New World Notes

Other World Notes: Will The PushButton Engine Create the Next Generation of Virtual Worlds?

I just published a GigaOM story on PushButton Engine, a new open source ( MIT-licensed) game engine for Flash. Since the underlying engine is free, the company behind the engine sells premium components to improve the engine, such as a multiplayer networking feature the founder created for Tribes, the classic 3D game. PushButton also hosts a market for third party components, iPhone App Store-style. As I say in the article, this seems like a smart way to foster a community of Flash game development, including 3D games and virtual worlds made possible in the very latest version of Flash. Read more about it here. I put it to my Flash-savvy readers: how transformative do think this new engine will be?

What Comic Captions Will Come With Creeps In Cans?

Here's the latest strange screenshot for the caption contest of NWN parter Rezzable. Go here to suggest witty captions for fun and 2000 Linden Dollars. The crusty pic was selected by last week's winner, Ceejay Writer, who entitled this image with this line:  "Five exhausted Americans learned the hard way that waiting on queue really was best left to the British."

Second Life Artist Satirizes Linden Lab's "Amsterdam" Policy With Orwellian Interactive Installation

The Lindens' upcoming policy that will flag and banish sexual content to an "Adult Continent" has been debated endlessly on this blog and others, but Second Life artist Dekka Raymaker went a step better by creating an interactive installation within Second Life.  As reported by Nebulosus Severine, Raymaker built an Orwellian-looking entrance gate for Brooklyn is Watching, the innovative mixed reality project that connects Popcha, an SL island, to an art gallery in Williamsburg.  It's a clever tweaking of the often numinous boundaries between acceptable and offensive content. However, Ms. Severine adds in a post-script, it's since been removed from Popcha, and is looking for a new home.  Anyone interested in hosting a scary-ass security barrier on their SL land? Should be a fun conversational piece for your next party.  Image credit: chromotive.blogspot.com.

8 Point Attack Against the "Second Life Deathwatch" Meme

On his company blog, FlipperPA Peregine has a solid eight point refutation of the "Second Life Deathwatch" meme, and he should know: Mr. Peregrine was one of the founders of the Second Life Community Convention, and has been using SL for various real world projects for years.  Good link to send when the topic comes up; one citation, for example, is that total January 2009 users hours were 41.5 million, up from 28.3 million in Jan. '08.  However, maybe the even more fundamental question is: When will the Second Life Deathwatch Deathwatch begin?  From my perspective, only when the Lindens are able to report solid numerical growth of unique active users, and not just aggregate growth in total user hours.

Charlanna Beresford Returns To Second Life Blogging

After a great tenure as New World Notes' events writer last year, lovely and talented Charlanna Beresford briefly retired from SL writing to attend to real world activities. I'm happy to announce she's back with her own Second Life blog, Avatars in Wonderland, most recently featuring a long and chatty interview with Zada Zenovka, a talented content creator who lives among the stars atop a space elevator, in a transparent home which features the head of Chuck Norris in a jar, where she talks about Second Life as 3D zen, offering moments "that breaks your expectations and makes you think differently about things just because it’s so unexpected." See what else Lanna's up to now here.

SL's Sex Museum Offers Interactive History of Virtual Desire

Last week when I noted an adult content creator's opinion of Second Life's coming "Amsterdam" policy, I incorrectly described his Museum of Sex Furniture as an "emporium".  No, Museum propietor Jago Constantine insisted, it's "an actual museum of Second Life sex artefacts and not an emporium (although we do have a gift shop)."  Affirming that description's accuracy is Caliandris Pendragon's insightful and full-bodied review of the Museum, which offers an interactive timeline of avatar-based desire, even back to the early days when poseballs and other innovations had not even been invented.  Peruse it here.  (Somewhat unsafe work reading, of course, but no images more graphic that the one excerpted at right.)

Five Ways To Increase Your Second Life Blog's Authority

SL entrepreneur ArminasX Saiman has heroically gone through 1800 or so (!) Second Life blogs, found the 585 (!!) which are still active, and ranked them in order of their "authority", as measured by Technorati. There's the top ten above -- read the full list here.

Since he's published this list, however, I've noticed many of my fellow SL bloggers complaining or puzzling over their rank. Interested in boosting it? Here's five suggestions, based on practices that I myself generally follow:

When Did You Come Of Age In Second Life, And How?

By Cheyenne Palisade's reckoning, maturity in the metaverse is less about growing up, than growing into.  In her definition, she writes, "We come of age [in Second Life] by finding, whether by plan or happenstance, our true second selves and achieving a harmony and stability of existence here on the grid."

Some Residents have a general idea of what they want to do and be in SL, she observes, before even creating an avatar:  "My friend Bramblelberry was building before he was a week in world and had a store open in his first month. My friend AngelMarie came into world knowing she wanted to be an exotic dancer; she was dancing within a week."  Others need to feel around for their place, often trying on many identities, before settling on one. As it happens, "Coming of Age in Second Life" is also the title of an acclaimed anthropological study of SL, but Chey offers a fascinating way of looking at avatar identity also worth some thought -- read it all here.  Friday's question for readers is: when did you find your true second self, and how?

NWN in Japanese:最後のチャンス！セカンドライフの最もおしゃれな遊び場を募集中！

〈オリジナル英文記事〉Irisと私は、引き続き読者の皆さんからセカンドライフの最もおしゃれな遊び場を募集中です。ただし、3月29日の日曜日（日本：3月30日の月曜日）を最終締め切りとします。左の写真は、Doubledown Tandinoからのお勧め、無重力空間のPoetik & Sintetikaです。あなたのおすすめは、どこですか？このオープンフォーラム記事のコメント欄に投稿してください（日本語でOK）　もう一度、条件を記載します。

The Lindens Open Forum On What Do With Second Life Bots

After laying out the context and controversies related to SL bots in a post by Jack Linden, the Lindens have just opened a discussion forum inviting Resident opinion on whether they should set a policy about bots in general, or against particular bot species, such as Traffic bots or Land bots that automatically seek out and purchase available property. Of course, some will assume the open forum is a sure sign the Lindens already have a decision in place, and are just taking pro forma feedback. Perhaps, but just as likely, they're leaning toward a decision, but want to gauge community reaction, before setting it in stone. In any case, go here to participate.