New World Notes

Newt Gingrich's Second Life: The Leading GOP Presidential Candidate Visited the Virtual World With All-Female Avatar Bodyguards, Suggested Congress Meet in SL Too

Newt Gingrich, who may very well become the next President of the United States, has a second life. No, I don't mean his second life as a lobbyist, I mean literally, a second life: A few years ago, the leading GOP candidate for President created a Second Life avatar and gave a long lecture on the steps of a virtual Capitol building, where he proposed that Congress itself meet, all while being protected by a squad of all-female avatar bodyguards, and protested by a green fairy with wings who called him a fascist.

This was back in 2007, when the 3d virtual world was in its period of maximum media hype, and Gingrich was not even the only nationally prominent political figure to dabble in SL. In 2006, for instance, when Mark Warner was considered a leading Democratic Presidential candidate, the then Virginia governor (now Senator) made a short whistle stop appearance in Second Life.

Unlike Warner and most others, Newt went whole hog on virtual reality, not only making an appearance in SL, but praising it as the future of Internet, lecturing more generally about the Metaverse, and then to top it off, proposed that America's political leaders meet on a Second Life island called Second Legistlation.

Here's what he said:

Iris' Vintage Fair Favorites: Sexy Lingerie & Classic Bed for Your SL Avatar

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

Vintage Fair, a two sim shopping extravaganza for anyone with a retro itch to scratch, is ending this weekend on December 3rd. I wanted to wrap up my coverage of this unique event with a memorable look, something with antique flair.

Like it? Here's the Fair items I bought to get this look:

Conspiracy Keanu Asks a Crucial Question

Inspired by my favorite new meme, Conspiracy Keanu. Fellow SL bloggers and Flickeristas, I'd love to see more metaverse-related Keanu questions. Because you know, that'd just be so Keanu. (And link to my favorites, he blatantly hinted.)

Click here for copious Keanu whoa-ness, and to create some Conspiracy Keanus of your own.

Coming Soon: Dimensions, Augmented Sound Game Co-Created by Robert "Dizzy B" Thomas - Want a Beta Invite?

Dimensions is an iOS "augmented sound" game co-created by Robert "Dizzy Banjo" Thomas, who's developed incredibly innovative audio experiences for both the iOS and in Second Life. It'll include music from Hans Zimmer, the famed composer who also worked with Dizzy on the official Inception iOS app that millions have downloaded. Coming to the app store next month, ten NWN readers can get a special Beta invite to play the game now -- details below.

As with Dizzy's other iOS apps, Dimensions will integrate sounds from your real world environment, blending them into the virtual reality of the game's story and characters in it. Specifically, Robert tells me as an example:

"[Say y]ou are sitting at home having breakfast... You automatically enter the Tranquil Dimension because it is quiet around you. The clinking sounds from your breakfast cutlery spin off into infinity around you and generate melodies in the music... As you finish your breakfast, [game character] Emily from Mission Control appears in your ears, softly telling you that an Artifact has appeared nearby and you could collect it. You take out your device and look on the screen. It shows a map of your real location with the Artifact on your right. You use the beam to collect the Artifact, a special device you gained during Dimensionaut Training."

As you might imagine, Dimensions fits into Robert's new vision for virtual reality in the iOS age:

Survey: Has SL's Marketplace Website Changed Your SL Shopping Habits?

Online Surveys & Market Research

Port Seraphine, a longtime SL shopping island owned and run by fashionista legend Nephilaine Protagonist, is closing next January. Neph, someone I've known and admired in both worlds since 2003, has run Port Seraphine (SLurl here) since early 2006, but now writes on SL Universe that "I don't really have the time or the patience to maintain a set of stores this extensive anymore, and if it's not fun it's not worth it."

Port Seraphine is not the only SL shopping mall that's closing or soon to close; many more have, as Prim Perfect reports in an extensive post, with the author pointing to the growth of the official Marketplace website as a likely culprit. As more SLers buy their avatar fashion and other virtual goods on Linden Lab's website, the reasoning goes, less will take the time to enjoy the full immersive experience of shopping in-world that SL shopping areas provide. Hence the non-scientific but still hopefully illuminating survey question above: Has the Marketplace changed your in-world shopping habits, and if so how? And please discuss in more detail in Comments.

Survey results published in the next week or two.

Facebook's Top 5 PvP Strategy Games: My New ISG Report

Here's my new Inside Social Games report on the top player vs. player strategy games on Facebook, and it's sort of my long, professional answer to a question hardcore gamer friends often ask: "Why should I play Facebook games when they're just about farming and Spamming my friends?" That actually hasn't been true for a year or so. About 25 million people play PvP strategy games on Facebook, and many of them have gameplay that's about as complex and challenging as classics like Command & Conquer and Starcraft. (Among them is my personal favorite, Backyard Monsters.) Read about the top PvP strategy Facebook games here.

Great SL Machinima Mixes McLuhan & Mixed Reality Footage

"Welcome to the Other Side", a great machinima by Tutsy Navarantha, mixes the writings of Marshall McLuhan with beautiful SL footage and real world video shot in Paris. (Warning: Somewhat NSFW.) I first wrote about it here, but since then, "Welcome to the Other Side" has joined my shortlist for the University of Western Australia's machinima contest this year (click here to see all the entries), which I'm helping judge along on this criterion.

Fractal Cube Originally Made in SL Now on Sale in RL

Looking for a mixed reality art object as a holiday gift this Cyber Monday? (I know, who isn't?) How about a Hilbert Curve cube, originally created in Second Life by mathematician Henry "Seifert Surface" Segerman, which Henry is now selling on Shapeways, the 3D printing company.

A Hilbert curve is a continuous fractal space-filling curve (hope you know that means, because I actually don't), which Seifert made in SL from 16 sculpty prims, creating the textures with various Python programs, then sent it floating in metaverse space. Now you can buy the physical version for under $25. Added feature: It's made of twisty material, so you can also use it as a hair tie. (I'm sure David Hilbert, who looks quite the 19th century hipster, would approve.)

In his SL heyday, by the way, Henry Segerman created the legendary crooked tesseract house in SL, which I first wrote about in 2006 here, and thanks to a generous donor, still exists in-world: Click here to visit.

Machinima Links Metaverse Art With 20th Century Futurism

In "Futurism Vs. Art of the Future", a well-edited and photographed machinima by Spiral Silverstar, art in Second Life is compared with "Futurism", the early 20th century art movement which emphasized speed and technology. I think the comparison has some value, and I also admire Silverstar's framing device for presenting a montage of SL works, which might otherwise seem stale or an arid travelogue.

"Futurism Vs. Art of the Future" is on my shortlist for the University of Western Australia's machinima contest this year (click here to see all the entries), which I'm helping judge along on this criterion.

The Fate of Subscription-Based MMOs in 2011: Go Free-to-Play, or Die

Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings has a good write-up on the state of MMOs in 2011, based on predictions he made for them last year. (He quite literally wrote the book on MMOs.) As I read him, the big trend for 2011: Go free-to-play, or die. (Or in the case of World of Warcraft, start dying.) Sample:

[H]ow did other subscription MMOs do [in 2011]?

• EVERQUEST 2: went free to play
• CITY OF HEROES: went free to play
• LINEAGE 2: went free to play
• AGE OF CONAN: went free to play
• STAR TREK ONLINE: went free to play
• FINAL FANTASY 14: still involuntarily free to play
• EVE: attempted suicide by CEO, layoffs, trying to come back
• STAR WARS GALAXIES: cancelled
• LEGO ONLINE: cancelled

Much more great Lum snark and analysis here. This trend is bad news for World of Warcraft, which lost about 1 million subscribers in 2011, and for Star Wars: The Old Republic, releasing this month and last I heard, will be subscription based. By contrast, the overall trend is good news for Second Life, which has been freemium since 2006. (As it happens, Jennings is also an occasional SLer, known in-world as Lum Lumley.)