Interview With Steven Strikker, Zodiack Grid Musician

By Netera Landar

 

“The thing I enjoy most is knowing that the folks attending are enjoying the musical experience and the way the songs move our emotions. Over time, you can see camaraderie and friendships building, and that is the most precious of all.”

---Steven Strikker

Steven and Bec Strikker are often in the audience during Austin Moores’ sets. The Angels let him know when singers are present so he can announce it during his shows. I took it a step further by asking Steven for an interview. I wanted to learn more about his interest in music, what he sings, and whether he plays the guitar.

The only way I could see Steven in action was creating an avatar in the grid he performs in. So off to the Zodiack grid I went, and I was not disappointed. I already knew some of the residents and felt very comfortable there. They even offered me a beautiful home so I could spend more time on the grid. 

Steven’s musical inspiration began when he watched a PBS concert featuring pianist Arthur Rubinstein. He wasn’t even five years old when his mother recognized his interest and enrolled him in piano lessons. For several years, he participated in numerous youth concerts, continued piano lessons, and learned to read sheet music, laying the foundation for his knowledge. The concert band provided additional training. 

Steven said that learning to play your favorite songs was done by repeatedly playing records. Today, you can search for lessons online for most of the songs you’re interested in learning.

“I continued participating in concert and stage band through high school graduation,” said Steven. “Stage band led me to take up guitar because we had an overabundance of drummers and a shortage of guitarists.”

Then came the formation of a rock band with the goal of performing at parties. After a few years of performing with a group in front of live audiences, the band took time to focus on establishing their personal careers and getting on track with their life goals.

When Steven began working in the new tech industry during the Internet's introduction, he networked with several other hobbyist musicians.

“I played in bands made up of fellow co-workers during the startup frenzy of the 90’s. I met up with a drummer looking to get a band together to play private parties, weddings in particular,” he said. “Eleven years of fairly solid experience was gained and enjoyed by all. The next leg of my musical journey was inspired by a friend of a mutual friend, and the pub band known as Midway was born.”

Steven has wonderful memories of time shared with Abe, Curtis, Dan and Dean. Midway represented over ten years of his musical journey. Today, he performs on his own with backing tracks. He admitted that he misses the synergy of performing with other musicians.

The following artists continue to motivate Steven: Johnny Cash for country music, John Denver for Folk, and Led Zeppelin for rock and roll. His previous focus on classical music has gifted him with an appreciation for all genres of music.

“The most influential time period for me was around the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976. I was fortunate to be able to attend quite a few concerts in the area I live in, around Detroit, Michigan, either at Cobo Hall, Joe Louis, Pontiac Stadium, or Pine Knob Music Theater during my youth, as well as later on,” he said.

I asked Steven how he learned about Second Life. He had been playing the PC game “Sims” with his daughter, learning to make furniture and clothing to bring into the game and share with the game’s fan base. When a fellow techie co-worker mentioned that he should be making and selling virtual items in Second Life, he began researching the virtual world concept created by Second Life. He joined in 2012.

Steven found Second Life’s music scene interesting and engaging. He was curious about how singers and musicians brought their music in-world, so he spent time in the Nashville region singing and playing his guitar in local voice. Avatars passing him on the sim asked each other if he was a new bot. 

He learned how to set up his home studio by asking DJs questions. They told him how to rent a stream and recommended software he could use to broadcast. 

“I use Mixxx for streaming because it’s simple, free, and meets all my needs, and Sparrow Industries streaming service is impeccable. I keep my setup simple, with everything just as I would for a wedding or a pub gig,” he said. “Everything is input into my Mixx software and subsequently to the region I’m performing at. As a result, I hope what I hear in the studio is quite like what is heard in-world.”

His first gig in Second Life was at the Merry Prankster, during open-mic nights. He then played regularly at Star Dancer’s club before moving on to OpenSim venues.

“InWorldz was a hot new thing, and I played there for many years at Paradise Piazza, and then again in Great Canadian Grid and Bridgemere grids at the same club, chasing it as both InWorldz and GCG shut down,” he said. “I’ve been performing at Zodiazk grid’s Hooligan’s night club for about a year now, enjoying it immensely.”

Steven enjoys OpenSim because the atmosphere is more relaxed; he doesn’t have to worry about earning tips to pay his monthly tier. He knows there are many talented composers and artists in what he calls the “Big City” grid of Second Life, compared with those in OpenSim. He wants to add to OpenSim’s entertainment lineup.

“The thing I enjoy most is knowing that the folks attending are enjoying the musical experience and the way the songs move our emotions. Over time, you can see camaraderie and friendships building, and that is the most precious of all,” he told me.

Asked what he finds challenging performing in-world, he said, “Sometimes I play what I call an unplugged set with only me singing, playing guitar, and occasionally harmonica, but I usually play with what most would call backing tracks of the songs I perform, minus the lead vocal and guitar parts that I play. Keeping time with backing tracks is a challenge because those musicians never miss a beat and always follow the structure of the song to a tee.”

Right now, he’s fine with a once-weekly performance schedule. It leaves free time for future real-life performances with a band at his favorite pub. He’ll keep it casual, so it doesn’t feel like his day job.

He attends the sets of Second Life and OpenSim singers who inspire him with their talent. He named a few that he admires and listens to regularly, and he said there are many more. On his list are: Max Kleene, Noma Falta, Mikie String, Effinjay, Anderson Parkes, Marqs DeSade, Austin Moores, and Ms. Natalie.

Who has supported him along the way? According to Steven, everyone. His audience, friends, and family alike. 

“The time you have taken to interview me is part of that support, as well. My partner, Bec, devotes substantial time and effort to creating and managing everything from my set to scheduling, as well as inspiration for new songs to learn. I greatly appreciate that.”
 
Check out Hooligan’s on Zodiack grid. Use OpenSim Firestorm.

hop://zodiack.net:8002/Laredo/129/158/23
 

Netera Landar

 

Other Grids 

More on Facebook And Meta And Virtual World Plans, Grumpity Linden's Interview

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

Late last month in late October, Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook the company would be changing it's name to "Meta" to reflect it's plans to build a huge virtual world called the "Metaverse." Since then, there's been more than a few comments and developments.

As the term "Metaverse" was developed by Neal Stephenson in his cyberpunk novel "Snow Crash," he was interviewed about Facebook's move. "It’s flattering when readers take the work seriously enough to put their own time and money into bringing similar ideas to fruition," he remarked, "... science fiction writers have occasionally been given credit for inspiring real-life inventions, so this is not new and it’s not unique. I was aware of that fact thirty years ago when I wrote 'Snow Crash,' but I didn’t necessarily expect it to happen." He had never spoken to Zuckerberg, nor expected any kind of compensation, "In order to get compensation from FB or any other company I would need to sign some kind of deal in which I gave the company rights to some IP in exchange for payment."

As it turns out, Facebook may have a problem as another company filed first for rights for the name. Meta PC, which has been in business for a little more than a year, decided to officially apply for the name in August. The founders Joe Darger and Zack Shutt say they're willing to let Facebook have the name, but only if the larger company pays them 20 million. They also poked fun at Facebook by photoshopping a picture of Mark Zuckerberg holding one of their computers. Since neither company officially owns the name, Facebook may still be able to get it. But this oversight is resulting in a few chuckles. In the meantime, the result has been a great amount of free publicity for the smaller company, which saw it's social media followers increase by fifty times.

And what do the people at Linden Lab think of Facebook's move? Grumpity Linden, or Anya Kanevsky in real life, was interviewed by the French magazine Le Journal du Net (JDN). "It's interesting to see this interest in the metaverse from the Epic Games and Facebook announcements," Grumpity commented, " A metaverse is a collection of connected virtual worlds. In a sense, Second Life is a full-fledged metaverse. A living place in which, in the form of an avatar, you can stroll through shopping malls, go to the beach, visit art galleries, etc. Second Life also has its own economy and its own currency, the Linden Dollars."

She would go on to say that Zuckerburg and his people, "realized that the reputation Facebook has forged over time can be a barrier. This lack of confidence in the company exists and there will have to be a number of levers of confidence to allow those who wish to explore these virtual worlds. At Second Life, we ensure the privacy of our residents. For example, some assume their homosexuality in Second Life, but we know that some may live in areas of the world where their sexual orientation could lead them to prison. We are therefore extremely vigilant on this issue of data security. With the immense wealth of data in the hands of the digital giants, it will be necessary to ensure the protection of the privacy of the users of these virtual worlds."

Grumpity would remind that most content in Second Life, "was created by our residents and not by Linden Lab employees. We just play the role of facilitator. This represents our vision of the metaverse. I don't see how creating different games that would be connected to each other could be akin to the metaverse. In my eyes, this is content created by companies for users. For the metaverse to exist, it must be created and managed by the people who live there."

Sansar and it's option to wear VR helmets came up, "Many were not thrilled with the idea of ​​carrying these VR headsets that are quite heavy and require enough space at home to be able to use them. If virtual reality allows for an immersive and incomparable experience, we observed that few of our residents were ready to wear these helmets for more than thirty minutes. So we plan to keep trying new things around virtual reality, but VR isn't the only possible future for Second Life."

Grumpity would remind Linden Lab's virtual world was still making money, "In 2020, the creators of Second Life collected nearly $ 73 million. Many of them use the platform as a completely or have made it their main source of income." Although the Pandemic was ending, the people who signed on or returned were still logging on to Second Life, "even if they spend less time there."

The interview can still be read on the JDN website. As it's in French, English speakers may need to copy-paste in Google translate or have some other way of traslating it. Inara Pey would also write about it.

As time goes on, no doubt there will be more developments about Meta and it's plans to go into virtual worlds. Stay tuned for further details.

Sources: Axios, TMZ, IGN, JDN,

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Mooogle As A Search Engine For The Metaverse

By Marcel Mosswood

As an Internet user, what is important and what you should be able to do? Know how to find a website or information that meets your needs among millions of other websites. We know Google as the most popular search engine today for all web needs, if we search for one keyword, it will display a larger selection of websites thar might suit our needs. But what if we just want to find websites related to the Metaverse?

One day, I tested with the words "Marcel and Sebastian's." What appears there is not what I meant. Then I expanded the words to include "art gallery," and it displayed art galleries in the real world, and a very small number in the Metaverse. It's hard to find anything specific about the Metaverse world. But do you know about Mooogle?

Mooogle is a search engine specifically for all websites of the Metaverse. So if I search with the keyword "art gallery," then it will display all websites that discuss art galleries in the virtual world. Likewise, if I search for education, all that comes up is about education in the Metaverse. With Mooogle, I can easily search for information about the Metaverse world.

How to access it simply by clicking on: https://mooogle.gridlist.info/ then fill in the keywords in the search box. It's as easy as turning your palm. If your website that contains your adventure in the metaverse world can't be displayed by this search engine, then you need to register your website at https://dir.mooogle.gridlist.info/suggest.php?action=addlink&catid=0 Registration is very easy. And in no more than forty-eight hours, your website can be found in Mooogle search engine.

If you want to find out more about Mooogle please click here:
https://wiki.gridlist.info/mooogle?fbclid=IwAR2SEAP0s2qm5EEw3VBQx3ZqSLgaCK_E3_8bwcpjUx47c-dUza0gYIIOA8U

Marcel Mosswood

Copybotted Avatar From Second Life Discovered on OpenSim World

By Bixyl Shuftan

(with help from Nydia Tungsten)

With the collapse of InWorldz, there's been increased focus on the Opensim worlds lately. Most residents of Second Life have been okay with, if not happy about, other virtual worlds. But a few have expressed some caution. Among the worries the skeptics of the smaller OpenSim worlds have is that of copybotting. At least one content creator told me he would have nothing to do with InWorldz as he considered it a copybot haven. This was not true as InWorldz's staff and residents alike would take action against copiers. But what about other places? As often as someone's items up for sale in Second Life get copied and sold as someone else's, is this problem even worse in the smaller grids?

The problem came to light to me when my friend Nydia Tungsten came to me after a trip to the Tranquility OpenSim grid. There, she found a surprise. She showed me a picture of a mesh furry fox avatar being given out at a store that looked just like the recent Jomo mesh avatars which have been available in Second Life for some months. The display claimed they were copyrighted and from the Sacrarium Grid. Other pictures she handed me showed the mesh avatar at different angles. The name she gave me of the place was "Golden River Furry Paradise."

Nydia eventually ran into someone she was told to instant message, Jadore Dior. Jadore told Nydia the group had been in trouble before, saying "we had ban them 'cause we (got a) notice they were Grid copying." Nydia had hoped I could get on Tranquility to talk to her more. But unfortunately, that OpenSim world would be out of my reach. I would have only the information she gave me to work with.

The owner of Jomo was xiaoduo Abbot. I would contact him and let him know about the copybotting. He double checked with me to make sure this wasn't some place in Second Life. He then thanked me for the alert.

As it turns out, the Sacrarium Grid that the copybotters claimed to be from was the subject of a HyperGrid Business article in which the virtual world had taken action against both copybotters and ageplayers. Some of these people had been previously banned from other grids. "Bad actors hop between grids," the newsletter stated. So on the question of do OpenSim worlds try to protect content rights, the answer is yes. What happens next with these Jomo copybotters? Time will tell.

Pictures from Nydia Tungsten
Source: HyperGrid Business

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: More On InWorldz's Closing

By Bixyl Shuftan

InWorldz is gone.

Due to shut down on Friday July 27, the place began going down Thursday night as sims were shut down, and people packed their items away as the management stated they would try to save what could be through an OARS. On Friday, people could still log in at 2:30 PST, but soon after when yours truly was there, the last of the sims couldn't be acessed. From the chatter on Discord's InWorldz group, and the newly created InWorldz Disporia and Relay For Life of InWorldz, it looks like a few people were able to hang on for a while and even relog. but by Saturday July 28 at Noon, the last few people finally lost their grip as the place went completely offline.

There's a lot of sadness, confusion, and more than a little anger. And that's certainly to be expected. While HyperGrid Business reported about merchants in the virtual world being "concerned about perceived drop in users and commercial activity and worry that the grid owners are no longer committed to the success of the grid," the announcement on Monday hit people by surprise. "Why did she not have the funds to pay her bills?" As the co-founder of the place hasn't been around for over a year, he can't say. When another noted virtual world, Avination, went down, the reasons were the company's cash reserves being wiped out by thieves using stolen credit card numbers to buy virtual currency, and then a "catastrophic" data loss it couldn't afford to pay to fix. And this grid had a far smaller population, and numbers of private sims than InWorldz. How did a larger gird that escaped problems on this scale go under?

All we have to go on is Beth Reischl's explanation was that she took out a loan from a subsidiary of Paypal, of which she seemed to be saying she'd taken out loans before to cover development costs, and despite the money being available to pay them, for some reason the company declared "non-sufficient funds" and took out a lien against them. She stated when she called them to resolve the issue, the person she talked with was "very combative" in blaming her for the situation, and further attempts to resolve the situation were fruitless.

The Gofundme campaign Reischl started adds to the confusion. Started in an attempt to try to save the grid, once most of the money was raised, she stated that instead the money would be used to help make a new grid. Why the sudden change? Her words, "What then, what about next month?" was a suggestion the money troubles were pretty deep. The sudden change in the reasons for the Gofundme plus questions as to how the Grid could have found itself in need of a loan made for a lot of confused people, as well as a number of angry ones who suspected something fishy was going on.

Those whom were exclusively or mainly using InWorldz have a choice of where else to go. At least one, Mobius, is taking the moment to offer them a break if they move there.

To every resident of InWorldz,

We are sad to see InWorldz go, and you might need a new home so we at Mobius are offering to InWorldz Residents who want to make Mobius that when you order a region with the coupon code TTL31 you get the region 50% off for each month you have your region until you close it down. This offer ends 9/9/2018.

As Hypergrid Business stated, "for people looking for a closed, commercial grid" like InWorldz (or Second Life), which offer greater control over who can get in (such as griefers) and more power to protect content creators, there aren't that many options out there, "The three major closed grids are The Adult Grid, Virtual Highway, and DreamNation. There are also several educational grids that are closed, and some grids run by companies and other organizations that require privacy or control. Almost all other grids are hypergrid-enabled. As of May, hypergrid-enabled grids accounted for 98 percent of all OpenSim land area and 97 percent of all active users." According to a poll Hypergrid is doing, and still ongoing, the results as of the writing of this article suggests the greater shares of InWorldz users are heading to the Discovery and DigiWorlds grids, with Kitely in third place. As of July 28, Hypergrid says in DigiWorldz there have been "more than 250 new user registrations since July 24, and has up up 71 new regions." Maria Korolov's article would give a rundown of many of the worlds InWorldz users could head to (besides Second Life, of course).

Besides how come InWorldz went down, there have been a few questions yours truly has been asked. One is will there be a replacement for the InWorldz grid and when will it be? As of the writing of this article, there's been no date given for the opening of this replacement grid, or it's name. And outside the core group of hopeful inWorldz fans, it's usually being called the possible new grid or plans for a new grid. But there are a couple Discord groups, InWorldz and InWorldz Disporia one can join to talk to InWorldz members for possible information. But at this time, so far it's all speculation. It's current tech department head, Jim Tarber, has stated that he will not be part of any successor to InWorldz.

Talla Adam of the Metaverse Traveller would say, "No date has been mentioned for InWorldz II to open but it will probably be several weeks given the amount of work to do. When it does open, some may well return. So for some of the departing refugees it might be a two-way tip - hard to say really. But there is a lot of bad feeling and people feel put out losing stuff and having to move anyway. The longer it takes to rebuild will also play a part in determining how many will return."

What will happen to the Relay for Life in InWorldz event? In short, without an InWorldz and no date given for the supposed replacement grid, it's a safe bet that the event won't be happening. What is likely to happen is that the event will be moved to another virtual world. Which one this will be is unknown as to how long the decision might be. One can check the Relay for Life of the Metaverse Discord group for possible details.

Could this happen to Second Life? In short, not any time soon. While Linden Lab has been accused of a number of things, rightly and wrongly, over the years, not having a desire to watch the bottom line is something it seldom is. About a little over a year ago, it was suggested the Lab was making 65 to 70 million dollars USD. But while it's finances are sound for now, over the past several years Second Life has undergone a slow but persistent long-term decline in the number of it's sims. While it has been hoped that Linden Lab's recent adjustments in what it charges for sim tier can reverse this trend, the results are still less than conclusive. Even if this trend is halted, there's still the chance a future CEO could pull a series of blunders on the scale of the Content Creator Terms of Service controversy right when someone develops a virtual world that unlike Sansar people can make a virtual home instead of simply an experience. So trying to predict Second Life's future beyond a decade becomes problematic. But unless there's a global catastrophe such as a worldwide economic depression or a planetary power grid failure from a solar flare, it's a safe best the virtual world we know and love will still be around for several more years at least.

As hundreds, probably thousands as the days go on, set up in a new virtual world, and residents from Second Life look outside wondering what happened, no doubt there's many smaller stories to be told. Feel free to send the Newser any reader submissions about your experiences in InWorldz, or your new home.

Sources: Hypergrid Business, The Metaverse Traveller, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

InWorldz's Rise and Decline

By Bixyl Shuftan

Four and a half years ago, the future of the InWorldz virtual looked bright. It was growing in terms of both active users and regions, notably a number of residents of Second Life whom were taking an increasing interest in this other grid which while the largest of the OpenSim worlds had remained a distant second place compared to the larger and more established virtual world. Today, InWorldz is facing the end. A statement made by it's owner Beth Reischl stated due to financial troubles, the virtual world's servers would be going down Friday July 27.

So what happened? While the relationship between Linden Lab and it's customers, the residents of Second Life, has always been a little problematic, about four and a half years ago it was worse. This was the "Rod Linden" period in which aside from responding to problems, the Lindens didn't talk much to the residents aside from the occasional statement. They made a number of clumsy moves, such as the 2013 Third-Party Currency Exchanger Ban that was lifted only when there were entire communities talking about leaving Second Life for other places. A few months later was the Content Creator Terms of Service controversy in which a poorly-written change to the Terms of Service in regards to the rights of content creators that with a public already wary of Linden Lab's moves, the result was some seeing the Lab as preparing to sell the content of it's users as it's own, possibly as part of an "exit strategy" of either closing down Second Life or transforming it into a much more tightly controlled place. It's hard to saw how many believed this, but the way Linden Lab had been acting, even those less prone to panic were thinking it could happen.

And so many residents of Second Life began taking a more serious look at the second-largest virtual world around: InWorldz. Tuna Oddfellow closed down his one of a kind performance in the more established virtual world and reopened it in the second-largest. I soon found the free Wingless avatars on InWorldz, then Luskwood was offering to give SL residents on IW a copy of the avatar they purchased on the larger virtual world. The Podex third-party currency exchanger set up shop in InWorldz. While there was already a Relay for Life in InWorldz, it became much larger, an InWorldz-Second Life Connection Center to aid SL residents new to the smaller grid sprang up, there was a meeting to discuss questions about InWorldz in Second Life, and more.

With all the attention on InWorldz, it was time for the Newser to make a small change. Where we once stuck such articles in "Extra," we created a new section, "Other Grids, MMOs, and Games." We would interview the founder of InWorldz. And then there were my virtual neighbors in the Sunweaver/Angel community. Nydia took an interest in the Connection Center, and when it's founder suddenly up and closed it she helped create a new one. The Sunweavers/Angels would also get a couple sims as a "life boat" for our community just in case Linden Lab really did shut down Second Life, still spending most of our time in the established virtual world, but getting to know the new one a little. With all this attention, InWorldz soon reached a total of 100,000 accounts, and it's fifth anniversary party was a happy occasion, that of a small but growing virtual world on the rise.

It's a good question of how things would have turned out for InWorldz had Linden Lab persisted in it's 2013 third-party currency exchanger ban, and if it's blunders in 2015 such as the closing of the SS Galaxy and the near-shutdown of the Grendel's Children mall had happened a year earlier. But even as the smaller virtual world was celebrating the promise of a brighter future, things were already turning around at Linden Lab. In January 2014, Rod Humble stepped down as CEO, and in February Ebbe Altberg took his place. Linden Lab under Altberg became more talkative to people, and among the first things he announced was that the controversial changes in the Terms of Service in regards to content creators would be undone. And in July they were changed to the satisfaction of most.

With the reasons InWorldz was getting more attention now relaxed, residents in Second Life became less inclined to hop over. The Relay for Life would continue to hold events there. But overall attention fell. With Linden Lab announcing the development of their next-generation virtual world Sansar, perhaps attention that would have otherwise been paid to InWorldz by residents of Second Life was focusing there. The Newser itself would continue to pay a little attention to InWorldz, but not as much. The numbers of active users would go up and down some, then in Spring 2015 start a decline that would continue. The number of sims would spike in mid-2015, then start to decline. The decline in sim numbers was slower than the numbers of active users, though. Then InWorldz found itself facing competition not just from Second Life, but another OpenSim world. Kitely grew rapidly in just a few years to become about half InWorldz size in the number of registered users. By 2015, the two grids were about equal, and in 2017 Kitely had become the largest of the OpenSim grids. Another grid, Avination, which was a competitor for the largest OpenSpace world in their early days, was the target of theft by criminals, and then hit by a "catastrophic" data failure that led to it going under in 2017.

InWorldz itself began making some moves that raised more than a few questions. This had begun early on when in August 2013 their General Discussion forums were closed, citing an increased activity of trolling and hateful posts that was taking time and effort to moderate them away from their activities in keeping up the grid. In April 2017, they announced they would no longer publish their statistics of how many regions or active users they had. And to a number, this was a signal the grid was in decline, and the owner wasn't sure how to stop it other than hide it. Reischl was distancing InWorldz from other OpenSim worlds, insisting it wasn't really one, "InWorldz has moved on from Opensim a long time ago," and seemed to be saying she was no longer publicizing the statistics because of an "us vs them" attitude there.

In January, Hypergrid Business published an article saying merchants in InWorldz were becoming concerned about the grid's future. "...we have seen a drastic decline in sales and residents," one merchant told Hypergrid, requesting anonymity saying he was concerned about possibly being banned. An "InWorldz Chamber of Commerce" had been set up in fall 2016 "To help promote in-world commercial activity, and to collectively advocate on behalf of their interests." But their director expressed disapointment in her meetings with Reischl, Hypergrid reporting, "She said it was not her job to keep merchants or residents in InWorldz." The article also stated, "Residents have also complained on social media that the founders haven’t been paying attention to their concerns. Of the top managers, owner Reischl moved to Panama and founder and CTO David Daeschler has mostly moved on to other projects." Another resident commented that early on, "one of the best things about IW was the fact that it was so easy to talk to the founders on the forum and they actually listened to us and gave us feedback it made IW feel like a community." But now it was looking more and more like how she saw Second Life at the time she joined InWorldz.

As of the writing of this article, Reischl has launched a Gofundme that was initially stated as having the goal of trying to save InWorldz. But then after most of the money needed to reach the goal was reached, the objective changed from trying to save the grid to packing up to move to another grid. The result has been confusion and some anger, and eventually comments on the Gofundme disabled. And then donations were no longer being accepted. One complication of getting the facts about the situation is that one major source of news about InWorldz, Hypergrid Business, is not particularly liked by the virtual world's owner, "InWorldz has repeatedly complained about unfavorable coverage"

Either way, things look poor for the future of InWorldz. If the grid is saved with the intention of keeping it up, the near-shutdown will make it a challenge to do so. If instead the place is closed with it's staff forming a new Grid, they will essentially be starting all over again, along with anyone who goes with them. Not everyone wants to start all over again, even if they could take most of their things with them. One recalls the virtual world "There" which reopened a couple years after it closed, but has been a tiny shadow of it's former self. Also, not all of the content creators are happy with the idea of their goods being moved to another grid without their consent, so there is the possibility of legal action.

Where InWordz's residents go from here, judging from the comments I've read at least some will be sticking around, either in InWorldz or whatever grid takes its place. But others have expressed that from their point of view, the place they have known is finished. Where they go from here is speculation. It's a fair guess some will head to Second Life, especially those with friends and other ties there. Others will move on to Kitely, the virtual world that overtook InWorldz to be the largest OpenSim world. Perhaps some will move onto smaller OS worlds, or start their own for themselves and close friends. Some will have lost heart in virtual worlds alltogether, either taking a break before going back, or for good. And those with a lot of friends who go different directions may likely end up splitting their time between where they go, whether Second Life, another virtual world, an MMO, etc.

As a resident of Second Life whose main interest in virtual worlds has always been here, to me InWorldz was a smaller cousin of the virtual world I knew. It was place with a less of the hustle and bustle of the more established virtual world. There was less of a variety of things to buy, but I eventually found an avatar I was happy with. And if somehow Second Life went away, InWorldz would be there as a place me and my friends could continue to meet up. Now, it is going away, at best becoming something smaller and different from what we have known. It is an irony that a few years ago, a number of us were thinking Second Life was about to close down and were seeing InWorldz as our next home. Now, we watch as instead for all of our problems we are still afloat, while the place we were considering moving to is sinking. While perhaps someday there may be another virtual world that will take the place of Second Life, InWorldz isn't it.

Sources: InWorldz, Hypergrid Business, Gofundme

Bixyl Shuftan

Woodbury in Kitely Grid

By Bixyl Shuftan

Several years ago, there was a place and a group in Second Life known as "Woodbury." Based on a real-life University of the same name, the location and group soon became highly controversial, gaining a reputation for harboring griefers. Nonhuman avatars were reportedly a target of some of the griefers. Eventually, Linden Lab would shut down the sims and ban many of it's members.

Recently Woodbury would come in the spotlight again after it was revealed JP Laszlo/JPizzers, the former leader of the Trump Organization in Second Life, was now calling himself part of the group, I received a tip that the group had a sim in the Kitely Grid, an OpenSim-based virtual world. So I got onto the world, and found a place with the name on the map. And teleporting over, what I saw confirmed that it was the place.

Sims on Kitely are a bit different than on Second Life as they can be one to sixteen "regions" in size, but still count as a single sim. The Woodbury sim was a full-sized sixteen region sim with a mountain in the northeast, and urban building, much of it Soviet-themed. There was a formation of Russian bombers in the air. There was a sign with the logo that had been on JP's Twitter for several days before she took it down, "Make Woodbury Great Again." There were occasional animeish-looking builds of a girl wearing a Russian-military style cap carrying a bag of chips labeled in Japanese and a bottle of soda. In a couple places were towering space rockets. And there were the occasional statues.

I ran into one man while there. He was friendly enough to show me around, asking only that I not throw insults at anyone or otherwise grief the place. In Voice, he explained that they were in the middle of setting up several years worth of Woodbury builds from Second Life, and it would be at least a few more weeks until the place was finished. He called the mountain an "Indiana Jones" style place with plans for dorms inside. Of the various symbols inside, many were "inside jokes," some he had yet to figure out saying he was somewhat new. In one place was one building he called a representation of the real-life Woodbury University.

Because the place was in the middle of being built, many of what was there was in temporary locations, such as one submarine that was in the air. But he did say once it was finished, it would be a mix of themes with no real restrictions on what could be placed by it's members.

