New World Notes

There's a Lot to Hate About Ultra-Trashy Sci-Fi MMO Scarlet Blade, So Why Don't I Actually Hate It?

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Today I want to write about something I've been wrestling with for a few weeks, a new MMO for mature audiences that makes me feel very... conflicted. I'm not quite sure where I stand when it comes to Aeria Games' Scarlet Blade. So far most of the coverage of this game has either focussed on how appalling the avatars are or how awesome they are, but few people have tried to engage with it beyond that. The avatars certainly are... something else... but they're barely the tip of the iceberg.

I played Scarlet Blade for the first time a few weeks ago, and since then I've been struggling to form a solid opinion about it. I feel almost guilty about my continued ambivalence. There are a lot of reasons to hate Scarlet Blade... So why don't I? (NSFW)

Why Do I Blog? SL Blogging Community Meme Asks The Big Questions

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

There's a new meme working its way around the blogging community right now that has writers answering the big questions about why they do what they do. Strawberry Singh brought it to the SL community last week after spotting it on a RL blog, and since then there has been an explosion of responses. Several so far stand out, including Anya Ohmai (easily one of my top 3 favorite SL bloggers), and Opal Lei (writer and photographer behind adorable snapshot blog "Where's Dim Sum?").

It's tempting to make this a post listing my favorite responses to this meme, but that would ignore the question altogether...

Bioshock Infinite's Damsel Dilemma: Hey Girl, If You're So Omnipotent Why Can't You Find Your Own Damn Airship?

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

When I last wrote about Bioshock Infinite, I was practically gushing about how interesting and dynamic companion character Elizabeth is. All her context-sensitive interactions and visual cues make her one of the best companions I've ever had in a videogame. That said, she's definitely not one of the best female characters. As I mentioned in my previous post, she's... Problematic. Today I want to talk about why, and get a few things off my chest in the process.

Spoiler alert: I can't write about this topic without mentioning the ending. Sorry folks. Avert your eyes. 

How Bioshock Infinite's Elizabeth Is Built to Breathe Life Into The Most Mundane Moments

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

When you try to break down the technical elements that make Bioshock Infinite such a compelling game experience, it often comes down to a lot of seemingly small elements that have a tremendous impact during play. One example is the style of the texturing (which I wrote about last week) but today I want to talk about Elizabeth. Specifically, a couple of the crucial little details that make her much more significant and interesting than "sidekick" characters in games usually are. Her writing is good, her acting is great, but there's so much more to her than that...

Mild spoiler warning: If you haven't played/finished Bioshock Infinite yet (and plan to) you may want to save this post for later. I'm not going to rehash the ending scene-by-scene or anything, but some of the pictures I'll be using could definitely be considered "spoiler-adjacent."

Free Poser Tutorial on 3D Avatar Animation This Thursday

Poser is putting on a free webinar this Thursday April 11am (Pacific), a Poser press person just put it to me, and since a lot Second Life content creators use the 3D modeling program for their custom avatars, I'm pretty much pleased by this Poser proposition. Tutorial includes "Using 3D people in Poser – We'll explore how to pose and dress both Miki and Tyler and use body controls and morph dials to edit and customize these figures. The same basics will apply to any 3D figure in Poser." Read more about it and register here.

This Blender Plugin for Second Life Shapes Could Revolutionize Machinima (And Revitalize Your Avatar)

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Machinima-makers and hardcore avatar-customizers alike have a new toy to play with... Provided they aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and dive into Blender to use it. The Avastar plugin (not to be confused with the old virtual world tabloid of the same name) allows you to import a mesh model of your Second Life avatar into Blender, fully rigged and ready to experiment on.

The plugin isn't free, but there are a ton of potential applications that make it well worth the $22 asking price, like...

Get the Inside Story On Some of Second Life's Most Beautiful Spaces With Draxtor Despres' Latest Mixed Reality Videos

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

One of Second Life's most acclaimed journalists and machinima artists has a new project, and it'll give you some amazing insight into the kinds of people that not only use Second Life, but shape the virtual world around them. The Drax Files: World Builders by Draxtor Despres recently came out with its second episode, featuring the face of SL's 1920's Berlin (and NWN reader) Jo Yardley. Take a look for yourself after the jump.

MakieLab Makes Making Makies Even Easier on iOS (Though It's Still a Mouthful to Say!)

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

If you've been waiting to turn your avatar (or even yourself) into a posable and customizable doll, it's now easier than ever. Makies Doll Factory, released earlier this month, is the latest development from MakieLab, the makers of Makies (try saying that ten times fast.) This free iOS app (which you can grab in the App Store) lets users design their own custom 3D printed dolls with even more options than before, and comes with new pricing options for those looking to bring their Makies into reality.

If you're curious about customizing a Makie of your own from the comfort of your iPad, keep reading! (Update: Ridiculously wrong video link fixed, sorry folks! But hey, at least you know how to make Rice-a-Roni now!)

Meet Ami Yamato, A Tongue-in-Cheek Virtual YouTube Personality With Some Impressive Technical Tricks

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Meet Ami Yamato, a Japanese girl living and working in England... Sort of. You might notice something different about Ami, something not quite right. Although she's always shown in the real world in her YouTube videos, she is entirely computer generated and almost never acknowledges her digital nature. More importantly, she's incredibly congenial and fun to watch.

There's a lot of painstaking detail in her videos: shaky cameras, out-of-focus shots, poor lighting conditions and more are all taken into account to put this rather unrealistic character in an ultra-realistic frame.

 

Have I piqued your curiosity? Lucky for you, Ami recent posted a complete look at how exactly she produces her videos:

Cool Web App Shows You What a Face Looks Like Were It Painted by Artists - Works With Avatars!

Face of the Future is an old but cool Java-based web app someone just sent my way -- upload a face photo (i.e. yours), designate the location of the eyes and mouth, and the program depicts the face as it would look like, were it painted by one of many artists. The neat thing is Second Life avatar faces are realistic enough so you can use a screencapture of those too. So that's my Hamlet avatar above transformed to look as if I was painted (from left to right) by Botticelli, El Greco, and Modigliani. You can also transform the face to look like another gender, or different race/age range.