New World Notes

Blue Mars Sign-Up Special: Create an Account by November 29, Get 1,000 Free BLU$!

Blue Mars, the virtual world where I consult, has a special offer from now until November 29: Go here to create a free account, and you'll get a 1,000 BLU$ sign-up bonus. Once you've done that, tell the good folks at Avatar Reality by following the Blue Mars Twitter account, or Plurk account, or Facebook page and sending a Tweet, Plurk, or Facebook message to the respective account with your Blue Mars UserID. (For example, in Twitter: "@bluemarsonline I just joined Blue Mars, my UserID is [your UserID]".) Then after you log into Blue Mars for the first time, you'll get 1,000 BLU$ credited to your account. Doing this will also get you updates on the Blue Mars cloud deployment coming soon, and access to events I'll be talking about here, starting with an education event happening tomorrow.

Coming Soon: "Miss Ophelia's Metaverse Manners", a Guide to Online World Etiquette -- Start Posing Questions Now!

I'm proud to announce that NWN style columnist Iris Ophelia is branching out with another new series: "Miss Ophelia's Metaverse Manners", which as the title suggests, will be an advice column about etiquette and ethics in virtual spaces, a contentious and controversial subject if there ever was one. Avatar trapped in a socially awkward situation? Feel a moral quandary involving unknown avatars? Not sure what qualifies as tacky in a world with 8 foot phalluses? Forget Miss Manners and talk with Iris Ophelia!

You can send your questions to Iris in two ways: Email her at ophelia dot iris @ gmail dot com. Or post the question to her anonymously on her Formspring account!

Remembering the Life of Delinda Dryssen in Both Worlds

Denise Williams and Delinda Dryssen, courtesy Paisley Beebe's tribute post

Last week's most significant news for New World Notes readers was also its most tragic: After a long bout with kidney failure, the woman behind beloved SL music promoter Delinda Dryssen died on Sunday, at the age of 32. In her last hours, she fell into a coma, but friends gathered at a concert space in Second Life, so they could communicate to her through a laptop that was propped next to her ICU bed. And in this way, they reached her: "You guys are still causing a distinct reaction singing and talking to her, according to her Doctor who is here with us again," reported Dan, the family friend who created an SL avatar in order to open a channel between both worlds. "We're seeing a tear in her eye again. I think she can hear you guys."

Singer and talk show host Paisley Beebe has a beautiful tribute to Delinda as she remembered her in Second Life, and on his blog, Dan has a moving tribute to Denise the woman he knew in the real world. But here as in many cases, it's a misnomer to speak of two worlds as if they were distinct. As Denise's cousin Tracey wrote in a Tweet:

Dee had pictures of about 30 or more of you from Second Life printed out and on a huge pegboard along with pictures of real life friends. I think you were all one and the same to her and I am starting to understand why.

More here, and over here.

New iPad App From Mixed Reality Musician Robert Thomas/Dizzy Banjo Makes Music a Tactile Experience

One day a Second Life avatar named KFH Pooraka came across an immensely cool interactive music experience created by another avatar with the unlikely name of Dizzy Banjo, and they struck up a friendship. This was especially fortunate for both, because in real life, Ms. Pooraka is UK popstar Kirsty Hawkshaw, while Mr. Banjo is a fellow Brit named Robert Thomas, who also makes iPhone/iPad apps (with RjDJ). The latest is Rj Voyager, now available for free on the iPad, and it incorporates samples sung by Kirsty into a tactile, immersive and interactive music app. Watch:

Dig the in-joke about landmarks at the beginning, Kirsty as the dulcet-voiced, luminously gorgeous narrator, and of course the app itself, which exudes coolness. Here's some of the Second Life projects Dizzy has made: an ambient soundtrack for Mexico's tourist board site, and Parsec, which merges VOIP to Second Life interactivity. And after the break, here's Kirsty in a Dizzy SL experience from last year:

New World Gaming: Get an Early Invite to Play Glitch, a Web-Based MMO of Supreme Wackiness

Glitch is an MMO in development I've been following for some time, the brainchild of Stewart Butterfield, who long ago started work on another online game which spun off to become Flickr, one of the most successful user-generated content sites ever. Here's the utterly charming and wacky trailer, suggesting an MMO that's a bit like World of Warcraft meets Hinduism meets Tim Burton:

Go here to get an early invite to play (it launches Spring 2011.) No word on whether the free-to-play Glitch will also include user-generated content, but Butterfield tells the New York Times that "Users can also open stores within the game", which strongly suggests that's the case.

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

Mixed Reality/Tech Talk

• Motus, a 3D Motion Controller for Games/Virtual Worlds That Could Revolutionize Machinima and Other Applications
• Apple, a Virtual Economy Platform Provider, Nearly as Valuable as Exxon-Mobil!
• Second Life Co-Founder Cory Ondrejka Joins Facebook (But What's He Doing There?)

Second Life

• When Delinda Dryssen Fell Into a Real Life Coma, Her Second Life Friends Comforted Her Through a Laptop by Her ICU Bed; UPDATE: Delinda Has Died, Memorial Info Below
• Tip for Accessing Second Life Via Web-Based Cloud Stream
• Second Life Launches Beta Web Browser Access Test Using Gaikai Cloud-Based Streaming

Noteworthy Machinima

• Nature Meets Virtual in Lyric Lundquist's Latest Mixed Reality Video

Blue Mars

• How a Dozen Developers Collaboratively Created the Steampunk City of Caledonia in Blue Mars
• How to Make a Realistic Scar for Your Blue Mars Face
• IDIA Virtually Reconstructs a San Francisco Historic Site That No Longer Exists (Mostly)
• Real Sculptures Imported into Virtual Museum in Blue Mars With Laser Scanning

When Delinda Dryssen Fell Into a Real Life Coma, Her Second Life Friends Comforted Her Through a Laptop by Her ICU Bed; UPDATE: Delinda Has Died, Memorial Info Below

Friends of Delinda sing and chat in hopes she'll hear them through her coma

The real life woman behind Delinda Dryssen, a well-known and much beloved figure in Second Life, especially in the music scene, has recently fallen into a coma. (She has grave kidney troubles, and in recent months, has been traveling the world in search of a donor.) Since learning the news, her network of in-world friends rallied to support her tonight, at a benefit concert.  Here's how: A RL family friend sitting with Delinda in her hospital room created an avatar named Berry Blogger, and logged into SL, in the hopes that Delinda would hear the show, and regain some consciousness. Here's the extraordinary part: That seems to be working.

"[T]hey are streaming the show so she can hear it, since she is in a shallow coma and can probably hear it," Damaris Whitfield just told me. "The musicians are talking to her from the stage in addition to playing, and the audience is talking to her too -- [Delinda's] family is telling her what everyone is typing. The doctors say she is responding to the music and the voices, her 'numbers' are going up, pulse getting stronger--they say they are pretty sure she is going to wake up from hearing this gig."

What Minecraft Can Teach Second Life and OpenSim -- and How to Play Second Life, Minecraft Style

Minecraft, the hit indie sanbox game that I write about often, now has almost 2 million registered users, a third of whom are paying customers. A number of them are longtime Second Life Residents, and Jacek Antonelli, lead developer of Imprudence, the popular OpenSim/Second Life viewer, is one of them. In an excellent post on her blog, she explains why:

[W]hy is Minecraft so inspiring, so addictive, so fun? Why do I find it so much more compelling to build a create a castle in Minecraft, when I could create the same or better castle in SL/OS? I would say that it’s precisely because of its constraints and limitations that Minecraft is more engaging and compelling. Too much creative freedom is daunting, and can actually stifle creativity. Minecraft strikes an appealing balance between constraint and freedom, guiding your creativity without forcing anything.

She also has suggestions for enjoying in Second Life more as you would Minecraft, among them:

Set challenges and constraints for yourself. Use half as many prims as you thought were necessary. Pick an unconventional color or style, and make it work. Build it in a way that would be totally impossible in the real world. Make up rules about which shapes or colors can be next to each other.

Much more here. Now that she brings it up, I actually think you could create an SL sim that followed Minecraft's general rules: a randomly generated landscape made of prims that you can turn into tools, some AI-powered creepers that show up every few hours or so, and so on. Anyone up for that?

Image credit: Tilt shift photo of Minecraft from cresty.tumblr.com.

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Iris Ophelia Reveals Her Favorite Second Life Fashion Designers to TED Media Maven Johanna Blakley

New World Notes style writer Iris Ophelia was recently interviewed by Johanna Blakley, the USC think tank director, real world fashion expert, and recent TED star on the virtual fashion industry, which Johanna finds fascinating and important. Asked to list her favorite SL fashion designers, Iris reveals her top seven (drum roll please):

• June Dion
• Dakota Buck
• Zaara Kohime
• Nylon Pinkney
• Paper Couture
• Emma Gilmour
• Yukio Ida

Iris explains why she loves them all here, and talks much more about SL fashion. Speaking of Johanna Blakley and TED, she's speaking at the prestigious conference again next month, this time in Washington DC, along with other cultural ninjas like Donna Karan, Eve Ensler, and Sheryl Sandberg (the COO of Facebook.) So that's who Iris Ophelia has been hanging out with lately (at least online.)

Tip for Accessing Second Life Via Web-Based Cloud Stream

A lot of SL Residents have enjoyed Gaikai's cloud-rendered web access to Second Life, but to judge by comments, many are having trouble accessing it. SignpostMarv Martin discovered a simple workaround, for getting in:

• Go to the access page: http://interest.secondlife.com/beta
• After the pages loads, copy/paste this URL into the address bar:

javascript:window.popup_shown=false;$('#guide .failure').hide();showSuccessPopup();

Hit Enter, and that should bring up a log-in window that says "Second Life is waiting for you", and asks for your e-mail address. Do so, and you should now access Second Life via the cloud. When I asked him how he figured this out, Mr. Marvin shrugged. "I looked at the HTML source." Still, this may not get you in all the way -- the Marvin workaround got me to the log-in, but then I got a warning that my broadband speed wasn't speedy enough (thank you so much, AT&T!), and I was summarily booted out. So please share further tips in Comments below!

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager, who blogged this tip first.