Second Life Dumping Teen Grid

In a stealthy announcement as part of the SLCC keynote.  Philip Rosedale broke the news that Second Life was dropping the Teen Grid.  This is bad news for schools that use Second Life Teen Grid as a learning platform for students.  (For those schools affected, I’d recommend Reaction Grid as a PG alternative.)

Those of us who observe what is going on knew this was coming a long time ago.  With Zindra and the added A rating, the adult parts of Second Life are cordoned off from eyes that should not be seeing them.  This made the Teen Grid obsolete.  And, lets face it; most of the under aged SL players were signing up for the main grid anyways.

Schools interested in using SL as a platform for giving students an opportunity to learn 3D art and graphics, should consider Open Sim in my opinion.  Stuff built in Open Sim can be moved easily enough to Second Life, and you can build a secure grid just for your school, or if you want to open things up to other schools, or allow students to create from home, you can join Reaction Grid, or Science Grid.  Many schools and colleges have done so already.  It also saves money.

It shall be interesting to see what happens when they merge the two worlds.  I’m kind of curious to see if there is anything in Teen Grid worth seeing that cant be found in the main grid.

Adult Segregation Complete?

There has been a fair amount of drama on the whole adult continent Zindra front. The move of all adult content to a new continent has brought land speculators, complaints, AR griefing, and other nonsense. Time to take a second look.

On September 15th, Linden Labs has drawn the line. All adult businesses must be on Zindra or an estate server set as “adult”. Rule breakers will no longer be seen in search and could be forced to move.  Furthermore, SL clients not enabled with code to handle adult permissions (1.23 or higher) will no longer be able to see adult islands on maps, or see any shops or groups that are adult in nature.  LL is still vague about their guidelines to prevent people from working around them, though there are 3rd parties figuring it out.

In the June essay, I mentioned two possible scenarios of where Zindra will head: 1.) A sanctuary away from alt griefing and kids pretending to be adult, or 2.) an adult oriented ghetto.  Many of the more established successful businesses have relocated to private estates rather than Zindra. Because of this, its looking more and more likely that the second scenario will prevail.

A quick tour around Zindra today is like a big mall of mostly crap. A good 90% of adult merchants do not know how to make a good store build. Lots of bright tacky colors, or way too big textures that cause load lag. I went to some of the busiest businesses and either found a lot of bots / camping chairs, or builds in private skyboxes.

That to me is a virtual ghetto.

Ironically, after exploring the main areas of Zindra, my favorite build I found was designed to look like a ghetto (More Pictures).  Its actually a group of builds in the same area with the same “ghetto” aesthetic.  Lots of naughty poseball furniture and toys, mixed with sexy clothing shops and booth and apartment rentals.  It is the most interesting build, or group of builds, I found on the whole continent. (Pictures in this article are from that build)

The as yet unanswered question is how will this segregation of adult businesses affect the rest of Second Life.  Adult rated regions currently make up almost 5% of Second Life, and the stricter enforcement (especially on estates) is going to make that percentage rise. Traffic will change, as will land prices, but how and how much are unanswered as of yet.

Below is a map of the main section of Zindra as it now exists. Compare it to the map I made in June and see how much it has changed.

Is Australia Banning Second Life?

In the past 24 hours this blog post has been circulating throughout the Second Life blogosphere. As I am sometime inclined to do, I decided to do some investigation to determine how real this is or how much of it is bullshit.  Yes there is some truth to this, but it may never happen either.

Some background:

Australia is the only developed country without an R18+ classification for games, meaning any titles that do not meet the MA15+ standard – such as those with excessive violence or sexual content – are simply banned from sale by the Classification Board, unless they are modified to remove the offending content.

So far, this has only applied to local bricks-and-mortar stores selling physical copies of games, but a spokesman for Senator Conroy confirmed that under the filtering plan, it will be extended to downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard.

So does someone like Senator Conroy from a supposedly liberal democracy like Australia have the right to censor web content without some say so from the Government? Well its complicated, and it depends on some interpretations of laws passed a couple of years ago. There are also multiple components to the governments “clean feed”, some compulsory (usually regarding child porn) and some voluntary.

Basically, games are currently “rated” by a group called the Australian Classifications Board (ACB). Anything that not get at least a MA15 or below cannot be sold in box stores in Australia, but can be purchased and  downloaded via sites like Steam, Direct2Drive, etc. MMOGs bypass classification all together.

Meanwhile, there was a formation of a Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) which provides a blacklist to ISPs via the “clean feed” legislation. What the evil Senator Conroy has done is expand the ACMA mandate to cover online games, whether downloaded or played online, thus closing the loopholes of the ACB. The ACMA block list is kept secret, but has been leaked online.

Furthermore:

While Senator Conroy refers to ‘games’, this appears to just be the spoonful of sugar to make it easier to swallow. Does anyone think that virtual environments like Second Life will be exempt from the proposed network-blocking? We don’t. Some sources are reporting that environments like Second Life and games like Age of Conan or World of Warcraft are confirmed as being banned outright, but at this stage, nobody official has actually said that.

So, currently there is no official word that Second Life will be banned by Australia, it is also possible that Conroy’s orders could be overridden before they take effect.

If Australia does ban online gaming, the roar of opposition both inside and outside that country will be deafening.

Hang onto your popcorn, this ought to be fun to watch!

Exploring Zindra before the chaos begins

I haven’t written in a while especially about Second Life. Felt the need to post something. I wanted to check out Hair Fair 2009, but all four servers were consistently full. Oh well, off to plan B…

Second Life finally opened the “Adult” rated continent to public access. There is no privately owned land or building yet, but there is some new construction courtesy of Linden Labs. I decided to check it out before the place gets crowded with who knows what kind of places.

This shuffling all adult content to one continent is an odd experiment I plan to watch carefully. Already there are people attempting to scam the system and trying to get land there.

Despite minimal content, there seem to be other people wandering about, many recruiting adult “clubs” currently open on other islands. At least most people had their clothes on.

I am curious how life on “A” continent (they keep changing names, first Ursula, now apparently called Zindra) is going to go.

On the one hand if the age verification system works, this may be the place to go to get away from kids pretending to be adults, and newbies begging for free Lindens.  If the continent becomes popular enough to overshadow the rest of Second Life, it could make SL’s already sullied reputation as a virtual sex world even worse.

On the other hand this could turn into an “adult ghetto” with tons of tasteless textures and graphics we do not really want to see, driving away any business interests, and quickly turning into a waste land. The upshot will be LL can now tell potential deep pocket clients and investors that they cleaned the place up and it is no longer the anything goes virtual waste land it was in the past. Despite official statements, it is obvious that this is the result LL is hoping for.

Lets face it, when it opens for building starting next month, it is initially going to be the place to be. What happens after the initial newness and curiosity factor fades remains to be seen.

Here is a pristine map – a “before” picture. I suspect the place will look quite different by the end of the summer.

Second Life's 5th Anniversary Event

So last week Second Life celebrated its 5th Anniversary with a huge 20 server event. I avoided it the first week, and due to multiple reports of lag it was a smart move. Above is a pic of the main birthday pavilion.

 

The Birthday celebration has not been without controversy. LL has made sure all exhibits conform to the PG sim standards resulting in some defacement. The roses above are seperate prims from the original painting. Another artistic statue of a nude woman had its breast prims removed. This is the result when you equate virtual nudity with real nudity.

600 exhibits on 20 servers is generally speaking a laggy mess of signage and spam for the most part. No way to see them all, so I just wandered aimlessly looking for cool stuff.

This sculpture/building on SL5B Linked was built by Scope Cleaver, and I’d consider it a masterpiece of prim artwork and architecture. It was also quite functional:

The northeast corner of the building served as a lecture hall. I stayed and listened to a presentation on how some companies are using Second Life in their business. There were about 35 attendees.

Age Verification… A game changer for Second Life

Second Life will soon implement strict age verification for everybody.

Here is the official word on it

First of all, it sounds like if you are already credit card verified, you still have to be age verified? Apparently this is the case. They should use as a given CC on file = Age verified. But apparently Visa has a policy against that.

Second, there is no definition for “adult content” except “We trust that common sense will prevail. As a general rule, “Adult Content” is any content that is explicitly sexual or excessively violent in nature.”

Now I have a very liberal view of adult content. Remember here, we are dealing with 3 levels of content: PG servers, Mature Servers, and Adult Content:

• Nudity, especially fake avatar nudity, is Mature but NOT adult content.
• Language no matter how raw or foul, unless it is used in a threatening manner, is Mature but NOT adult content.
• The infamous “Flying Penises”, Again Mature but NOT adult content.
• Strip Clubs that do not have escort services, Mature but NOT adult content.

None of the above are explicitly sexual, even though some with more prudish minds may think so.

On the other hand:

• “Xcite!” Toys (aka talking vaginas) = adult content.
• Sexual Pose Balls, I’d say are a judgement call, but mostly adult content.
• BDSM sex toys = Adult content
• Posters or streaming video of real people engaging in sex = adult content
• If your business provides escort services of any kind = adult content

Now the real question is how will this affect Second Life as a whole, the changes could be radical.
Consider for a moment the following two facts:

1. 17 of the top 20 most popular places are listed as “Mature”, the majority of them become popular through the use of “Camping Chairs”
2. Most people who earn money via camping chairs are unlikely to be willing or able to verify their age.

That means the top places are either going to have to drop mature content or drop camping chairs.

Just as the number of premium player is a significant minority to the population as a whole — and because it costs money and may not be available to MANY foreign countries, I doubt the number of age verified players will ever reach a majority of the SL population. This means there are going to be significant disincentives to label your lot as “Adult Content”.

Now if you are a store owner with a tiny shop that has questionable content (like me), you can get away with not checking the adult content box. If you are a really popular place with lots of adult content like Bad Girls Dance and Fetish Club, you will NOT be able to get away with not checking the box, and therefore chasing away a big chunk of your clientelle.

Good or bad, that means the sexual content of SL is going to decline.

Second Life Articles on Economy and Sex

Thought I’d post a note on a couple of Second Life articles I stumbled on from a British site. Normally I would just post them in Delicious, but I thought them important enough to post here.

Despite the title “The Phony economics of Second Life” is a thoughtful piece on the economy of Second Life. It echoes some of my own misgivings about making money in SL.

“The latest figures show that there are less than 50,000 of these premium accounts. So, only a fifth of Second Life’s returning users have a premium account that lets them fully participate in its economy. With around 15,000 concurrent logins, it is possible to speculate that there may be as few as 3,000 paying customers online at any one time (although this figure would rise if they logged on more frequently and for longer than those with free accounts).

Linden Lab itself estimates the number of “in world business owners” by counting those with a positive monthly cashflow. There were over 21,000 of these last month. For more than 11,000 of them, however, their positive cashflow came to less than US$10. And this is before Linden Lab’s charges were applied to their account.

So, from the three million residents who, we are told, are living the dream of a virtual economy, we arrive at a figure of around 3,000 economically active users at any one time – most of whom are turning over only a token sum.

This is a far cry from the predictions of the business journalists.”

I’m not sure where they are getting those figures. I guess I’m one of the lucky 3000 players who is actually making money in SL. I’m not making enough to quit my job or anything, but I make enough to pay for the annual SL premium account and hosting for this website, and have lindens to blow on Tringo.

I think that the authors other interesting point is that attendance in SL is not good enough to warrent the recent advertising boom in Second Life. With a limit of 100 people (and even that results in horrible lag) the recent trend towards “launch parties” and “virtual concerts” are weak. I have to agree, if you want to use SL as an advertisement platform, “events” are not the way to go.

A better way to go is to use SL as a “3D website”, and then advertise it on your own site. I like exploring some of the weird islands. I recently found 30 identical islands sponsored by Showtime, where you can see episodes of The L Word. Its designed for people who have never been to Second Life before. (Note: Showtime and MTV are owned by the same company, the latter is using There for show promotion)

Should forms of “fantasy virtual sex” be deemed illegal?

The second interesting article at the register is interesting for completely different reasons:

Dutch demand ban of virtual child porn in Second Life
By Jan Libbenga
Published Wednesday 21st February 2007 16:45 GMT

The Dutch prosecutor’s office is considering legal actions to test the law against child porn in the popular virtual game Second Life. With no clear litigation, it is difficult to act against perpetrators.

Kitty Nooij, who is in charge of the sex offences portfolio at the prosecutor’s office in the Netherlands, told Dutch news show Netwerk that she will try to bring cases to court so precedents can be set.

Linden Lab’s Second Life is an online digital world with almost three million “residents” claimed by the company. Some areas of Second Life allow adult members to have virtual sex with others who pretend to be children.

Experts, such as psychologist Jos Buschman of the Van Mesdag clinic in Groningen, say Second Life is “by definition a school for paedophiles”, despite the fact that adult members like to roleplay as children. Second Life requires all players to be adults.

Virtual child pornography has been a criminal offence in the Netherlands since 2002. However, there is no litigation related to virtual sex with virtual children. Today, at least four political parties in the Netherlands demanded a ban on virtual child porn roleplay.

Discussions about virtual child porn in Second Life already started three years ago with the introduction of an avatar called Sasami Wishbringer, who has the body of an eight year-old. Lately, there are more serious reports about adult players with child avatars soliciting (paid) sex.

Last year, Robin Harper, Linden Lab vice president of community development, wrote in a posting on the official Second Life forum, that “if Second Life has evidence of child pornography or abuse that involves children in the real world, it will act to protect the child and notify the authorities”. However, virtual roleplay is allowed.

Second Life maintains a seperate server for teens 13-17 and no one under 13 is allowed. So on the main grid, everyone is adult (or at least claims to be) so if there is simulated pedophilia going on it is between consenting adults pretending. As gross as this is, it should not be illegal.

Yes it is possible to make your avatar look like a child, its possible to look like anything. Yet this activity is very rare, so rare that I have yet to see it, and I like hanging in the seedier areas of the grid too. Most “sex clubs” would frown on such activity anyways, so it would be limited to private residences.