Ghostbusters Sim

By Grease Coakes

 

An iconic movie of the 80’s was the Ghostbusters with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. The movie where New York was terrorized by ghosts and the Ghostbusters busted the ghosts with laughs and chills. To most people it’s an entertaining movie. To Kheph777 Enoch he was inspired to take it one step further and create his own sim based upon the Ghostbusters movies.

 I warp in and land in the fire house and by dumb luck there’s the sim owner Kheph777 Enoch. I tell him I write for the SL Newser and he gives me a tour around the SL version of the firehouse where the Ghostbusters hang out at. Down in the basement is the vault of where ghosts are stored like in the movie and also where to buy my very own proton pack and trap. To do battle against slimer and his buddies costs 500L to buy the newest proton pack. There was also Kheph777’s friend Stabitha who helps build around the sim too.

 

I pay the 500L and Kheph777 shows me the tutorial. It’s simpler then it seems to blast ghosts and trap them. First you turn on your proton pack, (Everything is done in a simple HUD) then you grab you proton beam in your hand. You activate your stream and fire away! The tutorial only has you fight a class 1 ghost where you just zap to defeat. Kheph777 then showed me upstairs where there’s a phone where you click to automate a call. Kheph777 took lines from Janine’s phone calls in the movie typed out in text and then you know where to go to fight the fiendish ghost.

 

Fighting a mere spirit in the training was easy, but fighting a live class 3 ghost was tricky. It weaved and dodged my proton blasting for a few minutes hiding behind walls. Eventfully I got the bugger, but I still had to trap him! I had to bring in the ghost by walking my avatar close to the trap and then mouse click the foot pedal to trap him in the energy trap. The cash over my proton pack HUD went up some (cash within the game not Linden).

 

Now that I captured a ghost I have to return to the Ghostbusters firehouse to place the trap and drop off the ghost.  You flick the red switch and the drop box falls down, you insert the trap flip it back up and when the light it green the trap is clean. Fair warning you always want to clean your trap. 

Cash you use for upgrades from Egon’s equipment closet and also to recharge your pack. Kheph777 was telling me that your proton pack has an hour of real time charge so you always want to keep it off unless you’re fighting ghosts. He said it’s happened that Joe Birdsong was fighting ghosts and all of the sudden his proton pack turned off. That must be a pain in the butt I bet!

 

Various upgrades go to your trap capacity and goggles to act as radar to see the ghosts. Oh and fighting ghosts in New York is dangerous when you fight a class 6 or 7 ghost. They can attack you, causing you to lose in game hp/s that you see in your HUD. When you drop to zero and die, you’re penalized by having to recharge your pack for $5,000. Don’t have $5,000? Not to worry there’s a petty cash box in the fire house to help you out. You also have to recharge your pack when your hour of battery life is used up.

 

Kheph777 wants to create stronger ghosts like the staypuft marshmallow man to be a bigger challenge. Also there’s a lot of detail in the sim in not only the firehouse but all over like the keymaster and gatekeeper’s apartments. The call I took was at the hotel where the ghostbusters fought slimer. There’s also the library with the gray ghost lady. When I typed something I got a text message saying shhhh!

 

Kheph777 also says his sim is "light RP," meaning you can roleplay as a Ghostbuster or whatever you like. But it’s not required you can come in and fight ghosts by yourself or with your friends just being yourself. When you want to take a break from fighting ghosts there’s also a movie theater showing the first Ghostbusters film and Ghostbusters 2. There’s even the Ecto 1 car sitting in the firehouse for you to drive around to whatever location to reach your call. Zheph777 thought of everything to add realism to the Ghostbusters universe. There was even Zuul and the demon dogs.

 

There’s plenty to do here if you want to try something different even if you’re not a fan of the Ghostbusters. This is the right place for die-hards too who love the series as there’s even voice emotes you can activate from your proton pack HUD as the speech balloon icon. Oh by the way for kicks I tried to trap a ghost in my trap when I already had a ghost. There was a white explosion as my pixel Grease Coakes fell over and died. Luckily I had enough cash to recharge my pack Stabitha kept saying “I want to see him die!” To see my digital death I’d say it was worth blowing the $5,000 in game cash. 

 

The sim itself is loads of fun to play around in I recommend checking out this exciting sim.

 

The Ghostbusters sim and "Light RP" is at Slime Square, Whatever Burg (77, 92, 27). The group has a page on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/GBRPSL . The sim was also featured in a Ghostbusters fan website last month, ghostbustersnews.com (article here).

 

Grease Coakes

 

 

A Day in Second Life

By Grease Coakes

One day Xavier Thiebaud, one of the owners of the A-List, asked me to write out what I did in Second Life as a blog. Writing a blog constantly would be taxing over time. Xavier had a point though that people may be interested in what goes on in a furry’s doings on Second Life, especially one who hops between human and furry hangouts and activities.

So I figured I’d write about a Saturday where I had a few things lined up. For starters on a Saturday morning is brahma yoga class at 4 AM SLT which is 7 AM my time east coast time. The morning class on Saturday is the bajons or spiritual dancing with some meditation. I woke up on time and was frustrated that my Guru Pramiil Magne wasn’t online. 

Not that I can blame him he’s been busy with his job in real life. Despite that my fellow classmates and I decided to meditate without him. Aldaida said she liked my shirt with a picture of Watabou from dragon warrior monsters 1. She called it an alien, but it’s really a tree spirit from the video game. I was in meditation for a short while and I snapped out of it refreshed. I stuck around though and I wanted to prepare a notecard for a tailsale later in the day for IYC. 

I explained about tail sales in an earlier article. I talked with my friends after they got out of meditation for a bit. Celtic wanted to talk about things in her real life so I stopped and listened. When she logged off I warped to AX for a fave event I like to attend. I warped there and left my avatar there as I went afk to grab some breakfast.

After grabbing a bowl of cereal and a soda, no one is at AX yet. Do I look at my notices and DJ Starfall is playing at IYC. I warp over and I hear some awesome trance. Even at 5:30AM SL time, the dance floor is filled with various avatars shaking their tails. Not a lot of them are talking though, so I IM the DJ Ohni Starfall and say a lot of them are afk or in IM/s. He agrees with me. I let his trance relax me as I do my dailies for neopets. When it’s close to 6AM SL time,  I warp back to AX and see Dj Aurora Avila dance with one of her friends Jamaris Pawpaw.

DJ Aurora, in my opinion, is the queen of video game music as she plays a wide variety of video game remixes along with Asian music. She was the first person I reported on for the SL Newser when Bixyl hired me back in January last year. When anyone tips Aurora you’ll get a surprise if you haven’t been to her DJ sets before. DJ Aurora starts her set and suddenly I get an IM.

Spencer Mactire asks “Wait, were you just holding fire?”

I say, “Yes that’s my chat AO. I have lots of them."

Spencer says “That’s cool…” He also says hi to the readers when I tell him his comment is going in my article. I bring up a comment about Iron Man versus Samus Aran (the woman bounty hunter you play as from Metroid) Aurora has this to say as she’s a big fan of the Metroid series. 

[06:09] Aurora Avila: But I know Samus, and Lord knows that if she fights Iron Man, she'll be walking out with about half his modifications customized into her suit, and with a shiny new Repulser Beam. 

I think Tony Stark will have a bad day if he fights the Metroid hunter.

Listening to Aurora’s video game tunes, I decide to play Hubrid’s Hero heist. The worst game you can play in neopets if you want to earn neopoints as quickly as possible as a full game takes a ½ hour or so. It is fun to play in my opinion though, and I have a gold champion trophy in that game sitting on my neopets user lookup as greasy711. Sadly I play a lousy game. But it’s not all bad as I still hold the top score in rink runner of 534.

With expert mouse clicking while listening to Aurora’s music I do much better at rink runner. I asked a lady in a wild crux avatar named Sonicblue Dudek to slow dance with me. She says sure.

Over time the club fills up with various furries as I multitask chatting with people in the club and playing various neopets games earning neopoints. Fun is had by all while everyone hangs out listening to Aurora’s music.

At the end of Aurora’s DJ set I start playing Extreme Herder off neopets, and wanting faster music I warp over to Dance Island. When I started my Grease Coakes account I used to go Tj Icey’s a lot for the club music. Today it’s now Dance Island which features a bunch of DJ/s playing various genres. Dance Island is known for a lot of gestures but it doesn’t bother me as I’m used to Dance Island being an emote fest along with the music.

I click a dance a ball as I say hi to Deirdre Masala who hangs out a lot there. I jam to the trance being played by Bel Air and I start playing more Extreme Herder. My highest score in extreme herder was 353 today which is a good score but not high enough to reach the top scores. I see a notice at Book Island the sim dedicated to books and promoting your own literary works. The event is Jackson Arthur hosting a book discussion at 10am SLT. I leave Dance Island and wander around Book Island instead.

Using my mini map I find a bunch of green dots and hear a man’s voice over voice chat. So I join in and see a group of people sitting around a round table. Looking at Arthur’s top hat makes me think of Simon Linden. He’s one of the Lindens I met in SL and I found his teddy bear. He also asked about moles in SL and Olivia Whitsend answered that moles are a group in SL headed by the Lindens as a public works group.

Brokali, a blue alien, mentioned he was organizing 75 stories about food. Over voice chat he was geeking out about vegetables. He said that the definition of geeking was to be focused on a hobby or interest as their thing. I said jokingly then I geek out about neopets. Olivia said her kids also play neopets so I said my grey neopet will destroy their pets! Arthur said that doesn’t sound good and I joked no it doesn’t ha-ha!

I discussed my children’s book with the group and how I had to rework my book on lulu a few times to get it right. Also how I found an artist to draw for the cover as Arthur was saying he didn’t want to work with covers. A lot of the book discussion covered writing and ways to get published.

When the event was over I was invited to another book Island event, but I declined saying I wanted to go IYC for their tail sale event at 12noon SLT. The sim had to restart but I warped back with ease. A while later IYC got their tail sale under way as I warped through a ball to a waiting area. I joined a separate group IYC tail 4 sale when I was accepted to be sold as a tail for IYC.  

At 12 noon SLT things were still being sorted out as everyone waited for the first tail to go up for sale. The tail sale got a late start as Havok Muircastle wanted to grab more buyers into the sim and kick off the afk avatars. At 12:30 SL time they finally got the tail sale started as Havok spoke out the rules over Voice chat. One thing about tail sales it take a long time as each tail being sold is stretched out being bid on going once, twice, and then a third time.

Many furries ahead of me went for various amounts of Linden of 3k or so. A majority of the sales were offering art work or adult services like the article I wrote earlier on the AX tail sale. Atheu Blindside ahead of me was offering scripting and building weapons was bought by TeiTei for 2,500. I went up next and I can’t move! The sim screwed with my avatar so I could not sit on the podium to be sold. However amazingly, I had high bids and I was finally sold for 5k to Dragonheart. I warped to a sim on my picks then back and I IMed Dragonheart about what she wanted and she was interested in my writing ability. Then DragonHeart kept going and bid on KJ, a girl furry for her artistic ability, for 32,000L!

Jenny of the Sunweavers asked for a DJ for Club Cutlass, so I volunteered. Rita needed my DJ stream so I sent her the DJ information I bought from shoutcast. Then I checked my friends list and my Guru Pramiil Magne was online! Cool. I was excited that he was able to come online for class as I enjoy meditation class with him. I had an intense meditation but I quickly left class to set up my DJ stream with Rita and Jenni of the Sunweavers.

I played a good balance of disco/70’s/60’s and what I usually play for the Sunweavers crowd. I made a fair amount of tips as I played songs like "Hotel California" by the Eagles and "American Pie" by Don McLean. I played a few video game remixes and some House, but I also remembered the audience I was playing for and played disco etc. But the last song I played was a video game remix based upon the first Mega Man.

All in all it was a busy day for me as Grease Coakes in Second Life.  There’s many things to do and experience here on the Grid. Don’t limit yourself to one club or one thing. I guess that’s the moral of this article, if there is one, is just enjoy life and do what you enjoy.

Grease Coakes

The Heart of Gold Club

by Grease Coakes

 

In the club scene of Second Life it’s hard to find one that stands out in the thousands on the grid. One does simply by its design and the name reference. "Heart of Gold" created by Ezrin Sabre and Saros Eclipse is a cozy club made for furries, but of course humans and anyone else are also welcome. Heart of Gold has been around for a year and half and it’s still going strong.

 

 The ship name is from the popular book series the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from the late Douglas Adams. Heart of Gold is the starship with the improbability drive.  And yes the ship actually has an improbability drive that Saros built in. There’s also Marvin the depressed robot downstairs as the barkeep.

 

Saros also owns an anime series called Hi No Tori which in Japanese translates to firebird or bird of fire. Ezrin told me that the series is about (surprise) a phoenix or firebird that travels the universe and teach various lessons to people. The ship itself is also a starship shaped very much like a bird with fiery feathers but also with a mechanical steampunk look. The dance floor itself is clear so you can look down below in the inside of the star ship. The starship itself is also set in outer space where the Heart of Gold/fire bird travels through. The graphics are wonderful as you dance or hang out the upper deck as the ship travels slowly. It seems like you’re actually in outer space but not inky blackness but a colorful environment that seems like nebulae in an explosion of color. 

 

Saros built the club herself as it helps her relax and Ezrin says the original club him and her owned was called Ari-Sen which had a big mushroom in the middle of it. When they moved to a sim with a naughty name, they put the human clubs out of business as they drew in a consistent crowd. DJ Aurora Avila was one of the djs at Ari-Sen until she moved on to AX (also known as Anthroxtacy).

 

Heart of Gold is active at night when their dj/s come out to play for a small but growing crowd that comes to hear live dj sets. Amurtigeress Korobase, a griffin dj, plays a wide variety of music from trance to movie theme music and various other genres as she is also the head dj at Heart of Gold. She djs Tuesday and Thursday 6-10 SL time and every other Friday 6-9 SL time. Sylys Sable a friend of mine also djs here.

 

I also like Heart of Gold as they were the first club to hire me as a dj in Second life. A club turned me down having no dj experience so I went to Heart of Gold instead and Ezrin and Amurtigress hired me right away wanting to hear what I played. I play a mix of dance music mixed in with video game remixes aimed at the dance floor. I dj Monday night 5-8 SL time and also 3-6 SL time on Wedsday night before Ezrin on the same night. The same night I wrote this article I held a contest that whenever I played a life force or mega man themed remix then someone tell me through IM or main chat and that person won a dj mix I just made that day. Hoppy and Zzri both won a dj mix from me for iming me when a megaman song played.

 

You want to see an amazing club and hear great music? Heart of gold is a great place to hang out with your friends and or dance the night away while you get lost in space.

 

Grease Coakes

Changes in the FCA

By Bixyl Shuftan

The FCA, or Furry Club Alliance, has been undergoing some changes throughout the months of it's existence. Clubs and people have joined up, and clubs and people have dropped out. One club gone inactive, another taken down, and some dormant ones have come back to having events.

Created in 2011, the FCA offered an alliance for clubs where residents of any type of avatar, human, furred, neko, pony, and otherwise could come and enjoy themselves. They could coordinate schedules to avoid competing for limited audiences at the same time, and DJs could advertise their services to several clubs at once. When it started out, the FCA was mostly clubs belonging to or affiliated with Nydia Tungsten. Having gotten her start in Second Life as DJ "Naughty" Nydia, she eventually came to be involved with several clubs: the Club Zero Gravity space club and the Happy Vixen beach club in Purrfection, the Little Dove steampunk airship club  in Southern Colorado, the Castaway Cove pirate beach club in Kalmere Paradise, the historic landmark Club Fur in Kitsuhana, and in December 2012 came the Mardi Gras carnival club in FP Proteus.

Club Fur was inactive except for special events and as a hangout for most of 2012, but being in charge of four going to six clubs was still a logistical challenge in addition to needing help from some supporters. Castaway Cove was scheduled to be closed down in May 2012, but was rescued by Skylark Lefavre whom financed it for the remainder of the year.

Other clubs included Club Cutlass, which is owned by Jenni Greenfield and has been around the longest of the clubs, save Club Fur. Also in were the Raised Tail beach club and resort, which closed in 2011 but still has fans talking about it to this day, the Forest Howlers club which was active for several months in 2012 before closing down. There was the Cocktail Lounge which was also in Purrfection in addition to Zero Gravity and Happy Vixen, but was under a different owner. Later in the year, the club went inactive but continued to rent the land where it sat. Late in 2012, Club Euphoria joined the alliance. The Green Meadows "Xanadu" club owned by Perri Prinz was also in the alliance, but was inactive for most of 2012.

Beginning in December and going on in January, change was in the air. Besides opening Club Mardi Gras to appeal to humans as well as furs, she also planed to reopen Club Fur to regular events. DJ YuliaV Resident whom came back from hiatus about this time agreed to perform in both, and gave the carnival club a successful start and gave Club Fur a diverse crowd. Some pictures posted by her online gave the suggestion that some nights this oldest of furry clubs had a mostly human audience. At the Happy Vixen, Jasmine Dawn Shuftan took charge as manager, and reinvigorated the place with new DJs, and taking the party from the club to the open beach on occasion. Attendance began to blossom.

With six clubs under her influence, Nydia came to the conclusion they needed their own organization. So White Vixen Enterprises was formed, consisting of her clubs, and her KVXN radio station.

Three clubs departed from the alliance in recent weeks however.  Club Little Dove was in Southern Colorado due to a deal with the sim's owner. Eventually the deal fell apart, and Nydia took down the club in January. Perhaps it will find new life in a Steampunk community. Castaway Cove's future grew doubtful when Skylark informed everyone she could no longer finance the club from outside Second Life. In January, Nydia and several other White Vixen personnel met up to discuss its future. Skylark stated as much as she loved the club, she didn't want it up if it meant a high cost to everyone. And so the decision was made to no longer keep it running. The club was closed in early February. Club Euphoria did not really participate in FCA meetings, except for a dancer whom went on her own. In an FCA meeting in February, Club Euphoria was voted out in an unanimous decision. Club Mardi Gras was doing well, but eventually the estate owner made the decision to close down the land. So with nowhere to go, the club was closed for the time being. Nydia however resolved to have it reopened soon.

Although two of Nydia's clubs were closed down, the people working at them had others to go to. Perri Prinz was looking to reactivate Green Meadows, and in January it opened once again with the help of Kiticella whom had managed both Little Dove and Castawave Cove. Once again, the beloved disco club was having regular events. With Mardi Gras temporarily down, YuliaV was free to play more elsewhere. And she began playing regularly at the Happy Vixen, in addition to another night a week for Club Fur. It was at this time Club Fur changed hands. Alynna Vixen was the one who rescued the classic club when it's old home at Furnation Prime closed. When she had to take a break from Second Life, she turned the club over to Nydia. After Nydia got it running again, Alynna returned and Nydia transferred the club back to her. Under Alynna's hands, the club continued to do well.

White Vixen Enterprises was down to two active clubs: Club Zero Gravity and the Happy Vixen, plus it's radio station KVXN. But Nydia planned to change that. She looked for a new home for Club Mardi Gras, and soon found one. On Feb 18th, the club celebrated it's grand reopening with a crowd that was over 35 avatars at times, dancing to the tunes by YuliaV.  Nydia called it the most of any club under her, giving DJ Yulia the credit.

Nydia had other plans as well. In the upper section of Club Zero, she replaced the cuddle couch with "KVXN's new home," a virtual radio station, "any one wanting some air time can come DJ on air for me. When they do they can broadcast from here."

Numerous other individuals have been part of the FCA's clubs.  Hostess Miyuki Naidoo has tirelessly greeted residents dropping in to Club Zero Gravity for the past few years. Alexandra "Sexy Lexi" Tymets, Cynthia Farshore and Kryxia Silverfall were sometimes the only DJs who would take certain hours that tended to draw small crowds. Shockwave Yareach was a song parody singer in addition to being a DJ, and parodies of his such as "Boobie Man" drew chuckles from crowds. Plus many others have also been a part in keeping the clubs going as DJs and hostesses.

Over time, the FCA has seen a number of challenges and changes. It will continue to change as more clubs join, a place for clubs where all types of avatars are welcome.

Bixyl Shuftan

At a Tail Sale

By Grease Coakes

You may or may not have heard of a tail sale at "name your furry club" fellow reader of the SL Newser. Whether you have heard about one or no,t I thought it would be fun to write an article about one. I myself have been up for auction a few times in furry clubs, and you may ask "what is a tail sale?"

A tail sale is held by a furry club where furries go to offer various services like adult roleplaying with the buyer, artwork, or writing or scripting or anything else you may think of. The purpose of a tail sale for any furry club is to raise funds to pay off their monthly tier and more improvements of the club. In general the bid on whatever furry is spilt in half between the club hosting the tail sale and the furry who is up for sale.

For example Bixyl my boss could go up for sale offering a cartoon and puns for whoever buys him. So if Jane Cleanslate bids 2,000L on him then 1,000 would go to Bixyl and 1,000 to the club. Bob Magne really wants one of one of Bixyl’s cartoons though so he outbids Jane’s bid by 500. Jane pouts and Bob at the last call buys Bixyl for 2,500 same as before ½ to Bixyl ½ to the club.

What I offer are my writing services for whoever buys me. I write adult stories and also once I did write a fantasy adventure for Chazore Ayers. I did include a couple of my characters from my children’s book as adults and she gave me a large bonus when I finally finished it as it was rather long. I’ve been in tail sales around furry clubs for a while now.


On February the 9th, the furry club Anthroxtacy held their tail sale which they try to do a few times per year. When I warped to their sim there was already a large crowd of furries and a human or two waiting around for the tail sale to start. It took a while to rez while Akira was playing dance music. At 2pm SL or 5pm east coast Hikari Vixen took over the stream and began the tail sale itself. I was handed a notecard in a tail sale group outside the regular AX group (AX Short for Anthroxtacy). It told me the order of everyone going up for sale I was towards the middle. Each furry goes up on the podium and the host as Hikari describes what that furry is offering. After a period of time she says first call, second call and finally Hikari closes the sale. The furry who was bought now owes the buyer whatever services that the furry offered.

The first furry Lyla Chauveau a tan colored raccoon went up on the podium. Hikari in a happy go lucky voice announced that her bid before the actual sale was 10,000 Linden for adult role-play services. 10k Linden! That’s a lot for a furry’s services, but that’s usual for a tail sale that furries go for high prices especially the lady ones. After a few minutes of taunting the audience to bid higher Hikari closed the sale to Lyla’s buyer at 10,000.

Me and the other furries up for sale waited in a corner a dressing room as the tail sale had a burlesque theme so a few of the girl furries wore corsets to fit the theme. As the tail sale went on Hikari announced each furry and what he or she would offer the buyer. Surianna the head playmate of AX as a snow leopard offered her incredible RP services in adult ways and sold for 5,000L.Akira went for 20k

Linden to Jayrek for artwork or adult role-play services. Typing in 20,000 in the buy Linden bar I saw that if I wanted to buy 20K Linden with real money it would come to $81.27 in US dollars! That’s a lot to bid for someone in Second Life.

Dahlia Blitzstein before me sold her art work skills at a very high price. She had a cube above her head showing off her art work for everyone to see. I found myself looking at the cube looking at the detail of her computer artwork and wishing to buy her artwork. Sadly my hopes were shot down when I saw her bid starting at 6k Linden. Hikari was calling on the crowd to bid higher for her high quality artwork. Almost before the final call Mythology Doesburg who owns AX bid back and forth between Helios and himself. Mythology AKA Myffy as he likes to be called in the end bought Dahlila for 22,000 Linden! That’s a little more than what Jayrek paid for Akira.

Seeing that Dahlia was ahead of me I jumped over to a scripted 1920’s chair behind her as Dahlia auction was closed. I imed Hikari saying I was ready and she posted my tail sale info for everyone to see while she read it out loud.

One lady bought me for a mere 1,000 as a present for her SL wife, so I only got 500. I felt discouraged that I could of gotten more, but I also reminded myself I could of walked away with a big fat zero. I can’t cry over spilled milk, so instead of grumping about it I imed her to see what she wanted as a story. She wants to see what her SL wife wants too.

Looking to make some Linden and show everyone a talent you have? Tail sales are the way to go. Far as I know humans would be allowed to be in a tail sale just like a furry. The Anthroxtacy tail sale is over, but if you keep your ears open I’m sure there are other tail sales around Second Life too.

Grease Coakes

The Island of Lost Dreams

By Bixyl Shuftan

Second Life has a number of combat areas. And there's no shortage of places offering adult action. The Island of Lost Dreams combines both, but there's a lot more to the place as well.


The Island of Lost Dreams is a "Capture / Roleplay" or CARP sim, or a "slave hunt" sim as the group calls itself. The players are in three groups, Preys, Hunters, and Amazons. Preys are the more submissive players, armed only with slings with stones, and can only shoot back when attacked. Mostly made up of females, the girls are pursued by the Hunters, and the guys by the Amazons. The Hunters are male players armed with bows whom try to capture female prey or hunters. The Amazons are female hunters, armed with bows and melee weapons, whom protect prey girls and fight the Hunters. Players are required to wear a combat GM meter and hud, with Preys also needing a collar.

In one on one combat, the participants fight one another until one runs out of hit points and falls unconscious. A victorious hunter can capture and bind Preys and Amazons he bests. Amazons can also capture hunters.

According to the notecard, outfits were to be Fantasy Medieval or Gorean-themed. The rules stated only humans, elves, and possibly demons could be active participants. Child and four-footed avatars are absolutely not allowed.

I was invited to get a look at the island, by the leader of the role-play Lisa Salvadori. The LM provided takes one to a platform high over the sim, where one can get notecards explaining the place and weapons appropriate for the role you join. We used the teleporter to drop down to ground level near the village. The main building there is the tavern, which is considered a safe or neutral zone, and is the main social spot. She then led me to one of the tunnels there, "We have several tunnels here, leading to different places." There was one point in which the wooden walkway we were on was interrupted with an underground stream under the gap, "Have to jump up here." While she made it, yours truly missed and took a bath, getting some girlish giggles in response, "Ha ha! You could have also went down underwater. Just have to find the secrets (laughter)." At least one of the tunnels offers a secret entrance to the castle dungeon.

Lisa soon had to go, so one of the Amazons, Raven, took me around. The scenery was very good once rezzed. Besides the village and the tunnels, there were waterfalls, hills, and the castle in the distance. Sometimes one needs to jump to get to a spot without taking a long way around, but Raven loved it, "running and jumping I love sooo much. (grin)"

We went up to one spot in the hills for a picturesque view, "This is my favorite spot to sit and look at the water." For traveling over the water, there's a boat, "it's fun to ride in, but we found it can't hold a lot of people (laughter), it will sink!" The boat can hold a driver, two "holding" and a fourth. At one point, we passed a hammock, "you can lay in solo or with a partner." With 58 animations, it didn't take much imagination to figure out what a couple could be doing there. In another part of the sim were ruins one could hide in, or fight from behind a wall. And there were more tunnels. Raven used some to get away from Hunters when outgunned or when her hitpoints were low.

In the main field there was a dummy for combat practice. To keep one from being ambushed while distracted, the location it was in was considered a safe zone. Once activated, it could move around and return fire on one attacking it. It had adjustable settings so beginners could start low and work their way up.

Back at the tavern, Raven introduced me to one of the hunters, Keven, whom was dressed in a modern hunter's camo outfit. The conversation soon got to some friendly bickering, "Lisa a Miss, since when?" "(laughter) Careful, you know if she hears you, she's going to spank you." "(chuckle) More like she gets spanked." "(raspberries)." Looking to me, Raven told, "Keven here put an arrow in my (behind) earlier." "Poor Raven, I make her blush, and it makes me feel so damn good." "Hee-hee. … I'll get you yet, Sir, you can count on that." They described earlier that he had captured her and taken him to his home, locking her up. But when he had to leave she escaped, after getting her bow and dagger. She explained for melee weapons, Amazons could use "swords, whips, hammers" or most anything that could be easily used in one hand inland to hand combat and could reasonably be found in this kind of setting.

Keven explained given patience, most anyone could learn how to fight here, "a newcomer … would need to learn fast as some of these Amazons are hard to take down." Raven stated fights could be over in less than five minutes or go on for a half hour. At one point, Keven and Raven demonstrated a capture, with Raven letting him win a fight, the combat meter declaring her unconscious, and Keven tying her up. While unconscious, one could be aided by someone on their side. But once captured, the captive could be taken away, "Once she is leashed, I can drag her over the sim." "Like this, I can't run, unless he loosens my legs, and if he doesn't leash me when he loosens my legs, I can run."

Recorded damage slowly healed over time. Unless reset, a combat meter takes up to thirty minutes to fully heal wounds. While there was an option for "arena mode," it wasn't used normally as once someone was beating, it was soon reset. It wasn't good for the CARP fighting, only PvP combat in which the only objective was how many wins. It was also mentioned that "splash" damage arrows were active at the moment, which Raven disliked as it made for easier ambushes and captures.

They got along well, though there was no shortage of rivalry and scheming, albeit in a friendly way, Keven himself saying, "One thing to remember is never trust a Hunter, they are evil." "Or an Amazon," Raven quipped, grinning evilly. Keven smirked, "Its good we are friends." At one point, Raven accidentally activated a music gesture, singing "Bad to the Bone." Keven chuckled, "See, if you tickle her good, she will sing all happy like." "(laughter and raspberries) I am the one here you will find just randomly dancing (laughter)." "Yea, I remember not too long ago she was dancing and captured me. (laughter) But I do have to say, her (behind) looked good." There were more chuckles, Keven saying, "Well, you know most of the girls chase me, only one can really catch me, and I'm not pointing her out," then he looked at Raven and grinned.

Soon we were joined by another Hunter, Kairos, "one of our Russian Hunters." "We have Hunters all over the world," Raven told. Then came a scantily clad Amazon, "Sweet Honey Pot." Raven spoke of her, "Sweet started as Prey, then learned to pick up a bow. Now she's my sister. (smile)" We were then joined by another, Olivia Direwytch, also lacking much cover, "Darn, lost my skirt again." Raven remarked, "As you can see, we all dress differently, but we chicks are hotties." Keven drooled, "Hot hell, I melt any time I'm around any of ays." Looking to me, Raven warned, "Don't let any of these girls fool you, we all love a good fight." One of the girls looked at me, openly wondering what it would be like to go after foxboy prey.

Over time, there have been some crazy happenings. Raven described one time in which some Amazons had captured a hunter, and after tying him to a pole were having fun with him by taking turns spanking his behind.

Besides the CARP action, there are also "Capture the flag" battles. The usual roles of hunter vs prey and Hunter vs Amazon are cast aside for "Red vs Blue." Here the normally submissive players are free to attack as they please, and only one item counts as a capture: the opposing team's flag. Whoever swipes the opposing player's flag and can bring it back to base wins.

On some weekends, there's music parties at the tavern or castle, with either a DJ or live musician. Raven commented, "There's also 'Spin the Bottle' up in the castle for naughty times - shhhhhh!" The parties can take all sorts of fun, "We have fun, one night we got all these bouncy balls and were bouncin' all over the place and hidin' in the bushes!" Sweet commented, "A couple weeks ago, we had a love concert, er live concert in the castle ballroom." She giggled, "The love concert came after."

Most of the houses and other buildings in the Village are available for rent, with a 50 prim limit available for 360 Lindens a week, 75 for 575L and 100 for 680. One could be rented for a home, or a store. There were already stores in the area where one could get clothing, furniture,  weapons, and a few adult items.

Finally, there are the roleplaying classes. The ILD Roleplayers group is ranked "Mature" and not adult. These are taught by Rayah Marenwolf at 2PM on Wednesdays in the Tavern. There's also RP practice in the Tavern on Sundays at announced times. Once a month is the "Virtual Live Band," with four people from four different countries.

The builder behind the Island of Lost Dreams was Jenne Dibou, whom is also known for her Steampunk designs and builds.

With the adult themes in mind, the main objective was for everyone to have fun, with the rule book on occasion getting tossed aside when everyone desired. Sweet told, "The best thing about this sim is the people. Everyone I've met is very open and friendly and willing to help." "A sense of humor helps too," Olivia added.

The entrance is at Lost Dreams Island, (129, 82, 3506). For more information, there's also a Island of Lost Dreams Blog at http://islandoflostdreamscarpsim.blogspot.com/ .


Bixyl Shuftan

Game Review: Torchlight 2

By Grease Coakes

For Xmas my brother got me Torchlight 2 from steam and I have been playing on and off since last month. For fans of Diablo 2 and 3 this game is a welcome addition to the dungeon crawler mouse clicking genre. Where Diablo 3 seemed fun at first, but it got stale and repetitive every time I played it. Torchlight 2 seems fresh every time I play it.

The Alchemist from the first torchlight series as a magic blasting class was corrupted by the Ember Blight coming from the Heart of Ordrak in the original Torchlight. The game progresses as your character chases after him as he creates chaos in his wake. So far as I play through the game the first act is basic plains. The second act is a desert, and the third act is a forest.

 

The four characters you can play as are the engineer which is your melee brawling character. The berserker is another melee class using animal based attacks. The ember mage is a wizard class, and finally the outlander is a gun toting ranged class with some magic ability. The Outlander is my main character as he seems the most fun (in my opinion) to play. Not to say the other characters aren’t fun either as I dabbled in the other classes

 

When you create your character you’re not stuck with one character appearance as you can pick out hair color and style and skin tone along with the gender of your character.

 

Like the first Torchlight you have an animal as your sidekick to go to town and sell trash and help you fight the baddies that stand in your way. In the first Torchlight you could only pick a dog or cat as your animal ally. In the second Torchlight you can pick from many more including a panther, hawk, badger and owl along with the original dog and cat and you can also change the animal fur color as well. You can also feed your pet fish from fishing that change your pet into different kinds of animals to boost kitty’s fighting ability like an armored crab or a mole that can stun enemies. Fishing itself isn’t hard or time-consuming so fishing for your pet is rewarding to give your pet a fighting edge.

 

One thing I can say about Torchlight II is how fast your character levels up. Whereas Diablo 3 you slowly level having to repeat acts to level up the game pace in Torchlight II is just right as it seems I progress through the game and level up at a rapid pace. In addition to that I was happy to play through the game as I got a fair share of treasure to sell as fodder and weapons and armor to boost my character. Green is good, blue is a lot better and orange is legendary. Your pet gets gear too as collars and tags.

 

The difficulty level is just right too. A turn off from Diablo 3 was that towards the end of the game it was no fun to play anymore as my character died if a bad guy sneezed on him. As I’m in the third act now the game play difficulty is a happy medium. Sure I die now and again, but I’m not dying constantly. A definite plus in the game is I’m not punished for dying. When I die I’m given a choice to go to the start of the dungeon I’m at costing some gold, or start back in town costing nothing. The no-brainer choice is use the town teleport scrolls as I progress along and start in town losing no gold. No cash eating repair bills in this game. 

 

Each time I level up I get 5 points to assign attributes such as focus to increase magic, dexterity, and Strength speak for themselves and Vitality to boost hit points and defense. Using the outlander I was dumping a lot of points into dexterity increasing his critical strike chance while throwing the rest into Strength and Vitality and rarely in focus. So far this seems like the right way as my outlander named chair is shooting down baddies pretty well. 

 

You also receive a single point to put into your character build. Thinking this is a gun toting character I put a lot of my points into gun abilities (Warfare) boosting his rapid fire (right click on the mouse) among other ranged attacks. Plus I have been boosting his overall damage using dual wielding pistols and increasing his attack range and damage. So far it seems like a winning strategy. As you level up new abilities are available like a rain of poison arrows that do a LOT of damage in a certain radius but this was only available when I hit level 42 chair is now near level 50 in the third act. The other characters have skill trees as well with different abilities as the embermage has fire arcane and frost to play with for example.

 

Something that helps keep the game fresh is like the popular game "World of Warcraft," in-town NPC/s ask you to do quests to progress through the game so you’re not mindlessly killing monsters to gain experience/gold/gear. Makes you wonder sometimes why those lazy NPC/s can’t do the quests themselves. On top of that the bosses so far were a thrill to fight. They were tough making me constantly guzzle potions to keep my hp/s and magic up but they always dropped great gear and gold.

There are slots to place gems in armor and weapons for elemental damage or adding to your elemental defense against say poison or fire. Also enhancements you can pay an NPC to enchant your gear that is expensive, but worth your gold. Torchlight II gives you plenty of ways to boost your character

 

All in all I’d say Torchlight II is a blast to play with the option to play with others, but for now I’ve been killing baddies solo wanting to progress at my own pace. I may try a multiplayer game with another character like my embermage, but for now I want to keep shooting down bad guys on my outlander. The only flaws I can think of are that I can only repsec three points on your character’s skill tree if you want to change. The music is okay, but not amazing. However the sound effects make up for it. If you get the chance buy Torchlight II from Steam and have a ball killing baddies and more.

 

Grease Coakes

SL Newser Reporter Breaks into Published Fiction with "Ginny"

By Grey Lupindo

          Long-time SL resident and SL Newser reporter Grease Coakes just published his first book, Ginny Griffin's First Day of School.  Grease is traveling around SL as a pink avi to promote its publication and the brave little girl who is the protagonist.   We met early one morning at my home on Syzygy to discuss the book and Grease’s publishing journey.

Ginny Griffin’s First Day of School is about Ginny Griffin, a third grader who moves with her parents to Spoonville, a totally furry world.  Because she’s the “new kid” and doesn’t know anyone, she's scared to go to the new school.   “But Ginny certainly has an exciting first day of school,” Grease explained.  “It's not a run of the mill day.”   The little griffin learns bravery as she goes up against incredible odds, although Grease wouldn’t reveal what specific hazards she encounters.    Those revelations would spoil the book for readers.     

While this is his first published book, Grease has been writing for many years.   “I remember as kid I wrote some and read a lot,” he said.    He has also been writing and publishing a lot in SL, both as a reporter and on other projects.    As we discussed his book, it became obvious to me that Ginny Griffin wasn’t the only one who faced incredible odds and triumphed.   Here is part of the interview that I conducted with Grease. 

Grey Lupindo:    Is this a book for young readers or one for parents to read to children?

Grease Coakes:  At 18 pages, I would think that children could read to themselves.  Or perhaps adults could read it to their little ones.  Or, adults could read it themselves for kicks.  Adults might relate to Ginny's struggle with their first day at a new school. 

Grey Lupindo: How did you get the idea for Ginny's story?

Grease Coakes: I always thought it was neat looking at those Richard Scary stories.

Grey Lupindo:   Oh, yes.  I remember those.

Grease Coakes:  So I thought, wouldn't it be neat to write a story with similar characters?   I associate pink with girls so I made Ginny pink.  Her mother is pink, too.  So it's in her family.”

Grey Lupindo: Yes, very appropriate.  ....  Is this your first children's book?

Grease Coakes: Yes, but I have written other stories.  A lot of them aren't meant for children. 

(At this point I see Grease smiling.)

Grease Coakes: I sell myself at tail sales for furries to use my writing services for less savory themes.

Grey Lupindo:  Oh...well...moving right along....What surprised you the most about the process of writing a children's book?

Grease Coakes:  It was a lot harder than I thought to get it published AND hard to look around for an artist to draw the cover picture. ... I knew a publisher via her phone number found off a website. She was supportive and helpful, but in the end she told me she would not publish my story.

Grey Lupindo: It's very hard to publish, especially in the last few years.

Grease Coakes: Yeah, it is.  Plus I had to keep editing and changing it as I got feedback from my friends.  So I've been working this story since my inception in SL, which is what... 5 1/2 years now.

Grey Lupindo:   Did you do the cover?

Grease Coakes:   Oh, goodness no! I can't draw worth a booger.   Perri Prinz told me about her friend Lampie.   I looked over her website and her pricing.   I think her artwork is simple and colorful, but also very professional and neat.

Grey Lupindo:   You said you received feedback from friends.  Were young readers among those friends?

Grease Coakes: No, this came from an old friend in SL. She read it over and hated the ending so I re-wrote it altogether.  I showed it to other friends, and they liked it.  But I think they were biased in my favor....   This friend was honest saying this won't work.

Grey Lupindo: The original ending?

Grease Coakes: Yeah.  I ended the book too easy, with not a lot of conflict.   This time I made it more exciting and more believable.

Grey Lupindo: Ah, yes. It's hard to make your characters suffer.

Grease Coakes: But also my characters have to grow.   I mean as a child just doing what your parents tell you is suffering.  Or being pushed around by the school bully.  No one person lives a carefree life.   Life doesn't work that way.

Grey Lupindo: Is there any bullying in this story? That seems to be such a hot issue right now.

Grease Coakes: There could be.

Grey Lupindo:  Is there anything else that you want readers to know about your book or the writing process?

Grease Coakes:  All I can say is, if you believe in yourself and apply yourself, anything is possible.  If you keep at it. I mean I could have just given up when someone didn't draw my picture for me after I paid in Lindens.

Grey Lupindo: Did that happen?

Grease Coakes:  Yes, it did.  And when I IM’d her, she gave me a rude response.

Grey Lupindo: How terrible!

Grease Coakes: I said the hell with this.   Let me look for someone else.  Luckily when I ran into Lampie, she was very professional and very swift.

Grey Lupindo:  Who is the publisher? How can people buy your book?

Grease Coakes:  That's easy.  They can go to http://www.lulu.com/shop/john-krauss/ginny-grffins-first-day-of-school/paperback/product-20635273.html    I have the link in my picks, too.

          Ginny Griffin's First Day of School is available from Lulu Press for $12.00 U.S.    

Grey Lupindo

News and Commentary: "Graphics Card" Griefing Attacks on Club Show a Serious Problem

By Bixyl Shuftan

Griefers have been a problem in Second Life probably since the beginning. Usually they're bored, immature individuals whom get their kicks out of pranking or harassing people. Little pests. But recently I've heard some news of some incidents that had me worrying.

Since first getting about the Grid, I myself have seen a number of examples at sandbox areas and the Luskwood community. One moment, a guy's peacefully building in a public 'box, and the next his work is surrounded by giant male organs with the N-word being shouted out repeatedly. While visiting Luskwood in the past, on occasion the place was flooded with squares showing some image, usually lame or obscene, or pictures of Mario. The response from the Lusk furs was a collective "Here we go again," and they'd turn off Particle images in their Preferences while an administrator got rid of the emitter. And a couple times while at a Live TV broadcasting, some character walked onto stage and began showering the set with particles. Both were quickly booted, and a little editing erased any traces of inconvenience to the show.

Usually these malcontents have simply been an occasional annoyance that pops up time to time. Although these particle storms could cause one to crash on occasion, the effect was mainly distraction and some lag. Although "The Herald" reported on them repeatedly, other newsletters and blogs have tended to do so sparingly. The most noted article about grieving by our predecessor paper, SL Newspaper, was when the Woodbury sim was hit by grieving attacks. The sim had a strong reputation of being a griefers hangout, so I couldn't help but chuckle at the equivalent of someone robbing a thieves guild. Since then, maybe a sentence or two of some philistine trying to disrupt a 9-11 memorial service.

But earlier this month, I've heard about some incidents of griefers whom truly were a serious problem for a location.

Junkyard Blues is an outdoor club that's been in business in Second Life for several years. Over time, a community has sprung up around the place, as well as shops, and some smaller additional clubs. According to an article written by Yordie Sands in her blog, the location was the target of a series of grieving attacks. Not the "Mario Mosh Pit" and the like that pestered Luskwood and other places, but using devices that I had never heard of until reading her post about an announcement by Kiff Clutterbuck, one of the owners.

These attackers used a particularly nasty kind of tool called a "sim crasher." Another name might be "graphics card crasher." Not only could they take the sim offline, but these things would cause peoples' computers to crash by overloading their graphics cards. Sims were sometimes offline for hours or the next day until Linden help during business hours could bring them back online.

Staff and patrons alike began expressing worry that these attacks might cause actual damage to their computers. Not to mention regulars and casual visitors alike began to stay away. They wanted to just relax and listen to the music, not deal with constant threats of harassment. Then came a new wrinkle. The management was sent a message by one of the griefers demanding money in order for the attacks to stop.

This was now an extortion scheme, one with the continued livelihood of the community as stake.

Aside from bringing crashed sims back online, Kiff stated the Lab was no help at all, "All that was available from Linden Lab was the invitation to file abuse reports, one by one, on each individual who attacked us, if we could even give then a name. And then we'd see the same people we reported returning to do it again." The attacks continued day after day, one show being crashed four times. Finally, the decision was made to make the Junkyard Blues club, and most of the community's sims, members only. Visitors could still drop into the one sim open to all, talk to a volunteer, and get a tag after a look-over.

The problem with this solution: making a place members-only can put a limit on traffic. Fewer people able to drop in money in a club's tip jar, fewer potential customers at the stores. Eventually, Junkyard Blues will lift their group membership requirement. But not until they feel the coast is clear.

To add insult to injury, it was soon discovered that "sim crashers" were available for sale on Marketplace. No only was the Lab not doing anything about the attacks, it wasn't doing anything about items for sale on Marketplace openly marked for griefing!

Why is Linden Lab not enforcing the rules it set down for its virtual world? Why is Linden Lab not helping it's customers?

Sims can cost big money, $300 US dollars a month in tier. If a griefing campaign like this results in a place closing down, that's less money for Linden Lab. If stores and clubs are unavailable for residents to frequent, that's less people buying Linden dollars. That's what this kind of mess directly costs Linden Lab. Indirectly, well, Linden Lab not enforcing its rules about harassment *and* dealing with criminal activity makes people less likely to want to invest time and money in Second Life.

Why Linden Lab isn't acting, we residents can only guess. We've long joked about Linden incompetence. Some people I know have wondered if the Lab can be lazy at times, not wanting to deal with issues even when they have the time and resources. Or perhaps they're simply having Second Life "treading water" while they look for the perfect "shared creative space" for the masses more suited to watching reality TV than figuring out the Grid's learning curve.

Oskar Linden's dismissal in November also raises a few questions on the matter as in his words "the root of it was complaints from a griefer whom I had banned from a private testing sandbox that I managed after he was harassing people and threatening to crash them and the region." A Linden fired for protecting residents against griefers? The Lab has been distancing itself from the residents, and it's believed they strongly dislike its employees getting involved with the residents. But has this unofficial policy gone to the point that even protecting residents from griefers is forbidden?

Or perhaps this is an example of how bad the dysfunction at the Lab has gotten. On the Second Life Universe forum thread Oskar Linden announced his dismissal, one poster commented "your firing is an example why employees 'freeze' when trying to make decisions on their own …" Another thought, "The result will surely be that the few surviving LL employees will do even less banning of griefers now. Why bother ARing grievers now, as the poor drudge who deals with your AR will be scared to take effective action."

So perhaps that the assault on Junkyard wasn't dealt with by the Lindens was a consequence of Oskar's dismissal: they were afraid what supposedly happened to him from banning a griefer would have happened to them. If so, the Grid's residents could truly be on their own when it comes to these troublemakers now able to crash people's computers, whether it be taking the "law" into their own hands, getting the help of a vigilante group, or bite the bullet and "hunker down" until the problem goes away like Junkyard did.

Yordie Sands did mention one possible solution: the Lab offering countermeasures for sim owners against griefers. Someone commenting on her article suggested residents had already made some countermeasures, but there was some debate on how effective they were, one wondering if they tended to attract griefers instead of being a shield.

So how could this end? Honour McMillian wrote in her blog the end result could very well be someone taking Linden Lab to court over it's failure to enforce it's terms of service. Crap Mariner commenting on her article wasn't so sure if many residents had a big enough investment in the Grid to get a lawyer on the matter. But if one of the few large land barons ended up the target of griefers and the Lab did nothing, then the Lab could very well be hit with a lawsuit.

With the Second Amendment being debated in the US in real life, the Junkyard incidents could very well be used by the pro-gun side in any debate in Second Life. Rules against the ownership of weapons are no help to the public when those in charge make no real effort to protect the public from those who buy or make them anyway and then use them with impunity with no fear of punishment.

I contacted Kiff Clutterbuck about the attacks, but he declined to be interviewed, "I think for now we are sort of burnt out on it."

Sources: Yordie Sands, SL Universe, Honour McMillian


Bixyl Shuftan

More on CBS and "Star Trek" Content in Second Life

By Bixyl Shuftan

Last month, CBS was contacting Linden Lab and several content creators about the latter's merchandizing of "Star-Trek" related items. As the owner of most of Star Trek's copyrights, CBS demanded they remove their items from SL Marketplace and stop selling them. Recently, a number of Trek fans met up to discuss CBS's moves, and what to do about it.


About a dozen residents, including Vic Morrington (Victor1st Morrington) of the Dr. Who community, and "Examiner" writer Doc Grun, were present at the meeting. Doc Grun stated he had written to CBS about the matter. "CBS has declined to comment, and has also declined to be interviewed," he stated, though several CBS employees had checked his Linkedin profile since.

The incident was compared to when Universal contacted Linden Lab about Second Life's "Battlestar Galactica" content. With "Battlestar," sims and groups had been closed until Universal until an agreement was made. This time CBS contacted both Linden Lab *and* several content creators. Doc called it, "That is using an atomic bomb to swat a fly." But unlike then, no sims or groups had been taken down. Vic suggested CBS was looking for a quicker resolution, "direct contact with the seller makes for much quicker conversations between CBS and the person they contacted without going through the middle man: Linden Lab." That is, those departments of CBS involved, "It wasn't a full shut down 'cause the top tier of CBS legal department never got involved in this, it was the clerks."

So what were CBS's goals? The language in the letters CBS sent left much room for interpretation, "Immediately cease all creation, distribution, promotion, and sales of the infringing products. … Refrain from advertising, selling, and positing the infringing products in any format on the Second Life Marketplace, and at any other websites or locations where you may be offering and/or selling the infringing products." Was CBS trying to stomp out not just the selling of Trek content, but Trek roleplaying as well? Vic disagreed, "They only came into SL to get rid of the folks selling IP violation items, there was no sign of them trying to close down the RP groups within SL." Doc Grun seemed uncertain, saying, "you all have contraband you see, every one of you is wearing stolen goods. Lawyers are there to take on trivial sh*t like the end of the world mattered on it." But was CBS trying to wipe them out, "They have not made that clear, at all. You are literally in limbo."

The residents had various different reactions. One had deleted all Trek items off his Marketplace account and no longer made it. Another had kept going, "I will never listen to any one that tells me to stop my RP and building of trek whatsoever." It was the impression of those meeting the Trek community as a whole would keep on roleplaying, CBS be damned. If nothing else, there were other virtual worlds besides Second Life, one saying, "You'd be surprised at the number of Trek groups that have left Second Life for other grids, sometimes private grids."

Despite the lack of clarity from CBS, Vic suggested keeping the emails to them at a minimum, "as someone who used to work for Paramount, if you folks keep prodding CBS looking for an explanation, they will take that stick you are prodding them with and are liable to just say 'screw it' and beat you all over the head with it. As I explained COUNTLESS times to the IFT folks, you do not 'deal' with CBS."

Following the meeting, Doc Grun made his own column for the "Examiner." But the title of it, "CBS Moves to Stop Star Trek Content in Second Life" sparked some controversy among some Trek fans as needless scaremongering as more than one thought it was suggesting CBS was after all Trek content, not just that which was sold. Edconnect Gufler of the Trek Museum remarked in one chat,"He has no credtibility." Others suggested giving him a break, saying he did try to get the facts and talk to CBS. Then came an announcement from the IFT group that suggested negotiations with were suspended:

I have been playing e-mail tag with the office of the Vice President of Licensing & Intellectual Property Rights, Liz K. (technically her exec. asst. Brian L.), at CBS. They really do not like it when someone else tries to intervene after establishing that I was the point of contact in SL back in 2009. As a result, I believe they have ceased all talks. So, a sarcastic thanks goes out to whomever interfered. At any rate, until told otherwise, keep things status quo, short of selling copyrighted stuff.

For now, the question of the fate of Star Trek content in Second Life remains not yet resolved. Chatting with some in IMs and group chats, some see CBS has no real legal claim to shut down Trek RP groups and sims with freebie goods. After all, are there no shortage of Star Trek costumes in real life science-fiction conventions? Has not Gene Rodenberry's son appeared in Second Life and seen his father's work recreated here, and not having a problem with it? But others are not taking chances, heading on to other pastures, such as OpenSim.

Bixyl Shuftan

News & Commentary: Second Life's Declining Sim Numbers

By Bixyl Shuftan

Daniel Voyager recently posted his Second Life user concurrency Winter 2012 report on his blog, using statistics from the Second Life Grid Survey. The results were disappointing. While user concurrency itself had remained stable, the number of sims on the grid has been falling. In January 2012, the number of sims was about 31,000. By July, the number had dropped to 29,000. And now, the number of sims stands at 28,300.  Almost three thousand sims vanished, or a decline of 11.3 percent.

The cause of this, Daniel thought the reasons were Second Life users spending more time outside the Grid and fewer people signing up. Listening to people and reading comments, I heard two things repeatedly: dissatisfaction with Linden Lab's performance, and a poor economy that just isn't getting better.

So where are the users going? Facebook has certainly done a better job at attracting a mass audience, but what Second Life users are looking for is a virtual world. Daniel Voyager thought that one big reason was people moving to the OpenSim worlds, such as Avination and Inworldz. But his observation isn't quite the same as mine. Among the people I chat with, a few mention checking the OpenSim worlds, but not that many.  One gamer whom a couple years ago bought some space in Avination because of its friendlier policy toward gambling still maintains some places in Second Life. I've also heard comments that OS worlds are less stable than Second Life. A number who did talk about moving to Opensim were not doing so because of overall dissatisfaction with Second Life, but were Star Trek fans alarmed by CBS's moves against Trek-related items on the Grid and getting the impression it was time to consider moving on to other worlds as what they were doing might soon get them in serious trouble here.

Among those in Second Life who prefer nonhuman avatars (or in the words of a few "I don't want to look like a Ken doll"), the OpenSim worlds seem to have less to offer. In Daniel Voyager's comments, Pussycat Catnip commented her avatar was a furry feline, "When I can have that in an OS Grid, and a social community that is thriving, and a large continent I can explore around in, then I might start looking at an OS Grid seriously." Of her avatar, "I didn't make that furry, I bought it. Many folks don't have the time or expertise to make things like that. The people who do have not left SL."

So if not the OpenSim worlds, where have the people I've been talking to going? Massive Multiplayer Online games have been around since before Second Life, though their popularity seems to wax and wane. With the release of the latest "World of Warcraft" expansion, a number of my friends have been playing it more. They've also mentioned other games such as "Star Wars: The Old Republic," and "World of Tanks." But as popular as these games are, compared to Second Life, one's ability to express creativity is limited.

More recently, another kind of virtual world made an appearance: Minecraft. The graphics there were primitive compared to Second Life, but it did allow players to express their creativity in making buildings, gardens, and other structures. Not to mention for newcomers it offered clear short-term goals: don't get killed by the monsters coming out at night. While some Second Life residents will have nothing to do with this "8-bit throwback," overall it's been so popular, a number of communities on the Grid have been getting their own Minecraft servers, including the Angels/Sunweavers, the SL Newser office building's neighbors.

So what can be done to stop the decline, or at least slow it down? One response I hear again and again to the question is "lower the tier!" By making it less expensive for residents to get sims, more will put up their money for them. Simple supply and demand. Well, maybe not.

In an article in September, Hamlet Au brought up one noteworthy statistic: most sims in Second Life are owned by only a handful of residents. He stated of the 75 million US dollars Linden Lab made, half a million residents paid about three million for Lindens for various items while about 5500 residents paid sixty million for private land. And of those, just 500 paid 48 million, more than half of Linden Lab's revenues.

Hamlet thought it would be "a near suicidal gamble" to lower tier with this kind of arrangement, even if more residents were less able to pay. The majority of residents would probably disagree with him, and many who did had quite a few comments on the issue in several of Hamlet's articles related to the topic. Someone suggested, "replace those 500 high profile customers with 50,000 low profile ones." Hamlet's response was "Yes, but to get 50,000 customers … Second Life will probably need 500,000 or so more unique users, which will require growing the user base" with games and other attractions.

One land baron, Desmond Shang of Caledon, gave one reason shaking up the real estate market might not be good for Linden Lab's bottom line was what he called the "Rip Van Winkle" residents. These were residents whom almost never popped onto the Grid, but steadily paid their rent, content that their "happy place" was still around, "I've had to close a few regions over the years, and I can think of only two cases where a 'Rip Van  Winkle' made time to pull up stakes and move to another location. The rest simply quit."

So if lowering tier isn't an answer, whether or not the Lab can't or simply won't, what is? Hamlet himself thought that Linden Lab would offer occasional goodies to encourage Premium subscriptions, but it was up to the residents to offer more substantial things to attract new residents. He brought up a zombie MMO that was making news in Summer 2012 and suggested that something similar could be made on the Grid, or perhaps a third party SL Viewer with gaming controls built in. Indeed, there is no shortage of combat sims in Second Life, such as Aria Clash and New Bastogne, and a number of role-play regions have combat built in as part of the action.

Desmond himself thought there was "no easy fix" to the problem, "Lowering tier to match demand might bring back growth, but it would take a lot of lowering before growth came back. And it might not return." Could anything else bring back growth?  Not mentioning Hamlet's ideas, he felt "there are several (options), but few are legal," mentioning gambling was done away with, and some of the early growth was financed by "bank scams and ponzi schemes." He agreed with Hamlet that lowering tier was a risky move, but as numbers continue to drop, he did feel the option would be "someday ultimately necessary."

For now however, any talk of lowering tiers is pretty much ignored by Linden Lab. And it's up to the residents for an alternative solution for the Grid's shrinking numbers. 

Sources: Daniel Voyager's Blog, New World Notes

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