Update To Traditional Linden Homes

On Tuesday 22nd November Patch Linden officially announced the long awaited update to the Traditional Linden Homes. For those that live in the Bellisseria continent with Traditional Linden Homes you will notice new features and new options. From the new custom color tinting system, special number signs, revamped Chippewa Junction and more.

It’s great to see the lab rolling this update out finally. Yay! 🙂

• Latest feedback can be found here

What’s New ?

• “Each of the 4 original home styles will have an open plan version selectable from the mailbox house controller menu. Not only that, but ALL of the traditional homes will now have a custom color tinting system for interior walls similar to other themes. As an extra bonus, the house controller has an option for having the Linden Homes security system sent directly to you rather than being part of the content pack”.

• “We are adding special house number signs to the content pack. Just rez them out and place them around your doorway for your own house number!”

• “We are ALSO debuting a revamped Chippewa Junction as our Traditional themed Community Region. Located on the main hub of the Bellisseria Railroad, Chippewa Junction Town Hall features reservable spaces for conferences, meetings, garden parties and even weddings!”

• “To book a venue space for your event, or for more info, please contact Mischievious Mole. Reservation form: https://second.life/TraditionalWeddingVenueReservation“

Here Is The Summary Of The New Features

• “A brand new traditional community region featuring usable wedding, party, meeting and conference spaces”.
• “New open plan designs for each Traditional home”.
• “Original and new open plan house models upgraded with a custom tinting system, controlled via the house control panel”.
• “House controllers have now been updated to use common communications protocols with the rezzer and with houses on the parcels with which they are associated, so that all themes (except Fantasy) may safely be mixed and matched”. 
• “House Controllers now have an additional menu item for the Security Orb, so residents can have that delivered individually rather than as part of the Content Creation Pack”. 
• “Traditional House Controllers now have four new menu items for the new houses in each theme”.
• “Now all House Controllers give details of the theme, name of last house rezzed and parcel centre in their description field”.
• “House number sign addition to the content pack”.

What do you think of this new update to Traditional Linden Homes ?

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Linden Lab Announces New Second Life Membership Plan

On 17th November Linden Lab announced a new Second Life membership plan named “Plus” for $5.99/month (annual billing $65.99 USD per year). There are benefits to the new “Plus” membership over the free Basic membership including more increased groups of 50, weekly L$ stipend of L$150, ability to own mainland with 512m of land allowance and a wider selection of technical ticket types via customer support for non-account/billing issues.

European residents will no longer need to pay VAT charges on any of the membership plans which is good news. The lab have now reduced the price of owning land in Second Life which will help many residents during these tough RL times. The feedback since the announcement has been mixed again with many saying they like the new option and some saying it’s confusing.

Here are the benefits of all of the membership plans below. There are more benefits with the Premium and Premium Plus options (see below).

Here is the new land pricing table below.

What do you think about the reduced land pricing and new Plus membership option ?

Sign Up For The Second Life Weekly Email Newsletter

On Wednesday 16th November Linden Lab announced news about the Second Life Weekly Newsletter for the latest Second Life breaking news, events, videos and exclusive virtual experiences delivered directly to your email inbox. It takes only a few seconds or so to subscribe. Once signed up you will see the “Success! You’ve been added to the audience” message.

It’s a good way to keep informed on what’s going on from the lab. There are many Second Life bloggers that cover the news and I have listed some in my blogroll on the right hand side.

Here is the full blog announcement about the weekly email newsletters.

Are you looking for a way to stay informed about all the latest destinations and events happening on the grid? Do you want Second Life breaking news delivered directly to your inbox? Signup for our Second Life Weekly Email Newsletter! 

For a while now we’ve been sending a weekly email to a small group of our most active Residents and the clicks show that many of you enjoy receiving these exclusive updates directly in your inbox. If you have not been receiving these weekly emails from us, now is your chance to sign up for them! You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of any email.

Our newsletters usually include some of our latest videos of the week along with links to different events or destinations and an image from one of our Residents that is selected as the Fresh Look of the week!

For a chance to have your Destination featured, submit it to the Second Life Destination Guide.

For a chance to be featured in Fresh Looks, submit your image to the Official Second Life Flickr Group! Did you know we just hit ONE MILLION IMAGES AND VIDEOS in the group? All submitted by our wonderfully creative Residents!

Email isn’t the only way you can stay on top of all of our latest news. You can also follow us on various social networks along with keeping an eye on our community blogs.

Will you be signing up for the weekly newsletter ?

SL Christmas Expo 2022 Is Fast Approaching

The 12th annual Second Life Christmas Expo for 2022 will open to the public next week on Friday 2nd December through until Sunday 11th December 2022. The SL Christmas Expo 2022 theme is The Magic of Holiday Stories.

The SL Christmas Expo regions have arrived on the grid and now work is underway to get them ready for the big grand opening next week. The SL Christmas Expo is spread across 12 regions (Chapters – different holiday story) featuring more than 150 shops and more.

There will be live entertainment, live performances, special hunts, decoration competitions, photos with Santa and much more. The return of Linden Lights of Hope region showcasing Linden Homes from Linden Lab. There could new details announced about the next Linden Home theme during the expo.

SL Christmas Expo 2022 Regions

Please spread the word about next week’s SL Christmas Expo 2022.

Second Life Grid Statistics – November 2022 Update

Here are the latest Second Life grid statistics as of Sunday 13th November 2022. Here is a brief current snapshot of the key statistics such as Second Life region totals, the daily user concurrency levels, total Second Life registered accounts and traffic stats via the Second Life website.

Second Life Regions – As of 13th November

• Total Main Grid Regions: 27, 466
• Private Estates: 18, 198
• Linden Owned Region: 9, 268
• Total Area: 1800.01 KM

In the last week or so Private Estates have risen by 30 regions which is very good news. Linden Owned regions have remained the same amount for the moment. It’s good to see positive net growth again after weeks of a small decline.

Hopefully these positive net growth gains will continue for the rest of 2022 into 2023. Times will get tough in terms of RL costings (inflation etc) so it may have a impact on Second Life during the next 3-6 months.

Second Life User Daily Concurrency – As of 13th November.

• Maximum Daily Concurrency: 51, 000 (average)
• Median Daily Concurrency: 41, 000 (average)
• Minimum Daily Concurrency: 32, 000 (average)

The Second Life user daily concurrency has remained stable during the past few weeks with no major changes or major outages to report on.

• 55, 737 was the highest peak for Maximum Daily Concurrency – 5th February 2022

Between January 2022 to March 2022 the daily maximum average was upto around 55, 000 at peak times. From April 2022 to May 2022 the maximum dropped slightly to 53, 000 then remained around the 51, 000 mark for the rest of 2022.

My prediction is that the Second Life daily user concurrency will most probably rise slightly between 52, 000 to 54, 000 during the winter months until spring 2023. In previous years it’s gone on a similar seasonal pattern.

Total Second Life Registered Accounts – As of 13th November

• Total Residents: 66, 978, 584

Back in early April 2022 the count was 66, 568, 939 for total Second Life registered accounts. Since then it’s gone up by at least 400, 000+ new accounts for Second Life. It won’t be long until it reaches 67, 000, 000 total registered accounts for Second Life.

Back in mid March 2022 the count was 66, 531, 981 when the data returned after two years. Back in mid-late October 2020 the count was 64, 687, 961 (the last reading pre cut off). Overall since October 2020 there has been roughly two million newly registered accounts.

Second Life Website Traffic – As of October 2022

• January 2022: 11.4 million visit
• February 2022: 10.3 million visits
• March 2022: 10.8 million visits
• April 2022: 10.7 million visit
• May 2022: 10.6 million visits
• June 2022: 10.2 million visits
• July 2022: 10.4 million visit
• August 2022: 10.3 million visits
• September 2022: 9.6 million visits
• October 2022: 10.4 million visits

For the past 10 months of 2022 it seems like the Second Life website receives at least 10 million monthly visits on average. I think this trend will likely continue way into 2023 and more with more new improvements to the platform.

2023 – the road ahead

I think 2023 will challenging for many dealing with the cost of living like energy prices, higher inflation levels, possible recession on the horizon and other factors.

It’s possible that private regions may drop into a medium-large decline during 2023 but hopefully these will be short term. It will be nice to see positive net growth next year.

The factors listed above may have a small or big impact on the overall grid numbers going into Second Life 20th operating year. It’s too early to tell at the moment what will happen to be honest. Second Life still has a healthy economy and strong active userbase.

• How do you think 2022 has been so far for grid statistics in Second Life?

• What are your predictions for 2023 for the grid statistics in Second Life?

16 Years Later In Second Life

My 16th rez day in Second Life was back on 31st October. It’s crazy to think that so much has happened and changed over the 16 years since I first signed up to Second Life. I started blogging about Second Life from December 2007 and since then my blog has become popular over the years.

Thanks for the support over the years because I really appreciate it and all the feedback. I transferred to the main grid back in mid December 2008 when I turned 18. I thought the transfer process was pretty fast and I remember so many wanted to welcome me to the big adult grid.

I have seen Second Life change a lot during the past 16 years…

• Viewer 2 launch & roll out
• Merge of the teen grid
• Introduction of Windlight, Mesh, Bento etc
• Migration of Second Life to the cloud
• Launch of Premium Plus
• Roll out of the 2nd generation Linden Homes
• Closure of the mentor program
• Linden Lab layoffs
• The name change of office hours to user group hours
• The change of Linden Lab CEOs (Philip, M, Rodvik & sad passing of Ebbe
• And more..

I still think Second Life is still the best virtual world out there today and that it will be around for many years to come. As many know already next year marks Second Life 20th birthday celebrations which is a pretty impressive milestone.

Stay tumed for more blog posts soon.

Linden Lab Adds Genesis Viewer To The Third Party Viewer Directory

It appears that the lab added the TPV Genesis Viewer to the Second Life Third Party Viewer Directory back on 28th October 2022. Genesis is a 1.23 style viewer offering the latest features and offers high performance.

It’s a fast viewer according to the latest reviews and news coverage. It’s good for laptops and comes with a low memory footprint.

Download Genesis Viewer Here.