2020 has been a busy year blogging about happenings in Second Life. It’s been a difficult year compared with previous years because of the on going world pandemic. Hopefully things will get better during 2021 into 2022.
I have blogged about the SL17B celebrations, Lab Gab episodes, the Linden Home developments, Relay For Life, the return of last names and more.ย
I have now reached 848 blog followers and I would like to say thanks so much for following my blog during 2020. Thanks for all the comments and likes. My blog traffic has increased slightly this year compared with 2019 and 2018.
757, 668+ hits so farย
I am excited about blogging during 2021 and hopefully beyond that. I will be blogging about the annual events in Second Life, the expansion of the Bellisseria continent, Linden Lab announcements and much more.
This is my last blog post of 2020. See you all in 2021. Happy New Year 2021 ๐
Since the start of 2020 Second Life has steadily increased it’s overall grid size in terms of regions which is very good news indeed. The total area of all regions as of 27th December 2020 is 1678.64 square kilometres. That’s still a big amount to say the least.
Good news is that both Linden Owned and Private Estates have showed signs of positive net growth this year. Yay! ๐
Main Grid Size on 27th December 2020
Total: 25, 614
Linden Owned: 8, 531
Private Estates: 17, 083
Interest for private estates has increased more in recent weeks (over 300 private estates) since Linden Lab announced that private estates were back available again in limited quantity and I think it’s back to normal now. Hopefully during 2021 there will be more interest in private estates in Second Life which would be a good thing.
Linden Lab have added hundred’s of new Linden owned regions during the course of 2020 expanding the Bellisseria continent eastwards with Linden themed style homes including victorian homes, log homes and stilt homes. The Moles have worked so hard in building new regions and then rolling it out to the public via the QA process as fast as possible. Great work! ๐
Main Grid Size on 20th January 2020
Total: 24, 147
Linden Owned: 8, 111
Private Estates: 16, 036
Ownership
Total
General
Moderate
Adult
Offline
Total Area (km๏ฟฝ)
Total
24147
2830
15059
6253
5
1582.50
Linden Owned
8111
1715
5912
484
0
531.56
Private Estates
16036
1115
9147
5769
5
1050.94
More Linden home regions are coming during 2021 which will be exciting I’m sure for the Second Life community as there is still a big demand for Linden Homes. Chalet Linden homes will be released in first part of 2021 followed by new Linden theme releases later.
Every year events like Relay for Life of Second Life, Garden Expo, Second Life birthday and other big events do effect the grid numbers for a short time. There is a surge in regions then a sudden decline once the event is over. The grid statistics are updated every week on the Second Life Grid Survey.
I hope the Second Life grid will continue to grow in size in the new year and beyond that. Linden Lab main focus is on Second Life nowadays adding more improvements and features. I will blog about the grid statistics at various times during 2021. Stay tuned for that.
There have been many good memories from my bugs bunny adventures in Second Life during 2020 so far. I am looking forward to my 2021 adventures around the grid and I will share them on my blog throughout the new year. I can’t wait.
Here are my favourite snapshots from 2020 below.
Exploring the roads of the bellisseria continent – February 2020Visiting the Eiffel Tower in Second Life – March 2020London City visit – March 2020Entering the new log homes continent – April 2020The log homes new land area – April 2020Bellisseria Fairgrounds – May 2020SL17B opening day – June 2020The Stilt Linden homes preview opening – June 2020Bugs Bunny drinking at SL17B – June 2020Shopping – June 2020New party area discovery – July 2020The cave hangout – August 2020Summer fun time – August 2020The railway crossing – September 2020The railway expansion – October 2020Winter Wonderland – November 2020Chalet Linden homes preview – December 2020Christmas exploring – December 2020
During the last 12 hours or so it appears more Stilt Linden homes are being released to the public in Second Life along with Traditional, Houseboats, Victorian and Log homes. There is roughly 2.300 homes still unclaimed spread over 92 regions showing as Protected Land.
The fastest way of getting a Linden Home is through the Second Life land selection page. More homes will be released in the days and weeks ahead. For those wanting the new release of Stilt homes you have a choice of ones on water, land and on a pier.
More green dots moving into Stilt homes On land Stilts
Stay updated on the latest community discussion here.
Since the summer there has been some interesting developments, news and events that have taken place in Second Life. The lab announced the Second Life Endowment for the Arts (SLEA) a new community arts initiative, the new Second Life public calendar, the availability of private regions again and much more.
Linden Lab moved 100% of Second Life regions into the cloud (AWS) recently, launched the official Second Life Merchandise Store and released the Stilt homes.
See part 1 – January to July 2020 review blog post.
See part 2 below for August to December 2020
See my 2021 predictions at bottom of this blog post
August 2020
In early August Philip Rosedale the founder of Second Life and the co-Founder of High Fidelity went live on Lab Gab episode 23 to talk about the origins of Second Life and Linden Lab. Philip talked about hanging out at the new Linden Homes continent, the virus pandemic, the rig, the status of High Fidelity, his Second Life avatar, a little about the Linden Lab acquisition (saying itโs a good thing) and much more.
The YavaScript Pod Tours got support from Linden Lab to continue the pod tour operations across the grid. A further expansion is expected to happen in the near future.
The Shelter closed down at the end of August after 16 years of operating in Second Life. The reasons are numerous and too lengthy from the Shelter Leadership. The Shelter was a good place for newbies to get started in Second Life, get freebies, hang out during live music events and much more. There used to be volunteers who helped new residents out every day.
September 2020
Linden Lab announced the Second Life Endowment for the Arts (SLEA) a new community arts initiative developed in partnership with Tansee and Hannington Xeltentat. The SLEA will be starting in January 2021 and will be operating across seven regions supplied by Linden Lab, supported by a board of advisers and volunteers.
In late September Linden Lab launched the official Second Life Merchandise Store which โoffers Second Life and Linden Lab branded clothing and accessories, with a very inclusive range of sizesโ. The Second Life Merchandise Store is now live here and itโs worth mentioning that this on-line store is hosted by RedBubble.
October 2020
Linden Lab posted a blog post in early October about registering for the U.S. Elections.
Virtual Worlds Are Made By Real People
Just as we are free to create and shape the virtual world of Second Life, we canโt forget the power that we also have to shape the physical world.
We are all a part of something, and your voice matters. Register to vote today!
To vote in the 2020 U.S. election, you can register in person or online. Voter registration deadlines vary from state to state, with cutoffs ranging from 7-30 days before the election.
Itโs also important to check if your state requires identification, find your polling location, and apply for an absentee ballot if you canโt make it in person. Click here for more information.
Donโt forget that if your legal name, address, or political affiliation has changed, itโs best to update your information to make sure your vote counts.
Weโre in a really exciting time in the history of Second Life. Weโre in the home stretch on moving the grid to the cloud. We hit a fun milestone a few days ago, and now thereโs over 1,000 regions running in the cloud!
My 14th rez day in Second Life. It seems so long ago now since I signed up. It really has been an amazing journey from exploring places across the grid, writing blog posts, meeting loads of talented people, sharing snapshots and much more. Second Life is still the best virtual world out there and I love being apart of the community.
In light of more regions being moved to the cloud, we are pleased to announce that we are ready to begin offering new private region purchases in limited quantities. As we continue to uplift more of the grid, more regions will become available over time, eventually leading to the Land Store being reopened.
Type
Setup Fee
Maintenance Fee(monthly)
Full Region
$349
$229
Skill Gaming Region
$600
$345
Homestead Region
$149
$109
Oz Linden (VP of Engineering) and Mazidox Linden (Lead QA Engineer) talked about the progress on Uplift on Lab Gab. Very interesting stuff here.
Linden Lab added the Stilt Linden Home regions along with interesting region names. There are many water regions, houseboat regions and new areas to explore. By mid November there were over 100 Stilt regions on the grid with 25 Stilts per region on average.
Linden Lab confirmed 50% of Second Life regions moved into the cloud. Got official confirmation from Strawberry Linden via Twitter. 100% of Second Life regions moved happened roughly a week later. Well done to the Uplift team for moving all regions way ahead of schedule.
Hi Daniel, this is Strawberry. I have confirmed with our Sr. Engineering Manager, April Linden, that over half the regions in Second Life are now running in the cloud.
Linden Lab introduced a new Second Life public calendar where everyone can view upcoming Linden Lab sponsored events and user group meetings. Very useful indeed.
Weโve heard your requests and weโre introducing a new public Google calendar that will have all Linden Lab official events listed. This new calendar offers a convenient way to get an at-a-glance look at upcoming User Group meetings and other Linden Lab-sponsored events
December 2020
The Arcade December 2020 round opened. The โquarterly gacha event features 100 of the gridโs best designers and builders, each whom offer a collection of high-quality prizes sold at random from gacha machines within The Arcadeโs buildโ.
The new Chalet Linden Home theme preview was unveiled to the public at the 2020 SL Christmas Expo in early December. There are four new styles of homes in this release which is Reizend, Alpenrose, Matterhorn and Edelweiss. The inspiration was German and the theme was specifically prototyped after the village of Helen, GA in the northeast Georgia mountains.
The Firestorm team released a new version of the popular Firestorm viewer (6.4.12.62831) which includes the full release of EEP โ Environment Enhancement Project, camera presets, some redesigned UI panels and functionality within the viewer. Firestorm 6.4.12 brings the viewer with the labโs 6.4.11 viewer code base.
The Stilt Linden Home release started on 21st December. The release roll out will continue in the days and weeks ahead.
Update 23rd December
Howdy!
Back with another update, and probably the last prior to the Holidays. I have restored my original release post above.
We have concluded several rounds of testing region releases and have determined that we can proceed at a paced release. We will release regions on a timed frequency throughout the rest of today while monitoring systems and progress. We will pick up doing so again after the Holidays. I can not predict how many we may get through or by when, but weโll do our best to get as many out as safely possible.
That said, the KVP system while fixed is probably not in an optimal place. Please do not play โGame of Homesโ โ that is if you get a new home, hold on to it for a few days before releasing the home to try and get another. This is for any home types. The more stress and load we place on the affected systems, the more likely it will become that we may have to stop deploying regions.
Thanks again for everyoneโs patience and to the many of you who worked through this with us.
Happy Holidays! Patch, the Moles and the Second Life Land Operations team
Second Life 2021 –The Year Ahead
More news on the Linden Lab acquisition hopefully
Second Life Premium Plus possible launch
The IOS and Android beta version of the Second Life mobile app will be released
The Mole team will announce new Linden Home themes 8 to 10 possibly. The log homes were released earlier in 2020 and just recently the Stilts has been released in a phrased approach.
The Chalet release is expected to happen in early 2021 hopefully before Easter.
The Bellisseria continent will continue to expand out further southwards and eastwards.
Itโs that time of the year when I look back at what happened in Second Life and again so much as happened this year in terms of Second Life. The expansion of the Bellisseria continent with new Linden home themes, the return of last names, EEP going live grid-wide, Second Life regions moving into the cloud and much more.
Here is what happened during the first seven months of 2020. See part 2 for August to December 2020.
January 2020
A rather quiet month for Second Life news. Most was small announcements and press releases.
February 2020
Linden Lab made operational and personnel changes after few rumours about changes at the lab. There were layoffs however many returned to Second Life to make it better.
Linden Lab expanded support and reduced prices for Education & Nonprofits. The pricing was a flat $99/month per region to qualified accredited non-profit and educational instillations.
Ebbe Altberg CEO of Linden Lab posted a message on the Second Life blog on the coronavirus situation and Second Life operations. Ebbe mentioned that โSecond Life will continue to be available without interruption as we get through this tough time togetherโ. The lab saw an increase in new registrations and returning residents in Second Life during the start of the outbreak.
A new mass of regions arrived on the grid east of the Bellisseria continent. Roughly 96 regions were added and they turned out to form the log homes continent.
Wookey Project Corp. acquired Sansar in late March 2020. Linden Lab main focus moved towards Second Life and Tilia. Operations at Second Life have not impacted at all.
April 2020
The log homes release saw over 4, 800 new Linden homes spreading over 230 regions. The release came with four styles of log homes, vast rural regions with stunning scenery and the railway.
Linden Lab announced the return of last names for the Second Life community. The last names option is for Second Life Premium members. The last names pool will be refreshed on a regular basis.
Mid April 2020 marked Bellisseria first anniversary in Second Life since the second generation of Linden Homes first opened to the public. A new batch of pink SSP regions (50 regions) arrived on the grid where new developments from the Moles were taking place.
Linden Lab released the Environment Enhancement Project (EEP) grid wide in Second Life. All regions on the grid supports EEP. This included legacy Windlight environments and more customization.
May 2020
Bay City celebrated their twelve anniversary in Second Life which included the annual parade and live concert.
Linden Lab delayed the Second Life Premium Plus roll out to early 2021 at the earliest. The delay was due to the Uplift project.
Linden Lab limited the availability of new Second Life regions until the Autumn due to the ongoing public health crisis. Apparently the lab did have a โhealthy supply of mainlandโ including entire mainland regions.
Linden Lab rolled out the new logo for Second Life which featured a more cleaner, bright and bolder font than the older logo.
June 2020
MC, Bellisseria & GOR joined together for 10 days of relay and raised $50, 610. The relay team said this โThe 10 Days of Relay was an incredible event with so many people participating in so many different waysโ.
The SL17B regions opened up to the public with a opening speech by Patch Linden. There was a high audience attendance in nearby regions and via the live online stream of it.
* โThe acquisition is subject to regulatory approval by financial regulators in the U.S. related to Tilia Inc.โs status as a licensed money transmitter as well as other customary closing conditionsโ.S
* Since July the lab have kept quiet about the current situation. There may be further updates in the first part 2021.
Firestorm team released a EEP public beta version of the Firestorm Viewer (6.4.5.60799) which comes with support for the Environment Enhancement Project (EEP).
It looks likely there will be a release on 23rd December however it’s unlikely the lab will release Stilts during the Christmas weekend ahead. It’s possible the full release may be pushed back into early next week.
Update 23rd December
Howdy! Back with another update, and probably the last prior to the Holidays.ย ย I have restored my original release post above.ย
We have concluded several rounds of testing region releases and have determined that we can proceed at a paced release.ย We will release regions on a timed frequency throughout the rest of today while monitoring systems and progress.ย ย We willย pick up doing so again after the Holidays.ย ย I can not predict how many we may get through or by when, but we’ll do our best to get as many out as safely possible.ย That said, the KVP system while fixed is probably not in an optimal place.ย ย Please do not play “Game of Homes”ย – that is if you get a new home, hold on to it for a few days before releasing the home to try and get another.ย This is for any home types.ย The more stress and load we place on the affected systems, the more likely it will become that we may have to stop deploying regions. Thanks again for everyone’s patience and to the many of you who worked through this with us.
Happy Holidays! Patch, the Moles and the Second Life Land Operations team
22nd December update on Stilts – As of 2.07pm SLT.
Hey Folks!
Another quick update – the team involved in fixing up the issues is hard at work on many things, our issue preventing us from doing a large scale release is one of the many things they are working on with all things uplift. Tomorrow is another day and we’re ready to release more homes as soon as they can get things fixed up for us to move forward.
Again, thank you for your patience and I’ll post another update as quickly as I can.
-Patch
—————————————–
Here is the latest second update from Patch Linden inworld in response to a question about a possible release today for Tuesday 22nd December 2020. It’s not good news at the moment however the lab are working hard to resolve the issue.
22nd December Update
Patch Linden: We can’t until an engineer can fix the issue with experience tools grid-wide… I’ve got my fingers crossed but the issue is largely out of my team’s hands unfortunately
The issue can be found on the Second Life Grid Status Reports page. Follow the discussion on the Linden Homes section on the Second Life Forums.
It could be pushed back into the first week of January 2021 who knows
I will update my blog if anything new developments in the days ahead. Stay tuned.
The issue is still being looked at and hopefully it will be resolved very soon.ย
——————————
2pm SLT – Patch Linden has delayed the Stilt home regions release. See the post here.ย
Hi Everyone!
An update on where we’re at with the Stilt home regions release.ย ย We tried with all of our might today to get them in to everyone’s hands that wants them.ย Sadly our plans were thwarted by unforeseen complications.ย We’re hoping to work through some more of thisย tomorrow, andย I’ll be back with another update as quickly as possible!
Have a great eveningย and thank you for your patience with us as we work through these issues.
-Patch, the Moles and the Second Life Land Operations team
11.50am SLT – The operations team ran into issues with the test release of a single region and then tried a 2nd single region. Now they are trying to resolve issues before releasing the rest of the regions
11.36am SLT – Clamdigger & Gorgeous Aurelia Beach becomes the next regions to be releasedย
We have a new Linden Homes release, this time featuring Stilt Homes and House Boats.ย ย There are 3900 Stilt Homes, and 552 House Boats in this release.
The stilt homes offer upscale living along the coasts of Bellisseria. Homes are raised on stilts, well above sea level, in the style of many shoreline homes in the Southeastern USA. Some homes are placed along or very near to the beach. Others are over water, attached to wooden piers. Others still are freestanding over water, only accessible by boat. Enjoy the luxury of a home on a full-sized 1024 sq m parcel and access to nearby shared public recreation areas.
You may choose any one of the four one-story or two-story styles from your house controller, regardless of where your stilt home parcel lies. Each has a large deck, where you can enjoy an evening meal or watch the waves. (Note: some land-based parcels may still have a small amount of water within the parcel lines, while some water/pier-based parcels may have a small amount of land in them.)
We hope you enjoy the new homes as we continue to grow the Bellisseria continent and community.
Happy Holidays!
Patch, the Moles and the Second Life Land Operations team
Older updates will show below…
The best way to get a new Stilt Linden Home is via the land selection page. Traditional, Campers, Houseboats, Log Homes are showing up at the moment.ย
9.30am SLT – Crowd gathers in Faradayย
9.40am SLT – The first test region went live in Alagoon
9.50am SLT – The Stilt regions go live
A test region has failed to pass this morning – delays likely nowย
Oz Linden has provided a update on the world map issue in Second Life via the Second Life Server section on the Second Life Forums.
The data needed to generate the maps has been moved to AWS however the code that works has not yet moved. The move is now in progress and this may take some time to be completed successfully.
Thisย isย a temporary situation…ย the data needed to generate the maps has been moved to AWS, but the code that does the work has not yet. Because of how the datacenter version expected to fetch that data, it was not possible for us to make it work until the code has beenย moved too. That move is in progress and shouldn’t be too much longer (sorry, I don’t want to jinx the developer by setting a date).
No date or ETA has been announced yet from the lab. I would imagine the move will be completed before the end of January or at the latest February.
Daniel Voyager 