Filed under: Betas, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

The Imprudence project has released version 1.3(beta 1) of their Second Life viewer. Imprudence is one of our favorite after-market Second Life viewers, and the only third-party viewer that we're certain complies with all of the source and asset licensing.

This edition merges all things Imprudence with the codebase for 1.23, providing one of the fastest and smoothest viewers currently available that we're aware of, along with the usual featureful experience.

Continue reading Imprudence 1.3.0(beta 1) released

Imprudence 1.3.0(beta 1) released originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds, The Virtual Whirl

This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're looking at virtual environments (and their subset of virtual worlds) as products and platforms.

As their developers and operators seek to grow and mature their markets, they carry the risk of rendering themselves irrelevant to the very customers that they court.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Virtual worlds must accommodate, adapt and evolve, or die

The Virtual Whirl: Virtual worlds must accommodate, adapt and evolve, or die originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: New titles, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds

The hallmark of a good license is that it is clear, easy to understand and unambiguous. The gold-standard for a good contract is that it is all of the above and provides all parties with equal amounts of protection. There are bonus points for not conflicting with rights guaranteed by law, or with other prerequisite licenses or agreements.

Linden Lab's Third Party Viewer (TPV) policies, as published on Tuesday, regrettably reflect none of these ideals. We'd go so far as to say that it's the worst day's work that we've seen come out of the Lab to-date. So much so that almost immediately after publishing them the Lab has sent them back to legal for both clarification and rewriting.

Continue reading Second Life third-party viewer policies not well received

Second Life third-party viewer policies not well received originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Sharp-eyed Massively readers spotted Linden Lab Brighton office staffers hard at work shifting premises over the weekend, with everything being moved upstairs. Was this some sort of fiery, demonstrative protest where office furniture would be flung from the roof? Could it have been some penthouse variant on the yard-sale, and we could get a deal on that slightly balky laser-printer that we've had our eye on for a while?

Alas, neither was actually the case. The Lab was moving to larger premises within Brighton's prominent Tower Point building.

Continue reading Linden Lab relocates Brighton UK office

Linden Lab relocates Brighton UK office originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: News items, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Over the last few weeks, Linden Lab staff have been talking about a few upcoming Second Life projects during their in-world office-hours sessions. Now the Lab has always been quick to stress that the accuracy and reliability of information obtained through those venues is questionable, and that we shouldn't assume that anything said at them is actually accurate.

With that in mind, we went back to the Lab about several identifiable (or at least apparent) projects to get the skinny on them and find out what's actually happening with them, and where they're at.

Continue reading Linden Lab investigates new/updated technologies for Second Life

Linden Lab investigates new/updated technologies for Second Life originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Second Life, Legal, Virtual worlds, The Virtual Whirl

This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're taking a look at the vigilante side of intellectual property rights.

For many, it seems like a good idea to mass-report or name-and-shame intellectual property rights violators whenever and wherever you see them ... but is it really?

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Of villains and crusaders

The Virtual Whirl: Of villains and crusaders originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Economy, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds, The Virtual Whirl

This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're going to take a selection of reader questions that we've received in comments and in the virtual mailbag and do our best to offer up some useful answers. Join us as we whirl through the mail.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Questions from the virtual mailbag

The Virtual Whirl: Questions from the virtual mailbag originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds, The Virtual Whirl

"Get a life", "Get a first life", and so on, and so forth. If you're involved in virtual environments, you've probably heard this phrase a lot. Wagner James Au of New World Notes suggests that people who use those phrases are among the least likely to 'have a life' themselves.

Well, we'd say he's half right. It's more that the people you hear it from don't really have much of an idea of what life is all about and how it works. It's not an uncommon theme. Botgirl Questi points out that in order to see something more clearly, sometimes you have to look at it from a very different perspective.

This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're going to take a couple perspectives for a spin, and talk about the meaning of life actually is, insofar as the phrase "get a life" is concerned.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: The meaning of life

The Virtual Whirl: The meaning of life originally appeared on Massively on...

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Traditionally, Linden Lab's blog communications have seemed to be reserved for things that had been finalized, were being finalized but already set in stone, or may not have been set in stone but gave that appearance by being nearly identical both before and after user-feedback. All this punctuated by a smattering of video tutorials, infomercials and statistics.

Wallace Linden's recent attempt at (what we think might possibly be) a productive conversation on Second Life identification linking looks like a bit of a failure, mostly because it seems to have failed to distinguish itself from these traditional developer/operator communication patterns.

Continue reading Will the real topic please stand up? Anatomy of a community communications breakdown

Will the real topic please stand up? Anatomy of a community communications breakdown originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.