Unless you are rich enough to own your own island, if you own land in Second Life, you are going to have neighbors. There will be neighbors you like and neighbors you hate, and if you are really lucky you will live next to a vacant lot.

I live in Trabala server on the extreme southwestern corner of the northern continent. I have all 3 categories of neighbors. The neighbor I hate has a giant annoying jungle wall surrounding his lot, and yet his lot is completely empty except for that wall, and he has a “No Entry” wall to keep other people out of his emptiness. How stupid is that? On the other side of me is a vacant lot owned by Governor Linden which used to be filled with junk until I got them to clean it up. I use it as a quick sandbox (stuff only stays for 5 minutes). Four other lots on the server consist of private McMansions. I used my spycam script to see what was in the houses and they are really boring — not even any decent pornographic wall murals. The only build of interest is the cool beach build on the mini island with an unobstructed ocean view. The upshot of all this lameness is that the Trabala server is virtually lag free.

On the “I Like” category is an island across the river from me on the Lebeda server. There are two interesting builds. First there is “SimWear Mens Wear”, one of the older mens fashion stores in Second Life. Once upon a time you could not go very far in second life without running into a SimWear franchise, and if you were dressing a male avatar, it was about the only place to shop. Now there is just the main store in Lebeda. It has womens clothing now too, but all the clothes there seem a bit “retro” and/or “nerdy”.

The other half of Lebeda Island is my newest neighbor, a lot simply called “Hello Avatar” sponsored by an italian graphic art firm SOS Idea Image Bank. Below the giant robot sculpture, they have a 12 room art gallery, each with a different theme. There are cool wall posters, kinetic sculptures, and a free 2008 SL pinup calendar (in italian). There is also a collection of photography studio tools, excellent for taking profile pictures of your avatar.

Its fun exploring random stuff. 95% of the builds out there are crap, but every now and then you can discover a gem. They do not have to be big either. North of my neighbor with the gigantic annoying walls is a lot on Sudana called Real Art. It contains a mini gallery with pretty original watercolor paintings. Nothing I would call “museum quality”, but stuff I could easily see hanging on a home or office wall to brighten up a room.

Anyone else have any cool neighbors?

Virtual Society 3D art, exploring, museum, secondlife

If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest. – Exodus 22:25

As of January 22, 2008, it will be prohibited to offer interest or any direct return on an investment (whether in L$ or other currency) from any object, such as an ATM, located in Second Life, without proof of an applicable government registration statement or financial institution charter. – Ken Linden of Linden Labs

So after getting rid of casinos, which killed Gecko Financial and other money schemes which relied on casinos, Linden Labs has had enough and is doing the same with all investment schemes too. No more banks allowed.

Here is the full statement

This is another example of real world laws interfering with virtual life, but I’m pretty much OK with this one, as well as any rules regarding Linden dollars, in order to keep the ability to convert lindens and US dollars. Heck for the past year, Lindens have been more stable than US Dollars

Metaverse News secondlife, virtual economy, Virtual Society

I was thinking of blogging a review of all the changes to Second Life over the past year, and thought it sounded boring. I was also thinking about blogging about the major FUBAR advertising mess at Facebook, but everyone else has already, and the story is pretty over now.

But it got me thinking. I have yet to actually create an account at Facebook. I have gone over to the sight and clicked on the friendly green “Sign Up” and immediately felt intimidated by the fact that they want so much personal info right up front. That and the fact that the sign up captchas dont even appear in my browser of choice (Opera) tells me right away that this is a shady operation I want no part of.

This gets me thinking about the series I did earlier in the year about Second Life at the Crossroads and the two kinds of players you find in Second Life: The Role Players and the Virtual Utopians. It seems to me that the share everything about yourself philosophy of Facebook might appeal to some Virtual Utopians, while the Role Players would avoid it like the plague. But I think the reverse is true too; I’m not sure the typical facebook enthusiast would even “get” Second Life either.

Could it be that internet enthusiasts self divide into Role Players and Social Networkers with limited cross over?

One of my observations of the many changes in Second Life over the past year, is that many recent changes have negative effects on the SL role player community, and yet I have been observing that the Role Player community in second life is probably stronger than ever. In many ways, Second Life was designed primarily for role players. It is probably the best role player program on the web. In fact I think it represents an extreme in that regard. There are Medieval RP sims, Sci-Fi RP sims, Vampires, Goreans, and you can be back in high school if you want too.

Facebook represents an extreme on the social networking side. You can if you want get up to the minute reports on the happenings of all your friends and what they were doing on the web. The “Beacon” advertising program even allowed you to view where your friends are shopping. In today’s Reality TV “I don’t care if the Government spies on me” openness, it is no wonder why Facebook is so popular. Its like a “stalker’s” best friend.

In between these two extremes, you have much bigger entities like World of Warcraft and MySpace which have at least some limited appeal to both camps. If nothing else World of Warcraft is a fun game and My Space is a great place to show off how insane you are.

Anyways its an idea looking into. Do you like to go on the web as yourself or someone else? Are you a Role Player or a Social Networker? Apparently there is little crossover and a lot of weird looks across the divide.

Virtual Society facebook, philosophy, role play, secondlife, social networks