Avalon is a beautiful private sim in Second Life. The people who run it also run <a href=”http://www.spacethinkdream.com”, a fine web site where various services for SL and other games are offered. I also love the Second Life t-shirt they have on offer there, might have to buy one! Anyway, go visit Avalon.
All posts by TinyPirate
Avalon – Home of SpaceThinkDream
Posted by TinyPirate on November 6, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/11/06/avalon-home-of-spacethinkdream/
Haiku Spam Poem of the Day
(based on spam I have received)
No prescription here
Its a guaranteed fix up
Endless wood for you
Posted by TinyPirate on November 4, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/11/04/haiku-spam-poem-of-the-day/
HalfLife 2?
No, Second Life! The amazing work of a fantastic team of artists and builders in Second Life, SimHorror was build just for Halloween (and then its town down!). This stunning work has raised the bar for the rest of us.
Posted by TinyPirate on November 3, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/11/03/halflife-2/
It’s a mad world
I discovered something unique today. A former Linden Labs employee has made a Schizophrenia simulation in Second Life (if you’re a player, click here to go right there).
It features a walk through a hospital ward with voices telling you “You’re dead!”, “Kill yourself!”, as well as visual halucinations and a little information as well. It’s disturbing, it’s educational and it makes me thank the heavens I have most of my sanity.
What an intersting thing to build and what an interesting project to undertake. Second Life beautifully suits this kind of education and I applaud Nash Baldwin, aka, James Cook, for his work.
Posted by TinyPirate on October 31, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/10/31/its-a-mad-world/
Multiplayer only on my terms?
Second Life recently saw the birth of a strange lifeform. A green cube called ‘Zombie’. This cube, when touched, multiplied, and as it did so it would move towards and hunt down players. If a player had a reasonably high velocity gun they could shoot these cubes and overcome the evil zombie menace.
The brain behind this amusing Halloween stunt was Lordfly Digeridoo, an experiences and creative Second Life member. However, having released his multiplying zombies into the wild of Second Life they took on a life of their own and became quite hard to remove, each deletion often spawning another zombie. This combined with a general lack of awareness of what these things were about resulted in many negative ratings and abuse reports for poor old Lordfly!
A few days later he is still racing around deleting Zombies and apologizing. Yet for some this isn’t enough.
While the idea was grand we can probably all agree the implementation was a bit off. Having the zombies wild in the large world meant a lot of confusion for people who hadn’t read Lordfly’s posts and clues on the boards and, well, some people are just plain touchy.
But what I don’t understand is how he has gathered such broad negative reaction. Second Life is by its very nature a creative medium and one where a lot can go wrong, simply because of the freedoms we are given. Why are people so touchy over virtual content that is virtually meaningless? I love the idea of this code gone native and out of control, I think it’s fun and interesting on many levels, yet some people just get upset if someone in any way interacts with them on a level they don’t agree with.
Perhaps this is a legacy of the internet generation. With everything at our fingertips and on demand we no longer have to watch, listen or deal with anything we don’t like. A closed window, a deleted email and the problem is solved. That people are so quick to judge and complain I find somewhat disturbing. What does it mean for the future if this is the kind of behavior seen in your friends, your neighbor’s, your family. Real world society could see people in neighborhoods even more isolated and alone than they are already, only seeking solace in social internet experiences they can tightly control. But Second Life isn’t an extension of the internet, perhaps it is, strangely, more like real life, with its mix of the uncontrollable, the strange and the downright annoying. Hopefully it will always be a slightly chaotic convergence of wild ideas, optimism, creativity and sometimes, zombies.
Posted by TinyPirate on October 31, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/10/31/multiplayer-only-on-my-terms/
Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
No, it’s an ornithopter! Another of Cubey’s creations and flies as good as it looks. It constantly amazes me the kind of creativity and ingenuity Second Life inspires. It’s an active medium, not a passive one, and that’s exciting.
Posted by TinyPirate on October 30, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/10/30/is-it-a-bird-is-it-a-plane/
Skydiving Pirate!
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I kitted myself out with a parachute, skydiving gear, helmet and goggles and enjoyed the great experience of skydiving in Second Life!
Posted by TinyPirate on October 30, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/10/30/skydiving-pirate/
Blastoff!
Had some great fun toying around with objects I bought today in Second Life. This rocket launches you high into the atmoshphere and then ejects you at a set altitude. I’ve yet to purchase a parachute, but th trip is still a lot of fun!
Posted by TinyPirate on October 29, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/10/29/blastoff/
Building DarkLife
The construction of the town of Navora for second life continues. It is taking time but there is a lot to do. So far the mockups are looking fantastic and we are all looking forward to seeing the town ‘live’, as it were.
Posted by TinyPirate on October 27, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/10/27/building-darklife/
When is theft fraud, or exploitation?
This discussion over at the Second Life forums is about a situation where a player seems to have accidentally sold some land for $0 to another player. This player ‘pounced’ on the land sale, probably with a script, and then immediately sold the land on to a willing buyer (or alt?). With the Linden Dollar being valued at around $1.20us per L$250 that represents for the player a loss of around $380us of virtual property.
Is it so hard to imagine a future when these games become popular enough for thieves to make a nice sideline income from scamming players. As the real virtual value of goods becomes more accepted and acceptable will games companies be done for aiding and abetting if they don’t work very hard to track and stop these kind of exploits? Should the police, or the small claims court be involved? Maybe one day. For now we just have forums and a rather accommodating Linden Labs to keep us happy.
Posted by TinyPirate on October 27, 2004
https://tinypirate.com/2004/10/27/when-is-theft-fraud-or-exploitation/
Get my book from O’Reilly!
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@TinyPirate 