New World Notes

Thick as Thieves: Lead Devs Warren Spector, David McDonough & Greg LoPiccolo on the Upcoming Immersive Simulation's Heritage With the Groundbreaking OG Thief

I’m seriously psyched to play Thick as Thieves, an upcoming PC/console game first teased at the Game Awards a few weeks ago. It has a direct heritage to the original Thief games from the early 2000s, milestones in immersive simulation. (And as a young gamer, got me personally ebullient about interactive immersion as an emergent art form.) By putting the player in the role of a stealthy cat burglar in a steampunk city, Thief made you so keenly aware of the virtual environment (light/shadow, the ambient noisemaking potential of different materials, bored/agitated guards), you felt truly part of the 3D world around you. The original Deus Ex games soon expanded on those ideas in a cyberpunk context.

And now, developers on those games are making immersive simulation a multiplayer experience. If that’s even possible?

While Thick as Thieves' trailer bills it as a game "from" revered designer Warren Spector, lead creator of the original Deus Ex games (who also did some work on the original Thief franchise), the brunt of everyday development is actually led by veteran designers David McDonough and Greg LoPiccolo -- the latter who was project leader on the original Thief game. 

In recent weeks I’ve been messaging all three -- on Thick as Thieves’ heritage to Thief/Deus Ex, on the challenge of making an immersive world multiplayer, and much more:

Ask Narrator AI: LLM Guides New Players Into Crack Den, Second Life's Long-Running MMO

If you want a glimpse of how AI/LLM technology might be used to bring new users into the virtual world, check out Ask Narrator, a new-ish feature to Crack Den, the long-running role-playing MMO built in SL:

Click here to teleport, then get the HUD on the nearby table.

"This feature is more than just a tool," lead developer Nadir Taov tells me, "it’s a glimpse into how AI can transform onboarding and deepen connections in our virtual community. As someone who’s passionate about UX, I see this as a game-changing way to empower players, especially newcomers, to integrate into our gritty, immersive world."

Nadir built the Narrator on top of GPT4o and other LLMs, based on the Crack Den story bible which goes back to 2008. He tells me it's already improved user engagement. It's also a glimpse of an even more ambitious project he has coming soon:

 

Second Life Combat 2 Development Tips from Linden Lab's Creator Tools Product Manager

Since Linden Lab recently unveiled Combat 2, a major update to Second Life's combat system, I got in touch with Kyle Linden, the company project manager under the Avatars and Creator Tools initiative. A Linden since 2007, Kyle's also a longtime gamer and even owned a roleplay region in SL before joining the company. "[O]ne of the things I have always wished for Second Life is easy to enter combat situations to enhance role playing games our residents create," he tells me.

While there are many impressive user-made game systems in Second Life, the platform's streaming architecture is not immediately optimized for high speed, physics-based combat out of the box. So I asked Kyle for some tips for community developers getting started with implementing Combat 2:

Second Life-Based Mini-MMO Adds ChatGPT & Other AI Tech to Gameplay Including NPCs, Story Bible, and Quest Generator

Crack Den, the long-running urban roleplay mini-MMO in Second Life -- think a text-driven GTA Online, but both more creative and adult-rated -- just added AI interaction to its roleplay gaming systems. If I'm not mistaken, this is one of the first live MMOs to integrate LLMs like ChatGPT into gameplay. (It might actually be the very first!) 

The AI for Crack Den roleplay comes in several flavors: The Story HUD for giving out quests, Live Character Cards for NPCs, AI-generated dialog from NPCs, and for querying Crack Den's massive story canon and rules database. To do that, lead developer Nadir Taov is leveraging multiple LLMs: 

"If it’s answering questions or generating summaries that can be vanilla, it’s GPT 4o. [See above -WJA] If it’s story-related, I switch to more unrestricted models that are tuned for roleplay too. At least three different models in play: MythoMax and LLama3 so far … new models seem to be popping up every few months and each require special ways to structure prompts so I’m exploring when I can. I’m trying to see if how agnostic I can get to the models though."

Linden Lab recently experimented with LLM-powered NPCs in a test area, but Crack Den is a thriving and highly active roleplay game. First launched in 2006 as a rickety RPG where stories and quests were conveyed by in-world notecards, the core player base has remained, evolved, and grown together. To this day (by Nadir’s estimate) some 5,000 SLers visit the mini-world of Crack Den every month, perhaps to participate in the mayhem, or to gawk like post-apocalyptic tourists and the desperately seedy goings-on.

Launched last weekend, Nadir tells me the community reception has been pretty good -- and even helped bring in some new players: 

 

Get Potted: Virtual Plant-Growing Game in Second Life So Popular, 2000 Regularly Play

Pic by Drakedarkblood from a recent Potted photo contest

Somewhere off the coast, there’s a deep sea diver sitting in a decompression tank worrying for long stretches about the fate of his virtual plants.

“One of our players is a deep sea diver,” Cort Brandiss explains, “like for oil companies. And he has to sit in decompression for hours, and he tells me how he sits there and thinks about his plants.”

Cort is lead creator of Potted, and by her count, up to two thousand Second Life users regularly play, carefully growing and watering their plants to unlock new seeds and other rewards.

Virtual plant life has been in Second Life for nearly two decades -- indeed, I still regularly water “Kona Gold”, my 20 foot tall marijuana plant from 2006 --  but Cort has created a fun game mechanic around the regular habits of virtual world citizens:

“Potted is structured in a way that I hoped it would fit anyone's SL, no matter how they play,” she explains. “Casual players can buy a pot, plant a seed, grow a plant and water it once a week for free, just for the fun of having something ‘living’ in their homes. Or, people can play the star point game, which advances each time you water.”  

And yes, like Kona Gold, your Potted plants start to wilt, if you don’t regularly attend to them:

“They get sick, yes, if you don't water them at least once a week.” If you’re offline for strong stretches, however, you can pause the watering cycle by putting the pot back in inventory. “We all take occasional SL breaks!”

Potted has become so popular, it’s changed how many people play in Second Life: 

“It gives goals to your Second Life, reasons to decorate, collect, etc.,” as Cort puts it. “I get blamed for houses and furniture disappearing in favor of greenhouses a lot.”

I first got word of Potted during Second Life's Lahaina wildfire fundraiser, which Cort and her crew, many from Hawaii, rallied to support. (Yes, Cort has a staff helping her, as Potted has become popular enough to be a major part of her real life work.)

That public spirit can be seen in Potted’s game community for a previous fundraiser to benefit Gentle Giants Elephants of Thailand, Cort tells me:

 

Game of Thrones-Inspired Roleplay Community in Second Life Generates Stunning Character Portraits

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Vandom excels at creating role-play characters. He also shoots some pictures on commission. He created this character for Right of Conquest, a roleplay sim based on Game of Thrones. He has a gallery of his role play characters. [To teleport to the sim, click here} As with any roleplay sim, it’s a good idea to check out the rules before going. 

For more for Game of Thrones, click here:

Fantastic Photos from Second Life Rugby Games -- Yes, Second Life Has a Rugby League & Virtual Sports Photographers

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Stevo Kozlowski shoots Second Life rugby. Who knew Second Life rugby looked this real? It’s changed a lot since Miffyhoi Rosca, Hatchy Mills, and I went to a stadium in 2007. I am blown away by these action shots. Wow, wow, wow! But there’s more. He gives some color commentary for the three pics in the composite:

1. Bulldogs v Seagulls RD9 Jovi Jordan dots down after collecting a kick from Pj Havoc which iced the game for the Bulldogs.
2. Pirates v Pitbulls RD9 One of the Pitbulls best this year, Hynes Guerrero. The prop forward has run for over 1000 meters this season. Pictured here, slipping a ball to Chip Lemongrass who scored in their narrow victory over arch rivals the BayCity Pirates.
3. Tigers v Rhinos RD9 Rhinos lock forward Tolsen Piggins has been dangerous for his side this season. He's scored 5 tries and made 8 line breaks and 17 tackle busts. He was pivotal in the Rhinos win over the Tigers.

Stevo not only has play-by-play commentary like this, but includes links to all key fashion items in the image.

For more sports pics, click here:

Incredible Squid Game Cosplay Imagery from the Second Life Community

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

You can always rely on Second Life residents to respond to cultural phenomena with pictures and activities that bring the key elements into SL. Ginger Chevalier’s “Front-Man Squid Game” seems an excellent introduction to residents’ homage to the streaming series that has taken the world by storm. I have not watched it, though, and my exposure has been limited to seeing plurks and tweets that say “OMG, Squid Game!” I got the impression that it’s pretty gory, so I am unlikely to watch it. Scary movies give me nightmares. 

This picture does a good job of showing a sort of hierarchy. These are the people with power. The one in black is clearly the leader, wearing a suit and a mask with human features while the others are in uniforms that seem designed to keep them anonymous as well as safe from liquid and gas hazards.  

“VIP Tiger Mask Squid Game” is another pic from Ginger and it’s lush. There is only the mask on a table with light shining on it and reflecting back. The simplicity makes it seem like a jewel. 

Next up: A scene based on the show's eerie paste Escher staircase -- now on sale in Second Life!

Give Your SL Avatar Realistic Wounds With the Really Needy HUD’s New Explosive Pack!

Just in time for Halloween and Squid Game roleplay in Second Life, the Really Dangerous Explosives Pack is a fun new addition to the Really Needy HUD (a proud sponsoring partner), which turns SL into a Sims-like game experience. Now, with the help of major style brand Izzie’s, any damage from nearby explosions will cause visible wounds to appear on your avatar. 

Here’s Really Needy creator Grace7 Ling with more details, along with some new NSFW partnerships: 

Roleplayers can now give their urban game more gritty realism with the Really Dangerous Explosives Pack, which includes a feature that auto-applies blood-splattered BOM layers onto your avatar body, if hit by an explosion.

This is a feature of the Really Needy HUD which are used by roleplayers in Second Life to simulate their avatars having Hunger, Thirst, Energy, Health, Hygiene and even Toilet and Procreation needs.

This new release builds on the different types of injuries recognized by the HUD (which goes much beyond a simple combat meter), such as burns, falls and gunshot wounds, and now blast injuries.

As covered in a prior New World Notes post, gunshot wounds automatically appear on the parts of the body where the avatar was shot. With this new release, avatars within the blast radius of a fragmentation grenade will get covered in blood splatter or bloody cuts (depending on how much gore you want), or might be bruised badly if they suffered shock damage from a nearby explosion.

SL-Based Passport Game Attracts 2500+ Players Who Want to Collect 100s of Stamps Scattered Across the Virtual World - Here's How to Play!

Click here on the Marketplace or go here in-world to start playing Forever Tourist a fun and fairly brilliant game with a simple adventurous premise: Explore designated locations throughout Second Life, find the kiosk in each, and collect a stamp on your travel passport, displayed as a HUD.

Now with nearly 200 locations to visit and 2500 players, Forever Tourist is the brainchild of Feorie Frimon, who is using the funds collected by participating location owners to restore the Second Life mainland -- basically a Nature Conservancy for SL: