The Gift Area, And The Swaginator Hunt

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

When there's a birthday celebration, there's often gifts. But at the Second Life Birthdays, the gifts are for the residents. This year, they're at the Tapestry of Time, in the center of the building. 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Impressive/111/127/24

Some of us prefer a little challenge. So there's the Swaginator Gift Hunt. To start, you need the Swaginator HUD. You can get it at a number of locations, though I got mine at SLB Beguile (173/204/47). Just click on the HUD in your inventory and "add," and it will appear in the upper left of your screen.

It will then offer your first clue, "Meshing gears and open skies beguile us with a ship that flies. Find a bar tucked down below and leave there with a gift in tow." "Beguile" is a giveaway to the sim, which is where you already are, and you're already on something that flies.

So just find where to go down below, and next to a bar is the pickup location for the first gift. You then get the next clue, "Weeping willows do abound where another prize can be found. Come on in and sit right down in the house with an ivy crown."

The clues can occasionally be difficult, but the locations are all within non-exhibit areas at the Second Life Birthday grounds. If you stumble across a higher prize location than the one you're looking for, you won't be able to get it's prize yet. You have to get them in order. 

There are a total of five prizes to get. To unpack, just click on them in your inventory and "add." They'll then appear on your screen. As it says, just click to unpack.

You can get two versions of goggles, an old camera, a cane, two necklaces (male and female) and two backpacks (also male and female).

Happy hunting.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Wingless Avatars in Inworldz

By Bixyl Shuftan

With the controversy over Linden Lab's new Terms of Service directed at content creators, alternative virtual worlds to Second Life have been getting more attention. Second Life residents have been dropping over to look. But what about Second Life residents who prefer furry avatars? Going over, unless one was a content creator, he/she'd have to go tailless.

But for those visiting Inworldz, some good news. There's a package of freebie furry avatars available for anyone to pick up for free.

The package is available in the Amber sim, at the Furry Welcome Center in Amber (114, 92, 23). Turn around, and head to the tables. One has three cubes, one labeled Wingless Emoto Avatars. Click on that to receive a copy. For those interested, there's also a pony avatar and house.

For those who don't know, Wingless Emoto is an avatar designer in Second Life. Some years ago, he had a dispute with the retailer he was selling them through, and since the contract stated he couldn't sell his avatars at the time through anyone else, he made them freely available to all. Many residents have kept a copy of a package of the avatars on them to give to others wanting to try a furred avatar. Even after several years, although other avatars have been available for free, no other package that can be held to give to others has emerged. There was a package of newer free avatars available at the AnthroXtacy store recently, but with the company closing down, those avatars are not known to be available.

Like the package in Second Life, the InWorldz Wingless avatars come in a variety of anthro fox, wolf, horse, and hyena avatars in a variety of colors, red, white, blue, pink, etc. But the cube passed around in Second Life was mostly fox and wolf while the InWorldz package has a roughly equal number of the four, plus a few reindeer and werewolf avatars. Like the avatars in Second Life, the Wingless avs in InWorldz have both male and female skins (except the werewolf), and both parts for plantigrade and digigrade feet (except the werewolf and reindeer, plantigrade and digitgrade only respectively), and options for large and small hands. But the Customization and Control HUDs are not in the InWorldz Wingless avatars. A notecard included with the avatar package stated this was a first release, with another one planned later with HUDs.

Like it's Second Life counterpart, one doesn't have to wear the whole avatar. One can just wear the ears and tail (and feet) for a kitsune-style neko look. There are also a few hairpieces included.

So for those in Second Life who prefer looks with a tail, the option for furred avatars is available in Inworldz.

Inworldz Grid, Amber (114, 92, 23)

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Star Wars The Old Republic - Free vs Paid Accounts

By Nydia Tungsten

 While I claim to be a gamer I do NOT claim to be a good one. I game to have fun, NOT to prove I am the best. I am more than likely to complement you on the way you killed me, than to cuss the fact that you killed me. Hell, it’s how we learn, THAT said you now know where I am coming from gaming wise and I hope you try every game I review to see for yourself. Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean you won’t. Just remember what games are for, having fun, and I hope you enjoy what I have to say.

Like most M.M.O.R.P.’s, in this game you start by creating your in game avatar.  Starting with what side of the coin you begin at, either the “Republic” side or the “Empire” side.  After that, you choose what class you want to be, then the gender and after that the race.  From there you can further edit the details slightly about your Star Wars embodiment with sliders that adjust the body, face, skin and other features as well.  The most challenging part in this process, like with other long running M.M.O.R.P.G.s, is choosing a name that hasn’t been taken by someone.

You start out with basic missions but even at the lower levels you are given choices as to the direction you will go, and when you group you ALL get the choices but only one will answer and you each get social points for the answer but if you choose a different answer than the one given, you STILL get the light or dark points of the answer you have given

BUT where this is different is there are two ways to play.  You can have either a paid account or free, and I have played both sides of this coin.  The main difference is how badly the free side is cut to the bone.  You can’t even trade with fellow players.  If someone wants to give you a piece of better equipment, they have to “mail” it to you, which like the real-life postal service can take a while.  I have heard of it taking as long as overnight, and by that time that item isn’t a boost up but a step down.

You can’t “Sprint” until level 15 meaning you have a hard time keeping up with other paid players, causing some frustration on both sides.   Can’t get a speeder until level 25, which is the old level that players had to make it to before SW:TOR became free to play, again causing frustration between paid and unpaid accounts.   Free accounts have been “Nerfed” BADLY and feel like the put upon redheaded.

As for customer support…. Well lets say that has been “out sourced” and if you call them it can be hard to understand them through the thick accents

All that said, let’s look at some of the good things.  While the free accounts have been “Nerfed” it can still be a great game to play, especially if you get with the right group.  This is the only game that I know of that you can choose your path on how “Dark” or “Light” you can go. I have tried it both ways, a light and dark side. I play with “The Furry Gamers” Group.  We are on two servers, some paid some free.   We take that into account when we play and help each other’s characters level. 

Have they neutered the free to play accounts? Most definitely! Is it still fun to play as a free player? I must give a resounding YES! But don’t just take my word for it, try it for yourself.

May the force be with you!

And remember if you have a game you think should be reviewed shoot a notecard to me with its name and link and I will take a look.

GOOD GAMING TO YOU!!

By Nydia Tungsten

Protest and Banning at Burn2

For the most part, the Burn2 festival has gone well those participating. Last weekend however on Sunday October 21st, there was a protest at the event, followed by a mass banning. According to eyewitnesses, not only were those actively protesting banned from the Burn2 sims, but apparently so were passersby whom did nothing more than watch.

I was contacted about the incident by an eyewitness, saying that Burn2 artist Kandinsky Beaumont needed the help of a Saveme Oh for her exhibit. Trouble was, Saveme wasn't allowed at the Burn, "Saveme … has been banned by LEA, SL9B … she was banned from (the) Burn last year. So Kandinsky was refused. So they started a protest."

I was given a name, Marmaduke Arado, and contacted him. "We were just banned from (the) Burn," he told me, "we were staging an improvised 'protest' performance and were mass banned. Even people just watching were banned … a few just for watching. Without explanation, warning, nothing."

Saveme Oh has a blog at http://savemeoh.wordpress.com/ (very much Not Safe For Work), in which she writes about the Burn2 incident, and previous ones she was involved in. Some people commenting on them accused her of editing out certain details. In her June 24 post, she wrote, "The first day after a Secondlife break I always have the uncontrollable urge to misbehave badly."

One other blog, Apmel,  had some information. One post (Not Safe For Work), shows pictures of Kandinsky's exhibit before and after she was given a notice, "Your build as a large protest creates disharmony in our community … It damages the joy of the celebration and community spirit. It also is not within the spirit or aesthetics of this event. We have a policy of 'No Drama' within our events. Your build is dramatic because of it's size and focus. This has to change significantly … Please consider a build that will enhance the joy and celebration of Burn2 rather than damage it."

I later met up with two of the leaders of the Burn festival, EmCee Widget and Ronon Carver. EmCee refused to comment on the matter. Ronon did answer, saying she was sorry but they would not talk about these kinds of matters.

It is unknown whether or not any of those not taking part in the protest who were banned have had it reversed.

Bixyl Shuftan

"Free Avatars" or Maybe Not

Acting on a tip from one of my friends the other day, I headed on over to the "Free Furry Avatar Warehouse" over in the Solbim sim (180,153,91). It's inside a large megaprim off of the main road and holds both a dance club (deserted, like 95% of clubs I see on the Grid, epecially on the mainland) and the "win zone", a place with a lot of Lucky Chairs and Midnight Mania boards. After flying in through the wall of the prim (directly below the pawprint showing the name of the place), I flew up to the second level where the "win zone" was, and was stopped by a wall --- you have to be a part of a group called "Anthropomorphism Therianthropy" and have the tag active before you can go into the Win Zone (or else be ejected from the area and deposited outside of the building).

"Well, that's not free, is it, if you have to do something like join a group to be eligible..." I said to myself. Still, that's not abnormal for SL, as many many groups give out free things to their members all of the time.

Using my camera to pan in, I saw several Lucky Chairs lined along the wall... then blinked to myself as I recognized the avatars. Avatars including the Crux, old equines by Avenity, and most of Wingless Emoto's avatars were available to win. These are avatars I remember paying $L for (1000 for my Crux, about 900 or so for one of my Avenity equines). These weren't "special" avatars available to members of the group, these were copied off of someone else's hard work and given out for free, depriving the makers of another sale.

Now normally, I'd be a bit annoyed about seeing copied avatars, but these are very old versions. I know that the maker of the Crux got out of the avatar making business because the Crux got copybotted in a big way (I do not know the details and I am reluctant to track down the creator for the whole story as I heard it is a very very painful story with way too much drama) and I think Wingless Emoto got out of the avatar making business as well due to "business problems" (I do not know the details). I found myself asking "Does anyone care?" I hardly see anyone wearing any of these old, old avatars. If anything, I see the occasional crux. Maybe some newbies are wandering around in Wingless Emoto's avatars. But other than that, I don't see many wearing these. I know Avenity updated their equines a while back, and these are not the updated versions, so it's not like they're "missed", I think.

Still, they were copied off of someone's hard work. That's really a problem with Second Life. There really ISN'T a way to stop things from being copied and passed around. On top of that, after eight years of being on the internet, there can be only so many ways to make a horse head, or a lion avatar, and so on, and you're bound to get nearly-identical things from time to time. Those trying to build new things after so long on the Grid are running into that as a major problem ("If you go into this now trying to make money, you will fail." someone once told me, and I agree).

Then I noticed that the owner himself, Farthington Whetmore, was in the area. As my opinion is that people who stoop to copybotting are trolls of the worst order, it was time to test that hypothesis and see if he had any "remorse" about stealing. I asked him how he got the avs on the chairs, to be free to all, and his reply was that he got them from various places on the Grid, as well as them being full perms when he got them and that he thought it'd be fun to give them away to newbies searching the grid. I wanted to use our exact conversation, but "Due to the TOS issue and until I research more, I'd rather you didn't." Fair enough.

Still, "Just been" brought to his attention? The tip I got from my friend was about a week and a half old when I decided to act on it and visit the place. "Full perms"? I don't think they had full perms when they were first made. Yeah, my hackles are up, but I'm not going to pursue the matter further for now (mostly because if he IS a troll, I don't want retaliation or drama). I brought up the fact Avenity updated their horses, and it will be interesting to see if I return to the area in a few weeks to find the selfsame things put up on the Lucky Chairs. Given the nature of copybotters/trolls like that, I would not be surprised if my current appearance at the time (a "Verin" avatar out of the company called Derp) got slapped up there as well.

The real problem is that the damage has already been done and that these things are out there. This sort of grid-wide damage can't be undone simply by destroying the place. Linden Labs would fare better simply by saying "What you make you make at your own risk" and leaving it at that, but even being that honest would damn -them- in a way as well and they would lose a LOT of players because that's what Second Life was founded on: The ability to build or make/be anything you wanted.

I doubt I'll return to the "free furry avatar warehouse." I know of -several- places that I can get free things from; this is just yet another place on the grid that does it.

Xymbers Slade

Mad about Hats

Do you love hats? I do, but a long time ago was not wearing many on SL. Then I came across Mad about Hats.

Chigadee London is the owner and multitalented designer of chapeaus and clothing that is found nowhere else on SL. My Chapeau is of one the the Princess Di's collection and I invite you to come and try on all the demos available. The bogie hats and, well just all kinds of intricately-made chapeaus will bring a smile to your heart. Ms. London has freebies and hat hair for men and women and is really outstanding at an almost-free price. I find it amazing.

Explore the shop and see her partner’s collection of pleasures you must see to appreciate. Chigadee also has the best eyelashes I have found in SL. By the way if you love red they way I do, well feast your eyes on Di's red and Shopia Lorens' Red Hot Mama. Yeah, that Bree's big deal let me tell you. I come a prancing when I wear that. A flash of a smile and swishin of a skirt, a giggle and a wiggle. See ya all there.

I am always searching for something.

Breezes Babii