Keeping it Virtual, practical metaverse marketing

Eelco has posted the Ajax Arena for sale in the land advertisements on the SL Forum.  It’s a great sim, the build is a replica model of the RL Ajax Arena in Amsterdam, and was built in very good detail by him.  It was used a few times for streaming video from the Dutch football league, its original purpose, but would be suitable for a lot of different events.  There are screens and a skybox to allow for media streaming, and of course the pitch.  There are seats with texture onlookers if required.

The sim has atracted a lot of interest and visitors since it was built, and it really has to be visited to be properly appreciated.  This is an SLURL for the Arena, or you can simply put Ajax Arena into your map and TP there!

It’s a class 5 sim which means a tier of $295 Us per month.  See the listing on the SL forums here, which includes some good photographs of the Arena.

Idly visiting the Caliandris Google Lively rooms this morning, I checked the catalogue to see if there was any new material there, and found some new stuff had been added.  No more clothes or shoes for Jane Doe tha I could see, but a Halloween Jack O’Lantern handbag and some other seasonal content, some more floor coverings and a few gadgetty display items, like a sky dome I couldn’t get to work and a couple of lighting orbs.

Saw a write-up from Torley Linden about Loco Pocos Island, the latest endeavour from husband-and-wife team Damien Fate and Washu Zebrastripe.  Damien was one of the first people I met in Second Life, teleporting to his shop to offer me a free item when I visited for the first time in 2004.  His work has always been amazing, and so I was interested to see the new tiny avatars and their island.

Be warned that this may be very injurious to your linden balance!  Even people who don’t like furries and tiny avatars at all find the Loco Pocos avatars attractive.  I chose Martha, and bought her some clothes and hair too.

The avatar comes with a hud… nothing very innovative there, I expect you are thinking, nearly everything in SL comes with a HUD nowadays.  The difference is that this hud controls everything, including the new items you have bought.  The avatar comes with an AO that allows you to blow kisses, reel from a blow or sleep, for example, with sound effects, particle effects and appropriate expressions and movements.

You can change the colour of virtually everything, using the hud, from the hair to the shoes, should you have chosen to buy them.

The island is a tribute to the sculpting skills of the team which built it.  It has a strangely familiar storyline of shipwreck, journals and mystical tree (cf Numbakulla), and includes some original games and exclusive items as prizes.

Be aware, however, as I was not, that some activities in the sim are not run by or owned by the team who made Loco Pocos.  Thus, the fishing game, which gives items as prizes, does not give Loco Pocos items, but ones which work with ordinary avatars.  In some cases the game, where you buy a fishing rod and cast for fish, most emphatically doesn’t work well with a Loco Pocos avatar as the avatar’s arm disconnects when casting.

Where a sculpt bikini for a Loco Pocos avatar might make a really cool prize, an “ordinary” SL bikini which vanishes beneath the sculpted skin of your avatar is emphatically not, so it would be good if it was made plain that the fishing game in Loco Pocos island is not anything to do with the Island game or the Loco Pocos makers.

Other than that, I thought the creatures were amazingly cute, the island interesting to explore and well made, and that the team have set a new standard ina number of areas.  The journals which form part of the game are reminiscent of the Myst and Riven journals from Cyan games… the quality and value for money which their Loco Pocos avatars represent is really high… and they have brought together an in-world experience, website and retail outlet in one cohesive design whole.

I’d give it 9/10. They lose one for the fact that they have ALL my Lindens, even though I don’t usually use tiny avatars….

I have been meaning to blog about the renewed Gnubie Store, now in Powder Mill sim.

For those who have never visited, the Gnubie store is a place to find open source or Gnu-licenced items for sale.  Everything in the store is either $0 or $1 linden… very useful if you don’t want your avatar to look like a noob, but you don’t want to spend a lot of money.

These items aren’t cheap and nasty… some of the best creators in SL have donated clothing, hair and skins to the store.  You can find everything from a prefab store to a gingham bikini there - make sure you explore all the occupied levels of the store.

Eelco pointed me at the Polymeme site this morning.  It’s a new page which brings together all the subjects which are currently hot with expert bloggers… apparently.

I think the theory is that if you choose your bloggers carefully, to include experts in the fields that they blog about, then monitoring the stories which they are covering will tell you what’s hot in all those fields you have chosen bloggers for.

It’s a good theory, and deals with the main problem for most people, which is that there is too much information streaming at them in an unmoderated flow which increases every time you add another blog or website to your list of favourites.

Ideally, I suppose, you’d choose your bloggers and have their output organised into subject areas.  Boingboing has an item on Aurora, a new concept browser which could be the future of the web.  You can see a film of a user interaction using the new idea there too.

I have been complaining about the way in which Vista organises my files and folders, and seems to present them in a variety of ways… it may be my age, but it unsettles me.  I prefer to know where everything is, and to remember it, rather than have the computer present it to me in endless ways so that I begin to think I must have multiple folders called “pictures” or “my stuff”.

Although I love the collaboration illustrated by the film on the Aurora website, I just hate the idea of data clouds of information, with the most recent appearing larger… it’s disorganised, and knowing how fast I surf myself through items that I never want to see again, the idea of them clouding my desktop with a whole lot of floating surfing errors is a nightmare.  Thinking about what my desktop would look like just this morning, if all the pages I visited looked like floating icons… I’d be in trouble very quickly.  However, I expect you’d have to use it to know how it feels, because it is so different from the current browsers.

This assumes that you have set up your room so that it looks the way you want, and that you are happy with both it and your avatar.  If not, please set those up first.

I think it is a good idea to have your avatar in the foreground of the picture.  It isn’t necessary, but it is a lot more interesting and friendly than a tiny shot of ants in the background.  The best way I have found is to use the facility to grab the avatar with a left click and drag her to the foreground, into the rough position you want, and then to click on her and just pull a little, to get her to face you.  There seem to be a number of default animations which the avatar falls into when you let go, and it may take a few goes to get an angle and a position that you like.

Don’t be afraid to use the viewfinder to position the camera at the right angle.  Click the box in the top left of the screen and choose viewfinder, and then you can pan around, bring the camera up or down, and get it the way you want it to be.  Once you are happy with the shot as you can see it, you can click on the x in the corner of the viewfinder to get it out of the way on the screen.

Once you have it the way you want it, click on the open door with a plus sign on the menu for the room properties menu, choose to edit the current room, and then choose the “webpages” tab.  Click on “save thumbnail” and be sure to save the changes.  You should see the icon in the top right change when you click “save thumbnail” and that will become the thumbnail for the room once you click to save the changes.

If you want a picture of your room to add to a website or to send to people, probably the easiest way is to use the print screen button.  For those who have never used this to get pictures, I am giving instructions.

Again, get the view exactly as you want it to appear.  When ready, click the print screen (or PrtSc) button on your keyboard.

Open up paint or another graphics program, and choose to paste into the program you have opened.  If you are using paint, you will need to crop off the bits of the screen you don’t want.  I usually use the select tool to do this, copy the area I want, and then paste it into a second new document.

You can then save this picture as whatever format picture you usually use…JPG or whatever.

Be careful not to overdo this, as it is tempting to go about adding URLs to everything in sight once you learn how, which can have the effect of making your room an annoying sea of pop out icons.

Choose an object which you want to link. Left click on it and choose edit, and then tick the hyperlink box and paste in the URL in the box below that.  It’s as simple as that.

Anyone left clicking on the object will be abe to “open hyperlink” in the menu on the first tab of the window for the object.

If you wish to use YouTube videos in a Lively room, you will need an object that is set up to allow you to use it as a screen.  There are a number of these, but some of them don’t seem to show up in the catalogue when you browse it, only when you search for them specifically.  The ones I have found are:

Movie screen - a big flat screen

Mega screen not sure this is different from the Movie screen, but it is the one I use most. (No picture appears in the catalogue, so don’t sit there waiting for it to load.  You can get it and use it without ever seeing the catalogue picture.)

Flatscreen display - like a flatscreen tv on a stand.

Wall mounted screen - thicker than the movie or mega screen

Supers tv - a cute bouncy tv screen with a small display - perfect for times when the music is more important than the visuals, or you want to hide away the YouTube video in favour of the audio.  (Beware the identical model which is designed to take photographs on it and doesn’t allow you to stream video through it.)

Once you find something you like in the catalogue, click “add to my inventory” and go back to your room.  You will need to put the object out in your room before you can set it to stream video.  Open the furniture and things menu by clicking the chair with a plus sign icon, in the menu along the right of your screen.

Find the object you want to use, click it, and choose “add to room”.  Close the furniture and things menu by hitting the X.

Left click the object, and choose the edit tab.  Click on “gadget options” and then paste in the embed code from your YouTube video.  The object will begin to stream the video and audio for the YouTube item you have chosen.

You can also add a URL to the object if you wish to.  I tend to do this for the music I have chosen, I add the URL for the band.  Left click the object, choose the edit tab, tick hyperlink and paste the url into the box.

This how-to assumes that you already have a Lively account, and a Lively avatar, and that you are logged in.

Before we start with the room-making, a quick word about the view options you have.  In the top left corner of your screen, you have a box which allows you to choose the view that you have.  Left click on it gives you the options to see things from the avatar’s viewpoint, bird’s eye, or viewfinder. Each of them has its uses, and it doesn’t hurt to practise a little and see what they do.

If you are already in a room, to get to the main Lively page, click the icon with an open door and an arrow, at the bottom of the menu on the right.  If you don’t see the menu on the right you may need to consult the help manual to fix your avatar or account.

On the main Lively page click My Rooms, and then the “create a new room” button.  The screen changes to a black window displaying a square picture of the default room, ad may ask you to log in again.  Once you have confirmed your log in if necessary, the room will open and your avatar will be standing in it.

This room is the default room, but there is no reason why you should use it.  You will find the menu opens for you to set the room details.  First, you will need to give the oom a name and a description.

Next, there are four tabs across the middle of the menu.  The first of these is “sharing” and allows you set the room to be public and listed, or not.  Below this, you can decide whether to allow anyone to add items and decorate, whether to allow visitors to move objects or to keep the decorations private.  I usually choose the last because there is a danger, if you leave it open, that when pictures can be uploaded again they might upload inappropriate things to your room.

The second tab is “web pages”.  This gives you the URL for the room, and below that a chance to take a thumbnail picture which will be included in the room list.  It’s best to leave taking that until you have the room ready.

The third tab is “sounds”.  Here you can opt to keep the room music and ambient sounds, or to turn them off.  You can also upload really shot pieces of music no more than 512k in size.  To be frank I think it makes more sense to use a youtube video in the room to provide music, and to try to ensure that the music you choose isn’t too repetitive or short.  Certainly the short loops of sound used in the room shell music and room shell ambient sounds are so short that they will undoubtedly drive you nuts.  I’d shut both of these to no here.

The fourth tab, “shells” shows you the room shells currently available in your inventory.  You can scroll through these until you find one that you want to use, or decide that you wish to choose more from the catalogue.

If you decide to choose one from the catalogue, a new tab on your browser will open up, allowing you to look through the rooms available. Choose to view all shells, and you can browse until you find any that you like.  click on the one you like, click the “add to my inventory” button, and click the back button if you want to go on browsing for shells, or close the tab if you want to go back and use the shell you have just chosen.

To use a shell, you need to click on it in your inventory, and choose “use this shell” in the list.

You can then save the changes with the button at the bottom, and a pop up will ask you whether you wish to keep all the items or remove them… even though this is the first time you have set up the room and there are no objects in it.  It doesn’t much matter for that reason whether you choose to keep or lose the objects.  However, it is as well to be aware that in future, if you change the room shell, everything in the room will either be returned to your inventory separately, or lost forever.

You can go back and change anything if you have made a mistake, by choosing the open door with a plus sign near the bottom of the menu along the right hand side of the window, and then choosing to edit current room to get back the edit menu.

If you wish to place objects in your room, you will need to choose the icon which looks like a chair with a plus sign, hanflway up the menu, which opens up your inventory. Note that you can either search for an item, or browse through your possessions to find it using the arrows.

I was confused at first, because the categories do not seem to match up with the categories in the catalogue, but you soon get the hang of what goes where.  There are main headings underneath the inventory tab, which can be rotated by clicking the arrows, from furniture to rugs etc, to plants to toys … and then the actual contents of each section of the inventory can be browsed through using the second set of arrows below those for the headings.

It sounds more complicated than it is.  If you see an item that you want inthe room, click on it and choose “add to room”.

In order to move the item into position, you need to close the inventory, and then choose the cross arrow icon below the chair/inventory icon.  Once you have that selected, you wil need to left click and drag the item into the position you want.

You will get a green circle appearing over the item you are moving, when you can move it forwards, backwards or from side to side.  The objects “slide” over the room, so if you accidentally drag something like a chair to the wall, you will suddenly find it climbing up the wall in a horizontal position.  This can be a bit difficult in a confined space, which is one reason I chose the more open room shells when I first started out.

As you mouse over an object, the green circle will turn into a yellow one, and this indicates you may rotate the object by grabbing the circle and moving it the way you want it to go.  This is much easier in Bird’s eye view, and so you may wish to click the box on the top left of the window and choose birds eye view before you try to manipulate the item.

You can do what I do - get a whole heap of stuff out of your inventory and then place it, or take items one at a time and place them., whichever suits you best.

If you wish to add music or video to your room, using a screen which will allow you to stream a youtube video is the best way of doing this.  I will give separate instructions for this which are given here.

If you wish to add URLs to anything, you can.  I have been using the book on a stand as a link to other rooms and to websites.  You can put URLs into any object, but the icons which pop up whenever you mouse over or near to the object can make it quite annoying if you over use this facility.  Better to have them a littleout of the way, and to use an object which people will be looking for.  I will put separate instructions for setting URLs on objects here.

Once you have set up your room, you will want to take a good photograph of it for the directory.  I will give instructions for setting up and taking a photograph here.  Meanwhile it is interesting to note that in the first few days of Lively, the rooms which had an avatar in the foreground seemed to be doing best for visitors.

Bear in mind you can set a bookmark for your room, you can embed the room in a web page, and you can send the link to others.  If you want to see the URL for any room you are visiting, you can always press the home key at bottom left of the screen, or look at the URL at the top of your screen, of course. To put the room on a webpage, go into the room edit menu and copy the room code from the webpages tab.

If anyone has any questions about setting up rooms in Lively, I wil do my best to answer them if you post in the comments.

I’m indebted to Eelco for pointing me to Tateru’s post on Massively about Scratch for SL.  Scratch for SL or S4SL, is a program written by MIT which puts simple scripting in the hands of non scripters like me.

It’s impossible to be in Second Life for four and a half years without learning something about scripting:  I can use scripts made by other people to make doors and fire work, and I can even twiddle with particle scripts to get unexpected lights and sparkle occasionally.  But I have never learned how to script properly.

And now I don’t have to!  This little gadget promises to do it for me using building blocks which prompt the questions for the variables which you want to use.  I shall experiment with it and report back.

Scratch for SL demonstration