New World Notes

SL Merchant Survey: 60% Make Most Revenue from Web-Based Marketplace

Important update to last week's survey* of SL merchants : As requested by reader "Dr. Questions", here's the breakdown of 2018 earnings from the SL Marketplace (above). As you can see, only 6% sell nothing in the SL Marketplace, while just 13% make under a fourth of their sales from the Marketplace. By contrast, a large majority of merchants (60%) make most of their income from the SL marketplace. In other words, the economy of the virtual world is mostly driven by the external Linden Lab website. At the same time, only a quarter of merchants make the vast majority (over 75%) of their revenue from the Marketplace, which suggests most merchants still need an in-world shopping presence.

To further highlight the importance of the Marketplace, look at how much traffic to Secondlife.com goes to it:

Top 5 New World Notes Posts from Last Week: Lessig on MMOs & Politics, Open Source VR for Second Life, VRChat & Transcendence

• I Chat With Lawrence Lessig On What MMOs Can Teach Us About Politics IRL
• SL Merchant Survey: Seven Surprising Insights Into The Virtual Economy
• Open Source VR For Second Life Gets Up To 100 FPS, Reports Developer, Who's Seeking Vive & Oculus Users To Help Optimize For Those Headsets
• Watch: Bullied Teen With ADHD & Social Anxiety Is Eloquent & Perceptive Through His Kermit The Frog Avatar In VRChat
• Surprising SimilarWeb Stats: 1 In 4 Visits To SecondLife.Com Are Mobile; More Visits From YouTube, Than Facebook

I Chat With Lawrence Lessig on what MMOs Can Teach Us About Politics IRL

Thrilled to write this interview for Klang Games, creator of a novel MMO called Seed, which has a unique designer on the team:

Lawrence Lessig is a Harvard Law professor and a lifelong advocate for government reform; he’s argued a case before the Supreme Court, and for a brief time in 2015, even ran for President. Now, however, he’s taking on an unlikely task: Help design a video game... [He] is creating the political structure for Seed, our upcoming game in which players must collaborate (or compete) to rebuild society on a new, untamed planet.

While the esteemed professor might not seem like an obvious choice for this role, this is actually his second stint as an MMO adviser: Back in 2002, he advised a startup creating a then-unknown virtual world called Second Life. His guidance helped make it a cause celebre for a time, attracting academics, theorists, and politicians curious to know what they could learn about the real world through an online simulation.

Lessig sees similar potential in the next generation of MMOs, which enable truly massive numbers of users to participate in the same, evolving environment. “Imagine,” he says, “virtual worlds with colonies with tens of thousands of players. People can say ‘I’m going to learn how to govern [in the real world] by governing a virtual world.’ I’d love to see if we can establish the relevance of that. Because obviously there’s a lot that needs to be learned.”

Much more here.

Watch: David Cross (Arrested Development, Mr. Show) Do Stand-Up Comedy in Sansar (Sort Of)

In case you missed the show last week, here's cult comedian David Cross (Arrested Development, Mister Show) performing stand-up comedy in Sansar. Which is potentially a good idea, but Cross appears on stage saying he was under the impression that he'd be giving a TED-style talk about Gamergate, and didn't exactly prepare comic material. And then just before Cross starts wandering into the audience, announces: "I think we should just take a half second to all agree that this is a terrible idea that should never be done again." Then mostly hangs around with the audience and chats about his life with fellow comedian Arden Myrin.

Contra Cross, I do think live comedy can (and does) work in a virtual world -- but the first big step is probably getting rid of the real world bar/stage context, and do the comedy in a venue that really makes use of the platform. For instance, why not create well-known settings from Arrested Development, so Cross can riff off the show and his character? There's money in that banana stand.

Anyway, there's another show this weekend with another line-up: Go here to request a ticket. And read on for Linden Lab's announcement about these shows they're sponsoring:

SL Merchant Survey: Seven Surprising Insights Into the Virtual Economy

Here's the results of the survey I took last week, asking Second Life-based merchants for their summary of their 2018 sales and their 2019 expectations. (103 responded.) Here's seven key takeaways:

1. Nearly half the SL merchants deal in avatars and avatar enhancements.

48% sell content related to avatars (including skins, bodies, and Bento) and avatar fashion, enhancements, and accessories. In the second largest category, 1 in 4 create and sells homes, buildings, furniture, and furnishings. (Which come to think of it, are also a kind of avatar accessory.)

2. Over 1 in 10 make a full-time income ($50,000+ year) from selling Second Life items -- 8% earn over $100,000 a year.

Another 12% make an income between $21,000 and $50,000, which also qualifies as a full-time income in many parts of the wold. Also notable that for 1 in 3, selling Second Life content is more like a beer money enterprise -- they earned less than $1000 total for 2018.

Five more takeaways below. Is there a virtual world recession? Is copybotting a top problem? Read on!

Cajsa’s SL Flickr Choice Of The Day: Margot Muhindra's Untitled, WindLit Nude

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

"I like this untitled nude from Margot Muhindra and it works well next to the Luz DeGas in showing how WindLight can be used to create bold colored photos and add a bit of discretion, too, to a nude. The color choices make it feel very pop art. This would be just an ordinary nude, but the WindLight duotone gives it pop and far more artistry."

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.

How Sims 4 Content Creators Make a Good Living from YouTube

When we talk about virtual world content creation on New World Notes, we're usually referring to merchants who sell virtual items in Second Life and so on. But FastCompany has an intriguing report of another niche that's spun out of Sims 4 -- creating tiny Sims 4-based houses on YouTube, and making money from the YouTube ads, sponsorships, and merchandise:

To her surprise, she discovered an entire community on YouTube devoted to building elaborate houses in The Sims... she began uploading her own builds, as they’re called, to YouTube under the name Deligracy (she goes by her username, for privacy). Today, she has 810,000 subscribers and even sells merchandise, like sweatshirts, mugs, and phone cases. Deligracy’s channel has become so popular that she quit her job as a junior graphic designer because she was making more money from YouTube. Some of her most popular videos, which get tens of thousands of views, aren’t of the most elaborate houses Deligracy can dream up: Instead, her audience is obsessed with tiny homes.

As a rule of thumb, if your YouTube channel has subscribers in the six figure range, you can make a comfortable full-time living from sponsorships -- and when it gets into the seven figure subscriber range, you can make a very comfortable (as in lawyer's salary and above) living. Notably, Deligracy (and other Sims 4 creators) are focusing on a specific niche -- i.e. tiny houses -- that seems to be drawing lots of viewers from outside the Sims 4 fanbase. 

I.E., here's a tip for talented home builders in Second Life, Sansar, and beyond: Your best market may not be in-world, but on YouTube.

Open Source VR for Second Life Gets Up to 100 FPS, Reports Developer, Who's Seeking Vive & Oculus Users to Help Optimize for Those Headsets

Quick update from Peter Kappler, a dev who quietly created code to run Second Life in VR via Firestorm and Steam VR, and then posted the source code online. First off, he tells me, it can get quite good performance running in Second Life with great hardware: "On GTX 1080, non-stereo, around 60 to 120 frames per second; with stereo, half of that," he tells me. 60 FPS would still be pretty impressive, at least by Second Life standards, especially as the virtual world has a massive amount of content and social activity already built in.

And Peter thinks he can greatly improve that performance:

Cajsa’s SL Flickr Choice Of The Day: Luz DeGas' "Methods of Dance"

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

"Is it too soon for another Luz DeGas? This is just amazing. It's possible to do some amazing WindLights that limit the colors and put the body in stark relief. I am not sure if this is only WindLight or use of image filters and increasing the contrast. What I love is how stark it is, the pure simplicity of black and red on the canvass background. I love the dynamic energy in the pose that tells us this is just a moment in time."

See Cajsa's extended profile of Luz here. And see all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.

Watch: Bullied Teen With ADHD & Social Anxiety is Eloquent & Perceptive Through His Kermit the Frog Avatar in VRChat

Here's the latest in-world interview from Syrmor, who's fast become VRChat's version of an embedded journalist and roving human interest reporter. In this video, he interviews a kid in a Kermit the Frog avatar who talks about the pains of growing up as a teenager with ADHD who feels socially awkward, especially in group settings where he is ignored, or ridiculed for his short height or long hair.

But in VRChat as Kermit -- free from a real world context and all the stresses caused by real world social expectations or prejudices -- he comes across as eloquent, confident, and wise beyond his years.

Kermit was a childhood hero, a lovable, empowering character who "reminds me of when I was happier", as he puts it. "I can make friends in VR, and they won't treat me differently based on my height or based on the way I look. It's the closest form of anonymity [without] being anonymous -- like where people still know you."

Also featured: The point where Kermit has to let his cat outside in the real world, so pantomimes the motions of taking off his HMD and then going AFK. Totally breaking immersion in a surreal way.