New World Notes

SL Creators: Please Take This Short Survey on the State of the Second Life Economy in 2025! (Use Laptop/PC for Best Results)

As promised, here's my anonymous brand/merchant survey for my upcoming report on the state of the SL economy. Asking such questions as:

• How has the SL mobile app impacted your sales or activity around your brand?
• How much money in USD do you typically gross from your SL content sales and services per year?
• Do you use Generative AI programs in the promotion and/or creation of your SL content?
• Do shopping events increase your overall revenue from SL?
• What's your confidence in the future of Second Life as led by Brad Oberwager & Philip Rosedale?

And much more! Use a laptop/PC for best results (you need a mouse to scroll on the embedded window), or click here to take it directly on Google Sheets. 

I will definitely feature highlights and the full report on New World Notes here, though if you want to be among the very first to read it, please join my Patreon for free.

 

SLCreator Survey: What OTHER Questions Should I Ask Besides These?

I'm starting to prepare my much-anticipated report on the state of the Second Life economy for 2025 -- a follow-up to this report from last year -- and it will include an anonymous survey sent to SL merchants.

Below are the questions I'm planning to ask. Are there other burning queries I should include?

Flat World Rising: PMR's Cardboard Avatars Top Seller on SL Marketplace, First Flat Town Shopping Event Starts This Weekend

Flat town pic courtesy Novel Events

The cardboard avatars of Salt Pepper have already evolved from an April Fool's prank into a social phenomenon; now, I can report they're also an economic powerhouse in Second Life. The PMR and accessory skin have been among the top ten selling items on the Marketplace since last weekend (see below), their lo-fi displays a refreshing contrast to the super model avatar upgrades which usually dominate the economy. (And culture.)

Even more notable, PMR creator Salt Pepper tells me, the cardboard avatars continue to be popular even though she's no longer offering them for free. Now priced at L$555 (about $2 USD), Salt tells me she's sold well over 2000 copies over the last few days.

Just as notable: PMR is having its first sales event/hunt this weekend, starting April 19th at 3PM SLT, inevitably dubbed: Flat-Out Fun.

Hosted by Novel Events (follow on Facebook for updates), it comes with its own flat paper-based town in Second Life, quickly created by Alice Tartaglia:

SL Marketplace Survey: Over 85% Want New Regulations of AI-Made Content; Majority Want Mandatory "Contains AI" Tag

Here's the results of last week's Gen AI survey, which I took in the run-up to Second Life's official "AI & the Future of Our Virtual Community" town hall happening this Friday.

The results are pretty unambiguous: A massive majority of over 85% surveyed want some kind of regulation against gen AI-made content in the SL Marketplace, with a majority (54%) choosing this option as the one they agree with most: REQUIRE merchants tag their content as having "No AI" or "Contains AI". (Presumably this would be self-enforcing by the user community)

I reached out to Linden Lab for their commentary on these regulatory options, and they told me they'll include these survey results in their upcoming AI town hall. I'm told the event will probably not include any new announcements, and is more of a user feedback session -- and, well, this survey is that. 

Given the heat and controversy over the topic, I'm actually somewhat surprised that was the most preferred option. By contrast, only 1 in 4 chose the most draconian option: BAN all Marketplace content that contains generative AI, enforced by Linden Lab staff (23.8% chose that). Maybe few chose this for technical reasons: my impression is it would be highly difficult if not an impractical lost cause to scan content for suspicious signs of gen AI, which is probably why few respondents chose this option.

It's also in keeping with the community's values around player choice. As an anonymous reader put it somewhat sardonically:

Survey: How Should Linden Lab Regulate Generative AI in Second Life's Online Marketplace?

As controversy over Generative AI content in Second Life continues, here's a survey on how Linden Lab should deal with the subject in the online Marketplace. Choose the option you support MOST (or disagree with the least).

In one option, creators have a choice of tagging their content as having "no AI" and use that as a selling point. (And since it's a voluntary option, creators could still use gen AI and fib about it -- and risk getting called out on it by the community.)   

In another option, creators must label their content as either having "No AI" or "Contains AI".

In still another option, gen AI is banned outright, and Marketplace users can flag suspect content for investigation by Linden Lab, with various penalties if it's confirmed to have AI.

BREAKING: Project Mesh Revolution's Cardboard Avatars Evolve from April Fool's Prank into Genuine Second Life Social Phenomenon

Originally published on my Patreon

Longtime SLer Ciaran Astral was in a hopping club last Sunday when they realized an unexpected thing: Though surrounded by upwards of one hundred avatars, they were dancing and socializing in a space free from lag. (Watch above!)

"It was amazing," as they recall it now. "I remember saying to someone, 'Holy crap there's this many people, and I have 150fps."

But it wasn't just a matter of feeling liberated from lag:

"It reminded me of the old days of Second Life," Ciaran tells me. "Loads of people making silly fun stuff and either giving it away for free or just charging a tiny amount for it -- makers coming together to create a community event, a sort of 'DIY it, let's have fun' atmosphere." (Ciaran created the cardboard club, of course.)

All this was possible, because everyone in the club was outfitted in the new Project Mesh Revolution mesh avatars -- low poly cardboard cutouts that began as an April Fool's prank, but have quickly become a genuine Second Life phenomenon:

"Lots of people made their own mods or clothes; what was cool to see was looking around at everyone, almost nobody had the same outfits/looks. Which, considering these 'Bodies' came out less than a week ago (at the time), is quite a testament to the creative power of the Second Life userbase."

And I do mean "phenomenon": Since becoming available early last week, roughly 1 in 5 of the entire Second Life user base has gotten themselves copies of the PMR avatars:

Project Mesh Revolution is What Second Life Needs Right Now -- No Fooling!

