New World Notes

Dwell On It: Good SL Blog for Linden Lab & Technical News

Dwell On It is a long-running Second Life blog by long-time SL blogger Tateru Nino, who as it happens, got her start blogging here on New World Notes, where she wrote such influential posts as this one. Fourth most popular in New World Notes' Readers' Choice list, Dwell On It has gone fairly quiet in recent months while Tateruworks on a non-blog project (details revealed soon, hopefully), but clearly has a fanbase who enjoy her posts. For my money, her best posts track the latest Linden Lab management or policy change, or detail an important technical issue related to SL, such as this one. Besides the recent dearth in posts, I personally wish Dwell On It came with a lot more pictures, especially because pictures properly tagged are a great way of boosting traffic. At any rate, if you have dwelt on it yet, Dwell On It here.

Top Five New World Notes Stories from Last Week!

• The Story of Dishonored: How the Hit Game's Immersive Narrative Was Crafted and Told
• Acclaimed Game Dev Scott Jennings Explains Why Fellow Devs Should Take Female Gamers' Complaints Seriously
• The Many Faces of Chloe: A Mesh Head That May Have What You Need to Express Who You Really Are
• How 'Knights of Pen & Paper' Spoils a Cute Concept with Offensive Characters
• Does SL Roleplay Lean Right Wing? 

Juicybomb: Second Life Blogging's Favourite (Usually) Blonde Bombshell

Iris Ophelia here, and I've broken out of my usual column space to bring you another of NWN Readers' Choice of Second Life Blogs. Today it's Juicybomb, the wildly popular SL fashion blog written by the eternally flamorous Gogo. Regular readers of New World Notes should be pretty familiar with Juicybomb by now since we seem to link to it at least once a month (just yesterday we linked her thorough review of LOGO's latest mesh head). And for good reason. Her clear pics and succinct write-ups are the perfect way to stay informed about the latest and greatest in SL fashion, like the latest round of Collabor88. She's not just a pretty face in pretty clothes though. Like Strawberry Singh, Gogo posts tutorials and slightly more community-oriented posts from time to time. Ever wanted to learn how to make your own SL poses? Gogo can help you with that, and with plenty more.

If you're expecting a blonde airhead blogger, look elsewhere. Though she has an undeserved reputation for drama, and you may not always agree with her opinions, Gogo is undeniably one of the best bloggers in SL fashion today, and definitely worth checking out!

Acclaimed Game Dev Scott Jennings Explains Why Fellow Devs Should Take Female Gamers' Complaints Seriously

Iris Ophelia's excellent rant about sexist characters in an otherwise good game provoked a lot of nasty sexist comments (which only proved the importance of her point). It was a reaction that eminently sucks ass, but one that's sadly to be expected. The good news, however, is her post also provoked a supportive response there from game developer Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings, one of the most respected voices in the industry. If you're a female gamer like Iris, you should read it and take heart; if you're a fellow developer like Scott, you should read it and take inspiration. And if you're someone who shares the nasty opinions expressed in the Comments of Iris' post, you should read it, and feel ashamed:

"Kudos to Iris to bringing up issues she had with the game. The lack of female perspective in game development is why these issues exist.

"Sheri Graner Ray, a long-time MMO/video game developer (she was one of the lead developers on Star Wars Galaxies), had as her signature on various message board postings, '...but what if the player is female?'"

"Much of her work addresses the issues raised from this simple fact - if the developers are in the main male (which, in most studios, is still the case), they will post from their own experiences. The vast majority of men, of course, have not been women. They can be sympathetic to women's issues (as I like to believe I am) but it's impossible to write from a perspective you simply don't have.

The Many Faces of Chloe: A Mesh Head That May Have What You Need to Express Who You Really Are

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

Whenever I mention the latest mesh avatar augmentation or attachment, one argument invariably gets made again and again: "Everyone will look the same if we all wear X!" It's hard to argue against it because it's a fair point, and in a lot of ways I agree with it. But... I wouldn't say we'd all necessarily look the same, even if we all may look similar. That's what I want to talk about today.

If this is the biggest obstacle in the way of making mesh-augmented avatars truly mainstream, it goes without saying that smart designers will try to tackle that issue head-on. The recently released Chloe hybrid mesh avatar from LOGO [Marketplace] [SLURL] is a good look at what intrepid designers can do to assuage fashionista fears about a future where every avatar is a clone of the next... And a better look at what fashionistas can do themselves. It's not the ultimate solution, but it's several steps in the right direction. Here's why:

How 'Knights of Pen & Paper' Spoils a Cute Concept with Offensive Characters

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

I was very excited for Behold Studios' Knights of Pen and Paper to be released on iOS earlier this month. If you've never heard of this innovative mobile game, it combines retro gaming flavor with a tabletop rpg framework: You control the make-up of your party both in terms of players and classes, as well as the complexity of their battles, the direction of the story, and even the decor of your room, while adventuring and questing across the map. It's all charming and novel, but when the game was finally released on iOS (after previously only being available on Android) my excitement to play died down at record speed. I don't think I offend very easily when it comes to games (though I do roll my eyes a lot), but Knights of Pen and Paper had managed to offend me before I'd even made my first character.

Knights of Pen & Paper is clever and original and very fun... But it's also a very clear example of how so many games are failing so many gamers... for literally no narrative or gameplay-related purpose. Here's what I mean:

Next Week, New World Notes Goes (Back) to China!

By the time you read this, I'm happy to say, I'll be on my way to China, where I'm working on a project with Yodo1, a successful Beijing-based publisher of Western mobile games. While I'm there, I'm also planning to blog about the growth and evolution of virtual culture in China, where online worlds are a truly massive market in the hundreds of millions, so stay tuned for insights from that front. (If I'm lucky, I'll get to catch up with my friend Cao Fei, above, acclaimed Chinese artist and creator of the SL-based installation RMB City.) In any case, regular New World Notes programming will continue, both from me and the brilliant Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins, who'll keep you apprised on all that is stylish in Second Life and worlds beyond.

Next post from Shanghai (hopefully)!

The Story of Dishonored: How the Hit Game's Immersive Narrative Was Crafted and Told

Dishonored, the new immersive stealth game lead created by Arkane's Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio, is great in a lot of ways, chief among them this: Dishonored is at heart an immersive story, plunging you into a vividly realized, alternate universe that looks very much like ours, but operating under its own internal logic, myths, cultures, which you learn about through interactive osmosis, as you explore, accomplish tasks, and (yes) fight and die a lot of times. The story itself, in terms of written and spoken dialog, is massive, Smith and Colantonio tell me, the size of a substantial novel:

"Roughly 90,000 words in AI-driven one-liners (or 'barks') and spoken dialogue, and another 40,000 written words in the form of notes, books, graffiti, etc." Were that put into a book, it'd be over 500 pages. The cast of characters in Dishnored is also voluminous: "[A]round 50 named characters, major or minor, and another 50 alluded to in works of fiction."

To bring the narrative world of Dishonored to life, Arkane's team drew on lots of influences, from novels and films, and even pop music. Smith and Colantonio discuss those below -- and how they emerge, within the game (mild SPOILERS ahead):

Game Design Secrets is On Sale Now -- Watch the Book's Awesome Retro Promo Here!

My new book, Game Design Secrets, is now available on Amazon, and it comes with an animated promo I think is pretty fun and wacky and hilarious (as biased as I am), watch:

I love the retro, 8 bit-esque graphics and the surreal visuals, both of which were created by geek supreme Michael Szymanski of Tiger Uppercut Studios, which also produces the great Level 20-Something animated web series featuring SL/RL pop star Keiko Takamura. I love all the little details Mike put into the promo, like this frame grab below:

Honour Mcmillan Writes a Wonderful & Personal Second Life Blog About Virtual Arts, Culture & a Long Life Well Lived

Honour's Post Menopausal View (of Second Life) is top 5 in NWN Readers' Choice of Second Life blogs, and for very good reason: The author, Honour Mcmillan, writes well and often about the arts and culture of Second Life, while bringing her personal insights of many years to the fore: For example, in her reportage of a scene in Second Life inspired by the dreams of Fellini. I appreciate that she puts "Second Life" in the title of each post (as I'm sure all the readers who find her through Google Searches are), and adds copious pictures to each. I check her blog often to see what amazing content and personalities she's discovered, because she so often does, The SLurl teleport links are a bit difficult to find, true, which makes her blog somewhat frustrating as a SL travel/quality content guide, but fortunately, she's fundamentally a thoughtful and enthusiastic guide you want to follow.