New World Notes

SLer Survey: Over 1 in 4 Willing to Pay Extra to Change Their Avatar Name

Here's the results of that pre-Thanksgiving survey on Linden Lab's new name change payment option, set to launch early next year. With 373 SLers responding -- a very large sample, relative to surveys like this! --  over 1 in 4 (i.e. 27%) say they will pay extra to change their avatar name. That includes 14.4% who are already paying for a monthly Premium subscriptions (a pre-requisite for the name change option), and are still willing to pay a bit more.

Of course there's alternate, prim-is-half-empty way to read these results:

SLers Furiously Debate Whether They Should Pay to Change Their SL Names

Last chance to take this survey on whether you want to pay for the chance to change your SL name; I'll post the results tomorrow. In any case, it's definitely provoked a passionate conversation among readers. Here's some highlights:

I love having the limited selection as long as it's long enough, like in the old days. I can hardly wait to see the list of names and to see avatars that aren't stuck with "Resident." Currently I'm happy with my avatar names, so there's no reason to pay for new ones. I just wish that all those stuck with "Resident" could, without charge, add a last name from the list. So much nicer.

-- Acacia Merlin

Please do not make us choose from a list of names. I doubt we will get what we want that way! Custom name is worth a fee, otherwise. Unless you have my last name I want, I'll keep the old one!

-- kedvenc ivanovic 

Sorry we took all those profits we collected from your $300.00 imaginary lands and used them to make a gigantic VR bonfire and dissed you in the process.

Luckily, in the ashes, we finally hear your pleas. Our little elves are working like mad to make a doohickey that will take us back in time to the days when we knew how to give people names. You'll need to pay a fee to pay a fee to get this amazing regifted fruitcake. Happy Holidays!

"Names" was on my 2011 Christmas List. In 2019, I want justice.

-- Jenny8675309 Resident

Several more after the break!

SLer Survey: Will You Pay to Change Your Avatar Name?

At long last Linden Lab has announced plans to let SLers change their first and/or last avatar name -- but it comes with a revenue-generating catch:

We heard you loud and clear. Soon it will be possible to change the name of a Second Life account. This is one of our Residents’ most requested features and we’re working furiously to make it available by the end of January.  Name Changes will be exclusively for Premium members at an additional fee. Changing one or both of your First and Last Name will be available as a single transaction. Last Names will be picked from a list, which you can help us curate.

Hence this survey above -- please share with other SLers! Results posted right before Thanksgiving next week. 

Watch: Trans People Explore Alternate Identities Through Virtual World Avatars

This is a fascinating new video by virtual world videographer Luca, on an endlessly important topic: How trans people use virtual worlds and avatar customization to explore alternate identities. (In this case Second Life, though as Luca notes, it's a phenomenon common to many other virtual worlds.) Luca interviews several trans SLers, who discuss their avatar form and how it relates to who they are in real life.

"[I]t's my experiences with the trans communities and my trans friends that inspired me to make the video," tells me. "The subjects are all my trans friends who I befriended throughout my years on SL."

Notably, others that Luca approached refused to do the interview or even appear "on camera" -- even though their real life identity is protected by their anonymous avatar identity:

Listen: Longtime SLer Gidge Uriza Featured in Leslie Jamison's NPR Interview

NPR just featured an interview with acclaimed writer Leslie James, whose new book of essays Make It Burn, Make It Scream features an excerpt from her widely-discussed 2017 Atlantic Monthly story on Second Life. She reads an excerpt featuring SL veteran Gidge Uriza:

Can You Make Your High Fidelity App Avatar Look Like Your SL Avatar?

I mean I guess? This is what I get when I use the new High Fidelity smartphone app (free on Apple's App Store here; on Google Play here), take a requisite real life selfie, and then modify him to look like "Hamlet Au", my avatar in Second Life. (Which is, in turn, a variation of what I look like in real life, only dressed up like Tom Wolfe.)

As you might have guessed, this is part of High Fidelity's transition from making a metaverse to first creating a kind of "metaverse for Slack" online work space. So as High Fidelity founder Philip Rosedale explains, these are specifically a kind of augmented reality avatar merging real life identity with a virtual one:

We’ve seen the power of personalized avatars at creating a sense of presence, especially for teammates who are physically remote from one another. Whether they’re hopping into a private quiet space for a quick 1:1, meeting in a conference room or gathering in a cafe for coffee, avatars that are recognizable make communication easier and more organic. 

They’re also practical. Non-human avatars are an amazing way to express your creativity, but they may not work well in a professional context. Using an avatar that resembles you also eliminates the self-consciousness around video calls — no more fretting about messy hair or need to worry about that toothpaste dribble on your shirt. 

This strikes me as the wrong direction to take workspace avatars. Almost by definition, the kind of companies most likely to be interested in using 3D avatars in a work environment would be in high tech, gaming, marketing, media, and other industries where there's a premium on personal creativity. One whole point of  whimsical avatars is they're a great way of breaking the social ice between strangers and acquaintances. (Think a big Halloween costume party, but online.) Why get rid of that?

