As we wind down the year, I wanted to share my personal favorite pieces of writing from 2013, most for New World Notes, some for GigaOM and Internet Evolution:
I'd be remiss if I didn't follow suit with Hamlet and share my five most popular posts of 2013, based purely on reader response. Check them out for yourself:
Based on pageviews, social media sharing, mainstream media coverage, and personal judgement calls, here's my posts this year which had the most impact:
The team of Elder Scrolls fans behind Skywind -- a mod that promises to merge the world of Morrowind into Skyrim -- have shared some new trailers of their work recently. All of them, including the most recent one posted above, are well worth watching whether you're a latecomer to the franchise or an ardent fan of the classic 2002 RPG.
A sad reality of modern gaming is that while many of us can look back at pixels with fondess and nostalgia, it's much harder to look at early 3D game worlds and models with anything approaching the same sentiment. Maybe it's because we're not quite far enough removed from those visuals, or because a lot of their shortcomings are still present in "ugly" contemporary games, but even beloved classics like Morrowind can be exceptionally hard to go back to. We've been spoiled by 3D models of increasing fidelity to the point that ten year old games just look like hot garbage. That's what makes Skywind (and Morroblivion before it) such an interesting and important project for past, present, and future fans of The Elder Scrolls. Being able to experience those worlds again (or for the first time) without having to force yourself to get over that ugliness barrier... Well, it's huge.
Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins has been writing about virtual world/gaming culture for New World Notes for nearly 7 years, and in my utterly biased opinion, has evolved to become one of the best online writers on that subject anywhere. Insightful, expressive, sardonic, sweet, scrupulously fair, with incredibly broad and eclectic tastes in games, she's passionate about gaming as an important art form and cultural force -- and just as passionate about making games better for everyone. I learn something new about games and virtual worlds from her posts nearly every week, which makes me eager to read them as both an editor and a reader. Here's my personal selection of her best posts of 2013. This weekend, as we come to year's end, I hope you give them a look, and help me sing her praises.
Finally, no Top 10 compilation of Iris posts is complete without her epic (and epicly madcap) recreation of Downton Abbey in The Sims 3. Since it's unfolded in over a dozen posts, this recap is probably a good place to start.
We can't really talk about the best Second Life content of 2013 without mentioning Draxtor Despres and his mixed reality machinima profiles of characters, and creators. This year The Drax Files: World Makers filled NWN's Machinima category with short mini-documentaries about the real lives behind the avatars, and covering them has been one of my favorite parts of writing on this site. It's always interesting to see who Draxtor will cover next-- I'd even say it's half the fun of following the episodes. Maybe it'll be a name you've known for years, or maybe it will be your first time hearing about someone and their amazing work. It's a mixed bag, and a great way to expose yourself to people you may never have crossed paths with otherwise.
Suffice it to say that The Drax Files is a must-watch for anyone interested in virtual worlds and the people behind them. You can watch the latest episode in the series embedded above, or catch up on past episodes on Draxtor's YouTube channel.
My favorite fashion post of 2013 is a trip down memory lane... At least for those of us who have been in Second Life entirely too long. Inspired by the introduction of normal and specular mapping to Second Life via the "Materials Project" earlier this year, I sat down to make a list of the innovations (both user and LL-developed) that have shaped SL fashion into what it is today.
... And then I sorted them by how important they are to me, personally. Because that's how internet lists work, right?
You'll find everything from alpha layers to mesh on the list, as well of loads of what we'll charitably call "vintage" Iris, like the pic from 2006 shown above. See it all for yourself here!
Miss Metaverse Manners wasn't as prevalent on NWN in 2013 as she was in 2012, but that doesn't mean she didn't have quite a few posts of sound virtual world etiquette and advice. My favorite of the lot, however, is some simple advice that anyone leaving reviews on the Second Life Marketplace (or elsewhere) should take to heart. It's not just Miss Metaverse Manners' best post of 2013-- It might be one of her most important posts ever.
It's appallingly common for customers to leave 1-star reviews on items because of things that are thoroughly beyond the creator's control. Failed deliveries, their own failure to read the item description, even plain old user error in operating whatever it is they've bought. Marketplace reviews are not a good way to contact a designer about a possible problem, and they're an even worse way to get that problem resolved. It seems simple enough, but even if you think your grievances are on point I have three key tips for all you would-be reviewers. Read them for yourself here.
Happy holidays all - for your leisurely viewing and holiday party background eye candy, here's my top five favorite Second Life machinimas I blogged about over the last year. Sad to say, there seems to have been less great narrative-driven machinima in 2013 than there have been in previous years, but at the very least, these are all sumptuous visual treats for the season:
From January, this is "Bad Trip" by Tutsy Navarantha:
From February, this is an SL machinima by Lala Larix called "Myself, Me & I" inspired by Michel Foucault's Utopian Body:
After the break, first featured here in March, "Invisible Man" is an SL machinima music video by Japanese SLers umejintan Beck and sakurahime:
It's surprisingly easy to pick out my favorite piece of gaming news coverage from NWN in 2013. It was a story that was just too good to pass up: The marketing team for the Xbox One released a form email that could be sent to loved ones, requesting a new Xbox with the holidays in mind. The problem? The default values on that form veered from nonsensical to downright offensive. It was nearly as bad as a relic from the golden age of sexist video game print ads. The campaign was edited within hours of course, but I took plenty of screenshots to frame my own strongly worded hypothetical response.
As usual, Lewis' Law proved true and I got my fair share of ignorant, apathetic, and downright dumb blowback in this post's comments, but this remains one of my favorite posts from 2013. Read it in its entirety here.