Originally posted earlier on my Patreon

Second Life social media has been ablaze with excitement over Salt Peppermint's PROJECT MESH REVOLUTION (pictured), which purports to completely change our perspective on what SL avatars can and should be. And that's no fooling!

"I promise I am releasing two bodies and two heads," she tells me yesterday, when I first ask her if this is some kind of elaborate April Fool. "And we have 27 creators releasing clothings and accessories rigged for it."

Among them is the legendary Gizem Mishi of Kiwi Co. (read my profile of her here), who affirmed her excitement for the project with me yesterday:

"This project is extra special because we're not just sharing our work," as she put it to me. "We're gifting it, providing a generous timeline for everyone to access everything we've lovingly created, free of charge... I am most excited about the accessibility and the content pool that we were able to put together for this incredible initiative by Salt."

PMR seeks to address the many shortcomings of the current Second Life mesh fashion economy.

"With the current state of how mesh bodies work in SL," as Ms. Peppermint explains, "is that you buy an item that is rigged specifically for the body you wear. Maitreya has released only female bodies. and only clothes rigged for their specific bodies will work for them. Same goes for any other current body brand. Legacy Male body needs clothes that are specifically rigged for Legacy Male."

PMR also addresses Second Life mesh's ongoing problem of poor optimization. Most of the top selling mesh bodies in Second Life have so many excessive triangles, and cause so much lag, they are effectively a DDOS on other users (as one former Linden Lab engineer put it to me).

PMR, by contrast, Salt Peppermint promises, are "VERY WELL optimized."

People in her S&P group have already gotten their copies of their two PMR bodies and two PMR heads. So starting this morning, thousands of members found them waiting in their inventory.

They're being avidly shared across social media now.

For instance:

AI Is Either Something Second Life Can Learn to Live With -- Or Will Destroy the Virtual World Economy as We Know It (Comments of the Week)

The fact that these two reader comments on my post about Philip Rosedale's promised Town Hall on AI are right on top of each other is a good indication of how divisive the topic is.

First up, from Tami, making the case that gen AI is something we can live with in Second Life:

AI won't go away, as much as I'd wish it would, I know that it is here to stay. So, let's try and focus on AI as a complement, a supplement, or a tool that benefits SL. For example, instead of AI-generated clothing, let's have AI as a tool to help clothing designers realize their visions when they run into technical hurdles and issues.

Yes, I know that this idea can be abused, so the issue isn't "how to use AI" but on "how to prevent AI from usurping humans" in SL. In some ways, the past methods of creating content for years, learning over time to become better creators, are in danger. Can we stop AI from short-circuiting that process -- probably not. So, what can we do do to prevent AI from taking over the content creation market?

Perhaps, we can't stop AI, so maybe the answer is to make it easier to use. Instead of everyone buying things on the marketplace, anyone and everyone can create their own magical world filled with things they used AI to create. Instead of SL being driven by the economy, it can be driven by creativity using AI to make the dreams come true. SL doesn't have to be RL and moving away from economic models and wealth isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's change, and SL is well know for its resiliency with regard to change.

I don't want AI, but I will use it to make SL better if that is my only choice.

And now here's Riannah, making an opposite case:

Firestorm Streaming Survey Results: Most Aren't Interested... Unless It's Free.

Here's the results of my New World Notes survey last week, asking SLers what's the most they would be willing to pay for the new Project Zero option of streaming Firestorm/Second Life on a browser.

As you can see above, a strong majority aren't interested in any option, even one that's free with advertising. About 15% were willing to pay $.50 cents/hour to $2/hour, but the most popular "paid" choice by far was the ad-supported, free version. (The Patreon member version of this survey garnered pretty similar results, with 32% preferring free with ads.)

Which is somewhat surprising, from one angle. Rather than pay, say, $2500 for a high-end gamer laptop that runs Second Life pretty well, why not get a low-end $500 laptop and stream a highly optimized version of Firestorm by the hour? Even at $1/hour, this would be more cost effective for most SLers.

However, from another angle, these results point out another reality: By and large, Second Life users are core gamers and/or power users who already own and prefer a high-end PC for many other applications beyond SL.

As promised, I showed these survey results to Linden Lab:

BREAKING: Linden Lab Updates Second Life's Official Flickr Group to Leverage ONLY User-Made Images/Video for Future Marketing, Chair Confirms

Originally published on my Patreon

The description and rules to Linden Lab's official Flickr group for Second Life images were recently updated to emphasize that user-made images and video uploaded there may be used in future ad campaigns for Second Life:

By submitting your photos or videos (the “Submissions”) to the Second Life Official Flickr feed of Linden Research, Inc. (the “Company”), you acknowledge and agree to the following terms:

You agree to participate in the Company’s marketing campaigns program  (the “Program”). As a participant of the Program, you hereby grant to the Company a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, and cost-free right and license to use, distribute, or sublicense (through multiple levels), and otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your Submissions, for the purposes of marketing, promotion, and/or outreach for and about the Second Life virtual world.

After top SL creator Bars Simpson noticed this change, I confirmed with Linden Lab head Brad Oberwager that the purpose is indeed to leverage SL user-made images for future marketing.

"It is correct that we only want to use Second Life content for future ads," Oberwager just messaged me. "And anyone who wants to submit ads, we will review and test." (Emphasis mine, as it bear emphasizing!)

This Flickr rules update, by the way, was led by SL social media doyenne Strawberry Linden.

This comes after a recent dust-up due to Linden Lab using AI/stock images and videos to A/B various messaging, in preparation for an official campaign, and community members subsequently outraged by the artificial depiction of the virtual world -- especially when there's so much user-created content out there that's far superior.  

"After talking to you about how people feel," Brad explains to me, "I had all our terms reviewed to make sure we did not violate anything if we used Second Life 'stock footage'."

That final point is important: