Millsberry.com Exploration

Last week while reading over at the Virtual Worlds they referenced an article put out by the Wall Street Journal Online about Virtual Worlds. To summarize the article it was comparing what someone considers virtual worlds and stacking them up in a list based by total unique visitors. Second Life was included but near the bottom of the list. WHY? because the list is flawed and categories of websites lumped all together when they are really different things. I went to one of the sites listed to see why they are so much more popular than Second Life even having a negative growth from their last year statistics. I wonder why if all these other “Virtual Worlds” are so much better and higher ranked they chose to use a picture from Second Life in their article. (because Second Life kicks ass that’s why)

Anyone with two brain cells can see immediately that the two worlds are not even remotely the same..Millsberry isn’t even a world it’s a series of 2d websites with some flash games attached. When authors write articles they should check out what they are writing or they really lose credibility. When I think Wall Street Journal I don’t think Schleppers who don’t fact check or think for themselves, I think of solid reputable news reporters, but now they are down a notch in my book.  I now question the validity of any of this list and also assume the rest of those listed worlds are as off target as Millsberry was to compare or lump into the same category as Second Life.

Here are some pictures of my exploration into Millsberry, it’s so wildly different from Second Life It’s like here is an orange and here is a bic lighter….MAYBE the Bic lighter is ORANGE colored but it’s obvious they are no way the same or should even be compared or have any business on a list with one another.

Here is a picture of joining an activity in Millsberry. This picture shows you some drawings of people, this is stagnant and it’s just a drawing, there is no one there, there is no interacting with others, you are alone at this “dojo” . Sad….

Here is a picture of some cool martial arts action in Second Life.

Photo Courtesy of Raul Crimson

Here is what you get when you get to build a house in Millsberry. You get to pick your curtain color, wall color, door color through a series of wizard step though processes and voila.

Here is an example of something I build in SL, during the process and no wizard windows to walk you through. Pleasenote my awesome Starax Magic Wand in my hand.

Here is a picture of decorating your room in Millsberry.  As far as I could tell there is no original creation in Millsberry just placing premade selections offered via a menu system..I didn’t see ANY SHOPPING..zomg. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any, I really just don’t know.

Here is a picture example of a chair I was building for placing in my home, it is about halfway done in this picture and ends up being a lovely Adirondack chair. Building in Second Life is a satisfying process overall.

Here is that same chair when it was completed.

This is an example of an activity in Millsberry. The instructions were to color this picture. It’s not aimed to amuse me really, it’s for children and that is ok but you can’t say this compares to Second Life and then expect to be taken seriously..I mean..c’mon…

Ever the artist I endeavored to some levels of my own creativity in this space.

Going to the arcade in Millsberry is much like going to the Dojo experience..I was present with a still 2d picture and a handful of solitary games.

Here I am in Second Life kicking some ass on a video game in a laundry mat…Hooray.

In the end I went back in and adjust my avatar appearance to reflect how I was feeling about Second Life being lumped in with this kind of website.

Light

Turning on the lights

Well, well, well if it isn’t my blog…hello there! Wow seems some spammers had a little party here in the comment rooms, they are like dogs that come by and pee in your heather bush. Let’s dust this place and run the vacuum and make ourselves comfortable again in here.

The past few days I’ve been thinking about what I should blog about for my first post back and noticed ..whoa getting all bound up thinking on it, so let’s just free style, let’s just do what I want in here because after all this is a place for me to write about whatever I want.

Quick update, I’ve moved, I still work full time in SL for NMC. Life is great and I am totally in love. One big change after the move is that I no longer have any pets!! I know….whoa.  I learned a new joke that I can remember, remind me to tell you sometime.

Halloween is right around the corner now and I want to make a pumpkin carving, I’d like to go to the pumpkin patch and take some pictures. I don’t really like strangers coming to my door dressed in scary costumes but I do like the candy part of Halloween.  As every other holiday this holiday is so commercialized, and technically is it a true holiday anyway? I mean it’s not like we get the day off for it, but I am always in favor of making more holidays for paid days off! I’ve pretty much eliminated watching anything with gore or scare factor in it for a few years now, one of the last movies I watched that was scary was White Noise.

Since having self banned those images from my life I have become more sensitive to those sorts of images. While watching television with my daughter the other night all the Halloween scary movie commercials are running…and holy cow what kind of stuff are we showing on tv? It’s like no one bats an eye at this grotesque mutilations of people, yes I know it’s a move, yes I know it isn’t real but it sure looks real, what are we desensitizing ourselves and our global community to? I don’t want to feed my brain with those kind of images and when I see those sort of images I should be horrified because it’s disgusting and horrible, I don’t want to be numb, I don’t want that to be normal! It’s gross and it’s gross that it’s become normal viewing and it’s gross that it’s entertainment. dis-gussssssss -ting and all you trick or treaters in your freaky costumes get off my porch you freaks..only cute little children may come for the candy. Also..

IF you are over the age of..hmmmmm let’s say 10 years of age then you are too old to go door to door for candy, and after typing that out is it really something we should be doing? going door to door for candy with our young ones? I have noticed a trend in recent years of very little traffic on Halloween of the door to door variety. IF you older people want to dress up and have a party or what not..go on have a good time, that is acceptable and fun and in the spirit. Don’t go getting drunk on pumpkin cider and go driving but of course always be responsible even dressed as Elvira or Rainbow Bright..you fetishy freaks..your one day to get a full pass on parading it around openly for the entire world to see..while you get an excuse for finally wearing that rubber face mask of Richard Nixon….freaky freaks with Richard Nixon rubber mask fetishes….okay yes I am teasing and just joshin you…no please don’t send me mail about ..OMG how can you sit and judge me like that…who the heck are you Ms Ravenelle????

but isn’t Halloween some devil holiday anyway. Please don’t get me wrong I love to dress up as much as the next person just not in scary ways, going door to door asking candy with my pillow case opened to receive goods, of course i am 36 and that might seem a bit odd on a number of levels. Little kids dressed up in costumes begging candy..it’s like if you are an adult midget you can totally get away with doing this as an adult and people won’t know, although some of those really clever smart adults might catch on when that darling fairy is caught in just the right like with a 5 o’clock shadow and a large Adams apple.

Great now I’ll be worried some psychopathic midget dressed in a fairy costume is going to show up at my door using the ruse of wanting some candy corn and barge into my home that no longer has a huge German shepherd to guard it and try to take advantage of me, “get back midget fairy man I have an industrial can of bear spray and I am not afraid to use it.”

That’s all I have to say on this for now.

Happy Friday everyone, let’s do great things today.