Code: PC-MAC-PDV
Get US$8 off a purchase of US$50 or more

Code: AK-NZU-GBD
Get US$12 off a purchase of US$100 or more

These codes expire at the end of 2009 and are available for one-time use only (meaning, first come, first serve). I don’t believe you can combine them with other codes, and it doesn’t work for other promotional items. In any case, a little pre-holiday savings from yours truly.

DMC on the left and the new Zyngo game on the right.

 I’m sorry to see that some of the bigger places I used to play tringo and slingo are gone. IceDragons Playpen for example. Slingo turned into DMC and is rarely searchable in the events. Zyngo which is similar to DMC but is created by another person is now the most playable game. They have Zyngo multi boards and solo machines all over second life.

 Teazers where I learned some stuff in classes is now gone. I did find some other classes in other places which I will want to try. Couldn’t find any places which show Rocky Horror Picture Show anymore but MST3K theaters are still around. Dr. who has gotten a lot bigger with a great place to visit with a museum and fun stuff to do. Couldn’t find any podcasters around or adam curry’s avatar anymore. Surprisingly I can’t find too many places that have tringo anymore. There are some new RPG games which are being played worldwide with vampires. Need to check that out soon. Dark Life is still running in a new place with new scripts too.

Big brother in SL and fishing in SL.

 Found Ice hockey with their leagues still being played. Seems like they are going strong. Snail races are still being done but in a different area I think. I missed this weekend’s race so not sure if it’s all the same yet. Fishing is still being played in the same places I found and updated to a new version.

 Universal Motown Records Group, movietickets.com and Infinite mind is still there but geek squad, sundance channel and virtual nbc are gone. Found a pizza hut place you can order your RL pizza’s from which I haven’t tried yet.

 I recently found a blog post which describes a nielsen rating for March 2009 of Top PC Game Titles. Second Life came in at #2 with WOW at the very top. There is a big discussion going on in that post which I’ll leave for interested users to read. What the chart really says is that users of Second Life play it a lot more hours then users of the other games. There was also a correction post describing that SL was the 8th game in popularity in the nielsen ratings. In my opinion, Second Life, has a small amount of users but those users are dedicated and find many reasons to play for hours a day. I find the nielsen chart to be very interesting from my own personal experiences. I find myself wanting to find new places to explore, create new stuff and make new friends. SL is more a social place for many people I talk to. There is a wide amount of different communities for everything. I also find a lot more international people doing business inside SL.

 I still think SL has some promises but there are some major competition coming up this and next year. I think Second Life will still be the best virtual world for user created content. Some of the upcoming virtual worlds may get more advertisers from big companies, though. That could get more users to their worlds and leave SL behind.

 I’ve written about dark rides in second life before and I just found another one. It’s not a Halloween dark ride like the others I have seen. This one is all about Alice in Wonderland. It’s a great design and the exterior is amazing.

Visit Alice in Wonderland Dark Ride Here!
Black Pearl Beach (170, 115, 32)

 Just click on the sign to request a gondola. Sit in it and then click on the pocketwatch. Keep the view in mouselook and set the day as midnight to get the best effect. There are sound effects too so be sure to turn up the volume. There are many other designs I have seen which are amazing and shows how much talent there still is in the world. I’m still having fun exploring the world. Maybe I’ll find a good way to make money or just continue having fun.

 None of my accounts are there to lie or be very different from myself. All are aspects of my life that I like but don’t blend very well. That might not be clear but it feels comfortable to me. Each avatar has their own place and groups they like. One loves to dance at clubs with DJ’s. Johnnyrs plays zyngo and looks for games to make money. Another looks for fetish places to have fun. Then there’s the one who is usually found in an adult area.

 Two of my accounts can make money every day. Zyngo can bring in some good money daily if I’m lucky. Some people are making thousands of lindens a day. I don’t make that much. I am starting to use the profile picks camping system to make some money as well. Regular sim camping makes money too but the money is so small that I’d rather do something else now. Dance clubs, tipping and special contests are other ways I’m making money too. In the future I want to describe some of the different ways of making easy money in a future post.

 Lot of money trees and other camping systems now check to see if you have credit info before paying. I found a few that will check to see if you have used that credit info to buy something yet or if you are a paying account before paying. I didn’t find any problems with this stuff. Age verification was easy for me. Soon SL will restrict access to adult areas using the age verification which could cause some problems with others. Right now it’s the owners job to restrict access.

 The one thing I find different from LOTRO and SL is the community. For me at this time I like a community with very little drama and changes. LOTRO provided too much drama and changes that drove friendships to fall apart. I found some small issues ended up to be bigger then it should be. It also got boring after doing the same raid over and over again. In SL I am finding very little change and less drama with the groups I am hanging out with. Lot of support from groups for many issues which I needed. Something different to do when I want a change. I will go back to LOTRO one of these days but only when I’m ready. I resubscribed to runescape this month also for another form of entertainment. Lot of changes in that game which I’ll be posting about.

Based on a total of 6 posts and after site expenses the VTOR blog earned in April 2009: $19.31 USD. We did not add any new money to our site promotional fund. The balance split among those who posted in the group is: $9.66 USD as shown and distributed accordingly below.

# of posts – VTOR Author for December 2008
3 – Darius……..…………………….…..…= 50% = $9.66 USD
3 – TD Goodliffe….….…………..…..…= 50% = $9.65 USD
=========================================
6 total posts ……..………………..…….=100% = $19.31 USD

How to become a VTOR author
To learn more about VTOReality.com and the authors visit the VTOR about page. If you’re interested in becoming one of the VTOR authors contact TD Goodliffe inside Second Life for details.

These user-written books can be obtained from a crafter and will start out blank. Any player can write in a blank book, but as soon as you write the first word you become the author of that book. From that point forward, only the author may edit the contents of the book.

The EQ2 forum thread continues the thoughts with what type of original works could be penned. Ideals go well beyond fan fiction. Imagine a whole new tradeskill profession possibility in the future: the author, the printer, the publisher. NPCs as librarians are hinted. I don’t know if that is where Sony is headed with this of course, but I’m seeing a lot of very creative possibilities. Great idea and something that several people mentioned was originally available in Ultima Online.

According to this comment, Sages level 50+ will be able to quest for recipes to make these blank books. This means my toon Ratosorf, pictured above, currently a level 66 Sage will be able to do the quest when this is launched with the update.

Well, it seems that out of this year’s IPO starts, Changyou is actually doing fairly well opening the public share price of $19USD and now stabilizing around $25USD. It seems that the parent company Sohu, another Internet favorite, sold half of the shares. Currently, it’s doing fairly well in a weak market although they’re going to need more than Tian Long Ba Bu to actually last out the weak markets. But the opening perhaps was a sign that it isn’t all downhill globally since ADR stocks have not been weathering the storm very well and have fluctuated all over the board in the past six months.

 One day I was checking out some news about Second Life and found a nice interview of SpaceJunky from mmorpg. If you love live musical events in SL then you should check out this interview and the band. I will be looking for them in the future now that I’m spending a bit more time in SL. This band is the resident band of a new online show called “Life On Line“.

Check out Life On Line show here.

 So of course I wanted to check out the show and went to their website. It’s a show about virtual worlds and social networks online. A very fun talk show which brings some great news of upcoming new technologies and talent. This is where I heard of a virtual world called Twinity. This new world is a bit different. They are making replicas of real life cities which they only have Berlin right now. Even the avatars can look like you in real life by using real pictures with their facegen setup.

Made this with two pictures of me. Still doesn’t look exactly like me.

 Twinity has events going on but I haven’t attended one yet. I’m just starting to check things out and made my avatar but it doesn’t look exactly like me. You can buy or rent apartments for yourself and decorate it with stuff you buy with virtual money. This is still in beta and their will be a subscription to have your own place in the future. It looks like you will be able to use real money to buy virtual things but not sure if you can take money out yet. I still need to explore more in the world but wanted to share it with others who might want to check it out.

It’s been a very long time since I wrote about LOTRO. I thought I should update on my adventure in this virtual game. Recently the game came out with the first paid expansion called Moria. It brought 10 more new character levels and a huge area to explore in Moria. This post isn’t going to be a review of this expansion or the following update, book 7. I want to write about my experience in this game and how it relates to real life.

I started in this game playing with my best friend. We played and supported each other for a whole year. I enjoyed the PVP side of this game a lot more then the PVE side. Since Moria came out things have changed in friendships and groups. I have joined two Kinships since my last post and both have had some great moments and some drama. Recently some of my new friends I made in the game have decided to leave the game or leave the kinship I’m in. This new update, Book 7, has brought changes in the PVP side that doesn’t match my style of play too. I found myself not logging in as much due to these changes and missing my friend and the new friends I had.

With all these new changes I am going to take a break from the game and try to work on my business, life and new friends. I already lost my best friend to this game which I really feel bad about. I never knew a virtual game could make people so emotional and change lives so fast. Maybe I’ll have some time to make a real review about the new updates to this game. I still really feel this game is good and the updates have made some things a lot better.