While most actions people take in the flesh are ephemeral - performed fleetingly, and unmarked - MMOGs and virtual environments keep that data as a rule, usually most or all of it.

Three social researchers from the University of Michigan obtained data from Linden Lab about the possession and acquisition of 'gestures' (preprogrammed sequences of text, avatar animations and/or audio) and data about account creation dates and friends-lists, and studied how gestures passed from user to user.

Continue reading Researchers mine Second Life interaction logs to track trends

Researchers mine Second Life interaction logs to track trends originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Some consider him a kook or an eccentric, while others think of him as a technological visionary. Either way, the accomplished Raymond Kurzweil will be taking the stage to keynote the Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco next month, a spot traditionally afforded to a Linden Lab executive.

Kurzweil, a famous futurist, author and inventor, is notable for his many inventions (from the first CCD-based flat-bed scanner to reading machines for the blind), his notions about transhumanism and technological singularities and a significant number of awards and honorary degrees. He has strong opinions on virtual environments, and it will be interesting to hear what he has to say.

The Second Life Community Convention 2009 will happen in San Francisco, on August 13th - 16th, 2009 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. Registration for the event is open and attendees can register at the convention's Web-site.

	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil to deliver SLCC 2009 keynote originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Since the rollout of Second Life server 1.26 the already unreliable Second Life group-chat system showed an almost crippling drop in reliability, compared to the previous 1.25 release. Linden Lab have estimated an overall 60% drop in the number of group-chat messages successfully delivered, and the problem skews towards the larger groups, prompting many group owners to completely disable their group's chat functions to avoid online members from being spammed with error messages.

Linden Lab is reporting that server version 1.27, currently in quality assurance, represents a 300% improvement in group chat reliability over version 1.25 (or almost 1000% more reliable than what is currently operating on the Second Life grid today). As yet, no deployment date has been announced, but for many, the update cannot come soon enough.

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Linden Lab addresses Second Life group chat problems originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Schrodinger's Gossip Girl: It's dead but it's still alive

Schrodinger's Gossip Girl: It's dead but it's still alive originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Warner Brothers has a very successful setup in Second Life, centered around its popular Gossip Girl property. All isn't exactly rosy there, of late, as WB's actively moderated environment collides with Second Life's and Gossip Girl's rather broad popularity demographics.

Warner Brothers uses the Metaverse Mod Squad for active moderation of the Second Life presence. The question is, how do you moderate conversations in languages you don't understand? The answer, it seems, is that you don't. Visitors who communicate in languages other than English are warned to switch to English. Failure to comply sees the visitor ejected.

Continue reading Warner Brothers rejects non-English-speaking Gossip Girl fans

Warner Brothers rejects non-English-speaking Gossip Girl fans originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are several sets of rules for users of Second Life. The Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Standards (CS) which combined form your explicit service-contract with Linden Lab, and assorted implicit ones, like following any additional conditions the owner of whatever land-parcel that you are currently on may have chosen to impose.

Well, the Linden Lab have updated the Community Standards for the first time in, well, perhaps forever. While the Lab has said that it has updated them in the past, the document has remained unaltered since at least 2005. What's new, however, isn't necessarily as interesting as what's missing.

Continue reading Second Life community standards updated

Second Life community standards updated originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Australian Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has promised to extend Australia's proposed network-level content filtering regime to block games, online games, downloadable games, and websites that sell or allow download of games that are deemed not to be suitable for a 15-year-old audience. This, despite research by the IEAA (the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia) that the average age of Australian Gamers is 30.

Even though Australian Federal and State laws say otherwise, some MMO titles exceeding that classification are already sold on Australian store shelves, by simply bypassing compulsory classification. Australian Federal and State authorities refuse to respond to any enquiries about the topic.

The matter becomes even more confusing and complex, however, as it introduces a new, defacto classifications body to the mix.

Continue reading Australian network filtering promises to reach out to block games, online games and more

Australian network filtering promises to reach out to block games, online games and more originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A while back, Linden Lab's Philip Rosedale announced a new Second Life viewer development project. That project ultimately grew along lines similar to that of third-party viewer project, Imprudence, breaking down many barriers to user contributions, and adopting a more agile methodology. After only a couple of release-candidates, the result is already available.

One of the biggest developments you might see in the Snowglobe viewer is that the map is now an order of magnitude faster to load, rather than taking several fractions of forever, as is traditional. This is the start of a new texture-transfer pipeline, which we can reasonably expect to become standard in future viewers, and to encompass more kinds of textures, however there's a new caching architecture which should benefit all textures.

Continue reading Linden Lab releases Snowglobe 1.0 for Second Life

Linden Lab releases Snowglobe 1.0 for Second Life originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's the sixth anniversary of Second Life opening to the public (not the sixth birthday, which is actually in either March or April depending on how you figure these things), and as usual, Linden Lab is organizing a soiree for the occasion - though once again this year, it's a week later than usual, starting on the anniversary date of 23 June, rather than ending on that date.

Generally, just after 23 June, community (and the Lab's) attention is inevitably drawn away to Linden Lab's SL Community Convention and SL Relay For Life, both taking place later this year, and requiring considerable amounts of organizational attention.

Nevertheless, there's a packed schedule of eclectic events and discussions, starting with Philip Rosedale's opening speech in just 30 minutes time (10AM Pacific time), and 20 regions packed with user-contributed art installations and displays, so there's plenty to see and explore.

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Second Life celebrates sixth anniversary originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Stratim Capital, an institutionally funded secondary-market private-equity firm, is reported to have bought into Linden Lab by buying out most of the holdings of one of the other investors. "We bought almost the entire position of an existing shareholder," said Stratim managing partner, Zach Abrams. Which shareholder, and how much was paid remains a mystery. A previous sale of less than a 5% share in Linden Lab sold for approximately half a billion US Dollars in 2007.

There is no primary private-equity market for Linden Lab. The company does not seek investors, and by all accounts is making enough money that it doesn't need additional investment capital. There's also no sign of an IPO on the horizon, nor indeed, any compelling reason why the Lab should want to have one.

	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Stratim Capital buys into Linden Lab originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We know, we're shocked that the opportunity was passed over. With one movie in the works based on a newspaper article based on a divorce, and - of course - the CSI:NY story that humorously featured Second Life like we'd never seen it before, well ... hopes of a decent cinematic treatment of Linden Lab's virtual environment were starting to look pretty low.

Enter Rachel Ward's Beautiful Kate, which aired in the Sydney Film Festival late last week and is due to air in Australia on 7 August. It's an emotional and confronting work, in which Second Life makes an interesting cameo.

Continue reading Oz festival flick fails to make mockery of Second Life

Oz festival flick fails to make mockery of Second Life originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab has released the new viewer, bringing Second Life up to 1.23 a few days earlier than expected, off the back of a very short release-candidate cycle.

The new viewer brings three things with it: The new Adults-only continent (formerly Ursula and now Zindra), user-verification by documents or payment-status, and a new Adults-only content rating that opens up Second Life to more extreme sexual and violent content.

Continue reading Second Life moves to 1.23, opens adult continent, allows more content

Second Life moves to 1.23, opens adult continent, allows more content originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week we managed to get a look at an early build of what calls itself Second Life 2.0 - though the final version numbering is up for grabs and it could wind up being called 1.24 or 1.25 yet but Linden Lab has been amending their Second Life trademarks to allow "2" to be added. The only really major changes in 2.0 revolve around the user-interface that interactive design agency Big Spaceship has been working on for the last 6-8 months.

And quite a change it is. We're under no illusions that the new user-interface is entirely set in stone. A few parts are confusing, and it has a ton of rough edges and little quirks. It's fascinating to see the direction that it's going in, however.

Continue reading Second Life 2.0: A sneak peek at the new user-interface [updated]

Second Life 2.0: A sneak peek at the new user-interface [updated] originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab have made a new Second Life viewer release-candidate available. RC4 is the fifth release candidate in the 1.23 series (Linden Lab starts counting from RC0). It's looking increasingly like the objective is to release before the Second Life sixth anniversary (23 June).

Barely any changes this time around, so either Linden Lab isn't really aware of any showstoppers or doesn't perceive them as such. The context menus have had one small reversion, there are updates to the Mac crash reporter, and a fix relating to object updates that affected poseball visibility.

Continue reading Second Life 1.23 (RC4) now available

Second Life 1.23 (RC4) now available originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hypergrid Business is reporting that an unknown person or persons destroyed a large number of OpenSim regions over the weekend, by exploiting a weakness in LxLabs' Linux-based HyperVM management software. OpenSim is a popular third-party reverse-engineered implementation of Linden Lab's Second Life server software used in a variety of commercial, non-commercial and educational virtual-environment grids.

More than 100 regions are reported lost, along with any data that wasn't backed up off-site. Apparently more than just the simulators were taken down, Web-pages and other ancillary data and files on the affected servers were also lost in the attack.

OpenSim regions using virtualization software other than LxLabs' HyperVM were unaffected. The attack hit more than just third-party Second Life compatible grids, however, as more than 100,000 other websites and servers were wiped over the weekend using the software exploit.

In the wake of the attacks and massive data-loss, LxLabs' founder, K T Ligesh (32) allegedly committed suicide in his Bangalore home on Monday.

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Over 100 Opensim regions wiped in weekend virtualization exploit originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While online economies can seem to be (and often are) fundamentally different from AFK economies, there's a key component that makes any online economy function in ways that are all-too-familiar.

That's us. You and me. People.

Whether bags of treasure fall out of dead rats, or the economy is reliant on texture artists, modelers and scripters, it's people that make online economies with fundamentally alien premises work in some very surprisingly quotidian ways.

Continue reading Five regrettably true things about online economies

Five regrettably true things about online economies originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Imprudence project has reached the end of the second release cycle for their Second Life viewer. Imprudence is now in official release. Imprudence is one of our favorite Second Life viewers.

Context (pie) menus have been reorganized again, there's improved support for sound and streaming media through gstreamer, some backported fixes from the official 1.22 viewer, and confirmation popups have been added for a number of operations. There's also a Mac version, which last year's 1.0 release lacked due to hardware and development constraints (though only for Intel-based Macs, unless there's significant demand for a universal binary.

Continue reading Imprudence 1.1.0 for Second Life

Imprudence 1.1.0 for Second Life originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Looking back over the rather long, rich and tumultuous history of Second Life, it seems that Linden Lab finally has their griefer problems more or less eliminated. That doesn't mean that they're gone, by any means. Griefing still happens every day, but it's now a problem for individual users and communities. The problems that Linden Lab itself had with griefers are, pretty much, over.

Back in the day (before free accounts) griefers were a big-time problem for the Lab. A small group of griefers could take down or impede significant quantities of the Second Life architecture, eliminating any semblance of service for thousands or tens of thousands of users. Those days are long past.

Continue reading Linden Lab versus the griefers

Linden Lab versus the griefers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab have made a new Second Life viewer release-candidate available. RC3 is the fourth release candidate in the 1.23 series (Linden Lab starts counting from RC0). The 1.23 series is being fast-tracked, as it is scheduled to go live by the end of June.

We're expecting this one or the next one to be the last before official release -- because frankly, there's not a lot of time-left before the Lab's self-imposed deadline. Probably the biggest reason you'd want to try this one out, is that it fixes a bug introduced in an earlier official viewer where cached information was discarded too aggressively, leading to things that should have been cached having to be redownloaded.

Oh, there's a bunch of good bug-fixes besides that, but that's really the one you want. Read on for the rest.

Continue reading Second Life 1.23 (RC3) now available

Second Life 1.23 (RC3) now available originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The 1.23 Second Life viewer with the necessary support for Adult content is still being rushed to meet a June deadline, the exact reason for which seems a little unclear. There's some outstanding issues with the viewer release-candidates, but it seems fairly low on actual showstoppers and looks likely to make an official release in the roughly one fortnight remaining.

Definitions for the content ratings have been finalized, though they show little noticeable deviation from Linden Lab's originally proposed drafts. It appears that all the changes have been simple explanatory wording changes. The PG rating holds a couple of surprises, though.

Continue reading Second Life adult content updates: Viewers, namechanges, grannies and grade-schoolers

Second Life adult content updates: Viewers, namechanges, grannies and grade-schoolers originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.