Linden Lab to Sell Tilia

 

In a press release on Tuesday April 23, Thunes announced it was buying the Tilia virtual currency exchange service from Linden Lab. 

To accelerate its growth in the United States and its presence in the fast-expanding online gaming market, Thunes, a global cross-border payments company, is proud to announce that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tilia LLC, an all-in-one payments platform. Tilia is licensed in 48 U.S. states and territories and offers payment solutions (acceptance and pay-outs) for online games, virtual worlds, creator economies, and in-app purchases.

Upon closing of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, Thunes’ bespoke global network to accept and pay in real-time through four billion bank accounts, three billion digital wallets and 550 Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) will become available to merchants across the United States, including current Tilia customers. Using Tilia’s technology, Thunes will be able to offer Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB and UnionPay acceptance to Thunes’ customers.

As part of the transaction, Thunes and Linden Research, Inc. (“Linden Lab”), the current majority owner of Tilia, have agreed to an exclusive five-year partnership in which, post closing, Thunes will provide payment processing and pay-outs to Linden Lab, leveraging Thunes’ global network – allowing gamers to pay, and to receive money real-time, in a more cost-efficient way and with increased transparency.

The press release quoted Thunes' CEO  Flores de Kort, “The acquisition of Tilia demonstrates our ambition in the United States. This investment will enable us to leverage Tilia’s capabilities to provide merchants with direct money movement solutions in and out of the United States. Furthermore, Tilia’s deep expertise in online gaming, virtual worlds and token-based payments will greatly accelerate our growth into that fast-growing, exciting industry.”

Linden Lab's Executive Chairman, Brad Oberwager, was quoted as saying, “Thunes is an exceptional company that directly connects nearly every payment method and market worldwide. The combination of Tilia and Thunes will give Linden Lab’s customers more payment choices, and the ability to receive pay-outs in real time, anywhere, into the wallet or bank account of their choice. It will be business as usual for our people and our customers as we bring Tilia and Thunes together.”

 

Tilia was quietly bought by Linden Lab in 2015, but was quiet about it's purpose until 2019 when it was announced that it would be taking over currency exchanges, and people selling Lindens to buy real-life currency would have to register with it, saying this was necessary due to new Government regulations. It would also be used to buy and sell Sansar currency, which at the time was owned by Linden Lab. Eventually Sansar would be sold, but Tilia would continue to handle it's transactions, and make deals with other virtual platforms such as Upland to handle theirs. When Linden Lab was bought by the Oberwager Group in 2020, it was believed Tilia was part of what attracted them. In 2022, Linden Lab announced JP Morgan was making a "strategic investment" in Tilia. 

There is a thread in the Second Life forums about the sale it Tilia (here). Linden Lab would state, "This is good news for Second Life residents and creators. More options without additional costs. We are having an open meeting on May 20 and can discuss in detail."

 

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

The Fairelands Quest

 

The Fantasy Faire is known for many things. Among of which is the Fairelands Quest. This year, the theme is "The Seven Layers of Joy." You'll find vendors for the Quest HUDs at the TP entrance of Fairelands Junction, and most of the other sims of the Fairelands. There's a basic HUD for the quest alone, and a Deluxe HUD for both the quest and an outfit. They cost 250 L and 350 L respectively. 

Once you make the donation, you click on your inventory and add the item, which appears on your hand as a double-F. Click on that, and the contents will appear in your inventory. This year, there are separate outfits not just for men and women, but human/furry avatars and smaller ones for tinies. The human one comes in Anatomy, Belleza Jake, CZ Slim, Legacy, Maitreya, Signature Davis, and Signature Gianni.

Putting on the outfit is optional (it took a while to figure out where the pants were). Once you put the HUD on, you get some backstory to the Quest. It's been seven years since the Bard Queen fell ill to a fever, one that was treated by the Quest that year. But the doctors weren't sure it was an outright cure, and told her she had to wait seven years to make sure it held. It has, and she should be happy. She is overall, but something is worrying her. Your first part of the Quest is to find her somewhere in Fairelands Junction and talk to her. 

Your next step is to find Theo, your snow leopard companion for the quest. Unlike companions from previous years, he doesn't sit or over above your shoulder, but walks beside you. He directs you to your next spot, where you find his friends, the companions of the seven previous quests. They explain what they plan to do, and they need a little help. So it's combing sixteen sims for pieces of what you need, at least for the first part of the quest. 

The release date for the second part of the quest has not yet been announced, at least as of the writing of this article.

Happy questing,

Bixyl Shuftan

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday April 27

    ~*~

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    How Can We Best Support Highly Intelligent Children/Students In Our Education System

    Organized by Chantal Jager

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/highly-intelligent-students/

    The Science Circle (72,129,30)

      

    ~*~

 

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

Second Life's Lab Gab - April 2024 Update, Progress on Mobile Viewer and PBR, Child Avatar Policy "Strengthening"

 

 

On Friday April 19, Linden Lab had a pre-recorded episode of Lab Gab. It included the following shorcuts to certain subjects. Strawberry Linden would interview Grumpity Linden, then later in the video (on the Beta Grid) Signal and Kyle Linden, then Kiera Linden.

00:00 - Introduction 01:00 - Grumpity Linden Introduction (Senior VP of Product and Engineering) 01:15 - Mobile App Questions 02:55 - Premium Plus subscribers can sign up for Second Life Mobile Private Alpha testing here: https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000171885-premium-plus-second-life-mobile-private-alpha-sign-up 03:27 - Mobile App progress and updates: https://second.life/mobilenews040524 06:45 - Second Life Mobile App - Developer Update Video (April 2024): https://youtu.be/ciRARYhZcZ4 09:25 - Feedback Portal: https://feedback.secondlife.com 10:15 - Rapid fire questions for Mobile app features 10:27 - Will there be support for HUDS on Mobile? 10:31 - Ability to create and build on Mobile? 10:52 - What about voice on Mobile? 10:55 - Region Estate management on Mobile? 11:03 - Mobile-specific features like GPS, vibration, and webcam integration? 11:20 - Support for keyboards and mouse control on tablets? 11:29 - Will Mobile access be free? 12:03 - Mirrors, PBR Terrain, and 2K textures: https://second.life/technews032824 12:49 - Teleporting over to the beta grid! 12:56 - Signal Linden (Director of Engineering) and Kyle Linden (Product Manager) Introduction 13:50 - Mirror Demo by Signal Linden 15:48 - 2K textures information - pricing and performance impact 17:27 - PBR Terrain Demo by Kyle Linden 17:37 - Location is Rumpus Room 2048 on the Beta Grid 18:40 - Materials Featurettes Viewer: https://releasenotes.secondlife.com/viewer/7.1.4.8270899680.html 19:14 - Accessing Aditi (the beta grid): https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000156725-accessing-aditi 20:05 - Teleporting back to the main grid! 20:23 - Keira Linden Introduction (Manager of Support Operations) 21:14 - Second Life age requirements and Child Avatar Policy information and update 23:30 - Governance and Conduct Policy updates 23:59 - New content moderation tools for both inworld and on the marketplace 24:14 - New Community Roundtable with Second Life Leadership coming in late May 25:23 - SL21B Updates: https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/blog/4-featured-news/39-second-life-birthday 26:22 - Mark your calendars - https://second.life/calendar 26:26 - Follow the Featured News Blog for upcoming updates: https://second.life/featurednews

 

Among what was discussed, Grumpity stated there were "No plans to charge for access" to the mobile viewer. It will be able to use HUDS, but of being able to build inworld and manage estates, maybe, "For serious creation, you're still going to have to use desktop." They are hoping to open the mobile viewer access further to include Premium residents "soon."

 

Progress is being made on mirrors in the Beta Grid, as well as PBR terrain, "you can see the sunshine bounce off the surfaces." There is no scheduled release date, though they felt "weeks and not months." 

 

Of the issue of underage residents in areas with clearly adult content, Kiera Linden would say, "one thing we are looking at closely is strengthening our age verification process, something we'll be sharing more about soon. ,,,Let me be clear on this one, we do not and will never allow sexualized ageplay. We do have a policy on this, and it is strictly enforced. In addition, we want to acknowledge and recognize there are residents who enjoy roleplaying as child avatars, and we have no intention of preventing that." They wanted the community of child avatars to continue to feel welcome, "but child avatars should not be present near or in regions that also have adult-rated activities. We're in the process of strengthening our child avatar policy right now, and you'll see us roll that out soon. But one of the guiding factors to these changes is to ensure an even stronger separation between child avatars, and adult-rated content and activities." 

Kiera would also say there would soon be "better clarity and stronger guidelines on conduct and policies both within our community and in our organization. Internally, we're finalizing an update to the conduct policy which addresses a wide range of topics such as how Linden Lab employees interact with the community, and policies that address perceptions of conflict of interest, or favoritism."

 

There was also a mention of a "Community Roundtable" in late May, which Grumpity called part of the desire for better communication with the residents.

Strawberry would also talk about the upcoming SL21B

Bixyl Shuftan

Scenes From The Fairelands

 

 

 Quite a bit has been happening in the Fairelands. At the party ship Fairchylde, there were a number of people DJing. This included Fuzzball Ortega of the Steelhead Salmons, whom is most noted at the Relay for his huge hairpiece, usually known as "The Hair." But while DJing this time, he was without it, "We are NOT crashing Fantasy Faire with The Hair."

 

 

The Fairchyle wasn't the only place for music events. In "The Golden Hour," there was a viking-themed DJ event, with Obic Malaprop playing.

 

 At one point, Oblic commented, "Alright if you all don't start hitting that kiosk I may have to resort to terrible puns." The response was immediate, "NO PUNS!" "Nuuuuh!!!! Not puns!!!! Feed the kiosk, Quick!" "No not the puns! Haha!" Oblic grinned, "And I so wanted to tell the one about the viking cannibal ....he had a Swede-tooth." Ten minutes later, "Whelp time for a pun... Did you hear about the viking who hit his thumb with a hammer and bit his tongue? ......it was Thor." The audience reacted, "Oh dear (laughter)" "Ouch!" "Ba'doom'tish!" "(cries)"

I also dropped by a Jail and Bail featuring the people behind the Teegle horses, "We don't really understand the charges against us, but here we are. Something about customs regulations and an accusation of bribery? You've got to help us get out of this mess! " 

 

Some horses were put up for auction. A few went for over 50,000 Linden dollars.

 

 

 The Children of Stories Roleplay is also continuing, fuller details to come.

That's all on the Faire for now, stay tune for more.

 

Update: The FF Quest is now live, at least part one is. Details to come. 

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "Second Life Destinations - Fantasy Faire 2024"

 

 

 (click here if the video does not play)

From Linden Lab on April 24, "Teleport to the Fairelands and experience the enchantment of Fantasy Faire 2024, supporting Relay For Life and the American Cancer Society! Explore 20 stunning regions filled with fantasy art, captivating performances, and immersive roleplay opportunities. Become part of the story before the Fairelands recede into the mists on May 5th. Let the magic unfold and make a difference!"

 

Cartoon of The Day: 'Taured Musician

 

 

Taken at the Fantasy Faire. Being a centaur has obvious disadvantage: you need to eat more, it's hard to find cars, toilets, etc, you can use, most clothes you can use are breezy, etc. But if you're a musician with electric instruments, you can just hang the loudspeakers (and batteries) over your back. 

But all those long hours on stage, any musician will soon be feeling 'taured.

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

The Linden And Mole Jail and Bail

 

 

The Fantasy Faire is known for many things. Among them are the "Jail and Bail" fundraising events. But on Friday April 19 was the Linden and Mole Jail and Bail. Scheduled for 1 to 3PM SL time, this was a chance for residents to bid on things, and get a limited edition pet.

The annual Linden & Mole Show is in town! Apparently they have run away to join the circus, and will continue to trick you — wait, I mean — perform tricks until ticket prices in RFL kiosks (and morale) improve! Exclusive Faire boopie available only at this show! (What is a boopie? Come over and find out!) Other briberies of various sorts to be revealed on location! You’d think they want to get back to juggling JIRAs and feeding server hamsters with these offers! ‘n here I thought they liked the circus. Do YOU want your grid running? Do YOU want bugs squashed? Do YOU want the Birthday Celebration? ONLY YOU CAN SAVE THE LINDENS! (and put them back to work)

 

Dropping by the sim The Golden Hour, saying the place was packed was an understatement. There were about a hundred and forty avatars present, and it took several minutes for half of them to rezz. A circus tent stood out just behind the Kindens and Moles. Wendi Linden was there, juggling. Ancient Mole was there in his fishy tiny avatar, acting like a circus strongman with a barbell. 

 

And there was Patch Linden. Patch has been quiet in Second Life lately, not having spoken anything in Bellissaria chat for weeks, and sitting out the VWBPE Linden event for the first time in some years. He would be among those my viewer stubbornly refused to rezz, I getting the picture here from Wildstar Beaumont.

There was one item available for free for anyone, a "wootberry juice" fountain. As mentioned in the announcement, there was also an item for sale exclusively for the event: a "Boopie" pet. It was actually a set of three, one animated that floated over your shoulder and sparkled occasionally, one hugable and sparkled when pressed, and one static that was meant to be placed somewhere. 

 

I arrived somewhat late.  Fantasy (FantasyFaire Resident) was ringing out the totals, at 425,000 L raused There were all sorts of things being bid on. One was "dinner with Ancient (Mole)." Someone looked at Ancient's green appearance, "Is it dangerous to feed Ancient after midnight?" Then Patch offered the following, "Alright, here's another really special one!   A Family Name Change, which includes a custom last name of your choosing, and up to 10 invited friends or family to join in with having the same last name with the winner!" The bids went from 25,000 to 50,000 and to a whopping 100,000 Linden dollars. That turned out to be the final bid.

 

Patch would offer some good news, "First, The Faire shall get an extra two days for all to enjoy, it will be open until May 7th!!!" That got cheers, "Two more days!" Then Patch offered, "And lastly, as Linden Lab and Second Life's other gift to the Faire this year, we're going to offer the ability to receive a name change to Fairelander which will be available exclusively here at the fair, through to the end, and 100% of the L$ proceeds for purchasing the name change will be given to the Faire and the American Cancer Society.  For more information on how to obtain please watch for an announcement at: https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/ ." Ancient would later say the name change could be done through a vendor at the Fairlands.

The residents cheered, the tinies riverdance, then people began to go their seperate ways. Ancient told me quite a lot was raised in total at the Jail and Bail, "We mades like a million L$"

Wildstar would take a number of pictures, which can be seen (here).

 

"Thank you so much folks for all that amazing stuffs and those donations folks!! you are all amazing!!!"

Bixyl Shuftan

Scenes From The Fairlands: "The Desert Foxes"

 

 The Fantasy Faire is one of the mega-events of the Relay for Life fundraising season, one that has become about as beloved as the Relay weekend itself. It's noted for many things, the scenery, the shopping, the Fairelands Quest, and more. One part of this event is the roleplay, done by the Children of Stories. For this year, it's  "The Desert Foxes," in which the characters try to find the cure for Desert Fever, a quest that leads them on quite a journey. Yours truly has been dropping by, when he can, and taking a few pictures. On Monday April 22, I dropped by once more and grabbed a few. 

See the pictures in Events.

Events This Week at the Sunweaver and Montecito Bay Clubs, and Club Scorn

 

Here's what's going on at the Sunweaver, Montecito Bay, and Scorn clubs.

Club Cutlass: Fun in the Sun, Cops and Robbers, Comedy

Happy Vixen: DJ Malit, DJ Arooo, DJ Snowy, DJ Mattie, DJ Squeaks, DJ Khyra

Club Zero Gravity: Barely There

Bouncing Bunny Beach Club: Fairy Tale

Xanadu: DJ Jesse  

Moon Dance: DJ Cynthia 

Club Squeaks: DJ Squeaks

 

Montecito Bay:  CAYA, After Dark

Club Scorn: DJ Charlee, Morning Show, Breakfast Show, DJ Aldi, DJ Poison, DJ Charlee, DJ Malit, DJ Gwen

 

Read the schedules in SL Clubbin'

 

Reader Submitted: "I Could Be Nuts"

 

 

 From Masane Bloodrose, her commentary on my "Bid Us Squirrels" look.

 

RFL Sunbeamers: "Bid Me Pink" And "Bid Me Pink, Blue, & White", And Bid Me Purple Results

 

 

On Sunday April 21, The RFL Sunbeamer's team captain Rita Mariner announced the results of Liska's "Bid Me Purple" fundraiser.

Here are the totals on Liska going PURPLE.

To stay as is:  1ooL

To go PURPLE::  25,450L

Liska goes Purple for 8 weeks, until JUNE 9.

But this isn't the end of the "Bid Me" fundraisers for "the little team that could." There are now three more, the kiosks in the back room of Club Cutlass at Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757). There are two "Bid Me Pink" fundraisers, for Brian (BrianL61 Landar) and Denise Unicorn Toonie. And there is a "Bid Me Pink, Blue, and White/Tricolor Fox", for Snowbuns (Skylark Lefavre).

I had a few words with Snowy about her fundraiser. Her form, a pink, light blue, and white fox, had a few reasons behind it, "I lost some of my family to Breast Cancer. Breast Cancer carries a pink color. But, breast Cancer affects men and women. So pink and blue." She included white so she could be a little of the color she usually is: all white. 

Snow's pair of kiosks are on the far left of the group in the backroom of Cutlass. For those wanting to keep her a white bunny, donate to the one on the left. For those wanting her pink blue and white for a while, donate to the one on the right. It will take 3,000 Linden dollars per week, rounded down. For example, if the final total raised is 5,999 Linden dollars, she spends a week as a tricolor vixen. If 6000 is raised, it's two weeks in pastel colors. 

For DeniseUnicorn Toonie, her fundraiser is "Bid Me Pink." She showed the Newser a picture, "Every 5000 rounded down will keep me a pink cow for one week." Her pair of kiosks are in the far right of the group in the back of Club Cutlass. So for those wanting to keep her as a unicorn, donate to the default kiosk on the left. For those wanting to make her a pink bovine, donate to the one on the right. She she was saying, if a total of 4999L gets raised, nothing happens. But of 10,001 gets into the kiosk, it's strawberry milk jokes for two weeks. 

Brain's fundraiser is a little different from the other two. Like Denise's it is "Bid Me Pink." But instead of per week, it will take a certain amount of Lindens to make him change for a whole month. His pair of kiosks are in the middle of it set in the back of Cutlass. To keep him as is, donate to the one on the left. To make him in the pink, donate to the kiosk on the right. It will take 15,000 Linden dollars to make him change for a month. It hasn't been stated what he'll do if more than twice that gets raised.

Denise's "Bid Me Pink" ends sometime on Saturday May 4. Brian's "Bid Me Pink" and Snowy's "Bid Me Pink, Blue, and White" end on Saturday May 11.

Once again, the kiosks are in the back of Club Cutlass at Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757).

 

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Scenes From The Fantasy Faire

 

 

 There's quite a bit going on at the Fantasy Faire. At the Fairchylde, I saw four people holding up "Winter is Coming" signs. Were they "Game of Thrones" fans, or perhaps a hint of what is to come?

 

 There's usually a giant avatar somewhere at the Faire. One night, I saw her dancing next to the Fairchyle.

Not all of the action I saw was at the party ship. The "Children of Stories" roleplay is going on, this year, the tale is "The Desert Foxes." A quest to try and find a hidden library in hopes of finding a cure for Desert Fever led them to a mysterious door ...

The hidden library was found. But to the disappointment of the group, the books were all blank, and the guardian had lost it's memory, including of what happened. So the search continued. 

Stay tuned for more scenes of the Faire.

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of The Day: Cobra Joke

 

 

 Taken at the Fantasy Faire. Real cobras are certainly no joke with their deadly neurotoxic venom. But this cobra avie had me thinking of an old cartoon from the 80s. 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Bellisseria Anniversary Bumper Boat Challenge

 

 

 The Bellisseria celebrations have had many events. But on Wednesday April 17, at Noon SL time, there was one on the water. This was the "Moles Versus Residents Bumper Boat Challenge."

Put on your summer gear, swim suits or shorts and summer top and let's go to battle in some bumper boat challenging fun!
We'll play a game of teams Moles vs Residents and a good old fashioned race around the islands in bumper boats!

When I arrived, it was various Moles in three blue boats versus two of the "Bell Hammies" and another Bellisserian in red ones. The two teams were trying to push a bouy to the other side of the field, "Push harder you fat hammies!" There were so many calls of "push!" someone made a comparison to giving birth.

The first match ended with the Moles winning three to one. The second match was closer, three to one. Finally, the Lindens and Moles lifted the three boat limit. The result was a huge pileup. The residents ended up winning round three.

Following that, the Lindens and Moles announced there would be a race around the four sim island the celebrations were taking place on.

I joined them in the race, but was among those who lagged out. Tropikitra was the one who won the race. There would also be a second race going around the other way.

It was quite a "bumpy" day at the Bellisseria celebrations.

LM: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SSPBA3/139/90/29

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "Addicted to Love"

 

 

 (Click here if the music does not play)

From Chini Roo on March 2011