Reader Submitted: My Story at Virsino

By Angel Fencer (Ender Leven)

So I have been an long-term visitor and player of the Game Greed which is  Virsino's main attraction, I can say its an fun place. The hosts there are very polite, although there customer service has been ignoring me. The experience was very confusing at first. But once I got the hang of it, it was very nice. Although the money winnable is nowhere near enough to fill up the hole needed to train for it, its still an amazing feeling to become forth, and it was fun beating my own highscore. Although I wish the system keeps track of that and that they share the pot over the four winners instead of one, it's still way better then most gambling places which are only luck based. I tried them, they're even more confusing and not as popular or social.

IRL vs Second Life gambling
                             
So I have only gambled once in real life, and I can tell you those machines are confusing. Although I did win 7 Euros, I quit after that. But I do have to say that winning an real-life jackpot is way more rewarding money wise, if you did not throw in to much money (i only thrown in 50 cents so its literally nothing in my eyes) and stop after winning the money. There is less danger in Second Life, although I still say watch out that you do not throw in too many Lindens. There, just know your limits.

The Final Answer:
                       
If you are just willing to pay and are willing to learn the game I recommend it, Although I also want to warn it is an very known fact that gambling is highly addictive and thus should be used with caution My rating is an 7/10 would recommend with moderation and low expectations money wise (smile).

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virsino%20Games/75/174/27

Angel Fencer

Commentary: Lucky Eggs - The Image, The Truth

By Theonlyjohnny Resident


    Lucky Eggs are something that can only be classified as a sploder. The creator of the eggs insists that they are different from sploders in many ways. However, a sploder is defined as an object that you pay linden to, in order to win more linden, from an accumulated pot.

    A lot of people enjoy them. However some people realized that Lucky Eggs are truly 'lucky' eggs. They determined this, when they themselves were playing lucky eggs, and discovered that the majority of Lucky Eggs winners were at a few specific clubs. A lot of times, the same people would win consecutively, from the same location. This raised the question, "Are the eggs really fair? They don't seem to be random, given the fact that most of the winners were at the same places. So, are they truly fair?"

    Well I tried to answer this question, using just what I know, at first. This lead me to two possible answers to how the Lucky Eggs prizes are distributed. The first, and more probable, the Lucky Eggs scripts are written to give people a better chance of winning, at certain places. This would mean that the Lucky Eggs are not fair at all, due to the slant in the probability. The second answer, and the less likely one, the lucky egg prizes are chosen by someone, and sent to the winners. This would mean that there is a possibility of favoritism, which would throw fairness out the window.

    Another thing I noticed, is that each time someone pays a lucky egg, it gives them an empty egg. This is not to show that you paid the lucky egg. The reason for this egg is so the lucky eggs can skirt past the TOS rules about gambling. The egg is the key to opening a loop hole for the lucky eggs to pass through. According to the rules about gambling, everyone must have an equal chance to win. However, since they provide the egg, then the rule doesn't apply, due to the fact that it's not considered a 'game', by the TOS, it's considered a vendor.

    This shows how instead of fixing their morals, the lucky eggs people would rather bend the rules in their favor. Lucky Eggs may be wrong in morality, but they have made sure that their Lucky Eggs cannot be banned, by working their way through the loopholes. Another thing that makes people mad, is the fact that in the Lucky Eggs group, it says they are totally free. This is not true, because in order to participate in them you need to pay L$ 50. In order to join the Lucky Eggs group, there is a fee of L$ 100. When you place a lucky egg in your land, you have to pay 90% of your earnings, to the Lucky Eggs group.

    Another thing they say in their description is that it is 100% legal. If it really was 100% legal, why would they need to say that? In my opinion, they only say that to try and convince people of a lie. I see Lucky Eggs as immoral and wrong, and have basically been a way to take people's lindens, just to give them to other people.

    Given what I've told you, it is up to you to decide whether they're worth it.

Theonlyjohnny Resident

The Voodoo Curse

A little over a year ago, Second Life was hit by the Redzone controversy. For those not familiar, Redzone was an alt detector that worked by scanning IP adresses, and  banning avatars from a hit list shared through the services' security systems. It raised privacy concerns as in theory a stalker could track someone this way. Plus it didn't really work as IP adresses can change, and the wrong person could and was mistaken for the target and blacklisted. In response came "Greenzone," which detected which areas were covered by Redzone. Eventually, Linden Lab reacted against Redzone. Redzone's creator zFire threatened to retaliate, and was soon banned from Second Life.

zFire once boasted if Redzone was ever banned, another alt detector would replace it. And in an interview with Paisley Beebe in March 2011, one of Team Greenzone mentioned there were a few systems that claimed to do what Redzone did. So even though Redzone was gone, would something else take its place?

Recently Treminari Huet, a Second Life blogger and one of the first to warn about Redzone, came to me about another alt detector: Voodoo.

Voodoo's "anti-bot" system advertises itself as "most effective at deterring … people using … (alts) to cheat games, grievers, and avatars known to cause problems," saying this was a way to deter cheaters at contests and games whom would otherwise enter multiple times in contests, and thus get the alts' owner a bigger share of the money.


In the early days of the products life cycle there was a big bot problem in Second Life around the TMY sploders which were originally designed to attract traffic to locations and provide small amounts of money to residents. Scripted bots would fill regions and take the money.
Voodoo's systems have changed that. Since the beginning we have been exploring new ways of detection and ways to reduce false positives and we have increased support resources. Our purpose is to enforce fair play and make gaming a better experience for everyone.

While discussing Voodoo, Treminari sent me a couple links to stories by Forceme Silverspar and   Examiner writer Douglas Green, both written in Summer 2011. Green's issue with Voodoo was it's role as a 'Sploder security system, as any form of gambling in Second Life was technically illegal. Forceme Silverspar decided to take a closer look at Voodoo to check the worries of some in Greenzone if this was indeed a second "Redzone." She checked the system and noted that the Voodoo Sploder gave those nearby a warning that those wishing to be verified to play would have their IP address revealed to Voodoo. While she felt Voodoo could have been more clear about it, she concluded this was a fair warning. Plus she found "no evidence whatsoever of any sharing of … alt data outside of 'Voodoo.' " Of the ban list, Forceme stated, "this should not be called 'Anti-bot' but rather 'Anti-anyone we Voodoo people don't like." Of the question whether or not Voodoo was using the same media loophole as Redzone, she concluded probably not.

In the end, Forceme concluded Voodoo was most likely no big deal, except being a poor product for the purchaser, "the whole Anti-bot device is a joke, don't bother …. and to those who have had their name put in because Voodoo doesn't like them, and that means they are banned from using the sploders and going on land that runs the Anti-bot device, yeah, whatever."

In her first article about Voodoo, Treminari noted that the Greenzone HUD reacts to a Voodoo sploder "like it would any Redzone-like system." But only the wearer of the HUD gets the alert. She tried testing Voodoo for a "media exploit." Going about the few locations she could find that used Voodoo sploders, "I did find attempts in media to send to a specific IP and port number … " but, " … I was unable to rule out what I did see recurring as the possibility of other products that set media URLs, such as a harmless shoutcast DJ board." She concluded her tests were inconclusive.

Treminari was ready to just leave Voodoo alone, then came another development. Talking to her, she described Voodoo's owner Monkey Wonder as entering the Greenzone chat and stirring up arguments, "just because the group has a few anal members, its like anything else. You kick the hornets nest, most of them are going to sting you. He kicked the hornets nest ,making it regular business to enter the group and troll its members and pick fights with them." Monkey did have a right to defend his product, but Treminari felt he was going too far, ".... he did have a right to complain, until he started threatening the groups members and businesses that participate as a whole."

The threat was in a notecard Monkey Wonder passed around to various members of the Greenzone group.


Dear Greenzone griefing group member,

Following mass defamation, griefing, propoganda, scamming and false abuse reports initiated by members of Greenzone griefing group recently on a scale never before seen in SL, Voodoo has taken the decision to protect our customers and other residents of Second Life from your activities.

Greenzone once had a legitimate purpose in Second Life, protecting the privacy of residents from systems such as Red Zone.
Red Zone is long gone, and Greenzone now operates more like the Anonymous hacking collective. The moderators have lost control, and the group is now a leaderless organisation that anyone with a grudge can join to attack others in the name of Greenzone.

Voodoo produces an extremely popular free Sploder tracking HUD which is owned by thousands and used everyday by many people, we have a user base of over 40,000 avatars. The next version of these HUDs, to be released imminently, will announce any nearby Greenzone griefers in local chat by name, along with any land owned by these griefers and any objects created by them. We believe your creations and land are not safe as you are a member of a group well known for griefing.

We do however understand that there is a minority of legitimate business owners currently in the griefing group, who joined long before Greenzone was hijacked by trouble makers. Due to this, we are allowing 12 hours for you to leave the group and avoid any damage to your business.

Voodoo has been at the forefront of SL security for many years and we take it and peoples privacy very seriously.

We do not wish to become ememies of any group, but we simply cannot tolerate people who choose to attack or scam others.

