WEEKEND OPEN FORUM (Updated)

Same weekly post, same weekly drill.  Events, projects, discussions; announcements, observations, amazements: post all and sundry here, for highlighting later.  Except if it's a new blog or SL-related site, that is-- in which case, post to this Open Forum, which is already brimming with cool and interesting URLs worth a visit.

Update, May 21:  Kate Amdahl announces the opening of the Diversionarium.  Nightbird Glineux poses many questions, among them, "[W]hat are your favorite OUTSIDE tools for creating for Second Life? I mean this in the broadest sense possible, from 3D to script editing."

Comments

[Kate Amdahl]

Since it seems appropriate, here's a press release about a new kind of Second Life venue that we're launching in a week!

New Second Life Venue Aims to Get Strangers Talking

Kate Amdahl and Eris Fallon, known to friends as the Sylphs, will open a new kind of Second Life venue they call the Diversionarium, or "the Div" on May 25th. The Div will be dedicated to word games, social games, and creative play.

"There's no place I know of to go in Second Life where you can depend on getting in a conversation with new, interesting people," says Amdahl. "There are lots of places where interesting people go, but those people aren't always going out to socialize. We decided to create a venue for people who want to play with words and humor and personalities and creativity, a place where the activities actually *require* conversation."

The Div will host Div-only activities run from objects devised and scripted by the Sylphs: comedic improvs done by audience volunteers; a game where groups work together to solve clues to words that form a quotation; a "prim charades"-style game in which a builder tries to get other players to guess a word by building within a time limit; group-written limericks; and Avisleuth, in which players are given anonymous notecards with other players' answers to unusual questions and try to sleuth out whose notecard they have.

Amdahl says that in addition to these 24/7 scripted activities, the Div will host periodic creative and playful events, and that they expect to add more scripted activities down the road. Visitors will be encouraged to submit more material to be incorporated into the existing games, such as quotes for the quote game and tasks for the prim building game.

Amdahl says that the Div will not offer dancing, gambling, fighting, sex, shopping, "or any of the other things you can already do at other fun spots in Second Life."

The Diversionarium is a free, not-for-profit venue, although the Sylphs say they'll make a donation box available to help defray costs. Notices are available through the "Diversionarians" group, which can be joined through a groups search or by IMing Eris Fallon or Kate Amdahl. Opening night is scheduled for Friday, May 25th, at 7:30 PM SL time.

The Diversionarium, Noul, (26, 14, 402)

[Nightbird Glineux]

So many possible topics, but no posts (well, one)? There are the Age-Play / Age-Verification controversies, Spanish political passions spilling over into SL (since I'm half Spanish I'm keeping a eye on that), and OpenLetter vs. advancement in SL with Voice Chat and Sculpted Prims.

There are two things I'd like to throw in. First, what are your favorite OUTSIDE tools for creating for Second Life? I mean this in the broadest sense possible, from 3D to script editing. Do you prefer commercial tools like Maya, Photoshop, or TextPad? Or Open Source Software like Blender, GIMP, and SCite? Maybe you use a tool I can't even imagine? I'm thinking of four classes of tools: 3D Modelers (Maya), Graphics (Photoshop), Animation (Poser), and a Programmer's Text Editor (TextPad). If I'm naive, and you use something that's none of the above, I'd *love* to hear it! Speaking of scripting, has anybody used Qarl Linden's qLab LSL Library? This works with *nix (Linux or OS X) but not Windows.

A while back Hamlet was involved with a "New World Notes User Interface HUD Expo." Did that ever run? Is there any documentation outside of the two posts "New World HUD Expo!" and "HUD Loving"?

[Hamlet Au]

The HUD expo got postponed after LL open sourced the code. I've been pondering an Open Source Viewer Expo, but I haven't seen much progress on that front. Hopefully in the next few months.