New World Notes

Does SL Roleplay Lean Right Wing? (Comment of the Week)

New World Notes readers (and by extension, Second Life users in general) overwhelmingly support Obama, but during last week's post-election commentary, SLer PussyCat Catnap (who blogs here), had some very interesting and provocative insights on the prevalence of roleplay in Second Life which seems to be politically right wing in nature -- most especially, the very popular Gorean roleplayers of SL, whose activity is based on a fantasy book series that has an explicitly anti-feminist, anti-egalitarian ideology:

"Online gamers tend to be a rather conservative racist sexist bunch. One does not have to look far to see this.

"It's all over SL too.

"But it doesn't control everything here like it can in other online more gamer focused worlds.

"Here you just find the odd Dixie flag, or a 'black man on white women' XXX-sim, one or two racially charged biker groups (mixed in with others so its really hard to figure out which and who - and most are not).

"And then the whole Gorean/slave thing as sort of a 'virtual war on women' concept that baffles the heck out of me.

"These are all groups that lean heavy on conservative norms, though they come here for the things they can't express in open RL society...

Whiskey Monday: Great Blog for Second Life Art, Real Life Insight (NWN Readers Choice)

Whiskey Monday is the name of a blog written by an SL user with the same avatar name, and if you aren't a regular visitor now, you really should start visiting soon. Many NWN readers nominated Whiskey Monday's blog in our Readers' Choice open forum, but as it happens, I'm a fan of Ms. Monday myself; I admire how she's able to turn Second Life screenshots into a highly personal art form, and profiled her here about that topic; I also love how her blog weaves these beautiful images with crispy written and emotionally naked posts about her real life. Taken together, they make Whiskey Monday the most unique blog in the NWN Readers' Choice top ten.

Top 5 New World Notes Posts from Last Week

• Second Life Users Support Obama by 73%, More Than Even Hawaii -- Here's Why
• Animated Mesh Heads May Be the Expressive Face of Tomorrow's SL Avatar
• Judge Issues Summary Judgement on Second Life-Based Copyright Dispute Between Virtual Animal Breeders
• SL Fashion Fit for a First Lady's Second Inaugural Ball!
• Doxxing: Only Right To Save Real Lives -- But Even Then, It's Hard to Know When You Should (Comment of the Week)

Last, Last Chance to Nominate Your Favorite SL Brands for NWN's Readers' Choice Holiday Shopping Guide!

Click here to nominate your favorite Second Life brands, because the ones which get the most nominations will be featured on New World Notes, just like we're doing with NWN Readers' Choice blogs right now, but as a kind of shopping kind for the coming holidays. Nominations are closed at the end of this weekend. So click here and be sure to carefully read the nomination guidelines first.

The Incredibly Cool Customized SL Eyes of Rue's Cassiopeia

Emily Orr is modeling sets of incredibly cool customized Second Life eyes from a brand called Rue, like these here, known as the "Curie" set, or this freaky set here, called Scarlet.

I'm a fan, by the way, of Ms. Orr's blog, known as Razorblade Cookies (and with that name, how could I not be?), though I'll admit the obscure post titles (taken from song lyrics and poems?) can make the blog frustrating to browse. If she was to ask me (and she hasn't, but here goes anyway), I'd recommend trying out clear, keyword-heavy post titles (i.e. "Cool Customized Second Life Eyes from Rue" and making the cool, obscure song lyrics the sub-head. Anyway, get much more Razorblade Cookies here.

Beloved Lindens Oskar and Yoz Let Go From Linden Lab

The popular Linden Lab staffer known as Oskar Linden recently confirmed on the Second Life Universe forum widespread SL community rumors that he was fired from the company, for "quite vague" reasons, he says. This comes a month or so after my friend Yoz Linden also reported leaving the comnpany. Sad news for the community and for them, but since both are very talented techies, I'm confident they'll both wind up in better places. It's difficult to comment beyond that, not knowing all the details, but it's worth repeating Oskar's last words on his announcement to the SL user community: "You are Second Life, not Linden Lab. Never forget that. I love you all and will miss working with you greatly!

Hat tip: Inara Pey, who has comments here; photo by Teagan Linden (Oskar's on the left, Yoz, the right).

Animated Mesh Heads May Be the Expressive Face of Tomorrow's SL Avatar

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

Yesterday Gogo (of Juicybomb, one of my fave fashion blogs) shared a video on Plurk of an animated mesh avatar head still in development, and I had one of my first "omg stop the presses!" moments in a long time. I demanded Hamlet let me put the topic we'd planned for today on the backburner so that I could gush about this gorgeous item that will hopefully be hitting the virtual shelves in early 2013.

So what's all the fuss about? This head animates smoothly, rather than switching to different faces/settings like most similar products... and completely avoiding the creepily exaggerated expressions that the vanilla SL avatar makes. Emotions are currently random, making a more organic and naturally expressive looking face. Don't just take my word for it, watch it in action:

 

Curious? Well luckily I got in touch with creator Shirousagi Noel earlier today, and I've got loads of details to share about this super-cute future release!

Quan's Travelogues: An Excellent Blog for SL Art Lovers

Quan's Travelogues is a Second Life blog by Quan Lavender devoted to Second Life-based art and events, and if you have any interest in that topic, you should (like the many NWN readers who recommended her), subscribe to what she's blogging. Frequently updated, with heavily-illustrated posts and SLurls that are easy to find so you can visit the places she's writing about too, Quan is well on her way to becoming a go-to blogger for finding great virtual world content. (For instance, I did not know there was a Second Life production of Sartre's classic play No Exit, but Quan knows.) To be sure, many of the images seem too dark, so Ms. Lavender might want to play with her light settings, and most of the post titles are frustratingly vague, which will especially frustrate people who just want to browse ,which is most blog readers. (As a general rule: A blog post title should always clearly state what the post is about, because the title is as important as the post itself, if not moreso.) In any case, do follow Quan's Travelogues, to follow her travels to the best in Second Life-based art.

Judge Issues Summary Judgement on Second Life-Based Copyright Dispute Between Virtual Animal Breeders

Some two years after the dispute began, we have a summary judgement in the copyright dispute Amaretto Ranch Breedables, LLC v. Ozimals, Inc., two companies that produce virtual breedable animals in Second Life. (Or as I love calling it, Bunneh v. Horsie.) Tateru Nino has a short summary and a .pdf copy of the judgement from Charles R. Breyer, Senior US States District Judge. (Who as it happens, is brother to US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, which suggests some interesting "Dude you will not believe the case I just ruled on!" conversation over Thanksgiving.) 

"This is a copyright case between business competitors who sell virtual animals in an online simulated world known as Second Life," the ruling begins. And here's the core of Breyer's conclusion:

Because Amaretto has not established a reasonable likelihood of facing copyright infringement liability, the Court finds that Amaretto lacks standing to pursue its remaining claims; it also finds that the possibility of harm is so speculative that the Court would not exercise its discretion to rule on the declaratory relief claims even if the threshold standing requirements were met. Accordingly, the Court DENIES IN PART Amaretto’s motion for summary judgment as to the declaratory judgment and copyright misuse claims, and DISMISSES those claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on the Internet, but my layman reading makes me think it'll be very difficult for this lawsuit to continue forward.

Creatorverse Now Comes With All Kinds of Creative Tutorials

Creatorverse, Linden Lab's iPad sandbox building game, now comes with a boatload of tutorials on YouTube which illustrate just how inventive you can get with the thing. Take this one on giving Creatorverse balls physics properties:

Pretty impressive, and there are many more here, showing you how to build wheels that work and teleporters that, well, teleport, and so forth and suchlike. Far as I can tell, the game's site isn't featuring user-created Creatorverse content yet, and I can't find any user-generated videos on YouTube, and when (if?) we start to see both, that's when the real fun begins.