New World Notes

Bonfire 2: A Society-Building Game That's Also a Meditative, Flow-State Relaxation Simulator for Our Stressful Era

The Bonfire 2: Uncharted Shores, a new-ish game that I love for iOS and PC/Mac on Steam is technically a resource-management civilization-building sim. But the gameplay itself is quite different from most any other game in that genre I've ever played. With vibey music and sound effects (the wind, the ocean waves, the ambient/folk loops), a leisurely pace, and visuals that remind me of medieval paintings, the game plays more like a meditative, flow-state, relaxation simulator.

In recent months, as the world outside became increasingly stressful, I've taken to playing Bonfire 2 just before going to sleep, because I find the game's rhythms and daily microtasks (build a hut here, harvest some trees there, and so on) help drown out the incessant, doomscrolling din of my social media-addled brain. (The first game in the series -- The Bonfire: Forsaken Lands -- is even more relaxing, and is basically a simpler version of its sequel.) After helping my little society flourish for awhile, I find it much easier to drift off to sleep. We still seem far away from creating a stable society in the real world, but it's somewhat comforting to know that the one in my hands is just a bit better for my having touched it.

Himanshu, co-creator and  lead artist of Bonfire 2 from Xigma Games (a tiny indie studio based in Bangalore), shared with me some insights on the games creation -- and offered some tips for players just starting out. (Minor spoilers ahead.)

Buy at FaMESHed Starting This Sunday: Vintage Rocking Chair By Dutchie With 20 Bento Animations, 9 Wood/Paint Options, Low Land Impact

This gorgeously detailed rocking chair from famed SL brand Dutchie Design (who we're honored to call a sponsoring partner of New World Notes) is available to purchase this Sunday at the legendary FaMESHed shopping extravaganza that launches this Sunday (November 1st). It's integrated with the latest in Bento animations, including -- I love this, because it's particularly challenging to animate every finger -- knitting and doing needlepoint, and comes with many wood/color options. Here's all the official details:

SL Fashion Shopping Tips from a Style Blog With a Great Name

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

Antisocial Darwinism is the best name for a blog ever! “Confession 316: Can You Make Things Alright?” has a lovely photo. Imogen Atheria is very open about how tough November is for her as her father’s birthday approaches and how his death makes it an emotional time. Many people find these milestones hard to navigate. I also love her outfit. 

• Top || Irina Blouse | Salt & Pepper | Uber | new!
• Overalls || Irina Overall & Shorts | Salt & Pepper | Uber | new!

A great shirt is featured in the next post:

Moody & Creepy Machinima Makes SL's Wastelands Look Like Borderlands

On first glance you might think this decidedly creepy machinima was shot in the hit Borderlands videogame franchise, but it was actually shot in The Wastelands, the massive and long-running post-apocalyptic (and incredibly quirky) community in Second Life. (Which has a gritty look inspired in part by Borderlands.) That's because creator Jackson Redstar ran it through a post-processing program which gave SL the cel-shaded aesthetic that Borderlands is famous for:

Selected Scary Virtual World Images From Lawrence D. Pryce's Annual Macabre Halloween Challenge!

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

The third Lawrence D. Pryce Macabre Halloween Challenge began at the end of September and is still open until the end of October -- here’s details for submitting your entry. The challenge begins with a selection of inspirations from real life photos shown here or in a larger size here on Pinterest. 

The gallery of submissions so far is appropriately grotesque, macabre, and horrific. To scare yourself silly, just go to the official Flickr page. This entry from Jasmine Albright is striking and has a humanity to it that I like. 

Okay, some more selected scary stuff ahead...

Should You Jailbreak the Oculus Quest from Facebook Control? EFF’s Cory Doctorow Has Advice -- And A Warning

While the Oculus Quest now comes with a mandatory Facebook log-in requirement, researchers have reportedly been able to jailbreak the VR product line -- read the announcement here from project lead Kavya Pearlman, an award-winning cybersecurity expert.

While this project almost certainly violates Oculus Quest’s terms of service, Cory Doctorow, author and longtime Special Advisor to the Electronic Frontier Frontier, has a blunt assessment of its goal: 

“If you believe in property rights, it's a no-brainer. You bought it, you own it. Whether or not Facebook is within its rights to brick your device, there's no question as to whether you're within YOUR rights to unbrick it. It's yours. What you do with it is none of Facebook's business.”

That said, Doctorow's advice on whether people should do so is much more nuanced -- and very important for VR users considering their own involvement in Oculus jailbreaking:

This Halo Lights Up If a Second Life Region You Visit Has Migrated To The Amazon Cloud -- Or Makes a Womp-Womp Sad Trombone Sound If It's Not

Second Life is finally, gradually being migrated to the Amazon cloud, region by region -- but is your region part of that "Uplift"? Now available in the SL Marketplace, the free Fourmilab Cloud Halo cleverly comes to the rescue:

To use the Cloud Halo, simply add it to your outfit. It is an attachment, worn on the head, which has the form of a halo floating above it. The halo is not normally visible. When you arrive in a cloud region, a glowing gold halo will appear above your head, sparkling for a moment, and an ethereal harp will play a few notes. When you arrive back in a non-cloud region, a dull grey halo will appear and a “Sad Trombone” will play. 

This is a seriously fun way of checking for cloud deployment across the virtual world grid, even turning it into a game. For server geeks, here's how the back-end works:

Artist Uses Leading Lines to Draw Our Eyes into Virtual World Screenshots

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

“1” illustrates how effectively Alexo Aries uses lines in his photos. The road leads our eyes forward to the mountains. The grass, the road, the vehicle, all in a line drawing us in, but not out. Notice how the road fades in the distance before it reaches the frame? Leading lines are a common tool to direct our eyes and Aries photostream is full of great examples. 

Lines ahead....

How to Turn Second Life Screenshots Into Amazing Works of Art: Tips & Tricks from Isis Boa Desmoulins

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

Isis Boa Desmoulins does amazing landscapes that draw me in completely. I was curious about her process and asked if she was willing to share. 

“I love dramatic skies,” she told me. “I almost hate to say how I do them. In RL photography you will sometimes take more than one picture for a picture. So sometimes I do this for highlights and shadow elements. But, often I do it for my skies. So I want this cloud and this horizon, but these shadows, and those highlights and just layer it all. 

“Also, I use water settings as a whole other layer of atmosphere. So most of the sets I build I build under the SL waterline. You can just shut the water off if it's not working right. It gives a really nice haze and you still get shadows and sun settings colors. What already seemed like infinite settings for skies is then doubled in a way, it's great. 

“I spent quite a while shooting and trying to shoot SL raw, but not have it look raw. That really forced me to learn a lot of tricks and tools in SL that have been super helpful. Skies can add a lot of tension or calm. I have always loved skies in moments before, during, and after storms. You get so much more emotional spectrum than just a blah blue sky.”

More great pictures and photo advice after the link.

If Games Are Art, And Second Life is a Game, Then Second Life is a Work of Collective Art (Comment of the Week)

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Great comment from reader madeline blackbart bringing much needed nuance to the eternal "Is Second Life a game" conversation:

The whole "SL is not a game" or getting mad at that comparison always bothered me. It's rooted in the outdated concept that video games are toys and not the legitimate form of art that it is.

I mean I know how the concept arose. Namely that after the video game market crash (in the US specifically I believe it wasn't as bad in europe?) Nintendo more or less revived it by marketing video games as a high end toy for kids. I think for many people (not just in SL) who are not gamers the association with games as toys still exists which is a genuine shame.

In my opinion video games are definitely on par with movies in artistic merit. Look at games like Gris and exploration of the stages of grief through color and gameplay. Or Spec Ops The Line which explores PTSD in a way that puts you the player in the place of the sufferer, or Cuphead that utilizes hand drawn animation (a dying art sadly). These are things that require very talented artists and programmers to create who deserve far more credit then they get.

I'd add multi-player games as some examples here, such as the acclaimed game Journey, where the interaction of two or more players creates something profound.

Here's the problem with denying Second Life is a game, Ms. Blackheart goes on:

With Oculus' Mandatory Facebook Policy, It May Be Up to Congress or the EFF to Save the Future of VR

Image via Upload VR

Surprising nearly no one, Oculus recently added injury to the insult of requiring Facebook log-in to use the Oculus Quest. Not only will VR users need to log in via Facebook, they are now required to keep using Facebook on pain of losing their Oculus content:

If you’ve linked your Oculus account to Facebook and decide you want to delete your Facebook account, your purchases on Oculus will be lost as well... Conversation surrounding the account deletion policy continues to unfold and there was a recent House subcommittee report which seemed to suggest Congress should view policies like Facebook’s as anticompetitive.

That last line is especially on point, given the upcoming election, with a heavy likelihood of Democrats -- highly critical of Facebook's monopolistic behavior -- taking both the Senate and the White House. Up until very recently, Congress has seemed too out of touch with technology to sufficiently confront Big Tech, but that's changed quite a bit -- especially now that leading Congressmembers are actual, genuine gamers.

At this point, the Electronic Freedom Foundation may beat Congress to the punch, with the venerable digital rights organization firing a shot across Oculus' bow last Summer with this statement:

Top 6 Posts Last Week Including: AOC's Twitch Gets FOX-Level Ratings & Among Us Gets an Unofficial VRChat Version

• Play Among Us In VRChat: New Fan-Made Version Adds Visual Tasks & VR-Based Body Language Gameplay To The Original
• Second Life Registrations Down In 2020 Despite COVID Concurrency Bump
• This Artist Uses Depth Of Field & Dynamic Lighting To Make Screenshots From SL Seem Like Photos
• Carmen King Kicks Up Second Life User Concurrency -- YouTube Star's SL Videos Likely Lead To 1st Growth Since COVID Quarantine
• AOC's Twitch Viewership Already Competitive With FOX & MSNBC Ratings
• Founding Linden Hunter Walk: When Launching Second Life, "We Over-Indexed On The Community" Versus Broadly Appealing Content

Tomorrow in SL: Acclaimed Artists Bryn Oh, Cica Ghost & Mr. Wainwright Live Build a Sculpture In This Plaza, With Music from Skye Galaxy & Others

This looks like an amazing SL event from metaverse art patron Chuck Clip: Beloved artists Bryn Oh, Cica Ghost, and Mr. Wainwright will live build a massive "exquisite corpse" sculpture in this plaza of Clip's Sinful Retreat sim:

It is one artwork, which is sure to be perfectly strange, to reflect the overall intent of the sim itself. That sculpture, which even I have not seen, is complete, and will be unveiled for all of us during the event piece by piece. In addition to all the beautiful new art, Mariposa Upshaw and Tayzia Abattoir, two veteran curators, agreed to do a rotating exhibit of old Second Life works of art. These will change out roughly every month. With the collections at their disposal, it could take years for them to display every piece they possess. 

Famed SL/RL musician Skye Galaxy and others will also perform -- first show starts at Noon PT.

Click here to attend. More info on Clip's blog.

Play Among Us in VRChat: New Fan-Made Version Adds Visual Tasks & VR-Based Body Language Gameplay to the Original

Attention AOC and other Among Us fans: There's a new community-fan, playable version of the hit deception and backstabbing game in VRChat: Click here to play. (No, not the horror-themed fan version of Among Us I mentioned the other week, that's another project still in development.)

While this VRChat version of Among Us is faithful to official original game, longtime reader Adeon Writer tells me, adds some new and interesting gameplay features only possible in a 3D, VR-enabled world:

"We had a group play it for about 3.5 hours straight." (Highlights in the video above.) "If you're one of the impostors in this one, you actually have to fake doing your tasks and stuff since everyone can see what you're doing with your hands and such, which is unexpected if you're used to the original, but kind of great. If you've got good players it opens up a whole new aspect of trying to deduct who's faking everything."

Here's how:

Casual & Glamorous SL Fashion Shopping Tips from the Perfect Fashion Blog

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

Look Perfect Fashion is a blog by Carol Bebb that features fun fashions with decor. This pic above drew me in by finding an orange pickup truck. It’s post number 1898, so Carol has been busy. I like her outfit, but I really fell for the pickup truck. 

• Pitaya&Tropix - Harvest truck @Kustom9

Superstar fashion after the break:

Second Life Registrations Down in 2020 Despite COVID Concurrency Bump

Recent SL sign-up stats via Tyche Shepherd's Grid Survey - click to embiggenate

Talking to Second Life data expert Tyche Shepherd about the Carmen King bump brought up another set of data points that aren't as fun. While it's true, as Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg said back in March, that "[w]e are seeing an increase in new registrations and returning residents during this [COVID] outbreak," that increase didn't last last very long. 

"Trend in signups is down," as Tyche tells me, sharing the chart above. "There was a boost in late March-April but these have been declining since May and there is no significant change in September... Overall this implies that any growth in concurrency is more likely explained by more frequent usage by existing accounts (either lapsed returning or longer online times by active users or a combination of both) rather than new users."

Also the decline in registrations is part of a longer trend: "It also looks like signups have been significantly lower than last year," Tyche adds.

And while SL concurrency did see a COVID bump, that didn't last long:

This Artist Uses Depth of Field & Dynamic Lighting to Make Screenshots from SL Seem Like Photos IRL

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

Seeing “Hidden Lake 01,” it is easy to understand why Vivena was the official SLB photographer from 2014 to 2018. This is simply stunning. She has an excellent eye for capturing the details that make a striking picture. Depth of field gives it verisimilitude, the kind that makes you ask, is it life or is it Second Life? 

More masterful land and cityscapes ahead:

Carmen King Kicks Up Second Life User Concurrency -- YouTube Star's SL Videos Likely Lead to 1st Growth Since COVID Quarantine

Recent SL concurrency stats via Tyche Shepherd's Grid Survey

It's been over a month since YouTube gaming celebrity Carmen King started streaming hilariously raunchy Second Life videos on her channel -- September 3, to be exact -- but has that led to growth in Second Life use by her nearly 1 million subscribers? Based on data shared to me by Tyche Shepherd of Grid Survey, it sure seems that way. 

"There has been a rise since September (though there are signs this is falling in October) but not anything as dramatic as we saw in March/April," as Tyche tells me. March and April is when Second Life saw a spike in usage due to, well, the COVID-19 pandemic and a global quarantine. "See [chart] attached which shows the underlying trend in median daily concurrency after controlling for weekly seasonality."

See above, click to embiggenate. Before Carmen's videos, median daily concurrency for SL was declining to around 38,000. That's since grown to roughly 41,000 at peak. To be sure, her videos aren't the only factor at work (Tyche tells me the upward trend started in mid-August), but seeing as her SL videos have amassed over half a million views so far, they're almost certainly a major factor.

They've definitely been a major factor on Carmen King's inbox:

"All of my direct messages are filled with people asking me to help," she tells me laughing. 

Despite this sudden surge, she tells me Linden Lab has hardly connected with her -- but as a longtime social game doyenne, she does have advice for the company:

AOC's Twitch Viewership Already Competitive With FOX & MSNBC Ratings

As you already may have noticed if you're even somewhat online, US Congresswoman (and bonafide gamer) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted her first Twitch stream last night, a Get Out the Vote promotional effort disguised as an Among Us play stream (or vice versa). The viewership was massive:

Almost 700,000 tuned in on Twitch to watch her play with several streamers and fellow Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. At the broadcast’s peak, some 440,000 people went to the Twitch stream set up by AOC, while another 200,000 or so followed sepaerate broadcasts by gaming stars Pokimane, Jacksepticeye, HasanAbi and Moistcr1tikal.

Many have pointed out that this makes AOC one of the very top streamers on Twitch, but a better comparison point is probably partisan political media. And on that front, her Twitch stream is already competitive with the very top shows on FOX and MSNBC:

This Artist Makes SL Screenshots Come Alive With Virtual Light & Shadow

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

I loved this picture the moment I saw it. I love the cats and how natural their poses are. We have all seen cats in spats. I love how it is lit from outside, from the bright lights of the city. It creates a chiaroscuro effect that is simply brilliant. I featured Paradox Ivory three years ago with an interview. Since then, her work has only grown in confidence and creative vision. 

Stunning images exploring light and shadow.

SLers Are You Feeling the Uplift Into the Cloud? 'Cause It's Happening

Originally announced to happen by end of 2018, it looks like Second Life will finally move into the Amazon cloud by end of 2020, says Oz Linden as only Oz can:

We've been working hard on the Uplift of Second Life. If you have not been following this project, that's what we're calling the migration of our Second Life simulators, services, and websites from a private datacenter to hosting in The Cloud (Amazon Web Services)... Overall, the Uplift project is on track to be complete or very nearly so by the end of this year (yes, 2020… I know I've said "fall" before and people have noted that I didn't say what year 🙂 ; the leaves haven't finished falling at my house yet…). It's likely that there will be other (hopefully small) temporary disruptions during this process, but we promise we'll do all we can to avoid them and fix them as fast as we can. This migration sets the stage for some significant improvements to Second Life and positions us to be able to grow the world well into the future.

More here. Cloud transfers are even being announced in grid status updates. Substantial performance improvements are promised. But are you feeling it yet from your part of the virtual world?

Philip Rosedale on How COVID Has Transformed Virtual Worlds -- And Helped Crystallize His Life's Work

Recent New Yorker story on Zoom fatigue (no jokes, please) features a number of its virtual world/VR alternatives, and focuses quite a bit on High Fidelity, capturing and expanding upon the sense of audio-powered immersiveness that so impressed me when it launched last May:

Re-creating offline interactions is difficult. Without video, High Fidelity has done away with visual cues. All the subtle movements we use to communicate beyond speech—the mirroring and the blinking, the smirking and the side-eye—are gone. But as we spoke I came to appreciate the lifelike quality of the audio, which was immediate and transportive. It felt like entering a room in a way that Zoom doesn’t. 

Philip Rosedale gives author Anna Russell a hands-on (ears-on?) tour of High Fidelity, capturing and expanding upon this strange era we're now in, where virtual worlds suddenly went from odd niche/kids' game to social necessity and with little warning you're suddenly helping fix David Lynch's avatar hair. 

Or as Philip puts it:

These Images Look Like Classic Still Life Paintings But They Actually Began as Virtual World Screenshots

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

“Blue Tits & Poppyseeds” is a stunning still life from Noco Hammerer. It is inspiring to see the virtual metaverse continuing in pixels what began in ancient Egypt funerary paintings on the walls of tombs. The oldest still life that has been discovered, from the Tomb of Menna, had birds on it, too. The blue tits and the yellow lemons give us complementary colors. He uses threes, as well. Three blue tits, the lemons number more than three but are in three parts, two singles and a cluster. There are also three vases, but one pitcher and one hydrangea. With eleven poppy pods, he uses the rule of odds throughout the picture. 

So many more beautiful still life pictures ahead.

Founding Linden Hunter Walk: When Launching Second Life, "We Over-Indexed on the Community" Versus Broadly Appealing Content

“Coming for the Content, Staying for the Community” Started With Video Games (Or Maybe Religion?) But Will Define Media This Decade [new blog post] https://t.co/cDfzgnidyc

— 👨🏻‍💻☕️ (@hunterwalk) October 19, 2020

Here's a really interesting new blog post by founding Linden Lab team member Hunter Walk, who helped drive a lot of the early decisions around the launch of Second Life, including the very naming of Second Life. (More on that here.) After leaving the Lab, Hunter went on to become a bigwig at YouTube/Google and is now a renowned Silicon Valley VC. From the vantage of those experiences, he believes “Come for the content, stay for the community” is the principle that will drive successful online platforms.

But notably, he believes Second Life didn't get that sequencing right:

Working on the virtual world Second Life at the time I had the proverbial “front row seat” to what online interaction could look like down in the future. It was, or rather is, a fully user-constructed shared virtual world. Think Minecraft but like 100x less successful! Although to be fair, (i) Second Life is still around and profitable and (ii) many of the design choices we made were quite influential on later products. Anyhow, we over-indexed on the community and left the content largely up to the inhabitants which was only appealing to a limited number of passionate users (about half a million). I spent about three years as part of that team and the notion of “staying for the community” lodged itself deep in my cranial matter. 

In other words, Linden Lab should have created more content that would draw in a mass audience, rather than leaving that up to the SL creator community.

But what does he think SL's content focus should have been?

Gumroad Online Marketplace "Another Peg in Place for the Metaverse"

I mentioned how there's a growing real cash economy for VRChat-based content on Gumroad, an online marketplace for digital content, and reader Joey1058 explored the site deeper, then came back with this brief report:

I took a look at Gumroad. This site is awesome. It's not tied specifically to a particular VR world. This means that somewhere up the road, creators can expand their line for any world they see fit to sell to. One more peg in place for the metaverse!

Quite possibly! In all honesty I didn't know much about the site before this, but it claims that nearly 72,000 creators are selling content on the platform; according to SimilarWeb, Gumroad gets over 12 million monthly visits in recent months, which is quite decent. My pal Leigh Alexander sells her fiction on Gumroad and has this endorsement on the homepage, which is good enough for me.

Also to Joey's point, the content for sale on Gumroad isn't locked to any specific virtual world. (It even has some Second Life-related items for sale.) I don't know if Gumroad will ultimately become the main commerce site for the Metaverse (single or plural), but I think he's right that some kind of independent marketplace like this will be key to making it viable.