Anyway, check out Philip Rosedale's High Fidelity avatar below. Where his Second Life avatar famously had a handlebar mustache, codpiece, and leather chaps, his HiFi avatar looks more like Philip Rosedale if there was a Japanese anime biopic of Philip Rosedale:

Philip Rosedale's Case for Adding 3D Avatars to Online Work - My Take

Last May we talked about High Fidelity's pivot from building the metaverse to creating a kind of interim "virtual world for Slack" application, and now here's founder Philip Rosedale blogging his case for making that switch:

Trying to make eye contact in video calls has always been awkward at best. If you look directly into the camera, you can’t see your friend. If you look at the screen, you’ll appear to be looking below your friend’s line of sight... 

Avatar technology is a huge step up over video calls. In VR, you can be anything, and while most of us will opt to look like our physical selves, we may also use it to transform our identities completely — ushering in a new era of “blind” job interviews, where the interviewer can’t see sex, color or class. We’ve already built the tools. Let’s put avatars to work. 

I can argue Philip's case in both directions:

On the pro side, there's a whole generation in their teens who grew up owning 3D avatars (Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, etc) and are soon joining the workforce; they'll not only be comfortable with having a 3D avatar in an office setting, they might even expect one on some level.

On the con side, Philip might be over-applying his experience with 3D avatars in Second Life, to 3D avatars in general:

Senior Citizen Struggles to Compartmentalize Her Second Life from Her Retirement Community Real Life

Last week's post "Only The Young Think The Elderly Want To Live Their Last Years In Virtual Worlds" provoked an intriguing conversation, highlighted by some charming thoughts from Stephanie Meyer, who writes this really helpful new SL user guide blog, and has direct and very personal experience on the topic:

In RL, I am happy to live in a retirement community with many social activities.

In SL, I am happy to be able to explore and create without anyone thinking I'm weird.

In RL, I seldom talk about what I did that day in S, because I have found that it results in a lot of eyeball rolling.

In SL, I am not going to tell anyone about the RL Ice Cream Social with music by the International Philharmonic Ukulele Orchestra.

In a way, I feel compartmented. Just as sometimes I feel a disconnect in SL when changing alts and avatars, in RL I have to remind myself "Everyone act normal".

I'm hoping that by the time I am 100 there will be more integration of the realities.

With online game worlds growing larger and VR headsets getting cheaper every year, I suspect she'll get what she's hoping for soon. In the meantime, you know what they say: Second Life is for people who don't have ukulele-themed ice cream socials in real life.

Picture credit: "My Ukulele" by Susanne Drechsler, who rocks the virtual uke well.

One Scary Way Face-Capture Apps Like FaceApp Can Be Used to Manipulate Voters: By Morphing a User's Face With the Face of a Preferred Candidate

Above: Images created in Balienson and Yee's Stanford study, subtly morphing the face of 2008 Presidential candidates with the test subject's face, significantly changed the political choice of many test subjects

There's been much speculation and satirical humor over the viral popularity of FaceApp, the Russian-owned "see you how you look old" app with a dubious Terms of Service which claim a "transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish" users' photos. But can modifying user photos really be used for nefarious goals -- for example, to secretly influence the next US Presidential election?

Yes, it can.

Last decade, some highly-regarded Stanford academics, including Jeremy Balienson and Nick Yee, conducted an amazing if fairly terrifying experiment which did just that.

"Between 2004-2008," as Nick Yee recently explained in this Facebook post, "we ran a series of studies where we morphed people's faces into the faces of presidential candidates (at a 35:65 ratio). We found that people are more likely to vote for candidates that look more like them (even in high-stakes/information races like the 2004 Kerry/Bush election), and this photo manipulation was largely undetectable at a 35% ratio."

Emphasis mine. As you can see above in the images under the 35:65 Blend column, the photos of candidates Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have been very subtly morphed with the test subjects in Balienson's experiment.

Doing that was enough to change their overall choice:

For the Trans Community of Second Life, the Virtual World is a Chance to Discover Their Real Life Selves (Guest Post)

The author at Second Life's transgender memorial

Excerpted and revised from Cajsa Lilliehook's extended feature originally published in Eclipse Magazine

In Second Life, there is a memorial honoring transgender people who have lost their lives to violence or suicide. For many, the virtual world offers a respite where people can be who they are without the risks they may face in their first life. It also offers people who are questioning a safe place to explore their identity. They can discover themselves. 

I recently interviewed several people to gain a fuller understanding of the way trans residents find community and strength in Second Life. Their experiences are varied and SL has served as a refuge, a revelation, or a catalyst. While they do not represent the full spectrum of the trans experience, they offer insight into a group of people who find succor and even joy in Second Life.  At the same time, they also find suspicion and bigotry from SLers outside their community -- in particular, from a Second Life-based gossip site, and among those who confuse catfishing with a deeper identity.

Meet Virtual Trans Pioneers James, Nep, Kayla, Tiffany, Ishtar 

Second Life was critical in helping James, a trans man, transition; his fondest Second Life memory is coming out and the acceptance he was met with there. “I lived in a very rural and honestly unsafe place and SL drastically helped me feel like I wasn’t alone,” as he put it. 

Nep Faulkes (above) is a trans woman who has known her entire life that she was a woman trapped in the wrong body. “I got reacquainted with an old friend who had already transitioned around the same age I was at the time. She gave me a lot of advice and help along with several trans friends I have met through SL.”

Kayla (above) is a trans woman who tried to transition nearly twenty years ago, but faced such transphobia she went back in the closet, only expressing her authentic self online. "When I found Second Life,” she told me, “Not only could I be expressive of my gender, but also my real personality and visual styling. "