New World Notes

Richard Bartle Asked Midjourney to Generate Avatars of 15 MMOs -- Can You Guess Which MMO Each is Supposed to Represent?

PANEL 1

Richard Bartle, MMO/virtual world pioneer, has been playing around with  Midjourney lately, and was curious how the AI image generator would visually interpret MMO avatars across the decades:

"I went to Midjourney and gave it the following prompt: 'character from [name] MMORPG //photorealistic --ar 2:4", where [name] is the name of a past or present virtual world. Points to note: Midjourney doesn't seem to have much data on some of these; there's a huge preponderance of white, female characters; for MUD and Second Life, I put 'virtual world' rather than 'MMORPG'."

Here's an alphabetical list of the virtual world avatars depicted here:

• Age of Conan
• City of Heroes
• Crowfall
• Dungeons & Dragons Online
• Eve Online
• EverQuest 2
• Lineage 2
• Lord of the Rings Online
• New World
• Old School Runescape
• Second Life
• Star Citizen
• Star Wars Galaxies
• Star Wars the Old Republic
• Word of Warcraft

Three are above in Panel 1. Here's three more from Panel 2:

PANEL 2

Here's six more MMO avatar sets to identify -- and answers at the very bottom of this post:

Today's Second Life Flickr Pick: Emotionally Expressive Avatar Portraits from Fay Doobie

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

Fay Doobie takes highly emotional pictures and has an uncanny ability to portray her emotions with her avatar. Take “Restless Nights,” for example. She does look like someone who cried herself to sleep. Her eyes look tired and reddened, Her tears have caused her nose to run a bit. Her hair is disheveled. Her cheeks are stained with tears. 

She has thought this through far more thoroughly than adding a tear layer. A lot of the time, a person will add the tears and leave the pristing makeup and the clear whites of their eyes, remaining perfectly beautiful while a few tears fall. That’s not convincing. This is. Crying is messy business. 

For more emotionally convincing pics, click here:

Fighting The False "ChatGPT Killed the Metaverse" Narrative With Actual User Data Showing the Metaverse Actually Much Larger

Above: Leading metaverse platform Roblox as compared to leading generative AI programs ChatGPT and Midjourney on Google Trends

Longtime reader Iggy O. wonders why I keep comparing ChatGPT to metaverse platforms on Google Trends:

Hamlet, why continue to compare it to metaverses? That is like comparing sales of bicycles to motor vehicles, because they all have tires.

I'd say it's more like comparing motor vehicles to ADAS driving systems, but I take his point: The technologies have overlapping use cases, but are not the same. I wasn't trying to suggest otherwise.

Looking back, however, I can see my post was a bit too inside baseball for my main point to come across, which is roughly this:

The notion that generative AI programs like ChatGPT have "replaced" or "killed" the Metaverse in any substantial way is a false narrative not borne out by actual user data.

It's true that there's more chatter in the tech world around generative AI than the Metaverse -- especially among evangelists and marketers inclined to hop onto the latest buzzword -- and definitely an uptick of venture investment chasing that buzz. But from that it doesn't follow that one has "replaced" the other.

And that's pretty obvious to see from basic, publicly available data from Google Trends, or even the free version of SimilarWeb, which shows that OpenAI dropped 400 million monthly visits between May and July. 

That's not even factoring in limiting factors, such as, just last week, a US judge ruling that AI art cannot be copyrighted. (Remember how AI was supposed to take over Hollywood? Inconveniently, studios tend to want full ownership over their IP.)

But hard data around actual users and sustainable use cases lags behind hype, so over the last few months, we've had to grit our teeth through headlines like this:

 

VRChat Android Smartphone Downloaded Over 10,000 Times in First Week

In case you missed it, VRChat launched the Alpha version of its Android mobile app last week. (User-made tutorial above.) It's already been downloaded 10,000 times, though to be honest -- given VRChat's user base of 5-10 million active users -- on first glance, I'd have expected a larger download rate. Then again, the Android app is basically the Quest 2 version of VRChat, which means lower graphics quality and less interactivity options.

Then again (again), VRChat will need to get the mobile version right to grow the user base beyond its hardcore user base primarily composed of VR owners. Like I mention in Making a Metaverse That Matters, VRChat's user base was originally 30% VR-based, but that fairly quickly changed:

Today's Second Life Flickr Pick: Excellent Slice-of-Virtual Life Photos by Bavometh Beurling

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

Bavometh Beurling shoots slice-of-life pics of him and, frequently, his friends in Second Life. I was drawn to the naturalism of this photo. He called it “Down and Out in New York City” after the James Brown song that inspired him. 

For more slice of SLife shots, click here:

Listen: Pondering the Potential of The Metaverse for Dystopian Purposes

Here's an interview about Making a Metaverse That Matters on the Plutopia News Network, hosted by Internet OG Jon Lebkowsky with fellow OGs Wendy Grossman and Scoop Sweeney. Watch above, though please disregard my disheveled look -- I realized only at the very last moment that this was an on-camera interview!

One spicy topic we get into that other interviews about the book haven't yet brought up, starting at around 43 minutes in:

The desire by many technologists to turn the Metaverse into a dystopian pacifier for the poor of the world. While little discussed (it's only one of many dystopian possibilities, and not the most likely), I do think it's worth knowing how many serious and/or successful technologists really do think a VR-powered metaverse could ever be satisfying escape from real misery. 

Excerpt from the book: 

Cajsa's Flickr Pick: Curious Fox's Delightful Travelogue Through Second Life

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

Foxx Ghoststar has some gorgeous landscapes in his Flickr stream which is largely a photographic travelog of his wanderings in Second Life. He occasionally shoots pics of himself out and about, enjoying a sunset or the ocean breeze. His more unique photos feature his fox avatar on the trail of beautiful places. “A dream of leaving to anywhere” is my favorite. It has the feeling of an illustration for a children’s book. One I want to read. 

For more foxy photos, click here:

Top 6 Posts: Roblox's Low Growth Hamilton Launch, ChatGPT's Flounder & Selling Memes & Fundraising for Maui in Second Life

• Starting This Weekend: Second Life Shopping Fundraiser To Benefit Maui Families In Need, On A Sim Shaped Like The Island
• Meme Means Business: Second Life Creator Sells TWO THOUSAND Copies Of Combat-Ready Foldable Chair, Latest In A Meme-To-SL Business Model
• ChatGPT Has Been Slumping On Google Trends Since April -- And Outranked By Leading Metaverse Platforms Roblox, Minecraft & Fortnite
• Hamilton-Themed Crossover Roblox Experience Yet To Gain Mass User Growth -- Here's How It Still Can
• Darkly Amazing Images From A Flickr Group Devoted To Noir In Second Life
• Ultima Underworld's Untold Influence On Early Metaverse Development

Starting This Weekend: Second Life Shopping Fundraiser to Benefit Maui Families in Need, on a Sim Shaped Like the Island

Click here to teleport to a Second Life fundraiser to help the people of Maui now in desperate need due to the wildfire tragedy. Dozens of top SL brands listed here are donating content to the project, Maui Wildfire Relief SL, with all Linden Dollar proceeds converted to USD and going to the Maui Food Bank. 

The fundraiser starts August 19th, 9amSLT and runs to August 26. (The teleport link won't be live until then.) And yes, the island sim has been shaped to look like Maui itself -- the creation of event manager Wendz Tempest, who is herself from Maui. (As are several other members of the volunteer team.) 

Go here for more info, and if you're a content creator, consider signing up to participate!

The sim itself has a chill beach party / flea market feel, with a gorgeous stream of Hawaiian music setting the vibe. Wendz even created a tribute to Lahaina's vast famous banyan tree, which now struggles to recover from the blaze:

Fashion Friday Blog: Lily’s Diary, a Terrific Tumblr Feed of Stylish Looks

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

Lily’s Diary is brought to you by Lily Bunny who makes me happy by wearing clothes regularly. Virtual Menace is her most recent post. I really like those ombre boots and the way they complement but don’t entirely match her hair. 

• Violent Seduction - Virtual Menace Sweater (FATPACK) @Kustom9
• Violent Seduction - Virtual Menace Boots (FATPACK) @Kustom9
• Violent Seduction - Psyche Stockings (FATPACK)
• *Tentacio* Joana fatpack (bag)k)

For more darling looks, click here: