New World Notes

10+ Years Later, NPR Science Friday's Fan Community in Second Life Keeps Listening to Live Broadcasts -- Here's How to Join Them

If you enjoyed Science Friday's recent great story on the life and death and rebirth of the NPR show's SL fan listening community, the good news is that you, dear reader, can still join them too: Click here to join Science Friday: The Next Generation.

After a decade plus of existence, the group still boasts 85 SLers and is led by Beragon Betts (who's also on Twitter by the same name). 

Every Friday at 11am STL / Pacific time, the group gathers in-world to collectively listen and comment to the live Science Friday broadcast.

"Anyone can join who is well-behaved," Betts tells me. Well-behaved being key, because as you'll hear from the Science Friday segment, the group has occasionally been inundated by anti-science trolls. But maybe that's less of a problem, seeing as lately the anti-science trolls are more active on social media, than Second Life. 

Betts advice for new members:

Trump Billboard in Second Life Immediately Surrounded by Communist Party HQ, Statue of Liberty & Giant, Dancing, Pink Trump-Shaped Dildo

In keeping with previous US Presidential elections, selected neighborhoods in Second Life now resemble our collective unconscious, our anxieties and outrage taking on crude 3D form. 2020 being 2020, it isn't simply a matter of Trump supporters putting up small campaign signs outside their virtual homes -- but instead, say, a fifty foot billboard cube blaring out "KEEP AMERICA GREAT" in every direction.

And Second Life being Second Life, the response to that sign isn't simply someone putting up an equally large Biden/Harris 2020 billboard (though that's there, too). But also, people putting up a Communist Party headquarters right across the street, a Statue of Liberty in the yard next door, and floating above it in the sky, a giant, dancing, hot pink, Trump-shaped dildo.

Such is the scene in the region of Arket today, the last day before the last day of voting officially ends. And so as a last look at the waning election season -- and hopefully, of the Trump era too -- read on. (NSFW, obviously, unless I suppose you work at a dildo factory.)

Second Life Home Sprinkled With US Presidential Race Yard Signs -- But Perhaps Less Than in Previous Races?

Photo by Alsatian Kidd -- click for larger versions

New World Notes' story on the banning of political ads was featured in New York Times (well, briefly mentioned at the bottom of this article, anyway), so this is important clarification from reader "irihapeti" is worth calling out:

Reading the Terms of Service [it] is clear that political signs are only banned on mainland advertising networks. They are not banned on private-owned parcels where the parcel owner does not act as an advertising network across multiple regions

So if I have a mainland parcel I can stick a Vote For Whoever sign on my front lawn. I can't do this on multiple parcels across multiple regions.

A road trip on mainland shows this. People continue to put yard signs out on their home parcels which is OK for them to do.

Irihapeti goes on to add this interesting if contentious point:

Second Life Bans Political Billboards from Public Lands After Pro-Trump & Anti-Trump Signs Choke the Virtual Sky

Photo credit: Animats

Another US Presidential election year, another clash of ideas in Second Life. As has been the case since 2004, the virtual world has recently been festooned with political billboards, much or most of them pro-Trump or anti-Trump -- though as with Facebook, it seems like the pro-Trump forces have had the upper hand.

"There was a couple of people setting up lots of mini ad farms for Trump and some places had been plastered in far right slogans and adverts," SL veteran "0xc0ffea" tells me. 

Some commonly trafficked areas in Second Life have devolved into a veritable battle of billboards, with "Re-elect Trump" and other Trump friendly signs such as "Police Lives Matter" having to share the same space with snarky rejoinders like: "Trump/Putin - Make America Hate Again". 

This time, however, Second Life owner Linden Lab responded, updating its policy on virtual world advertising to prohibit ad content that are "political in nature" from the SL mainland, which the company maintains. (This policy does not apply to privately-owned regions and continents.)

I've contacted Linden Lab for an official reply and will update this post if I receive one. It is a marked departure from Second Life during the 2016 election, when a skyscraper-sized Trump billboard spewing fireworks freely loomed in the sky, while Bernie Sanders' unofficial campaign headquarters in SL was invaded by swastikas and literal pro-Trump gargoyles.

To judge by user reaction in the official community forum and Second Life's subreddit, most seem agreeable to the banning of political ads -- both for being an eyesore, and reflecting their desire for a place online that's free from election news:

Second Life Veterans Miss the World's Wild West Days of Creative Anarchy

When I wondered aloud last week if new SL users remember the virtual world's Wild West years of creative anarchy over a decade ago, many old timers replied by more or less sighing, "Those were the days." For instance, reader "Mondy":

I can remember a time when griefing by self-replicating objects was fairly common, and although it was annoying, it was also an event. People would COME to a sim to see sometimes hilarious flying...appendages? Or whatever infantile creations had been brought into being. Sure it was stupid, but it was also a talking point and often amusing. You also got to see the Lindens arrive to clean up the mess if the sim didn't crash and the owner couldn't deal with it themselves.

Or reader "Jackie", who fondly recalls what we might call an ethical, White Hat Griefer:

Knew a guy who did fun griefting such as turning the sky from blue to green a smiley face moon. He loved combat sims and making folks he knew fly three Sims away for kicks. Crashing Sims and hurting others wasn't cool with him.

I remember those days well and miss them too! I'd also distinguish types of griefing:

How Many SLers Remember Its Era of Epic, System-Wide Griefing?

Via Gazira Babeli's blog which has more details

Discussing the topic of drama and griefing in SL, longtime SLer Jumpman Lane compares and contrasts what griefing is considered now, versus what it once was:

Drama is not new to Second Life. It's also not as bad as it's been in the past...by a LONG shot. I went to the gteam meeting today. What shocked me was that the discussion was dominated by a gal crying in voice (TEARS) about being "griefed" at a club. I was incredulous and made it known. I asked for examples. One of the crying woman's pals sent me 3 note cards that detailed the "abuse." It was all in effect an ex-employee of the club spamming details and club gossip in nearby chat.

What struck me was how readily the gteam Lindens took this as HIGH drama and SERIOUS business. That's not griefing. Griefing is when people log into Second Life with the intent of wrecking the days of people they don't even know. This was a personal dispute, best handled by the tools of the game (specifically the ban/eject tool of LAND POWERS).

I related how griefers in days past, crashed sims to form swastikas on mainland in Second Life. There were people there who remembered such days. I wasn't sure if the Lindens in charge of the gteam now, recall such things. This was evidenced, again, by how seriously they seemed to be taking this rather personal dispute.

I remember well the years of epic SL griefing, when for example, self-replicating objects threatened to bring down the entire grid in a "gray goo" attack:

SLer Travels to Elder Scrolls Online, Shocks Players With Drama Horror Stories

Responding to the question, "Does Second Life Have Way More Player Drama Than Traditional MMOs?", longtime SLer Jumpman Lane (no stranger to drama himself) offers a first-hand compare and contrast:

I would say the chief difference between drama in SL and say drama in The Elder Scrolls Online is a matter of scale, a matter of scope. Precisely because people in ESO aren't in a world where "nearly everything in the virtual world is created by users" they don't stir up drama outside their own rather small cliques.

For example, take the Trial Scene. Trials are 12 man dungeons where players have to be rather accomplished players to be effective. A lot of finger pointing ensues as a result of failure. (Failure being measured by leader-board scores). Outside of the trial group, very few would be aware of the very REAL drama going on between the people within it.

Because people in ESO are shoe-horned into fitting within the world itself (made by the company developing it) they are limited in the means that they can use to "strike back" at their enemies. Even should they go outside their MMO world, to say Twitch or YouTube, the drama remains limited because the interest isn't there. people are rigidly, PvPers or PvEers and won't notice. As a result, their dramas are rather like tempests in a teapot (as opposed to the grid-wide drama possible in Second Life). 

The fact that SL is single-sharded is another major factor for drama -- whereas many or most drama in sharded MMOs will be confined to the specific shard where the drama gets dramatic. (Like Second Life, Eve Online is also single-sharded, and holy fucking fuckarollee there are whole long articles about drama in Eve.)

Anyway, Jumpman continues, ESO players were shocked when he shared with them the horror stories of SL drama:

Does Second Life Have Way More Player Drama Than Traditional MMOs?

Bugs in Second Life may be less annoying than they are in structured, standard MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online, but here's something that does bug some SLers -- the open-ended virtual world seems to have way more player-to-player drama. 

At least reader Alicia, a veteran of both MMOs and SL, makes that case: 

There is drama in every MMO, no questions about that one. Drama can be created from the devs not fixing bugs that should've been fixed, the players' own whining that the game is too difficult, and so on.

Now, where it pertains to SL, the drama is amplified a thousand fold as people can become "keyboard warriors" or even spread rumors to ruin a person. Just like RL, right?

So, is SL a way to escape RL?

That really depends, Alicia argues:

Weekend Read: Real Life Black People Reflect on Being in Second Life & Experiencing Virtual Racism

This is an epic, thought provoking new article in the latest SL-focused ECLIPSE magazine on real life Black people in the virtual world, reflecting on Black Lives Matter and their experiences in SL. It's written by New World Notes contributor Cajsa Lilliehook. She interviews many Black SLers, who discuss racism in SL -- everything from avatar skin color discrimination, to coming across people roleplaying in a plantation.

Read an excerpt below:

Black Woman Under Pressure to Keep Her Opinions To Herself in Real Life Expresses Them Through Her Second Life

Emuna Zamani, a warm and chatty virtual world YouTuber, recently posted this moving video where she starts by talking about her anxiety and anger over recent real life events -- first the pandemic, and then the international uprising over the killing of George Floyd and other Black people, along with the systematic racism which contributed to their deaths.

African-American in real life, she expresses her unvarnished opinions on all this through her Second Life avatar, who is also Black. In real life, as she explains, she is under pressure to keep those opinions to herself:

"I'm very angry," as she puts it. "I'm glad I'm working from home because if someone [in the office] said the wrong thing... man, lemme just tell you, I don't know. That's how fed up I am."

One day, she tells me, her YouTube channel may emerge from behind her avatar.

"After I leave corporate America," as Emuna puts it, "I want to record my Being Black in Second Life videos as myself. My current career doesn’t give me that freedom."

The video is devoted to the Virtual Black History Museum in SL, a place she just discovered and explored by happenstance. Her tour was so powerful, she records this video in near tears: