Second Life

Prim Time with Keiko Ketsugo Premieres

Oriental Express, Second Life (194, 235, 24) November 27, 2007: Want the latest news in the virtual world of Second Life - Raw, naked and bound - with whip marks? Step into Castle Prim for the premiere of “Prim* Time” anchored by Keiko Ketsugo which captures (literally) top Second Life correspondents, analysts and guests for a complete domination of current events. The program combines traditional journalism with the latest dominatrix tools, making the entire process of news gathering more threatening and placing the cutting edge news and information at the tip of Keiko Ketsugo’s whip. For a video preview go to www.primtime.info.

Keiko Ketsugo is anchor of Prim Time and has won numerous awards including the 2006 Journalist Pillar of Torture Award from the News Kneeling and Begging Alliance and the 2007 Mistress Award from the Virtual Press Doms Association. Ketsugo is the author of two books, Between Pain and Pleasure: A News Enslavement Notebook (Cuff University Press) and Chaining the Lies to Crosses and Whipping Them to Death (Harsher and Raw).

Primtime.info is among the world’s leaders in Second Life news and information delivery. Staffed 24 hours, seven days a week by a cowed and submissive staff in Prim Time World headquarters at Castle Prim (Freeze - Oriental Express, Second Life (194, 235, 24) and in bureaus across the grid, Primtime.info relies heavily on its inworld team of almost 4000 news professionals (give or take 3,998.) in partnership with Subrealism.org and sousrealisme.org. For more information contact Keiko Ketsugo at keiko@primtime.info or go to www.primtime.info.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it was grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.

*Prim is short for primitive a 3D object in Second life.

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A Primer on Gorean Culture From Two Sides.

by Ms. Sautereau

The Gorean City of Midgaard - where the tranquil setting belies the role play

I’ll be honest. I’m not entirely sure how to write this article. Pix asked me to write a story about Gorean culture, which I knew next to nothing about. She wanted me to find out if the recent griefing increases have affected their population, weakened their demographics. To write about their culture.

To write about them, I had to learn about them. So I went to Midgaard. I got an HUD, found myself a pair of guides, and spent the morning talking to everyone who would talk to me OOC, and observing the RP as it occurred.

Prior to doing this article, all I really knew about the Goreans was that A) They’re into bondage, and B) One of my loves hates them because they keep invading her land with cages. As with every group, there are always a few jerks making the whole group look bad. I asked my love why she so strongly dislikes them.

“Safe, sane and consensual are thrown totally out the window,” She said. “28 motherfucking Goreans have landed on my lawn with their cages and collars. I have met literally hundreds of them, I only respect 4 of them, and only actively like 2 of those.”

Preferring to form my own opinions however, I went to Midgaard to learn firsthand. I dressed the art to blend in, wore my OOC tag, and watched a scene unfold with my guides. A defiant woman had a minor arguement with a male, and was strapped to a crossbar and publicly whipped while she taunted her less than charming captors. I was told she gets off on the capture/punishment aspect of the rp, and that it was always consensual.

These ladies were very helpful as my guides through the Gorean city, and I thank them for their help

Asked if such scenes were common, my guide Chandra Jun said “More common. It depends on the mood and the battle. The bigger the battle, the bigger the punishment.”

A nearby Master, Shayne Aridian, was more than happy to answer my questions and explain to me the nature of what Gor actually is.

“Gor,” he began, “as we see it here, is a roleplay based on the Chronicles of Counter-Earth by John Norman. But it is also many things as enacted here. For some, it is a backdrop for real BDSM scening. For most, it is an excuse to wave swords around, and where Gorean roleplay plays a minor role. For most of us…it is a place to live out a fantasy of life according to Gorean ideals as we see it.”

Ah, but what then I asked him, ARE Gorean ideals?

“First of all, trust is the foundation of all Gorean life, and the Pillars of Gor rest on that. The Pillars being what Goreans hold without question. Trust and honor actually go hand in hand among those truly trying to live the ideal.”

The Pillars of Gor are sort of like a “Ten Commandments” for Goreans. Shayne further elaborated on what they are.

“The first pillar is that of Homestone.It is the pillar that gives us our place of allegiance. The second pillar is the Caste system, from which we derive our role. The third is the assumption of the natural dominance of males over females in life.”

He added privately an aside on that concept, noting “In Gor, that dominance is blown up to be nearly a caricature, which can be seen over and over.”

He then continued. “The fourth assumption is the institution of slavery, which is different from slaves on earth.”

I observed as this “Capture and punishment” scene played out in the centre of town

Feeling admittedly uncomfortable with the concept I asked him to further elaborate on the Third Pillar.

“It is a commentary on what has happened in modern society on earth, to be sure, but it is the way THIS culture has developed. Mysogeny assumes ill intent, a hatred of women. Gor looks at mammalian societies, and observes the nearly universal trait of male dominance and what goes along with it. There are, of course, exceptions. It is easy to judge by Earth standards, and I did so for a long time, but as recently as thirty years ago in the United States, it was benevolently assumed here too. They are constantly compared to Gorean values throughout the novels. The impact of the changes of the past 30 years have not favored healthy relationships between men and women, or the family. I think it would be hard to characterize either men OR women as being happier now.”

On this point I disagreed with him, saying it depended on the man or woman in question. I’m quite happy being allowed to vote, work, love and marry a woman. But that’s a philosophical debate I suppose.

“That is Norman’s position. I think He would say that He believe most women are happier when they fulfill Nature’s role than one they create for themselves. You perceptively see that it takes not just any Man to fit in this scheme, and neither Norman nor Gor deals with homosexuality.”

My guide Chandra reassured me Midgaard is a fully consensual sim, at least between the people behind the avatars.

“Gor is very very hard core RP. Some sims are nicer, the sim I am on anything that happens has to be agreed to. Some don’t. Some sims are very harsh. I guess its the same in all RP. On the sime we come from, Siri and Kuuipo are both Huntresses of mine. We have a realtionship with the Black Talon so its almost a very tight family that fights. If they catch us they let us go. Ipo on the other hand likes to go get caught on other sims so now we are seeing if theres a way to rescue her.”

The RP sounds surprisingly elaborate, and I saw very little actual sex. Most of what I did see was more about the Master/Slave dynamics, and the “Thrill of the chase” aspect of Capture RP. While the concept of men being inherently superior and meant to dominate while women are meant to be submissive only and anything else leads to unhappiness was something that on a personal level offended me deeply, everyone I spoke to was polite and respectful, and happy to answer my questions. And everyone I spoke to assured me that, at least in Midgaard, The players behind the avatars respect consensual safe RP. While IN character there is never consent needed, or anything like a safeword, OUT of character there are rules to be followed, and bans awaiting those who don’t.

A guard who requested to be unnamed elaborated on this.

“In RP everyone deserves to enjoy it,” he said.A common misconception about rp here is regarding slaves. There is no such thing as a slave, its roleplay, they are willing participants. If they dislike whats happening all they have to do is IM the other party and say “Redflag, I don’t like this”, and it ends. If the other party refuses you notecard it and leave, and they havent a leg to stand on. Most here aren’t as deviant as is commonly held in vanilla chat.”

So there IS a Safeword concept in play then after all.

“Yes there is,” the gaurd continued. “I cannot speak for all Gorean cities here, but here in Midgaard yes, its a law, a rule of play.”

And what about the obligatory small group of loud assholes ruining it for everyone else?

“Unfortunatly you find that everywhere, but if they get too out of line someone in authority will tell them to knock it the hell off or get out. To be perfectly honest I had misconceptions about people here too untill I came here. Since then I can tell you, and this is honest, I’ve met far more assholes in vanilla chat than in here. In here its roleplay but off the book OOC in IM most here are as friendly as they come. There is always the exception who takes this all too seriously. I just avoid thos people, they’re morons.”

And what about those people? The ones who take it seriously? Guinevere Noel takes Gorean life to heart, even offline in her real life. Speaking to me in character speak, even OOC, she explained why Gor appeals to her.

Leave the jeans and a tee at home when visiting Gor

“This girl,” she began, “is in real life a lifestyler to the BDSM/gorean ways. She has known no other ways other than to serve. In the life of a slave or sub there is this great need to serve. Ones happiness is depending on it. It is a natural way for this one she gets a lot of the same satisfaction that she gets from real life in serving a Master/Dom. A vanilla relationship on here does not appeal or have the strength in it that one does with a strong true Master/Dom.

I asked her if anything about Gor disagreed with her.

“The problem with Gor on SL is that so many Masters are just in it to RP, and have no true life experience. The real Gorean style is a Master who shows a Master is someone who takes care of His property and the relationship quite different from Dom/Sub. The major difference between the two is the contract is non-exsistant as a slave. But if one really has done their homework with the Master there is no need for one. There becomes a total trust and a true transference of power. That can happen for one completly trusts, there is no holding back, therefore creating a rush that you cannot get when a contract is involved. This one has experience both. When she is under contract she still maintained a level or control.”

A scary level of immersion, but it’s what works for her, and everyone is different. What gets one person off could disgust another, and vice versa. No two people like exactly the same thing.

Has anyone noticed a change in Gorean areas since the recent increase of griefer BS? Heinrick Winkler offered this statement.

“Well I have not had issues with griefers myself, but anyone who wishes to spoil individual rights in SL to enjoy their Second Life, well, they have serious issues that only they can find help for. Many who come to see the Gorean way of life, leave because they either can’t handle the harshness of the lifestyle, or they didn’t think it was for them. If one chooses to be a slave, they should choose because it is what is in their belly, deep inside of them, because it is who and what they are, If that is not the case, they should not entertain the idea.”

So in the end, what did I learn about Goreans? Well, for one, like any fringe group, there are a few loud assholes who tend to be identified as representative of the whole when they’re in fact a minority. That most of them are nice people in real life who were very helpful answering my questions. That it’s an extreme fetish with a clearly patriarchal basis that many would view as sexist, but that those who love it feel safe and fulfilled by.

And that, while I believe those who love it should have the freedom to love it and practice it, I wouldn’t ever go near it again personally.

Hopefully I’ve succeeded in being objective. I’ve tried my best. To that end I’ll keep my final opinion on Gor to myself. But I sincerely thank those who took the time to speak to me and show me what their life in Gor is all about.

It’s up to you the readers now to decide which side of the fence you fall on, but remember, everyone is different, and just because you personally dislike something, it doesn’t mean those who do are in the wrong. It just means you like different things.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

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L$ Spacebuck banking risks get real - liquidity crisis spills over to stock exchange

by Jessica Holyoke

The Midas Bank touches insolvency - creates WSE stock ripples

As suggested in the comments on the SL Crime Wave! - L$3 Million Bank Heist!!! story, Midas Bank is another bank facing insolvency. 

Mr. Midas Commons owns Midas Bank.  He also ran Empire Funds, one of the last known holdings of Ginko Financial.  Midas Bank reported 0.10% daily interest on deposits, which places it in the bottom of the Outlander Bank Survey of daily bank rates.  Back in February of 2007, Midas Bank was described as being primarily invested in gambling and casinos, but weathered the gambling ban for a time. The deposits were listed as being re-invested in loans, capital ventures and WSE and AVIX investments.  As of November 2nd, Midas Bank claimed L$8 million in deposits.

While there have been some concern about Midas Bank’s financials, no public signs of trouble occurred until November 2nd.  Midas Commons released a notecard stating that an interest payment that was due on Hope Capital Bonds (HCB) was not paid.  Midas reported having L$3.5 million invested in HCB. The Second Life Exchange Commission reports that L$650,000 was owed to Midas Bank as the interest payment on their HCB holdings.   The WSE reported on October 16th that there would be no interest payment on HCB as scheduled in early November.  Midas Bank contacted the WSE stating that there would be liquidity problems if the interest payment was not paid as promised.

At this self-reporting of liquidity problems, and the previous two weeks of Midas Bank ATM problems, the WSE and LukeConnell Vanderverre determined that Midas bank was insolvent or unable to pay its depositors or bond holders.  The WSE de-listed Midas Group High Yield Bonds, Midas Group Financials and Midas Financial Company, and seized the HCB owned by Midas group and any lindens held in Our Bank, the WSE deposit bank.  The WSE converted the shareholders and bond holders into mutual fund holders in the WSE Traders Fund (WTF).  The WSE also requested that Midas Bank turn over all other assets and the names of depositors in Midas Bank so that they may recover from the insolvency.

WSE virtual stock exchange

Midas Commons at a bank depositor meeting stated that if WSE would make good on their payments owed, then Midas Bank could give all depositors 80 percent back on what they are owed.  The statement referred to investors in the bank, not necessarily bond holders and stock holders.  Midas Bank states that the WSE owes L$2.1 million in total payments, without saying from what source are those payments.  The WTF conversion found one investor in the stock transformed from a L$200 portfolio value to about L$3.53. 

After the de-listing of all Midas holdings and the conversion of the stock and bond holders to WTF traders, the Second Life Exchange Commission stepped in. While not explaining why L$650,000 should take away the liquidity of a L$8 million deposit bank, the SLEC accused the WSE of stealing Midas’ assets.  The SLEC gave an ultimatum on November 12th of 48 hours to pay out the interest due on HCB.  If the WSE did not pay the interest due, they gave the other companies listed on the WSE one week to de-list from the WSE and to re-list someplace else and for other shareholders of HCL to sell off their stocks.  The implication here is that the SLEC would publicize anyone’s failure to de-list from a dishonest or unethical exchange.  While no company is reportedly de-listing from the WSE, some analysts report that trading has slowed down, either due to the WSE’s actions or the current American holidays.   The WSE trading volume for the last 7 days show a one day spike of 4.8 million shares traded and then trading falling around 1.7 million shares or less.

the SLEC has stepped in

The oddity of having a debtor suddenly seize the assets of the creditor after the debtor has been asked to pay has not gone unnoticed.  Additionally, the levels of money owed and amount seized may lead this controversy to be the first litigated SL financial case in a RL court.  There have been legal investigations by Midas Bank into what to do next against WSE.

Sources: SL CAPEX Forums, Notecards provided by Midas Bank and the SLEC, in world interviews, Outlander Bank Survey and the Second Life Herald Archives - where Jimbo Quality sometimes goes to sleep

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Broken Crayons: Was The Virtual Thirst Contest The Last Gasp of the Crayonistas?

by Urizenus Sklar

I don’t know, I’m asking. I missed the event announcing the winner of the Coke Virtual Thirst Contest, and I don’t know how that event went down. As I disclosed earlier I was on an advisory panel for Coke and the Crayonista marketing company where my advice — 1 million L in prize money and that they protect the IP rights of the winner — did not have uptake. I was also one of the contest judges. I’m guessing there were 80 to 100 entries and a lot of them were impressive and showed considerable effort. I don’t know what participation levels they were looking for but they generated a nontrivial number of entries at least. Here is the eventual winner:

>>>>

This seemed like a particularly important hypervent for SL because it involved a very serious new media marketing company working for a big time advertiser in Coke, and I felt they were making a genuine effort to figure out how to approach SL in a way that avoided the usual fare of ghost islands and empty monolithic buildings. How should we assess this effort: win? fail? learning and E for effort?

Meanwhile, for those of you who missed it, Crayon has relauched as a “conversational marketing company”, or as one less charitable blogger put it: “gone out of business“. Whatever you want to call it, Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, Steve Coulson, Gary Cohen, and C.C. (”I’m done coloring“ Chapman have all left Crayon. Whatever the future of Crayon in SL (if any), it seems like Joseph Jaffe hasn’t given up on SL, claiming that the problem with marketing efforts in SL is not the medium of SL per se, but rather with the creativity of the marketing types. Well, maybe.

As for me, I had a bad nostalgia attack for the days when we dumped on them for their launch and then the Herald and the Crayonistas got to talk smack to each other and let’s not forget the Cardie Mahoney scandal. In the end of course we became good buds, and I wish them all well. They definitely gave us something to write about.

In Memory…

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Will residents listen to message of mutual respect and tolerance?

by California Condor, the Evangelist of Second Life

Offsetting the dark human appetite for destruction

On November 12th of 2007, avatars gathered at the city of Ir Shalom at the Jewish Historical Museum for the “Cultural Origins: Pathways to Peace” Art Show where artists from diverse religious backgrounds displayed their work to demonstrate mutual respect, tolerance, and love.

This event, done in partnership with the Cetus Gallery District and Twilights Peace Group featured pictorial art from Jewish, Muslim, Aboriginal, Christian, Hindu and New Age faiths. The exhibit was mutually worked on with the desire to send the message that all faiths can live in peace with each another.

Carter Giacobini, who is moshel/sim owner for Ir Shalom expressed his jubilance, saying, “We’re so thrilled to be working w/ the caliber of artists that are showing at the exhibit. Cetus Gallery District and Twilight’s Peace were fantastic to work with. All of us involved hope that our message of peace and tolerance carries through to all that see the amazing works of art that are being displayed.”

This warm-hearted expression is not new for Ir Shalom. Avram Leven, who is actively involved in the Jewish community of SL, is the events manager and media liaison for Ir Shalom. Since January of this year, I have personally had many opportunities to enjoy friendly discussion of beliefs with Avram. He and I do not quite see eye-to-eye on some key matters of faith. However, our chats have always been encouraging and I have always found him kind. Well appreciated, whereas, although we are both of Hebrew descent, I am one who believes in Jesus.

Avram commented, “its sort of controversial within SL’s Jewish community but i think we are making our mark and carving our niche”. When I had asked Leven how long the exhibit will remain up, he replied, “due to the overwhelming postive reaction from the SL community, the display will be featured indefinitely”.

Art presentators included avatars Zeke Salomon (Buddhist), Lona Shan (Islam), Texanna Schumann (Christianity), Blue Tsuki (New Age), and Abby Rebinstein (Jewish).

Among passing comments at the event was from Ayn Tomsen, a friendly outgoing social avatar who said, “I had no idea the American people are so religious.” She was paraphrasing what a visitor from an Arabic country was saying during the show.

Xander Ruttan, who owns the Cetus Gallery District, had this to say about the exhibit, “This show aptly demonstrates the power of creativity, not argument and division, as a healing force for people of different faiths. This human drive to create is what will offset the dark human appetite for destruction. These accomplished artists’ works may appear dissimilar on the surface, but they offer us a common bond through understanding of other cultures.”

For many centuries, art has been used to communicate faith and political opinions that may have perhaps been difficult to speak about publicly. Within the last 50 years, science-fictions have been written and made into movies the same way. Now we see the new canvas of the virtual world, Second Life, following in the same, and also addressing new issues rising in these latter days.

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by Penny Sautereau

The Transgender Murder & Suicide Memorial in Elysium, dedicated Tuesday November 20th.

Every year thousands of innocent people are murdered around the world for their beliefs, for who they are. Hatred kills people every day somewhere. Muslims are murdered for being Muslims. Jews for being jewish. Gays and lesbians for being gay and lesbian.

Every year a few hundred of those are Transgendered people, and of those only a handful get reported or noticed. Transsexuals, crossdressers, hermaphrodites. To the haters it doesn’t matter. You’re different, and to them that’s enough. The transgender umbrella holds a lot of different kinds of people under it, but to those who murder them, they all have one thing in common; They blur gender lines in ways that make many people uncomfortable. In the last 12 months alone, 17 TG murders have been reported in North America and Europe. Imagine how many weren’t.

And every year for nine years now, November has been home to the annual Transgendered Day of remembrance. This Tuesday is the 9th annual DOR, and the first to be honored on Second Life.

Everyone is somebody’s child

The Transgender Day of Remembrance began nine years ago to honor Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was murdered on November 28, 1998. The annual event was designed to raise public awareness of hate crimes perpetrated against transgendered individuals and to encourage people to be allies of the transgender community.

At a memorial built by Random Demina and Gwen Collins of the SL Transgender Resource Centre, an event was held Tuesday honoring the TG DOR, with a dedication of the shrine memorializing all the known victims of this specific hate crime, and to those who ended their own lives to escape the hatred. The Shrine is located in the Elysium Gardens, a sim dedicated to education about Transgender people and a supportive atmosphere for TG people who play Second Life. Supported by the Transgender Resource Centre, they staged their own TG DOR ceremony on Tuesday.

Says Random, “The crimes that are reported are just the tip of the iceberg. You can find more information on hate crimes at http://www.gender.org. I don’t have all the numbers, but i know its staggering. About 50% of Transgendered people will commit suicide, and less than 10% die of old age, or natural causes The key to survival is really finding the right information, and doing your best to live your life with pride, dignity, and class. It’s not an easy life to lead.”

Random Demina and Gwen Collins pose before the shrine they built

Gwen added, “The left column has a plaque that has the URL to the website that collects the names. This entire sim is a non profit, for the transgender community, and it is available for any GLBT event for free. TRC has already had events here, and we’re going to build an arena for that purpose. Club Cristi relocated here as well”

Club Christi, for those who don’t know, is one of the only Nightclubs on SL for Transgendered people to hang out and not be labeled or treated as sex objects. Shemale is an acceptable label for some TG people, but most find it distasteful, and the majority of “Shemale” clubs on SL emphasize pornography stereotypes, and not what life is really like for Transfolk.

Why build a shrine on SL? Said Gwen, “A number of things. First, there wasn’t one. Second, if we didn’t build it, who would? The reason why i created this entire sim was that there were only sex joints for the transgendered until now. If you search for transgender you find only horrible “shemale” joints, but nothing for the real people. And unfortunately suicides and hate crimes are part of being a transgendered, part of real life. So the memorial is very fitting here. A solemn reminder.”

And what motivated them to host an event commemorating the DOR? Random says, “Thats a long story. About a month ago, I was in a black mood and I went to the ASAGO memorial. It’s a memorial dedicated to suicides, more generalized. I was thinking of death, I’m sure you understand. For some strange reason, I decided not to kill myself. I felt there should be a memorial to TG suicides. So i started looking for a place to build it, and came here. When I talked to Gwen, she mentioned the DoR on the 20th, and we decided that would be the best day to open. Since i built the memorial, I wound up with the job of hosting the event. So in short, the memorial, and hostessing the service- both inspired by my own will to live. I’m here because I don’t have a choice.”

The memorial is open to anyone wishing to pay their respects to the dead, and to learn about Transgendered people from the nearby buildings such as the Transgender Resource Centre or Club Christi. If you want a candle dedicated to a fallen loved one who was Transgendered, IM Random Demina.

The Transgender Suicide Memorial is located in the Elysium Gardens.

For more information about Day of Remembrance visit http://www.rememberingourdead.org/day/

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Were weekend griefing attacks a cover for banks jobs?

by Jessica Holyoke

Possibly in conjunction with the many griefing attacks of this weekend, the SL banks have been hit by hackers.  L & L Bank and Trust reports that 3 million Lindens were stolen through a hack on an ATM by avatar Hamid Jewell.  This was following an exchange from avatar Betatester Allen that deposited $10 million in Lindens and then withdrew $20,500 L.  While L&L Bank and Trust is waiting for help from the Concierge and Governance teams in getting the money back, other banks are being vigilant regarding their balances. 

Second Life Investor’s Bank reported suspicious activity with deposits of fraudulent Lindens, but no damage was done to their bank.  Second Life Business Bank was also hacked into today, but the owner, Anre Heron, was able to put their ATM’s offline.  BCX Bank had an attempt on their ATM’s today, but according to Travis Ristow, the Linden Risk API and their own security systems were able to recognize the avatar in question before a deposit was made.  Intlibber Brautigan reported no attacks on BNT Financial.  JT Financial and SL Capex also reported no incidents of attacks.

TNW Bank’s ATM’s were almost hacked into but the server encryption kept the hacker out. According to TNW owner Lex Fitzcarraldo, the hacker then took over a management account and deleted the mall and club on their island.  Currently, the mall has been rebuilt on TNW while the club is still being worked on.

With the hack into the ATM’s, it appears that this might be a concentrated attack on the banks, as opposed to one member embezzling funds.  Is the hacks due to common script vendors for ATM’s?  More investigation is being conducted on the fraudulent linden balances and whether there is an exploit with the server.

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A new game in SL - finding greedhead bots perma-parked in Linden sims

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Hanshin’s sim’s mystery bot

After reading the previous stories in the Great Bot Hunt series you may decide to try bot hunting yourself. In this article we cover the basics of locating the bot squatters that haunt quiet Linden water sims.

The first step is to take a look at the map - paying special attention to water sims that have a single green dot in the center - suggesting that a bot may be present. The bots seem to favor corner sims somewhat off the beaten path - although one lives in Zolezzi sim where Michael Linden previously had a getaway - which is still listed in his picks

The Linden water sim bots fall into one of three categories - ground, air, or underground. The ground bots are easy to find - open the map, teleport to where the green dot is and you should be able to see the bot without too much trouble - although they are underwater.

The bots that fly have recently become more tricky to get close to - they seem to be scanning for the precence of other avatars and fly away when you get close - the closer you get the faster they fly - although they only move up or down. Some sort of avatar scanner is very helpful in locating these bots - I like the MystiTool HUD which tells you which other avatars are near.

the flying Kyle Munro bot of Jergens sim

More challenging are the underground bots - these are located below the surface of the ground so you almost certainly need an avatar scanner such as the MystiTool HUD. Once you get close, you still have the problem if seeing the bot - to do this you will have to turn on the debug menus, then tell Second Life to stop displaying the ground. Like this:

After you turn off the surface patch rendering, you’ll find the bot underfoot:

Once you have located the bot you might decide to report it for “parcel violations” or “other” - such as creating lag. Here is a sample:

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Well its November, its cold, its wet, and I was bored..so today I decided to have a look at what new PC games were coming out over the next few weeks - after all its payday soon and I figure I deserve some fun
Blacksite..Need For Speed..few good ones but then i stumbled across Unreal Tournament 3 - I knew they were making a new one but had no idea a demo was out! Rushed to download it (yes I know I’m a few weeks late but hey, I’ve been busy) and had a blast. Started with a bit of single player with the bots so I didn’t look stupid when I went online..was a bit blown away. The graphics are awesome, and I mean awesome..OK so I do have an 8800GTX to show it off ( ) but this looks great. I hear Epic are planning some improvements in the final game too so can’t wait to see it then hehe. Great fun to play too, although I did get a bit bored with the bots.
Then came the real challenge - going online. I mean challenge too - it seemed that every server with a low ping was full! grr, did a bit of Google searching though and finally found a good one (ut3.public.uk3x.com:7787 if your interested)..it had a low ping, was in the UK and busy enough with about 10 people or so on it, but thankfully not full so it meant I could actually play. Online is really where this game comes into its own, real people are *much* more interesting that bots - lol.
Only a week to go now until the final game is out and I can’t wait; I just hope there are enough public servers to play on.. looking at UK3X’s prices though for everything else I may just end up renting one from them as they seem really cheap (www.uk3x.com) and their public server is great to play on.

At least I now have something to do this winter =)

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Failure of PN’s rumored friday griefing raid causes super hero to wax poetic

[GreenLantern Excelsior sent this tale of online heroics to the Herald offices via the mojo wire saturday, with a note saying “I was inspired to write this after the big PN raid last night ended up fizzling like a wet firecracker”. Is the heroic epic poetic tradition is being updated for the new media? -the Editrix]

Banned griefer’s ghosted avatar stuck in a walking animation is decorated with props in Sandbox Cordova

by GreenLantern Excelsior

The Great PN Raid of November ‘07
Was planned to be vicious and mean,
With sim-crashing style,
And “lulz” by the mile,
The worst Second Lifers had seen.

The Green Lantern Core and the great Justice League
Were prepared to observe and report.
With their shields charged to max,
They’d AR the attacks
By the griefers they’d promised to thwart.

The Lindens were ready, their steely eyes steady.
The Grid was in perfect repair.
At the first sign of trouble
They’d move on the double,
Protecting the residents there.

The sim owners, managers, vendors and guests
Were unsure of just what to expect,
So they locked down their sims
And inspected their prims
And security they double checked.

The day came at last, and the griefers moved fast,
But anarchy failed to ensue.
Lack of participation
Was SL’s salvation,
So PN’s big plans all fell through.

A couple of longcats were all that we saw,
And a singular Shiny Fun Friend.
With a scroll and a click,
The cleanup was quick,
And Friday night came to an end.

Now somewhere the griefers are vicious and keen,
And cunning and ruthless and smart,
But the Second Life kind
Are the ones we don’t mind,
For their plans always just fall apart.

So my friends, just remember sixteenth of November
Two thousand and seven the year.
With its Battlecruiser,
PN was the loser.
We winners have nothing to fear.

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