What awaits you in the great SL beyond

By Victoria Wheeler

I have a strong interest in death. Not a morbid interest, just curiosity. I’ve long wondered how it could be possible that we highly complex human beings could simply ‘go away’, shut off like a lamp. Surely there must be more to death than, well, nothing. The ‘spark of life’ is too glorious to simply dissipate at death.

After the loss of a couple of grandparents when I was a child, and a near death experience from a severe bout of nephritis when I was 17, I decided long ago not to fear death, but to research the possibility of life after death. I’ve had other personal experiences (which I won’t go into here) that piqued my interest further and colored my assumptions and conclusions. I’ve read about ‘the after life’ and found lots of information on the Internet, joined groups and discussed the subject with my fellow human beings.

So it was no big stretch for me to look for my fellow avatars’ expressions of interest in life after death in Second Life. When I have the time (lots of that lately since I was laid off in May), I make like Kolchak:The Night Stalker and on the basis of keywords like death, after life, reincarnation, I teleport to various destinations. I found the ‘Death By Design’ exhibition in Zarflabbo that way, and made the acquaintance of its creator, VirLucis Hush.

This past week I stumbled upon a sim called AfterLife. After a few [ironic?] attempts to land there, I succeeded. AfterLife is a well-made interpretation of ancient Egypt, of perhaps how ancient Egyptians would picture their after life, with many-columned, colorfully decorated buildings, statues of Isis and Bast, Nile river barges, mysterious trap doors, and even an underwater temple. I was completely alone there, and took that opportunity to explore it’s nooks and crannies.

I was very impressed by the beauty of the AfterLife sim. It is obviously built with care and concern for design and detail. I was all alone there, so I realized it was a ‘work in progress’. As I sat in one of the temples enjoying the solitude, what I thought was a sign caught my attention. As the ‘sign’ came into full rez for me, I saw it was a vendor for women’s clothing, a decidedly un-Egyptian outfit, at that. It then occurred to me that this AfterLife might have a purpose other than to be a place one would visit in a lucid dream. It’s a shopping mall!

Needless to say, I was stunned, if not a little disappointed. In restrospect, I should have seen it coming. I knew the sim to the north of AfterLife was a large commercial venue, and the owner of that sim also owns AfterLife. Rattled at my naiveté, I wandered over to the retail sim. There I purchased an ancient Egyptian princess costume and lots of matching jewelry. After all, I want to be ready for my AfterLife.

The Dawn of Two New Virtual Chat Worlds

Just in case you were getting bored with SL, two new virtual worlds appeared on the Internets this week (July 7, 2008).

By Victoria Wheeler

LIVELY UP URSELF
Google premiered Lively (http://www.lively.com), an online chat application, where the user, disguised as an avatar, can participate in text conversations with other members in a virtual world. What a novel idea! Lively is administered by Google’s R&D venture, the imaginatively named, “Google Labs”.

Lively requires Windows Vista/XP with Internet Explorer or Firefox, it’s not [yet?] available for Mac or Linux. Being a Mac user, I have thus not been able to demo Lively.

While it’s not clear if their target audience is children (Lively was ‘field tested’ by students at the University of Arizona for several months, perhaps some of them were minors), Lively intends to reel you in by offering a line-up of intentionally cartoonish avatars.

Lively avatars are less realistic than SL’s general issue avi’s. Some are bug-eyed anime-ish, others remind one of Looney Tunes characters, and some are downright scary (think Nightmare Before Christmas and Tyrannosaurus Rex) – if you’re three years old.

Chat world marketing execs apparently believe that cuteness is a highly desirable avatar trait. No one told me that when I bought my Scarlett Johannsen SL shape. Perhaps that’s ‘cuteness’ of a different order, and I won’t even mention those cute Furrries, who, as everyone knows, take themselves very seriously. IANK.

Some lively, er, avatars

A feature that Lively offers is the ability for users to create chat rooms for up to 20 of their fellow Lively members, which can be linked to from any web page. This is handy if you have a blog, Facebook, myspace, personal or a special interest site. These custom chat rooms can have their own ‘environments’ (sorry, I can’t be more informative about that), with streamed-in videos from YouTube, and static images from Picasa (two other Google enterprises).

VIVATY IS IN UR FACEBOOK, SELLIN’ U STUFF
The second, similarly named chat app offering on Monday was Vivaty (http://www.vivaty.com), designed for use with Facebook and AOL Instant Messenger (aka AIM). I’ve also only read about Vivaty, since it’s also only available for Windows Vista/XP. Although I’m a Mac user, I’m not anxious to try it, largely because of Vivaty’s plans to foist in-world product placement on its users. For instance, Facebook Vivaty-ites can decorate their virtual dorm room with ‘real’ furniture from the aptly named Target. SL has some product placement, but at least you can avoid it.

Vivaty will also be linkable from your favorite web page. I hope they get a catchier, more pronouncable name, though (Viv-a-tee? Vye-vah-ee? Vie-vat-tee? I give up).

At least Vivaty has better avatars than Lively. On second thought, they’re sorta nerdy looking, in a homogenized, zombie kind of way, but that may just be my brain dead perspective.

Reanimated human corpses of the Caucasian kind are yours for the asking on Vivaty.

These two brave new chat realms promise to give SL and other existing virtual worlds a run for your money. They’ll be easily accessible from already popular venues, they’re commercially viable and marketably cute. Plus, with such active sounding names, they’re bound to be big hits with the young, hip, high-energy crowd. Join them, join them!

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In other virtual world news, IBM and Linden Labs have successfully teleported an avatar between virtual worlds – from Second Life to IBM’s OpenSim (see: http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/07/08/ibm-linden-lab-interoperability-announcement/). I guess the Lindens won’t be fixing my inability to teleport between sims now that they’re playing with the big boys. It is heartening to know your avatar does not have to die in order to visit the next virtual world, although there’s no question of what it will want to eat after it’s been there a while…
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Contact Victoria Wheeler in SL for a free tin foil hat. It just may save your avatar’s life.

SL THRU THE WEB IS HERE!

By Victoria Wheeler

Yah, BIG HEADS UP – There is now a way to get into SL via a web browser. It’s not a full SL client, but it’s good enough for you to have an IM or Chat convo with a friend or two, and do some minor Inventory ‘maintenance’.

You get there via http://ajaxlife.net  which switches to an IP address, so don’t panic. Then just log in as you usually would with a SL client. All you’ll see is one screen. Here’s what the main screen looks like, note the disclaimer:

The Ajaxlife login page

You log into your last location (and see those coordinates) or one you can specify, and you’ll get the ‘Message of the Day’ from the Lindens. You can see the Map and although Teleport is shown as an option, it did not work for me even after several attempts.

Ajaxlife SL Map, with standard background image shown behind it.

Other limitations include not being able to move or see your avatar, you also can’t see other avatars, either. But hey, you’re there, and others logged in ‘normally’ can see you and IM you. 

You can see which of your friends are online, and be notified as they come and go. You can see the names of all avatars on the sim on which you are located. Oh, and your Friends and other avatars can see you, too. You’re ‘live’ and online in SL with Ajaxlife.

Click the Inventory tab and see, Wear and remove individual items and Textures – a right-click on an Inventory item will get you Properties, Delete and Rename, and change some permissions. You can create, edit and pass Notecards, too.

You also can see how many Lindens you’re carrying.

You can Search, but only for People. When you open an av’s Profile by double-clicking on its boldfaced name, you only see their 2nd and 1st Life tabs, but you get their pictures, and you can Pay, Offer Teleport. There is an Instant Message button that’s not supposed to work, but “Drop Inventory Here” definitely works.

There’s a Stats window but I doubt if the casual user will have much use for it, I sure don’t.

This web interface can be a little bit slow, but that it exists at all is worth the minor wait. 

Here’s the blurb from the Ajax info site located at: 

http://metaversed.com/09-jul-2007/ajaxlife-second-life-your-web-browser

Katharine Berry, a student in the UK, has created an in-browser AJAX application that allows you to log into the virtual world of Second Life, but without all of the laggy graphics. This is a great way to pop in-world for a moment if you just want to chat with other residents, and as far as anybody else will be able to tell your avatar will look just fine (although mostly immobile).

<They say the following, too, but I found the reverse is true (you can intiate IMs, but can’t Teleport)>

While you can’t yet initiate new IM sessions or use the Search functions (these are coming), you can reply to any incoming IMs and participate in local chat wherever your avatar happens to be. You can also teleport your avatar to other locations via an on-screen map, although once there you can’t really walk around.

The interface is really simple, really fast, and works in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and newer versions of Safari.

All in all, I think this is a very cool application, and if it’s to be considered a work in progress, even at this stage, it’s worth using. Two thumbs up (that’s all the thumbs I have).

Our gratitude to Tenshi Vielle for informing us about Ajaxlife.

FEELING IS BELIEVING

The ability to touch virtual fabric will make for a digitally sensual treat in the near future

By Victoria Wheeler

February, 2008 – In a pioneering breakthrough, European researchers have created an interface that allows humans to touch a medium that feels just like real fabric. The software, linked to a ‘tactile device’, has enormous potential for surgery, shopping, design, gaming – essentially any human-machine interaction.

The revolutionary HAPTEX digital fabric interface lets you actually feel ‘virtual’ textiles. The output of several years of research, the HAPTEX system is basically a sensor-laden glove hooked to visual representation equipment the likes of which has never been seen before, and it reproduces the ‘experience’ of different fabrics with astounding realism.

HAPTEX roughly stands for “Haptic sensing of virtual textiles”.  ‘Haptic’ is the scientific term for the study of touching behavior in humans.

This fantastic technology was achieved through the intense work of a consortium of five organizations. Over the past decade, HAPTEX Project researchers studied precise measurements taken by sophisticated equipment of the tensile, bending and stretching properties of various textiles. In the last three years, they created a model, then built the prototype and its software.

‘We have a working prototype device, and we have validated it. It gives a reliable and reproducible sensation of real fabrics in a virtual world,’ says Professor Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, a ‘reality augmentation’ specialist from the MIRALab research center at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

Like video running on a computer or via the Internet, HAPTEX’s visual ‘delivery’ system provides a high resolution ‘representation’ of fabric ‘movement’ at the speed of 20 frames per second. But, the touch element of the system is much more sensitive, at least 1,000 samples per second are required to recreate the feeling of fabric.

Two software components govern the process. One application controls the overall properties of the material being recreated. A second program maps the sensations felt on the skin. The result is a detailed visual reproduction of the fabric that is ‘touched’ on screen, and the sensation passed through to the wearer of the digital glove.

Professor Magnenat-Thalmann notes, ‘That was another major problem because the two [components] must be in sync, or the sensation will not be realistic.’ Like a video with the audio out of sync, any latency (lag time) between the visual and the sensual destroys the effect.

Synchronizing these elements was the main challenge for the researchers. ‘We had major jobs to do with the hardware, too. Nobody has combined a force-feedback device (like a vibrating game steering wheel or controller) with a tactile one,’ reports Magnenat-Thalmann.

 

HAPTEX digital fabric waiting to be touched by the Haptex digital glove (not shown). The act of ‘feeling’ the fabric will be projected onto a monitor (also not shown). The recreated fabric can be both seen and felt.

The HAPTEX group developed an electronic glove covered in an ‘exoskeleton’ of pin-sized sensors that translate sensations to two fingers. The glove itself simulates bending and stretching of fabric, while the pins convey the texture. This information is combined in database to give a sensory impression of both vision and touch.

Independent reviewers are highly impressed with the HAPTEX’s results, but Magnenat-Thalmann says the consortium has not yet reached its goal. ‘Originally, our vision was to create a system that allowed users to distinguish between, say, cotton, wool and silk in a blind test. The system is not that sensitive yet.’

The research team hopes to secure funding for a second project that will take the device from prototype to full commercial product. If successful, it will be the very first of its kind.

There is tremendous application and market potential for this new-born technology. The textile industry and online shopping are the first and most obvious targets, but Magnenat-Thalmann also sees applications in gaming, where it could be used to make virtual worlds even more realistic.

You may not suspect it, but HAPTEX is a tremendously exciting advancement in the ‘digital’ experience. More than anything that has come before, the HAPTEX glove sensors provide the ability to ‘digitally sense’ texture, shape, thickness, and elasticity, among other object elements. This technology can be extended to a broad range of in-game experiences, it’s not just for ‘fabric’. This is the tip of an enormous in-game sensory iceberg.

Visualization of digital data, which are, technically, the components of any computer program or game, has long been studied and tweaked toward 3-D perfection. We have live, interactive audio, too. One large, missing piece is the ability to feel objects in a digital world. The HAPTEX technology promises to put the user into a game ‘world’ more effectively than any vibrating controller or dance pad can. 

Soon, you’ll open doors by actually ‘turning’ a knob or throwing a latch. You will pick up a sword, feel its weight, feel it slice through the air, feel it contact your target, and feel it flex as it does so. You’ll be able to touch another avatar’s body – gently, or less than gently. And, you will be able to shop for and ‘wear’ clothing made of digital denim or silk, or go for a ‘test walk’ in brand new digital leather boots.

This writer believes the remaining sensory simulations of taste and smell are a much smaller hurdle than the digital ‘tactile’ experience. Once HAPTEX becomes commercially available, the sense of touch will help close the gap between the virtual and the real. Gaming will never be the same.

————

While you may not be able to feel it just yet, you can see a HAPTEX system demonstration in a video from MIRALab at:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibr-1qe6xFw

Second Life Fashion Dilemma: Class or Trash?

By Victoria Wheeler

Some Second Life citizens don’t care much what they wear, as long as they ‘feel’ comfortable and appropriate. To some SL denizens, fashion means keeping up with trends straight from the real world. To others, their SL wardrobe means looking as ‘seductive’ as possible in order to quickly engage someone in a conversation that goes beyond the ubiquitous, “Where did you get those wings?”, into more er, personal territory.

When it comes to what my avatar wears in SL, I’m torn, 50-50 between those last two options, class vs. trash. 

Well over a year ago, as a noob, I was thrilled by all the styles available in SL. The options were intoxicating, and the prices were right. Having been raised in New York City, I’d long been a fan of wearing what was current. I bopped around SL buying all kinds of wonderful clothing. I was blissed at the opportunity to dress in the high style of which I’d always dreamed.

I even started a small collection of ‘period’ outfits. After all, SL was about fantasy. I bought dresses from eras such as the Renaissance, Tudor England, the 1700’s, Victorian England, some Antebellum hoop-skirt ball gowns, several ancient Roman togas and sandals, native American buckskins, a 1920’s Flapper outfit, a 1940s woman’s business suit with matching ‘period’ underwear, hosiery and shoes, and a Japanese brocade kimono, among other ‘interesting’  and unusual things. I’m not into the fantasy role-playing or furry thing, but I do own a dramatic female knight’s outfit, an animated mermaid costume, and a serious purple cloak to wear when casting magic spells. 

I purchased lots of outfits one might consider ‘fashionable’ in the real world, too. Well-designed clothing I thought was elegant and casual, classic and ‘now’. We know there are extremely talented SL fashion designers, and discovering them was wonderful fun for me.

Then something happened to make me realign my clothing choices. My heart was smitten by a charming, handsome man in SL. Originally from South America, now living in the States, he introduced me to his love of Salsa dancing. I noticed the women at the SL Salsa clubs were wearing short, sexy dresses that swayed deliciously to the dramatic choreography and hot rhythms of Salsa. The wheels in my overheated brain began to turn, and one day, I showed up for our ‘Salsa date’ decked out in a ruffly, sleeveless, clingy red mini dress cut down to my navel in front and in back, well, you know to where.

My male friend’s reaction to this bit of virtual fluff was way too encouraging to ignore, so I decided to find more outfits appropriate for both dancing and capturing my dance partner’s libidinous attention.

Now that I had an audience, I was on my way to months of ‘dressing to impress’. In the past, when I dressed as I would in the real world, no one in SL noticed. My historically correct outfits were also ‘non-events’. Once I knew a reaction was forthcoming I tricked out my avi in something sheer, shiny, slinky and slit, and sparkly platform shoes. Thanks to the great exchange rate, the urge to shop in SL is tough enough for me to resist. The urge to shop for an outfit that successfully elicited lustful reactions from my gender of choice (hetero males), really got me hooked.

Time passed, and I amassed a sizable wardrobe of slutty outfits and 4″ killer heels when, one day, it occurred to me what I’d been doing. I’d become quite clever at filtering out any article of clothing that didn’t fit my perceived notion of what was ‘sexy’. I optimized any purchase ‘for the hunt’, and never settled for anything that wasn’t guaranteed to raise a pixelated eyebrow. Had I sold out my avatar’s dignity (and by proxy, my own) for sexual attention?! It occurred to me I had done just that. 

If you’re expecting this epiphany to have a wise and happy ending, don’t. In spite of the cleansing effect of my confession, I still suffer from Fredrick’s of Hollywood syndrome in SL. Aware as I am of my unsavory SL dressing motivation, recognizing that I have become a 3-D floozy isn’t the same as doing something about it, or even caring. Sure, I’ve tried a mash of contemporary and come-hither, but I know which side gets more weight – the side that shamelessly lures men like moths to a flame. There’s no self-hatred or potential for reform going on here. Just the acknowledgment that I dress for an audience that has no sense of discrimination for quality and style, only for what exposes – the more, the better. 

So, next time you see me in my flexi-lace mini skirt, fishnet thigh-highs, barely-there midriff top and shiny vinyl fetish stilettos, go ahead and smile. I know what I’m doing. I’ve made my choice. I think.

RMS Titanic Now Open To The Public for Bookings and Viewing

Situated on the lovely tropical Volcano Cay, glorious in detail, grand in design, the Second Life replica of the RMS Titanic is an absolute ‘must see’!

Retail and residential spaces are available for lease immediately on this magnificent stationary model of the famous Olympic-class ocean liner, which also provides romantic recreation and dancing areas with scenic deckside views.

You’re invited! The official grand opening party of the elegantly impressive and truly ‘unsinkable’ superliner Titanic will be Friday, October 19, 2007, 8:00 PM SL Time.

See a breathtakingly dramatic video presentation of the ship:
http://www.kallisto-estates.com/

– Rental info – commercial and residential -contact Morpius Barbosa.
– Join the Group ‘RMS Titanic Ballroom’ to be updated on Titanic events.
– Visit and enjoy the marvelous RMS Titanic at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Volcano Cay/172, 167, 23

3rd Party SL Search Engine Plans Announced

By Victoria Wheeler

Frustrated with trying to find things with Second Life’s less-than-efficient search engine? (Hah, who isn’t?)

Fear not, help is on the way!

Chao Mu wants to make your search results more accurate, detailed and reliable. His Tao Yellow Pages (TYP) firm is about to introduce a service that will make finding what you want in SL a rewarding experience.

The primary focus of the Tao Yellow Pages project is an ‘information island’ where posted business ads and event announcements can be viewed by SL residents. Also planned is a HUD with built-in search capabilities so you can search the TYP database from anywhere in SL. A third phase of the project involves the creation of a web-based advertising system that directly links with SL.

TYP promises to deliver far more information and search refinements than the SL search engine. Who wouldn’t welcome such an improvement? SL’s search engine is the shame of Linden Labs. Well, one of them.

A Q&A seminar / presentation will be held on Friday July 27, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM SL time. You can have a tour and a “first look” at the facility, and have your questions answered at that time.

For more information, contact Valerie Rosewood TYP Marketing Director, or Chao Mu (CEO and lead director of the TYP). Mr. Mu is available for interviews with the SL media.

At this writing, the Tao Yellow Pages is in the process of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the World Stock Exchange (WSE) – WSE Ticker: TYP. For their WSE listing and Prospectus, check out: http://www.wselive.com/research/prospectus/301

Talk Talk

By Victoria Wheeler

It’s My Second Life
Since the main grid was down for a while today, and since it’s true that everyone is entitled to my opinion, I decided it was high time I hiked my buns over to the SL Voice Beta grid and give someone a piece of my mind.

I have an Altec (not a plug) interactive stereo headset with a mic, purchased for online classes I took last year. It set me back a few bucks ($30 at an office supply store, since seen on the web for $20). I attach it to my laptop when I’m at a SL dance club, and don’t wish to interfere as the not-so-subliminal tv commercials blast my entranced husband into complete submission.

Somewhat trepidaciously, I downloaded the Voice Beta Mac app and ventured onto the Voice Beta grid. I expected an immediate cacophony of vocal input, a veritable riot of yakking that rivaled Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

What I heard was surprising. Silence. Total, complete, and really dead silence.

You aren’t informed that the Voice Beta grid and the ‘regular’ Beta grid are actually the same place, the difference being the Voice beta application, which provides you the wherewithal to speak. Since it is a separate app, you get the impression the Voice Beta grid is dedicated to voice beta testers only. Nope, there are folk on the Beta grid who don’t have the ability to speak. They also don’t know if you can speak. There’s something very close to my real life experience about standing in front of someone in SL, speaking to them, yet they don’t answer. It’s heartening to know these avatars don’t respond not because they don’t care, but because they really can’t hear you, and can’t tell you they can’t hear you.

Talking Colours
I flitted about a few sims for five minutes, approaching a handful of lone, skulking avi’s I’d homed in on through the Map. They were hard to find, none responded to speech, and a couple had Profiles which made me decide not to approach them.

This is where RTFM comes in handy. If I’d read the fine Release Notes doc that came with the app download, beyond my cursory scan to learn where the Voice UI tab with the Speak button is (lower right center of your screen), I’d have known about the “voice intensity indicator”. The “intensity indicator” appears above an avatar’s name label. It’s a small, white dot framed by double parentheses which increase in thickness and number, light up and turn green to represent ‘broadcasting’, as you speak through your avatar. Once you’re hip to the intensity indicator, you start looking for it. No one I encountered in the first few minutes had the telltale indicator.

My problem was how to find someone with whom I could converse. I recalled from past regular Beta grid visits a sim called “Web Page”, where a helpful, eponymously-named avatar resides. When I arrived, Mr. Web Page was Away on break, so I quickly rechecked the map for anyone in the vicinity. To my right, behind a free-standing staircase which imprisoned the head of an anatomically correct prim bull (there’s lots of ephemera like that on the Beta grid), stood a Furry labeled, “Voice Mentor”. Excellent! I’d found a guru. I knew I could speak to this avatar, and perhaps even get some answers.

That Ain’t Me, Babe
This foxy gentleman seemed anxious to be my first-ever SL speaking partner. We began with a simultaneous, “Hello!” What a shock to hear live, human speech in SL, especially from a Furry. It was exciting, surprising and oh-so ‘real’.

The Voice Mentor said my input volume was too low, I should click the microphone icon in the lower right corner of my screen to adjust it. Hmm, no such icon for me. “You must be using a Mac,” he said (story of my life). “Sorry, can’t help you with a Mac. You’ll just have to figure out how to increase your output volume”. I know how to do so (System Prefs> Sound> Output Volume), but instead, having overcome my initial shyness, I simply spoke louder.

Apparently, anyone can join the “Voice Mentor” group, so noobs beware. Beyond his inability to help with my Mac set up, this Voice Mentor wasn’t too chatty and didn’t volunteer much general insight. I asked if he were a Linden, one of those concierges, or a volunteer. No, he just liked helping people on the Voice grid. I was pleased to have met this charming, though inscrutable beast, who so gently relieved me of my SL vocal virginity. Hey, I’d done it! I’d spoken with my very own voice in Second Life. I was really impressed with myself.

Hooked, and hungry for more, I wildly scanned the Map for multiple speaking partners. There seemed precious few avatars on the beta grid. Then, I remembered Luskwood, a sim that’s a Beta grid noob (aren’t we all?) meeting place. I’d only been on the regular Beta grid twice, and both times Luskwood was the most populated area I’d seen.

What the hell is a Lusk, anyway?
As I approached Luskwood’s raised, central platform, I heard several voices; not many, but enough to be distracting, and it was difficult to follow any one conversation. The most prominent voices were two women speaking French. I also heard an ambient ‘zap’ sound, reminiscent of someone’s security shield being bumped. With the French voices and zapping droning in the background, I could distinguish the louder speech of a couple of young men. I hadn’t yet read about the intensity indicator, and even with stereo headphones, couldn’t determine who owned those voices. There were perhaps a dozen avi’s on the platform, speakers and non-speakers intermixed. So, I just asked aloud in my native English who was speaking.

To my left, a male avatar’s intensity indicator suddenly rezzed for me, and his voice became more distinct as he turned in my direction. As he approached me in his black Aikido pants and matching Coolie hat, he began to address me directly, and I realized that proximity counts in the Voice world.

As I moved toward him, the French voices subsided and the approaching avatar’s voice became loud and clear. The Aikido-clad av informed me of the intensity indicator. I thanked him, and told him the Anglicized Japanese spelling of his avi’s first name was a mismatch with its Hindi surname (that of a famous Bollywood actress). He’d said it was about as Asian as he could find. Such details began to flow easily in our Voice conversation, and I was getting comfortable with the novelty and pace of it, too.

An avi walked over and asked aloud if there was an option to toggle Voice on and off, the Push-to-Talk feature, its called. Someone volunteered that Edit> Preferences> Voice settings let you toggle speaking with a single character key. The two Preference choices for this confused me. I activated them both, and selected the letter t (for talk) as my speech switch. I immediately logged several t’s in my Chat bar, and even though it worked on cue, I soon unchecked the Push-to-Talk options, and left Voice Active as default.

In the UI HUD tab, the “Speak” button has a lock icon within it, which presumably overrides your Preferences. Beside the Speak button is a Speakers button that is not currently active.

The zapping sound continued as four speakers and a break dancing, non-speaking avi gathered in a small circle on the Luskwood platform. Suddenly, a speaking female avatar we’ll call TootSweet landed in the midst of us. She announced her SL name, provided her real age and her past and present rl locations, among other details. As her security bubble rezzed, TootSweet explained she was unable turn it off. Those of us within ‘speaking distance’ fired suggestions at her, and whether or not we were helpful, she soon managed to turn off her shield.

TootSweet disclosed she was glad to finally speak in her own voice, and to hear the voices of other avatars. She thought this made for a more authentic SL experience. A few people in our circle, myself included, felt it would upset those who switched their avatar’s gender to one other than their own. Another person argued that voice-changing technology was available, so that might not be a concern for the fantasy-gender avi’s, but it could be for the rest of us.

A male voice then greeted our group. He appeared to be an I, Robot or Borg-type sci fi character. I asked where he acquired his unusual shape, with its exposed metal skeletal frame. He explained he’d made his avatar from parts, and that he used ‘invisi-scripts’, all of which I found quite interesting. I struggled to hear him, however, as his voice was marred by static. I was alone in hearing the static, another YMMV caveat.

A Furry with a buff but hairy human shape joined us. He brought a new feature to our experience – voice-activated, expressive Hand Gestures (in his case, paw). When he spoke, his arms bent at the elbow and his paws rose, palms upward, in an almost supplicating bicep curl that coordinated with his vocal input.

Our new Fuzzy friend informed us that the Release Notes outlined the Inventory pathway to these Gestures, Library> Gestures> Speech Gestures. You Wear them by dragging The Speech Gestures folder over your avi. Lag aside, when they do manifest, the nine general-issue Speech Gestures are randomly played from a cluster of three sets of three different types. You deactivate them individually with the Take Off Items command. These Gestures seem like a nice idea, but IMHO, not entirely necessary. Although they emphasize the ‘appearance’ of speech, TootSweet swore Mr. Furry was really just trying to cop a sneaky feel of her posterior. I believe she was right, but he was kinda hawt, so in her place, I wouldn’t have minded too much.

Eventually, a Romance language speaking couple began chatting beside our group at an unnecessarily high volume. Three of our party retreated at a distance from them, behind a make-your-own Furry vendor sign. Our further socializing in spite of the loud talk revealed that not all Beta sims have Voice capability. One that does is Abbotts, home of an airport and skydiving facility, so, you’re likely to find a few av’s there, too.

Such A Shame
A guide for SL Voice social protocol is non-existent. You’re at the mercy of the courtesy of other players. Most residents I heard ignored the proximity factor, and their chatter caused a distracting din. The same is true for other in-game voice systems such as Ventrilo, TeamSpeak and Skype. However, those systems, several years more mature than SL Voice, have ways around such problems. For instance, they provide one-on-one or group private conversations. Those other systems sell server space for you to create permanent voice channels to one or more other players, another feature not apparent in SL’s Voice Beta.

While on any voice com system there’s always some knucklehead waiting for his or her 15 minutes of high decibel fame, existing voice services are private, so spammers and griefers are rare, if non-existent. Surely our Linden leaders will follow their example and protect our privacy, since speakers are, by default, listeners. But, many SL residents anticipate SL’s Voice undertaking will fall victim to hi-jinx by legitimate in-game players, as well as vandals, on its publicly accessible servers, and safeguards may not be imposed until after such attacks have made our second lives miserable.

The Typing Party’s Not Over
I see more challenges for SL Voice. What chance does speech have competing with music at in-game clubs? Typing will be the only way to enjoy both the music and the group socializing. While there are general and individual Voice Mute functions in SL Voice Beta, back in your first life, your rl family and friends don’t need or want to hear you as you chat up that sexy new 3-D acquaintance. Soon-to-come voice eavesdropping tools may be helpful if you can’t figure out how to do that with the camera tools. I predict SL will forever remain a ‘mixed usage’ system of voice and typing.

Rumors
Two different, supposedly in-the-know avi’s in that Luskwood circle had distinct opinions on when Voice capability would be released for the Main SL grid. One said soon, by May 15th. The other said some time this coming September. Both named the SL Voice Beta blog as their information source. I couldn’t find any release dates there. If you know what’s been announced, please post it below this article, thanks.

The primary problem with a shortly impending release of the Voice feature was voiced by TootSweet. Justifiably, she’d rather the Lindens fixed issues that already plague SL, such as mysterious Inventory loss, before introducing such an important, paradigm-changing feature. A brief, but spirited conversation about the next day’s Town Meeting, and the open letter (which I was lucky enough to sign) that sparked the meeting, ensued in our circle. Hello, Lindens! We residents are talking. Can you hear us?

A side benefit of my jaunt onto the Voice Beta grid was that I made a couple of new friends, whom I later contacted on the Main grid. Although I feel it’ll take me some time to get used to SL Voice, I already miss not being able to speak to those new friends on the Main grid. Hearing their voices and speaking to them added a very special and distinctive dimension to our connection.
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Save yourself some trouble and get all the above SL Voice Beta usage info and more at
http://secondlife.com/community/bhear.php
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Avatar names used in this article have been changed to protect their identities. We at the SLTribune hold it as our duty to honor the privacy of those we represent in print. However, should you wish to know the real names of these avatars, they will be revealed to you if you send an IM request, along with 500$L to Caviat Emptor.

The first person to correctly guess the source of most of the headers in this article wins a life-time subscription to the SLTribune – Ed.

Representin’ the Average Joe

By Victoria Wheeler

If you want a female avatar shape in SL, you’ve got plenty of options. Men, however, have very limited shape choices. This article is about that situation.

In my observation, male SL players who choose to be ‘human’ in-world (this isn’t about non-human forms) are slow to warm to the idea of a ‘third party’ body in the first place. Should they decide to don a more aesthetically pleasing shape, they’re confounded by the tremendous lack of variety in SL male types. What they do encounter might even be classified as ageism and racial stereotyping, if not downright mysandry.

I recently went on a SL shopping trek with my partner to find a ‘less cartoony’ shape than the $200L job he’s been sporting for the last six months. In real life, he’s a medium height, medium complexioned, over 40 Caucasian, with dark brown hair and an optional mustache. He’s not puny, but not a body builder, either. You might miss him in a crowd – in terms of ‘type’, he might be considered ‘average’ for his age and race. After visiting about 10 different SL vendors, we were unable to find a shape that fairly replicated his ‘type’ in real life, or suited his taste.

We discovered that, most frequently, male SL human shape shoppers are presented with the 20-something swarthy and mean-looking ‘gangsta’. This type is so prevalent, some shops appear to have nothing else. Then there’s the baby-faced beefcake type, or the seriously butt-ugly dude. The only physique option is as a WWF contender. Skins come either with or without tattoos, deeply tanned or Owen Wilson pasty pale.

I believe if a census were taken, the overwhelming majority of male SL ‘human’ players would not fit any of those ‘types’, nor care for them. I’d wager that majority would choose a more mature and ‘average joe’ appearance to what’s being offered. I believe male SL players are presented with a set of physical paradigms that don’t represent who the customers are or what the customers want. We get what many designers THINK customers idealize. Like our real world commercial media and music, we’re given something we’re supposed to like, as opposed to something that better represents our interests. It’s hard to find designers who make customized shapes, and they’re either back-ordered and or way too expensive for the ‘average joe’.

So, if you’re a 38 year old White guy who wants to look like a 20 year old ‘minority’ street thug, you’ll be thrilled with the choices you have to fulfill your fantasy. But I believe there should be greater alternatives for men to not look like someone’s stereotyped idea of a ‘home boy’ or Napoleon Dynamite on steroids. Let’s hear it for Joe Average.
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PS. If you have a third party shape you’d like to change but can’t Edit, go to HEARTS DESIRE *Sexy Shoes* (Urbane 127, 230, 22). On the left wall as you enter the store is a display of free male and female shape editors that allow you to edit that third party shape you’ve already bought, or replace your regulation issue SL shape. Created by the talented, gracious and venerable Heart Wishbringer, these shape editors come with themes and clothes, but all you need are one of the free Shapes to overlay your own. Then you’re free to Edit your body with a vengeance to better suit your taste. You’ll love it. Send Heart a thank you IM and some Lindens for her generosity. And yes, there’s a gangsta version.

*Updated* A conversation with Sheep Elite C.Prior

<Tenshi> so… what’s the deal? Why opt-out and not opt-in? I mean, I can see where you’d get less participation with an opt-in (possibly) but..
<Tenshi> also, how do you feel about it?
<CPrior> right, so i had a good conversation about that on the second cast that went up a couple nights ago with christiano, lordfly, and hiro
<CPrior> as lordfly pointed out, opt-in systems just don’t work
<CPrior> ESC did an all-opt in search engine (slindex.com) previously and it didn’t go anywhere because no one used it– there was no value to get from the service initially
<Tenshi> Hm, I didn’t know there was a second cast episode out. I should go dig that up.
<CPrior> second411.com search, also all opt in, is now owned by mark barrett, who also works for esc
<CPrior> so this is something we had thought extensively about
<Tenshi> Do you think that the system is worth the problems of a few people hollering “foul”?
<CPrior> all opt-out systems like mark’s first projects, slbuzz, which clearly raised some red flags (mine own included, perhaps), are obviously a bit much
<CPrior> so the black and white sort of approach doesn’t yield much to work with
<CPrior> but we decided to make that compromise: if someone is trying to sell something, presumably they want people to be able to find and purchase it
<CPrior> i’ve had a heck of a week and am absolutely doing everything i can do address the concerns people have voiced
<CPrior> but fundamentally, yes, i do believe this is a step forward for finding things in virtual worlds — ie, both for the person looking to purchase something, and the content creator / business owner
<CPrior> if i decide i want to buy a hat, i don’t walk downstairs and wander around around manhattan hoping to bump into someone
<CPrior> i google it
<CPrior> and in SL, there were literally thousands of hidden treasures that I would need to somehow in conversation find out about and receive a landmark
<Tenshi> I honestly thought it was great until I realized that it did expose my private home location. That wasn’t so good. But I found the problems and fixed them, I think – unchecked the “for sale” bit, which I’m still not sure was on.
<Tenshi> Right, the SL search is very similar to Google. (in function and use) At least for me.
<CPrior> things have been found in SL through word of mouth only, for the most part, and that’s almost unbelievable to me
<CPrior> when you compare it to the way we use the web to find our way through RL these days
<Tenshi> that’s very true
<Tenshi> How do you think this will add to the future of the Sheep?
<CPrior> the majority of the 14 months I’ve had with the sheep i was working on SLBoutique.com
<CPrior> and we were keenly aware that taking items and boxing them up, putting them in vendors, then flipping over to a web site to login and add pictures, descriptions, prices, etc., was a pain in the neck when all of this stuff could be seen in world
<CPrior> we wanted to build services on that data, but LL didn’t provide an API to get it
<Tenshi> As a retailer in Second Life, I have to agree with that. I didn’t want to do things twice, so I don’t utilize SL Boutique.
<CPrior> yeah it’s a pain, i completely appreciate that
<CPrior> so it’s taken a bit longer, but we now have the data, and (I can’t stress enough) want to build those APIs to make it available for everyone
<CPrior> and hopefully can help enrich services like SLB, even SLX, SLQ, …, by providing this base
<Tenshi> Groovy. Thank you for your time.

**** In regards to personally banning Grid Shepherd:: *****

<CPrior>    technically, just as you and i can cam into a parcel despite banlines and right click stuff, it “can”, but we also load the parcel bans if grid shepherd is there, we just filter out those results (just like items from people who have opted out)