In the Belly of the Beast: Pooky’s Second Life Game Show
by Pixeleen Mistral on 25/04/10 at 7:57 pm
After tiring of watching game god M Linden’s avatar auto-smile, I looked toward the back of the room and noticed the ash-colored untextured Kalel Venkman – a virtual vigilante prone to filing frivolous DMCA takedown notices. I was going to have some questions for Kalel later – and the scene was already more than weird. My IM windows scrolled continuously with news of mass Woodbury avatar executions, the unexplained destruction of 4 Woodbury sims, topped off with new legal woes for the Lab in the form of another player class action lawsuit.
There was bad trouble all around. Was M Linden still going to be able to play The 1st Question for treet.tv?
another class action lawsuit filed April 15th
Pooky Amsterdam had pulled out all the stops for her game show machinima taping this week, scoring big by getting M Linden – CEO of Linden Lab – to take time from his busy schedule to play her pretend quiz show. The absolutely fabulousness of all this was having an unfortunate effect on already excessively effusive Pooky.
For a typical 1st Question show, Pooky seriously over-emotes in voice chat, but this was no ordinary day — Pooky was going completely off the charts.
Meanwhile, M Linden sounded lightweight and tentative – as if he was using a $3 microphone found at the bottom of a dumpster behind Radio Shack and held at arms length. Someone in Linden PR needs to buy M a good mic and explain the proximity effect. Hopefully the producers would fix the audio after the taping.
M Linden plays the game – but needs a better microphone
As the show began, M was having issues clicking on a green button in world which the other contestants immediately mastered, but Pooky helped M along and the pattern for the show was set – Pooky was going to find way to have M Linden win. It would not do to displease the lead game god.
My attention wandered while Pooky gushed “… proof positive second life is doing something right … in fact a lot right … leading second life into that great future with strength, humanity, vision, and kindness … marvelous majestic multi-talented …”
As the suck up level hit the red zone, I wondered if Pooky could make a name for herself as the Leni Riefenstahl of Second Life machinma – between the secret surveillance and ban crazed spandex superheros in the back of the room and M Linden’s constant smiling it seemed as if we were actually making "Triumph of the Will Conflicting New Media Narratives".
Google chat was chirping:
Tizzers: This has not been a fun day.
Pixeleen: wtf is going on?
Tizzers: LL pulled a Voted 5 on Woodbury.
Pixeleen: don’t they like your money?
Tizzers: You’d think so. I find it strange considering we were on amiable terms as of last week.
Apparently there was something that happened internally that made them change their minds.
Pixeleen: how much did you pay for metaverse services not rendered?
Tizzers: We recently purchased two new homesteads and a full sim.
And just paid tier on soviet last week.
It comes out to about $900/mo
They also reclaimed all of our land in Ravenglass.
And banned Fizgig. Who never logs in.
And scout, who has been in afghanistan getting shot at.
And tons of other people.
Myself included.
Pixeleen: so where is the refund?
I ignored Pooky’s game and verified that all 4 of Soviet Woodbury’s sims had been destroyed and the Woodbury faction’s leadership had gone missing – victims of another round of avatar executions. For some reason M Linden’s team had decided to fire the customer – despite the fact that the customer was paying $900/month in tier.
soviet woodbury – 4 sims taken offline then destroyed
M Linden seemed OK with all this – he kept auto-smiling every 15 seconds. Was he smiling about deleting accounts and then re-selling the land? Had he looked at the latest class action lawsuit? Pooky’s game is carefully structured to avoid anyone asking these sorts of questions, so I contented myself with answering IMs.
Pixeleen Mistral: so what is going on with Woodbury anyway?
Loki Clifton: According to the recent meeting with Jack, George, and Jeska, Woodbury University has been considered persona non grata in Second Life due to a cease and desist order by Linden Lab legal. Consequently all estate managers associated with the Woodbury estate have been permanently banned.
Pixeleen Mistral: so LL does’t like woodbury money anymore?
Loki Clifton: no
Loki Clifton: lets put it this way
Loki Clifton: all the sims are gone
Loki Clifton: all main land is gone
Loki Clifton: all the members that have ever held estate rights are perma banned including members in good standing with the lab and that included Active armed forces members and even doctor clift
Pixeleen Mistral: so is this because the woodbury guys didn’t want to be pinned inside their estate?
Loki Clifton: the lab in very lab like action is Quoting "Past and more Resent actions Have made use Re evaluate our postion to there Postion in Secondlife"
Perhaps it was just me – but this does not seem like a place that I would want to hold classes – or do business. But there must be more to the story – certainly the Lab knows this is an odd time to swing the ban hammer wildly. The Woodbury faction gained deep experience in getting the mainstream media’s attention when Lindens deleted them in 2007.
Eventually Pooky’s game ended and we could all mingle.
Kalel Venkman has nothing to say
I got out of my seat and sought out my friend Kalel Venkman. Kalel and I had recently exchanged real life information when he filed frivolous DMCA takedowns against the Herald and I counter filed to get the materials restored. I’m really looking forward to a real life meetup and interview with Kalel at some point.
I asked Kalel if he had any comment on the Woodbury sim deletions. Strangely, Kalel was refusing to answer me. I put this down to Kalel being preoccupied providing “security” for M Linden, who may not know how to fill out an abuse report.
In fact, it seemed likely that Kalel was abuse reporting me on general principles while updating his secret database of avatars targeted for termination, so standing silently was not rudeness on his part – he was just doing his job in the faction wars — just another volunteer enforcer for the Lindens.
M Linden enjoys his Second Life – but do his customers?
And I had my own job to do – the 4th estate plays an important role in free society and the Lindens and their fanboys were certainly going to circle the wagons again. But before I dove any further into this story it was time to take the new Herald yacht out for a cruise. The drama would certainly still be here when I got back.
Tux Winkler
Apr 25th, 2010
Kalel didn’t answer because he was having cyber with M (probably), and I don’t think it is all one sided either.
Jumpman Lane
Apr 25th, 2010
ll is moving against its enemies
Judge Joker
Apr 25th, 2010
@Jumpman Lane
You misspelled enemies, it’s correct spelling is “customers”.
$9.95/month premium account, 1000L$, a house, Kalel Venkman’s peeping tom superp0rn heros and a Perma-Ban, what more could you desire from a premium service?
But wait, there’s more!
We’ll even throw in a collectible Linden Bear, that appears to have been made during world war 2 in warsaw, a social network with no ability to mute your stalker from the shoutbox and a viewer client whom everyone hates to use.
Jumpman Lane
Apr 25th, 2010
@Judge joker heheheh i stand corrected!
Gundel Gaukelei
Apr 25th, 2010
You get it in the ass and you ask for more … I didn’t know you fight someone by paying him 900$ a month …Just not buying the product would be to simple?
All Seeing Eye
Apr 25th, 2010
SL smiles are like the grin on a dead thing.
Ted
Apr 25th, 2010
I second the above. It seems a bit idiotic to fight with “we paid” statements. The way to win is indeed NOT paying. As you now see, you can be pretty much messed over by paying at all, and twice or thrice if the situation escalates to what Woodbury has experienced.
I’m sure Woodbury will sue Linden Lab. They should. That or be refunded for every dime they put into Second Life.
The Linden Griefer Group (LGG) lead by M Linden is the worst harassment you will witness in Second Life. Where they just keep your money no matter what, boot you off the grid, lock your accounts, and make claim that one had broken the lame and illegal Terms of Service. They still sponsor and harbor land baron robbers and claim they are cleaning up the mess. Yeah, right.
Sylauxe
Apr 26th, 2010
4chan get out.
.
voodoo hoodoo
Apr 26th, 2010
After everything else is considered, last weeks armageddon may have been caused by Linden Supersition. If you look at the SL map you will note that after the Woodbury expansion into those 4 sims, it totally cut off the possibility of “LindenWorld” to the East ever connecting with “TheGloriousFuture” sim which is to the west of the Woodbury chain. Linden Labs cut off from the success and longevity of having any kind of future was being laid into stone. A powerful meme being snuck in by Woodbury without anyone noticing. I hadn’t even noticed the Sacred Geometry that was being laid into place until I read some post that Tizzy made somewhere, playfully gloating about cutting LL off from their Glorious Future by annexing those lands.
Takeaway? Oh not much except that Linden Labs may be really superstitous. So like does anyone know how to make voodoo dolls?
Ramen Jedburgh
Apr 26th, 2010
This whole situation is such a mess. I just wish that we had some real answer as to why this was done in the first place. Not all of this random speculation.
There also seems ot be no middle ground on Woodbury itself. People are either totally against them with the excuse of griefing or completely for them (generally members of Woodbury). Frankly without any official record of why they were all banned and dumped EVERYONE Should be for the cause of Woodbury on the principle of “You could be next”.
It’s like LL wants the power of a government (virtually) but they don’t want any sort of accountability to their citizens/customers.
It’s just really starting to frustrate me and on top of that I keep wondering how many more days it’ll be until I can’t log in because LL has decided to ban the rest of the group’s members just to be sure they have covered all of their bases.
Alyx Stoklitsky
Apr 26th, 2010
Kalel probably has you muted.
He might also have had sand in his vagina.
Tux Winkler
Apr 26th, 2010
pmsl @ Alyx & voodoo
Gundel Gaukelei
Apr 26th, 2010
@He might also have had sand in his vagina.
After listening to Pooky (muhaha) over the full length of the video, I’m not shure its him who got a foreign object there …
Gaara Sandalwood
Apr 26th, 2010
Wow. I feel I missed a great party, hehe.
Crap Mariner
Apr 26th, 2010
Erm… where’s your M Postor Linden shoulderpet?
-ls/cm
Patasha Marikh
Apr 26th, 2010
Well just another reason I’m glad I’ve been limiting my financial and emotional involvement in SL the past year. The banning of Woodbury is just another example of how the new management is destroying SL. People like Woodbury are the reason people join SL, to hang out with the silly and goofy and creative. Not some bozo who thinks being part of a community means slipping on a pair of tights and playing brownshirt to anyone who doesn’t meet his criteria of how a good national socialist should behave.
M – you are choosing the wrong people to align yourself with.
Patasha
(PS, I’ve never met anyone one from Woodbury as far as I know, and surely have never hung out one of their sims.. but their last video was amazing.)
IntLibber Brautigan
Apr 26th, 2010
In Pooky’s defense, she gives scrotal massages to all her guests, including myself. So don’t read too much into the efellation. Pooky cares about traffic and ratings, and is dumb enough to think that having KaLOLZ there will improve security, or perhaps she was hoping that having M AND KaLOLZ there would ensure high traffic from Woodbury’s sim would transfer to hers… if so, thats actually pretty smart.
Pookster – you’re the best…
Former WU Member
Apr 27th, 2010
I just thought of something. I mean, I pretty much always knew this, but I never really looked at the whole thing at once until now.
They fail so hard at controlling the use of hacked clients that let people copy things without buying them, and pretty much do whatever else they want, that they’ve turned to someone who they’ve banned repeatedly for help. Someone who is, by his own admission, using a hacked client that gives him god powers, and will most likely eliminate the existing clients, start selling a new one, and hide an exemption for it in his client detection system.
They fail so hard at governing their grid and keeping people from being fucked with, that they turned to vigilantes who like to dress up as super heroes and play rentacop for free. Vigilantes who will continue to fearmonger and make SL look like a world rife with griefing, just so they can look important.
It’s so fucked it makes my head hurt.
The peole who they trust, are the ones who will end up destroying them.
GreenLantern Excelsior
Apr 28th, 2010
The show with M Linden:
http://www.the1stquestion.com/2010/04/first-question-20-april-2010.html
Another show of possible interest:
http://www.the1stquestion.com/2009/12/1st-question-77-22-dec-09.html
Say what you like about Pooky, but in my humble opinion she’s one of the most dedicated people I know when it comes to pursuing a goal. She was always nice and respectful to me, and I would go on the show again if she asked me to.
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Dave
Jun 26th, 2010
[Quote]Say what you like about Pooky, but in my humble opinion she’s one of the most dedicated people I know when it comes to pursuing a goal. She was always nice and respectful to me, and I would go on the show again if she asked me to.[Quote/]
She’s in it for the money, as soon as she realizes SL won’t make her any she’ll take her overacting somewhere else.
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