Third Annual Second Life Winter Festival
Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 4:11 PM by: Jeska Linden
Linden Lab is pleased to announce the 3rd Annual Second Life Winter Holiday Celebration! This year, we’re going to attempt to extend a few of our traditional events to our ever growing community. Also, just like last year, you’ll all have a chance to participate by holding your own events!
Grid-Wide Snowball Fight
A special event you won’t want to miss - a massive all day, all grid snowball fight where Linden Lab staffers will take on all Second Life Residents! *gulp* All almost 2 million of you. Catch us if you can - all across the grid – on Thursday, December 21.
We’ll also have several “official Linden” snowball events in Linden Locations throughout the day where you will be sure to “spot” a Linden. Watch this blog for more details.
Resident Events
Want to make a new holiday traditions with your Second Life groups? Perhaps you’d like to have a best dressed Santa Costume Party? Or maybe a Holiday Themed Parade? We are holding an open call for Resident-ran events to take part in the official celebration. Whatever your winter traditions are, we’d love to see you join the official Winter Festival. The goal of this project is to allow the whole community to participate in the Winter Festival!
Interested in holding an event? Join us in-world for one of the two organizing meetings on Monday, December 11 (that’s this coming Monday!) at the Pooley Stage. Events are at 10am and 6pm PST/SLT.
More Details:
In order to be considered for inclusion in the Festival, events must abide by the following requirements:
- Must be broadly winter and/or holiday themed
- Must be non-commercial in nature (although could be “sponsored”)
- Must be PG in nature
- Must abide by the Community Standards.
- Event(s) must occur during the Winter Festival (12/15/06 – 12/22/06)
- Must be no charge (free) events available for all Residents to attend
- Events must also be actual events - see the event posting rules for clarification on what an event is if you have any questions.
Can’t make the meeting, but still want to participate? Please submit your events to Jeska Linden (in-world IM or email Jeska (at) lindenlab (dot) com) no later than 5pm PST/SLT on Wednesday, December 13th. Please include the date, time and location of the event, the organizer’s Second Life name, and a brief description of the event. The Community Team will select the best events, which will then be listed in the ‘official’ Winter Festival community invitation.
More details are being worked out as we go - please keep your eyes tuned to this blog for more information!
December 7th, 2006 at 4:14 PM
ohh sounds like fun
*runs to put some special snowballs in the freezer*
December 7th, 2006 at 4:16 PM
BETTER START RUNNING. =^_^=
I’ve got watermelon snow all ready to throw! Tee hee hee.
December 7th, 2006 at 4:28 PM
That sounds awesome! I wonder if my land manager would be up for hosting an event on Kula…
(Thx Torley for the link, it was quite informative!)
December 7th, 2006 at 4:31 PM
Will George be there? He offered me a lollipop via live help last night for my whining
I would like to offer him some ice 
December 7th, 2006 at 4:34 PM
Belt Fed, Rotary Barrel, Laser Sighted, Torley Seeking, Gatling SnowBall gun, coming on line…
December 7th, 2006 at 4:38 PM
Why not change all land textures to snow fields for the occasion ?
December 7th, 2006 at 4:48 PM
oh man, a snowball fight that huge, it should be pure awsomeness.
I’m looking forard to it all!
December 7th, 2006 at 4:49 PM
So, umm, will we be able to find all of these wonderful winter events, or will Search -> Places still be down by Christmas?
Sorry for the cynicism, but this REALLY is taking way too long to fix, and really you shouldn’t be looking at adding MORE content when the existing things don’t work properly. Otherwise it’s just going to cause frustration if a global “Come to this wonderful event” shout is made and nobody can find the place because the search function isn’t working.
December 7th, 2006 at 4:51 PM
Snowballs the size of watermelons? >_
December 7th, 2006 at 5:04 PM
This sounds like so much fun!
December 7th, 2006 at 5:05 PM
This update sounds great! I’m going to enjoy this winter alot more… with the snow and all I’m good to go! Thanks for making this new update!
-Flame The Great
AKA Flame Swenholt
December 7th, 2006 at 5:06 PM
With all the problems they have been having since the growth spirt. Can Linden’s Servers really handle such a load as thousands of users fighting in one sim? They seam to have enough trouble being stable with just a few hundred people on one sim. It’s an awsome idea. But is it feasable?
December 7th, 2006 at 5:06 PM
Torley Linden Says:
“BETTER START RUNNING. =^_^=
I’ve got watermelon snow all ready to throw! Tee hee hee.”
*Hums Some holiday tunes while painting a pile of watermelons white.*
December 7th, 2006 at 5:43 PM
Reminds me of all the times in the summer where we had water balloon fights, and after I filled up all of mine I put them in the freezer until the fight started. Let the Linden hunting begin!
December 7th, 2006 at 5:48 PM
2 million of us?
That’s funny. The snowballs.. would that be like a “white goo”?
December 7th, 2006 at 5:49 PM
[...] (more…
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December 7th, 2006 at 5:50 PM
time to pull out the ol’ snowballer 3000 A.K.A
il just shoot anything which moves… INCLUDING ME!!! :D:D
good luck secondlife!
-L
December 7th, 2006 at 5:54 PM
I assume the Linden staff will cheat by using to-the-eye invisibility, sensor invisibility, staying seated, wearing shields, freezing or kicking overly succesful combatants, using snowball machine gun scripts that break the gray goo barrier, and all the other techniques they have honed over the years.
December 7th, 2006 at 5:56 PM
Where do we get snow balls? Are they in the libraries of our inventories?
December 7th, 2006 at 6:12 PM
Can the database handle the load of grid-wide snowball fights? And won’t the grey goo fence prevent the rezzing of too many snowballs at once?
Just wondering…
December 7th, 2006 at 6:14 PM
Seems like I’ve been in 2L for decades, even though it has only been eight months. And now I discover fragmented, disorderly, chaotic, disorganized Second Life has “Traditional Events”! This place never ceases to amaze! I feel like an Antarctic explorer who discovers that all the emperor penguins gather for an Ice Breaking Ceremony once a decade…
December 7th, 2006 at 6:14 PM
Is there going to be a number of sims for the holiday display of things people make, like last year?
coco
December 7th, 2006 at 6:32 PM
Unfortunately, we aren’t having a Winter Expo this year, as we don’t have enough space to nearly allow for everyone who’d like to participate. But I encourage Residents who’d like to hold such an event to attend the organizational meetings on Monday to discuss possible alternatives and other solutions.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:50 PM
wow watermelon snow. You learn something new every day. Don’t eat too much of it..
December 7th, 2006 at 6:51 PM
Can you post the Pooley Stage organizing meetings and the “official Linden” snowball events in the Events so that we can Search, Find, and select Notify for those events we wish to attend? Thank you.
December 7th, 2006 at 7:00 PM
Jeska, Why is the date until Dec 22nd? Why wouldn’t you want to extend it through the 24th?
I mean, I do know the Lindens won’t be online and working…. but there are plenty of people that will be on SL on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. I really want to have a party and be involved in this, but it’s gonna be Christmas Eve that I can do it. …. because I’m off work.
I could probably put on a Christmas Day party too…..
Just wondering why 23rd, and 24rd cant be in the mix of the winter parties?
December 7th, 2006 at 8:08 PM
BEWARE OF THE YELLOW SNOW! ACK!
December 7th, 2006 at 8:28 PM
Oh wow, watermelon snow is SO COOL
Thanks Torley, I’d never heard of that phenomenon before.
But, no fair — you Lindens all have God mode and you can creep up and throw snowballs at us from on high O.O Don’t be cheating now!!
@Cocoanut Koala
Much less tp there. Ho hum, well at least that’ll mean 2million residents won’t descend on Philip at once and crash the grid XD
I think that would be asking for trouble, don’t you? Way things are going right now, we won’t be able to make anything for the event
OK come on folks, discussion of coralling techniques and location transmission relays, hut hut hut!
December 7th, 2006 at 8:32 PM
Don’t crash the servers.
Why can’t TG have a snowball fight? If we do then I haven’t tuned in enough.
December 7th, 2006 at 9:15 PM
I was afraid there might be a space crunch for it. Oh well, there’s always next year!
coco
December 8th, 2006 at 12:06 AM
To be frank I find the exclusion of the word CHRISTMAS over Winter Holiday a farce.
If SL dare to promote any other religious holiday, I will form a campaign group to get Winter Festival changed to CHRISTMAS.
Its a sick Ameircan idea, and rings of conspiracy to downplay Christianity. I suppose some of you will see this as the ‘nut’ post.
SL wouldn’t dare mess about with other religions. Instead of being so PC and fearful of offending people, maybe SL should openly celebrate all religious holidays - with their correct name!
R
December 8th, 2006 at 1:30 AM
ssrooge LL no winter expo , why can’t some sim owners get together for a display and what happened to the land of the burning man theme where is all that land ? geez where is that ceo of LL the biggest time of the year and you all cant show a little fun buh humbug
December 8th, 2006 at 7:57 AM
Last year a certain Linden put rocks in his snowballs. This has led me to have already prepared depleted uranium cored snowballs.
Let the games commence!
December 8th, 2006 at 9:12 AM
Doubledown - we’d be happy to extend the dates if there were events folks wanted to hold in-world on the 23/24, please send your event over and we’ll take a look.
December 8th, 2006 at 10:53 AM
anyone got any good winter effects/scripts?
December 8th, 2006 at 1:21 PM
BWAHAHAHA!!! BETTER START RUNNING!!! *advances with huge piece of ice* DIE!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH…*pant,pant*…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…*pant,pant,pant*…HAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahaha………hehe
December 8th, 2006 at 1:23 PM
Shut up Zekey. =) den we all be happy *must kill with snowballs*!
December 8th, 2006 at 2:14 PM
I did not know either about watermelon snow until today (I’m Spanish… I hardly know about classical snow!), and loved that not only SL, but also the blog provides a new surprise every single day. Please tell us soon where or how to get our snowballs, this is going to be FUN. And Torley… don’t be so confident and prepare your skis too… many of us will come after you (as lovingly as eagerly, hehe).
December 8th, 2006 at 5:30 PM
Aah, snowballs - just the thing for a hot Australian summer…
December 9th, 2006 at 11:19 AM
[...] Official Linden Blog » Blog Archive Third Annual Second Life Winter Festival « Holiday parties on Second Life… (tags: Secondlife) [...]
December 12th, 2006 at 7:49 PM
[...] Quick update on the 3rd annual Second Life Winter Festival and a reminder for entries! Per the initial announcement, Winter Festival Event Proposals are due no later than 5pm PST tomorrow, Wednesday December 13. [...]
December 13th, 2006 at 7:44 AM
I have a question…
Is this going to be taking place in the Teen Grid in any way/shape/form?
New Hope Fellowship is holding a Christmas Eve service, so if anything is goin on on the TG, could that count as one of the ‘official events’?
Thanks,
Ezekiel Lach
(eeeeee-zeeee-key-uhl Laaaa-tchhhh)
December 13th, 2006 at 7:45 AM
Torley Linden /
“BETTER START RUNNING. =^_^=
I’ve got watermelon snow all ready to throw! Tee hee hee.”
Ravanne Sullivan
*Hums Some holiday tunes while painting a pile of watermelons white.*
ummmm watermellon homer like
D’Ho
dont hit homer i cry easy
ohhh snow cones
WOOO HOOO!!!
December 13th, 2006 at 9:29 AM
I am confused by this
“3. Must be PG in nature”, is Linden Labs trying to enforce a PG content in “mature” private sims or is just for resident events located in a “linden” sim?
If this is so is Linden Labs converting all sims to “PG”?
December 13th, 2006 at 2:00 PM
please!!!!!! we want this on TG!
on all 5 snow sims!
December 15th, 2006 at 3:49 AM
*Turns his head* You! Marine! Develop a Snowball Saturation Weapon! I……….. Will supervise >.>
December 15th, 2006 at 10:56 AM
Any updates on this? Doesn’t this start today? I don’t see a list of events on who will participate. Thanks!
December 15th, 2006 at 11:37 AM
[...] We had many great submissions to participate in the Third Annual Second Life Winter Festival (read the initial announcement). We’ve chosen the participants for the event and created a set of Tour HUDS with the locations/events inside. Visit Chalet Linden in Wengen to pick up both Winter Festival Tour HUDs and your free official Second Life Winter Festival 2006 T-shirt! [...]
December 25th, 2006 at 8:51 AM
[...] See, it’s winter in Second Life. Indeed, the Third Annual Second Life Winter Festival ended a few days ago. Put on by the Linden Overlords themselves, it featured such events as a “Grid-Wide Snowball Fight,” breathlessly described on the Official Linden Blog with gratuitous scare quotes, insufficient hyphenation and questionable user stats as a special event you won’t want to miss - a massive all day, all grid snowball fight where Linden Lab staffers will take on all Second Life Residents! *gulp* All almost 2 million of you. Catch us if you can - all across the grid – on Thursday, December 21. [...]
December 29th, 2006 at 12:59 AM
why did rig winter fest on days everyone be soo busy with chrismas preparations???
is any chance u could do another grid wide snowball fight for thouse how missed it first time around!
also what about romantic sim for valintines day! a lovers festival.
and for thouse whom got first rime around why not post photos to linden to show us who missed it what we missed.
happy hanaka and merry chrismas to all at linden
thx
sayuri