Greed in Second Life: Part 1- The Viking RP

By Theonlyjohnny Resident

    There has been a huge spike in the amount of greed in Second Life. When I first started Second Life, I saw how most people, in Second Life, didn't care about lindens, they just wanted to have fun. However, now, most people only care about earning lindens, even at the expense of losing their own sims.

    It's not just gaming sims, either, it's also club sims, shopping sims, even roleplay sims. I have personally witnessed the downfall of quite a few sims, due to the owners' greed. In this article, I will tell you about an RP sim that went under.

    I used to roleplay at a Viking sim that is gone now, because no one would join. However, the reason no one would join, was due to the greed of the owners. It was a rule that anyone rping there, must wear the Spell fire (SF) meter. Of course, the SF meter will keep pestering the wearer, if their warmth is too low, which is determined not just by the sim, but also by the clothing worn by the wearer. At this sim you could only wear certain Viking clothes, and the only Viking clothes allowed were those purchased on the sim. This meant you had to pay to RP at the place.

    The greed of the sim owners went even further, when I learned that after I had bought the clothes, for L$ 120, even though the box said it would give warmth, the clothes did not provide even the slightest bit of warmth. Nor would the warmth they were supposed to give be sufficient enough to raise your warmth level. I then bought the next set of clothes for twice as much as the first, and learned that, again, they did not provide warmth. Not only that, I had paid twice as much, for the exact same set of clothes, I had bought previously.

    Of course, this sim didn't last long. The design of it may have been amazing, but the respect that the owners asked for, exceeded the amount of respect they gave to anyone. They asked for, no they demanded, my respect. Yet, how could I show respect towards anyone who has shown no respect towards anyone else?

     Their greed was fueled by a lie, which I found out when I had actually asked them why everything they sold, on the sim, was never below L$ 120. The owner was quoted saying "We have to pay a tier for this land, to Linden Labs. Our scripts, alone, cost us L$ 3000 weekly." At that time, I was fairly new to Second Life, and had to do a bit of research. While they did pay a tier to Linden Labs, they wrote most of their own scripts, and the SF meter scripts are free to use, I know this because I have been to the SF main store. You get the SF sim and region kit, for free, and you only pay for scripts, once, and that's to buy them.

    It is a sad thing to see, when an amazing place is shut down, due to the owners' greed. Let this be a testament to all RP Sim owners, out there, while its customary to have items, on your sim, that people can buy, you shouldn't get too carried away, with high prices. Nor should you lie, like these people did, just to get more lindens.

Theonlyjohnny Resident

Urban Zombie

Urban Zombie

    From the minute I first saw this place, I was amazed. I was amazed at how much work was put into the designing, and developing of this sim. Of course, there are several zombie sims in SL. However, this sim is different.

    This sim does not use a meter and does not use melee. However, what this sim does have, is the 5 unique areas, tons of zombies, and yes, guns. However, these guns are different from the guns that you can buy at any other gun store. These guns are scripted specifically for this sim.


    Of course most of the guns need to be bought from the gun shop on the sim. However, despite the size of the gun shop, it, like the rest of the sim, is different from other places. Most places have shooting areas for their gun shop. While Urban Zombie has a gun shop for its shooting areas.

    Like I mentioned before, there are 5 unique areas. These five areas are, in no set order, Urban, Military Base, Suburbia, Prision, and Gothica. All five areas are made for different things. If you are looking for lots of kills, and a challenge, then Gothica is what you're looking for. Prision offers a moderate amount of kills at any given moment, and high safety since you can shoot from the bridges between the guard towers. Military Base offers a rugged terrain, low safety, and a high number of kills at any given moment. Suburbia offers a moderate amount of kills at any given moment, lots of safe places to shoot from, and a moderate challenge. Urban is the landing point and the hangout, however it is surrounded by a zombie infested area that offers a moderate amount of kills at any given moment, a moderate amount of safety, and a moderate challenge.

    I cannot begin to name all the weapons allowed at the sim, since there are a lot of them. However, I can tell you what is not allowed on the sim. Redemptions, T3 Weapons, Iron Sights, Mini guns (with the exception of the Blue Works Studio UZ scripted BGF6 Hydra, purchased on sim), and explosives of any kind, are not allowed on sim. This is understandable since the use of these weapons would give the user an unfair advantage against all other players.

    Of course you can kill zombies safely without the threat of dying. In which case, you don’t wear the radar. The purpose of the radar is to make it so you can die, but it also allows your overhead kills number to function. You can wear the overhead kills without the radar, however then you won't be able to raise your kill number.

    I interviewed three people, this is what they told me, when I asked them questions:

Interview with Doc

1. How did you hear of Urban Zombie?
>A friend brought me here.

2. What is your favorite weapon?
>Depends on what I'm doing, how I chose to attack the zombies. But right now I use the VSG45 Vortex. A good all purpose weapon.

3. How long have you been at Urban Zombie?
>A little over a year.

4. What is your favorite thing about Urban Zombie?
>The comaraderie, we are more like family, stand around and talk as much as we shoot.

Interview with MistyHarbour
1. How did you hear of Urban Zombie?
>A friend brought me here.

2. What is your favorite weapon?
>Right now, the pdw90 blitz.

3. How long have you been at Urban Zombie?
>A year I think.

4. What is your favorite thing about Urban Zombie?
>All kinds of things .. I get (to) run, jump and shoot,
I set my own goals .. try pushing my limits .. improving
my skills.

Interview with Tex
1. How did you hear of Urban Zombie?
> Got invited by someone I met at a music event.

2. What is your favorite weapon?
>Right now the VSG 45, but I swap around a lot.

3. How long have you been at Urban Zombie?
>About a year.

4. What is your favorite thing about Urban Zombie?
>The community atmosphere.


    These are the true words of the people that I interviewed. These are just three people who love Urban Zombie, and think of it as a second home.

Haumea (93, 123, 242)

Theonlyjohnny Resident

Kinzart Kreetures and Their Upcoming Gryphon

 by Grease Coakes

One of the pastimes of Second Life just like real life is shopping. Gee golly, I’m bored as anyone could browse around a furry mall or a clothes store looking for the newest and coolest trends to throw on your avatar. 


Furries in general get excited seeing and hearing about a new avatar to show off their furry pride and wow their friends. Recently Kinzart Kreetures, or KZK for short, released a Ferret avatar for 1,000L with many new features including eyelashes. The release party was at furnication a few weeks ago. After many tries I finally got a hold of Sylver Bu and Flame Soulis the two owners of KZK.


As lots of furries know recently, KZK held a poll to ask the burning question. If KZK were to make a new avatar, which animal would everyone want to see get built? The choice was an owl or the griffin. According to the poll, the griffin won the poll by lots of votes.

Through persistence I did contact not only Sylver Bu and Flame Soulis. Sylver Bu told me a lot of options would be included with each avatar. Basic colors would be included for people to pick and choose. I asked what would stand out in Sylver’s griffins and she had this to say, "They'll come with a variety of attachments so you can easily modify the griffin into a hippogryph.  Not really much else to say than that. It’ll come with all our standard features as well as a new set of wings." In addition Sylver also added the standard features, "blinking colorable eyes, expressions, poseable hands, wings that open in flight, some alternate tails, ears, and beaks."

That’s plenty of bells and whistles for an avatar. Sylver quoted the price at 1,500L Wow! That’s a lot to ask for an avatar.

Sylver is in charge of building the avatar and physical appearance. Flame Soulis is the main furry behind all the scripting to make the avatar twitch this way.

Flame talked about the AIO which is short hand for all in one script. Here’s what he had to say, "Well, the Ferrets are using the latest AIO scripts we have, which manage all customization options. The Ferrets are also the first to use a single script based mesh blink system, with support for eyelashes. The griffins will most likely use the same system."

One of the things Flame strives for is that the scripts in the KZK avatars. He wants them to operate faster and take up less memory. A major concern of any furry is during a tail sale or a major party is this. Is my avatar burdened with lots of scripts? It’s no fun for anyone to walk into a sim and get a warning you’re too scripted or some such. So Flame is looking to minimize that on KZK avatars.

In fact Flame likes borrowing features from older avatars to be included in newer avatars. For example the KZK ferrets have an eyelash feature. That same eyelash feature and more will be included in the griffin avatar coming in the near future. Flame said remade avatars get updates as KZK continues to promote their avatars.

I asked the big question that griffin fans everywhere are biting their nails/claws to know, "When will the new griffin avatar be released?" Flame had this to say, "Somewhere within maybe June or early July, but it depends on our schedules."

At the very latest August as Flame also wants to insure that AIO script to operate the avatar works properly. He seemed dedicated to make sure the avatars don’t spaz and glitch. He might also develop a new AIO script which he will name the AIO2 script.

I myself will be excited to see the new avatar when it comes out and I do have a KZK fox so I can say they do make good avatars. Whether you are a fan of griffins or you just want a new shiny avatar to show off to your friends. The KZK griffin coming in the near future might be the fur and feathers package you may have been looking for. Sylver was nice enough to show me this web link as a preview (possibly not safe for work).

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Okarthel/112/156/24

http://www.kinzart.com/news.php


Grease Coakes

Star Hunting

By Theonlyjohnny Resident


    A creation of the Rise Gaming Association, Star Hunting is a scavenger hunt, consisting of various colors of both gems and shields.

    Each color gem, as well as each color shield, awards different amounts of unpaid earnings. Unpaid earnings can then be traded for linden, at the ATM, equaling the amount of unpaid earnings that the Rise Player, someone who plays Star Hunt, has at that very moment.

    However, it is a scavenger hunt, so most of the shields and gems are hidden, the ones that are hidden very well are the ones that give a greater amount of unpaid earnings. There are, however, shields that are out in the open, since the creator of Star Hunting, as well as the owners of the sims that participate in Star hunting, are some of the most respectful, down to earth, and thoughtful people that you will ever have the chance of meeting.

    When asked why Star Hunting was created, the creator responded with the following statement, "We've seen many games like this. I decided to make one because I have seen games of similar degree that is taking money from players. Those games aren't for the fun factor. Those games are just for the owner's favor. Rise Star Gaming is one of the first that would feature fun factor as a major factor. If there wasn't a game that has a fun factor rather than a money factor, it does not deserve to really be a real game. A game decides to only be fun if they are owned and managed by a friendly group of staff or owners."


    When asked why the name Star hunting, the creator responded by saying, "We didn't name it anything else. We wanted players to feel like Stars. By "stars" they are referred as Superstars, and players that reach certain feats in Rise's community receive actual stars on the floor, similar to a walk of fame at the new Rise Headquarters building. If they felt very honorable and treated well, it makes them feel like a true star when they play along with me instead of something else that usually gets ignored."

    Of course the owner isn't the only one that I talked to. When asked how she found out about Star Hunting, Emerald25 responded by saying, "I was here as staff in the beginning because I knew Warden from another game." Her favorite part of Star hunting is, and I quote, "The diversity, the colors, the happy community and that everyone can reach the same achievement levels i their own time:)"

    I am a Star hunter, myself, and I can vouch for the integrity, the diversity, the excitement, and the happiness, that Star Hunting brings to its players. There are no lies when it comes to Star Hunting. There are no catches either. It's simple and easy to follow, and because of the major outcome of the game, it's a wonderful game to participate in. I would recommend this game to anyone who loves to travel to different sims, as this game is played in many sims, all of these sims have the same idea for Star Hunting.

    Every sim, involved in Star hunting, plans to bring happiness to all those that visit, no matter who they may be. Everyone is welcome to every sim involved, even Roma Zona, the headquarter of the Rise Gaming Association. A visit to Roma Zona, is one that is worth it, and really makes a grand beginning to all people just starting out, in Star hunting.

TheonlyJohnny

"Love and Other Bruises" at Palais Orleans

By Gemma Cleanslate

 

There is a wonderful new exhibit over at Palais Orleans Gallery Complex in Gallery 2 that I was able to preview. The grand opening was on Saturday, May 25 at 6:00 PM SL time and I was not able to attend. It is called "Love and Other Bruises" and has exhibits of twenty SL artists on display.

There is a wonderful description of the intent of the pieces at the top of the stairs: “They say that love makes the world go round..and sometimes ‘love’ comes with lies... deceit .. selfishness.. indifference.. jealousy.. betrayal .. infidelity ..Love gone bad if you will." The pieces demonstrate all these aspects of "love." Each portrays those feelings in an individual who discovers one of these hurts. They are haunting and will probably remind each of us of a past time in our own lives.  

 

You will find  the artists pictures also displayed on the entrance wall with a biography card you will get by touching the picture. One of the artists, Maloe Vansant, to me summed it up in her card which says, “Hearts are breakable."  "And I think even when you heal, you're never what you were before."

As you know there are three galleries at Palais Orleans. So make your way over to Gallery 1, to view the lovely pieces of “Aspects of Solitude.“  Artists Amona Savira and Harbor Galaxy are displaying moments of “solitude ..the good and bad of it. They are beautiful. Harbor says, “For this show 'Aspects of Solitude,' I tried to focus on those early morning hours when sleep escapes us and the mind wanders, reviewing the decisions that define our waking life. My hope is that it resonates with you.”

 

I think you will enjoy both exhibits so don’t miss them.  Gallery 1 exhibit  will continue until June 16 and Gallery 2 exhibit will remain in place until July 21. Gallery 3 is an ongoing exhibit of the lovely works of the Gallery Orleans owner, Morgana Nagorski, who finds all the amazing artists invited to display here. It is amazing to see the work that sl artists are doing.  All exhibits are sponsored by Limipro Lighting. Here is the entry in the Gallery courtyard.  

 

Gardenia Islands (105, 62, 2501)

Club Toxxic Haven

By Theonlyjohnny Resident

    While not one of the largest clubs, or the smallest, or the newest, or the oldest clubs, there is still a feeling that overwhelms me whenever I visit this club. When I first joined SL, Toxxic Haven was a bustling club, filled nearly all hours of the day. However, now it's lucky to see any visitors, even at the times of day that SL recieves its largest amount of visitors.

    This club used to be another home to me. The visitors and staff were like a family to me. It brings a tear to my eye seeing this club so empty. I can vouch for how great this club was. There were no troubles here. There were no fights here, well that happened since I joined SL. This club was truly a haven.

    The design of the club gives you not only a sense of welcome, but a sense of…well it was basically a club that said "Come on in, have fun. I'm right here." It's not too flashy. It's not too bright, nor too dark. It's just an amazing show of cooperation between all aspects of a club.


    The staff of this club were always welcoming, and very friendly. No one was ejected for something wrong. No one was ever banned on their first offense. Everything was right in the world, especially since griefers never showed their faces there.

    I miss this club, and the staff. I will not give any grades on this club, since I am not grading this club. I am simply telling y'all how great a place it was. Please help this club out, don't let it slowly die away. It deserves to last a lot longer.

Theonlyjohnny Resident

Art Exhibit “Realism in Second Life” Opens

By Grey Lupindo

A new art exhibit featuring artists Rubben Acajou and Sandralee Palianta opened May 19 in the Cuauhnahuac Gallery located at Instituto Espanol (48, 134, 31).   The exhibit is titled “Realism in Second Life” and features a wide variety of photographs and paintings of landscapes, still life, marine, and other subjects.
  

As you enter the Gallery, a sign at the entrance explains the historical significance of its RL structure.   The Gallery replicates The Palace of Cortes, which is now a museum located in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  The RL structure is almost 500 years old, making it the oldest preserved colonial era civil structure in the continental Americas.  

The SL Gallery is a massive, two story stone and stucco building, with thick carpets in many of the rooms, and Spanish arches and tiled floors in the hallways.    Beautiful floral arrangements add to the ambiance and create a perfect place to enjoy art.  

The current exhibit showcases the work of two painters and photographers.  Rubben Acajou’s exhibit begins with paintings of still life in which the fruit looks so real you want to reach out and taste it.   In the adjoining rooms, there are landscape and marine scenes.  

Although all of his paintings are beautiful, I liked Acajou’s interpretation of the sea best.   His subjects ranged from “El Faro” (The Lighthouse) to “Pescadores” (Fishermen) to sailing ships and storms.  Marine 2 is a real photograph where he captured the white capped waves beautifully.  

On the second floor of the Gallery the works of Sandralee Palianta are featured.  Palianta is a photographer and graphic artist from San Francisco.  She is exhibiting her work for the first time in Second Life. 

Palianta’s exhibit starts with a large colorful ink brush abstract entitled, “Mexican Pattern”.     The colors are vivid and energetic.    From there the exhibit moves to pencil, pen, and photographic mediums.  Many of her photographs are of everyday vegetables like cabbage, peppers, and mushrooms, but she manages to turn them into works of art.    Other subjects are more abstract, such as “Glass Hearts” and “Beaded Face Masks”.    

Many of her photographs are of places, including ones taken in Arizona and on San Francisco’s Pier 39.  She has captured the desolate beauty of desert mountains as well as the delicate beauty of wildflowers. In one photograph of a bee in a cactus flower, she shows the contrast between the delicate petals of the flower and the sharp spines of the cactus.   My favorite photograph is “Fall in the Black Hills”, which shows a man, perhaps a Native American, walking near a pond against a background of colorful fall foliage. 

Some of Palianta’s photographs are studies in black and white.  In one she highlights the stark beauty of a coyote on a frosty morning near Lake Mead, Nevada, and in another, “Mist on the River” she shows the beauty of fog.     Other works, however, are colorful and bright.  In one she has photographed a jewel-colored carousel horse.  In “Outhouses” she has captured a fun array of Americana signage and what looks like old license plates.

Grey Lupindo