Wednesday, 12/10: *24*, Second Life-style!

24, 12th Hour Entry

Hanging out at the Town Hall with Philip, which proceeded to eventually crash SL, but took the downtime to plug in SLive in the background... gotta start making requests...

Anyway, as the Q&A proceeded, I went looking for veteran residents in the crowd, to give me their opinion:

Bel Muse: I think it's really a bold and innovative idea; I admire the Lindens for making such a dramatic change. Personally, I think it makes things better for more people. But most importantly, it provides a path to create and experiment with large interactive projects. There were things that were not possible under any circumstances, and I think now with close cooperation and a little extra rl$ can at least be.

Looking for another resident opinion from a group POV, I got this from an officer in a fairly large one:

We had to recruit to afford taxes-- now we can just pay to make the different. So do we need all the extra people? I dont know. Thats what has to be reconsidered. Do groups just carry on like pre-1.2 or do they restructure?

This change doesn't solve inter-group resource issues-- prim distribution, as I see it, either goes first come, first serve, or is limited by some formula "you invest x amount, you get x amount of prims". The problem within a large group project..is some people build like crazy, others build very slowly or not at all. So we [now] have to decide to be scrupulously fair, and have holes in the project come some members have not got around to using their prims or we let the most productive have a free hand, and the slower builders just deal with it... I think our group gets along very well but there can be underlying tension, unhappiness, hurt feelings typically when people simply are not happy with things in the group, feeling stifled, they go work on something else.

--Hamlet

24, 13th Hour

Some more highlights from Philip's 5pm town hall meeting, which of course went over time...

Philip Linden: You can sell L$ on Ebay.... that doesn't mean we love it or hate it. We just give you the right to do it.

Hank Ramos: Just a basic question. Are these changes for LL or SL? I have no problem if LL needs these changes to keep SL going. Is this a change to fix problems with the SL economy?

Philip Linden: We will likely make a bit less with these changes.... not our concern. Our concern is to attract more users and give intense developers ability to make money and buy sims.

***

After Philip kicked it, many lingered to talk about what he said...

Kathy Yamamoto: Well, Phillip said the one thing that makes me think this may be a good thing. He said that the current economic model "doesn't scale". If that's true, then we werens't going to get a culture... I wish there was no connection between real life affluence, but I've become convinced that this process will feed the economy better over time.

Chip Midnight: they have to try and best serve the majority. No argument there. But I'm allowed to have my selfish concerns ;P

Bonecrusher Slate shouts: Three cheers for selfishness!
Bonecrusher Slate:

***

CrowCatcher Valen: but some of us Jamey have been here for a long time, and we've built alot of wealth based on what we thought was going to be somewhat a stable economy, now RL money is going to change that economy...there's alot of us, that dont realize it yet, that are going to have to fork over RL cash for what they currently have...and I am not one of them.. I'm fine. But you guys arent going to realize how this hits you unitl they email you.....

***

Jack Fate: to me the centrally cool part about this system is that information is the only thing that really has value ... it's the 'information economy' for real.

***

Jamey Satyr: I'm sure as hell(thank you mature sim I'm sitting on) not going to pay that much for a freaking game.

***

I hear I looked odd at the town hall meeting, though I'm not sure how...
can anyone reading this IM a description me? I mean, I must look like
hell if I hear:

Squeedoo Galatea: Are you okay, dude?
Bonecrusher Slate: Hang in there man, not many hours left!

But I must be, because now I'm trapped in a Gray foothill, in a position and making a facial expression like I'm constipated... fortunately, James Mller just came by, bumped into me, and somehow cleared up the AV posture. (Though not the constipation.)

24, 14th Hour

Ask we stand on a hill in Gray, our av's still badly out of wack (he's frozen in a squat, I'm stuck squinting like an idjit) I ask James Miller: Hey, what happened in the news today?

