Tradewinds Yacht Club in SL (with a note on the Twitch ban on SL)

On a side note, I was very disappointed to learn of the Twitch ban on Second Life today. The ban occurred months earlier but was too vague for many, including me.

Yesterday, I completed a 20 minute test of Bright Canopy / Frame / Second Life on Twitch  and was fairly satisfied with the results. I had big plans to do regular SL live streams and conduct curated tours of interesting places.

All that said, I understand the reason why Twitch would ban SL.To quote the recent New World Notes article on the subject:

"...just about every SLer knows the noobie humiliation of accidentally taking off their pants in a public space when they meant to remove another article of clothing. In other words, it's very easy for an SLer to suddenly, inadvertently become Adult-rated -- even when they're not trying to do so."

In my own experience live streaming SL on Twitch about a month back, I did a stream of interesting places in SL. One of the stops I made was Fogbound, a very popular blues club. But as the venue and people started to rez, I realized I had to leave quickly in order to protect my Twitch Account. Not because this is a nudist beach. And not because of any sexually charged intentions on the part of the staff, DJs or patrons, but the simple rezzing of avatars provide for more than a second of unintentional nudity. 

At least now, today, it's very clear that SL is banned so I won't have the fear of being banned later. SL was less than 10 percent of my Twitch live stream content. I'll move on and stream a game. 

I could point out Twitch's hypocrisy and unfair policy but nothing will counterbalance the years of negative press SL has received. I'm only one man without the means of fighting an extremely successful company. A company I like and enjoy anyway.

But here's the bigger issue... In this age of easily excitable social justice warriors and outraged Twitterers, expect that Twitch ban list to grow.

Entertainment on a budget

Linden Labs overlooks an expanding market.

They should cater part of their marketing costs toward appealing to the dollar conscious unemployed.

If you already enjoy online games and need to save money, Second Life is a great means to do a variety of things free-of-charge or on a shoestring budget. Even when I was gainfully employed, SL is cost-effective for things like sailing or flying. Imagine the cost of Real Life flying. G'ah! Just ground school alone is costly!

Unless you MUST go to a Real Life concert for the "experience" - it beats spending on a RL music event. Personally I find crowds and parking a pain in the arse, especially at my curmudgeonly age. I save on the cost of fuel and time. And if I cared about being "green" as is the fashion these days - I'd use that as a good selling point, too. Second Life reduces your carbon-whatever.

Yes you can fly an airplane, sail a ship, go to a club, listen to live independent music, meet and chat with science-fiction authors at a book discussion group, build things you can sell to others, role-play historic sims like the Roman Empire - or even destroy a Nazi V2 Rocket base. Some people dogfight in epic air combat, others engage in large-scale naval battles. Then you can create inworld videos and blog about your grand adventures.

There's much to see and do in a virtual world. Have you ever wanted to see a Jules Verne-like Victorian setting? Ever wanted to see a world as imagined in the movie Bladerunner? Ever wanted to be a DJ? Ever wanted to play live music to an international audience? You can do ALL this in a few hours (DISCLAIMER: assuming everything is working when you're online. Heh!)

This is the non-sexual Second Life the mainstream media usually ignores. It's a virtual sandbox and playground.

Oh wait! I know what LL will say: There's no BIG MONEY in the unemployed. But there ARE big numbers. Unfortunately.