"Second Life, online adult games to be banned outright in Australia" - ???

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

JUNE 26 UPDATE: Two posts that are must-reads on this topic:
- Tateru Nino's blogpost "Could Australia be barred from Second Life access?" She continues: "Darn straight they could."
- Lowell Cremorne's "Open Letter on virtual worlds for Senator Conroy"

~*~

With his blogpost "Australia to ban Second Life?" Dusan Writer brought my attention to an article in today's Inquisitr "Confirmed: Second Life, online adult games to be banned outright in Australia," and yet another in today's Sydney Morning Herald: "Web filters to censor video games" that outline the Australian Federal government's intent to "block websites hosting and selling video games that are not suitable for 15 year olds."

What might this mean to Second Life® users from Australia? How might they be affected? Would we lose many of the best artists, writers and creators on the Second Life grid: Adam Ramona, Gary Hazlitt, Glyph Graves, Nonnatus Korhonen, Paisley Beebe, Tateru Nino, the entire crew from TREET.TV, the ABC islands, the Pond islands, among many, many others?

Bryn Oh's abandoned robot theme park - Tomorrow's featured NPIRL-Koinup Safari

by Bettina Tizzy

Tomorrow, January 10th at 11:00am SLT, and awaiting on the other side of your teleport (directly from here) will be Bryn Oh. For an hour, this talented content creator will give an intimate and informative tour of one of the most photogenic sims on the grid: Immersiva. I've had the experience, and I guarantee that you will never look at Bryn's work the same.

A few weeks ago, Dusan Writer - the coolest businessman in SL, and yes! He is the same man who acquired and created a home for Eshi Otawara's Flower Tower - underscored his role as an arts benefactor by giving Bryn Oh her very own sim to do with it what she wished. Imagine Bryn with the abilty to create her own ground textures... her very own world.


Bryn Oh and Mr. Lightbulb

Immersiva is emerging as one of the truly great sims on the grid. Before you go, you really, really should add Bryn's Windlight preset and all its blue-ish atmosphere. You can download it and get installation instructions here (it's easy!) or set it up manually:


Immersiva Sky Windlight setting by Bryn Oh:

Go to World at top left of your screen. In the drop down menu at the bottom pick environment settings and then environment editor. Click on Advanced Sky. Then click the button "new".

If you are using a Mac, go to your Applications folder, right-click "Second Life WindLight", select "Show Package Contents", then open Contents > Resources > app_settings > Windlight

Under Atmosphere

Blue horizon R=0.24 G=0.43 B=0.50 I=0.50
Haze Horizon=0.65
Blue Density R=0.08 G=0.21 B=0.39 I=0.39
Haze Density=4.0
Density Multiplier=0.36
Distance Multiplier=11.6
Max Altitude=586

Under Lighting

Sun/moon colour is all set to 0.18
Sun/moon position is 0.25
Ambient is all set to 0.11
East Angle is 0
Sun Glow focus 0.1 size 1.81
Scene Gamma is 1
Star B is 0

Under Clouds tab

Cloud Color is all 0.7
Cloud Density x and y is 0.5 and D is 0.54
Cloud coverage is 0.5
Cloud scale is 0.53
Cloud detail x and y is 0.5 and D is 0.12
Cloud scroll x is 1.45
Cloud scroll Y is .01

Now give this preset a name, such as "Immersiva" and save it. Voila! You are ready.


Bryn's "Ferrisquito" in the background...

Immersiva has its own page on Koinup, which you will find here.



Once a month, NPIRL and Koinup - an inclusive social networking site for all Virtual Worlds that permits storage and sharing of imagery: photography, Machinima, and "storyboards" - are offering the NPIRL Safaris - with many of Second Life's best content creators, exposing the participants to new sims, new content, and new ideas that are leaving the old world behind and breaching the future.



Among the Virtual Worlds you'll find images of on Koinup: Second Life®, World of Warcraft, Lively, The Sims, IMVU, vSide, Kaneva, There, and more.

The Not Possible IRL (NPIRL) and Impossible IRL (ImpIRL) groups are dedicated to identifying and sharing well conceived and realized content creation in Virtual Worlds which would not be possible in Real Life: architecture, landscaping, art, animations, fashion, particle effects, building tools and scripts... show me, I'll show you.

Dusan Writer surveys NPIRL on content protection

Several weeks ago, I spoke up on behalf of the Not Possible IRL group and asked that Linden Lab add a Creative Commons tab in the object editor, as well as a Creative Commons option in the right click pie menu, so that everyone could see, with a simple right mouse click, what the rights were on an object.

An uproar ensued... Some misunderstood and thought that I was suggesting that the current system be replaced with only Creative Commons protections. Some felt that Creative Commons might not be the only way to go and that other systems, such as GNU, should be considered. Others accused me - and by association, my poor group, most of whom had very little to do with this suggestion - of being communists because Creative Commons empowers and protects open source creations.

The fact remains that the members of Not Possible IRL transform intellectual content into high-quality content, and have a great deal to lose unless the rights to that content are protected to the full extent possible.

Blogger and specialist in vertical integration of media content and experiences, Dusan Writer, stepped in. Here is a man who inhales and paraphrases raw data better than anyone I know in our virtual space. I welcome his first contributions to the group and to this blog. - Bettina Tizzy


by Dusan Writer

Content creators are looking for solutions to current frustrations according to a recent survey conducted of Not Possible in Real Life members.

But they remain passionate about content creation. When asked to describe the benefits of creating content in Second Life®, they were almost spiritual in how they described the feeling of creating art:

• "You can create your vision....You can create your own environment, clothing and style and share it with the virtual world"


• "Satisfaction...enjoyment, release...pure pleasure"


• "Become one with a dream - feel the pleasure of sharing your thoughts with others and their enjoyment of what you make"


• "Almost infinite way of expression"


• "Great options for creativity and a great audience to experience your work"


• "If a picture is worth a thousand words, a 3D environment must be in the millions."

But lately there has been a lot of discussions about interoperability, Creative Commons licenses and content protection. But sometimes as content creators we're too busy making things to be able to engage in the communities and meetings, the office hours and blogs where these decisions are being discussed and made - and we'd like a voice at the table.

So we set out to poll our membership - to find out where the concerns are with the goal being to share what we hope Linden Lab and the openSim communities recognize as a key stakeholder in keeping virtual worlds vibrant, and retaining the creative Residents who help to make the grids more beautiful.

Who We Are
The survey represented a cross-section of users. Most had over a year in-world (click to see enlarged image):



Respondents embrace the full spectrum of content creation:



Our Experiences
We wanted to first understand whether our experiences with content creation have been positive. 60% of us, however, have "experienced situations where you feel your content was or may have been stolen or inappropriately used" (although only 6% have filed a complaint through Linden Lab).

Examples of inappropriate use included (quoted directly):

• Use of works in revenue-producing machinima without credit


• We have a free sculpty set that is provided as a learning resource and have had to deal with people mangling the item and then selling it


• A creation was copied, changed very little, at times even the same textures were used


• Images of work used in Second Life photographs set for sale as unique items

Our Concerns

Our main concern is the current system. 63% of replies considered the lack of flexibility with the current object permission system to be very important, followed by enforcement and unattributed use of content:



Our Hopes

Through the survey we asked content creators what they love about the current system, and what they'd like to see changed. When asked what code, tools and policies they'd like to see changed, the permission system was a recurring theme:

• "I would like the ability to define the scope of a creation into the assets of the creation itself. This item is copy, transfer with attribution for commercial use, for example."


• "Better permission system with more options"


• The current (permission system) doesn't permit much flexibility and if you have a very complicated object with a great many scripts, sounds or animations, it can take hours to track them all down and make sure they have the correct permissions."


• "Revisit the entire permissions system."

Other ideas ranged from an "undo" button to building a better system for texturing to a plea for "cooperation over competition and vision over vanity."

These are just snippets from this extensive survey and is a starting point in a broader effort to solicit ideas, insight and opinion by the content creation community. Our goal is to use this data to help ensure that content creators are at the table, that we have a voice as policy and code changes are proposed. As the metaverse grows, it will do so because of the joy that great content creation can bring - providing experiences beyond what's possible in real life.

Ensuring that our voices are heard is as much a mission for better systems and protections as it is the wider acknowledgment that without content there are simply empty grids.

Eshi's flower gets a permanent home

Eshi Otawara had been building a new sim every day, and then wiping that slate clean to start anew, day after day. It was all part of what she called her One Hour Sim Project, facilitated by one willing Dirk Talamasca who handed the keys of his sim over to her. When asked about it, she referred to the mandala, and how these creations were not about permanence or material holdings. Rather, the entire exercise was a meditation of sorts for her, and we were just bystanders. To that end, she had no intention of keeping these works in inventory.



But then she made that towering flower with clusters of the most exuberant white petals tinged with pink...



...the closest thing to a sacred place I have ever come across in pixelated form, and literally hundreds of Second Life®'s residents cried out and begged her not to destroy it.


So powerful is the effect of this build that I perceive it to be almost fragrant. It gives me serenity and excites my creativity all at once. It is a dream I didn't know I longed for, but once found, want to hold close

In my short virtual life, I have only seen that level of excitement over the discovery of Light Waves' Black Swan sim, and AM Radio's The Far Away, but then we weren't fearing for that content's ongoing existence.

And then... that scribe and thinking man's thinker, Dusan Writer stepped in, and persuaded Eshi to sell him this masterpiece.

He wrote me a simple note this morning that made my heart glad, "I have placed Eshi's flower on Remedy. There is a sign at the landing point where you can teleport into the flower."

Dusan... thank you.

Teleport to Eshi's flower directly from here.

The month we won't forget
The month of July has been extraordinary where Eshi is concerned. She helped inaugurate CodeBastard Redgrave's larger-than-life Rouge sim, which she created. She built a private space for me at Chakryn Forest. By my count, she completely built out a new sim every day for twelve days! She created customized, signature clothing for the Black Swan sim, put together one of my favorite outfits ever in Second Life, "Chocolat"... and then that amazing girl auctioned off her celebrated Fishook dress to benefit the Relay for Life fundraiser, and pulled in $460,000L, or approximately $1,700US for one outfit, thanks to a bidding war that ensued between two friends and business partners.

See also:
* Eshi's Desperado
* #9
* Eshi Otawara's one hour sim project is blossoming
* Eshi's One Hour Sim Project Flick Pool

Eshi Otawara's one-hour sim project is blossoming

July 22 - 1:47am UPDATE: The flower will stay for a bit longer. Eshi would have to eject people from the sim otherwise! I look at what is there and wonder... how can people who aren't in Second Life® look at this and not want to dive in immediately?


Can you smell the Night Jasmine? Eshi's tux dress against Eshi's flower

1:40pm UPDATE: Dusan Writer has just acquired this installation... thank heavens! Eshi has not been saving any of her sim-wide creations for this project, but this one just couldn't disappear. It just couldn't!

Also, I should mention that I took all of these photographs using Torley's special Windlight presets.

~*~

These are just a few of the dozens of photographs I took at Eshi Otawara's latest in her ongoing one-hour sim project... a towering flower. I didn't retouch them.

Just go... Teleport directly from here. It will poof by midnite tonite SLT.

Contemplating virtual worlds: Dusan Writer nails it

Like Hamlet Au and his omnipresent and indispensable reviews and reporting on the metaverse via New World Notes, and his new book The Making of Second Life - which I am devouring, by the way - blogger and specialist in vertical integration of media content and experiences, Dusan Writer has become a touchstone and a muse for me... Someone who takes the time to rephrase raw data, reflect upon it, and then present his take on virtual worlds and those who people them so coherently, so eloquently, that after reading his analyses, the rest of my day is forever changed. Dusan was especially profound and silver-tongued in this post, called "Leaving Second Life." Here is but a paragraph of what I consider to be one of the best internal conversations I've come across on any topic:

"But for now, a few pathfinders will live in that space of tension. The tension between dreams and reality. Between on the one hand the hope of translating the impossible into new languages and ways of living, and on the other despair at its erosion in the face of bad policy, code or a cool indifferent world."

Visions of the Future by the BBC - More reasons to take your vitamins and live longer

If you read this blog, then it is a given that you embrace technology and are more than likely both a futurist and a lover of art. That said, I think you are going to like this. I discovered it on Dusan Writer's great read of a blog. Go fix yourself a meal or a drink, sit down and get comfy. Here's some television you are going to enjoy watching. The good news is, it is just the first in a three part documentary by the BBC guided by theoretical physicist and futurist Dr. Michio Kaku. Some Second Life sequences, too...