New World Notes

Open Forum: What Should New World Notes Feature This Week?

Events, announcements, products, videos, social trends, research, anything roughly related to virtual worlds and VR, Second Life and its many official and unofficial spinoffs -- and definitely also great Flickr feeds for Cajsa's column -- please post details and links in Comments!

Monday Memory: When MLK's Face Shone from the Second Life Sun

Gone a decade or so ago after an update to the environmental system, the face of Martin Luther King Jr.'s face once emanated from the surface of Second Life's virtual sun on this day of the year, to celebrate the civil rights icon's birthday:

In honor of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., a special sun is made to arc across the grid of Second Life today.  If you look close enough, you'll see it's inset with the face of the man who was so untimely cut down, when far too much of his work remained.  In his country, the world beyond, and, perhaps, in worlds he never could have imagined.

It's more than likely that Linden Lab the developer who added it no longer works at the company, and just as likely that none of the developers now working for the company even remember that it did. But it's worth remembering today, and everyday, in hopes this special sun is brought back again.

Top 5 Posts Last Week Including a Battlebot Prototyped in Second Life for the Real Life Show & a New Blockchain Currency People Might Actually Use

• Inventor Prototypes Battlebot In Second Life -- Then Creates It In Real Life To Fight On Discovery Channel's Battlebots!
• Second Life Community Launches Powerful Image Challenge To Promote One Billion Rising's Mission To End Violence Against Women & Girls
• High Fidelity Provides Spatial Audio For Live CES Show Featuring Billie Eilish
• Despite Amazing Creativity, Why Does PS4'S Dreams Have So Few Users?
• IMVU's Plan To Make VCOIN The Most Used Blockchain-Based Currency In Virtual Worlds -- And The Real One

Fashion Friday Blog: Belinha Aquina Highlights Kawaii Style in Second Life

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

“I bought my snacks, now I just need Netflix” appeals to me. I love the convenience store and snacks and want some. In fact, when I finish this post, I think I will make some popcorn. The power of suggestion. The post features items from The Food Court, a semi-annual event that is going on now. 

• NINI Planet. Netflix and Chips : candy earring A@The Food Court
• NINI Planet.  Netflix and Chips : jelly mouth A@The Food Court

A fabulous blouse features in the next pic.

TONIGHT: Inventor Prototypes Battlebot in Second Life -- Then Creates it in Real Life to Fight On Discovery Channel's Battlebots!

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Above: Sharky in SL and in RL (images courtesy Constantine of Nano Station Technologies

Tonight at 8pm on the Discovery Channel (check your local listings!), there's a chance for Second Life users to cheer on a hometown champion: Episode 6, third fight of the night, it's Sharko (woot woot!) versus Slap Box (boo! hiss!) on the popular Battlebots reality TV show. 

Sharko is the creation of Edward Robinson, known in Second Life as Artorius Constantine, owner of the Nano Station Technologies store.  For the last few years, Constantine has not only been making a real life living from his SL inventions (animesh roleplay bots and so on), but taking what he's learned from the battlebots he's made for Second Life fights, and applying what he's learned to design real life battlebots:

Second Life Community Launches Powerful Image Challenge to Promote One Billion Rising's Mission to End Violence Against Women & Girls

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

Lawrence Pryce, whose several virtual world screenshot challenges have been featured here in the past, has a new SL community awareness drive in support of the One Billion Rising movement to end violence against women and girls in real life. (Look for news at the One Billion Rising in Second Life page, though no announcements are there yet.) I like “No More Stolen Sisters” by Charlie’s Rain (above). It’s sort of an anti-Rockwell, isn’t it? Like Rockwell, she catches a moment in life, but a heartbreaking moment. Rather than full color, it’s mostly black and white except for the red highlights. It’s a powerful image, made more so by its naturalness. 

The One Billion Rising in SL campaign celebrates rising from despair, as in this next picture:

High Fidelity Provides Spatial Audio for Live CES Show Featuring Billie Eilish

I mentioned just yesterday that Philip Rosedale and his team at High Fidelity were working on improving the live music experience using their 3D spatial audio-based virtual world, but at the time, I didn't know they'd be going so big.

As in: How about creating the audience experience for a live concert at this year's (now-virtual) Consumer Electronic Show, the biggest convention of its kind, featuring a live performance by Billie Eilish, among the most acclaimed pop artists of her generation? Yes they did, and incorporated a new 3D-ish visual overlay to enhance the social aspect:

"A partner of High Fidelity called SpatialWeb built the experience on top of High Fidelity," Philip tells me, "adding the 3D, social features, and an ability to do P2P video as well.  HF was used for the spatial audio between participants."

I could be wrong, but this might be the breakthrough High Fidelity needs to go massive; after all, Second Life's key breakthrough back in 2006, arguably, happened with Suzanne Vega's live in-world performance. In any case, expect more projects like this to come:

Despite Amazing Creativity, Why Does PS4's Dreams Have So Few Users?

Dreams, the Playstation 4 exclusive from Media Molecule, is a virtual world creation platform with what look to be some of the most impressive and user-friendly creation tools on the market, incredible user-generated content like this, and has at least nearly 1.4 million user accounts. (According to this Media Molecule account, which new users auto-follow when they create an account on the platform.)

What Dreams doesn't yet have, vexingly, is many active users.  As I write this, there's less than 1,500 concurrent users in-game. (By contrast, there's currently about 15,000 and 2,000 concurrent users in VRChat and RecRoom, respectively, on Steam alone.)

Why? To some extent, the very fact that VRChat and RecRoom have become so popular is likely sucking the air out of other user-generated virtual world platforms like Dreams -- especially when those worlds are free-to-play and Dreams costs $20. This recent-ish feature from Kotaku may have some other hints:

Luke Ravenhurst Uses Intense Contrast & Color to Create Great SL Images

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

Luke Ravenhurst’s untitled screenshot is very striking. I love the high contrast of black and white with the yellow and the browns. It is as though light itself forms the architecture of his picture. 

For a laugh out loud humor, keep going:

IMVU's Plan to Make VCOIN the Most Used Blockchain-Based Currency in Virtual Worlds -- and the Real One

IMVU just announced the availability of VCOIN, an Ethereum-based digital currency for use in its virtual world with 7 million active users  -- and, by design, for buying and selling goods and services in the real world, too. From the announcement:

Available now for the IMVU desktop, mobile web, and web platforms, VCOIN is seamlessly integrated into the IMVU experience, enabling secure, global peer-to-peer transactions at the click of a button. IMVU’s high-velocity economy currently sees more than 27 million transactions and 13 billion Credits changing hands each month. With the addition of VCOIN, users can now easily and instantly pay for goods and services on the platform -- no complicated crypto wallets, or even bank accounts required -- and then convert their earned VCOIN into cash at an established rate.

This is a major move for at least a couple reasons: While blockchain-based currencies have attracted much hype and speculation, they are not actually used very much to, you know, buy goods and services. (As I never tire of noting, more people use Linden Dollars in Second Life than use Bitcoin every day.) At the same time, while there are other virtual worlds with a cash-out option for virtual currency, they also have small user bases -- and aren't authorized for use in the real world. While Linden Dollars outstrip Bitcoin in usage, for instance, they still only count some 400,000 daily users, and aren't intended for use as a RL currency.

Enter VCOIN, which hits the market with 7 million built-in customers. John Burris, IMVU's Chief Strategy Officer, tells me the company fully intends to encourage VCOIN's use outside IMVU -- and even approached the SEC with that in mind:

Listen: Here's How a Live Concert in High Fidelity With Multiple Musicians Playing in Sync Would Work

You heard the High Fidelity demo of multiple jazz musicians across California seperately jamming in the same virtual space, now get your headphones and hear this demo (above), showing how three separate jazz musicians could play live in High Fidelity in sync. What's seriously cool (especially in the COVID age) is how the sound changes as the avatar moves through the space, just as it would if this were a concert in real life -- but here, unlike in real life, you're able to "walk up" close to the individual musicians, to focus on a drum solo and so on. (If you did that in real jazz club, the bouncer would quickly eject your ass.)

How does it work? In this simulation created by Lucio Pascarelli, the three musicians stream their audio into a mixer, which is then streamed out into three separate devices: 

SL Flickr Pick: John Garrison is a Master of Composition & Color

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

John Garrison’s photostream is a delight. He definitely has an eye for composition. Consider “The Last Chapter of Autumn.” Look at the use of diagonals, the restrained use of color, the placement of the boat. It is such a striking picture. The water almost seems like jelly which brought to mind one of my favorite passages in one of my favorite books, “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.” Rebecca West describes a placid lake surface as a “jelly in which rivers and reflections and even light itself foundered and were fixed. It would have been appropriate to come on this inspissation through tropical heat, but as we looked down on it we were blown on by the freshest sort of airs, winds from the sea and the peaks.” 

I love this quote because of the specificity of the words. I didn’t know what inspissation meant. Who would? It’s the process of thickening by condensation. I love precise words, ones that replace entire ideas or functions with two or three syllables.

Fascist Leanings of Trump's Most Extreme Followers Already Evident in Their Online Behavior Back in 2016

As the United States takes stalk of the violent riot of Trump supporters at the Capitol last week, led in part by people wearing Nazi shirts and carrying Confederate flags, I thought back to the behavior of Trump supporters in Second Life before the 2016 election -- mobbing the virtual HQ of Bernie Sanders, for instance. And not just to troll his left-leaning Second Life followers, but to confront them with a clear symbol of hate:  

“There is a picture I managed to capture of one of the flags spewing from a particle dispenser at HQ,” Sanders support group member Macaria Wind tells me, handing over an image file of a Trump swastika. “Left there by one of Trump's supporters when no one was around.”

Racist behavior like this led to at least one Trump group being expelled from Second Life and their private island, aptly called The Wall, where they had rezzed a massive version of the Nazi Party's eagle-headed Parteiadler. Online activity like this was eerily similar to that on other sites where Trump's most extreme supporters congregated, including Reddit and 4Chan. At the time, Trump supporters in Second Life (as with other online sites) insisted this fascist behavior was simply a bad apples anomaly, or meant ironically, or both. The events of last week definitely show this justification to be tragically, horribly wrong: As it turns out, there were more than enough bad apples to threaten democracy itself -- and far few of their members to stop them.

Rec Room Reports 1 Million Monthly Active Oculus Quest 1 & 2 Users -- And Higher Peak Concurrency Than VRChat

Impressive figures for Rec Room via Road to VR:

Rec Room has seen a significant uptick in users recently, as it now reports over one million monthly active VR users on the platform... Rec Room Designer Shawn Whiting told Road to VR that given today’s news, virtual reality users are actually a relatively small percentage of overall users. “That’s the number for VR monthly active usership, but we’re much higher than that once you look across all platforms,” he says.

Although a minority, VR users have been remarkably dedicated, Whiting tells us, and they’re still growing past that one million per-month active rate.

“Our VR daily active users spend an average of 2.7 hours in Rec Room when they visit,” Whiting tells Road to VR. “Quest 2 is about half of our VR users [and] VR growth has been amazing the past few months.”

... Besides bumping past one million monthly active VR users, over the weekend the platform reports it’s hosted 45,000 concurrent players...

On Twitter, Whiting clarified to me what is meant by "active user" and the breakdown of HMD ownership: "Active would mean you logged into your account and loaded into the game. We mention 'Quest 2 is about half of our VR users' in the article, so add Quest 1 numbers to that and you have your answer."

Much to process from this post! Assuming these figures are accurate, it suggests several things:

Top 5 Posts Last Week Including: Linden Lab Officially Acquired, VRChat Hits New Concurrency Record, and a Binge-Worthy Streaming Series Shot in SL

• Binge Watch: Someone Is Creating A Comedic Neo-Noir Detective Series Shot Entirely In Second Life -- And It's Pretty Damn Cool!
• VRChat Peak User Concurrency Passes 40,000 -- Up From 24K Last November
• Jazz Musicians Quarantined Across California Experiment With High Fidelity's Spatial Audio For Live Performance
• Second Life Officially Acquired By Holding Company, Ending Era As Aspirational Startup
• Grading My VR/Virtual World Predictions For 2020 -- Two Out Of Three Hits?

Binge Watch: Someone is Creating a Comedic Neo-Noir Detective Series Shot Entirely in Second Life -- And It's Pretty Damn Cool!

From the maker of the hit machinima video "MESHONME", the first rap song inspired by Second Life, comes Lang, a private detective machinima series shot in Second Life.

Seriously, a whole series: Season Two and episode nine just came out! The editing and neo-noir cinematography is great, the voice acting is solid, and the dialog has some wry, self-aware humor. Lead creator Zatch Ixchel tells me that that's intentional:

"Lang began as a joke, and in many ways, it still is – at its core, it is a parody of the 'original series' we all like to binge on Netflix or HBO. The idea was always that Herman Lang believes he is the star of one of these highbrow TV shows, and acts accordingly. Sadie King, the show’s true protagonist, keeps things grounded. In short, Lang is a comedy series about two private investigators, one that’s competent, and one named Lang."

Another element I really appreciate: Unlike most SL machinima, the lip sync in Lang is pretty solid. Here's how he pulled that off: 

Friday's Fashion & Style Blog Choice: Sander's Second Life

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

“Whisper Words of Wisdom” is a great blog for this week. We have heard too few wise words lately, but perhaps the tide has turned. Whatever the result, Sander Sunborne will certainly look his best with that fantastic hat. 

• BONDI . The Idol Leather Cap @ FaMESHed (through January 27)
• [Deadwool] Peak suit (wool)
• [Deadwool] Oscar coat

Sander models a great idea for bloggers...

VRChat Peak User Concurrency Passes 40,000 -- Up From 24K Last November

VRChat had some technical troubles during the world's New Year celebrations last week, but it was one of those catastrophic success sort of things:

If you’re unaware, we had a bit of an issue at probably one of the most popular times to hang out in VRChat and traditionally where we set concurrent user records — New Years Eve, around the time that EST hits midnight. VRChat went down. Great timing, yeah? Let’s talk about what happened.

First off, before the issues started, we were chugging along with no problem. In fact, shattered our previous concurrent player record with over a mind-boggling 40,000 players online at the same time.

Notably VRChat's reported peak concurrency just last November was only 24,000. A lot of the user growth since then is likely attributable to new Oculus Quest 2 owners plugging into the virtual world over the holidays for the first time.

Also notable for longtime readers, 40,000 is roughly on par with median concurrency for Second Life. A veteran SLer who's recently transitioned over to VRChat tells me the new world reminds them of SL during its highly sociable glory years:

Jazz Musicians Quarantined Across California Experiment With High Fidelity's Spatial Audio for Live Performance

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Put your headphones on and click play to hear a group of quarantined jazz musicians improving together in High Fidelity, the 3D spatial audio virtual world. Uploaded by music theorist Rob Ewing, you can hear different groups of improv happening at the same time; there were seven performers in this session, he tells me, located throughout Northern and Southern California. 

Despite being relatively close together in the real world (making their latency relatively low), Rob doesn't think it would have been possible for them all to play the same song in sync together. However, he believes collaborative live music performances are still possible in High Fidelity:  

Cajsa's Flickr Pick: Mara Telling Tells Playful Stories Through Virtual World Pics

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

Mara Telling’s “Escape Inside a Book” speaks to me. I am a reader and I love to escape inside a book. I didn’t know I could do it literally. 

Some surreal fun ahead:

Second Life Officially Acquired by Holding Company, Ending Era as Aspirational Startup

2021 starts with an ending of some kind, as briefly mentioned at the tail end of a New Year announcement on from Second Life management:

Another noteworthy development for the new year is that Linden Lab has new owners! As announced in mid-2020, an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager signed an agreement to acquire the company 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. We are pleased to share that the regulatory review has been completed and Linden Lab is now under new ownership. 

Specifically Linden Lab is now officially owned by the Waterfield Group, which buys companies that make a decent profit and helps keep them profitable. Second Life is even listed on Waterfield's homepage as a network property (screengrabbed above), alongside a host of obscure/semi-obscure firms. (And, surprisingly, Goldman Sachs.)

And as the author of The Making of Second Life, I have to admit that this is not at all a future I saw for the virtual world. Twelve years ago, insiders (including myself) fully expected Second Life to enjoy a successful IPO, or perhaps as likely, to get acquired by a major company like Microsoft or Electronic Arts. Around that time, we saw Second Life becoming an integral part of the Internet's next generation, transforming multiple industries and mainstream culture itself, with Linden Dollars even becoming the world's most used electronic currency. Now, instead, it's listed as a portfolio holding beneath software companies specializing in contact center technologies and strategic solutions (Digital Data Voice Corporation) and cloud-based oil and gas software (NeoFirma).

It's an ironic end, but I don't mean to be completely downbeat: While Second Life didn't turn out to be the next generation of the Internet, it did pioneer the path for the many next generation virtual worlds that do stand a chance of becoming just that, and will continue being an inspiration for that goal. 

Anyway, what's all this mean for the average Second Life user?

In the short term, likely nothing -- for good and bad. As the announcement insists:

Need a Stress Reliever? Here's Humorous Pics of a Stuffed Dog's Virtual Adventures

Randonee Noel’s photostream is a delight. However, she has a recent project I have fallen in love with. It’s kind of a Dictionary of Dog Life or perhaps Literal Metaphors. This is “Oh, Deer.” and I love everything about it. The dog, however, is a stuffed dog. It cannot be more wonderful. 

More of her gentle humor ahead.

Grading My VR/Virtual World Predictions for 2020 -- Two Out of Three Hits?

One last look back at 2020 before it finally rots away like the leprous corpse it is, reviewing my predictions for the year I made on December 31, 2019:

• Magic Leap will fold.

Not exactly, but there were massive layoffs last April, impelled in great part by metaverse hubris, but the company has since pivoted to being an XR product for medicine and other enterprise use cases. No more "Wait where's the whale?" cracks from me, I hope the company succeeds with this pivot! Next prediction:

• There will be a major corporate transition by Linden Lab -- possibly a change in executive leadership, a substantial round of lay-offs, or even a sell-off of Sansar.

Well, clearly yes. Not only was Sansar sold off to a company called Wookey, but Linden Lab itself was bought. And there were, sad to say, substantial layoffs.

My third prediction might be up for some debate:

Watch: Dwight from The Office Considers Entering the Matrix

You know that Dwight from The Office has such a perfect life, he literally wanted a Second Life. But did you know he was also invited to go even deeper? (Wait, wrong movie.) NBC recently out out this fairly funny unseen scene where Dwight has a chance to take the red pill or the blue pill, and chooses as only Dwight can.

These Pics of Avatars on Zoom Calls Capture Who We Are in the COVID Age

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

Valentina Kendal suggested this picture from Flit Ulrik in a comment last Thursday. She’s right, it really is a great picture capturing what has become normal for so many people all around the world since the pandemic. Although we can congregate in large numbers in virtual worlds, it’s natural that our Second Life will reflect our first. I love how beautifully this captures the COVID zeitgeist. 

So I got to wondering if anyone else had created avatar Zoom-call pics.