Our recent in-depth look at the flood of information concerning World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion gave us some cause for speculation. Specifically, the news about the multiple-rider mounts has given us an intriguing idea for a new way to make money in-game.

There are two levels to this idea, and they both revolve around players who don't have access to high-speed mounts of their own. One briefly wonders why this change in transportation was implemented, but only briefly. Once the possibilities become clear, there will undoubtedly arise new uses for the piggyback functionality that are still somewhat nebulous at this stage. With no further ado, our ideas after the jump.

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College in NYC Robert Geraci has continued his survey of religious practices and opinions as they relate to Second Life, which was first given some coverage in the Second Life Insider. This new survey is slightly longer, but can be completed in under 5 minutes. Preliminary results from the first survey were informative, according to Mr. Geraci, and he's hoping for a greater turnout for this one, so do help him out!

Most startling statistic from the first survey, to us: 20% of the community would consider SL an attractive alternative to earthly life if they could have their minds uploaded into it. Really? Are you ready to deal with crippling lag, serious unexpected destabilization, and -- *shudder* -- copybots? Here's an interesting theological debate: what happens to your soul when the grid goes off-line?

[Thanks, Robert!]

I came across a video today that didn't blow me away technically. The aspect ratio changes throughout, the UI is on, and it might have been edited in Windows Movie Maker. However, I couldn't take my eyes off of this video because it made a difference.

In September 2007, Second Life Insider blogged that Italian IBM workers were using Second Life to protest a proposed pay cut. Little was known about the strike at the time, except that those interested should download a strike kit and carry on peacefully on their own time. In a video released yesterday in multiple languages, they explain what went on, why they did it, and what the results were.

Read on for more details about the strike ...

It's hard to believe that golfing is over a year and a half old in SL. Second Life Insider covered the phenomenon that was sweeping the grid back in July 2006. Rumor has it that even Philip Linden enjoyed a game or two!

However, there is a bit of a learning curve to golfing. It requires a HUD, golf balls, a club, and a working knowledge of all three. It looks like MarkTwain White is aiming to solve that problem by releasing a series of tutorials on Second Life golf. Lesson one focuses on how to get started. If you dug the tutorial and think you might like to give it a try, you can check it out in Hollywood.

When the CSI:NY episode featuring Second Life came out in October, Second Life Insider offered extensive coverage of not only the commercials, but also the mystery games. Now, CBS is releasing their own teaser trailer for one of the mysteries. Having scaled down their islands due to lowered traffic, one wonders if they're trying to milk one last visit out of you.

However, with that said, the Machinima is thoroughly entertaining. They offer up snippets of clues to reel you in, as well as highlight a bit of the process. If you haven't checked out the four-sim clusters of CSI:NY goodness, now would be the time!

As of 12:30 AM, Saturday, December 8th, 2007, secondlifeinsider.com is ranked the #6 Top Second Life Blog on Sweet Second Life, behind luminaries Torley Linden's personal blog, Codebastard Redgrave's personal blog, Brutal Honesty, the Mean Girls Guide to SL, and at #1, The Official Linden Blog. And all this, despite the fact that the Second Life Insider has had no new content since Massively began!

Honestly, I'm both pleased and puzzled by this. Sure, there's a metric f#$*-tonne of content in the archives, but the fact that Massively is nowhere on that 88-item-strong list probably means something. For all intents and purposes, Massively is the New Second Life Insider. We've just changed facades; the content is the same. So where's the Massively love? I'm going to just assume that because we cover MMOs of all stripes, we don't qualify as an SL-only blog. Sigh.

In related news, both Our Tateru and Our Eloise's personal blogs are on that list as well, so go check 'em out!

Welcome to the twentieth episode of On the Inside, the podcast that lets you take a peek at the virtual world of Second Life!

This episode features Eureka Dejavu, real life name Rita J. King, investigative reporter, blogger for the Huffington Post, and founder of Dancing Ink Productions; and Schmilsson Nilsson, real life name Joshua Fouts, Director of the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. In this episode, we discuss the Macarthur Foundation and their ongoing research into virtual worlds, the positive power of transformation, and Star Wars Galaxies. (Note: This interview was conducted on October 30th.)

As always, I welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics/interviewees. Drop me a line!

To hear all eighteen previous episodes, click here to access the Second Life Insider podcast archives.

[Mp3] Download the MP3 directly

It's been half of a year since Second Life Insider first covered the Second Life Cable Network. Since that time, they've expanded rapidly, growing into a full blown TV station. Their determination has set them apart from other video programs inside SL. I'll personally never forget them, because Starr Sonic poured glitter in my hair at the Second Life Community Convention. It took two people 20 minutes to pick it all out!

SLCN offers a variety of programming for the audience. For the sports fanatics, they have sailing, hockey, SLASCAR racing, and snail racing. They also have weekly talk shows, streaming of live concerts, fashion shows, and on location reporting. In addition, they recently announced a shopping channel that will run 24 hours a day! These channels can be watched on their website or streamed into Second Life.

Read on after the jump to find out more about SLCN ...

After this post, I had it in mind to think through why I prefer to solo, and whether the reasons why are valid ones, given that I'm playing in a genre meant to provide a social experience. I'm going to try to list as many reasons as I can think of in favor of grouping and playing with buddies, and provide a counter-argument if I can. Bear in mind, this is not me telling you that you should go solo; this is just me trying to 1) explain why I do it, and 2) understand for myself whether my reasons hold water.

Enough said; excelsior!

Today in Second Life there was:

• 23,932 new signups bringing the total to 10,638,600 signups.
• A peak concurrency of 52,793 at 3:45PM, and a minimum concurrency of 25,544 at 1:30AM. Median concurrency for the day was 41,563.
• The Grid Stability Index (broken link due to a technical issue. See below) for the day was 2.23 (lower is better).
• The Second Life grid suffered from two large-scale failures today. First, part or all of the San Francisco colocation facility went dark, knocking 1,110 Second Life simulators offline. Taking place in the early hours of the morning, there was not as great an impact to users as the ISP services failure suffered through the afternoon.
• OnRez delivered an optional update to their custom Second Life viewer, though this was marred somewhat by a temporary site failure.

Launches never go smoothly, and we've had a bit of a glitch with the Second Life Insider content that we link back to. You see, the RSS feed for SLI was supposed to be redirected over to the Second Life category here on Massively. In a bit of an eleventh hour cock-up, the whole side got redirected back here, breaking the content links we've got back to that site, and comments for posts there and so forth.

The Massively team offers apologies. We're trying to get this fixed up as soon as possible - but it might not be able to be sorted until Monday. We're very sorry for the problem and will restore that site and its content as soon as possible.

[UPDATE: 10:30AM ET - The issue with the broken redirect is sorted out, and older content is now viewable again]

UK media outlets are blowing up with stories of "Wonderland", a virtual playground in Second Life where Ageplay is the go. Sister-site Second Life Insider has been following the various stages of this story over the last day, including its growing coverage by mainstream press and the reply from SL developers Linden Lab.

For those who need a little background, Ageplay is when an adult roleplays a child. This need not be for sexual purposes, but to use the quote from SL Insider of Sky News reporter Jason Farrell, "Wonderland is a virtual children's playground where paedophiles cruise and kids are solicited." Even though there probably aren't real children controlling the characters, it is still an offensive community for others within SL, and a Kid Avs community representative has already spoken out about it. It is also something that SL fans wouldn't want to be mistakenly associated with -- now that it has hit the mainstream, it may be one of the first things that people remember about Second Life, akin to "Oh, wasn't that the computer game for pedophiles?".

The response Linden Lab provided to SL Insider essentially says that they have found no wrongdoing after investigating the Wonderland community. I'm not sure how well the rest of the media will take this answer. Provided below is a link to SL Insider's on-going coverage of this story as it develops.