New World Notes

New World Notes Highlights from Last Week: Kinect and SL, Google+ and SL, Avatars vs. Hollywood, and Much More

SL/OpenSim news:

• Tokyo University Developing Real Time, Open Source Kinect-to-Second Life Software
• Explore OpenSim & SL Regions on the Web & Convert Others for Web Use With Avatars Via the ArchTech Engine
• Google Reportedly Allows Second Life User to Keep Google+ Account Named For His SL Avatar (see below for more)
• Iris Rants: Don't Let Fear of SL Content Theft Cause Paranoia Over Alternate Designer Identities!
• OpenSim Active Users: Now About 15,000 (Same as in 2009)
• Have Furries Fairly Fled Second Life for Furry Forums?
• Why Lindens in Second Life Seem Arrogant & Out of Touch

Other tech/gaming/social media news...

• Google Now Allows Fully Pseudonymous Google+ Profiles -- But Only Those Known by a "Meaningful Number" of People
• Do Hollywood Actors Fear the Rise of Avatar-Based Acting?

Why Lindens in Second Life Seem Arrogant & Out of Touch

Serendipity Haven has a fairly funny field guide for satirically spotting Linden Lab staffers in Second Life (which I first spotted on SL's Reddit group.) The post is largely for the yucks, though there's an underlying assumption I often see SLers make in other, more serious contexts: That Lindens in SL are arrogant and out of touch with SL culture. At the risk of missing the joke, I should explain why that seems to be the case (for it often does), based on my own three year experience as a Linden (albeit one who was mainly contracted to explore and report on SL), and from knowing a hundred or so Lindens personally. Most of them are not arrogant in real life, and most of them do care about SL as a community, at least in the most general sense. However, they may seem both arrogant and detached in regards to SL (both in-world and on their website), for at least a couple key reasons:

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Iris Rants: Don't Let Fear of SL Content Theft Cause Paranoia Over Alternate Designer Identities!

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

Recently a group of experienced SL designers got together to start a new menswear-focused superbrand, Entente,  opening this month. Of course, they've become a hot topic as a result, both because of their teaser images (which are gorgeous) and their choice to release under alts rather than their main accounts. Of course they aren't the first designers to reinvent themselves through anonymity or to see controversy as a result-- fri.day and Paper Couture are two other well-known examples (who were all eventually outed). For some this is innocent curiosity and speculation, but for others there is a sense of entitlement to knowing the "real" names behind these brands.

There are many good reasons to want to know who someone is, but the underlying motive is probably fear over content theft, which sometimes gives way to paranoia and makes us forget what makes SL identity valuable in the first place. Though this is a very real threat, identities are not information that designers owe their clientele, and here's why:

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OpenSim Study on Virtual Treatment for Phobia Needs Cars!

A very cool OpenSim research project for use in real world therapy is in need of virtual cars. It's being run by Jorge "Eggy Lippmann" Lima, a longtime SLer, for the University of Lisbon, and the study will use virtual world experiences as a way of treating people with real phobias. Specifically, as Eggy explains, "[S]ome people with agoraphobia will have panic attacks when driving over bridges and into tunnels, or even walk out of their car in fear if they get stuck in traffic." Eggy will show therapists and their patients virtual renditions of cars in various scenarios, "and I will ask them and their patients to answer some questions regarding whether or not they feel the therapy is helping them." Eggy is looking for modern mesh-based cars to use in OpenSim, and of course, your contribution will be acknowledged in papers published on the project. And you might even help some folks deal with their phobias. Go here for more info on the project and contact info on Eggy.

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Sim Deathwatch: SL's Hardcore Hard Alley Hits Hard Times

SL tier prices and economic hard times keep hitting hard, even those who are hard: To wit, Hard Alley, a notorious Second Life virtual porn sim that has been popular for years (I recall reading scandalized reports about it as far back as 2006), is in danger of going out of business, Mark "Pixeleen Mistral" McCahill reports on the Alphaville Herald. The owner cites high sim tier ($295 a month) and a decline of renters to defray those costs, problems that are universally hitting the SL economy on all varieties of sims. I doubt it represents a decline in interest for hardcore porn in SL -- about a third of the most popular sims by traffic are Adult-rated.

So what's happening here? Without investigating too deeply (and I'm not hugely het up to have a hard look at Hard Alley) my initial guess is this:

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NWN in Japanese: Bryn OhのSLアートがクラウドファンディングを通じて、1日でUS$6000の寄付を獲得！

素晴らしいSLアートを見る為に、お金を払ってもいいという聴衆は、存在するのだ。しかも彼らは、そのアートが繁栄し続ける為に、大金を使うこともいとわない。

Continue reading "NWN in Japanese: Bryn OhのSLアートがクラウドファンディングを通じて、1日でUS$6000の寄付を獲得！"

Explore OpenSim & SL Regions on the Web & Convert Others for Web Use With Avatars Via the ArchTech Engine

Click here to visit several locations originally created in Second Life and OpenSim on your web browser. You don't need an SL/OS client to view them, and though they use Unity 3D to display, now you don't even need to download a Unity plug-in, because the latest version of Flash (standard to nearly all web browsers) has Unity's display code built in. This is the latest, nearly consumer-ready version of technology created by Tipodean, from ex-Linden Chris Collins, with the help of SL/RL architect Jon "Keystone" Brouchoud, which I wrote about earlier this month. Now the demo comes with a menu and many locations to select from. The one you're looking at above is a web-accessible version of NOAA, which was originally developed in Second Life for the US government branch. As I noted this week, OpenSim is not apparently growing its userbase. Unity, however, has been growing by leaps and bounds, with a user base in the tens of millions. So if OpenSim (and for that matter SL) wants to grow beyond the smaller market for client-based installs, something like what Tipodean is doing with Unity probably a fruitful way to go.

Related to this, Tipodean also just launched the Archtech Engine, which uses Unity to generate web-based 3D spaces with avatars -- and can do so with SL and OpenSim locations. Chris and Jon and I recently hung out in an early, military-themed demo, see below:

Continue reading "Explore OpenSim & SL Regions on the Web & Convert Others for Web Use With Avatars Via the ArchTech Engine"

Google Reportedly Allows Second Life User to Keep Google+ Account Named For His SL Avatar

According to "TheBlack Box", which is the avatar name of a Second Life user, Google allowed him to keep his Google+ social network account named after that pseudonym. After changing the G+ account name from his real life name to his SL avatar name, his account was flagged, and he sent Google this SL group website link, to prove he was known as TheBlack Box by over 2500 SL users. After some more back and forth, as he reports on his active Google+ account, Google eventually sent him this e-mail:

"Thanks for sending us your appeal. You're right: your name does comply with the Google+ Names Policy. Your name has been updated on your Google+ profile. If you submitted the appeal during sign up, your profile has now been restored. Log in to Google+. Sorry for the inconvenience, The Google+ team."

And so now TheBlack Box in SL is officially TheBlack Box on Google+. This is evidently evidence that Google will indeed allow at least some SL avatars to go by their pseudonym on Google+, when provided sufficient evidence that the avatar name is well-established. When I spoke with her on Tuesday, a Google spokesperson was cagey on what kind of evidence they would accept for pseudonymous G+ accounts. And different Google policy review staffers may make different decisions. But at least in The Black Box's case, a pseudonym-only avatar name was apparently allowed.

Hat tip: Botgirl Questi.

Ask Miss Metaverse Manners About Dealing With SL Content Theft Accusations!

For her next installment of Miss Metaverse Manners, Iris Ophelia takes on a totally touchy topic: The etiquette and ethics around dealing with SL content theft -- both as someone being accused of such theft, and as someone making the accusation. It's a conflict that comes up often, leading to bad blood and in the worse case scenario, real world lawsuits. Miss Metaverse Manners (hopefully) to the rescue: Anonymously post your touchy etiquette and ethics questions around content theft in SL on Iris' Formspring account.

Tokyo University Developing Real Time, Open Source Kinect-to-Second Life Software

SLKinect 2 is a pretty cool open source project being developed by folks at Network System Laboratory of Tokyo University to connect real world motion captured by a Kinect to avatar movement in Second Life and OpenSim. Watch:

Fumi Iseki, a developer with NSL, recently told me more about the project: "These softwares are open source, so anyone can download, read code and use [them] software freely." The code has almost no licensing restrictions, and they've also created code for third party viewers to use. "We hope that third party viewers include our patch."

This is part of a larger SL/OpenSim-oriented project by Network Systems Laboratory:

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Have Furries Fairly Fled Second Life for Furry Forums?

One day recently, software engineer Tess Chu was walking through a hotel, when she stumbled into a furry con. This was a fortune-filled encounter, for while she's now a Senior Software Engineer and Analyst at Kabam, the leading Facebook strategy game developer, her previous life was at Second Life, as a Studio Director at Linden Lab. So on finding out she was an ex-Linden, the phalanx of furries were fairly friendly. For as everyone knows, furries have been among the more active subcultures in Second Life. (Though probably not as large as often assumed: A community leader estimated it to be under 20,000 during SL's 2006 hype wave.)

In any case, after Tess told them she was an ex-Linden, the furries in the hotel told her a fairly different tale:

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How to List Your Avatar Name Next to Your Real Name on Google+ (Which I Generally Recommend)

While it's now possible to have an avatar-only Google+ account (if you can convince Google your avatar is known enough to deserve one), you can also just list your avatar name alongside your real one. In your G+ profile, just click Edit Profile, select your name, then “More options", like so:

You can list your nickname in many ways, one being the way I do so above. Unless you're planning to absolutely maintain a Google+ account that's only relevant to your avatar and those who only know your avatar, I'd personally recommend listing it as a nickname alongside your real name. Doing so will give your Google+ account more credibility to both non-SL users and SLers who don't know your avatar, and give you leverage beyond whatever happens with Second Life the commercial entity. That's especially important to professional content creators and artists. As Beverly "Bettina Tizzy" Millson explains, "With artists, your name is everything. A pseudonym isn't a bad deal in real life for them. But limiting your persona to a virtual name in a walled garden (especially one that isn't growing) that can only be shared via still photos or machinima... it's a trap."

How to Photograph Photoshop-Free SL Water Reflections

Yes, this puddle-filled picture above by Graphic Dix was made in Second Life, and no, the final image hasn't been post-processed in Photoshop or suchlike. Click here for the embiggenized version. Now that you're duly impressed, click here for a detailed, illustrated, step-by-step tutorial on how that's done.

Mr. Dix, by the way, a designer from near Milan, also makes beautifully post-processed SL-based images, and shows you how to do so here.

Google Now Allows Fully Pseudonymous Google+ Profiles -- But Only Those Known by a "Meaningful Number" of People

Google is now allowing a limited number of users on its social network Google+ to have fully pseudonymous accounts, a Google representative just confirmed with me. This after Google+ VP Bradley Horowitz announced yesterday the reversal of a previous Google policy banning pseudonymous accounts. The new policy isn't to be confused with "Nicknames", a Google+ feature also announced yesterday, which are just alternate names listed in addition to an existing (real name) on the profile.

Regarding fully pseudonymous accounts, here's the key clause from Horowitz:

[S]tarting today we’re updating our policies and processes to broaden support for established pseudonyms, from [artist] trench coat to [pop star] Madonna. If we flag the name you intend to use, you can provide us with information to help confirm your established identity. This might include:

• References to an established identity offline in print media, news articles, etc
• Scanned official documentation, such as a driver’s license
• Proof of an established identity online with a meaningful following

We’ll review the information and typically get back to you within a few days. We may also ask for further information, such as proof that you control a website you reference.

Does this mean you can have a Google+ account named after, say, your Second Life avatar, or your Reddit username, or whatever? Maybe. Here's where things get tricky. "It’s important to note that not all appeals will be granted," the Google spokesperson told me. "Users must show that this name is known by a meaningful number of other people."

I asked the spokesperson if that would specifically include pseudonyms based on Second Life avatars. "They include web profiles that only the avatar's owner can use," I explained. "For example, here's mine [Hamlet Au]."

Google's reply:

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Do Hollywood Actors Fear the Rise of Avatar-Based Acting?

The Academy Award nominees for last year's movies were just announced, and one prominent actor's name wasn't included among them, even though he was featured to universal acclaim in one of 2011's biggest movies. I mean, of course, Andy Serkis, who played the chimpanzee named Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes through the technology of motion capture:

His performance as Caesar was vivid, nuanced, heart-wrenching. And as I wrote when Rise opened, Serkis is basically our first avatar-based movie star, renowned for the 3D digital characters he plays, though few who enjoy his performances in theaters know who he is, and still fewer (beyond dedicated geek cineastes) could identify him in real life, were they to pass him on the street. Despite the acclaim for his Apes performance, which won him a nomination by the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, and despite a a lobbying effort for an Oscar nomination by the movie's studio, 20th Century Fox, which ran a "For Your Consideration" ad in trade journals for Serkis as Caesar with the headline “The Time is Now," Serkis got no nomination.

Here's where it gets interesting to me: The Academy Award nominations are made by filmmakers in their respective category. Directors nominate directors, screenwriters nominate screenwriters... and actors nominate actors. So Serkis was specifically snubbed by fellow actors. This despite his popular co-star in Apes, James Franco, lobbying for Serkis' motion-captured performance:

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A Klein Bottle Comes to Second Life (Again)!

A Klein Bottle is a mathematically brain-melting object with no in or out and no front or back, and thanks to Wizard Gynoid, one of them was made to float in Second Life. Watch this machinima to see what I mean:

Love the music by modern master Moby and metaverse artist Miso Susanowa, and it's a credit to both I can't tell when the Moby music ends and the Miso music begins. (Or vice versa.) Via Second Life's Subreddit.

This isn't the first Klein bottle to rise from SL, as I suggested: At least one more was created in 2008 by AM Radio and Miki Gymnast.

Via Ms. Gynoid in Comments: Click here for a direct teleport SLurl to the Klein bottle.

OpenSim Active Users: Now About 15,000 (Same as in 2009)

In June 2009, I asked a lead OpenSim developer about my estimate of 15,000 active users of Second Life's open source spinoff of Second Life. This source told me that 15,000 sounded about right.

In January 2012, extrapolating from this month's OpenSim growth statistics, HyperGridBusiness' Maria Korolov posted a recent update: "[I]f you take the 9,700 users that we counted, add in the 6,000 or so users that are missing, we'd be at around 15,700 active users -- a pretty decent number." (Emphasis mine.)

And I agree, that's a pretty decent number for a 3D open source platform. It also suggests, as I wrote last week, that OpenSim doesn't seem to be growing. Then again, if it was about 15,000 in 2009 and around that number now, neither is it losing users. (And I'd be wrong in speculating that OpenSim usage was dwindling.) At the same time (as reader James OReilly points out), OpenSim's status on Google Trends has been declining in recent years (as the chart above shows.)

Again, this is not a criticism of OpenSim, which is a very useful platform in many cases for a limited subset of developers and consumers. However, it needs to be pointed out for an important reason:

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Second Life Redditors Wonder WTF is Up With Linden Lab's SL Poor Ads -- Please Tell Them, Lindens!

Over on Reddit's sub-community for Second Life (be sure to subscribe!) "Jeran" wonders why Linden Lab is doing such a poor job advertising Second Life, pointing to recent fails like the outdated, odd-looking vampire screenshot on the front page. "[W]e need LL to show off what our content creators can do, which is a LOT," writes Jeran. "But the uninitiated public can't see that unless they are shown these things in advertisements." So why is Linden Lab not doing that? I thought about putting that question to Linden Lab, but am fairly sure an official response wouldn't be very instructive.

Instead, Linden Lab folks reading this blog, I encourage you to go to Reddit -- which uses pseudonyms, so you needn't worry about outing yourself -- and share your perspective there.

Newt Gingrich, SL Fan, Likely to Be GOP's 2012 Candidate

Newt Gingrich, who once visited Second Life as an avatar flanked by a Qaddafi-esque squadron of female bodyguards, declaring it "the beginning of a very different kind of system that let's exactly what you see in front of you happen, which is people from all over the world, can come together, and be together, and share ideas", won the Republican primary in South Carolina last weekend, handily beating Mitt Romney. And as my friend Andrew Leonard noted, since 1980 the Republican nominee who wins South Carolina goes on to win the GOP primary for President. And in any case, Newt is way ahead of Romney in the next primary contest, in Florida. So prepare to hear a lot more in the mainstream media about the Second Life of Newt Gingrich soon.

Update, 11:25AM: By the way, just to make sure no casual readers interpret this post as an endorsement of Gingrich (a notion that makes me throw up in my mouth a little) let me also note that the Obama Administration, through Beth Noveck, President Obama's former deputy chief technology officer for open government (an early SL innovator), has also done some outreach into SL of its own. (But in my opinion, leveraging the platform much more realistically than Gingrich.)

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Top Five New World Notes News From Last Week

• World of Skyrim Actually Much Smaller Than San Francisco
• Crowdfunding SL art: Peter Greenaway Acclaims SL Artist Bryn Oh, Donates to Crowdfunder to Re-Open Immersiva leads to Bryn Oh's SL Art Crowdfunder Raises USD$6K in One Day!
• Linden Lab's marketing limitations: How to Shoot Spectacular Second Life Screenshots: Iris Ophelia's Way... Versus Linden Lab's Way and Here's the Vampire That Should Be On SL's Homepage
• Controversy with the SL viewer code: Claiming Staff Bias, Ex-Linden Karl Stiefvater No Longer Helping Linden Integrate Alignment Tool into SL Viewer leads to SL Insiders oleads ton Alignment Code Controversy: No Personal Animus, Karl's Code Will Be Integrated into the SL Viewer
• OpenSim Gaining Regions... But Not Gaining Many Users

How to Stylishly Celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year in SL

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

This Monday, people around the world will be celebrating the Lunar (or Chinese) New Year, and Second Life is no exception. Believe it or not, Chinese New Year traditions are very fashionista friendly. It's best to wear a new outfit for example, as well as to get a haircut, to symbolize a "fresh start" to the new year. Red is the preferred colour to wear for the Lunar New Year in China as it's believed to repel evil spirits, while black is avoided as it represents death. Pictured above is what I'll be wearing to greet the Year of the Dragon in SL: a super cute (and super red) qipao from +Lika Ruby+ named Chunjie paired with their colour-changing peony headdress.

+ Lika Ruby + [Click here to teleport to + Lika Ruby + in SHIKI VILLAGES] has quite a few outfits inspired by classic Chinese fashion (each in an array of vibrant colours ad prints, just in case red isn't your favourite), any of which would be perfect for any Lunar New Year festivities you might be attending between now and Monday. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

I took this photo, by the way, in the SL sim called China, which resembles a beautiful Chinese brush painting -- a perfect place to celebrate Chinese New Year: Click here for a direct teleport.

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Here's the Vampire That Should Be On SL's Homepage

The SL vampire above left is currently featured on the Second Life homepage, meant as an example of cool content new users can enjoy in-world. Which only caused SL fashionista Alicia Chenaux to complain, "Is she a vampire in a snowstorm? Do vampires usually have big curvy teeth hanging out on their bottom lip? I just don't know. But what gets me is that with SO MANY amazing artists in SL, this was the best they could do?" (Emphasis mine.) Which led to the SL vampire above right, a screenshot Alicia whipped up in about 20 minutes, with a fine analysis of how she did so, along with all the shortcomings the SL vampire (now standard in new users' inventories) has. This is yet another example of how poorly Linden Lab is promoting Second Life content, an ongoing problem:

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Sim Deathwatch: Cartoonimals Leaving SL on the 14th

Cartoonimals, a popular destination in Second Life, is closing on February 14, according to Daniel Voyager, due to the owner's increasingly frenetic real life work schedule. Looks like the sim is for sale, however. Click here for direct teleport to Cartoonimals.

Good Marketing Tips for SL Fashion Bloggers

Ms. Cajsa Lilliehook has some very good tips for SL fashion bloggers (which I meant to write about sooner), such as: "With each blog photo you upload, you should provide a URL to your blog in the description... I always provide a link to my blog and I have my blog listed in my Flickr profile." To which I'd add: Include keywords like "SL fashion [style type]" to the photo description as well. Because I'd estimate about 10% of New World Notes traffic actually comes from Google image searches. Make your images easier to find on Google, and your blog will be too. More from Cajsa here.

World of Skyrim Actually Much Smaller Than San Francisco

Physics grad Matthew Sutton wrote a very interesting analysis of Skyrim's size on Quora, and if you've explored Bethesda's grand, expansive game world, you'll probably be surprised. Extrapolating from the height of NPCs and the buildings they inhabit, Sutton estimates the world to be (on the high end)... 3.7 miles across from West to East, and 2.4 miles from North to South. So like this:

In real world terms, assuming Sutton is correct (and his calculations seem plausible), that means Skyrim is much smaller than San Francisco, which is roughly seven by seven miles across. Look:

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Bryn Oh's SL Art Crowdfunder Raises USD$6K in One Day!

Yes, there is a paying audience for great Second Life art, and yes, they are willing to pay quite a lot to keep it thriving. That's my take to some pretty impressive news: Last night, the Toronto-based artist known as Bryn Oh in SL raised over $6000 in crowdfunder donations to restore and maintain her SL work Immersiva for a year. Just as impressive (and let me break this down):

• Bryn's original goal was to raise $5400 in 60 days. Instead, she raised over $6000 in about a single day.
• There was so much enthusiasm for Bryn's crowdfunder, IndieGoGo put it on the site's front page. (It's still up there now.)
• Along with filmmaker Peter Greenaway, who contributed enough to pay sim tier costs for six months, there were other large donations: One individual donated $1000, a company donated $500, three folks put in between $100 and 250.

"[I] had wondered if 60 days was enough so it was very heartwarming to see it achieved in one day," Bryn Tells me. "Indiegogo will keep the campaign going for the 60 day duration then transfer whatever amount is donated to me on the following morning." The $1000 donor was educator Selby Evans (Thinkerer Melville in SL), with $500 from Entermeta. See all the donors here.

More updates soon, but the bottom line is this: Immersiva will rise again. And with it, the chances more great, crowdfunded innovations in SL.

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How to Shoot Spectacular Second Life Screenshots: Iris Ophelia's Way... Versus Linden Lab's Way

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

Shortly after I posted my five point checklist for flawless and Photoshop-free SL snapshots last week, someone on Plurk shared a Linden snapshot done to advertise the company's "New Year, New You" image contest, shown on the right. Of course, I couldn't resist applying my checklist to a redo of this image (pictured above) using my current avatar and my much creepier avatar circa 2006.

I did need one extra step, which was to make sure that the images of both avatars were the same scale, for the sake of a more balanced and proportionate layout. It's not perfect but, given that it took no more than a few minutes to take and edit, I'd say it's pretty good!

Let's put them side-by-side for a compare-and-contrast:

Continue reading "How to Shoot Spectacular Second Life Screenshots: Iris Ophelia's Way... Versus Linden Lab's Way"

OpenSim Gaining Regions... But Not Gaining Many Users

OpenSim, the open source spinoff of Second Life, is gaining many new regions and grids, according to HyperGrid Business, but that only tells part of the story. As this happens, actual users of OpenSim seem to be shrinking. In 2009, the most popular OpenSim viewer had just under 10,000 monthly active users, with an estimate of 15,000 total OpenSim users overall. (A guess I confirmed then with one of OpenSim's top developers.) Now, HGB reports, OSGrid has "the most active users, at 3,280", and "Avination was the second most-active grid, with 3,266 active users." (Emphasis mine.) So it's very unlikely the total amount of OpenSim users exceeds 15,000, and more likely much under that number. We can't totally be sure, for as HyperGrid Business also notes, there's no central database counting OpenSim grids or active users. But the smart money is that since 2009, the number of people regularly involved with OpenSim is less, not more.

This lack of growth isn't a criticism of OpenSim per se, because clearly some people continue to find it useful. However, in relation to Second Life and the broader market for 3D-based virtual worlds, it's an important point to keep in mind. For example, when I noted that Bryn Oh's Second Life artwork had lost its patron, some suggested that she should move her creations to OpenSim. But doing so would drastically shrink her potential audience, not grow it. And because OpenSim doesn't have a virtual currency as viable as Linden Dollars, make it even more difficult for her to raise funds (and paying fans) to sustain her artwork.

OpenSim's lack of growth raises even more concern for Second Life itself:

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Coliloquy Launches Dynamic Interactive Fiction E-book App

Coliloquy, a digital publisher of interactive fiction, just launched its app for Kindle with four novels this week, and since it's a new platform for online, user-collaborated content, I thought it worth noting here. A friend is working on the launch (thus I have some bias), so I got a sneak preview of the app a few weeks ago, and came away impressed. The basic idea, as I see it, is to create a new form of storytelling for the digital age that is more in line with how we tell and share stories online. A Coliloquy story can be adjusted dynamically from episode to episode, based on reader response, and the choices individual reader make within the story itself. (It has a "choose your path" feature akin to adventure games, among many other cool narrative tools.) I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of books and stories, and my guess is Coliloquy or something like it will be part of that next generation. Explore more here.

Founding SL Coder Comments on Qarl's Alignment Code

James Cook, one of Second Life's founding engineer/programmers, stopped by New World Notes to comment on Qarl's open source alignment code contribution to the SL viewer, which has led to some disputes. James, who now works with Google and is involved with Chromium, another marriage of open source code and development by a for-profit corporation (i.e. Google) strikes a wise balance:

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Richard Garriott Built Virtual Worlds to Leave the Real One

Man on a Mission is a new documentary about Richard "Lord British" Garriott, the game and virtual world innovator whose Ultima Online from the late 90s is still online today, and who invested his millions to make a voyage toward the stars. Here's the trailer, looks like fun:

Fun fact: Over a decade ago, Richard Garriott made a voyage to my basement studio in the Mission district. Which is, you know, almost exactly the same thing.

Protest Today Against SOPA & PIPA, Which Threaten SL

Today if you're to look up the user-generated service Second Life on Wikipedia, another user-generated service, you'll get the result above. That's because today, Wikipedia leads the protest against PIPA and SOPA, two bills which unduly threaten both Wikipedia and Second Life, and other user-generated services like them. (As the EFF confirmed to me last week.) If you're a US citizen, consider getting informed and contacting your representatives, to express your concerns. Click here for Wikipedia's page for help on doing just that.

Peter Greenaway Acclaims SL Artist Bryn Oh, Donates to Crowdfunder to Re-Open Immersiva -- and So Can You!

Two great news items for supporters of SL art: Peter Greenaway, the acclaimed British director of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover with Helen Mirren, and The Pillow Book with Ewan McGregor, has donated 6 months worth of sim tier in a new crowdfunder to re-open Immersiva, the SL art installation by Toronto artist Bryn Oh, who recently lost her patron, and had to close the sim. Greenaway, who's been a longtime supporter of SL art, has this to say about Bryn Oh:

"In the exciting new arena of immersive Art which offers so much to the future of communications, Bryn Oh is an important, fascinating and innovative pioneer and should definitely be supported." - Peter Greenaway

Who can resist a plea like that? Click here to contribute to the Immersiva crowdfunder, which offers a number of benefits beyond the supporting metaverse-based arts and Bryn Oh in particular: For example, $100 gets you one of five of Bryn's SL sculptures and the private use of Immersiva on your rez day, while $500 gets you a real life pen-and-ink drawing by Bryn Oh's corporeal hand. So once again, click here for the crowdfunder.

Continue reading "Peter Greenaway Acclaims SL Artist Bryn Oh, Donates to Crowdfunder to Re-Open Immersiva -- and So Can You!"

SL Insiders on Alignment Code Controversy: No Personal Animus, Karl's Code Will Be Integrated into the SL Viewer

I talked with some SL insiders on background about the recent controversy over the alignment code from ex-Linden Karl "Qarl" Stiefvater, which Karl donated to the official SL viewer, but implementation of which has been delayed, provoking accusations of personal animus. The insider perspective, unsurprisingly, was quite different:

• The request for improvements to the alignment code was not motivated by any personal animus against Karl.
• Rewriting the code as-is to Linden specs would require significant company resources.
• A Linden engineer who submitted the same code would have received the same response.
• It's very rare for open source contributions more than a few lines of code to be quickly accepted as-is.
• The Lindens do want to integrate the alignment code into the viewer, which is why they assigned Oz Linden to the task. 

So there's that. Without taking sides, my sense is the Lindens do want to work with Karl's alignment code and Karl's mesh deformer, and that personality clashes like these are fairly inevitable when an open source project intersects with the needs of a for-profit corporation, even if both sides ultimately mean well. In any case, I hope the conflicts (technical and personal) are resolved, and Karl's considerable brilliance is made part of the official viewer as soon as feasible.

Continue reading "SL Insiders on Alignment Code Controversy: No Personal Animus, Karl's Code Will Be Integrated into the SL Viewer"

Prim-Based Game Minecraft Exceeds 20 Million Registered Users, Almost 5 Million Paying Customers

Minecraft, a sandbox game with prim-based creation tools, now has nearly 20.2 million registered users, of which almost 4.7 million have bought the game. That's over 20 million registrations in under 2 years. For comparison's sake, Second Life, which has many strong similarities to Minecraft, including a strong user-created content community, took about 8 years to exceed 20 million registrations. (It's at some 27 million now.) This is one reason why I think SL creator Linden Lab should create a new game with prim-based building evocative of both worlds.

Continue reading "Prim-Based Game Minecraft Exceeds 20 Million Registered Users, Almost 5 Million Paying Customers "

Made in Hawaii: Tetris Battle, One of Facebook's Top Games

"Inside Tetris Battle, Facebook’s top multiplayer arcade game" is my latest report for Inside Social Games on the rising popularity of Tetris Battle, a re-imagined version of the arcade classic created by Tetris Online, a game company based in Honolulu. (That's the view from the office.)

I wrote the report while home for the holidays, in between being on the beach and hanging with President Obama, and given my Hawaii bias, I'm uniquely stoked that the game is on track to be one of the very largest Facebook games overall. (It's among the top ten now, and has a good chance to reach the top five this year.) I also personally think it's an excellent game: Click here to play.

Mahalo to Tetris Online's Casey Pelkey for the office photo!

SOPA Seems Dead, But PIPA Still Threatens Second Life

The Obama Administration came out against SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" House bill which threatens Second Life and its users, and it now seems to be dead. However, PIPA ("Protect IP Act") a companion bill in the Senate, is still going forward, and the EFF told me it's just as threatening to user-created content sites like Second Life. Consequently, Wikipedia and other major sites will still go dark on Wednesday. So PIPA protest continues, and if you're a US citizen, you might still want to plan to contact your Senator. Go to the EFF site here for info and resources.

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Claiming Staff Bias, Ex-Linden Karl Stiefvater No Longer Helping Linden Integrate Alignment Tool into SL Viewer

Karl "Qarl" Stiefvater has declined to work any further with Linden Lab on incorporating the code to his useful alignment tool into the official SL viewer. This comes last week after the Linden vet donated the code; since then, Linden Lab engineer Charlie "Charlar" Hite rejected it as is, writing on the company's feature management JIRA site, "It does not work for non-mod permission objects... [and is] usable for purely prim-based builders under specific circumstances. It's less useful for building with non-cube prims, mesh, sculpties." While not necessarily rejecting Charlar's technical points, Karl believes the move reflects a personal animus Linden Lab staffers have against Karl, whose contract was ended by the company in 2010 under disagreeable circumstances.

"He's not 'wrong' to reject the code," Karl tells me now. "His claim that it doesn't work on no-mod objects - if true - needs to be addressed. But issues like these have been overlooked time and time again in the past - the Lindens like to completely rewrite contributions when they receive them. So that, and the (crazy) dismissal of its usefulness, AND the abrasive language - tells me I'm getting special treatment."

Karl goes on:

Continue reading "Claiming Staff Bias, Ex-Linden Karl Stiefvater No Longer Helping Linden Integrate Alignment Tool into SL Viewer"

Aurasma: Virtual & Real Augmented Reality for Smartphones

Aurasma is an augmented reality app for iOS and Android that integrates 3D virtual experiences into everyday objects which show up on your smartphone's camera, and it looks pretty cool. Watch:

Hat tip Douglas Story. Just as cool, the app lets you create your own augmented reality assets, which are ably demonstrated below by Eric Rice (who SL vets may remember by his avatar name, Spin Martin). As Eric shows, the applications are not just virtual world-ish, but very real:

Continue reading "Aurasma: Virtual & Real Augmented Reality for Smartphones"

Top 7 New World Notes Posts Last Week

• EFF Confirms: SOPA & PIPA, If Passed, Would Jeopardize Second Life and Its Users
• Iris' 5 Point Checklist for Flawless, Foolproof, & Photoshop-Free Second Life Snapshots
• Second Life Lost 879 Private Sims and $500K to $2M in Revenue in '11 -- I.E., Why Tier Costs Won't Likely Lower
• Sim Deathwatch: Without Funding, Bryn Oh's Landmark Immersiva Art Space to Close Soon
• What "Other Products" Will Linden Lab Launch in 2012?
• Youthful Opportunity: Most Who Visit SL's Site Are Under 34
• Second Life Mesh Stats, January 2012: 22% Sims Have Some Mesh From 240 Daily Uploaders for 140K+ Total Objects

EFF Confirms: SOPA & PIPA, If Passed, Would Jeopardize Second Life and Its Users (And Here's How to Take Action)

So I asked the venerable Electronic Frontier Foundation if the SOPA bill, as I feared, would jeopardize Second Life and its users. Short answer: Yes. Also, another bill, PROTECT IP Act (or PIPA), is just as concerning. Specifically, EFF staff attorney and intellectual property expert Mitch Stoltz told me this:

"We think that SOPA, and its companion bill in the Senate, the Protect IP Act (PIPA, S.968), will have a serious impact on any Internet site that hosts user-generated content. The bills are not limited to websites - they could be directed at any Internet-based business that uses the Domain Name System, buys or sells advertising, or accepts electronic payments. Although the bills are targeted at foreign "rogue" sites that allow indiscriminate piracy, they use vague definitions that could sweep in many legitimate sites, including domestic U.S. sites in some cases. They also undermine some of the protections against harassing lawsuits that Internet-based businesses have today. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, sites that host user content can't be held liable for copyright infringement by users as long as they respond to valid takedown notices and comply with some other requirements, but they don't have to look actively for infringing content. Under PIPA and SOPA, all sites that host users' content would have to become copyright police or risk being shut down because of the actions of a few users.

Emphases mine. Unfortunately, when I asked Linden Lab if they had a statement about SOPA, they declined to answer. My hope is that's only because they're preparing an answer, for a statement which was supported by well-known SL founders and boardmembers like Philip Rosedale and Mitch Kapor would add tremendous heft to the growing opposition among the tech industry. (Example: founding Linden Hunter Walk, who's now a bigwig at YouTube.)

That aside, if you're a US citizen, there's something you can do: Click here for info from the EFF on how to contact your representatives in the House and Senate. And please click soon: "PIPA, the Senate version of the bill," the EFF's Stoltz tells me, "will be up for a vote on January 23, so it's very important that people write, call, or visit their Senators in the next week."

Update, 5:50PM: Bumped up for importance. This weekend, please take time to consider how you might get involved.

Iris' 5 Point Checklist for Flawless, Foolproof, & Photoshop-Free Second Life Snapshots

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

The Secondlife.com homepage image (pictured on the right) gave me a sharp case of déjà vu recently. About one month ago I wrote about how LL could improve their Marketplace graphics substantially with a few visual changes-- most of them simple techniques for taking a flattering snapshot that can make the most of SL's graphic capabilities... things that LL is definitely (still) not doing.

I know plenty of people believe that a snapshot from SL can't even look any better than these ads without extensive Photoshopping, but that just is not the case anymore. Have you seen Sl these days? It's pretty gorgeous if you know where to look.

Believe it or not, you can get amazing shots of your avatar and your environment straight from the client (like the picture at the top of this post), and it's not as hard as you might think...

Continue reading "Iris' 5 Point Checklist for Flawless, Foolproof, & Photoshop-Free Second Life Snapshots"

Second Life Lost 879 Private Sims and $500K to $2M in Revenue in '11 -- I.E., Why Tier Costs Won't Likely Lower

Second Life lost 879 private sims in 2011, according to Tyche Shepherd's indispensable Second Life economic analyses. I double-checked this data with her, and this amounts to a drop in total land revenue for Linden Lab from about $62 million in 2010 to about $60 million in 2011 -- or, accounting for other factors, a likely annual revenue loss between $500,000 to $2 million.

I checked these figures with Linden Lab, and spokesman Peter Gray told me this:

"As a private company, we don’t disclose financials, so we're not able to go into details for questions like this. The change in private estates last year represents only a minor portion of total land in Second Life, and land revenue itself is only a portion of our total revenues. As a result, the impact of changes like this is diminished and can also be offset by changes in other revenues." Likely that would include monthly Premimum subscriptions, which are probably rising (though the company hasn't released figures on that.)

In any case, this again emphasizes two interlocking points I brought up in 2011:

• Linden Lab's land revenue model is not sustainable, and needs to be (gradually) replaced. And to fully replace it, SL and Linden Lab probably need mass growth far beyond its existing userbase.
• While SL landowners complain about the existing land tier they are paying now, it's very unlikely Linden Lab can lower tier prices, without jeopardizing their profit margin. About 500 SLers -- i.e. the largest SL land barons -- are paying 73% of SL's total land revenue. If they were to receive a tier discount, the total revenue loss for Linden Lab would be drastic.

Read all of Tyche Shepherd's report here. And be sure to follow her Twitter account for updates.

What Went Wrong With Multiverse: VentureBeat's Take

My colleague Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat has an exhaustive post on what went wrong with Multiverse, which recently announced its shuttering and continuation as an open source project. The article attributes the underlying problem to development timing and declining revenue from developers working on the platform (if I'm reading that right), though my intuition is another factor not mentioned in the article was key: failure to gain mass growth of users to Multiverse-based MMOs and projects. Had many more users showed up and downloaded/launched the underlying client, likely would more funding, or other willing partners. Anyway, read it all here.

Sim Deathwatch: Without Funding, Bryn Oh's Landmark Immersiva Art Space to Close Soon

Immersiva, the landmark art space created by a Toronto artist known in SL as Bryn Oh, has lost its former patron, and may be close to leaving Second Life entirely. A last-minute bid to win patronage from Linden Lab has been declined. You can read about it here. I just got word from Bryn, and there may be a patron who can help for six months. Beyond that period, my recommendation to her is to launch a crowdfunder to cover her tier. It would probably cost under $4000 to keep Immersiva open for a year, a quite manageable fee for all its many fans. Will hopefully know more soon.

In her final note, Bryn says something about Linden Lab that needs emphasizing:

I think somewhere inside I had hoped they were aware of what the residents did, but watched from afar. I am a bit naive. There actually were Lindens who did know the community at one time like Pathfinder Linden, Blue Linden, Teagan Linden and so on but they are now long gone.

This is very true, but it was even largely true back in 2006, when SL's userbase became far too large for the staff to maintain as close a contact as they did in the startup days. Now, as Bryn suggests, rounds of layoffs and voluntary departures have almost entirely removed even the few Lindens who tried to keep abreast of SL culture. And while this may seem harsh to say, it's just a bureaucratic and business reality that's important to keep in mind: Do not assume anyone at Linden Lab knows or cares about your SL project, no matter how grand and important it is. For many reasons, some sad, some just part of the natural evolution of things, they probably don't. Best not to hope too much for their patronage; instead, turn to those SLers who do know and support you already.

Hat tip: Bettina Tizzy, Gianna Borgnine.

Could SOPA Strangle Second Life? Sadly, Seems So.

SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" currently being debated in Congress, to massive opposition by much of the Internet industry, would probably be a grave threat to Second Life, if passed. Since SOPA seems mainly aimed at website-based copyright "piracy", I initially assumed that Second Life, being a non-web, 3D client-driven Internet software, might fall outside its jurisdiction. However, here's some of what the President of League of Legends, another 3D client-driven Internet application, says about SOPA:

How would SOPA/PIPA impact League of Legends players?

• Kills streaming. If any single streamer plays copyrighted music (or alt tabs into a movie or other owned content) on their stream, there is a significant risk of the entire streaming service being taken down. In some cases, it could even result in criminal penalties for the streamer.
• Threatens independent content creation. Services we all use to create and share League of Legends related content, such as YouTube, Reddit, DeviantArt, streaming websites such as Own3d and Twitch, and more would be at risk of shutting down or greatly restricting the scope of legitimate content allowed on their sites.
• Attacks our community. Aspects of our service such as the official forums and potentially even in-game chat, could be taken down or have their features reduced based on user behavior.

Replace "League of Legends" with Second Life (or for that matter, many other client-based Internet services), and the implications remain the same. Says Wikipedia: "The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for 10 pieces of music or movies within six months." And again, that would seem to threaten many SLers, in quite drastic ways.

I'm checking with the Electronic Frontier Foundation on this point, and will report anything they tell me. However, when I asked Linden Lab if they had a statement about SOPA, spokesman Peter Gray said this: "I'm not able to offer a comment at this time."

Hat tip: Brokentoys.org

What "Other Products" Will Linden Lab Launch in 2012?

This year, Linden Lab will launch "some completely different products" from Second Life, some of which "will be very experimental, but all will fit within our company’s proud history of enabling creativity". But what? At least some of them will be deployed on the web and tablets, as Linden CEO Rod Humble has said, which gives us some hint of what they'll look like. Here's my own three guesses, not drawing from any particular inside info, but from an "If I was Linden Lab..." perspective, and from what the company is already doing now:

Continue reading "What "Other Products" Will Linden Lab Launch in 2012? "

Youthful Opportunity: Most Who Visit SL's Site Are Under 34

According to Google's Ad Planner stats, the majority of people now visiting Second Life's homepage are under 34, with 46% of them 24 and younger, and 33% of them 17 and and younger. This is interesting for at least a couple reasons: The existing userbase of SL strongly skews to Generation X and Boomers (mid 30s and older), so these traffic patterns suggest a much younger cohort is hitting SL's site, apparently interested in getting in. (Likely as a result of Second Life ads featuring vampires, clubbing, etc.) At the same time, new user retention remains extremely poor, which further suggests to me that all these young potential users are not getting the seamless, easy-to-use experience from SL that they're accustomed to from such younger-skewing worlds like IMVU and Habbo Hotel. But the desire is there, and so is the opportunity -- a new market that could revive and grow SL's aging population. I hope Linden Lab is concentrating their first time user experience on them.

How to Handle PR Crises on the Virtual Community of Reddit

"Game Company Addresses Epic PR Failure on Reddit" is my latest article for The CMO Site edited by my pal Mitch Wagner, and as the title suggests, it's about the PR disaster recently experienced by videogame company N-Control (you know, the one which involved the immortal words "I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm”), which was exacerbated but then largely managed on the virtual community of Reddit. I've become quite fascinated with Reddit in recent months -- with its pseudonymous accounts and user-generated content, it's almost like a web and text-based Second Life, one that's become very influential on the larger Internet. Read the article here, and if you're so inspired, please create a free CMO account to join the conversation there.