New World Notes

Six Surprising Ways Using Second Life Improved Users in Real Life

This is a pretty fascinating thread on /SecondLife where community members answer the question, "How has Second Life helped you sharpen for any real life experiences?" 

The examples given range from the funny:

Fashion. I used to dress well, then during lockdown started dressing like a trash pile, but dressing up my avi made me want to get my nice things back out in RL too. - greeneyedwench 

To the poignant:

I started playing SL in 2004. 6 years later I was in Afghanistan and another year and a half after that. SL put me in contact with fellow Vets and helped me relearn how to adjust to Civilian life and how to cull my social anxiety. - HellHoundActual

Several more of my favorites after the break:

SL Vs. RL: Nine More Photos Of Second Life Users With Their Avatars

"I was inspired by my real look," a Second Life user named "Rainhaindiamorena" tells me. In real life, she continues, "I'm a Brazilian singer. I live in Bahia. I tried to make the avatar with my style. black with braided hair Rainha. In Second Life I sing in different lands."

Her SL/RL photo is one of dozens now on Facebook with the tag #slvsrl, launched in Holger Gilruth's Facebook group for SLers, featuring pics of avatars alongside their real life owners.

See part one of my mixed reality profiles here. Displayed with their permission, here are ten more of my favorites, featuring the owners' explanation for their avatar's appearance:

Watch Philip Rosedale's High Fidelity Avatar Broadcast from San Francisco onto a Singapore Stage to Do a Live Audience Q&A

This is a pretty impressive mixed reality application of social VR: Philip Rosedale logged into High Fidelity in San Francisco so his avatar can be broadcast onto a screen on a conference stage in Singapore, with latency low enough that he can participate in the audience Q&A. At the same time, an audience in High Fidelity joins him to watch the Singapore event broadcast into the virtual world. "I think this is a first," Philip says on Twitter, and he may be right. I'm not sure if this might replace other, more standard forms of long distance presence -- i.e., just broadcasting a person's Skype feed onto an onstage screen -- but it's certainly a more fun alternative.

How to Host a Harry Potter Roleplay Community in Second Life for $10,000

I was asking New World Notes readers the most money they ever spent on a virtual item, and while some spent $25 or $60 or so on, one figure in particular made my jaw drop:

“I spent more than $600 USD and to create a custom Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.”

So said Daeberethwen Arbenlow, a well-known figure in the Second Life fashion world. But nearly 10 years ago, she was roleplaying in an SL-based Harry Potter community through an avatar known as “Belladora Darkfold”. Until, that is, the virtual wizard drama became too damn much:

“I had worked as a GM at a different Hogwarts sim and it was really corrupt and they had big issues with favoritism,” as she puts it. “So I decided I wanted to make my own Hogwarts sim and that I wanted to make it look as much like Hogwarts and Hogsmeade as possible.” She hired an SL-based design studio which specialized in Harry Potter-themed content. (Yes, those exist). “I had a quidditch pitch, Hogwarts with the chamber of secrets you could access with parseltongue, Hagrid's hut, haunted forest and Hogsmeade. Oh and the Ministry of Magic.”

Cost to build? $600. Creative and community benefit: Priceless.  

“I like creating worlds that are immersive,” she says. “Roleplayers loved it, because at the time, it was the only place that really looked like Hogwarts. and everything was true to the books... I had a great bunch. Just people who shared my love of the Harry Potter universe and who really got into their characters. And my administrative team at the time worked really hard and they were fair minded.”

And if you’re wondering, no, she wasn’t worried that Warner Brothers or JK Rowling would sicc their lawyers on them:

 

 

Avatar Owners in CA, NY & DC Wanted: Major Media Brand Looking for Subjects of Photo Series on Virtual Identity

First Look Media, a new cross-medium brand that includes The Intercept news/opinion site and is funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, is looking for people in California, New York, and D.C. who have a second life and are interested in being photographed in real life:

"To put it broadly," project coordinator and freelancer Maddy Crowell puts it to me, "the project will explore themes of identity and disguise, and the power of virtual identities. We'd like to make a photo-driven story about people who have virtual identities that are substantially different from those in their daily lives, and talk with them about their second lives - how they invented their second lives, what their second lives have brought their 'personal' lives; whatever they are comfortable with, really. Also, if anyone prefers not to use their names, pseudonyms are completely fine."

A bit reminiscent of Robbie Cooper's Alter Ego from a decade ago, but the concept could use (so to speak) a second life. Interestingly, one of the best people to be in this photography series would be... eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, who used to semi-anonymously explore Second Life.

Anyway, if you qualify geographically and you're interested in participating, here's how to get involved:

Jo Yardley, Creator of Second Life's Virtual Berlin, Also Creates Viral Images Merging Photos of Modern Europe & World War II

Jo Yardley, avatar name for the owner and lead creator of the well-known recreation of 1920s Berlin in Second Life, has a fascinating first life project she's even more famous for: Merging archive photos from World War II with their modern day locations in Europe. (As above.) In real life she's Dutch historian Jo Teeuwisse, and her work is currently being featured on the Daily Mail in the UK, but you can see all the images from her "Ghosts of History" project on her Flickr here. You've probably seen some of them on various websites over the past few years, as they've enjoyed spikes of viral interest.

"It started as a tool to help me with research, but it didn't go big 'til after I'd started on [SL] Berlin," Jo tells me.  "Over the years I've done research for movies, TV, museums, authors, etc. But this I started after finding some negatives at a local flea market, and I just had to find out more about them."

By overlapping scenes of peaceful, modern day Europe with glimpses of Europe when it was wracked by war, these pictures have had a profound impact on many viewers:

Draxtor Despres' Mixed Reality Documentary Series Returns With the Man Behind Some of SL's Best Designed Spaces

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

There's a new episode of Draxtor Despres' mixed reality machinima documentary series The Drax Files: World Makers (which is now sponsored by Linden Lab,) and it's packed with absolutely breathtaking virtual spaces. That's because episode 21 focuses on Editorial Clarity, the aptly named avatar behind SL interior design blog Love to Decorate and its complimentary magazine. As always the opportunity to learn what's inspired, motivated, and changed some of Second Life's most talented and interesting individuals is invaluable.

Clean lines, cracked plaster, and a wealth of inspiration await. Watch the full episode for yourself after the cut:

Second Life for a Second Life Muslim Comedian Who Fled Pakistan to Become an Australian Star

So I was reading the New York Times last weekend when I suddenly realized that I knew the Muslim comedian profiled on the front page - just that I last met him as a chimpanzee performing standup comedy in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Sami Shah is a comedian from Pakistan who fled the country (in part) to escape death threats provoked by his pointed humor about religion, and is now a rising star in Australia. And the thing is, back when he was still performing in Pakistan, he practiced a lot in Second Life as an avatar called Orionalation Carver, often in The Wasteland, and sometimes as a monkey. (This was around 2008.) I even shot some video of his routine, which you can watch below -- it's probably one of the more surreal events I've experienced in Second Life:

Remembering Helen Thomas, Who Challenged 9 Presidents About Their Policies... and Philip Rosedale About Second Life

Legendary journalist Helen Thomas died over the weekend after an admired career of many decades, and as it happens, it was a highlight of my career as a journalist of virtual worlds to meet her. It was also one of the oddest. And as a way of remembering her, I wanted to share that memory now:

This was in 2009 when Philip Rosedale, myself, and some others involved in virtual worlds and MMOs were invited to talk about journalism and reporting in that new medium, at the University of Washington's Edward R. Murrow School. She and Bob Schieffer (himself a journalistic icon) were there that day to get lifetime achievement awards, and for reasons I can't quite remember now, the two events were linked, so Second Life avatars of Helen Thomas and Bob Schieffer were created, and through them their Q&A talk was simulcast into SL. Yes they did, yes they did -- here is video of just that happening:

Get the Inside Story On Some of Second Life's Most Beautiful Spaces With Draxtor Despres' Latest Mixed Reality Videos

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

One of Second Life's most acclaimed journalists and machinima artists has a new project, and it'll give you some amazing insight into the kinds of people that not only use Second Life, but shape the virtual world around them. The Drax Files: World Builders by Draxtor Despres recently came out with its second episode, featuring the face of SL's 1920's Berlin (and NWN reader) Jo Yardley. Take a look for yourself after the jump.