New World Notes

Famed VRChat Reporter Syrmor Seeking to Interview Users of Long-Running Virtual Worlds

Syrmor, who quickly became VRChat's best embedded virtual world reporter last year, just let me know he's interested in expanding his interviews to include users of older virtual worlds that (as he puts it), "have managed to survive despite lack of new players." So that could include (among others): Active Worlds, Ultimate Online, and There.

If you're still an active denizen of a world like that, send him a direct message on Twitter, or e-mail him at syrmors at gmail dot com.

And no, I don't think he's looking to interview Second Life users with this specific outreach. For one thing, Second Life is still taking on new users (or returning old ones).  For another, I hope to do an interview with him soon, and start that prim-shaped ball rolling.

Anyway, here's Syrmor's latest interview so you know what brilliant wackiness you're in for when you chat with him:

Real Life Health Worker Creates Stylish Second Life Avatar As Tribute to Colleagues Treating COVID-19 Patients

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

Jang Sungyoung’s self-named blog is usually fun and cheeky. But as a healthcare worker in real life, she took the time to create this image to reflect on her occupation. In the description of “Reporting for Duty”, she reveals that people have been rude to her for being a healthcare worker. She does not ask us to call her a hero or glorify her work, but just to remember that healthcare workers are at risk and so are their families:

“While we are busy taking care of our patients, we are away from our families and we are putting our very own health at risk. A simple smile, gratitude and appreciation is all we need. Stay safe everyone!”

• HAIR: I209a by tram
• GLASSES: #STOPCovid-19 Protective Glasses by The Owl at Cyber Fair
• MASK: Japanese Face Mask by Insomnia Angel

Here's another, more lighthearted fashion pic by Jang:

Cryptovoxels Evolving Into a Creative Community, Says Virtual World Veteran

Pic from HiveMind Collective, a Cryptovoxels creative community

Cryptovoxels is a WebGL-based virtual world running on the Ethereum blockchain -- and to be totally honest, not something I'd find immediately interesting, ever since the blockchain-based Decentraland, after much excitement from from people like, well, me, more or less went sideways.

Juergen Hoebarth, however, who I've known back in the Second Life boom days when he was creating professional SL content for agencies, insists that Cryptovoxel has brought some of the old virtual world magic back.

Blockchain-based virtual worlds, I tell him, mainly seem to be driven by speculators but with not much actual users.

"Speculators are riding it back," he allows, "only thing is in Cryptovoxel's core community is evolving around crypto and digital art scene which has a nice size and a potential to grow into something sustainable."

The collaborative creation tools seems to be a big draw:

Somber & Beautiful Tribute to Quarantining in Real Life Created in Second Life

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

Goodcross’ photo “Quarantine” is a beautiful example of how by taking away an artist can add something magical to a picture. Here the range of colors is limited, but the contrast and intensity is powerful. The interior is all in shadow and forms a frame for the avatar who looks out on New York City. It was fun to see his inspiration and how his picture differs while drawing from the original. 

More great photos below:

Wall Street Journal Features Sinespace's Breakroom in Story on Virtual World Offices for Remote Teams

"Miss Your Office? Some Companies Are Building Virtual Replicas" is a new Wall Street Journal story from Katie Deighton featuring NWN media partner Sinespace, creator of Breakroom:

Stay-home orders and the shuttering of workplaces have given corporate employees some respite from getting dragged into time-wasting water-cooler conversations.

But some companies and their employees don’t want to leave everything about the office behind, it turns out, and are replicating their offices in “SimCity”-like simulations online...

Sine Wave Entertainment Ltd. last month introduced Breakroom, a virtual-world product for remote workforces. It can accommodate all-hands meetings, secure one-on-ones and document sharing. Clients of the product include Virgin Group Ltd. and Torque Esports Corp.

Many customers initially assume they will recreate their offices, then realize they can make tweaks that would be impossible in the real world, said Sine Wave CEO Rohan Freeman.

“We spend our lives wishing we were working in open, sunny campuses with butterflies outside,” Mr. Freeman said. “Here you can realize that dream.”

Read the rest here. Speaking of which, here's a new video showcasing Breakroom's use for virtual world-based conferences and events:

Why Do So Many Gamers Passionately Want Star Citizen to Fail?

When I wrote about the latest update to Star Citizen, Chris Roberts' highly-ambitious, massively crowdfunded MMO -- with over $250 million pledged so far -- I expected it to be received as some interesting insights into an online world that many people haven't thought about much lately.

What I didn't expect at all was a religious war.

But a text-based one more or less broke out in Comments, the first wave led by Star Citizen apostates unleashed by an online community devoted to hating Star Citizen. (Yes, that's a thing.) Some of the milder comments:

lol scam citizen. How much Chris paid you to publish this bullshit?

Scam Citizen the list of excuses why they keep missing their own deadlines continues. But fortunately the Roberts Family and his friends are now millionaires for selling you your own dreams and changing it last minute...

Well I never heard of this blog until now, and based on this article I can see the blog is shit...

