Shopping news

I want to pass on news of some really good animations that I recently discovered. I hate to call them "sex anims," although that is definitely what they are, because they are not the crude fuck-scenes that one gets so tired of seeing in clubs and on beaches: these have gestures and facial expressions, virtual eye-contact even. The participants (let's call them that) behave as though they know and like each other. These are animations for lovers.

The stores in question are Sticky Candy and Primal Dreams, the latter is particularly delightful. Sticky Candy has some safe-for-public-use single and friends' poses too.

Unusually, both stores encourage you to visit with a partner and try the animations out. Perhaps this liberality is a consequence of the shops' being sequestered on the new adult-rated continent; if so, then for the first time I would find myself seeing sense in the Lindens' decision to split the world up in this way.

Enjoy.

SL as place

There doesn't seem to be any convenient way to cross-post between blogs, so I'll just put in a link to a piece I wrote on the Second Lifer about memory and place.

The workshop

I'm preparing a weekly workshop on the SL-ness of SL, to be given at the Kira centre this summer. (I'm writing about it publicly here in the hope that this might just get me off my arse to do something about this idea, which I've been talking about since last Autumn.) I will be using the Second Lifer blog to record and develop ideas for sessions and exercises.

The workshop will be in the usual Kira style: a combination of brief lecture/explanation/introduction, discussion and exercises.

The general themes will be appearance, character and identity, how the medium of SL expresses these, and how they relate back to our so-called real identities in the so-called real world. My hope is that members of the workshop might come forward to lead off sessions on subjects that are significant to them. (Example: QT said that he hadn't been able to create an alt because he couldn't think of a good name. I would love to discuss with him the significance of names in SL, since these are arbitrary in RL.) Once the series has built up a certain amount of momentum, I would like to bring in guest speakers to talk about specific identities in SL: furries and tinies and nekos, oh my.

There will be much discussion of alts, since they are central to cross-gender and cross-species exploration. Practical exercises would be very informative (!) but I can see that this might be too "hot" for some people so I'll go slowly there. Perhaps make it an "extra credit" topic, one that won't be on the end-of-term exam.

(Just by the way, and perhaps as a note for a pure-discussion session: It amuses me no end to hear people say that our personalities are constructions of habit and prejudice, that there is no separation and therefore no Self, that all identities are artificial — and then in the next breath they firmly declare that identities which exist only in SL are inferior to those which exist in RL! What the fuck is that about? This point needs discussion.)

There will be trips to various stores (skin and hair in particular, since these places always offer freebie or dollarbie demos) to try on different appearances, again with the intention of seeing yourself in the new appearance.

There will be excursions to strongly-themed locations and stores, like AVid or RP sims.

There will be exercises, oh yes: for example: being a neko for a week, and paying attention to how this feels — and to how the world reacts.

There will be workshops on the appearance editor, with the practical goal of making a new shape during the session, to be "lived in" for a week and reported on at the next session. There will be at least one pair sessions on AOs, a discursive intro and a workshop the week after.

There will be shorter detours to look at particularities of SL, like "afk" or the culture of helpful generosity that has developed. I can imagine that there would be quite a bit of discussion of in-world ethics.

For want of a nail

In the last few weeks, SL has been watching the Tragedy of the Commons acted out in virtual miniature, in the widely lamented but apparently inevitable demise of a popular and socially successful roleplaying worldlet based on the film "Avatar."

Pandora began three months ago in the usual way (i.e. as a labour of love and personal obsession/interest) and has grown to four adjoining regions, beautifully landscaped and filled with story-appropriate flora and fauna — and megaflora, the 115-metre-tall trees have to be seen to be believed. The RP seems to be populated largely by Na'vi characters; there are humans in the storyline but in my times in Pandora I've never met one.

The landscaping and story have been widely praised, the stores (merchandising subsidises the arts in SL just as in RL) are apparently doing well, and at last count there were over 2000 people registered in the four storyline groups (I don't know how many of those are regularly active; as I write this post, 31 group members (including myself) are in the RP sims).

Nonetheless, it is probable that one of the four regions will close down forever this week, and possible that two others may be gone by the end of April. [Updated: the region is safe for another month, they managed to raise enough money to pay the tier.] [Updated again: it's over, the landowners have announced that they are pulling the plug on all four regions.] [Updated a third and hopefully final time: some sponsors have come forward, the regions are all safe for the near future.]

The problem is, of course, the money. Nothing "free" is ever really free, the word just means that you don't see the bill being paid. To date the tier costs of the four RP sims have been covered largely out of the pockets of the founders, and they are getting tired of doing it. The landowners need to find L$42 thousand per week, but have been unable to get the RP community to contribute even half of that. The most generous donors of the week are listed on a subsidiary webpage, the current twentieth-highest donated all of L$100 = 37 US cents. (Which is fine, really, it's much better than the hundreds of group members who donated nothing at all.)

Now, if you divide those tier fees by 2000 group members, you get US 7 cents per person per week, times 52 weeks in a year is US$3.64. So go look up how much a cup of coffee at Starb*cks costs. You'd think that it would be possible to get people to donate a single cup of coffee per year.

And so we get the Tragedy of the Commons: it is in everyone's common interest for all of us to keep the sims open by pulling together in generous cooperation, but it is in nobody's individual interest to start doing so. For the price of a single cup of coffee, we all lose out.

(If you want to see for yourself: pick up quite good free skins and (modifyable!) shapes here, then customize your appearance here, then go to the central starting point here. There is a free-of-charge group for non-RPing visitors, please join it and wear the tag. Please make generous use of the donation boards at the arrival point.)

And just by the way, for those who are thinking "so put your money where your mouth is:" I did. Although I am merely an occasional visitor, not a roleplayer nor even a member of the community, I have donated L$4000 to Pandora so far. Your turn.

Title.

Introduction.

Declarations of tiredness, frustration and exasperation.

Wry comment.

The difference between rumour and fact

Wow, I was just called "an angry person" because I took action to determine whether a statement presented as fact was actually true. Apparently it's socially unacceptable to question what is spoken in group chat in SL. (I must have missed that memo.)

It's amazing how firmly attached some people get to their opinions, even — or perhaps especially — when these are totally unfounded. Her reaction to my proving that the rumour was false, was to reject my proof and continue to believe.

She stated as fact (in a scripting group) that Linden Labs are in the process of outlawing third-party viewers. I countered by quoting from an official SL blog post which explicitly states that they support and encourage third-party viewers. She replied by stating "I am on Gov Linden land and LL has a questionnaire about banning 3rd party viewers etc." So I had her TP me there to see.

Let's take a few points in order.

1) Just because a privately-owned shop (n.b.) is on Linden-owned land, does not follow that Governor Linden inspected and approved the shop's contents. But even if that were so:

2) An object created by person A (not a Linden) and purchased by person B (also not a Linden) does not magically become "a Linden object" by being rezzed on Linden land. But even if that were so:

3) Please look at the object that you are entering in evidence. Out of 85 responses to date, only nine said that 3pv's should be banned. Clearly if the Lindens are influenced by this object, then they must retain third party viewers, not ban them!

Actually, y'know, perhaps I am an angry person. I'm sure as hell angry at her for wasting the group's time and attention. Bygones, away with it (makes crumpling-up and throwing-away gestures).

Big

I just bought 34 thousand square metres of mainland.

I'm feeling somewhere between excited (huge tracts of land!) and terrified (the tier! my gods, the tier!!)

It's not my land as such, it's ex-Play as Being land that a group of us decided to rescue when it was put up for sale; but I am the one who did the work and signed the papers and (right now at least) is going to pay the tier. We'll see how this works out over time.