Second Life, Linden Lab & OpenSim News
This weekend is the last opportunity to visit the SL17B regions in Second Life before they all go offline very soon. The Linden homes preview region is still open at SL17B showing the new Stilt homes. The actual release of these new homes will available hopefully in the next few months or so.
Please spread the word one last time and explore the SL17B regions if you have time this weekend. To all those that made SL17B possible and run smoothly thanks so much.
Can’t wait for SL18B next year.
Last weekend marked the end of the major events and live performances at SL17B. The only big event still going now is the SL17B Shop & Hop shopping event which ends Sunday 12th July 2020. The exhibits and birthday regions are still open for another two weeks roughly. There is a useful list of SL17B community experiences worth checking out.
For those that are visiting this week and next week the lag should now be at normal levels. It should be easier now to explore the regions sightseeing and hanging out with family/friends. It’s best to visit during non-peak hours to enjoy it more.
The SL17B Meet the Linden sessions were a huge success again this year with a large audience every day participating inworld and on the live online stream. Well done to everyone that made it work this year. It was good to hear good progress being made with the uplift work, the mobile app, premium plus, Linden Homes and much more. I think before the end of the year there will be some interesting announcements on Second Life.
The new Stilt Linden Homes can still be viewed in the SL17B Enchant region. The LH Demo region will remain open for the next few weeks. After that the Stilt Linden Homes won’t be released until later in 2020 when residents will be able to start moving in. I will post more on this when new updates becomes available.
What do you think of SL17B so far ?
For anyone that has missed any of the SL17B Meet the Lindens series so far here are all the catch up videos for reference. The 2020 Meet the Lindens sessions at SL17B have been very popular indeed and they have been most interesting because of all the latest developments going on at Linden Lab.
Featuring Ebbe Linden, Patch Linden, Oz Linden, The Marketing Team and The Moles.
All these sessions run for at least a hour and a bit. It’s worth watching for sure.
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Monday 22nd June – Ebbe Linden
Tuesday 23rd June – Patch Linden
Wednesday 24th June – Oz Linden
Thursday 25th June – Marketing Team
Friday 26th June – Meet the Moles
Meet the Lindens series be back next year for SL18B. This year all the sessions have been most interesting and packed full of residents.
Today Linden Lab have announced 7 new Last Name options for purchasing with another three new last name options in honor of Second Life 17th birthday theme.
There will be further updates to the last name options pool in the near future. Last week ten last names were officially retired and they are no longer available for purchase.
Here is the newly updated list of available last names as of 25th June 2020.
Here is the full blog announcement below…
As we announced last week, ten last names have officially been retired and are no longer available for purchase.
Today, we are pleased to announce the names replacing them, available as an option for purchase now:
Vortex
Fluffpaw
Sassypants
Amethyst
Bloodrose
Aurelia
StarlightAdditionally, three names are being made available for purchase in honor of Second Life’s 17th Birthday theme:
Wayfarer
Rover
WandererThese three names will be retired in the next round of updates, so if you’re interested, be sure to grab them while they’re available!
We will continue to make additional updates to the available last name pool, so if these options aren’t for you, stay tuned for future updates.
What do you think of these last name options ?
On 24th June Patch Linden on the Second Life forums posted the reasons for why there are ten SL17B Water regions surrounding the core SL17B regions. Apparently the main reason for them is that it’s “purely for decor and aesthetic purposes“. The lab felt “the entire SLB continent looked better not having things fall off into a void“.
He goes on to say “so we gave everything natural shorelines and such which meant extending in to the surrounding water regions this year. They serve no other purpose and are not usable for anything else because they are running on openspaces“.
I have to say this is pretty disappointing to hear this as this is a big opportunity missed for like a SL17B sailing event or perhaps spreading the new theme of Linden homes around the core regions. I’m sure the water regions could of been used better somehow. It’s interesting that these water regions are running on openspaces though.
Here is the full explanation from Patch…
They are there purely for decor and aesthetic purposes. When we built out the core regions, we used as much space as possible and in many areas right up to the region edges. We felt the entire SLB continent looks better not having things fall off into a void. So we gave everything natural shorelines and such which meant extending in to the surrounding water regions this year. They serve no other purpose and are not usable for anything else because they are running on openspaces.
Hopefully next year for SL18B there will be more regions to explore and more demo regions.
Today Patch Linden posted a further update on the new Linden Home themes upcoming on the Second Life Forums. Read more here.
Firstly he points out there are 4 floor plans to the new Stilt home theme. There will be two placement options on the home selection page soon. Patch says don’t abandon your homes.
Here is the schedule for the upcoming new Linden Home themes 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Theme 6
Theme 7
Theme 8
Theme 9
Here is the full update posted by Patch Linden…
As has been mentioned, do not abandon your homes. A quick clarification on styles and such. There are 4 floor plans to the Stilt Home theme. There will be two placement options offered on the home selection page of the site. One of the selections will find the house placed where there are stairs are anchored to land, so those houses will be either the over land or maybe partially over the water for home placement. The other option offered will be for a home fully over water (no entry stairs). This is how you’ll be able to choose witch type of placement you could select.
In general, the Stilt Homes while they are basically done and ready for deployment, we unfortunately do not have the region capacity to release them right now. We are aiming at after the AWS project completes when region capacity becomes available to us sometime later this year. In the mean time, we’re already working on the next 3 themes after it. Theme 7 is nearly content complete, but not set-up for deployment yet. Then the following themes (8 and 9) are getting ready to enter content production.
Loads of new Linden Home themes to look forward to now. Hopefully by the end of the year themes 6, 7 and possibly 8 may be released.
Live Stream
Ebbe Altberg CEO of Linden Lab will be having a live conversation with Saffia Widdershins today starting at 2pm SLT/PDT at the SL17B Auditorium. This week marks the start of the special 2020 Meet the Lindens series at SL17B happening every day.
It’s going to be most interesting to hear what Ebbe has to say about Second Life, Linden Lab, current global events and much more. The SL17B Auditorium is going to fill up pretty fast. For those that can’t attend here is the live streaming link below.
I am looking forward to hearing more about the 2020/2021 roadmap for Second Life going forward, the latest on Linden Homes and the mobile app. I hope it will be interesting and exciting this year.
I will post more here when I hear more on any new developments.
Linden Lab have been pretty quiet about the next new Linden Homes theme #6. Hopefully during next weeks SL17B Meet The Lindens live talks from 22nd – 26th June we will hear more about what’s coming next.
So far we have had Traditional, Houseboats, Trailers/Campers, Victorian homes and Log homes. I’m reading on the forums it could be a beach bungalow theme, beach house, sea related or something near to that. What do you think the next Linden Home theme will be ?
On the SL17B Map Boards dotted around it shows a LH Demo Area which is currently located on the far west of the SL17B regions currently closed to the public named SL17B Enchant. There are 10 SL17B Water regions that are closed but are they are right next door to the exhibitors builds.
It’s believed that the SL17B Enchant region will move into place very soon on the west side of the SL17B Exhilarate region. It’s just unclear what the water regions will be used for though at this point.
Once the LH Demo Area is open to the public then hopefully we will see what the next Linden Home theme will be. I would imagine then it’s going to take a few months or so for the Moles to release/rollout the new regions. These will probably be the new SSP pink regions I would imagine.
More updates soon, stay tuned.
Next week marks the return of the most popular Meet The Lindens series of special town hall Q&A events featuring many of the executives at Linden Lab. You really don’t want to miss any of these live interview talks from Monday 22nd June through until Friday 26th June.
This is a great opportunity for all those wanting to learn about the future plans for Second Life and learn more about the people that work at the lab. All events start at 2pm SLT and finish at 4pm SLT. All sessions will be held at the SL17B Auditorium.
The sessions will be hosted by Saffia Widdershins and will be streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, Periscope and Mixer. These live events are popular so it’s best to arrive early to get a seat.
Please spread the word! 🙂
At 9am SLT today the SL17B regions opened up to the in-world Second Life Birthday group. There was a fair amount of Moles and Lindens at the SL17B Welcome Area welcoming everyone through the gates. The best way to explore the birthday regions is through the SL17B map boards and the SL17B Pods system.
+ The LH Demo Area is not available yet – more details will be announced soon
The lag so far seems to be low but it will probably increase over the weekend then balance out in the weeks ahead.
First preview of SL17B
The SL17B grand opening for the public starts at 11am SLT on Friday 19th June 2020. The theme for SL17B celebrations is “Road Trips and Vacations”. There are loads of SL17B events coming up now. There is loads to see and do this year. The SL17B regions look
Second Life official birthday is 23rd June 2020. Grid wide events are expected!
It’s time to party and celebrate 17 years of Second Life ! 🙂
Daniel Voyager 