Woodbury University Returns to SL!!!
by Alphaville Herald on 13/04/08 at 7:18 pm
Exclusive interview with Tizzers Foxchase
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
Woodbury 3.0
Last July, Woodbury University’s educational sim was deleted from the metaverse in a controversial move by the Linden Lab governance team, and early this year Woodbury land group administrator Tizzers Foxchase was perma-banned from Second Life. However, Woodbury University is far from dead in Second Life – and today I visited “Woodbury 3.0” in IntLibber Brautigan’s Friedman sim.
The new Woodbury site — a quarter of the Friedman sim — houses a virtual worlds class being held as part of the real life Woodbury’s course offerings. Breaking from the tradition of large, imposing pseudo-gorean university builds dominated by ivy covered clock towers, the bulk of the Woodbury building is actually underground with a meeting space, creatively decorated student dorm rooms, and some surprising /b/tard paraphernalia.
While taking pictures and exploring the educational space, I marveled at the sim’s continuous soundtrack – you just can’t hear “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley too many times. Discussion among the local residents centered around concerns about the serious business direction of Second Life.
concerned metaverse residents
Molley Mayflower: Pix – “Second Life Grid is a platform that enables your organization to create a public or secure private space using the leading 3D online virtual world technology. Discover how your organization can create its own space for communication, collaboration and community engagement. Use the Second Life Grid to hold virtual meetings, construct product simulations, provide employee training and lots more.”
Molley Mayflower: I mean why the hell do companies even bother with this piece of shit? There are so many other applications written specifically for online collaboration.
Alyx Stoklitsky: Good fucking luck, unless your target audience is furries, goreans and pedophiles
Nikola Shirakawa: don’t forget the cannibals!
Pixeleen Mistral: I don’t think they bother with this – that was last year
Molley Mayflower: Of course not, but obviously LL is still trying to tap that market.
Pixeleen Mistral: LL probably has to try to appease the investors
Molley Mayflower: Yet they drop sim prices by $650? In a flourishing economy, prices tend to go UP.
The Tengu: “ok guys everyone log into secondlife and make your avatar, huge titties and the like are not work safe. we will meet up in a privately owned company estate to conduct our meeting” – “lol boss i’m stuck in orientation island i dont know how to attach the torch”
The Woodbury crowd does not seem to be suffering from excessive Linden KoolAid consumption – but then Reuters and the metaverse consulting shops like ESC also seem to have tapered off as well.
Eventually I made arrangements for an interview with Tizzers Foxchase — an interview which took place outside of Second Life in deference to Ms. Foxchase’s perma-ban status.
artistic expression in a virtual environment
Pixeleen Mistral: So Woodbury University is back – what is Woodbury’s goal in Second Life?
Tizzers Foxchase: Give the students a blank canvas and they will create a masterpiece together. Hehe, ok maybe not a masterpiece but definitely a unique piece of art! Generation-N users no longer want to learn or be entertained in a unidirectional fashion, they want to be a part of it. Each of our virtual students carries a unique gift and talent. It is our mission to find these virtual diamonds in the rough and shape them into valuable gems.
Woodbury actively recruits and embraces potential students in Compton, California, an area seemingly out of reach from higher education. It is through these unconventional methods of recruiting and teaching, that we can break the boundaries of “traditional education.” Many of our virtual students have been shunned by Second Life society, being labeled as griefers. Woodbury has given these students a place to channel their creative energies, focusing on constructive projects while discovering their talents.
Molly’s room
Pixeleen Mistral: Do you have plans for a full sim in the future?
Tizzers Foxchase: Absolutely. Although we may not come back under the “educational discount” offered by Linden Lab, we are definitely ready to move to a full sim sometime this summer.
Pixeleen Mistral: Where will the funding come from?
Tizzers Foxchase: There have been individual student efforts to raise money for the new sim, and possibly school funding depending on the department budget for next year.
Pixeleen Mistral: What is the administration’s official stance on Woodbury 3.0?
Tizzers Foxchase: The purchase of our current location and creation of the Virtual Worlds class (taught by Madelena Rossini) have been officially approved and funded by the university.
inside Molly’s Woodbury University dorm room
Pixeleen Mistral: So this class is held in-world?
Tizzers Foxchase: Yes! You’re welcome to join us on Fridays between 2:30 and 5:00 SLT.
Pixeleen Mistral: What if I see a “Woodbury Student” griefing?
Tizzers Foxchase: Let us know. Spankings will be given accordingly. <3
Pixeleen Mistral: What about the alleged connections to the PN griefers?
Tizzers Foxchase: I am going to clarify this once and for all. NO. We are not the PN, we never were the PN. There was a time in our history when we allowed the PN to hang out at WU, but we will not tolerate intentional grid attacks from within our group.
hand made handpuppets in the basement
Pixeleen Mistral: What about the 4chan stuff in the basement?
Tizzers Foxchase: The basement is our student dorm area. We love /b/tards. We embrace them. We think they’re lulzy, and a lot of them are smarter than they appear.
KissMahRutts
Apr 16th, 2008
Seriously what is up with this vendetta over tizzers
He is a intelligent person and is being vilified
WHEN IS THERE GOING TO BE A RL COURT CASE?
Take LL to the cleaners they are the b/tards of the internet
I dont know what PN can possibly do worse than what LL does already…….. THEY screw the grid worse than any outside “griefers” ever could
oh a new updated viewer…….one fix and 400 million more problems
Move on LL and get the program running RIGHT stop wasting time on someone who doesnt and hasnt caused problems
The likes of JLU.what a bunch of vindictive losers who have NO real life.failed RL cop wannabes…they even failed in becoming a mall cop
What a bunch of NOBHEADS
Kalel Venkman
Apr 16th, 2008
Allow me to reiterate my previous statement: I shall bring the end of the griefer paradise of Woodbury University. Once perma-banned from the grid, what makes you think you can simply waltz back in? Like Tizzers, I will not tolerate villainous griefers who dodge bans on the grid.
Witness X
Apr 16th, 2008
Anybody who believes Kalel Venkman has even been been here raise your hands. Anybody?
Razrcut Brooks
Apr 16th, 2008
Penny,
“when I posted as Peter Venkman and pretended I was Bill Murray threatenening a lawsuit over the spurious use of the name Venkman. Posted as a joke. No one noticed it, so I never tried an alt post to joke again”
I noticed the Ghostbusters reference back then!
However, commenting would reveal that I was an 80s kid and my probable age-range therefore I refrained and will not be commenting on that fact. Therfore, please disregard this post everyone.
I'm Watching You
Apr 17th, 2008
“Come on by and check out WU 3.0. The official group is Woodbury University, which is actively policed by myself and my staff to keep out griefing influences. If you witness any member of this group committing griefing offenses in SL, please document these acts with screenshots, etc. and notify myself or BNT’s security staff for investigation.
BNT’s contract with WU specifies the relationship of BNT and WU and how reports of griefing will be ajudicated, as virtual students are, under the contract, bound to the same code of conduct as RL students, not just on campus but in the wider community, just like a RL WU student’s actions in Burbank reflect upon WU.”
**You know what’s funny Init, your sim’s security ran by NG Security, which contains known members that are part of gang groups, griefer groups, and mafia groups. Gang and mafia groups are roleplaying. And most members that join griefer groups do so to grief. So do I really expect your security group to take any griefing reports seriously? Heck, I expect them to join in the griefing or pretend it doesn’t exist. Just because your company BNT is doing well in SL, doesn’t mean we should actually trust you. Especially when you harbor and support griefers, and it’s been said you’ll actually “hire” griefers to do your dirty work so you don’t get banned. Should I mention there’s a good reason why there’s an anti-BNT group in SL too? You’re about as credible as America’s Intel when they stated there’s WMDs in Iraq.
As far as Tizzers, she’s a known griefer. And like most griefers, she got permabanned for getting caught at being dumb (yes I know the “real” story why). So I look at it as justice served. So am I to believe that Tizzers has turned a corner and Woodbury is a real decent place to “explore creativity”? Certainly I can believe that to be true IF the real college is actually sponsoring this as Tizzers proclaims. But I guranatee there will be some bad seeds sprouting out of that place as well. Especially if /b/tards have some influence, and somehow I doubt the real WU is going to sponsor that knowing their reputation is on the line. By the way, it’s odd I don’t see any mention of SecondLife on WU’s website. Hmmm….
So to you anti-griefer groups out there….here we go again….round 2!
Gaius Goodliffe
Apr 17th, 2008
“Molley Mayflower: Yet they drop sim prices by $650? In a flourishing economy, prices tend to go UP.”
…
http://www.imagepoop.com/image/26/10-MB-Hard-Drive-for-3-500.html
Reality. Get in touch.
Molley Mayflower
Apr 17th, 2008
Hey Gaius,
“Molley Mayflower: Yet they drop sim prices by $650? In a flourishing economy, prices tend to go UP.”
http://www.nowandfutures.com/images/median_us_home1963-current.png
This is virtual real estate we are talking about, no?
If we base the future trends of the SL economy on your little hard drive analogy, would it be safe to say that the SL economy will soon be essentially non-existent? Let’s do some math. $350/mb (10mb for $3500) vs the current average of $0.20/mb (500gb for $100). That’s a 1750% difference! By the same token, the current average of mainland property is L$6/m2. Are you saying that SL real estate will be worth 1750% less than that in the future because of the shrinking cost of technology?
When I say “Yet they drop sim prices by $650″ I am simply making an point that Second Life land values cannot be compared with real life real estate, (as so many people including Linden Lab like to do) because it is based on technology that eventually loses value over time (as you have so cleverly pointed out). When all is said and done, this is a VIDEO GAME. And just like the video games before it (Such as EverQuest), the value of the in-world currency and assets will soon diminish into oblivion.
In the future, another company will come along and do it bigger and better. There is such a enormous window of opportunity for a brilliant startup to become the Blizzard of the metaverse right now. When will people start to think outside the cube of Second Life?
~Molley (Aka Tizzers Foxchase)
girls in bondage
Nov 8th, 2009
Perma-bans only work if you are a dim witted furry lover. Anyone with just a quarter of their brain left could figure it out.
rocco
Nov 8th, 2009
“Come on by and check out WU 3.0. The official group is Woodbury University, which is actively policed by myself and my staff to keep out griefing http://enjoytheabuse.com influences. If you witness any member of this group committing griefing offenses in SL, please document these acts with screenshots, etc. and notify myself or BNT’s security staff for investigation.”
good to know somebody is taking care of things
sasha grey
Nov 11th, 2009
No one cared when they were here before, no one cares now. Only the Herald ever spoke of them.
Adrianna Nicole
Nov 20th, 2009
Was the pedo bear I saw in one of those shots? What’s next, a secret bondage dungeon?
Jocelyn Pawpad
Apr 16th, 2010
“No one cared when they were here before, no one cares now.”
Not entirely true. I would never have heard of WU had not Prokofy Neva been working so hard to promote their existance. They really appeared to have wound her up so I figured I’d look into it a bit further. It was good for a few laughs about their past exploits and I wound up with a free russian outfit and some cheap cardboard furniture out of it.
I wasn’t griefed, the few people I met were helpful and the builds I saw were nothing short of inspiring (though perhaps a little under-patronised). I imagine there are probably those in SL who might dislike them based on their previous antics but on the whole I’d have to say my experience with WU was a positive one and I am glad I went there for a little perspective.
Jocelyn Pawpad
Apr 16th, 2010
Oh, and another thing – if there’s a secret bondage dungeon going up there then I and a few friends want to know about it. We might go there again. And again. Andagainandagainandagainandagainandagainand….