James Miller: Hmm Voyeur Website JenniCam to go dark after 7 years. Vaccine runs low with flu peak yet to come. Toddler revived after falling into pool has brain damage.
You: Sad
James Miller: Al-Qaeda linked man arrested in Minnesota
You: whoa, really?
James Miller: Yes.. His name is Zacarias Moussaoui
You: Wha
James Miller: I didn't know anyone LIVED in Minnesota, especially TERRORISTS!
You: You're giving me last year's news!
James Miller: Oh wait wait.. The man arrested today gave info about Zacarias.
You: About or to?
James Miller: This is CNN, buddy, those questions are too intellectual... A New York-bound Amtrak train collided with a car at a railroad crossing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Wednesday, killing the driver instantly... A Flood Watch has been issued for the NYC-Metro Area... Home explosion shakes up Long Island community... Two men killed in robbery attempt on pet store... Haitian leaders demand recall of 'Grand Theft Auto' Video Game... (I've switched from CNN to wnbc.com)... Back to that Amtrak thing... That's freaking scary... I've taken that very train MANY times.

I just mentioned RSI-like strain on my arms to Nova Linden. She sez:

Nova Linden: Put some wrist braces on Mister.
Nova Linden: 20 buck a shot at Rite Aid, send your woman!

I say:

Hamlet Linden: jej. o
Hamlet Linden: i'ldf
Hamlet Linden: oops
Nova Linden: Hahaha!
Hamlet Linden: heh, i'll make it
Nova Linden: Keep up the great work!
Nova Linden: And the coffee.
Nova Linden: You're doing it for posterity!
Nova Linden: Posterity I'm telling you!
Hamlet Linden: More like I'm doing it for posterior.

Also: met a bunch of guys in the sandbox sim (including James
Dayton, a Slashdot reader who came because of the copyright announcement), witnessed a snowball fight, and got an interesting response from someone I noticed a few entries back. (Coming next hour.)

Maybe this whole thing is for posterity *and* posterior!

24, 15th Hour Entry

Sean Rutherford: Can I Fedex ya an In-N-Out burger or something?
Maybe a Caffiene patch?
Hamlet Linden: Aww man, I'd kill for in-in-out!

Seriously, commit bloody murder!

Wait, g/f is bringing take out, OK, put down knife...

Why, there's only 9 HOURS LEFT OF THIS, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO FORBEAR FROM HOMICIDE A LITTLE WHILE LONGER.

Anyway, remember that guy who created the banner saying "No RL Money in SL" or words to that effect? I IM'd to interview him, and we said this:

Hamlet Linden: So why did you make that banner?
Carnildo Greenacre: When I first heard about the new policy, it sounded like the only way to get in-world land was to pay real-life money, and that anyone with money could pay and immediately get SecondLife land. Since then, the Lindens have answered most of my questions about the new policy, and the actual policy seems much more reasonable.
Hamlet Linden: Heh, really?
Carnildo Greenacre: I still don't entirely approve of the increased influence real-life wealth will have on Second Life, but it should be a lot better than I thought when I put up the banner.

Hamlet Linden: So you're not as worried about real money in the world.
Carnildo Greenacre: My understanding is that, with the new rules, you'll need both real-world money, and in-world money, if you want to purchase land -- and under some circumstances, it'll be possible to pay entirely using L$, rather than with real-world money.
Hamlet Linden: And if that's the case...?
Carnildo Greenacre: If it was possible to pay your way using entirely real-world wealth, people would have less incentive to do things for the community.

I suggest to him that he raise that point with the Lindens, and tell me what he thinks about their policy. But right now, he's changed the banner to read "Let SL Money Matter"!

--Hamlet

24, 16th Hour

After Philip leaves his 8pm stint, again there's a pile on of wacky AVs,
crosschatting like crazy. I paraphrase my census:

"We have: A: two tanks! A: elf babe on a tank. A: gollum! A: princess! A: god! A: elegant lady! A: hero! A: dude! A: prophet! A: cannon! A: albino hipster! A: vampiric hipster!"

Panthar Orlowski: and a land shark!

Yes, that too, a single fin, cutting through the grass!

Also, Rygar Grimm shows up, only jacking into the body of one
Mekare Valkyrie. This is some kind of long awaited appearance
of the legendary Noise Tank. Not stopping at that, Rygar gives me a
big a** present that I will open soon.

Meanwhile, got a comment from another master builder on 1.2:

Oneironaut Escher: Well, I'm actually one of the very small percentage of people who could be negatively affected by this. I have a normal subscription and have been more than above average successful in the game. .. but, I think it is for the better of SL in general, so I'm okay with it.
for like 99% of people, they are going to be better off. The unfortunate circumstance is though that the 1% who will be hurt are some of the most successful. Does that make sense?
Hamlet Linden: It's altruistic.
Oneironaut Escher: not completely. I like SL enough that I want it to survive. That's selfish
Hamlet Linden: Enlightened selfish!

So...

Then went to Marilyn Murphy's place, to check out Player's, a new
adult magazine edited by her and published by Reve Monde-- soon
to be at better businesses throughout SL. But now I'm at my
office in Shipley, having to get away, hide away, just sleep
a little bit, even if I can just watch my AV sleep, that might
be enough to make me feel just a bit rested.

AFK...

24, 17th Hour

Reality intrudes: huge storms outside now, with lightning. GF
stuck in SF amid cars getting wrecked every which way. Had to
slightly break my rule of SL-only to call and make sure she was
safe.

May lose the power any moment. May have to go run and rescue her,
for that matter.

Meanwhile, remember Fey Brightwillow worrying at an early hour
about her store? She said she'd decide what to do tonight, and
so she did:

Fey Brightwillow: well I took my time thinking things out this evening
You: Yes yes?
Fey Brightwillow: and going to keep the store.. as is for now till I find out exactly what I can afford as prims-- then either rebuild if needed or adjust this building if we can. I love the looks of the store now. so I am hoping we can just do a few adjustments and make it work. I've weathered other set backs, so I will weather this one too seemed you were set to just ditch the whole place or the house when we spoke.
Einsman Schlegel: it was a tad overwhelming to take all in
Fey Brightwillow: yes I needed time to just think it all out is all
Fey Brightwillow: and I try not to do the knee jerk reactionis reactions
You: how you change your mind?
Fey Brightwillow: I thought about how I love to create clothes.. I love my store. 8 months of my life has gone into making it as it is. I dont want to give that up. And as I had some say.. its like a historical site.. one of the very few places that has stayed in the same spot. And I know alot of my friends will be happy I decided on this.

You: seems like lindens didn't have an impact on the decision
Fey Brightwillow: nope. this is just my passion I guess

You: How about for you, Ein? I assume you changed yer mind too?
Einsman Schlegel: yes only cause Im doing it for her. She's my All in here nothing else really matters.

So Lindens allay any concerns for you two?
Fey Brightwillow: Some yes. And well, honestly I thought about it, and you know, the Lindens would not shoot theirselves in the foot. I don't think they want their older players to vanish as we are the ones that helped create part of the beauty that is in Second Life.

Fey Brightwillow: Also, I know its going to be alot of adjusting. Growing pains alway are.. And I have backed the Lindens in the past, though I am apprehensive, I'm going to put my faith in them.

You: So what's your biggest concern with all this?
Fey Brightwillow: getting frustrated at the prim limit, though I don't think I've been what is called a prim hog, I do use quite a few. And some worry I think that people will be able to buy what they want with real money.
But you know you can't buy creativity. Or another's imagination.. so if the wealthy do buy things using real money.. they will just help support the world. Buy things meaning whole sims
You: YEs, true. But maybe hire folks like you to develop it for them. For real money maybe.
Einsman Schlegel: yes thats a possibility
Fey Brightwillow: possibly, though Im not fond of the idea of mixing real money with a game.. that I guess we will have to see what the future brings
You: Yes, guess so!

Einsman Schlegel: I think of it as this way....
Einsman Schlegel: real money=job. fake money=game. game=enjoyable
Fey Brightwillow: so I guess that is another little worry I have but not much but there
You: Will real money change that, you think? The fact that you can make it in here?
Fey Brightwillow: I think it will make some people very cut throat about things... greed.
Einsman Schlegel: Thats kinda how the world works
Fey Brightwillow: I could be wrong, only the future will tell.

A slight correction here: I didn't change the banner. Last night, I set a number of banners with different messages to wandering the world, using a simplifed version of the AI that guides my birds.

Nothing much to report this hour. IRL GF returned home safe
but damp, and for a kicker, bearing Thai food. Took 20 to eat,
while I stood my AV in my Shipley office, inviting people to come
by and visit. (Unfotunately, no callers.) The original plan
was to stand AFK in Cardova, the sandbox sim, and let people do
what they will with my avatar, but unfortunately, some merry
pranksters have been crashing the sim for the past hour, leaving
nothing but space at the edge of the world...

24, 19th Hour

I can finally see the home stretch. Not 12 hours left, not even
8, but SIX... I've fallen into a dull haze. I can't type normawwwwwwddddlly
because there's too much straing, so I rest my forearms on the table
and sort of let my fingers *falls* in the keyboard, to type.

Near the prelude area, meet a woman with angels wings and chain
mail, firing arrows at the shooting gallery target. Originally
from Japan, now studying in Maryland.

kie Apollo: i major in computer graphics i want to work for a game company so i better get started now.

I tell her about Dark Life, and how it's made by professional developers, and point her in the general direction. Short time after that, I come across a guy wearing a Linux T-shirt, Green Fate, a new resident from
Northern California who gave up a sysadmin job at George Lucas' ILM...

Green Fate: I miss the people and things exploding on my lunch hour
though. Try not to define me by that gig, though.. in then end it's
just another place.

Now he spends more time with his family, and promote biofuels, the
vegetable oil-diesel derivative that makes European cars smell like
French Fries, or as Green puts it, "A Greek cafe!" When I meet him,
though, he's in prelude building what he sheepishly admit to being a
rail gun.

24, 20th Hour Entry

"It's a convalescenet home for elderly heroin addicted runaways," says the Master Builder. Actually, that's the code for a very impressive project with a spectacular, terra-deforming script as its centerpiece-- but that's all I'm able to say, until the grand opening of the site, set to happen before 1.2 is released later this month. And it *is* impressive, what he's showing me now, and it would be a great contribution to SL, something for all residents to come to and enjoy, certainly as a permanent fixture.

Trouble is, he's not sure if it'll be around after 1.2:

"This is why the changes in 1.2 upset me so much," he says.
"I stand to lose all this."

"Unless you kill some other buildings, right?" I ask. (Like
I said, he's a master builder.)

"No," says the Master Builder. "I would have to have 4 or 5 lifer accounts to support the footprint of just this building excluding the nicer [mmmph mmph] and [mmmph] I was planning, not to mention the [mmph]-ing [mmph] and the other attractions.

Hamlet Linden: So how was the monthly bill estimate you got from Linden Lab?
MB: $125
Hamlet Linden: And that obtains the moment 1.2 hits?
MB: after the grace period however long that is.
Hamlet Linden: Any calculation on how much converting $L to USD would offset that monthly bill?
MB: not yet, they said [they'd make one] in the next two days.
Hamlet Linden: So you may disassemble this shortly after 1.2?
MB: depending on the final figures from Linden Lab, yeah.

--Hamlet

24, 21st Hour Entry

There's a guy in Rose named Rhysling Greenacre who is running an artificial life program in which cats and mice and leaping cheese vie for survival and the ones who do pass on their scripts to the next generation, and this guy named Rhysling lets the program run overnight so 100 or so generations live and die, but eventually, the mice get pretty smart, learn good pathfinds, learn hou to avoid cats, and this is being related to me by a progammer wih a bloody mary in his hand, chugging it and wiping his hands on his
jacket.

Rhysling Greenacre: these critters evolve over time
Rhysling Greenacre: each one has a script which is passed on to its offspring
Rhysling Greenacre: and as it does so, the program mutates
Rhysling Greenacre: so each critter is unique

This is much too much for my head right now, since it's already losing brain energy by the sec at this point. So I tell Rhysling that after this is done I'll be back to look at his cheese and his mice and cats and their feedback loop of survival.

Meanwhile, Oneironaut Escher is turning the tables on me in IM:

Oneironaut Escher: Do you see 1.2 as changing your job at all?
Oneironaut Escher: now that real world money may be involved, will that affect your choices?
Hamlet Linden: It definitely could!
Hamlet Linden: Like if I pay or donate L$ to residents, am I effectively giving them actual money?

I can think up a few more right off, floating herew above sage with a bird on my shoulder. Like, what happens when actual businesses making actual money become the norm here? What's my ethical standard as a journalist then? Or when a private company rents out a whole sim? Should I just not cover it all? Or cover it full force? Do I evolve, as it were, into becoming a hard news journalist in an online world?

But as it standsa, I'm too tired to s asdddddm..ms.

--Hamlet

22nd hour

I GOt nothing energy left but to scopy and paste, so look and seee that I've
COME FULL CIRLCE:


Cyrus Apollo: so what was the hot topic during the past 24hrs?
You: Heh, 1.2 of course!
Cyrus Apollo: well it's the change is all
Cyrus Apollo: I think the fact that just learning SL when you first start is daunting initially...
Cyrus Apollo: but the fact that it's really all fun makes it a no brainer
Cyrus Apollo: the new version will be no different
Cyrus Apollo: people have asked me whether they'll lose what they've just built and concerns like that
Cyrus Apollo: I just tell them, just look at it from the perspective that this is all an intended upgrade...and there will be improvements along the way...
Cyrus Apollo: no different really...
You: that's one interpertation
Cyrus Apollo: I think if Lindens gave a bit more information initially, there wouldn't be so much shock
Cyrus Apollo: the rest will just have to get over it...the change is going to happen for better or for worse
Cyrus Apollo: Juro and I just changed to Lifetime memberships
Cyrus Apollo: I've had so much fun in this "game"
Cyrus Apollo: it's like no "game" i've every played...
Cyrus Apollo: yet at the same time, it's a real community
You: did the price plan influence you going lifetime?
Cyrus Apollo: well, not really


Eggy Lippmann: hey hanmlet! how do you feel?
Hamlet Linden: EGGAY
Hamlet Linden: TIREDE
Eggy Lippmann: LOL
Eggy Lippmann: egg... gay?
Eggy Lippmann: grins
Hamlet Linden: I dunno, yeah?
Eggy Lippmann: so how many liters of coffee have you consumed so far?
Hamlet Linden: ont
Hamlet Linden: not many hav e teaa nassteadd
Eggy Lippmann: i take it it is fatigue, and not alcohol, impeding your typing skills
Hamlet Linden: dddddddddddddd
Hamlet Linden: fffYOU MAY MBE RIGHT!
Eggy Lippmann: lol
Eggy Lippmann: i was reading your hourly reports
Eggy Lippmann: this was a neat idea actually though im beginning to fear for your health
Hamlet Linden: nah man, i'm good

next set of notes....

Just caught myself asleep, and when awoke, found i was flying strait
into the sunset in the West cover Coney. Funny thing is must have
been dozing for least a couple sims. With hardly anyone on, I got
no other option but to wonder loney as a cloud and all that. So
now n Macho, before that Chatreuese, before that Gibson... flying,
always flying.

Just passed an AFK Zygo Slate in Zoe, floating there with his Santa
cap. Took a photo with him in the moonlight, for good measure.

Going through Mauve, I get the message "Alert: Can't enter parcel Perceptions of sleepless nights".

How true that is now. HOW TRUE THAT IS.

Hamlet's last notes at the end of his 24 hours


Visiting Zephyr Fate's blue-tinted home, where I also meet Rosa
Gardner, yet another exile from Another MMOG. Rosa's from
Michigan, logging in just after 8am, her time.

Unprompted, as I leave,Zephyr offers:

"Not sure what to think about 1.2 yet. Need to just wait and see how it plays ou. From what I understand .. it will effect Me very little... I will probably pay a little more [per month] most likely. But that's OK."

Meanwhile, continuing the circle-closing veing, checked back in with Jsecure Hanks, who show me the mansion he was building, almost exactly 24 hours ago... He's figured out a new technique for beggining builders to use, when working on large house projects like this one:

You: so basically you carved it out of a giant block?
Jsecure Hanks: yeah, there was a giant floor block, and then I laid bits of wood on top, to make model walls about half a metre tall
Jsecure Hanks: then when the model walls were a schematic of the house I wanted
Jsecure Hanks: I made them 10 metres tall

By the time I arrived, however, he was outfitting the place with a pool and a wet bar.

24 hours almost completed, I'm given words of encouragement by a friendly, relatively new zebra:

Hawk Statosky: You have my utmost respect - I've done 24hr shifts coding before and it's _hard_.

And then:

Hawk Statosky: I've been very impressed with what I've seen in my month thus far, and hopefully 1.2 will remove some of the limits the masses are running into.

And as I go:

Hawk Statosky shouts: Stay strong!

[bless you, British zebra!, bless you!]

I wrap this up in a haunted house in Stanford with Victoria Moonflower, my able volunteer poster, her friend Sukkubus Phaeton, and one Psyke Phaeton, a mohawked dude who's evidently AFK to watch *Stargate*, sitting on top the stereo system next to the punk rock Xmas cards. That's when I find out I've already been topped in this endeavor:

Sukkubus Phaeton: my first 2 days in sl I played for 48 hours straight,
i was so addicted... well, I had to pee.

Right about then, chimes, actual chimes scripted by Sukkubus, toll six times. And so I know I'm finally free. And the bed beckons... and the 24 ends.

I've been asked by Sukkubus to post here her behalf stating that, the part about her spending 24 hours straight in SL.... "well, i had to pee" were not her exact words.

Also, that the chimes were not scripted by her, but by Sinatra and given to her.

But i'm sure we can over look what was said as the poor guy had been up 24 hours straight!

Everyone give Hamlet a big round of applause!! Excellent work. And wow -- the longest I've stayed online is 8 hours. And don't think I'll ever do that again.

Well done Hamlet!!!

^_^

** deleted **

yay hamlet!!! wtg! no, get some serious zzzzzzzzzz's

Lol cubey. I spent the entire summer in SL. Like 16 hours a day or something
I have no life

mmm. that goes for me too, Eggy... last weekend I was on from 4pm Friday to 10pm Sunday. I may have logged for around 2 hours total in that time.

...and Misty was on for longer!

Sorry to take so long posting here in person-- was having
trouble with my web login. Anyway, thanks to all who helped
me in world, and everyone who threw in their moral support.
(Public props will be bestowed in an upcoming NWN.)

And my deep and sincere apologies for garbling Sukkubus
Phaeton's quote like that-- what she meant to say there
was that she once stayed in-world for 48 hours, leaving her
computer only to pee. (And presumably, get some food,
but maybe she went without!) Only now do I notice that
I made it sound like being addicted to SL made her have
to pee!

To the best of my knowledge-- and I've run this past our
QA team-- playing Second Life as such does not in itself
induce any pee-related inclinations. So once again,
apologies.

Gee. And here we thought you were just catching up on your sleep!

So my "Day in the Life of Second Life" series is up now,
and should be running until, well, 2004:

http://secondlife.com/notes/

I'll be taking a brief respite from in-world life, but will
check on the forum from time to time. Thanks again
for everyone who helped out/offered moral support
during the marathon!

Loving the read Hamlet! Thank you for all you do!