Saturday, December 8, 2007

Secondlife Orientation island and Help Island FAQ's

Help Island Public is where many residents go for general questions. If you can help them with the question they have, please do! If it is a real stumper, feel free to ask them to check for their Support options at secondlife.com in the Support area. Finally, if Help Island Public (HIP) is handling any kind of griefing and a Linden is not present, please abuse report the abusers as a group to help us develop a case file for investigation.

Help Island Public FAQs:

What's the point of SL / what am I supposed to do?
Personalizing this answer is fine! Remember in Second Life there are loads of events to attend, residents to meet, groups to join, places to explore! If a resident hasn't found something of interest, encourage them to make something interesting happen!

Where do I get money / How do I get a job?
The Knowledge Base has some key tips on types of jobs when the term 'jobs' is put in the search field at the support portal/solution finder at secondlife.com's Support area. Encourage the use of the classifieds, which have a section for employment. Feel free to offer suggestions depending on what the resident wishes to supply the community!

How do I stop dancing/(animation)?
If Tools > Stop Animations from the top menu does not work, please click on the Stop Animations objects located around Help Island Public center stage.

Orientation Island Public FAQs:

Why is this Island different than the first one I was on?
Orientation Island Public is a walkthrough tutorial that does not require a guide.

What do I do here?
Exit the corral area and follow the path marked by arrows on the ground. The path leads you through the stations.

What do I do at the stations?
Click on the green rotating hand near the station for a notecard of information. Click the signs at the stations.

How can I leave this island? Can I come back?
Go to the end of the path, there is a white pavillion. Inside the pavillion are 2 signs. One takes you to the Mainland, the other to Help Island. Click a sign and use the teleport option.
If you want to come back to Orientation Island Public: (Inventory> Library> Landmark Folder> Orientation Island Public > double click on it to open > choose teleport)

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Anti Lag Anti Idle tips

So that you never get thrown out of SL for being idle do this:-

press ctrl/alt/d to get your client menu up
mac users press command/control/d
client > character > character tests
and uncheck go away/AFK when idle

The best way to reduce lag is to lower your draw distance by doing the following:-
edit > preferences > graphics > draw distance
The whole of the Shapes of Things Mall and Shimmer Night Club can be seen on 128 meters

Reduce your bandwidth to 500 or less go to: edit > preferences > network > maximum bandwidth (this affects everyone, if you walk past someone and lag out they probably have their bandwidth too high)

Take off your attachements such as hug/kiss/pouce and only attach them when you want to use them, anything that is commanded on the 0 channel creates lag as it is constantly listening for commands, that's the channel you are using when you type just / (/color red for instance)

Monday, September 24, 2007

Second Life Is Not A Game

I‘ve see people and media refer to Second Life as ‘a game’ and often compare it to actual games like World of Warcraft, Lineage et al.

The problem is that this perception is not accurate. While there are some game elements to Second Life, usually genuine games created by the users themselves, Second Life as a whole isn’t a game. Second Life is a medium for collaboration, creation and socialization and is no more a game than the World Wide Web is a game.

If you look at Second Life as a game, then yes, it can be quite boring when compared to genuine online games. Unlike conventional games, it’s completely unscripted, open-ended and the player is free to do anything they want. People have to shift their perception of Second Life if they wish to enjoy it and take advantage of its full potential.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Economy and Linden $

Second Life has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). Residents regularly create new goods and services, and buy and sell them in the Second Life virtual world. There are also currency exchanges where Residents can exchange US$ or other real world currencies for L$. Though the exchange rate fluctuates, as of February 2007 it is reasonably stable at around L$ 270 to one US dollar.These exchanges are open markets, except that Linden Lab sometimes sells or buys Linden dollars to attempt to keep the exchange rate relatively stable. A small percentage of Residents derive net incomes from this economy, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand US$ per month, while a larger percentage derive a gross income large enough to offset most of their expenditures in L$. The currency has become the subject of concern in economic circles in regard to possible taxation.

Features of the virtual world

Residents and avatars:
Residents are the users of Second Life, and their appearance is their avatar (often abbreviated to av, avi or avie). The basic avatar is human in appearance, but avatars may be of either sex, have a wide range of physical attributes, and may be clothed or otherwise customized to produce a wide variety of humanoid and other forms. Avatars may be completely creative or can be made to resemble the person whom they represent. A single person may have multiple accounts, and thus appear to be multiple Residents (a person's multiple accounts are referred to as alts). However, the use of additional accounts requires the Resident to register them and pay a small fee, though after May 2006, there is no verification process preventing users from creating multiple "first" accounts using false information, a common practice.Also, a single Resident's appearance in Second Life can vary dramatically at will, as avatars are easily modified.
Communication in SL:
Within Second Life, there are two main methods of text-based communication: local chat, and global "instant messaging" (known as IM). Chatting is used for public localized conversations between two or more avatars, and can be "heard" within 20 m. Avatars can also 'shout' ('audible' within 96 m) and 'whisper' ('audible' within 10 m). IM is used for private conversations, either between two avatars, or between the members of a group. Unlike chatting, IM communication does not depend on the participants being within a certain distance of each other. As of version 1.18.1.2, voice chat is also avalible on the main grid using technology licenced by Vivox, a provider of similar services to other MMO worlds.
Moving In SL:
The most basic method of moving around is by foot (also running and jumping). To travel more rapidly, avatars can also fly up to about 170 m above the terrain (meaning 270 m if ground level is 100 m, 180 m if ground level is set to 10 m) without requiring any special equipment, and with scripted attachments there is currently no limit to how high an avatar can fly (although once past several thousand meters, the rendering of the avatar mesh starts to be affected).
Avatars can also ride in vehicles; many vehicles are available—there is a basic go-kart contained in the object library and there are many Resident-made vehicles available freely and for purchase including helicopters, submarines and hot-air balloons. Airborne vehicles can fly up to about 4000 m high (the maximum altitude allowed for any object).

For instantaneous travel, avatars can teleport (commonly abbreviated to "TP") directly to a specific location. An avatar can create a personal landmark (often called an LM) at their current location, and then teleport back to that location at any time, or give a copy of the landmark to another avatar. There's also a map window that allows direct teleportation anywhere.

There are some external websites that allow Residents to locate each other from outside of the virtual world, and SLurl.com allows external links through the Second Life World Map to locations in-world.

Second life for businesses

A short clip illustrating how companies can use Second Life to improve both internal and external communications

Second life - A good Introductory video

Introduction to Second life. Meant as an explanation for people from the business world not as familiar with virtual worlds, or second life.

How to join Second life ?

1. Log on to http://www.secondlife.com/join/
2. Choose a name. (At present, last names are chosen from a predetermined list.)
3. Enter the other requested information.
4. All that's needed is a valid email address, to confirm you aren't a bot. You can get 250 Linden Dollars if you tell them a valid credit card number, though.

First Basic account is FREE, and includes access to events, shopping, building, scripting- everything you can do in Second Life. After your first free Basic Account, each Additional Basic Account (known in-world as an "alt" account) costs a one-time fee of $9.95.

What is Second Life and what is Linden Lab?

Second Life, shortened by most to “SL”, is an online virtual world where anybody with a broadband connection and a reasonably powerful computer can interact, create, educate, play, and work in a graphically-rich 3D environment. It is an immersive space where you interact with your surroundings and other people through an avatar (a representation of a human, or non-human, being) that walks, flies or drives around.
Second Life is a 3-D metaverse (beyond the physical universe) or open-ended platform for communication, socializing, creativity, prototyping, gaming, entertainment, business, non-profit work -- and more.

This software and online interactive environment is not the game you may be used to from The Sims Online or World of Warcraft, although it has some of the same features and you can play various games within it and with it. It is big enough so that you can take it very seriously and make a real income from it, yet small enough so that you can always pull away and say "it's only a game".

Linden Lab is the company that created and maintains Second Life. Lindens are the employees of Second LIfe. "Lindens" is also the name of the game currency.