New World Notes

Ebbe Altberg & Other Linden Lab Team Members Answer (And Don't Answer) SL User Questions About the Company's Acquisition

As promised, here's the questions I asked Linden Lab after they announced the imminent acquisition of the company:

• How will this acquisition change SL specifically? Will management or staffing change at all (layoffs, etc)?
• Will it create a cash injection into Linden Lab?
• Since the acquisition is led by the Waterfield Group which specializes in buying profitable but slow growth companies, is it fair to say Linden Lab is in that category?

Spokesman Brett Linden replied by saying this:

"We aren't 'formally' commenting beyond pointing people to the official announcement."

And as legendary journalist Bob Schieffer once told Philip Rosedale and I during dinner (but that's another strange story): "When someone refuses to answer, that in itself is an answer."

However, Brett added, "Grumpity and I have answered a few questions on the forums - but the key message is that this is a good thing for the Second Life community and operations are status quo. Here is what I said on the forums:"

A few folks are speculating that this is the end of SL and nothing could be further than the truth. Any talk of dismantling or radically changing the fundamentals of SL that we know and love is inaccurate. While we can't get into specific details about the deal itself, I want to emphasize the fact that this keeps Linden Lab as an independent venture led by two investors who have a great deal of awareness about what SL is and isn't. They are excited to join and help us grow both SL and Tilia while also respecting and recognizing the needs and sensitivities of the existing culture and community.

Brett also notes that Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg has been on Twitter taking on all questions posted to him there -- here's some highlights:

Fifty Linden Fridays This Weekend: Ice Cream Fans from Astralia & Other Adorable, Sexy, Stylish SL Offers -- Click Here to Shop, Teleport, and BUY

Linden Lab's future may now be up in the air, but the legendary and miraculously sustainable Fifty Linden Fridays for Second Life shoppers goes on. Here's this weekend's offers, starting with this face-punchingly adorable item above: Ice cream fans for the blistering Summer from Astralia -- click here to get them at the store.

Not cute enough for you? Then how about these holdable plushie with a complimentary crown:

This pair from Cosmic Dust: Click here to teleport and shop.

Many more FLF fashion, housewares, and other random coolness offerings below, with teleports to take your consumerist avatar ass there:

Linden Lab Acquired by Investors After Months of Rumors, Layoffs & Sansar's Sale; Second Life to Still Expand, Official Announcement Promises

I've heard rumors by various insiders that Linden Lab was looking to be acquired for the last few months, and now that prim-based shoe has finally dropped:

 Linden Research, Inc. announced today it signed an agreement to be acquired by an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager. Closing of the acquisition is subject to regulatory approval by financial regulators in the U.S. related to Tilia Inc.’s status as a licensed money transmitter as well as other customary closing conditions. Upon closing, Mr. Waterfield and Mr. Oberwager will join the Board of Directors of Linden Research, Inc.

This announcement follows fast upon the recent acquisition (in March) of Linden Lab property Sansar by a little known turnkey operation called Wookey. In fact, that's when I heard rumors of Linden's coming acquisition -- just as I did when Linden Lab made a round of layoffs last February. In retrospect, both moves appear to be in preparation for this purchase.

However, the overall gist of this announcement is very much: Don't worry, Second Life will continue and grow. Which may or may not be true, but that's definitely the intended theme:

Hit Japanese Pop Composer Promotes New Solo Project With SL Video

This totally charming SL music video incorporates Japanese-themed locations with Japanese pop music, and there's a very good reason for that: Both the video and the music are by Yasushi Watanabe, and if you follow J-Pop, you're probably already familiar with his music.

"He composes music for many Japanese major singers including AKB48 and Nogizaka46 (do you know these big groups of Japanese girls?) He composed some music for anime and games too." (He also composed this banger by Guilty Kiss.)

That's all according to Sanny Yoshikawa, my occasional, indispensable Japanese translator (and an adorable squirrel in SL).

To promote his spin-off project, called BYNORAL, Sanny tells me Watanabe returned to Second Life recently, since he had first explored the platform almost a decade ago:

Jasmine Albright Creates Utterly Stunning Second Life Avatar Portraits

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Jasmine Albright’s photostream is filled with stunning portraits, some rendered in 3D modeling software and others beautifully crafted images from Second Life. Luckily, she labels them. I love how you can see the lush velvety texture of the flowers and how the light on her face seems to make it glow.

More stunning avatar pictures ahead.

Core Directly Paying Cash to Select Users Who Create Popular Games -- And Letting Them Keep Their Games' Underlying IP Rights!

Core, the Unreal-based, user-generated game development platform from startup Manticore (think Fortnite meets ROBLOX) just announced a pretty uniquely generous reward program for select user creators -- build a game that a lot of other Core users play, and get a lot of direct cash payments:

We designed the Creator Payouts Pilot Program around one simple concept: the more people play your game, the more you should get paid.

Each calendar month, creators in the program can receive $3 per average daily player. This will be calculated by taking the daily number of unique users who log into your games and averaging them across that month.

This means that if you have 500 unique users log into your games every day (they do not need to be the same players) you could receive $1,500 after the end of the month. If you average 1,000 users, you could receive $3,000. If you average 10,000 … you get the idea.

Just as notable to me: Creators of Core games retain the underlying rights to the games they make. For instance, a creator could then publish a version of their Core game on Steam: 

"Creators retain any original IP rights they have in their creations and they grant other users and Manticore a right to use, modify, adapt, or repurpose their shared creations in Core," Arash Nia, Chief Product Officer at Manticore Games, tells me. "Core games can’t be exported and put on other platforms, but creators can publish versions based on their Core game IPs in other places."

But is there a maximum payout? What if a Creator manages to attract 100,000 monthly players, for example -- do they really get paid $300,000?

Yes, says Nia:

Ready Player One Sequel Coming At a Time When Hundreds of Millions Already Live in OASIS-Like Virtual Worlds

Pictured: Aech's hangout from Ready Player One recreated in Second Life with Ernest Cline's blessing

Well this seems inevitable and comes at the strangest possible time:

Ready Player One author Ernest Cline is stepping back into the Oasis, with his long-gestating sequel Ready Player Two launching Nov. 24 in North America. Ready Player One, released in 2011, was a big hit in the publishing world, reaching No. 1 and spending more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list... It takes place in 2045, a time in which climate change, overpopulation and poverty have swept the Earth. Much of humanity seeks solace in an online virtual reality called The Oasis, created by 1980s-obsessed genius James Halliday. The plot sees teenager Wade Watts dedicate himself to solving Anorak’s Game, an Oasis-spanning treasure hunt announced after Halliday's death and which sees the winner get his $500 billion fortune, as well as control of The Oasis.

But so much has changed since the first book was published in 2011 -- only a year after Minecraft was published, but many years before Minecraft became a virtual world phenomenon with 200 million owners as of last May. And Roblox (as of 2019), attracted 100 million citizens of its own. And Fortnite (also as of last May), announced 350 million players, as the battle royale game quickly evolved into an open platform virtual world.

So while VR headsets may still be a niche, the second book about the OASIS will appear at a time when the OASIS more or less already exists.

Venicio Armin's Amazing Experiments With SL Light, Color, Composition

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Venicio Armin’s untitled still life is a warm, inviting revelation of light and form. I love how the golden light picks out the weave of the basket, bringing it into high relief. Meanwhile. The chair and the wall fade away in shadow. The folds of the tablecloth, the patina on the pitcher are featured as are the golden apples. Somehow this picture even makes Golden Delicious look appetizing. This is a beautiful example of the power of lighting to create drama. 

Even more pics that show Venicio’s eye for the small details.

Dual Universe Announces Beta Launch Of Single Shard Metaverse Next Month

Launched as a Kickstarter project four years ago as a single-shard MMO with voxel-based user-generated content, Dual Universe is finally just about here:

Starting at a monthly subscription of $6.99, the beta will have a range of different pricing models. The three month subscription is set at $20.97, six months will be $36.44, and 12 months will be $69.90. 

Beta launches August 27 -- go here for more. Narrative trailer above, which is actually a bit meh from my point of view, but Dual Universe's broader vision and the technology that goes into it remains exciting, and something we've talked about often:

Watch: Mesmerizing Procedural Art Sculpture by Michael Kozlowski

Mid-afternoon AR visual treat: Procedural artist Michael Kozlowski created this utterly hypnotic video sculpture in Unity with some kind of 3D projection display. I'm reaching out to hopefully know more.

Hat tip: William Gibson, who appropriately says just "Whoa" and AR expert Dr. Helen Papagiannis (last on NWN here), who properly pointed us to Kozlowski's Instagram to credit the creator.

Tutorial: How Lizz Palen Transforms SL Screenshots Into Amazing Images

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

When I saw “Extraterrestrial” by Lizz Palen (above), I immediately emailed to ask her if she would share some tips for readers. I love the frenetic energy of her projects. Her entire stream is an exciting exploration of how to enhance Second Life photos with smoke and fire and imagination, but this one seemed particularly powerful. Luckily for us, she was happy to share her process. 

After the cut, Lizz explains how she created Extraterrestrial and shares two videos of her editing other pictures.

The Economics of Fifty Linden Fridays -- Or, Why Dozens of SL Merchants Willingly Sell Items for the L$ Equivalent of Twenty Cents

The legendary Fifty Linden Fridays shopping extravaganza, in which top SL brands offer select items for a mere L$50 (i.e. about 20 cents), has been running since 2009.  But it only just occurred to me recently: How the hell does this even make any economic sense?

Or as regular reader Patchouli Woolhara recently commented:

After the initial costs of tier, tooling, marketing, blogotex access, customer support, and hours worked, the marginal cost of these products is close to zero on the merchant's side if the sale is done purely in-world. 

Probably a lot less than zero, actually -- surely most merchants must lose money from FLF?

Not exactly, according to FLF creator and manager OMGWTF Barbecue (whose avatar name I just goddamn adore).

"Partly, FLF brings people to their mainstores," she tells me via Discord. "People might be discovering their store for the first time, and checking out their other products, which is super valuable! On top of that, it's a little special treat for people who are already your customers, something to look forward to. The creator might reduce the price to L$50, but it's likely they'll be able to sell more based on the co-op nature of the event."

She's talking about the power of cross-promotion across brands:

Sansar's Fat Boy Slim Show a Success for Wookey, Says Longtime Virtual World Creator (Comment of the Week)

Fatboy's Lost Horizon set in Sansar via Tim A's Twitter

I don't have a PC/VR rig powerful enough to catch the Fatboy Slim/Lost Horizon show staged on Sansar under its new owner Wookey, but longtime virtual world user/creator Tim A did, and here's his take:

I checked it out - I love Fatboy Slim, and it was a lot of fun to see him. It was pretty impressive -- the avatar moved in real-time, with the movements matching what was shown on the video screen. Things have come a long, long way since the "U2 in SL" days. Wookey had set up a ton of NPCs, so it was hard to get a good count, but from folks I was talking to in the area, probably about 50 folks hanging out.

Sansar hit a peak concurrency on Steam of 180 during the Lost Horizon show, so I bet overall attendance was much more than 50 -- probably upwards of 500, I'd estimate.

The show didn't go off without a hitch, however, Tim continues:

Top 5 Posts Last Week Including: A New Linden Alum Virtual World Platform, a New Unity/Sinespace Asset Store Partnership

• Ex-Lindens Get Funding To Launch Play Anywhere, Massively Interactive Game World Platform With User-Generated Content & Monetization
• Sansar's First Big Music Event As A Wookey-Owned Platform Featuring Fatboy Slim Starts Tomorrow
• Sinespace Partners With Unity Asset Store To Sell Content Directly To Users
• Are Facebook's Holographic VR Glasses Viable? One Expert's Deep Dive
• SL Usage: Median Daily Concurrency Up 13% Since "Pandemic Boost"

Tomorrow: Miro Shot, Rising UK Rock Band, Puts On Immersive, Interactive Concert in Sinespace -- RSVP for Free Tickets!

Miro Shot, the acclaimed alt rock band inspired by virtual worlds, is performing a special concert tomorrow inside a virtual world: Specifically at their virtual headquarters in Sinespace (a NWN media partner).

Show starts July 4 at 2pm PT -- go to the band’s site to RSVP for free.

In the Sinespace concert, Miro Shot will perform music from the band's debut album “CONTENT” (featuring classic rock star Manfred Mann and Mary Wilson of the Supremes -- yes, those Supremes.) The band is signed to Believe Recordings (Bjork, James Vincent McMorrow), East City Management (Alt J, Wolf Alice), and published by Warp (Brian Eno, Stereolab, many more greats), so this is your first chance to see a rising star music group in the unique MMO-meets-mixed reality format they created.

Unlike many virtual world-based concerts, however, tomorrow’s show won’t simply be the band streaming in via audio, or performing as pre-recorded characters. It’s going to include an immersive, social game experiment, and in-person interaction with the band.

As frontman Roman Rappak puts it, that’s very much part of the plan:

Fifty Linden Fridays: Coolest Deals & Teleports for Shopping This Weekend!

Here's some select items from this week's legendary Fifty Linden Fridays shopping extravaganza, in which top SL brands offer select items for a mere L$50 (i.e. about 20 cents). Above is a seriously cool working bubble gun from BALACLAVA!! -- click here to teleport there to buy.

A couple more cool featured items and the other FLF store links below:

Friday Fashion Find: Style Blogger Beuanna Banana's Just Stuff

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Beuanna Banana’s blog is called “Just Stuff” and it is lovely blog that features great big gorgeous pictures. “The Kind of Woman You Want to Meet” opens with a picture as large as my window, but no larger. It’s perfectly sized for maximum enjoyment with no scrolling. I love her pose, it makes me think of Lauren Bacall, not in appearance, but in attitude. 

• chair prop & pose - Long Gone Whisper gacha -Hold That Thought [email protected] Le Poppycock
• table - Dahlia @ Vespertine
• coffee set - @ Chez Moi
• bag prop  @ MudHoney
• backdrop - Bahja @ CuCa
• dress - Mirabelle @ ChicModa
• glasses - Taylor @ Deep Static
• shoes - Alliz @ Ingenue
• hair - Tomi @ Opale

Warning, ear worm ahoy!

Ex-Lindens Get Funding to Launch Play Anywhere, Massively Interactive Game World Platform With User-Generated Content & Monetization

Control Zee is a game startup which just raised $3 million to develop and launch a platform that deploys "massively interactive swarm games" that 1000s of people can play at the same time:

Creators or livestreamers can use Dot Big Bang to build their own games and play them with their communities during a stream, across any device, simply by sharing a browser link. The company is trying to take the frustration out of getting people to play a co-op game together, which often requires getting everyone to install applications and set up accounts in advance, said ControlZee CEO Rob Anderberg in an interview with GamesBeat.

It was co-founded by Linden Lab veterans Rob Andenberg and Porter Schutz,  along with Jon Stockwell and Jacques Menuet. Schutz credits his time as a Linden for inspiring their approach to social game worlds:  

"There are a few touchstones from Second Life that are reflected in what we're trying do with dot big bang: Creative immediacy -- we want there to be zero barrier to users expressing themselves creatively in multiplayer. No extra tools are needed, everything is available to everyone. Building with your friends is fun and easy -- just share a link. With the creator's permission, anything can be remixed by other users in order to provide a starting point for building."

Would that SL itself worked like that (which I guess is the point)!

Another Linden touchstone Porter mentions is a desire to create vibrant online experiences -- but with their platform, in a way that's much more accessible to many more people:

Sansar's First Big Music Event as a Wookey-Owned Platform Featuring Fatboy Slim Starts Tomorrow

In case you missed the announcement, starting tomorrow is the first major live music event in Sansar as a non-Linden Lab, now Wookey-owned platform -- a virtual world music festival featuring Fatboy Slim called Lost Horizon:

For the first time ever, you can experience one of the most iconic British festival destinations from the comfort of your home, all while raising money for two amazing causes – The Big Issue and Amnesty International.

Go here to RSVP for a free ticket. If you have a Vive HMD, you can get a free premium pass (for "virtual merch, special in-game powers and art") by going here. 

I mean no one's doing live real world music shows nowadays, not even Vanilla Ice, so why not now?

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Iwajin Ormega Makes Amazing Use of Color, Light, Beautiful Male Avatars

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Iwajin Ormega’s “016” shows how he likes to play with color. This picture is all about green. It’s a good picture, adding a bit of interest by making the wall at a diagonal. He’s using the rule of thirds, keeping the picture off center and dynamic.  

More playing with color right ahead.

Hit AR Game Company Niantic Partners With Hit Mixed Reality Sleep No More Play Producers

I have not seen many AR applications recently which struck me as exciting let alone likely to be financially successful, but a recent deal definitely caught my eye:

Pokémon Go creator Niantic Labs is partnering with Punchdrunk, the UK-based production company behind seminal immersive theater piece Sleep No More. The partnership will see both companies work toward “developing multiple projects that will reinvent storytelling for a 21st century audience and further expand the horizon of interactive entertainment.”

Sleep No More, launched in its current iteration in New York City back in 2011, is a landmark immersive theater production that lets audiences walk through a series of rooms and experience various storylines and other elements of the production at their own pace. Influenced in part by haunted houses and other nonlinear live productions, immersive theater sounds like a prime fit for augmented reality because it could allow for Niantic and companies like Punchdrunk to create fantastical virtual worlds that are then overlaid over real spaces.

I never got a chance to experience Sleep (trailer above) but the many colleagues who did consistently described it as a kind of virtual world layered on top the real one. So creatively, Punchdrunk makes a lot of sense as a partner. Interestingly, it's a partnership that might better financial sense for Niantic too:  

Sinespace Partners with Unity Asset Store to Sell Content Directly to Users

Above: 3D character in the Unity Asset Store (left), and what it looks like imported into Sinespace (right, click to embiggen)

Gamasutra has the story on a new Sinespace partnership and while I'm highly biased as a media partner of Sinespace myself, I think is quite cool:

Sine Wave Entertainment, the studio behind free-to-play MMO sandbox Sinespace, has partnered with Unity to allow Asset Store creators to sell their 3D models to players through the in-game shop. As of today, Unity Asset Store users can opt in to sell their content to a global audience of Sinespace players, and will receive 70 percent of revenue from all sales...

"We’re excited to announce this opportunity both for gamers and our community of content creators, who will now have access to over a million assets through Sinespace, and be able to sell their 3D models directly to consumers," said Unity’s Peter O’Reilly, head of commercialization. "It’s a great opportunity that allows us to develop the huge, fast-growing virtual goods market."

Much more info here on Unity's site, some other examples of Asset Store-to-Sinespace content below:

Caja's SL Flickr Pick: The Beautifully Blue & Pink World of Daeberethwen

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Daeberethwen Arbenlow creates beautifully done pictures that inhabit a world of blues, pinks, and purples yet never show the world through rose-colored glasses. I love “Universal Flow.” It has a fantastical feeling, you can almost imagine her transforming into a mermaid. 

More great and colorful pics to follow.

Are Facebook's Holographic VR Glasses Viable? One Expert's Deep Dive

UploadVR has an interesting story on a new prototype created by Facebook’s VR research division which replaces the traditional, totally bulky virtual reality headset with something closer to the sunglasses form factor we've been wanting since Snowcrash:

Facebook Reality Labs’ new approach is a thin film where focusing is done by holographic optics instead of by the bulk of the lens. "Hologram" in this context just means a physical “recording” of how light interacts with an object- in this case a lens rather than a scene.

Facebook claims the research may be able “to deliver a field of view comparable to today’s VR headsets using only a thin film for a thickness of less than 9 mm.” The total weight of the display module is claimed as just 18 grams.

But is this approach viable? I put that question to a colleague who happens to be one of the world's top experts in AR/VR technology (and so prefers to remain anonymous). They read Facebook's research paper associated with this prototype, and came back with this assessment: 

 "I think the tech is cool and the research is good for longterm innovation but is likely years away from a product. I think the Panasonic and other pancake optics is a bit closer."

What's holding Facebook's approach back? 

Here's the deep dive from my expert, citing the research paper:

Cajsa's Flickr Pick: The Hilariously Comic Second Life of Gustaf af Ansgarsö

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Gustaf af Ansgarsö has a knack for getting himself into situations. This is just one of the many trying times you will find on his photostream. This was to announce a short break while he recovers from damages sustained in this dilemma. 

Gustaf’s photostream is full of humor as you’ll see after the cut.