venue that featured numerous live musicians would close after over a decade. The East River Community sims in Sansara shunk in number after a major landowner left. A few were saved, but some were not. The Mieville Steampunk community faced a crisis when it's founder Perryn Peterson was declared missing and presumed dead. As there was no plan to preserve the sims after his death, the long-term fate of the estates and community remains uncertain.

Sadly, some people would leave Second Life. Live musician Bat Masters would hang up his microphone after many years of singing due to declining health. Siddean Munro, the maker of Slink avatars, would close down and leave the grid on December 31 after content creating for about 15 years. Many would also pass away in real life, Curei of Whole Brain Health, Jimmy Branagh of New Babbage, artist Indea Vaher,  DJ Fritter AKA Hakura the Pup who was an SL and radio DJ, JasElm Merte of the Safe Waters Foundation and Insilico & Jinx, Teal Freenote of Raglan Shire, Breezy Carver of New Babbage. musician Paul Nowles, Ktahdn Vesuvino of Mieville, Minirainbow of Raglan, Waya Snowpaw a DJ and veteran who distinguished himself at HFOT benefits, Jenn Chant of the Sunweavers, and others.

Virtual Worlds would get attention in real-life news with Facebook/Meta's "Horizons." While Mark Zuckerburg tried to depicted his virtual world as new and nothing else like it, anyone even remotely familiar with Second Life knew this wasn't true, and he was demanding a far bigger cut from what content creators made, and of course the lack of legs which were lampooned on both late-night TV and Linden Lab's own "April Fool" gag. Horizons would turn out to be a disappointment for Zuckerburg, bringing in few people and little cash, which added to Facebook/Meta's problems as it's net worth went downhill. Social Media would also make the news as billionaire Elon Musk best known for his Telsa electric car bought Twitter. Some conservatives and populists saw this as good news, feeling the platform's censors had been biased against them. But Musk's moves such as demanding that employees work "extremely hardcore" did not go well and was seen as unfair to single mothers. Many advertisers would leave, and Musk would end up losing millions on both Twitter and Telsa. 

Outside Second Life, VRChat in July had a security update that disabled mods, much to the anger of many users who over time came to rely on them, and bringing an end to an unspoken agreement between the platform's owners and what came to be an underground mod community. Microsoft would announce it's plans to buy Activision/Blizzard, hoping to complete the deal by the middle of 2023, but it would have to be approved by the US Government's FTC. In the meantime, Blizzard would launch the latest World of Warcraft expansion: Dragonflight, with a new placer race, the Dracthyr.

 

For the Newser's neighbors, the Sunweaver/Angels community, it was an eventful year. The estates would see new features such as new train stops, the new Club Squeaks, and the Christmas theme park. The Relay season would be an active one, hitting Platinum at the start. Cynthia Farshore would be behind or have a hand in many of it's events such as the weekly Moon Dances, the Renfaire, and the Sunbeamer & Roos Air Show. The Sunbeamers would raise over a million Linden Dollars, making Emerald-Level fundraising and come out number thirteen of 138 Relay teams. For her efforts, Cynthia would be honored with a community trophy. ShinyWhiteDragon, a longtime regular at Club Cutlass, and LilyBethPatterson would be married in July. December had a crisis when Perri Prinz and RECoyote Mindes faced a real-life eviction. But in what was called a Christmas miracle, their friends quickly organized a fundraiser that got them the rent money they needed. There was also some fun and games to be had by the community outside Second Life, notably in the Angels server in Rust with the players seeing what they could build and having a couple races and a base defense competition. 

As for the Newser team itself, it was a challenging time with the editor/head writer having to deal with personal tragedy. But the publication continued, and was gifted with a new office by Ranchan Wiedman. As Second Life approaches it's 20th anniversary, we will continue to report the news, large and small, of the people, places, and events across the Grid. Special thanks to our sponsors at Lorena Chung Estates, the Deathlands, and Montecito Bay, our supporters at Farshore Radio and the Sunweaver/Angels community, and of course you the readers. 

 

*Addition* I forgot to include the split in the Burn2 community, with some artists forming their own Burner group, Burn ONe, which would hold a "Renegade Burn" in October and a few other events that year.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor/Head Reporter

Second Life Newser

Linden Lab Posts Year in Review For 2022, Some Objectives For 2023

 

On Thursday December 22, Linden Lab posted it's "2022 - Second Life Year in Review" article on the official Second Life blog. "As 2022 comes to a close, it is time for our annual look back at some of the year’s most notable developments and accomplishments in Second Life."

Besides posting what happened, the Lab would also write about what they're planning, including:

• Avatar customization improvements to simplify creating your virtual identity, including inventory thumbnails to give a preview of what’s sitting in those boxes
• New user experience upgrades to better fuel retention, engagement, and growth across key parts of the new user journey
• New centralized "hubs" to better connect residents to the communities that match their passions and interests
• First peek at a world and avatar centered mobile-first Second Life experience
• New LSL functions that improve the quality of life for scripters
• Even more performance improvements to increase the quality and visual fidelity of the Second Life experience 

 The Newser will have it's own Year in Review in a few days.

 

EOTB: "Second Life Year In Review," From Linden Lab's Perspective

 *

On the official Second Life blog a few days ago, Linden Lab had their "Year in Review" for Second Life. It described 2021 as a "Year of transition."  They talked about:

The passing of CEO Ebbe Altberg and other changes at Linden Lab, such as the retirement of Oz Linden. 

The completion of their move to The Cloud, and other performance improvements that the Lab claims resulted in overall less stress for avatars, such as 35 percent fewer crashes on average.

New features such as 360 degree panoramic view pictures and new last names. 

Improving the new user experience with a new Welcome Island, improvements to Marketplace, and new Linden Homes.

"Marketing the Metaverse," with Facebook's move into virtual worlds resulting in new attention on Second Life, and a new Second Life commercial. 

Various partnerships, such as with the NFL, Titmouse, and Zenescope. 

For the complete year in review, from Linden Lab's point of view without any mention of controversies, Click Here.
 

2020: Year in Review

2020 was a challenging year in real life, with much drama and overwheling tragedy. Second Life would see it reflected here in some ways, as well as it's own special set of challenges. But there were some happier milestones as well.

In real life the big news was the Coronavirus Pandemic. Worldwide over eighty million caught the virus and close to two million perished, probably more as some countries can't or won't report all their cases. Both all of Europe and the United States each suffered twenty million getting sick, and in the US over a third of a million would die, with over half a million perishing in Europe. Most whom were infected recovered, some not getting sick, but some people were left with lasting symptoms from being short on breath after even light exercise to memory trouble and difficulty concentrating. In Second Life, there were numerous reminders of COVID-19. There were displays in health areas and discussions in numerous places. There were also memorials to those whom passed away. People also reacted to the toilet paper shortages with humor, virtual TP showing up a lot, and one avatar maker would take his talents to real life by making a tabletop game poking fun at the absurdity of it all. The biggest reaction was of people either spending more time in Second Life, coming back after an abscence, or showing up for the first time. While the Pandemic might have been good for the virtual world's numbers, it wasn't always good for the residents. While some merchants made more money with more people buying things, some landowners having lost their real-life sources of income would have trouble coming up with the money to pay for their sims.

2020 was also the year Linden Lab would find itself acquired by a group of investors.  In mid-July, it was announced by Linden Lab they were now under the ownership of an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Bradford Oberwager. Waterfield was the chairman of an investment group.. Oberwager had founded and/or run five technology companies. Linden Lab's founder Philip Rosedale stated he new Oberwager and had high hopes for this development. Bret Linden stated the two had a good deal of knowledge of what Second Life was and wasn't, and that the deal allowed Linden Lab to continue to run independently and run Second Life. The reaction from the residents was that while some were optimistic things would continue to run well, some expressed worry that the new owners would either run Second Life badly or dismantle it. As to what attracted the investors, some wondered if they were confident the Pandemic ensured Second Life would be profitable for a few more years. Others looked at Tilia, the online payment service the Lab had come up with. But after a few weeks, the chatter went down.

In April, Linden Lab finally made good on something many residents have wished for a decade, the return of last names for accounts. But, there was a catch. A more accurate description would be last names as an option for new accounts as newcomers will still continue to get "Resident" for a surname. And the option is only available for Premium accounts, whom also have to pay a fee. Someone with a basic account would have to pay $52 for a change. A number felt Linden Lab was being greedy at a time some residents had lost their real-life jobs. Others felt with as many as there were asking for the return of last names, the Lab might have been worried about being swamped with requests. A smaller complaint was that the options for last names were lousy ones. But with Linden Lab committed to sticking with it's system of not offering a surname again after it's been discontinued, it's options were limited.

One thing on the minds of residents this year was the move to The Cloud. Work by Linden Lab on moving Second Life's data from it's old servers to Amazon Cloud servers had begun earlier. It continued throughout 2020, with the Lab announcing in November that half the sim data had been moved. And in December, it was announced at all sim data had been moved over, "We are now in The Cloud." But throughout this time, many residents complained about the number of glitches, saying they were getting worse and thought the move to The Cloud was to blame. Linden Lab finally had to admit that there were some complications, and asked the residents for patience. While some are optimistic that eventually the results will be lower fees and tiers, others feel the move was a mistake that will mean a buggier Second Life.

With the Pandemic, there were more people buying sims. And Second Life had it's biggest growth in years going from 24,740 to 25,555, with close to a thousand more private sims. But with Linden Lab moving the Grid's data to Amazon Cloud servers, it found that there was only so much growth that could be handled. So they announced there was a "limited availability" of new land, and not everyone whom asked would get the chance to buy a new sim.

In 2019, one of the big stories was the new continent of Bellisseria. In 2020, the Moles continued to work on it, expanding it to the east and doubling it in size. The area wasn't just homes and roads, but also wilderness areas and railroads. Late in the year, there were sims full of beach areas appearing to eastern Bellisseria's northeast, and when opened were full of the stilt houses that were announced by Linden Lab six months earlier at the SL17B. Linden Lab had just earlier announced a second new design of Linden home for 2020, the Chalets. Most likely, they will be available sometime in the spring or summer of 2021.

Despite all the resources going to the Cloud move and Linden Homes, there was one major technical development. In April, Linden Lab announced the Environmental Enhancement Project, or EEP. Under development since 2017, this was a successor to Windlight and offered more options in allowing landowners to change the sky of their lands to make day and night cycles longer or shorter, or make them like something out of a fantasy or science fiction tale. But at first only a minority of residents could see the results. For a time, those using the more popular Firestorm viewer could only see oddly-colored skies in sims making use of EEP. Finally in December, the latest Firestorm viewer was EEP compatible. But as a few residents using it felt their viewers were going slower, not everyone would make the change right away.

In May, Linden Lab announced it was slightly changing the official logo of Second Life. The change was minor, making the hand and eye symbol from bluish-green to blue and slightly changing the lettering of the words "Second Life" and making them black. But it was the first change in the logo since the virtual world first came on in 2003.

In 2019, the Linden Endowment of the Arts shut down after eight years of operation following a vote by it's committee, a blow to Second Life's artist community. About a year later in September, Linden Lab announced it's upcoming "spiritual successor," the Second Life Endowment of the Arts. The SLEA was scheduled to open it's first sims of exhibits sometime in January 2021.

Also in September, Linden Lab launched an online store to sell Second Life-themed merchandise. There were T-shirts and coffee cups with the Second Life logo. Curiously, although there were Linden bear pins, there were no plush Linden bears. Even more curious, Linden Lab didn't do the website on it's own but through the Redbubble online store service which was made for independent artists and not multi-million dollar corporations.

When 2020 started, the "next-generation virtual world" of Sansar was in trouble. After two and a half years, it had failed to gain much of a following, the high hopes Linden Lab had for it unrealized, and it had recently gone through layoffs in Novemeber 2019. Three months later in February, there was an even greater number of layoffs, with a few people and resources moved back to developing Second Life. In February, CEO Ebbe Altberg let on that the Lab was looking to either partner with someone to run Sansar or sell it. Then in March, Linden Lab announced Sansar had been sold to Wookey. While some were sad to see the former Torley Linden, whom stuck with Sansar, no longer part of the Lab, the more vocal residents viewed the news of the sale along the lines of "it's about time," glad Linden Lab was no longer spending money on it. Despite no longer being part of Linden Lab, Sansar seems to be holding it's own under Wookey. But the place looks less like it's on it's way to being an open-ended virtual world and more of a "virtual venue platform" in which most of the people, and money, come from the events held there. 

One feature of the Mainland, the pod car tours, had a scare when in August their owner announced she was closing them down following a 24 hour account suspension and lack of communication from Linden Lab. But once word got around, she and the Lab would talk, and the tours went on as before.

As every year, there would be many events held in Second Life. This year though, with the Coronovirus Pandemic making large events in real life. Burning Man, known for it's fans holding a spinoff event in the fall, would move it's festival online to a number of virtual worlds, including Second Life. Gen-Con, "the largest tabletop game convention in North America" would also hold it's events online, Second Life being a key part of it. 2020 being an election year, there were some political exhibits inworld. But the increasing bitter tone of politcal rhetoric resulted in fewer residents showing interest compared to twelve years ago, or even four years ago. With the "Black Lives Matter" protests in the United States in real life, they would have an impact inworld with two places inworld about the movement as well as at least one discussion. This year's Second Life Birthday, the SL17B, had "Vacations and Road Trips" as a theme. It would be distinguished by the exhibitors having greater freedom on what to build, in addition to the first time many would see the Environmental Enhancement Project feature in use for the skies of sims. But there would be no great revelations from Linden Lab as to what was in the future, aside from the next Linden Homes. This year's Relay for Life season, "Game On Cancer!" was a success, with over 200 teams raising over $300,000 USD worth of Lindens. On the Relay Weekend, over 1400 avatars walked the 49 sim track, the biggest in years. It's spinoff events, the Fantasy Faire, the Christmas Expo, and Making Strides also got attention. Other notable events included the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference, which at least one discussion talked about how the Coronovirus crisis might lead to lasting changes in teaching, and Burn2, which did well despite being overshadowed by Burning Man moving to online.

Other changes that went on worthy of attention included the Confederation of Democratic Simulators having two elections free of drama, and Motecito Bay redesigning it's sim.

Sadly, Second Life would say goodbye to some of it's residents. The Coronovirus that had claimed so many in real-life claimed Ucello Poultry, a noted resident and former blogger of Bay City. Cerdwin Flanagan noted for her work in the Fantasy Faire, had also passed. So did Autopilotpatty Poppy of Caledon, Ertina Loopen of the Relay Rockers, and Zed Ravenhurst of the Relay's Team ACTS. William Beauclerc, noted for his work at the Builders Brewery, had died. For the Newser's home community the Sunweavers, it was discovered Tigerclaw Apps had passed away the previous year. Comcat Fenstalker, a member of the Relay's Maniacs whom occasionally went to Sunweaver clubs, also died. One passing outside Second Life caught the Newser's attention, Ferne Le'roy in the Final Fantasy MMO had passed from Corona and friends held an online funeral in the game.

Second Life would say goodbye to some places. Once the scene of yearly art competitions that awarded huge prizes, the last of the University of Western Australia sims was shut down this year. One community that almost closed down was Second Norway in the Blake Sea, the owner taking a financial hit due to the Cronovirus Crisis. But thanks to a deal with Linden Lab, most of it's sims were saved. The Yavascript travel pod tours were almost taken offline following a misunderstanding due to a 24 hour ban on the builder. But it was cleared up and the pod tours continued.

For the neighbors of the Newser, the Sunweaver community, the year brought some sadness with the passing of two friends. But there was also activity with a Relay season that brought an air show and a bumper car event. The Arcadia Asylum would hold an amusement park and a haunted house. A new club opened, the Bouncing Bunny Beach Club, and a 12 hour marathon event, a club crawl involving six clubs on New Years Eve brought in 2021 to the locals.

For the Newser, it was our tenth year of covering the news of the people, places, and events across Second Life. It's been a pleasure covering the news this past decade. And we look forward to continuing to cover it for years to come.

Bixyl Shuftan
SL Newser

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - "CRISPR 2020: Year in Review"

 

"CRISPR 2020: Year in Review"

Saturday, January 2,

10 AM to 11 AM SL time

Figure NobelPrize.org. Using the genetic scissors, researchers can edit the genome of practically all living things.

 

Every year there are new advances in genome engineering. In this talk, the most important and interesting news in CRISPR-based gene editing from 2020 will be presented. Come learn about Technology Advances, New Tools, Intellectual Property, and Target Genes and Modified Organisms from a former published practitioner in the field. Of special note this year is the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier for their work in CRISPR. Thus, the talk will start with a little deeper history of its discovery and invention. This year CRISPR was used for more than just gene editing, so those will be of particular interest and discussed as well. 

Non-members can register for the free events through SC members.

Presentation by Dr. Stephen Gasior (Xootfly)

For more information, Click Here. 

 https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/114/206/30

 

2019: Year in Review

2020 means the arrival of a new year and a new decade. But before we say goodbye to 2019, we look back at it's triumphs, tragedies, pitfalls, and other interesting moments that stood out.

Perhaps the biggest news of the year was the one in terms of sim size: the new continent of Bellisseria. Having it's beginnings in 2018 as the SPP continent, it became operational in April. As the location of the new Linden Homes, it was quickly populated, especially on the coasts and islands where the highly popular houseboats were. Work on it's expansion continued throughout the year, and the people there formed their own community, with events at their fairgrounds and other places. By year's end, the continent was just about finished. But it promises to be an active area in the virtual world for much time to come. For building the continent, the Moles would be the Newser's People of the Year.

Related to the new continent as that's where they were placed, the new Linden homes proved highly popular. The demand for the houseboats was demonstrated when in May, 709 opened up were all snapped up in only 27 minutes. The Lab would announce that the number of residents with Premium accounts had increased that year. It's almost certain the growth was due to the new homes.

One of the largest annual events in Second Life, the Second Life Birthday, would see a major change. After several years of slowly getting more involved in anniversary events, this year Linden Lab would take full charge of the Second Life Birthday. This would be the end of the volunteer team making the decisions. Gone would be things that had started to become traditions such as the Cake Stage and Stage Left. Still, most residents were happy, or at least didn't have a problem with, to see the Lab back in charge. And the "Sweet Sixteen" SLB was a success.

The Relay for Life's 15th fundraising season in Second Life began and ended earlier than before in 2019, from February to July with the Weekend in early June. While these changes took many by surprise, the season continued to do well. There was one additional mini-event, the "Five Days of Relay" in which various motorcycle clubs raised some money. The Fantasy Faire continued to be very popular, with it's well-decorated sims. The Relay Weekend went around a track that somewhat resembled the number "15." The Lindens themselves would take part, some at a Jail and Bail at the Fantasy Faire, and the Bid the Lindens Bald at Relaystock. The team of the Newser's neighbors, Team Sunbeamers, would make Jade level fundraising for the second time.

There would be numerous other events that year, such as Burn2 and it's spinoff events, the Bay City Mole Day and Bay City Anniversary, Caledon's numerous events such as it's Mardi Gras Parade and it's anniversary ball, Montecito Bay's alien mystery and it's NuYu Gacha shopping event, Luskwood's dysutopian look under it's "council," which had people wondering what was in the water, as well as the ice cream, the Sunweaver/Angels renovating it's beach club and the club's Halloween build, the SL fraternity Mu Sigma Nu fundraisers for kidney disease and a Mens' Health Expo, The Bellisseria Fairegrounds Fourth of July, Halloween, and Christmas events, Creations for Parkinsons' Halloween event, the Dickens Project, Paris 1900's tenth anniversary, the Confederation of Democratic Simulators two elections and it's fifteen anniversary, and many many more. One, Raglan Shire's Talent Show, drew in an audience of over 80 avatars, showing even with today's complex avatars, high capacity events can still be done.

Linden Lab would run some events as well, such as the Creepy Crawl at Halloween, the Hug-A-Linden/Dunk-A-Linden at Valentines Day, various shopping and gift hunt "Swaginator" events, and others.

Second Life wasn't without it's problems. Early on, there was a "hover bug" that caused smaller avatars to be a few feet off the ground. When Linden Lab was taking it's time in finding a solution, the result was a "Tinies Protest" at Governor Linden's mansion, "What do we want?" "To get back on the ground!" The whimsical event got the Lab's attention, and the glitch was soon fixed. But other glitches weren't as funny. In the spring, many residents were having to deal with "teleport disconnects" as moving from sim to sim sometimes meant the viewer logging off. Linden Lab finally arranged for scheduled maintenance one night in May that offlined the Grid to the residents for hours. Many would also have trouble getting online one afternoon in October, The grid would still see occasional glitches at times in the rest of the year.

But Linden Lab was still busy with improvements. They would announce that they were working on a mobile app that would allow for limited access to Second Life on smartphones. New starter avatars were made available in February. The latest development to mesh, Bakes on Mesh, was enabled, promising less complex avatars and therefore less lag. And Linden Lab would work more on making last names an option for people that came on since late 2010. In November, they announced the option would arrive at the end of January 2020.

Linden Lab would put the spotlight on some of the happier things inworld, such as the stories about couples who met inworld and took their relationship to real life, "Love Made In Second Life." There was also the "Lab Gab" live show, co-hosted by two popular Lindens, Xiola and Strawberry. Strawberry Linden had been the popular fashion blogger Strawberry Singh, and was hired in the spring. But in December, Xiola would announce her departure.

