Alphaville Herald

Pixeleen Mistral Files Legal Response to Venkman's DMCA Abuses

Herald news Idoru pseudonym sacrificed in free speech fight

by Peter Ludlow (aka Urizenus Sklar), Herald Founder

Sometimes we all have to take a stand.  In this case Herald Editrix Pixeleen Mistral, facing an outrageous abuse of the DMCA by Kalel Venkman, has, pursuant to Section 512(c)(1)(C) of the DMCA, filed documents disputing Venkman's claims of copyright infringement on screen shots and snippets of chat from the Justice League Unlimited wiki.  As reported earlier in the Herald, the JLU wiki amassed vast amounts of (often false) information on Second Life denizens, including massive chat logs that were in cases recorded without the consent of the parties involved.  In effect, the JLU was running an enormous surveillance program against Second Life users, and were using the DMCA to try and cover up those abuses to keep the public from understanding the full scope and frightening nature of the abuses.  More troubling still is that much of the material Venkman requested be taken down appeared to implicate the involvement of Linden Lab staff member Plexus Linden in the activities of the JLU.

This can only mean trouble for Venkman.  It is illegal under Title 17, United States Code Section 512(f) to knowingly send faulty DMCA notices, and doing so can result in serious legal liability.  For example, there is already established precedent in the Northern District of California (where YouTube is located) holding that when a company knew or should have known that use of copyrighted material is fair use (and therefore, non-infringing), it is a violation of Section 512(f) and the DMCA.  As a result of that violation, the company responsible paid over $100,000 to the parties affected.

Title 17, Section 107 explicitly says that "the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright." As I said, Venkman is in trouble.

Typepad Threatens Takedown of Herald Justice League Unlimited Exposé

Will role-play superheros' copyright claims trump free speech?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affair desk

[UPDATE: portions of this story have been removed by SixApart staff in response to a DMCA copyright infringement claim - the editrix]

Typepad administrator Jen has given Herald a deadline of January 29th to gut our coverage of the Second Life Justice League Unlimited's wiki, citing a Typepad Terms of Service violation for "displaying copyrighted text and images without permission". The Herald has declined to remove the disputed materials, setting the stage for a new media showdown between the press and an embarrassed group of Second Life avatars brandishing copyright claims.

At issue is the Herald's exposé of the JLU, a group which has run a multi-year surveillance program on members of the Second Life community and compiled 1700 pages of files on other players - files containing often false and potentially libelous information.

To bring the excesses of the JLU to the public's attention, the Herald has quoted from the leaked JLU wiki under the doctrine of fair use. Meanwhile, the JLU has been running a vigorous program of copyright complaints, in hopes that site administrators will not notice the JLU is a group of avatars who wear super hero costumes that infringe on others' intellectual property.

Is Typepad aware of how ridiculous they will appear if they follow through on the threatened take downs [text after the jump] based on a frivolous copyright complaint from virtual spandex clad Second Life avatars? We may find out in the next few days, unless there is an outbreak of common sense at SixApart.

Wallace Linden Outs His Alt Account -- Holy F.I.C. !!!

Alphaville Herald's Walker Spaight's secret alt is new Linden "Conversation Manager"

Special to the Herald by staff reporter Idoru Wellman

Wallace Linden shocked the metaverse with a tell-all Linden blog post acknowledging his close ties to the Alphaville Herald and his formerly secret alt account -- none other than Walker Spaight. The announcement sent shock waves through the blog-o-sphere as some worried that the Herald's well-know incisive analysis, independent voice, and cutting edge journalism might be compromised by association with the Linden game gods.

Asked to comment, Herald editrix Pixeleen Mistral said, "Maybe now there will finally be a Linden that will answer my calls - Plexus Linden seems a bit shy lately and M Linden has been almost completely hopeless since that unfortunate incident in the hot tub. Readers shouldn't worry though - there was a complex debt for equity swap that Urizenus and I executed a year ago which gave me the controlling interest in the Herald. But I do hope Walker Spaight will get around to interviewing Wallace Linden for the Herald at some point - maybe that will finally put those ugly F.I.C. rumors to rest - Walker should know exactly what to ask Wallace."

In addition to preceding Ms. Mistral at the helm of the Herald, Spaight also dabbled in writing from time to time in less prestigious venues including 3pointD.com, Wired, PC World, the Financial TImes, and the New York Times. With Herald founder Urizenus Sklar, Spaight also co-authored a must-read book about life in the metaverse: "The Second Life Herald - The Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse".

Metaplace - Pools Closed Due to Lack of Traction

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tizzers Foxchase got in the last word in Metaplace Central -  “POOLS CLOSED DUE TO AIDS” - and seconds later Raph Koster’s user generated virtual world creation service closed permanently last weekend. What went wrong - and how did the end of the virtual world affect the community?

Informed analysis has been in short supply since Koster announced the end of the virtual world. Eager to file stories and get on with the holidays, Metaplace tourists role-playing new media pundits shook their heads sadly and offered superficial analysis - Metaplace is teh fail because the avatars weren't realistic enough! 2.5 D fixed perspective is not immersive enough!!  Flash based games are everywhere - and Metaplace was too late!!! Blue Mars!!!! Farmville and YoVille on Facebook!!!!!!

Perhaps this is the best that can be expected with the less than exquisite timing of the December 21st Metaplace announcement and New Years day apocalypse. Players seriously engaged in Metaplace scrambled to establish alternate connections to preserve the community and salvage what content they could from the platform. Meanwhile, those with minimal connections to the world indulged in a bit of smug Schadenfreud.

Egghead Studies Second Life Chickens - Clucks To Shocking Conclusion!!!

The Web Ecology of Sion chicken society explained

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Patrick Davison is part of several performance groups including What We Know So Far and MemeFactory and is also involved with the Web Ecology project at Harvard - exactly the sort of scholar that can bring meaning to the Second Life Sion Chicken phenomenon. He has graciously agreed to allow the Herald to publish slides from his talk titled  "On Chickens" - a groundbreaking work presented earlier this week  illustrating the problems perceptions create in the online realm - and the awesomesauce role of the Herald plays in the new media metaverse.

 

Facebook Reaches Beyond the Grave

Dead unlikely to confirm friendships

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnngggggggggggg. The pointer on my irony meter smacked against the max irony peg - hard - and wobbled slightly backwards with a nasty permanent bend. I had just logged into Facebook - a leading contender for the coveted corporate crown in a race to package and commodify lives, relationships, and everything else.  As usual, Facebook felt I needed to document more relationships and offered some helpful suggestions.

This time Facebook guessed right, and included a friend and Herald colleague on my list. But - bad luck for me! The timing was a bit off. Carmen Hermosillo died almost exactly one year ago.

But why would Facebook want to limit life-mapping to only the living? Ubiquitous access and continuous growth are certainly worthy goals, and small details like no logins for a year and iffy internet connections to the afterlife should not be a barrier to sharing even more personal information with the über-fashionable Facebook data-mining operation. I do hope Carmen's ghost will confirm we are friends - her profile looks a bit sparse.

Fanboys tell me Facebook helps them stay connected, and the endless requests for more detailed personal social mappings validated with constant posts and tweets to build traffic - why this is just the price of admission in a happy, friendly community provided free of charge.

Of course, the real agenda is providing everyone with a deeper, more meaningful and engaged relationship with anything that might monetize Facebook for it's owners. The rest of us are just the volunteer labor in a grand endeavor. Now even the dead have been enlisted to help. 

Basement Dwellers of WoW -- Lives and Loves On Film!

Second Skin documentary online through August 13

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Raids, addiction, online love, and real life meet-ups of WoW players are featured in Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza’s award winning 1998 2008 documentary “Second Skin” - now screening online through August 13th via the SnagFilms.com distribution network.

While much of the content covers familiar ground for those immersed in online culture, Second Skin is a good introduction to the highs and lows of MMO’s impact on players’ lives for those outside the culture.

As for SLebrity sightings, the real life typist for Herald editor Walker Spaight makes a brief cameo appearance, fashionably attired in an EVE Online t-shirt. Stanford researcher Nick Yee and our friend Tony Walsh are also featured. Unfortunately, there is more than enough pontificating from Ed Castronova - but the film’s main focus is the player experience and how their real and virtual lives interact.

The coverage of several players' marathon WoW session is priceless, as the competitive rush to level up faster than everyone else drives non-stop sleep-deprived gaming over several days creating in a sordid scene in the basement.

Of course, this sort of thing never happens in Second Life - or does it?

Second Life residents may be a bit disappointed that WoW players are the main focus for the film, although a wheelchair bound Second Life resident does appear late in the film.

Those willing to endure the Tide and Charmin ads inserted into the video stream can view the 1998 2008 documentary for free for the next week.

you mean I'm going to help sell toilet paper and laundry detergent?

[video after the jump]

The Second Greatest Story Ever Told. Now in Paperback!

Dawning of the Age of Metaverse Enlightenment

by Dr. Ocularis, Herald Book Club

As we survey the broad sweep of the last two and a half millennia of Western culture, several efforts stand out as “Great Books” of this tradition -- The Bible, Plato’s Republic, and Aristotle’s Poetics, for example. Is it not time to add to this august list the story of Urizenus Sklar and the Second Life Herald? Well, you may not think so, but pointy headed intellectuals beg to differ! Let’s review the accolades received thus far by The Second Life Herald: the Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse:

• American Association of Publishers, Professional/Scholarly Publishing award for “Best Book in Media and Cultural Studies, 2007” .
• Choice “Outstanding Academic Title, 2008”
• Library Journal “Top Sci-Tech Book, 2007,” (Ranked one of top 39 science books of 2007 and top book in category of Computer Science).

And now, finally, the book appears in paperback so that the masses may partake in cranium expanding properties of this instant classic. Sleep tight tonight, grizzled Oxford Dons, Western Culture has never been in better shape.

The Escapist Discovers The Griefing

...and the results are underwhelming.

Another fine post by Uri.

Ex-Second Life Newspaper SLNN Now Covering Golden Grrrls?

Metaverse loses another news source as SLNN changes ownership and direction

by Tenshi Vielle

SLNN's coverage of the Second Life world has gone missing and is now feared dead. For nearly two weeks, the formerly Second Life-oriented news service's web site has been unresponsive.

Readers attempting to access current or past articles are greeted with an ominous message:

"BANDWIDTH EXCEEDED. The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later."

Google responds in a similar fashion:

"This Account Has Been Suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible."

There does not appear to have been any moves made to remedy this problem, suggesting that SLNN has moved on to another, better world - a twitter news world, where selling ads and paying reporters are just a distant memory.

Could the SLNN be pointing the way forward for the mainstream media - which is also suffering from diminished ad revenue and flirting with new media?

Write About the Herald, Get a Pulitzer Prize

by Urizenus Sklar, reporting from the Zac Efron party tent at the Pulitzer awards.

 

The Herald is pleased to report that Jim Schaefer and some of his colleagues at the Detroit Free Press have received a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the Kwame Kilpatrick affair. What we media insiders know is that while Schaefer *got* the prize for the Patrick story, he *earned* it for his 2004 reportage about the Alphaville Herald.

In this vein, Schaefer follows in the footsteps of New York Times writer Amy Harmon who just last year got a Pulitzer for writing something about DNA, but really truly she earned it with her front page Times story about the Alphaville Herald.

Who will be next? Codec perhaps?

It's 4/20 -- Do You Know Where Your Medical Marijuana Is?

Part time griefer and journalist advocates for medical marijuana

By Doctor Ocularis, Herald Medical Desk

photo stolen from Metro Spirit

Today being April 20 (aka 4/20) it is only fitting that we link to a story about weed. In this case we link to a story by Joshua McCracken in the Augusta Georgia Metro Spirit. Josh, if you don't know, had a former incarnation in Second Life as Deadly Codec (d3adl3yc0d3c); he had an impressive career as a griefer and tied for third place as 2008 avatar of the year. He is also a former Herald Contributor. 

Joshua is now in Metaplace as Satan (not griefing so far as we know). Josh is also an AIDS patient, and this has led to his interest in medical marijuana. From the story:

Because I cannot have legal access to potentially more effective (and less addictive) medicine — such as marijuana — I am prescribed meds such as hydromorphone for pain caused by golf-ball sized lymph nodes in the sides of my neck. Hydromorphone is an opioid painkiller that is five times the strength of morphine. It is also known by the brand name Dilaudid. For the record, I am grateful that my doctors gave me the relief that they could (some of them might be reading this).

But Wilsey and I both could be helped by something much cheaper and less dangerous. I believe our pain and suffering is being compounded by draconian drug policies. Government entities such as the DEA continued to push their agendas without regard to people like us, or the millions who support our option to be treated with the medication called marijuana

Blaze on, C0d3c. Blaze on.

<3

SHOCK! Sky News Closes Second Life News Bureau!!!

by Sigmund Leominster

The Prophets of Doom can wallow in the demise of yet another major news corporation's exit from the Second Life virtual world. Britain's Sky News has announced that it is formally closing down its SL island and moving to a "new 'Immersive Workspaces' platform in Second Life where employees meet to exchange ideas and do business."

News will still be delivered to these workspaces via "News Pods," a essential a screen with streaming video.

Obliquely referencing the departure of other news providers, Sky News says that "life, even Second Life, and technology, move on. In Second Life, increasingly, the trend has moved away from corporate islands like the Sky Newsroom."

Virtual world Cassandras can eagerly point to this as being further evidence that "the end is nigh," whereas more sober commentators will simply point out that the economics of news reporting and delivery in Second Life is very different from real life, and spending lots of money to have virtual world analogs of real life newsrooms doesn't necessarily make any financial sense.

[reprinted by permission from sigmundleominster.blogspot.com]

Virtual Journalism Heavyweights Gather in Virtual Journalism Summit

Helen Thomas, Virtual World Reporter

by Field Marshal McLuhan, at the new media desk

As I type this, a group of virtual journalism heavyweights gather at a Virtual Journalism Summit, presumably atop Mount Journalism, in Washington State. Among the heavyweights attending the summit are 89 year old White House Correspondent Hellen Thomas, virtual world sleuth Bob Shieffer, and Club Penguin founder Lane Merrifield.

What do these people have to do with virtual journalism you ask? Well, who can forget Helen Thomas’ insightful expose of Gorean roleplay or the hyjinks that ensued when she met the vore crowd, and how she broke the copybot story wide open. Likewise, who can forget how Bob Shiefer reported the battles between GoonSwarm and Band of Brothers from the battlefields of EVE Online. Then too there is ace reporter Philip Linden, whose reporting is so penetrating we can’t even see it. You may not know about the crack reporting that takes place in Club Penguin, but Lane Merrifield isn’t just the Club founder, he also oversees the rough and tumble give and take of the Club Penguin social mediascape. I’ll let him describe it.

We answer 5000 to 7000 emails a day, A typical email is like

Dear Club Penguin, yesterday I couldn’t log into the Blizzard server, and I have a blue poffle named Stinky and he says Hello.

they get back

Dear CoolKid 402, sorry you couldn’t log in, it should be back now, by the way Stinky sounds really cool, I have a green one named Sparky.

Wow. Last but not least there is the crack journalism of uber-reporter Hamlet Au (nee Hamlet Linden) who was paid by Linden Lab to hype report on Second Life and retains an unspecified relationship with the Lab. This relationship has been criticized by some, but without it we would have never had access to Hamlet’s discovery that the sex industry in Second Life is tiny tiny tiny (5% he estimates). Guess the adult continent will be pretty lonely.

Second Life Fanboys Protest Times Haterade

Stop saying bad things about my game or I'll call you names and pout

by Pixeleen Mistral, New Media desk

The high pitched squeal you hear is the sound of Second Life fanboys writhing in pain as David Rowan at the Times of London dumps a big bucket of icy haterade all over Second Life, Twitter, and Facebook, observing that the blogosphere mood is “death-watch snarky: in the fickle realm of online chatter, yesterday's achingly fashionable meeting points are rapidly acquiring the funerary aura of Icelandic bank headquarters.”  

Mr. Rowan goes on to point out that with an ever-shrinking hype lifecycle around social media sites - be they 2D or 3D - the chances of monetizing the audience before it moves on to the next big thing is becoming more than just challenging, with “average revenue per user for some of the largest new media sites is measured in pennies per month”.

Even worse for Linden Lab, Second Life has yet to show any potential for generating significant ad revenues, and Rowan quotes Paul Lee - Deloitte's director of technology research - as saying the Second Life has been “virtually abandoned” by “normal” people and businesses. Of course, there are still the Goreans and the Furries who need to hold virtual business meetings - but will they pay the bills before they move on?

Combine the brutal economics of “free” services with an adoption curve that Rowan says “inevitably peters out long before such tech businesses can fulfil their financial expectations” and the future looks bleak for new media companies that cannot find a sugar daddy to buy them at wildly inflated valuations.

Will the Confusion Never End?

SL Fanboiz confooz cashing out with earnings!

by Urizenus Sklar, just off the the phone with Tim Geithner, and TARP money or not, Herald staffers are not giving up their phat bonuses!

In a recent post on New World Notes, Hamlet Au attempts to recharge the Second Life hype cycle by headlining the news that some Second Life businesses are estimated to cash out as much as 1.7 million dollars a year. And that means they are making millions, right? Well, no, but Hammie seems to think so:

"Robin Harper offered some extraordinary financial numbers from Second Life's internal economy: based on a quarterly annualization the company conducted, they discovered that several Resident business owners were cashing out Linden Dollars in excess of a million US dollars a year, with the top earner grossing an estimated $1.7 million."[emphasis mine]

But of course this has nothing to do with earnings. As Robin points out on her own blog, by 'cashing out' she meant just that... cashing out: "

By cashing out I mean literally exchanging L$ for US$. There is nothing implied in these numbers about whether or not any actual profit was made."

We can illustrate in the following way.  Some land owners are known to hold as many as 700 sims.  Suppose they bought them back in the day and the tier is grandfathered in at $190/month.  Let's make that $200/month to make the math easy.  700 simulators X 12 months X $200 = $1,680,000/year that they have to pay the Lindens just for tier.    If they are cashing out to pay them in US dollars, then they are cashing out just enough to pay tier.  This has nothing to do with earnings.  For all we know the business in question is losing money.

Oh Noooooooes! News delivery in video games.

Kathleen Parker illustrates why traditional media is Fail.

by Urizenus Sklar, at the This is So Stupid I Had to Come out of Retirement Desk

In today’s Washington Post there is a monumentally inept essay by Kathleen Parker that both bemoans the death of the print newspaper and aptly illustrates precisely why it is dying, thanks to the article’s delightful combination of factual error, failed analysis, and ugly condescending elitism. The main thread is that blowhards like Rush Limbaugh are destroying good hardworking newspapers (who knew his 20 million listeners were more damaging than the loss of add revenue to Craigslist -- a factor which was not even mentioned). The money quote for me was this one:

In the not-distant future … the news may be delivered via a video game. Forget the Internet. Forget blogs, tweets and tags. Forget Jim Cramer-style infotainment. Millions of people are already living in computerized parallel universes through games such as "The Sims" and "World of Warcraft" (WoW). We may have to toss the newspaper on those stoops -- in the virtual world of fake life.

More brandy, please.

Brandy? Anyway, someone should tell Ms. Parker that The Sims Online closed last summer, and that news delivery in a video game is here and it involves either an RSS feed or opening an window that is connected, by tubes, to the interwebs. I swear, is Ted Stevens this woman’s technology adviser? For more Parker ineptitude see below the fold.

New SL Post 6 Grrrl Photographer Announced

Additional staff photographer position remains open

by Pixeleen Mistral, Herald Editrix

I am sad to report that Bunny Brickworks has taken an indefinite leave from the Herald Post 6 Grrrl photographer position due to real life commitments. While Bunny has promised to contribute to the Herald occasionally, we agreed that - at least for now - it was time to pass the camera on to someone else.

While we will all miss Bunny, I hope everyone will join me in welcoming the charming and vivacious Delora Starbrook to the Herald. Delora will be taking over the Second Life Post 6 Grrrrl, Guy, Furry, and Robot desk, and has decided to feature herself in her Herald debut. Second Life residents interested in modeling for Delora should contact her directly.

Now that the Second Life Post 6 Grrrls are good hands, what of the other worlds?

Alphaville Herald Acquires Second Life Herald

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

As part of a corporate restructuring, the Second Life Herald has been acquired by the Alphaville Herald. Current Herald staff will retain their positions, and the company plans to add staff as the editorial focus of the paper is broadened to include significantly more coverage of worlds and communities beyond Linden Lab’s walled garden.

“We are following the community as they level up - and out. Our mission remains the same as it ever was - observe, record and study the legal, social, and economic implications of life in the virtual world, while demanding that those who govern virtual worlds do so fairly” said Herald editrix Pixeleen Mistral.

Although the move comes one day after Robin Linden’s retirement from Linden Lab, Herald readers should not expect immediate radical changes. Ms. Mistral continued, “Changes at the Herald will take place at an organic pace, between trips to local restaurants for grits and aurugula with a side of homemade kimchi. But Urizenus Sklar, Walker Spaight, and I agree that covering the virtual realm properly means taking a critical look at worlds beyond Second Life - the OpenSim worlds are just a start”.

The name change brings the Herald back to its roots - the paper was originally founded as The Alphaville Herald, but was renamed after its founder was banned from The Sims Online in retaliation for covering the dark side of life in the metaverse.

Shock from Prok! Is Pixeleen Mistral the Inventor of the Interwebs?

McCahill admits self-identity

by Idoru Wellman (Herald Bureau of Personal Identity)

For three years now the most pressing question facing denizens of the interwebs has been the real life identity of Herald editrix Pixeleen Mistral. Is she, as Mark Wallace once surmised, actually one of Prokofy Neva’s spare personalities? Is she, as others opine, the girlfriend of uber-philosopher Peter Ludlow. Or is she, as still others conjecture, really a Linden? Last year, many readers (including yours truly) were convinced by an expose written by griefer Deadly Codpiece in the prestigious Augusta Georgia Pennysaver News, in which he made the case that Pix was actually Herald founder Urizenus Sklar. But now in an extended rigorously argued thought piece involving many long chat logs, Prokofy concludes that Pixeleen is not Prok, nor Uri, but one Mark McCahill of Duke University. If McCahill’s wikipedia page is to be trusted, he is a techie who led the development team for POPmail, led the team that developed Gopher at the University of Minnesota, worked with Tim Berners-Lee on codifying the standard for Uniform Resource Locators, was on the team that developed GopherVR and is currently working on the Croquet project. Reached for comment, Mr. McCahill would admit only that he is self-identical.

Obviously, if true, this would explain much. It would explain why the Herald has consistently had the most technologically sophisticated analysis of virtual worlds as well as the consistently informed updates on the Croquet project (most recent being here). The time sink that is the Herald would explain why Croquet is going nowhere. And then of course there is the clincher: Prokofy just knew that Pixeleen would be the same age as her. Hey, wait a minute….

*Sigh*. In the hall of mirrors that is the interwebs, the world may never know.

Evan Reuters Says "Linden Can't Be Trusted With Your Credit Card" ?

Please cancel the "Reuters" surname. It's not worth the hassle

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Reuters names no longer worth $500 USD?

Reuters may no longer be reporting from Second Life, but Linden Lab does not seem willing to let go of one Reuters staff member’s billing information, and is now enhancing Evan Maloney’s real life by posting $500 USD charges to a credit card the Lab assured him last year would only to be used for verifying Evan Reuters’ virtual identity - if a series of e-mails posted to a Second Life developer mailing list can be believed.

This sad tale is detailed in the RegAPI mailing list archives today and last january where a plaintive Evan begs the Lab to stop charging his personal credit card for the exclusive rights to the Reuters surname in Second Life. What a terrible price to pay for a corporate vanity.

Evan appeared to take last year’s last name billing mishap in reasonably good humor, but today’s unauthorized charges seemed to leave him in a less pleasant mood, as he posted an e-mail titled “Linden can't be trusted with your credit card information” to the RegAPI developer mailing list, and suggested the Lab cancel the Reuters surname [full text after the jump].

Despite the “no billing information on file” notation on Evan Reuters’ profile, the Lab is finding even more creative ways to enhances revenues - perhaps the 66% OpenSpace land price hikes weren’t enough to cover M Linden’s new staff salaries? How will a Reuters name deletion affect the fate of the 17 avatars in Second Life named Reuters - or Reuters position on the hand picked Second Life Showcase? We await Evan's response to our inquiries, and wish him the best of luck in getting a credit posted to his credit card in time for the holidays.

Reuters is Dead: Eulogy Given

by Sigmund Leominster

There is a world of difference between the real world press and the Second Life press. Forgetting this can be fatal, as is evidenced by the recent departure of two journalistic organs, the Avastar and Reuters Second Life. The Herald reported the arrival of Reuters back in October 2006 and its departure in October 2008.

Sigmund Leominster delivers eulogy to empty house on Reuters island

Since then, Eric Reuters, aka Eric Krangel, has moved on to write for Silicon Alley Insider, a move that many in the blogosphere have used as proof that the entire Second Life virtual world is about to shuffle off its mortal coil and leave to join the choir invisible. A smaller number of writers in the same blogosphere – including this one – see nothing of the sort. The decline or otherwise of life-as-we-know it is a different issue than the closing of Reuters Island and the un-embedding of a reporter.

So why did Reuters actually leave? Was it some kind of protest against the policies and procedures of Linden Lab executives or could the reason be much more mundane? Curiously, Krangel’s most recent – and much quoted/vaulted article, Why Reuters Left Second Life, And How Linden Lab Can Fix It, doesn’t actually tell us anything about the why. In fact, all it does is tell us part of why Eric Krangel left, and what Eric Krangel thinks Linden Lab should be doing, whether or not Reuters has a presence in-world or not.

Are World of Warcraft Players Better Lovers?

CNN, ABC, AP, TimeOnline cover important news of the metaverse
Brave survivor of failed SL/RL marriage moves on, now dating WoW player

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

CNN reports that 28 year old Amy Taylor caught her real life husband, 40 year old David Pollard engaged in cybersex with a virtual prostitute - part of a string a virtual infidelities that led to the couple’s divorce in real life -- and in Second Life!

UK's Metro posts the estranged couple's RL typist's wedding photo

Mr. Pollard’s extra-marital virtual romantic encounters appear to have sunk the couple’s plans for wedded bliss as Ms. Taylor is quoted as saying, “I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned.”

The report goes on to say that Mr. Pollard admitted having an online relationship with a girl in America - but AP reports that Taylor gave him a second chance. Pollard and Taylor were married in a lavish virtual ceremony in 2005 - a celebration that apparently eclipsed their RL wedding. But their relationship was doomed when Taylor “caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game. It looked really affectionate” according to ABC news.

CNN’s SL iReport Hub Vanishes!!!

Experts blame alien abductions for site’s destruction

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Metaverse experts dismissed the possibility that Second Life is a hostile environment for mainstream marketing efforts and media outlets, pointing out that alien abduction is the most likely explanation for the disappearance of CNN’s in-world “iReport Hub”.

CNN iReports Hub Nuked!

Almost exactly one year ago, the opening of the in-world I-Report hub was celebrated with promises of journalists - or at least avatars representing journalists - appearing at a special virtual building which included “a news desk where CNN producers will hold weekly editorial discussions, and an amphitheater for larger in-world events, such as training sessions and appearances by CNN anchors and correspondents”.

Today there is no evidence of the building, and the iReport site is indistinguishable from any other abandoned SL property.

Many believe that flying saucers or beings from another galaxy are responsible for the surprising disappearance, and point to a pattern of disappearances including Reuters and The Bild's AvaStar - shocking departures from the metaverse media scene that puzzle some residents. Another factor in the disappearances could be a shortage of aluminum foil hats resulting in excessive exposure to dangerous thought control beams. At press time it was unclear if the CNN leaders were wearing the shiny protective headgear before they vanished.

The BILD's AvaStar: Game Over

Reliable ally of Linden Lab stops publication

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

The BILD's bold adventure in virtual world journalism ended two weeks ago when The AvaStar met the same fate as that of Reuters Second Life, and stopped publication. The AvaTard also announced it expects to take down the The-AvaStar.com and AvaStar.de web site soon. Observers speculate that removing the web site is unlikely to be due to web hosting costs, given the number of readers. Instead, this is most likely either a public service to the Internet at large, or an instinct similar what makes cats scratch and cover their work in the litterbox.

The AvaTard has been a reliable cheerleader for Linden Lab, and it is unfortunate that they will be unable to help sooth residents upset by the Lab’s recent OpenSpace sim price gouging.

Long time Herald readers will recall that AvaTard unique approach to content theft and critics

Celebrate 5 Years of the Herald!

Metaverse to be fairly unbalanced October 26, 2008

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

You still love it, hate it, and wrap your virtual fish in it -- there's just no avoiding the Second Life Herald. Is it any surprise that once again, the SLebrity event of the season is the Herald birthday celebration?

As is our tradition, once a year, the most important, independent, iconoclastic, and idiosyncratic news source in teh metaverse takes a break from covering the new media with our incomparable un-biased, un-filtered, and fairly unbalanced virtual world coverage to celebrate. This year the party is Sunday, October 26th in Shivar sim at 2 pm SL time.

Join us at the Herald's 5th birthday party as we turn the giant SL drama pump up to 11, then meet 'n greet muck raking reporters, sex-crazed virtual militia leaders, jaded editors, reformed griefers, Linden-sponsored unreformed G team griefers, gamblers, post 6 Grrrls, goons, Post 6 Guys, and Philip Linden's secret cross dressing alt.*

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* some limitations apply - your mileage may vary - do not use while operating heavy machinery - past performance is not a guarantee of future returns - may cause hives, sweating, euphoria, post traumatic stress syndrome, heart palpitations, sudden fainting - consult your physician before visiting.

Lab Promotes Reuters Abandoned SL Offices as Hot Spot

Nothing more interesting in Second Life than dead corporate islands

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

no room to showcase residents' work -- Reuters ghost town is featured

Linden Lab apparently feels its business interests are best served by highlighting the abandoned “Thomson Reuters” virtual news island as a “Hot Spot” -- despite nearly non-existent traffic at Reuters’ Atrium, the departure of Eric Reuters for greener pastures, a broken news HUD dispenser, and an incapacitated news video player on Reuters virtual property. By nearly anyone’s standards this one HOT property - and we are sure metaverse residents will understand why their properties couldn’t be featured by the Lab instead.

Microsoft's Mundie: Photosynthetic World OK, User-Created -- No Way!

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Speaking at MIT's Emerging Technology conference, Microsoft egghead Craig Mundie said the 3D spatial web will be photorealistic and made by automatically creating models from pictures taken in the real world -- according to Ian Lamont’s report in The Industry Standard.

While there are certainly uses for a reality-based photosynthetic virtual world, it was a bit of a surprise to hear that Mr. Mundie went out of his way to diss SL’s content creators and the potential of social virtual worlds with user-created content. The Industry Standard reports Mr. Mundie said, "Many people are familiar with Second Life, which is a synthetic virtual world that people came quite enamored with. Our view was that there was a fairly limited audience who was willing to deal with the construction of avatars and operating in that virtual space". Apparently, Mr. Mundie has not yet embraced the charms of mech, steampunk, fur, and Gorean communities, or he would not be so eager to create a virtual world that is nearly indistinguishable from the real world. Has Mr. Mundie been so busy in his lab that he has never been to the movies and is unfamiliar with the concept of fantasy and entertainment?

Given its dominant position in desktop software and deep pockets, whenever Microsoft begins flailing about, the world takes notice, and Mr. Mundie's vision is a dismal prospect for any number of Second Life communities that exist precisely because they do not photographically model the real world. Do the paragons of creativity and user-empowerment at Microsoft understand the potential of the 3D web better than Linden Lab? Consider how successful Vista has been - and then consider the stalled growth curve for SL. Do either of these companies know what they are doing?

WNBC Scoop: People Are Having Sex In Second Life!

Metaverse also allows children access to torture, human sacrifice, suicide, illicit drugs

by Sigmund Leominster

Earlier this week, the world was rocked by some startling and unimaginable news from NBC’s New York affiliate, WNBC: There’s an online game called Second Life and people are having sex in the game!

Yes, in a devastating 2 minute expose, Michael Garguilo, ace reporter, took a steamy trip to the “dark side” of Second Life and found horrors beyond imagination – horrors that OUR CHILDREN can now take part in! [ZOMG!!! - the Editrix]

caution - painfully bad reporting contained in the clip

The video clip is shocking and not recommended for sensitive viewers, if only because it contains mindlessly inane comments that appear to have been picked from the Moral Majority phrase book. Allegedly “some local law enforcement agencies and educators are asking, ‘how safe is this virtual world for teenagers?’” Apparently the same “agencies and educators” are not asking “How safe is the real world for teenagers?” and consider a night out in New York as good, clean, wholesome fun compared with the depravity and debauchery to be found in Second Life.

In a clip showing some besuited “expert” among a small group of good-looking soccer moms, he points to an off-camera screen and intones gravely, “This is not stuff we want kids to see.” Cut to a concerned and shocked mom who has presumably only ever had sex with one man, one time, and for the sole purpose of procreation.

Linden Lab Governance Team Blinks - Reverses Itself

Tizzers BnT brought back from the dead

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tizzers at Fort Longcat

A tense stare down developed between residents of Second Life and the Linden game gods earlier this week - part of a struggle over avatar naming rights and a series of preemptive account bans in the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the players. Suggestions of corruption and manipulation of the ban hammer wielding governance team surfaced, and at least a dozen innocent accounts with the first name Tizzers were removed from the people list in Second Life.

But after an unscheduled secret meeting of the Linden Lab governance team thursday, Tizzers BnT was brought back to life, and has now re-joined the world - perhaps acknowledging that Linden governance had overstepped its bounds -- and the power of the virtual press to expose government wrongdoing.

Thursday night the reincarnated TIzzers BnT told me, “g-team had a huge meeting today that was not schedule, after the article came out, before tizzers bnt reappeared”.

When I asked how one might detect a Linden givernance team meeting, Tizzers said, “they were all showing as online at the same time, even harry was on ‘til much later than normal”.

Second Life Herald Opens Lively Office

by Idoru Wellamn, staff writer

Pixeleen Mistral today announced that the Second Life Herald is expanding it's “always fairly unbalanced” coverage of the most vital virtual worlds’ news, by opening a branch office in Lively - internet advertising behemoth Google’s first step toward monetizing the immersive social experience.

Ms. Mistral relaxes in a goth chair on the beach in Lively

Taking a break from decorating the Herald's Lively Google news island with pink google pigs, goth chairs, goth candles, and anything else that might pass as techno-pagan decor, Ms. Mistral said, "Herald readers should look forward to seeing our trademark in-depth reporting and critical analysis expand beyond Second Life and also encompass Google - a company that regularly needs to reminds itself to not be evil. Besides, we can now hold Herald staff meetings somewhere that does not crash continually - running Lively on my MacBook Pro under Parallels is working great!"

Second Life Image Tarnished by Users?

RiversRunRed CEO warns against allowing residents to create 3D content

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

MIT Technology Review writer Brian White advises the metaverse that users may make “shoddy and even offensive content” if allowed to create in 3D worlds -- sentiments echoed by the CEO of RiversRunRed Justin Bovington who praised internet advertising giant Google for hiring partnering with RiversRunRed to create content, and warned against unfettered access to creative tools saying “Many brands have experienced pollution and even counterfeit of their brands in other 3-D worlds or environments--not to mention the questionable material that users put forth that led to a tarnished image for Second Life.”

The controlled content creation issue raises concerns for significant parts of the Second Life population. Goreans, BDSM communities, ageplayers, virtual escort service workers, furries, and others created much of the novelty that attracted both press and players to the Second Life platform as an escape from a humdrum real life. Unfortunately for these groups, the ad-driven worlds appear to be moving in lockstep toward a real-life in virtual-life vision, while being cheered on by the Technology Review. Recent comments by Linden Lab's own Mitch Kapor also suggest that the freewheeling era may be passing.

Although spreading the corporate message may be less effective while allowing players to actually play their own games in an ad-sponsored social space, the boredom factor may force Google’s hand, as the Technology Review story goes on to state that Google is considering allowing user content creation at some unspecified future date. Presumably the danger of brand pollution must be weighed against to lure of free content to drive viewers to tightly targeted ads - Google's stock in trade.

AOL Tightens Belt, Massively Chokes Off SL News?

"Massively Staff" blogs for free at AOL properties after gaming writers are told to stop posting

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

Techcrunch reports that AOL has savagely cut their blogging empire's staff, chopping personel budgets up to 25% and telling writers to take a few weeks off while they wait and see if they have a job sometime in August. Even more shocking, AOL has apparently decided to discontinue free bagels - a move likely to send shockwaves through the baking industry as bakers struggle to recover from a one-two punch of fewer blog stories and declining corporate bagel sales.

Reliable sources confirmed to the Herald that a budget-induced blogging gag-order is in effect, and a quick visit to one of AOL's properties - Massively - suggests this is true. The normally steady drizzle of corporate-friendly "news" about Second Life seems to have halted, depriving resident of vital information such as the number of user signups in the last 24 hours - statistics mined from Linden Lab's web site, then uncritically posted along with seemingly identical graphs and an obligatory screen shot from in-world -- a continuation of the proud legacy of the now defunct Second Life Blingsider.

Slouching Toward Bethlehem: The Anti-Poet

Spam filter fails -- critic battles emo poetry outbreak

by Sigmund Leominster, new media critic

Following the tragic failure of my spam filter to do its job, I recently received an unsolicited email containing a piece of poetry from what was described as someone with “a poet’s heart and pen.” Here’s a clip from the poem:

I understand the truth disease sees
I say nothing teaches needs
I dream great meaningful beings free my mind
I try to kill only loneliness
I hope great love visits me
I am extra vast and lopsided.

In the spirit of full disclosure - and so you can get to know the depths of my shallowness - I have to admit that I hope there is a special place in Hell reserved for people who think that stringing sentences together in short lines qualifies as “poetry.” I am neither a publisher nor a professional critic but it has always seemed to me that people who want to pretend to be writers – especially when they are patently unqualified – tend to call their meanderings “poetry” in the hope that sympathetic readers will gloss over the vapidity and turgidity of their pseudo-literate ramblings. For some reason that philosophers and psychologists have yet to discover, people allow “poets” far more latitude than they deserve. Mangled metaphor, grammatical grinding and weird words are no substitute for riveting writing.

New Torley Linden Documentary Features Mitch Kapor

An all too accurate picture of the state of SL

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

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Mitch Kapor promises less novelty, less freedom, uneasy transition as Torley Linden signals disapproval with bad sound, gray textures, low framerates

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Noted virtual filmmaker Torley Linden’s latest production is a documentary of the closing keynote address from the SL5B 5th “birthday” celebration. The largely nipple free PG celebration ended on a downbeat note monday, as mighty Mitch Kapor went out of his way to insult current metaverse residents by implying they are socially inept outsiders soon to be swept away in a flood of “pragmatic” business, education, and non-profit players -- though impartial observers wonder how this will happen, given the dismal peak concurrent user growth rate, unstable platform, and general lack of professionalism on the part of Linden Lab.

opening credits - Torley is nearly as important as Mitch

Given the difficult subject matter Torley Linden chose for his latest epic, the film works surprisingly well, as Torley pulls out all the stops in a largely successful effort to provide a ironic counterpoint to a corporate message Torley clearly disagrees with.

We applaud this brave young filmmaker and hope to see more of his creative use of up-the-nose camera angles, over-modulated voice, hyperkinetic pans, and subtle use of un- rezed gray textures - all groundbreaking SL filmmaking techniques that point out the obvious limits of Second Life. Hopefully, as Torley continues to perfect his subversive artform he will be able to retain his position as lab mascot and court videographer for the Linden empire.

Shock!!! Pixeleen Mistral is Urizenus Sklar?!

Special to the Herald by staff reporter Idoru Wellman

The supersleuths at upstart interweb newspaper The Griefer Herald believe they have unlocked the secret identity of Second Life Herald managing editrix Pixeleen Mistral.

She is... wait for it... none other than Herald founder Urizenus Sklar.

Asked to comment on the story, Urizenus admitted that he was identical with himself, and Pixeleen concurred that Uri was indeed identical with himself. Meanwhile, further information has come forward suggesting that Urizenus, a.k.a. philosopher Peter Ludlow in real life, might also be identical to Prokofy Neva, Thomas Pynchon, Francis Bacon and d3adl3yc0d3c.

Urizenus Sklar - identical with himself

These amazing revelations sent a flurry of internet sleuths scurrying on identical identity quests - all seeming to lead toward the rumored Interweb Illuminati -- a shadowy cabal that some believe runs the metaverse as a sort of über FIC, while at the same time appreciating a really good coq au vin and the importance of getting just the rightchampagne vinegar when making béarnaise sauce.

Could this be proof positive of a conspiracy which Prokofy Neva is only now starting to suspect exists? Is Tizzers Foxchase in on it? As Uri/Peter/Pix/Prok/Tom/Francis/d3adl3y are fond of saying, in the hall of mirrors that is the interwebs the world may never know.

GameCyte's Journalism Lesson

GameCyte's Sean Hollister invited to join Prokofy Neva as a Jr. Author at Second Life Herald

To: Sean Hollister - Assistant Editor, GameCyst.com
From: Pixeleen Mistral, managing editor- Second Life Herald
re: Re: Re: News tip: The TRUE story of NASA's MMO Funding

Sean,

Apology accepted - assuming you add the link to the Second Life Herald story. I totally understand your concern about about the Nigerian scam spam, but my suggestion is you read each of those e-mails carefully - there may be a hot tip mixed in there somewhere.

If you ever find yourself short on Linden Lab L$ spacebux you might want to consider submitting a piece for publication in the Herald - you could then join luminaries such as Prokofy Neva - an occasional writer who is known as a real stickler for primary sources and fact checking.

Now that the Second Life game gods have updated their TOS to set the stage for banning long time in-world journalists and media outlets that displease Linden Lab, writing for the Herald could provide a certain frisson only available when living in a police state - something I don't think GameCyte will ever manage. If you decide to take the plunge, let me know.

-pixeleen

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Pixeleen Mistral
Managing Editor, Second Life Herald

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GameCyte Needs A Clue

the Second Life Herald offers a PROTIP

To: Sean Hollister - Assistant Editor, GameCyst.com
From: Pixeleen Mistral, managing editor- Second Life Herald
re: News tip: The TRUE story of NASA's MMO Funding

Sean,

Thank you so much for your e-mail. I did check out the story on your blog, and well, you can color me like just totally super impressed. I mean its like sooooo awesome how you cite the gamasutra.com, slashdot.org, and wired.com guys that ran re-writes of our NASA Wants an MMO - for Free! story on monday afternoon after the Second Life Herald broke the story on Sunday morning. I’m especially impressed that you managed to do this without mentioning the Herald.

protip: cite primary sources and you might make managing editor someday.

signed,

your like absolutely total fangirl who is breathless with excitement that
you want us to reference your weak followup story but didn't bother to
mention the people who broke the story in the first place

-pixeleen mistral

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Why Griefing = Drama: Broken Immersion

A virtual “world” creates an environment where griefers can do the most damage

by Mudkips Acronym

[I recently invited the founder and retired leader of the notorious PN invasion/griefing group to write an expanded version of his recent thesis on the serious business of griefing. Here is his response - the Editrix]

“Griefing” takes many forms in Second Life, but the results are the same. There are dozens if not hundreds of “anti-griefing” groups, all devoted to filing abuse reports, I guess. Why does griefing and trolling ignite so much drama and controversy in online communities? And why do griefing actions get an amused or positive response from people not in those communites? The answer is simple: griefing exacts the toll that it does on Second Life for example, because it breaks the immersive experience users have - or attempt to have - in “virtual worlds”.

There are a few different types of immersion we should differentiate before proceeding. First off, a movie, game, or other “alternate-reality” has a set maximum immersion. For example, an action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger may be expected to have less immersion than a drama or romance film. We expect Arnold to be able to fly over tractor-trailers on a motorcycle, and we do not question this when it happens, even though the scene violates all we know about physics - and common sense! We can't get too caught up in this concept: of course, we can be “immersed” in this movie while still maintaining a suspension of disbelief. However, it takes much more work to immerse yourself in a medium where often events are surreal: I call this phenomenon absurdity. A film that is in a normally “serious” genre often has high maximum immersion, so if it does not deliver on its implicit claims to reject absurdity, the viewer will find the film laughably horrible. This is one of the reasons parody series, like Austin Powers and Scary Movie, tend to do well in theaters alongside the very movies they mock.

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Second Life has unwittingly set itself up for disruption

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How does this relate to Second Life? As a self-proclaimed and marketed “metaverse”, Second Life raises the bar on its claim to immersion. Expectations are high of an experience that parallels real life. With banks, land ownership, and many other institutions that exist in “meatspace”, Second Life succeeds in delivering on many of its goals. However, by attempting to parallel real-life and create a immersive experience, Second Life has unwittingly set itself up for disruption. As immersion increases, toleration of absurdity or surrealism proportionally decreases. Even more damning is that in games, users are much more disillusioned when confronted with the absurd, because they have put their own time and energy into constructing the medium. In movies, one is not an active participant, and therefore has much less to lose from the surreal.

History of Second Life Herald Wins Prestigious Award, Bitches

AAP awards Best in Media and Cultural Studies - WTF?

Yes, the infamous Doomsday book (The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid That Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse) penned by literary lions Ludlow and Wallace has shocked and awed friend and foe alike for months now, and the reviews have gushed over its Mark Leyneresque prose and its Quentin Tarantino plot stylings, but now even the academic publishers and their fellow travelers have weighed in with a simple message: this is one of the greatest works of something or other in weeks! really - at least two or three weeks!!!

In a press release dated Feb. 7, the Association of American Publishers (APA) announced that their Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division were giving a 2007 Award for Excellence to the Ludlow/Wallace masterpiece in the category of Media and Cultural Studies. And who can really blame them? To this end they join a chorus of fanbois, fangrrrls, and assorted fluffers who are all on the same page about this one deep truth: The Second Life Herald is not only the greatest online virtual tabloid covering virtual bukkake and griefer-on-furry drama in the metaverse, but the book is even better than that!

As the award committee said might have said: "If you haven't read it, your life is fail."

As the Hype Cycle Turns

Does "The Slope of Enlightenment" mean "I Went to Webkinz?"

by Urizenus Sklar, at the Hypewatch Desk

Google trends shows that the SL Hype bubble continues to deflate while Webkinz pwns.

Theoretically, the Gartner hype cycle is supposed to go like this:

1. "Technology Trigger" — The first phase of a hype cycle is the "technology trigger" or breakthrough, product launch or other event that generates significant press and interest.
2. "Peak of Inflated Expectations" — In the next phase, a frenzy of publicity typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations. There may be some successful applications of a technology, but there are typically more failures.
3. "Trough of Disillusionment" — Technologies enter the "trough of disillusionment" because they fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable. Consequently, the press usually abandons the topic and the technology.
4. "Slope of Enlightenment" — Although the press may have stopped covering the technology, some businesses continue through the "slope of enlightenment" and experiment to understand the benefits and practical application of the technology.
5. "Plateau of Productivity" — A technology reaches the "plateau of productivity" as the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and accepted. The technology becomes increasingly stable and evolves in second and third generations. The final height of the plateau varies according to whether the technology is broadly applicable or benefits only a niche market.

Of course there is no guarantee in this that Second Life will rebound on the slope of enlightenment and enjoy the fruited plane of productivity. The curve is for technologies writ large, not for corporations. So is it possible that Second Life kicked in the door and other virtual worlds will reap the post-disillionment rewards? Obviously yes. The question is: Is this already happening? Could it be, as the above graph shows, that the real future of virtual worlds (the path on the slope of enlightment) is being blazed by flash-based kid games? I say yes!

But wait! Webkinz?? Surely you jest Uri! Well gentle reader, I'm glad you asked...

A Bad Day for Fanboys

Positive spins becomes more difficult

by Pixeleen Mistral, new media critic

US$ (in millions) spent by resident fall - where is the bottom?

An illuminating view of the state of Second Life is available to readers of Infoworld InformationWeek columnist Mitch Wagner’s December 18th coverage of the Electric Sheep Company’s sudden downsizing. Our pal Mitch wonders if something might be wrong when the Linden Lab CTO departs from the Lab in the same week that the ESC ejects a quarter of their workforce. Mitch’s concerns are addressed by ESC honcho T. Sibley Verbeck and you can almost hear the relief in Mitch’s voice as he notes that “the service is still growing, adding more than 10,000 new sign-ups every day, with 11.5 million accounts created since it opened four years ago, and 433,500 logins in the past seven days.” Right. Nothing to worry about there.

The story was originally posted at 5:25 pm, then updated three hours later as Mitch notes he might have spoken too soon when claiming “usability and stability are improving steadily”. One small inconvenient truth had come to light. The Lab had released statistics that “show that client-side performance is down”. Even worse, Adam Reuters had published a story suggesting that residents in SL have seen a steady worsening of the in-world experience with dropping frame rates and appalling crash rates. That the best crash rate ever recorded was in November - when 21.5% the sessions ended in a crash does not inspire much confidence that the service will be stable anytime soon. Still, Mitch is a pro - he updates his story and moves on.

Jimbo Quality and the Comment Suppository

Official SL Herald comment policy - a look at the backoffice

by Jimbo Quality

Readers' comments travel through the tubes and are carefully sorted

A while ago I 'splained how comments here work. In case you missed it, here's a recap.

You people write them, then they go thru teh internets, then they get jumbled up and put through our comment thing, then they plop out here at the Herald Office. I know, because I catch them.

Well, not me. I have buckets. Miss Pixeleen says I'm not to touch the comments themselves.

Sometimes Miss Pixeleen says "Jimbo, get the big bucket" then we know it's a story that's gonna get a lot of comments and everyone stands around while I go to the cellar and get a big bucket. Then they stand around and watch the comments come pouring in. If it's a really big story she tells me to get a vat. We go all the way up to oil barge when there's a story about furry people having sex coming through the pipes.

For a while, it was looking like I might need to go live someplace else because no matter how hard I tried to hide, Miss Pixeleen would find me and tell me to go get a big bucket for some dumb story or another. Between furry stories, ageplay and anything by Tenshi, I was breaking my back hauling the comments around.

LL Boots Herald Writer From SL Mentors Group

Are European VAT dissenters being kicked from volunteer helper group?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Failing to meekly accept yet another price hike from metaverse service provider Linden Lab appears to disqualify players from helping confused noobies, based on the experience of Herald Op/Ed writer Inigo Chamerberlin. Mr Chamberlin contacted the Herald offices Sunday to report that he had been removed from the Second Life Mentors group - with no advance warning. Could this have anything to do with criticizing sudden price increases in the Herald Op/Ed pages?

Mia Linden <3 Volunteers - but maybe not Inigo Chamberlin

The Second Life Mentors are volunteers who assist the game gods by helping other residents, answering their question, and shoring up the Lab’s nearly non-existent support systems. Evidently at least one LL staff member has had more than enough of the Herald and decided that Inigo should go. Here is the message Mr. Chamerberlin received this weekend:

"Dear Inigo Chamerberlin,

Your submission in the Mentor Directory has been removed. This may be because you have submitted a new listing, or because you have requested its removal. You've been removed from the Second Life Mentor group."

However, Mr. Chamerberlin says he did not submit a new directory entry or a request to be removed. We concluded that either LL’s systems are randomly booting unpaid volunteers from the group, or there is a crackdown on European price-increase dissidents. Is Second Life so profitable that alienating some of its best customers for petty payback makes sense?

Mr. Chamerberlin told me, "I can only assume this is the result of my remarks concerning VAT. Presumably I'm only still in existence because I haven't yet reverted to basic? Because I suspect the only thing keeping me in existence is $2400 a year”.

Forbes WoW Player Talkin’ Smack On Second Life

Will SL be the first virtual world to fail?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

WoW player Dave Ewalt says SL players are losers

The iMojo wire’s inter-world taunting alarm went off this morning - and with good reason. After sitting through a couple ads in the Forbes video clip here, and some blather about the Linden space buck economy, World of Warcraft player and Forbes reporter Dave Ewalt got my attention when he said it is “hard to find someone who isn’t a loser in Second Life”. Hmmmm - that certainly puts an interesting spin on things - and this is Forbes' second swipe at SL - is there a pattern here?

Mr. Ewalt somehow restrained himself from saying SL is like totally teh suxxor, but did mention concerns about sex, an SL bank run, sex, the gambling ban, sex, bad corporate builds, sex, and nothing to drive the Second Life virtual economy except cyber sex -- oh, and did I mention sex?

New York Times, Dream Houses, and SL

by Espresso Saarinen

Shopping in SL is not quite like RL

Yesterday's New York Times had a very positive article about Second Life, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/garden/09second.html that helps explain the appeal of the metaverse to an audience unfamiliar with the concept. Instead of sex and gambling, or the mega-corporate flopping while trying to duplicate RL marketing in SL, this piece was about realizing your dreams of suburban luxury and comfort. Yes, it was about real residents, albeit the upper middle class. I had to wonder if the unexpected had occurred and Linden Labs had suddenly realized who is paying the bills, and actually grasped the idea of 'customer'.

The story told of houses, private sims, furniture and interior design stores, and the glories of upper class suburbia. On a whim, I decided to visit one of the stores. I cut the name of the store from the article and pasted it into in-world search, and miracle of miracles, in-world search actually worked! Fearing a reversion to normal SL behavior, I immediately teleported to the destination. Well, not immediately; it actually took two tries, but what the heck, it sure beats walking.

The 500 Prim Boots

Columbia Journalism Review covers SL footwear fashions

Possibly seeking to claim a part of the lucrative Second Life fashion news scene, the July/August issue of the Columbia Journalism Review includes in-depth coverage of virtual footwear - featuring the Herald's own Walker Spaight, Urizenus Sklar and several other virtual world journalists. Given the CJR’s impending fashion-forward format change, it is unsurprising that Herald Editrix Pixeleen Mistral’s 500 prim boots figure prominently in Stephen Totilo’s piece “Burning the Virtual Shoe Leather”.

these boots were made for lagging

Unfortunately, Ms. Mistral's lag-tastic boots are never actually shown in the CJR story - possibly to keep the web site from slowing to a crawl or even crashing. Because we know how important fairly unbalanced coverage is to our readers, at the Herald we have invested in a special “class 5” server that can stand up to 500 prim boots. Ms. Mistral took a few minutes from controlling the voices at the Herald to model her boots - so we are able to bring you exclusive pictures of the boots that lagged a thousand sims.

Love Letters To The Net

by Onder Skall

Remember people putting “cyber” in front of everything? Remember articles defining what an “emoticon” was?

Suddenly… VERY suddenly… everything changed. That network not only became mainstream, it also fundamentally changed the lives of a lot of people. The isolated had company. The uneducated gained knowledge. The dreamers touched their dreams.

The Internet really means something to a lot of people now, and that has nothing to do with technological marvels. Below I’ve collected moments of passion (with links to the full stories) from savetheinternet.com detailing how much the Internet has made a real difference in the lives of these people.

None of them are CEOs or celebrities or historical figures. They’re regular folk, and they can’t imagine a world without the net.

Heartun Breaker Leaving SL Herald

HELP WANTED: metaverse reporter / love&sex&advice columnist

by Pixeleen Mistral, managing editrix

My new iMojo phone was buzzing insistently where I left it on the granite blocks near the waterfront in Sanchon sim. That whole iPhone thing is so last week's news now - these days you want to be rocking an iMojo. The iMojo is innovative - the functions of the Herald’s office mojo wire have been packed into a small mobile device that fits neatly into my purse, but did I really want to stop playing Barber’s piano sonata to answer the phone? The mojo wire seldom brings good news.

I stopped just before really getting into the E flat minor section, and stared at the polished granite where the iMojo buzzed contentedly. In the last few days the iMojo has been insisting on role-playing a tweaked out bumblebee - something the iMojo enjoys, but creates an irritating sound when sitting on granite. There is such a thing as a too-smartphone. Still, granite blocks are really a must to get the proper sound out of a Suzanne Zeluco concert grand piano - recently expensed to the Herald as miscellaneous office supplies. Accountants and media critics might claim this was excessive, given the number of gorean slaves who perished hauling the huge blocks that support the piano from an ancient quarry outside Da Boom sim down to the Sanchon. However, Andre - the Herald concierge - assured me that most of the slaves crushed under the 2000 ton blocks during the unfortunate incident were able to make new alt accounts and are back to serving bazi tea in Gor. I sighed, and looked at the iMojo where a message said:

A FIC and Facile Guide to Second Life

By Prokofy Neva, Dept. of Community Affairs

Available at amazon.com

While we wearily wait for Uri's and Walker's book to come out (when, Uri, oh, when?!), and while we save up $22.04 US for the expenso Hamlet's et. al Official Guide to Second Life, we now have the Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life by the unknown Paul Carr & Graham Pond for only $9.95 US -- so you could buy that instead of that first-land account where oops, there's no more subsidized first land anymore and the stipend in it is only L$300 now!

But is it a good buy? No. I'm amazed that Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder could write such a preposterous blurb like this: "This book is the only guide you'll need to get past the Second Life hype and find out what all the buzz is about" -- when the book makes no effort whatsoever to dig through any hype, especially the subscription numbers controversy, as you can see from the "millions" reference on the jacket. Instead, it's FIC and facile and corporate and filled with gaffes and errors of the sort that happen when publishers make that unseemly rush to get a paperback like this out to capitalize on the apparently never-ending wave of media hype and corporate greed to be "first" and "best" in Second Life.

No, you'd be better off sitting with your Google reader and following links on planet.worldofsl.com and reading some of the basic Business Week, Information Week, Wired, Time, New York Times, etc. articles on SL -- for free of the Internet -- to get a basic guide to SL. Unless, of course, you're one of those people that can never handle a new gadget unless you have a book in your left hand as you mouse-click your way through the menus -- in that case, spend more to get the Official Guide.