New World Notes

セカンドライフ住民の方への手紙/Nuestros Anuncios Sobre Espacios Abiertos (Openspace Pricing/Policy Info Translated Into Spanish And Japanese)

If you know Spanish and Japanese-speaking Residents who need info on the Lindens' new Openspaces policy, send them to Vint Falken's blog.  Frustrated by the company's slowness to do so, Ms. Falken and metaverse translator Peter Stinberg have went ahead and provided comprehensive documentation in both languages. (Una carta para los residentes de Second Life; セカンドライフ住民の方への手紙.)

What Size Is Your Avatar, and Why?

Doreen Garrigus created an avatar that matched her real life height of 5'2", which is roughly in the average range for women-- but in Second Life, made her seem like a midget.  (Here she is at left.)  "The default avatars are very tall," she notes in Original Detail, her new blog devoted to avatar identity, "and if you set the sliders to fifty... a female avatar is six feet even and a male avatar is six foot four."  So the avatar creation process is already architected toward tallness.  But Doreen asks a more provocative follow-up question:  "[W]hy, after you've been in world for a while and you know how tall you are, do you choose to remain that big?"  She gets many answers from her readers, leading to a spirited conversation, including one from Jay Wigner, who runs an SL group called Life Size, "for avatars who choose to be more realistically-sized".  (Yes, avatar realism has a support network.)

The Voice Of AM Radio, Now On Arthole Radio

This is an MP3 link to a voice interview with AM Radio, interviewd by Amy Freelunch for the Arthole podcast/live streaming radio show-- evidently the first time the acclaimed metaverse artist has publicly linked his expressions in Second Life to his spoken words, so it's must-listening.  Here's the blog of Arthole, a series co-produced by Arahan Claveau, Nebulosus Severine, and Ms. Freelunch, all reputed SL artists in their own right.   AM photo by Isolde Flamand.

Open Forum: What In Second Life Are You Thankful For?

Thanksgiving's the day when Uncle Hamlet bangs the table and insists on asking this question to every reader-- and you don't get pumpkin pie until you answer.

New World Tableau: "Violin" by Kimberly Mirabeau

Ms. Mirabeau's "Violin" came out of an art gallery challenge with "Body Parts" as a theme (and perhaps some unconscious evoking of the surrealist Man Ray), and there's such fine detail to it, you definitely want to see the large version here. "Post processing was done in Photoshop CS3 and really, the body was just liquified, and a few small touches with overlays."  The hair is actually a merging of two pieces purchased off Renderosity.  "These are premade digitally hand-painted hair styles in PSD format.  They come un-colored.  I took these 2 styles in Photoshop and warped, twisted and liqufied them into submission.  Recolored them a nice vibrant red to pop from the black background."

See much more of Ms. Mirabeau's work on her Koikup profile, and the entire New World Tableau album here.  Read on for guidelines to submitting one of your own.

Lanna's List for November 27-December 3: Thanksgiving in SL, UN Conf. on Climate Change, Dead Avatars, and more...

Azdel Slade and Lanna in the SL version of the RL performance lab

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

Becoming Dragon is a mixed reality, durational performance taking place both in Second Life and at University of California San Diego. Beginning at 7 PM on Monday, December 1, Azdel Slade (Micha Cárdenas in RL) begins a continuous performance for 365 hours (over 15 days!) that will use adaptive technology so that all she will see is Second Life and a motion capture system will map her movements into Second Life.   

Becoming Dragon questions the one year requirement of Real Life Experience that transgender people must fulfill in order to receive Gender Confirmation Surgery (Sexual Reassignment Surgery), and asks if this could be replaced by one year of Second Life Experience to lead to Species Reassignment Surgery. The project seeks to explore the shift from subjectivity to becoming, to examine the subject in transition, as opposed to a clearly defined identity. The choice of a dragon for an avatar is related to the history of dragons as magical creatures, able to shapeshift into different forms and teleport through space, well suited to Second Life. Dragons are also part of the large community of non-anthropomorphic avatars in Second Life, which are not easily limited to either male or female binary gender categories.

The performance is Azdel's final MFA project and she will stay in the performance space at UCSD and in Second Life during the entire duration of the performance. The RL performance space at UCSD will be open to the public for the duration, during the hours that the building is open, 9am to 7pm. There are also a number of special events that occur throughout Becoming Dragon; a full schedule of these events is available here on Azdel's blog.  In Seventh Eye (click here to teleport).   

Also this week: SL Live Radio First Birthday, Reflexive Architecture, and more...

Play With Vidal: Bottoms Up With "The Thirst: Bloodlines"

Vidal Tripsa plays some of Second Life's most promising games

Title of Game: The Thirst: Bloodlines
Released: 6th of May, 2008
Rating: ** (out of 5)
Genre: Role-play
Summary: Join legions of the undead in punctuating your social encounters, with a little blood-sucking and soul theft.
Price to Play: L$599
Estimated Play Time: N/A
No. of Players: 37,000 since launch
Where to Play: Liquid East (direct SLURL teleport)
Developers: Lyle Maternick & Mars Bracken (contact Curse Aszkenaze)
Web Resources: The Thirst: Bloodlines

The Thirst: Bloodlines is, as Hamlet discovered, one of the more popular vampire-themed activities out on the Grid, and presents an open and controversial framework for enabling vampiric encounters. It provokes a varied reception in a wide variety of venues, from welcoming vampire clan castles to couture shops, where vampires are often ejected for attempting to seduce customers.  Entering into Bloodlines feels like nothing short of entry to a world unto itself.

Koinup's Top Ten Second Life Sites This Week

<p>&lt;p&gt;Koinup: Your &amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;http://www.koinup.com/&amp;quot;&amp;gt;Virtual Life&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;</p>

As selected by members of the virtual world social network (a partner to this blog), these sims are the most viewed and/or photographed in SL this week so far.  Once again, they're an entirely different top ten from last week and the week before that.  Each link takes you to more pics and a direct teleport SLURL:

1 - The medieval city island of Mont St. Michel
2 - The ultra-violent art gallery at The Devil's Pocket
3 - The lush, Ivy League college-sponsored dreamscape called Princeton Aspire (pictured above)
4 - A fashionista shopping located called Resurgence
5 - Home to an awesomely detailed cathedral, the isle of Dom zu Kolen
6 - The open water and indescribable edifices of Embrace the Ocean
7 - The Greco-Roman-themed, Openspace island of Thyra
8 - The Furry haven of The Wild
9 - The Cultural Arts Museum
10 -Towaru

Ophelia's Gaze: 2008's Top Ten Hottest Avatar Guys-- My First Five

Exclusive to NWN, Iris Ophelia's ongoing showcase of all things stylish in SL

Last year I found myself knee-deep in gorgeous male avatars, trying to establish my Top 10 Hottest Male Avatars of ‘07. This year, I found myself drowning in deserving nominees. The response to the call for nominations and votes was tremendous, but in a way not entirely surprising. Designs for males have become a stronger market in Second Life within the past two years than they were before. The market of men interested in maintaining an appearance has grown to a point that the market can survive, and in return the abundance of male options encourages more male avatars to get engages in the aesthetics of their avs.

While this list started as a way to prove that there were attractive male avatars out there in abundance, it’s been necessary to refine the criteria beyond physical appearance. This is a world where attractiveness can be bought, so it’s important to consider other qualities. Talents, hobbies, personality, and style all figure into the equation for hotness, as well as their appearance. This year, my list will be delivered in two parts, followed by the People’s Hottest picks. Keep reading for the first 5 of my Top 10 Hottest Male Avatars of ‘08.

Mark Kingdon/M. Linden On Managing Linden Lab, Six Months In

Dusan Writer has a great and wide-ranging interview with Linden CEO Mark Kingdon, who reflects on his six months running the company.  (The Openspace controversy, of course, is given quite a lot of space.)  One point that particularly struck me is M's description of SL as a user, which seems more hands-on than I had assumed: