An Octopus and Dragons

An interesting post showed up Thursday on My Second Life (AKA, the Profile Feed or just The Feed): "There is a weird group on FB called "Second Lifers for Life" where oldbies wax on about how awesome the past was ..."

Not having Facebook or being terribly interested in drama I tuned out most of the comments but it got me thinking about the many magical moments I experienced when Second Life was still fairly new to me as Uccello Poultry. You see, I never really explored until hitting the Main Grid, more or less just hanging by myself on a lofty build platform high above the Teen Grid. Perhaps I've been in a nostalgic of late about my early Main Grid days and this post triggered more memories. Like the time last month when someone (I think it was NikoKito Aries, but I can't be sure) posted a picture of that classic orange octopus we have probably all seen.

Me from 2007 with my copy of the classic orange octopus.

It made me remember the time back in 2007 when I was out with my spanking new swim HUD and was exploring a coastline somewhere, headin for a dock with lots of kelp around it. Little did I know, that octopus was there. A glance out of the corner of my eye was enough to make me jump a little in my seat. It was actually a fright! After swimming away I eventually went back to look at this bit of magic and eventually I got a copy for myself. She was a frequent addition to many of my builds over the years. At the time I marveled at how it was made. Today I'm skilled enough to duplicated it and those with talent in mesh can certainly surpass it, but I don't think I'll have a moment like that again.

Draxtor's post initially brought to mind another experience. I was stunned. I cried. I laughed. I met dragons ...

This was probably late 2007 or early 2008 and I was stalking Lucky Chairs in a shopping center with quite a few of the prize givers. While walking from store-to-store, there in the center park area I saw two dragon statues. They were gorgeous. I walked up to them and all around them, looking everywhere I could. One was huge. All glossy black with Egyptian ornamentation. The smaller one was similarly themed. For several minutes I was admiring the prim work and wondering if I could ever get that good.

Then the big one spoke to me. "Hello!"

And I started to cry, overwhelmed with awe. It was an avatar! Magical.

Several more minutes passed before I could respond. The moment had me so choked up. Eventually, I learned that these were Anubis dragons and that there was a baby (Tiny) version as well, all creations of Daryth Kennedy from The Isle of Wyrms in Second Life. And as you can see above, I eventually got my own. Not everyone could get one back then, mind you. It took me a couple years of saving money and  trying a lottery they used to have, first buying a junior version of the big one (and I got the Tiny, too).

Today you can buy lovely sculpted and mesh dragons (and I have bought more than a few), each a treasure in their own right. But that first magical moment ... *sigh*

I still don't understand what is going on over on Facebook and I really don't care unless someone hurts my friends in the process. As a dragon, petty stuff is below me (dragons eat drama llamas). Find your magic, new or old, and that's all that matters.

Cloud Party

Someone, whether it be Google or Facebook or Google and Facebook has started a 3D interactive world called Cloud Party (Web). I don't know the details but I'm sure you can find them at various places around the Interwebs. What I do know is that if you want to do more than poke around, get bored, and leave, you need a Facebook account. That explains my disinterest.

But my brother, CC Columbo in Second Life, does have a Facebook account, so I sat next to him today while he mucked about in the new world. The most exciting part of the visit for me is that my SL friend Claudia222 Jewel has an island in Cloud Party (Web). Here are some pix I made CC take:

Claudia222's island is one of many but the most and best developed of all that we saw today.

And here is why. She brought her art into Cloud Party. I don't know how, really. CC is looking into it. He thinks that mesh is importable, like things made in Google Sketch Up.

Aside from finding Claudia, the experience for me – at least from sitting beside CC while he explored – was dull, but I did note a few things:

• Building - The process is too complicated and the tools are horrible. Even placing pre-fabs is a chore.
• Everything in the Library looks very, very generic and little of it is scripted for use. The TV can't be watched but the cannon can be fired. There is no way to sit on the furniture.
• The camera is horrible. There is no way to include yourself in a picture unless you do a screen cap. Every pic in this post was snapped with Skitch.
• Avatars are always running. Movement with a Apple computer is difficult at best.
• You get a free home and free furniture, plus you can build things, but there is no indication as to what limits you have (like SLers have prim limits on land).
• Your user name is whatever name you use on Facebook, but  you can change your Display Name once.
• Every region is the same size and is a floating island. If you can see an island in the sky above you, you can visit it. Otherwise there is a directory inside your "phone."
• That "phone" is basically just a folder with things in it for navigation, taking pictures, looking at your pictures, building, settings, and more. It's isn't really a phone.
• Outfits and avatar customization is very limited, but Hey! It's beta.
• Web browser URLs can be bookmarked/saved in your browser to visit locations at a later time.
• CC had a conversation with a visitor to his house who was familiar with SL and the upshot was "SL is winning because of quality and ease of use" but I suspect that will change rapidly. It took SL 9+ years to get where it is now. Cloud Party is like a 2nd year SL right now.
• You can't use an iPad or Apple Safari. The Google Chrome browser is probably the best thing to use.

Don't let Claudia's world fool you. Inside CC's home is more typical  of what you find in Cloud Party. The TV behind him is not functional. It took 10-15 minutes just to place this furniture. Chat is nearly illegible in that little window with OCR fonts and pale bubbles that appear over everyone's heads. There is a currency and CC has one unit of it. Eighty more Cloud Coins  cost $4USD, though what the money is used for, I have no idea.

Everyone's free house is identical and share mostly identical islands. CC has a nice corner lot and there is an empty commons mid-island. We didn't find a way to lock the home, close the drapes, or make the dedicated teleport point a private listing. Since the avatars always run, navigating the stair case is rather tricky. No idea why the building is raised as there is no basement under the main floor. A deck out back is oddly-shaped and small. Based on looking at everyone else's houses, the big window right above the stairs is commonly used as a bedroom. This is very 2003 Second Life-ish in most respects.

What does this mean for Second Life? Probably not much. There has been competition for some time. The hard core SL residents won't likely abandon Our World for this new world. But I hope it encourages The Lab to push harder on that Web-based user interface that was tested a little while ago. Remember a couple years ago when I suggested that Google needs to buy Linden Lab (Web)? Now they don't have to that. But maybe this alternative will spur changes.

I Don't LIKE Facebook

Hamlet Au of New World Notes once again writes about Facebook, this time bringing up the idea that "liking" an in-world place somehow relates to popularity. Many of the comments shoot down this idea but one comment asked "... why are you trying to push us onto Facebook?" I just had to post my two $Lindens-worth, as follows.

I actively dislike Facebook. There are serious privacy issues, I rapidly grew tired of all the "XXXX has a carrot from their farm to share with you" messages and the like when I tried it, plus I found very little actual utility to it. What is equally annoying is that Linden Lab is turning lemming by trying to make Facebook a part of their service experience.

Attention Corporate Overlords: There is no need for me to use Facebook to enter your contests, apply for your coupons or product rebates, or to show my loyalty in any way other than continuing to give you my money for your product or service. If you want to give me information, it can be provided via e-mail, your Websites, or other forums that do not require me to risk identity theft, expose me to personal attacks by people with more time on their hands than they have morals in their being, or require me to remember one more password. Please do not continue to marginalize Facebook non-users. Treat us with respect and we really will "like" you.

Can SL and RL truly be seperate from each other?

Here is the Mix'n Match blog swap (Web) post from Stuart Warf of The Insane Life of Stuart Warf (Web).

When I was assigned this topic of "Can SL and RL be truly kept separate?" My instant reaction was to say that they can't be separate. In the current state of technology it is hard to keep something like SL and RL separate. But then it dawned on me that my situation isn't entirely the same as others in Second Life.

Now there are many reasons why somebody would want to keep their Second Life separate from their Real Life. A simple example of this could be that the person just wants their right to privacy. There are multiple reasons why an avatar would want privacy though. Someone could have a high profile job in some area and want Second Life as an escape without anyone finding out who they are. Some companies do have policies that require them to say who they work for in their contract which can cause all sorts of issues and see it fitting to just not mention who they are in order to maintain a simple life and escape.

In todays digital climate it's hard for someone to keep their real life identity a secret once they have revealed it, thanks to things like Google. So people who are aware of this decide to just keep their real life information separate from their virtual life.

Another way in which SL and RL can be separate is via roleplaying sims where you can act out a different life as a character and interact with a world. Examples of this could be the fantasy world of Avillion or the Star Wars world of Little Mos Eisley.

However there are many beinifits to not keeping SL and RL separate. Depending on what you do outside of the virtual world, you can be more open about who you are as a person in reality. A great example of where this typically happens in social networks like Facebook. Social networks like these can help you get to know your SL friends more and maybe even make new friends.

Other ways to interact with other avatars are microblogging websites such as Twitter and Plurk. Not only can these services give you another communication window into peoples lives.

When I look at who are probably the most open of avatars in Second Life I think these people are the podcasters, bloggers and active community members. Podcasters love to talk openly about things which says to me that they are also open in Real Life about their Second Lives.

Personally I think that SL and RL can be separate if you really try it but you limit yourself to what you can do in the virtual world. What I mean by being limited is that you miss out on a lot of the things you could enjoy in the world. If your trying to cut your real life off and be someone totally different in Second Life then ultimately it won't last forever. You can easily not tell people your in Second Life in real life but that can cause problems and that's why I figured that when I entered the world, I'd talk about it to friends and family.

Another thing that I've found while being in the virtual worlds is that aspects of it changed me in real life. I have become increasingly confident towards people (and I know that this has also happened to friends on mine in Second Life as well) and I truly believe that because of things like this that SL and RL cannot be separate.