New World Notes

WEEKEND OPEN FORUM (Updated)

It's that time again:  Got an SL-based topic you want to talk about, a grassroots event/project you want to promote, a gripe you want to air or praise you want to publicize?  Post here, and come Monday, I'll mention noteworthy Comments and discussions in a front page update.

Update, 2/19:

- Leigh wants to know, with so many real world business and marketing efforts in SL lately, "how intertwined do real lives become with second lives"?

- Geuis Dassin catches a CNET podcast comparing SL unfavorably to World of Warcraft, and unleashes a thoughtful reply.

ONE FOR THREE

So New World Notes readers predicted for 2007, so it has already come to pass: "When you open your log-in screen and see in the upper right hand corner Grid Status: Restricted, you’ll know that only those Second Life Residents who have transacted with Linden Lab either by being a premium account holder, owning land, or purchasing currency on the LindeX, will be able to log-in."  Never would have guessed that prediction would bear out in under a month.  Does that mean Second Life exceeds a million active users and gets bought by a big company before Summer's out, too?

Iris Ophelia and The Next Big Thing

After a long lamented absence, effortlessly stylish fashion maven Iris Ophelia returns to NWN so she can offer her thoughts on a topic that makes my male gorilla brain melt:  future trends in avatar-based couture.  What innovations will revolutionize metaverse glamour?  Iris ruminates expertly after the break.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: PENNY PATTON

I spied Penny Patton sitting in the upper bleaches of Kula's Roman coliseum during the guidebook appearance, and I was so struck by her, with her flying ace pilot goggles and her belt of World War I-era handgrenades, that I had to know more.  In fact, Kula's audience was so diverse, it inspired me to launch a new semi-recurring NWN series:  "All About My Avatar", profiles of fascinating SL personae, and the people behind them. 

Which begins with Penny, after the break.

THE THIRD LIFE OF URU LIVE

In an era of false "firsts", this may qualify as the true thing: a company using one online world to promote another one of their own.  The SL island of Myst Online was created to advertise a game of the same name.  As it happens, the history of the two worlds extends back several years.  Uru Live was the first attempt to create a multiplayer version of the cherished Myst games; when that world failed, and its citizens needed a new place to call home, Second Life was inundated with emigres.  Many sought to recreate something like Uru in SL; from them came an early game called The Mysterious Journey, and Numbukulla, an SL-based adventure game that thrives to this day.  One of Myst's original creators, it's worth pointing out, is no stranger to SL, which is perhaps why, when it came time to resurrect Myst in a new form, a portion of the world was brought here.   Though financed by the company behind Myst Online, the SL component was created by members of D'Ni, a group of Uru exiles.  They are fans given a chance to do their part promoting the world they left behind (now reborn with a slightly different name.)  What they've created is ornate, evocative, and lovingly detailed, with hints at puzzles and hidden places to explore.  (Ironically, the overall effect is somewhat marred by excessive advertising and web links to the official game, jutting up from the rocks and trees like 3D pop-up ads.)

This link is a direct portal to the island, though it probably won't grant you access until tomorrow, after the official opening.  Meantime, more images after the leap. 

Rik's Picks for February 14-18

Rik Riel's weekly round-up of upcoming SL events...

It looks like all the performing arts are finding their way into Second Life, from music to theater and now... the ballet. "Olmannen" is a three-act story ballet, produced by the SL Ballet Troupe using original animations, choreography and music. The next performance is this coming Wednesday, February 14, at 4PM PST. After each performance, there is a question and answer session for those interested in the dancer's view, technical requirements, how the ballet was made, philosophy, etc.  At Quat (61, 29).  Come early, but leave at home the fancy attachments and other lag-producers.

Also coming up this week: Dorkbots, prim plants, Roman processions, aquatic art, a dance marathon, machinima mash-ups and, just for Valentines, tales of love gone wrong, horribly wrong.

SPY GAME

Someone tipped off Biscuit Carroll that his island had been targeted for surveillance, so he went with his security expert Loki Clifton, to figure out if they were being spied on.  After an arduous search, they finally found the bug.

"Was just here where our previous meeting room was," Biscuit tells me, as we stare down at the foyer of his conference center.  "Loki tried to select it, it was just too small."

What they located, Loki Clifton explains, is "a device that repeats what it hears to either a channel or to its owner or list of people." 

"We were doing an object scan on the parcel because it was suggested that we should be alert to this, by someone who makes bugs," Carroll continues.  Surveillance devices are not uncommon in Second Life, often used by Residents to spy on their virtual world lovers, if they suspect they're being unfaithful.  (An alternative, in other words, to hiring a private SL detective.)  But more frequently, with the influx of money and projects from real world companies and entrepeneurs looking to score big in Second Life, Carroll believes, they "are now being used widely for industrial espionage."

FOUND ART IN UI

Almathea Blanc alerts me that the winners of Second Life Art News' UI Abstraction Contest have been chosen.  The challenge was to find the essential and beautiful in SL's debugging interface, which reduces the world to its naked, wire mesh substrate.  The results are, as hoped, dreamy and evocative.  With Ms. Blanc's permission, three of my very favorites are featured here, and after the break.

MEET ME IN KULA

One more touch of shameless self-promotion:  February 13th at 6pm SLT (i.e. tomorrow), I'll be showing up with my co-authors to talk Second Life: The Official Guide.  Meet me, the urbane Walker Spaight, the unforgettable Aimee Weber, the legendary Catherine Omega, and, uh, Resident-name-unknown-at- press-time Michael Rymaszewski.  Event's at the auditorium on Kula island: direct teleport at this link.

SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST BY SCOBLE

Coming March 12, I'll be in Austin hosting a panel at ScreenBurn, the game-oriented spinoff of SXSW's Interactive festival.  With a hat tip to Mark Wallace, I've dubbed the talk “Web 2.0 to Web 3D”, a broad catch-all for this era where the new tools of user-created content, social networks, etc. are helping 3D online worlds evolve into the Net's next generation.  (Or are they?  Part of what we'll be talking about.)  I'll be host to a trio of astoundingly brilliant personalities:  Robin Hunicke, currently a game designer with Electronic Arts (along with being an exceedingly cool game blogger); venture capitalist, scarily sharp industry analyst, and Quake mistress Susan Wu; and to all our great fortune, former Microsoft tech evangelist and current PopTech VP Robert Scoble.

Update, 3/12:  More on the talk here.