New World Notes

Expect a Real Life Crackdown on Second Life Gachas, Says Expert Lawyer

Loot boxes in videogames are considered gambling and therefore illegal in some countries, and regulated in many other jurisdictions. But does that have anything to do with user-created gachas in Second Life? Extremely popular within the SL community, they are a vending machine game of chance to win valuable virtual goods. Should we expect a crackdown on them at some point?

In a word, yes.

"Gacha games/loot boxes/etc. are gambling" says Vaki, a longtime Second Life user who is also a real life attorney specializing in privacy and internet issues; she's even represented SL users in this field. "And they're starting to slowly be regulated as such. Best way to see this is in Chinese games like Genshin Impact, where gacha functionalities are regulated and providers are required to display the actual percentage of likelihood to receive each reward."

While it remains an open question whether SL-based gachas in particular are considered gambling, Second Life creators of gachas, along with Linden Lab itself, should prepare for regulations around them:

Tomorrow: Join Philip Rosedale, Adam Frisby & Me for a Fireside Chat About the Metaverse & Imagination Inside the Metaverse of Sinespace's Breakroom

Click here to RSVP for a literal fireside chat with Philip Rosedale and Adam Frisby tomorrow at Noon PT inside Breakroom from Sinespace (a proud sponsoring partner to this blog), which I am thrilled to moderate. (And yes, that's Philip's classic SL avatar, updated for today with a glittering codpiece.) Event info:

Since its inception in the early 90s, the Metaverse has inspired our wildest imagination -- even if the technology to fully realize that dream has seemed just out of our grasp. But now, with advances in edge computing, VR, and 3D graphics/audio, nothing seems impossible. Given such powerful tools at our fingertips - what could this look like?

The fireside will also showcase Philip's High Fidelity spatial audio, which was just integrated into Breakroom, while the world itself will be streamed onto Chrome browsers (no install needed). If you can't make it, no worries: The Breakroom team is recording the event and will be broadcasting in coming days.

Perfectly Posed Avatar Pics from Jayce Takeda

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

Jayce Takeda and friends sure are having fun. They seem ready to hit the beach at Sunvana and find respite from the heat wave. I love group shots and this is a great one. Folks are having fun and fooling around but you can still see everyone. At least in Second Life no one is going to sneeze at the wrong moment and ruin the picture. (Well, unless they have that in their head animation loop. Turn that thing off for pictures!)

The next is a picture of heartbreak if there ever was one, click here:

Breakroom Brings Philip Rosedale's High Fidelity 3D Spatial Audio to its Highly Immersive Virtual Worlds Streamed on the Browser

As VentureBeat just reported, NWN media partner Sine Wave has teamed up with Philip Rosedale to bring High Fidelity's 3D spatial audio to Breakroom, its browser-based platform for virtual world events and remote teams, and it's a metaverse reunion of sorts:

The deal is a convergence of pioneers who have made their mark on the development of virtual life. Philip Rosedale is the CEO of High Fidelity and launched Second Life in 2003. Sine Wave Entertainment, the creator of Breakroom, got its start as a content brand in Second Life before it spun out to create its own virtual meeting spaces for real-world events.

Adam Frisby, chief product officer and cofounder of Sine Wave, said in an interview conducted inside Breakroom that the High Fidelity spatial audio will help Breakroom create a triple-A quality experience in a virtual world.

Sine Wave’s Breakroom draws heavily on lessons learned in Second Life to create a frictionless, mass market, user-friendly virtual world.

“You can hear everything better with High Fidelity,” Rosedale said in our interview in Breakroom. “Breakroom combines low-latency server-side video and spatial audio in a way that lets you hold an event like it’s in the real world.”

Listen above for a demo, more here. I'm highly biased of course, but I believe this represents one major next step to bringing metaverse technology to the mass market.

Speaking of which, I'm hosting a literal fireside event in Breakroom with Philip and Adam this Thursday at Noon PM, and there are a few seats available: Click here to reserve a spot in "The Metaverse as a Shared Imagination" chat.

Watch: Second Life's First Big Budget Online Commercial - It Won an Award!

Linden Lab - Second Life "Children of Creation" from Levitate on Vimeo.

