New World Notes

Expensive Virtual Items for Worlds With Few Users: Pricey NFT "Metaverse" Sales Give Me Serious Entropia Universe Déjà Vu

Remember Entropia Universe, a niche MMO launched in 2003 where players can buy and sell in-game items for real cash? You'd only really read about it when there was a breathless report about another record Entropia Universe sale -- like this one, from 2010:

How much would you pay for a string of ones and zeroes? How about a string of ones and zeroes that grossed you $200,000 a year? Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs made history by selling virtual property for a reported total of $635,000. Club Neverdie is a virtual asteroid in the online game Entropia. 

... but despite all that money being spent on virtual items in Entropia, hardly anyone seemed to actually be playing Entropia -- then, or now. (Entropia currently counts less than 100,000 players, according to MMO Populations.)

That very same thing seems to be happening again, with a new NFT/Metaverse spin. For instance, most recently:

Today's Flickr Pick: Lush Virtual World Kawaii of All Kinds by Hunkaa

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

Hunkaa’s untitled picture could be named “Starlight with Bunnies.” I love the dreamy quality. I see the bunny on the left is sleeping, maybe it is the bunny’s dream. It is very kawaii, adorably cute. I love it. Hunkaa is a microblogger, providing credits in her picture descriptions. 

For more kawaii pics, click here:

Philip Rosedale: The Metaverse Isn't for "Everybody" & Meta Shouldn't Succeed at Making It

Here's a new interview on Axios with Philip and veteran game industry journalist Stephen Totilo, with some bombshell quotes like these:

• Of the metaverse, he says: “I think what we've learned — and somewhat with some sadness, given the work that I've done, I would have to agree — is that it's not for everybody, and maybe it's never for everybody.”
• And of Meta’s chances of succeeding with their new metaverse project: “Well, I hope they don't.”

He goes into detail on both points further in the interview, including his thoughts on why the Metaverse is never for everybody -- which I concur with, but only to a certain extent:

SL's Sleek New Search UI Receives Mixed Reader Response

Some like the new search UI... but some not so much. Here's reader David D.'s take:

It feels good, but only Linden Lab will be able to tell whether it really helps or not. In my field of higher education, there is a want to make lots of pretty videos and web pages because people equate user experience with knowledge access and will help with developing competence. There are studies that say that the look and feel have nothing to do ultimately with the learning. Usability (and universal design), information results, and presentation are all different things, and while they *can* impact one another, you can have a crap design with all the right bits of info which people are just fine consuming, and you can have really pretty things that still have terrible text output. And, even if you have both, if the engine doesn't let people get what they want, it can be as advanced and clean as it wants; it is still a crappy search engine.

The UX is good and is more attractive. Now put some substance behind the change and you'll have good universal design.

 Responding to my comment that it looks prettier, longtime third party viewer developer Henri Beauchamp demurs:

Top 3 Posts Last Week, Including a New Search UI for Second Life & a New Pro-Quality World in VRChat

• Play In VRChat: Magic Heist, Community-Made, Pro-Quality Game Ride
• Are You Thankful For Second Life's Sleek New Search User Interface?
• Classic Movie Posters Recreated With Second Life Screenshots

Budget-Conscious Fashion Ideas from Fabulously Free in SL

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

Move Over Turkeys, I got Sparkle just made me smile and feel happy. I love the exuberance. I love how she places herself against the backdrop so it looks like her hand is radiating rainbows of color. And it’s free! It’s featured at Fabulously Free in SL, which has guided the free/budget conscious SL shopper for over a decade. This post is from Creola Deledda whose post radiates excitement and joy. 

• Dress – Georg Bellic Design Leela Pink Dream Dress (Free Gift at The Black Friday Bazaar/Group is Free to Join)

Gorgeous & Hilarious Tributes to Thanksgiving by the Second Life Community

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

Adam Cayden very cleverly paid playful homage to “The Last Supper” with this Thanksgiving photo, “The Last Tab.” As in Da Vinci’s original, the host is surrounded by twelve friends. In the original, they are disputing and debating the allegation that one will betray him. In this homage, they seem to be discussing their share of the bill. This was posted in October to celebrate Canada’s Thanksgiving on the Tenth. I wanted to celebrate today’s holiday, but it’s good to remember that there are several other countries that also celebrate Thanksgiving or a similar harvest festival.

For more Thanksgiving celebrations in Second Life, click here:

Play in VRChat: Magic Heist, Community-Made, Pro-Quality Game Ride

Click here to experience Magic Heist in VRChat, a new community-made game world/ride that seems ideal for exploring over the Thanksgiving holidays. Co-developed by acclaimed VRC creators Fins, CyanLaser, and Lakuza, it is, to judge by the highly-polished trailer (watch above), pretty much indistinguishable in quality to a big budget console game for the family. Much of that has to do with the fact that Fins paid out of pocket to hire professional voice actors and license the soundtrack (the biggest part of the budget).

While it may look like a game built over a year, the team built Magic Heist in just about a month, Lakuza tells me, racing to finish it by deadline for the Raindance Film Festival contest:

Today's Flickr Pick: Wildly Varied, Always Wonderful World of Wren Alcyone

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

Wren Alcyone [branwenalcyone] takes amazing profile pics and fun Look-Of-The-Day snaps. I love “Valkyrie” though it differs from my mental image of the mythological women who escort those chosen from the battlefield dead to go to Valhalla to prepare for Ragnarok. However, what slain hero would turn down her invitation? 

For more pictures from the wild side, click here:

Are You Thankful for Second Life's Sleek New Search User Interface?

I just gave this a quick spin (watch above):

Today we’re excited to announce that we’ve updated the look of our inworld and web-side Search feature to bring it more in line with the look and feel of our viewer and the direction that that rest of our web properties will be going... Our goal was to clean up the interface and provide a more streamlined and user friendly Search feature that maintained all the functionality that we’ve all come to expect and rely upon. Helpful tool tips will guide you in getting the most functionality out of your searches, and will update as we add more options for more sophisticated searches.

The user interface is definitely prettier! As for the user experience... well, you can watch above and make your own judgements. I ran it on a gamer laptop that plays the new AAA Deathloop game beautifully and with very little performance issues. Worth bearing in mind that Google came to dominate the search engine market back in olden times (by which I mean 2000) not because it was pretty but because it was ruthlessly streamlined to give the user relevant results as quickly as possible.