I wonder how much Crobblers paid for this disinformation... It will never be released, because if it ever is, the money stream from fleeced rubes would suddenly end and the game would be publicly reviewed as a finished product, which is something the Crobblers will never allow...

"Crobblers", I guess, being a portmanteau for "Chris Roberts promoters". Which is witty! But it's the level of conspiratorial rage that's totally fascinating to me. Why do so many gamers actively, hungrily want this one indie game project to be a sham, and fail? 

"I'll be the first to say I've had and continue to have frustrations with Star Citizen," my colleague Joshua May told me, after reading the responses to my interview with him on the game. "That's just life. Things I want got delayed, things I didn't care about got implemented instead, everyone wants something different out of it. Everyone has a different idea of what the final game should be and gets disappointed if they don't think [Roberts' company] Cloud Imperium Games is going in that direction."

An indie game developer himself, May speculates that some of the anger is based confusion over what's required to publish an online world so ambitious.

"It can't make everyone 100% happy, because everyone disagrees on the end product," as he puts it. "That's the nature of any video game, especially MMOs. People just aren't accustomed to seeing the sausage made and most of them don't understand it."

Surely many Star Citizen detractors are angry because they've pledged money to Roberts' project over the years, and now feel buyers' remorse, because it's still far from complete. But last year, crowdfunding increased, while more and more content has been added to the project. Despite that -- or perhaps because of that -- many detractors still insist it must all be a scam.  

"Skepticism is healthy, but it's increasingly getting far enough along in development that the skepticism is less and less warranted," notes May.

But if Star Citizen has its detractors, it also has its defenders -- for instance, this reader comment that apparently came in via a pro Star Citizen community:

Cajsa's Flickr Find: Mr. Godard Makes Second Life Screenshots Look Like Old Real Life Photos

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

After a long absence, Mr. Godard has returned to posting his work on Flickr which is a good thing for all of us. He makes photos that seem so real even though they are taken in Second Life. One of the ways he does that is by adding age, wear, and tear to his pictures. For example, this snap of a motel sign and water town is given an aged look through the use of a light leak overlay that lets us imagine the picture comes from a different era. 

Mr. Godard also enjoys a visual pun. See below.

Linden Lab Changes Second Life's Logo But Still Needs to Change Second Life's Name -- Here's Why

In case you missed it before the long holiday weekend, Linden Lab recently rolled out a new look to the Second Life logo:

Second Life has seen a surge of interest from people new to SL, longstanding residents, and groups and businesses seeking a uniquely interactive place for gatherings and special events. With this renewed attention we decided it was time to update a key part of how we tell the world what SL is all about... The new logo uses clearer, bolder type to communicate our optimism and confidence in what the future holds for SL. We retired the soft green color in favor of bright blue to reflect the boundless energy of our residents, who create amazing content and experiences. When it comes to what you can do with SL, the (blue) sky’s the limit!

It looks good, and the company's logic for the change makes sense -- but also seems far too conservative to me.

If you really want to update the logo, why not also update the name itself, too? As a brand, "Second Life" has always been problematic, and is probably key to the reason SL failed to grow the active user base despite tens of millions trying it out at least once. (At minimum, calling it Second Life certainly doesn't help with retention.)

Why? Short answer is the one any SL user is painfully familiar with: Calling a virtual world Second Life makes it too easy for a skeptic/cynic/troll to say, "Oh it's just for people who want to have virtual sex/parties/style/etc. because they can't get it in real life." An utterly dick-ish remark, to be sure, but an unavoidable one when that very implication is baked into the name.

Longer answer: The name "Second Life" was based on an understandable but ultimately flawed assumption about how the  Internet would trend made back in 2002. Here's how early Linden Lab team member Hunter Walk, who started the brainstorming of the name (which the leadership team subsequently iterated on) explains it in my book:

Cajsa's Second Life Flickr Pick: "Magic Marker" Makes the Virtual Look Real

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

Light and shadow is everything in Magic Marker’s work. Take “Influence,” for example. Without the shadows cast by this would be a nice headshot, but with the shadows, it has a moodiness and drama. It goes from a still picture to a story. 

Shadow and silhouettes can express emotion so powerfully, as in the picture after the cut.

Top 6 Posts from Last Week Including: A Second Life for Star Citizen & Philip Rosedale's New 2D/3D Virtual World

• Couple Who Met In Sinespace Now Quarantined Together In Real Life Create Virtual World Hangout For People Who Want To Socialize Beyond Zoom -- Including Themselves
• Philip Rosedale Launches His New 3D Audio-Driven Virtual World -- Come Join Him At His Pool Party Now!
• Notes From Star Citizen, The MMO You May Have Forgotten About It While It Became A Thriving Galaxy
• How SLer Nova Frankenstein Created This Cool "Matrix Glitch" Look In GIMP
• Watch: Sneak Preview Of Stömol, Feature-Length Cyberpunk Thriller About The Triumph Of "Fake News", Shot Entirely In Second Life -- Coming This July!
• Second Life's Virtual World Unable To Grow Further, For Now -- Pandemic & Cloud Migration To Blame, Says Linden Lab