New World Notes

So You've Bought Stolen Virtual Content in Second Life: Here's What You Should Do Next

 

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

In a perfect world, everyone who wanted to avoid buying stolen (or dubiously derivative) content could do so easily, but the reality is that most of the time we just don't know. Even with the help of the tips I posted yesterday, there's always something out there that can slip through the cracks. Maybe the stolen part isn't obvious, maybe we just wouldn't recognize it even if it was; no one has both the encyclopedic knowledge and psychic abilities that it would take to avoid every single case of content theft in their path.

So when youknow you've been duped, here's what you need to do:

Beautiful Indie Game Created Using Innovative Graphics Converting Real 3D Models to Digital 3D Models

Rustclad is an upcoming indie game with 3D graphics created through "photogrammetry", which means it looks beautiful like this:

What's "Photogrammetry"? Let the creators via Boing Boing explain:

The basic idea is that we build or find the objects that we want in our world, take a set of photographs for each object, and run them through a tool that creates a 3D model for us.

So almost like taking the models for a Henry Selick movie and turning them into a 3D engine, which sounds awesome in every way.

Good Pinterest Account for SLers Looking for Second Life Events, Freebies, Sales Specials

Pinterest user and SLer Elysium Hynes is pioneering the way Pinterest works with Second Life, so I'm told by a person more perceptive about Pinterest than me: "She's kind of pioneering Pinterest for SL," says well-known, Pinterest-worthy blogger Cajsa Lilliehook (who's own Pinterest is here), and proceeds to pronounce her position: "Not Pinterest as a user, but the way she is using it to document events." Specifically, as Ms. Hynes herself explains in her Pinterest bio: "Me and some friends spent all day collecting pins and info on ongoing events in Second life, featuring group gifts, freebies, and a couple of new releases and sales special for the occasion." And so pray thee, please proceed to peruse her pins on Pinterest.

Google Glass Going to Merge First and Second Life in Very Interesting & Unexpected Ways

I spent Monday and Tuesday on a semi-vacation on the Northern California coastline, which is supremely beautiful and so also made me think of this recent video from Google Glass, highlighting the upcoming device's ability to automatically record real life experiences from a first-person point of view:

When we think about virtual worlds and games, technologies like this threaten to disrupt our assumptions about what they are and will be in the very near future. (Consumers are set to get Google Glass late this year.) We spend a lot of our time in games and online worlds living vicariously through virtual characters who are not us. A technology like Google Glass will enable us to live vicariously through real people who are not us. It's impossible to predict all the ways Google Glass will be used, but several scenarios are likely:

This Finger-Driven 3D Mouse Will Let You Pinch an Avatar's Ass from Five Thousand Miles Away

The Mycestro is a finger-driven 3D mouse project on Kickstarter which has already raised more than $50,000 of its $100K goal, and watching this video, you can guess why.

"Myself, Me & I" is a Foucault-Inspired Machinima That You, Yourself, Should Watch

Inspired by Michel Foucault's Utopian Body, this is an SL machinima by Lala Larix called "Myself, Me & I", and it combines real life footage and impressive effects to visualize the divide between the material and the virtual, the physical and digital person. Do watch. It inspired me to read some Foucault, who I should have read more of already, I know, but turns out to have said this in 1966, seemingly anticipating the appeal of avatars:

How to Avoid Ripped, Unoriginal, or "Borrowed" Second Life Content -- 5 Crucial Tips

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

Stolen content is the bane of the serious SL consumer, and the reality is that almost all of us, no matter how careful we are, have probably bought some. Now I'm not just talking about ripped or copybotted SL content either. Don't forget that plenty of creators who have been stolen from aren't even in SL themselves; mesh resources purchased or taken from elsewhere and resold in SL (from game assets to 3D models) plague the SL Marketplace, and original artwork has been taken from portfolio websites and used in SL since before my time.

But that doesn't mean that we're helpless. You may not be able to prevent yourself from accidentally supporting these shady practices all the 100% of the time, but I've got five tips to share with you that will dramatically decrease your chances of getting duped by dubious goods.

Downton Abbey Meets The Sims 3 Recap: The Season So Far

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

Although the third season of Downton Abbey (or at least its American airing) has ended, Sim Downton Abbey is only beginning. It took me a full weekend of excruciating troubleshooting and bug-squashing, but by the mercy of the universe Sim Downton is now running as smooth as silk. Soon Mary will be out rubbing elbows with the social elite, Sybil will be getting her passport stamped across the sim globe, and Cora and Robert will be gearing up to throw a society party the likes of which the Abbey has never seen before... And potentially trying for a brand new baby shortly thereafter.

Until then, it's the perfect time for a recap! Here's where the characters of sim Downton stand as of right now:

6 Must-Read New World Notes Stories from Last Week!

• Facebook Graph Search Makes It Much Easier to Connect Second Life Users to Their Real Life Names -- Here's How to Keep SL & RL Separate
• Hey Linden Lab, Now That You Got AdSense on Your SL Site, Why Not Encourage SL Content Creators to Use It Too?
• Unwind This Weekend With Proteus, a Procedurally-Generated World of Art, Music, and Life
• Linden Lab's iOS Apps Versu & Creatorverse Performing So-So (So Far)
• The Value of Raising Awareness of Real World Violence Against Women With a Virtual Dance Party (Guest Post)
• Story-Building Platforms Like Linden Lab's Versu and dio Are Already Succeeding -- Which is Why Versu and dio May Not

Check Out Splintered Rock, a Webcomic Fueled by Reader Interaction (and Second Life)

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

At first blush Vivacity Interactive's Splintered Rock might not seem much different from a lot of webcomics still in their infancy, beyond its use of SL for its artwork. Venture a little deeper and you'll see a surprising framework for a one-of-a-kind interactive storytelling experience with a serious RPG twist, which might even be helping to support a venerated sci-fi sim in SL. Here's what I mean: