New World Notes

Fortnite FTC's First Fine on a Metaverse Platform - But Expect More Soon

If you or your kid played Fortnite between January 2017 and September 2022, you may be eligible to get a refund from a $520 million settlement between Epic and the Federal Trade Commission for bending online privacy laws protecting minors and getting those minors to buy in-game items from gacha-style* loot boxes. Go here to file that claim.

And if you don't need to file a claim, you can still marvel at two things:

• Wow, Fortnite may have 37 million paying users in the US -- over 1 in 10 people in America! That's how many Americans with Fortnite accounts who are being contacted by the FTC. (Then again, the FTC may be messaging anyone in the US with a registered Fortnite account -- I'm double checking this.)
• This seems to be the first of its kind: A successful fine/settlement by US government regulators against a metaverse platform.

There's been close calls before -- for instance, earlier this year, Roblox started hiding ads from 13 and under players after an FTC complaint. But far as I can recall, the Epic case is the first one where US dollars earned from virtual world purchases were then collected by the Federal government to be returned to consumers.

This also means the FTC knows enough about how metaverse platforms work (or don't work for consumers) to start pursuing other policies on other platforms. I do know government agencies have been quietly gathering notes:

 

Amazing Group Photo of Second Life Supervillain Cosplay -- Shot in Five Very Amazing & Unique Variations!

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

Loute Diesel is a great virtual photographer who has organized collaborations of French photogs in Second Life, giving us definitive evidence of how very individual virtual world photography is. Here you have the same group and yet every picture is wildly different. I love it. Her picture has much sharper color contrast than others in the collaboration. It’s a brighter picture overall, but the colors are all richly saturated. 

For other versions of this picture, click here:

This Multiplayer Theme Park Simulator With 500 NPCs is the Latest Jaw-Droppingly Ambitious User-Created Project in VRChat

I keep saying VRChat resembles Second Life in its golden age, because in both cases, amazingly ambitious community-made inventions keep popping up like magic mushrooms when you weren't looking.

Which brings us to this project by VRC creator Myro P:  A theme park builder similar to the classic game Roller Coaster Tycoon, but in full person VR. And not only do you get to create and simulate the rides, it comes with 500 NPC customers with their own AI routines. 

"Coding the NPCs was probably the trickiest part," Myro allows, "and it's still a work in progress. I programmed an AI for the NPCs; for instance, when they're hungry, they'll order food, and when they're tired, they'll rest on benches until they feel better. I had to implement my own pathfinding algorithm because I couldn't use Unity's built-in system."  

It's also multi-player, thanks to a complex process he explains here.

As with many (most?) other VRChat projects, Myro is making this game free-to-play, something for the community to enjoy.

"When I was in high school, 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' was my favorite game, and I felt like a game similar to 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' would work pretty well in VR," he explains. "I also liked the idea of being a visitor of my own theme park, which is why I added the scaling feature."

 

Last week I mentioned how Unity's recently announced price increase would be a hard blow to the Metaverse, and projects like this illustrate why:

Ask Me Anything About "Making a Metaverse That Matters" on Inkwell!

Click here to participate in a Q&A about Making a Metaverse That Matters on Inkwell, the public conference on books for The WELL, the legendary online community forum. (Starting now and for the next two weeks.)  It's viewable to everyone online, but if you want to pose questions and aren't a WELL member, you can still e-mail them to inkwell at well dot com.

We're already jamming along, here's some favorite thoughts so far:

Today's Second Life Flickr Pick: Western Roleplay Imagery to Rival Red Dead Redemption

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

Fingol Greyhaven has found his niche and he’s not just sticking with it, he’s taking it to a whole new level.  Take “Here’s Hoping There’ll Always Be a Cowboy.” What can you say but wow and how did he do that. It looks like a screen shot from a game like “Red Dead Redemption.” It’s amazing. Usually, folks like to show the subject walking into the frame, not out. But walking out of the frame is what a cowboy does, “living on the road my friend.” The title comes from a different song, one by George Fox, “Here’s Hoping (There’ll Always Be a Cowboy.)”

For more cowboy living, click here:

ChatGPT & Other AI Programs Not Conscious, Argue Experts Who Publish Checklist of Meaningful Indicators of Consciousness

Chart via Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness [pdf]

Here's a free gift link to a fascinating New York Times article about a group of philosophers, neuroscientists and computer scientists who published a comprehensive study on consciousness and AI:

The fuzziness of consciousness, its imprecision, has made its study anathema in the natural sciences. At least until recently, the project was largely left to philosophers, who often were only marginally better than others at clarifying their object of study. Hod Lipson, a roboticist at Columbia University, said that some people in his field referred to consciousness as “the C-word.” Grace Lindsay, a neuroscientist at New York University, said, “There was this idea that you can’t study consciousness until you have tenure.”

Nonetheless, a few weeks ago, a group of philosophers, neuroscientists and computer scientists, Dr. Lindsay among them, proposed a rubric with which to determine whether an A.I. system like ChatGPT could be considered conscious. The report, which surveys what Dr. Lindsay calls the “brand-new” science of consciousness, pulls together elements from a half-dozen nascent empirical theories and proposes a list of measurable qualities that might suggest the presence of some presence in a machine.

Here's a pdf link to the actual report, which requires some serious heavy lifting to read, but it includes this nice colored chart (above) with a checklist of consciousness indicators.

For instance: "Agency guided by a general belief-formation and action selection system, and a strong disposition to update beliefs in accordance with the outputs of metacognitive monitoring." Basically that means: When the AI knows that its conscious, and makes decisions with that knowledge in mind. Or as the Times puts it:

Top 7 Posts Including: Unity Price Changes Threatens the Metaverse, Palia's Popularity & How Generative AI Resembles Hip Hop Culture

• Palia Particularly Appealing To Second Life Players. Here's Some Play Tips!
• Sannyのおすすめバーチャルワールドニュース : 2023年8月 Sanny Reports For Virtual Japan
• "The Metaverse" Of Today Is A Bit Like "The Information Super Highway" Of The 1990s -- Excerpt From Making A Metaverse That Matters
• New World Notes Seeking New Sponsoring Partners! Here's The Details
• Unity Price Increase Would Be A Gut Punch To Many Metaverse Platforms -- Especially Those Now In Development
• How Generative AI-Based Art Can Echo Sampling & Remixing Of Hip Hop Culture -- Afrofuturist Artist Nettrice Gaskins
• Roblox Leaping The Metaverse Age Cliff With VOIP Calling, PlayStation Expansion, Dating Experiences And (Sigh) Generative AI

Palia Particularly Appealing to Second Life Players. Here's Some Play Tips!

Second Life players party in Palia (pic via Gogo)

Palia, a recently-launched, free-to-play MMO described by developers as a cozy community simulation game (read my 2021 post on it here) has seen a notable growth of one sub-community of players in particular: Second Life users.

"All of my SL friends who joined, we're addicted," as famed Second Life blogger Gogo puts it to me. "And it's only been two weeks. What we do is farm, hunt, mine, level up all of these skills and more to access different goodies. It's all FREE. you can farm and sell your crops or mine and sell the mineral or melt it into gold bars and sell. With that gold, you can go shopping just like in SL, but the content is all created by the company."

So instead of Second Life events around, say, new brand launches or discount fairs, the social fun in Palia is around collaborating together. And unlike standard MMOs, it's not about grouping to raid dungeons or kill Yet Another Boss.

Instead, there's... cooking cakes.

"So we make like 50-100K [in Palia gold] per cooking round (cooking like 50 cakes in a team) everyone gets 50 cakes even though we only use ingredients for 50. So after we get all the cakes, we sell it and go raid the furniture store or the markets/black market. And make mansions, it's hilarious!"

Gogo counts at least a dozen Second Life players in her Palia network, and has seen many posts about it across SL-themed social media channels. Part of the appeal, she points out, is offering a break from the cash-driven creator economy of Second Life:

"I think for people that DON'T have money, they would really get into this MMO. The only time you have to spend money is to buy special outfits or hair etc, but the company provides a nice variety."

Sparkle Skye, creator of amazing SL wedding dresses -- listen to this podcast we did about that topic -- is now also a passionate Palia player:

Sannyのおすすめバーチャルワールドニュース : 2023年8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.

 

 

"The Metaverse" of Today is a Bit Like "The Information Super Highway" of the 1990s -- Excerpt from Making a Metaverse That Matters

If talk of "The Metaverse" seems a bit obscure or confusing, it's helpful to compare it to a buzzy expression from ancient times (by which I mean the 1990s): The information superhighway.

Often touted by Wired magazine and celebrities (along with Vice President Al Gore) throughout the 90s, it was a common buzzword and late night punch line for years. But what did it actually mean? That was probably best illustrated by a series of AT&T ads from 1993 narrated by Tom Selleck.

Watch above!  The eerie thing is that every "you will!" promised in these ads did indeed came to pass a decade or two later. We do in fact watch whatever movie we want instantly, have remote meetings from the beach, and so on. Ironically, most of these technologies were not actually developed by AT&T itself. (For me, I frankly just think of AT&T as my annoyingly expensive and slow Internet Service Provider.)

While it's not a perfect analogy, it's worth keeping in mind when thinking about the Metaverse -- a topic I discussed with Neal Stephenson himself in Making a Metaverse That Matters:

New World Notes Seeking New Sponsoring Partners! Here's the Details

As I continue promoting The Book and pondering my next career step -- go back to working for a metaverse company, become an analyst, start a column/podcast* are three likely steps -- one thing is certain:

New World Notes will continue, and keep striving to bring readers the best/most interesting content from Second Life and its many metaverse platform successors. It will also be a part of whatever I do next professionally.

Which is a long way of saying: New World Notes is seeking new sponsoring media partners. 

Click here to for latest rate card:  

Download New World Notes Rate Card Fall 2023

And if you have questions, here's how to get in touch with the ad team/me:

Unity Price Increase Would Be a Gut Punch to Many Metaverse Platforms -- Especially Those Now in Development

In case you don't know any 3D graphics developers, roughly the entire community has been roiling over an unexpected price increase for using the graphics engine:

With Unity's new plan, developers who use Unity's free tier of development services would owe Unity $0.20 per installation once their game hit thresholds of 200,000 downloads and earn $200,000 in revenue.

Developers paying over $2,000 a year for a Unity Pro plan would have to hit higher thresholds and would be charged with lower fees.

The new fee system will begin at the start of 2024.

That's quite a bit when it comes to popular Unity-based games/virtual worlds, most of which are free, and end up downloaded many millions or tens of millions of times, hitting developers with fees in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. (There's also a fee when the same user installs multiple copies to different devices.)

More key for New World Notes, here's some of the leading metaverse platforms that run on Unity:

• Rec Room
• VRChat
• Zepeto
• ... and the upcoming mobile app for Second Life.

Yes, this price change might impact development and release of the long-awaited Second Life mobile app! 

However, after chatting with some developer colleagues, my take is the impact may ultimately end up a gut punch, rather than a crippling blow -- but the blow will be felt for years:

This Large Flickr Group is Devoted to Screenshots Featuring Reflections of the Second Life Water

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

Magical SL Reflections is exactly what it sounds like -- a Flickr group devoted to pictures of reflections in Second Life. Over 1000 members strong, there are lots of people gazing into the water and boats' rippled reflections. Some are truly magical, like this one from Ice Rock called “The Lighthouse.” The moon is spectacular and its reflection even more so. The way the lighthouse flashes completely captured me. This is what I was looking for. 

For more reflections, click here:

How Generative AI-Based Art Can Echo Sampling & Remixing of Hip Hop Culture -- Afrofuturist Artist Nettrice Gaskins Adds Her Voice to an Open Letter to Congress

Portrait of rapper Kendrick Lamar by Nettrice Gaskins from 2018

Creative Commons recently published an open letter to Congress, calling for artists who use generative AI in their creative works to be part of conversation on the future of the medium, and how it will be regulated:

We see a unique opportunity in this moment to shape generative AI’s development responsibly. The broad concerns around human artistic labor being voiced today cannot be ignored. All too often, major corporations and other powerful entities use technology in ways that exploit artists’ labor and undermine our ability to make a living. If you seek to ensure generative AI’s revolutionary trajectory benefits humanity as a whole, it would be a gross oversight to exclude those in our society who are working within its potential and its limitations.

While signed by dozens of working artists, I was especially excited to see the leading signature, because she's very familiar to longtime New World Notes readers:

Dr. Nettrice Gaskins, who's been using AI in her art practice for about 8 years. Starting in 2016 -- long before Midjourney and other generative AI programs even existed -- she was experimenting with the Deep Dream neural network to create these amazing Afrofuturist portraits of great Black artists. 

Creative Commons and Internet activist group Fight for the Future reached out to Nettrice and other artists for their input on the letter. As the author of the book Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation, she makes a uniquely powerful case for the validity of art created with generative AI with this statement:

Roblox Leaping the Metaverse Age Cliff With VOIP Calling, PlayStation Expansion, Dating Experiences and (Sigh) Generative AI

If you missed the recent whirlwind of Roblox announcements, they read like the company's concerted attempt to the cross (in a single leap!) the Metaverse Age Cliff, that point in the lifecycle of a platform where usage tends to drop sharply as the user base reaches adulthood:

• Coming later this year in early release, Roblox Connect is an avatar-to-avatar voice chat system. Most metaverse platforms already have some variation of this, but seeing as Roblox has 300 million monthly active users -- i.e. nearly the size of the entire US population --  this feature will create a calling network large enough to compete with traditional phone carriers.
• Roblox is coming to PlayStation 4/5 next month, connecting it to an install base of over 150 million households, primarily comprised of core gamers in their 20s and 30s.
• The company also unveiled a generative AI assistant (video below) to create 3D content.
• Roblox CEO David Baszucki is again promising "dating experiences" coming to adult-age users in the next 5 years, where "thousands"  of people will start real life relationships. This is basically re-branding an existing phenomena for a mass market/Wall Street audience -- thousands of people already do that in virtual worlds every day.  Indeed, the 20-something developer couple I profiled in the book first met in Roblox. (More on them later.)

Pictured: Frontlines, recent user-created Roblox experience ideal for PlayStation crowd

This is on top of the recent Meta Quest integration and the little covered news (from a reputable data gathering source) that Roblox has amassed 300 million monthly active users. If the PlayStation launch is successful, the company will have a near-unbeatable lead among metaverse platforms.

As for the generative AI, I'm still a bit skeptical that it will be more than a brief novelty -- but it will take a platform of Roblox's size to determine that. Watch below:

This Artist Uses Layered Second Life Images & Wireframe Screenshots to Create Breathtaking Works of Abstract Expressionism

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

Thus Yootz’ “Exodus to Air” is exquisite. There are multiple shots that have been layered to produce this otherworldly scene. It’s a distortion of reality that expresses emotion which suggests abstract expressionism. After all, it’s just some trees with clouds scudding in the distance. Add some screened flowers and some text in a different alphabet and all sorts of context becomes possible. 

Is it a parallel multiverse or a dystopian future here with black chlorophyll and a red, red sun, or is it a mood? She chose “The Ballad of John Henry” by Joe Bonamassa to accompany the picture, a connection I don’t see, but I enjoy Bonamassa any day of the week. Unlike an ordinary landscape, this picture is not just beautiful, but also confounding. What does it mean? 

The original screenshot was taken at The White Armory and Sylvan Moon Designs.

For more Second Life screenshots as abstract expressionist art, click here:

Survivor of the 9/11 Attack Created This Powerful Memorial in Second Life, A Somber Site Where the Names of the Fallen Are Just Out of Reach

Along with being incredibly powerful, Liam Kanno's September 11 memorial made in Second Life (video tour above) is a landmark in immersive design:

"Watching the massive towers fall was unlike anything I've ever seen," Liam continues, explaining his design. "The scale was immense, and I wanted to give as much scale to this build as possible... still, at the same time I had the intention of making it as intimate and private as possible, and wrap the visitor in the space."

Unlike Maya Lin's Vietnam memorial, which this evokes, the names of the fallen remain at a close remove, just out of reach.  "Personally for me, when I saw the people fall from the towers... the biggest thing for me is that I could do nothing ot help them... they were there, but no one could catch them.  So in the design I have in-world there is about a three foot gap between the names and the walkway."

Read more about it here from my original 2007 post, and the story of how Kanno came to create the memorial: 

Top 4 New World Notes Posts, Including a Successful Virtual Fundraiser for Maui & An Ambitious All Voxel VR Game

• This Great-Looking, Fully VR, Voxel-Based Sandbox Game Was Created By One Person -- And It's Now Updated & On Sale!

• Today's Second Life Flickr Pick: "EPIPHAINEIN" Creates Incredibly Creative & Zany Riffs On Biden, Edward Hopper’s "Nighthawks" & Beyond!

• Second Life Mass Growth Won't Raise Premium Prices (Probably)

• Second Life Community Raises Over USD $9000 For The Maui Food Bank!

This Great-Looking, Fully VR, Voxel-Based Sandbox Game Was Created by One Person -- And It's Now Updated & On Sale!

cyubeVR is easily among the most impressive-looking VR games I’ve come across, and while it launched in 2018, it just had a huge graphics optimization update. It’s now on sale on Steam until September 20.

A voxel-based sandbox world, cyubVR (pronounced “cube VR”, of course) is credited as coming from Stonebrick Studios, but it’s really a labor of love from one person.

“There is exactly one person on the dev team, it's just me,” they tell me, who goes by the name "sbsce", and quickly credits the game’s dedicated user community as collaborators. “I've been working full-time on cyubeVR for over 7.5 years by now, so quite a long time!”  

There is no multiplayer mode yet, but sbsce tells me that’s on the roadmap. “It's certainly one of the most requested features by the community.”

And despite surface appearances, it’s not Minecraft. Really:

Friday Fashion Finds for Anime Avatars by Alma Berta

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

Alma Berta is a Flickr microblogger whose anime characters are having fun. I am particularly fond of “Special Heart” because she is wearing the right-sized garters and not those too-tight-thigh-squeezing-circulation-stopping monstrosities with red and irritated skin. These garters fit. They also won’t cause blood clots or compartment syndrome. Click through for more detailed credits. 

• Insomnia Angel . Ellis hime sleeves at Mainstore
• Insomnia Angel . Lize strap leg garter available at Dubai Event until Sept 15th

For more delightful anime fashion, click here:

These Second Life Screenshots by Carey Chenault Look Like Landscape Paintings

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

Carey Chenault is a landscape photographer and a very good one. I love how she has framed this serene with the magnolia and cherry blossoms. The landscaper also did a wonderful job. Look how the line of the rocks in the forefront follow the curving lines of the horizon. I love how the reflections are only slightly shifted by the movement of the water which is not perfectly still. The shadow from the rock behind the rowboat looks like a sail at first glance. A bit of serendipity in the reflection. 

For more beautiful landscapes, click here:

New World Notes Finally Back Online, So Here's an Open Forum & My Contact Info

Apologies on behalf of Typepad, my super awesome blogging service, which had a server outage for most of today. Blogging should resume to normal speeds by tomorrow. Meantime, here's an open forum to discuss or share content. I'll go first:

In case you missed it, here's my main contact/social media channels. I'm "Hamlet Au" in Second Life and you can e-mail me at wjamesau at gmail.com.

As for my socials (roughly in order of preference and usage):

• On Twitter/X, I'm "SLHamlet"
• On Discord, I'm "wja_hamlet"
• On Reddit, I'm "SLHamlet"
• On Facebook, I'm "Hamlet.Au"
• On Threads, I'm "wjamesau"
• On Bluesky, I'm "SLHamlet"

Please share your own contacts, or whatever else even vaguely SL/Metaverse-related that's on your mind, below!

Today's Second Life Flickr Pick: "EPIPHAINEIN" Creates Incredibly Creative & Zany Riffs on Biden, Edward Hopper’s "Nighthawks" & Beyond!

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

EPIPHAINEIN has the best photostream, I haven’t a clue where to start, he is so inventive. 

Here is detail from “Sunday Funnies with Joe” -- see the whole amazing thing here.

And he delivers, not just with his persuasive pics, but the dialog even sounds like President Biden. I want more comics.

EPIPHAINEIN explains his name on his Flickr profile: “The word ‘epiphany’ comes from the Greek word ‘epiphainein’, which means ‘to make known’, ‘to manifest’, or ‘to shine upon’.” Well, he manifests humor, an appreciation for art, and a love of movies. And that’s not all

For more inventive manifestations, click here:

Second Life Mass Growth Won't Raise Premium Prices (Probably)

Lots of interesting conversation around Linden Lab's new (and still active) job search for a senior product manager to help grow Second Life into "millions of customers" as the virtual world expands to mobile.  Kaylee West understandably worries if this growth will impact the long-term existing community and the rates they pay for premium subscriptions:

My concern is that as they grow they are going to start charging more for premium and premium plus (and whatever the next new tier will be). SL has always been the "every-person's" VR platform. As much as I would love to see and welcome newcomers, I'd hate to see those of us that have been in SL nearly two decades squeezed out (not even sure what I mean by that)...

Historically the high end for virtual world premium subscriptions tops out at around $15/month, and I don't see average SL Premium rates ever getting higher than that -- though platinum Premium plans will probably start including larger and larger land allotments, or even whole sims.

The real thing for long term creators to think about is planning for a virtual world economy that has millions of users, most of them coming in via mobile. As Ryann Palianta comments:

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Stunning Landscape Photos by Richie MacLeod

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

Richie MacLeod (Richie Kimono) shoots landscapes that are pure and unfiltered such as this picture from yesterday, “Soul2Soul Rocks 5th Sept 2023_001.” I love this picture because it looks so happy and full of adventure. That car is purring along the road, easily bypassing the tree branch that fell there, probably downed by high winds that have abated. The family is off for the last long weekend of summer. 

Normally, you would place a vehicle moving left on the right side of the picture, leading your eyes in, but in this case, he’s telling a story. They have safely passed the fallen branch and can move one and out of the frame. If he placed them on the right side moving into the frame, he would either cover up the drama, or moving back, show them driving toward the branch and a possible accident. It would not be as happy and carefree. 

For more great landscapes, click here: