New World Notes

Amazing Photos of an Avatar and His Second Life Horse

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

The Scarred Surgeon [fenrir.grayman] is a Second Life equestrian with a stream full of horse pics. I like “Getting Ready” because the preparation for riding is so important. I remember learning exactly how important it was when I was six and my brother gave me my first pony which he kept on his farm. He told me to press my knee on the horse’s belly when I tightened the cinch, but I thought he was kidding. So, I got up in the saddle, the pony sucked in her gut and my saddle slid upside-down dropping me neatly on the ground. Tricky critter. This horse looks well prepared and I get the saddle will not slide upside down. 

For more horses, click here:

Five Things for Facebook to Consider Before Making Its Name More Metaverse-y

I'm not totally surprised by this move but it sure seems to be coming way too soon:

Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail.

And while I know some good folks who've helped lead Facebook's many metaverse initiatives in a positive direction, I've also also been writing over the last few years about the many ways this may not be the best move, at least at this time. To count them off in no particular order:

Ask Delphi: Should We Create an AI That Can Answer Complex Moral & Ethical Questions?

Ask Delphi is a very interesting artificial intelligence project being chattered about on Twitter recently. Very roughly summarized, the machine learning program compiles a wide variety of ethical questions and answers drawn from Reddit's infamous Am I the Asshole community, along with others online sources, and synthesizes them into a database that can be queried through simple, human-readable asks. Here's some relatively easy answers (above and below).

You can also read the white paper from the projects' creators here. Sample from the abstract:

What would it take to teach a machine to behave ethically? While broad ethical rules may seem straightforward to state (“thou shalt not kill”), applying such rules to real-world situations is far more complex. For example, while “helping a friend” is generally a good thing to do, “helping a friend spread fake news” is not. We identify four underlying challenges towards machine ethics and norms: (1) an understanding of moral precepts and social norms; (2) the ability to perceive real-world situations visually or by reading natural language descriptions; (3) commonsense reasoning to anticipate the outcome of alternative actions in different contexts; (4) most importantly, the ability to make ethical judgments given the interplay between competing values and their grounding in different contexts (e.g., the right to freedom of expression vs. preventing the spread of fake news).

Go here to try it yourself. You can also help Delphi improve -- i.e. be better at moral reasoning -- by disagreeing with it whenever necessary, and explaining your reasons.

Which is good, because as the questions to Ask Delphi get more complex, the answers from Ask Delphi get more... well, interesting:

The Mystery of Second Life's 40,000 People Plateau, Continued -- How Many New "Users" Ever Actually Go In-World?

Here's another clue in the 40,000 people plateau mystery of Second Life, offered by reader lkosov: 

I sat there with the world map open and watched the green dots on Learning Island 1 for an hour yesterday, from 1235-1335 SL time. From what I can tell the player dots update once a minute, so it's an imperfect way of monitoring things, but was easier than creating a new account and camping on the island. Anyway, best as I can tell, twelve accounts joined in that one hour. Saturday afternoon in the Americas, Saturday evening in Europe. If that's normal (and that's a big assumption to make from one observation of one hour's possibly flawed data) that's something like 9,000 new users in a month. Even if I'm somehow an order of magnitude off, that's still a *far* cry from "300,000+ [per month]".

I just checked Learning Island on the map myself (screen capture above), and only counted up to 6 new users (i.e. the green dots on the dynamic map); no surprise, since it's in the middle of a weekday. But I also double-checked the most recent new registration figures I've reported from Tyche Shepherd of Grid Survey, from last October -- through 2020, between 6,000-18,000 Second Life accounts were created every day.

So what explains this discrepancy?

Baihley Hurricane Started Shooting Second Life Fashion Photos, But Now Focuses More on Image Editing & Artistry

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

Baihley R. Hurricane takes fashion pics, but as she puts it, “I began taking photos in Second Life with the intention of focusing on fashion and style. But somewhere along the way I began caring less about what was worn in the photos and became more interested in the artistry and editing process.” You can see that in this headshot that is a fashion pic with credits (in the comments) but is more editorial than the usual blog pic. In this one, she desaturated all but her eyes and the butterflies, leaving these vibrant sparks of blue. It’s lovely. 

For more of her exploration, click here:

New World Notes Newsfeed: Metaverse Content I’m Currently Consuming

New links added (nearly) every weekday!

Facebook plans to spend over $5 billion on developing its metaverse over the next 5 years. The headline that Facebook the company probably prefers is, "Facebook plans to create 10,000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years in a push to build a digital world known as the 'metaverse.'" But assuming an average of $100,000 in salary per year per employee, that's $1 billion a year. It's hard to imagine how 10,000 people can work on the same platform at the same time, especially when you consider that Roblox Corporation has less than 1,250 employees managing 200 million active users. I've already gotten reports that Facebook Horizon has been mired by turnover and lack of focus, and I can't imagine how throwing 10,000 more people at the project will make matters better. But OK.

Speaking of ROBLOX, the company recently added more realistic avatars (or should I say less LEGO-like), in a likely bid to make the platform more appealing to people in their teens and early twenties. At first glance they still have some way to go before giving Fortnite's stylishly cartoonish avatars competition.

The savage economics of streaming on Twitch, from longtime analyst Joost van Dreunen: There's currently 8 million active Twitch streamers, but 25 percent of the 10,000 top earners make less than minimum wage. So that likely leaves 7,500 who make a decent living from streaming, and a few hundred out of 8 million who do extremely well (i.e. earning six figures US$ or more).

Speaking of Roblox, here's TechCrunch's deep dive into Core, the Epic-funded, would-be ROBLOX killer. 

🤔 “Perception of speed changes with FOV” – found on Reddit. I’ve always felt that expanding FOV risks increasing motion sickness due to greater opportunity for vection, but maybe a fuller FOV will more closely match your natural expectation, which will be more comfortable? pic.twitter.com/nu4jb2tkc2

— Ben Lang (@benz145) October 17, 2021

Love this visual demo on the importance of field of vision in immersion (versus nausea).

Playable Worlds is hiring an art director. Here's Raph Koster's vision for the metaverse his new startup is building.

Previous days' links after the break:

Reader Says He Can Run Second Life for Linux on a $250 Tablet!

Update, October 18: Many more details from Thor in Comments below. 

Replying to our open forum call for tablets that can run Second Life, Andabata Thor sent along this screenshot with details:

"I am often on SL by tablet CHUWI Hi10X 10.1 inch. 1200x1920 and Clear Linux OS. I think that for a senior like me it is not a bad experience..."

I believe he's referring to this tablet which is currently selling for under $250, but buyer beware. Hopefully Thor comes along with more details and tips because his setup sounds fairly unique.

Top Posts Last Week Including an Internal Survey of Facebook Employee Dissension, and Second Life's Mysterious Concurrency Plateau

• New World Notes Newsfeed: Metaverse Content I’m Currently Consuming
• The Mysterious 40,000 People Plateau Of Second Life User Concurrency
• Facebook Internal Survey: 1 In 4 Not Convinced By Zuckerberg's Defense Against Whistleblower Allegations -- Nearly Half Want Government Regulation
• Open Forum Question: Could Second Life Work On A Touch Screen / Tablet Optimized For Seniors?

Starting This Weekend in Second Life: Halloween Fun Fundraiser to Benefit the American Diabetes Association!

Click here to teleport into a Second Life event with some Halloween month thrills for a great real world cause: Helping people with diabetes. More info and events on the Scare Me Silly site:

The 6th Annual Scare Me Silly Event in support of Team Diabetes of Second Life will take place October 15 to 22, 2021 and will feature shopping, a hunt, art, live music, contests, giveaways, tricks, treats, & more!!

100% of the funds raised during the extravaganza, Team Diabetes of SL Marketing Coordinator Jessii Warrhol tells me, go directly to the American Diabetes Association: "Funds are donated via an official avatar to our online donation and authorization page." That page is here.

Sumptuous Virtual Home Décor Shopping Ideas From Forever Friday SL

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

“Forever Friday SL” is a blog by Malayaa Morningstar that has a strong focus on home decor, though there is some fashion mixed in. She posted Waking Up to Autumn on Monday. I love the coziness that is not one bit overstuffed with bric-a-brac. I love the curtains hiding the area under the bench. I imagine it is packed with shoe boxes. The nightstands are adorable, too. 

• MYSA [Dema Fairport] – Vila Collection Bed with Headboard (Fameshed ends October 27th)
• Dust Bunny [Noel Bunny] & Consignment [ValiantCo] Florence Bedroom nightstand & rug
• Llorisen [Elsa Wellesley} – Rosalyn – repurposed bench and discarded shutters

To see the house itself, click here:

Fantastic Photographs Featuring Second Life's Dark Fantasy, Cyberpunk, and Weird West Roleplay Communities

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

HotDog has a photostream full of ghoulish fun. I love his macabre pictures. Most of his work is for vendor pics for his eponymous store, but he also includes a few wonderful story-telling scenes. For example, “This way or that way?” suggests the meeting of two opposites on a road. He is an extreme ectomorph and she is an endomorph, he is formally dressed and she is anything but formal, a regular Jack Sprat and partner, but a picture that seems to be taken by someone who likes them both. There is a fondness for the people that comes through. 

For more, click here:

The Mysterious 40,000 People Plateau of Second Life User Concurrency

Second Life concurrency data courtesy since 2009 by Tyche Shepherd's Grid Survey

Here's the latest Second Life concurrency stats direct from Tyche, the woman who knows more about them than anyone outside Linden Lab (and possibly even more than anyone still at the actual company):

"The trend in maximum daily concurrency is pretty flat for the past 3 months or so [see chart here], the same with Median and Mean Daily. It is down on from what we were seeing in the Spring but still above pre-Covid levels."

The COVID "spike", however, was just a few thousand more active users, and most of them were existing SL accounts coming back during the quarantine.

Which leads to the mysterious plateau of Second Life user concurrency. My takeaway from what Tyche tells me next:

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Fashion & Flights of Fancy from Anja Mexicola

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

Anja Mexicola’s “Bouquet” is a lovely romantic picture. The background is one at the Backdrop Photo Dome, a place often used by bloggers who can use the backgrounds rezzed there but she did a great job using a filter to give the entire picture the feeling of being hand-painted. I love that she was not tempted to be too symmetrical placing the flowers and birds. She is not symmetrical either, her left arm and hand are visible with a billowing eyelet lace sleeve. One the one hand, it is exuberant with so many flowers and the birds, but then there is restraint in her colors. She’s smart in her choices. 

If you want to know why you should never have a mermaid roommate, click here:

Facebook Internal Survey: 1 in 4 Not Convinced By Zuckerberg's Defense Against Whistleblower Allegations -- Nearly Half Want Government Regulation

As promised last week, here's the results of a survey conducted last weekend by staff at Blind, an anonymous messaging/virtual community app for employees, asking users their opinions on the recent whistleblower allegations made against Facebook. About 5,000 responded across many social media companies, with nearly 10% of them (482) staff members at Facebook itself.

Courtesy Team Blind, here's the survey results from Facebook employees only, starting with the question, "Are you convinced by Facebook’s defense to the whistleblower’s allegations?"

Here's how Facebook staffers answered:

Notably, a significant minority of Facebook employees (1 in 4) did not find their own company's defense against the allegations to be credible. 

There was a similar result to another question: "Do you believe Facebook puts profits over user safety?"

Here's how Facebook employees who took the survey replied:

Open Forum Question: Could Second Life Work on a Touch Screen / Tablet Optimized for Seniors?

We know that many seniors like the late Fran Serenade (above) have found great value in using Second Life, both as a social/creative platform and (as in Fran's case) even finding therapeutic value in them. However, many seniors have difficulty learning or using the SL viewer for Mac/PC.

But what if the virtual world was accessible via a touchscreen? 

Caltech astronomy professor George Djorgovski, director of the university's Virtech campus in Second Life, recently put it to me this way:

Many seniors who would benefit from the social opportunities in SL are not very computer-savvy.

They may be comfortable with an iPad, but not a standard laptop/desktop. iPads and similar devices simply do not have the hardware power to deal with something like SL, and whatever apps do exist (and are still available or maintained) are little more than messaging apps.

There are, however, notebook/laptop machines that have a touch screen, which someone who is used to a tablet may find easier to use than a laptop proper. Also, I know that it is possible to boot Linux on at least some Chromebooks, and use a Linux SL client, but I don’t know about the performance thereof. Any experiences or recommendations along these lines would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, George and I discussed the late-lamented Lumia app for Android devices, but that's no longer officially supported (far as I can tell), and as great as it is for established SLers, wouldn't work well for the target audience he's talking about:

Vivien DeLancoure's Vivid Goth / Dark Fantasy Avatar Portraits

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

Vivien DeLancoure’s “Sometimes time doesn’t heal wounds” brings together two very different aesthetics into a glorious union. On the one hand there is the baroque delicacy of the filigreed bird cages. Then there is the Steampunk/Goth fight-ready toughness of her boots and gloves, but she is not without her own baroque ornamentation as you can see in her corset. The contrasts are balanced and work so well. The birdcages are all empty suggesting several wounds that are still unhealed. I love the careful balance between the industrial elements and the baroque elements. It’s beautiful and her cast-down eyes create the emotional effect she intends. She also blogs and these items were the Engine Room event that ends October 20th.

To see extraordinary Dark Fantasy pics, click here:

Top Posts Last Week Featuring: What Facebook Employees Think About the Facebook Whistleblower and the Continued Kid-ification of ROBLOX

• New World Notes Newsfeed: Metaverse Content I’m Currently Consuming. Featuring a Facebook-less Horizon, a dearth of visits to AT&T in VRChat, and the coming "Hannibal Lecter" to Second Life. 
• 80% Of Facebook Employees Believe This Week's Whistleblower Revelations Will Damage Company, According To Massive Internal Poll
• ROBLOX Releases New Rules For Its Metaverse: No Politics, Romance, Or Cross-Platform Promotion Of Its Virtual Currency Allowed
• Sannyのおすすめバーチャルワールドニュース : 2021年9月 Sanny Reports For Virtual Japan. Share with Japanese-speaking virtual world fans!

Give Your SL Avatar Realistic Wounds With the Really Needy HUD’s New Explosive Pack!

Just in time for Halloween and Squid Game roleplay in Second Life, the Really Dangerous Explosives Pack is a fun new addition to the Really Needy HUD (a proud sponsoring partner), which turns SL into a Sims-like game experience. Now, with the help of major style brand Izzie’s, any damage from nearby explosions will cause visible wounds to appear on your avatar. 

Here’s Really Needy creator Grace7 Ling with more details, along with some new NSFW partnerships: 

Roleplayers can now give their urban game more gritty realism with the Really Dangerous Explosives Pack, which includes a feature that auto-applies blood-splattered BOM layers onto your avatar body, if hit by an explosion.

This is a feature of the Really Needy HUD which are used by roleplayers in Second Life to simulate their avatars having Hunger, Thirst, Energy, Health, Hygiene and even Toilet and Procreation needs.

This new release builds on the different types of injuries recognized by the HUD (which goes much beyond a simple combat meter), such as burns, falls and gunshot wounds, and now blast injuries.

As covered in a prior New World Notes post, gunshot wounds automatically appear on the parts of the body where the avatar was shot. With this new release, avatars within the blast radius of a fragmentation grenade will get covered in blood splatter or bloody cuts (depending on how much gore you want), or might be bruised badly if they suffered shock damage from a nearby explosion.

Halloween in Second Life Style Tips from Victoria Konnor James

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

Victoria Konnor James' recent post Thirsty for her blog “Pretty Things, Nice Life” has me wanting those beautiful illuminated pumpkins in real life as well as first life. I mean, let’s get serious about pumpkins. I like roasting pumpkin seeds and will happily substitute pumpkin for potatoes in a stew or even make a pumpkin soup or two or three, but one good-sized pumpkin is about as much as I want at one time. Also, if you put out a pumpkin the first week of October, it passes it’s prime long before Halloween. But these pumpkins are so pretty and of course, they don’t smell of pumpkin 24 hours a day, not even 1 hour a day. I want them. Do they exist in real life? 

{vespertine}

• Illuminated Pumpkin – short /bloody blue
• Illuminated Pumpkin – short /zombie green
• Illuminated Pumpkin – tall /jack orange
• Illuminated Pumpkin – tall /neutral
• Illuminated Pumpkin – tall /zombie green

If you’re ready for the Halloween spirit, click here:

80% of Facebook Employees Believe This Week's Whistleblower Revelations Will Damage Company, According to Massive Internal Poll

While Mark Zuckerberg and other executives strenuously defend Facebook against the allegations and documents made public by whistleblower Frances Haugen, denying any serious wrongdoing, the company's employees have a very different perspective:

80% of them believe the whistleblower's revelations will at least cause some short term damage to the company, while a full third believe the damage will be much worse, causing serious harm to the company's revenue, or even lead to an Uber-level crisis, where top executives are fired or forced to resign. (See above.) Almost half consider the impact to be serious. (Love the "Biden joins the chat" option, i.e. new government regulation/penalties are imposed.)

This all according to a user-created survey posted earlier this week on Blind, an anonymous messaging/virtual community app for employees, accessible only by company staff.  (They're only able to log onto Blind's forum for Facebook via a company e-mail address.) 

Over 6300 Facebook employees took the survey  --  roughly 10% of the entire company, a huge sample. In other Blind-based surveys I've reported on, such as this one about curbing hate speech on Facebook, only a few hundred employees typically participate. So this new survey is a fairly reliable barometer to the corporation's internal collective sentiment.

