New World Notes

A Grid-Wide Game for SLers Who Want to Catch Virtual Fish for L$, and Landowner Who Want More (Fishing) Visitors

Speaking of hunts in Second Life, NWN partner Second Ads has a game called Fish Hunt, which as you may have guessed, involves fishing for virtual sea life, with a cool (in my biased opinion) hook: Players can exchange the fish they catch for Linden Dollars. In-world merchants and sim owners can host this game on their land to attract visitors (hosted fishing spots are listing on this site here), while SLers can play the game to earn some spending money while hanging out and chatting with fellow players, and exploring the world's oceans, rivers, and ponds. (You know, pretty much most the reasons people like actual fishing.)

Here's how to play:

Gold Hunt: SL Game for Sim Owners & Merchants Who Want Traffic -- and Users Who Want Linden $ (NWN Partner Post)

Gold Hunt, a grid-wide Second Life game for landowners to host and SL users to play (starter packs on the Marketplace here), is one of the main products offered by Second Ads which made me decide to partner with the company: It offers a much-needed solution for sim owners and merchants who want and need more visitor traffic to their land, and gives SL users a meta-game that encourages them to explore the world while earning Linden Dollars. Here's how it works for landowners: Land is listed on the game's online directory here, ranked according to how many coins are on their land, and how often players collect from there. That brings them in traffic and potential customers. (The game now has 15,000 monthly players.)

Here's how SLers can play Gold Hunt and earn Linden Dollars through their play:

Welcome Second Ads: NWN Partner Providing Business Services & L$ Earning Games for SL Merchants & Users

Second Ads is a Second Life-based developer of business services and games that's been operating in-world for 2 years, has 30,000 monthly active players for its games, and I'm proud to announce, is a media partner for New World Notes this month. When we considered taking them on, Iris and I were impressed by the polish and professionalism of what Second Ads offers SL sim owners and users, and their dedication at a goal we all share: growing Second Life's active user base, and coming up with new ways for sim owners to build visitor traffic and cover tier costs. Here's their game site, with games based around earning Linden Dollars, and here's their SL Marketplace page with their game products.

The company's goal, as I said, is to give SL landowners, merchants, and ordinary users new ways to interact, achieve, and above all, stay engaged in Second Life. As company spokesperson Amy Neville puts it:

Get a 20% NWN Discount on Ethnography and Virtual Worlds by Tom Boellstorff et. al!

Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method is a new book from Princeton Press by my friend and acclaimed anthropologist Tom Boellstorff (who also wrote the acclaimed Coming of Age in Second Life), along with three other experts in the academic study of online games/worlds: Bonnie Nardi, Celia Pearce, and T. L. Taylor. I'm proud to announce, thanks to a media partnership between Princeton and this blog, readers can get a 20% discount on the book:

Click here to order Ethnography and Virtual Worlds, and then enter the discount code P05169 at checkout.

More news and info about the book and its authors coming soon. If you have read it, be sure to discuss in Comments.

Earn L$1000 by Taking a 20 Minute Survey for RTI International, a Research Non-Profit

SL users, click here to take a totally confidential survey for L$1000 run by RTI International, a non-profit research organization (and now a sponsoring partner of this blog) which will ask about your RL technology use, health and wellness, your exercise habits, and medical conditions. The study is totally confidential, the report’s results will be featured on New World Notes, and again, you get L$1000 for participating.

Some background on RTI International and the survey:

Earn L$1000 by Taking a 20 Minute Survey for RTI International, a Research Non-Profit

SL users, click here to take a totally confidential survey for L$1000 run by RTI International, a non-profit research organization (and now a sponsoring partner of this blog) which will ask about your RL technology use, health and wellness, your exercise habits, and medical conditions. The study is totally confidential, the report’s results will be featured on New World Notes, and again, you get L$1000 for participating.

Some background on RTI International and the survey:

Earn L$1000 by Taking a 20 Minute Survey for RTI International, a Research Non-Profit

SL users, click here to take a totally confidential survey for L$1000 run by RTI International, a non-profit research organization (and now a sponsoring partner of this blog) which will ask about your RL technology use, health and wellness, your exercise habits, and medical conditions. The study is totally confidential, the report’s results will be featured on New World Notes, and again, you get L$1000 for participating.

Some background on RTI International and the survey:

Want to Attend the Smartphone Gaming Summit Next Week? Get the NWN Discount!

The Smartphone Gaming Summit happens in San Francisco next week, featuring heavyweight ninjas from Google, ngmoco, Aurora Feint, and other top companies. Thanks to my incredible animal magnetism, I've seduced the conference hosts into giving a 15% discount code to you, beloved New World Notes readers. (Well, writing for them on occasion probably helped too.) Use "SPNWN" while registering to get that action. I happen to know at least one other metaverse bigwig will be there, figuring out how we can stick virtual worlds into phones, and I hope to see more there.

Partner News: Koinup's Metaverse Wallpapers App Puts Second Life Art and Scenery on Your iPhone and iPad

Koinup, the virtual world social network (and New World Notes sponsoring partner) has created a Metaverse Wallpapers app for the iPad and iPhone. If you have iTunes installed on the device where you're reading this post, this is the direct link to the app on Apple's store. It's just 99 cents and includes a large range of SL-related screenshots around a number of themes, like landscapes, avatars, and my favorite, surrealism. (You can easily save any image to your iPhone's photo gallery, and from there make it your wallpaper.) I am utterly biased, of course, but I'm digging the variety and quality; it's probably a good way to quickly show off great Second Life content to your friends without the arduous process of logging in. (Much more here on Koinup's blog.) Also, Koinup is giving away three free copies to New World Notes readers: e-mail to editor at koinup dot com, and put "New World Notes Promo" in the subject line; first three NWN readers to ping Pierluigi and the other Koinup kids get a Metaverse Wallpapers gift code.

Koinup Wants Your Second Life Screenshots For Their iPhone/iPad App Coming Soon (Partner News)

Metaverse Wallpapers is an app for the iPhone and iPad coming soon from Koinup, the free virtual world social network that's a proud partner of this blog. It'll feature hundreds of SL-based images, so they're looking for user submissions to add to the app.

To learn more, here's the landing page, and here's the full announcement.