New World Notes

The Coronavirus-Themed Fashion Event in Second Life Isn't Real -- But The Need to Joke In Dark Times Is (Comment of the Week)

Nylon Pinkney's latest comic about a Covid-19-themed fashion event in Second Life garnered some interesting responses, with some in Comments and many across social media (especially Facebook) accidentally assuming it was an actual virtual world event. So to clarify: No, the one described in her comic is not. However, that's not stopping other COVID-19 hijinks from ensuing online:

I mean, it's a joke. But as I was trying on demos for the [SL] Marketplace, I saw a sponsored ad for a Coronavirus 'bumper' - it sprays particles in the shape of COVID19 viruses if you bump the wearer. And someone in the club I dance at walked in with a Clorox Wipes holdable. -- Blaise Glendevon

Other readers found the comic (and other attempts at Coronavirus-themed humor) to be in bad taste. And while I can ultimately only speak for myself, I do think reader "Fionalein" speaks for many:

The Problems With "Updating Second Life" or Bridging It With Sansar (Comment of the Week)

Pictured: Second Life in 2003 (Dark Life was a user-made mini-MMORPG)

Much interesting reader discussion around last week's post about why Linden Lab needed to develop something like Sansar (though in retrospect, should have taken a totally different direction.) "Alicia" explores this topic with some historical background:

Linden Lab were never real game developers. Case in point, their game engine specifically built for Second Life. That engine is very similar to what Daybreak Games (formerly Sony Online Entertainment - SOE) and Turbine Inc. (now part of Warner Bros. Games Boston circa 2018, while being bought originally by WB back in 2009) had out with EverQuest and Asheron's Call, both of which came out in 1999... the same year the engine for SL was created. Both companies never cosmetically upgraded their games due to the fact that the engines could never truly handle it.

That brings me back to the engine LL created for SL. That very engine, used with the same coding that was used to bring EQ and AC to life, was never meant to handle mesh and textures larger than it could handle. LL never understood that fact, and now people are bringing in textures larger than the engine can handle, mesh objects/bodies with entirely too many polygons, etc. Hell, even high end PCs lag with Second Life because of how everything is uncompressed and unoptimized.

Yes, SL IS 17 yrs. old this year and has many great updates, however, people need to realize that the truth... the truth is that ALL game developer companies have to try and put out successors to the original. They have to. Yes, Sansar was an utter flop, and there's no denying that. The problem LL now has with SL is that there's not much it can do to update it anymore. When games get past a certain age, they become that much harder to update. This is fact. Games either end up entering maintenance mode (gamer speak for eventual shutdown), or they simply shut down entirely.

I'd make a small interjection here. Second Life's engine was, in fact, lead developed by someone from the game industry: Founding Linden CTO Cory Ondrejka was a game developer at Acclaim and THQ before joining Linden Lab. (He even lead developed an oldschool, coin-operated arcade game; for a time, a playable unit stood, plugged in, in the Linden lobby.) In any case, to Alicia's point, co-founder/CEO Philip Rosedale very much wasn't from the game industry and when it came time to upgrade to mesh, Cory was long gone from the company.

Alicia goes on to explain the problem (as some have suggested) of "bridging" Second Life to Sansar:

If You Like Second Life, You'll Like the Black Dragon Viewer (Comment of the Week #2)

From Ellapinellapin's retired but indispensable Flickr devoted to untouched Black Dragon screenshots

My plea to support via Patreon pledges future updates to Black Dragon, the third party Second Life viewer created by NiranV, was as fine as it goes -- but reader "Lone Dubratt" expressed it more elegant than me in Comments:

If you like Second Life you like Black Dragon.

I've always seen it as that second viewer. The camera and UI is different, and for people set in their ways that's a bad thing. That's not what Black Dragon is about, though. Black Dragon is an alternative, THE alternative to a stagnant SL viewer. It's cutting edge, ground breaking, everything the SL viewer (for some absurd reason) isn't.

Firestorm is most popular, it's the middle ground. Some neat features atop ye olde reliable SL viewer. There'd be no future for SL without a cutting edge, Niran's work has at times dragged Second Life forward when nothing else will. It's the second viewer you use when you want to see things at their prettiest. When you want things to run at their fastest. When you want a taste of what SL can, and should be. It's your holiday from the comfort of the simple and known. Your view into what future SL or Firestorm viewers [could] or at times should become. Very often, it very much is the future (by which I mean, other viewers 'acquire' from Niran's open source code, perhaps without so much as a mention they used his work).

And really that first line nails it. Second Life's graphics and architecture have been showing its age for well over a decade, and the UI and UX remaining vexing as fuck. But it's also open enough that a lone individual --and it's often one person, and they're often cranky or at the least eccentric!) -- can dig into its guts, look at it like no one else has before, and create miracles.

It's why Black Dragon is an ongoing project that reminds me of Second Life in its glory days:

As Second Life Ages, Linden Lab Had to Try Something Like Sansar (Comment of the Week)

While there's still much anger among the Second Life community about the end of Sansar as a Linden Lab-sponsored project, some readers also make a more positive point: Since Second Life is still based on an ancient graphics engine and server architecture from nearly two decades (!) ago, the company really did (and does) need to invest in developing new platforms while keeping the original one operational. As "Pulsar" puts it:

Linden Lab dumped no working product (Second Life). What's to be "dumped" here -- actually being sold -- is the branch that gave no fruits... Earlier you realize it, the better. Selling it is the right thing to do, in order to not lose further money and getting something back. It's even possible (but I won't bet it) that Sansar, under a different company with a clear plan and finally reworked, other than rebranded, could find a niche.

I actually wouldn't be at all surprised if Sansar does find a suitor -- for instance, a Chinese company that wants a VR-optimized virtual world to deploy behind the Great Firewall. In any case, as Pulsar goes on, Linden Lab was never trying to "abandon" the Second Life customer base, but attempting to grow a new, somewhat overlapping audience with a new product:

Sansar's End as Linden Lab Project Angers Second Life Users Who Feel Short-Shrifted (Comments of the Week)

As this video tribute to Sansar by Daisy Winthorpe suggests -- published to YouTube a few days before Linden Lab announced the virtual world's end as a Linden Lab-sponsored project and since seen nearly 10,000 times -- it does have (had?) some passionate supporters. To judge by the overwhelming barrage of reader comments about the news, however, Sansar also has quite a few detractors from the Second Life user community who feel short-shrifted by Linden Lab. Just a small sampling of the more civil comments (relatively speaking):

Manticore Lays Out "Creator Revolution for Games" Vision for CORE

Many readers jumped on last week's alpha tester invite offer for CORE (now over, alas), the Unreal-based "digital playground and community" from startup Manticore. At the time, I didn't know many details about Manticore's vision for CORE, other than their intent to offer monetization options for creators. Fortunately, reader "vwfan" points to a Manticore blog post published during last December's holiday dead zone, which actually lays out that vision quite a lot:

Immersive Power of Mouth Tracking in Social VR (Comment of the Week)

Many readers were seriously impressed by NeosVR's new mouth tracking feature, and longtime metaverse developer Max Graf expressed its value in a social VR context:

I have to say, out of all the things that that Linden Lab tried to accomplish with Sansar, one of the things they actually got exactly right (and even pushed the boundaries of the technology in general) was the VR voice and facial symmetry they developed, very similar to what Neos has done here.

I only got to experience it a few times in there with an actual VR rig on, but when I did this was one of the things I specifically wanted to check out, knowing how much they put into it. It was not just the mouth moving when sound was present, it adapted to variations in phonetics, volume and emphasis to change the facial mesh in a very accurate way.

This is definitely among the several features that Sansar really innovated on, and I hope something can be done to this technology, notwithstanding Sansar's current limbo state. Max says the overall effect was transformative:

Why Sony Needs to Discount PSVR to $99 (Comment of the Week)

Reader Tyler D., who clearly knows their stuff, has good suggestions for Sony in the face of slow sales of the PSVR:

There's just no way around it: $299 is a lot for a console peripheral (it's more than the cost of the base PS4). Until Sony slashes the MSRP to $99 impulse buy / bundle pack-in pricing, I don't think they'll move many more units.

For people willing to spend $300+ on mid-range VR, the Quest now offers more flexibility and functionality (in an arguably better ecosystem) for ~$100 more-- as a complete standalone package.

That said, it's worth remembering that the PS4 is the 2nd best-selling console of all-time so a 5% install base isn't shabby in terms of units sold.

That all strikes me as true, and frankly I'm surprised Sony isn't so far willing to take a loss up front by deeply discounting the PSVR. (Though I wouldn't be surprised if a price cut is announced this year.) I think Tyler's right that anyone in the market for VR per se are going to consider Oculus Quest, not PSVR -- while PS4 owners not in the market for VR might still consider buying a $99 PSVR, if only because it gives them more life to the PS4 that they spent so much money on.

Bonus suggestions from Tyler for Microsoft, which has been floundering with its own VR efforts:

Linden Lab & Magic Leap Bought, NeoVR Rises: Reader Predictions for 2020

Pic by Julienn Sands

Some really solid VR/VW 20202 predictions from readers:

NeosVR will be a success. They are now laying a solid foundation with all the tech. No big amount of active users but it's ok to focus. If the speed of development will continue the NeosVR quality will be recognized I assume. -- Rob

More about NeosVR here. Here's another:

Magic Leap will eventually be purchased by one of two companies: Facebook, or Disney. Apple will scoop up at least half of Magic Leap's patents from JP Morgan Chase. Google will stay on the fringes of XR with its mapping efforts and SLAM.  --  Joey1058 

If you're wondering why Magic Leap might be bought out, here's a post partly explaining why.

Finally, predictions around Linden Lab and High Fidelity:

No, Making a Baby Yoda in Second Life Without Disney's Permission Isn't Actually Fair Use (Comment of the Week)

When I wrote about the sudden spike in Baby Yoda content on Second Life's marketplace last week, I ironically closed by saying they were on sale now "[u]nless or until Disney's lawyers deploy a totally uncool interpretation of fair use fan art". I.E., uncool in the sense that it would probably stand up in a court of law.  As reader Zoey explains:

This wouldn't be a fair use, it in no way is for a transformative purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody or even for educational use, The only purpose is for the creators to make money off a copyrighted item which is not fair use at all. This would fail in court in at least 2 of the 4 factors. Factor 1 Transformative: being the purpose and character of your use, being you are taking a copyrighted figure to make Money. and Factor 3 Substantial of the Portion Taken, its a 100% copy of the copyrighted material with no changes. It's not a totally uncool interpretation of fair use for Fan Art. The creators are profiting off or have the potential to profit by cashing out on a copyrighted character.

Fan Art is drawing your own interpretation of a character and posting it, not selling it for profit. IF I turn around and made my own Baby Yoda fan comic and sold it I would be sued to death by Disney and rightfully so. IN order to rightly create and sell a Baby Yoda product in any medium one has to get permission from the copyright holder period.

I am not a lawyer but that all sounds about right, except possibly the "sued to death" part -- a takedown request to Linden Lab (in the SL Baby Yoda case) or a stern letter from Disney's lawyers is way more likely. (Ask the creators of an SL community for Frank Herbert's Dune.) And in any event, Fair Use is not an instant bullet proof defense. As the lawyer for a major game company once told me, "If you want to end up in court, claim fair use."

Oh yeah, another slight demur to Zoey's comment: Even getting permission from the copyright holder might not protect you. Ask a YouTuber named Toos: