New World Notes

Last Week In New World Notes...

- How Second Life resembles Japan's Edo era-- a groundbreaking essay from two prestigious academics.
- She sells Cthulu hairstyles at the hair store-- and helps kids undergoing chemo.
- Has "Avatar Rendering Cost" created a social mechanism for avatar-based prejudice?  NWN readers seem to think so.
- A Belgian and a Cherokee walk into the metaverse-- and demonstrate the unique communication power of Second Life. 
- SL entrepeneurs wonder why they're experiencing a recession.
- Habbo versus SL-- why's one open-ended MMO so much more popular than the other?
- NWN game reviewer Vidal Tripsa looks for SL games to play.  Help her out here.

67K And Holding: Second Life's Summer Ends On Up Note

Unless it climbed higher than when I took this screen capture at about 2:15pm SLT today, this week's peak concurrency of SL users was 67,176-- about 150 shy of last week's world record peak.  (Then again, I imagine at least several hundred active Residents are at Burning Man now.)  So that first peak wasn't a one-off, and the concurrency plateau phase seems to be over.  The question is how much that number will grow, as we come of the Northen hemisphere's Summer, a period when in-world activity typically recedes.

Weekend Open Forum: What About The Metaverse Is On Your Mind?

It's a long Labor Day weekend (at least here in the States), and I'm scrambling to get ready for Virtual Worlds Hollywood next week. (Which means I'm thinking a lot about mobile phones for the metaverse, since my panel's called, "Mobile Virtual Worlds: Leaving the Personal Computer Behind."

What SL and Open Sim topics are on the top of your awareness lately?

Robbie Dingo's A Finalist In The LA Pier Screening! (Update)

Update, 8/30: The winner of the LA Pier Screening has been selected, and alas, the judges didn't choose "Watch the World(s)".  The award went to an animated version of the huge cult comic strip "Get Your War On", so as you can imagine, the competition was tough. Still, it was a great venue to showcase Robbie's work.  Also, I wrote about my favorite Pier Screening machinima entries for NewTeeVee here, including Osprey Therian's "SynaesthAsia" (above), Bettina Tizzy's "Noobility", and "The Labyrinth" by Halden Beaumont, all very much worth a watch as well.

Meta Conversation: The Multi-Streaming Power Of Metaverse-Driven Chat

Earlier this month Olando7 Decosta/Roland LeGrand of Mixed Realities, a European Resident, wrote a couple of posts with at least four fascinating takeaways, each very different but still dovetailing together. It's worth following them in four discrete parts:

- For Metanomics, Decosta writes an article arguing that a classic Western description of Second Life's economy, merely as rationally self-interested players seeking to maximize profit, was flawed.  Instead, he argues, it was better to think in terms of a gift economy, such as the Native American potlatch.  In doing so, he cites French theoreticians Baudrillard and Bataille, who describe the Potlatch ceremony as a way of achieving social dominance by competing to give away more. 

- In response to that view, Decosta winds up talking in backchat with another Resident, Nany Kayo, during a live in-world Metanomics.  As it turns out, Ms. Kayo is a Cherokee woman who's attended an actual Potlatch ceremoy, describing it to him as "a beautiful ritual, about which a lot more is to say than the competition aspect mentioned by these European authors." 

Let's Play SL Bingo: Scavenger Hunt for Metaverse Tropes

For-sale signs that rotate, walls of soft porn textures, suburban houses floating in the sky-- "It seems that Second Life, especially the mainland," writes Ariane Barnes of Virtual Underworld, "is like an American shopping mall. Go to any shopping mall and you will find the same 50 chain stores as the mall closest to your home."  Rather than just grouse about it, she's converted those cliches into a game:  here's the Second Life Cliche Bingo board, an assembly of those tired tropes.  "[P]ick a random spot on the mainland, and see how long it takes you to find five in a row or black out the whole board."  I'd love to see this turn into a league competition.  Go here for the board and the rules.

What's The Social Cost Of Avatar Rendering Cost?

Avatar Rendering Cost, or ARC, is "a small little experimental feature" recently introduced by the Lindens, but it seems to be causing fairly big social discord.  In theory, ARC numerically tracks the system resources required to display an avatar; after all, the more attachments one is wearing, the more computation it takes for the Second Life servers and individual Residents' computers to display them. 

