The Elephant in the Room

I haven’t done an update in awhile because I wasn’t really sure what to say.

Then a few weeks ago, someone asked me “How did you go from hating Second Life and leaving the community to wanting to do a machinima event back inside the Second Life grid?” I felt like that was a fair question and if you’ve bene following along on my little journey, I’ve said from the beginning that I like to be transparent as possible. I’ll tell you the shorter version of what I told them:

When I left, I genuinely left with the intention of not coming back to Second Life. I was enjoying (and still am! I’m still learning!) my time opening the ‘can of worms’ that is Unreal Engine and I’m still excited to see what that brings. I have also been blessed to continue to pursue telling the story that I wanted to tell in Namara with an AMAZING comic book artist that has really brought the script to life. Every week when I get a new page, I’m so excited to see what happens next and how it all comes together.

I posted my video on March 5th 2024 when I left the Second Life community. I still stand by everything I said, so if you know, you know.

That being said, a lot has happened between then and now. There have been many policy changes addressing the direct concerns brought to light in that video, and I’ve gotten the opportunity to interact with some of the members of Linden Lab about my experience. I’m not saying everything is perfect and that they’ve done everything right, but I like to be be fair and honest about effort and when it’s been made.

Obviously my interactions went well enough that I took my video down and I’m back to my normal self making videos and talking about Second Life again. So here I am….trying to be cautiously optimistic about this new feedback system and that ‘fairness’ will prevail moving forward. Only time will tell.

What will I do in Second Life now?

I have always enjoying ‘making things’ and ‘helping people’. I’ll go back to doing that. :)

I don’t have any intention of starting Forever Tourist again, though I am open to the idea if someone wants to pick up the mantle and help evolve it into something bigger and more exciting.

As always, I will continue to be vocal about how cool the mainland is, will continue making my PODsCasts/NAMARA/shorts, continue making DIY videos for new residents, and now will host an annual event for other movie makers: MACHINACONSL.

It’s nice to be back. :) See you guys around.