New World Notes

Here's My Predictions for Virtual Worlds & VR in 2021 -- What Are Yours?

Image credit: Klaus Reinherz, "Socially Distanced New Year 2020/21"

Here's mine:

• There will be a departure in Linden Lab's C-suite, i.e. CEO/COO/CFO/CTO.
• Both VRChat and Rec Room will finally surpass Second Life in peak concurrency numbers.
• Related to the above, either VRChat or Rec Room will be acquired by a major platform/company.
• Second Life's long-awaited "mobile app companion" will launch but see a disappointing reception, failing to earn over 100,000 downloads on Google Play.
• Sales of Oculus Quest 2 in 2020 will under-perform expectations: Despite a major marketing push, under 2 million. Slow sales will continue through 2021, with an install base under 3 million.
• Unreal and/or Unity will announce an official metaverse platform.
• Bowing to public and government pressure, Facebook will discontinue mandatory Facebook log-in for its Oculus headsets.
• Roblox will announce $1 billion in revenue for 2021.
• Core will announce a major platform partner or be acquired outright, with Epic the likeliest suitor.
• Apple will not announce its long-rumored AR headset in 2021.

Share yours in Comments below and I'll share my favorites next week -- the more concrete and easy to verify, the better.

Cajsa's Choices: My 5 Favorite Second Life-Based Flickr Picks from 2020

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

It’s really hard to choose the best pictures of the year. Right now I have 30 pictures open from which to winnow. This picture from an April column featuring Kitty Sixpence is an easy choice, though. This is, of course, subjective, but I love pictures that turn reality on its head or maybe, on its side, and give us a different perspective. 

The next is one that got me to stop writing and go in-world to check it out.

From Virtual Reality Changing Our Dreams to COVID Changing Our Virtual World -- My Top 10 Favorite New World Notes Posts from 2020

2020 has been so exhausting that I'm too exhausted to write about all the reasons why 2020 was so exhausting. But through it all, being able to connect with you here has been a constant source of renewal. Here's my own favorite New World Notes posts from this year -- stories I loved most because they're incredibly moving or important, or because they best fit this blog's theme from the moment it started: How virtual worlds change who we are and how we express ourselves. And not just created by me: These favorites include a powerful reader comment and this poignant and hopeful tribute to life beyond the pandemic from Nylon Pinkney's much-missed comic:

Study: Virtual Reality Seems To Help Prime People To Have Lucid Dreams

Katharine Comes Back: Elite Silicon Valley Engineer Who Got Her Start As A Teen In Second Life Says What She Saw When She Revisited The Virtual World

Test Subjects In VR Recreation Of Milgram’s Shock Experiment Still Become Traumatized, Even Knowing Their Electrocuted Victim Is Only An Avatar

Black Woman Under Pressure To Keep Her Opinions To Herself In Real Life Expresses Them Through Her Second Life

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

Couple Who Met In Virtual World Just Before Pandemic Now Quarantined Together In Real Life

The Incredible Power Of Virtual World Ownership & Creation -- And The Real World Absence That Drives It

As She Was Dying From COVID-19, Longtime Second Life User Uccello Poultry Wrote A Farewell Letter To Her Virtual Friends & Family

Nylon Pinkney Is Offline - And Outside

Was VR Hype Largely Driven By The End Of Moore's Law? (Spoiler: Probably)

Much more to come in 2021. Meantime, start preparing to make some VR/virtual world New Year's predictions in tomorrow's open forum!

Cajsa's Choices: Favorite Art Images I Want to Share Before 2020 Ends

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

The art on the walls in my first life is mostly abstract or amazing infographics. So Mark Noack’s “She Blinded Me with Science” blows me away. He begins with a SL screenshot or two or three and adds layers from stock sources. This is amazing. Even with the many layers, you can see the leading lines of the path toward the upper right. You can see more of his Second Life work here.

More art that didn’t make a feature but should have. 

From Linden Lab's Sale & Oculus' Strategy Tax, To Black Lives Matter & Trump Billboards in Second Life -- 2020's Most Popular New World Notes Posts

Based on media coverage, web traffic, and social media shares/engagement, here's New World Notes most popular posts of the year, which includes some of the most important milestones in virtual world/VR news, along with some noteworthy overlaps with events in the real world: 

January: Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Spend First Week Of Independence Looking At Art Made In Second Life

February: Linden Lab CEO Confirms New Round Of Layoffs; Cuts Include Kona Linden, Company's Last Link To Second Life's Glory Days

February: Linden Lab CEO Announces Sansar Now Up For Sale; Company To Instead Focus “Entirely On Second Life And Tilia

May: The Incredible Power Of Virtual World Ownership & Creation -- And The Real World Absence That Drives It

May: Notes From Star Citizen, The MMO You May Have Forgotten About It While It Became A Thriving Galaxy

June: Powerful SL Images Selected In Honor Of Juneteenth & Black Lives Matter

Revisit the rest of 2020 after the break:

Cajsa's Choices: My Favorite Virtual World Landscape Photos of 2020

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

The Far Away has long been a favorite of SL photographers. I immediately fell for this picture from JoAnna Kitten because it is a picture of one of my favorite places in SL and also so reminiscent of home. I grew up in the North Woods at the edge of the Red River Valley, the ancient Lake Agassiz lakebed that flattens North Dakota and western Minnesota. Skies last this were a sign of bad weather to come, the kind that can flatten a wheat field. Let’s hope it’s not a tornado. I like how well she utilizes the rule of thirds. 

Next, you could swear this was drawn by hand:

Top 3 Posts from Last Week Including a Virtual Christmas Postcard from Japan & a GTA Online vs. Second Life Challenge

• Monday Memory: A Doctor Recreates Hallucinations Of Schizophrenics In A Virtual World
• Can You Guess Which Screenshots Are From GTA Online Or... Second Life?
• Watch: A Christmas Postcard From Japan In Second Life & Japan In Real Life

Huckleberry Hax's Poem of Hope at the End of 2020

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

Second Life blog posts don’t usually make me cry. This one did:

Hope
is a four letter word
that we learned as children
meant our dreams just might be heard.
That the world just might not end,
that the nukes were absurd,
and that ‘truth’ was relative
and that ‘truth’ would get stirred
and spread across the globe
so that boundaries got blurred.
We thought hatred would be beaten
and the powerless heard...

That’s all I have to say. Go read the rest.

Watch: A Christmas Postcard from Japan in Second Life & Japan in Real Life

This is a lovely machinima tribute to Christmas-time in Rieri, a Japanese town in Second Life painstakingly modeled from Google Maps and real photos of Tokyo neighborhoods. (Click here to visit.) Lead developed by Eripom Moonwall, Tokyo-based master creator of realistic cityscapes and military hardware, Rieri in SL currently boasts snowfall and Christmas lights that evoke the holiday season in Japan.

And yes, the Japanese celebrate Christmas in their own unique way -- and it also includes insanely hot sex. As Eripom explains:

Cajsa's Favorite Photos from a Christmas in Second Life

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

I love Skippy Beresford’s stream and knew I could count on him to have a wonderful Christmas photo. The expression of faith in sending off a letter to Santa during this grievous year is charming. I love that he is wearing a mask, albeit a see-through one. This is one way to show expression in photos while social distancing. 

More of my favorite Christmas 2020 pics...