There are different type of interviewers in Second Life, as there are in real life. There are some who have their own chat shows, inviting their subjects into their lair, where they can tease information and insights out of an interviewee, on their home turf. Then there are those who roam the grid, looking for subjects to speak to, venturing into strange unfamiliar lands, and reporting back conversations with the most interesting and inspiring beings that they encounter. Dousa Dragonash is in the latter camp, working for metaverse-tv.com as a co-news anchor on Metaverse Weekly News, but also as a roving reporter with her own eponymous show "Out and About with Dousa Dragonash". I had the privilege of sitting down with this very self effacing and humble interviewer, at Metaverse TV's recently opened sim, designed by Lumiere Noir, to have a chat with her about what had shaped her Secondlife, and how she had ended up in this virtual line of work:


Voodoo Buwan: What initially brought you to SecondLife?

Dousa Dragonash: I have a friend, a colleague in rl, and he and I get sent away on conferences quite often. He took a long time before he vouchsafed that he was in SL and suggested that actually it would be completely my thing.

Voodoo Buwan: So, what did you initally expect coming in world? What were you hoping to do?

Dousa Dragonash: Well first of all I was curious. I had no expectation. I had never done a social networking site of any kind, not facebook nothing. I have worked with computers for years and liked games but really didn't want to talk to other people. I thought that would be truly weird. Also there is an anonymity thing for me. I find it really important to be anonymous. When I came in, the first thing that happened was that someone spoke to me. An American man. Gave me a heart attack. I hoped to sit on a beach and look at a sea. Then I suppose when I hit Help Island Public, I just thought this is completely fabulous. My head expanded and the possibilities hit me and I realized I could sit on a beach and look at a sea lol. But also I started building and changing appearance in the manner of all newbies, but fell into talking into everyone in text, for hours and hours, like I was hungry. I explored and also loved, absolutely loved, what people were creating. So I tried to have a second life. to live the life that I have lived but make the decisions that I didnt make the first time.

Voodoo Buwan: So, how did someone who came inworld thinking that the concept of talking to people was creepy, end up making her Second Life career out of conducting interviews?

Dousa Dragonash: Well I was in and out of social intercourse at one point, and I thought I am going to see what happens here in the way of occupations I have known. I had gone into a couple of writers' groups and then saw that people were doing shows. So I looked up to see in Events what was going on and saw that someone was putting together a tv show and I thought I would like to see how that works. I turned up and there were two guys there and some people hanging about very casual. I got chatting to one of the guys and he was very close to me in understanding about the business, so I suppose we kind of knew that we both were capable of doing something. He suggested me to the other guy who was Robustus Hax. I didnt do that project but he then texted me when he was looking for an Anchor. After that I just got more and more involved

Voodoo Buwan: From anchoring the Metaverse News show, you started doing your own "Out and About" interview shows. Was this something you pushed to do, or was it an organic extension what you were already doing?

Dousa Dragonash: It was organic. It was something I was really interested in doing. I love what people achieve in here and really want to celebrate it. My God, I am a titchy thing in my knowledge next to the guys who build and code and design in here. I can do bits of everything, now I dont have much time, so I try to support what happens through the programme. I am a very curious person so that much is truly unavoidable.

Voodoo Buwan: So, how do you find your potential interviewees? Do you have much assistance, or do you do all the organization yourself?

Dousa Dragonash: Ok I do everything myself. Well, organizationally. Filming and editing, I dont do, only cause it is difficult for me to follow with the camera at the same time as paying attention.

Voodoo Buwan: Well, what attracts you to a particular person as someone worthy of interviewing? What sort of thing draws you towards them as a potentially interesting and/or entertaining subject?

Dousa Dragonash: Very simple things like the turn of a prim. I wonder HOW did they do that? Or a colour or a beautiful sim. Sometimes achievements, sometimes adversity. Don't you think this platform attracts the most extraordinary range of people? People I wouldn't necessarily be able to go up to in rl and say I would really love to talk to you about you for an hour and film it. Would you mind?

Voodoo Buwan: So, it gives you the chance to ask the questions you'd like to ask, and that hopefully your audience would also like to know?

Dousa Dragonash: Ah well. audience. If I am honest, and sometimes I am, I dont necessarily think about what other people want to know. I just want to hear about the people that I am talking to cause I am genuinely interested. And I am just a person so I reckon that if I want to hear it other people might as well. The Out and About on Kimlenswomanphotographer Writer was massive cause she has had such an interesting career and life. I split it into two shows. I don't check the numbers. I just thought that work needed honouring... she was fab to interview by the way



Voodoo Buwan: SO, we're all invited along for the ride, but the ride will be leaving whether we're on the bus or not?

Dousa Dragonash: fraid so lol

Voodoo Buwan: You mentioned obviously one of your favourite interviews. Have you had any particularly difficult or challenging interviews or interviewees?

Dousa Dragonash: oh yes, amusing as well and challenging but not in the way you might expect. Some of the most challenging are challenging because of the time differences. There was one where I was in UK one person in Philippines one in Japan and one in US. We were all asleep in rl basically and awake in sl. It took some doing, pinging everywhere to wake people up, and then we were speaking English from at least four different perspectives. It was fun, but a kind of torture as well cause we were so tired.

Voodoo Buwan: Do you have anyone in SL who you would love to get to interview, but have not been able to so far?

Dousa Dragonash: Yes, two, the obvious ones of course. Anshe Chung and Philip Linden. Anshe was the first one I tried, mainly because I was knocked out by the sims and then because she is a she. I have almost started to take the ability not to be judged for being female in business for granted in here. When I describe situations I have had in RL to, particularly, Americans in here they cannot believe what happens simply because I am female.

Voodoo Buwan: Another way in which SL is providing opportunities not necessarily possible in RL?

Dousa Dragonash: I am devoted to that. That certainly when I came in it was a level playing field or felt like it at that point, for all kinds of people. I would fight to conserve that

Voodoo Buwan: You mentioned the upcoming series. What kind of thing can we expect next from Dousa Dragonash, both in that series, or in any other projects you might be working on?

Dousa Dragonash: My colleagues would say Pain. No shoes. Long legs. The MBA... that is what they would say... Well, there is the next series of Out and About which is being edited. We are producing a new comedy drama (I use the word comedy loosely) called "Into Midnight". We have new shows coming up or have just started, I am writing a new drama series for MBC and we have this fab sim now. So I guess I will have to justify its existence or Robustus will be on my tail. I do have three mega projects in mind which I think are completely perfect for SL They need massive planning and cooperation though.

Voodoo Buwan: Is there anything people can do to help with these mystery projects, or are they just on the drawing board at the moment?

Dousa Dragonash: Well one isn't just on the drawing board. I have made overtures to the person who holds the rights and they were pretty receptive. We couldn't meet up when we planned, so I have to take up the slack and go do the meet. A bit nerve racking. The other is a glint in my eye and the third one needs writing.

Voodoo Buwan: Plenty to look forward to, and keep you busy with, then?

Dousa Dragonash: Yes. I think the thing that we have to deal with most is administration

Voodoo Buwan: Finally, and on kind of a similar note, if you were to give advice to people looking to follow in your footsteps into this kind of virtual media career, what would be your top tips?

Dousa Dragonash:
no.1 If you have any doubt about doing it, don't.
no.2 Be very flexible.
no.3 Resilience.
But more than any of these really is Creativity. People nick ideas as much as content and they also repeat rl ideas. Here we can do so much more and so much faster

Voodoo Buwan: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Dousa Dragonash: I suppose there is one thing. I am bemused by being interviewed.. most of what I do is about others... or for others... Robustus Hax is very much an unsung hero to me. He puts his heart and soul and most of his life into this project. He tolerates me encourages me and allows me in a way that I have never received in RL. That kind of confidence. He has a quiet confidence and a depth of knowledge about people that I truly admire ... He is definitely one to watch. That is why I continue to do this. It makes me happy.

Read the previous article in this series:
Interviewing the Interviewers: Paisley Beebe

The subject of resident names in SL is one that comes up on various Secondlife based sites and blogs from time to time. Many esteemed writers have typed up their thoughts, reports and opinions when it comes to subjects ranging from names that annoy them, to whether or not it is made clear enough that once you have chosen the name of your avatar, that you can not change it later, and much much more. It's a subject that I find personally fascinating, as the names of residents seem to tell a lot about the resident themselves, and reactions to those names can also be equally interesting. After all, as a man named Voodoo, I've been known to get a variety of positive and negative responses from people based on a first impression, which everything from having songs sung at me from a certain David Bowie film, to being told "How can you expect anyone to take you seriously? What sort of a name is Voodoo anyway?". I've even had someone be wary of me, since another resident who shares my first name, was their stalker ex boyfriend, leading to me having to defend myself over accusations of being an alt (which I don't even have any of, let alone being one!)

While it is obviously tempting to add my voice to the debate, and shower all of our readers with the benefit of my wisdom and observations on this subject; to be honest, it's something which everyone else has done, and therefore I decided to put my own ego on the sidelines, and thought that it would be much more interesting to take the time and go get some actual facts. The simplest way of doing this, was to carry out a survey, getting some information from a random selection of Secondlife residents, in order to find out the real story about how the SL populace feels about their, and other people's names. So I put together a notecard with a few simple questions, and sent it out to a random selection of contacts, a couple of groups, and of course, the subscribers to our fair magazine. I also encouraged people to spread the notecard to any friends they wanted to, and for them all to send me back their answers.

Friends said I was mad. They told me it was a pointless exercise. They stated that Second Life residents simply don't bother to do things like this for people, as they are too wound up in their own little worlds to bother to fill out something like this, and return it. However, when the dust settled, and the notecard had been passed around all across the grid, from friend to friend and group to group, I am pleased to say that I was positively flooded with responses, to the point where I was left feeling pummeled in the nicest way possible. 133 SL residents took the time to fill out their answers to the questions I posed, and drop their notecard into my inventory. It's always nice to prove the naysayers wrong, and show that apathy does not rule our virtual world.

Anyway, once the notecards died down to a trickle, I set to work, reading each and every one of them, collating them into a spreadsheet. I then analyzied the data for trends, and picked out some of the most interesting answers. I am now pleased to present my findings.

My first question was regarding simply what people's names were, although to be honest, since I didn't ask for permissions to reveal these, I won't be stating who responded, other than to say that you all know who you are, and I owe each and every one of you a big thank you.

The next question was "How did you choose your SL Name?" There was a wide variety of answers with almost everyone making certain to pick something uniquely personal to them, which of course is a nightmare for me to draw trends from. However, there were some common themes which could be picked out.

The most common answer stated that people used the same name as they used in the past for other online forums, chatrooms, and games, with 29 of those answering giving this reason. Of course, this is indicative of people seeing Secondlife as just another online meeting place, which often leads to chatroom-esque names, which are a common focus of rants on blogs. The other most common answers include using variations of the person's real name (14), a real life nickname (5), and picking their first name simply to match the last name they chose (5). 6 residents interestingly stated that they chose their first name, to go with a role they were looking to become once inwolrd, such as one resident with the first name of Lord, who was looking to become an SL landlord, and another called Spiral, who was looking to showcase his fractal art inworld.
Two other answers I found particularly interesting answers were from people who chose names that related to children they had connections to. One person stated the first name they chose "Would have been my child's name if I had a girl but I had a boy" while another stated "I chose because it was the name of a dead baby and I thought I would give her 'a life' here". These demonstrate just how personal and meaningful many residents' names can be.

The next question looked deeper into the people's mindsets when creating their names: "Did you know much about SL before creating an account?" This was a little more straightforward to draw info from, with the largest group of those who answered, a whopping 48%, saying that they knew nothing about SL when they created their account, and therefore their name. 38% of those answering claimed that they knew a little about it, but not necessarily a lot, while only 14% claimed to have a good knowledge of what they were letting themselves in for.

There were also some supplementary comments when responding, regarding how people came to SL in some of these answers. 12 people were introduced to SL by RL friends or relatives, while 5 people mentioned seeing about it on television programs or adverts, while 3 talked about reading about it in magazines or newspapers. One resident apparently accurately described themselves as: "that one avatar who bought the SL manual and read it..."

As a follow on question, I asked whther, if they did know anything about SL, this affected their choice of name?


As you can see above, a massive 69% of those who had answered that they at least had some knowledge about SL, stated that it had absolutely no bearing on what they chose to be their identity inworld. Saying that, if you refer this back to the ways which people chose their names in the first question, and how many people pick names that are so distinctly personal to them, it should perhaps come as little surprise that they would have chosen these names regardless. On the flipside, it could also be argued about actually how conscious people might be of the influence prior knowledge had on them, and whether they might have chosen something more akin to a chatroom handle, if they had not known anything about SL.

The next question was one of my favourites, and is based on a something said by a friend of mine, regarding a feeling of regret about the name that they now kind of felt stuck with inworld: "If you could turn the clock back, knowing what you know now, would you have chosen a different name?"

Again, I will express a slight surprise that the overwhelming response was a resounding No, with 72% of answers giving a negative response. Some of these No's referred to those who knew about SL before entering, and therefore had no need to change. Others stated that the ability to create alts meant that they felt there was not a need to feel precious about the name of their main account, as they could live lives under other names if they felt the need, while yet more stated that although there may have been moments of regret regarding their choice, that they have now grown into their names. As one person put it: "it was the best mistake I ever made". This is of course particularly relevant to the debates that go on regarding those people who petition that we should be allowed to change our names, as if they have their way, and this does become allowed, I wonder if will we give our names enough time for us to grow to truly love them, as many of these people have?
Of those who stated that they either might, or definitely would change their names, there were some interesting reasons why. Some people answered that they would seriously consider correcting errors that they may have made with either spelling or capitalisation of their first name. Quite a few also stated that, while they were still very happy with their first name, that they would like the chance to change their last name, since obviously when you create an account, you are only presented with a limited list of what is on offer.
There were also some individually amusing and interesting responses, which we will start off with a resident with the surname of "Dix" who answered: ""Yes, so no one would ask me if my middle name is "Sux"".
Another said: "A funnier name may of been nicer.... Perhaps, anything that didn't begin with "O" because I'm always getting messaged for those damned Lucky Chairs".
Finally one particular person answered with a heartfelt "Oh yes, I really would" after previously indicating that they had not given their choice of name enough thought, and "did not know the name could not be changed later if I did not like it".

Many people gave some indication of what sort of names they might have chosen, if they did have any interest in changing it, but perhaps they might reconsider slightly, if they had seen the response to my final question. I asked the populace "Does a resident's name affect how you see that person, and if so, how?". For me, this question really gave the most fascinating responses, so let's break it down to it's component parts. Firstly, on the subject on whether names affect perception, the survey came back with a vast majority in the affirmative camp, with 81% answering Yes, leaving only 19% claiming that they would never judge a book by it's cover in such a way.



Taking this vast number who do draw opinions on people, at the very least in their first impressions, based on what that resident has chosen to name themselves, we can then start to draw some common opinions on what particular names draw positive and negative responses.


Instead of moving through this data from the most common votes down, I think that the best place to start is on the only type of names where multiple people expressed an active attraction towards people with this kind of identity, namely the subject of "Clever/Funny Names" which commonly use one of the supplied surnames, and have a first name which the user creates to make a pun, double meaning, or the name of a celebrity or character. 9 people claim that they definitely find themselves attracted towards people with such names, although it must also be noted that 4 people clearly stated that such names make them desire nothing to do with that resident. 2 people said that they cannot stand it when people use what is term as "LEET" speak in their names, and 2 more stated that they do not like it when people put their entire real name into the first name (although again, there was someone who specifically stated respect for people with such names). 3 people said that boastful names were a real turn off ("If there are someone named "Johnthegreat" or "Imaprettyguy" for example, I don't think he is") while again the subject of bad spelling and capitalisation came up, with 4 people stating that it put them off people.
One of the most common complaints when the subject of names is raised on the blogs, namely that of people with numbers in their names, comes in at third place in our survey, with 9 people stating that they cannot stand seeing people with these names, and one resident stating that "People who have lots of numbers in their name should just be hit with a bat and put out of their misery". Which boundless aggression brings me neatly onto the runner up in our chart: those residents with violent and aggressive name, such as "Deathbringer" which make at least 12 of the people polled run away screaming.
Finally we come to our top complaint when it comes to names that make people want to have nothing to do with a resident, which is residents who have a rude, sexual or in some way obscene names. These monikers are seen as offensive by 27 of those who expressed a preference, and often are seen as an indicator that the person is either a child, a man masquerading as a woman, a bot, or simply a person who is only on SL for only one thing, and not the kind of thing that they are here for. One of the most amusing parts of these answers were the examples of exactly the sort of thing that people didn't like. So, if you are looking to create a SecondLife account, and would not like to be unfairly judged on this subject, might I suggest that you avoid the having the following either as either the whole, or as part of, your first name:
Slut, BigDaddy, Stud, Pud, 69, OrgasmAddict, SexMachine, WetNReady, BitchQueen, LuciousLips, SexySue, SmokinAss, Fuk, Mistress, JuicyLucy, LickMeOut, Studddogz, BritneySparkleTits and HotBunny.
Interestingly, one of the most common surnames in SL, and a name that has come up just as commonly on the hate list of many SL based sites and blogs, namely that of "GossipGirl", did not warrant any mention whatsoever with any of those polled.

So there you have it. The people have spoken, and while this will no doubt not put an end to the editorials over the merits of various names, or whether we should have the right to change our names if we become dissatisfied with them, but at least it gives a more rounded perspective, and also shows that not everyone shares the same opinions, or even really feels affected by how people choose to name themselves. Oh, and next time you judge someone harshly on the name floating above their head, remember that it's always possible that they may not have known any better, and they might just change it, if they were given the chance.

Once in a while, I like to indulge in what's commonly known as island hopping. Just teleporting from one random point on the map, to another, exploring what I find as I go. When scouring across the map, I started to notice and think about the places I could see that had actually created their particular sim in order that it would have a particular look, when viewed from the map view. With this in mind, I then set myself a quest to find the best examples of these across the Grid, so I could share them with you here:

Pawaii is the HQ of D&D Dogs, who create canine avatars and companions. As such, they have shaped their home island in the shape of a giant doggy pawprint.











This cute froggy shaped island is umi, and is basically a luxury beach club for you to lounge around on. However, be warned that when I went there, the place was empty and most of the items there were deeded to "o0 Club Nude 0o" so there is a risk of being confronted by a gang of nudists.









Mute is the home of RL and SL musical performer Richard Hawley, and as such he has chosen to make the main part of the land on the sim in the form of a giant version of his prized Eddie Cochran Anniversary Edition Gretsch Guitar.










Sanctum Eternum is obviously the love nest of a private couple, who deem to keep this heart, as well as the passionate goings on that may happen there, private. Since the sim is accessible by invite only, appreciate this one from the map view. Or, if you wish to make your own sim this romantic, the Raw file for this heart can be found here.








The beautiful dolphin from which Dolphin Reef gets it's name, is actually up for rent at the moment. So, if you want the prestige of setting up home on the body of a giant aquatic creature, and have 31,000$L or $120 a month burning a hole in your pocket, head on over, and make the owner an offer.









When DAZ (or Digital Art Zone) were looking to build their headquarters, Polygon Point, they look to have gone to Raw file creators Sim Bliss, for this fantastic snowflake design. The poses or animations that they make are mostly to be found on the sim to the west, so one can only assume that the spectacle and winter scenery here is to attract passing traffic.









There are many beautiful sights in the huge Winterfell estate of sims, but I will admit to being particularly fond of the adorable Winterfell Libris, an enormous crescent moon reef, surrounded by star shaped islands, and a wonderful fairytale feel throughout.










Of course, no talk of stunningly shaped island sims would be complete without mentioning the astoundingly ambitious and amazingly well put together Rouge, the burlesque style club and gallery created in the shape of it's owner, CodeBastard Redgrave.










Lamonti is the Headquarters of Lamont International, which owns Furniture Island, which lies directly to the north of it. When glancing across this sim, I almost skimmed straight past it, until I spied the skillfully created feminine silhouette in it's north east corner.









Some map visible land constructs are not islands, or even above the water. IYC Addiction is a Furry dedicated club and mall, and to try to catch the eye, they have dug underwater trenches, proudly displaying their name, and even a massive pawprint, and doodled kitty face.









Finally, if all this is feeling a little elitist, and you're thinking, "Yes, these rich residents who can afford their own sims can create own map visible landmasses, but we mere mortals have no such ability", then let me humbly present to you the mainland sim Corinaldo, where I own a couple of empty openwater 512 parcels. See if you can spot the initials of both my partner, Allanah Tomsen, and my self.







If all this has whetted your appetite, then remember that the world map is only a mouseclick away, and once you start scanning, you never quite know what you might find.

Faithful reader, if the name Aimee Trescothick seems familiar to you, it may be from the occasions during the past few Trin and Voo shows, when Trin’s partner takes it upon herself to blow us all up, or run us over with a tank. However, it’s become more and more noticeable that very many residents know our sweet little Aims for her superb and innovative programming work, which has been making quite the name for her. This past week, she has been getting so much attention, that we decided that an interview was in order, to get a better perspective on the divine Ms Trescothick, and her own particular Second Life Story.

However, Aimee is know for not being the biggest self publicist inworld, and is almost notoriously shy when talking about herself, so in a first for me, I traveled in the real world for the interview, down to an undisclosed location in deepest Kernow (or Cornwall for our non Cornish readership). Once there, Aimee and I also logged into SL, and sat down at the Rez office on the Kernow sim where she and Trin live, and had a chat:

Voodoo – You've been a Second Life resident for almost four years now. What initially attracted you to SL?

Aimee – I actually first heard of Second Life while researching a sleep disorder. I happened to read someone comparing it to Lucid Dreaming, as a place that you can shape to fit your imagination, a description that intrigued me. I'd watched the field of virtual worlds develop with interest since I studied Computer Engineering in the early '90s, and tried various ones from time to time, but generally got bored once I'd seen everything and found nothing left to do. This sounded much more what I had been looking for, an actual world I could take a part in, rather than just another game. I have lost a lot more sleep to it ever since!

Voodoo - When I first met you, I knew you as an artist and flag maker on Kiva, the Lava Pit sim. Since then, it seems you have experimented with quite a few interests in-world?

Aimee – Around the same time I found Second Life I was made redundant from a job in research and development at a graphics card manufacturer. I enjoy experimenting and continually learning everything I can about the world around me, so finding myself without the creative outlet that my employment had provided, I was drawn into creating and scripting within Second Life. Having found a warm welcome from the regulars at the Lava Pit, I tended to do my building while hanging out there. Those experiments, and the friendships forged at the old Lava Pit eventually brought me a real life career.

Voodoo – Oh, yes, Kiva brought you into contact with Lord Leafblower, Founder of the Lava Pit club, and owner of Boxapixels?

Aimee – Yes, he asked me initially to help building an in-world presence for a large communications company, and later to build a flag-ship store for his sideline, the Lava Inside brand of gadgets. Through doing that work I eventually joined Boxapixels as its virtual worlds specialist.

Voodoo –You have gained quite a following for the Open Source work you have been doing on the Second Life viewer. How did you get involved in this?

Aimee – I have? :) I got involved through curiosity mostly, I saw fixing bugs as an opportunity to learn about it, and see what made it tick under the surface. A big leap forward for me came with the introduction of the Space Navigator as a method of controlling my avatar in Second Life, that acted as a catalyst for me. It was great to suddenly be able to move so much more freely, anyone that hasn't tried it is really missing out :) It was a big improvement, but I could still see limitations, where I knew it was capable of more. So I started creating a long list of JIRA entries on ways it could be made even better. Realizing that as it affected relatively few users, and at the time was probably a low priority within the Lab as they were making a concerted effort to improve client stability, I started working my way through fixing them myself.

Voodoo – Since then, you have developed quite a few other changes or improvements for the Second Life viewers. What sorts of things that you have been working on have ended up on release?

Aimee – Besides the Space Navigator improvements, mostly minor UI improvements and fixes, or things under the surface. Like turning off the mic automatically when ending voice IM calls, so you don't broadcast your private conversations (or the sound of eating your lunch) to the world, and clean-up of the code that drives the mini-map, to make it cleaner and more efficient, and to enable the community translators to translate text associated with it. I mostly try to pick up small tweaks, that will gradually add up to improve people's every day experience, in the hope that it will free up a little of the Lab's resources, helping them to concentrate on the real game-changing stuff. Most of my recent Open Source work, is going into Linden Lab's Snowglobe project, such as the increased zoom range of the mini-map there for example. I really just enjoy the chance to talk to and work along side some really talented people, both the other Open Source developers, and within the Lab, who I find I learn a lot from. The demos shown at SLCC gave just a little taster of some of the seriously awesome stuff the Lab are keeping up their sleeve right now, for Viewer 2.0 and beyond. I can't wait to see what's just around the corner.

Voodoo – Most recently you've gained quite a lot of attention for your work with the new media plugins. Imagine me a drooling technophobic child, can you explain what this is?

Aimee – Linden Lab announced at SLCC the release of the LLMedia Plug-in API, which is a way of allowing outside programmers to more easily extend the client, intended mostly as a way to expand the types of media Second Life can handle beyond Quicktime videos and basic web pages. When I got my hands on the initial developer release of the Plug-in API viewer and the Linden test application for developing and debugging them, I made a quick video just of what could be done with the Linden supplied plug-ins, to show a couple of the other Open Source developers what I was seeing. Before I knew it, the video had been shared around much more widely than I anticipated, even finding its way onto New World Notes. It created quite a large positive reaction, and that spurred me on to see what I could do with it myself. Through my work at Boxapixels I regularly have clients asking for better collaboration facilities within the virtual world. So as a first attempt while learning the API, I decided to make something of a Frankstein style experiment, and over a weekend spliced in the VNC remote desktop sharing protocol. I then posted another video of it in action, just to demonstrate the potential of the new API, and the ease with which it makes it possible to develop these sorts of projects. the reaction to that was phenomenal.

Voodoo – What kind of possibilities could this unlock for in-world residents?

Aimee – It makes it possible to view the desktop of another computer live on the surface of a prim in Second Life, the same way you would normally view a video stream. So as a fun example, I have a virtual replica Apple Mac on my Second Life desk, showing the display of my real one. In future it will also be possible to interact with it using your mouse and keyboard, it already works while running it in the Linden plug-in test software – as can be seen in my videos, but the support for those functions doesn't appear to be available quite yet in the client itself. More useful examples would be collaborating on shared documents, live software demonstrations in-world, or remote assistance, enabling people providing in-world training to see “over the shoulder” of the people they are teaching. The sort of capabilities that are provided by web conferencing applications such as Cisco's Webex, or AT&T Connect, but in the more flexible and inviting environment of the virtual world.

Voodoo – What kind of feedback have you received?

Aimee – I knew these facilities would be popular within the business and education communities, but as someone who generally avoids publicity and hides in the background, the amount of attention that it got has taken me a little by surprise! The messages of support and encouragement I have received have been fantastic, it felt a little like I'd unintentionally stumbled upon the Holy Grail. I have been told be several Lindens that the video has created quite a buzz while being passed around within the Lab too, which is flattering, really though the part I played is quite minimal. I just provided the glue between the VNC software and the new Linden API which between them do the real work, without them this would have been much harder to achieve.

Voodoo – Finally, can you give us a heads up on the sort of things you are working on now, and what is on the horizon for you?

Aimee – Well, for now, while this project is working already, there is still a fair amount of work to do to bring it up to stable production quality, ready for public consumption. So with the demand, I think I'd better finish it before I move on to anything else :) There are still other things I have in mind to further the joystick input support, and my other pet project the mini-map. As a registered Apple developer I have used Snow Leopard through the beta program for some time now, I would like to spend some time looking at improving the performance of the Second Life client using the new technologies found there, as I believe there is much to be gained. I do have a number of ideas for other media plug-ins I will be playing with, but it will mostly be a matter of pushing boundaries, trying different things, and seeing what grows out of it all.

As a final lovely gift to our readers, and to help further illustrate exactly what the VNC interface can do, Aimee also made for us this special new video for you to enjoy:

All photos and videos used with kind permission of Aimee Trescothick. All rights reserved.

Some of you may remember I spoke to Daniel Voyager on the brink of his eighteenth birthday as he prepared to transfer from Teen SL and into the main Second Life grid. At the time Daniel was hopeful and excited about the adventure that he was about to embark on and little melancholy about leaving his teen friends behind. Also at the time there was a lot of discussion about the potential merging of the two grids which of course I asked Daniel about. At the time he said he believed they would be merged and indicated he felt this would be a good move.


I took the opportunity 10 months after his birthday to catch up with Daniel to see his his hopes had been realised and if he still felt the same about the possible grid merge.

When we last spoke you were preparing to move from TeenSL to the main grid can you tell us a little about the process involved for that to happen?

I can't believe it's been 8 and a half months since I transferred from the Teen Grid. The process involved in transferring from TeenSL to the main grid went smoothly and I managed to send my support ticket way in advance before my 18th birthday to be transferred on time. I created a TG transfer status updates page and posts on my blog to countdown the remaining days left in TSL. I spent the last few days doing a final tour of TeenSL and saying my final goodbyes which was very emotional to do. I remember sending my support ticket with my ID on the 11th of December 2008 and then got a reply back from Linden Lab the next day saying my ticket was assigned to the appropriate queue. I checked my ticket early on my birthday and it said "Happy Birthday! I have set the process to transfer you from Teen Second Life to Second Life to run on your next login. Please contact us if there is any difficulty with the transfer. Chiyo Linden!"

I couldn't wait any longer so I closed down my windows and started Second Life straight away. I few minutes later I arrived on the Main Grid, afterwards was teleported over to the TG Transfer Station along with tons of other cool places to meet new friends, SL Mentors and catch up with former TG friends. I was then flooded with IMs (50+), birthday gifts, cakes, notecards, landmarks and SL guides all day long. In the evening many residents set up massive birthday parties just for me and I enjoyed every second of it all. Today I'm known very well on the Main Grid and many do think I'm a celebrity. haha :)

Do you feel there is any way the transition process could be improved?

Yes. The TG Transfer Station located in Baffin needs to be the home location when teens transfer because recent former teen grid residents are saying they have been put in Welcome Areas around the grid. The TG Transfer Station needs to have information kioks and build to be switched on because it's not at the moment for some reason. The TG Transfer Station needs to host parties for new teens transferring turning 18 which would be great to see happen. The Teen Grid transfer groups could become more active by having weekly group notices on new transfers, upcoming parties and more.

What do you miss from Teen SL?

I miss being around my TG friends, blogging about activities happening in TeenSL, exploring, building, uploading snapshots to Flickr and not being able to help out TG educational projects anymore. I miss sending out group notices to educational, news groups and friend groups to let everyone know of interesting TG events and upcoming things in the community. One of things I will miss more than anything is mentoring new teens to the TG community because I loved doing that. Today I still keep in contact though email and messenger services because I wouldn't want to destory the relationships we had.

You said you were looking forward to the new exciting adventure that awaited you in Second Life, has it been such an adventure?

Yes, it has been a exciting new adventure on the Main Grid so far because I've been to hundreds of great places in Second Life. It's been great exploring a new grid which I've never been in before. I have enjoyed visiting Showcase places in Second Life and I have enjoyed attending great events in Second Life over the course of this year. I've been working on exciting projects in Second Life and being able to do things I couldn't do back on the TG. I have enjoyed attending office hours because every week there is always something cool happening. Mentoring on the Main Grid has been awesome helping new residents out at infohubs, welcome areas, help islands and sharing knowlege with them.

Has there been anything that's disappointed you?

Not that I know of because the experience so far has been great.

What sort of reception have you received from the main grid residents?

I have received a happy, fun, relaxed reception from main grid residents since I've been on the Main Grid. When I arrived I was so happy to meet so many cool people and friends. Many friends took me on a tour around the Main Grid on my first week showing me what's what which was great. Others sent me birthday treats, christmas gifts and IMs to make sure I was doing alright in the new big adult world.

Being new into the main grid, but not new to the interface do you believe there is any way the main grid could be improved following your experiences in TeenSL?

I believe there are ways for the main grid to be improved for former tg residents by having regions set up for former tg residents to meet up and have fun in. Having enough information about the main grid is important for former tg residents because many don't know where to start when they arrive on the main grid. This could be done through the TG transfer groups already set up ensuring that teens have the best experience possible when they arrive.
Be inspired! Have fun!

Following your Main Grid experiences do you think TeenSL and the main grid should be merged?

No. I think both grids should remain separate and Linden Lab should spend more attention on TeenSL issues. I changed my mind earlier this year after being featured on a metanomics show about the future of both grids. If the grids were merged together it would cause alot of serious problems and it wouldn't be right at all because it's a bad idea. There will be tons of lawsuits by residents taking action against LL, residents quitting and the TSL community will fall apart straight away. But whatever happens in the coming months or years I hope Linden Lab are making the right decision.

One of the constant challenges voiced by anyone within the Secondlife music community is the concept of getting the word out. With the grid being such a large place, and so many things going on at any one time, actually getting a following, or even getting anyone to turn up to your event, is a long and difficult slog, with predominantly word of mouth being the main way to get publicity. Yet, of course, this does mean that you run the risk that, no matter how much you play, it may end up feeling that you are playing your gigs to the same small group of friends, night after night.

Fortunately, there are people trying to wave the banner of live music in SL, and one such man is Fox Reisch, the owner and operator of Indiespectrum Radio a website and online radio station playing exclusively original music by SL artists. I met up with him, to find out a little more about how this project came about, why he does it, and what it could do for the talented musicians inworld.


Voodoo Buwan: How long has Indiespectrum been operating?
Fox Reinsch: Since November 2007
Voodoo Buwan: And what was the inspiration behind starting it?
Fox Reinsch: I wanted to help a musician friend promote her music here. Figured in RL they use radio so I would start a SL artist's radio station.
Voodoo Buwan: Was it at all difficult getting going at the start?
Fox Reinsch: Figuring out how to stream was Ok but setting up the web page to take requests was hard. Getting music turned out to be hard work too. I knew a few musicians that sent music but everyone else I have to chase after. They are on my Artists' Links page in the order they signed on.

Voodoo Buwan: Was there any problems with the issues of copyright, since I know how sensative artists, especially those inworld, can be about such things?
Fox Reinsch: Well I probably have the only legal station in SL. All the artists sign an on-line agreement that they personally own the music and give me permission to play it. All indendant artists' original music. No covers! Under the creative commons act the record companies really cannot bother me. Also they cannot bother any virtual businesses that play it.
Voodoo Buwan: So, once you've got the station, and the music to play, how did you spread the word? Do you have any idea how many people listen?
Fox Reinsch: I just tell people about it and the word spreads. Also I give out free radios here. and on Xstreet. I had 31,000 tune ins last month and over 100,000 hits to the web page. The station is also listed on iTunes under the eclectic genre. The problem is that word spreads fast in the live music community but it has been hard to get outside to the rest of the people in SL. I was in SL amost a year before I found out about live music here!
Voodoo Buwan: So, there's a challenge in getting the word out inworld, let alone getting recognition of inworld talent out in the real world?
Fox Reinsch: It seems impossible to tell all of SL about live music. I need help. I pretty much do everything myself. It would be great if my free radios were out as freebies at the high traffic shopping places in SL and they played SL my station not out of SL copyrighted web stations.
Voodoo Buwan: Apart from landowners using your stream, if someone wanted to help, what could they do?
Fox Reinsch: Anyone with any SL business can expose people to the great talent here in SL by playing my station. They can put out my free IndieSpectrum Radio radios vendor too. Also have now playing signs for them, like the one above my head or with hover text.
Voodoo Buwan: Are there any challenges with funding an operation like this, or does it all come out of your pocket?
Fox Reinsch: I do it just for fun as I love the music here and make many good friends. It is not a business but I do get some donations. I would like to have some volunteer helpers too. Publicity and to run live music fund raisers shows at my venue. I think most people running venues and supporting live music here are not making money but some do consider them businesses. So I have a listener supported station but mostly I support it and am a listener.
Voodoo Buwan: Finally, with all the music by SL musicians you must listen too, who are the acts that you would personally recommend as must see performers, for someone interested in hunting out the best that the scene has to offer?
Fox Reinsch: Well I don't think I should say. But I do enjoy all of the music no matter how good or bad. Listen to the station, you choose.
Voodoo Buwan: Very diplomatic of you.
Fox Reinsch: I play all of the music I get. If an artist sends 1 song it gets played much more than each of the songs from an artist that sends me dozens. The artists that send alot of songs do get played more. I try to be fair to everyone. Don't think there is any bad music on the station, there is a huge varity. Over 130 artists and over 1000 original songs. Everything from classical flute to hip hop. The full "spectrum".

If you're house is fast becoming taken over by your DVD collection, imdb.com is one of your most used bookmarks, and you spend those rare nights away from SL down at the local multiplex, you may be wondering if there are places in Secondlife where you can explore and embrace your love of celluloid within the virtual landscape. If so, you aren't alone, as I also was wondering something similar, but of course, anyone who has put the words "movie" or "film" into the SL search engine will know that this is a recipe for a long and painful search through advert after advert for porno theatres, porn filled inworld television, or randy webcam girls at reasonable prices. So, fear not, I have attempted to save you the effort and possible blindness that such a search can bring, by tirelessly scouring the grid to find some of the best places in SL to visit if you consider yourself a bit of a cinema aficionado.

There are various movie theatres in SL, where you and your friends can go and catch a film together, and many of them cost you absolutely nothing. One particular sim, the suitably movie inspired named Amity Island, actually has two. The Second Cinema Movie Theatre is a traditional cinema with one screen but plenty of seating, showing a variety of largely horror films (on the two occasions I popped by, they were showing "Scream" and "Interview with a vampire"). However, if you would prefer to enjoy a more open air movie experience with a charming retro feel they also have a superb Drive in Movie Theatre next door, showing films like "The Goonies", which you can view while sitting in one of the stylish American automobiles they have put out for the enjoyment of patrons. Once you've seen one of the films on offer, you can also head down to the beach to enjoy the little tribute to the film Jaws, from which the sim gets it's name.


If your film tastes extend to the more art house end of the spectrum, you might want to check out the small yet modern cinema that the BBC Film Network have set up on the depo sim, playing some superb documentaries. On show when I popped over for a look was "I Expect Jean Feels The Same" an interesting and touching story about two WW2 war widows, and the love and losses that they have experienced. Definitely more thought provoking than your average popcorn fodder.


Another small but perfectly formed moviehouse can be found on the Desperation Kelly sim, at the Redrum Public House and Cinema. Upon my visit, they were showing the frankly legendary "Full Metal Jacket", and if you piece together the clues from their film choice, and the name of the Pub, then you can probably figure out some of the other film related delights to be found nearby. If you go exploring, you may well discover a door to the Kubrick Rooms, a tribute to the much missed director, with lovingly detailed recreations of the sets like the war room from one of my favourite films, Dr Strangelove, along with the bathroom from The Shining, and a Moloko bar from A Clockwork Orange. You can even enjoy a documentary about the man himself, inside the room detailed after the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Once you have experienced these delights, you can also find some superb recreations of the shack from Evil Dead, and also the 80's Cafe from Back to the Future 2, but in addition to being able to have a look around these, you can also buy copies of them for your very own, to place on your own land, if you so wish.


For more items of purchasable film related goodness, you can do a lot worse than visiting the Paper Street Soap Company. Ah ha, I hear you cry, I know what this will look like then. And while you would be right that the signature pink soap from the Fight Club posters does feature heavily, and you can buy a fine recreation of the house on Paper Street, the actual main store building actually owes more to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, although put through something of a grime filter, and producing soap instead of chocolate, in appearance at least. Other prefab buildings for sale, that should interest any film fan, include the desert church from Kill Bill, Sweeney Todd's barber shop, the Quickstop store from Clerks, and a smashed up version of the Mooby's fastfood restaurant from Clerks 2. There are also some nicely crafted film inspired outfits on offer, which you can wear while you pop to the neighboring sim, to check out some of these buildings out on display, so you can have a look around before you buy.


It would be remiss of me to talk about films and Secondlife without talking about the large community of Star Wars fans, who have decided against playing one of the other Star Wars themed online games, preferring rather to make their own roleplaying areas in SL, and becoming a Jedi or Sith inworld. One of the best places to go to dip your toe into this galaxy not so far far away, is Little Mos Eisley, a highly detailed slice of the planet Tatooine. If you decide that you'd rather not get involved in the lightsaber battling, and rather just look around the Cantina, or marvel at the creatures, buildings and vehicles littering the sim (including a gorgeous Millennium Falcon), you can get a free visitors tag at the arrival point, and walk without fear of attack.


And finally, how could I look at the perfect places for a film buff to look at without suggesting a visit to the Hollywood Sim. This is a beautifully glamorous place, complete with it's own walk of fame, and Hollywood sign for you to gawp at, and if you're lucky you may even be able to catch a show at the sims very own Hollywood Bowl venue. Sounds like a potentially perfect end to any movie fans day in the world of SL.

Voodoo Buwan: Time in Secondlife can be charted on a scale of landmark changes that rock the grid. From the ban on gambling to age verification to the clampdown on in-world banking, these are the things that send shockwaves through our virtual world, and if the hysteria is to be believed, threaten to almost end Secondlife. The latest of these spawns from an announcement by Phillip Rosedale that there is a dedicated plan within Linden Labs to do away with the Second Life Teen Grid, and cast the doors of main Secondlife open for our teenage brethren to come and join us. Trin and I have decided that this is a suitably dangerous topic that we should cast our knowledgeable eyes over this, and consider what the impact of this imminent change could well be.

Trinity Dechou: Well of course this is a concept that many people have mused over for a while, and has been mentioned in passing by M Linden himself. The interview with Philip on Metanomics did of course send a rather large ripple of fear through the residents of Second Life and many issues, observations and foreseeable problems have been sited. I think firstly this would be the affect of having minors in a world dominated by mature adult content.

Voodoo Buwan: Well, exactly. I've recently been having a look around the grid to find film related sims, and if you've ever tried to do a classified search for "movies" then you will know that there is a great deal that is not suitable for minors in this world of ours. And for those that think that filtering out mature content will save you from finding listings for voice escorts popping up in front of you, then you would find that you are quite mistaken.

Trinity Dechou: Well I think this whole issue raises a couple of important questions, the first of course being what is exactly mature? In a world where LL allow a massive amount of free reign no one will step up and define what is PG and what is Mature. I'm sure many of us remember such issues as the 'nipplegate' fiasco at Burning Life 2007 for example.

Voodoo Buwan: That was the situation where at one of SL's biggest annual art events, one sculptors’ piece was in threat of being removed from the festival, as it featured a topless lady, and the feeling from the Lindens was that a female statue with nipples was too racy to be placed on a PG sim?

Trinity Dechou: Yes and of course, in its usual nature art raises such an interesting and fraught topic. As an art gallery owner what is acceptable for me to show in a PG sim and what isn't. It's very much down to personal preference in relation to art. We all have differing views and as art gallery owners (for example) there is a minefield of a topic. What about other residents and business owners?

Voodoo Buwan: Well, I think one larger point on that whole scandal, and I think it's a big point when it comes to the proposed merge, is that actually the main reason people were so shocked by LL's decision to enforce rules about what is and isn't acceptable in a PG sim, is that only ever do seem to enforce these rules at such high profile events, such as Burning Life or the SL Birthday Celebrations.

Trinity Dechou: LL enforce exceptionally strict background checks on adults merging into TeenSL as it stands, I wonder what has changed within Linden Lab to drop those floodgates and bring teens into Second Life, when as you've said they seem blatantly uninterested in policing everyday life for us all.

Voodoo Buwan: Well, the initial principle, as it was put across seems sound. Phil was talking about the fact that there are so many great educational opportunities in SecondLife, but as the system currently stands, a teacher and their students would not be able to be on the same grid, enjoying it. Now, I'm a great believer in "thou shalt not think that every single man over 30 who talks to a kid is a pedophile, some people are just nice" (to quote Scroobius Pip), but for some years now the main grid has been an adults only zone, and as with almost any adult's only social space on the net, people have used this, not exclusively, but definitely to a great extent, to explore and experiment with their sexuality, and basically bonk their virtual little bums off. Just because Phil has a love of the educational uses of SL, and delights in exploring these personally, does not mean that the whore houses, strip clubs and porno theatres disappear.

Trinity Dechou: Exactly, but it comes across that sometimes Lindens don't appear to realise what is in our world. For example one of the most highly controversial RP setups within SL is age play and mixing an age play environment with adults playing children and children coming across as adults is quite frankly, an exceptionally worrying thought. As things stand in the SL we all know and love, there are some things that no minor (and many adults) should not see but can be found as a neighbour to the sweetest, educationally friendly establishment you will find.
Voodoo Buwan: I suppose one of the biggest worries seems to be that Linden Labs will just shut down the Teen Grid, open the gates, and say come on in to the kids. And as you say, even if precautions are taken to make sure that, for example, a teen can only step onto a PG sim, the way that the grids have been organised means that some PG sims on the mainland are surrounded by Mature sims, so that as soon as the SL teen learns how to cam into the sim next door, they may well get entirely the wrong kind of education.
On top of this, we can step back to our point about the fact that even on PG sims, there might well be things that are not suitable. I recently, while again researching a story, ended up on the sim for US television company Cinemax. They were promoting a new show, which is shown as part of their after dark lineup, and you can view the first episode on a big screen in the middle of the town square. About 3 minutes into this episode, there is a soft-core scene of a couple making love on a piano, where the woman is visibly naked. I then spotted that this was in fact a PG sim.

Trinity Dechou: Which brings in another very interesting thought I looked into while doing a bit of research into this discussion. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is in place to rate many of the games we, and our children play. Similar to television shows, games can also have ratings, will we in the future see Linden Lab apply for a rating under this scheme and if so what will it be given? Under ERSB there are a few ratings including Teen, Mature and Adults Only. Games like Doom fall into Mature and of course controversially many Grand Theft Auto games fell into Adult Only. The guidelines in place give ideas for how ratings are applied. Themes such as animated blood, violence, simulated alcohol, smoking, crude humor, sexual content, gambling and language (which are apparent in the vast majority of sims in Second Life) all contribute to a high age rating for a game. If Second Life as it stands right now cannot be granted a Teen rating and it is something that Linden Lab still want to pursue then realistically we're brought back to the ineptitude to police our world. As sim owners we are not here to police ourselves and our sims, we are not here to decide what is mature and what isn't, right down to things like having voice enabled and even streams playing potentially risqué music. We are also not in place to be parents for the teens invited into Second Life because of a tunnel vision goal to educate whilst ignoring the rest of the world that would need restrained and/ or policed.

Voodoo Buwan: I think one thing that has become painfully evident, and my recent article about inworld gambling highlighted this, is that Linden Labs is, let's face facts, a software company. The Lindens are pretty much without exception, either programmers, developers, or Public Relations or Customer Services representatives. They are neither lawyers or policemen, and therefore do not have the manpower, skill sets or possibly even inclination to patrol such a vast space that the Secondlife grid has become, investigating what someone may or may not have put on their land, or what they are saying, doing or watching inworld. Which again leads us back to how they are going to deal with the integration of underage residents into what has become a largely adult orientated society.

Trinity Dechou: We've all been made aware of age verification and of course this is a subject I have also covered in a previous Rez article. Age verification was the hip new thing that would clean our world up, it however seems to have died a death and hasn't been implemented to the extent that Linden Lab made us believe it would. Will now be the time for LL to panic and hit the big red 'verify' button in a hope that it cures these woes. Of course verification is certainly far from a perfect strong defense for these issues.

Voodoo Buwan: Well, this is the thing. Age verification was introduced as something that land owners could turn on to restrict access of users, and keep unverified people out of sexually explicit areas. The reason it hasn't taken off is that most of these sexually explicit areas, for example places like webcam island, are in actuality businesses, and it doesn't really make massive sense for businesses to actively try to cut down the amount of people entering, especially when so many people didn't want to age verify for logical reasons such as US companies having such a lousy track record for keeping personal information securely. And, as we've discussed, even if now Linden Labs said that if your area is sex related, you MUST make the land age verified, we still end up with the issues of (a) what would be deemed as explicit and therefore age verification necessary, and (b) would anyone even notice if somewhere that was specifically designed as a sex area wasn't using the system, since no one appears to be patrolling the grid to enforce these rules?

Trinity Dechou: With this proposal being such an obvious minefield with the points we have already discussed, why do we actually think Linden Lab decided this would be a good move in the first place?

Voodoo Buwan: Well, the educational justification alone doesn't hold enough water to balance out this, and Linden Labs simply cannot have been naive enough to not have seen at least some of the potential issues above. Some people have been suggesting that with the current global economic crisis, that the grid merger would have two advantages for LL. One being that the cost of maintaining two grids is simply not cost effective, and that this would allow them to lower their costs, protecting LL as a company in this time of recession. The other is that the influx of teens to the main grid would be an added source of revenue to the main grid economy, meaning that any downturn in inworld spending in the main grid, caused by residents having to tighten their belts, could be cushioned by kids with plenty of disposable income to fritter away.

Trinity Dechou: It is suggested by many that many children have more disposable 'incomes' than adults in fact and that this can, as Voodoo suggests, boost the economy. Many TSL residents are known in TSL as excellent content creators and can also therefore boost the ranges of products/ services on offer in our Main Grid. Another potential reason for Linden Labs decision could be related to the RL news media networks we all love to hate when it comes to SL. According to many in these networks SL is filled with lunatics and pedophiles. Perhaps this move on Linden Labs behalf is, at least in part, an act to 'clean up their image' in the face of RL adversity. However if this is the case, then as above we've shown it could catastrophically backfire on them. One main reaction which has been apparent is many adults saying that teens are already in the main grid and that in fact many teens are actually more adult than many adults here. I must say that saying 'they're already here' is a frankly weak arguement. Because these children have broken the rules already it does is not acceptable to lay down and say, "oh fine then". It is not acceptable as an arguement to say that children in many cases are more mature than many adults here. There will remain at risk children and these are the children that should be protected, however who will be responsible to protect them? I am not a parent in RL and I certainly don't want to become one in SL.

Voodoo Buwan: I suppose the point with that is that, since the kids are here, at least if we make it official, then it can be more regulated. But then, that assumes that someone will be regulating, and apart from age verification, how will you really be able to discriminate between the teens who say they are teens, and those who still choose to be seen as adults. It's a fairly unique problem to sl really, as the other games you mentioned earlier with their ratings have the regulation all at point of sale. If a 14 year old gets onto Call of Duty on XBox Live, it's because a retailer sold it for them when they shouldn't have, or because an adult bought it for them when they shouldn't. Microsoft and Activision don't have to regulate this, because the regulation is done at the store level. Since SL is free to enter via online registration, it has left itself open to these kinds of headaches.

Trinity Dechou: As we have seen from the past, Linden Lab make a stance, take an angle and follow it through. This merge WILL come to Second Life, we do not know exactly when, but we know it is no longer an 'if' situation. The changes that should be adhered to for this to be effective would completely change our Second Life; Your World Your Imagination would become Your World, Our Governance.

Voodoo Buwan: Or alternatively, if Linden Labs mismanage this and don't regulate the merger properly, they potentially put us all on a road that could mean that simply by being second life users we could be branded as corrupters of the innocent, or worse, and Second life would end either by a government stepping in to force it's closure, or due to the fact that residents would leave in droves, fearing that they could end up on a register.


This has been a highly controversial decision by Linden Lab, Voodoo & I have outlined our fears for this change to Second Life. We would invite you, if you feel so inclined, to leave comments with your worries and observations, and if you feel strongly enough, please remember to voice your concerns to a Linden Labs representative. At this point, it can’t hurt.