New World Notes

Metaverse Platform Roblox Now Has More Monthly Active Users Than the United States Has People (According to RTrack)

This 2024 prediction of mine came true sooner than I expected, as first reported by Matthew Ball this morning:

According to leading Roblox analytics service RTrack, Roblox had an estimated 354 million monthly active users in December 2023. That's an addition of 54 million from last June, when RTrack estimated Roblox to have 300 million MAU.  A knowledgeable insider I trust tells me RTrack is a reliable service, by the way, so I'm inclined to believe these figures as roughly accurate -- especially as they're in line with the company's publicly reported daily active users of 70 million. 

In other words, yes: Roblox now has more monthly active users worldwide than the USA has people. (I.E. 336 million, give or take.)

Roblox the company has moved away from calling itself the Metaverse in the last year or two -- likely to avoid the negative connotations created by failed usages of the term by Meta and various web3 startups -- but did indeed describe itself as the metaverse in its very IPO filing:

Some refer to our category as the metaverse, a term often used to describe the concept of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces in a virtual universe. The idea of a metaverse has been written about by futurists and science fiction authors for over 30 years. With the advent of increasingly powerful consumer computing devices, cloud computing, and high bandwidth internet connections, the concept of the metaverse is materializing.

Given its record user growth, however, the term may soon be synonymous with Roblox itself.

Unsurprisingly, several developers and content creators who got their start with Second Life are now working full-time for Roblox (either for the company or on the UGC side). Richard Nelson, who was an engineer at Linden Lab for nearly 20 years, is now a senior dev at Roblox. In my book, he described some of the secrets to the platform's success:

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Smart & Spectacular Cyberpunk Images by Lying Cat

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

Lying Cat is an artist after my own heart. She combines the high-tech/low-life aesthetic of cyberpunk with the simplicity and visual appeal of pop art. Think Philip K. Dick goes to The Factory. Her pictures have the disciplined simplicity of Andy Warhol, but Warhol’s cultural critique focused on the dangerous ennui of mass consumption. Dick’s cultural critique was more systemic and dystopic. There was no time for ennui. Warhol is the early warning bell and Dick is the evacuation siren. We’re in their transhumanist world now. 

She describes her artistic process with Second Life screenshots in her Flickr bio this way: “I edit them for fun, typically with a cyberpunk theme. I use the pre-PBR Alchemy viewer for shots. The only post-processing my photos undergo is my own editing with Pixelmator.” 

For more from Lying Cat, click here:

Sannyのおすすめバーチャルワールドニュース : 2023年12月 Sanny Reports For Virtual Japan

Sanny Yoshikawa が、New World Notesのなかから、毎月おすすめのバーチャルワールドニュースを日本語で紹介します

Sanny Yoshikawa covers the monthly virtual world highlights from New World Notes for virtual Japan.

 

 

 

★New World Notesでは、広告主になってくださる、カスタマーベースを拡大したい日本のブランドを募集しています。メタバース関連のブランドであれば、Second life、VRC、Clusterなど、プラットフォームは問いません。興味のある方は、お気軽にお問い合わせください！★

Monday Memory: Fight Against Front National in Second Life Illustrates the Challenge of Extremist Expression in an Immersive Virtual World

Above: The face of Dr. King shines from the virtual sun upon an anti-fascist protest against Front National in Second Life

In early 2007, in the run-up to Martin Luther King Jr. day in the US, Second Life was wracked by protests against Front National, the leading far right party in France, which decided to set up an official campaign headquarters of the virtual world. The surrounding community, however, wasn't too happy with those plans:

The first night I arrived at the protest against the Second Life headquarters of Front National, the far right French political party of Jean-Marie Le Pen, it was ringed on all sides by protesters with signs to wave and statements to distribute. By the second night I came (this was late last week), the conflict had become more literal, for many Residents had armed themselves. Multi-colored explosions and constant gunfire shredded the air of Porcupine, a shopping island which FN had inexplicably picked for the site of their virtual world HQ, in December.

The server lag from so many people throwing up so much gunfire slows the battle to a slow motion firefight, but I manage to wade up to TonTonCarton Yue, who is strafing the FN building with a chaingun usually associated with an AC-130 gunship, than a political protest.

"Can I ask," I begin, "why are you shooting?"

"Because I hate Front National," Yue tells me simply.

"If you use violence, doesn't that reduce you to their level?" "I don't know," Yue answers, after awhile.

"I don't care. FN equals violence." And having offered that axiom, he returns his aim to the enemy, and unleashes another barrage.

And so it raged, a ponderous and dreamlike conflict of machine guns, sirens, police cars, "rez cages" (which can trap an unsuspecting avatar), explosions, and flickering holograms of marijuana leaves and kids' TV characters, and more... One enterprising insurrectionist created a pig grenade, fixed it to a flying saucer, and sent several whirling into Front National headquarters, where they'd explode in a starburst of porcine shrapnel.

The very fact that a metaverse platform is immersive and enables the creation of 3D content amplifies the challenge of creating a community that's free from anti-social behavior among avatars. Most other Internet communities only need to contend with toxic speech expressed in text and audio/video. In a virtual world, the toxicity can become a literal part of the world itself.

This very point was raised by the organized protesters, holding up Linden Lab's own community standards:

Firestorm Update: Linden Lab Still Tuning PBR Lighting Issues Upstream

Got another quick update from Firestorm project leader Beq, on reports that the Alpha version of the viewer integrating PBR is displaying objects too brightly. Beq says the problem is being addressed by the Lindens:

"Visuals are still being tuned upstream (Linden Lab); ultimately, the Lab is going to drive that agenda because it would make no sense at all for one viewer to render a scene differently; the poor creators would have kittens." (I.E., panic.)

"The current release notes have a standing 'Known issue' that states something along the lines of 'Yes it's too blue, we're working on it'. Any difference between Linden Lab and Firestorm, in terms of lighting, when examined side by side, same settings on the same hardware should vanish once the upstream changes stabilize and flow down to us."

I.E., PBR will run well in Firestorm once the Lindens nail down that known issue. 

Speaking of which, longtime SLer Estelle Pienaar comments that the addition of PBR may create a divide with established Second Life users who can afford to upgrade/buy new devices, and those who cannot:

Top 4 Posts Including: Upscaling Machinima with Stable Diffusion, and Updating the Firestorm Viewer to Add PBR Graphics to Second Life

• This Artist Amazingly Depicts Avatars Lit By Intense Virtual Light & Shadow
• Watch: How To Upscale Machinima With AI Program Stable Diffusion
• PBR Coming To Firestorm In Next Release, Says New Project Manager Of Popular Third Party Second Life Viewer
• Games I Enjoyed In 2023, From Turn-Based To Deeply Immersive -- What Were Yours?

SL Style Friday: Fun, Story-Rich Fashion Photos for Male Avatars by Mr. Wolf

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

MR WOLF has a Flickr microblog. I was intrigued by his picture/post title, “I’m tired of using technology🐺🎧.” I feel that way sometimes. But then I think of all the friendships I have that would not exist without Second Life and SL and technology are inseparable. And of course, Plurk is a deep and solid friendship circle all tethered to technology. If only I could type telepathically. I kind of envy Mr. Wolf’s set up, what with multiple monitors so he can keep track of several things at once. But does he have room for a cat? Can a Wolf have a cat?

• Scene/Backdrop: ZEROICHI - Attic room
• Sushi time Set: MOVEMENT

For more from Mr. Wolf, click here:

Making a Metaverse That Matters is on Goodreads!

I'm tardy in noticing, but am overjoyed to find my book on Goodreads, including this lovely review by longtime virtual world denizen Lorelei Armstrong:

I debated calling this review "The book that could have saved Zuckerberg billions" because it offers terrific guidance to the industry and those in the position to spend billions creating virtual worlds. I decided that title might limit the audience for a book anyone interested in the future of our relationship with the Internet should read. I've been in Second Life since mid-2007. I have three avatars running eight businesses. At one time I was making substantial (real) money. Now it pays my in-world bills. As I listened to the audiobook of Making a Metaverse that Matters, I found myself nodding often...

Games I Enjoyed in 2023, From Turn-Based to Deeply Immersive -- What Were Yours?

One more recap from 2023 before yearly recaps get totally stale: My Steam playlist from last year.

Most games I personally enjoy in my off-hours are rarely metaverse platforms/virtual worlds/MMOs, because while playing anything in that broad category, I inevitably come across an interaction or experience that makes me think, "Hmm, I should write about that." Which feels like work! (Work I love, yes, but if I'm on break, I'm on break.)

Anyway, of the dozens I tried and of the many I enjoyed for an extended period, highlights include:

Immersive Action/Simulation

Control: Thrilling and moody action/adventure with heavy emphasis on gunplay merged with various telekinetic abilities. Loved the Stranger Things-esque government conspiracy backstory and the brutalist architecture, though the story itself was not as emotionally resonant as it could have been. (Completed)

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider: Standalone expansion to part 2 of the acclaimed Dishonored franchise (itself deeply inspired by the beloved Thief franchise), I actually enjoyed Outsider more than the first game, with a compelling hero voiced by Rosario Dawson, incredibly beautiful art and level design, and some of the most cleverly unique missions I've played in quite awhile. (Completed.)

Valheim: I admired this survival crafting sim more than I enjoyed it -- great physics/craft and build system, and beautifully immersive. However, since I insisted on playing it solo, it got pretty brutally difficult quite quick, and I moved on.  

More after the break!

 

This Artist Amazingly Depicts Avatars Lit By Intense Virtual Light & Shadow

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

Ooxooi is fascinated by light and shadow. He shoots avatars, mostly faces, all both obscured and revealed by the interplay of light and shadow. His photostream is phenomenal, both for its extraordinary focus and its breathtaking pictures. “The Crack” reminds me Leonard Cohen’s song “Anthem” and its lyrics, “Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering /

There is a crack, a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in.”

For more of his extraordinary work, click here:

Watch: How to Upscale Second Life Machinima with AI Program Stable Diffusion

Problem: Machinima is an amazing use case for metaverse platforms, enabling people to create high quality narrative videos on a low budget -- if only, that is, the "high quality" part wasn't so challenging. Because any time you capture video in a multiplayer virtual world, you inevitably encounter lag, frame rate drop, and onscreen mesh files that don't fully display. That problem is especially acute with Second Life, where everything in the virtual world (including other people's avatars, logging in from around the world) is streamed to the machinima maker's computer in real time.

Solution: Generative AI! Specifically Stable Diffusion from Stability AI.

Watch this tutorial from Pryda Parx (above) to see what I mean. Using Stable Diffusion and Comfy UI (a graphic user interface for Stable Diffusion), Parx is able to convert footage captured from Second Life with a low frame rate and poor image quality into something approaching professional quality -- upscaling it from 15 frames per second  to 60 FPS with a 4K display.

Parx tells me the conversion process is not especially difficult:

Dramatic Images of Snow in Second Life to See as Most of Us Weather Real Life Storms

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

According to SL Flickr photographer The Charlie's Angels, it is “Snowing in New Haven.” 

According to social media, it is also snowing over many Second Lifers’ first life. We’re taking bets in Portland on whether or not we might get some of the white stuff, too. My cat snuck out and didn’t even get to the stairs before turning around and running back inside, so I think she’s betting on snow. 

A lot of people like congruence, so while it snows in on both sides of the Atlantic, folks want some snow in Second Life, too. I love how Angels captures the frenetic fullness of a blizzard, the falling snow blending with the blowing snow so the snow comes at you from multiple directions.

For more virtual snow, click here:

PBR Coming to Firestorm in Next Release, Says New Project Manager of Popular Third Party Second Life Viewer

PBR before/after comparison from the official Firestorm blog

If you're a Second Life user excitedly waiting for shiny and reflective PBR graphics to get added into Firestorm and other popular third party viewers, here's an important update: 

After some 13 years project managing the large volunteer developer team of Firestorm, the most popular TPV, Jessica Lyons recently announced that she'd handed over the role to Beq Janus. (Jessica will remain CEO of The Phoenix-Firestorm Project, Inc.) So now's a good time as any to thank Jessica for her tireless (and frankly, not fully appreciated by the community) work running the project.

Over the holidays, Beq updated me on the status of PBR in Firestorm:

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Leica Frame Has a New In-World Art Exhibit! Here's a Teaser of His Spectacular Images

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

Leica Frame, with this picture, announced that four new pictures have been added to his exhibition at the Elven Falls gallery in Second Life (click here to teleport) where he has more than fifty pictures on display. Like many SL artists he saves pictures for exhibition in-world. They are not-seen-on-Flickr pictures. This is a small taste to tempt you there.

I love the otherworld eeriness of this pic above. I love the wispy ground fog. It’s officially called evaporation fog, but what is evaporating? Ghosts! 

For more gorgeous pics, click here:

How Many Vision Pro Units Will Apple Sell This Year? History of Poor AR Headset Sales Suggests Below 250,000

Apple just unveiled the launch date of its Vision Pro "spatial reality" headset as February 2. And while I'm about as excited as Om Malik regarding its creative potential (at least as a niche product), I'd be skeptical of any broad proclamations we're sure to see, of 2024 being the year that unleashed a paradigm-shifting spatial reality era.

Why? The basic fact that an augmented/mixed reality headset device costing some $3500, even from Apple, will only attract the hardest of hardcore consumers/developers. My prediction from last month, that the Vision Pro will sell under 250,000 units in the first year, still sounds right -- and is actually on the optimistic side. 

Here's the track record for the category so far:

• Google Glass, retailing at $1500, only sold a reported 10,000 units its first year of launch in 2012.
• Microsoft HoloLens, first sold in a developer edition for $3000, only sold around 50,000 units in its first two years (2016/2017).
• The Magic Leap One Creator Edition, launched in 2018 for $2,295, only sold 6,000 units in its first 6 months. Notably, the startup expected to sell "at least" 1 million units in its first year. 

And these three fizzly launches happened despite the firepower of Google and Microsoft, and in Magic Leap's case, funding of $1.4 billion, with backing from Google, AT&T, and a who's who of Valley investors. I fully accept the premise that Apple will do a far, far better job at execution, creating a genuinely, magically appealing device. But even if that's the case, the high cost and historically low appeal of the form factor will still likely limit its first year sales. (And probably be a permanent barrier to mass market sales into the long term.)

Then again, based on reports from the Financial Times, Apple will only be able to actually produce some 400,000 units at launch. Longtime reader Martin K. believes this limited supply will paradoxically drive market interest:

Listen: I Talk About Democracy in the Metaverse on NPR, in a Segment Featuring Second Life's CDS & Wasteland Communities

Today's episode of The Pulse from National Public Radio, "Virtual Worlds, Virtual Lives", tells the story of two classic communities in Second Life: The Confederation of Democratic Simulators, which was shaken (but not destroyed) by a trademark dispute which challenged the group's idealism, and the Wasteland, the long-running post-apocalyptic community founded and run as by NeoBokrug Elytis.

As I explained to Pulse reporter Grant Hill, while interest in roleplaying democracy in a virtual world has fervent if limited appeal, the Wasteland draws more sustained interest and self-organizing power by attracting fans of classic movies and games like the Mad Max and Fallout franchise.  

More here in Grant's article on the segment:

Top 3 Posts Not to Miss Including: a New VRChat Concurrency Record -- and a New "Holodeck" Project from Midjourney

Three posts to start the New Year: 

VRChat Reach 105,000+ Peak Concurrent Uses During New Years, Likely Fueled By New Quest 2/3 & Android App Users

Dare To OVERDARE: Upcoming Metaverse Platform Worth Watching

Midjourney Metaverse? CEO David Holz Confirms AI Startup Is Building "Real-Time Open World Holodeck"

Second Life Friday Fashion from Juls Nebula: Eye-Catching Styles With Complementary Backgrounds to Match

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

Juls Nebula is a Flickr microblogger and yes, this is a shot of lingerie, but it’s lingerie that covers the nether regions. She’s wearing a lovely corset bra and tap pants. What catches my eye though is her fabulous color coordination with the room. Her outfit matches the pillow and complements the dark blue room. It’s a lovely picture. 

• NANIKA: Alisha Top and Shorts (Was at Dec Anthem, look at store)
• MINIMAL: Boho Glam Decor Set @ Collabor88 ends January 6th

For more from Juls, click here:

 

Midjourney Metaverse? CEO David Holz Confirms AI Startup is Building "Real-Time Open World Holodeck"

Update, 11:35PT: Hours after running this post, I received a late-night reply from Midjourney CEO David Holz himself, in answer to my email with the subject line, "Confirm Midjourney holodeck announcement?", which cited the below quote attributed to him, then asked if that characterization was accurate.

Holz's one sentence reply: "roughly correct quote yes". 

So it does indeed look like Midjourney is aiming to build some kind of real-time open world holodeck in 2024! 

In a follow-up, I asked Holz if Midjourney advisor (and Second Life founder) Philip Rosedale is involved in this effort. Will further update this post if that's also confirmed! I've also amended the original post title accordingly.

Original post (first published 4:33pm PT) below: 

I've reached out to official channels to confirm this (or not), but according to some attendees (as here and here), Midjourney CEO David Holz made a pretty amazing announcement during the startup's open office hours earlier this week.

Specifically, he apparently suggested Midjourney is preparing to deploy a metaverse platform of some kind.

As attendee Nick St. Pierre on Twitter/X quotes Holz:

[H]e thinks they “can get to the holodeck” by 2024.

“We’re gonna build a lot of stuff this year. I think we’ll build more stuff than I’ve ever built before…By the end of 2024 hopefully we have real-time open worlds.”

Normally I would be instantly skeptical about this as hearsay or a misinterpretation. For one thing, while Midjourney outputs 2D images and video, creating a dynamic, immersive virtual world isn't simply a matter of generating 3D graphics, for reasons explained here.

But here's the thing: Second Life founder Philip Rosedale is a lead advisor at Midjourney.

He's listed as such on the startup's hompage. But this may be a coincidence, of course, and Holz's comments this week might have been mischaracterized; hopefully I get some kind of official reply on this.

Dare to OVERDARE: Upcoming Metaverse Platform Worth Watching

In case you missed Matt Ball's prediction, here's the teaser trailer to OVERDARE, an upcoming mobile-forward metaverse platform from Krafton, the South Korean-based publisher of PUBG Battlegrounds.

From the announcement:

The project represents a bold, new frontier in mobile-based interactive platforms for user-generated content where users are free to express themselves creatively.

Built on Unreal Engine 5 and leveraging generative AI technology, OVERDARE allows users to easily craft high-quality games across genres such as action RPGs, sports, and shooters. The platform also offers robust social features, including avatar customization and in-app chat functionality.

OVERDARE will introduce a Create-to-Earn (C2E) system, enabling users to purchase and own digital assets crafted by content creators within the metaverse.

These transactions will be supported by NFT and blockchain technology, ensuring transparency and secure transactions. To facilitate this, OVERDARE has selected Settlus as its blockchain mainnet for NFT licensing. Settlus specializes in licensing intellectual property in the form of NFTs from creators on Web 2.0 platforms. Those creators earn revenue through the U.S.-developed USDC stablecoin.

Graphics in the trailer look good and fun, especially if they can pull this off in the mobile version; also appreciate the diversity of avatars, super important for a metaverse platform to thrive. Being built on Unreal by a seasoned developer of a huge multiplayer game world like PUBG is also an important plus, especially for scalability.

Potential downsides that immediately jump out:

Vivid Views of Virtual Fireworks Shot Across Second Life on New Year's

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

Gwyndoleen’s “Embracing the Future” is a lovely shot that captures the magic of fireworks in the celebration of the New Year. Also, isn’t it lovely to enjoy the fireworks from inside rather than out in the rain or snow? As the Earth spun on its axis and into 2024, cities across the world had celebratory fireworks. The same was true in Second Life. I thought I might check in on the celebrations. 

For more New Year’s fireworks in Second Life, click here:

Metaverse-Related Reader Predictions for 2024-- And a Call for an Easy Riders, Raging Bulls-Style Creative Transformation

Here's some reader predictions for the coming year, first from longtime media exec Matthew Hawn:

We get a solid UGC commercial hit on UEFN - built in their Creative 2.0 tools - that *isnt* from Epic Games. 

The focus on populating 3D worlds with AI characters fails to ignite anyone's interest. Why? NPCs without real storytelling frameworks and actual plots are just as boring as empty 3D worlds. We need the energy and revolution of 60's and 70's indie Hollywood for the metaverse/game world (as chronicled in Peter Biskin's excellent Easy Riders, Raging Bulls).

As an example of prediction #1, Matthew mentions Cabbage Systems, and indie studio building original games on UEFN (I.E., Unreal Engine for Fortnite), and recommends following Simon Carless's DiscoverCo newsletter to track this emerging ecosystem. 

As to prediction #2, I definitely agree we'll probably see disappointing results from AI-driven game characters. (Or to make that a more verifiable prediction: we won't see games/metaverse platforms with a heavy focus on AI characters attract strong player usage.)

I also hope that we see a burst of 70's movie-style creative energy in the metaverse platform space. Acclaimed game designer Jenova Chen (Journey) said something similar to me last year for the book, when alluding to his future plans with Sky: Children of Light:

Every successful metaverse platform evokes emotional chords, from the wonder and awe of exploring a new world, to the surprise and delight of user creativity. Chen’s goal is to create a broadly accessible experience with a wide enough emotional spectrum to appeal across all demographics. He also thinks it’s in the Metaverse that his lifelong goal of creating the Citizen Kane of games might be achieved.

Yes, Citizen Kane is from the 40s, but it was a huge influence on the great filmmakers associated with the 70's era. At any rate, metaverse platforms definitely need more designers like Chen from the "art game" space.

More 2024 predictions from reader Martin K below:

Marketplace Find: Free Starter Kit for Using PBR in Second Life

While many Second Life users are waiting for PBR to get integrated into Firestorm and other third party viewers before bothering with it, SL creator Arduenn Schwartzman uploaded a free starter kit for people who want to start playing with it now: PBR Survival Kit.

From the description:

Today's Second Life Flickr Pick: Incredible John Wick Cosplay & Other Fantastic Images by Tigerfish Raine

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

Tigerfish Raine shot this homage to the John Wick movies, but the situation looks so specific and individual I was certain it had to be inspired by a particular image. So I searched for "Keanu surrounded by guns" and realized how well Tigerfish achieved his goal. His Second Life version of Keanu isn’t as damaged and has much better skin, but this is an achievement. 

For more from Tigerfish, click here:

VRChat Reach 105,000+ Peak Concurrent Uses During New Years, Likely Fueled by New Quest 2/3 & Android App Users -- Up from

VRChat concurrency data via the VRChat Metrics site.

Well this is metaverse news starting the year with a pixealated bang: Peak concurrent users in VRChat during 2023's New Year's Eve (typically the platform's biggest day, usage wise), reached 105,991!

That's quite a leap from New Year's Eve in 2021, when peak CCU reached just under 90,000.

And an even greater leap from NYE 2020, when peak CCU was 40,000.

Along with counting down to the new year, this new concurrency record became part of the in-world festivities.

"News was spreading that they broke 6 digits and that the servers were down and that if you tried to teleport somewhere you'd get booted out," as a longtime VRChat player tells me. 

Much of this user growth is likely due to people who got Quest 2 and Quest 3 devices over the holidays.

Add to that, the new VRChat app for Android recently went open Beta free to play, and already has 100,000 downloads on Google Play.

Here's a look at the NYE action, including a classic menagerie of celebratory avatars, including a human-sized hotdog and a friendly dinosaur skeleton, watching the ball drop across the physical world: