Have you heard the news?

Effective immediately, monthly maintenance fees on Private Estates have dropped in price by up to 15%! In addition, one-time land set-up fees are also being reduced by as much as 41%.  

Ready to save? Here are the details on our newly-reduced prices:

Whether you are an existing or former landowner (or just thinking about owning land), now is a great time to save on Private Regions to build, create and design your own homes, businesses or experiences in Second Life!

Check out our Land page to learn more.

TERMS & CONDITIONS: Private Estate price reductions do not apply to Skilled Gaming Regions.  While new Openspace Regions are no longer available for purchase, existing Openspace Region landowners will receive the newly-reduced monthly pricing. In addition, these changes will not impact any grandfathered or “bought down” land prices, since those are still below the newly-reduced rates.  Lastly, Education/Nonprofit (EDU/NP) discounted full islands have also been re-priced to maintain their 50% discount off the regularly priced full islands. The new price of $124.50 will go into effect at the start of that island's next invoiced billing term.

“It begins with an A. It ends with an N. It’s a place you may visit time and again ” Ahern

“Check in at the luggage desk. The gift is in plain sight. But don’t take too long, or you may miss your flight!” #Hau Koda:

For a limited time, get 50% off your first payment on a new monthly Premium Membership subscription.*

Premium Members receive a L$1000 sign-up bonus, a weekly L$ stipend to spend on whatever you want, your own home, and exclusive gifts like an amazing Crystal Fortress Skybox (pictured). You can also enjoy many other benefits, like exclusive access to Premium Sandboxes inworld (where you can create and meet other Premium Members) and Premium Access that gives you priority access to crowded Regions and events.

Upgrade to Premium and start enjoying the benefits now!

This Skybox is a Real Gem!

Talk about a view! In honor of our 15th Birthday we are giving Premium Members a very special new gift, a Crystal Fortress Skybox! The new skybox is a luxurious palace with several special features like a teleport system for easy access to all areas, a water feature with koi fish, and your own Guardian Dragon! Okay, so your Guardian Dragon doesn't do much serious guarding. He mostly flies around inside your skybox looking awesome. The Crystal Fortress also incorporates a privacy screen so you are not visible from the outside and has a special owner-only access port underneath coded to your UUID. Use it as your home, a gathering place for friends, a work space, or just for yourself as a special place for some solitude.

Premium Members can stop by one of the Premium Gift kiosks to claim their gifts. If you’re not yet Premium, take advantage of this 50% off sale to upgrade and grab your Crystal Fortress right now.

*TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR 50% DISCOUNT This offer begins on June 21, 2018 at 8AM Pacific Time (PT) and expires on July 5, 2018 at 8AM PT. To qualify for this promotion, you must 1) have an existing Second Life ("SL") basic account or create a new account, and 2) select monthly (every one month) billing for your SL account. The fifty percent (50%) discount will be applied to your first month's bill and future months will be billed at the standard Premium Membership price (currently US$9.50 per one month). For new accounts or accounts not previously upgraded to Premium Membership, after initial login through the Second Life viewer following upgrade to Premium Membership and: 1) following your first full week, the L$300 weekly stipend will be deposited to your account every Tuesday for the duration of your Premium Membership; and 2) after your account has been active for forty-five (45) consecutive days, the L$ sign-up bonus will be deposited to your account.

As Second Life continues its 15th birthday festivities this month, we’ve got a new pricing announcement that is definitely worth celebrating. How about lower land prices and reduced set-up fees?

Effective July 2, monthly maintenance fees on Private Estates are dropping by up to 15%! In addition, one-time land set-up fees are also reduced by as much as 41%.  And remember, the setup fee includes your first month’s payment.

Discounts will vary based on the type of land, so here are the details on current vs. new pricing:

The fine print? These price reductions do not apply to Skilled Gaming Regions.  New Openspace Regions will no longer be available after June. However, existing Openspace Region landowners will benefit from this newly-reduced monthly pricing beginning July 2. Also, these changes will not impact any grandfathered or “bought down” land prices, since those are still below the newly-reduced rates.  Lastly, Education/Nonprofit (EDU/NP) discounted full islands will be re-priced to maintain their 50% discount off the regularly priced full islands. The new price of $124.50 will go into effect at the start of that island's next invoiced billing term.

OTHER PRICING CHANGES

These latest price reductions continue our commitment to improving the overall health of the Second Life economy, which historically has relied a lot on costs incurred by landowners. For example, in March we lowered Mainland costs by over 10 percent and doubled the Mainland allotment for Premium Members.

In addition to dropping prices on land, on July 2, we will also increase the cost to buy Linden Dollars to $1.49 per transaction (compared to the current rate of 99 cents per transaction).   This increase will help us offset the revenues lost on land, and to keep Second Life a vibrant world that continues to push the limits of possibility - for another 15 years to come.

Best,

The Second Life Team

Today we are pleased to bring Animesh to Agni and one step closer to release.  Since last October, when we first introduced the Animesh Project, we’ve worked closely with the content creator community.   We’ve been holding User Content Meetings where we  listen to your ideas, make tweaks, and fine tune this feature.   We’ve come a long way since then and are excited to bring Animesh to the main grid (Agni) as part of the SLB15 Celebration.

Examples courtesy of Silas Merlin

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this project, Animesh is a new Second Life feature which allows independent objects to use rigged mesh and animations, just as you see today with mesh avatars. This means that you can now have wild animals, pets, vehicles, scenery features, and other objects which play animations!

To use Animesh, you will need to be in a region that’s running the latest Animesh simulator build. Currently the enabled regions are those in the Bluesteel RC channel. You will also need the latest Animesh-enabled viewer, which you can find on the alternate viewers page

If you would like to learn more, we have the Animesh Forums where our users have been sharing their questions, ideas, and examples of what they’ve been working on.   We also have an Animesh User Guide to help you jump into Animesh along with a weekly Content User Group meeting. More documentation will be coming soon!

A special thanks to Lucia Nightfire for coming up with the name Animesh!

Very few communities can say they’ve been around for 15 years, but that’s exactly what the Second Life community is celebrating this year! While Second Life’s official “birthday” is June 23rd, 2003, both our community-driven and official festivities kicked off this week in style! If you missed any of the major details, take a look at our blog post for a refresher in all things SL15B.

In addition to the many events, parties, contests, and other celebrations - we took a moment to speak to Linden Lab’s CEO Ebbe Altberg about what makes Second Life so unique, and what keeps it vibrant and thriving at fifteen years. There’s also a cameo from an extra-special former Linden that you don’t want to miss!

For more of Ebbe’s thoughts on Second Life and the incredible community we have, read his exclusive interview with Strawberry Singh over at her blog, and be sure to check out his avatar makeover! You can learn more about Ebbe’s vision for the next 15 years of Second Life in this recent podcast with Games Wisdom.

Be sure to mark your calendars for Ebbe’s inworld appearance at Meet the Lindens this Wednesday June 20th at 2 p.m (PT/SLT).

Thanks to Draxtor Despres and Marianne McCann for their work on this video!

As Second Life turns 15, we look to the past, present and into the future of what makes this such an incredible community and place. The theme we chose for this year’s celebration is ‘Crystal’ - and it seemed the perfect theme for a year in which we want to reflect on Second Life’s incredible history, embrace its thriving present, and look forward to its exciting future.

 

As we met to discuss all the things we wanted to do this year, the idea of a ‘tapestry of time’ came up again and again. Imagine a bazaar filled with colorful tents and tapestries from all walks of life. As you move through the street you encounter wonderfully diverse and interesting people, each bringing something unique to contribute to the bustle of the bazaar. As you pause to take in the sights and sounds, you glimpse a woman sitting at a table inside one of the tents, her crystal ball shimmering on the table in front of her as she looks you in the eye and invites you to come sit and see what the past, present, and future of Second life have in store for you.

The Big 15th Birthday Weekly Gift Grab

Fifteen years is a tremendous achievement for any community, and we’ve been hard at work on a fun and interactive gift hunting series to thank our Residents. The Big 15th Birthday Weekly Gift Grab starts today - June 18th, 2018!

For the next 15 weeks, we’ll be releasing a different crystal-themed gift each week. All you have to do is find and collect the gifts. Each fabulous gift is available for one week only, and in one Region only. The Region will change each week, and we'll be publishing clues each week to help you find the Region to search for that week's gift – watch the Second Life social media channels and the Blog at for the clues.

How to get started:

• Visit the Swaginator HUD kiosk here to grab your Swaginator HUD
• Attach your Swaginator HUD
• Investigate the clue for the week by checking our Blog or social media channels ( This week’s clue is already up so go check it out now!)
• Find the Region and start searching

Remember, each gift is available for one week only, and then it's gone. You can collect as many, or as few gifts as you want, but if you want to collect the final super-special Birthday Gift in the final week you will need to have collected all 14 of the previous gifts.

Don't forget to check the Blog each week for updates.
 

Costume Parties & Contests

Monday, June 18th - 11 am to 1 pm - Come As You Were
We’re gonna party like it’s 2003! The Come as You Were Costume Contest and Party is a way to dust off your oldest, n00b looks and wear then out with pride. We’re getting together from 11 am to 1 pm (SLT) to dance and enjoy a look at the past and how far we’ve come. Join us and get in touch with your inner Ruth - you could win a L$5,000 costume contest prize! Rules are available here.

Come As You Were Party

Party like it's 2003! Dress up and get down with your favorite outdated look from the earliest days of Second Life at this special SL15B event, held June 18 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (Pacific).

Visit in Second Life

Wednesday, June 20th - 7pm to 9pm - Crystal Ball
It’s nice to get dressed up in your fanciest from time to time - and we love a good reason to throw a ball - so this year you’re cordially invited to join us for our Crystal Ball - in celebration of Second Life’s 15th Birthday. Imagine the elaborate ball from the movie Labyrinth and waltz your most glamorous look over for a chance to win L$5,000. Rules are available here.
 

Crystal Ball Party & Costume Contest

Party with friends at the Crystal Ball Party & Costume Contest, held June 20 from 7-9 p.m. (Pacific).

Visit in Second Life

SL15B Shopping Event

For the first time ever - we’ve gathered 80 of Second Life’s Merchants across 4 Regions for  one big shopping extravaganza that you don’t want to miss! Each Merchant is providing a free gift in celebration of this landmark birthday and offering incredible deals on some of their most popular items. In addition, many will also be participating in a sale on the Marketplace as well. Visit each Region below to get a little celebratory shopping in, grab free gifts, and take advantage of the amazing discounts. A full list of participating Merchants is available here. Many of the Merchants are also participating in a Marketplace sale, so be sure to visit them in the web as well as inworld!

You can visit any of the 4 Regions from the Destination Guide.
 

SL15B Music Fest

In tradition of the last several Second Life birthdays, we have three days of incredible live music lined up for you! Come out and join us as we rock, pop, and roll to a variety of genres. 

Full line up can be seen here - though may be subject to changes because that’s showbiz!

Meet the Lindens

We’re back for another year of Meet the Lindens where some of the folks who work on Second Life sit down to chat about what makes Second Life so special, and field some questions from the community at large. Check out the schedule and details on our Destination Guide. All meeting will be inworld at 2pm (SLT).

Meet the Lindens

Meet the people behind Second Life. Participants include: Xiola Linden (June 18), Patch & Kiera Linden (June 19), Ebbe Linden (June 20), Grumpity & Oz Linden (June 21), and Brett Linden (June 22). All events at 2 p.m. (Pacific).

Visit in Second Life

That's a lot of stuff to digest - and it's just the beginning! See you inworld, Second Life Residents - and thank you for making this place for the last 15 years, and the next 15 to come!

Private room available, for the mentally insane. You may wish to visit but you may be detained.”  #South Channel.

Today, we’re happy to announce a brand new feature for the Land Manager page for private Estate Owners: web-based region restarts! Starting now, Estate Owners will be able to restart their regions remotely from their land.secondlife.com My Regions page.

We’ve been listening to the feedback from our Private Region owner community and we know that sometimes it’s impractical or even impossible to access your region inworld to perform the more traditional in-viewer region restart using the Region/Estate menu. With this new feature, Estate Owners can proactively select and restart their regions directly from the website without needing to log inworld and travel to each region individually.

Since we know that sometimes the reason a region cannot be accessed easily inworld is due to active griefing scenarios, we have also included the ability to restart the region in safe mode, in which the region will be brought back up with all the scripts, physics, and collisions disabled, making it possible to enter and remove any lingering item that may be causing issues. To see the new features available to you as a private Estate Owner, just log in to SecondLife.com and visit your Land Manager page.

We are always listening to your feedback, and we’re committed to continuing to make Second Life easier, safer, more efficient, and more fun!

Thank you for making Second Life great! We look forward to sharing more exciting new features with you soon.

You can learn more about becoming a private Estate Owner here.

Second Life’s 15th Birthday is coming! It’s an incredible thing to have 15 years of history to celebrate, with no end in sight, and we’re planning to commemorate this milestone event along with our Residents! Please stay tuned to this blog and our social media pages for more details as they arrive - there are some new things in store this year we can’t wait to roll out and tell you all about!

Read on for a just a few events we have brewing … we’re looking for your help!

Calling All Merchants - Inworld Shopping Event Submissions

We’re actively seeking Merchants who are willing to participate in an inworld Official SL15B Shopping event! Our inworld shopping events have been very successful and we hope to continue that tradition with a big SL15B. We are looking for quality Merchants across all categories to be a part of this exclusive event. If you think that this is something you’d like our brand to participate in, read on! Space is limited!

If you are a Merchant who is interested in being part of this event, please fill out this form no later than June 5th, 2018. The event itself will run from June 18th, through July 2nd, 2018.

It’s great to be celebrating 14 years of Second Life with our amazing community! We’re looking forward to doing so this year, as well as many more years to come!

Music Fest Showcase Sign Ups

Don’t forget - Music Fest is returning this summer and you can sign up now to be part of our Showcase Auditions.

To sign up for an audition, please complete the submission form no later than May 18th, 2018. Sign ups will close at 12:01 AM (SLT) on May 19th, 2018. While we encourage everyone to sign up, it is not a commitment on your part and does not guarantee a spot at the auditions. We will review all submissions and extend audition invitations via email and/or inworld to the designated contact.

All Second Life Residents are welcome to participate in the auditions as audience members. It’s an opportunity to see a variety of acts showcase the best they have to offer. For those who are interested, the auditions location will be shared in a future blog post.

We’re excited about these events and can’t wait to share more with you soon!

Here at Linden Lab, we’re deeply committed to ensuring the safety and security of our customers’ data. It’s why we began preparing for the May 25th implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) more than a year ago, and it’s why we want to alert you not only to some of the privacy enhancements we’ve made on our end, but also the ways the new law may impact you.

GDPR, in a nutshell.
Put simply, the GDPR puts in place new requirements for the collection, maintenance, and use of personal data for residents of the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA). It’s an important evolution in privacy practices, and one we’ve already started to account for: if you notice, our existing Privacy Policy already discloses the type of personal data we collect from you, how we use and limit any sharing of your data, and your rights to control our use of your personal data.

What you can expect.
In coming weeks, we’ll provide more information on how EU residents in Second Life can best exercise their rights under GDPR. In some cases, you may take actions through your account dashboard (to modify your personal data, for instance). In others, it may be necessary to file a support ticket and verify your identity (to better protect your privacy).

What you should know.
If you collect or process personal data of EU residents on a website associated with Second Life or Sansar, or create or make use of programs that retain information about Second Life or Sansar users or their computers, you may also have obligations under the GDPR. You should consult with your legal counsel for advice regarding your site(s) or program(s).

If you would like to learn more about the GDPR, here are some overviews:

• https://www.itgovernance.eu/blog/en/the-gdpr-consumer-rights-for-your-personal-data
• https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-04-17-what-does-gdpr-do

If you believe that your service may be subject to GDPR requests, here is more information:

• https://ico.org.uk/media/1624219/preparing-for-the-gdpr-12-steps.pdf
• https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-04-18-what-does-gdpr-mean-for-digital-entertainment-businesses

If you have additional questions about the GDPR, we found these references helpful:

• https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr
• https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-04-19-gdpr-frequently-asked-questions

Hello Residents!

We're excited to announce that we've opened up a new social media channel for Second Life. Since we're turning 15 this year - we decided that we're mature enough to be trusted with an Instagram account. Head on over, follow us, and we'll be sharing some fun things there. Check out our first post now!

Happy birthday, Second Life!

This year, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate including new features, reduced Mainland costs, a new "Linden Realms" update and several anniversary events (SL15B , MusicFest & more!).

The SL15B "crystal" theme this year aims to inspire our Residents to reflect on the past 15 years and peek into the future to explore the next 15 years of Second Life. To kick things off, we've rounded up some interesting statistics and facts about the past and present state of Second Life in this new infographic (click to enlarge):  

So, what about the future? Last week, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg met with the community to discuss what's next for SL via two live Town Hall events. SL Residents were invited to submit their questions in a Town Hall forum thread and many community questions were answered directly over both hour-long events.

Did you miss either Town Hall event? If so, you can catch up and hear directly from Ebbe in the following video:

Not all submitted questions were answered in both Town Halls. That's why Linden Lab staffers continue to review and respond to many additional questions submitted in the Town Hall thread.  

Stay tuned for news on more opportunities to interact with Linden Lab executives, including breakout meetups and additional Town Hall events.

This June, Second Life turns 15 and we’re planning some fun ways to honor this long-standing community and invite some of the rest of the world to come check out what makes us so special! Stay tuned to this blog for more details about events to come and read on to find out about the first of many - our annual Music Fest - sponsored by Linden Lab.

In recent years we’ve taken the popular idea of music festivals and brought them into the virtual world - all the music, merriment, and good times without the sunburn. This year will mark the 4th annual Music Fest in celebration of Second Life - and we can’t wait to get grooving.

Since we started Music Fest in Second Life, we’ve held an audition showcase to highlight some of the musical talent in the Second Life community. Many of you have been performing for years in virtual venues all over the grid, and we’d love to have you come showcase your talent at the tryouts for this summer Music Fest. All genres are welcome! From bands to solo acts, rock and roll to electronica - we encourage anyone to sign up for consideration. The Second Life Music Fest is an opportunity to perform at one of the biggest celebrations in Second Life, and it’s a paid gig!

To sign up for an audition, please complete and submit the submission form no later than May 18, 2018. While we encourage everyone to sign up, it is not a commitment on your part and does not guarantee a spot at the auditions. We will review all submissions and extend audition invitations via email to the designated contact. Each invited act will have a short audition time (5 minutes max) to play and leave an impression on a panel of judges made up of Lindens and Residents. This panel will select acts to be invited to perform at the Second Life Music Fest. Upon completion of a half hour slot at the festival, the designated contact for each act will be eligible for payment (subject to Linden’s terms and conditions).

All Residents are welcome to participate in the auditions as audience members. Again, I can’t stress enough what a great time it is to see so many musicians perform and support one another! For those who are interested, the auditions location will be shared in a future blog post. Showcase dates and times are as follows:

• Friday, June 1, 2018 12 PM - 2 PM (SLT)

• Saturday. June 2, 2018 from 6 PM - 8 PM (SLT)
  
  Image by xxStanilasxx

We’ll share the location of the showcase closer to the date and will see you there!

Second Life is turning 15 this summer...but why wait to celebrate? Last month, we wrote about 15 exciting new features and other things that we have on the roadmap for this year, including lower tier prices and double allotment on Mainland, and the return of Last Names - but there’s still more to come!

As part of our year-long 15th anniversary celebration, we’re making numerous appearances inworld to talk about Second Life and the Second Life roadmap directly with our communities! These  ongoing meetups and events will provide opportunities for you to interact with and ask questions to Linden Lab executives and staffers.

To kick things off, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg will be holding two “Town Hall” chat sessions on April 20th at 9:30 a.m. (SLT/Pacific) and 1 p.m. (SLT/Pacific). Ebbe will be sharing his vision for Second Life in 2018 and beyond, as well as taking questions from the community. Got a question for Ebbe? Post it in the Community Forum thread “A Conversation with Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg” in advance of next week’s meeting. Questions will be selected from submissions for as many as can be answered in the time frame. To join either meetup, head over to one of these Town Hall Regions in Second Life on April 20.

In the coming months, we plan to hold additional conversations and meetups directly with many of our communities including Firestorm users/developers, Designing Worlds,  Bay City and more. 

Finally, don’t forget to mark your calendars for the official SL15B Community Celebration! This year’s event, held June 17-30, is going to be spectacular! We are hearing rumblings about a few new special events linked to this year’s celebrations, too.

Stay tuned for more specific dates and details. We’ll see you inworld soon!

As many of you who play PaleoQuest and Linden Realms already know, Second Life has had a terrible rash of incidents lately involving comets falling from the sky. The obvious question from Residents has been, “What do I do if that happens to me? Will my home be burnt and decimated like Linden Realms?”

This is an unsettling prospect for obvious reasons and we hear your concerns.

While the risk of comet damage in Second Life is very low, this is a world where the only limit is your imagination. So if we can imagine a comet crashing to earth in Second Life, then it is theoretically possible.

In an effort to protect our Residents from such pandemonium, we are unveiling a new benefit exclusively for Premium Members. Should a comet fall from the sky and destroy your home in Second Life, we will cover the cost of your home and the items inside. It will be replaced by a home identical in every way to the home you had before. In fact, you may not even notice that your home was ever hit by a comet!

This new benefit is automatically included in your Premium Membership at no additional cost to you. This is just one more benefit in the long list of valuable perks that Premium Membership provides our Residents. And, if you upgrade today, you can go premium for 50% off the first month’s regular price!*

April Fools! While we're joking about the comet insurance, we aren't kidding about the one-day-only premium promotion happening - so go premium today!

*TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR 50% DISCOUNT This offer begins on April 1, 2018 at 8AM Pacific Time (PT) and expires on April 2, 2018 at 8AM PT. To qualify for this promotion, you must 1) have an existing Second Life ("SL") basic account or create a new account, and 2) select monthly (every one month) billing for your SL account. The fifty percent (50%) discount will be applied to your first month's bill and future months will be billed at the standard Premium Membership price (currently US$9.50 per one month). For new accounts or accounts not previously upgraded to Premium Membership, after initial login through the Second Life viewer following upgrade to Premium Membership and: 1) following your first full week, the L$300 weekly stipend will be deposited to your account every Tuesday for the duration of your Premium Membership; and 2) after your account has been active for forty-five (45) consecutive days, the L$ sign-up bonus will be deposited to your account.

Can you believe it? Second Life turns 15 this year!

To kick off our year-long birthday celebration, we’ve rounded up 15 exciting improvements and features that make Second Life better than ever in 2018 and beyond!

1. Lower Mainland costs - Did you hear the news? We’ve reduced Mainland costs by over 10 percent. This change is part of our continued commitment to move toward a healthier economy, with more balance between costs and fees associated with land ownership, Premium subscriptions, commissions and transaction fees. For more information and context on this and other pricing changes, see the section “Updates to Mainland Costs & Other Pricing Changes” below.
2. Double Mainland tier - We also recently announced that Premium members get DOUBLE the Mainland allotment! That’s twice as much space to build, create and design your own home, business or experience in Second Life at no extra charge!
3. More Value for Premium Members - In the coming months, we’ll be announcing new features for Premium subscribers — including brand-new advantages that will add more value for Merchants, Creators and Landowners. There’s never been a better time to upgrade to Premium!  
4. Environment Enhancements (code name: EEP!) - Soon you’ll see a series of new customizations in the environment rendering system (also known as Windlight). Creators will have more control over the sky, water, lighting and atmosphere. You'll be able to adjust the number of real-world hours in the Second Life "day" to match that of a real world location; the cycle can be as short as the 4 hours it is now - or up to 7 real world days long. These changes will give more value, flexibility and marketability to land. Environment settings will also become tradable assets, so that they can be bought and sold in the Marketplace, creating another avenue for residents to profit from their creativity.
5. More exclusive games and experiences - Last week, we unveiled “Linden Realms: The Wrath of Ruth” — a fiery update to a familiar classic that awards skilled players with unique prizes. There are more exclusive experiences on the way, including something special for our 15th anniversary celebration this summer.
6. Themed Learning Islands - Getting connected to people who share your interests will be easier than ever with “Themed Learning Islands.” Soon newcomers may start their adventures in one of several themed areas, so their first experience in SL will be among Residents who share similar interests. This new initiative is in addition to our existing Community Gateway program which empowers independent communities to develop their own newcomer-friendly experiences.
7. The return of Last Names - You’ve asked for it (a lot!), so we will provide a way to customize your last name in Second Life! More details will be available later this year.
8. Gridwide Experiences - Currently, Creators can use the increased scripting capabilities of an Experience only in a region or parcel whose owner has explicitly enabled their Experience. One of the new Premium abilities will be an Experience that is enabled anywhere on the grid unless the landowner has blocked it.
9. Auctions - We are updating our system for conducting Land Auctions. The new auction system will be integrated with Place Pages, providing much richer possibilities for describing the land for sale. Most importantly, Residents will be able to create an Auction to sell their land.
10. Linden Homes improvements - We're bringing newer and better Linden Home designs this year.
11. Marketplace updates - We've got a number of improvements to Marketplace in the works, too! We’re integrating many long-requested features that will help to reduce clutter and improve the functionality of listings as the Marketplace gets a facelift later this year.
12. Improved performance -  We're working on a number of improvements to performance, from faster rendering in the viewer to reduce client lag, to changes in the simulator designed to allow more objects, scripts, and avatars.
13. Animesh - Last year, we introduced Animesh in beta available to all Creator participants. This year, with diligent and invaluable input from the community, we plan to roll out this exciting new feature for everyone!
14. Bakes on Mesh - Extends the Viewer and the Avatar Baking Service to allow wearable textures (such as skins, clothing and tattoos) to be applied directly onto mesh body parts as they are on system avatars. To do this, you'll 'wear' the textures as you would for the system avatar, and then edit the mesh body part to indicate the body part that should be used on each of the mesh faces; the corresponding system body part is then automatically hidden for you. This project also increases the supported resolution of wearable textures by 4 times (from 512 pixels square to 1024 pixels square).
15. Migration to the Cloud - Finally, a huge effort is underway to move our Second Life infrastructure to the cloud. This update aims to enhance the quality and performance of Second Life for all Residents, but it will be of particular value for those who are far across the world from us. We look forward to exploring new products and more flexible pricing possibilities once this migration is complete.

UPDATES TO MAINLAND COSTS & OTHER PRICING CHANGES

Last year, we shared with you our plans for millions of dollars of new investments into Second Life and its communities to make our virtual world better than ever. Our recent investments are already paying off with numerous improvements including the introduction of a new 64-bit Viewer, Place Pages and a refresh of our starter avatars. We’ve also added more value to Premium subscriptions and a unique grid-wide hunt. We’re also continuing to hire new software and web engineers.

We’ve got big plans for this year, as you can glean from above, and we’re continuing to invest even more to ensure that the Second Life economy and community will be around for another 15 years and beyond.  A significant part of this effort is continuously re-evaluating the health of our business and the Second Life economy.  

Currently, Land costs can be quite high, and make up a lopsided portion of our Second Life revenues. To improve this imbalance, we plan to increase revenues in other ways so that we can lower land costs further. In order to avoid shocks to the in-world economy and to take care that we keep the business healthy, we plan to make these changes in a measured way, taking time to assess the impacts of each change as we go.

Last week, we announced that we have lowered the cost of Mainland by over 10 percent and doubled the Mainland tier allocation for Premium members. In the coming months some other fees may increase, including Marketplace commissions, Linden Dollar exchange fees, and cashout fees. In addition, we will soon announce new tiered Premium membership offerings that allow Residents to choose the membership level that provides the benefits most important to them.

We are committed to keeping Second Life a vibrant and growing community with a healthy economy well into the future. Stay tuned - this 15th year will see some of the biggest improvements to Second Life in many years so that you can continue to enjoy it for the next 15 years.

Best,

Ebbe Linden, CEO,  and the Second Life Team

Something is wrong, something is amiss! Can you uncover the cause of the mysterious catastrophe that is causing chaos in Linden Realms?

In “Linden Realms: The Wrath of Ruth,” you'll need to navigate through smoke and debris to collect crystals and earn Linden Dollars. Along the way, you’ll have to dodge rock monsters, fireballs and other fiery obstacles to save Linden Realms.

So, how did this all happen? While the rest of the grid was busy catching magical Glytches, the evil Ruth used this distraction to her advantage. Using Magellan Linden’s coffin, Ruth altered the course of a comet to come crashing down on Linden Realms. Now the region burns with flames as hot as her wrath.

Can you put an end to Ruth’s madness?

Linden Realms: The Wrath of Ruth

Something is wrong, something is amiss! Can you uncover the cause of the mysterious catastrophe that is causing chaos in Linden Realms? You'll need to navigate through smoke and debris to collect crystals and earn Linden Dollars. Along the way, you’ll have to dodge rock monsters, fireballs and other fiery obstacles to save Linden Realms.

Visit in Second Life

We’ve got some exciting news for both aspiring and existing Landowners who think the cost of land is too darn high in Second Life. Effective immediately, we’ve reduced Mainland costs by over 10 percent. 

But, wait...there’s more!

Premium members now also get DOUBLE the Mainland allotment! That’s twice as much space to build, create and design your own home, business or experience in Second Life at no extra charge! Premium subscribers now have 1,024m² included with their membership: you could keep your Linden Home and still have another 512m² left over, or use your entire 1024 allotment towards a parcel on the Mainland.  To learn more about specifics of this change, view our Pricing and Allotment Comparison chart.

We know that costs associated with land ownership can hinder some people from realizing their full creative vision in Second Life or even keep them from participating in Second Life as much as they’d like. In 2015, we decreased land setup fees by up to 40% and restored a 50% discount on set-up fees and ongoing maintenance fees for educators and nonprofits. In 2016, we offered a limited-time “buy-down” opportunity that rolled back maintenance fees on full islands and homesteads.

As Second Life begins to celebrate its fifteenth birthday, we hope that this latest price drop will be welcome news to those who aspire to explore their creativity in 2018 and beyond.

To learn more about Premium benefits, visit our Premium page.

For a limited time, get 50% off your first payment on a new monthly Premium Membership subscription.* Premium members get a L$1000 sign-up bonus, a weekly L$ stipend, your own home, priority access to full events inworld, exclusive gifts like the ones below, and many other benefits. Subscribers also have special access to Premium Sandboxes inworld, where you can build objects, unpack your purchased items, and meet other Premium members. Upgrade to Premium and start enjoying the benefits now!

Special Edition Premium Glytch Gifts Are Now Available

Premium members can stop by one of the Premium Gift kiosks to claim their gorgeous Love Bug Glytches. If you’re not yet Premium, take advantage of this 50% off discount to easily upgrade and grab your gifts immediately.
 

*TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR 50% DISCOUNT
This offer begins on February 22, 2018 at 8AM Pacific Time (PT) and expires on March 5, 2018 at 8AM PT. To qualify for this promotion, you must 1) have an existing Second Life ("SL") basic account or create a new account, and 2) select monthly (every one month) billing for your SL account. The fifty percent (50%) discount will be applied to your first month's bill and future months will be billed at the standard Premium Membership price (currently US$9.50 per one month). For new accounts or accounts not previously upgraded to Premium Membership, after initial login through the Second Life viewer following upgrade to Premium Membership and: 1) following your first full week, the L$300 weekly stipend will be deposited to your account every Tuesday for the duration of your Premium Membership; and 2) after your account has been active for forty-five (45) consecutive days, the L$ sign-up bonus will be deposited to your account.
 

Love is in the air and Valentine’s Day is just a few days away! We have a box of treats lined up for you this holiday, and you can read on for all the details.

SHOP YOUR HEART OUT

Our annual Valentine’s Day shopping event is back! Discounts on clothings, hair, accessories, decor, and more, plus gifts from many of your favourite Merchants and brands are available from now through February 26th. Drop by the Gilded and Golden shopping regions to collect your gifts and get some great deals. Many of our participating Merchants are also putting items in their Marketplace for sale, so be sure to visit them. Marketplace participants and links are available here.  Shop Your Heart Out. Shop Your Heart Out! Second Life's annual Valentine's Day shopping event is back! Collect special free gifts from all your favorite merchants as you shop for clothing, accessories, decor and more - up to 50% off! Event open until Feb. 26. Visit in Second Life

HUG & DUNK A LINDEN at THE ISLE OF VIEW

Love is a complicated creature — inspiring poetry, prose, songs, and art since the beginning of time. The Isle of View celebrates this complex feeling once again with the hub of all things Cupid and hearts - the Isle of View!

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Come hug and dunk some Lindens
At the Isle of View!
 
On February 14th from 10am-12pm SLT, join us at the Isle of View for a chance to hug and dunk some Lindens. Bring your friends, bring your family, bring your one and only - when else are you going to get the chance to cozy up to a Linden or splash one into a cold tank of water? An opportunity like this comes around about once a year — so don’t miss out.

Dunk-A-Linden & Hug-A-Linden Event

Party with us at the Isle of View on February 14th from 10 a.m. to Noon (Pacific). Meet your Valentine, enjoy music, and don’t miss the Dunk-a-Linden and Hug-a-Linden booths!

Visit in Second Life

While you are at the Isle of View - you can hunt for some limited special Glytches. What’s a Glytch, you might ask? Part of a grid-wide experience that launched last September - Glytches are collectible little creatures that you can capture with tools that you can upgrade with gems. Get started (if you don’t already have a weapon and hud) at portal park, then bring your hunting spirit to the Isle of View to capture these adorably cute little rascals.  

ALL NEW PREMIUM GIFT - LOVE BUG GLYTCHES

A gorgeous gift of Glytches awaits those with Premium memberships - Just drop by the Premium kiosks to claim to your Love Bugs!

That is an overview of all things lined up this Valentine’s Day season - and if that’s not enough - you can always visit the Romance category in the Destination Guide for a treasure trove of places to celebrate~ 

P.S. Isle of View.

As the end of 2017 draws closer, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on just a few of the major beats that made this another great one for Second Life. From technical improvements to new features, to community happenings, the virtual world’s 14th year was a busy and fun one!

Baby Got Backend Enhancements

We rolled out a number of upgrades to SL’s backend and build systems. This behind-the-scenes effort helps to improve stability and performance, and also is part of the future-proofing and prep work needed for the “Brave New World” project - i.e. moving SL to the cloud.

Tons of Fun Inworld

We launched our first-ever grid-wide game experience: Tyrah & the Curse of the Magical Glytches! Thousands have already enjoyed playing so far, and there’s even more to come.

This year also saw the introduction of a brand new group of starter avatars, and some awesome events inworld, including great shopping events like the one going on now, our annual Linden-vs-Resident snowball fight, the Halloween creepy-crawl, and some massive celebrations for SL14B - our 14th anniversary!

We hope you had as much fun in SL this year as we did. Next year is SL’s 15th birthday and we’re planning an absolute blow-out to celebrate. Stay tuned for more on that soon - we’re talking way more than one month’s worth of parties...

More Primo Premiums

In addition to regularly rolling out fresh gifts exclusively for subscribers, we added new benefits to Premium membership to make it even more, well, premium! We launched Premium Access to full regions, and extended the L$ transaction history for Premium subscribers up to 90 days.

We’re very pleased to share that as a result, we did see some growth in Premium account membership this year. Happy as we are, we think we can do even better, so look forward to new initiatives in 2018 aimed at making the benefits of going Premium even more valuable.

But Wait There’s More!

This year, we introduced a whole of new features and capabilities as well. For example, Animesh (which you can now test on Aditi using our Project Viewer) allows independent objects to use rigged mesh and animations, just like mesh avatars, and Residents have already used this feature in impressively creative ways.

We also rolled out more land features - Estate owners have more control over their land, we improved region capacity, and introduced Place Pages to help make your favourite SL places much more discoverable on the web.

Along those same lines, we brought back an improved version of the Community Gateway Program (and RegAPI), enabling communities to grow their ranks (and SL’s user-base) by registering and onboarding new users.

Last, but not least, we revamped our Support Portal and Community Forums to make it easier for Residents to get help when they need it and connect, discuss, and share with other users on the web.

Onward to 2018!

Not only does SL celebrate our 15th birthday next year, but we’re also working on some exciting new initiatives and enhancements we can’t wait to share with the community. As we announced earlier this year, we’re investing many millions in SL and 2018 is going to be a big one.

See you inworld!

The holiday hustle is in full effect - as we make mad dashes to finish up all of our holiday prep work and get ready for the influx of family, friends, and merriment - we also enjoy a little retail therapy!

We’re happy to celebrate the season with an epic shopping extravaganza! Sixty of Second Life’s Merchants with some of the most popular brands in Second Life have set up shop across three Regions  -  Golden, Gilded and Halcyon - each providing a FREE gift and some major discounts on their top-selling items! From now through January 1st, 2018 - drop by our Shop & Hop event inworld and take advantage of these incredible steals.

Several of our Merchants have extended their sales to their Marketplace stores - so be sure to check there as well for some additional deals and steals!

Shop & Hop Participating Merchants:

!APHORISM! / !Rebel Hope Designs / .{PSYCHO:Byts}. / .TeaBunny. / [ JUSTICE ] / [ west end ] / /*KC|Couture* / *YS&YS* / #adored / ~Tableau Vivant~ / ADRIATIC line / alaskametro<3 / alme. / amara beauty / Apple May / AZ Emporium / bella moda / Blueberry / by Crash / Cae / Canimal / Cheeky Pea / ChiC buildings - surrounds - prefabs - decor props and poses / CONSTRUCT / Contraption / Dictatorshop / Dynamic Evolutions / e l i a v a h ~ / E.V.E / Envious / etham / eXxEsS Hair / Fancy Decor / Grimes Central Design (GCD MESH) / Heart Trees Flowers Plants / hello dave / Hucci / ISON / Lapointe Bastchild / Lemon Chilliz / Lune Bleue / MadPea / Maven Homes / Maxi Gossamer / MOCO HOMES Emporium / Musa / Nani / Never Totally Dead … / New CHEZ MOI Furnitures / NOX. & Third Eye. / PATRON / Petit Chat / Potomac Signature Homes / ROC / Sweet Thing / The Forge & EZ / The Mesh Shop / Vanity Hair / www.studio-skye.com / zed designz / Zibska

Merchants Participating on the Marketplace Shop & Hop:

!APHORISM! / !Rebel Hope Designs / .TeaBunny. / [ JUSTICE ] / *KC|Couture* / *YS &YS* - YourSkin & YourShape / #adored / ADRIATIC line / alaskametro<3 / alme. / amara beauty & Zoul Creations / AZ Emporium / Bella Moda / by Crash / Cae / Canimal / Cheeky Pea / CHEZ MOI FURNITURES / ChiC buildings / CONSTRUCT / Dictatorshop / Dynamic Evolution Industries / E.V.E / Envious / Grimes Central Design / Heart Trees Flowers Plants / Hello Dave / Hucci / ISON / Lemon Chilliz / Lune~Bleue / MadPea / Maven Homes / Maxi Gossamer / MOCO HOMES Emporium / Never Totally Dead… / Petit Chat / Potomac Signature Homes / ROC / Studio Skye / Sweet Thing. / The Mesh Shop / Vanity Hair / Zibska / [ west end ] / ::ZED:: Designz for Men

Recently, the Linden Lab IP team sent a takedown request regarding a YouTube video created by the great Strawberry Singh. She and many others have pointed out that this seems like a mistake, and we agree. We have reversed that takedown request and have reached out directly to Strawberry, but would also like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to her.

Strawberry, we feel fortunate to have you as a member of our Second Life community (and Sansar as well!), and we are grateful for the public support that your blog, YouTube channel, and other social media activity provides. We’re fans of your work, we are sorry for this misstep, and we hope you will continue sharing your awesome videos.

Below is some more info on what happened and why, and what we’re going to do differently in the future.

Like most businesses, we have policies in place around permissible use of Linden Lab trademarks. These are intended to legally protect our trademarks and brand, and to avoid confusion that can arise about what’s actually from an official source vs. a third party (to help with this, we have the “inSL” program). This policy has prohibited showing portions of the SL join flow, and that’s what triggered the recent takedown request. We’re revisiting that portion of our policy now.

The support of the SL community is incredibly valuable. Resident-created videos, blogs, and other social media not only enrich our existing community, but also help it to grow by showing off incredible SL content to the outside world, helping new users to get started, and more. While we still need policies in place to protect our trademarks, we will apply them as permissively as we can with the goal of encouraging and supporting our community.

Many years ago, the illustrious SL legal team made news by sending an “un-cease and desist” notice to a parody blog - rather than asking for a takedown, it offered encouragement to the creator. In that same spirit, we would like to offer our encouragement to Strawberry Singh and other Residents helping to evangelize the virtual world on YouTube and other social media. We appreciate your enthusiasm for SL, we are grateful for your support, and we ask you to please proceed and persist.