Ganelon Darkfold

I first heard of Second Life from an article on some website or other about "virtual worlds", and it just sounded really interesting. I went to the website, downloaded the viewer of the time and dove in. I've always been interested in the idea of virtual worlds, so it was a no-brainer to hit Second Life shortly after I heard about it. I'd have to check how long ago it was, but long enough that last names were still the norm, at least 8 yrs probably. What do I love most about being a resident? Seeing all the amazing areas people build, all the ideas and creativity that go into the products, homes, environments. Sure, I learned to build and code a bit for myself (doesn't everyone?), but I love seeing the creativity and ingenuity of others. I'm a "hobo" in current times. I don't spend enough time in SL in an average week these days to feel the need for a permanent home. In years past, I have rented apartments, and for a while rented a "skybox" big enough to have a small mountain, a lagoon, some beach and woods, and an old industrial building with a loft apartment. That was back when I was working inworld as a content writer and so was "rich" enough to buy any toys or etc I found interesting. So I sailed the seas of SL in my little sailboat, flew the skies with everything including a cardboard box or a bicycle dirigible, and crossed the continents on a little green moped. For deluxe space travel, my fave is my old Hippie Bowman ship or for shorter hops, the Galactic Trade Union SpaceBug that I customized to my liking. Over the years, I've tried to get "First Life" friends interested, but none stay interested for long, it seems. I haven't had relationships in SL or long-term old friends, since I wander a lot when I'm in SL and sometimes disappear from SL for months at a time, when "the regular world" needs my focus.

Not all microphones are made equal. Computer mics can be pretty bad sounding. If actually sounding decent is important to you, then it's a good idea to have a friend make a recording of how you sound inworld so you can hear it outside of SL Maybe try at least a few different microphones or headsets and pick the one that sounds best. Even if you went with pro or semi-pro sound gear, it's still not going to sound great, though. SL's voice channel is just not that good for quality. With a good mic, some equalization, and maybe a speech compressor, you can get it to perhaps "pretty good" at best. It just won't compare well with a DJ or performer who is using good gear and an actual dedicated stream, where decent sound quality definitely *is* possible. But voice certainly can have it's uses. For example, if you're explaining to someone how to edit or build, then it's a lot easier to use voice so you don't have to keep alternating between the menus and the text chat window. I've never been in a place or situation where voice was actually *required*. But it doesn't surprise me to hear that it happens sometimes. This is SL, and if a weird rule is possible, you can pretty much count on somebody somewhere considering it essential. LOL

I see what you're saying Randall, but I do kind of prefer RL books in some cases for the aesthetic appeal. On the other hand, how many books printed with the poor quality paper and cheap binding practices of the past few decades will survive to be around in a century? Probably none, while via copying into digital those words and ideas need not be lost. Yes, things need to be backed up and stored in more than one place to have a good chance for survival in digital form, but then that chance at least exists. If in 100 yrs or more, it is the only way that a written work or whatever survived, then the digital is also too valuable to just disregard. Janelle, I suppose it depends on what you like, but I've found the autoharp to be great fun to play. Yes, mouseclicks or tapping notes on a computer keyboard just aren't the same as real instruments. But if they are all someone has, I'd say it'd be better than not playing. Part of the problem also is that musical instruments in SL mostly are either props or toys. It would not be impossible for SL to be able to handle at least something like interfacing with a midi keyboard to drive some samples, but it's really just not *there*. At least not yet. Maybe someday. There's the potential, though, and one can dream of new instruments with new sounds in SL that might be unique enough to make actually creating music on pixel instruments maybe at least some fun. Back to the "value" topic, though. The very first time i ever put cash money from my pocket into SL was to be able to afford a piano I liked. To get it with full perms ran me something like 800L$, but I wanted full perms so I could put a script in it to play at least a brief bit of music I wrote in RL. As an idea, that was valuable enough to me to warrant buying some L$. I felt it was beyond my capability at the time to make it myself (at least with a decent prim count), so it was worth it. Even with the somewhat painful process of resampling down to a sound quality that SL can handle and cutting it into 10 second bits so it could be uploaded and put into the SL instrument with some scripting, I still feel it was money well spent. Beyond the money, there was risking a piece of music I wrote in a digital place where I don't really know how secure it is and etc. But it was only a short piece, so I take that risk. In real life, though, I can't afford a nice grand piano, and wouldn't have space for one if I could. The music itself was written with a midi keyboard driving a gigasample grand piano. I don't feel I *could* have played it with mouseclicks or trying to tap the notes on a typing keyboard. But getting the piece into SL so I could show it off to a few friends was worth spending a few SL dollars to get a prop instrument I coukld feel good about putting it into. I also became more aware of the limitations of SL instruments for doing much of anything like actual music on, though. LOL So now I don't bother with scripts or uploading the music, I just use the voice/speak channel for it and the SL instrument only needs to be a prop. The sound quality leaves a good bit to be desired, but with a reasonable studio mic and a mixer and some signal processing gear, it's at least ok for when a friend or two is over. Most of the pixel instruments I have don't mean a lot to me. They're just a symbol for someone to see when I play. The one I made and ones I worked on at least a bit myself are a bit more important to me, but I agree that I'm not nearly as attached to them as my RL instruments.

Brain? You just buy one and install it, like pretty much any fashion accessory or trendy "must-have". I put one in my avatar a while back. But he doesn't use it any more than anyone in SL does. LOL Makes about as much sense as people who wear watches in SL. But back to the OP and teeth, there's also things you can buy to make your avie look like their lips are parted slightly so the teeth show a little bit and there's special teeth like fangs and etc in shops and the marketplace, if that's maybe what you're looking for. There are also smile animations you can get, if you want to show your avie's teeth more (like a lot).

Janelle Darkstone wrote: Of course, if you had a virtual vase, and took a screenshot, and printed it out, and framed it and hung it on the wall? That's a step in the right . Ok, but try this idea on for size... My wife got me a vintage 1960s autoharp for xmas. I certainly enjoy that instrument in RL, of course. Now with my guitars, harp, oud, etc.. it was fairly easy to find something at least close in SL. But I couldn't find an autoharp on the marketplace. So I took a digital photo of the RL instrument and used it as a guide for building the basic shape out of prims and then spent some time with art software making a texture (since the actual pic didn't look all that good as a texture) and used that to skin it with. Then I taught myself how to use qavimator enough to make an animation for holding it and playing it. I didn't put scripted music in it because I wanted it to use as a prop for when I play the real instrument live for friends or my own enjoyment. But since that's kind of backwards of the process you described, does that make it a step in the wrong direction? :matte-motes-wink: Not that I disagree with your point. Not at all. I made myself the SL item because the RL item is important to me, and I wanted to have some form of it in SL. The pixel version is a symbol that allows the RL instrument to be with me in SL, sorta. It would upset me more if something bad happened to the RL instrument than the SL version of it. So I'd have to agree with Janelle on the RL objects being the more important. But the SL instrument is important to me in it's way, and seeing it or playing it reminds me of the things I learned in order to be able to have it. That's a harder quality to evaluate. So re-routing to the OP's question.. At least for me, some items in SL are sort of an extension of RL objects so I have them when I'm in SL. But then there's also items like spaceships, sailing ships and airplanes where I don't have anything like them in RL, and I'm only likely to ever own them in SL. I think of those as "mine" too, in a different sense. When a virtual object is all you have of something, then it's perhaps a bit more important. But the pixel versions and objects are a lot more replaceable, even though they maybe have more risk of getting lost to a computer glitch or whatever. I'd say though that it's at least hypothettically possible that someone might find some virtual objects as valuable as some physical objects in the world.

There isn't really an answer anyone on the forum can give to the OP, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility that LL might not try making such cards available at some point. They're a business, and if there's sufficient demand for it as a payment option and sufficient growth for it to look like a possible way to increase revenue by offering more payment options, then it's likely to happen. If the amounts offered are kept in fairly low increments, as is common with other somewhat similar services' (like game sites) cards, I doubt money laundering would be much of a concern. Buying a hundred or so 25$ (USD) cards a month would attract the sort of attention that I'd think a money laundering operation would want to avoid. Besides, someone cashing in that many would almost certainly raise some flags at LL so they'd take a closr look at the situation. So at a guess, I'd say it's more likely that they haven't been made available yet because it doesn't look like there'd be enough demand for them to justify the expense of having the cards made and getting them stocked in game stores or whatever. I don't think it likely they'd be allowed for "premium" service, though. Actually "owning property" in SL has some liability issues involved and etc, so they'd want a bit more info on people and more accountability. Sure, they could start accepting some other forms of identity verification, but since the current system works for a lot of people at present, where would LL see the demand? Without demand and growth or at least the potential for growth, you don't get new stuff. Doesn't hurt to ask for it, though, since that's one of the ways they may eventually decide that there is sufficient demand to try some new things in payment and verification options.

SOPA does nothing to protect the rights of individual creators, the only thing it is intended for is to protect the profits of corporations that are using an outmoded business model. Copyright laws need to change, because the world has changed since they were originally written. PIPA and SOPA aren't what's needed though. What is needed is something that fairly protects creators at all levels from unfair/illegal use of their ideas. It would have to work by due process of law, and be structured so that it can change with changing times and tchnology better than the original copyright laws. SOPA isn't even a band-aid fix. It's a free license for censorship and for large companies to more effectively crush out small entrepeneurs and individual creators who aren't "signed with a big label". Nobody really thinks that a single creator complaining about a theft of intellectual property will get the sort of action that larger companies complaining will get from SOPA, do they?? I'm kind of surprised SL isn't supporting the blackout, considering how much of the economy of SL is made up of independent creative efforts. Pretty much everything in an SL shop or the marketplace is intellectual property. Most products and services in SL are the work of individuals or small independent teams, which are the very people that won't benefit from SOPA's alleged "protection". More tools for large concerns to use to oppress and suppress are not what the world needs. If it passes, SOPA will affect a large chunk of the world, not just the US, and the effect will not be a beneficial one.

I'll start off by saying that I am not an SL vendor, but I am a customer/consumer. I think that part of the problem you're talking about (or perhaps "difference from rl business" would be a better way to say it) is that in SL there are no costs for raw materials or labour. In rl, those factors result in a cost which would make giving away items for free or very low prices prohibitive. It would just be too expensive for most people to be that generous. That being said, people who create an item can sell it for whatever they like in SL. Logically, the price will reflect the ingenuity, time and effort they put into it. But if they feel they want to sell it for a bargain price, for whatever reason they might have, isn't that their decision to make? I don't sell on the marketplace or have a shop, but I've sometimes sold copies of items I've made myself if a visitor asked to buy them. I've usually sold them for little or given them for nothing, since I don't have much interest in business in SL. I can understand where some people are trying to make an income, but I am not, and so I don't even check to see what the item might be going for on the marketplace. Some people are here for business and some just like making stuff. If the marketplace forbid 0L$ items, then they'd end up becoming 1L$ items. Bar the 1L$ items and they'd become 2L$ items. It would take a lot of little steps like that before the problem as you explain it would be "fixed". And what about the many things that are minor items that are very reasonable to sell for 1L$ or so? Trying to eliminate first freebies and dollarbies and then "2dollarbies" and then "3dollarbies" and so on isn't likely to actually solve the problem you're seeing. It would cut out an awful lot of the marketplace before it adequately "protected" say, 500L$ items that someone might actually make a relaible rl income from. But the discerning shopper is still going to be willing to pay a reasonable price for quality goods. So long as quality goods aren't something the average "hobby level" builder can put together, they'll still command the better price. But if an 800L$ items isn't better than a 1L$ item, then it's going to fail with shoppers, and that's kind of unavoidable. I'd seriously question whether that principle should be "fixed".

I only see the marketplace from the buyer point of view. But my wishlist for it would start with a "no demos" button. Particularly when shopping in the budget conscious price ranges, you can end up sometimes having to wade through pages of demos before actually seeing full items for sale. Demos are cool, I often find it useful to visit the inworld shop or get a demo, but I'd prefer to not have them showing up in the search. A "Demo version available" or "Come and see it at our inworld shop" link when a demo is available would be more useful for making purchasing decisions. How about marketplace giftcards? Most online shopping places have them. Yeah, sure, you can just "pay" the person some L$, but that's not quite the same. It could be fun, and give an extra gifting option in SL. Consistent packaging. Sometimes items from the marketplace are in a box, sometimes not. When they're in a box, it may contain a bunch of other stuff like landmarks, group invites and so on. I realize that it's an attempt by the vendor to drum up more business from the sale, but often it's about as welcome as junk mail. So if this consistent "from the marketplace" packaging could include a consistent notecard with any such information on it, that could be more useful. Another possibility for this standard marketplace box would be maybe when you go to delete the box it could ask you to rate the item. Logically, you just recieved it and looked at it or tried it right around the time you'd be getting ready to delete the box it came in. Nothing complex, just one to five stars, and the person could still go onto the marketplace to write a review if they really loved or hated the item. Maybe it could get more ratings for people to use for their purchasing decisions without being *too* obtrusive that way. Closing thought on the marketplace: It would be nice if there was a button or link to use to flag items where the permissions of the item delivered are different from how they were advertised. Most sellers are very good about that, but sometimes you decie to buy a specific item because you see you can modify it to fit your color tastes or maybe because you intend to give it as a gift, and then when it's delivered you find you can't. The "buy as a gift" option just isn't the same as handing the item to the person inworld.

Not exactly, but at least similar to when I was a bit younger. I went to some pains to find eyes and hair that are close. I didn't feel I did a very good job trying to adjust sliders "from scratch" (well, on a default skin) so eventually I had someone who knows me in RL shop for a shape and skin. There's always that difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us. I did, however, "de-idealize" the shape slightly to proportions I felt were more reasonable. I have versions saved that are "SL average" height and also at my RL height (which is pretty average for RL). Clothing, well, it's mostly either stuff I do wear in RL, have owned and wore at some point in time or *would* wear if I had it. That's not so much "trying to match RL" as that it's just what I happen to like. I wear glasses less often in SL than in RL, but my avatar does have glasses. I frequently switch to a ponytail version of my hair if I'm going to be working on something or running around a lot, same as RL, since it just feels natural to do so. Could someone that knows me in RL pick my avatar out of a lineup of say 10 other human male avatars from SL? Quite likely. So the SL me is more similar to than different from the RL me. I don't feel it's so much a matter of trying to imitate RL as it is that if I wanted to look different, I would have changed my RL appearance in the first place. Different people will want different things in SL, but I'm more comfortable with an avatar that at least resembles RL enough that it doesn't look like a total stranger to me.

We all die sooner or later. I don't care for funerals, since I consider the odd sort of taxidermy involved to be beyond bizarre and the customs and their related costs aren't something I'd care to burden survivors with. The body wasn't the person any more than an avatar was. What made the person a person has gone. But funerals and memorials are more for those who remain than for those who have gone. In RL, I've made my wishes known to family and friends, so they wouldn't have to guess what I may have wanted in that regard. I hope they remember the good times and move on, because one thing I would *never* want is for them to be any sadder then they have to be. In SL, I doubt anyone would notice. But that's better than sadness, if it was anyone I liked. On the other hand, if I chance to leave a restless ghost, I'll make it a point to haunt SL, and nobody would ever know I'd been gone. Though it would be tempting to have a gravestone someplace that said simply: brb :matte-motes-wink:

With some vehicles, the camera angle is pretty bad. Even worse, in my opinion, are the ones where they sort of whip you from side to side when you turn. I'm sure some people think it's a neat effect, but I personally find it an immersion-breaker. I like the mouselook perspective, but all too often it's also mouse-steer. It's nice to be able to glance to starboard while turning to port sometimes?

Well, I don't think one will ever get actual agreement, since what people like varies quite a bit. Whether someone plays WoW with the graphics quality way up and a home theatre type surround sound system or prefers text-only rp on a plain terminal screen can be a matter of choice. Yes, it can also be a matter of what toys a person can afford, but I know people with high level systems that still prefer text. Smell will probably eventually be something with commonplace peripherals available. The nasty part of that is the technology will take time to evolve, and it would likely start out as the smell equivalent of old 8 bit graphics. LOL It wouldn't be smelling say, a banana. It would be smelling artificial banana, which is (to my nose) only maybe slightly reminiscent of an actual fruit scent. So the early versions would likely be more like cheap air freshener than a walk in the outdoors. But the potential for a market is there, I think. Entertainment, novelty, advertising. Eventually, like video images, it could evolve to be more capable of imitating complex and subtle things, and might eventually become as commonplace as a reasonably nice monitor and graphics card. I think, though, that imagination would still remain the primary keystone of pereption. Even in RL, what we imagine a gesture or tone of voice means, or what we think a garment or accessory implies has a profound effect on how we perceive another person and their intentions. I mean, one might think of that little smile that crinkles the nose a little as cute and engaging, when it actually means your cologne is really obnoxious and the other person is trying hard to not sneeze. But how you percieve that expression and react to it will have a lot to do with how the situation ends up playing out, and that's pretty much always a matter of imagination and interpretation. Not everyone is good with words, and I feel some of that is a matter of natural talent and not "laziness". I think that if a person's talents lie more in images or sounds, then it's maybe not reasonable to expect them not to show or play something for you as a means of communicating what might take considerable artistry to render well in words. Back to the OP and the idea of smell over the internet, though.. Well.. It'll probably happen eventually, but it's def not currently on my "I want" list. LOL But I do like my widescreen monitor and a reasonable sound system so I can feel a bit of the thump when I land from a jump or the sort of mild pressure from the sound of a waterfall nearby, the vibration of the motor of a vehicle I'm in, or the throb of loud music in a club. That's enough for me for immersion. Back in the day of "beep-boop" sound and old-school graphics, it took more imagination to get into games and etc. I can see where some people might be keen on having smell or etc, though. If some game or app came out where smell was an important part of it and it became popular enough, I can imagine the technology catching on quickly.

Well, some places require a certain size because they built the area for a certain size. That's not unreasonable. If you want to wander or hang out there, you save a shape and clothes adjusted to that size. If somebody went to some bother to make a place to a certain scale, I don't think it unreasonable for them to want people who come there to adjust scale. If you don't like it, you don't go there. My usual avatar is a "realistic size", I guess, and is proportionate. I have a couple of body shapes adjusted to a little shorter for places like the Doomed Station where they ask for a certain height for the sake of scale. My usual was already an ok height for 1920's Berlin. If I wanted to go someplace that asked for a height of 8 ft 2 inches, I'd take a few minutes with the sliders and maybe even save the adjusted shape if I enjoyed the place enough that I felt I was likely to go back there again. Why not? It's an adventure. Some people I end up standing next to do indeed seem rather amazingly tall and small-headed. I think a lot of that is camera angle though. The behind-and-above camera angle maybe makes heads seem a bit large to some folks due to foreshortening from the perspective used and so they perhaps adjust it to look more normal from the default POV? But yes, I had noticed that 15 ft door thing lately, since I rented my first apartment recently. LOL I kind of noticed that the door handle was at about head height, so I took some measurements. 5 meter tall door, and the "small" apartment was 20 meters long. I think it's great! Extra value in that extra space. Yeah, I also noticed my feet didn't touch the floor with the first kitchen chair I bought. No big deal. Right click and edit items to fit. I don't usually buy anything I can't mod, anyway. My wife also thought it amusing when she looked over my shoulder when I was trying some different decor in the SL apartment. "Why is the door so big?" I explained that actually my avatar was shorter than average in SL, since it's about the same height as I am in RL but most people apparently like to fantasize themselves a bit taller. "Well, now you see what that's like!" (She's only a little over 5 ft tall and has complained more than once over the years about everything in the world being made for taller people.) It was a good laugh. I've never had anyone mistake my avatar for a child. Facial hair, build, manner, tattoos...just not very child-like. But I can see where it might be less obvious for female avatars. Now, you want something to gripe about, how about all the animations that are right handed? Some of us people are lefties in RL, y'know! Ok, I'm closer to ambidextrous in RL, from living left handed in a right handed world. I can drink a cup of coffee with either hand, but my poor avatar doesn't seem to be able to. LOL

Actually, signs are cool. They're great. If you see a sign that says "No Trespassing" or "Private Dock" or something, you know you aren't wanted around there and you can steer clear of the place. That's clear communication and you can see it from a distance. Now, if the security system's range was just about where the sign was, then it would make more sense. The 10 seconds thing does seem somewhat too short a time to allow a well-meaning person to get out of a place they aren't wanted. I'd bet that anyone actually up to anything malicious could do any damage they had planned in 10 seconds and be out before the orb or whatever kicked them. But the time and the somewhat agressive wording aren't SL so much as the people who write the code for the item. Considering that most of them seem to be identical, I'd guess that most property owners don't actually write the message, it's just what came with the security system they bought. Now that could maybe change, if people started asking the shops that they buy security stuff from for "firm but polite" versions, or for the time to be adjustable by the purchaser.