The Oldbie Project – Kim Anubis "Making Lemonade Out of Lemons" Part One

By DrFran Babcock

I can’t even remember how I ended up interviewing Kim Anubis, but without a doubt she was amongst the few oldbies I interviewed who are not only still in Second Life, but are still just as enthusiastic about it. As you will see, I didn’t have to work very hard at this interview. Thanks, Kim!

Interview Preparation

I am usually quite well prepared for my interviews with the oldbies. If I know I am going to meet with someone, I do my homework, and find out all I can about them. I had planned to do the same thing before interviewing Kim, but I had entered the meeting into my calendar using my time zone instead of that of Second Life, and ended up losing three hours of preparation. Although I would never do this again in an intentional way, I ended up learning about the remarkable Kim Anubis spontaneously.

Kim teleported me into the snow lands, where she has lived for most of her ten years. We spent time in front of a simple shack she had built, close to a road, and across the creek from more of the land. This land had remained pretty mountainous and rugged until Michael Linden and the moles came and placed a few bridges on it, thereby improving the accessibility.

The Questions

I like to ask all of the oldbies the same few questions, and then go on from there. Kim said so many interesting things, I kept having follow up questions:

SL Newser: How did you find out about Second Life™?

Kim Anubis:I did a Google search for online communities that might be hiring.  I was especially interested in Virtual Worlds. Search turned up There and SL. There was hiring, so I went and worked in house there for a while.  I came back to SL the next year.

SL Newser: What even made you think to look for that?

Kim Anubis: I had worked in online community management for a long time—I moderated big special events for a partner of AOL, that sort of thing.

Sl Newser: What are your earliest memories of Second Life™?

Kim Anubis: I logged in the first time and arrived at an island where there were tutorials and an actual live Linden, who was handing out useful notecards and offering assistance.  The customer service was stellar.

SL Newser: You come from a social or community network background, what were your thoughts on the SL experience.

Kim Anubis: I actually also worked on educational software back in the day, which added to my perspective, I think.Back then, Linden attention to customers and community was absolutely remarkable.  They used to collaborate with Residents like mad. I recall, before I joined, writing in to make a suggestion about the last names on offer—back when we had last names. I said that I didn't really like the names available, but my friends and I were interested in joining if we weren't going to be stuck with names we didn't like.  I made suggestions, including something Egyptian. As you can see (Anubis being the name of an Egyptian god), they jumped right on the suggestion.  They added three Egyptian-inspired last names right away. That was how it was back in 2004—very eager to work with anyone interested in SL.

Last names were really important back in the day. It was a great conversational icebreaker. Occasionally, someone would throw a party for everyone with their shared last name.

SL Newser: What kept you logging back in during the early days?

Kim Anubis: Bill Mysterio. I met him when we were both “power loitering” at the Sage market.  Back then,  there were these big open air flea markets for shopping, very different from the malls and boutiques that came later. Power loitering was a term I made up that day, I guess, when Bill first walked up and asked what I was doing.

Sage market, the big Show and Tell competitions, and the White Star Casino were the hot spots at the time -- most grouped dots on the map, at least at my usual time of day. At the top of the hour a Linden would announce events in a blue popup, and Show and Tell was one that happened every day. I won a prize at one of those my first week. With my thrilling three-prim build. It was my first build. Everyone was very kind to newbies back then. Bill had shown me how to stick a couple of prims together. He taught me a bit about scripts, and how all the parts of a build go together. He built many fine temples to Bill Mysterio. Pretty soon, he introduced me to Mae Best (Ed note: The avatar upon whose land RacerX first ran his snail races). Maesie dressed me up in some decent clothes; gave me sooo many pairs of shoes. She ran a trivia event at Montmartre just about every day.  That was fun, fun, fun.

Somewhere along the line, I ran into Racer. I think we met at a build contest. That was my first big SL romance. I even have pics of him as a human; I mean his AVATAR as a human. He was SO sweet. We would both spend all day off getting new clothes—shopping, building. Then he would pick me up for our date. He built a flying carriage pulled by a giant snail for dates. We would go to a wedding or a dance club, all dressed up in our fancy duds, making an entrance in the carriage, etc. Then we would sneak-build during the event. Like, w’d be dancing away, but you would notice a line of particles to the nearest parcel where we could rez. So, you know, we'd be knocking together a new chair or whatever during a wedding. We could not stop building. 

SL Newser: Are you still building?

Kim Anubis: Yep, I went on to start a company called The Magicians ( http://themagicians.us/ ), which serves educators, nonprofits, government agencies, and enterprises. I also wrote two "official guides,” how-to books about SL. http://www.amazon.com/Second-Life-Grid-Communication-Collaboration/dp/0470412917/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405362063&sr=8-2&keywords=Kimberly+Rufer-Bach and http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Your-World-Official-Advanced/dp/0470171146/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405362106&sr=8-1&keywords=Kimberly+Rufer-Bach

It all goes back to Bill showing me how to modify a freebie Linden slot machine, and RacerX showing me how to add animations to an object, etc.

I did take a building class for a while, too, in world. I came here, I came from another Virtual World: There. Some of my friends in There came from Habbo UK, and some of us went to Habbo from Sissyfight.com. We migrated from world to world. When I first came to SL, I brought a bunch of friends, and we bought land together It’s part of the Forest of Kahruvel now.

We had a village in There, and we recreated our old village banner in SL—it’s hanging in front of my old cabin across the river here.

SL Newser: What are your funniest memories of the early days?

Kim Anubis: When Lordfly (Digeridoo) released the scripted “zombies” on the grid and my friends and I got dressed in our most badass outfits and armed ourselves heavily and coded up a Zombie Finder, and then we went hunting.

Oh, one time a real-life friend of mine came in to try SL and we went to one of the many Snow Crash themed clubs. He picked up a free object called Snow Crash, and it was a scroll attached to his hand.  He couldn't take it off.  He panicked, was logging in and out, we contacted Linden.  It was a couple weeks before it was removed.  For a while there, he thought he had been infected by Snow Crash, that it was part of the SL “game.”

I came to SL from There, where we had branded content, like Levi’s jeans and Nike shoes. There had a licensing deal of some sort; wasn't my area. I was in community management, moderating the forums etc. Anyway, I figured if SL was really the metaverse, and they wanted everyone using it, that would include corporations and universities, etc. I asked about it at a Town Hall once, when there was discussion of changing the permissions system; asked about something like how the corporations would take it if they had branded content in world, etc. I don’t recall anyone ever asking a question like that about SL before then, but I always assumed it.

Of course, a few months later, I was hired to build a bunch of objects for UC Davis Medical Center. That was my first client that paid US dollars for a build.  Before that, it was mostly stuff like custom waterfalls.  I built a lot of big waterfalls.

My first custom build, I stayed up all night to make a waterfall for a friend, who paid me a couple hundred Linden dollars, because I really, really wanted a pair of boots with—oh, the innovation—prim heels!

The Next Question

I have found that when I ask the following question, most of the time I get a short “yes” or “no” answer, but not much elaboration. I have come to accept that. However, Kim is not just like any other resident.

SL Newser: Did you fall in love in Second Life™?

Kim Anubis: Yes! A few times. I moved most of the way across the US once, to be with a man I met in world. It was so romantic.

SL Newser:  Who was your favorite Linden?

Kim Anubis: My favorite Linden was Glenn Linden! Yay Glenn! Glenn was in charge of the Solution Provider Program, and the Gold Solution Provider Program, and he was an editor of my second SL book. He was a good guy, hardworking guy, and funny.

SL Newser: What is the Solution Provider Program?

Kim Anubis: The Solution Provider program is something that no longer exists. Back when I and a few others were first working with Real Life organizations on projects in world, Linden Lab hired Glenn. Previously, he had worked at Apple as part of their developer program. The Lab wanted to offer official channels of communication and resources for people and companies doing projects for real-world organizations. The needs of a huge, complicated project are not quite the same as those of someone making consumer goods for sale in world. It was connected to the programs they had for educators, and fine Lindens like Pathfinder and Claudia who worked with them.

SL Newser: Why do you think the Lindens pulled their support away from education?

Kim Anubis: I have to tread really carefully when we talk about things in this area, because of nondisclosure agreements with the Lab. However, around the time they cut the programs, and cut the Lindens who ran them, they cut a lot of other things: shut down offices, let go a lot of staff. I think it was part of that. I think they were trying to tighten things up in a lot of ways.

SL Newser: What keeps you coming back to SL?

Kim Anubis: Well, business, of course, however. For example, the other day when I popped in and replied to your note, I was in world because my Real Life mom's avatar needed me to send a couple of copies of items. You know, a new Tiny hot tub, some more flappy wings.

My mom has been in SL since around…heck, 2005, I think. Both of my parents have accounts, and so do my brother and his wife.  In fact, my mom and sister in law are both, you will see, on the Magicians (Kim’s company) roster. My sister in law is a programmer.  My mom does events, Human Resources, and software testing.

When I started out in SL, I was living in a spare room at my brother and his wife's house. I was really, really ill at the time, and There had a massive layoff, me included. I would sit around online every waking hour. I couldn’t do much else.

SL Newser: Did you get teased by your family because of SL?

Kim Anubis: It was “that game” to my brother and his wife for a while, until I won a contest, a garden contest. Racer and I put together an entry. Anyway, they came up to my room and looked at the build, and then a day or two later came home with presents: Photoshop and. Poser. No more teasing after that. Well, you know, most of my family is pretty tired of hearing about SL.

My mom and I are the regular users, and well, there we are, talking about places and people that the rest of the family doesn't know. My Mom is not just a Tiny.  She is the Queen of Second Life Warthogs. She keeps me busy building her new toys and outfits. I mean, like, scuba gear and a mummy costume.  You can’t just buy those on Marketplace or anything, so Mom gets all her stuff custom.

Tinies ... I remember when Wynx (Whiplash) first came out with those. I was a bunny, and still am, sometimes. I would be working away on my UC Davis project—my first one—and I would have to turn back into a human to check scale on things.That was when I made my Tiny sneakers, and other Tiny clothes, furniture, flying teacup, etc. Which led to meeting Wynx!nWynx and I have worked together a lot since then.  She is so fun!

The Teen Grid

I asked Kim about Open Sim, and that triggered a memory:

Kim Anubis: It sort of reminds me of when my company was doing projects in the now departed SL Teen Grid. It was sort of like being stranded on a desert island with your few friends and whatever you packed in your inventory before you got stranded. You couldn't just transfer an animation or whatever when your work avatar needed it, and the region would usually be closed to the public while we were working. So there we would be, just us and occasionally the client would stop by with prims and prims and prims to use up, and whole regions to build on and it had to be entirely from scratch. You couldn't buy stuff in a shop, you know? I mean, as an adult avatar, cleared to work in TSL, I could not exchange inventory with normal teen grid avatars. So, everything from scratch, which was good preparation for working in a client’s closed OpenSim grid. We did needed special clearance to work in Teen SL. There was a formal background check by an outside company. There were a lot of rules and restrictions, made it quite a challenge.  But the Lab was very helpful. They went above and beyond to make sure things worked. Blue Linden saved our butts a few times.

SL Newser: Do you know any teens who made a successful transfer to the regular grid?

Kim Anubis: Daniel Voyager. There are others, too, but he’s most prominent, I think.

SL Newser: This is the last of the standard questions: What would you like the world to know about Second Life™?

Kim Anubis: It's still here. The media buzz died down, but things are still chugging along in SL.

SL2.0

Now there is another question that I have added to the questions I ask the oldbies, because of events that have taken place since SL11B.

SL Newser: What are your thoughts on SL 2.0?

Kim Anubis: They haven't told us much about it so far, so it’s really hard to predict what will happen. I mean, “…just like SL, but better,” okay? Is that going to come with LSL?  Probably not?  What language, then?  If they tell me, I can go learn it, or hire someone who does. I do suspect that SL2 might be stuffed full of HiFi DNA. Like, I could see Philip working away there as a Lab again, and then licensing the tech to LL…a tech company instead of a Virtual World company, for a while.

Well, when they announced the last big TOS change, I thought it meant they felt they needed the ability to take our stuff somewhere new, and I thought: HiFi—way too early. Maybe some of our stuff will be importable. They said they are not making all of our stuff backwards compatible. However, I think some things will still probably work; or could. I mean, probably no reason they couldn’t bring snapshots and textures over, for example. Anyway, at this point, there is so little information out of the Lab about what they are up to that it's difficult to speculate.

It does mean SL’s days are probably numbered. If a company introduces a new product that directly competes with their existing product, and even plans a nice easy migration path where you can bring your name and your friends list it’s pretty clear what will happen.

If SL 2.0 doesn't turn out to be vaporware (not likely, but not unheard of in tech, right?), and if it takes off they will offer incentives to get everyone to go.  Oh yah, I believe they plan to move L$ over, too? Anyway, eventually, if the new world takes off, I imagine reduced support for SL, until the new world eats up the people. Of course, there could be a curve thrown in, another world from somewhere else, etc.

Since the Oculus started getting buzz, VR is ‘sexy” again. It has been fun to watch everyone and their cat jumping on the bandwagon there, using it as an excuse to send out a press release.

“My number two pencil will eventually support Oculus!  Give me some press!”

I laughed, and thanked Kim for sharing so much of her time with me. I knew I would have to save all of the post-interview tour for the next article.

A remarkable person, who seems to roll with things, anticipate things, and make the very best out of whatever life hands her. I am glad she found Second Life™ during her explorations.

Kim Anubis’ Links:

The Magicians: http://themagicians.us/index.php

Interview from 2008: http://quickshout.blogspot.com/2008/12/coffee-with-kim-anubis.html

DrFran Babcock

The Oldbie Project – RacerX Gullwing

By DrFran Babcock

RacerX was amongst the earliest of my friends in Second Life™. I met him in several places around the grid, and he was always welcoming and helpful, and remains that way to this very day, even after ten years on the grid.

When I first came in, Racer was strongly aligned with the Elf Circle community, then led by Wayfinder and Forcythia Wishbringer. He came to the first classes in building that I taught there, and my fondest earliest memory was of what I think was a machinima conference put on by missing oldbie Susie Spicoli who was involved in the old Alt Zoom Studio. Racer’s build was a rabbit hole that you fell down, and into the world of his early videos, made with his then constant companion: Snail Dude. Rabbit holes figure in much of Racer’s work, as do carrots.

Did I mention that Racer is a bunny? The other thing that needs to be said is that of all the folks I know in Second Life™, only RacerX has remained steadfast and true to one ideal, one goal and one very special event in life, and this is Giant Snail Racing. I don’t think I can remember a time when there wasn’t a Snail Race over the weekend.

In fact, something many readers may not know is that while I am the world’s worst snail racer, I did spend some time being a broadcaster with Treet TV. It is almost impossible to believe that the Treet website just hosted the 300^th anniversary episode edition of the snail races, celebrating nine years of snail racing.

Ten Years Old!

Along with over 1,000 residents, I received an invitation to RacerX’s tenth rezday party. While I couldn’t stay for the duration—marred by some griefing events—I was thrilled to share this day with an oldbie who has always been so positive about our beloved virtual world.

Click here if the video fails to play

Now that RacerX was ten, he qualified as an oldbie, and I wasted no time asking him for an interview. He consented almost immediately, which was just what I thought he would do.

Below are Racer's answers to the usual Oldbie Project questions. After that, I will share with you the time I spent as Racer delighted in showing me around his two parcels.

SL Newser: How did you find out about Second Life™?

RacerX Gullwing: My brother hipped me to it.

SL Newser:  What are your earliest memories of Second Life™?

RacerX Gullwing: Well, I came in at that old welcome area with the Start Here sign in an archway It was daytime. I got nervous and left, but got my courage up about a about a half hour later and went back in. Now it was nighttime. I flew out of the start area and went to that town to the east and wandered through some of the shops there.

SL Newser:  What kept you logging back in during the early days?

RacerX Gullwing: Within two days my brother bought me a membership so I could get my free land; at that time it was called first land. I found a nice plot on top of a hill in Koleamoku and put in my application for it. When I got it I was surrounded by others who had just got their free land,and we became friends shouting to each other as we built our first homes. It was a great time. We were all learning how to build and texture.

SL Newser: What are your fondest memories of the early days?

RacerX Gullwing: My neighbor Snow Hare invited me down to enjoy her hot tub. I felt like I was home. This was a cool place. I experimented with a flying vehicle script I found somewhere, and made a butterfly and Snow and I proceeded to crash into everything. Good times!

SL Newser: What are your funniest memories of the early days?

RacerX Gullwing: I found the events page, and started looking up upcoming events there was an Evil Clown contest. That sounded like fun so I made a pretty evil looking clown, pulled out a bazooka, and went to the party.The prize was 500 Lindens. I figured what could be more evil than a clown with a bazooka?  So I flew up to the rafters and commenced with the blasting. They nicely asked me to stop it.  So I did, and I didn't win. There was a good Ronald McDonald impersonator with his penis out and a sign hanging from it I forget what it said but he won.  Still was fun. Yes, I was a griefer at my first event.

SL Newser: Did you fall in love in Second Life™?

RacerX Gullwing: Oh, yeah!

SL Newser: Who was your favorite Linden?

RacerX Gullwing: Well, usually whatever linden was helping me that day.  The Lindens were more accessible back then. I've known quite a few: Pathfinder Torley—even before he was a Linden—, and Hamlet. Spike was great, and helped me set out the detour signs for some of the cross country snail races. Jill linden, who was in charge of the tour group, and allowed you to give people rides from the Welcome Area.

SL Newser: Do you still log into SL?

RacerX Gullwing: I do log in daily, mostly to hang with friends. I also log in to build new things, but not so much anymore. There’s a lot of work that goes into the giant snail races every week: updating leader boards, making textures we use on the show, figuring out what’s going to happen to snail dude in the coming week.

SL Newser: What were your favorite activities?

RacerX Gullwing: I loved the Misty Rhodes Show and Show and Tell. I met some great script writers and avatar designers and sometimes won prizes.

SL Newser: What would you like the world to know about Second Life™?

RacerX Gullwing: Hey world, this is one of the most wonderful places on the Internet, and it's all been built and uploaded by the people that live here. It’s like Leggoland with better bricks. Whatever you can imagine, can become a place here or a thing or an event.

I had one more question, instigated by fellow reporter Gemma Cleanslate:

SL Newser: Racer, how did you choose your name?

RacerX Gullwing: I was playing Battlezone, a hovertank game, and I tried a lot of names there and that’s the one that stuck. I wanted the last name Racer, but it wasn’t available, and Gullwing was most related to cars, so I chose it.

A Visit With RacerX at Fujin

RacerX teleported me over to Fujin, which I recalled was one of his original plots of land. The Beer Eats shack is still there, and Racer told me he had retrofitted it back to the original form. If you have never been there, it’s a must see. The psychedelic shack is all I will say. Trust me; take the Landmark below.

Early in his days on Fujin sim he was approached by Dane Zander who asked him to build a castle for him. He completed the high prim (over 800 prims), four story castle, that Dane loved it, and placed it on the sim of Montmartre, where the Giant Snail Races lived for many years. Racer wondered how I would write about all of the stuff that he showed me, and I admit it’s a challenge. However, I think you should take the Landmark to Fujin, and visit the Bamboo Beer Eats Bait Shop, and go for a trippy ride. Don’t forget to touch every button there.

Devon Dream

For the past few years The Giant Snail Races have been held on Devon Dream, a sim owned by RacerX’s SL wife, Safra Nitely. Along with Safra, Racer holds Giant Snail Races every week with the able assistance of Tindalia Soothsayer, Oodlemi Noodle, and several other residents and props. Each week there is a theme, and the track is decorated anew each week. I am not planning to write about the races, though, I want you to stroll RacerX’s tidy rabbit hole on Devon Dream.

 “So this is my place. I say it’s under the track, but its way under the track. The Snail Race Track is 777 meters up from here. The build is sort of a recreation of the rabbit hole I made for one of my first machinimas.

Racer steered me over to a wall map I had never seen before. He explained that it was created shortly after the snow sims were created on mainland, and there were only about 100 sims: “This is Montmartre, or was, it's moved a few times and been resold. It used to belong to Mae Best. It had a wonderful sandbox area and was home weekly quizzes made up by Mae three or four times a week. I met a lot of great people there. I’ll never forget, because The Giant Snail Races started there running in a circle around the sim in November. 2004.”

“My first land was on Koleamoku. There’s a store there now. I only stayed there about a month until my neighbors found a new place, and I followed them to Fujin. It was at the edge of the world at the time. It was the golden age of SL.”

Racer took me to a wall that was covered with snail memes and photos. He told me that these were all gifts that had been sent to him.  He showed me a chair that was from one of his earliest machinimas, that was made by Adrienne Belvedere, who was also responsible for the avatar of Snail Dude’s girlfriend. Racer showed me some other pictures, and we chatted a bit about Waelya Tenk, on hiatus from SL to raise a child. The most astonishing shot on the wall was one of RacerX as a tall, grey bunny. Even stranger, though were some of the first pictures he took of himself, when he was still humanoid.

Racer was in no way finished with his tour. He pointed to a basket in the corner of the room, and slowly a cobra emerged and started to stare us down. RacerX climbed on the cobra, and was soon climbing out of sight. I followed him, and emerged on the roof of the house, dotted with huge carrots growing out of the sod on the roof.

I could almost hear Racer giggling as he led me to a small prop plane, and explained: “OK, so up here we have Snail Dude’s plane. He’s just learning to fly it, so grab onto the plane.” Of course I did. After I crashed, I returned to Racer who asked: “He’s not very good, is he?” I guess not. Racer also pointed out the windsock he had scripted. It was a carrot that grew longer the higher the wind speed.

I envy RacerX for saving things from his early days. My early builds were trash-worthy, so that’s where they ended up, but RacerX has held on to a lot of things. With great pride he showed me a flower chair that he had made by twisting prims in 2006—right after twisted prims were released. He could only use seven prims. RacerX elaborated that the butterfly part of the build was made by Kim Anubis, another name from the past.

But, wait, there’s more. RacerX couldn’t wait to show me his rocket ride. This is a bit hard to write about, but what I can say is that it’s his first really large build. You actually get to rise up to the rocketship entrance on an erector set elevator, and once seated you become weightless. There are countdowns and audio input galore. We were told that we were drifting off course, that it seems we used feet instead of meters when we worked this out on paper, this isn’t good looks like you’re too close to the moon, and that's just going to increase your speed, and that we were in a collision course with Jupiter unless we could get the retro rockets to fire in time.

Sadly, the Control told us we had skipped off Jupiter, and were leaving the solar system. Yikes!

In typical RacerX fashion the whole thing exploded and we tumbled down to the ground. Lucky thing this was SL. Racer has made some adaptations to this build in recent years to accommodate lower prims, and changes in the story, but the spirit of the rocket remains.

At this point I thanked RacerX, and told him I was off to do a lot of editing, because I had so much material. It was an enjoyable few hours passing time with a historic bunny. See you soon, RacerX Gullwing.

Video of RacerX’s Tenth Rezday Party: http://vimeo.com/99681505

Beer Eats Bait Shop on Fujin: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fujin/133/118/23

 DrFran Babcock

Snail Races every Saturday on Devon Dreams at 11:00 AM: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Devon%20Dream/143/112/779

The Oldbie Project – Aley aka Arcadia Asylum

By DrFran Babcock

There are some residents in Second Life™ that fill me with awe and admiration. Arcadia Asylum is one of those people, and her legacy is sprinkled across the grid in the plethora of builds that bear her name. Almost everything that she has created is available free and full perm. Everyone is encouraged to rip apart her masterpieces, change, improve, use parts, and admire. Arcadia left Second Life™ some time ago, but has always been around with some name or other. She is currently using the name Aley.

SLNewser’s very own Gemma Cleanslate wrote twice  about the Aley’s LEA build in April of 2012 (http://slnewserdesign.blogspot.com/2012/04/sea-of-aley.html  ) and the Arcadia Asylum library in August of 2012 (http://slnewserdesign.blogspot.com/2012/08/arcadia-asylum-library.html  ). She is compelling and cannot seem to stop building. Her current build is the underground amusement park: Seaview, that I have visited already several times. There is a lot to do there, and I had to come back a few times to take it all in. I brought friends each time, and they delighted in the offbeat humor of the constructions. At the urging of my co-worker Gemma, I asked Aley if she would consent to an interview, and she was more than gracious in agreeing. When I first teleported into Aley’s underwater sandbox, she was playing with a build of a shrimp boat. A few visitors came and went to pay regards during the interview. Aley was always friendly and welcoming. She admitted that she could chatter on forever, and that seemed to be what happened. The interview that follows is candid and interesting. Was she pulling my leg…I am not sure? I will report what I witnessed, as that is my responsibility as a reporter. 

Join me as we visit with a Second Life™ original:

Aley: This version (of the shrimp boat) will be able to net scoop stuff and, there’s the nets deployed. I'm going to sail around the Blake Sea and catch more mermaids.

SL Newser: It is common knowledge that you are Arcadia ?

Aley: Yups.  No need to look for the name; just follow the thousands of full perm freebies.

SL  Newser: When did Arcadia come here?

Aley: Oh, Arcadia wasn’t my first account [smile]. I first heard of SL in the late 90s when it was barely in Beta. Linden Lab was getting some web news and real life news about them trying to start a virtual world. Well, SL sounded like a huge dot com scam deluxe: “Pay exorbitant rates to rent server space and call it land.  So, I followed SL before it was open to the general public. I wasn’t about to “pay” to look at it. When SL opened free accounts, I started one. I think my first account was named Bubbles. I goofed around a while till that account was fried by glitches. You could totally loose your account due to the bugs back then

Hmmm, let’s see when I started the Arcadia account I was miffed and let some time lapse. I started hanging out at the old Calleta Hobo Info Hub, and got into open sourcing there.

Eventually, I got sick of SL bugs and semi-quit for two months. When I tried to log back in LL had deleted my whole inventory. The eventually restored it, but I was pissed off,  and stayed away as best I could. Back then Linden Lab was scrubbing account data if they were dormant for a month. Those were the wild old days in SL

The whole grid would semi regularly be crashed offline by organized griefer attacks.

Anyone could fart and crash a whole sim offline for hours. Building stuff was tricky, as a crash and rollback would even remove back up copies from your inventory. SL had deadly bugs for a decade, but is way more stable now.

At this point we were visited by Heather, a mermaid, and she hung around for a while begging Aley to write a book of her life. Aley said it would never happen. Instead, we started talking about gender in Second Life™.

 Aley: I use pretty gender neutral avatars. At my age I'm more asexual than anything

Heather: Asexual is good. Less time fending off idiots.

Aley: It unclutters alot of life.

SL Newser: Well, to change the subject…why do you offer so much for free?

Aley: I was retired all through the SL business, and wanted nothing to do with clients and stuff anymore. I have social security and a small pension, and I live like a church mouse.

SL Newser: How did you learn to build so well, Aley?

Aley: Oh, I was a CAD engineering draftsperson for probably 20years, so I could fart out 3D models. My whole family was into construction. My youngest sister is a professional welder. My dad was an engineer at a huge contracting corportation that did the NASA contracts.

SL Newser: What was your favorite build from those days?

Aley: I have no favorite builds, just favorite projects. I live for big projects. The old slum city project was great (http://spiritofarcadia.wordpress.com/a-slum-city-video/ ). The sim owner eventualy turned the sim into a BDSM porno sim, so I deleted it all. As if SL doesnt have enough of those already. I had anger management issues back then, but I’m better medicated now. Better living through psychiatric pharmacology. Current therapist hasn’t a clue what to do with me. How to you write a treatment plan for a nutcase with no common craziness issues.

SL Newser: Awwwwww. I am not going to write about this…

Aley: Please go ahead. I was never in the closet about being a mental patient. I want it out and known that you can do pretty well with your life with mental illnesses, if you get help and work with it.

I lost track, what was I rambling about?

SL Newser: What 3D software do you use?

Aley: Now? SL is my main 3D software these days

SL Newser: So, you are not making mesh, but using sculpts ?

Aley: I have fiddled with stuff like Maya, etc., but LL punishes mesh. You get more vertices with sculpts then equivalent mesh, and no size penalties. I use a dozen in world tools. Here’s the thing: I worked for around 20 years hunched over auto CAD and, I’m NOT going back to that hell. In SL I have direct interaction. I can model and play and chatter, and best of all get direct feedback and help. This isn’t a job, it's a social hobby to me. Little, if any of my work here is truly original. I pester everyone around me for ideas and bits and pieces. As i don’t sell anything and give it all away free, few have any qualms about playing.

SL Newser: So, tell me about your current build, Seaview, the underwater amusement park. What was the inspiration ?

Aley: Thats all Ardour Allen's idea. You know about the old Privateer Space Project? (for more information about the Privateer build read my friend Lauren’s aricles : http://npirl.blogspot.com/2008/01/aleys-privateer-island-part-i.html and http://npirl.blogspot.com/2008/01/aleys-privateer-island-part-ii.html )

SL Newser: Yes, in fact, a friend of mine asked me to ask you what happened to it ?

Aley: LL happened. That ended during M. Linden’s mis-management. The idea behind it was to fully utilize a whole sim, to build up to the sim ceiling. You see, people in general think in two dimensions—out of sight; out of mind. I wanted to experiment with making something that would force people to think up and down too. A few caught onto the idea. There was a place called Starbase Alpha, or something that was based on the concept after I worked it out. 

SL Newser: Thanks.

 Aley: The Blake Deeps is 13 sims and owned by Hollywood Rentals. They own and manage about 200 sims. Well, I started hanging out with the local pirate and sailing community about three years ago, and rented that plot where Flotsam Town (another Blake Deeps build by Aley) is located. I started guerilla decorating the seabeds in these sims, meaning the owners dident know what i was up to.

Setting up Flotsam in Blake Diego boosted its traffic a dozen fold, and the little sneak stuff i did here boosted general boating traffic.

SL Newser:  So, they kept you.

Aley: When Fanci passed away and her properties were at risk the main owner of Hollywood Rentals bought them up, and made four new open water sims named after Fanci. This time they asked me to decorate the place on purpose [laughs].

The owners wanted to expand from just pirate and age of sail theme to the mer community, so we started a crazy experiment to see if you could combine rentals underwater with events on top of the water, and keep waterway clearance for sailing

Ninety percent of these sims are homesteads with a quarter of the prim allotment. I developed ways to develop homesteads by pirating LL owned ocean sims. There’s a glitch, or was,  where some rollouts could reset auto return to zero. That made it extra fun (smile).

The average prim counts for all the underwater stuff in each sim is around 200 prims. That leaves 300prims for passing ships, boats, and planes, and the rest go to the renters. Detailing 80% to 100% of a sim wide seabed in 200 prims is a major challenge. The Blake Sea ocean homestead sims use around 1,000 to 2,000 prims for their seabeds, and you have seen how barren they all look

Well, Mark (Hollywood Rentals) wanted to bring in mermaids, and I was the only one around who was developing homestead seabeds, so I volunteered to get in on this. We dragged in the Safe Waters Foundation to help with community building

SeaView Park is the result of being totally out of ideas for what more underwater stuff to make. I tried to make an arctic underwater area but ran into all kinds of problems, so I gave up. Ardo (Ardour Allen) said: “Make an amusement park.”

I was desperate enough for anything, so I told Ardo to start building it. It ends up as a nice Victorian era amusement part. I managed to drag that project out to almost three months, and now it’s done.

I'm more interested in lower prim impact then perfection

SL Newser: No one complains about your work

Aley: Sure they do! I closed down at least five marketplace shops. Some folks can't compete with freebies, especially when there a fraction the prims. SL is a sort of social game. My game play is less prims and free

At this point we sort of drifted off into talking about other content creators and how scultpts were superior to mesh. At times it seemed as if Aley was impatient with me because I didn’t know enough about her body of work, which was true.

I haven’t put in all that she told me, but probably more than I should have. Aley is a remarkable person, at turns confident and proud, then a bit less so, as when she told me that the builder of the Nemo sims’ textures made hers look like crayon drawings.

There is too, too much information out there, for me to give you a list of resources. You can go and see recreations of actual builds at an Arcadia Asylum Museum. Aley herself has a marketplace store full of full perm freebies, and the grid abounds with lore and goodies all from this prolific woman.

Do spend some time learning what you can, and if you see me in Fanci’s Deep at the Seaview Amusement park, say hello.


DrFran Babcock

The Oldbie Project: Caliandris Pendragon

By DrFran Babcock

For months I have been sending out notecards to individuals on various lists of Beta and early users, without any responses. This scattershot technique has not resulted in a single hit. Luckily, I happen to be in Second Life™ enough for serendipity to take effect. I was dancing at the Second Life Universe 10^th anniversary party, when I started looking at profiles, and following the chat. I asked innocently (hehe) who the oldest person was at the party, and Caliandris Pendragon said she was one of the oldest, so I passed her my notecard with the oldbie questions on it. I was staggered when I received back her answers while I was still at the party. Cali is no stranger to the press, and just recently figured in a story about Second Life™ that was on The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/24/4698382/second-lifes-strange-second-life ), detailing the persistence of the SL community, despite the belief that it had disappeared. In this article I learned that Caliandris had been Misty Mole! In addition, what really comes across is her undying love for and admiration of this virtual world.

Caliandris has a blog (http://caliinsecondlife.blogspot.com), and I loved what she said on one of her earliest posts: "In the end, you have to tell the truth, I think, for people to respect your integrity and to take notice of what you say. So that's what I plan to do." Lovely. I won’t spend any time writing about Cali’s First Life, because you can read the article in The Verge. The purpose of The Oldbie Project is to share the lived experience of being an avatar in a new world. So, here are Caliandris Pendragon’s answers to the usual questions:

SL Newser: How did you find out about Second Life™?

Caliandris Pendragon: I’d been in the closed Beta and then the open Beta for Uru (an MMO).  When it closed one of my friends told me about There and SL..

SL Newser:   What are your earliest memories of Second Life™?

Caliandris Pendragon: I remember being confused by the leader boards, and they fooled me into thinking this was a game— having been used to challenges and games in Uru, I took the suggestion that I find Ben's Auto as an instruction.  I spent my lindens on a motorbike I didn't want because I wanted to win.

I found it necessary to explore from the hub in Ahern and easily got disorientated.  I worried about being lost and unable to find my way.  People hanging out in Ahern in those days were more benign and helpful.

There were only about 100 sims when I joined, and about 1,000 accounts, although I kept bumping into the same group of 20 or 30 people over and over at events.  The Lindens announced all events just before they happened when I first arrived, then at the top of the hour and gradually they abandoned that.

I saw quite a lot of the Lindens.  Partly that was because I was making an entry for the game development contest, but also because they used to run training and mentor events.  I became a mentor fairly early in my SL career and feeling that I was helping people kept me coming.

SL Newser:  What kept you logging back in during the early days?

Caliandris Pendragon: Initially I had been seeking to replicate the community I found in Uru Live, and even for a way to remake the places I had known there.  I quickly recognized how much more was possible in SL, and I wanted to make my own stuff and build. I could see the enormous potential for creation and it absorbed me with the limitless opportunities to make things.

SL Newser: What are your fondest memories of the early days?

Caliandris Pendragon: I entered the Game Development contest within a week of joining SL, and won a place in the contest, having first checked I could use as many helpers as I could find.  The team that developed on that project was much more than the sum of its parts and they achieved amazing things.

SL Newser: What are your funniest memories of the early days?

Caliandris Pendragon:  Oh, really hard to choose!  I bought myself a vagina and then found that the box was stuck tight to my head when I'd TPd to the most interesting party (and most of my friends hadn't got into the sim).  I made the box transparent as I couldn't take it off, but I spent the party sure that the Lindens at the party were seeing what the box on my head was!

Some friends and I made a party for Ratt Foo, the scripter who did most of the work on our game.  I made a giant rat, and then my friend put remote control scripts into them.  He spent ages making numbered tabards for everyone and writing out instructions and made a race track with a bridge for the players to stand on. He tried REALLY HARD to get everyone to get set up, but we weren't very adept at the remote control thing—rats went shooting off everywhere.  Then one of them realised you could sit on the rat and not lose it that way, and it was chaos... rats with people going in all directions. 

I tried really hard to do what we were supposed to, but in getting on to the bridge I knocked a group of people off again.  I’ve never laughed so much in my life—it hurt!

SL Newser: Did you fall in love in Second Life™?

Caliandris Pendragon: Yes.  We are still together and have spent a lot of time in real life too.

SL Newser: Who was your favorite Linden?

Caliandris Pendragon: Ekim. (ED NOTE: Ekim was one of the managers of the Moles and the Department of Public Works, thus Cali’s boss when she was a mole from 2008-2013.)

SL Newser: What were your favorite activities?

Caliandris Pendragon: Building.  Building games. 

Caliandris Pendragon: Do you still log in? If not, why not? If yes, what keeps you coming?

Caliandris Pendragon: Yes, to meet friends, to build.

SL Newser: What would you like the world to know about Second Life™?

Caliandris Pendragon: It has the amazing ability to make you feel you are in the same space at the same time with people who are in very different places in Real Life.

Nautilis, some Linden Homes, Pyrii Peaks, Cape Ekim, parts of Linden Realms, The Sea of Fables, and those fabulous SL10B fireworks I have—all are the work of Cali as Misty Mole. Sometimes she did the builds, sometimes the music, but always a valuable contribution to the feel of Second Life™. If you have not seen or visited these builds, please make an effort to do so. While you are looking, try to imagine what SL was like before flexis, sculpts, and mesh. That was the original world of Caliandris Pendragon, and she has grown with it.

 Image Credit: last two pictures by Marianne McCann

DrFran Babcock

The Oldbie Project – Stroker Serpentine

By DrFran Babcock

I know what you’re thinking, but you are wrong. This is The Oldbie Project, and not an exposé tabloid article.

If you remember, the purpose of the Oldbie Project is to explore the lived experience of being a newbie in Second Life™, and Stroker’s rez day is November 8^th, 2003. I would have never asked for an interview, except that my few encounters with “the man who brought sex to Second Life™” were always pleasant.

On July 27^th of this year I came upon an interesting stream in the Second Life Universe forums. (http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/85577-will-real-slim-shady.html ) Poster eku Zhong tantalized the forum regulars by asking: Guess who’s back? The answer, of course, was Stroker Serpentine. If you are unaware of the history of all that preceded this return, you can read the links at the end of this interview, but I will not go into those now, as they do not pertain to The Oldbie Project. 

What was striking, was that Stroker was back, and he had gotten four sims to create his Strokerz Toyz.  The sims opened with a rez day party I attended, during which Stroker was afk when I visited. Following that, there was a hunt and opening on the sims. Regardless of your feelings about sex in Second Life™ a visit to Strokerz Toyz is a must, if only to see the fascinating build that Stroker has created. Stroker was always a believer in the creative force of Second Life™, and the power we all have to make the world we want. Therefore, the sims are a joy to behold, and it is evident that a lot of work and planning went into their construction.

Enough procrastination, here are Stroker’s very short responses to my questions. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to see that he was being reticent, but there is still value in his answers, and they repeat themes that have been stated previously in this series:

SL Newser:  How did you find out about Second Life™?

Stroker:  All my friends in an adult 2-D world called "Seducity" were migrating one by one. The thought of creating my own content intrigued me.

SL Newser:  What are your earliest memories of Second Life™?

Stroker:  Naked people arbitrarily falling from their sky platforms.

SL Newser:  What kept you logging back in during the early days?

Stroker:  Naked people arbitrarily falling from their sky platforms!

SL Newser:  What are your fondest memories of the early days?

SL Newser:  Naked people arbitrarily falling from their sky platforms!

SL Newser:  What are your funniest memories of the early days?

Stroker:  How embarrassed the people were that fell from their sky platforms...naked.

SL Newser:  Did you fall in love in Second Life™?

Stroker:  I fell in love with the people of Second Life. Their diversity, nationalities and creativity.

Stroker:  Who was your favorite Linden?

Stroker:  Bub Linden. He was a riot!

SL Newser:  What were your favorite activities?

Stroker:  Creating and selling content and using the proceeds to buy sex slaves! Muahaha!

SL Newser:  Do you still log in? If not, why not? If yes, what keeps you coming?

Stroker:  I log on most everyday. My partner SensualMami is the sun on my face. She is my muse. 

SL Newser:  What would you like the world to know about Second Life™?

Stroker:  It’s not *all* about sex. There's also art, games, clubs and amazing residents from all corners of the world.

The take-away from all this is that Stroker is back, and we can all wait and watch and see what unfolds.

Links:

Wired Magazine: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2007/03/sex_drive0330

New World Notes – legal stuff

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/02/stroker-second-life-content-lawsuit-settled.html

Second Life Wikia:

http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Stroker_Serpentine

DrFran Babcock