I already shared the most popular posts from 2015 last week, let's start 2016 with my own personal favorites which appeared on New World Notes-- including several not written by me:
Seeking to Uncover Grand Theft Auto V's Mysteries, Players Discover Virtual Memorial to a Second Life Pioneer
A few months ago I told you about Chris Edwards, the 3D artist who pioneered Second Life prim-based creativity, but tragically just died before turning 45. (But not before meeting the woman of his dreams, another 3D artist he met in SL.) There's now a touching coda to that, and it's the story of multiple virtual worlds and how they remember the people who mattered to them after they're gone. And it goes something like this...
Comedian Who Got His Start Performing Live in Second Life from Pakistan Gets His Own Show on the BBC
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...
Will Virtual Reality Go the Way of Videophones: Cheap & Widely Available, But Still Rarely Used?
So if you run with the videophone analogy, these stumbling blocks suggest a similar future for VR: Widely available, but for most people, only used on special occasions. Which would still mean virtual reality is an important technology, but like videophones, not exactly a thing that fundamentally changes all of our lives.
How Long Will People Stay Immersed in Virtual Reality?
"By the end of it all, the regular world was so... Regular. Even with the currently limited resolution and somewhat heavy device, you can immediately see how powerful this medium is going to become... it already works its magic on the brain pretty damn well."
Game Design Pioneer Warren Spector on the Cultural Roadblocks to Virtual Reality That Few Are Talking About
"The challenges I don't hear being addressed at all (or without appropriate seriousness) are cultural and social. Problems abound, but the big one I see are the isolating effect of simply wearing a headset. I believe most people will be genuinely frightened of and disoriented by being effectively blind to the outside world for the sake of entertainment. When you can put in a headset at E3 and not know if someone's watching you there's a problem..."
Five more beyond the break!
Black Second Life User Shares Real & Virtual Experiences With the Confederate Battle Flag
"I wish people knew how much it hurt to see the flag on TV and in places which are supposed to represent everyone in a fair manner, like court houses. I have been to places in Second Life which had the flag up... We always knew what it meant. That we and others with our color are not wanted around that area."
How Has Male Privilege Hurt Second Life's Development?
[B]ack in 2010-2011 when I first wrote about the value of Facebook integration with SL -- which Linden Lab also did, calling Facebook "The Best Place" to find Second Life content -- I was much less aware. Back then, I even talked about Facebook integration with some Linden Lab staff -- all male -- and we were all perplexed why a feature that had so much value was being resisted so vehemently by so many SLers. We men were wrong to look beyond the safety of our own perspective...
"Community Rules. Fidelity Does Not." - Second Thoughts on Virtual Reality Hype from an Ex-VR Executive
"Something I lament with other virtual world vets -- how many times have we seen a CEO at Linden Lab try to reinvent or put a shine on the technology, with Zero innovation on the community and immersive presence elements that are the whole reason SL exists? Pixel fidelity is not a selling point, sorry, never has been. Unfortunately it takes that CEO a few years to realize they just retreaded the same water as the last CEO..."
"This is Who I Am": Why a Woman With Parkinson’s Sees Both Her SL Avatar & Her Physical Body as Real (Excerpt, Coming of Age in Second Life)
"I said to Barbie 'make me blonde' and I am grey, and 'make me young' and I’m old, and so I do not look like my avatar at all. But if I look at her, I see Fran. I guess that’s who I am if I take a zipper and pull her out of me, that’s who I am."
What VR Developers Should Learn from Steve Jobs
To all appearances, Philip Rosedale's High Fidelity is an Apple II of VR. Linden Lab's Project Sansar, with its first users hand-picked Maya developers, also seems to be shaping up to be an Apple II of VR. By contrast, consider the first virtual world to launch with Oculus Rift: Minecraft. Minecraft is a Mac of VR. Simple, inviting, easy to use, fully encouraging creativity, albiet along a more limited range. But despite those limitations, the creative ecosystem of Minecraft is far larger than Second Life, High Fidelity and Sansar's predecessor...
Find your own 2015 favorites from my weekly recaps!
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