New World Notes

Linden Lab Makes Workforce Reduction Layoffs Impacting 12, Says Source; UPDATE: Linden Lab Confirms "Minor Team Reorganizations"

UPDATE, 4:35pm: A Linden Lab spokesperson passed along this statement: "[W]e have not had major layoffs.  As with all companies, occasionally at Linden there are minor team reorganizations to optimize things internally." 

A highly reliable source tells me Linden Lab recently made workforce staff reductions. This may or not be related to a former Linden staffer on Glass Door claiming "Massive layoffs, but got rid of the wrong people" last week. According to my source, however, this most recent layoff impacted about a dozen employees: "It was like one person from each department, totaling 12, I believe," my source tells me. "I think it's mostly shared staff -- web stuff, IT stuff, payment stuff."

Linden Lab has about 200+ employees, so this would be a relatively modest work staff reduction. (I have, of course, asked Linden Lab for comments on this report and will update this post when and if they reply.) Contrast, for instance, with the 2010 layoff which cut 30% of Linden Lab staff.

In any case, it's still a noteworthy reduction, pointing to two likely factors:

WATCH: The Simpsons' "Steamed Hams" Scene Amazingly Recreated "Live" in High Fidelity With Actors Using Vive Motion Trackers

OK this is pretty amazing -- YouTuber "Vern Real" downloaded 3D models and characters from The Simpsons from various online sources, and recreated the show's classic "Steamed Hams" scene with Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers on his High Fidelity server. The real kicker, as Vern tells me, is the lip sync and character movements were recreated "live" in High Fidelity with two actors wearing avatar models of Skinner and Chalmers, who fully acted out their performance with Vive motion trackers:

Ready Player One Posters Also Eerily Remind Me Second Life Ads

The latest trailer for Spielberg's Ready Player One adaptation eerily seems like a commercial for Second Life, and now a new series of Ready Player One posters remind me of various ad campaigns for SL too, contrasting the player (depicted in their street clothes) with
the avatar they use in the metaverse. (And as it happens, "Artemis" was also the avatar name for a very early SL user who was featured in Wired magazine's 2006 cover story.)

I will say "An adventure too big for the real world" is probably a better tagline than SL's "Your world, your imagination", in the sense that more consumers want an immediate idea of what they can do in another world (i.e. adventure!) rather than just getting a less tangible, more intimidating invite to just use "your imagination". So basically, a major Hollywood studio is now indirectly doing the marketing work for Sansar and High Fidelity, the follow-ups to Second Life, along with all the other new social VR worlds. 

Click here to see all the posters, including the lead character's avatar, Parzival, and Aech, whose garage is now featured in Sansar.  

Top Five New World Notes Posts from Last Week!

• How VRChat Can Succeed Like The Sims & Minecraft: Simple Creation Tools
• Yes, You Can Be Black Panther In Second Life (At Least Until Marvel Frowns)
• Despite Heavy Promotion To A Huge Audience, Hardly Anyone Seems To Be Experiencing The Olympics In VR
• Salon Becomes First News Site To Monetize Through Cryptocurrency Mining
• Facebook Use Refutes The "Real Name Accounts = More Civil Behavior" Argument

Watch: How to Make Custom Skins, Makeup & Tattoos for Sinespace Avatars

If you're into creating avatar customizations, you might want to watch this tutorial for customizing skins, make-up, and tattoos in Sinespace, the upcoming Unity-based virtual world (a proud NWN media partner!), given by lead developer Adam Frisby. As always, if you have questions about anything covered here, post in Comments and I'll nudge Adam to answer when available.

How VRChat Can Succeed Like the Sims & Minecraft: Simple Creation Tools

The IBM blog has a good story by Cole Stryker on the (relative) success of VRChat, and Cole kindly incorporated some of my thoughts on that front:

The trick, it seems, is to provide smart moderation tools that allow for some amount of mischief without letting the anarchy turn VRChat into a miserable experience for those who wish to use it in good faith. According to Au, the ease of use of these tools also presents a barrier to mass adoption. “The Sims franchise and Minecraft show that there is a pretty large, pretty mainstream audience for user creativity, but that depends on making the creative tools fairly easy to use,” he says. “If VRChat can follow their lead—using the VRChat SDK is pretty daunting to most users—they could enjoy similar success.”

And yes, the temple pictured above is actually from VRChat -- that's how good it can look when it's not getting choked over by trolls. (Hat tip: Patchouli) Challenge is, if you can't use VRChat's Unity SDK, you're more likely to be a troll -- or a troll target.

WATCH: The Latest Ready Player One Trailer Focuses So Much on the OASIS It Almost Seems Like a Commercial for Second Life

Previous trailers delved more deeply into the larger adventure story and the dystopian future world described in Ernest Cline's novel, but this one focuses almost entirely on the metaverse known as the OASIS -- the relationship between people and their avatars, the reasons they use it, and the friendships they create with each other when they're there, eerily evoking Second Life's original tagline: "Your world, your imagination."

WATCH: Sneak Peak of "Tilt A Whirl", the Latest Immersive Poem by Bryn Oh

Here's a beautiful and moody sneak peak at the latest installation by acclaimed metaverse artist Bryn Oh, a 3D poem called "Tilt-a-Whirl", part of an unfolding story and an insight into the life of the real person behind the avatar:

"My artwork within Second Life for the past decade has been a type of diary," she explains. "Each work touches upon parts of my life which I then fashion into a narrative in order for me to better reflect on these things which, in some ways, consume me:  

Yes, You Can Be Black Panther in Second Life (At Least Until Marvel Frowns)

The upcoming Black Panther movie is already a cultural phenomenon before its premiere in the US next weekend, so it's not surprising that Black Panther avatars have been available in the Second Life market for at least the last few weeks. Here's one (pictured above) which uses SL's latest Bento technology for highly articulated avatar movement, including working claws. Customer reviews are quite good:

I bought 3 black panther avatars last week, one cost me more the other was cheap but this the best of 3 by far. Great details in texture, shine on metal parts and suit lining and bento hands. <3 wow

Price to be this Black Panther? L$800 (about $3.25). Price for people going "Whoa!" when you leap your Black Panther self into a crowd of newbies in the Welcome Area? Priceless.

And as that review above suggests, there's many Black Panthers being sold in Second Life at the moment:

Couple Turns Their Business Selling Virtual Sex Toys Into a Real Life Romance

A classic NWN story for Valentine's Day:

It’s not often that two people who've spent so much time creating simulations of passion get a chance to engage in the thing itself, together. So later on, I ask Snow Hare about the impact of their avatar lovemaking on what eventually became a real relationship.

“It wasn’t the only reason that we decided to move onto real life,” she tells me. “As everybody knows, there’s more to a relationship than sex. But I would say yes, it did have an impact, positive, in such a way that I knew what to expect… before real life, I knew what he liked and enjoyed, and vice versa. Since we were honest with each other and were very compatible, it was easy to know what to expect in real life.”

“[I]t was almost like meeting an old friend and a lot of the nervousness of a first date wasn't there,” Phil tells me later. “This medium definitely lets two people share their feelings and desires for one another and that is a powerful thing in itself.”

Read the rest here.