Thank you for your understanding and please make the right decision.

Monkey Wonder
Owner of Voodoo SL

At this point, the nature of the debate changed. Treminari in her article called Monkey Wonder's statement, " 'leave your discussion group or I will do something very bad to you,' obviously meant to coerce people into leaving, which is the very definition of blackmail: 'to force or coerce into a particular action.'" In my conversations with her, "He sent the threat to the whole group, and said he would be setting up his HUD to slander any members present. I take threats directed at me wether it be directly at me or what I have membership in very seriously." She felt concerning his actions, Linden Labs had only one realistic option, "he crossed a line you don't cross, so I will be seeking at the very least his removal from the Grid."

Joining the group to get more information, the reaction of the group was disbelief, and anger, an Anguissette Resident stating, "Leave the group or they'll blackban my products? My products are widely sold. That will anger a lot of product owners. In all my travels through SL, I have only encountered two Voodoo products. One was at the Voodoo creators shop, and slandered me in local chat as a copybot, which of course I am not. The other was in a very unsuccessful and empty club, and wasn't working, according to the error messages it flooded local chat with. I have never griefed anyone. Any claims I have ever made about voodoo were based solely on fact and what Monkey himself told me. That is not griefing. I will not stand by and let him label me as a griefer. I will not let him threaten me and my business.  I will not bow down to threats of blackmail. I will not be slandered and abused. Monkey must abide by not only the TOS, but also the laws of the countries he trades in, both his own and that of his customers. I hope he is reading what we are writing here today. I will be ARing this notecard, on the many infractions of TOS. … I can't believe he's asserting that someone's land might not be safe if they purchase something from my shop. That just makes my blood boil. I make cards and funny signs. Is a greeting card that sends you a hug a weapon of mass destruction now? … I won't be leaving the group. Report that to your leader, Monkey boys. And every time I or something I created or own gets blacklisted, I will file an AR."

After I asked for information, I was IMed by one member of the group. He claimed that a number of "Greenzone proponents" were former members of Woodbury, an infamous group that Linden Labs has banned from the Grid. He cautioned me to watch out for anti-JLU (Justice League Unlimited) propaganda, but I noticed none that night, or as of the writing of this article or any night I observed Greenzone chatter.

One Greenzone member, Unya Tigerfish, sent out a notecard that appeared in a group notice not long after Treminari first contacted me on the matter.


Dear members of the GZ group!

Recently I have revisited the Voodoo products, and to my positive surprise I noticed that Monkey Wonder has in fact adapted many privacy features and thereby relieved a lot of the concerns regarding privacy that were the reasons for this group to fight against the products.

Therefor, I personally contacted Monkey Wonder and we agreed that I should give him a list of the remaining few items that we think were still in violation of privacy. Were those addressed, we would be happy to clear Voodoo products from our "Bad" list. Our talk ended cordially in a truce.

HOWEVER!

Only a week after this talk, before I was finished compiling this list, members of the Greenzone group are receiving a blackmail: "leave GZ group within 12 hours or you, your items, and your creations will be blacklisted"

I personally feel betrayed!  We as the GZ group have pride!

And we will not bow to blackmail!

The GZ group is no griefer group! Therefor, I would like to suggest that everyone of you who is subject to the blackmail of Monkey Wonder, AR him, and whoever is subject to his announced griefing in local chat, AR the person owning the offending device.

Monkey Wonder, consider our talks cancelled. You have shown that you are no man of honour, but instead a blackmailing criminal.

For GZ,

Unya Tigerfish


Heading to Voodoo's office in Voodoo City, Morenci (213, 207, 22), I came across a couple of Monkey's staff. When I asked one about Greenzone, he didn't seem to know what was going on, "green zone, are they making trouble again?" " 'Again?' You have some trouble with them before?" "lol nothing much. … guess if you want info like that, you'll have to talk to the boss." And he told me they would get in touch with Monkey Wonder. A couple days later when I appeared in the office again, he was there.

I asked about trouble between he and Greenzone, and he answered, "Yes it started a long time ago when they misunderstood how our products work and blacklisted us and our customers with their hud. the gz hud says 'Spyware detected' when it sees anything created by me." Telling him of their wondering of a possible similarity to Redzone, "voodoos main thing is the sploder game. we are very strict about cheating. we ban a lot of avatars who try to cheat, so we have enemies. when someone wants to get at us, they join greenzone. so gz is fed false info from these people. without investigation, we were blacklisted by them. if everyone is guilty until proven innocent, why are we targeted? … for months members of the group have lied repeatedly to try to damage us .. they send notecards to our customers saying our products are illegal, they visit my shop. so we decided to implement a similar blacklist."

Of the charges of him sending a notecard to various Greenzone members, Monkey Wonder admitted it, "yes i sent a warning to green zone members explaining what we intended to do. The nc said we would implement the system in 12 hours but it was more like 48. we will be targeting other griefer groups also, to warn our customers and members." "So 48 hours for 'legitimate business owners' to leave, or else?" "voodoo is a security business. 12 hours until we blacklist members of this group because the group is well known for causing grief to other residents." I responded that I hadn't heard of any problems with Greenzone since the Redzone controversy. "Maybe you should talk to the JLU," Monkey responded.

When asked about Unya Tigerfish and if they talked, "yes she is a moderator at green zone, we spoke and talked about changes that could be made to our systems. … She made some vague claim she was going to talk to others and get a list of changes, then nothing happened ... the problem is, there are a lot of people in the group now who are not interested in privacy, they just want to try and damage us in revenge for being banned. you turned my warning on me and said it was a threat, but greenzone have already carried out their action before any warning and now we are blackmailed to make changes or stay on their blacklist. we didn't get a warning."

Monkey Wonder claimed, "6 people have come to me so far and asked to stay in the group and not be blacklisted by us 'because they are in the group to monitor their activities and prevent attacks by them.' it is a griefer group." "So you're not banning everyone in the group?" "i'm not banning anyone unless they grief, but everyone in the group is blacklisted and announced by our tracker HUD."

Monkey Wonder concluded his side of the matter, "voodoo is a gaming and security business, we are not out to invade anyones privacy and really we don't care who anyone is .. we are just concerned with keep the integrity of our games through fair play. i am not a criminal as unya thinks. i am a programmer who makes SL gaming systems for a hobby. … it is not a scam operation. it is a fun thing for people and we have built a big community. The group is about 3000 strong, and we have a userbase of 40,000 … people who have ever played our games, or been customers. the key problem is the group is full of people with the only agenda of revenge."

The meeting seemed to end on a cordial note. But later, Treminari contacted me again and pointed out Voodoo had put me and her on his blacklist. Later on in one of the rare moments I made a comment in the Greenzone chat, when I told someone Treminari had blogged about the controversy and I would be writing an article, a "Killer Sugarplum" responded, "amazing, Bixyl, you represent yourself as a reporter when you had your mind made up before you ever talked to both sides, your reputation isn't worth crap." Treminari had told me she suspected Killer was one of Monkey Wonder's alt accounts.

Chatting with Treminari, she felt what Monkey Wonder did deserved more than just a boot from the Grid, "If Linden Lab don't ban him, I will be getting in contact with the FBI regarding this. I contacted the FBI regarding zFire. The appropriate action for dealing with him is exactly the same." She felt Monkey Wonder deserved "criminal prosecution" for his threats, "He's running a gambling operation on a California based service and threatened an entire group. And (he) was knowledgable he was threatening innocent people too, even says so in the notecard with the statement about innocent business owners. Even if it's a baseless threat, its still a threat nonetheless. And also it reflects on his lack of ethic in his business practice that he would even consider doing such a thing: integrating a slander tool with his HUD. So it really goes to show his SL bot protect ban list ain't to be trusted."

Legal issues aside, Monkey Wonder and Voodoo may soon have a problem on their hands. Keeping an eye on the Greenzone chatter, there were numerous residents stating they were filing ARs against Monkey Wonder. One of the group posted what Voodoo was saying about her:   GRIEFER WARNING: This land is owned by (name of resident), who is blacklisted by Voodoo for being a member of Greenzone Griefer Group. The parcel is not safe. If as many people are sending ARs as I noticed, let alone when I wasn't online, the sheer number is almost certainly going to be at least looked into by Linden Lab. What they'll do about Voodoo and it's owner, that's yet to be seen.

Voodoo is not looking like another "Redzone," but it's owner's actions have created a controversy that will take Linden Lab to resolve.


Sources: Treminari's Secondlife Blog, Forceme Silverspar's Adventures in Second Life, The Examiner, Voodoo

Bixyl Shuftan

Virtual World Avination and Gambling

I was recently contacted by an old friend, Foxyfurman Kumaki, about a recent development in the virtual world Avination. As the estate owner in Second Life of the old Foxworth sim, he and Linden Labs got along less than well. Eventually, he and his partner moved to the mainland, getting a shop there (and paying only a tiny fraction what he once did).

He also decided to check out other virtual worlds, and soon found one he liked: Avination. “This was the first world that I could log into easily,” he told me earlier this year, “This is less money and more stable from my view.” Foxyfurman reported the number of sims back then as 800. More recent statistics of the Opensim based world show over 1100, with almost 26,000 members, almost 9000 whom logged in within the past month.

One thing Foxyfurman liked about Avination was the difference between it’s policy on gambling and that of Second Life. Because Linden Labs is based in the United States, it has to deal with the government’s less than friendly attitude with Internet gambling. A few years ago, Linden Labs banned all gambling in Second Life. Later on, it began allowing some games such as Zyngo, if a case could be made they involved some level of strategy. But there was at least one occasion Linden Labs changed the rules and ordered gaming halls to comply, or else.

“In Avination,” Foxyfurman told me, “it is straight up gambling. AVN is in the UK, so games of this type are semi-legal.” An article in VirWorld wrote about gambling there, describing a casino that was so big, his viewer couldn’t see it all.

Unfortunately, Avination’s relaxed policy on gambling got unwelcome attention from Paypal. Foxyfurman told me the reason Linden Lab had put the pressure on Zyngo halls earlier was because of Paypal, “Paypal is international, and they do not like it.” Avination had been using Paypal for it’s residents’ convenience. But because of the gaming, they were thinking of leaving, “it looks like AVN has few choices: ban gaming, or find a good and easy payment method.”

Some days later, Foxyfurman had some good news, sending me a notecard, with a message to AVN’s staff from Paypal:

Thank you for providing additional information
regarding your website/s and business in order
to comply with PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy.
After a recent review of your account, we have
found that you have completed the requirements
to remove the limitation and have granted an
appeal.

Furthermore we are glad to inform you that you
have been approved to use PayPal as a payment
option for your sales on the following website/s:
http://www.avination.com

So it seems the gaming halls are in Avination to stay.

Bixyl Shuftan

Gaming Hall Owner Says Linden Lab is Banning “Autoplay” Feature

I was contacted by a friend this week, whom had gotten into the Zyngo business. He told me he had a “huge” story concerning gaming in Second Life, “in a nut shell, Zyngo went to an online configuration and now LL is using said online config info with the consent of the maker to bust game places that have not updated to the new rules. ... nasty story really. ... big customers of Zyngo have been forced to take off autoplay as they are high profile. Low profile places have not gotten notice, not made changes yet. As a nasty side effect of the online configuration, unintended but not surprising, the owner of the licence server can ’out’ people who have not turned off auto or done what LL has said to do, and is ratting out the little guys to save big customers and also earn brownie points with LL.”

He later wrote some more information on a notecard. While I don’t usually post anonymous comments, I know the person well enough to know he is sincere in his observations and comments.



Big game halls are going under quickly after LL handed down a ban on auto play (where the game will place the numbers for you), and the devil/angel feature, ( I will touch on this later).

One big hall owner selling off their games was quoted "it is just not worth it, the hassle, players do not play Zyngo (one of SL's most popular games) without autoplay" . Many other games are in operation in SL, and many need to be adjusted, this is all to boost the skill component of the games played for money in world. Game halls wishing to sell Zyngo in this current market can expect to get just 500L a game, this is a transfer no copy game with a license, new they are 2400L.

With all the updates and changes, warnings from the creator group of Zyngo have been coming fast and furious, this has added to the paranoia as this game uses an online configuration where anyone with web privileges can see/change your settings, and trust me in this environment you do NOT want Big Brother watching you.

Now for what LL is doing about the skill element, I personally do not think it is a bad thing, however it does stand to reason that not just the devil has to go but ANY free points that do not have a skill component directly attached to them, (you could have a game where 400% of your score comes from a random symbol, with no player action attached), these points currently come in many forms.

2X,3X or any other X: This is a hidden symbol that is randomly uncovered , it normally doubles your points but it can do much more, with no intentional skill attached, yes a player is trying to uncover a number and the side effect is the 2X, but the player is not skillfully or knowingly uncovering that symbol, the random 2X is just as decisive to the game as angels and devils and currently the way most games are set up, it is a total accident when you get it.

Diamonds/Angels: Any free points that take no action on the players part, these are NOT legal by any skill game standard. These types of points influence the main skill component of the game. Bonus rounds: Some games at the end you have a bonus round, in most cases this is just a random click on the players part and it totally decides the outcome, if these points in any way are used to decide the skill component, again they are not lawful by any set of skill game rules I can find.

Thanks for your time.

Sorry I wish I could pen my name to this piece but Big Brother really IS watching.

He told me when word of this goes around, he may take a hit in the short run, but should avoid trouble if Linden Labs reverses its ban.

Bixyl Shuftan