New World Notes

The Second Life Community Should Lead the New Virtual Reality Wave, Not Follow It

Veteran virtual world content creator Maxwell Graf has an interesting and fairly inspiring (if a bit too wide-rangey) post which basically argues that the Second Life community should lead the new wave of VR, not follow it:

Ideally, the concept of a metaverse is the total of combined applications across various virtual worlds through the perspective of an identity which remains constant across all of them. The coming storm of digital reality will eventually produce a true metaverse, a new blank canvas which will be covered by the paint of humanity and its many colors. When they arrive, it is my hope that the community of Second Life will be there, waiting, to help them understand what to do with it all. Going forward it is imperative that we be there in order to share our experience and what we have learned, to preserve the foundation of community which we have so carefully crafted so that it can be incorporated into the future and kept from being lost. Therein lies a legacy and a destiny. As we begin the next chapter of our digital lives with Project Sansar starting this week, let us attempt to show the rest of the world our example. Let us lead them, not just be ahead of them. Let us light the path.

Also, love the steampunky VR image (excerpted above) Max created for the post. It's well-worth a read, even I don't entirely agree with it here and there. Such as:

Interesting Potatoes is an Artfully Ironic SL Fashion Blog

Interesting Potatoes by "littabit" is among the most artful Second Life fashion blogs I've ever seen, full of wry imagery and ironic juxtapositions and commentary. It's still an SL fashion blog, with links to all the items featured in each pic, but just about each pic could also be bought, framed, and sold in a Highland Park hipster art boutique. Go here to peruse.

(Much thanks to Jessica Pixel for the tip.)

Twitch Also Bans Art Games With Subversive Sexual Focus

Leigh Alexander has a really good Boing Boing post on Twitch TV's latest banhammer move against a series of games by Robert Yang which simulate interactive male nudity and sexuality for provocative, artistic ends:

These games are playful, funny, and sexy, and they provoke reflection and dialogue. Yang often reveals a thought process behind the technical decisions in his work that can be fascinatingly-congruent with the spiritual ones. But just four days after its release, Rinse and Repeat was banned from all broadcast on the online streaming community Twitch, just as Cobra Club previously was. Yang is among the most-banned developers on Twitch—perhaps an exciting status for an artist, but evidence of troubled standards for content. Twitch rules say that while occurrences of nudity or sex acts in games are "okay, so long as you do not make them a primary focus of your stream," games with nudity as a "core focus or feature" are disallowed. Under this rule, video games that feature sexualized bodies (usually women) for titillation are okay to stream, but that Yang's work centers on the vulnerability of nudity in a consensual space and other meaningful issues apparently makes it obscene.

As NWN readers know, Twitch banned Second Life from their service on similar grounds, even though SL is abundant with art installations (along with content where nudity and sex is a core feature). Fortunately, Twitch competitor YouTube Gaming has raised no such objections -- even against impromptu penis.

Buy This Second Life Shirt to Help Raise Syrian Relief Funds

Strawberry Singh has the details on a cool SL-based campaign to help with the horrible Syrian refugee crisis: Buy this virtual tank top (above) featuring some really beautiful original art evoking the crisis, and all Linden Dollar proceeds are turned into RL cash that's donated to the World Food Programme. (Other fashions are available.) Looks like the fashions are only available in-world, not on the SL Marketplace: Click here to teleport to the SL kiosk.

If you use a third part SL viewer, here's the map link to copy/paste:

Will Oculus Medium Become VR's Default 3D Building Tool?

Among all the announcements at Oculus Connect 2, so far Oculus Medium is the most interesting to me by far -- watch:

In his keynote talk, Mark Zuckerberg described Medium this way:

[A] 3D sculpting tool for creating art with other people inside VR. Every platform has its Paint app, and this is ours for the virtual world.

That may imply collaborative creation among multiple users, but so far details on that point seem scant. In any case, one of my immediate thoughts watching this was, "Bye bye, Maya."

Watch & Discuss Oculus Connect 2's Live Stream Here

Oculus' 2nd annual developer conference is happening in Hollywood now, and you can watch the live video stream below:

Retail Stores Suffer as People Prefer Experiences -- Real & Virtual -- Over Things

Retail shopping chains are suffering setbacks, and here's why, from the New York Times last month:

Analysts say a wider shift is afoot in the mind of the American consumer, spurred by the popularity of a growing body of scientific studies that appear to show that experiences, not objects, bring the most happiness. The Internet is bursting with the “Buy Experiences, Not Things” type of stories that could give retailing executives nightmares. Millennials — the 20- and 30-something consumers whom marketers covet — would rather spend their hard-won cash on out-of-town vacations, meals with friends, gym memberships and, of course, their smartphones, many surveys suggest.

That instantly reminded me of a post I wrote back in 2010 citing Edward Castronova, the academic who pioneered the study of virtual world economies, "Is the Virtual Economy Contributing to Our Real World Recession?" Because look:

Let's Play-Style Visit to SL's Silent Hill-esque Ironwood Hills

Hosted by the fairly popular "Let's Play" personality veemonthedemonking (who also features many other games/platforms), here's a spooky visit to the beautifully-wrought, post-apocalyptic sim of Ironwood Hills. (Destination link to visit yourself below.)

Like I've often said, I'd love to blog many more "Let's Play" videos featuring SL, especially from longtime users, so if you're shooting some, please share links in Comments!

Want to Be a Media Partner With New World Notes?

New World Notes is open to exclusive Media Partnerships with select companies, organizations, and individuals doing compelling work in virtual worlds, virtual/augmented reality, gaming, and other immersive technology with projects and offerings that would interest NWN readers. The longest running blog focused on Second Life (launched in 2003), NWN is often featured on Boing Boing, Kotaku, and other major blogs, and has been cited by media outlets including the New York Times, the BBC, and the Washington Post. If you'd like to discuss this opportunity, contact me: wjamesau at well dot com. A typical partnership might look like this:

Watch Live OpenSim Stream Celebrating OpenSim Pioneer

Live right now, here's Jessica Pixel's stream from an OpenSim grid, a good-bye party for OpenSimulator pioneer Justin Clark-Casey. "Justin CC is a big deal in the OpenSim world," as Jessica puts it, "he was one of the major contributors, but he has to move on to other things so we're having a 'good luck have fun' party for him." And as you might have noticed, this stream is happening through YouTube's live streaming feature, so you can also participate with the OpenSim party from Jessica's YouTube page right here.