New World Notes

My Top Seven Favorite New World Notes Posts From 2012

Here's the top seven NWN posts I most enjoyed writing and publishing last year -- I hope you enjoy reading them too:

• We're Not Ready for an Era Where People Prefer Virtual Experiences to Real Ones -- But That Era Seems to Be Here
• Second Life Users' Tolerance of SL's Technical Troubles Helps Stymie SL's Growth -- Here's Why
• Facebook Didn't "Kill" Virtual Worlds, But It Did Show Their Shortcomings (Then Again, the Opposite's Also True)
• Myst Co-Creator Rand Miller Thinks Worlds Like Second Life & Uru Live Have a Future on Tablets
• Second Life is Not the Metaverse -- But That's Not What It Was First Invented to Be
• Neal Stephenson Talks CLANG! The Game, The Stories That Inspired It, and Why He's Funding it With Kickstarter
• Dishonored's End: Harvey Smith & Raphael Colantonio on Designing a Game That Changes Based on Player Behavior

Top Second Life and Linden Lab News Items for 2012

Here's my most important Second Life/Linden Lab-related news posts from the past year (in my judgement), defined as milestones that will probably be the most significant for the future of the company and the virtual world it's still most known for. They largely reflect a single trend: Second Life remaining relatively stable in terms of users numbers, while slowly but consistently losing revenue, as Linden Lab invests the profits into broadening its portfolio of products away from SL.

• SL Estate Revenue Falls Below $5M/Mo, Lowest Since 10/09
• Lindens Buy Adventure Game Studio, Aq-Hires A.I. Innovator
• SL Marketplace Traffic at 430K Uniques -- I.E. About the Size of SL's Total Economic Participant Base
• Linden Lab Market Capitalization Decreases $102 Million from 2011, According to Analyst Estimate
• Linden Lab COO/CFO Bob "BK Linden" Komin Leaving Linden Soon, Say Sources
• Second Life Stays on Nielsen's Latest Top 10 Played PC Games & Increases Total Share, Engagement
• Philip Rosedale: Second Life Usage Surpasses 2 Billion Hours
• Second Life's Lost 1600 Private Sim Owners Since 2010; But 500 Land Barons -- SL's 1% -- Own Most of What Remains
• Very Few Lindens Remain from Linden Lab's Founding Years
• Why SL's Coming to Steam: To Draw Gamers Who Enjoy "Things Like Garry's Mod", Says Linden CEO Rod Humble
• The Second Life of Linden Lab: Re-branded Company No Longer World Builder, But "Maker of Shared Creative Spaces"
• Second Life Private Estate Ownership Hits 4 Year Low

If you're a hardcore SLer, you've probably noticed I don't mention the launch of Linden Realms, or the growth of mesh-based content, or other items like that. There's a good reason I don't:

My Five Favorite NWN SL Fashion Posts of 2012

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

2012 was an interesting year for SL fashion: new debates arose and old ones raged on, while mesh began to dominate the design landscape. Since the year is drawing to a close in a matter of days I thought it would be a good time to recap some of my favourite fashion posts from NWN from the past year, so if you're looking for some stylish reading this weekend you can start right here:

Top 10 New World Notes Posts in 2012 by Traffic

Here's the ten NWN posts which attracted the most views by traffic in 2012, largely from social media sharing via Facebook and Twitter, or links from big sites like Boing Boing and Reddit:

General gaming and MMO news/reviews/analysis:

• Galactica MMO Probably More Popular Than Old Republic
• Four Tricks for Taking Gorgeous Skyrim Screenshots
• The Elder Roles: How to Play Skyrim as a Skyrim Peasant
• Dishonored's End: Harvey Smith & Raphael Colantonio on Designing a Game That Changes Based on Player Behavior
• World of Skyrim Actually Much Smaller Than San Francisco
• 3 Ways Diablo 3's Lack of Avatar Customization Fails Players

Virtual world/SL-related:

• Linden Lab COO/CFO Bob "BK Linden" Komin Leaving Linden Soon, Say Sources (Note: First reported on NWN in June, this was confirmed in August.)
• Cloud Party: New Facebook-Based User-Generated 3D Virtual World Supported by SL Co-Founder Cory Ondrejka & Ex-Cryptic Studios CTO Bruce Rogers

Tech and online community news and analysis:

• Will The WELL Survive? Members Pledge $100K+ to Buy Influential Virtual Community from Corporate Owners
• 3D Printing: If Chris Anderson and Wired Can’t Convince Me It’ll Be Big, Who Can?