SL = False Advertisments

Once visiting www.secondlife.com the first thing you see is pictures of chinatown. It says "In World Now" When in fact......its not open to the public. So why is it even advertised?? How much did they have to pay for publicity to a sim thats not even open? I'm pretty disgusted, I have asked to go see chinatown, and was turned down. I know alot of people that have asked..and denyed.....So if its really "In World Now" WTF can't we go visit?


Just more proof that Linden Lab plays favorites!
How many times have you gone to create a new avatar and seen "psyra extrodionaire" as who refered you? twice for me.

As an annoying technicality, it is in-world... you just can't get there from here.

It shouldn't be advertised on the MAIN web page unless its really there for all to go see!

Sorry you havent seen it yet Zoey... it is simply amazing

I agree that its not right to highlight a build on the web site that only the lindens and select freinds can visit.

I think they should put the anti world trade center build on the main page too so people can see both aspects of secondlife.

There will be an official opening of Chinatown February 11th. Just a little more patience. It´s worth the wait! It´s breathtaking.
And technically it is in world. The project is not open to public till the work on it is completed.
IM Foxy Xevious. I am sure she will take you for a tour there.

PERMISSION DENIED!



LOL But seriously.... maybe there was a reason for being denied? They couldnt give ya a tour right then and there, they had a mess in the island, could be a number of reasons.

Heh, on a similar note, is advertising a movie before its release date false advertising?

They say 'coming soon' or 'opens on' or whatever, not 'now playing'.

On behalf of Team Bedazzle, I'm glad to hear you are very much interested in checking out Chinatown!

Please understand though: currently, we are undergoing extensive labor because we want to be ready for the Grand Opening, so if we seem overly busy, we apologize for any inconvenience pertaining to this. It's been a lot of work behind-the-scenes to coordinate everything.

Promo is currently being done in tandem with LL, as you have noticed, and we're honored that this project is sparking so much interest and passionate reactions.

I hope you and everyone else who comes to visit Chinatown as part of the UL project will have a blast. It's definitely a one-of-a-kind experience and the first of its kind inworld.

Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Hey, I'd sign up for SL based on the Chinatown pics! Very true, I haven't been there, but I'm hoping we'll be allowed there soon! It'd be worth my money for even a long distance chance to see something that well done. Heck, it's worth money just to see the pics!! I'm truly amazed.

It does say "New" but it also says "In world Now".

Whatever. Drama drama drama...

it's advertising. it's not like it has to accurately reflect all of SL.

I just wanna see it because every pic I've seen has been photoshopped to some degree. I wanna see how it stacks.

Before Foxy was kind enough to give me a tour the other night, I was convinced that that image was photoshopped as well, but I was amazed and pleased to see that it wasn't. Chinatown really, truly looks like that. Once you see how it's built, you'll probably do exactly what I did and think to yourself, "why didn't I think of that?"

The Bedazzle team is comprised of some extremely talented and creative folks. I'll bet any amount of money that once Chinatown is open, it will have a dramatic cascade effect on the rest of the world and we'll end up seeing lots of builds that incorporate their techniques. It's not everyone who can acheive the honor of changing SL for the better. Bedazzle has a lot to be proud of.

As for the "in world now" thing, as others have stated, it IS in world now. Whether or not the owners decide have decided to let the public into it yet is not LL's concern. The picture demonstrates an image of what it is possible to make in SL at the moment. That's it.

I'm not sure when exactly it became so fashionable to chastise LL for every little thing (I think it started with the mass exodus from There.com), but isn't this one stretching it just a little bit? Come on people, it's not LL's responsibility to open the doors to a private island. It's PRIVATE. Only the owners can decide when and whether to let you in, and they are under no obligation to do so. So put your overdeveloped sense of entitlement on hold for a few weeks and just play nice, okay?

I knew someone would say that, but realize that some of us are not as easy to impress. Besides, I know how most of the stuff was done, I've seen it before and I've yet to see anything that is truly original.

What I'm looking for is how these parts will, in the end, be put togehter(which is where the actual orginality will be). Nothing EVER looks as good as its standalone screenshots(assuming these shots are taken by those who know how to take an artistic picture), even if they go unaltered.

There is zero doubt in my mind it won't look as good -- which is to be expected with anything. I wanna see how well it stacks up. Some of us are harsher critics then anyone.

Still, I doubt I won't go unimpressed. A lot of time and thought obviously went into a lot of things. Will I be awestruck though? I doubt it, but it would be a pleasent surprise.

Anyways, I doubt this will have much of an effect on the grid as a whole. A few talented individuals get a some inspiration but as a whole... No. Not at all. The grid is not owned by artists and interesting and seldom used techniques mean nothing is not put into proper context.

Which is good. It'll make builds like these stand out more.

Was that aimed at me? Are you implying I'm easy to impress? What would give you that idea? To my knowlege, this is the first time you and I have ever spoken. That's a bit pretentious of you, wouldn't you say?

As I said in a couple of other threads on Chinatown, I've been in SL for over year and this is the first build that has wowed me. Have a little more faith in the builders, and a little less in your own assumtions, okay?

As for your zero doubt, how many different people have to testify that it does indeed look as good as the picture before you'll accept the possibility? Zero doubt is a bit harsh, don't you think? A wise person should NEVER have zero doubt about anything. There should always be room for other possibilities besides what your mind pre-fabricates before the fact. Whether or not you end up awestruck is your perogative, but at least give credit where credit is due and don't go tearing things down with unfounded assumptions before you've seen them. Think about the fact that every single person who has actually seen this build has done nothing but sing its praises, and the only people stating otherwise are those who have not been there yet. Doesn't that at least open your mind to the chance that this build really is something special?

As for whether it affects the rest of the world, obviously only time will tell, but experience has shown that just about every good idea that has set new things apart at first has filtered out to the masses fairly quickly. It used to be only a few people knew how to cell shade; now almost everyone does. Not long ago, Starax was the only one making good-looking human and animal sculptures; now lots of people are doing it. When I first joined, there were only a select few people who made great-looking clothing; now many designs that were the best available in that period look silly, as there are hundreds and hundreds of people making better stuff every day. I could go on all day with more examples. The point is there's no reason to think that the techniques used in Chinatown will not spread just as widely. We all learn from what we see. That's the way of the world.

As for saying the grid is not owned by artists, are you sure we're talking about the same world here? While it's true that not every single person in SL is an artist, who do you think made everything you see when you look at the world? I've been around artists all my life, and I can definitively say that SL has the highest population of talented artists of any place I've ever seen, online or off. It's by design a creative world, and as such it has attracted thousands upon thousands of creative people. I have yet to meet more than a handful of people who aren't either already artistically skilled or else very interested in becoming so, and SL has proven itself to be tremendously successful learning environment for budding artists, even for a great many who never saw themselves as having any artistic talent beforehand.

You say it would be a good thing if no one or if only a very few people were to learn from the techniques epmployed to create Chinatown because "It'll make builds like these stand out more". Forgive me for being blunt when I say that that is such an elitist, backwards attitude. The truth is the more people learn from eachother, the more that what is extroardinary today becomes mundane tomorrow, the more it pushes us all to create even better things in the future. It's called progress, and it's the sign of a healthy and vibrant universe, both in RL and in SL.

The people of Bedazzle understand this concept of growth, which is perhaps why they continue to create such high-quality things. In fact, the first thing Foxy did when she showed me around was to point out exactly how some of the most impressive effects were created and to make sure I took note of them. You see, people who are great will always delight in sharing that greatness with others, and those who are wise will always take the time to learn from it. I've been a graphic artist and a 3D modeler since long before I ever heard of SL, and I can say I picked up quite a few new ideas in Chinatown. Isn't that what it's all about? There's nothing there that I or any number of other artists couldn't do just as well they did it, but there doesn't have to be in order for it to be awe inspiring. There was plenty there that it wouldn't have occered to me to do before, and that's what was so amazing about it.

Anyway, you'd do well to keep your negative assumptions at bay, open your mind, and decide that if so many people have such great things to say about a build, then maybe, just maybe, it's the real thing.

Speaking for myself (just to interject!), I'd have to see it for myself before I'd accept that what people are saying is true. I've seen this time and time again, most recently with Neverland. People were waxing lyrical about it and, well, that kind of left me cold when I visited it and not really impressed, apart from a couple of small places.

I'm looking forward to seeing Chinatown, absolutely. Some of the things that Bedazzle have come up with have been tremendous. But, at the end of the day, all this is is a PVP with a pretty backdrop (as far as I can make out from the information that's available), so we'll see how it stacks up as a whole. Certainly it will be interesting to see what tricks they use and how well it looks "in the flesh" rather than in photographs (yes, the photographs do look great).

One thing I do have to say, about the original topic of this thread, is that 4 of the 8 pictures on the front of the site are Bedazzle, 3 of them from Chinatown. That doesn't suprise me in the least bit when 9 Lindens are members of the Bedazzle developer's group.

Hi Moopf I'd just like to clarify that not all members in the Bedazzle group are developers. A number of them are guests with access, like some of the Lindens, and this access includes (but is not limited to) purposes such as promotion on the front page of SecondLife.com .

Back to eating my noodles . . .

Ah right, I guess I was thrown by the fact that the Officer title is Bedazzle Chief Dev and the member title is Bedazzle Developer. Anyway my point was that with so much Linden interest in Bedazzle it's hardly suprising that 50% of the slideshow images on the front are of Bedazzle's stuff.

Yup *nods and smiles* no surprise there -- and yes I do agree that the titles are not specific enough that way. More customizability in the future will be welcome.

I myself am looking forward to the completion of the Pot Healers project under your Numbakulla banner in a few months.

Exciting things ahead for SL that will strengthen us as a community!

Ah yes, it should be ready by the start of April I believe, it's coming on well from what I've seen of it. I'm kind of keeping out of the way for the most part so not to tread on any toes

All I can say is you're full of shit. Seeing as you haven't been there and don't have a clue how the hell would you know? I guess you're just the master we must all look too....pffft

Hey, I was turned down as well. I'm sure you weren't the first, and won't be the last.

If you want to view a city in the making, try visiting Living Cities in Phobos and BonnyDoon. It's a 1.5 sim city, and we don't deny access to anyone! And we don't have a front page splash either.

Woah there Talen, you're being way too harsh on the poster. What he/she said is their view point and I think many could relate to it, but they also admit they probably won't come away unimpressed. But the point they're making is valid - things rarely look as good up close as they do in pictures. Your vitriolic attitude is part of why big attractions in SL very rarely have many detractors - people daren't because they'll get attacked by the passionate supporters.

All that the majority have to go on is the pictures and forgive me if I'll join in and say I can't believe it looks that good first hand. You have all these people wetting themselves over the pictures, you need to cut people some slack when they don't. We've all seen pictures of things then seen them first hand and it's not been anywhere near as good - that happens all the time. I've seen plenty of pictures of things in Second Life then actually been and visited, or got the product, and they don't look anywhere near as good - pictures are a very kind medium.

However, what I've seen of Chinatown from the pictures does look good, and if it looks as good as that in reality then I'll be very impressed and I'll be the first to say it, but don't attack people so harshly for talking common sense about the quality of pictures and how they might not represent how it actually looks.