New World Notes

Fufilling New CEO Promise, Second Life's Bug Tracker Now Transparent, Open & Re-Accepting New Feature Requests

"Transparency and empowerment are core to me," new Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg said only a couple days ago (and only a few days after becoming CEO), and he already seems to be fulfilling that pledge: Linden Lab's JIRA bug tracker for Second Life now allows users to post comments and see all active bugs, and Altberg has restored the much-loved (and historically, much ignored by Linden Lab) New Feature Request. Great moves, though I suspect Alteberg is about to be overwhelmed by a deluge of comments and requests. (Insert "Brace yourself" meme here.) Hat tip: Nalates, who has more thoughts.

Play It This Weekend: Explore Deep Space and Decipher Alien Languages in Out There for Android and iOS

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

So you're lost in space, now what? It's the premise of a fair number of games (indie or otherwise) in recent memory. However, what defines Out There, newly available for both Android and iOS, from them is how little it's concerned with the one thing that many of those other games have in common:

Fighting.

Out There is not a shooter. It's not a tactical battle simulator. You're not a crew of rebels nor are you a crew of warmongers. You're one unlucky fool who's found himself very far from home. So now what?

Why Linden Lab's Fast Install Project Matters: With Second Life Dropoff Rates, Every Second Counts

Project Zipper is a new Linden Lab project to increase Second Life viewer installation time, and according to Inara Pey, it speeds up the installation time by about 19 seconds. Which makes Ciaran Laval say WTF:

Now you could look at this and say that Project Zipper installs in less than half the time of the current release viewer, which put in those terms is an impressive achievement. However it amounts to just over 19 seconds difference, which in reality is neither here or there.

Actually, it matters quite a bit: Second Life new user dropoffs start happening at rapid rates while the viewer is still installing. Yes, yes: Insiders tell me a large amount of people who register for a new SL account give up that early in the process. But really, this is not surprising, if you look at the larger Internet market:

Why Do Many Women Play the Games They Play? The Answer Is Simple

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

Why do women play what we play? That's the question that two recent articles about women in gaming have me asking myself. Yesterday on Kill Screen Mariam Naziripour published a piece about the history and the importance of dress-up games, while today on Wired Laura Hudson shared how the recent Left Behind DLC for The Last of Us resonated with her by portraying the relationship between a strong young girl and her best friend. These two posts might seem only tangentially related (at points even in opposition), but there is a thread that connects them. 

While it's widely accepted that women now make up nearly half of the gaming market, critics of that figure (of which you'll find plenty in the comments of Hudson's piece) are quick to point out how many of the women included in it are playing mobile games... Or The Sims. You know, not real games. While what constitutes a "real" game is a discussion for another day (as is the fact that the number of women playing "real" games isn't insignificant either) it's worth considering why many women do gravitate towards specific niches of gaming, including more "casual" games. Why are there more women playing Candy Crush than there are playing Call of Duty while others (read: me) are equally drawn to both Style Savvy: Trendsetters and the Assassin's Creed franchise? 

It's not a mystery at all, nor is it down to some sort of tired old biological formula. The answer, as far as I'm concerned, is ridiculously simple:

How to Post Comment in New World Notes Posts

I'm experimenting with a registration system for NWN comments, which means whenever you want to post a comment at the end of a post, you need quickly log in with one of your social media accounts (as above). Typepad's blog system has been mysteriously eating a lot of of user comments, but hopefully adding this registration process will help with that. (By the way: Always save your long comments before trying to post them, so you have a backup copy just in case!) Also, I hope registration minimizes hit-and-run flames and Spammy comments, but we'll see how that goes.

Please give it a try here -- post a test comment and let me know how it goes!

SL Luminary Night Visits Second Life After Many Years Away

Last night I was wandering familiar places in Second Life, when a familiar name appeared upon my screen: Her name was Night, and years ago, she wrote a popular New World Notes column called Night Moves which you really should read. And then suddenly, for years ago or so, to the concern of many, disappeared from the virtual world, with little trace of where she'd gone, or why. I worried the worst (as I often do), but now just as suddenly, she's back in Second Life.

"Well," she tells me, "it's more than premature to say that I'm back. But I'm here tonight for the first time in forever for the silliest reason."

And this is what that is:

Top 5 Games Beyond Second Life - NWN Readers' Choice

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

Let no one say that Second Life users aren't still gamers through and through. Last week I asked you what your favorite games are, and I'll admit that the enthusiastic response that followed here, in Plurk, and in my inbox took me completely by surprise. Some of your picks were just as surprising, too.

So what are the top five games New World Notes' readers love to play (outside of the metavese, of course)? You'll find out after the jump!

Ebbe Altberg Promises Transparency & Empowerment as Linden Lab's New CEO

@marimccann Thanks! I'm opening as fast as I can. Jira is coming. Lindens in SL will come too. Transparency and empowerment are core to me.

— Ebbe Altberg (@ebbealtberg) February 26, 2014

Well this is a refreshing change: In response to a post that SLer Marianne McCann Tweeted at him, new Linden Lab CEO promised much more openness, transparency, empowerment, responsiveness to JIRA support tickets, Linden Lab staffers in Second Life, world peace, magic ponies (or at least most of those). His predecessor Rod Humble operated the company in a way that was much more similar to how companies like Electronic Arts and Sony Online Entertainment are run (where Humble was once an executive), so on paper at least, this seems like a radical return to Linden Lab's roots.

Coming Soon in SL: Redecorate With Cat-Themed Virtual Versions Of Some Of The Greatest Artwork in History

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

Dog lovers keep scrolling, because this post may not be for you. The Arcade is returning this weekend, with a new round of gacha collections from some of Second Life's favorite designers. Teasers are already circulating freely, but it's Nylon Pinkney's set (as Nylon Outfitters) that has really caught my eye. She's created 13 cat-themed works of art, inspired by some of the most recognized artists and paintings in history. Nylon's "copycats" cover an impressively broad range, from classics like Van Gogh all the way to Warhol's pop art. Though Nylon's own artistic style shines through in each peice, so does the style it was based on, which you can see in this close-up shot she shared on Flickr. Whether you love cats (or just have an appreciation for art history) these are a must-have.

Of course if you have your eye on one painting in particular, you might need to trade or be very very lucky to get it. If you're unfamiliar, gacha machines give a shopper a random chance at its contents -- the trade off being that you pay a fraction of the price that you would if you were picking the item yourself. You'll have a chance to get all of the paintings pictured above in Nylon's gacha machine at The Arcade, but even if you don't get the one you want you'll easily be able to swap the transferrable prizes with your friends.

You'll be able to pick them up for yourself along with dozens of other gacha items at The Arcade when it re-opens this weekend. See you there!

Leading Bitcoin Exchange Suffers Run on the Bank - Yet Another SL/Bitcoin Hype Parallel

Yet another instance of Bitcoin euphoria reminding me of Second Life hype: Leading Bitcoin exchange service Mt. Gox is currently experiencing a run on the bank:

Trouble began for Mt.Gox when the feds started noticing its financial paperwork was a mess, and it was acting as a middleman for the internet drug trade. Bitcoin prices on the exchange plunged accordingly. That was only the start of the bad news. Today, people with thousands (or even millions) of dollars or yen in real money tied up in Bitcoins can't touch it—there have been huge delays and blackout periods when customers try to remove their funds. Earlier this month, Mt.Gox stopped all withdrawals completely, and this month has seen the value of a single Bitcoin plunge from around $700 to a low of $75.

And while it's not a one-to-one comparison, it all reminds me of the time during the Second Life hype wave in 2006-2008, when a number of unregulated but popular Linden Dollar exchanges experienced a somewhat similar trajectory. This from January 2008: