Linden Lab

Take a stroll through Le Jardin Des Tuileries, a virtual garden inspired by the Tuileries Garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in Paris. While there, you may want to grab a selfie with the Eiffel Tower for our Famous Landmarks Challenge. Owner of the Made in Paris region, Morganeparis Parx, is influenced by Paris architecture when creating his place and would love it if Residents found it beautiful enough to make them want to take pictures there. A Resident since 2008, Morgane shares what Second Life means to him: “What does Second Life mean to me? A lot! I was born in SL in June, 2008 so I've been on Second Life for 14 years now. If it were boring here, believe me, I wouldn't have stayed. When I discovered SL, I was playing “The Sims” game all day, and I didn’t go outside my home a lot. My therapist told me that he heard about Second Life. He didn’t test it, but told me that maybe I could build a house like in The Sims, and create characters, but I’ll be able to have interactions with other people. I decided to test Second Life and after learning about moving my avatar and camera, and watching Torley Linden’s videos, I quickly found an area where I was allowed to build. After a while, people in the sandboxes started to talk to me. Month after month, I improved my skills in Photoshop, started to learn Blender, I improved my English, and now I have relationships with people again. Second Life helped me in so many ways. Being immersed in the world keeps me healthy and allows me to have social interaction with a lot less stress than IRL. SL changed me a lot, for the better, it helped me to interact with people again, and allowed me to regain my self-confidence, and to develop relationships. Second Life is what you want it to be: SL will be just a game, if you want it this way. But if you want SL to be a real second life, it will be that too.” While exploring the region, you may want to grab a bear and take an image similar to those in the "Bears Around The World" contest, which encourages Residents to travel more. Creator Gabryel Lamplight, who held this contest this past summer, shares more about it, “This is a collection of cute bears combined with a photo contest. The bear is for many a symbol of childhood, a period during which everything seems possible. On SL, it seems to me that we come to find a part of this magic or carelessness. That's why through this contest we invite people to travel on SL and bring back beautiful photos with their favorite bears. Although the contest is now closed, an exhibition will be organized at the Puerto Banana destination during the fall of 2022. The bear collection will still be available after the contest in the B.GAB store.” Make memorable moments with teddy bear selfies in a virtual Parisian garden! Video Production by Draxtor Despres Le Jardin des Tuileries Welcome to "Le Jardin des Tuileriess" a realistic French garden located on the "Made in Paris" region. It is inspired by an authentic French garden you can find in Paris. Enjoy the lush greenery and the romantic atmosphere with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower. Don't forget to capture your memories with snapshots and add them to the Made in paris Flickr group: flickr.com/groups/made-in-paris Visit in Second Life

With our latest release we’d like to welcome back Viewer Profiles! The Second Life viewer has made the transition back to an integrated Profile floater. This is the place to find more information about any Resident including a bio, picks, and more! Residents may still use web-based profiles in a web browser. However this change brings back a more responsive experience in the Viewer as well as giving you the information you’re most interested in seeing on the first page. As part of this change, Groups now moves to the main tab. This change also means that hiding Groups no longer requires opening and viewing each one. Just click on the eye next to the group to hide or show. A big thank you to the Firestorm Viewer team for your contribution! How things have changed The viewer Profile, as opposed to the web Profile, shows all of your Second Life Bio, Feed, Picks, Classifieds and Real Life bio when viewed by other residents logged in to Second Life. The Feed will remain a web property displayed in the Profile floater in its own tab. Interests are accessible on the old web Profiles but will no longer be included in the viewer Profile.

Photo by Alexa Linden The idea Wouldn’t it be cool if you could animate your avatar in real time? What if you could wave your arm and your avatar could mimic your motions? Or imagine if your avatar could reach out and touch something inworld or perform animations? Linden Lab is exploring these possibilities with an experimental feature called “Puppetry.” We have been working on this feature for some time and now we are ready to open it up to the Second Life community for further development and to find out what amazing things our creators will do with this new technology. The codebase is alpha level and does contain its share of rough edges that need refinement, however the project is functionally complete and it is possible for the scriptors and creators of Second Life to start to try it out. See the section below “How to participate” to learn how to use Puppetry yourself. Take a Look We have some basic things working with a webcam and Second Life but there's more to do before it's as animated as we want. Puppetry Technology Puppetry accepts target transforms for avatar skeleton bones and uses inverse kinematics (IK) to place the connecting bones in order for the specified bones to reach their targets. For example the position and orientation “goal” of the hand could be specified and IK would be used to compute how the forearm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder should be positioned to achieve it. The IK calculation can be tricky to get right and is a work in progress. The target data is supplied by a plug-in that runs as a separate process and communicates with the viewer through the LLSD Event API Plug-in (LEAP) system. This is a lesser known functionality of the Viewer which has been around for a while but has, until now, only been used for automated test and update purposes. The Viewer transmits the Puppetry data to the region server, which broadcasts it to other Puppetry capable Viewers nearby. The receiving Viewers use the same IK calculations to animate avatars in view. For more details about the Puppetry technology, take a look at the Knowledge Base article Puppetry : How it Works Uses and Possibilities We are excited about Puppetry’s potential to change the way we interact inside Second Life. For example, using a webcam to track your face and hands could allow your avatar to mimic your face animations and finger movement, or more natural positioning of the avatar’s hands and feet against in-world objects might also be possible. Alternative hardware could be used to feed information into Second Life to animate your avatar - a game controller or mocap equipment. There's a lot to explore and try, and we invite the Second Life community to be involved in exploring the direction of this feature. How to participate The Puppetry feature requires a project viewer and can only be used on supporting Regions. Download the project Viewer at the Alternate Viewers page. Regions with Puppetry support exist on the Second Life Preview Grid and are named: Bunraku, Marionette, and Castelet. When using the Puppetry Viewer in one of those regions, if someone there is sending Puppetry data you should see their avatar animated accordingly. To control your own avatar with Puppetry it's a bit more work to set up the system. You need: a working Python3 installation, a plug-in script to run, and any Python modules it requires. If you are interested and adventurous: please give it a try. More detailed instructions can be found on the Puppetry Development page. What's next We look forward to seeing what our creators do with the new Puppetry technology. Compared to other features we have introduced, it’s quite experimental and rough around the edges, so please be patient! We will keep refining it, but before we go further we wanted to get our residents’ thoughts. We will be hosting an open discussion inworld on Thursday, Sept 8 1:00PM SLT at the Bunraku, Marionette, and Castelet regions on the Preview Grid. We're also happy to talk about this at the upcoming Server User Group or Content Creator meetings. Come by, let us know what you think, and hear about our future plans!

Premier Wrestling is a pro wrestling federation in Second Life, where wrestling fans can be just as much a part of the crowd as the superstars themselves! Premier Wrestling is shaping a new era of wrestling, by developing compelling characters and weaving them into dynamic storylines that combine physical and emotional sentiments. This is as real as it gets in the virtual world of Second Life! According to Premier Wrestling Co Owner Vince Aftermath: "Second Life Wrestling is magic, the virtual action element is not supposed to happen but we are doing it. Our athletes are a mixture of veteran wrestlers and rookies both male and female all who want to see Premier Wrestling succeed every week by giving our fans a great experience. Premier Wrestling in particular has something for everyone. You have the fighting, you have the dancing, you have the voice action, you have the tables, you have the ladders, I could go on! Premier Wrestling is a buffet of entertainment. We hit every mark for you and send you home happy! Want to see someone lay the smackdown in your own backyard? Well you're in luck! Premier Wrestling travels around the grid to different locations. Going sim to sim with our wrestling crews is a favorite among our sponsors and partners. And we stream our shows on YouTube as well.” Let's say you don’t want to be a fan and are tired of watching from the sidelines. Let's say you want to jump into the action today. Do you get paid? Is it hard to do? What does getting into the wrestling business look like? Senior Executive Director at Premiere Wrestling, LG, explains how easy it is to go from fan to pro: “Contact us in-world, on Discord or Twitter, fill out the application and someone will contact you almost immediately. We are always hiring. We are the only wrestling federation to this day that pays the staff for their hard work. You can even get a free home to live in. The benefits of being a professional Second Life wrestler in Premier Wrestling is unbelievable.” Premier Wrestling has over 70 active staff members on the team from all over the world from Brazil, to Canada, to even Egypt. A diverse community of global wrestling fans, who embrace their cultural uniqueness as they only can in a virtual world without borders. And what does Second Life mean to the folks who run this vibrant wrestling operation? "Second Life is a gateway to a world with no restrictions. You're not held down by anyone and the opportunities of being a creator or being a performer are endless. Being a Second Life performer has given me a purpose to want to log in every day. I love performing for our fans who may not want to leave their home due to COVID concerns or those who have a SL family and need a different type of entertainment." says Vince Aftermath. "A chance to be creative, Make the unbelievable happen and help people escape reality even if just for a brief moment. Second Life has no limitations." says LG. Now’s your chance to get behind the ropes with Premier Wrestling's hard-hitting action! Video Production by Draxtor Despres Premier Wrestling Studios Premier Wrestling is an organization based in Second Life. Premier Wrestling has hard-hitting action to voice drama, featuring some of the best virtual wrestlers in the world! Premier Wrestling is a one-stop-shop for all your entertainment needs! They are filmed on location, then later the show is placed on their YouTube page. Visit in Second Life

Class is back in session! Second Life University returns today with a pre-recorded video by Boston Blaisdale as he shows you how to update your avatar’s body using the Ebody Reborn body. This is the next video in our series which will cover the variety of mesh bodies and heads available on the grid. Watch the premiere of the Ebody Reborn Female Mesh Body video at 10am PT: Here is a glimpse at the topics he will cover in this video: Search and Teleport to the Ebody store Try a DEMO before purchasing Remove clothing from current outfit on system avatar using worn tab Unpack Reborn body from Objects folder and go through folder Add body parts - always remember to "Add" rather than "Wear" Ebody Reborn body is already BOM by default Add the HUD from the folder and maximize it Try on body skins and neck blends Try out the shapes the body comes with and then edit and make your own Familiarize yourself with the Ebody HUD Use Materials sliders in the HUD to add shine and glossiness to the skin Adjust the tint of the skin tone Ebody has various add-ons for squishy boobs and thighs Ebody has a Reborn monthly shopping event where third-party creators are invited to sell items for this body Use the Alpha tab to hide body parts Use the Pose tab to try hand animations Adjust nail in the nails tab Adjust your feet angle in the pose tab Fix your broken ankles by using Ankle Lock in the Pose tab Stay tuned for future updates about Second Life University. Happy learning!

The Concierge and Land User Group meeting is a monthly, public meeting for discussion and education on Second Life, useful to both Mainland Residents and Estate owners. Topics include any issues relating to Customer Relations/Support or concerning Land in general (mainland, islands, Linden Homes, estates, auctions, etc.). Join Wendi, Vix, and members of the Land team, on Wednesday at 12pm PT at Linden Estate Services. All are welcome.

Experience a vibrant metropolis at Urban City, where you can enjoy exciting clubs, endless shopping, apartments for rent, and more! An urban neighborhood in the Humboldt County region, Urban City has residential areas where you can enjoy real city living by renting apartments or a whole parcel. With a town square, pubs, and many shopping areas you will always feel you are at the heart of downtown. Adjacent to Urban City is the Urban Neighborhood, in the Laurel Canyon region (see a California theme here? We do!), where the expansive Fantasy Pixels store is facing the waterfront. For the more spacious rentals, Urban Neighborhood has you covered with - ironically? - suburban size plots. If you want to roam the streets, engage in moderate roleplay, hang out with your friends and witness how the various construction sites quickly transform into exciting new parts of the neighborhood, hop on over to Urban City now. And if you like the effort Ѳѕzч Ͼʰᵘ Ͼѳййаllч and crew put into this place, you can donate to the parking meter. Find the hungry little object right next to the food truck, the one that sells “Little Monster Skull Ice Cream” as you look out over the water and contemplate if a downtown penthouse or a white-picket fence enclosed Victorian is the right crib for you. Video Production by Draxtor Despres Urban City Welcome to Urban City. They have Resident homes, stores, clubs, motel, train station, cafes, pubs, events, games, and so much more with lots of photogenic areas. Come have fun at Urban City! Visit in Second Life

NatureCon 2022 is a two-week virtual conference seeking to unite and inspire collaboration between Bellisseria and Mainland organizations under the shared goal of promoting exploration across the grid. This celebration of nature and connection will run from August 18th to the 31st. There will be many activities and events happening these two weeks. Pick up a collectible event booklet in the Info Pavilion close to the landing spot which will include a map and highlights about the event. As you walk around the regions, look for an art hunt with collectible paintings and a ladybug hunt with themed camp items. Boats, horse rezzers from Teegle, and submarine rezzers are just some of the things available to ride around the event. Activities start today with a live DJ event from 12pm PT, and then at 4pm PT an opening speech from the organizers of the event, Yukiko Yeshto and Soull Starlight. Along with numerous contributors, our very own Moles have donated their time and talent to create Bellisseria landmarks at this event, including a lighthouse and Mermaid grotto! In tomorrow’s upcoming Lab Gab, we will hear the story of how the Moles got involved. On Friday August 19th at 2pm PT, you can watch Lab Gab live at NatureCon with host Strawberry Linden interviewing many of the organizers and collaborators for this event, including Yukiko Yeshto, Soull Starlight, Ayame Kintsugi-Moon, Georgina Rowley, Zoe Foodiboo, Becca Ordinary, Bryce Sun, Cranston Yordstorm, and Zen Swords-Galway. Lab Gab will be streamed to the Second Life YouTube Channel, Facebook Page, LinkedIn Page, and Twitter. For full episodes of Lab Gab, click over to the Lab Gab YouTube Playlist. See you at NatureCon! NatureCon 2022 NatureCon 2022 is a two-week virtual conference seeking to unite and inspire collaboration between Bellisseria and Mainland organizations under the shared goal of promoting exploration across the grid. This celebration of nature and connection will run from August 18th to the 31st. For more information, visit: natureconsl.site Visit in Second Life

This week we are shining a spotlight on Prophet (Nightmare Rain) a creative blogger that adds a slice of life narrative to his virtual photography. How long have you been in Second Life and how did you first hear about it? I discovered Second Life through Twitch about 10 years ago, which got me interested in roleplay at first. How did you get into Second Life blogging, and what kind of content do you like to showcase? I got into blogging once I delved further into the Secondlife community and discovered Flickr. I learned how to do in-world photography and later on, was taught how to photo edit. I developed my own style and learned how to express my creativity through blogging. I tend to lean on the slice-of-life type of pictures, however, I still do throw in some fantasy in the mix now and then. When taking photos in Second Life, what is your process for creating a narrative/story in the picture? Life itself is inspiring- one can choose to see beauty in everything and I think we tend to be blind to it because I feel that it is easy to take for granted when we’re comfortable. I like recreating scenarios that most people find themselves in on the daily and showcasing it on my blog using the items made by talented creators in order to depict and illustrate the common, but in such a way that people actually take notice and pause to appreciate them. I also utilize Windlight a lot- Light, shadow, contrast and color create mood and visual weight. Visual art is such an effective way of expanding ideas about diverse representation and you do that so well with the use of avatar components and tools in Second Life. What inspires your avatar’s styles? My styles are usually inspired by everyday looks varying from casual to formal- Simple but refined pieces- I let the clothing and accessories speak for themselves as it’s usually what I’m blogging although when I have free time I do take pictures for fun and so with those I tend to focus on what I want to wear rather than what I’ve been sponsored to wear. Tell us about some of the other Second Life Residents that have inspired you, or whose work you admire. I admire my mentor, business partner, and good friend Mia (Counterfeitmint Resident) as well as: Anika Cluny Quincy Robin Maria Rou Nasyala Oceane Ebony Alexa Maravilla AshaRhia Dondallia Digi Pera Where can people see your work? Please share links to your sites and social media accounts. Flickr Twitter We hope you enjoyed learning more about Prophet and find his vibrant and diverse images as inspiring as we do. Each of our Spotlight posts will feature a different Resident to showcase the spectrum of experiences and personalities found in our virtual world. If you have created something inworld that you’re proud of, or have had a deeply meaningful experience that could brighten someone else’s day, please sign up! More info here: https://second.life/spotlight-signup.

Roleplay at New Frontiers, a SciFi community set in the year 2822 CC on the world of Onia! Whether you are a roleplayer or just a casual explorer, New Frontiers invites everyone to join their community, create a character, engage in combat, or just wander around and explore a foreign and exciting world. Via their Discord, community members keep in close contact and share ideas, lore, as well as resolve conflict the old-fashioned way, should armed combat fail to achieve the desired results: through diplomacy. The vast world of New Frontiers, with its myriad of different races and classes, is governed by clear rules and a comprehensive HUD system. According to New Frontiers management: "New Frontiers is a passion project. An attempt to deliver the science fiction roleplay experience we've always wanted to partake in. To give our players a place to tell their own stories. To signal boost and show off our amazing content creators. To provide the community of a giant bunch of nerds with material to argue the differences in faster than light technology until the early hours of the morning. New Frontiers is not the work of any one person. Nor any single team. It is the blood, sweat and tears of dozens, if not hundreds of players, staff, artists, and photographers who all have come together to tell stories in a random, eclectic world where on one day you can be raiding some ancient tomb, the next you are going for a walk in the park." Explore today and be fascinated by the level of work, detail, and community that has gone into creating this world! Video Production by Draxtor Despres New Frontiers New Frontiers is a sci-fi roleplaying region set on the final frontier, a hostile planet in distant and unfamiliar space. Start a new life in the White Belt! Discover the mysteries of precursor civilisation out in the frontier, fight in a sprawling shadow war or enjoy your free time in a seedy undercity bar. Learn more at newfrontiers.co Visit in Second Life

The Halloween season is fast approaching and our annual multi-region inworld shopping event is coming back. If you are a Content Creator, this is your chance to spook up some sales and reach a large audience with your creepiest and coolest creations! The 2022 Halloween Shop & Hop will open on October 6th, and will run through November 1st. This is your opportunity to bring a ton of new customers to your brand, by offering some of your best items. We are looking for Merchants willing to offer a discount on their items (at least 20% off) and provide a small non-exclusive gift to shoppers. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, please fill out this form as soon as possible and no later than Sunday, August 21, 2022. We will contact you soon after that date if your application is accepted.

Class is back in session! Second Life University returns today at 10am PT with Second Life’s Support Operations Manager Keira Linden and Support Operations Supervisor Tommy Linden. Keira and Tommy will share some Governance tips for staying safe and enjoying your Second Life, as well as keeping your account secure. These are some of the topics they are planning to cover during the show: Getting assistance via the Second Life Support Portal Filing an Abuse Report How to block someone in Second Life Security Measures for your Second Life Account Changes to the Second Life Community Forums Online DMCA Complaint Submission Watch it live today at 10am PT on the Second Life YouTube channel. We will be monitoring the YouTube chat and answering your questions. Stay tuned for future updates about Second Life University. Happy learning!

Hamster avatars take center stage at Hamster Bar, home of a fun summer Hamster Festival every August. If you’re looking for some wacky fun, you'd be hard-pressed to find a virtual world that offers more of that than Second Life! Azuran, owner of the Hamster Bar and creator of the incredibly adorable Hamster Festival, also runs a Hamster blog all about the wheel turning activities taking place at the bar. The blog may be in Japanese and most avatars may be of the furry kind, but human avatars are more than welcome and many of the participants also speak English. This two week festival runs until August 20th and includes a live DJ event and a shopping mall where you can pick up all your hamster accessories. Follow Hamster Fest on Twitter for updates. One of the Hamsters featured in the video is Sanny Yoshikawa, who can usually be found in a squirrel or cat avatar but also enjoys being a hamster. The Hamster Festival is one of Sanny’s favorite events in Second Life. Sanny has been a Second Life Resident for many years and tells us, “I am Japanese and have lived in Australia for 20 years. I joined SL when I saw the news about Japanese towns being created in SL. Now I live in a Sakura Linden Home. My main project in SL is translating and making a summary of Wagner James AU's New World Notes monthly. I believe that it helps Japanese users to get information about SL and other virtual worlds. We can use DeepL to read foreign blogs nowadays, but I think the real problem for someone who doesn't use English is "how to reach information". If you don't know English you can't use google search, then you can't reach articles that you should read.” Don't have a Hamster avatar and want to pick one up? Find them at Sue's Mall, home of the Beetlebones store in Second Life by Suetabulous Yootz. Take a moment to connect with an adorable new community and teleport over to Hamster Festival today! Video Production by Draxtor Despres Hamster Bar Hamster Bar is where hamster lovers gather. Once a year in August, they hold a festival called "Hamster Festival" focusing on hamsters. This festival is enjoyed not only by hamsters but also by many other people. It is crowded with many hamster fans and shopping malls with fun items. A very casual DJ event is held every year on August 6 at 6 AM (SLT). Visit for a fun-filled summer! Visit in Second Life

Class is back in session! Second Life University returns today with two pre-recorded videos by Second Life Resident Boston Blaisdale as he shows you how to update your avatar’s head using a Lelutka mesh head. These are the next two videos in our series which will cover the variety of mesh bodies and heads available on the grid. Watch the premiere of the Lelutka Male Mesh Head video at 9:30am PT: Here is a glimpse at the topics he will cover in this video: Search for and teleport to the Lelutka store Choose a head to purchase - shape and skin will make a difference on how it looks Try a free DEMO before purchasing Unpack the head Remove items currently worn Wear alpha mask Add the head, eyes, teeth, and HUD Wear the default shape included with the head Add one of the face skins included with the head and ear texture and eyebrows Difference between EVO and EVO X Add a hairbase Reshape your avatar Different methods for applying facial hair Different methods for wearing eyes Apply HD eyebrows Adjust face shine and effects Explore facial and eye effects Play around with facial animations Try out the elf ears that come with the head Watch the premiere of the Lelutka Female Mesh Head video at 10am PT: Here is a glimpse at the topics he will cover in this video: Search for and teleport to the Lelutka store Choose a head to purchase - shape and skin will make a difference on how it looks Try a free DEMO before purchasing Unpack the head Remove items currently worn Wear alpha mask Add the head, eyes, teeth, and HUD Wear the default shape included with the head Add one of the face skins included with the head and ear texture and eyebrows Difference between EVO and EVO X Add a hairbase Reshape your avatar Different methods for wearing eyes Apply HD eyebrows Adjust face shine and effects Different looks with various Lelutka heads Play around with facial animations Stay tuned for future updates about Second Life University. Happy learning!

Hello, and Happy Wednesday! Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve updated our Name Change service in a major way. We’ve told you that we were going to keep working on adding new features to the Premium and Premium Plus offerings, and we’re delivering on that once again today. From here on, Premium and Premium Plus subscribers will benefit from a reduced price for the Name Change service. But that’s not all! Not only are we discounting the service across the board, but we’ve decided to democratize the service to everyone. That’s right, as of today, everyone can change their avatar name regardless of their subscription level. Not just the Premium subscribers that have always been able to do so, but all of our Basic accounts as well! This is something we’ve been trying to offer for a long time, and something that we get requests for on a consistent basis, so we couldn’t be more pleased to finally be able to announce it. As an exciting new option for Basic accounts, here’s what it looks like today. Not only do you have the option to change your avatar’s first name to anything you can imagine, but we also offer a rotating list of last names to give your avatar (even if you don’t already have one) that are updated on a regular basis. We will continue to make updates to the available last name pool, so if these options aren’t for you, stay tuned for future updates. You can also suggest your favorite name on our suggestion form, new names are chosen from there! For more information about the costs and how-tos involved in name changes, read the Changing your username FAQ. Click to change your name now!

Happy Wednesday! We’re writing to remind everyone that we’ll be holding our monthly Web User Group meeting today at 14:00 SLT in our usual meeting place, where we’ll be discussing our status with ongoing projects and our near future plans for our web properties. As always, we’ll leave plenty of time for Q&A from the community. We look forward to seeing you there!

Valiant Wrestling is a Second Life based furry wrestling federation that brings high octane live action wrestling to the grid every Wednesday. Co-founded by CEOs Dylan Mattel and Charlie Covfefe, Valiant Wrestling offers plenty of fun and excitement at their weekly live events as well as a great community for longtime wrestling fans. Residents looking for a way to live out their wrestling fantasies in the safety of an online community, can find this form of wrestling roleplay both rewarding and interesting. CEO Charlie says, “I have a slight heart issue so I can not pursue a wrestling career IRL. But here in SL I can live out my dream!” With over 20 furry wrestlers currently active in the federation, the fights include ring announcers, referees, and sometimes even agents that play a part in the proceedings. It is a fully immersive roleplay experience! This whole endeavor is a team effort with photography, branding and public relations made possible by Ring of Fire Productions. Says Helios Eusebio, who creates all the custom posters and graphics: “We need new posters every week and new graphics whenever there's the possibility of a title change or new contender. And when you average 100+ photos of all the matches, that adds up to quite a bit!” The wrestling choreography is directed by a sophisticated HUD system, made by Team Wildfire with Kenia la Gatita Escarlata at the helm. And the colorful merch (nail extension for special furry paws, hats, shirts, banners and posters, ringside gestures, ice cream bars) is made by, among others, Lyra Phoenix, Revel McLochlan and Paradox H. Fade, and can be purchased on location. See a lot more of the action on their YouTube channel and Twitter and grab that teleport on Wednesday at 6pm SLT to be present at their next show! Video Production by Draxtor Despres Valiant Wrestling Valiant is a wrestling federation with a world-class roster of diverse male and female furry wrestlers giving you a new wrestling experience in Second Life! Attend their events every Wednesday at 6pm PT. Visit in Second Life

We are so excited to see the positive response our Premium Plus offering has had! We’ve had thousands of sign-ups so far in just the first month, and no signs of slowing down. To celebrate the success of the first month of Premium Plus and give everyone the opportunity to take full advantage of this offer, we have decided to extend the first-month promotional price of $24.99 for an additional week (until 8/8)! Starting on August 8th the monthly cost for Premium Plus will return to its non-promotional price of $29.99/mo, so you’ll need to act fast to lock in the first month’s discount. For just $24.99, you’ll get a whole month of L$650 per week, a L$3000 signup bonus, fully paid-for mainland tier of 2,048sqm, and the ability to join up to 140 groups! Throw in unlimited free uploads of sounds, textures and animations on top of all the standard Premium benefits you already know and love, and we think that’s a heck of a deal. And if you’d like to lock in the discount for an entire year, the Annual Premium Plus membership is a further 17% off, saving you a total of over 30% off the Monthly price! If you haven’t had a chance to sign up for our most generous subscription level yet, why not give it a try today and see if Premium Plus is right for you?

Class is back in session! Second Life University returns today at 11am PT with Second Life’s Senior QA Manager, Kyle Linden. Kyle will be sharing some tips for bug reporting and feature requests through Jira. Some topics Kyle will be covering in this episode: Jira How to report a bug or file a feature request Bug Tracker Watch it live today at 11am PT on the Second Life YouTube channel. We will be monitoring the YouTube chat and answering your questions. Stay tuned for future updates about Second Life University. Happy learning!

The Concierge and Land User Group meeting is a monthly, public meeting for discussion and education on Second Life, useful to both Mainland Residents and Estate owners. Topics include any issues relating to Customer Relations/Support or concerning Land in general (mainland, islands, Linden Homes, estates, auctions, etc.). Join Wendi, Vix, and members of the Land team, on Wednesday at 12pm PT at Linden Estate Services. All are welcome.

Explore Puerto Banana, an eclectic little fishing harbor, inspired by the wonderful creativity of Second Life Residents. After being involved with other artistic venues and ventures in Second Life, Louna Perl and Boro decided they wanted to create their own space based around fun, creativity, and nice chance encounters with other Second Life residents. Louna shares, “We do think SL is a wonderful way to unleash creativity, whether you're extremely talented or simply a normal human being with ideas that have not been realized yet.” With no technical skills and an immense admiration for other Creators in Second Life, they dove right into creating Puerto Banana. Louna explains their process: “I'm a collector and I love pictures and paintings, but I also have a passion for objects. And in SL, there are absolutely fantastic creators of objects. From sculptures to simple tea cups, I'm often amazed by the details, the technical skills, beauty and inventiveness.” “We do try to mix the atmospheres in what remains a small place, with the harbor full of surprises, a small gallery and a warehouse where we can gather with a few people to listen to music streamed by music lovers, without dancing, just to lie on a couch or a comfy chair and chat about music.” This quaint little fishing harbor is not the only thing keeping them busy this summer together, and in collaboration with Gabryel Lamplight, they have started a new project called “Bears around the World” project. You can grab a bear and go on a photography adventure for a chance to win some prizes, but also have a lot of fun! Take a stroll through this eclectic fishing harbor, participate in the bears around the world project and get your creative juices flowing! Video Production by Draxtor Despres Puerto Banana Puerto Banana is a little fishing harbour with a core business based around fun, creativity, and nice encounters. An eclectic place inspired by the wonderful creativity of Second Life Residents. Sometimes there are featured art exhibits. Visit in Second Life

Find your inner calm at Shamatha in Second Life, a Buddhist-inspired virtual healing retreat, full of peaceful nooks and crannies and inspiring open spaces, welcoming you to discover your inner center. A practicing Buddhist herself, owner Aire Xaris feels that mindfulness is something the world can use a little more of and she wanted to create a space where Residents could find some peace or tranquility. “It is my Zen to create these scenes”, Aire says and adds that “if this place encourages someone to feel less anxious, or angry or sad by visiting, then it is worth it. What is so funny is that it took me so long to find out what it actually was that brings me the most joy out of playing with these digital crayons that Philip Rosedale gave us back in 2003.” Aire expands on the name she gave her region, Shamatha: “It literally means to stop and I really like it when people tell me that they've been inspired to look into meditation, or that they fell asleep while sitting up in the big moon sleepscape I built.” This serene region is a place of wonder. The magnificent structures that dot the landscape provide a sense of peace for those who wander its paths. Video Production by Draxtor Despres Shamatha Shamatha is a place of stopping. A digital Buddhist community and Nature preserve that offers a variety of scenes landscaped and designed to calm and offer the traveler refuge through guided meditation. There is a free interactive Wind light and meditation music Hud and teleport gates that lead to private and picturesque areas throughout the region. All are welcome to take refuge and discover their inner calm. Visit in Second Life

Since emerging onto the scene in 2016, Eli Brown has effortlessly cemented his status as an artist of distinction, and a mainstay in the House & Electronic music genre, gaining fans globally in territories such as the USA, Canada, Brazil, and party capital of the world, Ibiza. With his visceral club energy, and affinity to experimentation, as well discovering new and unique ways to make the world of electronic music more innovative – Eli’s collaboration with the Internet’s pioneering virtual world, Second Life, and Sam Wiehl are a perfect combination, and encapsulate the connection that music and technology have; ensuring fans no longer just feel as though they are consumers of music, but also get to participate and immerse themselves into it too. With the launch of “Club Arcane” in Second Life the new interactive project literally puts listeners inside an all-new metaverse music video. The elaborate experience, which is set to an exclusive mashup mix of Brown’s “Killer,” “Trouble,” and “Send Help” singles takes participants through a musical “dark ride” adventure filled with ominous alleys, dancing bots, and a neon-lit nightclub bursting with hidden surprises at every turn. Speaking on the immersive experience, Eli says: “I’m beyond excited to unveil Club Arcane with Second Life, one of the world's first, truly immersive online club experiences. We’ve been working hard on this concept for what feels like an eternity, carefully curating an online experience that feels representative of my overall brand but, more importantly, my live show personified in the digital space. Expect dark visuals, industrial club spaces and exclusive music & sets from myself and other artists I admire”. The design and build were made in collaboration with artist Sam Wiehl, who directed the video and built the virtual club environment for Eli’s ‘Killer’ release. Key visual elements from the original music video are integrated into the interactive version, which allows participants to ride solo or with friends. Teleport to Club Arcane in Second Life: Club Arcane - Eli Brown Experience Step inside for a dark and immersive journey through a world of Eli Brown's own making. Lose yourself in a visceral display of sinister melodies and foreboding visuals, forever building in tempo and energy. More info at second.life/elibrown Visit in Second Life Video production by Vrutega

You may have noticed – or fallen victim to -- the unfortunate increase in server crashes last week. We apologize to everyone affected! Here’s what happened: On Thursday, June 30, just before the July 4 holiday weekend in the U.S, we released a change to my.secondlife.com. Early on the following Tuesday, we noticed and started investigating a significant increase in server crashes. We also started receiving Support reports about these. We determined that the web update in my.secondlife.com included a library update which, unknown to us, dropped support for the texture format our servers expect. This led to Viewers being unable to deal with newly updated textures, and under some circumstances the Server would attempt to be more helpful in opening those, than it should have been - and crashing. This is why some residents saw problems with their profile photos. On Tuesday July 5, after we investigated and confirmed what was happening, the team quickly rolled back the web site change to prevent the creation of more broken textures. The web team identified these textures, then ran a script to convert them. This was completed by Thursday morning, July 7. The server team fast-tracked a fix to prevent servers from crashing. We were able to QA and release the fix to RC channels on the afternoon of Thursday, July 7 and then to the main SLS + Events channels on Friday, July 8. Lessons: Second Life is big and complicated and fails in unexpected ways (we knew that!) Library upgrades may need additional testing for dependencies we couldn’t imagine. We work really well together when Second Life fails in unexpected ways Again, we apologize to everyone affected!

Class is back in session! Second Life University returns today with two pre-recorded videos by Second Life Resident Boston Blaisdale as he shows you how to update your avatar’s body using a Legacy mesh body. These are the next two videos in our series which will cover the variety of mesh bodies available on the grid. Watch the premiere of the Legacy Male Mesh Body video at 9:30am PT: Here is a glimpse at the topics he will cover in this video: Shop for the body at the Legacy store Body choices: Masculine and Athletic Try a DEMO before purchasing Remove clothing from current outfit What is Bakes on Mesh? Add the Legacy Body Apply an Alpha Mask Attach the HUD (named: ‘EDIT’) Activate BOM via the HUD Wear a BOM skin on the body Learn how to modify your avatar's skin Recap of steps Add clothing from the ‘Premium Outfit’ folder Modify your shape using appearance sliders Add your own BOM layers Add BOM Body Shine using Advanced Material Editor Swap to Applier Alpha Mask to use skins from the HUD Apply a cycle of hand animations or static poses Use the Alpha menu on the hud to hide parts of the body Learn to dress your avatar Modify the nail color using the Style tab Watch the premiere of the Legacy Female Mesh Body video at 9:45am PT: Here is a glimpse at the topics he will cover in this video: Shop for the body at the Legacy store Body choices: Feminine, Perky, and Pregnancy Try a DEMO before purchasing Remove clothing from current outfit Contents of Legacy folder What is Bakes on Mesh? Add Body, Hands, and Feet Apply an Alpha Mask Attach the HUD (named: ‘EDIT’) Activate BOM via the HUD Wear a BOM skin on the body Learn how to modify your avatar's skin Recap of steps Modify your shape using appearance sliders Add your own BOM layers Add BOM Body Shine using Advanced Material Editor Swap to Applier Alpha Mask to use skins from the hud Use the Alpha menu on the hud to hide parts of the body Learn to dress your avatar, more info here Modify nail shape and color Apply a cycle of hand animations or static poses Adjust the angle of the heel to fit your shoes Stay tuned for future updates about Second Life University. Happy learning!