The Photography Studio of Grignano

By Osprey Therian

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PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST
Photography Studio of Grignano

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Contest 31: CITY STREETS
Theme: cities
Cash prizes.

Havok 4

By Osprey Therian

I’m so excited on the Beta Grid running Havok 4 that I can hardly think.

Tim Hortons Grand Reopening

Yay for Canada! Here’s the SLurl.

Well ok, truth is I’m more of a Netizen than a Canadian. Yesterday I was on a conference call with Nick in Denmark, Bruce Joy in Australia, and me in Canada. Later I chatted briefly with someone in Germany until I got on another call with New York. When this kind of thing happens regularly you start to see yourself as a citizen of the world more than anything.

Having said that…

Are you from Ontario? Join the Ontario Metaverse group! It’s fun, it’s social, it’s spam-free! We might even do real-world meetup type things!

We Need Designers!

I have a need for designers, even bad amateur ones, to create avatar-related thingamajigs. Please contact me!

In-world, IM: “Onder Skall”
Skype me: onder.skall
Email: ruagamer@gmail.com

En Garde!

Rifkin Hasburg of Procyon Games brings us a strategic fencing game by Reiner Knizia. “En Garde” is a strategic fencing game similar to Combat Cards, but with some interesting quirks. A Fencing Tournament will commence September 30th at 5pm with over L$10,000 in prizes!

Wanna play? Here’s the SLurl!

***UPDATE: fixed the SLurl

Octoberville Returns

Consider this your teaser. The sim isn’t built yet, but more is coming.

I have a feeling that fall and winter are going to be insane for gaming in SL the way things are shaping up. I have a backlog. Watch this space.

Water Balloon Fight!

Laboriously called the “Second Life Shockwaves Water Balloon Fight”, this is the latest Electric Sheep gig where participants chase each other around SL hitting each other with water balloons. Scores are kept at a central location and there’s a L$1 Million prize up for grabs to the top scorer. Apparently they just finished the first round and are doing two more. That’s two more prizes out there for a MEELION L$.

This is a promotion for something called “Shockwaves”, a brand owned by “Wella”, neither of which I know anything about. On the main Shockwaves page they say to select your country, and mine isn’t there. Ah well. *shrug*

SLurl

MySpace blog

Microsite

(via Kzero)

The Show Must Go On!

By Osprey Therian

 

2 pm on Saturday, 15 September
at
Heron Sactuary
This might be our last show on the road.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

By Osprey Therian

I was lucky enough, through the help of Vint Falken, to get a ticket to see the Liverpool Philharmonic play in Second Life, today.

Oh… yeah… right…

Got this in my email today:

Second Life: Notice of Disciplinary Action  

Dear Onder Skall,

Linden Lab individually investigates the circumstances of every Abuse
Report we receive. Following a careful review of our server records and
logs, we have determined that your recent actions violated the Second Life
Community Standards or Terms of Service. The violation in question occurred
on September 11, 2007 in the region of Patagonia.

Violation: Terms of Service:  Gambling

Residents of Second Life may not operate games which accept
wagers, rely on chance or the outcome of real-life sports
events to determine winners, and provide winnings in either
Linden Dollars or any real-world currency or things of
value.

We have returned one or more objects which are part of a
prohibited game to your inventory.

Repeated or continued violations will result in suspension
and/or termination. Please see the official Linden Blog
post regarding gambling policy at
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/08/09/anti-gambling-policy-update-faq/

Wager game (Dungeon Quest) in arcade

The rules of conduct are interpreted with the broadest meaning possible.

Discipline

No additional action is being taken at this time.

Recourse

If you believe that this notice has been sent in error, or that the
details of this incident have not been adequately examined, please address
your concerns in an email to abuse-manager@lindenlab.com

We will not disclose the identity of Residents who file Abuse Reports.

Sincerely,

Linden Lab

Oop, forgot all about that. I guess I got away with it because it was my “first offence”.

Seriously though, I kinda hated being threatened with “discipline” from some company somewhere. Guys, I’m a customer, not an employee. I’ll discipline YOU if YOU step out of line, not the other way around.

*sigh* I know, I know, it’s more complicated than that… ah the power of MMOs to blur the lines…

Super Mario Bros. Villain Auditions

Bad intro, but it warms up to awesome.

Thanks to Akela Talamasca for Tweeting this one my way.

Grid Safari Gallery – Stagecoach Island

This is just a quick pictorial of the most recent Grid Safari trip. We went to Stagecoach Island and it was pretty fun!

First we all showed up and stood around trying to work out the controls. Luckily they’re pretty easy and all focus around the numeric keypad and F keys.

A local resident took us on a tour, somehow easily sending TPs to everyone from a variety of locations. This little dome was on top of a mountain that you could basejump from. They had a video playing of somebody’s parachute on fire. It steamed really well.

Here I am in one of those… flying thingies. You know… those… hang-gliders with seats and propellers… what are those called again? Anyway it was fun.

Another mountain, another bit of fun. Snowboarding! Yay!

Underwater to visit a really sweet Loch Ness Monster. Nice detail, smoothly animated, and you really felt like you were underwater.

They showed us a volcano. I fell in.

Lots of houses there, but this feature I thought was pretty significant. A kitchen. Tell me class: what does the fact that the resident put a kitchen (and bathroom) in his house indicate about prim limits?

Full writeup on the way tomorrow at Metaversed.com.

Stiff People’s League

It’s not as rude as it sounds. Unfortunately. But it’s still fun!

Stiff Peoples League is a mixed reality game between physical and virtual players. Come and join together for a team and earn real L$. Become a top rated player in the future of sports.

I’m going to really get in-depth on this one probably over at Metaversed.com, but in the meantime check out the main website, the Season 1 blog, and the wiki to get you started.

Apparently this goes away on the 12th so jump on it while you can. (SLurl)

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Meanwhile, this is a reminder that I’m still looking for writers for Second Life Games. I’m not looking for Shakespeare, just enthusiasm! Get in touch! ruagamer [at] gmail (dot) com