“We Gotta Say Goodbye, For the Summer” - Bahama Beach Club Closes

 
By Bixyl Shuftan


At 6 PM Saturday August 22nd, the Bahama Beach Club at the Goldrush sim held it’s final event. Club owner Rory Langdon was the DJ that night, playing classic rock for a “Back to the ‘60s” beack party, with some guests and staff in their swimming trunks and bikinis. Instead of in the club, the party was held on the beach sands.

Rory Langdon, or Joe Ward in real life, has been playing music for over 30 years, with experience as both a DJ and club manager. Experience he brought with him to Second Life, both DJing and club managing here. In March 2009, he decided to start up a club of his own, buying up some land that already had a nightclub there, “Club 9:30.” As it turned out, there really was a Club 9:30 in real life. So he kept the building for a while, setting up a small beach club next to it, poles holding up a thatched roof, with a danceball overhead with a particle streamer sending down a light show at times, with a picture of a blue parrot behind the DJ stand, which became known as “Flip the bird.”

With his partner Marai McMahon helping to manage things, Rory had planned to run both clubs with events in both every week. But problems in real life cut down on his time in the metaverse, and the prim content limit limited what he could do with both clubs. So they decided to take down the nightclub building, building a a bigger beach club. They also put a little more detail in the beach. adding rocks, a waterfall, palm trees and hammocks, a secret cuddle spot, and more. Some people dropped over between parties just to see the beach scenery and relax. The new bigger club was renamed the Bahama Beach Club, though sometimes simply called the “BBC” as a pun on the famous media company.

Besides himself, Rory had other music-makers performing. Bosco sang at the club for a time. Later on came DJ’s SonicBlu and Boo Gearhead. And throughout the club’s history, there was ScratchMusikatt the “Chaos DJ,” playing for the late at night while he also performed in real life.

The club and it’s grounds took up a quarter sim, but prim limits limited what Rory, Marai, and the staff could do. There was talk about buying up a half sim, or maybe a full sim in the future for things like a staff residence home. Then his old friend and former neighbor Foxyfurman Kumaki who runs the Foxworth sim offered a deal. Rory and Marai now have a section of the sim there for a club, which will be opened sometime in the near future. This time, it will be a nightclub to go along with Foxy’s casino next to the place. The land on Goldrush will be sold.

So, the Bahama Beach Club comes to a close, at least for now. It’s likely it will come back in some form, but the place at Goldrush will be missed.

As the final party came to a close, virtual champagne was passed around, and toasts were made.

“To this place being good to us, memories made here.”

“To memories old and new, to friends who shall never be forgotten.”


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Addition (2015): In the Summer of 2008, I came across and made friends with the people of Woodlin, eventually joining the community in October. But over a period of weeks from January to March 2009, the place fell apart due to drama, the majority of us heading over to Foxworth, owned by Foxyfurman Kunami. But while Woodlin had it's own clubs, Foxworth didn't have one. It's entertainment was an open-air gaming hall with machines of Foxy's construction. Enter Rory Langdon, whom was one of Woodlin's DJs, and was the manager of it's short-lived "Margaritavile." Wanting to stay in the club business, he got some land in a sim separate from Foxworth that already had one, and went to work with help from Foxworth's residents. More of the club's history could be seen in this article of the place, that was published in August 23 2009, the day after its closing party.

  Rory never did open his nightclub. Events in real life intervened, and he was forced to take a hiatus from Second Life. While he was able to make occasional reappearances, he never could stick around for very long. Some months later in March 2010, Foxworth itself had to close down. Marai and a few others were able to relocate to a place they called Glen Meadows, but there was no room for me. But there was another group of friends I had with their own estate: The Sunweavers. ScratchMusikatt did end up meeting a special friend at the BBC, and their friendship continues to this day, as does his DJing.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

The Primmiest House in Second Life?

By Bixyl Shuftan

I’ve seen a number of homes in Second Life, both apartments and small home rentals, and larger homes on one’s own virtual land. But Felina Fermi owns a place, along with her partner Rhypanthian Abilene, that has quite a large number of items. One visitor supposedly called it “the primmiest house in SL.”

Felina herself doubts she truly holds the record, but feels her home is certainly among the top for the most prims per square foot in a residential home, “I have seen people with *bigger* homes but they don't decorate it to the fullest with every room and every spot filled.” And indeed, just about every spot has been filled. Even a wastebasket had some paper wads next to it. The kitchen counter has often had numerous food trays with goodies on t √hem. A working home-entertainment system allows her and  her guests to watch one of a broad selection of movies. A number of pet cats walk about the living room, meowing and purring.

Unlike some homeowners in Second Life who strived to take full advantage to make what otherwise would be difficult to impossible, what Rezzable termed “Not Possible In Real Life,” Felina was determined to make a home representative of the North American middle-class dream, filling the house with what she would get in reality if she had the cash, “I wish I could afford all this in real-life.”

Is Felina’s home really “the primmiest house in Second Life?” Do any of you, the readers, know of anything with more?

Bixyl Shuftan

***

Felina told me of their prim space they were using 2830 out of a capacity of 3017. It held a lot, with lots of food on the dinner table, food and cooking gear in the kitchen, a fire extinguisher near the stove, sliding curtains in the shower, a working pool table, computer with wallpaper and icons, lots of pictures on the wall and potted plants around, "people don't ... often ... use a lot of pictures and plants," a working home theater system where she Rhypanthian frequently watched movies, and and a lot more. Among the virtual homeowners I knew, Felina was one of a kind, and as the years went by would continue to be so.

Linden labs slams its paying customers again!

Yes linden labs have messed up and their paying customers will be the ones who have to PAY for it:

Openspace Pricing and Policy Changes
Openspace prices and fees change on the 1st January with no grandfathering.
Class 4 Openspaces will be upgraded to class 5 in January.
Educator discount is no longer available for Openspaces.
No Owner switching for Openspaces unless it’s a full transfer of Payor.
More proactive education by support staff to prevent unfair resource use by Openspace regions.

Why?
What happened?
According to Jack Linden usage of the openspace sims has surprised them and the load needed to support them is too much. They gave us 3750 prims to use on these beautiful private islands and apparently didn't expect us to use them!

So Openspaces have been incredibly popular as a perk for estate owners, but sadly there is a twist. Unfortunately most of the Openspaces are being used for much more than light use. Based on analysis performed in August and September, Openspaces are being used about twice as much as we expected, in other words being loaded with double the content/avatar load than we’d expect for a region that is supposed to be light use.

That there are unscrupulous users of the openspaces is not in doubt and now it seems, rather than deal with the offenders, everyone on openspaces will have to pay.
At an emergency office hours Jack showed a willingness to listen to idea's that residents presented suggesting a possibility these changes are not set in stone yet - but from past experience Resident suggestions are generally ignored. Linden Lab have showed yet again absolutely no knowledge of the inworld economy.
Jack Linden: okay so here is a question; do you think us pinning prim counts down to say 1500, and limiting script count to 250, would be acceptable if the price stayed as it now? I'm not suggesting this is possible, but I'm interested in your opinionsSome great ideas were forthcoming on ways to combat the problem but the point is that Linden Lab did not foresee this issue showing gross mismanagement and incompetence.
Jack was listening though and this can only be a good thing:
[5:37] Jack Linden: okay, so lets summarise a little: I hear you on OS limits, and I hear you on the other options like free conversions. I won't obviously be making any promises in this discussion which is an ad-hoc one because I wanted to get as much feedback as I could.. but I will take all of this away and discuss it within the Lab. *if* there are outcomes or changes, then we should make those clear sooner rather than later
[5:39] Jack Linden: Lets keep talking. I will reply more in the forums, and I will try to do more sessions like this over the next few days.

Beginning 1st January 2009We will increase the monthly maintenance fee from USD$75 to USD$125 per month. This price increase will apply to all owners of Openspaces on January 1st as well as new purchases after that date. There will be no grandfathering of Openspace maintenance pricing.
This shows a 50% increase in upfront fees and a 66% increase in tier fees!

I spoke with Intlibber Brautigan of BNT holdings and this is what he had to say;
IntLibber BnT: if anything is costing them money its the fact that they offer 195 tier on the mainland that we subsidize with our high sim tier
IntLibber BnT: I'm all for ending the grandfathered rates, puts everybody on a level playing field
IntLibber BnT: ending grandfathering and equalizing tier between mainland and estates will bring in enough revenue for LL that they can cover added expenses.

This is a situation that we will monitor closely. You can follow the discussions in the FORUM and we will try to keep you updated on anything pertinent.
Thank you to Gemma Cleanslate for the chat logs and Intlibber for taking the time to talk to me.


Dana Vanmoer
Source: Secondlife Blog

Silverscreen: "Home of the Movies in Second Life"

 By Bixyl Shuftan

 One of my friends from the Second Life Tour group, Delaynie Barbosa, told me about one interesting sim, Silverscreen.

At the teleport point, (145, 147, 33), one finds a huge amphitheater with a four-sided media display screen, which dominates the central island. Currently, it plays media of a trailer for the "Iron Man" movie. Four other islands  make up the sim. Besides flying over, one can also take a tram to and from there to the main island, which can be called over by posts at the edge of the islands (don't forget to sit in them).

The island to the southeast has an "Iron Man" prim statue and a free Iron Man avatar and AO (which you can also find behind you at the teleport point), as well as another media screen for the movie trailer. The southwest corner has a scene from the "Transformer" movie of two of the robots in a fight, Bumblebee and Barricade, as well as two free avies of them.

The northwest island is for the latest "Die Hard" movie, a scene of a fighter jet firing at a truck on a bridge. To the side are a few freebie items and teleports to other parts of the sim. The map shown suggests there were more "Die  Hard" exhibits in the past, but about all that is left of them is the free "Warlock Room" building under the central amphitheater. The northeast island is for the movie "300," a scene of some Ancient Greek buildings. One can find a free Spartan warrior outfit there, and look for the helmets, spears, and the shield elsewhere there. And like in the movies, I found a "blooper" there. On the floor was a smoldering cigar - not exactly something one is supposed to find on an Ancient Spartan set. ;-)

Silverscreen also has a group of the same name. The group charter says "Silverscreen is a multi-purpose event and exhibition venue developed and managed by Picture Production Company (PPC). Silverscreen opened to the public in March 2007, and has since hosted Q&As and expos for movies ..." The founder of the group, Danyboy Lightfoot, calls himself the manager of Silverscreen, "I've been involved in bringing movies including 300, DIE HARD 4.0 and Transformers into Second Life." He is also with the "Transformers" sim group.

*  *  *  *  *

Addition:

"When Second Life went to the movies" is what one might call this place and time. The place was made at a time when real life companies were looking to the virtual world as a place to advertise. Within months, places like this would be pretty much a thing of the past. Yours truly still has the "300" outfit and "Bumblebee" avatar, though the latter has become glitched.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Real Life Businesses in Second Life

  

Recently James and I set out to look at the real businesses in our virtual world, mainly looking at the car industry. We are all aware of the hype surrounding a new RL business coming into SL, and lately, more often pulling out of Second Life, Mercedes are the latest to announce their departure after Pontiac.

My honest opinion? Considering I am a non driver in RL I had a great deal of fun! Zipping around the tracks trying out the huge loop-the-loop on Nissan island, finding the code to get your own free car or answering the challenge of Mazda, jump the gap and keep the car :) (It took James 3 tries LOL)

From what we saw Nissan have certainly got the right idea of how to show their product to its best advantage with plenty of information and a lot of fun activities which had kept people coming to the sim even though there were no staff on hand at any time we visited, there were still avatars having fun. The only disappointment was the boxy look of the virtual model, with sculpties nowadays a better model could be constructed although the internal detail was good. Mazda also was populated and set in beautiful surroundings too. The Mazda Hakaze was also one of the best built representations we saw, although, only having a simple drive script it may have limited real drivers enjoyment.

Peugeot disappointingly were actually selling their models rather than giving them away and we were quickly bored, very much set out as a RL showroom - yes there was a road but if you wanted to see it you had to get a bike since you couldn't Rez your car to get around. All in all a disappointment they obviously had spent no time in SL and had no idea how to best use it to sell their product.

How should Real businesses set about using Second Life? Well I am no marketing expert but if you don't make it fun and give people something to do then you are unlikely to succeed. You need to provide the information in a fun and interesting way, I believe Nissan have seen the possibilities the best out of the ones we visited, closely followed by Mazda.

To an extent it's the same as browsing the Internet for information on cars, BUT its much more fun and relaxed, Why go to a stuffy showroom if you can walk on a tropical beach and and enjoy the looks of your new car at sunset?

Can Second Life be used to sell real products? I believe it can if it is done in the right way. Just don't take us all for suckers and give us some real info to go with the free models!

Dana

*  *  *  *  

Addition : Second Life was much more in the public eye than it is now, seen as the darling of the tech media, and attracting attention among those whom would ordinarily dismiss such things as "geeky." It was to the point real life businesses wondered if they could use Second Life as a means to make money. I myself saw numerous companies such as Circuit City, Manpower, IBM, and many others here. Among these were car companies.

Real life companies more often than not found Second Life a confusing place. It didn't help that most didn't try to recruit local talent, but try and learn and do things on their own. As James and Dana wrote, the results were often disappointing for Second Life residents and real life companies themselves as they didn't get the results they desired. Eventually, the car companies would move on, leaving the Second Life auto market to local talent. (Bixyl Shuftan)
 

A Couple Humorous Stories

 
Second Life has been full of funny moments. Here's a couple that stick out.

The first relates to my avie. I had started out with the ringtail foxfolk, partly to stand out, and partly as a reflection of my love of science-fiction. A friend gave me some cash to upgrade, but I postponed it for a while, giving some thought on what to upgrade to.

While in a store looking over options, I got the attention of a couple others, "I don't see too many still in their original skin," spoke one. I explained I was thinking over my options. "Well, I'd make a decision soon. The way you are now, people are going to think you're new. With a new avatar, it's going to change how people look at you."

A friend of mine had recently joined Second Life, so the next day I made my decision. I decided to stay a foxfolk, but with my family part redneck, and one of the online sci-fi comics I read it's red foxfolk were traditionally laborers, I got a Luskwood Red Fox avatar.

So did the way people saw me change? Well, the next day while exploring around, a woman walked up to me, and propositioned me! She was a cyberhooker looking for a few bucks.

I've never "paid for it" in real life, sour love life or no, so I politely declined. I guess since I was out of my "baby coat," she assumed I had cash.

A couple coworkers of mine had plenty of tattoos, piercings, odd hair, filed teeth, etc., and managed to find women to marry them. So perhaps it's not hard to imagine that some girls would go for a "foxy guy." ;-)
 
*****

 

My second story had something of a somber beginning. It was Tuesday, September 11, the sixth year anniversary of that dreadful day. In SL, I stopped by a memorial to pay my respects. I was going to teleport out for the evening, but recalled a recreation of the Twin Towers next to the "New York City Block" area. So I teleported there to see if there was any memorial there, and landed in the middle of a conversation between two ladies, "Hey, there's a fox on your head." ;-)
 
I greeted them, and they welcomed me into the conversation. It turned out they were both New Yorkers, from Brooklin, and they were in on the design of the place, basing it on their home turf. We discussed 9-11, the ceremonies that day, and a third lady soon joined in.

In the middle of the talk, a guy ported in, and walked up to a couple of the girls. It took a few moments for him to rez, so we thought nothing of it at first. Then below his belt, a certain obviously male extremity appeared.

I wasn't sure what was going on. Was this guy last at a nude beach or somewhere and he forgot? So I typed the first think that came to mind:

"Excuse me, your fly is down."

And the girls burst out laughing. I wasn't sure how the guy would react. He reacted by porting away almost immediately. One girl spoke, "What happened? I didn't see (him fully rez)." We explained to her, and concluded it was some creep who was trying to get his jollies by shocking the girls. But instead got humiliated by my one-liner.

One of the girls and I exchanged friendships, and we've continued to keep in touch.

Guess my cheesy puns are good for something after all.

Bixyl

* * * * *

Addition: This was my very first article about Second Life, sent as a Reader Submission to Second Life Newspaper in October 2007. The picture is from September 17, 2007, possibly from New York City Block. The stories are a rather amusing incident just after I got my red Luskwood Fox avatar, and another when I dropped in on the New York area.

The first story I continued to look back with chuckles. As it turns out, lots of girls in human avs don't mind a little hair on the chest when it comes to dating. Of the second, It was the owner of New York City Block Cheri Bing I became friends with. And we kept in touch for years until real life would force her off Second Life. As for me, this would be the first of many, many articles I would be writing about Second Life.