If you’ve been living in a hole or not paying attention to the blogs/SL website, you might not be aware that the Lab is at it again, readying us for 2010 with a few new policy changes and badly thought out ideas to supposedly improve our second lives.

First off, premium level housing.  Not like First Land, but actual places in Second Life where you own just a home on a bit of land.  It won’t share a border with any other land, and from the looks of it, they’ll be homogeneous – that is to say, all the houses will be the same, like SL suburbs.  They’ll be on their own continent, all isolated like some kind of gated community.  This is supposed to be an incentive to get a premium membership.  While I can see why they might think of this as a draw, I actually have to agree with Prokofy in that LL shouldn’t be entering the land market any further.  I don’t own land, but I don’t think they should be messing with the market.  And if you read the post, they’re trying to market this at new members to get them to stay.  What new member is going to sink money into a premium membership when they can’t even learn to walk in a reasonable time!  Maybe we should try to improve the new resident experience before expecting them to pay monthly for the privilege of having a little virtual house?  After all, I can’t see them doing well with a house when they can’t rez a prim to furnish said house.

They’ve already got the mainland as well as a lock on adult content with Zindra, any more is just greed.  And not being able to put your own house on it?  That SUCKS!  Who wants to live in LL-subsidized housing, some kind of extreme apartment place where you can’t even paint the walls?  Not me.  I wonder if they’re going to try to group people together by genre?  Like, all the goths get castles over here, and all the elves get forest places here.  Or if they’re going to charge a premium for getting extra prims, like you start with an allowance of 150 and you have to pay $5 more to get 200 or something.  LL housing?  No thanks!  I’ll take my chances on the regular market!  Also, would they implement this for the Teen Grid?  I don’t think so, but it’s something to consider.

Something else that’s severely pissed me off is the new Xstreet SL taxes, especially the ones on freebies.  The Lindens have pretty much said they’re doing this to protect content and vendors, but the only people who can be seen to be clearly benefiting from this bit of unfairness is the top creators, the ones which would be called a “fetid inner core”, who felt threatened by high quality freebies and cheapies taking away their sales.  LL has made freebies unsearchable and ghettoized them, sticking the nice, high quality ones in with the really terrible and botted ones in their own section.  I’ve stopped using Xstreet, and do not plan to continue use of it any time soon.  Maybe I’ll start using Hippo or something else, but until LL realizes what they’ve done, it’s out.

There, I said it.  I usually don’t put up my political opinions on this blog, but I firmly believe that Scientology is a cult that needs to be eliminated.  The manipulative, underhanded, and absolutely disgusting tactics they use are a gross violation of human rights and international law.  I applaud TIME Magazine for being brave enough to put up an 11 page expose article on the “church”.  If you’ve ever had any thoughts of joining this cult group, or know someone involved, or are just curious about what it is, I encourage, no, implore you to take a look.  Despite the length, it’s an easy read, and even just skimming through it should help you understand the group better.

I wanted to put up this post a few days ago, but due to being on a really crappy computer which couldn’t handle Photoshop and not being able to find the right boots, it took me until today to get this up.  More pics and info after the cut. 

Skin: FreeSpirit – Fiona in Glamour
Hair: !lamb. – Bang Bang in Ink
Eyes: Poetic Colors – Dark Wood (Medium)
Eyelashes: FreeSpirit Eyelashes (Included with skin)
Leotard and Gloves: PIDDIDLE – Kill or Be Killed Outfit
Purse: Tres Blah – Ruffle Purse (in Red)
Belt: Luck Inc. – Wide Leather Belt (Solid Colors Pak)
Shoes: Strawberry Layne @ TBP – Leather Ankle Boots (in Red)

Shapes really are a huge part of Second Life.  They affect how we perceive ourselves and others in the virtual world.  A lot of people just buy their shapes off the shelf, something that looks pretty, because they realize that they have no talent with the sliders.  It’s no secret that most newbies come out of their first Appearance screen experience with huge eyes, giant hands, giraffe legs, and boobs and butt/packages set at 100.  Gradually, as we become more adapted to our virtual world, we realize what looks good and what doesn’t, and will either fix the shapes on our own, or give up and buy one.

When I started out, I found that I loved playing with sliders and had a good understanding of them. After messing about for a month or two, I was able to pull together a basic shape, and then a few more, each of which I would try out to see if I really liked them.  In the end, I would always go back to one shape which I had created from a picture found online (I now believe this was a photo of Naomi Campbell, because the similarity is striking) and use that.  Over months, I refined the avatar, with each click making the shape how it looks today.

Now, because of roleplay, I may have to change my shape, and every attempt I make to alter it so far has been unsuccessful.  I feel like my avatar shape is part of who I am, and changing it is almost blasphemous.  Some people can shift between shapes without any problem, but since I’ve spent so much time making it exactly who I am, like a reflection of my soul, it’s unbearable to touch what I see as perfection.  Perhaps I’m so sensitive because I made the shape similar to my own body, and love how I look in first life.  It might be a reflection of my own fear of change to how I really look.

With every revisit to the appearance screen, I can allow myself to change a little thing and realize that it still looks good.  While I can’t see myself wearing the modified shape outside of roleplay, I might be willing to adapt to using it when in character, and perhaps even grow to love my new curves.

Second Life’s roleplaying community has a huge problem, one I’ve encountered elsewhere and had the exact same reaction to.  This glaring issue is Elitism, with the capital E, and it infuriates me.

I’ve found serious roleplay elitists on other websites, most notably Gaia Online.  A group of people finds each other, figures that they are the best possible roleplayers out there, and forms into a group.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with grouping, and it’s the next step that really creates problems.  Those in the group begin to only play with each other.  They create high walls of rules to keep out any others, no matter how good those excluded might be, and make getting into their group so difficult that anyone who might possibly have something to contribute to them won’t want to bother with completing the application process.  This is what some roleplaying areas in Second Life have come down to.

I won’t name names of any areas that specifically suffer from this problem, but I can say that as a roleplayer new to the scene, it’s very off-putting.  I can turn out decent sized paragraphs and descriptive text, enough that most people I’ve played with will say that I’m a good roleplayer.  Yet I feel like when I go into some places, if I don’t have the exactly right style of dress or the perfect floating text or tag, I’m excluded.  I feel like I practically have to go up and slap someone to get any play at all.  While they might be very friendly people, they come off as aloof and elitist, only playing with a few people in their tiny circle of friends.

There is a difference between what I’m saying is elitist and understanding that some people are already in a scene.  If a person is already in a scene, it’s best not to bother them or try to include yourself unless you’re invited or something happens that would include your character.  Ignoring those outside of a scene isn’t elitist.

While I can understand being careful about who you play with, since some people are terrible, you can usually tell from a profile if someone will be any good.  Have they got good limits down?  Are they in a group associated with the area?  Do they seem to spell, capitalize, and punctuate correctly?  If so, maybe consider taking a risk.  I’m betting I’m not the only person entirely put off by how exclusive some sims are.  How many potential players does a sim lose by having residents that won’t so much as glance your way?

It’s mostly urban roleplay sims that suffer from this.  Gorean sims, even heavy roleplay ones, are a lot more friendly.  I dare all roleplayers to take a chance and play with someone they’ve never met before.  You might find out they’re an absolute tool, or that they’re a great player, or something in between.  Especially if you’re in an urban sim, just taking a minute to reach out and even glance at someone you would normally ignore might win someone over to your area.  Go ahead.  You do your part, I’ll do mine.

((These can be found in other sizes on my Flickr.  Special thanks to Delora Starbrook.))

((Warning: Exposed breasts after cut.)) 

Consider this your Action Alert – there’s a JIRA measure up which I was just informed of, aimed at combating copybotting on the Teen Grid and getting LL to get up off their collective asses to do something about the issues it causes.  I’ve been informed that copybotting is at an all-time high on the TG, and shows no signs of slowing.  Because Main Grid creators cant’ see that their products are being ripped off and sold or given away for free, it’s really vital that LL pays attention and takes the reports of botting over there seriously.  Please take a minute of your time and vote or comment.

Click Here For The JIRA!

I’m usually not one for really short dresses.  I love dresses, mostly midlength cocktail dresses, something swishy around my knees, but when it gets far up on the thighs, I usually will wear pants or not use the dress at all.   That said, I received a new dress pack from a bloggers group, and couldn’t be more in love with them.

The dress itself, called Petite, is by Luck Inc, and comes in 14 different colors, with plenty of beautiful jewel tones.  Those who dislike the miniskirt prim flap used on short dresses might have a problem with this, but this one seems better designed than some others I’ve encountered, and the flap blends well.

I’m also wearing a new skin by Aimesi.  I love the deep color to this skin, as so few designers do dark skins, and even fewer do them well.  My only issue with this was the nose, which seemed a little off on my shape.  It would probably look better on a broader nose.  The makeup is really nice, and my partner asked if it was Redgrave, due to the shininess on the face.

People say not to do monotone outfits, but I couldn’t resist on this round – the necklace, earrings, and bracelet matched so perfectly.  They’re a new set by DM Designs, called Lena, shown here in Fire.  I’m totally addicted to SL jewelery, since I could hardly ever find any good pieces on the Teen Grid.  I guess I’m just making up for having been deprived.

Finally, my shoes are from the Teen Grid, and were made by a designer who will be arriving next month.  Wicked Loudon is the mind behind Nouveau Miranda, and while his designs are sometimes a little out there, they tend to be of very nice quality, and echo an old Hollywood styling.

In This Post:

Skin: Aimesi – Amely Sambuca (in Face1)
Eyes: Poetic Colors – Dark Wood (Medium size)
Hair: ETD – Hayden (in Black)
Dress: Luck Inc – Petite (in Wine Red)
Jewelery: DM Designs – Lena (in Fire)
Shoes:Nouveau Miranda – Miranda Secretary Pumps (in Ruby)

Pose in first picture: LAP – F-Blogger4-Pursehold PR4

Since transferring to the Main Grid, my perspective on Second Life has changed quite a bit.  For one, I’ve gone from being a singular entity, nearly the only active blogger in an area reporting on a special subject, to one of hundreds, searching for that unique angle that puts me above and beyond the others.  When I was on the Teen Grid, I worked quite a bit more.  Most of my time was spent searching for a story or tracking down that one interesting fact to write about.  I did little more than write and network – that was my lot in SL, that was my SLife.

Since transferring, I’ve worked a lot less.  I’ve put up a lot fewer posts and barely any pictures.  In some ways, this has to do with being in college.  I’m still adjusting to my new real world schedule, and it can be restricting, and make me too tired or frustrated to want to work.  In others, it’s because I’m playing a lot more.  I spend a huge portion of my time roleplaying instead of searching for news, and I rarely hang around the parties or shop that I would have flocked to on the TG.  Now I’d rather shoot a bow, or interact with characters in an immersive environment.

I knew this would happen, actually.  I’m a roleplayer at heart, and have been since I was young, starting to roleplay at 11, and not stopping.  While I don’t want to disappoint anyone, my posts will probably stay sporadic for a while.  Had I come into the Main Grid alone, I might not be here anymore, but no matter how quiet I become, how reclusive, I’m still here, doing my thing.  If you have a story idea, a shop you think I’d like, a topic you want covered, feel free to contact me, and I might emerge from my hole for a while to work on that.

To my TG readers, I haven’t forgotten about you, but my contacts have become much more limited on that Grid, so my ability to cover your events is very low.  I am working on a project with Tenshi Vielle and a group of bloggers and designers, and we do need teens to help.  If you’re a TG resident and interested in helping stop Content Theft, please email me at ArwynQuandry@hotmail.com, and I’ll be sure to get you in on it.

To all of you who have kept me around on the MG, made sure I’m okay, and supported me during my transition and even in my reclusiveness, I thank you.  You are amazing.

Okay, okay, I’ll admit it: I’m spoiled.  By having my own fast, beautiful computer for the past three months, I’ve been totally spoiled.  The mind-blowing graphics, the fast loading, the ability to run Photoshop and SL together…  It’s made me something of an elitist.  I suppose it was only fitting that I’d be forced to return home without the computer of my dreams, since it’s a desktop and rather hard to move around, to humble me.

I used to play SL off of my parents five year old computer before I got my own, and at that time, it didn’t seem so bad.  I was resigned to the lag, the having to log out of SL to use Photoshop, the fact that sculpties never rezzed and people looked like weird blobs.  I had never experienced anything better, and figured, “Okay, this is how everyone sees SL – I’m not missing out on anything.”  Then, kaboom, I get my own brand new computer, and it runs SL like something out of a dream, with a twenty inch moniter and super fast processor.  I instantly forget about how bad the old computer is, and chase the morning on my new one.

SL might be evolving a little too fast for people with older computers.  This one chugs along dutifully, trying to rez a few things, but sculpies never appear and half the avatars are blurry.  Where before I could see almost the entire sim if I cammed around, on here I can see about 100meters in front of me, and that’s with terrible rezzing ability.  Normally I can move around large crowds of avatars with minimal lag, whereas even five avatars can make me lag on here.  Hell, just walking around lags me.  It’s pretty pathetic, and makes me really sympathize with those who have to use compupters like this all the time, especially on the Main Grid, which is much laggier than the Teen Grid.

My question for those of you reading is, what kind of computer do you use for SL?  Have you ever used anything better or worse, and how did that change your perception of your own computer experience?