Not everything Linden Lab did was popular. In May, Linden Lab announced they would be increasing the price of Premium accounts for the first time in over a decade. Later that year, they would double Marketplace commissions. Also in May, they announced they were cutting the number of groups basic accounts could be in, but later reversed that decision due to protests. In the middle of the year, they announced the Tilia security service for those cashing in Lindens for real-world currencies, which caused some confusion. Linden Lab would also find itself the target of a lawsuit in July by a former cybersecurity worker, claiming the Lab had refused to listen to her concerns about weak security, and fired her when she persisted, also claiming prejudice against women and minorities despite Linden Lab touting it's support for diversity. The Lab would also find itself the target of another lawsuit in September, this time by a patent troll.

Some places would be threatened with going away, but were rescued. In May, it was announced the Chouchou sims would be shut down. Thanks to fans asking that they be saved, the Lab stepped in and agreed to preserve them. In July, the owner of the Hangars Liquides sci-fi sims announced the sims were in danger of closing. They would be saved due to a crowdfuner campaign. The Garden of Absentia memorial pond, which closed in July 2018, was reopened in June in a different location. But one important group was shut down. Linden Endownment of the Arts shut down at the end of August. Although some were quick to blame Linden Lab, those better in the know put the blame on burnout on those on it's committee and few willing to take their place. Although no one organization was able to fill it's shoes, individual people and groups stepped forward to try and partially fill the gap.

Sadly, Second Life would say goodbye to some of it's residents who passed away in real life. Fran Serenade, whom inspired people in and out of the virtual world for her dealing with Parkinsons Disease, passed away in March shortly after her 92nd birthday. In May, a memorial event was held in her honor that raised over a third of a million Lindens for Parkinsons research and treatment. Lacy Musketeer, the owner of Nisa/Dreaming Twilight died in July, leaving behind a son and husband, and her virtual family. Many dozens would appear at a memorial service a few days later. Chip Takes, a live musician, died of a heart attack minutes before a performance inworld in February. Tai'lahr Winnikow, a quiet woman whom while very talented shunned publicity and worked quietly behind the scenes at events such as the Fantasy Faire, passed away in October.

Some real life events would be reflected in Second Life. At the burning of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris in April, people gathered at it's inworld counterpart in Paris 1900. The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo moon landing was celebrated by both Second Life's National Space Society, the Second Life Birthday, as well as a call by Linden Lab for space-themed screenshots. "Hello Kitty" would celebrate it's 45th anniversary in part with a sim and event in Second Life.

Outside Second Life, there was some activity in Opensim. Islandz, the successor world to InWorldz which closed in 2018, was shut down in January, the owner citing real life financial hardship. YadNi Monde announced in March he was rebuilding his noted old build "YadNi's Junkyard" in the TAG grid. In December, the Great Canadian Grid would go offline due to a dispute between it's owner and someone providing services keeping up the grid. High Fidelity, the grid of Second Life creator Philp Rosedale, would go in decline in 2019, and by December was all but on it's way to being all but shut down in January.

Facebook continued to be the source of suspicion due to stories about privacy concerns, and it was hit with a 14 hour outage on March, it's longest in years. In September, the huge social network announced it was planning a new virtual world to launch it's own virtual world, Horizons, in 2020. Although there were some questions about their ability to run a virtual world, Facebook's huge presence on the Internet would ensure they'd get much attention and likely drown out the ability of other virtual worlds to be noticed by the tech media. Among them, Linden Lab's other virtual world, Sansar, continued to fall below the company's expectations as only a few people came in, and mainly for live events. The Lab would lay off twenty of it's staff in the fall, suggesting even they were resigned to their once vaulted "next generation virtual world" having a mediocre future.

In October, the popular Fornite ended it's season with everything sucked into a "black hole," leaving the game unplayable for a few days. Despite the publicity around the event, Fortnite continued to decline in overall popularity and Minecraft regained the title of most popular game. Blizzard's announcement of it's upcoming "Shadowlands" expansion for World of Warcraft, and the attition of a foxlike allied race for the Horde, was overshadowed by controversy when it banned a gamer from Hong Kong from participating in more tournaments for speaking out for freedom for his city. A number of gamers quit or were talking about quitting, and Blizzard's President issued an apology at the Blizzcon gaming convention, the issue becoming part of a greater debate about America's "China problem."

The European Union in March passed a vague copyright bill that was called "A Dark Day for Internet Freedom." Later in the year, America's FTC fined Youtube over violations of the Child Online Privacy and Protection act. Youtube's response was to impose vague rules on posters of videos that had the potential of fining them $43,000 USD if they were seen as directed to children but not child safe. In February, a man plead guilty to Federal charges related to the death of another man due to swatting and received 20 years in prison.

For the Newser, it's been quite a year covering events here in Second Life, as well as outside it. And we'll be continuing to cover it for 2020, our tenth year. Special thanks to our sponsors at Montecito Bay, Lorena Chung Estates, and Farshore Radio.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor, SL newser

2018: Year in Review

2018 is gone. And as we head on to a new year, it's time to look back at the old one, which had it's share of triumphs, tragedies, and tripfalls.

Probably the most notable event this year was the fifteenth anniversary Second Life was officially declared open and operational. Despite all the things that had gone wrong from glitches, bugs, griefers, Linden Lab's occasional heavy handedness, and more, the virtual world defied predictions from naysayers that it was a fad that was destined to be shut down. While the Lindens have been increasingly involved in the anniversary celebrations, such as the Musicfest and the "Meet the Lindens" events, as in the past several years it was handled by a group of volunteers. There were exhibits by dozens of communities, businesses, and groups from around the grid in the 24 sims, as well as many musicians and other performers.

Linden Lab would also make some changes to the grid this year. Late in the year came the Animesh update. This new ability has the potential to allow for better and less resource-heavy animated objects, including something like the NPCs in games. Linden Lab would also update the Linden Realms game with "The Wrath of Ruth" and "The Search for Magellan." In August, a new land mass appeared on the map. Labeled the SSP continent due to the names of the sims. While it's suspected the land will be for new premium account homes, it has not yet been officially revealed what purpose the sims will have. The Lab also started testing themed Learning Islands entry areas for new residents. Linden Lab also announced this year that they planned to "bring back last names" for newer accounts and allow established residents to change theirs for a fee. Originally planned for late 2018, it has been pushed back to at least spring 2019.

There were also some changes in how much Linden Lab would charge it's residents. In March, the Lab cut the tier of Mainland sims by ten percent and doubled the amount of free land for Premium accounts to 1024 square meters. In June, the tier for many private sims would also be cut fifteen percent and the setup fees for a sim also were cut. But not all sims could be counted for the tier cuts, notably those which had theirs reduced to "grandfathered rates" two years earlier. And to make up for the lost revenue, the fee to buy Linden dollars went up by fifty percent to $1.49. The tier reductions seemed to have a somewhat positive effect as the overall drop in private sim numbers seemed to stop, but how this affects land ownership in the long term remains to be seen.

Linden Lab would try to keep in touch with the residents though Town Hall meetings, as well as the "Meet the Lindens" event at the Second Life Birthday and CEO Ebbe Linden speaking at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education event. At the Relay for Life, a number of Lindens took part in a "Bid the Lindens Bald" fundraiser. Besides those, residents got to interact with the Lindens at the "Hug a Linden/Dunk a Linden" Valentines Day event, two Lindens vs Residents snowball fights, and the "Creepy Crawl" venue crawl on Halloween. The Lindens would also have two "gift grab" events for the residents in the Summer and Christmas season, posting a clue on their blog where the gift of the week was and residents could figure it out and get it.

There were no shortage of events this year inworld. Besides the Second Life Birthday, there were the events held by the Relay for Life, notably the Relay Weekend and the Fantasy Faire. Second Life's largest art and music festival Burn2 and it's spinnoff events took place in spite of the founder of Burning Man, of which the inworld event is the virtual counterpart of, passing away. Communities such as Bay City, the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, and Caledon would hold a number of events. This included two elections by the CDS as they chose their new leader for the year. Luskwood, the oldest active community, turned fifteen. There would also be fundraiser events by Creations for Parkinson's, Team Diabetes, Homes For Our Troops, and other charities. One fundraiser however was marked by trouble, an event had someone tricking supporters into giving money to them instead of the charity. This would be the Newser's most controversial series of articles this year as some parties involved responded in denials or anger. The charity however expressed it's thanks.

The neighbors of the Newser's office, the Sunweaver community, would distinguish itself at the Relay for Life with it's Sunbeamer team's fundraising events such as "Bid Me Pantsless" and "Bid Me Goat" and reach the Jade, Sapphire, and Emerald fundraising ranks for the first time ever. There would also be the opening of a railroad through the community estates. Cynthia Farshore would move the Goblin Cave to Caledon, where it would find new life as the location of special events and have a Christmas train ride for the community.

Second Life would also say goodbye to some places. The Yosemite sim and park made by Jadyn Firehawk shut down this year. Gallery Graine would close down, as did the campground sim Copacabana. In Caledon, the Middlesea sim vanished and took the noted Iron Cloud airbase with it. Caledon Llyr also closed, though the land in the noted steampunk community remained to be redeveloped. Some closed places would find new life in other grids. The Luxembourg historic area would close down, the owner opening a similar place in Sansar. Aero Pines would also close down, it's creator earlier having made a place based on it in Sinespace. The closing down of one automaker, Axtel Motors, temporarily resulted in the vehicles available for free for anyone who wanted them. Second Life would also say goodbye to some residents who passed away. Among them were Phoenix Psaltery, the founder of the inworld newsletter the Metaverse Messenger which shut down several years ago, Nemoen Magne, the owner of Club Furnication which closed shortly before his death, and Akea Grommet, one of the neighbors of the SL Newser office.

Outside Second Life was some news that caught the attention of residents. InWorldz, the virtual world that was second only to Second Life in the number of users, shut down in July. The reasons why are less than clear, though apparently involve a company the owner borrowed money from taking out a lien on her. The Gofundme started by the owner added to the confusion, her saying at first they were to save the grid, then she started saying it was to help form a new grid. The virtual world shut down after only a week of warning, leaving hundreds, maybe thousands without a virtual home. Later in the year, the former owner came out with a new virtual world, Islandz. But by then most of the former residents of InWorldz had found places in other virtual worlds, or had given them up altogether. Also in news outside Second Life, the best known online newsletter devoted to Opensim coverage announced it was "winding down" after several years of operation, though not yet truly closing.

Linden Lab would also continue to promote and update it's next-generation virtual world Sansar. There was talk about a "cultural shift" in Linden Lab to Sansar and away from Second Life. Two users would also develop a couple game areas, but by year's end they would be gone. One historical area in Second Life, 19th Century Luxembourg, would close down and reopen in Sansar. But so far, very few are using the next-generation virtual world compared to Second Life. An study in April showed only fifty to ten people were using it each day on average. In contrast, VR Chat, another next-generation virtual world, was getting several thousand users a day, and Second Life getting about fifty thousand a day. Later in the year, Linden Lab announced it would be making Sansar accessible through Steam. When it was finally launched on the gaming service, at first reviews were mostly positive, and usership went up some. But a month later, the reviews are mixed and the number of active users has been going back down.

In computer and Internet news, this was the year Net Neutrality officially came to an end in the United States. Some companies have reportedly been throttling customer's traffic already, the most glaring example being in August when they made it difficult for firefighters to communicate while combating a huge wildfire. In Europe, the European Union approved legislation that threatened to "break the Internet" with bills that would require websites with news content to pay a "link tax" and require websites that allowed feedback and open virtual worlds to install "upload filters." For Linden Lab, this would mean a stark choice if the legislation was ever signed into law. Microsoft's Windows 10 had some of it's early bugs ironed out, but still continued to annoy users. It would "warn" people not to use Firefox and Chrome and try to get them to use the much less popular Microsoft-owned Edge browser. One update late in the year was delayed when it was found to be deleting the files of early installers.

The movie "Ready Player One," which was about a virtual world in an imagined near-future, came out. It was hoped it would attract attention to Second Life (and Sansar by Linden Lab), but the movie wasn't a big box-office draw and the real virtual worlds didn't benefit much from it. Probably more influential was the documentary "Our Digital Selves" by Draxtor Despres, which showed the virtual world as being of great help to the disabled and not the X-rated playground big media has sometimes portrayed it in the past.

In gaming news, Fortnite was clearly the big game this year. Subnautica also attracted attention as it was a survival game that took place mostly underwater. A favorite of some Newser fans, Ark Survival Evolved would get what is believed to be it's final expansion: Extinction. But other games and some game developers weren't doing so well. The MMO Wildstar was shut down by NCSoft, the second non-medieval fantasy game to be closed by them in several years. Trion, the company behind several games, and the publisher of the MMO Archeage, was bought out by a German online game company best known for browser-based games. One game that came out late this year, Atlas, an anticipated pirate MMO developed in part by Instinct Games which helped come out with Ark Survival Evolved was largely seen as a disappointment due to repeated delays in it's release and shoddy content, some of which was obviously copied from Ark files. Fallout 76, an MMO based on the Fallout series of games, was also largely seen as a disappointment.

For the Newser, it's been a great and exciting year in Second Life and beyond. And we'll be continuing to report the news of this great virtual world for 2019. We thank our sponsors Farshore Radio, Montecito Bay, Lorena Chung Estates, and our neighbors the Sunweaver community. And of course you the readers.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor, SL Newser