New World Notes

Hear Me Talk Avatars & Race on PRI's The Takeaway Today

This morning I'm going to be a guest on public radio's The Takeaway, with Celeste Headlee and John Hockenberry. I'll be talking about race and avatar identity, covering a lot of issues brought up during the SXSW panel I was just on. (Click here for more.) They're taping my segment with SXSW panel organizer Jeff Yang at 6:40AM Eastern (OMFG), while the show itself broadcasts live between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern. Check your local listings, or just click here to here the show stream live online.

Besides race and avatars, it's possible Hockenberry and I may end up talking more generally about Second Life, because as it happens, he was one of the first national journalists to make an appearances in SL, back during the 2006 hype wave -- interviewing Suzanne Vega in-world:

Miss Ophelia's Metaverse Manners: More Alt Avatar Etiquette Questions: Spying on Your SL Partner & Secret Roleplaying

Exclusive to NWN, Iris Ophelia's ongoing take on etiquette and ethics in virtual spaces

This week I'm wrapping up the alt-related etiquette quandaries (you can find the first lot here if you missed them.) So let's get right to it!

So I have a habit of making alts to learn more about my partner or see how honest they are, like by making friends with them, etc. I told someone about it and they really overreacted and said I was lying to my partners. What do you think about this sort of thing?

To be blunt, I am not even a little bit in favour of this kind of thing. It's unlikely that you're really doing this to "learn more about them", because if you spend time with them normally you should learn the same things. Instead, this comes off as profoundly creepy, stalker-like behaviour. Furthermore, if you are so insecure about your relationship with your partner that you have to set up honey traps to test their honesty, you're probably better off ending the relationship altogether. It's not worth being with someone that you can't trust. If this is something you find yourself doing with every partner you have, you might need to turn that investigative lens inward. These tactics make you look like the dishonest one.

Keep reading for more alt etiquette. Next up: secretly roleplaying as an alt!

Coley's World: My Top 5 Second Life Sims to Visit This Month

ColeMarie Soleil explores Second Life's arts scene for New World Notes

As we saw with the recent closing announcement of Numbakulla, great Second Life sims can disappear with little notice. Here's five of my favorites you should be sure to see now, with SLurl teleport links and descriptions after the video:

Get out to visit Imagine Plus while you still can. Masoon Ringo and YUKO Streeter have spent much time and effort generously donating space in Imagine Plus to showcase stand-out pieces of art with the SL community. Over its lifespan it has hosted some of the most interesting and unique art in the metaverse. Sadly, from the looks of things, it will be "Goodbye Imagine Plus!" come the 2nd of April. Last chance to visit!

[Click here to teleport to Imagine Plus!]

Roche is a desolate, dreamy place. Filled with warm textures and realistic details. As Honor McMillan writes: "Roche feels isolated, wind swept and somehow triumphant." This sums up the sim nicely. It is a quiet and peaceful area, rich with atmosphere. Owned and operated by ddsm2 Mathy and mocha Bellic.

[Click here to teleport to Roche]

Three more after the break!

UK Developer Gets $1 Million in Funding for Language Training in Second Life (That's Not Branded as Second Life)

Interesting news for several reasons: Language Lab, a UK school that uses Second Life as a platform for teaching English, just received $1 million in investment from Avonmore Developments, Stephen Bullock, and Huda Associates to continue developing English City, described as "a virtual world you can access through your computer where you can talk to native English speakers anytime." Virtual worlds are a proven means of teaching language (since after all, cross-country communication in them is so typical, and you're chatting in context-appropriate situations, such as restaurants and city streets.) This investment is monetary recognition of that application. (Language Lab claims 1,000 paid student subscribers and 50,000 users in over 70 countries.)

Also significant is that English City, which is actually a private island in Second Life, is not advertised by Language Lab as being part of Second Life. Looking at the landing page for English City, Second Life isn't mentioned anywhere I can see. "The vast majority of our students come to English City having never visited SL before," Marcus Allender, Marketing Manager at Language Lab, tells me. This may be a good way for other developers to approach Second Life as a platform: Avoid any negativity with SL by re-branding the experience, while still taking advantage of the best Second Life has to offer.

5 More Thoughts on Second Lifers' Resistance to Change

Unsurprisingly, last week's post, "Second Life's Survival Seriously Threatened by Second Life Users' Hate and Fear of Change", has generated the longest comment thread in the 8 year history of New World Notes by far. Much of the comments are spiked with the very kind of vehemence I was expecting (and writing about in that very essay.) But many more comments were thoughtful and perceptive, even (or especially) those which disagree with me, and I'm grateful for that. It's one big reason why I keep writing this blog.

Before I write the next post in this series on resistance to change, I do want to expand or emphasize five points to the original post:

Only Resistance to Massive User Growth is a Threat to Second Life's Survival

My larger premise is worth double-emphasizing: Only massive user growth will save Second Life after its existing revenue model inevitably implodes. There are many ways to grow the user base, many of which will mean significantly changing Second Life, and will therefore meet resistance. This is the variety of Second Life user opposition I'm referring to, and most concerns me, because it may impede, dilute, de-prioritize, or otherwise complicate the implementation of these changes, if Linden gives this opposition too much weight. Which leads to my second point:

"Juroney": Second Life Machinima Takes Post-Apocalyptic, Road Warrior-Style Action to the Next Level

Let's start Tuesday off with a punch to the face. Courtesy of Eric Boccara, who's lately been making great innovations in action-oriented Second Life machinima (like this one), this is "Juroney", a tale of Road Warrior-style contretemps. Starts slowly with some beautiful and moody photography, but the high velocity mayhem comes soon enough:

Eric's machinima is actually an entry for a machimina contest sponsored by the University of Western Australia, which makes sense, given the George Miller-esque action (and explains the placid campus scene in the end.) If you compare it to "Battle Royale", which Eric made only last month, you'll notice much more polish. I especially love how you can follow the fight choreography's narrative in the chase scene.

"At the end of every machinima I've made so far," Eric tells me, "I discover new techniques of doing things, which I start using in the next project." To get the high speed vehicles, for example, he used a clever, only-in-Second Life trick:

NWN in Japanese: Opheliaの視点から:売上金が日本へ寄付されるSecond Lifeファッションより、私のお気に入り三選

Iris Opheliaがお届けする、仮装世界とMMOのファッションレビュー

Pacific Crisis募金[SLurl]は、日本の災害を受けて始められたSecond Lifeのファッショニスタ募金イベントです。昨日(3月16日)その幕が開かれ、既に100万リンデンドル以上の寄付が集まっています。

In Rod Humble's New "Basic" Second Life Viewer, Avatars Seem Less Like Identities & More Like... Rod Humble's Sims

Last Friday, new Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble introduced the Beta edition of the "Basic" Second Life viewer -- click here to read his announcement and download the software. (Video tour after the break.) The goal with Basic, Mr. Humble says, is "making the world that you have created more accessible and enjoyable to use for everyone." As I noted in an early preview last week, Basic comes with point-and-click avatar movement, something I've long seen as a needed feature to make Second Life mass market. Just as striking to me in the Basic viewer is a very prominent option: With a single click, new users can become multiple avatars, selected from a menu with nearly twenty diverse choices. It's a remarkable break with Second Life tradition, decidedly moving new users away from the the concept of "second life" as the owner's alternate identity.

After all, with an instant click in Basic, you can easily change your avatar's race, gender, clothing, shape, and so on. This will likely change a new Second Life user's understanding of an SL avatar, making it seem less like a concrete persona that represents important aspects of your real life self or personality.  (Which is how most long-term Second Life users see their avatar.)  With the option to switch identities so prominently placed, the Second Life avatar in Basic is no longer "you", but something else.* A character that's not necessarily you, but one you happen to control. In fact, it resembles a sim from The Sims -- the very project Rod Humble was working on before he became CEO of Linden Lab.

So it's a very significant change. And, in my opinion, a good one: The Sims franchise is many times larger than Second Life, and when you consider the wealth of machinima and screenshot art it's engendered, probably has a larger ecosystem of user-generated content than SL. But as The Sims begins to show its age, it's a safe bet than some Sims fans will look to a revived SL to take their imagination to another level. But don't be surprised if they don't join Second Life looking for a second life. Or if they ask where their avatar can use the bathroom.

Anyway, after the break is a a breezy tour of Basic via a nice machinima by L1Aura Loire, give a watch:

Top 8 Posts from New World Notes Last Week

Second Life

• Second Life's Survival Seriously Threatened by Second Life Users' Hate and Fear of Change (1st of a Series)
• MMO Expert Scott Jennings on Second Life: "You're Dying", But Better Communication May Save You (But with Whom?)
• Coming Soon to Second Life: "Basic" SL Viewer with Point-and-Click Avatar Movement, Other Noob-Friendly Features!

Metaverse Art and Machinima

• Visit DynaFleur, an Immersive, Ambient Second Life Installation That Responds to Avatar Interaction

New World Etiquette

• Miss Ophelia's Metaverse Manners: Is It Wrong to Secretly Gender Bend? And Other Thorny Questions for Avatar Alts

Second Life Fashion

• Ophelia's Gaze: My Three Favorite Second Life Fashions to Benefit Japan -- Buy Them Today!

Web 3D Notes

• John "Pathfinder Linden" Lester Presents Jibe, a Unity/Web-Based Virtual World from ReactionGrid

New World Gaming

• Avatar Anonymity is (Mostly) for Kids and Has Helped Keep Second Life Niche; In SL, National/Racial Identity in SL Exposed by Chat & VOIP (Summary of my SXSW Talk)

MMO Expert Scott Jennings on Second Life: "You're Dying", But Better Communication May Save You (But with Whom?)

Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings, who quite literally wrote the book on creating online worlds, and is a rare big game developer who has roundly praised Second Life and is a relatively active SL Resident himself, now has a smart riff off my post on Second Life user resistance to change. Excerpt:

Linden needs a two-pronged strategy – one based at keeping their current (and at this point at least profitable) customer base happy, and one based at capturing the imagination of the media and users who have previously left/not been interested in Second Life... But whatever is done, it needs to be communicated, and it needs to be communicated well, and that communication will be hard, and uncomfortable. Because, Linden, as even your best friends are telling you – you’re dying.

I agree in general principle with Lum's analysis on every single point, though I think communication per se is not in itself a virtue. Here's why: