by By Sigmund Leominster

Reports of Lively’s death turn out not to have been exaggerated after all. After the fanfare, hoop-la, bell and whistles of the Second Life killer’s opening, Google have just announced that Lively is dead. Well, if not death, in the terminal stages and destined to limp on flaccidly until the end of the year.

Back in September, Lively’s project director, Kevin Hanna, it was at the Austin Game Developers Conference where he announced that, “Our user-base exceeded every number that we had put down. So, in that sense, our beta is more successful than most launched products.” Tragically, the “success” was simply the ability to generate enough curiosity for people to visit the world at least once. The “New Frontier” turned out to be little more than a side road with nothing at the end of it and bugger all to look at on the way.

Hanna also pointed out that, “Google has no interest in virtual dollars. It’s never been our intent to make money that way.” Well, at least they got that one right.

Compete.com’s site analytics engine showed that Lively peaked at around 370,000 unique visitors in August 2008, but then dropped to 100,000 by September and stood at around 75,000 in October – about one night in Second Life on a busy evening. With Google’s stock price having dropped on a monthly basis since June 2008, from around 600 to under 300, it’s no surprise that projects that don’t offer any sort of return on investment would be facing the chop. Poor Lively didn’t really stand much of a chance.

So here, in full, is the official statement from Google:

“In July we launched Lively in Google Labs because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways. Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it’s the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people’s lives. But we’ve also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off.

We’d encourage all Lively users to capture your hard work by taking videos and screenshots of your rooms.”

Oh the humanity! Or avataranity. An entire world reduced to two paragraphs, one sentence, and an exhortation to take pictures before extinction. [you mean Google isn't going to cache this? - the Editrix]

The collapse of The Sims Online earlier this year lead to an influx into Second Life of refugees. Are we about to see Lively dwellers start making virtual rafts and drifting across the inter-metaversal seas to set up new immigrant communities here? Do we even want “those people” moving into our Openspaces, taking up all the camping jobs, and frightening the child avatars with their strange looks and funky haircuts?

Should anyone be planning to hold a funeral in Lively before December 31st, please send me an invite. Hey, last chance to wear those awesomely bad outfits.

Reading between the lines of the latest press release from The Royal Press Office at Gukumatz Palace, Her Royal Highness The Princess of Yaximixche may still be suffering from hardware issues that prevent her from visiting her loyal subjects in SL.

However, all is not lost, as we learn that after a recent visit to the new Virtual World of Lively, Her Royal Highness asked to her Private Secretary the creation of a new royal residence. Builders immediately started with the design of Gukumatz Palace following the requirements of HRH Princess Manqo.

While the Princess may not always be present in Gukumatz palace, visitors can admire the lavish chinese and brown drawings room decorated with local plants and ornaments – decorations the Royal Press Office tells us where chosen in order to maintain a low ecological footprint in this building. Gukumatz Palace also has a new art gallery with a multimedia display about the Amazon Rainforest deforestation and its effects on climate change.

The Lively population seems to have been charmed by the Princess – the press office tell us the “Five Trees” plaiting in the palace is a fabulous artwork kindly donated by local residents and it is center piece to one of the rooms.

The Princess was deeply touched by the warm welcome of Lively citizens who were also concerned about climate change. HRH Princess Manqo discussed with some visitors to Gukumatz Palace about the recent nature disasters in different points of our planet. The Princess of Yaximixche was also greatly surprised that many of the Lively citizens are Second Live citizens.

Gukumatz Palace is open 24×7 here

by Pixeleen Mistral, International Affairs desk

players rejoice as robot closet thrusts it’s tentacles on demand

Google claims their Lively 3D chatroom is a de-sexualized platform where players can safely interact with each other. But the players have other ideas, and have even found a way have virtual sex – using a piece of furniture provided by Google — the Robot Closet.

At first blush, the robot closet seems harmless enough, but players soon realized the closet has an animation that causes 4 tentacle-like robot arms to thrust suddenly out of their retracted position, then return to the retracted position. According to reliable sources, Lively players feeling amorously inclined will place a Robot Closet in a secluded chatroom, then position themselves so that the animated arms of the closet appear to thrust from one player into another. Vigorous clicking of the closet follows, to trigger the animation as the avatars pleasure each other.

One might wonder if this will result in an increased demand for one of the more esoteric forms of Japanese anime porn – robot tentacle hentai – as pre-teens and teens enjoy some of their first online sexual experiences with robot tentacles courtesy of Google.

Google’s community standards for Lively appear to prohibit this stating, “We don’t allow nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. This includes making sexual advances toward other users”. The community standards also state that players younger than 13 are prohibited, and players between the ages of 13 and 18 need their parent’s permission to join – but there does not appear to be much of an enforcement mechanism in place for any of this – players are simply expected to abuse report each other.

Apparently the creators of Lively sought safety by limiting what their users could do, but the result is rather boring – there is no shopping, no building, and frankly not much to do in Lively other than flirt. Not surprisingly, the community standards are completely ignored by the players. With a very young demographic – most of the players I met seem to be between 11 and 15 – Google may also be headed for some negative press if Lively appears to be a pick up site for underage cybersex – which may be happening if my experience is representative.

To get a feeling for the “social” scene in Lively consider the private IM’s I was receiving while researching the robot closet.

Mr. smooth pickup artist asks if I am a naughty girl. Rather than try to explain that I am a well-known journalist, I decide to role play an earnest 13 year old. Sometimes the story comes first. I would soon regret this decision.

I feign confusion, he presses for naughty talk.

A common feature of the sex chatrooms in Lively seems to be furry avatars positioning themselves facing the crotch of male avatars – I hope they are not doing what I think they are. Could it be something naughty? Maybe they are just acting like dogs and sniffing? I really hope so.

In open chat, someone asks how to have sex in Lively. A helpful soul explains about the robot closet.

I’m looking up the robot closet in the catalog. Meanwhile, Mr. smooth pickup artist wants to know if I am still paying attention.

“u wanna cyber?”

At this point I tell myself that sometimes in the news business you have to be a total pro and put up with truely grotendous pervs, but I’ll give him an out. I’m supposed to be 13 after all, and mom wouldn’t like this at all. Will he back off?

No, he will not back off…

My lucky day – according to virtual romeo, I am a grown up girl now, and I have pretty eyes

Mr smooth is looking for more contact points – MSN or Yahoo – and a time when Mom is not around.

I make another try at establishing that I am really too young – “I’m not supposed to be dating boys yet”

Mr smooth promises me a real good time – “u r goin to like it”

Give RiversRunRed and the Electric Sheep Company credit – at least one guy is getting off on their avatar design and touching himself – but is this violating Google’s community standards?

enough is enough – I decide Mom is coming and I have to go.

After stopping at the Herald offices in Lively to put out a Robot Closet for those that want to experience the joy of the Lively tentacle, I logged out, and headed to the Herald offices in Second Life where someone left the CD player going again. A song lyric jumps out at me:

Indeed.

If Google is serious about playing in this space, things are certain to get a little bit heavy.

By aiming at a young demographic and creating a space with nothing much to do, the most likely result is a platform overrun with various forms of cybersex for the early teen crowd – and those attracted to them. But does Google really mind this?

To drive its Internet advertising business, Google needs two things – user volume and accurate personal profiles so they can target ads more effectively. The appeal of capturing “social” chat on their servers, then mining it for preferences, quirks, and peccadillos to feed to the Google advertisement panopticon must be overwhelming. Combine this with the growing use of Gmail, Google Chat, and the various Google online applications and the friendly search engine company will have an increasingly accurate picture of everyone’s online life.

After realizing the lead for Lively- Niniane Wang – also was the tech lead for the Gmail ads project, I felt a chill. I’m going to be really concerned if I start seeing tentacle hentai ads in Gmail.

by Pixeleen Mistral, International Affairs desk

I have enjoyed my time in Lively so far, but there are parts of the experience I find troubling – I simply cannot dance with irishJohn36. I met irishJohn36 in Jen’s Coffee House, and after sitting chatting with him and another guy named “Photographer”, irishJohn36 suggested we get up and dance.

“Photographer” had been IMing me privately asking for photos – I sent him some links to Pixeleen Mistral pictures I found using in Google’s image search — after all, when in Google, do as the Googles do. But “Photographer” wanted much more for his collection and was getting rather insistent and tiresome. IrishJohn36 seemed to be a bit more of a gentleman, and I hadn’t danced with anyone yet, so I stood up from my chair and clicked on irishJohn36′s avatar to bring up a list of animations I could perform with him. Strangely, dance was not listed – but slap was.

Very soon, a nimbus of guys appeared around me, as irishJohn36, “Photographer”, and others started punching, kicking, and dropping anvils on each other, leaving me at the center of a vortex of virtual testosterone violence. That was when irishJohn36 suggested we find another scene to try to dance.

Once we got to a less violent club, I tried to dance again, but no matter what I tried, the dance animation never appeared when I clicked on irishJohn36′s avatar.

Eventually I had a rendezvous with irishJohn36 and his friend Finola on a quiet island, where the mystery was solved.

Why can’t girls dance with boys?

Finola: any idea why we can’t dance with men?
Finola: I can only dance with women…
Pixeleen.Mistral: really?

Finola: yeah.
Pixeleen.Mistral: you are right!

Finola: Yeah, let me know if you do find you can
I have determined my avatar is a lesbian or just hates men
Pixeleen.Mistral: I can dance with you – but not with IrishJohn!
irishJohn36: hahaha

Finola and Pixeleen.Mistral move to the beat
Pixeleen.Mistral: this is sooooo weird
irishJohn36: well ladies….will i leave you two alone
Finola: lol

irishJohn36: so pixeleen…you have some good moves
Pixeleen.Mistral: now I do
Finola: only cause she was dancing with me

Pixeleen.Mistral and Finola move to the beat
Finola: other women can dance with men
irishJohn36: get a room

Finola: I can dance alone or withe or other people that are not men
btw I like your shirt Pix
irishJohn36: other people that are not men…as in women
Finola: yea. I think some animals. so this girl must of been really pissed at men

girls with “Heather”-based avatars can dance with other Heathers

After Finola and I got done dancing I did some experimentation and found that girls can only dance with girls if you choose the “Heather” avatar as your base type. Apparently Heather is a man-hater. Later I discovered that the “Vanessa” avatar also only dances with girls, but busty “Jane Doe” is totally guy-friendly. Are the designers of Lively sending some sort of subliminal message here? No dancing without a D-cup?

boys are strictly prohibited –click on irishJohn36 and there is no dancing