Month August 2011

Popular SL news during August 2011

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This is the August 2011 edition of popular Second Life news in case you have missed something this month with links and dates. It’s impossible to list everything that has been popular during any one month. I try to include stories that I think have been popular during each month in Second Life.

I hope you appreciate the time I take to publish these monthly posts.  🙂

Feedback on August SL highlights?

  • Do you have any highlights of August 2011 ?
  • Perhaps it was the mesh rollout or SLCC 2011 ?
  • Feel free to write in comments your highlights!

Rod Humble interview with design3

Daniel Voyager 2 Comments

Rod Humble talks about games design, development and Second Life in this recent interview with design3. I thought the interview was interesting and inspiring throughout the 8 minutes / 7 seconds of the video.

design3 got a chance to talk to Rod Humble at the UCSC ‘Inventing the Future of Games’ Symposium.

At 4 minutes in the video Rod Humble talks about Second Life which is always good to hear. Here are my favourite quotes from the interview below.

  • Rod says “I think what attracted me to Second Life is it was so unique”
  • “The economy is entirely driven by the players”
  • “Boy, that connected me”
  • “They care awful lot about that”
  • “I think that, to me it was this logical progression”
  • “Second Life was right there already”
At 4 minutes and 57 seconds the interviewer asks a question about the debate about video games being considered art.
  • Rod says “I think it’s over”
  • “I made games that I created”
  • “At this point you’re in a time machine business”
  • “It’s time machine time”
At 6 minutes the interviewer asks about what advice would Rod give to someone who is new to games development.
  • “I would say if you’re not a programmer then start with board games”
  • “You can make a game this weekend”
  • “It’s not hard”
  • “It is a learned skill”
  • “You don’t have to learn C++ to make a game anymore”
  • “There’s tools out there like game maker, there’s dark basic, all these are very easy to use tools”
  • “Then you’re off to the races”
  • Rod says “I encourage everyone who likes games who thinks its interesting to do it and my hope is that there will be a bunch of ideas”

At the end of the video the interviewer asks Rod what one word he would give to sum up video games design. Rod says “Glorious” which is a great word to use I think.

Two Grendel’s Children sims closed down

Daniel Voyager 6 Comments

Yesterday I heard the shocking news that two of the four Grendel’s Children sims will be closing in Second Life. Today it appears those two sims that closed down have already been sold. The downsizing is due to a lack of support from Linden Lab which is sad to hear about. The good news is that Grendel’s Children will still remain on the grid.

Above: Snapshot of the Grendel’s Children inside and hovering in the sky. 

Grendel’s Children is one of my favourite places to buy fantastic high quality avatars and you have probably noticed that when you see me in world or via online SL snapshots. I enjoy changing my avatar appearance monthly because each avatar I wear has the WOW factor I think. When I visit Grendel’s Children I’m amazed at all the awesome creativity there is when browsing through the different ranges of avatars on the walls.

Above: Snapshot of the Grendel’s 4 regions with two appearing offline/closed

I first heard about Grendel’s during my transfer phrase back in December 2008 and I remember visiting Grendel’s during my first week on the main grid of Second Life. In 2009, 2010 and 2011 I have told new residents to visit Grendel’s for amazing avatars because it has a huge presence in Second Life. I have been to a few Show and Tell events which were fascinating and interesting to hear about how it was made.

I don’t know if you have but I have noticed a big increase of well known sims and landmarks disappear from Second Life this year which is very heart breaking and sad news.

View my snapshots of Grendel’s here

Metaverse Island closing until new theme builds are announced

Daniel Voyager 1 Comment

UPDATE: Region is due to be wiped of old builds after 31st August 2011 and then the team will be working on new builds with a new theme etc on the island. Stay tuned!

Just found out that the well known Metaverse Island after 2 years in Second Life will be closing down for a while. Tomorrow (28th August 2011) is the last chance to look at the current builds before the builds are removed.

There will be a special beach party at 3pm SLT today located inworld here.

After two years the lovely build at Metaverse Island will be coming to a close. The island was built by renowned Second Life architect Lumiere Noir. Noir is most known for his work in creating the Ivory Tower of Primitives, and first stop for users in Second Life who are learning to build. For two years Metaverse TV and the Metaverse Tribune have called it home, but with the introduction of mesh and larger prim size limits we have decided we will rebuild with a new theme to be announced in the coming weeks.

To celebrate the builds closing there will be a beach party event held on Sunday August 28th, 2011 at 3PM SLT/PST (SLURL). Come celebrate and take one more look at this great build. The sim will remain open until August 31st at midnight.

Metaverse Island can be found on SL Destination Guide page here.

This architecturally impressive region is the home of Metaverse TV and Metaverse Tribune, which are online news and entertainment sources for virtual communities.

Inworld location information about Metaverse Island.

FREE scripted tvs for both v.2 and other viewers, live music, events, live tv programmes, hang out at the beautiful sim created by Lumiere Noir METAVERSE ISLAND

InWorldz Homes & Residences Exhibit 2011

Daniel Voyager 2 Comments

Opening day is Wednesday 31st August 2011 for the upcoming InWorldz Homes & Residences Exhibit event. Viewing month is September 2011 and there will be 42 exhibits to see and find out more about. Sounds really interesting!

You can find the InWorldz Homes & Residences Exhibits by teleporting to the InWorldz Events A, B, C & D regions which are shown below.

Also

There is another exciting event coming up this weekend InWorldz which is the InWorldz Freebie Finders Birthday Bash 2011. There will be a special birthday party to celebrate it’s 1st birthday on Sunday 28th August 2011.

Woooot!