Second Life

From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.

Second Life is an online virtual world consisting of hundreds of interconnected large-scale areas populated by interactive avatars, whose players may choose to take any form they can create or purchase. The major form of short-distance transportation is flight, while transportation between areas is typically performed through teleportation; both abilities are innate. The "main grid" is restricted to those 18 or over, as some regions contain strong violence or sexual content. A teen version for those 13 to 17 is also available.

• Address: http://www.secondlife.com

Second Life has over 8,268,883 registered users and 1,548,131 active users as of july 21, 2007; logged-in users range from 20,000 to 60,000 at any one time. The system is funded through a combination of account subscriptions and "tier" (a form of land value tax). Users have the option to own or rent land parcels in a variety of sizes - as in real life, some owners may zone their land to restrict certain activities, such as commercial development. Business in the world's virtual currency (exchangeable for real-world funds) is encouraged by the Linden Research, and a variety of content vendors have sprung up to meet demand.

Contents 1 Second Life and furry 2 Controversy 3 Outline 4 Age policy 4.1 Teen Grid 5 Environment and Economy 5.1 Costs and land ownership 5.2 Referrals 5.3 Currency 5.4 Objects 6 Islands and other locations 6.1 Luskwood 6.2 FurPleasure 6.3 FurNation Worlds 6.4 The Forest 6.5 Fur Valleys 6.6 Rocket City FurMeet 6.7 Dragon Spire 6.8 Abbotts Aerodrome 6.9 Alchera 6.10 Gay Yiffy Club 6.11 Rainbow Tiger 6.12 Tartarus Island 6.13 EuroFur Exodus, also called EXTRA 6.14 Oinari 6.15 The Wild 6.16 Mythos Prometheus 6.17 Coonspiracy 6.18 Meeting Island 6.19 Lost Furest 6.20 Furry Plateau 6.21 TSL Fur Fest 6.22 Castle Dark Haven 6.23 Drachen & Amaru 7 "Second Life Furry" logo 8 Video 9 Beta Client and Preview Grid 10 Technical advice 11 Fan-sites 12 References 13 See also 14 External links

[edit] Second Life and furry

The furry fandom has a major presence in Second Life, with multiple areas devoted to providing accommodation, entertainment and creative services specifically for members of the furry community. Themes range from the pedestrian to the bizarre, although trees are common in furry haunts. Each user can create their own objects from the inbuilt primitives, but the majority of users rely in part on objects created and sold by others. These include body parts for avatars, accessories, vehicles (which may be purely aesthetic or provide extra functionality), toys, pose balls for avatar animation, and scripts to provide extra features (like "push" and "shield" defensive/offensive capabilities).

[edit] Controversy

On September 8th 2006, Linden Lab reported via a security bulletin (which was also emailed to all SL users) that the servers holding player account information had been attacked using a zero-day exploit. According to Linden Lab, this attack on the servers may have begun as early as September 3rd and they only noticed an increase in activity on the 6th which they then quickly locked out. Their investigation showed that the attack allowed a significant amount of customer account information to be downloaded such as credit card numbers, PayPal transaction ID's, real life names, Second Life names, account passwords, and contact information.

As part of their effort to improve the security of their servers, Linden Lab had invalidated the passwords (assuming they were already compromised) of all Second Life users and has required said users to reset their passwords. Linden Lab further mentioned that while the compromised payment information was encrypted, no encryption is unbreakable given enough time and computing power. They had thus stated that if any SL user believed themselves to be the victim of credit card fraud, they (the user) should contact their credit card company.

The short form of the bulletin in available at http://secondlife.com/corporate/bulletin.php

[edit] Outline

Second Life was started in 2003 as a project by "Linden Research, Inc." doing business as "Linden Lab". Second Life's primary attraction has always been the level of customization; from the ground under your feet to the clouds in the sky. This was quite literal since the world's developers intended for the user to be able to create the world to their desire, as is quoted in the Second Life overview on its site:

"Second Life is a virtual world - a 3D online persistent space totally created and evolved by its users. Within this vast and rapidly expanding place, you can do, create or become just about anything you can imagine. Built-in content creation tools let you make almost anything you can imagine, in real time and in collaboration with others."

Second Life is considered by some to be a variant of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or MMORPG for short. The true answer to the question "is it such a game?" is "yes and no" - Second Life is technically not a role-playing game by itself. Also, unlike other role playing games, there is no goal to reach, no levels to gain, no enemies to defeat, therefore it isn't a game at all. It is more a MUSE: Multi User Simulated Environment. Rather, it is a platform that allows games and worlds to be built within its framework. It is better classified as a richly graphical multiple user chat kingdom (MUCK) rather than an MMORPG. Some go so far as to just call it a metaverse, which isn't that far of a stretch. Membership requires a credit card or SMS-capable cellphone, both for security reasons and because each region has its own content rating, from PG to Mature (which can be very mature at times), though as of April 2007, both of these appeared to no longer be required.

Second Life has become one of the popular forms of online entertainment for members of the furry fandom; at last count there were over 500 furries registered as Second Life users, and the true number is probably several times that by now. This arose out of the fact that the avatars, humanoid objects representing the user, are very customizable and the world's disposition for allowing users to create anything has made the concept of a virtual "fursuit" possible. Many furries of Second Life don't like to be considered to be wearing fursuits. Instead, they pretend it is their real body. These consist of a variety body parts which are attached to the user's avatar. These parts include tails, wings, legs, and so on - some have even made complete sets that resemble mythical beasts such as dragons, complete with scripted flame effects. Such avatar add-ons can be sold by their creators, who retain the ability to control distribution of their objects as part of their copyright, enforced by inbuilt copy restrictions. Some choose to give works away for free, for apparently altruistic or promotional purposes.

The high interactivity is also a plus for online social networks - as a result, various furry communities began to pop up in the world and are now a sizable force in the virtual world. In the October 2005 issue of Computer Games, "Furries" (used as a proper noun) were noted as a major user-base in Second Life in an article about the use of MMOs for self-actualization.^[1]

Signing up for a new account no longer requires a credit card or an SMS-capable cell phone. Also, current members have the option of changing their billing information in the members area so their membership fees can be deducted through PayPal.

[edit] Age policy

As with most social environments on the Net, there is no way to tell inside the world how old someone really is. The world's Terms of Service state quite clearly you must be over the age of 18 to enter the "main grid" of Second Life. If anyone is found to be under 18 in the main grid, they will be banned from the world and all money and inventory will be forfeit. It is generally assumed that almost all players in the main grid are over the age of 18.

Second Life rates the individual sections of the world as Mature, or PG, with other possible ratings. These ratings help moderate the behavior of people that populate the various sections of the world, as they won't tolerate someone breaking the PG rating by performing a Mature-rated act in a PG-rated zone. The rating system is not in place to keep children out of areas in SL; it is there because many adults don't want to be exposed to adult material during their time in the world or to take a break from it for a time by visiting a PG sim. Luskwood is a prime example of a furry PG sim, safe from displays of sexuality and nudity unlike a mature furry sim like FurNation Worlds.

[edit] Teen Grid

Late in 2005, Second Life created a separate version of its world designed with teens in mind, strictly separating those 18 years of age or greater from those 17 and under. Server-side tracking differentiates teen users from adult users, sending teens to the Teen Grid instead of the main grid. The Teen Grid has different rating policies than the main version; being made for teenagers, none of the regions are rated Mature and nothing may exceed the general PG13 to PG17 rating spans.

• Website: http://teen.secondlife.com/

[edit] Environment and Economy

[edit] Costs and land ownership

Membership of Second Life falls into one of two categories: "Basic" and "Premium". Basic accounts are free to create and incur no monthly fee. If you wish to have more than one account however, secondary accounts (Alts) incur a one-off fee of US$9.95, which may be paid with a credit card, or a positive PayPal balance.

Basic accounts are subdivided into "verified" and "unverified". A verified account means that the user has submitted a credit card, PayPal account, or telephone number to verify their identity. However, users may create an account without any verification of their identity. This was a highly unpopular move that sparked protests^[2]. In response to this, Linden Lab added the ability to prevent unverified users from entering a parcel of land, and introduced an option to the LSL function llRequestAgentData() to return an agent's payment status as one of:

• No Payment Info on File
• Payment Info on File
• No Payment Info on File AND Payment Info Used (Only Beta/Lifetime users fall under this status)
• Payment Info on File AND Payment Info Used

The fears of "open registration" were that it would lead to an influx of minors on the main grid - both opening Linden Lab to potential lawsuits and its users; and allow griefers to quickly and freely create a new account as soon as one account is banned for their misdeeds.

Premium accounts come at a rate of US$9.95 each month, with discounts for paying quarterly or annually -- $22.50, and $72, respectively. The premium accounts come with the privilege of owning 512 square meters of land, known as 'First Land'. This is approximately 1/256 of 1 simulator, or "not much". They also come with a weekly stipend of L$300. The ability to acquire additional amounts of land bring an additional charge, called land tier.

• US$195.00/month: 65,536 square meters - Entire Region
• US$125.00/month: 32,768 square meters - 1/2 Region
• US$75.00/month: 16,384 square meters - 1/4 Region
• US$40.00/month: 8,192 square meters - 1/8 Region
• US$25.00/month: 4,096 square meters - 1/16 Region
• US$15.00/month: 2,048 square meters - 1/32 Region
• US$8.00/month: 1,024 square meters - 1/64 Region
• US$5.00/month: 512 square meters - 1/128 Region

These are the official Linden rates - it is possible to find island owners (see below) who will sell or rent land for lower rates, usually with some restrictions as to its use. It is also possible to get low-cost rented accommodation with no specific land ownership, and to own land without a premium account through a "group" to which the land is deeded. Many users own no land or accommodation at all - it is not required for object ownership, although object creation can be another matter.

Land, once purchased, may be traded between users at market rates. Large contiguous plots of land (or even relatively small plots of land in a busy place) can often sell at a hefty premium. Linden's tier remains the same whatever the selling price.

[edit] Referrals

Each user who joins Second Life gets an unique referral link. Giving this link to people who have yet to sign up, and getting them to do so used to credit the user with a certain amount of Linden Dollars -- the in-world currency. Since late January 2006, only premium account signups will result in a bonus, of L$2500, staggered over a three month period, where you get L$500 on the spot, another L$500 after one month, another L$500 after two months, and the final L$1000 after three months, to prevent gaming of the premium account referral bonus.

[edit] Currency

Users can buy or sell their Linden Dollars (L$) from within the world using the Lindex money market run by Linden Research. There are also third-party exchange services.

Exchanges can be performed with any number of Linden Dollars. The Lindex calculator will give you an idea of what you'll be receiving as a result of your sale. The amount that you receive as a result of your sale gets placed into your account, where you may have it applied to anything you owe for your account if you are a premium user, or may have it sent to you via PayPal for a US$1 charge. For larger amounts, you may also have a check mailed to you for a fee - US$5 if you're inside the United States, or US$15 for locations outside of the United States.

There are some furs who extract do this with the earnings from their businesses (custom avatar creation, generic avatar vending, etc.), turning it into profit that allows them to do whatever they want to pay for, up to, and including starting their own islands. Historically-speaking, the L$ is a relatively volatile currency prone to bouts of inflation. It can therefore be a good idea to remove any significant sums from the world, unless they are to be spent quickly in-world.

[edit] Objects

Objects in Second Life are constructed from geometric primitives known as "prims" which are combined, manipulated and textured with images. A variation on this is the "flexiprim", which allows for more realistic movement of flexible objects like tails and hair.

[edit] Islands and other locations

Islands are user-owned simulators within Second Life. You can buy your own island but the price to play is pretty steep: $1675 for start up costs and a server (you don't own the server itself though and due to multiple CPU servers, you are effectively buying space on a single CPU for your island), as well as $295 a month maintenance fee. Islands, as opposed to the mainland, get a dedicated processor to run on. Mainland sims (regions) may have to share resources with up to 3 other neighboring regions. An additional benefit is that purchasing an island allows you to contact the Linden Concierge directly with questions, bypassing the standard technical support lines and forums.

Prior to the creation of islands, every simulator belonged to a large land mass. Regions of these simulators sometimes ended up dedicated to specific groups, including the furry fandom.

There are currently a number of furry-owned or themed islands and regions in Second Life:

[edit] Luskwood

• Luskwood consists of two sims/regions, Lusk and Perry, with some elements spilling into Clara; PG-rated, though not heavy on rules (for example, unlike most PG areas, weapons are allowed in Luskwood), Luskwood (started in mid-2003) is the oldest Furry-themed area in SL. Though not an island in practice (it resides on the SL mainland,) these regions are wholly owned by the Luskwood group, and can be considered its own furry-themed area.

• It is home to Luskwood Creatures, the first furry avatar makers on SL. Luskwood builds many varieties of furry avatars, and is considered a sister-sim to, and administered by some of the same folks who run Taco.

• Luskwood has been the center of controversy resulting from accusations from some SL users that the administration and owners of Luskwood have undue influence over Linden Lab policy. Several Linden employees, such as Frontier Linden, frequent Luskwood, and there have been accusations of unfair bans given at the request of Luskwood staff. In addition, some have proposed that Lusk's purported influence resulted in the reduction of sculpted primitive LOD (the way they look from afar), due to lobbying to have their tree (which uses such primitives) look better.^{[citation needed]}

See also: Luskwood

[edit] FurPleasure

• A mature friendly furry themed sim cluster including a popular club, shopping area and residential areas in FP Enigma, Owned and run by a group of dedicated sim admins headed by Foxdie Ghia and Kit Keiko. The sim is dedicated to and run in the memory of AOD Enigma, Providing a fun and stimulating place for all furs and nonfurs to relax and socialise
• Started as a small club in the highflyer sim, and then expanded into sprawler due to further need for space. The first sim was purchased shortly after was co-owned by Iyeyasu Muromachi (who now owns Asian Delight) and AOD Enigma. AoD Enigma passed away in 2006 at the age of 21, and the sims ownership was moved over to Foxdie Ghia who currently owns the sim.

[edit] FurNation Worlds

• FurNation Worlds is a group of several simulators run by the crew at FurNation.
• Each of their simulators seems to serve a particular purpose.
  • FurNation Alpha is a residential area with a medieval theme.
  • FurNation Vista is a sandbox with residential areas.
  • FurNation Gamma is a sandbox with residential areas.
  • FurNation Prime is the welcome area and general starting point for FurNation.
  • FurNation Worlds Mall is a commercial simulator for people to sell items from rented vendor spots.
    • Prices range from L$50/week to L$1500/week depending on location, size, and type of spot rented.
  • FurNAtion Phoenix is a residential simulator.
  • FurNation Mythica is primarily a residential simulator.
    • The Club called The Ark recently relocated to the east side of this simulator.
  • FurNation Dragon is a residential simulator.
  • Purgatory is a themed simulator connected to FurNation.
  • Drakeal Prime is a residential sim connected to FurNation.
  • Drakeal Tui is a simulator connected to FurNation by extension of Drakeal Prime.
  • FurNation Polaris is a mountainous residential simulator owned by Mathuen Lagerlof.

See also: FurNation Worlds

[edit] The Forest

• The Forest was the first furry-oriented island in Second Life.
• The Forest is under Anshe Chung's ownership and is a part of the DreamLand continent developed by her.

See also: The Forest

[edit] Fur Valleys

• The largest chain of furry-themed islands in Second Life to date, often known simply as The Valleys.
• The first island in this chain was founded in November 2005 by RedFox Costello. Since then, the island chain has grown, with the addition of many new islands. These include:
  • Fox Valley, a residential island, owned by Redfox Costello
  • Wolf Valley and Jaguar Valley, a residential island, owned by Mako Minogue
  • Tiger Valley, a residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • FlyinTails Airfield, an aircraft-themed island, owned by Effsey Nelson
  • Rabbit Valley, a residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Dragon Valley, containing the Foxkin Rentals offices, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Ryu Valley, a volcanic island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
    • The Macro Room, devoted to macro furries, is located here
  • Istaria Prime, owned by Crawler Woyseck
  • Serenity Woods, a recreation of the original The Forest, originally run by the former The Forest guides, but now owned by Mako Minogue
  • Critter Valley, a residential island, owned by kodi Sachs
  • Zeta Valley, a zoophilia-themed island, owned by Wolphin Fluffball
  • Neko Valley, a residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Otter Valley, a residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Cub Conclave, a babyfur-themed island, owned by Raven Welesa
  • Kit Estates, a babyfur-themed residential island, owned by Raven Welesa
  • Pony Island
  • Furry Park, a residential island, owned by Effsey Nelson
  • Cheetah Valley, a residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Ferret Valley, a residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Meerkat Valley, a commercial island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Cougar Valley, a mountainous residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Lynx Valley, a river-run residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Mink Valley, a paw-print shaped residential island, owned by Foxkin Impfondo
  • Lemming Valley, a residential island with steep cliffs, owned by Foxkin Impfondo, pays homage to the 1991 video game "Lemmings"

• The Fur Valleys also include many ocean regions (also known as voids), all owned by Foxkin Impfondo. Most are each rentable as an entire region, but all allow visitors and residents to sail around the greater part of the Valleys. These voids include:
  • Dragons Void, a rentable void, managed by djomnifusion Snickerdoodle
  • Kitsune Sea, a fox-shaped island, managed by Autumnfox Vesperia
  • Strianic Ocean, a dragon-shaped island, managed by Stria Teazle
  • Onyx Ocean, a rentable void, managed by Cera Watts
  • BlueRay Sea, a rentable void
  • Geckos Void, a rentable void
  • Moonlight Sea, a rentable void in the shape of a crescent moon
  • Sydney Sea, a rentable void
  • Crocodile Rock, a rentable void named after the song by Elton John
  • Dolphin Deep, a rentable void
  • Drakes Void, a rentable void
  • Kitten Cove, a rentable void
  • Raccoon Lagoon, a rentable void
  • Salamander Sea, a rentable void
  • Yang Sea, a rentable void in the shape of the yang half of the yin-yang symbol
  • Yin Sea, a rentable void in the shape of the yin half of the yin-yang symbol

See also: Fur Valleys

[edit] Rocket City FurMeet

• The Rocket City FurMeet sim contains an exact replica of the hotel that the real life convention is held in.
• The sim is staffed and upkept by many of the real life staff members of RCFM, headed by Lacy Amberwolf.
• At the end of each real life RCFM, the staff posts a banner that states Welcome Home! to returning con-goers.
• Numerous dances are hosted throughout the year.

[edit] Dragon Spire

• The Dragon Spire is a club catering towards dragons and avians but does not make any restrictions on species. The club is located in the Southwest corner of of the Drachen simulator.
• The club is known for its public sex and cuddle poseballs, volunteer DJs, and a side wing with rooms for those wanting to use a SexGen bed.
• The club has restrictions on building and scripting for non-club members which effectively prevents the most abusive griefing, and one can only become a club member if invited by member of sufficient authority.

[edit] Abbotts Aerodrome

• Abbotts Aerodrome bills itself as "the most famous airport in Second Life". Occasionally referred to as Abbotts Furrodrome, Abbotts is among the most fur-friendly airports in Second Life. The Aerodrome features free demo flights, a skydiving center, A.I. flights, and shops owned by some of the leading aircraft designers in Second Life. Founded by Apotheus Silverman and Cubey Terra in 2004, Abbotts Aerodrome is a center for aircraft development and skydiving.

[edit] Alchera

• A Furry based roleplay island sim, it is based within the medieval era and holds a fantasy/Oriental theme. Opened to the public on January 20th, 2007, it is the first serious adult roleplay sim made expressly for furries and anthro players. Created as an open and friendly role play environment, it is open to all anthros of any race, mythology and preference.

Other then roleplay, it also offers quiet and relaxing oriental themed residential housing for $400L a week for 1024sq meters. Personal housing costs $150L for a room of a player’s choice plus 50 additional prims. [1]

[edit] Gay Yiffy Club

• Gay Yiffy Club is a popular furry nightclub, partially due to the open and welcoming atmosphere for every species, gender or alignment (even though its name suggests to cater only to gay male furs). Originally built by Senjin Soothsayer and managed by Kiroja Fluffy and Darkfoxx Bunyip. It's not even an island SIM, yet it's traffic surpasses most islands. The club is commonly referred to by its abbreviation GYC and thanks it's popularity mostly to the very active staff containing dancers, DJs and Bartenders. The club features dance-floor, bar, darkroom, stage, pool, private rooms, lounge area and a separately located shopping area.

Unlike other clubs, public display of intimacy is not frowned upon, and even encouraged.

[edit] Rainbow Tiger

• Originally a dance club owned by Spike Nico and an adjoining mall owned by Shadow Garden in the Cleary region, Rainbow Tiger has expanded onto a full island. Rainbow Tiger currently has: Club Rainbow Tiger, a large dance club with live DJ's spinning tunes regularly as well as a swimming pool, events center, and an exercise room. Additional description is available on the Rainbow Tiger page. The trio of Rainbow sims have been awarded Developer's Incentive awards 3 times by Linden Lab since Rainbow Tiger was founded back in Cleary.

• A second island named Rainbow Stallion was added at the end of March 2006, and is designated a residential area. In 2006, a decision was made to change the ownership of the sims. Rainbow Tiger became fully owned by Spike Nico, and Rainbow Stallion became fully owned by Shadow Garden. Then, in 2007, an additional sim Rainbow Canyon was added to give both the mall and club additional room to expand. Rainbow Canyon is also owned Shadow Garden. All 3 sims are rated 'mature', and are open to all species.

• In 2007, a new island, Lykaois, joined the fold as the first independent sim. It is owned by Valdis Damone, and his mate Redwolf Ghia. This island is, however, a private island requiring an invite to enter.

• Additional islands are in the process of being approved and added, the earliest one coming online in January 2008.

See also: Rainbow Tiger

[edit] Tartarus Island

• The new home of The Fur Dungeon, a club that once existed on the mainland. Underwater dungeon areas and an array of domes (including, presently, a mall and movie dome) complement the club itself. Created by Musuko Massiel.

[edit] EuroFur Exodus, also called EXTRA

• Furry themed sim especially made for french and european furries, maintained by rafa226 Lubitsch and a few members. Located in a sim named EuroFur, it moved to a sim named Extra. This sim includes a club, a small shop, a beach, some yiff houses and a movie theater. Those weeks, a pet auction market have been built, and is a great success.

[edit] Oinari

• This furry themed island sim is the headquarters of Furry Japan owned by Fakefur Okonomi, founder of Furry Japan. The island is divided among the officers of Furry Japan, who do a variety of experimental shops and houses. Japanese is naturally the primary language here, and visitors are recommended to bring a translator HUD or fluency

[edit] The Wild

• Furry Myst themed island owned by Shaun Wallaby.

[edit] Mythos Prometheus

• Mature-rated furry-themed island sim run by Sabvriel Padar, (liberum veto) Solus Candour and Msakaji Yoshiro. Mostly a residential island, with laid back rules, several houses nestled amid beautiful landscaping, and apartments for rent up in the sky. Also hosts a small shop for vendors, and The Hangar club. Residence in the sky apartments is one of the most affordable at 100L$ per week for 100 prims, which makes them popular and causes a waiting list to accumulate for the space. The residents of the skyboxes are among the more friendly 'neighbourhood' style cliques and as a new denizen of the sim you can expect sudden visits from the other residents.

[edit] Coonspiracy

• Southwest corner of Noonkkot sim, a hangout for raccoons, gators, swamp foxes, and the like.

[edit] Meeting Island

• Mature-rated furry-themed island sim run by Pounce Teasle. Raccoon Hill, formerly Fae Valley from the Fur Valleys sim conglomerate, was added in May, 2006, but has since vacated. Meeting Island is best known for the furry escort establishment, The Seven Tails Brothel.

[edit] Lost Furest

• Home to the Lost Furest Creatures furry avatars, founded by Cheetah Kitty.
• As of 2008, LFC has gained more avatar creators.
• As of early 2007, the Lost Furest redesigned their look to set focus on the avatars they sell. The name actually represents the act of being at rest or as we call it "Fur-Rest". When visiting you will find LFC avatars in the center tree, then surrounding it would be the 4 seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter.
  • 

    

    The (new new) Lost Furest
    Recently got it's own sim named The Lost Furest, and the new region has gone under another redesign. The four season theme has been kept, however the tree is no longer located at the center of the region. In addition the sandbox area have been redesigned with a beach theme.
  • Near the "summer" section there's a dance platform, with live DJ session every week.
• This island sim is "Mature" rated. However, visitors are asked to keep mature activities at a minimum on ground level.
  • A mature "no-clothes" club named "Cloud 9" is also on this sim, located high above ground (and won't show up on maps).
• Lost Ferals is another branch of the LFC avatar line which focuses on feral animals.
  • Two regions are exclusively open to Lost Feral avatar owners, added around July 2008.
• Awarded Developer's Incentive awards three times by Linden Lab and has recently become a heavy traffic area, earning the islands name in the top 20 most popular places often.

See also: Lost Furest

Collecting donations for Island upkeep fees is a popular activity on islands, furry or otherwise.

[edit] Furry Plateau

Furry plateau is teengrid's oldest furry hangout (3.75 years now), and was originally founded by Reggie Marquez and Inuyasha Overlord. The hangout was originally a 1024 plot for the "brothers" to live in. After some time, Reggie's account was disabled due to payment issues, and Inuyasha Overlord continue to take care of the parcel until it moved to Gordon, where it became a mainstream hangout.

After a year, Inuyasha also left the parcel due to payment issues. Shortly after, Reggie returned on an alternate account, Reggie Clifton, and brought FP back to teengrid alongside Phox Sillanpaa, in the hope that it would become mainstream again, which it did. Furry Plateau quickly reached the top of the pop-list with its "housing for homeless furs" - a program started in order to help new furries adjust to the community. This housing project became big enough to put FP at the top of the popular list for another six months.

The land soon became too small to contain the community and the group continued on to create the FP Peacelands alongside Nicelus Borelly. The "four founding furs" now continue the community on the sims Citivas and Leviathan. On February 5th 2009, FP will begin its build up on the Main Grid. It will remain totally PG and no "Bits or Bobbers" will be allowed upon it. Other than that hardly any strict rules will be placed upon visitors.

[edit] TSL Fur Fest

Teen Second Life (TSL) Fur Fest (TSLFF) is the Teen Grid's first furry and anthropomorphics convention. TSLFF was founded by Ferret Surface (Ferret Vulpsi) and the first TSLFF was held in 2007 on August 17th, 18th, and 19th mainly in the sim of Unreal. The convention was mainly attended by members of the FP, FN (TSL), and Tiamat communities however the con was a grid wide event and made history as the first furry convention (or convention of any kind for that matter) to be held on the Teen Grid.

[edit] Castle Dark Haven

Castle Dark Haven is a huge furry castle located within an ancient mystical forest on Growl1. Owned and operated by Growl Fardel and Nilsninian Dryke, the castle and forest offer many distractions. Concealed surprises may also be found by unsuspecting adventurers within the vastness of the castle.

Rated mature, Dark Haven is open to all furs and offers an Avatar Shopping Center, the Twisted Tails Dance Club, private skyboxes, a yiff lounge, yiff dungeon, hot tub area and beautiful scenic areas for peaceful relaxation.

[edit] Drachen & Amaru

These two estates are run by Draconian Estates, a subsidiary of Draconian Enterprises.

Drachen is a scaly and furry region that is home to the Dragon Spire. one of the most popular and well established dragon clubs in Second Life. It also features the Draconian Trading Post (commonly referred to as The SpaceBagel), a space station themed store, featuring a round table like placement system for vendors, giving everyone an equal exposure rate.

Amaru is a region to the west of Drachen that is the home of a new Anthro club "Constellation. The region also contains an art gallery known as the Mouseface Gallery, HermHQ, Doog Labs, Pavi's Avi's and The Water Plant (formerly The Tool Shed) which are all part of Hantu's collective lands and now the new home of ZZ Studios. Residences in this world are part of the 'Spamalot' subdivision and can be found on the ground around the club in addition to the sky at 400m.

Both regions have land for leasing as well. The rate is L$2200 a month through Second Life, of $8USD through paypal for 1024 meters. The rental system is managed by Swythe Quirksettle.

As of July 2008, both regions were placed in the top 10 list for furry adult in Second Life.

[edit] "Second Life Furry" logo

In (early 2006?), a "furry admin" meeting for all furry and/or furry-friendly sims' administrators or owners was held to discuss several unifying strategies regarding the fandom population in world (Inferniel Solvang was the lead fur for this particular encounter.) Of the many proposals, one was the creation of a common, official symbol or logo for identifying purposes for sim or fur.

The final design, a SL logo inspired image, came to be thanks to the design of SL furry artist, Yiffy Yaffle. The logo can be viewed on most of the older furry sims, with propagation to newer ones going at a slow, but steady rate.

[edit] Video

As of version 1.6.0, Second Life now hooks Quicktime for Mac and Windows, or gstreamer for Linux, if it is installed on the user's system, to provide an interface that allows one to watch movies within the client itself. A very fast connection is suggested in this case, as you will be streaming world data and a video at the same time. If Quicktime is not installed on a Windows system, the user will be reminded that Quicktime is needed to watch video within the client when they enter a parcel with video.

A number of furs use the video feature to watch the Funday PawPet Show on their land.

Some users have taken advantage of this new feature to bring forward a new business: Movie Rentals. One may rent adult movies from a couple of the businesses in Second Life, for the express purpose of being able to watch pornography on their land for a couple of hours.

[edit] Beta Client and Preview Grid

As Linden Lab draws closer to a potential release, be it a sub-version upgrade, or a full point-release jump, they release beta versions (previously called Release Candidate) of the client, to allow all interested parties to test the new client and its features, and report bugs. This is extremely important to builders, scripters, and texturers, as knowing how the new software will handle their works is very important.

First Look viewers are client branches that contain experimental functionality. They are designed to connect to the main grid.

The Preview Grid (previously called the Beta Grid) is a cluster of machines running new versions of server software that is about to be deployed to the Main grid. The Preview Grid is a separate grid from the main grid, which means there are less people to interact with. Most of the people available are there to test their wares, making sure they won't have to do a full rebuild or rescript for the next version, as well as finding and reporting simulator bugs.

Currently, Teen Grid users are unable to connect to the Preview Grid.

[edit] Technical advice

Due to the amount of data that is sent between the client (you) and the servers, Second Life requires a fast internet connection, at least 128kbps, though more (768kbps or better) is highly recommended, at least 512MB of RAM (preferably at least 1024), and a CPU faster than 800MHz, though the bare minimum will not be as pleasant an experience. Linden Lab suggests that you invest in hardware that will exceed the minimum specs. There are also specific graphics card requirements due to the world making use of a certain OpenGL standard. The system requirements for interested people is listed at the Second Life website partially, and more exact requirements can be found inside its technical support area.

Although it is not impossible to use a dial-up connection with Second Life, nearly every option of the world requires serious cutting back; close to the bare minimum. This makes the experience flatter and less pleasant, with lag so heavy that movement is difficult and awkward with occasional stop-frame style "clipping" animation. Walking forward one step, for example, might occasionally result in sliding forward more then a yard or two before being snapped back to your intended position in a rather sudden jerk, or scenery change. Sometimes, said movement could make you sink through the ground or pass through other objects (like a wall) before the snap-back occurs. Then you find you need another of the regular 24MB to 25MB updates to play. There aren't many dial-up users on Second Life as a result. ISDN provides a usable experience, but only just. Mobile broadband solutions such as UMTS or HSDPA are usually good enough, however.

Second Life has been dealing with issues over ATI's video card drivers for quite a while. It has become practice on the forums to suggest to ATi users to pick up the Omega Drivers, a set of user-modified drivers recognized by ATi (according to their author) as "the best-modded drivers in the Internet". These Omega Drivers enable features that Second Life can use which aren't easily enabled in the default drivers.

[edit] Fan-sites

Linden Lab's policies regarding the use of trademarks on Second Life fansites are loose, provided the following stipulations are met.

• There is no attempt to pass off a fan site as Second Life or Linden Lab itself.

• The following legal text is present on all Second Life related pages: "Second Life® and Linden Lab® are registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. No infringement is intended." this must include the ® circles though can be any size the website creators see fit.

[edit] References

1. ↑ Liu, Johnny. "Waking Dreams." Computer Games, October 2005; pp. 58-59
2. ↑ PierceP, The Protest at YouTube

[edit] See also

• Second Life on Wikipedia
• Second Lifers on WikiFur
• Second Life Promotional Video -- This file is directly available on the Second Life Home page. The video is linked to an image titled "watch the video" that will alternate with the free trial promotional image link. There is also a Quicktime version of the video.

[edit] External links

• Second Life Furry Community at LiveJournal
• The Second Life Herald: Miravoir Meets The Furries — Article about furries on Second Life
• New World Notes: Furry Like Me — Another article about furries on Second Life
• My Virtual Life — Business Week reporter examines Second Life in detail
• Virtual Land, Real Money — An interview with Anshe Chung
• Beatfox and his flexy foxy tail at YouTube - an video example of flexiprims in furry avatars
• Jolie Grant: SL Furry Model - a website with models created by Jolie, a furry who made it into the human modeling world with her avatar
• Second Life - West Corner Of the Park strip about FurryMUCK players who spend time in both worlds
• Furries, pirates, drag queens at 'Second Life' ball, page 3 of coverage (credited to Caroline McCarthy) of 2007 Second Life Community Convention.

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A piece of this article has been copied directly from the Second Life website and no challenge is being issued in regards to the material of the quote taken in any way, shape, or form.