Crash Prefect, one of the Collaborators on DarkLife recently got back from the Second Life fan convention thingumy. He said he had a lot of questions and interest in DarkLife, which is pretty exciting! I wasn’t aware of how widely the game is still followed and updates are waited on. Looks like I might have to dive back in and help push DarkLife up to version 2 and all the exciting goodness that will bring. Good on Crash for encouraging us to keep this thing going! And congratulations to him for securing full time paid employment working as a content creator in Second Life for Rivers Run Red, a marketing, promotion and design firm with a leg in Second Life.

The Second Life games wiki I host is currently down. I’m going to have to repair it some how and I’m not sure how long that will take. I’ll try and get it back up soon. Meanwhile, does Linden Labs want to take it over? Wikis suit Second Life perfectly, and slotting in the games one shouldn’t be too hard and all sorts of clever mapping to launch people straight into Second Life. Hmm, good ideas huh?

Update: The wiki remains down, despite my efforts to update it. I’ll give it another go, but I don’t think I have much chance. If you are good at these sorts of things, please let me know and I’ll give you a shot at fixing it! The records are still there, just the config and setup side of things is broke. If I can’t get it fixed it will simply have to stay down.

Torley Torgeson, well known Second Life personality has released all of her music (in real life she composed all kinds of techno) for free. Download 230 tracks of music and read her storyhere.

Torley, it turns out, was struck down with hyperacusis, which has caused deafness (I think) which means she can no longer properly continue with her composing dream. Deciding to look forward and not to her past she’s opened up her considerable archive to anyone who wants to listen.

I’ve thought for a little bit that it’s quite hard in Second Life to find someone to play a game of chess against, or some ice hockey or bowling or any other of the fun multiplayer games in SL. So, to resolve this, I have created a new, open group in Second Life. ‘Second Life Game Players’ is a group for people who like playing games and want to find team mates, or opponents! Anyone can join and I encourage people on the group to ask for people to join them in playing SL games.

The success of Tringo should be a wake-up call for content developers in Second Life. Tringo has shown everyone that if you make good content then not only will players come, but so will real world publishers (be they games, book or clothes!). What does this mean for the lowly Second Life developer? Well, a few things:

• Name your content carefully. It would suck to see your content get big and real-life, only to see it re-named because of some copyright or trademark issue. At least do a search of Google before settling on your name. The United States Patent and Trademark Office is a good place to start your check.
• Make sure you own the rights to ALL the content in your project. That is, don’t use distinctively copyrighted material as part of your content. For example, Star Wars Bingo has no chance of breaking into the real world as it would probably be using images and icons already copyrighted.
• Make sure the team who worked on the content is clearly defined or you will get people upset. If you worked on content with some help from a friend and you end up making the big bucks, your friend might feel that they’ve been used. If you have received help from a friend on your project either reward them spontaneously or offer them the chance to join your project officially. If you don’t think about this issue what happens when your friend, now aggrieved, asks for payment for the items he helped you with? Not a fun scenario to work through.

Anyway, just some ideas for the game and content developers amongst us. Have fun!

Pierce Portocarrero is creating a documentary following a year in the life of Nephilaine Protagonist and her PixelDolls fashion label. There’s will also be some interviews and comments from luminaries and so on. Go have a look at the early footage, it’s great stuff!