Sansar has been making the rounds in the past week or so after Sansar went down last week. The reason for the downtime is unknown but it could be because of a recent AWS outage. The good news is that Sansar has come back online since then and the Sansar website. The Wookey management team are now actively looking to resolve the issues on the platform and they hope things will start running smoothly soon.
One of the issues has been trying to resolve the furlough of Sansar employees that has gone on since September 2021. There are probably more reasons behind the scenes that the public can not know about. I think there needs to be more updated and regular communications going on during platform outages etc.
hi there. this is steve from the wookey management – sansar team. i thought i’d pop in to let you know we are actively looking to resolve the issues on the platform. we value our community big time, and hoping we can get things running smoothly soon. … we appreciate your patience and understanding… happy holidays from the wookey team!!!
More updates will be posted on my blog very soon. Hopefully the Wookey management team will resolve the issues as soon as possible.
There have been many highs and lows during 2021 in Second Life and I have tried my best in covering the big news and events here on my blog. Thanks to all my blog readers, subscribers and followers throughout 2021. Thanks to all those that spread the word and made comments this year. There will be more blog posts coming in 2022.
Here is a look back at the 10 most read stories of 2021.
Most of the blog traffic has come from the United States and United Kingdom this year
Totals so far
889 blog subscribers / 5, 892 other followers
824, 911 blog hits
2022: The Road Ahead
I am excited on what 2022 will reveal and bring everyone. My main blog focus will be on Linden Lab happenings, Bellisseria continent developments, Second Life major events and much more. I am sure it’s going to be another busy year for blogging with more interesting announcements, overall Second Life improvements, closures/departures and more.
Marianne McCann has released this new press release this week for the upcoming Bay City Prim Drop event in Second Life to celebrate the new year 2022. There will be live music, fireworks, food and drink along with huge celebrations. You really don’t want to miss this!
Please spread the word 🙂
Full Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Marianne McCann Bay City Alliance marianne.mccann@gmail.com
BAY CITY PREPARES FOR THIS YEAR’S “PRIM DROP”
Bay City’s Gala New Year’s event set for 31st December
BAY CITY, SL (27th December, 2021) – Citizens of Bay City, Second Life’s® city by the bay, will be marking the end of the year in fine fashion, attending the annual “Prim Drop” in the Bay City Fairgrounds in North Channel on the evening of the 31st of December. The party will include an expanded, two-hour set of DJed tunes presented by Marianne McCann, as well as fireworks and other festive fun. Food, drink, and other party favors will be provided for all attendees.
The event is an outdoor, high-class, wintertime soirée, and black tie attire and/or full dress is requested. All Second Life® Residents are welcome to attend and ring in the New Year with the Bay City community.
This will also be the last event within Bay City this year for donating to Child’s Play Charity (www.childsplaycharity.org). Child’s Play is a 501c3 non profit organization offers online communities such as ours an opportunity to help seriously ill children around the globe during their hospital stays with the purchase of games and gaming equipment.
As of today, Bay City has raised L$431,938 this season for Child’s Play, and hopes to complete the season at or beyond L$500,000.
Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab® and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest group for Residents of Bay City. For more information, please contact Marianne McCann.
The Second Life user concurrency levels have remained mostly stable through 2021 which is good to see. At the start of 2021 there was slightly more residents online reaching almost up to 58, 000 at max on a daily average in Second Life. In the summer months the Second Life user concurrency levels dropped which is normally the usual trends every year. Since September 2021 the user concurrency levels have gone up a bit averaging around 53, 000 to 55, 000 at max every day as of December 2021.
December 2021 Daily Concurrency Levels
Maximum Daily Concurrency: 53, 000 to 55, 000 (average)
Median Daily Concurrency: 38, 000 to 41, 000 (average)
Minimum Daily Concurrency: 29, 000 to 32, 000 (average)
During 2021 there have been some rather sharp dips in the user concurrency which is most likely during various grid outages which do happen from time to time. The big dips were on 30th March, 31st August and 14th December. In 2020 it was the same amount more or less.
Last year there was a max peak of 60, 068 on 13th April 2020 and this year the max peak was 57, 746 on 23rd March 2021. During the past year it’s not surpassed 61, 000 or anything like in previous years going over the 70, 000-80, 000 mark.
Second Life User Concurrency During 2020
It will be interesting to see if the first half of 2022 will follow the usual trends which is likely to happen. It would be good to see the user concurrency levels rise higher next year due to more Second Life media coverage.
My next Second Life user concurrency report will be published in April 2022.
This is a special blog post looking back at what happened in Second Life between August 2021 to December 2021. The last half of 2021 has been busy at times for big news pretty much and here is what happened below. So much has happened this year including many good memories and some not so good ones.
I hope 2022 will be another great year for Second Life in general terms and that it continues to grow in size. The new management team have recently announced the 2022 roadmap for Second Life which sounds very promising.
On 2nd August Linden Lab announced the end of the use of gacha machines within Second Life and they must be discontinued by content creators by midnight SLT on Tuesday 31st August 2021. There was huge discussion about this news on the Second Life forums for some time. The lab put together a useful FAQ on the main blog post soon after.
In early August Linden Lab rolled out the new look join Second Life page with new gender selection options. New users can select the GENDER-VARIANT/NON-BINARY tick box for their starter avatar when they log into Second Life for the first time. The new look join Second Life page has the usual required details to fill out including username, password, email, date of birth, security question/answer and starting avatar gender.
On 13th August the new Fantasy sub continent got released and a handful of regions were released. The Moles are working on the coastline orbit adding new homes and new areas.
Andrew Kertesz (Mojo Linden) became the new Vice President of Engineering at Linden Lab from late August 2021. Andrew has more than 20 years experience in the games industry and he is an expert in building teams and launching ground-breaking games across genres that push respective platforms.
On 20th August marked three years since the first SSP batch of regions arrived on the grid. Back in August 2018 there was just 80 SSP regions and since then thousands of regions have been added to make up the Bellisseria continent we know today.
Start of the SSP development phrase of the Bellisseria continent in mid August 2018
September 2021
The Firestorm Project reached it’s 11th anniversary in early September 2021. The Firestorm viewer is one of the most popular and most used third party viewers out there today.
Firestorm Viewer Log On Screen – September 2021
In late September 2021 Linden Lab announced an additional way for Second Life residents to protect their accounts. The Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is available to all residents and it provides an extra level of security.
October 2021
Linden Lab announced new Halloween limited edition last names in early October. The lab was very pleased to see the responses to the limited edition last names.
BURN2 2021 opened to the public in early October featuring a whole lot of events on the playa. Once again the event was a huge success. More events are planned for 2022.
Linden Lab paused development of the Second Life mobile app for iOS and Android. The team is still actively working on a new direction which will be talked about during 2022.
After reviewing the current state of the SL Mobile Viewer and the helpful feedback from residents, we have decided to pause development on this branch. The team is actively working on a new direction to take from here. We should have some news on that soon.
Avi Arrow in Second Life sadly passed away at her home on Saturday 23rd October 2021 surrounded by her family. Avi Arrow was the administrator of the Ivory Tower in Natoma. Avi primarily managed the property and the Ivory Tower of Prims group. Avi Arrow was my friend in Second Life who has been a resident for over 15 years now. Avi was talented, generous and very clever I think. Avi helped so many people over the years on how to build in Second Life and much more.
Second Life trended on Twitter in late October from the Facebook Meta announcement. Facebook is focused on moving away from social media to the metaverse.
On 31st October marked my 15th Rez Day in Second Life. Read more here about my journey so far. I still think Second Life is the best virtual world out there today and as the lab has said many times Second Life is here to stay for many more years to come.
November 2021
In early November April Linden departed Linden Lab after 8 years. April Linden helped moved Second Life to the cloud (Amazon AWS). Good luck April.
The new Fantasy community centre was open to the public in early November. It’s worth checking out if you have not been so far.
The Drax Files ended after seven years as viewers declined over time. Drax produced many amazing podcasts over the years covering a huge range of Second Life topics.
Linden Lab gives Second Life search a facelift after many years. The lab have not changed the algorithm that the search feature uses in any way. More changes are due to happen in 2022.
December 2021
In early December the 2021 SL Christmas Expo opened to the public featuring over 150 stores spread over 15 Christmas regions. On 6th December the new Linden Home theme was revealed to the public. Modern homes was showcased on the Linden Reveal region in the north east corner.
Linden Lab announced email preference changes which involved receiving group notices in email. Receiving group notifications went live from 15th December and there is a option to opt-in or out.
Linden Lab announced new Winter last names which are still available until 5th January 2022.
Snowflake
Kringle
Yule
Fruitcake
Ninnymuggins
Humbug
Hollyberry
Jinglepaw
On 8th December 2021 Patch Linden confirmed that the old Linden homes will be phased out and/or repurposed. Patch Linden at the moment does not know the timing on when that will be.
My Second Life2022 Predictions
Linden Lab will allow for more groups
Larger 2048 m² parcel sizes
There will be at least two new Linden Home themes announced/released
Land Prices lowered slightly
Announcement about old Linden Home continents closing down or possible upgrade instead
I can’t wait for 2022 to arrive. I will blog about the news and events along the way as I have done in previous years. I have no idea what the new year will bring but I am sure it’s going to be a good one.
This is a special blog post looking back over the past 12 months in terms of Second Life, Linden Lab and OpenSim. 2021 has been another eventful year with big announcements, some sad departures, celebrations and cool events.
2021 has been a busy year for blogging once again reporting about the expansion of the Bellisseria continent, the news that Linden Lab went under new ownership, the passing of Ebbe Altberg, the inworld map tiles not working, the ending of gacha machines, the revamp of the Second Life website/join page and much more.
This is part 1 looking at January 2021 through to July 2021.
January 2021
Linden Lab started the year with big news announcing that the regulatory review has been completed and that Linden Lab is under new ownership. Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager signed an agreement to acquire the company announced in mid 2020. The migration of Second Life to the cloud was completed and mentioned in the 2021 Update: Life in the Cloud blog post.
Strawberry Linden talked with SLEA coordinator Tansee, Patch Linden (VP of Product Operations) and Brett Linden (VP of Marketing) on Lab Gab. This was the first Lab Gab episode of 2021 featuring a tour of the SLEA regions.
Inworld map tiles were not working throughout January and the lab restored the map tile functionality in the months that followed. Due to work on the Uplift.
February 2021
Linden Lab announced a new round of Last Names because of the completion of the Uplift. The lab rolls out new rounds of last names throughout the year.
Oz Linden who was the Vice President of Engineering at Linden Lab announced on the Second Life Forums that he was leaving Linden Lab. Oz Linden joined Grumpity Linden on Lab Gab to chat about AWS and his years at the lab.
There was a new Second Life article on Quartz on how Second Life economy boomed during the Covid-19 crisis. There was a 60% increase in new user registrations compared to the year before. There was sustained growth in currency and economic activity.
March 2021
Patch Linden VP of Product Operations talked about Linden Homes at RFL Home & Garden Expo 2021. Patch talked about the process and issues with the move to the cloud, testing of the new user experience, the old Linden Homes and more. The plans to roll out the next three Linden Home themes.
VWBPE 2021 opened on the grid and Patch Linden addressed Second Life community talking about education and non-profit organisations. Patch talked about the new owners, priorities over the year ahead, gateways, new user experience and much more.
April 2021
Bellisseria – 15th April 2021
Bellisseria celebrated it’s Second Anniversary celebrations on 15th April 2021. Bellisseria started with 384 regions and now there are triple the amount of regions on the grid featuring many nice Linden Home themes. The Moles and the Lindens have done a great job on expanding the Bellisseria continent during 2021 adding more new interesting areas and more Linden Homes like the Chalets/Fantasy ones.
Inworld map tiles was fixed by Linden Lab on 19th April 2021. Maestro Linden and Nat Linden worked hard directly on the re-coding of the Map Tile generation system for some time.
I could do this all day! Our Linden Devs & QA have been working so hard to bring maps back and fix map zoom levels! Thank you for all your hard work! #SecondLifepic.twitter.com/vrTVTnfth3
Linden Lab revamped the Second Life homepage featuring a big shiny blue Second Life logo that appears for a few seconds. A avatar is featured with Explore, Discover and Create near it. There are some quick links in the top right corner for Download, Marketplace, Language, Login and Sign Up.
The Kitely Market surpassed 500 grids milestone which is amazing. Exportables and listings have been increasing on the Kitely Market offering a useful way for OpenSim users to buy legal and legitimate content.
May 2021
The Fantasy Faire raised almost 24 million ($95, 000 US Dollars) Linden Dollars for 2021 thanks to the Second Life community. This is all in support of Relay For Life and the American Cancer Society.
OpenSim reached the 100, 000 regions milestone for the first time in mid May 2021. OSgrid, Kitely, ZetaWorlds, DigiWorldz and the Discovery Grid had the most regions for April 2021. OSgrid, DigiWorldz,, AviWorlds, Tag Grid and Metropolis had the most active users on them for April 2021.
Stilts was the most popular choice for Linden Home themes in 2021 from the poll I created. Stilts had 53 votes (42.06%) followed by Chalets with 19 votes (15.08%) in second place with Victorian getting just 14 votes (11.11%).
June 2021
Linden Lab experimented with a new map feature on the east side of the Hippotropolis region in Second Life. A white compass medallion visually showed up on the World Map.
Ebbe at Meet & Greet 2014
Patch Linden announces that Ebbe Altberg CEO of Linden Lab passed away on Friday 4th June 2021. Ebbe Altberg became CEO of Linden Lab back on 5th February 2014 and changed Second Life for the better in my eyes. Ebbe brought more transparency between the lab and the Second Life community. Ebbe had good communications going on via Twitter with the residents of Second Life.
Ebbe Altberg memorial at Altberg region
Ebbe understood Second Life and made a huge difference in so many ways. Like bringing in Project Bento, Mesh, EEP, annual snowball fights, attending big events, reduced mainland costs, launched the second generation of Linden Homes and much more.
Second Life 18th birthday (SL18B) opened to the public in Second Life on 17th June 2021. Patch Linden gave his opening address at SL18B Live Stage. Patch briefly talked about the new user experience, the next LH theme was announced which is Fantasy and his time working with Brett Linden. Patch Linden talked about Ebbe Altberg and how he changed Second Life for the better. He will never be forgotten. There was a minute of silence to remember.
Brad Oberwager appeared on the special SL18B episode of Lab Gab along with the Leadership Team on Monday 21st June 2021. Brad talked about basically a “four pillars” approach in terms of decision making from what is going to bring in new users?, what is going to make existing uses happier?, what will lead to more engagement? and what is going to offer Linden employees to be happier?.
Brad did mention that he doesn’t expect to see change for change sake for Second Life in the short term however change will come over time.
Linden Lab added new Welcome Islands on the grid for the new user experience. The new Welcome islands came online on 27th June 2021.
The new Welcome Island Guidebook is available to view by using the default Second Life official viewer. The new Welcome Island Guidebook covers the basics from how to move your avatar & camera, how to use nearby chat, IM and voice, interacting with objects, changing your avatar, avatar attachments and finding places to go.
July 2021
In early July 2021 Linden Lab started to let new residents go through the new Welcome Islands when using the default Second Life viewer. The new user experience has been completely been revamped with a new layout and a new Welcome Island Guidebook.
Firestorm team released Firestorm Viewer 6.4.21.64531 which included big improvements, bug fixes, new water transparency performance options, showing/hiding voice visualisers and new option to report the SLURL of the region you completed a teleport from.
Part 2 will be published very soon looking at what happened between August 2021 and December 2021. Stay tuned for that.
On Thursday 23rd December Linden Lab released it’s 2021 – Second Life Year In Review blog post mentioning some of the main highlights of the year. The lab reflects on the key accomplishments for 2021 from the succesful migration to the cloud, performance improvements, new features, new user experience improvements, the release of two different Linden Home themes and more.
2021 Key Highlights
Improved speed and cadence of updates in performance. Overhauling the new user experience (welcome islands/new user guidebook), various UI and search improvements
The infrastructure in the Cloud improved throughout 2021
Chalet and Fantasy Linden Home themes were released. Newbrooke will be available very soon
Receiving group notices in email
More time limited themed last names became available through 2021
Support for multi-factor authentication was introduced this year
New 360 Snapshot Tool enables 360-degree snapshots
Over 140 Second Life Marketplace updates and fixes. Like these highlights like “tying Marketplace into the overall single sign-on (SSO) system, adding a “Save For Later” feature in the shopping cart, adding bulk redelivery for merchants, as well as fixing several issues and improving speed and stability”.
And more!
There was mentions of Ebbe Altberg who sadly passed away earlier this year and Oz Linden who retired earlier this year. Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden) stepped in as the Executive Chairman following the succesful acquisition of Linden Lab by an investment group run by Randy Waterfield.
Linden Lab mentions the 2022 roadmap in the blog post which sounds pretty interesting. Stay tuned for more Lab Gab episodes and weekly user group office hours which are planned. The annual shopping and larger popular events will be happening next year.
Avatar “expressiveness” that brings camera-based gestures and movement to your avatar for a whole new level of interaction and connectedness
Premium Plus – a new upgrade option with added features and extras
A new mobile viewer to enhance and improve your Second Life experience
Improved group chat reliability
Viewer and script performance improvements
New user avatar customization and improvements
Updated mesh optimizer
Search engine improvements
Improved materials and terrain
Adding web marketplace variants
…and much more!
I think Avatar “expressiveness” sounds like it’s going to be pretty big and i’m sure going to be awesome. Premium Plus is a big one to watch as many have wanted this for some time. The new mobile viewer is still happening so that’s great to hear. The other improvements listed under that will make Second Life sound pretty good during 2022.
Linden Lab mentions the metaverse relating to the big name change announcement from Facebook to Meta recently. From the sounds of things there is “genuine concern about Facebook’s plans in this space”. Let’s see what happens in 2022 and 2023. It’s still early days yet.
Marketing the “Metaverse” So, perhaps you have heard of this new thing called the metaverse? Unless you’ve been living under a rock (virtual or otherwise), you probably already know that Facebook recently changed its corporate name to Meta as they work on their own vision and version of a “metaverse.” While we appreciate that this development has super-charged interest in virtual worlds, we also know that there is genuine concern about Facebook’s plans in this space given its spotty reputation on many issues including consumer data privacy and protections.
At Second Life, we’re proud that we don’t monetize, sell, or share consumer data – and we’ve been heartened to see the mainstream media reevaluate our own virtual world amidst the heightened interest in all-things-metaverse including a renewed recognition and celebration of our pioneering contributions to the concepts of virtual economies, cultures, and communities.
What have been your highlights of 2021 in Second Life ? Feel free to share in comments below. Have a great Christmas everyone.
The Linden & Resident snowball fight for 2021 starts today from 10am to 11am SLT and then again from 2pm to 3pm SLT. It’s going to be the most epic snowball fight in Second Life and you really don’t want to miss this. This is a great opportunity to throw plenty of snowballs at Lindens and Residents.
Spots are limited so be sure to get there early to get your free snowball machines and weaponry from the vendors around the arena. The snowball fight will be held at the Winter Wonderland regions.
Earlier this month five new red SSP regions appeared on the far east side of the SSP Mole development zone which is closed to the public. The SSPSCR region in the north west has been there for some time now. These could be the new Modern Linden Home theme that has recently been revealed at the SL Christmas Expo or it could be the start of development for 2022 Linden home themes.
New Red SSP Regions as of 15th December 2021
SSP3532
SSP3533
SSP3534
SSP3535
SSP3500
It’s worth from time to time viewing these regions on the map for changes. I would imagine more red SSP regions will be added very soon. I will blog when/if new changes happen to these SSP development regions. Stay tuned for that.
On 8th December 2021 Patch Linden confirmed that the old Linden homes will be phased out and/or repurposed. Patch Linden at the moment does not know the timing on when that will be.
There will be a balance point in the near future on the new available new Linden Homes vs the old Linden homes. Having enough supply to meet the demand of shutting down the old homes is the main goal of this. Patch says that some of the various landmarks and community centres will be preserved.
The old homes will be phased out and/or repurposed. I’ve never hidden this fact, what I don’t know yet is timing. There is a balance I have to strike on available new Linden Homes vs the old and having enough supply to meet the demand of shutting down the old homes (also, blend of available themes to choose from). I have also contemplated keeping some of the old because it tickles my historian bones, some of the various community center or landmark places with the old homes will be preserved. Largely though, those regions will be shut down when the time is optimal.
I think personally the shutting down of the old Linden homes most likely will happen once all of the new Linden home themes have been released. I think by the end of 2023 is my prediction at the moment.
NagikoFernMistwater
When do you think is the right time for the old Linden homes to be shut down ?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (virtual or otherwise), you probably already know that Facebook recently changed its corporate name to Meta as they work on their own vision and version of a “metaverse.” While we appreciate that this development has super-charged interest in virtual worlds, we also know that there is genuine concern about Facebook’s plans in this space given its spotty reputation on many issues including consumer data privacy and protections.
Daniel Voyager 