This is my special year in review post looking back at the biggest news, events and more during 2016 in Second Life. There have been so many good memories and some not so good ones during 2016. See the bottom of this blog post for month by month highlights of 2016. 🙂
Improved communications
I do think communications between the lab and the Second Life community have greatly improved during 2016 through various channels like the official Second Life blog, on the Second Life status grid reports page, via Twitter and inworld.
The lab have already posted their highlights of 2016 here including raising the land prims limit for the mainland/private estates, introducing the new horizons experience, adding 360 snapshots, extending Bento, adding new community gateways and much more.
State of the grid in 2016
The amount of Main Grid regions and private estates have declined further during 2016 which is not good news but that’s what’s officially happening. I hope that in 2017 there will be some sort of region growth because that would be cool. The lab needs to work out and try to come up with workable solutions to stop the decline happening.
Back on 3rd January 2016
- Total number of Main Grid regions: 24, 886
- Private Estates: 17, 775
- Linden Owned: 7, 111
As of 25th December 2016
- Total number of Main Grid regions: 23, 975
- Private Estates: 16, 792
- Linden Owned: 7, 183
There have been many well known places that have closed down this year in Second Life because of various reasons and some places managed to be saved. Yay! 🙂
Amazing Events This Year
There have been so many enjoyable events that have happened during 2016 including the Second Life 13th birthday celebrations, One Billion Rising, Lab Chat events, the VWBPE conference, Relay For Life of Second Life events,
Don’t forget the incredible Bay City 8th anniversary, BURN2 events, the annual faires and the list goes on.
Thanks to all those that organised and volunteered these amazing events this year. 🙂
Sansar is almost ready
There was huge interest this year for Sansar with hundred’s signing up for the Creator Preview and testing it out. The lab have released various interesting Sansar photos, demos and updates during the course of 2016.
Sansar is due to open to the public sometime in January 2017.
Some shocks in 2016
The big shock of 2016 has to be when Donald Trump won the US Election 2016 and will become the next US president from mid January 2017.
Another big shock of 2016 has to be the terrible Orlando shootings earlier this year because that was really sad. In Second Life the community came together and raised L$ to support the victims.
We lost some great talent during 2016
Sadly a few well known residents that I knew in Second Life passed away during 2016. If anyone knew anyone else that passed away in Second Life during 2016 – please let me know so I can add it below!
- Ladyslipper Constantine – Involved with Virtual Ability events, Virtual Worlds Best Practices education events, One Billion Rising, BURN2 events and she was involved in past Second Life birthday celebrations
- Latif Khalifa – Developer of the Radegast Metaverse Client, Singularity Viewer and Replex Viewer
Here is a month by month highlights during 2016 on what happened in terms of big events and news. All links below are from my blog posts 🙂
January 2016
- Lab Chat epsiode 2 was aired
- Project Bento Filming Party took place
- My visit to Eclipse Beach Island
February 2016
- Linden Lab announced a Leap into Love Second Life snapshot contest
- A new video was released for One Billion Rising in Second Life
- Drax released a special Project Bento video via The Drax Files
- The 8th annual Home & Garden Expo opened
March 2016
- A new article was posted on readwrite.com about Second Life & Project Sansar
- Ebbe Linden attended and gave a keynotes speech at VWBPE 2016 about Second Life & Project Sansar
- A new short teaser video was released featuring Second Life
- Linden Lab releases new video on Bars & Pubs in Second Life
April 2016
- On April fools day everyone got rick rolled by Linden Lab
- The first annual Windlight Magazine Spring Art Show for 2016 opened
- The 2016 Fantasy Faire opened
- Linden Lab opened applications for Project Sansar
May 2016
- Bay City 8th Anniversary took place in Second Life
- The 11th Raglan Shire ArtWalk opened
- Project Bento went live on the Main Grid
June 2016
- Ebbe Linden was interviewed at the Augmented World Expo 2016
- After the Orlando Nightclub Shooting inworld there was a kiosk setup to support the victims
- LibVLC replaced QuickTime media plugin in the Second Life project viewer
- SL13B Community Celebration opened its doors & Second Life officially turned 13 years old
July 2016
August 2016
- Linden Lab posted a blog post about recent Second Life developments during 2016
- Windlight Magazine announced a name change to Kultivate Magazine
- Ebbe Linden confirmed Project Sansar will open “to the world” in January 2017
- Linden Lab announced first invitations to Project Sansar
September 2016
- Pete Linden confirmed Sansar would be the official name of the next generation platform
- Linden Lab added ten new fantasy starter avatars in Second Life
- London City turned 7 years old in Second Life
- Sansar Creator Preview invites being sent out on a rolling basis
October 2016
- Lumiya Viewer introduced taking/sharing snapshots and much more
- Linden Lab added new Linden Project regions
- BURN2 2016 Da Vinci’s Workshop opened
- Linden Lab announced 360 snapshots
- Ebbe Linden showed off the first demo of Sansar
- Reached my 10th Rez Day in Second Life
November 2016
- Linden lab increased the prim allowance in Second Life
- Second Life community in shock after Donald Trump won the US Election 2016
- Ebbe Linden showed another demo of Sansar at WebSummit
- 60 new Horizon regions added north of the Zindra continent
- Mont Saint Michel returns in Second Life
- Lumiya Viewer added support for Google Cardboard
- New Second Life Grid Status Update Service Goes Live
December 2016
- Project Bento became part of the Second Life default viewer
- Linden Lab increased full private regions prim limit to 30, 000 prims
- My winter visit to the SS Galaxy Cruise Ship in Second Life
2017: the year ahead
I hope everyone has enjoyed reading my blog posts during 2016 and I am looking forward the blogging more in 2017. I will be covering Second Life, Sansar and OpenSim next year. Wooot! 🙂
I hope 2017 will be a good year 🙂
Daniel Voyager 