New World Notes

Latest Top Posts Including: VRChat Project With 500 NPCs, An "Is AI Conscious" Checklist & the Secret Power of Roblox's Blocky Avatars

• ChatGPT & Other AI Programs Not Conscious, Argue Experts Who Publish Checklist Of Meaningful Indicators Of Consciousness
• This Multiplayer Theme Park Simulator With 500 NPCs Is The Latest Jaw-Droppingly Ambitious User-Created Project In VRChat
• Amazing Group Photo Of Second Life Supervillain Cosplay -- Shot In Five Very Amazing & Unique Variations!
• There's A Large Flickr Group Devoted To Photos Of Virtual Pianos In Second Life With Fantastic Ivory Tickling Images
• Roblox's Odd Blocky Avatars Are A Key To The Platform's Success: Excerpt, Making A Metaverse That Matters
• Watch: Talking Today About Making A Metaverse That Matters With The Virtual Worlds Education Consortium!

Watch: Talking Today About Making a Metaverse That Matters With the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium!

Starting today at 1pm PT/SLT I'll be chatting with the lovely folks of the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium about Making a Metaverse That Matters in the OG metaverse platform of Second Life. If you want to join us in-world, click here to teleport -- or watch the live YouTube stream above.

Hosted by longtime virtual world educator Valerie Hill, it should be a meaty, expert level conversation with people who've been doing This Metaverse Thing for years if not decades.

Pumpkin Spice Fashion Photos for Friday from... Squibby Von Beipi!

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world

Squibby Von Beipi is a Flickr microblogger. She recently posted “Pumpkin Spice Season.” I confess I have never tasted a Pumpkin Spice drink and I hope I never will, but it does seem to have become the modern harbinger of fall taking over the internal calendar spot once held by the raucous honks of geese flying south. I love the color story in this picture and that sweater is to die for. 

Four of the items in this post are at Equal 10. I just wish she had credited that pumpkin spice latte, not that I would drink it! However, searching for it, I think I found it or something close enough, the MVT Pumpkin Spice Drink Set which is a gacha being resold. It’s likely she didn’t credit it because it’s not on sale except by resellers. It’s from MOVEMENTT who specializes in holdables and you probably could find something similar. Teleport to store, here. 

Equal 10 Items - Main Sim TP (Ends October 5th) 

•  DOUX - Light hairstyle
• .miss chelsea. Rene - Sweater + Jumpsuit.
• Ladybird. // Mahina (Chest)
• Ladybird. // Stelle (Forehead)

For more Fall foreshadowing, click here:

Roblox's Odd Blocky Avatars Are A Key to the Platform's Success: Excerpt, Making a Metaverse That Matters

Pictured: Intrance and LAGurlz, creators of the hit Roblox experience Starving Artist

As Roblox reaches upwards of 300 million monthly active users and continues expanding its feature set, one common reaction is basically: Wait, isn't that just a game platform for kids with blocky, LEGO-like avatars?

Yes... and very much no. As I explain in Making a Metaverse That Matters, Roblox has succeeded not in spite, but in good part because, of those avatars:

There's a Large Flickr Group Devoted to Photos of Virtual Pianos in Second Life With Fantastic Ivory Tickling Images

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

This photo by Ethan Lane just took my breath away. It sets the mood so well. Though candlelight is yellow the score is blue from the moonlight shining down from above. He is rapt, studying the score, marking it up with his notes. See the pencil in his mouth. And of course, it is called “Moonlight Sonata.” 

I found this picture with many other fantastic pictures featuring piano in Ticklin’ the Ivories of Second Life, a group nearly 500 strong who’ve posted roughly 2000 images featuring the pianos throughout the virtual world. 

I was listening to one of my favorite pianists when it occurred to me there might be a group devoted to piano pictures. It was a good bet, there’s a Second Life Flickr group devoted to just about everything. 

For more ivory-ticklin’, click here:

Fortnite FTC's First Fine on a Metaverse Platform - But Expect More Soon

If you or your kid played Fortnite between January 2017 and September 2022, you may be eligible to get a refund from a $520 million settlement between Epic and the Federal Trade Commission for bending online privacy laws protecting minors and getting those minors to buy in-game items from gacha-style* loot boxes. Go here to file that claim.

And if you don't need to file a claim, you can still marvel at two things:

• Wow, Fortnite may have 37 million paying users in the US -- over 1 in 10 people in America! That's how many Americans with Fortnite accounts who are being contacted by the FTC. (Then again, the FTC may be messaging anyone in the US with a registered Fortnite account -- I'm double checking this.)
• This seems to be the first of its kind: A successful fine/settlement by US government regulators against a metaverse platform.

There's been close calls before -- for instance, earlier this year, Roblox started hiding ads from 13 and under players after an FTC complaint. But far as I can recall, the Epic case is the first one where US dollars earned from virtual world purchases were then collected by the Federal government to be returned to consumers.

This also means the FTC knows enough about how metaverse platforms work (or don't work for consumers) to start pursuing other policies on other platforms. I do know government agencies have been quietly gathering notes:

 

Amazing Group Photo of Second Life Supervillain Cosplay -- Shot in Five Very Amazing & Unique Variations!

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

Loute Diesel is a great virtual photographer who has organized collaborations of French photogs in Second Life, giving us definitive evidence of how very individual virtual world photography is. Here you have the same group and yet every picture is wildly different. I love it. Her picture has much sharper color contrast than others in the collaboration. It’s a brighter picture overall, but the colors are all richly saturated. 

For other versions of this picture, click here:

This Multiplayer Theme Park Simulator With 500 NPCs is the Latest Jaw-Droppingly Ambitious User-Created Project in VRChat

I keep saying VRChat resembles Second Life in its golden age, because in both cases, amazingly ambitious community-made inventions keep popping up like magic mushrooms when you weren't looking.

Which brings us to this project by VRC creator Myro P:  A theme park builder similar to the classic game Roller Coaster Tycoon, but in full person VR. And not only do you get to create and simulate the rides, it comes with 500 NPC customers with their own AI routines. 

"Coding the NPCs was probably the trickiest part," Myro allows, "and it's still a work in progress. I programmed an AI for the NPCs; for instance, when they're hungry, they'll order food, and when they're tired, they'll rest on benches until they feel better. I had to implement my own pathfinding algorithm because I couldn't use Unity's built-in system."  

It's also multi-player, thanks to a complex process he explains here.

As with many (most?) other VRChat projects, Myro is making this game free-to-play, something for the community to enjoy.

"When I was in high school, 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' was my favorite game, and I felt like a game similar to 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' would work pretty well in VR," he explains. "I also liked the idea of being a visitor of my own theme park, which is why I added the scaling feature."

 

Last week I mentioned how Unity's recently announced price increase would be a hard blow to the Metaverse, and projects like this illustrate why:

Ask Me Anything About "Making a Metaverse That Matters" on Inkwell!

Click here to participate in a Q&A about Making a Metaverse That Matters on Inkwell, the public conference on books for The WELL, the legendary online community forum. (Starting now and for the next two weeks.)  It's viewable to everyone online, but if you want to pose questions and aren't a WELL member, you can still e-mail them to inkwell at well dot com.

We're already jamming along, here's some favorite thoughts so far:

Today's Second Life Flickr Pick: Western Roleplay Imagery to Rival Red Dead Redemption

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

Fingol Greyhaven has found his niche and he’s not just sticking with it, he’s taking it to a whole new level.  Take “Here’s Hoping There’ll Always Be a Cowboy.” What can you say but wow and how did he do that. It looks like a screen shot from a game like “Red Dead Redemption.” It’s amazing. Usually, folks like to show the subject walking into the frame, not out. But walking out of the frame is what a cowboy does, “living on the road my friend.” The title comes from a different song, one by George Fox, “Here’s Hoping (There’ll Always Be a Cowboy.)”

For more cowboy living, click here: