Month: August 2018

Question for My Readers: In Your Opinion, What Have Been the Biggest Controversies in the 15-Year History of Second Life?

No virtual world is without controversy, and Second Life is no exception. Note that this is not any sort of attack on Linden Lab; I think overall they do a pretty good job as a company (even if they do make the occasional blunder now and then; every company does). In fact, a good many of the controversies that have erupted over the 15-year history of SL have had nothing to do with Linden Lab (e.g. disputes and lawsuits between competing vendors).

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But I was curious and I wanted to know what long-time SL folk thought. So, on August 14th, I posted the following message to the official Second Life discussion forums:

I’m curious, and I thought this forum would be a natural place to ask the question:

In your opinion, what have been the biggest controversies in the 15-year history of Second Life?

I have found a website with an interactive timeline of SL controversies, but it only goes up to 2012. What do you think have been the major controversies since then?

Thank you in advance for your comments! I’ve also posted over on That Other Forum Which Shall Not Be Named 😉 and I am hoping to trigger some lively discussion and (perhaps) I may write up a blogpost for my blog on the topic.

And I posted essentially the same question in the General SL Discussion section of SLUniverse.com: In your opinion, what have been the biggest controversies in the 15-year history of Second Life?

Please join in the discussion and debate on either forum, or if you prefer, please leave me a comment on this blogpost, thanks!

LearnBrite: A Brief Introduction

LearnBrite is similar to many other products which I have already covered in this blog, such as Apertus VR, Engage, Edorble, Rumii, and NeosVR, in that it offers tools for people wanting to build virtual worlds for educational purposes. LearnBrite bills itself “The only VR-Ready authoring tool designed with Trainers in Mind”:

With LearnBrite, you simply author once in the VR-Ready Workflow and it automatically brings your micro-learning and instructor led training to life on mobile, tablet, desktop and VR/AR without writing a single line of code.

That means you can create immersive 3D (for flat screens like mobile & desktop) or AR/VR experiences that put your learner right in the middle of the action to fully engage their senses as they PLAY through your scenarios.

This is your opportunity to design active learning modules that will help solve performance issues & behavioral challenges in a fun & engaging way vs the “point, click, quiz” method that has most learners “checked out” after the 1st slide.

Here’s an example of LearnBrite in use at Curtin University, where it was used to help train students on how to do a home visit on an elderly woman that aims to provide support to allow her to continue to live at home:

What’s surprising to me about LearnBrite is how expensive it is:

LearnBrite 14 Aug 2018

Obviously, they are targeting customers with large budgets! And they do seem to have a rather impressive list of customers:

LearnBrite 4 14 Aug 2018

They also outline what they call “premium complimentary” services available at each price point:

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That line of fine print along the bottom reads, “Because of the high demand for these services, we can only guarantee availability for the next 20 subscribers.” Which, of course, is a standard sales technique: “Act now, supplies are limited!”

What I find odd is that most other platforms provide “built-in conferencing” for free, as a part of the platform (hence the term “built-in”), so why is LearnBrite charging for it, and why are they limiting it to only a certain number of hours per month?

Here’s a quick list of features and a look at their avatars:

LearnBrite 3 14 Aug 2018.png

Hmmm…sure sounds (and looks) an awful lot like Second Life to me, which has had educators using it for teaching purposes for well over a decade now (here’s a list of resources from their wiki and they even have an Educator’s Portal set up).

If you’re interested in building educational virtual worlds and social VR experiences, you might want to take a look at LearnBrite, but you might also wish to consider other, potentially cheaper alternatives like Engage and (of course) Second Life.

A VRChat Avatar with Full-Body Tracking Dances to Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why VRChat is still pulling in the crowds: a simply mesmerizing YouTube video of an expertly-rigged custom avatar operated by a user wearing an HTC Vive VR headset, hand controllers, and three Vive Trackers securely attached to his feet and body:

This video was posted to the VRChat subReddit. When asked about his setup, the user said:

Usual HTC Vive setup + 3 trackers and strap belts for them. I used to have a wireless adapter, but the cables kept breaking (lose contacts from jumping around, 30 bucks for each cable set…), so I just ditched it and got used to dancing with cables around me LOL!

And when asked how to managed to secure the trackers to his feet, he replied:

I have them strapped really tight a bit above my ankles. My feet are too thin for tracker straps and stepping on the straps gets uncomfortable after a while.

I honestly cannot wait until the day that other virtual worlds like Sansar support Vive Trackers (or a similar technology) to allow for full avatar body movement. Can you imagine what fun we’ll have?

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Sweet E’s August Hunt at the Free Dove

Every month, The Free Dove freebie store selects three designers who place hunt items throughout the store for you to find (sometimes, the free hunt items are also found in their mainstore locations). Savvy freebie hunters already know to drop by The Free Dove once a month to pick up some fabulous hunt goodies!

One of the designers participating in the August hunt is Sweet E’s, which has some truly delightful and well-designed items available as free hunt gifts, either at The Free Dove or at the Sweet E’s store:

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In both locations, you are searching for a cupcake with bright pink frosting and an “E’s” on it, which looks like this:

Sweet E's Hunt 2 13 Aug 2018

Vanity Fair models some of the amazing hunt gifts that Sweet E’s is offering up—everything from ballgowns to a bikini to a comfy men’s shirt and matching socks! (Please click on each picture to see it in a larger size.)

To pick up the hunt gifts at The Free Dove, you must join the Free Dove group (there is no join fee). To pick up the hunt gifts at Sweet E’s mainstore, you must join the Sweet E’s group (also free). So the total cost of all these beautiful items is zero, zilch, nada! Best of all, these items come in sizes to fit all the major mesh avatar bodies (Maitreya, Belleza, Slink, The Mesh Project, Tonic and eBody) and classic system avatars too!

Remember, you only have until the end of August to do this hunt. Happy hunting!