New World Notes

Scrape Your Jaw Off of the Floor After Watching This Second Life Brand's Latest Promo Video

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

The new promo video for Maylee Oh's ultra-feminine SL fashion brand The Secret Store makes me want to do three things: Buy Adobe After Effects, buy a Glass Animals album, and buy out every single item in Maylee's shop... Excluding what I own already, of course.

This entracing music video is easily one of the most flawless machinima productions I've seen in a while, and it showcases her brand's aesthetic better than any still snapshot ad ever could. It's short, it's sweet, and even if the fashion isn't enough to entice you it's still an absolute must-see for SL users and machinima fans alike.

Watch it for yourself here.

Top Four New World Notes Posts from Last Week

• Why SL's First Time User Experience is So Difficult to Fix
• Iris Rants: Are These the Most Amazing Boots in Second Life, or Just Proof of How Broken the SL Markeplace Is?
• OpenWorm Kickstarter: Support Development of the First Digital Organism -- And Get a Copy for Your Browser!
• Second Life User: High Fidelity Has Better Social Presence

This Sunday in Second Life: Russian Government Co-Sponsors Broadcast of SL Art into Moscow Museum

Click here this Sunday to visit a site in Second Life that should be interesting for all kinds of reasons: It's part of The Golden Age of Russian Avant-Garde, an art exhibit co-sponsored by the Russian and British government, being held in a Moscow museum, where patrons in Russia will be able to see a live stream video of the SL installation, which features the work of several Second Life artists who've created renditions of famous Russian avant garde art. It was put together by Dutch artist Saskia Boddeke (Rose Borchovski in SL) and acclaimed UK filmmaker Peter Greenaway, who've assembled some talented SL-based artists to present:

Want to Attend the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Expo Ft. Philip Rosedale & Oculus Rift Founder Palmer Luckey? Get the New World Notes $100 Discount!

The Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Expo happens next May 19-20 in, well, Silicon Valley, and will feature keynote talks from Philip Rosedale and Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey. Lucky for NWN readers, SVVR organizer Karl Krantz is a New World Notes reader too, and was generous enough to give us a special $100 discount code:

ESA's 2014 Demographic Report Offers Cold Hard Facts About The Gaming Public

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

The Entertainment Software Association's 2014 report, "Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry" dropped yesterday and it's full of exactly what the name suggests: Essential facts. While there's loads of juicy consumer info about age, gender, and family gaming habits, here are just a few data points that really stand out:

Nintendo's Upcoming Tomodachi Life Teases Zany Dreams (and Nightmares)

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

I am still unbelievably excited for Tomodachi Life, the english version of Japanese friendship sim Tomodachi Collection: New Life for 3DS, and I'd say this new video from Nintendo demonstrates why pretty clearly.

Tomodachi Life mixes mundane day-to-day existence with some of the most insane, ridiculous, out-of-nowhere interactions you can imagine, constantly taking you by surprise. It's so enchanting that I've been dipping back into the previous game, with the help of an english fan patch, and it even has some pretty interesting dream sequences of its own...

It's The Sims meets Animal Crossing, as I mentioned the last time I wrote about it, and if the previous game is any indication, Tomodachi Life will be full of surprises. 

Second Life User: High Fidelity Has Better Social Presence

New Scientist reporter Samantha Murphy got an advance preview of Philip Rosedale's new VR-powered virtual world from High Fidelity, and unlike many other reporters, she's also actually used Philip's previous world, Second Life:

I had a few issues with Second Life. I often conducted interviews there, but my painstakingly created avatar would often appear half-naked, with an arm stuck awkwardly above its head or facing a wall. So when Rosedale invited me to be the first to interview him in High Fidelity, I jumped at the chance.

And here's what she experienced:

OpenWorm Kickstarter: Support Development of the First Digital Organism -- And Get a Copy for Your Browser!

OpenWorm: A Digital Organism In Your Browser is a new Kickstarter to fund the expansion of the open source digital life project I wrote about here and also here, a collaborative attempt to construct an artificial life form from the cellular level to the point where it's able to have basic problem-solving abilities. Let's watch:

Kickstarter page here and a blog post from the OpenWorm team here. And yes, as project coordinator Stephen Larson tells me, developers are free to import the OpenWorm code into Second Life (or wherever else), and use it to build their own forms of artificial life: "100% of the code is open source on GitHub under the OpenWorm organization. The coding skill required to adapt it into SL may be challenging, but in principle there is nothing stopping the SL community from doing this and we would support anyone who wants to take that up!"

If you pledge enough to the Kickstarter, you get a copy of the OpenWorm, called WormSim, to play with on your browser -- and if you like, hack the code and develop/improve it:

"WormSim is our way of putting a name to the experience and ease of use of exploring the OpenWorm simulation through the browser," Larson tells me. "For this Kickstarter we are doing the engineering work that will enable us to host that code as a service, ensuring that it will be up and easy to use for the Kickstarter backers. But as the OpenWorm simulation improves we will continually update WormSim with improvements from the community. WormSim is the convenient vehicle for the entire open science project, so inspiring community improvement is in fact its whole purpose."

But, I ask Larson, how does he know the OpenWorm project isn't contributing to the ultimate creation of a completely artificial sentient life form that will turn against humankind and enslave our children?

Iris Rants: Are These the Most Amazing Boots in Second Life, or Just Proof of How Broken the SL Markeplace Is?

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

I prefer not to write solely about my dislike for something. I don't like attack pieces. I try to balance the good and the bad, and I'd rather altogether avoid something if I can't come up with at least one constructive comment. But this time... I've absolutely had enough.

This time, let me tell you... I never want to see these goddamned boots again.

Why SL's First Time User Experience is So Difficult to Fix

Many SLers are watching and wincing at this video of first time users falling from the sky and wandering into the water, and wondering why Linden Lab doesn't just fix this now, immediately, yesterday:

There's a very good reason for that. Actually, at least five reasons, but likely many more: