Second Life child is homeless, peniless

Second Life child is homeless, peniless
from Game Addicts by Edwin
Don’t you just find it strange to see many people pouring real-world time and money into a game called Second Life, doing their best and giving their all to build up a character in the virtual world surrounded by a virtual environment, only to find that their actual life is tethering on the brink of destruction? Online games have become so addictive that real world priorities have been pushed back to accommodate the next raid, a trend which is highly disturbing. With the Second Life game mirroring many aspects of the real world, I guess it is also a matter of time before real world situations spill over into the game, as with the case of avatar MensajerosDeLaPaz Jubilee.

From December 4th onwards, MensajerosDeLaPaz Jubilee is more than ready to accept donations in Linden dollars for a real life cause. This homeless online avatar does not have any land nor property, and lives very much like his real life street boys who have some newspaper to keep him warm at night and a cardboard box to take shelter in the event of rain. He even has a sign in front of him that says, “Help a child have a second opportunity in his First Life.” Created by an organization called Mensajeros de la Paz, it is hoped that this drive will be able to receive enough online donations to create fully functional homes for abandoned and abused children in developing countries across South America and Africa.
This is one of the better ways that an online game could be used to add value back in the real life. Since Christmas is around the corner and you have quite a lot of Linden dollars left over, why not drop a few notes into his coinbox? Hopefully this initiative will not see imitators with an evil intention to spring up overnight. I wonder if Anshe Chung, the first virtual millionaire in Second Life, will be able to form a virtual philanthropist club for causes such as these?
Source: GayGamer

Second Life, but First in Hype

Second Life, but First in Hype
from Broken Toys by scottj

From the often amusing Matt Mihaly comes this corker of a description about Second Life's latest OMG METAVERSE!!!

press outing: "Second Life, that nefarious den of copyright infringement, nerds having chatsex, and the neverending search for the next trivial public relations opportunity, saw hasn't-been-hot-for-years musician Ben Folds attend a "launch party" for his new album recently. Almost two dozen people attended. That's right, two dozen. Just think of the impact! Why, if only half of them buy his album, he'll have sold twelve albums!"I'm not QUITE as cynical as Matt; while he sees Second Life as solely a platform for launching press releases and buyout offers, I see it as also keeping Terra Nova busy!Edit: The acerbic UK tech tabloid The Register apparently caused Daniel Terdiman of CNet to "sever his ties to Linden Lab". Said tie: a reference given by Linden's Philip Rosedale on his resume. Apparently Second Life isn't the only online medium given to breathless publicity over not much of anything!

Musical Instruments in Second Life

Musical Instruments in SL

	Friday October 20, 2006 8:27 PM EDT
	Here's a little piece about the range of musical instruments in SL, from a blog called Music Thing. I found the tone of the post to be slightly dismissive, as though the author was unable to reconcile his hopes for finding something awe-inspiring with the reality of what he found in-world. The piece completely skips over the feat of virtual engineering Robbie Dingo utilized simply to create what he has in the first place. Regardless, it's always nice to see different sources cover SL with a...

one milLLLLLLlion dollars...errr.. residents!

We Have a Winner!

Wednesday October 18, 2006 9:23 PM EDT

Drum roll, please: the date and time of the registration of the millionth user was October 18th, 2006, at 08:05:45 AM, SL Time. The one millionth resident's name is Farley Atlantis, and I'll be contacting him/her soon for an interview (if he/she will have me!), but I know that you're all waiting for the name of the winning resident. Interestingly enough, only 3 people guessed the date correctly. With a prediction of 8:30 AM, the...

Ben Folds to Play Second Life.

Ben Folds to Play SL	Top
Tuesday October 17, 2006 10:06 PM EDT
Filed under: Entertainment , News October 19th will see the grand opening of Starwood Hotel's Aloft Island, previously posted here . In conjunction with Starwood Hotels, Sony BMG Music Entertainment will be holding a launch party at Aloft Island from 4 - 6 PM, SL Time. As a special bonus, Ben Folds (formerly of the Ben Folds Five) will play new material from his upcoming release, supersunnyspeedgraphic, at 5:40. At 6 PM, Ben will greet residents at Sony's new space on The Electric Sheep...

[PogoWolf] You know when you’ve hit bottom when…

Taking 'Second Life' to the next level

Taking 'Second Life' to the next level
newsmaker Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale goes in-world to take on the challenges of the virtual world's explosive growth.
Wednesday October 18, 2006 04:00AM PDT