So it seems that the group that had been banned by Second Life has found a new home on another Grid. The one who spoke to me stated they've more or less left Second Life behind, not wanting trouble. But considering Woodbury's reputation, many would be skeptical.

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary:Tropical Paradise Closes, IW/SL Connection Center Owner Involved

By Bixyl Shuftan

Earlier this month, the Tropical Paradise virtual world closed down. "Hypergrid Business," a newsletter that covers Opensim worlds, quoted staff member Thishan Dezno as saying the place was "shut down with no warning to either its residents or its staff ... everything - including the grid, the website, Facebook (page) and Twitter (account) - were taken down without any prior notice or warning to anyone" Hypergrid reported many residents and some staffers had both cash and content on the grid.

Normally the fading away of a small virtual world would have nothing to do with Second Life. But curiously enough a name familiar to some who travel back and forth between it and InWorldz is involved: Amore Crux (amore.xofan).

To those who don't know, Amore was the founder of the InWorldz/Second Life Connection Center . On December 7, Amore suddenly announced without warning that the center was closing. Nydia Tungsten, involved with the group stated, "I was blindsided by the closing of their welcome centers then found out it was a decision Amore had made on his own because of.... 'differences'... he had with the founders, his decision affected ALL their members and left them out of the loop as to why and what would happen ..."

Then Amore just as quickly partially reversed himself, saying the group would be open, but on a smaller scale. Behind the scenes, he was making accusations. He told the group, created to help people make the transition from Second Life to InWorldz, not to assist anyone outside it. When I ran into and questioned him in InWorldz, he told the following:

"im expanding the center to include another grid and we'll from now on be totally grid neutral ... its the Tropical Paradise its a new grid started in maj this year ... im as of now Project Director for that grid ... and it means i need step back to be neutral in here ... ill be making a gate to that grid in SL as well its about 500 active members and many of the big creators/merchants you know from in here is in there already ..."

A little later in the conversation, "we have a direct communication me and the founders and they will also be free to use my system thats bullet proof and it works for any grid owners since its not based on a technical system that can be scamed like it seems to have happen in here ... but its a later matter to solve we also looking in to other services and the main task now is to get the welcome area to work as our connection centers" "So your system is 'scam proof?'" I asked, "That's quite a claim." "yes it is since its all on record and its based on old fashion cash for cash"

Of his shutting down the IW/SL Connection Center group, "this was really meant that i would need to run my self as you know i just wanted to build and normal ppl does but it kinda has been the demand from the members that has forced me to make it to what it is today" "So the group's now run essentially all by you now?" I asked. He went on, "and as i said im now turning it in the direction it was meant from start a members helping members group only and hopefully with not much need of me personally so me to can do whats fun :) "

Amore then began taking greater control of what could be spoken in the group's chat, stating in a group announcement:

But i've now added a extra member title level in the group which means no one directly gets the chat access by just join the group it gonna take a request to get that access and of course misbehavior leads to lose that right as well. Most of you already got the right set already i know i've missed some few but im working on that so just let me know if you not got the right to chat yet and i'll fix it asap! Until i've find a person that is fully trusteed that i can delegate to handle the request to be upgraded to chat access you send to ME directly!

Soon after two people told me they were muted.

As time went on, less attention was paid to Amore. Following the Grid's closing however, attention was back on him. In the Hypergrid article's comment second, one person commented, "Oh, and was this the one that 'Amore ' guy went to after forming that sl/iwz connection group thing, then leaving that and dissing them, then disappearing?" I called Amore and asked him about the matter. He told me that he'd gotten out of Paradise Grid in March, "all you need to say is all our group members was warned about join that grid a long long time ago so its not directly any news thinks"

The IW/SL notice history only went back thirty days, and was blank. Amore passed me a notecard which He told me was of the announcement. He claimed changes in the Grid began to put his group's money at risk, "the SCARY PART! ... You're NOT allowed by your OWN hand to quit the grid (terminate your account)!!! You're obligated to inform them you are, either directly or by their support page! (read their TOS) " The statement warned not to get in Tropical Paradise, and if you had invested money, consider it lost, "it proves that anyone can be fooled to trust wrong ppl"

Once again, Amore found himself in a controversy, although a smaller one this time. Still, his behavior with his suddenly closing, then just as quickly reopening the IW/SL Connection Center over differences with the InWorldz founders without consulting even his business partner then shutting her out, and now his involvement in a virtual world that suddenly closed and took all money invested with it, one can be pardoned for asking ...

Just what has Amore been up to?

Bixyl Shuftan

High Fidelity Alpha

By DrFran Babcock

Philip Rosedale is a genius and a visionary. Every day in Second Life™ is a wonder to me. Even more, there has been nothing to rival this virtual world in over ten years! I am so grateful to Second Life™, because it has brought me friends around the world, the wonder of creativity, and even the chance to do other things I love such as writing. I still marvel daily at the gift of this world of miracles, big and small. Have I gushed enough for you? If not, hold on while I tell you about my experience with High Fidelity.

What is High Fidelity?

High Fidelity, or HiFi is the newest brainchild of Philip Rosedale, and represents his plans for a new virtual world that is meant to improve upon and fix those things in SL that were problems for him, and many residents. If you go to the website (https://highfidelity.io ) the big quote on the home page is: “If it doesn’t hurt to think about it, we’re not going to try it.” Some of the things that will be addressed are latency, which relates to speed and lag. By speeding up the communications and musical interactions between avatars interactions will become more lifelike. If you have ever dealt with the pause between a performer finishing a song and your clapping in appreciation, you will like this. I remember Grace McDunnough (SL live performer) telling me how she had to wait a few beats after she finished a song before she responded to the audience, because they might still be hearing and seeing the end of the song. If the High Fidelity interface can make that response immediate, people will feel as if a true human connection has been made. 

Builders will be happy to hear that user-created content will be a feature. The unit of building is called a voxel, and it is a cube that can be scaled to any size to create a whole that will be capable of being complex and edited by others. Philip also wants avatars to be able to make facial expressions, and connect with other avatars. I know that most folks thought he was crazy when he envisioned Second Life™, so I bet he can pull this all off with his team.

My Experience in High Fidelity

I was thrilled when I found I had been accepted for the alpha opening of High Fidelity. I am not a coder, not a super content builder, and not a geek, but I told the team in my application, that they needed ordinary folks like me to assess the learning curve, and see what the new-user experience was like. I had a lot of trouble creating an account, but the team were very patient with me. I logged in finally when all of the meet-ups had concluded, and most of the content was missing. My huge “aha” moment came when I looked at the cute little robot that represented my brand new, un-customized avatar, and I smiled. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the avatar smile back at me! What I was really looking at was me, as viewed through the camera on my Mac. I hadn’t noticed that the red light on the camera was lit, and that my facial expressions were being recorded.

So, this is alpha, and it’s pretty primitive, but I am a fan, and I am in for the ride. I will take you all along with me.

Phil recently addressed the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Meetup, and demonstrated the current progress with his huge and ambitious project. Jo Yardley, of Berlin 1920s fame covered the meeting on her blog (Philip’s presentation starts at about 42 minutes into the video): (http://joyardley.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/hifiprogress/). Watch this video, because  you may be amazed.

DrFran Babcock

New Second Life / InWorldz Group: The Grid Walkers Welcome Center

By Bixyl Shuftan

In recent months, interest in the InWorldz virtual world has been growing. The majority of people visiting the place have been from the larger Grid of Second Life, often annoyed with updates that their computers have problems with or policies from Linden Lab that they do. But without anyone or anything to help you out, it can get pretty confusing on how to go about there.

Fortunately help arrived in the form of the InWorldz / Second Life Connection Center. This group in both grids, with locations in both, helped residents from the older grid get started and go about on the new one. It also helped organize a public discussion in Second Life about what was true and what wasn't about InWorldz.

But without any warning, on December 8 Amore Crux, the owner of the Connection Center, suddenly announced the group was closing. While the groups themselves have remained open, many of the staff have found themselves locked from posting, and most of the virtual locations were deleted. Zia Larina, the former manager of the center, was caught off guard like everyone else, and made a public statement to help clear up some misinformation going around. There has been much speculation as to why Amore closed down the place, and the reasons are still unclear.

The group's sudden closing meant that residents commuting between the grids would be without reliable help. Nydia Tungsten of White Vixen Enterprises, which had cooperated with the IW / SL Connection Center, made the decision to found another group to take it's place: The Grid Walkers Welcome Center. Zia began helping her out from the start.

"We started the Grid Walker group to address the need that was made by Amore's announcement and then closure of all the Connection centers," Zia explained, "The volunteer coaching will continue and the coaches are willing to keep helping people. There is a connection between both worlds and a group we can stay in touch with each other here or in SL. I feel sad that the Decisions that were made. In the end playing our game is for us and being able to do that with help and laughter makes playing and working in both SL and IW enjoyable."

At the Angels Foxshire sim in InWorldz, managed by White Vixen Enterprises, Nydia explained, "We were planning to make this area a form of welcome center already, when we found Zia and Amore. I thought to join with them in promoting a cross grid community, that is why WVE and IW/SL got together to hold the Q&A meeting in SL. I was blindsided by the closing of their welcome centers then found out it was a decision Amore had made on his own because of.... "differences"... he had with the founders, his decision affected ALL their members and left them out of the loop as to why and what would happen now."

"The idea behind the group was too important to let hang in limbo, so together with Zia we have formed 'Grid Walkers Welcome Center,' leaving it open for not just SL and IW for for ALL grid visitors, we have a Inbiz ATM here now for those that need it, and it should also be said that there was NO disruption in ANY inbiz services."

Asked about InWorldz's rate of growth and if the new group can handle the influx if numbers continued to grow at the level, Nydia stated, "I think as the grid grows our group should grow and the number of guides along with it, I have every confidence Zia will handle and train our guides so they can handle the new arrivals as then get here."

So once again, Second Life residents needing help while getting themselves established in InWorldz have a place to turn to.

"In the end, words of intention are all fine. It is the actions that we do that people will grow to trust," Zia commented, "not our words, but our actions and our consistency."

Bixyl Shuftan

InWorldz/Second Life Connection Center Closes - Statement From Zia Larina

On December 7, Amore Crux suddenly announced the InWorldz/Second Life Connection Center was closing. Taking place less than a week after the discussion in Second Life about InWorldz which it helped organize, and about a day after the article on the event was published, this move was a complete surprise. Amore made a short anouncement, and deleted the center's regions in InWorldz and Second Life. The groups themselves are still up, though word is many people have already started leaving them.

Zia Larina, the manager of the Connection Center group and places, was not online at the time. Today, she made the following statement to the group in InWorldz and Second Life.

*  *  *  *  * *  *  *  *  * *  *  *  *  *

Hello A/all,

I had some things happen in my real life that needed my attention starting about a week ago.  I needed to give up the IRT management position because I have real-life schooling.  Because of some issues concerning classes I needed to let that go and just focus on the Coaching which allowed me to be more random in my schedule; focused around my real-life classes.  I am in my BS/MS degree program right now and that is my primary focus in my real life.

I was in SL when Amore decided to close the centers and send word in group chat here.  I received some IM's in SL saying to get to IW.  When I went to IW I was given many NC on the conversation that happened in the group chat.  I will attempt to answer the main questions that were being asked and didn't get addressed.

1)  I sincerely apologize for what happened yesterday and the choice of Amore to close the connection centers down.  It was a big shock to all of us and to be fair I am not sure what really happened.  He has officially closed them down and there is no going back from that.

2)  All of you that have been volunteering your time to help people link and get set up here in IW and making their expansion of game and business we can still help and I am leaving lm's at the bottom.  Any terminal can be used as a linking point to help people get connected.

3)  For those of us who wish to still have a help group in case this one gets shut down.  Contact Nydia Tungsten.  She has created a group here and in SL for those of us still wishing to have a help group for each other.  This is their attempt at participating in helping us in this new direction.

4)  Elenia did a clean house and removed 6K from the welcome center group last week it is in the forums on the website.  Elenia did have a private discussion with Amore and made and official request that he stop a certain provision (check certificates).  To be fair she has never said anything against the centers, the group, and sat on a stage with us in SL answering questions in the meeting last Saturday.  If her official stance was in distancing the founders away from connection to us and our group then she would never have sat on that stage and would have done official IW answers based on the Feed after the meeting was done.  I had been speaking with her last week about getting connecting link to help people know solidly the reporting  people if they had issues with specific people at the Welcome Center and how to navigate that.  This was going to be included in the Coaching staff pieces.

5)  InBiz is a viable and established business and the terminals are working and linking and transfer of fund is still running as it has always been available.  You are able to use any atm terminal in IW at any location to access InBiz market place and to transfer lindens to IW.  There is an InBiz HQ on SL side.  ......Ellesmere (173,26,147)

**when using any terminal that will take money from your account whether it is a store or an ATM use the ctrl+alt+T if the prims are NOT red they are safe to use.  Use the Ctrl+alt+T to turn off again and shop or transfer funds.

In Conclusion,  I did not agree with the decision and I can understand if there have been stresses on Amore that maybe we don't know about.  I am at a loss as to how I can help on a personal level and that can not be helped.  I so sincerely apologize for all for all of the upset.

There are some options for all of you if you wish.  I will continue to help people if they need it and be available for questions the best I can.  I am sorry that Amore chose to close the centers and I apologize for the closures of the physical center locations.  If you have any questions please IM or send a NC and I will do my best to get answers to you as soon as possible.  For those of you who were coaching please IM me you are still very much needed and we can stream line this process a bit more if you are willing.

Sincerely,

Zia Larnia ~~ Ex Manager of the Connection centers.

Answering Questions About the InWorldz Grid

On Saturday November 30th, a discussion about the InWorldz virtual world took place in Second Life. A stage had been set up in the Purrfection Estates sim, near the beach club there. Originally scheduled to start at Noon SL time, it was delayed a few minutes due to minor technical difficulties. The meeting and talk was hosted by Nydia Tungsten, the owner of White Vixen Enterprises which runs the sim.

Besides Nydia, on stage were Zia Larina and Amore Crux, who run the Second Life/InWorldz Connection Center in both grids. Elina Llewellyn, whom Zia identified as one of InWorldz' founders was there. Kelly Mekanic was also one of the speakers. Zia and Kelly used voice the majority of the time. The size of the audience varried, with people leaving early and dropping in late, though it is believed more than forty people saw at least part of the discussion.

The idea for the meeting came around mid-November due to Nydia and her friends getting asked a number of questions, and having a number of concerns mentioned about InWorldz. This included some harsh accusations about the place, calling it a pale imitation of Second Life, and worse. The owner of White Vixen Enterprises, which has recently purchased a couple sims in the InWorldz grid in addition to the number in Second Life it manages and outright owns, got together with Zia and Amore and soon organized the meeting.

Kelly Mekanic started off with explaining that had gotten her start in Second Life before expanding to InWorldz, later adding she was in the larger grid for seven years, and feeling the need for a "fresh start" went to InWorldz. She compared going between the two like traveling between the busy city and the quieter countryside. One thing that she disliked was the talk comparing Second Life to InWorldz turning into "Us Vs Them" talk, "you don't have to choose, you can do both." She loved InWorldz, and had no intention of stopping her going there.

Zia Larina added she too had started in Second Life and learned quite a bit there, including running sims, management, and time in business. Once in the InWorldz grid, she was able to focus more time on content creation. She found her time in both virtual worlds a positive experience. She commented if people found her voice unusual, it was from spending years on American Indian reservations.

There were numerous questions asked and answered. The first was about scripting in InWorldz. Elenia explained it was once based on the OpenSim code, but had long since branched out, "We have rewritten inventory, assets, physics and phlox which is our scripting engine from the ground up." One InWorldz resident present, Morrice DeClaun (morphman), commented, "There's some scripting differences, but not too many. And there's a great scripter community to find out what is different there." Kelly added, "InWorldz has done great work with the Beta mesh support viewer which is the equivalent in appearance and use of the Firestorm viewer that we here are used to without the new code that has caused apparently many issues for users with older comps."

Kelly went on to say, "InWorldz is a builder and creators' heaven. (It) gives people a chance to create and learn. Not only that..but they have a mentor team that is very helpful to get started and when they arent at the Welcome area..many creators and residents spend their time there to help. She compared going between Second Life and InWordz to commuting to and from a busy city and a quiet country home.

Jenn Chant, a Second Life resident who has spent some time in InWordz, commented, "While InWorldz is a closed grid like Second Life (good for keeping IP rights intact), I do love the fact that they are still far more open then SL in many respects. You can backup your inventory from their website. Also there is no charge to upload resources. I often feel in SL like I'm being nickled and dimed to death, and that's just not the case in InWorldz." Kelly commented, "Second Life is a money-making venture," saying the Lindens have been up front about that.

Storm (electrasky) asked, "if InWorldz will charge in the future for uploads to cover their costs?" Elenia answered, "we can not speak for LL, however, our vision is to create a place where people can explore freely their own imagination. Part of that is uploads. Sure, it's great to make money off that, but we want the imagination to run free, and how best can you do that? By uploading for free. Will we ever change that policy? We have no plans anywhere in the future to do so. And we certainly would not think to make such a massive change without input from our residents beforehand as we value their input strongly when we make decisions."

 Syndi Dryke had a shopowner's question, "How does the cashing out work? Is it reliable and do you lose more in the transactions, then you do in here? And can you transfer currency back and forth.. I know it works that I can deposit money here in SL and withdraw it in IWZ, but does it work the other way around too?" Elenia answered, "Syndi, we removed the ability to transfer back to SL on a general basis because the credit card fraud was becoming intense, causing both companies to lose thousands of dollars. As a smaller company, we have a pretty good view on fraudulent transactions."

Mimi Juneau had a question about copying and transfers, saying she had seen someone wearing a brand from SL Elenia answered, "The problem revolves around the Safe harbor that we are under Mimi, which is the US law for Copyright. If we remove things from our service that are not in fact stolen, we are liable by that person for discriminating. The Safe Harbor is designed that an ISP / OSP can not ever know what is in their service byte for byte. .... What they need to do, and what you can do to help them is to send them the picture, and have them file a DMCA with us.  I MUST have a DMCA. Without a DMCA I can not do anything about it, otherwise I end up in liability for removing something. We're also not allowed to play judge, jury or executioner ..."

Nydia commented, "the community itself helps to fight this as well, in a group chat I have seen botters harassed for copybotting, residents in BOTH worlds need to call out the copy botters." Kelly spoke in voice that it was important to "cover your own butt" as Grid owners couldn't be expected to do it for you. Those who wanted to be big designers, she advised to copyright their work. Elizabeth DeClaun  (kenniem) remarked, "I get why people are so up in arms about the new TOs, but its gotten a lot of creators to pull their finger out and Copyright their stuff. Linden Lab isn't going to do it."

Mimi then asked what the InWorldz policy on freebies was.  Elenia answered, "InWorldz, as many know, has removed the freebies from the main welcome area. We only have a generic ao, the LM hub and one other thing. We are allowing it to be ran by our residents instead which is proactive to the region owners, shop owners, etc., rather than us running it." Kelly felt, freebies were welcome and can be found most anywhere in InWorldz, "gives (new) people a chance to get a head start." Morrice felt, "As with SL, creators generally keep the stuff they've worked on the hardest at a price and have older things and lesser things for free as promotional tools."

Pammy Jo (pj.arnott) was worried about seedier elements taking over, "How much time do you give InWorldz before it becomes overcrowded and full of sex places, perversion, griefers and becomes Secondlife Jr? I see little happenings now. So many griefers coming in now. ... The Mentors are trying to protect us ... but soon I think the inflow will be too large. Why not keep Iwz word of mouth and protect it?" Zia answered, "people will play their video games how they want to, and if you want to go to those places ..."

On the subject of griefing, Zia contrasted the InWorldz welcome center, which has a strict code of conduct, with the one of Second Life, which "gets a little crazy." Kelly commented with the recent influx in InWorldz, a few griefers inevitably came with the new people coming in due to it's newfound popularity. There was talk about griefers giving new accounts a bad name, as they often made new and disposable accounts to do their dirty deeds. Kelly commented that the griefers were bored kids whom were basically angry at the universe and anyone else. But fortunetly InWordz was seeing little griefing.

Should InWorldz have an age verrification? Elenia didn't think so, "There is nothing out there for true age verification. The fact is that age verification is a company's way of CYA for minors being where they shouldn't be. We see no point in putting something in that's completely baseless in real action." One resident from InWorldz wondered about the possibility of a way for InWorldz to identify and ban those who were banned from Second Life to stop griefers from there. Elenia told her not to expect it, "it would require cooperation between the two grids. And other than fraudulent activities, which was a one sided bit of cooperation on our end, I doubt you'll see it. Also note, in the US, giving out IP's is actually illegal." Morrice added, "A true griefer would use an IP mask, so that wouldn't help."

Kelly then brought up the Terms of Service mess, suggesting it was the result of Linden Lab's history of trying to improve the graphics in Second Life. Unfortunetly, their "server-side baking" improvement earlier this year actually worsened it's performance of residents using older computers. She explained InWorldz began getting a number of POed Second Life users at this time. She felt Linden Lab's new Terms of Service in regards to content creators was caused in part by this to help ensure those going over couldn't just take their stuff with them, "anything you make here, you can't take out." Someone else countered that if an InWorldz user made something, of course they could bring it over. People also talked about the merits of creators copyrighting their work. Nydia commented, "There ARE creators that say 'if you buy my things here you can rip them where you like as LONG as you don't sell them.' "

Treminari Heut then brought up the subject of gambling, "We got a gambling group here which violated the business and professions code which overhangs SL up and down across the law.... " Elenia told her, "Our simple answer Mina is literally gambling is not allowed. The Federal laws flat out do not allow for any online gambling." Treminari also mentioned that the gamblers had gotten into a feud with a privacy group, "and as a result these 1100 member group was all sent a series of threats slandered blackmailed and attacked on several locations.... Linden Lab chose not to get involved causing the situation to degenerate into two bickering groups both accusing the other side of being criminals ..." What would InWorldz have done? Elenia answered, "it really depends on what is being done, and how we view the situation. We have had to step in between groups when it begins to hurt the grid as a whole. Sometimes they need a cooling off period, but in most cases, there is a true TOS violation that causes it and that is what we look for." Treminari continued, "It sounds good that you dissallow gambling and all.... what about games that try to skirt around notice of enforcement and get excused here... such as sploders and whatnot?" Elenia's answer to this was, "We have that down tight as well and our residents do let us know Mina. The concept of gambling is centered on the risk factor. That means if a user has the ability to lose monies on chance, it falls into gambling. Even games of "skill" we tell them flat out monies can not be the end reward as based on possibly losing. Therefore they must give away actual gifts. This removes the gambling aspect for them and we're not really equipped to go fight the DOJ for online gambling."

A debate on gambling and what it is started in voice and chat. One resident expressed confusion as she had never come across it in Second Life. It was mentioned that some places in both Second Life and real life get around gambling rules and laws, including Japan where pachinco machines get around by awarding players with numbers of metal balls, which can be exchanged for prizes. Morrice commented, "I don't think grids are good for gambling. There's plenty of gambling sites out there, so why would you do it in any grid? Gambling, per definition, is all about money, money in, chance of money out. Items are not gambling." Elenia's answers to her questions satisfied Treminari, "I fully approve that your cracking down on it and just for that I'm gonna be checking out InWorldz, I've gotten really tired of being threatened by what is essentially the SL Mafia."

The Avination Grid, one that had made some news in the past along with InWorldz, came up. Someone commented it was "dead." Kelly thought that the lack of freebies for new people was a factor. It was also brought up that gambling was allowed there, and one resident felt some of the places were cheating.

The InWorldz viewer came up, "is there a specific reason that the IW Beta viewer is still beta? The current stable release still can't see mesh and the beta has been in beta since February." Elenia answered, "I actually had a skype with McCabe on this, and he's close to release on the viewer again. however, if you can't see mesh in the beta viewer, you really should get a hold of him as that should not be the case." Of why it was still called a beta, "the reason for beta on the viewer is because of skin and shape issues and search issues. ... Once it's done and the big issues are fixed, then we'll switch over to pushing that instead of 1.4.8(10). "
Kelly commented in voice, "It's not beta, its an exceptionaly stable viewer ... its a great viewer ... in terms of content, if you want to cross grids and make this a source of income."

Of computers, Amore stated in voice, "I got a new computer, Second Life is okay, but not good. Second Life is hell on computers these days ... InWorldz runs more smoothly on your computer." Kelly's response, also in voice, "InWorldz is no different, except that it doesn't have the new code." Many of the new people coming to InWorldz didn't know how to adapt to the new code, or didn't want to. And InWorldz was mesh enabled. Morrice commented, "InWorldz works fine on my office laptop, and that thing can't even run Minecraft." It was brought up that the number of viewers available could be confusing to new players as Massive Multiplayer Online games all have just one viewer while Second Life has a number, "it is such a foreign concept for new people," Morrice felt, "because no other 'game' or 'world' uses several clients for the same program."

The talk turned to Second Life users coming to InWorldz. Kelly commented in voice, "The impression I've gotten is many people are afraid. Afraid of what? If you're that good here, why not head to a new place and do better?" Morrice added, "Nobody will hate you for doing more than one world. InWorldz is not a mistress on the side. (grin)" Jenn Chant commented, "It's not SL vs IW. this isn't US vs Them. We are all virtual citizens and we can be in as many grids as we feel like. She went on to say, "I think the fact that we have a founder of InWorldz here at this meeting in Second Life when we don't have an SL rep in SL speaks volumes for how awesome IW management is!" It was brought up that Opensim in the begining was sponsored by Linden Lab. But their support for them has been gone for years, Elenia saying, "The project fell apart due to a fight over who would control the information."

Elizabeth DeClaun  (kenniem) asked, "When I talk to those who try out inWorldz they always say that inWorldz reminds them of Second Life circa 2006. Do you think that inWorldz is progressing at the same rate as Sl? I mean inWorldz is 4 years old now?" Morrice answered, "I see IW as an alternate universe. Go back in time to 2006, change a few things, then flash forward to today and see how it developed differently."

The prices of getting places on the two Grids came up, Erik Mouse saying, "You could find InWorldz to be better cost wise since you can get a 45,000 prim region for $75 a month on InWorldz rather than pay $295 a month for a 15,000 prim region on SL." Elenia added, "The Magellan group is great, and a good example of our listening to residents. When we put up the 2nd mainland it was way off in the hinterlands. And they stood up and said, 'HEY put them close and we'll fill the gap and build this great spot there.' So we did." Kelly felt people want to just be able to go about in a virtual world without having to update otherwise fine computers.

One InWorldz resident spoke, "it is so exciting to see more creators come in. There is SOOOO much room for growth there as a creator. We are begging for more!" Nydia seconded the need for builders in InWorldz,"no offense but the builds I have seen there so far are about the same quality as the old freebies here." Morrice responded, "Yeah, that's the builders, not the grid. I've seen amazing buildings, but there's not enough builders there, so most people end up build their own houses and just as here in SL, most people aren't expert house builders."Nydia did mention one content creator recently setting up at InWorldz, "Many of you may know 'Alessandra Skins and fashions.' She is expanding there as well."

It was also asked if InWorldz had a Marketplace website like Second Life. Elenia answered, "we do not have one, there are resident owned ones that are up and running, but we are firm believers in keeping our people firmly rooted inside the viewer and grid, not out on the webpages browsing."

One estate owner dropping in the meeting around the middle of it spoke up, " I own several sims in SL, been playing there for gong on 8 years. So I have amassed alot of stuff. So to move over to Inworldz and just leave it all behind, it totally impractical. You are talking $1000's US. So unless there is a way to move everything I have over, I see no solution for many of us." She was told no one was asking her to leave Second Life behind, "not saying to leave SL ... just expand to InWorldz and build yourself up there as well." "I think you need to see it as a similar world, not the same world. The stuff you have on your computer, you can transfer for free to InWorldz, but see it like any other game. You don't go getting all achievements in Call Of Duty and expect to have everything unlocked in Battlefield. In the same way, you cannot really expect all that you have amassed in SL to be available right off the bat in InWorldz." Elina told her, "one of the things I hear so often about InWorldz in comparison to Second Life. We're like the vacation home compared to SL. Many of our residents, including the Founders, have toeholds in both worlds. Nothing says you have to live in one world only. (smile)"

The conversation went on for a while to marketing, adult content, and other subjects such as fun with frying pans. Elina eventually had to excuse herself, as did some other residents. Zia and others kept the conversation going for a while, even after the meeting seats had been taken down, and many residents fell into the beach surf.

Jenn Chant, "I love the fact that I've got friends in SL and Metropolis Grid and IW from around the world. It's always cool to meet people from another country and have different points of view and outlooks on things."

Elenia Llewellyn, "I think the biggest thing is we have such a diverse culture of people and what they use."

Two videos of the meeting have been posted by Nydia. The longer one can be found at: http://www.twitch.tv/nydia_tungsten/b/484003456. There is also a youtube that can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcRHIZ8A71w.


Bixyl Shuftan