New World Notes

Patterns, Linden Lab's Minecraft-Style Game, Now Available for Minecraft-Style "Genesis" Pre-Order of $9.95

Click here to pre-order Patterns, Linden Lab's upcoming physics-enabled, 3D building, Minecraft-style game that Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson told me "Looks great!" For $10, you can pre-order the "Genesis version" of the game, when it's released on or before October 5, and get "all subsequent updates up to and including version 1.0, that we expect to release next year." If you're a Minecraft fan, you'll probably recall that's pretty much how Notch released that game, selling it in early Alpha back in 2010, which at the time was considered pretty daring. (I interviewed Notch that year, but now that he's a game god, I'm lucky to get a two word e-mail from him.) It's interesting that Linden Lab, a long established tech corporation, is now following Notch's footsteps.

HP Lovecraft Festival in Second Life Starts This Saturday

This coming Saturday is the start of a festival in Second Life devoted to classic surreal horror master HP Lovecraft, "a multiple-community festival to celebrate the writer and to provide a variety of Lovecraft activities and adventures to Second Life residents," as event promoter Gabrielle Riel explains. "A different Lovecraft experience awaits at each location! There will be several ticket booths on the carnival grounds as well as in each host sim. There will also be a festival wide hunt that will send participants searching high and low across the host sims for eldritch relics." SLurl teleport info and more at this link: Click here to get your Cthulhu on.

A Second Life Fashion Blog for Badass Butch Women

I love this avatar-based tribute to Grace Jones, who I hear was quite the hotness back in olden times (by which I mean the 80s). It's by Vaki Zenovka, real life lawyer by day, SL fashionista blogger by night (and weekends I assume), but unlike many SL fashion blogs, her focus is on creating a blog which shows "that tough, butchy, androgynous, non-girly chicks can still be fashionable." Mission accomplished, I'd say. See much more Zenovka badassery here.

Crazy Cute Mesh Hamster Avatars Take SL by Storm!

 

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Since the recent opening of the The Arcade [SLURL] and its inaugural Gacha event (more on those below), Suetabulous Yootz's ultra-adorable mesh hamster avatars have been all over Plurk, Flickr, and the fashion feeds. It's no big mystery why, either. They're well-made, well-priced, come with an animation-overrider, and (if you're lucky) and extra accessory.

Every so often there's a new and novel avatar released that captures the imaginations of snap-happy SL residents, and even though it's only been out for a week, there's no doubt that it's the next big novelty avatar trend. Not so sure? Check out this adorable video by Lainy Voom to see one of these avs in action:

Keep reading to see what people are doing with their hammy-hamsters, and for more details about snagging one of your own!

Cloud Party Marketplace Grows -- With Alternative Avatars!

Cloud Party is now offering user-created alternative avatars in its Marketplace, which launched in Beta less than a month ago. In that short time, there's been a pretty impressive growth of user-made content (still given away for free), including this purple alien and tribute to Wall-E. Shortly after this screenshot was taken, I selected an aviary avatar that I just acquired, and gave these players the bird.

To get an avatar like this, go to Cloud Party's Marketplace, click the drop-down menu labled "All", and scroll down to Alternative Avatars. A helpful Cloud Party user named "Real Burger" (yes), told me how to put the avatar on from there:

That Time Judge Richard Posner Met a Furry in Second Life

Judge Richard Posner is currently having a kind of public feud with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, which isn't totally surprising, because Posner is probably the country's most respected and provocative legal theorists, but as I was going through my old posts this week, I remembered Posner had a more pleasant encounter that would probably surprise most people who know his work: In 2006, Posner created a Second Life avatar and delivered a lecture about his latest book to several dozen avatars, stayed around to autograph virtual copies, and as I managed to capture above, had a nice chat with a furry.

"Is that a raccoon?" the judge asked. "I'm a 'furry'. Not sure how I got this way," replied the furry. "I'm really an IP lawyer from DC. Honest." Judge Posner then complimented his tail, but also wondered aloud if the furry was a member of Al Qaeda. (Probably because Posner was there in Second Life to lecture about jurisprudence in the post September 11 era, and the topic was on our minds.)

Speaking of which, as he was taking audience questions, a griefer appeared and tossed fireballs at him, but the Judge was unperturbed: "I'm afraid I'll have to go, before I'm blown up," he said. All of which impressed me, because few people in the legal world seem so open to new ideas and experiences, let alone potential nominees to the Supreme Court, which Posner was once a serious candidate to become. I kind of think if Judge Scalia went into Second Life, he would not have as much fun.

Anyway, read about the whole encounter here, which folks in the legal world will especially love.

First Look at Patterns, Linden Lab's Upcoming Minecraft-Style Sandbox Game. UPDATE: Notch Says, "Looks great!"

Here's the first public glimpse at Patterns, Linden Lab's upcoming sandbox game that's part of the company's rebranding as a "Maker of Shared Creative Spaces", and as I heard last Summer, it's pretty Minecrafty:

The "Genesis release software" invitations that Rod Humble mentions in the video are coming soon, Linden spokesman Peter Gray tells me. I love the triangle-based building and the in-game physics, but overall, I'm still wait-and-see on how it's executed. The color palette of the world seems quite alien, as do the triangular avatars, which may be off-putting to a larger audience. The lack of a survival mechanic, which drives Minecraft, also seems to be a problem. (Then again, the sandbox game for kids Roblox doesn't have a survival mode that I know of, and it's doing just fine.) All these things can and probably will be improved during the early stages, I imagine.

IGN got an exclusive early interview with the team, which surfaced some interesting points:

Losing SL's Land Barons Could be "Seismic", Says Steampunk Estate Owner Desmond Shang

Well-regarded steampunk land baron Desmond “the Guvnah” Shang added a very interesting comment in last week's post about the dominance of land barons in Second Life, which greatly complicates the prospect of reducing monthly tier for Second Life landowners in general. As I've noted, Linden Lab fears that any reduction would harm the top 500 land barons who own over 75% of Second Life's private sims; as a "baby baron" (as he describes himself), Desmond adds some very valuable perspective:

"Should Linden Research ever get rid of what is essentially an aristocratic system, equalize everything, and move on? That's a very good question. I can only say what I would do, which is: adapt if I can, and if not, shut down (which is most likely)."

Here's why, as he goes on to explain:

Don't Forget NWN's MMO Style Cosplay Challenge -- Looking at You, GW 2 Fans!

Click here to submit an SL style photo inspired your favorite MMO for Iris Ophelia's cosplay challenge, or post the photo on your blog, and put the link in Comments -- I'm especially looking at you, Guild War 2 fans who are also SL fashionistas (because there's a lot of those). And if you want inspiration, check out Iris' post on GW2 fashion.

The Second Life of Linden Lab: Re-branded Company No Longer World Builder, But "Maker of Shared Creative Spaces"

Linden Lab totally revamped its corporate website about the same time it announced it was launching two new non-Second Life projects, and it's just worth noting what it represents: The second life of Linden Lab.

Where the company once announced its mission was to make an online world "that advances the human condition" (screencap at right), the new site describes a company with a far more modest goal -- but a much more achievable one. Now the company is "a developer of digital entertainment that inspires users to create, socialize, share — and have fun", in which Second Life is only the first in a larger portfolio of products around that theme: