New World Notes

Join Me This Friday on David Orban's Live Podcast Recording!

I'm talking with veteran technologist David Orban for his podcast this Friday, hope you join us live! Click "notify me" on his YouTube channel (above), or go here to join via: his LinkedIn page or on this Facebook event page. 

Some topics covered:

• The true state of the Metaverse, beyond the hype and misconceptions
• Insights from Au's 20 years of experience in virtual worlds
• The evolution of metaverse platforms like Second Life, Roblox, Fortnite, and VRChat
• Potential impact of the Metaverse on society and business
• Common mistakes made by major tech companies in metaverse development
• The role of user communities in shaping the Metaverse

If there's other subjects we should hit on, please post suggestions in Comments!

Top 5 Posts Including the Virtual Worlds Museum Expansion, a Virtual City for a Real Life Fiancé, and Inside inZoi's Zany Backstory

• Looking Into Reports of Linden Lab Staff Cuts in Engineering & Second Life Governance/Customer Support
• Virtual Worlds Museum Vastly Expands Website Resources for Researchers, Developers, and Explorers
• He Met His Real Fiancé in Second Life. Then Built a Moody Virtual Tribute to Her Hometown of New Orleans.
• Inside inZOI: Lead Dev Shares Behind-the-Scenes Details with Stephen Totilo -- Including Its Totally Zany Premise!
• Ashley Carter Creates Incredibly Story-Rich Second Life Images -- And a Hilarious Flickr vs. Primfeed Meme!

Second Life Pro Tips: Expert Advice & Insights from KiwiCo & Dutchie - Now on My Patreon

This week for my Patreon subscribers, I'm highlighting insights from the owner of Dutchie, a leading brand in furniture/home decor (with a sexy twist), and KiwiCo, the new brand of legendary Blueberry creator Gizem Mishi Akin. (Don't miss my interview with Gizem here.)

Subscribe and read it all here!

Looking Into Reports of Linden Lab Staff Cuts in Engineering & Second Life Governance/Customer Support

UPDATE, October 11: Grumpity Linden reached out to me earlier today, saying Linden Lab does indeed want to discuss this news with me for the record, late next week. So stay tuned for that! 

I've received many multiple credible reports that Linden Lab has made significant job cuts to staff recently, and am reaching out to the company for an official response. I'm told that the job cuts impacted a handful of engineers, and 15-20 people in the Customer Account Operations / Governance/ Fraud department for Second Life. Some or most of these cuts are reportedly related to staffing at Linden Lab's Atlanta office.

Again, I've asked the company for an official clarification, and will update this post when and if I get a reply. I will add that only a week ago, someone messaged me saying they were just hired by Linden Lab, thanks to a job listing I blogged awhile ago; so overall, this could be part of larger re-org. However, I won't speculate beyond saying that.

Linden Lab currently employs about 200 staffers, so this cut would represent a 10% force reduction, more or less -- and an extremely painful transition for many talented people who've helped support the Second Life community through decades of combined service.   

Watch: PBR-Powered Pool Promoted in Whole Hilarious Parody Commericial

Remember that public swimming pool, which demonstrated the power of PBR? Little did I know back then that it'd be featured in this whole hilarious parody commercial by Beetle Wilder. Watch above! I'd love to see more spots like this advertising SL content.

Speaking of which, the pool itself is from Bhad Craven's brad Bad Unicorn (disclosure: a past and future NWN sponsor) available in the mainstore.

Last month Bhad shared some tips on creating in PBR:

Virtual Worlds Museum Vastly Expands Website Resources for Researchers, Developers, and Explorers

When Julian Reyes of the Virtual Worlds Museum asked me last January to help him launch a project, his goal was so ambitious, it actually made my head hurt: To create the best and most comprehensive online resource for information on virtual worlds, while also preserving virtual world history. I've been writing this blog since 2006, and still feel like I'm barely scratching that pixelated surface.

The Museum website has just been greatly expanded, bringing it quite close to that goal: Go here to start exploring.

The site includes video tours of multiple virtual worlds co-hosted by Evo "In Kenzo" Heyning, the latest being this look at Frame, a web-based metaverse platform with integrated NPC and generative AI capabilities (watch above):

Frame is a web-based metaverse solution from Virbela that makes it easy to communicate, collaborate, and create in 3D environments, right from the web browser. It works on desktop, mobile, and VR because it runs directly from a web browser. Great for immersive meetings, events, classes, and more, Frame lets you create spatial, multi-user sites with ease. Their features include collaboration tools, no-code customization, scale, presentation tools, graphics, AI, scripting & API, security and street view.  

Some other sections of the Museum:

He Met His Real Fiancé in Second Life. Then Built a Moody Virtual Tribute to Her Hometown of New Orleans.

Originally published on my Patreon

Master sim designer Kaiden Tray has created incredible Second Life environments over the years, from a cyberpunk city swallowed by the jungle to a lovingly detailed tribute to the Bates motel from Hitchcock's Psycho. Kaiden just unveiled his latest sim build:

The Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: The End [Click to teleport]

Ideal for spooky season events and screenshots, this rendition of New Orleans in Second Life has an amazing, romantic backstory of its own:

Ashley Carter Creates Incredibly Story-Rich Second Life Images -- And a Hilarious Flickr vs. Primfeed Meme!

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

Ashley Carter is the creator of Voidar, a world within the world of Second Life, one created by pictures and storytelling. Each story is presented as a Flickr album. Voidar is populated with her many friends who volunteer to be part of her stories. This is from her story Second Chances, depicting how the unbeatable monster attacking their city could be defeated by them all coming together.  

For more from Ashley, click here:

Inside inZOI: Lead Dev Shares Behind-the-Scenes Details with Stephen Totilo -- Including Its Totally Zany Premise!

Veteran game journalist Stephen Totilo has the most in-depth story I've read so far on inZOI, the very viral upcoming life sim game from South Korean company KRAFTON. You should subscribe and read the whole thing on his newsletter (maybe get your company to expense it!), but here's some keys details, gleaned from his interview with lead inZOI developer Hyungjun Kim:

It's only been in development for under a year: "[KRAFTON] gave his team eight months to create a promising build. They cleared that hurdle."

InZOI will support sharing UGC, but not a UGC marketplace: "He’s excited to let [players] customize whole rooms with 1,000 objects in them and upload them for others to use. InZOI will support the sharing of user-generated content, but not a monetized marketplace."

Individual play sessions have 300 simulated "citizens" who interact with each other: "A player’s session in inZOI is set in a simulated city with a maximum population of 300 people, or Zois. Weather and car traffic are simulated. So are the citizenry’s daily routines. Kim talked about simulations that will allow rumors to spread, though says the first viral transmission that the team tested was for a cold."

Instant karma gonna getcha: "People will operate on a karma system, and those who develop too many negative vibes will, after death, become ghosts who haunt the city and occupy one of those 300 population slots. 'When time passes, naturally, the souls will be purified,' Kim said. 'They will make it into heaven. The warning will go away. And you’re going to be able to see babies born.'"

Speaking of which -- and I think this is a scoop on Stephen's part, at least in the US press -- the underlying premise of inZOI is gloriously wacky. Possible spoilers ahead:

Cajsa's Choices: Fresh & Playful Second Life Images By Epiphainein

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

Piggs Boucher or, as he is known on Flickr, Epiphainein, posted this image,  “Some Like It Hot”, that caught my eye. It’s always fun to see a group of people hanging out. 

Even more exciting, this is actually a G-rated edit of Lally O'Leary’s original “Girls Day at the Spa” which is just slightly more bare. Lally also links to another picture from Moon Beerbaum on Primfeed. It’s always fun to see multiple pictures of the same scene. 

The title is a bit ironic, since Epiphainein added a towel to make it more modest. Meanwhile, in the original iconic Mariyln Monroe movie Some Like It Hot, the dress Sugar Kane wore was designed to suggest nudity. The director had a lot of fun with the shadows. 

For more of Epiphainein’s playful Second Life imagery, click here:

Once Human Update: Yes, You Can (Mostly) Avoid Combat to Play

Good question from reader Elle Couerblanc on Once Human and its cozy virtual world gameplay:

Well, this game looks interesting! I see there is combat involved? Is it more PVE or PVP-oriented? I thought cozy MMOs did not have combat.

OK, technically Once Human isn't cozy; instead, say cozy-ish, or at least, cozy-able. Gogo, who I interviewed for the post, answers in Comments:

You can play Player vs. Environment or Players vs. Player. This isn't a cozy MMO, it has some combat elements, but on PVE you can pretty much avoid most of the combat and just play however you want. I focus on foraging, farming, hunting, etc. Sometimes I kill some zombies, but I don't love it!

That's gameplay video of Gogo above, toodling around the world and harvesting gold before being rudely interrupted.

In Once Human, you do need to level up to get better items, but that doesn't always require combat. More background from fellow Once Human player Sparkle:

Join My Patreon to Read Expert Advice & Insights from Full-Time Second Life Creators Bad Unicorn & Cold Ash

Second Life Pro Tips: Expert Advice & Insights from Full-Time Creators is now free to read for all Patreon members, bringing together insights of two successful SL brands: Cold Ash and Bad Unicorn. Here's a sample, first from ColdAsh, on the importance of customer service:

"I think my goal has always been to resolve the issue at hand first of all and make sure the customer is happy with the product. There’s often times a customer might have returned to SL after a long break and be quite new to mesh bodies/bakes on mesh etc. etc. so I'm always happy to help explain what these things are. Second Life has changed a lot over time, and with new features like PBR being introduced I think it’s good to take a little bit of time here and there to help people understand how it can impact their SL experience.”

And Bhad Craven of Bad Unicorn, on a common mistake he sees new SL brands make:

Top 5 Posts Including The Indy Success of Resonite and the Rise of Cozy Crafting Combat Worlds

• Why Virtual World Gamers Will Want to Try Once Human, the New Cozy Crafting Combat World
• Second Life Combat 2 Development Tips from Linden Lab's Creator Tools Product Manager
• Resonite Update: One Year After Launch, Patreon-Sponsored Virtual World Has 10,000 Monthly Active Users from 60,000 Installs
• Second Life Mobile Updates: Experimental Voice Chat Added, Access Expanded to All Subscriber Levels Including Plus
• Survey: Which New-ish Second Life Brand Interests You Most?

Survey: Which New-ish Second Life Brand Interests You Most? Choose Aardvark, [ADD], The Discord Experts, Dope Pixels, Limited Addiction, Luova, Manikin!!, NeutralTones, RudeGirls Shapes, or Star Quake Shapes & Beauty

Take survey on desktop/laptop PC with mouse or tablet for best results

Thanks to readers who recommended their favorite new-ish Second Life brands over the last few months! Now please take this survey to choose the brand you'd like to see featured in a New World Notes post. Use a laptop/mouse for best results, and first check out all the brand links and descriptions below.

In alphabetical order, they are: Aardvark, [ADD], The Discord Experts, Dope Pixels, Limited Addiction, Luova, Manikin!!, NeutralTones, RudeGirls Shapes, and Star Quake Shapes & Beauty.

Again, info and links to all of them below. If the survey results are close, I may cover the top two-three, so please be sure to share this survey far and wide!

Why Virtual World Gamers Will Want to Try Once Human, the New Cozy Crafting Combat World

A thrilling trend I'm starting to see in popular new games is a mash-up of multiplayer combat with virtual world gameplay, where customizing your avatar, crafting your home, raising/caring for pets, and casually hanging out with friends and exploring the world together is just as emphasized as the face-shooty aspects.  

Once Human is among the latest examples, and it comes across like a zany mash-up of Fortnite and Palia, the cozy MMO. I'm even tempted to coin a new subgenre name for it: Cozy Crafting Combat World.

Sparkle and Gogo, who largely spend their virtual world gameplay socializing/creating content around Second Life, are now fans of Once Human. So much so, they created a channel of their Second Life Cafe Discord devoted to Once Human, and even have an affiliate code for the game: This one right here. 

"I am trying to earn points for a snow globe," Sparkle explains, laughing. "I am giving a gun for people to use in their as well, they also get gifts.

"I'm not a gamer at all," Gogo allows, "I've only played Second Life for the past two decades. So what I found interesting about [Once Human] is that it's fairly easy, soft grinding, but there are lots of rewards too. And you can play with friends, that's important to me. I hate playing games by myself."

"You can play solo but as you progress it encourages people to work collaboratively," Sparkle adds. "Everyone gets different specializations and contributes resources to the group. Or you can sell or trade with other players for in game currency."

More on the virtual world/cozy aspects of Once Human:

Second Life Combat 2 Development Tips from Linden Lab's Creator Tools Product Manager

Since Linden Lab recently unveiled Combat 2, a major update to Second Life's combat system, I got in touch with Kyle Linden, the company project manager under the Avatars and Creator Tools initiative. A Linden since 2007, Kyle's also a longtime gamer and even owned a roleplay region in SL before joining the company. "[O]ne of the things I have always wished for Second Life is easy to enter combat situations to enhance role playing games our residents create," he tells me.

While there are many impressive user-made game systems in Second Life, the platform's streaming architecture is not immediately optimized for high speed, physics-based combat out of the box. So I asked Kyle for some tips for community developers getting started with implementing Combat 2:

Cajsa's Choices: A Whole Flickr Group Celebrating Autumn in Second Life

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

Rawnie Lane’s “Foggy Woods” seems the perfect picture to open my exploration of Autumn in Second Life, a Flickr group exploring the wonders of the season in our metaverse. This is a beautiful forest with a path meandering through it and leaves falling to the ground. Yes, it is raking season, but I want to make a pitch for leaving the leaves in your yard rather than burning or putting them out with the trash. Why? Because lots of little critters need the leaves for shelter and they also add nutrients to your soil. We are losing butterflies, so let’s leave the leaves and help save the butterflies. Butterflies would love this forest. 

For more from Autumn in Second Life , click here:

Resonite Update: One Year After Launch, Patreon-Sponsored Virtual World Has 10,000 Monthly Active Users from 60,000 Installs

This report brought to you by the Virtual Worlds Museum, now creating digital hubs across many virtual worlds. Contact the Museum team here to get involved!

It's been almost exactly a year since the launch of Resonite, the free-to-play virtual world/metaverse platform that was spun out from a prior project (read about its history here) by lead developer "Frooxius", who supported its creation from his Patreon, which currently brings in $18,000+ per month.

Since then, the indie project has seem some fairly impressive organic user growth. Here's some recent Resonite stats:

• About 10,000 monthly active users
• Almost 60,000 installs/user accounts total
• About 60-75% of users are on VR headsets, versus the PC client
• 45% of Resonite users are from North America, while 23% are in Western Europe; 13% are located across Asia

I got this data from Resonite's finance officer (known as "bobthegood" on Discord/in-world), which is another indication of it's evolution into an actual business. (The platform is slowly selling education and enterprise/government SaaS licenses to organizations.)

As for the culture of the current user community, Bob shares this (along with the pic above and some influencer videos):

Second Life Mobile Updates: Experimental Voice Chat Added, Access Expanded to All Subscriber Levels Including Plus

Linden Lab just announced some pretty big updates to its Second Life mobile app (watch above, featuring a celebrity cameo) chief among them being these:

• Voice chat is now available in mobile on an experimental basis in some regions
• Mobile access is now expanded to all subscribers levels, including Plus (i.e. $5.50/month)

The announcement goes into detail on how all areas of Second Life are accessible, regardless of content rating -- something I discussed a few weeks ago:

Cajsa's Choices: Gorgeous Historical Cosplay Pics by Niely Atheria

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

Niely Atheria has a wonderful stream of historical cosplay pictures like “Fairytales Dream” above. The prince chasing Cinderella looks like he has a chance of catching her, though. I love the ornate carriage almost out of the frame, but you can see how fancy it is. The dress is also exquisite. I love that it’s not too frilly, just gorgeous. 

For more of her great cosplay, click here:

Read an Excerpt of The Hivemind Swarmed: A New Oral History of Gamergate, the 2014 Online Harassment Campaign That Changed Everything (Plus Get a Special NWN Discount Code!)

It's impossible to understand US politics or Internet/gaming/virtual world culture without knowing about Gamergate, the numerically small but highly coordinated online harassment campaign unleashed almost exactly 10 years ago. Fortunately there's a new oral history on the topic: The Hivemind Swarmed by David Wolinsky, and the book's summary puts it well:

Gamergate holds the grim distinction of being the first modern online harassment campaign. It arguably served as a model for the alt-right movement that would help propel Donald Trump to the White House. And it highlighted a toxic media culture—not just in gaming, but in film, TV, journalism, and more—in which leaders, through their passivity, took the side of the oppressor. Now, 10 years later—in the wake of #MeToo, Charlottesville, the Trump years, and the January 6 insurrection—the questions discussed here are more important than ever.

I was honored to be one of the many people David interviewed for the book, a highly readable and engrossing first-person account of that period, and what we've (hopefully) learned since then. Thanks to him and his publisher, New World Notes is featuring a lengthy excerpt (below) and a special discount code:

Click here to order the book from Beacon Press and used SCHOLAR25 as the code for 25% off the list price, along with free shipping.

Here's the excerpt, featuring indy pop star Jonathan Coulton, journalist Clive Thompson, virtual world pioneer Richard Bartle, and others (including, well, me, very briefly piping up here):

Cajsa's Choices: Imaginative Tributes to Nostalgia & Outdoor Adventure by Brian Werefox

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

Brian Werefox created this fabulously imaginative picture picturing himself back in earlier years, called “I wish that we could go back in time to those days that made us who we are.” It was taken at Mall Paradise, a place that must have reminded him of the thrill of renting a movie back when videotapes were new. I do remember how my friends and I would wander the aisles trying to pick a movie. Maybe when it is as easy as clicking a button online, the thrill is not so great, especially since Netflix won’t run out of copies. That reminded me that there is still one last remaining Blockbuster and it’s here in Oregon. There’s even a movie about it. 

For more of his delightful pictures, click here:

Added a $2/Month "Prim Level" Tier to My Patreon for Early/Exclusive Articles!

Speaking of "primitives", that's the name for a new $2/month tier on my Patreon -- perfect for people who just want to support New World Notes and get early/exclusive feature length articles, along with other special benefits. (The Creator and Partner levels are designed for readers interested in actively promoting their virtual brand/content.) Go here to check out all the tiers and benefits.

The Prim level just gets you  the juicy juicy content, including my latest article featuring popular brands Cold Ash and Bad Unicorn: Second Life Pro Tips: Expert Advice & Insights from Full-Time Creators

Fact Check: "Primitives" Preceded Second Life With VRML from the 90s!

Important fact check from longtime reader Joey1058, on my rant about Zuckerberg talking about adding "primitives" to Horizon Worlds, a term I suspected he lifted wholesale from Second Life:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 'primitives' isn't new to SL either. We'd been using prims in VRML for half a dozen years before SL left the lab.

Joey is right -- pictured above are primitives from VRML, the early 3D web coding language from the 90s, as noted here:

Top Five Stories Including the Rise of the Metaverse Generation and the Incredible Story Behind Hanna's New Second Life Shoes

• The New Second Life Shoes of Hanna Lindberg Tell Two Amazing Stories
• The Limits of Gen AI, the Immersion Divide, and The Rise of the Metaverse Generation
• Tiny Glade, Procedurally Cozy Indie Sandbox Game, Already a Hit One Day After Launch. (First Step to a Tiny Glade Virtual World?)
• Cajsa's Choices: Marvelous SL Images & Midjourney Experiments by Madoka Kawabata
• Watch: Zuckerberg Unveils Horizon Worlds Updates: "Improved" Avatars (Except Not), and Hyperlink-Like "Primitives" (Sounds Familiar!)