Second Thoughts

Dirty Rat

Dirty Rat Vintage grunge stuff Visit Verdigris (161, 171, 26)

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Ingrid!

Ingrid! A rare siting of Ingrid Ingersoll, who looks more like Toast every year. Visit Sutherland (195, 8, 24)

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The Adventure Capitalists

Virtual Worlds News has an interesting article about a drastic drop in investment in virtual worlds.

It went down to $14 million in this quarter -- from a high of $161 million:

The total dollars and number of companies funded indicates a steep decline in investment both sequentially and year-on-year. Last quarter, from January through March 2009, more than $68 million was invested in 13 virtual worlds-related companies. For the same quarter a year ago, investment in 16 companies totaled $161 million.

Of course, if you were surprised that VWs ever had $68 million, let alone $161 million, it's because you didn't realize that all sorts of casual games and browser worlds related to kids' games, etc. are called "Virtual Worlds". The list of the $161 million doesn't include Second Life or Metaplace or anything you've heard of as "virtual worlds".

That's not to somehow fanboy my way out of not admitting that virtual world investment declined marketly, if you go back to 2008 and the investment of $184 million where you will see things that you'd agree do fit under your understanding of VWs like Gaia or Metaversum.

It's interesting to note that Virtual Worlds Management changed its name to Engage Digital, and changed the name of its leading industry expo to Engage! as well -- because they realized probably a lot sooner than others did that another Virtual Worlds Winter of sorts was coming.

In San Jose in October 2007, we all watched as Anthony Zuiker, the director of the wildly popular and viewed TV series CSI (add your city's name -- it's everywhere) threw candy on us all and claimed that his servers were about to burn up from the million sign-ups that would come to SL as a result of cross-over from TV to virtual worlds. I winced as that candy falling hurt my head -- those kinds of dramatic gestures never actual work at the individual audience member level. I was among the big skeptics then, and watched curiously as the simulators just never filled up with that many people, and in the end there was something like 27,000 sign-ups, not 1 million (and that's ok -- that was big for SL then and now).

Still, that CIS:SL experience is likely what makes Forseti so grumpy even today about how avatars and TV just not mixing. (I think he's wrong, and that probably the right mixture, genre, characters, audience etc. just hasn't been found. You can't tell me that a Cartoon Network cartoon that had a virtual world in a browser on its website wouldn't have a lot of cross over. Or that even a boring C-SPAN type adult show discussing novels or politics might not have an SL crossover. Or whatever. We haven't plumbed the depths here).

Deliverator

Deliverator Wrapping up my SLB6 exhibit by taking pictures. I will be putting everything in inventory tomorrow -- I may reconstruct it elsewhere. Last chance to drop in and see SLB exhibits before they are returned and the sims closed at midnight July 10. Visit SL6B Quantum (150, 51, 99)

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Not Quite There

Not Quite There OK, I got this far jamming the metaplace page into a TV viewer and set in the land parcel in Second Life. But...now there's the log in. How do I make it log in to get the world? I have no idea. We don't have HTML on a prim here yet really. Visit Zephyr (79, 110, 29)

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Not-For-Real Vryl at It Again

Vryl Valkyrie is such a *loon* on top of being a nasty, threatening, drama-laden Second Life diva.

She IM'd me to ask if she could hire me as a consultant. Huh? I said, um, no thanks.

Chat log from this public figure attempting to bully and silence legitimate press coverage of her antics:

[2009/07/08 8:54]  Vryl Valkyrie: (Saved Wed Jul 08 06:43:41 2009) I would like to contract you for consulting.  Is this possible or not?  Thank you.
[2009/07/08 9:16]  Prokofy Neva: Not interested. Go away.
[2009/07/08 9:16]  Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
-- Instant message logging enabled --
[11:14]  Vryl Valkyrie: I'll tell you why I want to contract you, to get the facts straight with you because personally I am sick of your lies.
[11:15]  Vryl Valkyrie: I am tired of your libel.
[11:15]  Vryl Valkyrie: Yes it is libel.
[11:16]  Vryl Valkyrie: You have nothing better to do in life other than to spew hate.
[11:17]  Vryl Valkyrie: I guess due to your need for attention, not sure.
[11:17]  Vryl Valkyrie: By the way, nothing that I am saying is abuse.
[11:17]  Prokofy Neva: That's ridiculous. You don't "hire people" to try to "shut up the press". I'm not for sale. I do not engage in libel. Get a life.
[11:17]  Vryl Valkyrie: As you have publicly blogged lies on me.
[11:17]  Vryl Valkyrie: One example of a lie.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: You blogged that you could not use screenshot of builds with Marlin textuers.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: No where in the license does it say that.
[11:18]  Prokofy Neva: Vryl, you are going on mute. If you feel you have a "libel case" lol than call your lawyer. Or use your own blog to portray your version of reality. Bye!
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: That's jussone small example.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: I do plan to have my lawyer contact you actually if the libel continues.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie is typing...

Here They Are, The FIC 2.6!

"OMGODZORZ we thought you had forgotten the FIC this year, Prok!"

No, no, we've just been testing and testing and pulling all-nighters drinking Red Bull and eating those really unfulfilling 99 cent Dunkin' Donuts specials and tearing our hair out trying to get this to work and nearly resorted to "crowdsourcing" (shudder).

FIC 2.6 almost didn't happen, because there was some really severe glitches, unbakes, upskirts and even grey people which hasn't happened in a long, long time.

If we look at the successful message delivery rate in 2.6 as the baseline, and assign it the number 1.0, that delivery rate dropped to 0.32 in our current 2.6 release. This is clearly something we should have caught prior to deploying 2.6 and I apologize to our Residents for the substantial inconvenience and frustration that this regression has caused. Along with the reduced rate of favouritism delivery, we see a new kind of error response in the 2.6 release that appears to explain the substantial increase in spurious error messages from the group chat system. But...all this is behind us now.

First, some really good news: Philip Linden, for the first time in years, has moved off the old AOL-type FIC 1.0 list to Noosphere (beyond FIC to world-class Atlas-type-world-holding-up status) through making the map work and creating Snowglobe. Glad to see you back in the game, Spiel Konig!

Next, some grinding and nashing of teeth -- some people got forgotten and moved off all the lists for good. They disappeared. Well, suxxors to be u. Ginsu -- well, you left SL, what do you expect.

And some newsworthies -- Cristiano, who had languished on FIC 1.0 as a total has-been Legend In His Own Mind, and whose nails were bitten to a bloody pulp waiting for this year's news to see if he'd even remain there, suddenly at the 11th hour got on to 2.6 by the strength of this dedicated link to his empire on the Linden's website. See what residents are building right now, indeed!

But the real shocker this year is the overlap between the Noosphere and My Enemies list. Huh?! how can it be that people who are objectively Prokofy's enemies still get into the much-coveted Noosphere list? Well, just because. Because they do something to hold up the world. Sometimes unobtrusively. Sometimes with a little glory -- but not as much glory as FIC 2.6.

And...wow, is the My Enemies list shorter this year?! Well, yes, I vanquished some of them : )  They are no more.

Now, let's come to FIC 2.13. Ugh. Yes, with that unlucky iteration number, you can see where you're headed. I can't recall a nastier, ugly, meaner, more destructive FIC mutation since the days of Plastic Duck crashing the Christmas party -- but he's not even on any lists any more because he disappeared. FIC 2.13 not only has all the people you love to hate and more important, I love to hate, it has people who have been objectively annoying asstards at key points of SL's development -- the nasty demonstrations in Nautilus, the uber-whining over the openspaces price hike, the tenacious ad-farming and extortion to the very bitter end.

Well, wait just a damn minute, you say. Who the hell are you, Prokofy Neva, to make up lists of the cool kids? Well, that's just it. I'm Prokofy Neva, and this is what I do! Well, you say, aren't you one of them cool kids *yourself*? Well, no. I was banned from yet another thing this year (the JIRA) even being put back on the Linden blog access (as Lenin said, two steps forward, one step backwards...).

Hey...but WAIT! Why is, oh, Doubledown Tandino on this list? Well, you know something? Some people get on this list *just by Twittering a lot* (pro-tip). Others, like Sardonyx Linden, get on here *only because they have a cool name*. No other reason. Seriously. Some people do something bad once, and it reverberates for all time. Others do something good 100 times and nobody notices because they are mediocrities. Hamlet nee Linden Au comes to mind, for example -- very nearly FIC 2.6 status due to his critical discussion of the Linden land stats, LL itself, Windlight, etc. -- and yet, he stumped for Kurzweil, child avatars on Zindra, etc. -- and there it went, the claim to glory, and off he was to mutation land.

OH! you say knowingly. Why, this is just a completely arbitrary list of people you like and people you hate.

Well, yeah! : )

You make your OWN list and link to this one if you like. Or add a note in the comments -- I often forget people. The lists grow more and more each year, and it's hard to keep up.

BUT, you say. How come there are no, oh, Japanese or Brazilians? Oh, I dunno. I guess because I don't read Japanese or Brazilian, so help me out here and post your own lists!

So, without further ado, let me announce that the winner of Second Life this year is....Apotheus Silverman! For being GOM'd gracefully almost without drama and creating a revenue engine for LL and even for a few residents.Apotheus Silverman is the creator of SLexchange.com that got co-opted by the Lindens and made into XtsreetSL.com.

Sheep

Sheep Come and experience these sheep in the rain, very soothing. Visit Empress and Hierophant (226, 137, 37)

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Empress and Hierophant

Empress and Hierophant Just had to come see these cool singing sheep by Betty Rogan Visit Empress and Hierophant (187, 122, 28)

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Empress and Hierophant

Empress and Hierophant Pretty new sim with rain, you never see that in SL. Bit of a Thomas Kinkade painting, but when you're inside of such a painting, it's better than being outside. Visit Empress and Hierophant (27, 146, 43)

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