New World Notes

Linden Lab Secretly Building New SL Continent With Friendly Emoji Island

New analysis of the Second LIfe grid from expert Tyche Shepherd uncovers a secret new continent emerging from the digital waters:

A brand new 80 region terraformed continent appeared on the grid last week. Currently closed to the public it's composed of 80 moderate rated contiguous regions names SSP1 to SSP80, I'm assuming these are Lab owned (though it's nearest neighbours are Private Estates) and have marked them as Linden Lab owned.

For her Grid Survey analytics reports, Tyche has created a fleet of bots which scout the Second Life grid, looking for new sims and the disappearance of old ones. (Though thanks to the recent discount on sims, less are disappearing lately.) And since those bots are usually first to spot new land, the little emoji island seems to be a friendly trolling message directed specifically at Tyche:

Inworldz's Relaunch as Islandz Inevitably Beset by IP Rights Protest Drama

Since posting about community members of the now defunct Inworldz rallying to crowdfund a new OpenSim-based world called Islandz early last week,  the comment thread has been overwhelmed by angry complaints from Inworldz users, mainly protesting the ownership status of Inworldz's back-up OAR files, and their rights over them. Difficult for me to piece out which allegations are accurate, but Chic Aeon summarizes the ensuing complaints quite well, responding to a complaint from the apparent leader of the Elf Clan, which moved its roleplaying community from SL to InWorldz many years ago:

We always have risks. We lose our digital goods. It happens. It frequently happens in SL simply because of database failures. So we don't even need to be part of a defunct grid to watch our items disappear into the mist. I have copies of all my items uploaded into Inworldz. Hopefully your clan members do also. They of course have no rights to movable copies of items they purchased unless that was an agreement with the content creator (at least one texture store OKed movement to another grid but that is the only one I have heard about).

So we will see what happens but I am guessing that things are going to either die quickly or get VERY messy here soon. :D

If things weren't messy, it wouldn't be the metaverse now would it?

Top 6 New World Notes Posts from Last Week: Avatars with Stretch Marks, a Mobile Viewer for Second Life, and Much More

• Cassie's Clips: Previewing The Amazing New Lelutka Axis HUD For Customizing Highly Detailed SL Avatar Expressions
• High Fidelity's Stable, User-Friendly Blockchain-Based Cryptocurrency Now Exchangeable For US Dollars
• Sansar Concurrency Remains Flat Despite New Hangout Space For Major ESports Brand
• Now Popular In Second Life: Realistic Imperfection, Including Cellulite & Stretch Marks For Female Avatars
• Community Members Of Defunct Inworldz Rally To Crowdfund New World
• Linden Lab Creating IOS & Android Versions Of SL, Job Listing Suggests

Cassie's Clips: Previewing the Amazing New Lelutka Axis HUD for Customizing Highly Detailed SL Avatar Expressions

This week exclusive to New World Notes, SL YouTuber Cassie Middles demos the Lelutka Axis Heads Up Display, a Bento-based tool for modifying Second Life avatar facial expressions with incredible detail -- an item Cassie loves quite a lot: "Seriously my favorite thing I've ever bought in Second Life." Just watch the video to see why! 

Along with her in-depth, three part video series, here's some Cassie tips for using it: 

"Definitely check out the website, they give amazing advice, and look at the HUD info button. It explains the HUD in amazing detail so that you should have no questions. I did notice that any bones for other HUDs that work with the head [Lelutka HUD and Anypose HUD] won't work if touching the head as well. There is also a demo for this both in the in-world shop and on the Marketplace, with links included in the description." Check Cassie's video on YouTube for those links.

Another feature Cassie didn't get to try out for these videos, but definitely worth playing with -- shared group expressions: "You can control three other people near you, as long as they accept the permissions."

Here's some tips for using the HUD for taking highly expressive SL pics -- and a special HUD giveaway offer from Cassie:

Tutorial: How to Start Editing Archimatix Models in Real Time in Sinespace

Since Upload VR featured the new Archimatix support for real-time, multi-user 3D modeling in Sinespace (a NWN partner!), there's been questions from new users about how to get started. Thanks to Sinespace's Dolome Demonia, here's some basic tips, after you've created a free account:

Virtual Breasts With Veins & Stretch Marks Now on Sale, Capitalizing on Second Life Fashion Trend for Realistic Imperfection

Breast Veins & Stretch Marks are a new accessory for Second Life avatars, created by Izzie Button, whose Cellulite & Stretch Marks for female avatars have become an unexpected hit.

"After the release of the cellulite/stretch marks," Izzie tells me, "the response was huge and many people requested stretch marks on breasts, arms, stomach as well, so I made them. " She had planned on creating them before the cellulite/stretch marks went on sale. "I was just waiting to see how the response would be before I release more of something that nobody wants," she says, laughing. "I'm glad people enjoy them."

Today, in fact, you can get them for just 50 Lindens (roughly 25 US cents) for Fifty Linden Friday in Izzie's in-world store. (Teleport here). You can see the before and after the break (NSFW, obvi), illustrating how Izzie's enhancement turns an avatar's breasts into something that much more resembles the breasts of an actual woman: 

High Fidelity's Stable, User-Friendly Blockchain-Based Cryptocurrency Now Exchangeable for US Dollars

Philip Rosedale's been talking about it for years, and now it's finally here -- the blockchain-based cryptocurrency for his social VR world High Fidelity can now be exchanged for US$:

High Fidelity users can now convert High Fidelity Coin (HFC) into U.S. dollars. This opens the possibility for people to earn real money creating and selling virtual goods and services within High Fidelity. We see this as a vital step in the emergence of a thriving High Fidelity economy: the flywheel of innovation and creativity in any marketplace starts when creators have positive incentives to contribute to the growing body of content for sale. In time, we hope creators will be able to support themselves by selling items in the Marketplace, charging for the experiences they create, and offering useful in-world services to other creators and performers.

This is noteworthy for at least a couple reasons. Unlike most (all?) other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, HFC is tied to the US dollar (the rate is fixed at 100 HFC = 1 USD), with supply tightly controlled by High Fidelity the company, to prevent inflation. Also noteworthy that this is among the first (only?) blockchain-based currency connected to a seamless consumer experience. As Philip told me last year:

Sansar Concurrency Remains Flat Despite New Hangout Space for Major ESports Brand

Last week, Linden Lab began promoting Sansar's Greenwall VR, a social VR hangout space for OpTic Gaming™ , a massive eSports gaming brand with 3 million+ followers on Twitter and 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube; the OpTic team has been helping too, tweeting about the site and even shooting videos in it (below).

So far, however, all this promotion hasn't translated into growing traffic into Sansar. According to data that Linden Lab provides through a back-end API (chart above), visits to Sansar's public spaces have not improved since the Greenwall launch, with daily average concurrency remaining at well under 20 uniques, total.

This is pretty surprising -- and to me, even more noteworthy than Sansar's Ready Player One experience from earlier this year:

Now Popular in Second Life: Realistic Imperfection, Including Cellulite & Stretch Marks for Female Avatars

From Izzie Button's sales blog

There's a hot new avatar fashion enhancement in the virtual world of Second Life, but it's more real than many might expect. Ever since creator Izzie Button put her Cellulite & Stretch Marks for female avatars on sale last week, they've been moving like mad.

"Sales have been really good," she tells me, "a lot better than expected to be honest. On SL Marketplace, it is my #1 best selling item now, with four 5-star reviews in only 1 day. I've gotten mainly positive feedback from customers about them and lots of requests to do more stretch marks/cellulite on other body parts too."

It's an unexpected trend in an online world where the avatar beauty standard skews to thin young women with nary a blemish or ounce of fat anywhere. And, in fact, she's had some complaints:

Survey: In Which Virtual Worlds Do You Have a User Account?

Click here to take a survey by metaverse blogger Ryan Schultz, asking you to select all the virtual worlds that you have an account for. Not the virtual worlds that you currently use, mind, but those in which you have a user account, i.e. those that you've tried at least once. Ryan has done a great service by listing dozens of options, including many you probably haven't heard of, and many you might have played literally back in the 90s. (Hello, Active Worlds!) So this is a good way to see not just what's popular now, but over several lifecycles of the industry.

At right are the current top results, but they're likely to change. Ryan tells me he'll run this survey until August 31st, and post results the very next day, so be sure to take it by then, and consider sharing with fellow gamers/virtual worlders, so we have as big a data sample as possible. Click below to share, click here to take.