Press Release: Fantasy Faire 2019: April 18-May 5

Celebrating its eleventh year, Fantasy Faire 2019 is the largest gathering of fantasy designers, enthusiasts, role-players and performers in the virtual world. From Thursday, April 18 to Sunday May 5, treat yourself to shopping, dance and theater performances, DJ parties, auctions, questing, our Literary Festival, fantasy art, events and role-playing as thousands of Second Life residents and creators bring their own visions together to support the American Cancer Society’s vision of a world without cancer.

Fantasy Faire has always officially lasted eleven days, and in recent years we’ve been fortunate to have a few extra days added. This year we’re making it official: our formal programming will still conclude with our One Team dance party marathon on Monday, April 29th, but now we invite you to join us for an additional week of shopping, questing, and exploring as the Fairelands will be open through Sunday, May 5th. That’s a total of eighteen days of the Faire – and you never know when something unexpected might happen in that final week!

As always, you’ll find fantasy avatars, clothing, furnishings, gadgets and exclusive items available from almost 200 of Second Life’s top Fantasy Creators across ten stunning regions designed by some of the visionary artists behind many of the hottest spots on the Second Life destination guide.
In addition to the ten shopping regions there will also be six Faireland realms that take us beyond commerce, from a Memorial Garden to the Fairelands Quest, the Literary Festival, Performance Stages, from Art Galleries to the Worldling Collection. These bring the Fairelands count for 2019 to sixteen regions, just waiting for you to explore them.

Fantasy Faire 2019 will be open to the public April 18 – May 5. The SLurl to the event will, as always, be found on the website on our opening day. We welcome you to come and join the story.
Fantasy Faire 2019 is made possible by the generous support of our Region and Event Sponsors, all of whom you can learn more about on the Faire’s website. For more information please contact one of the Faire coordinators:

https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/organizers/

Are you or a loved one battling cancer? Find out how many ways the American Cancer Society is there to help. Visit cancer.org or call (US) 800-ACS-2345.

Email: FantasyFaireSL@gmail.com
Website: http://fantasyfaireSL.wordpress.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/fantasyfairesl/
Plurk: http://www.plurk.com/FantasyFaireSL
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasyFaireSL
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/fantasyfairesl/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FantasyFaireSL
RFL in SL: www.relayforlife.org/secondlife

American Cancer Society SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/American%20Cancer%20Society/127/103/21

Fantasy Faire Ends

Sunday May 5 was the last day of the Fantasy Faire. The event has been going on for a little more than two weeks, though most were having such a great time they didn't want it to end. But they could make the best of things, such as one last event, the "Ravedown" which took place across multiple sims across the day.

With most of the sims due to be locked down within hours, it was the last day to take a look at the scenery. It was also the last day for people to finish the first part of the Fairelands Quest. For those who did, they have until Wednesday May 8 at Midnight to complete the second. Those who do get some prizes, and get to see what happens in the story.

But not all the news was sad. There was an announcement that the Faire had raised a total of fifteen million Linden dollars.

Because of you, Fantasy Faire 2019 and our Anonymous Friends in the Physical World are proud to announce that our current total is now….wait for it…

L$15,000,000 or $64,000 US Dollars!

Take THAT Unweaver! And hold on, Kenya! The Fairelands are on the March!

For everyone but the questers, Fantasy Faire 2019 has come to a close. For those who want to know a little more, you can read more information at their website at https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/ . You can also check out pictures at their Flickr page. But of course the Relay goes on, with the Relaystock later this month, and the Relay Weekend next month.

Bixyl Shuftan

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

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

Press Release: Largest SL Christmas Expo Ever Opens Thursday

Shopping, Entertainment, Auctions, Raffles & Linden Homes

Believe in the Magic of Christmas, the 2019 SL Christmas Expo in support of the American Cancer Society opens across 12 regions Thursday, December 5th. The 9th Annual Expo runs for 10 days and concludes with the Annual Holidays of Hope Ball, Sunday Dec 15th. The Expo is dedicated to children with cancer, and this year will be providing 100% of its fundraising to help provide Virtual Reality Headsets to children undergoing treatment for cancer.

This year Linden Lab has joined the Expo, and will be revealing the 4th edition New Linden Homes, taking part in the popular Lights of Hope house decorating competition, introducing the first ever Ebbe Linden Bear and offering an epic ONE OF A KIND LINDEN HOME AUCTION  including a 6 month Premium Membership with Exclusive Seasonal Content.

Other Highlights of the Expo include:

    More than 170 Merchants across 9 shopping regions

    Nearly 100 hours of non-stop Entertainment at the Holly Jolly Cafe

    OOAK and Breedable Auctions

    L$300,000 Shopping Spree and Gift Card Raffles

    All I Want for Christmas Kids Fashion Runway Show

    Gachas Galore

    Stocking Stuffer Hunt

    Lights of Hope House Decoration competition featuring SL’s top builders and Linden Homes

    Snowman Contest - Christmas Tree Lot - Pictures With Santa


In addition to the Linden home reveal region, the American Cancer Society will showcase its new Second Life® campus, which will be connected to the Expo.  The new, open design region was created using buildings by Colpo Wexler of Digital Cult, features a special tree donated by Mitsuko Kytoni of Hayabusa Design, and is the virtual home of the American Cancer Society. The region provides residents of Second Life® with support for survivors and caregivers, information and help with cancer and includes a direct text link to trained cancer specialists.  It will also be home to the Society’s virtual fundraising activities, Relay For Life and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer as well as areas for teams. The Catt Gable Memorial Garden is also undergoing a redesign and the Relay Museum will make its home on the region.  Annual Mega-Events, the SL Christmas Expo, Fantasy Faire, the Home & Garden Expo and the Sci-Fi Con, which support the Society, will also have areas at the new campus.

The American Cancer Society is the world’s leader in the Fight Against Cancer. All proceeds from the 2019 SL Christmas Expo supports the Society and its efforts to provide research to end, and support for those affected by, childhood cancers. For more information about the 2019 SL Christmas Expo visit: www.slchristmasexpo.com.
Need help with cancer? Needs answers or information? Visit the American Cancer Society region in Second Life®, call 800-227-2345, or visit: www.cancer.org.

RFL Announcement: Closing Ceremony Awards

The following awards were given at the Closing Ceremonies of the Relay Weekend. More Awards will be made at the "Relay Wrap-Up" later this month.

*  *  *  *  *

CANCER EDUCATION AWARENESS   
Awarded to campsites earning top scores for incorporating information and education about cancer and/or the American Cancer Society into their build.    
3rd    Circle of Life
2nd    UFS Metamorphosis
1st    Inspired Dreamwalkers

BEST THEME DECORATED   
Awarded to the campsites earning the top 3 scores for the all-around design interpretation of the 2019 Relay For Life of Second Life theme: All Aboard! For A Cure!  The inclusion of www.cancer.org information from the American Cancer Society is important.    
3rd The Goreans
2nd Inspired Dreamwalkers
1st UFS Metamorphosis   

BEST WALK THRU   
Top score for Best Walk Thru Experience

TIE for 3rd Camping for a Cure
TIE for 3rd  Questing for the Cure
2nd  SUNBEAMERS  
1st Team Live Wire 

BEST RIDE THRU   
Top score for Best Riding Experience    
Guardians of the Grid

DESIGNER
Awarded for the design team build that captures the essence, reality and scale of the real or imaginary worlds they represent, and truly gives a world to call our own for a brief and unforgettable moment in time.  

3rd RFL Survivor ~ Designed by:  Darkstone Aeon & BB Woodford with the Hope Haven Survivor/Caregiver Support Group

2nd RFL Support ~ RFL Support- Mac Pierce  

1st  RFL Celebrate~ Rex (Archer Mactavish)

EPIC OUTREACH MEGA   
3rd Christmas Expo 
2nd Sci Fi Convention 
1st Fantasy Faire 

EPIC TEAM EVENT Awarded to groups, individuals or teams, who reach outward into Second Life to promote awareness of Relay For Life, the American Cancer Society, it’s Mission, and encourage participation to new audiences.

3rd Inspired Dreamwalkers  An Eggstra-Ordinary Event       
2nd Relay Rockers  Relay Stock
1st Harmony of Hope Life is a Beach  Muddy's Music Cafe  

BEST NEW EPIC
Inspired Dreamwalkers  An Eggstra-Ordinary Event

MC AWARDS   
1st Head Hunters MC
2nd HAMC Renegades/HAMC Texas
3rd Heaven's Vixens

The Relay Track Comes Down

"All good things must come to an end." And so must the Relay Weekend track and it's camps. While the Fantasy Faire has risen in it's own right over the years, nothing has replaced the annual gathering of the Relay teams in a building of campsites and walking together, and raising funds

Sadly, we have to say goodbye to 2019 Relay Season. The sims will stay up until Thurs.  After that, all items left will go into the mystic with the sims. So please clean up before then. Thank you all for the most amazing Relay Season! We are here all season if you need anything! Stay tuned for awards notices and wrap up info too!

While a few builds had been taken down in the few days following the Relay Weekend, most stayed up until the Flood Party on Wednesday afternoon. After that, people started The Takedown. But not everything went down right away. In one case, a building was left half-sunken in the water.

A few teams, once taking down their camps, left a final message.

Team Sunbeamers would meet up one last time at the camp for a few team pictures. With over 400,000 Lindens raised and a campsite trophy under it's belt, it's been a good year for the team. But it might not be over yet. Word has it someone sent a large donation by mail to the RFL in SL in the team's name that once it clears will put the team well over 500,000, and Jade level status.

And so, the sun sets on another great Relay Weekend event. But the season's not over yet. A few teams have one more event. The season finally concludes on June 23 at 10AM with the "Relay Wrap-Up," in which the final awards for the year are given out. But the struggle against cancer won't stop until next year. In October is the "Making Strides" event that raises funds for breast cancer. And in December is the RFL spinoff event, the Christmas Expo.

For those wanting more pictures, you can check out

RFL in SL Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/slrelayforlife/

Wildstar Beaumont: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildstar_b/albums/72157708988008796

Ishtarkiss: https://www.flickr.com/groups/slrelayforlife/pool/ishtarskiss

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

Update on the "Teleport Disconnects"

Earlier this month, Linden Lab came out and admitted what the residents had more or less figured out, Second Life was much buggier than usual, especially when it came to teleporting from sim to sim or crossing sim borders. So has there been improvement since then? Maybe some. Checking "Modem World," Inara Pey stated "There have been mixed reports on the outcome of the deployment made on Thursday, April 18th, 2019, with some indicating matters have improved, others reporting no real change. In particular, people visiting Fantasy Faire and travelling around the new Linden Homes continent appear to be faring a lot better than had been the case."

Simon Linden was quoted as saying at the Simulator User Group, " for server news, many of us are focused on the teleport issues … I hate to promise anything, but we all know a lot more about TP internal problems than we used to (smile) . We do understand they’re annoying and a frustrating problem – we definitely want to fix it and make it better."

Earlier, some residents wondered if the Lab moving data to Cloud servers was the cause of the glitches. Lately, there's been a new suspect, the EEP or Environmental Enhancement Project. Simon did admit that the problems appearing just after the release of EEP was "suspicious" and they were "trying to sort out is if somehow the environmental work caused the TP problems." He didn't think the glitches were related to avatar complecity, though stated "that said, the more complex your AV is, the more work it needs to change regions. It’s always been better to have fewer scripts and data for teleports and region crossings."

On a personal note, I myself seem to be having fewer problems with teleport disconnects, though there are still other glitches such as the viewer freezing for a bit. Some friends of mine are still crashing when teleporting around, so it seems the problem is still around.

Source: Modem World, SL Wiki

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: American Cancer Society Day in Second Life

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY DAY IN SECOND LIFE

This January 27 2019 is American Cancer Society in Second Life Day.

Since 2004 the American Cancer Society has been part of Second Life. Most Second Life residents know The Relay For Life of Second Life, established in 2005. It is one the largest Relay fundraiser events in the world and has raised nearly $L1 Billion.  Residents may also know about Making Strides Against Breast Cancer or the 'mega-event' fundraisers Fantasy Faire, SL Christmas Expo, SciFi Convention and the Home and Garden Expo.

Just as in the physical world the American Cancer Society is more that its fundraising events.  Since 1913 the American Cancer Society has lead the global fight against cancer.  In addition to funding ground breaking research the Society offers more programs for Survivors and Caregivers than any other organization, continues to fight for equitable cancer and health care and education and provides support in the fight against cancer on a global scale.

Since 2008 the American Cancer Society has had a 'local office' right here in Second Life.  American Cancer Society is a full region available to any Second Life resident who wants to know more about our programs and fundraising events. 

American Cancer Society day is an Open House to re-introduce the Society and our virtual home to Second Life residents. Visitors can:

~Learn about Hope Haven, the home of the ACS Cancer Survivors and Caregivers support groups;
~Learn more about real world programs that can assist cancer survivors and patients
~Find out more about the 2018 Global Outreach program that saw more than $70,000 (USD) raised in Second Life to support cancer patients in Kenya
~Learn how to get information about cancer and survivor support by speaking to a Cancer Information Specialist without logging out of SL
~Meet with Relay and Strides participants and learn how to take part in Second Life's largest fundraising events
~Visit the Resource Center and Catt Gable Memorial Gardens


General Information Sessions and Break outs are Scheduled for 6am to 8am; 10am to 12noon; 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 8pm
Entertainment will Included:
12noon Austin Moores
1pm Maximilion Kleene
4pm T1Radio's Relay Rap Talk  Show
5pm Keeba Tammas and the Tiny Maniacs

Join your fellow residents and ACS Volunteers for American Cancer Society Day, Sunday Jan 27

A schedule of information sessions and times can be found here
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/American%20Cancer%20Society/126/154/21

********************
About the American Cancer Society:

For more than 100 years, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has worked relentlessly to save lives and create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.  Together with our global partners and millions of supporters, the American Cancer Society carries out its mission to Save Lives, Celebrate Lives, and Lead the Fight for a World Without Cancer. 

For More Information: www.cancer.org
                                 www.relayforlife.org/secondlife

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