New World Notes

New SimCity Used to Recreate Player's Local Traffic Woes: Super Neat, but Not Super Realistic

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

A contributor to Gamasutra approached last weekend's one-hour SimCity beta with an interesting plan in mind. Unlike a lot of players he wasn't trying to find the magic planning layout needed to maximize city population, or the most efficient arrangement of residential, commercial, and industrial zones--Mike Rose was trying to figure out how a town with a relatively modest population of approx. 15000 could have rush hour traffic jams that would give urban centers a run for their money.

The results are incredibly interesting and seem surprisingly accurate, but that doesn't mean we should expect SimCity to be capable of providing serious solutions to real life urban planning issues... Especially not at launch. Here's why:

Forget Printing in 3D, Why Not Write in 3D?

While I'm not sure how huge 3D printing is going to be, I'm somewhat more sure writing in 3D will be pretty huge. Watch this jaw-dropping video:

It's a Kickstarter project, and when I first saw it last night, it had raised about $10,000. Less than 12 hours later, nearly $200,000 had been pledged. So guess I'm not the only one jazzed about the idea of writing 3D into reality.

Harlem Shake Hits Second Life (As It Was Destined to Do)

When the Harlem Shake meme started to swarm YouTube like crazy, I had a hunch it would hit Second Life about as hard as "Gangnam Style", maybe even harder, so now courtesy of Bouncer Criss, here it starts:

The meme itself is highly formalized, and as you can tell, ideally suited for SL -- let Wikipedia explain:

The videos last 30-something seconds and feature an excerpt from the song "Harlem Shake" by electronic musician Baauer. Usually, a video begins with one person (often helmeted or masked) dancing to the song alone for 15 seconds, surrounded by other people not paying attention or unaware of the dancing individual. When the bass drops, the video switches to the entire crowd doing a crazy convulsive dance for the next 15 seconds.

As for how Mr. Criss made his machinima, he just explained to me: "It was not that hard to be honest. You need a bunch of friends that want to act silly for a few minutes and want to be videotaped." And here's his machinima-making particulars:

Story-Building Platforms Like Linden Lab's Versu and dio Are Already Succeeding -- Which is Why Versu and dio May Not

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

The more I think about Versu, Linden Lab's latest storytelling platform (which I covered late last week), the more it bothers me. Why? Maybe I'm cynical, but it feels like one more clever and creative little thing that just isn't going to go anywhere--even though it absolutely could and should. Interest in interactive stories like these is probably higher now than it's been a decade and a half at least, and lots of other little engines to create and support such stories have been springing up and developing devoted followships. So where does that leave Versu, and its older sibling, dio? Hint: Not in a very good position...

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

If you use your Facebook account in conjunction with your Second Life account in any way, and you're concerned about keeping your identity on either system separate, you should definitely reach this post by Strawberry Singh. Facebook is now rolling out Graph Search, which as the name suggests, links Facebook users' Likes and user-given demographic info to a search mechanism. So for example, you can search for Facebook users who live in San Francisco who like Thai food and model airplane building and tango, and come up with the very small number of people on Facebook who fit that search profile. In the case of Second Life, as Ms. Singh demonstrates, that means you can use Graph Search to look for people on Facebook who've liked any number of Second Life-oriented Facebook pages (including the official page, or for that matter, New World Notes on Facebook), and people from a specific city or region and any number of other real world, identifying details.

In other words: If you know enough biographical details about a given Second Life user on Facebook, you can probably use Graph Search to make a pretty good guess at their real life name.

If the relationship between your Second Life identity and you is public knowledge (like me), this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but many SLers prefer to keep their identities separate, often for very good reasons. Since Ms. Singh is an especially smart blogger, she's already created a YouTube tutorial for protecting yourself from being over-exposed on Graph Search -- watch below:

Face-Off! How Does the Latest Mesh Avatar Head From Second Life Brand LOGO Compare to Her Little Sister?

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

I never expected to truly fall for a mesh head, but since I wrote about her last November I've worn LOGO's Chloe [Marketplace] [SLURL] in the vast majority of my SL pics. I've become surprisingly attached to that face, in spite of the fact that other high profile fashionistas had taken to her just as strongly. We all managed to retain our individuality surprisingly well, but we were all also eagerly awaiting the follow-up face that Logo had been teasing alongside Chloe. And then, finally, it dropped. Last week LOGO launched their second hybrid mesh avatar, which features a slightly more refined face and a significantly more streamlined HUD system, named Sadie. Obviously I had to check her out for myself.

So how does Sadie stack up against Chloe? Is she a good upgrade for existing mesh head lovers? Will she finally convert the skeptics? Hhere's what I think:

Here's 5 Must-Read New World Notes Posts from Last Week!

• Downton Abbey Meets The Sims 3, Continued: Matthew's Arrival and Werewolves in Surgical Scrubs
• Second Life's Best (Perhaps Only) Killer App: An Immersive, Open-Ended Social Platform for the Disabled
• Hands on With Versu: First Impressions After My First Hour With Linden Lab's Latest Storytelling App
• If You Advertise Items on Flickr, You Can't Use It to Link to SL or Even Your Blog -- Here's Some Alternative Services Where You Can
• SL Founder Philip Rosedale Working on Another 3D Project

Weekend Open Forum & Comment Test: Please Post "Test" Or Whatever Else You Want in Comments

Some readers say the comments they've written recently on New World Notes have disappeared after they click Post. Comments are rarely deleted for running afoul of NWN comment guidelines, so something seems askew. Do me a favor, please post a comment in this post, if only to say "Test", or whatever else you want to rant about or plug or whatever. If your Comment disappears, please let me know, and what web browser/OS you were using, when it did. Tweet that info at me here, Plurk it at me here, or post to NWN's Facebook group here. Mahalo!

One Billion Rising Dance in Second Life Causes Controversy - But Shouldn't Detract from the Many Ways SL Can Better Support Victims of Rape & Violence

Yesterday there was a One Billion Rising dance party in Second Life, an official part of the larger real world movement raising awareness of violence against women, an absolutely worthy cause. Because the event description didn't mention anything about, say, raising donations for real world violence prevention organizations, or creating in-world support groups for victims, I didn't quite understand the overall purpose. That's absolutely not the fault of the SL organizers, because far as I can tell, the RL event is also described mainly or solely as a dance party. (See screengrab above.) In any case, the event's raised some controversy, perhaps best expressed by Chestnut Rau, and also Whiskey Day, who says this:

As a survivor of sexual violence I’m insulted, not comforted, by the image of women dancing to demand an end to violence. Demand an end by addressing the very root causes of violence against women or gender based violence and rape in any form. But that’s not a pretty picture, nor a nice PR package. And dancing for 20 minutes today doesn’t help me rise above the sexual violence. It’s simply not that easy.

That's all very true, though I suppose a One Billion Rising supporter would answer that it's not an either/or question. Indeed, according Honour McMillan, who attended the in-world event, she met real life survivors and their friends and relatives there too. This suggests an even more crucial point that I hope doesn't get missed in the controversy:

I Love SL Fashion Shot in Natural (Virtual) Light & Shadow

Oh I love what French SL fashion blogger Ms. Eve Kazan does with dynamic light and shadow in Second Life, because look how richly textured and vivid the fashion becomes. I know it's much more difficult to shoot pics like this as opposed to using an avatar pose booth (which is much more common), but just look at the results. Anyway, go here to embiggenate, and find out where to get the fashion Eve Kazan shows off.