Category Archives: Newbie Advice

May 8 2013

Catfishing in Second Life – Part 1: How the Catfishers Do It

Catfishing in Second Life – Part 1: How the Catfishers Do It

You have probably heard of the hit MTV show Catfish or watched the movie of the same name that inspired the show. According to the Urban Dictionary, Catfishing is “The phenomenon of internet predators that fabricate online identities and entire social circles to trick people into emotional/romantic relationships (over a long period of time)”.

I have had many friends in both real life and Second Life, as well as in other virtual worlds and on the Internet in general, who have been catfished. For this new series we will focus on catfishing in Second Life and what steps you can take in order to prevent being catfished and how you can move on after you have been the victim of this phenomenon.

Continue reading →

About these ads
Feb 11 2013

Things to do in Second Life – Week of February 10, 2013

Check out some of the fun and exciting things to do and see in Second Life this week:

Fundraisers:

One Billion Rising in Second Life:  ONE BILLION RISING began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. On February 14, 2013, men and women in Second Life will join activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and people across the world to Walk, Dance, and Rise as a show of unity, individual strength, and the need for change.

2013 Relay for Life: in Second Life Team Registration has opened!! Please see the websites below for more information:

http://rflofsl.intuitwebsites.com/

https://www.facebook.com/rflofsl

Mardi Gras Themed:

Mardi Gras Town: The vibrant sounds of authentic New Orleans jazz will fill your ears the moment you land on the cobblestoned streets of Mardi Gras Town. A holiday venue with incredible colors, ambiance and a world-renowned festive spirit, Mardi Gras Town is your destination to let the good times roll.

Mardi Gras at Two Moon Paradise:  Come and celebrate Mardi Gras week from February 7th to the 14th at Two Moon Paradise. Join in the week-long festivities including live music, events, costume contests, festival rides and much more. There’s even free masks and Mardi Gras beads for everyone. For a list of all events for the week, visit the blog at http://twomoonparadise.wordpress.com/.

Valentines Day Themed:

2013 Valentine Town: Valentine Town is a visual panorama of all things that denote love and affection. From chocolate waterfalls to the sugary delight of giant gumballs, expect an endless feast for all the senses with remarkable vistas and colors that bathe visitors with affectionate delight. Incredible stores are also packed with items for passionate lovers and those they love. So what’s stopping you? Head to Valentine Town today!

Love Potion No. 9.9 Hunt:Phinneas Phicklephogg needs a challenge. He has mastered all the lessons in the Spellmaster’s Guide to Alchemy, 2nd Edition and life has become a monotany of talismans, wards, and curses. With Love in the air, people are pounding down his door for ways to protect and control the heart, but the one thing he can’t create is True Love in a bottle. Or can he? Join Phinneas’ adventure to brew Love Potion 9.9. Perfection may be overrated but the rewards of True Love never are!

The Tainted Love Hunt: The Tainted Love Hunt is a grid-wide treasure hunt focusing on anything but that nice, romantic Valentine’s Day love. Expect obsessional love, painful love, even loving unto death. Featuring great prizes from some of most troubled, twisted and talented people in Second Life, the Tainted Love Hunt runs from February 1st to February 28th, 2013.

Valentines R’ Us: Choose from a great selection of Valentine’s gifts this year at Valentines R’ Us. Whether you’re looking for roses, chocolates, unique cards or formal wear for that most romantic of nights, you’ll find it at Valentines R’ Us.

Love Bug: Love is in the air, and the passionate music lovers at the Velvet are celebrating Valentines Day with a festival of amorous music. They’ve built a drive-in cinema and lined up 11 lovely DJs to entertain under the big screen this Valentine’s day, February 14th, from 12 am ’til 11 pm. Like an awkward first date, you might not be watching the movie, but you can be sure the soundtrack will sweep you off your feet. Grab some popcorn, head on down to the Velvet Drive-In and catch the Love Bug.

Ready for Love Festival: Come to Tribute City as they usher in the Valentine love season with a month long festival! Events include singles parties to find that perfect someone, a couples photo contest to show off that perfect someone, a merchant’s fair, live DJs, tribute bands and more. For more information, visit http://tributecity.blogspot.com/.

Music & Festivals:

Trojan Empire:  The Trojan Empire is honored to present The Pulse of Musical Spring, A Second Life Music Festival. Doing their part to promote music and wonderful performers in Second Life, the sim is delighted to host this amazing this full scale music event from Friday, February 15th to Sunday the 17th. Come on down and join in this ultimate sensation!

The Light and Shadow Pleasure Faire:  Part craft fair, part historical reenactment and part performance art. Buy crafts and food at booths, enjoy parades, crafts, live jugglers, musicians, magicians and other entertainers as they perform throughout the weekend. Or even test your skill at tournaments throughout the realms. Bring medieval attire, or touch the Sylvhara welcome kit for the location of free period clothes. Running from February 14th through the 17th, visit http://bit.ly/VIyVT5 for more information.

Hunts:

The Stupid Cupid Hunt: That Cupid, he’s so stupid! Flying around, shooting arrows everywhere, making everyone dizzy, trailing little hearts wherever he goes… He’s trying to make love matches all across SecondLife! It’s time to stop Cupid before he gets any more stupid! Find the arrows at stores across SL to lead you to Cupid’s love nest and fall in love with over 20 sponsor prizes! Running from February 1st to the 15th, don’t miss it.

The Tainted Love Hunt: The Tainted Love Hunt is a grid-wide treasure hunt focusing on anything but that nice, romantic Valentines Day love. Expect obsessional love, painful love, even loving unto death. Featuring great prizes from some of most troubled, twisted and talented people in Second Life, the Tainted Love Hunt runs from February 1st to February 28th, 2013.

Cold Winter Nights Hunt:  The Cold Winter Nights Hunt is a high quality gridwide hunt from 50 of your favorite designers and stores. Set your diary to midnight on January 15th and get ready to hunt! Each quality item in this hunt only costs 10 Lindens! Be sure to check out their website for more details: http://coldwinternightshunt.wordpress.com/.

Art & Exhibitions:

Manilism: Manilism is a collaboration between new media artists Julius Redillas and Richard Coronel. This multimedia installation features the premiere of the video Bleached Nightmare, performances and a sound art. The sim runs from February 1st through the end of February. Come and see.

Angelwood Bay Arts Center: Angelwood Bay Arts Center is a pioneering venture to help artists make the transition from SL to RL and vice versa. Angelwood Bay is honored to present five great artists at their opening on Feb.14th, 2013. Make the connection at http://bit.ly/XjxDb8.

Split Screen Installation Space:  The fantastical installation “Yes, Giovanni” by Yooma Mayo is showing at the Split Screen Installation Space, along with Pixels Sideways’s “Afterlife.” Showing through February 28th, this isn’t a show to miss.

LEA Arts Festival:  What better way to showcase the work of over 30 artists, performers and machinimatographers than with a month-long celebration in February? The LEA Arts Festival features twenty full sims of art installations, machinima screenings, artist talks, interviews, performances, classes and more! Opening day is Feb 2nd with a packed schedule of great events. Read more at http://lindenarts.blogspot.com

Danger in Evolution: DangerInEvolution is a project born from an artistic collaboration between Kicca Igaly and Nessuno Myoo for the LEA (Linden Endowment for the Arts). DangerInEvolution makes it possible to see the contradiction at the heart of any technological and scientific evolution that fails to take into account, maturity and an awareness and value of all potential risks. The installation is open from now until the end of February.

CitySphere: Welcome to Citysphère, a new vision of Second Life. A city with 132 buildings distributed on a floating sphere, this mind-bending experience features three times the surface area of most sims and must be seen. For more information, and important Citysphere advice, go to bit.ly/RNdSf1. The exhibition runs throughout the month.

Puzzles/Games:

The Winter Safety Game:
Winter weather can be a killer. The challenge of The Winter Safety Game is to prepare home, barn, and car for a winter blizzard and travel safely through it to Grandma’s 75th birthday party. Score points by interacting with content, encountering a variety of hazardous situations and solving problems. Collect enough points to access skating, fireworks, and prizes at the party. Open now through March 20th.

Aug 25 2012

Relay For Life InWorldz Highlights: Why I Relay?

The attendees of the Relay For Life InWorldz kick off answer the question ‘Why I  Relay’

“I relay for my maternal grandmother who I never knew who passed when my mother was quite young and for my many co-workers and associates who have lost family.” – Ivanglas Randall (Relay For Life Volunteer)

“ I relay because I am a Survivor and the world needs MORE survivors. I relay because I am a Caregiver and the world needs MORE caregivers. BUT I relay because on July 4th, 2012, I joined the battle again and the world does NOT need any more of THAT. ” – Aryon Dagger (Cancer Survivor, Caregiver and Relayer Volunteer)

“ My father was 1st time as a caregiver some 22 years ago and I am so thankful here still with me today, but Some of my friends won their battle too. But I also lost many dear friends to this horrible disease and I can not stand by and do nothing. SO I Relay for all of them and everyone I meet. I am not the same person I was 4 years go, Relay was a life changing event just like so many. It changed my goals for the future and how I choose to do with my life.” – Bain Finch (Caregiver, Relay For Life InWorldz PR Chairman)

“ I relay because I lost my mother to cancer the day after Christmas 1992 and my sister is a survivor of breast cancer.” kyfire Oakleaf ( Relay For Life Volunteer)

“In my work i’ve seen such bravery and such courage. Much to give me inspiration and reflection on the strength of the human spirit.” – Kasha Selona (Relay For Life Volunteer) :

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Aug 25 2012

InWorldz Relay For Life: History Made.

Today InWorldz celebrated a day in history, when they were able to join the fight against Cancer. Relay for Life came to inWorldz. It was a small and short but  a powerful get together that ended with everyone dancing to celebrate a great achievement for the Virtual World. Amongst the speakers was an American Cancer Society representative, who in world is called “Sting RayMaker”. He states:

“ There are so many things that you could be doing with your avatars right now, but you haveSting RayMaker_001 chosen to make a real difference in the fight against cancer by using the coolest tools at your disposal…a virtual world!   First, I want to thank everyone involved with Relay For Life of InWorldz, starting with our Teams, Captains, Volunteers, sponsors, committee members, media partners, and the reason why we Relay…our cancer survivors and their caregivers. It’s important to also recognize the relentless efforts of the people who blazed the trail…who would let no obstacle stand in their way of making this happen. The road to this day has been long and bumpy. Continue reading →

Aug 7 2012

Around the World: Old NYC

On this edition of Around the World, we have a treat for all of you Big Apple fans out there! This week we explore the Old NYC Sim.

oldnyc_001

Old NYC was started in 2008. The previous sim owner, spent an entire year to build the sim, which included the Brooklyn Bridge, which currently spans two sims. In 2009 the original sim was sold to the current sim owners, Rickie Jameson and Delilah Buscaylet, who added the Staten Island sim, rebuilt the sim, and expanded the Brooklyn Bridge to span over both sims. The sims are not based on roleplay but more of a residential feel for people to enjoy their own slice of New York in Second Life.

Continue reading →

Aug 5 2012

So You Want to Own a Business in Second Life – Land Sales & Rentals

In this installment of So You Want to Own a Business in Second Life, we will look at the land sales and rentals business in Second Life. The land sales and rentals business in Second Life can be one of, if not the most, expensive type of business to own in Second Life.

Before jumping into the land market in Second Life, decide how much you can afford to spend in Second Life, as costs can jump relatively quickly. Land in Second Life is divided into mainland or estate property. Mainland property is limited to 40 avatars, has no covenant, and you do not get estate rights with mainland property. If you own a private estate, then you can have a max of 100 avatars, your choice of a covenant, and you get the estate permissions.

Continue reading →

Jul 27 2012

Getting Started InWorldz – The viewers of InWorldz

Just like Second Life, you need a viewer to get to InWorldz. Many of those that works with Second Life works with InWorldz as well, although not all of them are officially supported.
Today, I’ll just go over the ones that are supported and look at some of the pros and cons of these viewers.

InWorldz: Nothing much harder than the official viewer. This is the one that the team recommends, since they know it has all the functions they have released on the grid. It supports all the functions officially released, but some inherited functions from the OSGrid (that IW is based on) doesn’t work properly.

Continue reading →

Jul 21 2012

Getting Started: InWorldz

InWorldz is an 18+ Virtual World based on the Open Sim software, and has 50,000 members but is continuing to Snapshot_002grow. InWorldz, although its own virtual world, could be said to resemble Linden Labs’ Second Life, in terms of building, clothes making, photography and viewers. Scripting may seem similar to that of Second Life but, if you ever tried to copy a script that was made in SL to InWorldz, it wouldn’t work.

Signing up

Signing up to inWorldz is just signing up to any website. Just a short form, and download their viewer. If you have a viewer that is compatible with inWorldz, for example CoolVL, Imprudence, Firestorm 4.1 or Phoenix, you can use these to sign in. InWorldz also have their own third-party viewers. Continue reading →

an InBiz Terminal, they all look like this
Jul 18 2012

Getting Started InWorldz – Where is the marketplace?

InWorldz is quite different from Second Life in many instances, one of the most common questions when crossing over from SL to IW is “Where can I find the marketplace?”.

InWorldz have something called InBiz, that is much like the Marketplace for SL, but works differently. Because IW is so young, InBiz is still rather undeveloped when it comes to the users on it. There aren’t nearly as many items on it, some users have put things in the wrong category (they do that in SL too, but the smaller volume of InBiz makes it more noticable) and there are a few items that doesn’t deliver as they should (still, as in SL, but more noticable due to less volume).

Continue reading →

Jul 5 2012

So You Want to Own a Business in Second Life – Part 4 (Content Creation)

The Second Life prim categories

In this installment of So You Want to Own a Business in Second Life, we will look at content creation.

Prims, prims, and more prims! Everywhere you look there are prims arranged and made into some of your favorite items. From your Second Life furniture to that car you may drive around on the mainland, someone had to create those prims and you can too!

When getting started with content creation, decide what exactly you want to make. You can make clothing or furniture. You could decide to build vehicles or residential/commercial structures.  You can also build whatever strikes your fancy!

After you decide what you want to start building, make sure you are familiar with popular design programs such as Photoshop or Gimp, if you want to make your own textures. If you plan to build in mesh, then you should be familiar with programs such as Blender or Maya.

You can find some tutorials on these programs and many others on the official Second Life Wiki Creation Portal. Some of your creations may require scripting, so you should brush up on the Linden Scripting Language (LSL). You can find help on using LSL by visiting the official LSL Portal.

You can also find classes in world from a variety of places. Two of some of the most popular content creation courses can be found at Builder’s Brewery and Caledon Oxbridge University. You can also find many other classes by visiting the Creator Resources category on the Second Life Destinations Page.

Of course you can use the many available clothing templates or full perm items that you can find in world or on the Second Life Marketplace to help cut the time when creating content. However, be sure to read the licensing terms on anything you obtain in world or on the marketplace, that you want to use in your own creations. Licensing can vary from item to item.

You can either use content you create for your own personal usage or you can make it available commercially on the Second Life Marketplace, via an in world shop, or use both methods to sell your content. Most content in world is sold via the usage of vendors. You can find a variety of vending packages in world and on the marketplace, be sure to become overly familiar with your chosen vending system or you may decide to script your own.

With any business in Second Life, content creation requires time and patience, as well as a great deal of customer support if you make your content available commercially, but the results can be rewarding and fun!

Join us next week, as we discuss the property business in our next installment of So You Want to Own a Business in Second Life.

 

related: Building Tutorial