So that in mind, it's notable that just 1 in 5 of Facebook employees seem fully aligned with their executive team:

Marvel at These Maximalist Second Life Images by Ella Pavlona

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

Ella Pavlova is a maximalist. While many artists strive for minimalism or realism, a maximalist goes for excess. “More is more” might be the catch-phrase that defines maximalism, but that does not mean undisciplined or chaotic. Yes, she and the bluebird are surrounded by flowers but they curve around her, encircling her. They do not obscure her, though perhaps the bluebird is hard to see at first glance, but then, it is King Charmant visiting the imprisoned Princess Florine, who is, it seems, in a prison of flowers. Elle links to the exquisite Bluebird pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty. 

For more maximalist Ella, click here:

ROBLOX Releases New Rules for Its Metaverse: No Politics, Romance, or Cross-Platform Promotion of Its Virtual Currency Allowed

ROBLOX just updated its Terms of Use for customers, and given the many reports describing the massive virtual world platform as a Metaverse, the updates are fairly fascinating. They provoke the blunt question, "Is ROBLOX really making a Metaverse, or is it still making a game for kids?"

Because for starters, ROBLOX's version of the Metaverse forbids any virtual expression of romance or real life politics:

We value friendly debate about issues and topics that matter to Robloxians. However, to maintain a civil and respectful environment, we prohibit the discussion or depiction of: Current candidates running for public office, including their slogans, campaign material, rallies, or events... [s]itting real-world elected officials.

Roblox is a safe space for meeting online friends, chatting, and collaborating on creative projects, but we prohibit content that seeks or portrays romantic relationships, including: Animations of kissing, hand holding, or other romantic gestures... [e]xperiences that depict romantic events, including weddings, dates, and honeymoons

The rules against politics are fairly strict even by contemporary standards. For instance, Joe Biden had an official campaign presence in the new Animal Crossing. And one of the key reasons Second Life was deemed to be a metaverse was because it allowed real life politics. Indeed, the 2006 Second Life appearance of Virginia Governor (now Senator) Mark Warner as he was considering a run for President in 2008 was a milestone for the virtual world.

As for the new rules against romance, according to top ROBLOX YouTuber KreekCraft, they run counter to what the ROBLOX community is already doing in-world now:

Riowyn Magwell's Stylishly Badass Female Avatar Images -- Including Classic-Era Lara Croft Cosplay in Second Life!

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

Riowyn Magwell’s “Break Time” is not typical of her photostream. It is a rare moment that catches her at rest. So savor the opportunity. It doesn’t happen often. I like the wash of light from blue to gold. The interior of the club is the cool blue while you can see through the windows the golden heat of the outdoors.  

Now for the action shots, including some excellent Lara Croft cosplay in Second Life -- click here:

RSVP Here: Join Matthew Ball INSIDE the Metaverse for a Virtual Fireside Chat With The Washington Post's Gene Park & Me -- October 21, Noon PT

Click here to RSVP for a Metaverse-based fireside chat happening October 21st at Noon PT with analyst and VC Matthew Ball, who has perhaps done more than anyone else to convey the value of virtual worlds and metaverse-related technologies to mainstream business audiences in recent years. Hosted in Breakroom, Sine Wave's metaverse platform for real events, this is also (I believe) the very first time that Matthew will discuss the Metaverse within a metaverse, in avatar form. 

My co-host for the event is The Washington Post's Gene Park, who along with covering the game industry for the US paper of record, also wrote one of the earliest in-depth articles on the new metaverse era for a major publication.

More details on Breakroom's event page. And as a warm-up to this literal (virtual) fireside, here's my series of posts analyzing Matt's epic Metaverse Primer, along with video of my last Breakroom fireside chat, with Philip Rosedale and Adam Frisby:

These Amazing Action Images Look Like AAA Videogame Screenshots But Were Actually Made in Second Life

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

Ethan Lane’s “The Heist” is an action shot of a thief jumping off a balcony to escape the three-headed guard dog Cerberus. That he is robbing the joint reminds me of my own personal catnip, the caper story.. I love the cleverness of the caper undiscovered until the crew is safely in another country as the credits roll. Add an element of camp and you have the perfect caper whether it’s “Ocean’s Eleven,” “The Italian Job,” or the original “Mission Impossible” series. I wonder. Does Cerberus make this camp? 

If you like story-telling pics, click here: