New World Notes

This Month Play a Japanese Horror Game in Second Life

This month there's a Japanese horror game in Second Life, and even the screenshots creep the crap out of me. You can click to start playing Kagami in SL here, visit the official web page here, and as a great place to learn more, read this blog about the game from Quan Lavender (originator of those images what creeped me). The premise is pretty fascinating:

Life is Strange: The Developers of Remember Me Are Back With a Game About Time Travelling Teenagers

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

For me, one of the most exciting pieces of news out of European game industry conference Gamescom this week has been the next project from DONTNOD Entertainment, the team behind Remember Me. Life is Strange is being pitched as a story about teenage girls, relationships, and time travel, and here's why I can't wait to get my hands on it:

Here's How the Developer of Gunpoint Confronted a So-Called Ripoff of His Popular Infiltration Game

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

Tom Francis is a game journalist turned indie developer who evidently has a solid sense of humor. Last year he released Gunpoint, a highly acclaimed 2D game about stealth, confrontation and office-building infiltration. This year, Francis caught wind of a game named Ronin that looked suspiciously similar to his own, and whose creator brazenly referred to it as a "Gunpoint ripoff". So Francis did what anyone would do: He recorded a video of himself playing Ronin because, in his words, "it's really fucking cool."

Francis is quick to point out in his blog post on the subject (which bears the slightly deceptive title "It's Time I Did Something about This 'Gunpoint Ripoff'") that Ronin isn't actually ripping off Gunpoint at all. The inspiration there is clear, but as far as Francis is concerned Ronin is a game that stands on its own, and Gunpoint was designed to inspire in the first place. He writes:

Acclaimed Second Life Creator Alina Lyvette Describes Her First Life in Putin's Russia

When she's not updating her popular Lumiya Second Life viewer for mobile, or enjoying life below the virtual sea as a mermaid avatar, Alina Lyvette contends with a fairly grim real life lived as an LGBT person in Putin's Russia. She recently shared her experiences there with me, and with Russia so much in the news of late, it's important I share her insights here too:

"How does it feel here?" Alina begins. "Guess it's telling enough to say that every morning I'm scanning the local news to find out whether Mr. Putin has started the war or not... yet. Maybe the best word to describe the overall feeling there is 'uncertainty'. Things are unraveling at a frightening pace. Now, it's year 2014 and we have the new legislation (passed unanimously, of course) which introduces jail terms for publicly expressing discontent with Putin's policies, and the ban on food imports... in a country which imports approximately half of its food products, and on, and on. Politically, the local opposition is generally silent - which is not really surprising, given the fact that opposition leaders are either behind the bars or has fled the country. We had one relatively independent news channel (the Rain TV) which is now banned from broadcasting over cable or satellites.. and of course, they were never allowed to broadcast over the air - which is how the absolute majority of population receives the signal.

"Putin's brainwashing machine is going full steam ahead - with all the usual tools which would make Dr. Goebbels happy, like using fake imagery and staged video in the news, thoroughly mixed with outright lies and hysteria - unsurprisingly, leading to the skyrocketing figures of Mr. Putin's ratings (86% last time if I'm not mistaken, and I'm rather surprised that it's not 99%. From these figures, one can easily derive that 14% of the local population doesn't watch TV).

"One good side-effect of this, though," she continues. "is that LGBT bashing is not the mainstream topic anymore (and, unsurprisingly again, as soon as the propaganda machine has stopped to stir up the topic, the general public entirely stopped being concerned about it. My favorite local club is open again.

"Interestingly, speaking about economics, things are not too bad, compared to what could be expected. Obviously food prices are on the rise as well as unemployment, but nothing overly dramatic so far. Local news say that the market for luxury cars has fell down 22% from the previous year... who cares?  As long as milk goes for about $1 per liter, life is good. Of course it was half that only a year ago, but... it's still cheap.

"In the other developments... hm, our authorities (should I put this word in quotes?) recently decided to ban public Wi-Fi. Well, not exactly... they've introduced a requirement of establishing user's identity when providing public Wi-Fi services, which in practice means a ban. Well, ok, 3G works just as well for me.

"And oh, something that didn't make the news... a few days ago, there was an announcement of upcoming 'emergency' President's address to the nation, which magically disappeared from the news after a couple of hours, and on the next day, we've been enlightened to learn that Mr. Putin has quietly fired top 18 officers of what is our local counterpart of FBI - obviously sparking rumors about a failed coup attempt. One goes figuring...

"So, life is interesting, and I sincerely hope that this insanity will come to an end before something dreadful happens. Of course, me being a mere mortal, but I sincerely agree with Angela Merkel's assessment of Mr. Putin when, after a round of talks, she has been quoted as saying that 'he appears to live in his own imaginary world.'

In this climate it might seem strange to spend so much time working on a Second Life viewer for Android devices, but for Alina, doing so is a kind of sanctuary:

80 Days Delivers the Smart Steampunk iOS Travel Sim You Never Knew You Wanted

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

Transit. That's when I typically bring my phone up for gaming. I'll flit between email, Twitter and a short gasp of play like Threes if it's a jaunt to the mall, something more substantial if I'm expecting to be out for a while. It's mostly a means of distraction while I'm away from the more rooted experience of gaming at my desk. With that in mind, the irony that Jules Verne inspired iOS game 80 Days held my attention while I was entirely stationary isn't lost on me.

From the gaslit streets of London to clear skies over Cairo, carried by the groaning legs of the ambulatory marvel of Agra or a boat permeated by the scent of overripe bananas, the places you go and the ways you get there are only ever half the story...

Despite Little Growth in Bitcoin Usage, Leading VC Marc Andreessen Still Bullish on Virtual Currency

Last January I had an interesting conversation with web browser pioneer and leading venture capitalist Marc Andreessen after he wrote a New York Times essay on why Bitcoin is so important to the future of the Internet. He was bullish despite little growth in actual usage of Bitcoin, and since then, usage still remains low. (It's grown slightly in recent weeks, as this chart captured at left shows, but is still below its peak transaction rate in January.) This despite the fact that media attention and investment in Bitcoin projects has continued to be pretty active, with Bitcoin ATM machines appearing around the world (with the latest one just announced), top retailers like Dell supporting Bitcoin, and even Hollywood nail salons accepting the virtual currency as payment. Despite all this surface activity, Bitcoin is still regularly used as money only about as much as the Seychellois rupee, official currency of the Republic of Seychelles, off the coast of East Africa (population: 84,000).

All that in mind, I wondered if the continued slow growth of Bitcoin usage had made Andreessen less bullish on its future. I put that question to him on Twitter, and this conversation followed:

A Second Life Public Service Announcement: Here's Why Free L$ Cheats Don't Work

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

When I go on YouTube to search for the latest and greatest Second Life machinima, there are three types of videos that never fail to make up the majority of the results: SL birthing videos (not my thing, but no judgement), SL griefing videos (apparently it's still 2009), and SL "money hacks". Every day a new SECOND LIFE CHEAT INFINITE MONEY!!!! video pops up, and I'm sure it's not because no one is falling for it. Someone has to be watching these, downloading the shady programs linked in the description, and trying to use them.

I'm writing this for those people, so listen up. It is absolutely not possible to cheat your way to free L$ like you can in most other games, and here's why:

How GTA is Like Barbie: NWN's Janine "Iris" Hawkins Explodes Game Stereotypes in Her 1st Paste Magazine Post!

"How Grand Theft Auto is Like Barbie" is a new post for the prestigious culture/style site Paste Magazine, and I'm very proud to announce it's by New World Notes' longtime senior writer Janine "Iris" Hawkins, who's been covering virtual world/gaming topics here since 2006. I often say Janine is destined for great things in game writing, and this new article for Paste, read by millions every month, is a great milestone in that direction. So if you're a fan of Iris' writing, please consider reading and sharing the post on Twitter and beyond.

The post itself is pretty interesting whether or not you're a fan of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, because as Iris often does here, she explodes the stereotype that virtual fashion games are "just for girls". By contrast, the GTA games, which are very much targeted at the gamer dude demographic, have a lot of virtual fashion too, with options ever increasing from sequel to sequel:

Finally, Anyone Can Access The Sims 4 Create-A-Sim Demo

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

The Sims 4 Create-A-Sim Demo, released one month ago to select accounts on EA's digital distribution plaform Origin, is now finally available to everyone. The demo offers players a peek at character creation and customization tools in The Sims 4, and allows them to share and browse created sims online. Currently players can only create young adult sims, and clothing options appear to be limited compared to the full version used in videos and press material. Even so, it's a useful way to get a feel for the new customization systems that will be offered when the game is released this September.

Here's how to pick up the demo for yourself:

RIP Robin Williams, Roleplay Gamer

I distinctly remember there was a late night talk show where the late, beloved Robin Williams enthused about playing an avatar in Second Life, but until Google (or a helpful reader!) can cough it up, this lovely video will suffice:

Robin Williams was a gamer, and quite prominently, a roleplay gamer, lover of the Zelda series (after which he named his daughter), but also Wizardry and the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons too. All this deep geekery of his is usually characterized as some quirky-silly hobby, but to me, it's clear it was far more than that to him: Rather, the thing in Robin Williams that drew him to roleplay gaming is the same aspect of his nature that made him so beloved. Listen: