Second Life Herald

LL Voids Zorkmid Gambling!

Lab changes its mind about Z$ gambling scheme -- was Zara Linden overruled?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

1Z$ = 1L$ -- now closed until further notice

Second Life’s Z$ casinos disappeared Monday, after the Linden game gods apparently changed their minds about the legality of the Zorkmid Z$ gambling system. Z$ casino owners had claimed their system exploits a loophole in the TOS and RL laws by using a fictional currency for gambling, and allowing players to play a game of skill to turn the Z$ fictional currency into the L$ fictional currency. Linden Lab and others provide foreign exchange markets that allow L$ to be converted into non-fictional currency such as $USD.

As I toured the devastated fictional casinos, the owners did not seem pleased with Linden Lab. denjobi Odell told me, “well it was a loophole .. never official .. and so .. LL changed its position again and told all the loophole gambling systems to shut down before monday”.

Moggs Oceanlane -- Post 6 Grrrl

[Miss Oceanlane is one of the busy bees in SL, I knew her name from flickr and several other social networking facilities. All I knew about her person was that she's one of the smarty-pants, a girl known for her wits, and so I was more than surprised when rumours spread that she was interested in becoming a Post 6 Grrrl. Of course, I was more than delighted when she said that those rumours were true and immediately fixed an appointment with her. She provided me with all her contact data and the pics of some outfits she had chosen for our photo shoot – a professional approach I more than appreciate. All I had to do was choosing the right location and I think I found it in La Reve, a sim worth visiting. - Bunny Brickworks]

My second life, like my first is driven by my inate curiosity and love of people. Like my real world the people I associate with in world are quite a diverse bunch with mixed interests and talents. I'm mostly playful - though sometimes amusingly serious - I tend to juggle a number of tasks and people at once and am often seen roaming around on my own and muttering to myself.

My curiosity has me meeting interesting people, reading every notecard that comes my way, exploring sims, playing with gadgets and in-world tools, sharing ideas and having great adventures along the world. I am constantly in awe of my fellow residents for their creativity, kindness and points of view. There are so many amazing people in this space that my eyes are constantly opened in wonder while my hands clap in delight.

The Worm Hole

Lab's experiment creates hole in space-time continuum - sends residents to alpine sim twilight zone

[While ex-Linden staffer happy-news Hamlet Au reports a new peak concurrency of 67,335 players (up 906 players from last March), the incredible risks Linden Lab is taking to expand the world become clear in this report from Metallicoe Gears. - the Editrix]

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by Metallicoe Gears

Sunday night, (I'm in UK), at 6:17pm SL time, it seems some residents of Second Life, including me, were part of a Linden experiment gone horribly wrong.

There I was, minding my own business roaming the mainland when I got a bit bored and decided to go home. I opened up my map, clicked go home. It loads.

But instead of arriving at my wonderful sky apartment, I was teleported to a courtyard outside approximately three houses, surrounded by snowy landscape and silence - the sound of loneliness. But wait, others started arriving, 1, 7, 20. I was beginning to think that everybody who was trying to get home, ended up here.

snow cabins became an involuntary home to approximately 30 residents - in the middle of nowhere

I hung around a bit, listening to the distressing sounds of residents swearing at Linden Lab, and new residents being teleported in crying out 'This isn't my home! Who are you!' As I tried to calm the situation down by saying its probably a Linden error, the troubled residents were coming to conclusions. One worried man cried 'Its the end of the world! Goodbye'. Although none payed any attention to him, as it was hard to pick up the message amongst all the complaints and the growing number of people around asking how they got here.

The Prince Diaries -- Into The Wood

by Prince Plutonian, virtual rent boy

He looked at me before unzipping his pants.
I froze.
"Aren't you gonna do anything?"
Yes, I kept thinking, as he pulled out his tallywhacker. Really, Prince... you need to do something. But no matter how many times I kept telling myself to please this guy, I couldn't move.
So there we were, on his bed, completely naked... and I choked.

How the hell did I get myself into this situation?

It started, like all the good stories do, with a girl called Ginger. I hadn't been living my Second Life for long before I met her. She was dazzling, from head to toe. And I mean really, her sparkling outfit almost blinded me. At first I thought she was just dressed to impress... and then it dawned on me she was dressed to be undressed. She was a hooker. Or to be more precise, an escort. We struck up a conversation about how good we both looked, which then turned to Gucci and Prada (as well as some Vivienne Westwood and Rick Owens thrown in for good measure). It was at this point she realized I had to be gay. I'm sure I don't know how she reached that conclusion. Does fashion knowledge really mean you're a screaming 'mo?

Anyway, as a writer, I was curious to know what it took to be an escort. As a penniless hobo, I was even more interested to find out if I had what it took to become one. Turns out I didn't -- I still had no penis. Little did I know I had to actually go out and either buy myself some tackle, or find some freebies. Ginger assured me there are free genitalia lying around all over the place but something about that image really didn't sound right to me. So, with the escort business dissected for me by my big breasted friend (seriously, they're like air bags), I headed out to find myself some manhood. It didn't take long of course: sex is the biggest part of Second Life, there's no denying that fact. But I soon found out that when you're planning on buying yourself a dick, it's probably best not to impulse buy, as I found out later when I stood mesmerized by a dancer's much bigger, and much better wang.

Anti-Furry Church Preaches Hate

Roleplay or improv theatre? hate as an artform with sacred daleks and anti-yiff spray

By Kris Dibou

Cross in St. Devros Church

Jacada Ansar had a vision.  Like some who have visions, Jacada started a church; a church that can could previously be found at Woodbury Longcat sim.  While puzzling over many churches built in the name of love, yet inciting hatred over those who do not believe as they do, Jacada decided to create a church based on hate in order to make a statement.  And who better, in Jacada’s opinion, to direct that hatred towards than the furry community.

During my visit to Jacada’s church, I witnessed two attacks and one redemption.  The whole thing ran like preplanned role play and certain comments made by Jacada reinforced this supposition. 

Lion and VIrtual Woman’s SL Luv Moves To RL

Taser, duct tape, handcuffs, and BB gun set the mood for a very special romantic encounter

by Pixeleen Mistral, Romantic Affairs desk

Philadelphia’s NBC10.com describes a Second Life romantic relationship moving to real life, in a heartwarming story about how Kimberly Jernigan, a 33 year old Durham, NC postal worker drove hundreds of miles to rendezvous with her SL boyfriend, a 52 year old Delaware man. According to DelawareOnline the couple met in Second Life, where Jernigan is a “virtual woman”, and the un-named Delaware man is a lion.

Second Life resident Kimberly Jernigan's dog Gogi has developed an allergy to duct tape - and Second Life love [photo courtesy of New Castle County Police]

Sadly, Ms. Jernigan’s romantic plans ended in heartbreak when her second attempt at kidnapping her Second Life ex-boyfriend were thwarted - the virtual lion was spooked when he saw a shadowy figure inside his home and a red laser playing across his chest. The lion-hearted victim had been subject to an attempted abduction two weeks earlier - apparently the result breaking off his SL romance.

After the victim fled the Tazer and duct tape wielding postal worker, he called the police, who investigated and found his ex-girlfriend’s dog bound in duct tape in his bathroom.

When informed of the news, spontaneous “Stop the Fursecution” protests broke out in Second Life, and the in-world economy speculators prepared for a rare growth spurt in sales of tazers, handcuffs, dog buscuits, and duct tape to the furry BDSM communities outside Ravenglass sim.

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”.

Op/Ed: Repression, Tyranny and Corruption = Economic Stagnation

by IntLibber Brautigan

KREMER, SL - The recent LL blog announcement by Jack Linden that LL is holding off any new mainland land sales indefinitely, due to flat land prices, indicates that there is little new interest in land buying by the general public. This means literally zero economic growth in SL for the past two months. The game gods have succeeded in killing an economy that previously had grown at rates of over 400% annually.

While many could explain it as a reflection of RL economic circumstances impacting individuals disposable income, there are other factors at work here. It is a proven fact that tyranny begets reduced economic activity. Former users of SL have either left SL, or reduced their usage to the status of free accounts with no land not just due to real life circumstances, as many are well paid professionals in RL who have plenty of disposable income. The reason they are ceasing contributing to the SL economy is they are sick and tired of the creeping fascism in SL.

Lets face it, the casinos, the ad farming, the banking, was all a sign of a healthy, growing, vibrant economy. People joined SL because they liked the idea of earning at least a part of their living in SL, and they were willing to invest their savings and free time here to make that possible. Linden Lab even promoted SL for this very purpose. Unfortunately, people from economically repressive states and countries also joined SL, brought their ranting demagogery with them, and have succeeded in destroying the economy and driving away capital, much as is the case in their real life nations.

In the real world, cultures that ban economic activity such as these wind up in the economic dustbin. The muslim world, many argue, is underdeveloped specifically because the islamic prohibitions on charging and paying interest on loans or deposits makes obtaining capital difficult, even in supposedly oil rich countries. If islam dropped the prohibition on interest, those nations would flower economically, their middle classes would grow with industry, and the supply of disenchanted underemployed individuals to islamist jihadist organizations would dry up because they would be too busy working.

Elwood Abernathy: How LL Will Keep Their Customers?

Lab holds grandpa's alt accounts hostage for being underage - then refuses to talk?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Elwood Abernathy is not happy with Linden Lab

A distressing notecard from Elwood Abernathy was waiting when I stopped by the Herald offices last night:

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I read with interest the Second Life Herald about intlibbers difficulties with age verification and the Tizzers ban. I have three alts that have been disabled due to age verification ID checks, apparently the lindens think I am 16 years old because someone A/R'd me, a griefer perhaps? I was told I belong on the Teen grid. In real life I am a grandfather for God's sake. I wonder how widespread this is among the people who pay Linden Lab hefty fees. I pay 2 1/2 sim tier, and if I had not for some reason, three weeks ago, consolidated tier from one of my accounts which is now disabled, I would be in a tier deficit. The Lindens simply will not talk to me about this issue, only demanding more and more identification be faxed to them, even asking for my social security card. I am considering cashing in and going with a free alt.

Elwood

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A quick look at Mr. Abernathy’s profile led me to his blog - and chilling details of how the Lab treats some of its landowners.

I’m a Barbie® Girl, in a Barbie World

Daddy? Can I have your credit card?

by Sigmund Leominster

Barbie Girl Home: VIP girls get SuperB Chat™ then shop for clothes and funky new furni

As a kid, I was never wanted to play with dolls. As a boy, calling them “Action Figures” didn’t make it any more likely. At one time, I’m pretty sure I stripped one of my sister’s Barbie dolls to check out the underlying anatomy, but the lack of genitalia and nipples meant that I lost interest pretty quickly. So the world of childhood doll play quietly passed me by.

Then I became a Capitalist. My initial puzzlement about why on earth people should want to mess around with plastic figurines gave way to the amazing discovery that the people at Mattel Corporation were actually making millions of dollars from this urge to dress mini-mannequins. Maybe billions. Now Barbie became much more interesting.

Today, Mattel, Inc. makes almost 100 million each year from its Barbie-related enterprise. Love her or hate her, she’s pimped out by the boys in suits and her ill-gotten gains keep investors very happy indeed. She may be a slut but she’s one of the world’s most profitable sluts and as long as she keeps opening her legs, people will keep opening their wallets.

LL Disappears More Accounts Overnight

The killings will continue until until morale improves

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

death squads "disappear" more Tizzers accounts

Over the last 24 hours, at least three more avatars with the first name “Tizzers” have disappeared from the search people list - apparently terminated by secretive Linden Lab avatar death squads. This comes in the wake of a bloody monday evening in which at least 6 Tizzers alt accounts were murdered - including my own alt, Tizzers Aristocrat.

By tuesday morning, two new accounts - Tizzers Constantine and Tizzers Teardrop - had appeared in the people list, joined yesterday evening by Tizzers Waffle. But as we go to press this morning, these accounts are gone and the Tizzers body count continues to rise.

The pattern that emerges is one of evening/early morning avatar killing sprees, suggesting that Lab governance team members working the second or third shift are responsible.

All Tizzers Must Die!!! -- LL’s Firstname Ban Policy?

Tizzers Aristocrat account gone before morning

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tizzers Aristocrat: your account has been activated - we will be deactivating it shortly

To kick off “National Register a Tizzers Alt Account Month”, I created an alt account named Tizzers Aristocrat to check Intlibber Brautigan’s claims that Linden Lab is banning all accounts named Tizzers. In under 12 hours my new alt account was gone - apparently due to a secret Linden firstname ban policy targeting any account named Tizzers, without regard to who created the account or what the account has done. In her short life, Tizzers Aristocrat barely made it through the orientation area and onto the mainland.

So despite the cheery e-mail the Lab sent last night with its promises of giddy times while pretending to snowboard, fly, surf, and pilot jet fighters in the metaverse, my TIzzers Aristocrat alt account now is gone from the search people list, and unable to log in. TIzzers Aristocrat has apparently been disappeared by the Linden secret police -- without cause or explanation.

Shyayn Lusch -- Post 6 Grrrl

[My first thought when I saw Shyayn was 'OMG, she's so cute. I want to pinch her little cheeks'. There she was, a Barbie en miniature, sexy and innocent looking at the same time. When we started talking, I soon had to realize that there was more about this Shyayn than just a pretty face and a perfect pixel body. A sweet bitch, a smart blonde, a creative beach bum – a walking contradiction and the living proof that beauty is more than pixel deep. – Bunny Brickworks]

A little over a year ago I got an e-mail from a good friend asking if, "[I] had gotten [her] messages regarding Second Life." Much to my surprise, the porno spam e-mails from one Calista Bing that I'd been deleting without opening were from my friend, albeit her Second Life alter-ego.

She knew how to sell me on Second Life from the start, "It's great! You get a doll and you can dress her and make her however you want. It's a little humiliating at first though because you're born really ugly and without any kind of genitals. I have a beach house and a dolphin." I laughed, but immediately found the idea of dolls for grown-ups, especially those with oceanfront views and pet dolphins, very appealing. About a week after that phone call, Shyayn Lusch was born. Little did I know, playing digital dolls was the very tip of the Second Life virtual iceberg.

National Tizzers Month - Register an Alt Account Today!

"Your World, Your Imagination" -- unless your first name is Tizzers

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tizzers Aristocrat and Intlibber Brautigan suggests everyone register a Tizzers alt account

After buying the exclusive rights to the BnT avatar last name in Second Life for a $500 USD setup fee, plus $500 in annual fees, Intlibber Brautigan was surprised to find that Linden Lab was effectively banning free use of the naming rights he had purchased, and believes Harry Linden could be the culprit. Mr. Brautigan is a well known virtual land baron who says he owns 49 sims in Second Life.

Typically, residents of Second Life must select their last name from a Linden game-god approved list, but some wealthy corporate entities purchase last names as a way to provide employees with a consistent identity that is tied to their official work duties and independent of their gameplay.

Mr. Brautigan told the Herald tonight, “I own the BnT last name. Last week I registered the account Tizzers BnT. Before anybody had even logged onto Sl with it, Harry had age-banned it demanding an ID check, even though I, who own the BnT last name, am already ID verified - apparently anybody named Tizzers is automatically a minor”

Memorial for a Queen

Saturday, August 16, a memorial service was held in Shivar, for Queen of the Shivari, Montserrat Snakeankle/Sparrowhawk Perhaps (Carmen Hermosillo irl). It was attended by many members of the Shivar tribe as well as dignitaries from other nations and races. There was also at least one ambassador from the WELL, where she was known as humdog.

Pictures are below the fold. An obituary was previously published here.

Casino Gambling Returns To Second Life

Does Linden Lab approve of gambling for Z$s purchased with L$s ?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Z$s cannot be converted to L$s -- so you can cash out here

Just over a year ago, Linden Lab banned gambling in Second Life, a change that sent the in-world economy into a tailspin as virtual casinos across the grid shut down and gamblers took flight from the Lab’s virtual world entertainment product. But now, the casinos are back -- operating under an interesting interpretation of both US law, and apparently within the Linden’s Terms of Service, according to the virtual casino owners.

How is this possible? The creators of the Z$ Zorkmid fictitious currency claim there is a loophole in both the TOS and US law. By using a fictitious currency which cannot be converted directly into L$s, playing games of chance is not really gambling - instead it is a harmless and legal entertainment.

After not gambling on roulette, slot machines, black jack, and similar amusements, pretend punters can pay L$1 to play a game of skill and convert their Z$ winnings into L$s. The object of this game is to match pairs of identical images - with a two minute time limit. The level of skill required is such that most metaverse residents are very unlikely to lose unless they are subject to one of the seemingly random crashes of the SL client software - or massive lag.

Remembering Carmen Hermosillo

The Herald is sorry to report that Carmen Hermosillo (aka humdog, aka Montserrat Tovar, aka Montserrat Snakeankle, aka Sparrowhawk Perhaps) has died irl. Below the fold are my memories of Carmen, starting from when I met her on the WELL back in 1993. Others of you will have very different memories of her because you knew her in very different ways. Please feel free to add some remarks in the comment section.

--Peter Ludlow

Free Fashionista

Looking great without spending a fortune in L$s !

by Lavina Carver

I’m so excited to be starting this new weekly post. Now, I must warn you that I may not be able to post every week, it being summer and all, so don’t go complaining to anyone about it. I also must warn you that, although the title says free, not everything in the pictures are free. Anyway, keep a good look out for these posts and I hope you enjoy all of the free stuff!

In this photo, I’m wearing the wonderful hair, Emma. It’s free and you can pick it up almost anywhere. A good place would be freebie beach. It comes in 10 different colors, natural and dyed, and it works for almost any situation, formal, casual, business, you name it!

Also worn is SATXi Aviators v1.2. You can find them on Onrez.com for $1L. They may not be totally free, but they look awesome!