SL Newspaper, The Sky Club

After putting in a full day at the office I find myself tired and in need of some excitement. Tonight I was in a wild mood, and on the prowl for some strong drink while testing my luck at a place called the Skye club Oceania. [Oceania 78, 87, 24]

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oceania/89/78/25

I decided to take a dip into the Aqua Lounge first to wet my whistle . As I made my way down the escalator I felt a cool sensation all around me, I almost had the impression that I was in an underwater bar; quite an enjoyable experience, when sipping on a whiskey. Hmm.. maybe i really was in an underwater bar, this calls for more experimentation. After tipping the bartender who gave me a nice little show for my gratitude. Looking across the lounge I noticed a “smoking device” which I took a few puffs of before going over to the dance floor to loosen up. Watching the turtles and sharks swim around confused my mind and made me wonder what the bartender was doping me with. I felt good in a good mood ready for the test of skill and wit as well as a lot of luck that was waiting for me up the escalator.

Once again upstairs, I decided to test my luck on the slots and then move to the more intense card games once the strong drinks had fully kicked in. Remembering Chris Ariantho’s win of 77,011 linden from the Romantic Progressive Slot Machine; I found the machine and clicked the bet 30 button spinning the wheel crossing my fingers. The first time I lost it all, but I was determined, so I put some more in, this time winning 90 and spinning again and winning 90 again. I continued on this winning streak for some time, warming up for the card games. I won 90 again and then just before I was about to loose all of it, randomly I won 300. I scream out “THIS MACHINE ROCKS” and decide to cash out and go play some poker.

I bet 100 and played 3 cards. Getting an 8 as my first card, I use my drunken logic and decide that the card will be lower and I busted. I looked over to the Zyngo machine and decided to test my luck on that, since the poker machines were beating me up raw. I payed the machine 50 linden playing one game to get the concept and then another for skill. Both times not doing well enough to beat the high score of 27000 for the pot of 800 linden.

Moving on to the video poker betting 100 lindens, holding the Ace and then folding quite quickly. I decided to move to the Wheel of fortune. I bet 10 linden the hostess spun the wheel and away we went…as I muttered to myself “make me rich make me rich..damn you!!!”. Moving right along to the table to watch the action a little low on funding, contemplating going back to the Romantic Progressive slot, that I started off so well at. Roulette also seemed quite fun, a little twisted now though I decided to hold out and watch a girl from France trying her luck. I watched a few more rounds of her winning, while finishing off my whiskey.

Next I wondered over to the topless beach, picking up a copy of the newspaper from the box on the way. I ran into some beautiful girls at the beach and invited them into the casino with me for some fun. I had a great time at the Skye Club Oceania meeting great people having some drinks and trying my luck and actually winning more then I ever won at a casino.

Skye Club Oceania has two rewards programs. One is called the Skye High Rollers Club and is open to anyone who would like to join. There is a rather high cost to joining the group, 1000 L$, however, players who gamble at least 50,000 L$ will get paid 3,000 L$ and the rewards continue from there. Im sure I would have won even more if I had joined, because the group pays you more even when your having a winning streak. Skye Club is one of the only casinos that you can beat the house twice. They also have another group for the REAL high rollers that is quite hush hush. They wouldn’t even talk to me about it, you have to be a regular betting over 50,000; and the rewards are quite outrageous. I guess you’ll have to bet to find out more about it. Syd Loon signing off.

A “proper” prosperous capitalistic society with reason and purpose emerges from the burning embers of a historically passionate art and development community. A natural open source economy, is overshadowed by demeaning skyscrapers filled with marketing executives, armed with nondisclosure agreements, scouring the lands for the next branding concept to further mind control marketing schemes with narrow demographics. New laws are created and distributed throughout the land like barbwire fences; with new methods verifying the identity of the “citizens” to make the economy safer for enterprise. The grid buckles from the recent surge of use and chaos ensues.

Am i dreaming…is the machine mind closing in, am I delusional from too many crossed wires and in need of a serious tune up; or is this Neko Cyborg just evolving into some sort of new dream state reality, never before possible in the mind of a machine created by man. Or maybe it was the over clocking of my circuits from hours of building in the sand under the scorching black sun; combined with idle wanderings in The Wastelands. Is the Soma pill a freebie; or is it still being scripted in a lab underneath Nexis Prime?

Dreaming or not, I constantly ponder if drawing a line between the functional capitalistic system and the freedom and individuality of an open source development community is even possible. Will the coming world metropolis along with the pressure of industry hinder the community from freely creating content, or will the two coexist? The looming conglomerate businesses that seem to be moving in and clogging the grid could very well help this humble economy of developers foresee their future and stimulate the economy.

The aristocracy that is “Linden Lab” seems to be struggling to deal with the pressures of a thriving economy as well, from the abolishment of First Land due to land barrons buying it up and selling it for full market prices, to the overpopulated grid and the stress of dealing with residents who feel that they are not being heard. The Lindens seem to be quite overworked, from grid outages to dealing with fraud and the concept of how to manage identities, to how to deal with griefers.

So at the end of the day, when the Linden dollar has risen to the challenge of international markets and fallen to the greed of capitalism, we must ask the questions that are looming. How will we manage this uncontrollable race of capitalism to an imaginary finish line? Is diversity of races and a culture of artists and free thinkers who are on the front lines of thought important to us? Or, are we more interested in forming a solid brand name that is marketable to the masses? Is this world a place for everyone to freely state their opinions and create freely in a limitless environment, or will we let a select few with deep pockets dictate what “brand” of imagination is the finest. At some point we must define some guidelines in between these two extremes; otherwise the free spirited minorities will be driven further and further underground. Once again coming back to the same question. Where do we go from here?