New World Notes

Inside Remnants of the Earth: How a Young Novice With No Game Industry Experience Created a Hit MMO in Second Life

“Melna Milos” is the avatar name of the 26 year old lead creator of Remnants of Earth, a Second Life-based mini-MMO recently featured on Kotaku, other top game media outlets (and first here, on New World Notes). The surprising thing is that Melna has no prior game industry experience, he tells me, and doesn’t even know how to script.

“RoE has been a dream reached for me," says Melna. "Ever since I picked up my first MMO, Ragnarok Online, back in the early 2000's, I grew obsessed with creating my own RPG or MMO. I never thought anyone would be interested in my dumb ideas in a million years.”

Now running for over a year, Remnants already had a fan base before Kotaku and other sites picked it up -- since that coverage, however, the userbase has gone way up:

“We had about 1400+ players registered in the main group before the [coverage],” he tells me. Afterward, “It jumped to about 1700+ in 4 days…. [T]this rise in traffic has been crazy, but nothing we can't handle!” New players piled into Second Life, asking questions about how to play what’s basically a fairly complicated RPG tabletop game which takes place in a virtual world. Fortunately, his existing players have helped welcome them: “They even made a newbie start guide for the new faces and stood in the [entrance] helping them all. I am very proud of my community for being so open and helpful.” [Update: Get that guide here.]

This is the story of Remants of Earth: How Melna and his team created it, how it’s played, and his future plans. Read on!

Iris Wants to Know: Ever Put Your Virtual Life on Hiatus?

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

We've all thought about it. Whether you're a dedicated Second Life user or your online connections lie in social media or even along your guildies, sometimes you can help but think about taking a break. And some of us even manage to do so successfully, slipping free of digital commitments for a month or two and coming back bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. It's a particularly common thought to have around this time of year, too. Spending a bitter winter cooped up with your screens can sure make you yearn for anything but that.

Not all of us have actually done it, though, no matter how often we consider it. I've thought about it as much as anyone, but at the end of the day my own hands are somewhat tied -- and that's why I want to hear from you.

What Are the Top Car Brands in Second Life? One Hardcore Enthusiast Recommends These Five

I was recently talking with London Callin, a longtime enthusiast of Second Life vehicles, and asked her what brands were the best. She recommended these five as the very best:

• Wheel Arch Angels
• Potato Chips
• McCarty Motorworks
• ST4NCED (pictured above right)
• Summer Days (pictured above left)

Interesting that only one of her top five has a brand name that sounds like actual car brand. She also mentioned a couple stores with "some amazing accessories" for vehicles:

Second Life Fashion Designer's Glorious Rant About Rude and Entitled Customers is a Must-Read

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

When you hear stories about just how awful people can be to customer service representatives on the phone or even face-to-face, it's not that surprising that in a largely anonymous virtual space things can get even more dehumanizing. It's not unheard of for a peeved customer to wish death on someone providing them with support for their virtual fashion or goods, or to viciously insult the store and its products, even when the CSR in question also happens to be the owner/designer themselves. 

Long-time Second Life designer David W. Heather (a.k.a. Gianni Broda) had such an encounter recently, and it inspired him to go on an angry (but fair) rant on Facebook about customer entitlement in both physical and virtual spaces. Here's what he had to say:

Comedian Who Got His Start Performing Live in Second Life from Pakistan Gets His Own Show on the BBC

Seven years ago, a comedian named Sami Shah who lived in Pakistan used to perform live stand-up in various Second Life venues -- including (see above) the post-apocalyptic Wasteland, where he told jokes about the Taliban, terrorism, and other current events topics in the avatar of a chimpanzee, to an audience of robots, cyber-warriors, and other strange denizens. Since then, Sami left Pakistan (in part to escape death threats provoked by his pointed humor about religion), becoming a rising star in his new home of Australia. And last night, he made this awesome announcement on Twitter:

Be in the audience at my BBC Radio 4 show, "A Beginners Guide to Pakistan", 11/05: http://t.co/2CY9X80o0U

— Sami Shah (@samishah) April 15, 2015

That's right: A man who got his start performing comedy as an avatar chimp in a futuristic hellscape in the metaverse now has his own radio show on the world's largest and most prestigious radio network. And yes, Sami credits his performances in Second Life as helping kickstart his comedy career. As he told me a couple years ago:

High Fidelity Enters Open Alpha With Many Updates, Including Oculus Setup & Marketplace

The High Fidelity website has a bunch of updates and new content in the wake of Philip Rosedale's new virtual world/VR platform launching in open Alpha a couple weeks ago -- including an introduction video featuring a fairly spooky-looking avatar:

Oculus Rift set-up is covered too:

Reddit's Largest Second Life Group Bans SL Griefing Videos

The moderators of /r/secondlife (which has really become a very active and interesting SL user group of late), recently announced a fairly controversial policy: No more Second Life trolling videos. Which, as I wrote last week, have probably become the main thing Second Life is most known for, among YouTube viewers. So no more "Esteban Winsmore" videos (Google him, if you like) on/secondlife. In making the announcement, moderator /zebragrrl made an interesting point which I also largely disagree with:

As a moderator, I want to tell you that I thought a lot about this. Esteban's videos are very funny. He's a talented comedian, with a great sense of comedic timing. As a long time SL user, I really do enjoy his unexpected altercations with people. He's basically doing Borat in SL.

I know where she's going with the Borat comparison, but personally I don't think any of the well-known griefers can hold a candle to Sacha Baron Cohen in full Borat mode at his best. But the comparison is a good one, because it helps us distinguish between griefing, and Borat-style comedy:

Second Life Answers: Like Yahoo Answers (Just With Way Less Trolling)

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

If you don't poke around the Second Life website much these days then you may not have noticed the Answers section, a place where the concerned and confused can go to have fellow users answer basic questions they may have. It's a bit like Yahoo Answers but with a lot less trolling. In fact the infinite, cheerful patience of the folks toiling away in SL Answers is kind of refreshing to behold.

Even some of the silliest questions you can imagine earn sincere and straight-faced responses. Questions like...

Bright Canopy Startup Promises Second Life Streaming So Great, "You Won't Miss SL Go"

Bright Canopy is the name of a brand new service in beta which offers streaming Second Life "straight to your device - Android, iOS, Chromebook, Mac, Linux, anywhere", promising that even though SL Go is gone, "You won't miss it."  

That's a bold statement, but it's backed up by two Silicon Valley figures leading the project: Bill Glover, Founder of Bright Canopy, was a Senior Java Architect at Sun Microsystems (among many other impressive roles/companies), and Canopy is using technology from Frame, a widely-covered Valley startup which enables software to run from a browser, and counts giants like Adobe and Siemens as other clients.

Glover isn't just an established technologist, but a longtime Second Life user (avatar name: Chaos Priestman).

"The idea behind Bright Canopy is to make sure that anyone who wants to get into SL can do so on the hardware they have at a price they can afford," he tells me. "I think SL is wonderful, creative place and it has a lot more to give the world. I met my wife at the Blarney Stone in the Dublin sim. We've been married for almost seven years now. That's over 1000 SL years. I've met people there I never would have met otherwise, and seen prim hair that will scar me for life. Everyone should have that opportunity."

Now with Bright Canopy, everyone may get that chance. Here's a look at Glover in Second Life's Dublin sim, running Bright Canopy:

This Game of Thrones SL Cosplay Pic Wins the Crown

Game of Thrones avatar cosplay is fairly popular in Second Life, and now that the new season is here, likely to get more popular still, but this epic group pic by KaraLee Aeon, featuring all the GoT characters still alive as this season starts, wins the crown so far. (Not totally convinced by little Tyrion over there, but nice try.) Also see this version by billibobbi, with extra processing for the glory of Winterfell. KaraLee has a full list of cast and costume credits, with close-up details for Khaleesi.

This pic will actually be featured in full glory for a cover feature from Cultured, the Magazine, which is doing an in-depth report on SL-based Game of Thrones roleplay. (Editor in chief Cali Karsin just told me.) So keep a black watch for that.

Meantime, here's some other GoT/SL cosplay in SL to get you in the mood: