New World Notes

The Top 5 Games I Didn't Play in 2013, But Plan To: Girls, Guns, and Zombies

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Even when your free time practically revolves around consuming games, there just aren't enough hours in a day or days in a year to make it through everything that comes out. Most of us, including myself, have to budget our time just as much as our money when it comes to picking what to play. As a result, 2013 has ended and I have yet to play some of the games I was most excited to see released.

I've already written about the top five games I played in 2013, but here's the other side of that story: The top five games from 2013 that I'm still excited to pick up in the coming year.

Wagner James Au's Favorite Ten Posts for 2013: On Virtual Reality, Second Life, China, Bitcoin, and Beyond

As we wind down the year, I wanted to share my personal favorite pieces of writing from 2013, most for New World Notes, some for GigaOM and Internet Evolution:

• Second Life turns 10: what it did wrong, and why it may have its own second life (for GigaOM)
• How to Understand Technology Trends -- Ignore Personal Preference, Focus on Sales & Usage Data
• Woman with Parkinson's Reports Significant Physical Recovery After Using Second Life - Academics Researching
• BioShock Infinite's Racist Arcade Games Based on Real Games from America's Dark Past That Echo in Its Present
• Architect Using Oculus Rift as Real World Tool Reports Dramatic Improvements to Design Visualization

Five more below:

Iris' Top 5 Most Talked About Posts of 2013

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

I'd be remiss if I didn't follow suit with Hamlet and share my five most popular posts of 2013, based purely on reader response. Check them out for yourself:

• We Got Your Back: Here's How to Respond to Microsoft's Incredibly Sexist Xbox One Email
• When it Comes to Sexist Game Avatars, You're Meant to Observe the Women and Become The Men (with a hat-tip to Pussycat Catnap)
• Top Second Life Designers Express Indifference, Confusion, Annoyance Over Revised ToS - But No Plans to Leave
• Watch Two RL Attorneys Explain What You Need to Know About Second Life's New Terms of Service in This Video
• Iris Wants To Know: Where Have All The Virtual Gowns Gone?

My Top Seven Most Read/Shared Posts for 2013

Based on pageviews, social media sharing, mainstream media coverage, and personal judgement calls, here's my posts this year which had the most impact:

• Woman with Parkinson's Reports Significant Physical Recovery After Using Second Life - Academics Researching
• An Open Source Artificial Life Project Called OpenWorm - about as impactful was the follow-up:
• Artificial Life Milestone: OpenWorm Team Recreates Internal Muscle Sensation Entirely Through Code
• Linden Lab Expresses Regret for Confusion Over New Draconian Terms of Service, Affirms Respect for SL Content Creators
• Cloud Party Becomes First Virtual World to Officially Support the Oculus Rift
• If Bitcoin is Such a Revolutionary Virtual Currency, How Come Few Apparently Use it As, You Know, Currency?
• Of Course the NSA is Spying on Second Life - It Would Only Be Surprise If It Wasn't

Janine "Iris" Hawkins is Among the Internet's Best Game Culture Writers in My Totally Biased Opinion -- But My 10 Favorite 2013 Posts By Her May Convince You of That Too

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins has been writing about virtual world/gaming culture for New World Notes for nearly 7 years, and in my utterly biased opinion, has evolved to become one of the best online writers on that subject anywhere. Insightful, expressive, sardonic, sweet, scrupulously fair, with incredibly broad and eclectic tastes in games, she's passionate about gaming as an important art form and cultural force -- and just as passionate about making games better for everyone. I learn something new about games and virtual worlds from her posts nearly every week, which makes me eager to read them as both an editor and a reader. Here's my personal selection of her best posts of 2013. This weekend, as we come to year's end, I hope you give them a look, and help me sing her praises.

• 5 Games Women's Magazines Should Feature (When They Want to Get With the Times)
• So You've Bought Stolen Virtual Content in Second Life: Here's What You Should Do Next
• Play a Small and Strange Virtual World About "Silence, Love, and a Beach (in Space)": Welcome to Bientôt l'été
• This Weekend Steep Yourself in the Somber and Haunting World of Indie Adventure Game Kentucky Route Zero
• Bioshock Infinite's Damsel Dilemma: Hey Girl, If You're So Omnipotent Why Can't You Find Your Own Damn Airship?
• Dear Internet: If You Must, Harass me for What I'm Doing -- Not for What I Am
• Why Linden Lab's Acquisition of Desura Might Be The Smartest Thing It's Ever Done -- Think Indie Gaming
• This Skeezy Skyrim Mod Makes Me Question The Ethics of Enslaving NPCs
• If You Don't Stop Online Harassment, No One Else Will

Finally, no Top 10 compilation of Iris posts is complete without her epic (and epicly madcap) recreation of Downton Abbey in The Sims 3. Since it's unfolded in over a dozen posts, this recap is probably a good place to start.

Watch It This Weekend: Don't Miss This All-New Episode Of The Mixed-Reality Mini-Doc Series That Dominated In 2013

 
Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

We can't really talk about the best Second Life content of 2013 without mentioning Draxtor Despres and his mixed reality machinima profiles of characters, and creators. This year The Drax Files: World Makers filled NWN's Machinima category with short mini-documentaries about the real lives behind the avatars, and covering them has been one of my favorite parts of writing on this site. It's always interesting to see who Draxtor will cover next-- I'd even say it's half the fun of following the episodes. Maybe it'll be a name you've known for years, or maybe it will be your first time hearing about someone and their amazing work. It's a mixed bag, and a great way to expose yourself to people you may never have crossed paths with otherwise.

Suffice it to say that The Drax Files is a must-watch for anyone interested in virtual worlds and the people behind them. You can watch the latest episode in the series embedded above, or catch up on past episodes on Draxtor's YouTube channel. 

Iris' Favorite Fashion Post of 2013: The Top 10 Innovations That Have Shaped the Face of Second Life Fashion

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

My favorite fashion post of 2013 is a trip down memory lane... At least for those of us who have been in Second Life entirely too long. Inspired by the introduction of normal and specular mapping to Second Life via the "Materials Project" earlier this year, I sat down to make a list of the innovations (both user and LL-developed) that have shaped SL fashion into what it is today. 

... And then I sorted them by how important they are to me, personally. Because that's how internet lists work, right?

You'll find everything from alpha layers to mesh on the list, as well of loads of what we'll charitably call "vintage" Iris, like the pic from 2006 shown above. See it all for yourself here!

Miss Metaverse Manners' Favorite Post of 2013: How to Leave Meaningful Marketplace Reviews

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Miss Metaverse Manners wasn't as prevalent on NWN in 2013 as she was in 2012, but that doesn't mean she didn't have quite a few posts of sound virtual world etiquette and advice. My favorite of the lot, however, is some simple advice that anyone leaving reviews on the Second Life Marketplace (or elsewhere) should take to heart. It's not just Miss Metaverse Manners' best post of 2013-- It might be one of her most important posts ever.

It's appallingly common for customers to leave 1-star reviews on items because of things that are thoroughly beyond the creator's control. Failed deliveries, their own failure to read the item description, even plain old user error in operating whatever it is they've bought. Marketplace reviews are not a good way to contact a designer about a possible problem, and they're an even worse way to get that problem resolved. It seems simple enough, but even if you think your grievances are on point I have three key tips for all you would-be reviewers. Read them for yourself here.

NWN's Five Favorite Second Life Machinimas from 2013

Happy holidays all - for your leisurely viewing and holiday party background eye candy, here's my top five favorite Second Life machinimas I blogged about over the last year. Sad to say, there seems to have been less great narrative-driven machinima in 2013 than there have been in previous years, but at the very least, these are all sumptuous visual treats for the season:

From January, this is "Bad Trip" by Tutsy Navarantha:

From February, this is an SL machinima by Lala Larix called "Myself, Me & I" inspired by Michel Foucault's Utopian Body:

After the break, first featured here in March, "Invisible Man" is an SL machinima music video by Japanese SLers umejintan Beck and sakurahime:

Iris' Favorite Gaming Post of 2013: How to Respond to Microsoft's Incredibly Sexist Xbox One Email

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

It's surprisingly easy to pick out my favorite piece of gaming news coverage from NWN in 2013. It was a story that was just too good to pass up: The marketing team for the Xbox One released a form email that could be sent to loved ones, requesting a new Xbox with the holidays in mind. The problem? The default values on that form veered from nonsensical to downright offensive. It was nearly as bad as a relic from the golden age of sexist video game print ads. The campaign was edited within hours of course, but I took plenty of screenshots to frame my own strongly worded hypothetical response.

As usual, Lewis' Law proved true and I got my fair share of ignorant, apathetic, and downright dumb blowback in this post's comments, but this remains one of my favorite posts from 2013. Read it in its entirety here.