New World Notes

Advice On SL Game Development: Embrace The Medium's Constraints, Make A Marketing Plan, Build A Gamer Network

Yesterday, I was on an Orange Island Games Week panel talking SL as a game platform, along with developers Cyphien Heart, Piegaro Riel, Kiana Writer, and host  Akela Talamasca of Massively.  The full transcript has just been published here, and it's worth a read.  Here's some of what I said, summarized into three bite-sized chunks of advice for would-be SL game developers:

Embrace The Constraints: I’d say you should first think of the reasons not to make games in SL, because there’s a lot of them that the platform simply can’t support just yet. That’s probably why Tringo has so far been the only break out success.  And that was [made] in 2004. It’s very true that it’s great as a prototyping platform, but I’ve seen too many really really great projects get undone by problems or drawbacks with SL, or even upgrades that undermine the developer’s progress.  Now that said, there’s still a lot of great potential, I’m only cautioning that developers come here with those drawbacks in mind...

Stream SL Machinima In-World From Koinup Social Network

This is a cool feature: the MMO-based social network Koinup is now allowing its users to host machinima videos so you can stream them in-world-- go here to get the details. 

Speaking of which, here's my Koinup profile; if you're a member, please add me as a contact, as I often check out the Koinup gallery for possible New World Tableau entries.  I'm working with the Koinup folks on an upcoming project, I should add by way of full disclosure and teaser, and will post details soon.

Open Forum: What Breakout SL Games Should NWN Cover?

Appearing at Orange Island's Game Week today reminded me how much I've wanted to expand coverage of game development in Second Life, especially now with the Havok 4 physics engine fully integrated into the world.  So what breakout SL games should I look at first?  "Breakout" meaning a game with a player base of 500 or more, or one that's so innovative or well-executed, it could go the way of Tringo.  Be sure to list the creators, and the keywords for finding the games in Search.

Take Botgirl's RL/SL Personality Test!

Now here's a fascinating thought experiment: Botgirl Questi is promoting a personality test which you take twice:  once, as your material self, and the second time, as your Second Life avatar.  Then send the results to her, or just post them on her blog.  Botgirl's using a test based on the Big Five model, and for the several who've posted their scores, there's a wide variation in real life/avatar personalities.  Go here to take the test, then go here for options on sending Botgirl the results.  I'm curious to see the double profile of Botgirl Questi herself-- you know, being a self-described artificial intelligence who's writing a graphic novel and all.

New World Tableau: Negko DeVinna's "Death of Iron Man"

Negko's subversive and mordantly beautiful "Rust, the Death of Iron Man" was actually made possible by the companies which produced the blockbuster movie.  "I picked up the free Iron Man outfit that won the contest to promote the movie in Second Life," DeVinna explains.  He added just a few post-production effects, bringing out the rust in the armor and the light from Tony Stark's chest. "The scene takes place at the New Relic, specially designed for better viewing with WindLight clients."  (Direct SLURL teleport to the site at this link.)  As for its inspiration, Negko says: "I read a bit of comics when I was a kid (yes we know Marvel, even in France!)  As the whole super hero mythology is all inspired from the Greek and Roman mythology, adventures of the super heroes are generally tragedies (just think of The Thing's sex life.)"

Want to send me a Tableau of your own?  Submission guidelines after the break. For inspiration, see the full New World Tableau series here.

Noon Today: Talking Second Life Games On Orange Island

In about an hour I'll be in-world on Orange Island to speak on a panel about SL as a game platform; it's part of a much larger "Games Week" hosted on the isle of the French telecom/ISP. I'm in a great line-up: Doc Boffin will be talking about Combat Cards, for example, and the folks behind great mini-MMOs like Midgar and City of Lost Angels will be there, too. Here's the full schedule-- and here's a direct SLURL teleport link to the island.  See you there.

Last Week In New World Notes: Selected Highlights

A grieving widow creates a unique means of finding solace... the world's peak concurrency hits a 66K plateau... a passionate conversation on the new rules for making virtual friends... a beloved Sojourner makes her final parting... an architect thinks about the future of the metaverse business office.  Plus, what celebrities does your avatar resemble, and what's that say about our sense of beauty?

Commemorating Memorial Day In Second Life

The Minoa memorial-- direct SLURL teleport to the site at this link or pic above

It's Memorial Day in the US, and tonight at 8pm SLT, the world's first Iraqi War Memorial, made to honor Coalition forces who lost their lives there, is being rededicated in solemn, public ceremony at its new location, in Minoa.  Several other memorials have been built since then, but the one in Minoa is hosted by Ace Cassidy, who erected it in 2004 in another sim.  As with the original, service members' names are displayed in stark relief on the marble panel above an eternal flame.

That it has lasted for so long is testimony to the devotion Ace and the members of his group have given it-- and to all those who've invested their feelings for their countries' war dead in a virtual memorial.  At another site, where the names of America's casualties are engraved in marble, for example, Eureka Dejavu recently came across a new Resident who had barely learned to control his avatar-- but was still trying to find the name of a friend who had perished in a 2005 rocket-propelled grenade attack.

Iraq isn't the only war for which memorials have been made.

From Second Life To Amazon.com: How An Avatar-Based Job Hunt Led To A Gig With The Web's Top Retailer

There's been many virtual world job fairs in Second Life that offer interviews with reps at several top tech companies, but how valuable are they in actually getting hired?  As it turns out, enough to take Simone Brunozzi from being a "a disposable system administrator" (as he describes himself) working for a university in Perugia, Italy, to becoming an Amazon technology evangelist trained in Seattle, Washington.  That's his new office view, above right; at left is the device which helped get Simone hired: an improved 3D simulation of Amazon Web Services he created in SL.  Writing on his blog, Brunozzi takes us through the arduous but ultimately exhilarating process: impressing an Amazon Human Resources exec at an SL job fair, spending a week creating the AWS simulation to show Jeff Barr, the SL-savvy Amazon exec his resume was forwarded to, and finally flying to Seattle for a barrage of in-person interviews.  "Second Life had an interesting role on all this," Simone writes. "Being updated and experienced with the latest technologies brings a competitive advantage."  That, he adds, and "being able to use Second Life and not scared of a virtual job fair."

Hat tip: Second Life Pros.  Image credits: Brunozzi.com.

Sojourner's End: Mourning A Beloved Community Leader

Direct SLURL teleport to The Sojourner's Memorial at this link

When it came time to describe Second Life's leading figures for the official guide, I wrote this about the Resident named The Sojourner:

A one-woman demonstration of the power of Second life as a social tool, Ms. Sojourner has been a tireless volunteer and organizer in SL for nearly two years as a founder of Shockproof, a support group for stroke survivors, and as an event planner and organizer on the Dreams sim, home to endless building contests and holiday fairs to benefit a good cause.

That was in 2006.  And yesterday, the woman behind Soj (as her many friends called her), died of cardiac arrest.  A multiple stroke survivor, she devoted the last four years of her life building Dreams into a thriving support community. And as members learned the news of her passing, they streamed into Dreams, lighting candles, creating memorial sculptures and signs.  ("Some of the Dreams group had become quite close to Soj," someone explained to me, when I arrived. "They received phone calls early in the day.") When I visited the impromptu memorial site a few hours ago, some were already there, silently gathered; some only learned the news as they arrived; some hadn't even known her, but knew Residents she'd touched, and came anyway.

"[T]his sim has been full of people all day," SamBivalent Spork tells me. "It's been wonderful to see all the people here.  Everyone had an inspiring story to tell."  That would include SamBivalent himself.