New World Notes

Ophelia's Gaze: Bruised Avatar Skins -- Stylish, Or Sexist?

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

In mid-October, one of SL's most successful skin designers released a set of skins that stirred up tremendous controversy. Gala Phoenix of Curio launched her Battle Royale skins, which feature her usual fabulous shading and high quality textures, adorned with some equally high quality dirt, bruises, blood, scratches, scars and gouges. Reactions were mixed, to say the least; in fact, they often verged on heated. Is a woman with a bruised eye presumed battered, or could she be battle-hardened? I've got a few thoughts on the issue after the cut.

Colossal Confusion: Lindens Explain User Feedback Approach For Shaping New xStreetSL Freebies Policy

The controversy over the Lindens' recently announced policy on freebies sold on the company's ecommerce site xStreetSL continues to roil. In a reader survey which garnered a disproportionately large response, nearly 90% consider it a bad idea that won't improve the Second Life economy.

In response to Resident objections, Colossus Linden pointed out that the policy was shaped in large part by three in-world meetings. In effect suggesting: If you didn't attend a session and offer your feedback then, why are you complaining now? But here is the chief irony: as a synchronous, system-taxing, international platform contiguously limited to several dozen users, Second Life is not necessarily the ideal venue for holding large feedback sessions which involve a lot of text chat. Context and conversation gets lost in the barrage of multiple public and IM chat threads, those who use voice are stymied by those who don't and vice versa.

Or to put it another way: In its current state, using Second Life to shape Second Life policy seems like a recipe for confusion.

Noting that many Residents have suggested as much, I put that point in a question to the Lindens earlier today:

A lot of Residents are asking why Colossus made her decision on freebies mainly (or almost solely) based on feedback from three in-world sessions. Why weren't better feedback channels pursued, such as a poll on the xStreetSL site?

Linden rep Pink Linden replied to me this way:

Open Forum: Who Should Apply for the 2010 Linden Prize?

The Lindens have opened up the application process for their 2010 Linden Prize, which awards USD$10,000 to SL projects that best fit these criterion:

• Work in Second Life that also achieves tangible, compelling results outside of Second Life.
• Distinctive, original work using Second Life that clearly demonstrates high quality, execution, function, aesthetics and technical sophistication.
• Work that has the capacity for inspiring and influencing future development, knowledge, creativity, and collaboration both inside and outside of Second Life.

Last year the awards went well-deservingly to Wikitecture, the wiki-style architecture program, and Virtual Ability, a community for disabled Residents. What projects should win next year's award?

In Survey, New World Notes Readers Predict Slow Growth of Second Life Enterprise

Here's the results of a survey I conducted a couple weeks ago, on the potential market for Second Life Enterprise, the Lindens' new "behind the firewall" solution. There are 14 clients for it now, and 60% of readers said that number will double, stay the same, or retract. Given that there are more than 1400 real world organizations in Second Life proper now, I think it's fair to characterize that as "slow" growth. For the record, I go along with the majority in this case -- I'm skeptical there's a growing demand for enterprise-based virtual worlds, especially at the $50K price the Lindens are charging, and believe we won't see significant growth until Second Life itself shows strong mass market adoption. Corporations and large organizations are much likelier to experiment with SL-based enterprise use when their clients, executives, and employees already have an existing facility (and passion) for the consumer version. What's your take?

Bryn Oh Adapts Second Life Art Installation Into Real Life Book (Something More Metaverse Artists Should Do)

Just in time for the holidays, acclaimed Second Life artist Bryn Oh is selling an illustrated book version of "The Rabbicorn", an immersive installation originally created in Second Life, then described as "poetic narrative, subtle ambient sound and beautiful visual artistry, part Gorey, part Poe, part Velveteen Rabbit", on indie book publishing site Blurb.com. (Price starts at $25, not a bad deal at all for a coffee table book with such beautifully composed set pieces.) "[A]s Christmas is coming," Bryn explains on her blog, "I decided to try and warp my niece's mind with the 'gift' of the Rabbicorn story. She is admittedly only 3 years old and won't really understand it, but I am hoping as years go by she will appreciate it on deeper levels." Great idea for her niece, for her many fans, and just as key, for all the people who might be interested in the concept of Second Life art, but do not yet have the time or inclination to get past SL's high barrier to entry, to experience it first hand. Many metaverse artists and their supporters bemoan the lack of wider recognition their often awesome works garner from the art world, and I feel their pain. But until Second Life becomes a truly mass market medium, I think the only viable solution is to bring the SL art out of the world -- via machinima, or in a tangible form such as Ms. Oh is offering now.

Hat tip: Andrew Sempere.

Five Facts About Second Life the BBC Doesn't Understand

The BBC's recent magazine article, "What Happened to Second Life?", written by Lauren Hansen and edited by Jonathan Duffy, is so incandescently bad, to read it is to feel the entire institution's credibility undermined. After all, if the BBC can get one relatively simple technology story so patently, thoroughly wrong, you have to wonder: What other news items are they bunging up as badly? Some 800 words long, it boasts at least five significant errors which erode its thesis almost wholly:

1. The BBC Misreported Second Life's User Numbers

"The number of people joining the site jumped from 450,000 to four million in 2007."

Hansen offers no citation for these figures, and they're contrary to all known data. By mid-2007, the number of reported Second Life registrations were well over 6 million. However, it's unclear what Hansen means by "joining the site", and I suspect she isn't clear on the concept either. In 2007, the number of SL registrants who actually became active, returning users was closer to 500,000. (This is considerable growth from 2006, when total returning users totaled about 200,000.)

2. The BBC Misinterpreted Media Coverage Trends of Second Life

"But just as quickly as it had flared, media interest ebbed away. References plummeted by 40% in 2008 and dropped further this year."

While it's true media coverage of Second Life has fallen from its nosebleed peaks of 2007, it does not follow that media interest has "ebbed away". Take a look at Google Trends, where interest in Second Life began spiking in mid-2006, shortly after the BusinessWeek cover story, universally recognized as the start of the SL hype wave:

While there's a definite drop, there's also a definite stabilizing of attention which is far above pre-hype levels. And in fact, Second Life still gets prominent media coverage. In the last 12 months, for example, the New York Times Magazine (arguably the world's most culturally influential publication) published two features on Second Life -- on its architecture, and on its arts scene. No other virtual world receives such prominent attention.

For comparison's sake, consider SL against YoVille, the Facebook-based virtual world from current Silicon Valley darling Zynga, which now counts nearly 20 million active users:

Weekly Recap: My Eight Favorite NWN Posts From Last Week

• Is the Linden's Upcoming xStreetSL Freebies Policy Good For the Second Life Economy?
• Lyric's Desire: Erotic SL Machinima From Lyric Lundquist
• Ophelia's Gaze: Three Favorites From The Vanity Universe Skin Fair -- And How To Wear Them
• Linden Partners With Online Gambling Service To Handle Online/International Payments
• Willow's Playlist: Blindboy Gumbo, Slide Guitar and Cheeky Rhythm n' Blues From Northern England!
• Second Life Stat of the Day: Only 6% of SL Land Is "Adult" Rated For Pornographic Content
• Bettina's Back: SL's Art Maven Returns To Blogging, But Better Than Ever
• Philip Rosedale's New Company Building Version of Linden Love Machine -- Original Inventor Cory Ondrejka Weighs In

NWN in Japanese:セカンドライフ住人 最年長は97歳

ロサンゼルスの建築家David Dentonは、セカンドライフを仕事のツールとして使っている（近いうちにさらに記事にする予定）。同僚がSLは複雑すぎると嘆く時、彼は面白い答えかたをする。「私の９７歳の母親が出来るんだから、君だって出来るだろう。」

New World Newsfeed: The BBC Joins Second Life Media Backlash Two Years Too Late

The BBC's news magazine has a grotesquely lopsided article curiously entitled "What happened to Second Life?", which largely recapitulates points from Wired's notorious anti-SL piece of 2007, which was fairly skewed in the first place. (It's astounding any credible media outlet would cite the experiences of American Apparel and Reuters' ill-fated SL bureau of two-three years ago as if they were relevant to Second Life as it is now.) As it happens, I was contacted by the BBC about this article yesterday, but wasn't able to respond in time. Not that that would have mattered, as the article's dubious thesis was already set in place by then. "We're running a story tomorrow about what happened to Second Life," the BBC's Jonathan Duffy told me brightly, "it seems to have slipped off the mainstream radar." Which is a strange thing to assert about an online world that's more than tripled its active user base since 2006, is used by numerous Fortune 500 companies and several branches of the US government, and is run by a company that was just ranked among the top 25 Internet start-ups. However, the BBC makes the classic mistake of confusing media attention with general attention. Then again, were the article called, "What happened to Second Life (when the BBC wasn't paying attention)?", it would be framed more accurately -- but would also point the failure where it actually belongs.

Open Forum: What Are the Best Blog Posts on xStreetSL's New Freebie Policy?

Controversy and anger over the new xStreetSL freebies policies continues, which you can see in this comment thread from yesterday. Ciaran Laval of Your 2nd Place has a pretty good post wondering how much user feedback was actually sought before the Lindens' implemented it. What other SL blog posts are worth reading?