Easier.com posts a story claiming that The Money Programme, apparently a BBC television show about, well, money, will be the first Beeb TV show broadcast in SL. I can't even keep up anymore with these claims, and I've been warned against saying 'first' anything anymore. Can someone confirm or deny this?

The show can be seen this Friday, June 1st, hosted by Max Flint, who should really consider a second career as a gumshoe detective, because that's his real name. Brilliant!

Yesterday in Second Life we:

• Spent $1,122,000 at an exchange rate of L$267:US$1 (total reported transactions).
• Exchanged $194,000 on Lindex, an average of $8,100 per hour
• Again limit-limit transactions are tiny ($400)
• Market buys $148,000, market sales $46,000
• The busiest times were 12 noon and 1pm, with over $12,000 changing hands
• The quietest time was 2am, with just over $4,000 changing hands, almost $1,000 less than in any other hour.
• Quickly polling other parts of the mainland shows land prices still around L$17/sqm - but there's a lot of variation out there.

I don't know quite what to say. You'd think this one would be a non-issue. You'd hope this one would be a non-issue, but apparently one of the Second Life media myths is as strong or stronger than ever. Let's not beat around the bush here:


If you hear otherwise, you've either misunderstood or are being misinformed.

[UPDATE: We're aware the image is missing; we're tracking it down as we speak and will return it to its proper place as soon as we've found it. Thanks for your patience!] If you haven't had a chance to play it yet, NBC Universal's Second Life Assassin game is still going on. You can still win some daily prizes and win your share of the L$1,000,000 they have been giving away to the winners. If you're not sure if this game is right for you, check out the promotional video above. It mixes shots from the game with the trailer to Smokin' Aces, the film the game promotes.

Check out the official rules on the read link. Also, if you win any money, let us know in the comments.

In an effort to upgrade the system that processes account credits, LL quietly announces that checks have been put on hold until next week.

How many of you will be adversely affected by this sudden announcement? Was there anything wrong with the old system that required this upgrade? Who would you like to see hung in effigy?

I'll admit, when I first read about this, I thought it was a prank. A strategy guide, in the vein of similar fare for games like World of Warcraft, or Guild Wars, but for making money in SL? I took my eyeballs to their website anyway, and sure enough, there it is!

This publication claims to teach even the rawest newbie how to create a successful business venture in SL. Not only that, there are tutorials for building, animation, and scripting as well! If it's what it claims to be, this sounds like a must-have for anyone interested in SL as anything more than a social arena. If someone decides to pick this up, drop us a comment and let us know what you think of it? Or, alternatively, simply apply its teachings to your second life, and we'll be reporting on you soon!

(Via theopenpress.com)

With the holiday season upon us, I love to slip references to classics like Its a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story into casual conversation. Unfortunately, according to Robert Holden, TheStreet.com Virtual Reporter, Second Life's currency may be in trouble forcing me to use the run on the bank reference and not the an angle got his wings reference in this article. Apparently there is a virtual run on the bank happening right now with a complete turn around in money flow in the first week of November. So, this is where it got a bit complicated, but what it comes down to is $130,000 left second life in October while $580,000 came in. This means growth of $450,000. In the first week of November $185,000 in left Second Life while $58,000 came in. This gives Second Life's economy a $109,000 loss this last week.

So, should you cash out your Lindens and buy yourself the Red Ryder BB gun you have always wanted? Maybe not yet. Zdanowski, the Second Life version of Greenspan, says most of the losses are due to deleting old accounts with positive balances in them and the affect of decreases in stipends (and possibly magic, although I didn't see that mentioned). Beside you would probably just shoot your eye out anyway.

Wow, this is one of the most negative covers of SL I've ever read. Certainly the SL experience, especially to newbies, is an imperfect one. Granted, it takes a while to get used to maneuvering the landscape. Sure, there are many objects that cost money. But to continually complain that you can't do anything in SL without buying anything is not only wrong but misleading to the reading audience.

If you're reading this, Mr. Goldberg, understand this: I have a free account myself. I did not enter the world "naked" as you claim to have. The only thing I've had to exchange Real Dollars for Lindens to buy is my current avatar, which I consider quite a fair transaction, given how much pleasure this avatar gives me. See, while it's fine to say 'The idea of buying "virtual stuff" didn't make enough sense to me', you're making the point that only "real" objects that you can touch physically are worth paying for. Well, what about experiences? When you pay money to go to a music concert, you may choose not to buy anything, leaving the only proof you ever went being your ticket. So, did you pay money for that piece of rectangular paper? Or, did you pay for the experience of seeing and listening to a favorite band, the experience of which you cannot physically touch?

That's what SL offers: an experience. I've found that, like so much of RL, SL gives back what you put into it. If you are not a social creature, SL will seem empty to you. That's not something you can pay for; or, rather, what you pay isn't measured in dollars. As I've said, my account is free, like yours. But within a week, I realized that what SL really offers is a unique social experience, where one can be whomever one chooses, and get to meet people from all over the globe, many times people you might never have had the opportunity to meet in RL. Enjoying SL has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with your desire to make a connection.