Last year Linden Lab started production on the very first big budget online commercial for Second Life, but far as I know, it hasn't yet officially debuted -- though you can see glimpses of it in Second Life's new-ish homepage (to the confusion of many).

However, it is already online, hosted by the video's creator, Levitate Media -- watch above! In fact, the ad won a Telly "People's" Award in that competition's Online Commercial category. 

Overall, it's quite a bit better than I originally feared from the homepage imagery: 

Custom-Made Environment Enhancements Make Second Life Look Like Breathtaking Paintings

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

Ask for beautiful EEP WindLights and you shall be given. This and every other picture in Lam Erin’s photostream is a stunner. If his name sounds familiar, one of his pics was featured in a column on rainy day pictures. He’s also the creator of PRISM apparel, though sadly he is not selling his EEPs. I love the many golden sunsets he shot, but this one with the pelicans and the shipwreck is my favorite. I love pelicans. 

For a chilly touch, click here:

Why Understanding Virtual World Economies Is Important For Crafting Real World Policies Today

Some social media readers were skeptical over last week's post highlighting Linden Lab veteran Gene Yoon's policy paper on virtual currency addressed to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen. One reader snarkily suggested that that amounted to saying, "I was responsible for managing the currency used as commodity for pixel furries to use at strip clubs on a platform called Second Life".

While amusing, this snark misses some import history of Second Life, and virtual worlds in general -- especially now. 

As Gene puts it: 

"In a time where cryptocurrency has gone from zero value to almost a trillion dollars in the space of a dozen years, one would hope that people would understand that digital assets are real assets. Second Life was a truly remarkable window into the future, and the management of its economy was in fact a fantastic early look into the promise and perils of digital currency.

"Sometimes I think that the people who used SL the most are in some ways the least able to see just how remarkable it was. Perhaps familiarity breeds contempt. But as William Gibson said, the future is unevenly distributed, and if you were lucky enough to be using SL in the mid-aughts, you got a preview into many aspects of online life today. I'll always be proud of my work in SL and all that my colleagues and the community taught me. I learned at least as much if not more from Linden Lab than I did anywhere else, and I'm grateful for that."

All of that seems obviously true for me -- but then again, I'm thinking back to ancient history (by which I mean 2004):

Why Linden Dollars Succeed as Currency Where Bitcoin Cannot: Stable Exchange Rate

Good points from reader Erik Mondrian, on how Linden Dollars help drive the success of Bitcoin, and why L$ is still more often used than BTC to buy goods and services:

The other issue that I think is important to bring up in this context is exchange rate, which weighs the scale even further toward the Linden Dollar. Thanks to its rate remaining relatively stable, Residents can pretty much assume that 1 USD will be worth about 250 L$—now, tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year—an assumption that has a lot to do with the health of the Second Life economy and the willingness of people to accept and rely on Linden Dollars as a form of payment and stored value.

Contrast that stability with Bitcoin—its infamous fluctuations and the astronomical rise over the years in how many thousands upon thousands of US dollars you'd have to pay to get just 1 BTC—and it should be obvious why using the latter as a currency is ridiculous. It's much more like investing in the stock market and then hoping that enough other people will want to buy in that the value of your "asset" keeps going up. (And also hoping, of course, that a certain billionaire CEO doesn't tweet something that sends its value falling again.)

Seen in that light, comparing daily transactions is almost beside the point, since these two "virtual assets" represent entirely different expectations and mindsets. Bitcoin evangelists, like those cited in the article above, celebrate the so-called milestones of BTC reaching ever higher exchange rates and total amount invested. Meanwhile, in Second Life, we use the reliable ol' Linden Dollar to do what people tend to do in any society with a functioning currency: buy and sell goods and services (and pay our rent), trusting that the money we use to do that with will still be worth more or less what we gave or got for it the next time we're asked to open our wallets.

The key reason that Linden Dollars remain stable against the US dollar, versus Bitcoin?

Top 5 Posts Last Week, Including a Memorial to Ebbe Altberg, and a Linden's Virtual Currency Advice to Janet Yellen

• Linden Lab Still Looking For Engineering VP To Help Define Future Of Second Life -- Now Open To Remote Hires Based In 10 Oddly Specific US States
• Linden Dollars Helped Fuel Bitcoin's Early Hype -- Even Though L$ Are Still More Used Than BTC Should The Federal Reserve Create A Virtual Currency? Former Linden Lab Exec Gene Yoon Has Advice Based On Managing Second Life's $500M+ Virtual Economy
• SL Users In Regions That Ban Skill Games -- Are You Being Auto-Banned From Regions Even Though They Don't Host Skill Games?
• Quest Owner Survey: Will Ads In Apps Change Which Ones You Buy & Use
• Visit The Candle-Lit Ebbe Altberg Memorial On Altberg Island In Second Life

Visit the Candle-Lit Ebbe Altberg Memorial on Altberg Island in Second Life

Click here to visit and pay your respects; there are candles on his memorial, and when you touch them, they light. (And fittingly, they also burn out over time.) A site created by the Linden Moles, I've visited several times, and there are usually a few others gathered there to pay their respects.

And yes yes, I know it's Second Life's official 18th anniversary right now, but if you're an active SLer, you already knew that. So my thought to end this weekend is to take some time sharing some thoughts to the person who did much to insure the virtual world's survival for years to come.

Really Needy HUD Seeking Food-Related Brands in Second Life -- And Visit the 725th Street Bar & Restaurant to Try the Roleplay Dining Fun!

Click here to visit the 725th Street Bar, a ship-based food and drink establishment perfect for dates and other social get-togethers in SL -- and which now serves food and drink compatible with the Really Needy HUD (a sponsoring partner to New World Notes), so that a meal consumed there fills the Hunger and Thirst meters of anyone wearing the Sims-like roleplay system. (More about that here.)

Bar owner Drogo Bartholy, who even employs live waitstaff to serve his customers, added the Really Needy system to further enhance users’ experience:

Second Life Hair Styles to Benefit Real Life Non-Profit Wigs for Kids

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

Deux Looks is Gillian Waldman’s fashion blog. Like most people, her focus at the moment is on Hair Fair, the venerable fundraising event for Wigs For Kids. In today’s post, “Next Up from Hair Fair,” she is featuring a beautiful floral headband from Bauhaus. I love how she styled this with a lovely floral dress with fluttery sleeves and floral earrings. Bauhaus is in the Noirette region. Tableau Vivant is in the Blonde region.

• Hairbase: Tableau Vivant \ leLutka EvoX Hairbase 15 **@Hair Fair**
• Bun: Tableau Vivant \ Anna Bun **@Hair Fair**
• Earrings: Bauhaus – Emily Earrings **@Hair Fair – Gift**
• Headband: Bauhaus – Eyre Headpiece – Teal **@Hair Fair**
• Dress: Pixicat– Lucy Dress – FlowerSummer **@FLF**

For more of Gillian’s picks from Hair Fair, click here:

Quest Owner Survey: Will Ads in Apps Change Which Ones You Buy & Use?

As you likely saw yesterday, Facebook inevitably announced plans to test VR ads in Quest apps:

We’re starting a small test of in-headset ads with a few developers in the coming weeks. We want to help developers generate revenue and help people find great experiences at better prices—this is a part of how we’ll create a healthy, self-sustaining platform for everyone.  

Rather than editorialize on the policy itself, I'm curious what this means for Quest owners. If you own a Quest or definitely plan to buy one soon, please answer this survey. 

SL Users in Regions That Ban Skill Games -- Are You Being Auto-Banned from Regions Even Though They Don't Host Skill Games?

Adeon Writer, a virtual world explorer whose real world home base is Arizona, was recently searching for games to play in Second Life and found himself unable to access a Second Life region because it had been tagged has having Skill Games -- i.e. a non-gambling game which has a L$ payout. (See above.)

And the thing is, he wasn't going there to play a Skill Game, just a standard game without cash rewards. "I usually expect to get blocked from ones that say Casino'" in the description, as he puts it, but this particular one only had "Play Games" in the region name.

Today's Flickr Pick: SaNY Brings Sassy Humor to Her Virtual Fashion Pics

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

SaNY is taking a look at the world from a different perspective in, “If you surround yourself with people who are Light, you will see everything clearer.” Especially if they have flashlights! I love the quirky humor in this picture. There’s a bit of humor in a lot of her work. She is also a brand-new blogger (started four days ago!) who, if her photostream is any indication, will focus on swimwear, lingerie, and athleisure. 

For some calendar fare, click here:

Should the Federal Reserve Create a Virtual Currency? Former Linden Lab Exec Gene Yoon Has Advice Based on Managing Second Life's $500M+ Virtual Economy

The United States Federal Reserve is seriously looking into the idea of creating an official US$ virtual currency -- a move, as Politico explains, "that could shake up banks, give millions of low-income Americans access to the financial system."

Before doing that, however, the Fed might want to read this white paper memo addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, written for the Aspen Institute's tech policy hub. It's authored by Gene Yoon, who has some important if remarkably quirky experience with virtual currency, as a lead executive with Linden Lab during Second Life's peak period of economic growth.

"I had my time managing a 'toy' digital currency back at Linden Lab," as he puts it on Twitter. "At its height, the L$ was used in over half a billion real USD worth of transactions per year. I think the US Fed would be making a mistake in moving forward with this -- the mistake is only in going Fed-first. The United States has a wonderful advantage in 'the laboratory of the states' - experimental policies can more safely be trialed at the state level."

There is, Gene tells me, a specific example of something that happened with the Second Life economy that feeds into his advice to Secretary Yellen now:

Watch: What Reality Would Look Like With Virtual World Lag

I seriously doubt Verizon's 5G network can substantially address this as much as Verizon thinks it can*, but their ad pretty much nails the laggy virtual world experience transplanted to the real world. (Too bad there's no jelly dolls.)

* As my brilliant futurist friend Amber Case points out, rather than 5G being the Internet speed solution many people in tech have hyped it to be, the likelier scenario is phone users simply sponge up most of 5G's excess bandwidth by watching more movies and such, and so overall performance improvements will be relatively mild.

This Artist Gorgeously Evokes The Time & Place of Virtual Spaces

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

I love Existence’s photostream. His pictures are incredibly natural and realistic. It sets a mood which is augmented by his choice of music, “Small Light” by Message to Bears. This makes me think of Washington’s Long Beach in January, the very best time to visit as nearly everyone is staying inside so you can almost have the beach to yourself. Of course, it’s not ideal for swimming, but for walking. 

I asked him if he had any comments and he demurred, “It just is all about feeling, your mind is a lens and telling a story. Photography that keeps me going forward.Everyone has their own perspective, recognition, or emotion about photography pictures, which makes it unique.” 

For more a more sun-drenched picture, click here:

Linden Dollars Helped Fuel Bitcoin's Early Hype -- Even Though L$ Are Still More Used Than BTC

Pretty interesting article from the news section of Bitcoin.com, explaining how Linden Dollars helped drive up the value of Bitcoin back in the early days of the cryptocurrency roughly a decade ago:

During these nascent times, a few fiat currencies were trading with Bitcoin. At this time, Second Life’s Linden dollars (L$) were also exchanged for large sums of Bitcoin as well. Linden Dollars are featured in the virtual world called Second Life, a game developed by Linden Lab in 2003.

When Bitcoin was kickstarting into higher gears in 2010 through 2013, Second Life’s L$ and the virtual world also saw rapid growth. Second Life’s virtual economy met Satoshi’s creation in April 2011, back when the company Virwox allowed L$ and BTC trading pairs.

Bitcoin had a fascinating relationship with Second Life users because L$ could be exchanged for fiat, which gave BTC an alternative fiat gateway in the early days. Not only did the two virtual currencies form a symbiotic relationship, but it also caused people to speculate on which virtual asset was better.

Without this exchange ability made possible by Linden Dollars, it's quite possible Bitcoin might not have achieved enough escape velocity to enjoy the euphoria it does today. Then again, "euphoria" never translated into Bitcoin becoming an actual currency used to buy actual goods and services on a mass market. As I'm quoted in the Bitcoin.com post:

Master Avatar Photographer Returns to Second Life Flickr With Fantastic Romantic Images & a Dr. Who Homage

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

Anya Ohmai is back after a two-year hiatus and in this lovely self-portrait explains she is just beginning to figure out the changes that have happened in lighting and setting up images since she was tutoring others how to take shots in SL. I think she’s already leveled up.

For more from Anya, click here:

Linden Lab Still Looking for Engineering VP To Help Define Future Of Second Life -- Now Open to Remote Hires Based in 10 Oddly Specific US States (UPDATED)

This new help wanted ad from Linden Lab looks like the exact same one I mentioned last March, with one significant difference:

In this VP Engineering role, you will own the technical and architectural roadmap of Second Life and advocate for robust and lasting strategy as a part of the Second Life Leadership team. You’ll interact with senior Linden Lab leadership, and apply strong judgement and analysis toward important business decisions. Equally important, you’ll manage and coach your engineering teams; leading by example while collaborating with a group of people you enjoy working with. 

The only difference I can spot is that there's an option to take on this senior role from a remote location -- specifically, if you're in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Texas, Utah, Virginia, or Washington state "only". (Oddly specific list of US states, wonder why.)

Notable that Linden Lab hasn't been able to hire someone for this senior role yet; or perhaps someone was tried but ended up not being a good fit. Another possibility:

Great Ebbe Altberg Tributes by a Reader & Longtime Staffer Kona Linden

Reader Soda Sullivan posted this comment last week as a tribute to the late Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg:

What a guy.

I do not think it is an overstatement to say that Altberg was Linden Lab's best CEO and Second Life's best "leader' since its creator. As I read this news about his ongoing battle with illness, I keep thinking to myself, "He was this sick and he could have easily been doing ANYTHING else but he chose to stick around and put up with us lunatics." We are so lucky he did and we should all be eternally grateful.

Ebbe certainly did a lot to repair bridges between users and Linden Lab, and he did it with a sort of paternalistic view of the virtual world. Clearly, it meant A LOT to him. We were very lucky to have him lead us and he will be impossible to replace and truly missed. Let's all send our most positive thoughts to his family and his friends.

I believe Ebbe made an in-world appearance a few months ago, and helping with customer service on Twitter last April (see below) which speaks to his dedication to the community --both SL users and Linden Lab employees -- until the very end.

Speaking of which, longtime Linden Lab support team manager Kona Gurion sent me his tribute to Ebbe last week:

Top 6 Posts from Last Week Including a Rising Star in Second Life and the Falling Usefulness of Bitcoin

• Is Aufwie Set To Be Second Life's Next Break-Out Pop Star?
• FBI Just Proved Bitcoin's Much-Touted Anonymity Is Illusory, Says Financial Expert
• Viewfinder, Mind-Bending, Reality-Creating Unity Demo, Now Seeking Publishers With A Graphically Enhanced, Playable Version
• LGBT Second Life Users Celebrate Pride With Tributes To The Freedom Of Virtual World Expression & Identity
• Second Life-Based Works By Internationally Acclaimed Artist Cao Fei Now Featured By NYC's Museum Of Modern Art
• How To Import A Minecraft World Into NeosVR With Mineways; UPDATE: Added GitHub Resource

Is Aufwie Set to Be Second Life's Next Break-Out Pop Star?

Auwfie is a twentysomething singer who performs his own music in Second Life three times a week and, for my money, is destined to become SL's next break-out crossover pop star. With a distinctive, richly textured voice backed by a soundscape of vibey hooks (listen above and below), his style sits somewhere between, say, Radiohead and Ariel Pink.

Known as Aufwie Mysterious in SL, he's performing next tomorrow in-world at 5pm PT, at a venue called Industry -- click here to teleport, and join his Discord here for show news.  

Auwfie has actually been visiting SL on and off for over 10 years. "I started performing for people in hangouts just for the laughs, never really took it with proper seriousness," he tells me.

But the coming of COVID changed all that:

Second Life Community Launch Huge Event to Help LGBTQI People Persecuted in Real Life

Click here tomorrow at 12:30pm PT for SeraPride, a fundraising event with all Linden Dollar proceeds converted into US$ to benefit Rainbow Railroad, a non-profit which helps LGBTQI people escape persecution in real life.  Help on the SL sim of Seraphim, Second Life's most popular fashion blog, top brands like Blueberry are donating items/matching funds, while major performers including Skye Galaxy are performing. I just took a sneak peek and the place looks super spectacular.

All the details here, including a spreadsheet which transparently tracks all donations in real time. 

Video below to get you psyched for the party!