Ambrosia Dance Club

Today is the 4th of July, Independence Day in the United States, a holiday when Americans gather to eat excessive amounts of processed meats, drink themselves into a paralytic coma and blow off appendages with illegally obtained fireworks.
In the virtual world of Ambrosia it’s a perfect time for our American club members to put on the Red White and Blue!

Layla Meridoc is certainly in the Spirit of ’76 in this tasty outfit.

Dj Suz is a Yankee Doodle Dandy up on the Dj Stage.

Faith Giadelli sparkles on the dance floor.

Elyse Alekseev sets off some fireworks of her own on the dancer’s stage.

Dj Punch is decked out in his all american sneakers. Good thing he has sneakers to pull off these athletic dance moves.

Jowan Boa sports an awesome Fourth of july party hat complete with red, white and blue particles.

People always like to shout out that their favourite club in SL is the “best club” and indeed it’s heard quite often at Ambrosia. Since the word best is so subjective the only way to to really tell which is the most popular club is by its traffic rating. By typing the word “CLUB” in search places it is possible to see who is currently in the number 1 spot for traffic. This week in the number 1 spot, overtaking those pale hosers at Dance Island is the Black Rain Club – Biker Sim. I decided to check it out.

Upon arrival I found myself surrounded by a healthy number of avatars. However, some of them were not fully rendered. Hmm, kind of like bots.

Lets give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they are all really waiting around for the random money giver to regurgitate lindens into their upturned beaks.

Here we can see this avatar waiting patiently for her payout!. But alas, it pays out ‘AFantasy Color Change Shoes’ to one of the bots. Sorry!!! No cash for you!!
Let’s wait 19 minutes for the next payout.

Over the air crackled the commanding voice of a live dj barking something in German accompanied by a driving techno beat.

Here is a new arrival – A pig headed person spewing pink particles. And i thought things were going to be boring.

Ahhh, here are some more green dots in the sim. Let’s go find out if this is where the real party is. Wow, it’s a veritable United Nations of people clustered around a CampMaster 2.0 paying out 1 L every 30 min! As I sat there among the undead i could hear the words of Jack Linden,

“We recently posted a new policy explaining that the use of Bots to unfairly inflate the traffic score (and therefore Search ranking) for a venue would be considered a violation. Whether a landowner uses Bots or Camping Chairs, or Camping Chairs with Bots in them, the effect is the same – the traffic score for that parcel is inflated unfairly”

Hmmm.

But what of the actual club? Well here it is!

Lets go inside.

Well, the Stuka dive bomber is certainly cool. Not a bad looking club either. I count 19 people. They are in voice chat speaking in German. So lets add it up. 19 people in the club. 97 in the sim. Could it be that this Number 1 venue is unfairly using campers and bots to game traffic scores? Why do they feel that they have to do this? The club that they have would be a whole lot better for the real people that use it if they did not have to contend with the massive lag caused by the 78 extraneous avatars.

Since the club members are mostly European we can assume that there is a slack time when very few real people would actually visit the club. Therefore this club should have a respectable traffic rating or around 12000 not 87403. But thanks to its number 1 ranking in Places people teleport in regularly because it is at the top of the list.

Is this an example of gaming traffic? You be the judge.

It’s the day in day out grind. You log on to Second Life and decide that you really should change out of that outfit you have been wearing for the last 3 sessions. You check out a new store for boots and get propositioned by what appears to be a squirrel with a pith helmet. You hit your favourite dance club (Ambrosia, of course!) to meet up with your friends and try out the latest dance for your chim.

Then suddenly, that is all ripped away from you. Your Rl persona has decided to go on summer vacation. You everyday routine is now basking on a beach in an exotic country and ordering strawberry Daiquiris. You start humming a song to yourself as your watch the clouds go by. OMG, am I hearing Live Singer Rara Destiny in my head? Your hands start to quiver as you suddenly find yourself slipping away to the internet cafe to pay an exorbitant fee to find out if Broccoli337 has really stolen your paramour from you while you were sleeping in the sand in RL. Or that you have missed the latest hot new release from Indyra’s Designs.

You may be suffering from acute Ambrosiaitis. It can only be cured by your prompt and safe return to the club following a healthful and relaxing summer vacation. There is no need to worry whilst you are away. Ambrosia will continue to rock, drama will occur and there will be plenty left over on your return. So put down that mouse, and back slowly away from the computer and head back to the beach. Raoul is waiting with your drink. Enjoy your summer vacations Ambrosians!

Names mean a lot. When we enter Second Life we have a choice of what to call ourselves. You only get one chance to name yourself. You are presented with this dire warning as you sign in for the first time – “Please choose your Second Life name carefully, since it can’t be changed later.”

The Lindens provide about 500 surnames and a new arrival gets to choose his first name. This presents the noob with several options:

1. Use your real name.

This is the most obvious and easy one. Why not be you with a different last name? Unfortunately most real names are already taken with the last name you desire so you end up with option number 2.

2. Use your real name with your Birth Year.

Mary93 is not taken so you become that. Oh no, you are only 16! Dead giveaway !

3. Choose a name that reveals the inner you and what you are really looking for.

There are lots of choices here. Some examples include Killer, Ladyslayer,sexyslut,sumass4u,luvbeagles,
pedofile63,boringhousewife,undragetene,livinmomsbasement

4. You really don’t give a hoot what you are named so you pick anything.

There are too many examples of this. The noob names themself assdfjklasdfjkl, or something ridiculous like 123456 figuring that they will not like SL and just want to see what its about. They end up staying and buying all sorts of non-transfer stuff for their avatar and one day come to the realization that people are calling them “ass” or “1-6″. Then comes the hard truth that unlike in RL you cannot change your name and will be forever be burdened with the name Assluv2nite unless you want to kill off your avatar.

5. You pick what you believe to be the perfect name only to discover to your horror that “Putana” means something completely different in another language.

So choose carefully, choose wisely.