New World Notes

New World Gaming: Why Wikipedia Has No Social Gaming Entry (Hint: Geeks Don't Like Them)

In my latest Social Times post, I ask Jimmy Wales why Wikipedia has no real general entry on social gaming, which now counts 200 million-plus players and several leading companies worth billions. For myself, I think it's the same reason Wikipedia's MMORPG entry is 4000 words long: As a user-generated Internet site, Wikipedia editorial skews toward geek-heavy interests, and the coverage often doesn't reflect the actual, broader interest in a given topic. This is both its blessing and curse. However, it does lend itself to a confirmation bias that makes many hardcore gamers and virtual world users believe their interest is larger in the scheme of things than it actually is. So unsurprisingly, while FarmVille with 65 million users rates a Wikipedia entry that's about 2100 words long, World of Warcraft with 11 million users gets a Wikipedia entry with 4000 words, and Second Life with its 1 million users gets an epic, 6000 word Wikipedia entry. Anyway, more here.

Second Life Fashion Study Finds SL Consumer Behavior Parallels RL Spending (But Market Is Still Under-Served)

Market Truths, a research firm that does reports on the Second Life economy, has an extensive study on the state of the Second Life fashion market, on who buys what, how much, and why. Research director Dr. Mary Ellen Gordon (PhD) shared a copy with me recently, and it's full of fascinating details. Her own three key takeaways from the study are just as interesting:

Second Life consumer behavior parallels real world consumer behavior:

"We see that often in our research in SL," Dr. Gordon tells me, "but when it comes to wearables, the differences are particularly tangible. For example: The more people browse for hair in SL, the more they spend on hair care in RL; the less they browse for underwear in SL, the less they spend on underwear in RL." This opens up the possibility of Second Life as a prototyping space, for as she puts it: "[F]or real world apparel marketers, the link between SL style and purchase behavior and RL purchases creates a lot of potential for using SL as a venue for testing and promoting RL clothing (and other personal appearance products and services.)"

There's still many under-served fashion markets in Second Life:

"From the perspective of content creators and even Residents in general," Dr. Gordon tells me, "I think it’s interesting that the set of unmet needs identified this year is identical to that identified in 2008 with a different sample. Given the large number of talented designers in SL and the fact that sales to existing users have stagnated somewhat and growth in new users is not that rapid at the moment, I would have thought that by now there would be more people creating niches within the SL wearables market targeting these different customer groups."

However, the problem may largely be a technical one: "[I]t’s likely that this and the search problem are inter-related," she speculates, "in that some of the things that people say they can’t find actually are available, but they’re just not finding them because of the limitations of the search functions both in world and in the marketplace."

Finally, a third takeaway of particular interest to Linden Lab, which purchased the online shopping site XStreetSL, and to content creators who sell their items there:

Falco Rocks: Real Life Filmmaker Merges Second Life Machinima With Masterful Post-Production Effects

Falco Tomsen is the Second Life name of Adam Falco, a German filmmaker who's been making amazing SL machinima for the last couple years. (But as often happens, I just accidentally encountered his work only recently.) Falco leverages his real life post-production skills to add incredible visual polish, sound editing, and special effects to the raw footage take from Second Life. Watch his show reel:

A visual effects supervisor for TV-Spot in Germany, discovering Second Life for Falco, he says grinning, "was important for me at least like Columbus. Second Life unleashed all my creativity with absolute freedom from what is unfortunately not possible in real life." He makes his machinima as an artist's labor of love, "inspired by stories and dreams of the people that I love". His main post-production tool is Avid Media Composer, but "if necessary, paradoxically, I could realize my ideas with a hammer and chisel."

To see how his post-production effects merge with Second Life in a completed work, watch this machinima he made for the opening of a medieval sim called Hyboria (after the break):

New World Gaming: "From Dust", a Dynamic Nature Simulator Where a Whole World's Your Plaything

Coming soonish for the Xbox 360 and PS3, "From Dust" is a realistic dynamic nature simulation and god game which aims to recreate the experience you had as a child building and destroying sand castles -- except here, you play with lava floes, whole oceans, and other fun stuff. Watch this awe-inspiring demo:

Lead developer is Eric Chahi, creator of the groundbreaking AMIGA classic "Out of This World", and set for a 2011 release (but for the ambition evident here, don't be surprised if that date slips.) Meantime, here's an interview with Chahi.

Hat tip: The all-seeing eye of Mal Burns.

Partner News: Koinup's Metaverse Wallpapers App Puts Second Life Art and Scenery on Your iPhone and iPad

Koinup, the virtual world social network (and New World Notes sponsoring partner) has created a Metaverse Wallpapers app for the iPad and iPhone. If you have iTunes installed on the device where you're reading this post, this is the direct link to the app on Apple's store. It's just 99 cents and includes a large range of SL-related screenshots around a number of themes, like landscapes, avatars, and my favorite, surrealism. (You can easily save any image to your iPhone's photo gallery, and from there make it your wallpaper.) I am utterly biased, of course, but I'm digging the variety and quality; it's probably a good way to quickly show off great Second Life content to your friends without the arduous process of logging in. (Much more here on Koinup's blog.) Also, Koinup is giving away three free copies to New World Notes readers: e-mail to editor at koinup dot com, and put "New World Notes Promo" in the subject line; first three NWN readers to ping Pierluigi and the other Koinup kids get a Metaverse Wallpapers gift code.

Want to Write a New World Notes Guest Post? Keep Those Nutgrafs Coming!

I'm immensely stoked by last week's New World Notes Guest Post by Night Flower, who wrote about the challenge of integrating her first life with her second life. Her story is still attracting a passionate comment thread, and that's no surprise: The nutgraf which begins it is totally compelling, clearly conveys her essay's core idea, and hints at what's to come:

I once created a Second Life avatar named Night Flower, but in 2008, gave her up. I left Night to save my marriage, my family, maybe even my own soul. I left Night knowing that unless I could claim in earnest the kind of life I'd only been living vicariously through her, I could never come back.

I have more guest posts of comparable quality coming up, and would love to publish more. Here's my guidelines on submitting guest post ideas to New World Notes. Once the nutgraf rocks like Night's, everything afterward is easy.

What People on Facebook Recommend on New World Notes

Here's a new-ish Facebook widget that displays links that people on the social network have recommended, in this case from New World Notes:

Speaking of which, here's my semi-regular shout-out to Facebook's NWN fans, featuring excellent faces by the hundreds:

New World Notes on Facebook

Go here to become a member, and Facebook friend me while you're there. I'm also on Twitter as "SLHamlet".

Emerald Developers (Attempt to) Answer Your Questions on Rezzed TV -- But Without a Linus, Should We Listen?

Over the weekend, Arabella Steadham and Jessica Lyon of the embattled and de-listed Emerald viewer talked with Phaylen Fairchild of Rezzed TV --- here's the video:

Feel free to discuss in Comments! For myself, as I've said before, unless and until someone with Emerald comes forward with their real name and agrees to assume responsibility for the software, with trust already degraded so substantially, anything said is a non-starter. At this point, I'd say Emerald needs a leader who is a widely known and respected individual. But can there be a Linus Torvalds of Emerald?

Last Week's New World Notes Posts You Don't Want to Miss

All About Emerald-Gate

• With Emerald Gone From Third Party Second Life Viewer List, Prudence Suggests Imprudence
• New World Editorial: Emeraldgate Illustrates Limitations of Trust Based Only on Second Life Avatar Names
• Linden Lab Finally Issues Statement on Emerald -- Which Now Reportedly Accounts for Nearly HALF SL's User Hours
• Emerald Contributor & Ex-Linden Karl Stiefvater Praises New Team's Response to "EmeraldGate", Keeps Head Down

Second Life News, Innovations, Analysis, & Opinion

• Losing Night: The Woman Who Abandoned Her Avatar to Save Herself, Only to Have Her Avatar Save Her (Guest Post)
• Did Neal Stephenson Say Second Life is "Pretty Much What I Imagined"? Not Exactly, Says Neal Stephenson
• Ophelia's Gaze on the Second Life of "Mad Men": The Incomparable Joan Holloway
• Tuesday Machinima: Lyric Lundquist Explores Insilico in Wireframe (And Celebrates Her Birthday This Week!)
• Grow the Metaverse By Improving Body Language and Facial Recognition Technology, Says Ex-Linden John Lester

Other World Notes/New World Gaming/Machinima

• Peter Greenaway Joins Machinima Contest Jury!
• New World Gaming: Backyard Monsters Reaches 1M Users -- 20% of Whom Don't Fight, But Only Build

Open Forum: What Second Life Events Are You Looking Forward to This Weekend?

Chestnut's Choices won't be running this week, because sad for us but lucky for her, she's out near the ocean where the Net can't come in clearly. So here's an open forum for upcoming events: Which are you looking forward to, when are they happening, and where will they be? Post description/day/time/SLurl in Comments!

August 28, 3:00PM: Bumped up because, you know it's the weekend. Right now, for example, Soundsmith Kamachi announces "Ambient Summer", a 3 hour journey through live musical soundscapes at Vista Hermosa Art Center [SLurl here]