New World Notes

Linden Lab's Desura Purchase Basically Bid To Compete With Steam for the UGC Market

Gamasutra has a good interview with Linden Lab's Rod Humble, who goes into more detail about why he bought Desura, the digital distribution service. Basically, Iris pretty much called it last week, but it's nice to hear it coming straight from Humble's mouth:

"[We want] to make it the most open, developer- and user-friendly distribution service for all kinds of digital goods, starting out with games and mods and going from there," CEO Rod Humble tells Gamasutra. "For us it's a natural step... We're about user-to-user transactions and empowering people's creativity."

So basically, Linden Lab wants to Steam-ify all user-generated content. That is to say, make it possible for people to buy and sell UGC on an open digital distribution market. Steam is a great service if you're an established developer or a somewhat established indie developer, but kinda restrictive and hard to crack if you're a newbie. And yes, Desura's basically targeting the Steam market:

Iris Rants: The 5 (Mostly Silly) Reasons Why You're Not Playing Cube World

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

The Steam Summer Sale is in full swing, and although I'm snapping up great gaming deals left and right, just about all of my play time is being consumed by a single blocky little game full of hacking and slashing, charming as hell and still only an unfinished alpha shadow of what it will become. Cube World, developed by adorable German couple Wolfram and Sarah Von Funck, is shaping up to be my favorite game of the summer (even though it's still far from its official release). I play it solo, I play it with friends, I've played it on a stream, and I've even written about it here before. Suffice it to say I'm a fan.

Now as much as I could gush about this game, I can already anticipate a lot of the counterarguments I'd hear. They're the same ones that have been following this game through its development, and that have only gotten stronger since the alpha was released. Of course there are plenty of reasons not to play it, but most of the reasons I've heard are... Well, they're just not very good. If you're simply not into RPG-style exploration and adventure (the core of Cube World gameplay) that's one thing, but it's another if you find yourself saying things like...

This is One Way to Run Second Life on an iPad with Full Touchscreen Control Which Looks Pretty Cool If You Ask Me

This is a full-featured version of Second Life running on an iPad with touchscreen interface enabled, and it's pretty damn cool if you ask me:

This is possible through a service called Splashtop, which enables remote access of programs on your PC from your mobile device. And as reader Ares Shoreland discovered, it gives you a pretty decent version of Second Life that almost seems optimized for a touchscreen:

The Best of Hair Fair 2013 (As Worn By The Best of SL's Blogging Community)

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Every year feels like "the best Hair Fair EVER!" so I bet it sounds pretty trite if I say this year it really might be. The quality standard of SL fashion is always climbing, so it's not terribly surprising that every year the styles seem better and better, but what's really setting this year apart is the quality of the event's coverage. Bloggers are going the extra mile to take eye-catching shots of the latest and greatest styles, and frankly anything I could do feels like it would pale in comparison.

Consider the pic above, for example...

If Oculus Rift Gets Big in Second Life, Second Life Builders Will Need to Fix Their Scale -- Here's an Expert's Advice

Speaking of the Oculus Rift in Second Life, here's a major problem for existing SL content creators: If Oculus Rift becomes a major way people access SL, you will probably need to change the proportions of your builds. As Ms. Penny Patton pointed out, most Second Life avatars are in the 7 to 8 foot range, and so SL buildings and other architectural structures have literally been created for giants. So seen in through the Rift, it's likely a lot of the world will seem totally out of proportion. I put this to Jon Brouchoud, the architect who's doing innovative work with Oculus Rift (and did innovative work with SL before), and here's his advice:

Oculus Rift Intends to Become Free (Or Close Enough)

Tomm Pye first told me about this excellent news: Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe wants to eventually give away the headsets for free or close to that:

“We’re not there yet, but we’re sitting there thinking all the time, how can we make this free? You want everybody to play it and the cheaper it is, the more people are going to go out and buy it. Today it’s a $300 dev kit but we’re thinking about how to get it out to as many people as possible.”

That's what I'm talking about. That's what I mean about the Oculus Rift being Second Life's best hope, especially among the coming spike of senior citizens on a fixed income.

Shrinking Shops/Sprawling Sims: Are Second Life Shops Getting Smaller as Stores Move Onto the Marketplace?

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Recently I've been thinking about the in-world stores I visit, and how much smaller they seem to have become. Back when I started playing SL, the world seemed to be full of unnecessarily large stores and malls. When Armani came to Second Life they took this trend to an extreme, building a massive store with only a single room of items actually set for sale. These days massive stores are still around, but definitely in a minority even among "successful" brands... And often these behemoths are older brands, maintaining what's familiar. Beyond that, designers that can afford a sim will often design an entire shopping and exploration experience even while their own shop will only be a small segment of that space, cozy and crafted.

The massive, modern spaces that were entirely too common are in sharp decline, but why? I have a few theories.

World of Warcraft Losing War to League of Legends in China

We know Blizzard's World of Warcraft is losing subscriptions at a more and more rapid pace, but as it turns out, it's mainly because Chinese WoW players are switching to Leage of Legends, a multiplayer fantasy strategy game, to the tune of up to 1.3 million. (Which is kind of ironic, since League of Legends from Riot Games is inspired by Defense of the Ancients, a mod to a level of Warcraft III, which is turn a game made by... Blizzard.) I'm not surprised in any case, because I see LoL and DoTA being played in lots of places here in China. It was the game that was mostly played in the Beijing MMO cafe I visited, and at the game company I'm consulting for, they seem like the lunch break game that's played by half the staff. (I feel all old school for wondering, "Can a brother get a Battlefield up in here?") But LoL/DoTA is about as popular in the West, relative to the gamer population.

Why is the world's biggest MMO losing out to one of the world's biggest multiplayer games? One speculation:

A Second Life Blog With Character: Wilmur's Day at the Beach is a Must Read

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

If it seems like I'm paying extra attention to bloggers and photographers in the SL community lately, it's because... Well, I am. I'm not sure what it is, but it feels like residents have been producing some truly exceptional work this summer, and I can't help but show off as much of it as possible.

Today's blogger fix is from The Dame Steps Out-- a character-heavy fashion blog run by Dame Edith Ogleby that blends entertaining storytelling with the world of Second Life fashion well removed from Barbie-perfect avatars and Charlotte Free wannabes.

Dame Edith is like your most gregarious aunt... Actually, she's Wilmur's most gregarious aunt, which is why the latest post is all about him.

Zeega: User-Created Immersive, Interactive Media for the Web's Mobile Era

Zeega is a new service for user-created interactive, shareable multimedia experiences online which I first explored a few months ago, and GigaOM just covered in detail last week. It's a bit like Linden Lab's dio, but is designed to be easier to use, and encourages users to combine audio, imagery, animated .gifs, and simple interactivity in a way that feels immersive and fresh -- especially on mobile, where you can interact with a Zeega via taps and swipes. Watch this Zeega based on a talk by Alan Watts to see (and hear) what I mean.

The goal, Zeega's co-founder Jesse Shapins told me recently, is that a user "can make something fairly interesting in just a few mins. Or you could spend more time to create the more multi-linear stories." Here's his advice on how to get started: