SL10B Bear Island & The Corn Field

Today I went to visit the historical SL10B Bear Island and The Corn Field regions which were added by Linden Lab just days before the grand opening last Sunday. When you first arrive at SL10B Bear Island you will find hundreds of Linden Bears from the past decade in Second Life on display for free. Just right-click the Linden bears and get them FREE.

The tradition for many years in Second Life was if you met a Linden inworld, you could ask for their Linden Bear. Lindens would make a Linden Bear to reflect their personality or role at the lab. If you want a nice collection of Linden Bears, now is your chance to do so before July when the birthday sims will go offline for another year. See below for snapshots and the corn field.

Teleport to SL10B Bear Island

Teleport to The Corn Field

In the early days (pre-2006) of Second Life Linden Lab introduced a system with a Twilight Zone twist to punish misbehaving residents in Second Life in which they were sent to The Corn Field which was like a prison. In the Corn Field there is a tractor, black & white television playing a feed of the 1940 educational film called Boy in Court and all of this is surrounded by rows of corn.

In the past The Corn Field was used during Halloween events hosted by Linden Lab. The Corn Field near Bay City in Second Life is closed for public access which remains today. The SL10B Corn Field is really fun exploring and its very scary in the dark.

Misbehavior in Second Life game punished by exile to “the corn field”

Sometimes when someone is suspended for a short time they are sent to the cornfield,” Linden Lab’s Senior VP of Community and Support wrote on the official Second Life discussion forums yesterday, adding that building the cornfield didn’t require any significant development work and reassuring the community that “Once someone is permanently banned they are no longer welcome in Second Life, anywhere, including the cornfield.”

Wow, two amazing regions at SL10B this year with a historical twist to both regions.

Check them out today!

The Drax Files: Episode 7 with Rodvik Humble

Watch Episode 7 with Rodvik Humble the CEO of Linden Lab talk about Second Life. Episode 7 runs for 5 minutes and its available to watch now.  It’s great to see Rodvik Humble exploring inworld locations and active again. Later this month Second Life celebrates it’s tenth birthday and this is a great way to start a new month with the CEO of Linden Lab in this special of the Drax Files SL series.

Rodvik Humble mentioned some updated stats about Second Life which is very interesting to share.

• Over half a billion US dollars in user to user transactions
• After ten years – over a million people active every month
• 400, 000 sign up every month
• Over 176 employees at Linden Lab
• San Francisco is the main office of Linden Lab
• And there’s more! (see video below)

Yay, Rodvik Linden has returned. This is by far the best video of Rodvik Linden and interview in Second Life ever I think. It’s all good, very positive and exciting to watch. I’m sure the SL community will absolutely love this special episode 7 of the Drax Files

British native Rod Humble is possibly America’s most honest CEO: “I have no idea why it’s magic but it is!” he says about his company’s core product – the vast digital sandbox known as Second Life! 

This sprawling virtual universe, solely created by its users, administered by Linden Lab from their San Francisco headquarters and simulated in server farms all over the world, is turning 10 years old this June and with over 1 million active monthly users it has outlived many prestigious game titles in the highly competitive market of digital entertainment. 

What is Second Life’s secret? Mr. Humble tries to get to the bottom of what makes open-ended creative platforms superior to other digital offerings, how community driven markets  that are not constrained by geographic boundaries work and ponders the power of avatar-based interaction in this special Drax Files/World Makers episode.

Spread the word and comment below on what you thought of episode 7 of The Drax Files ?

Rodvik Linden will be featured in Episode 7 of The Drax Files

New details have leaked out about the next episode of The Drax Files which will include Rod Humble (Rodvik Linden) the CEO of Linden Lab talking about Second Life. Episode 7 goes live on Monday 3rd June 2013 so you don’t want to miss this one. It’s going to be awesome and very interesting I would expect.

Rodvik Linden will talk about the success of SL, avatar identity, freedom of SL, creative platforms and sustainability.

Watch previous episodes 1 to 6 of The Drax Files here.

Linden Lab updates Project Sunshine

Linden Lab announced on the official Second Life Blog updated changes about the new Project Sunshine which is going to improve avatar rezzing during logins and avatar rebake requests in Second Life. These updated changes will make the user experience faster and more reliable than ever before. Linden Lab mentions in the blog post better performance gains and less time in clouded avatar states which is very encouraging news I think.

Linden Lab have released a new required viewer update to enjoy Project Sunshine. Third Party Viewers have apparently have Project Sunshine enabled versions. The server side update will be rolling out soon according to Linden Lab. Download the official Second Life Viewer (version 3.5.3).

Watch the new video tutorial by Torley Linden and learn more about the new changes to Project Sunshine. Watch the video for comparisons of the old and new system because it looks really amazing. Update viewer today!!!

Woooot!!!

Rodvik Humble visits Bay City

Rodvik Humble who is CEO of Linden Lab today came inworld for about half an hour to hang out with SL residents in the Weston region in Bay City. A large crowd formed around Rodvik within minutes and had a interesting discussion. The reason that Rodvik Humble came inworld will be revealed soon. Wooooot!!!!

*spoilers* 

Rodvik Humble also went to visit the 1920′s Berlin project this week in Second Life. See details here!. It’s good that Rodvik is visiting places again in Second Life and hopefully this trend will continue.

 

Replay of Server Side Baking and Materials on Designing Worlds

Today Saffia and Elrik talked with Linden Lab about the latest developments in Second Life. This week was all about Server Side Baking and Materials on the Designing Worlds Show. The show was recorded (39 minutes & 11 seconds) and now the replay has been uploaded on YouTube to watch again if you missed the show.

Watch Brooke, Oz, Troy and Nyx Linden talk about Server Side Baking and Materials!

Details about this show

This episode, broadcast on May 13, 2013, Saffia and Elrik discuss the latest developments in Second Life technology – Server Side Baking and Materials – with the teams from Linden Lab who have been developing and implementing these new features: innovations that promise to significantly improve the quality of the experience in-world.

Woooot!!!!

Main Grid regions drops below the 27, 500 mark

According to the latest post from SLUniverse Forums on New SL Sims in past week thread it’s seems like the total of main grid regions have dropped below the 27, 500 mark which is very concerning and alarming. The sad news I think is that SL regions still continue to drop further down into the red each week. I hope for things to pick up soon.

Grid size as of 21st April 2013:

Total number of Main Grid regions is now 27, 464 ( 20, 356 private estates& 7, 108 Linden owned)

Total private estate net losses this year come to 636 regions, a 3.0% since 30th December 2012.

The main reasons I think is due to the global financial crisis which i’m sure is having a huge effect on spending money etc and the other reason is that tier level in Second Life is still high from what I’ve been hearing from friends during the first part of 2013.

I hope that the grid will grow again this year or next year. Many factors will have to come in effect to make this happen for a growing SL economy like it was many years ago.

What needs to happen to get growth again in regions etc in Second Life ?

 

 

Official Second Life Facebook page hits 300, 000 likes/fans

According to PageData, on 13th April 2013 the official Second Life Facebook page reached another big milestone of 300, 034 likes/fans which is incredible I think. It seems there’s between 700 to 800 new likes/fans every week. The official Second Life Facebook page was created on 23rd April 2009 and reached 100, 000 during late 2010. Stay connected with the latest updates from Linden Lab on the official Second Life Facebook page today!

Facebook for the SL community is at number one for social networking for SL updates and discussions. There’s huge interest on the Facebook page for SL and still the page continues to grow in terms of new likes/fans per week. In comparison Second Life has a presence on other popular social networks:

• The official Google+ Second Life page has +4,435 friends/followers. 
• The official Twitter Second Life page has 34, 571 followers
• The official Flickr Second Life group has 15, 862 members
• The official Plurk Second Life page has 494 friends/341 fans

Second Life Facebook page stats 

• 111, 000 – February 2011
• 140, 434 – May 2011
• 200, 000 – 6th November 2011
• 250, 000 – 21st April 2012
• 290, 361 – 26th January 2013
• 300, 034 – 13th April 2013

Total Likes since 18th March 2013

SL Likes page stats

 

1 week left until SL10B applications OPEN

Today marks one week to go until the SL10B resident run applications open to Second Life community. The good news is that SL10B resident applications will be available from Monday 15th April 2013 (times still unknown) for around a month I think. Watch the official SL10B blog for the latest updates on applying.

Already there is been a big interest for the upcoming SL10B community event that will be held during June 2013 to mark 10 years of Second Life.

It’s unclear if Linden Lab will involved in SL10B or not this year. It would be a real shame if nothing happens for the big occasion. Hopefully something will happen.

SL10B Planning is currently underway by the core resident SL10B team to make sure everything goes smoothly way in advance.

• Interested in applying for SL10B?
• Will you be attending SL10B?
• Did you go to SL9B or previous birthdays?

Roles that may be available for SL10B next week:

• Volunteers (greeters)
• Performers (live events)
• Exhibitors  (plots)
• Stage Managers (live event managing)
• And many more!

SL10B bookmarks to remember!

• SL10B Website: http://slcommunitycelebration.com/
• SL10B Twitter page: https://twitter.com/SLBCommunity
• SL10B Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SL10B/561781090521311/
• SL10B Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/slcommunitycelebration/
• SL10B Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109351184395034254417
• SL10B latest videos: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=c4-feed&list=PL599xlVUGKESUDVdN9oJMpqBvdQWjiylx

I’ll be blogging when I hear more about SL10B happenings.

New Second Life viewer Communications Hub User Interface (CHUI)

Today Linden Lab announced some exciting news on the official Second Life blog about a new Communications Hub User Interface (CHUI) for the Second Life viewer. To use the new CHUI you have to download version 3.5.0 (273444) of the Second Life viewer via Release Notes.

Snapshot of (CHUI)

New features

• Add participants to a conversation already in progress
• See all of your conversations and everyone in those conversations, using an inventory-like UI
• Quickly move your voice connection between conversations and effortlessly adjust individual volume or overall volume in a single click
• View all of your recent communications in one window (Conversation Log)
• See what was said in any conversation (Conversation Transcripts)
• Set Do Not Disturb to focus on other things and get all the communications (and inventory offers!) you missed, after you come back
• Choose from four levels of notification for each of five different kinds of incoming communication. You can set IMs from friends and IMs from non-friends to different levels of notification
• Turn sound on and off for four different events, such as inventory offers and teleport offers
• Access voice morphs more easily
• Get to chat preferences and privacy preferences directly from the Conversations window.
• Type your chats into an expanding, multiple-line box
• Select multiple users across different conversations and start a new conference with them
• Choose which conversations are in their own windows, and which should be in a tabbed window — you can have both now.
• Collapse any conversation to a single-line input with popup messages.
• See users and objects you have blocked in a new tab in the People window.

What is CHUI?

As we’ve previously blogged about, CHUI puts Second Life’s communications tools in a more flexible UI that lets you customize it for the ways you prefer to communicate inworld. You can even turn it all off when you want to build, make movies, or simply be left alone for a while.

Watch the NEW VIDEO below about the new (CHUI) by Torley Linden.

What do you think about the new Communications Hub User Interface (CHUI) in the Second Life viewer ? 

Patterns Now Available on Steam

It’s been announced on the Patterns Steam page that Patterns is now available to everyone which is great news after many months of waiting. Glad that Linden Lab are making progress on Patterns and it won’t be long until other non-SL products are released on Steam too I would imagine.

See below for the latest video, new announcement and what the developers think of Patterns.

See the new video mentioning that Patterns is available on Steam.

The Announcement as of 22nd March 2013:

We first launched Patterns as a ‘genesis release’ in October 2012, and we are now happy to make it available to everyone on Steam as part of the Early Access program. We are still very early in the game’s development, but have already made many updates. If you’re interested in seeing how Patterns has grown and improved so far, check out our update history in the News section. 

As genesis release users, your feedback will help shape Pattern’s evolution. Please keep the comments, screenshots, videos and your thoughts coming! Know that we are reading and paying attention to your feedback, even if we are not able to respond to every post with a comment. 

If you encounter a bug with the Patterns genesis release, please report it to us directly through buildpatterns.com/support so that we can investigate and address it. 

We’ll continue to frequently update Patterns with new features, performance improvements, bug fixes, and more, so please check in regularly to keep up to date with the latest! 

Sincerely 
Patterns Development Team

What is Patterns ?

It’s your universe to shape. Patterns is an ever-expanding 3D space, where you’ll construct simple and complex structures as you harvest substances and discover new shapes that can be used to enhance your creativity.

Patterns starts at a low level with simple, basic shapes and allows you to expand your universe as you add together other shapes to make more and more elaborate constructs. Build large scale structures that reach high into the sky or bridges that traverse wide chasms. Use your constructions to reach new areas and break out of your space to discover other worlds.

Be careful! Each substance contains different physical properties that can cause your creations to tumble, crumble or crash down to the ground. Will your creations withstand the power of gravity?

What the developers say about Patterns ?

Patterns is still in development and we are actively providing updates in order to flesh out this early experience. 

We are working hard on new features and content as well as bug fixes and tuning. Take a look at our update history to get a sense of how Patterns has evolved since we went live. Check in regularly for future updates. 

For a limited time, the Genesis version of Patterns is available for USD $9.99. That’s a savings of 50% off the regular price!

Steam is introducing early access to games. See FAQ

Happy 9th Anniversary Nova Albion in Second Life

Today Nova Albion will be celebrating it’s 9th Anniversary in Second Life which is going to be huge this year with live music, annual exciting street parade and after-party.  Back on 9th March 2004 Haney Linden announced the first official City sims in Second Life and since then the city been through many transformations over the years. Join in today and celebrate 9 years of Nova Albion in Second Life!

Nova Albion 9th Anniversary Events 

• Parade starts at 2pm SLT in the north of Miramare (SLURL)

• Music at the theater at 2:30pm SLT in Grignano (SLURL)
• Afterparty during the late afternoon

Nova Albion 9th Anniversary Parade Poster

9th Anniversary Nova Albion Map

Press Release: 

On Sunday, March 17th, please join us for the 9th annual street parade! Residents gather at 􀀀 where maps of the route will be provided. Come as you are, or dress in Circus themes! Rez spots will be available for floats and vehicles if you have them. You may wish to bring your crash helmet!

At 2:30 music and festivities will start at the end of the parade, at the 􀀁. Stay long and celebrate the rezzing of the first prims, the story of the Great Collapse and Salazar Jack’s family, Resident-driven infohub culture, the arts, and sillyness. Hang out at the iconic Brick Archway and sit on the low brick walls where so many new residents once entered SL.

Hope to see you there,

- Nova Albion Help Center
- City Slickers
- MetaHarpers

Spread the word and invite friends over to celebrate this historical event in Second Life!