ARC numbers are publicly viewable over each avatar's head; the idea, Pastrami Linden explained, is to "[l]et social and group dynamics take effect-- and let the Residents see what effect avatars nearby can have on their experience." In this way, Residents are subtly encouraged to conserve resources, especially in group situations, by not enhancing their avatar so intricately that everyone around them starts to lag.  It's a compelling theory.  (Imagine how much electricity people would save, if a Power Grid Cost was somehow made to flicker over their head.)

But according to some, the social dynamics sometimes take an ugly turn.  Peter Stinberg notes reports of avatars summarily segregated out of events if their ARC was deemed to high.  When I asked NWN style correspondent Iris Ophelia to show off her ARC, many readers voiced complaints at the concept. Sophrosyne Stenvaag (among others) groused that she'd noticed an ARC gender bias at play, too:  "I've definitely seen ARC used to harass women at events," I wrote. "I personally recall one event where a greeter harangued the event organizer for her jewelry... while standing next to a 2,000+ ARC male robot."

First Rule of Virtual Girl Gun Club: No One Talks About Virtual Girl Gun Club

Heat-packing hotties finally have a social network of their own (if they're avatars, that is): Virtual Girls with Guns, perhaps the most unique Ning group yet launched: not just Second Life users, but Second Life users who like avatars who are women who are toting guns of all sizes and stopping power.  It's a screenshot compendium of estrogen-fueled muzzle flashes, it's every other action movie and video game distilled to its essence.

Go here to behold.  Cocktail chatter topic:  What percent of Virtual Girls With Guns, do you suppose, are actually Guys On Computers Controlling Virtual Girls With Guns?

Hat tip: The lovely (and extremely well-armed) Zoe Connolly.

Lanna's List for August 28 - September 3: Arthole, Geishas, Geo Caching and more...

Charlanna Beresford’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…

Are you or a loved one a zombie or member of the undead?  At 6 PM on Friday, August 29 the Zombie Civil Rights group is having their first rally. Come hang out and discuss plans for other future group events, upcoming Halloween events, get free Zombie related items, and help brainstorm for various ideas and new creations(or maybe snack on a brain or two).  All are safe and welcome! You do NOT have to be a zombie, vampire or lycan to attend. In James (click here to teleport).

(All times in SLT, "Second Life Time"-- i.e., Pacific Standard)

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Thursday, August 28

11 AM - Nokia's Connected Worlds
This month’s Nokia Connected Worlds event focuses on the value of social networking. The event consists of three interesting parts. The first hour will be a hands-on, Get Connected event that highlights the many of the social networking platforms currently available. (Please sign for an account on OVI if you do not have one already -http://www.ovi.com, as this will be used as a major component of the event. ) The second hour will be the Nokia Virtual Business Panel discussion, where panelists drawn from various business disciplines within virtual worlds will take questions from the audience and discuss them.  The third hour will be both a continuation of the Get Connected event, and an after party hosted by Nokia's live Mediterranean DJ, Ren Diqui. In Nokia (click here to teleport).

3 PM – PrimProv Building Game
Constructive Education presents PrimProv, a building and guessing game for all SL residents.  One person is given a secret word and tries to construct something that exemplifies the word while other participants try to guess what the word. People have the opportunity to select a word based on their building skill level. In Ever After (click here to teleport).

5 PM - Book Discussion: What Would You Recommend?
A meetup for book lovers  to talk about good books and make recommendations to one another. In Atlas (click here to teleport).

7 PM – MichelleD Ecksol and Scott at Sunset Jazz Club
Michelle and Scott are a tremendous duo that plays what mostly could be described as acoustic rock, roots, or folk. Married to each other in RL, they bring together fresh and soulful vocals, meaningful songwriting, and instrumental finesse to make for a memorable performance.   In Laurel Arts Isle (click here to teleport).

Also this week: Storytelling, bulilding Facebook applications, and PR for your company on the cheap. All that and more after the jump...

SL Use Case: Immersive Art Appreciation

Now here's something you can't do at the actual Vatican-- fly right up along the vaulted ceilings of the Sistine Chapel for an up-close look at the hand of God.  (And even if you could do that, those Swiss mercenaries with baggy pants would probably try to fish you down with their poky spears.)  Max Newbold and Sez Zabelin of smARThistory visit the SL recreation of the Chapel (built on the island of Vassar College), shoot machinima of their tour, and use it as a reference point for a fun and chatty introduction to the world of Michelangelo.  The video itself is a great standalone educational piece, and it's easy to see how this could also be done with students in-world, whizzing around the Chapel while providing a VOIP audio tour.  Part 1 is here, part 2 is here.  To visit the Chapel yourself, click this SLURL teleport link.