New World Notes

New World Notes Seeking New Sponsoring Partners! Here's the Details

As I continue promoting The Book and pondering my next career step -- go back to working for a metaverse company, become an analyst, start a column/podcast* are three likely steps -- one thing is certain:

New World Notes will continue, and keep striving to bring readers the best/most interesting content from Second Life and its many metaverse platform successors. It will also be a part of whatever I do next professionally.

Which is a long way of saying: New World Notes is seeking new sponsoring media partners. 

Click here to for latest rate card:  

Download New World Notes Rate Card Fall 2023

And if you have questions, here's how to get in touch with the ad team/me:

Welcome, Bad Unicorn: Creator of Comically Chaotic Second Life Items is Now a New World Notes Sponsoring Partner!

I'm psyched to welcome Bad Unicorn as a sponsoring media partner to New World Notes. Founded by Bhad Craven (Second Life Spotlight profile here), Bad Unicorn is a leading creator of SL items ideal for creating comic chaos with friends.

That's Bhad above, hitting me in the face with his newest item: Thor's Hammer, i.e. a bunch of old-ass Nokia phones duct-taped to a stick. [Click here to teleport to Bad Unicorn's mainstore, which is full of zany delights]

"Bad Unicorn began as a modest clothing store," Bhad explains, "but over the past decade, it has evolved into a dynamic platform for me to explore various aspects of design and digital artistry. I have created a wide range of items during my time here, such as houses, Halloween costumes, vehicles to weapons and many other random objects. I'm not really sure what inspires me, but fun and chaos definitely play a big part in this creative journey."

Creator of the recent meme-worthy combat folding chair, what really sold me on Bad Unicorn were smart/goofy items like his Basel Banana:

Feeling Like an Xpat in Xile? Connect With Me on Bluesky & Threads!

In case you're feeling like an X-ile who's X-panding your social networks for completely X-cellent reasons, I would love if you connect with me here:

On Threads, I'm "wjamesau"

On Bluesky, I'm "SLHamlet"

In fact, I have some invite codes to Bluesky to give readers. If you want one, DM me this week on Twitter (sorry, X) or Plurk or Discord at wja_hamlet or even Facebook. 

Remember, it's not about giving up -- it's about X-ecuting an X-orcism.

What Blogs Should I Add to My SL/Metaverse News & Culture Blogroll?

I'm starting to build a metaverse blog roll/ad swap (mid-right column), featuring blogs which cover Second Life and the broader ecosystem of metaverse news and culture -- beginning with Gorgeous Aurelia's long-running JuicyBomb. Along with some smashing style pics, Gogo recently wrote about Linden Lab's curious fake casino project and ways to use generative AI programs like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion with Second Life content.

If you want to add your own SL/metaverse blog to my roll, get in touch with me:

Want to Be a Sponsoring Partner of New World Notes? Get Our Rate Card!

In case you missed it, here's New World Notes' media/rate card for handy downloading as a .PDF/PPT file (below). As you'll notice, there's good discounts for L$ and longer-term engagements.

Download New World Notes Rate Card

To get in touch with New World Notes' marketing exec “Demonica” send an e-mail to ads at new-world-notes dot com.

In-world, click to connect with Demonica here on their SL social page.

Here's the ad spaces that are available and some guidelines:

Get Well Soon & Happy Valentine's to Flickr Columnist Cajsa Lilliehook!

Image via Casja's Flickr

Hope readers join me in wishing Happy Valentine's and best wishes for a quick recover to Cajsa Lilliehook, New World Notes' indispensable columnist covering the best of virtual world imagery. She's currently home, resting and recovering* from a successful surgery last week, and hopefully will be back to writing Cajsa's Choices soon.

Meantime, here's some recent-ish romantic imagery posts from Cajsa to enjoy for the holiday:

Watch: Isabelle & Me Chat About the Metaverse on Cloud's Edge

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who joined us, especially Erik and Rosie in fluff form! We talked about a Second Life avatar in the Vienna Opera House, Bryn Oh on Steam, and too many VR headsets in Metaverse stories. Plus viewer questions and topics that quickly get racy!

Reviewing & Grading My Metaverse Predictions for 2022 on Quest 2 Sales, Blockchain, Linden Lab and More

Time to take a lot at what I predicted would happen in 2022, and compare it with what actually did:

Apple will not announce AR/VR products in 2022.

Yes. And I'm tempted to predict the same thing for 2023!

Second Life finally gets an official mobile app in 2022.

Yes, though kinda sorta. Some SLers aren't super happy about the gingerbread man avatar they have to use.

Quest 2 Install Base Remains Under 20 Million in 2022.

Probably. It was pinned at 15 million last October, and Quest 2 holiday says were reportedly down, so it's still likely hovering at just under 20 million.

There will be major government involvement over one or more Metaverse platforms.

Yes. Getting in right under the wire, this from December: Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges.

Four more predictions to review after the break!

I'm Not Leaving Twitter (Yet) But Please Follow Me on LinkedIn

I'm on LinkedIn and often post and chat with connections there. As for Twitter, well, I'm still there too, despite all the recent Elon Issues. Whatever's going on with Twitter the company, my Twitter network of people who are fun and interesting remains incredibly valuable to me. And long as that's the cast, I'll remain on Twitter too.

SL Merchants: Want Your Items Featured in New World Video's Holiday Special? Here's How!

For our next New World Notes video we're doing a holiday theme and trying something fun while chatting about Metaverse news -- we're featuring fun Second Life gift ideas. If you're a merchant interested in having some of your items featured on the show.

Submission deadline is by December 18, SLT.

And yes, we may feature some Adult-rated items, but only if they're totally hilarious and we can blur out the naughty bits. But PG-13 is generally preferred.

Here's how to submit them:

• Send it to the inventory of my excellent cohost and producer Isabelle Cheren
• Also send her a notecard with the item(s) price, a short description, and a link to the Marketplace and in-world store. We'll include those links in the video description and also in a New World Notes blog post.
• We'll feature our favorite items on next week's show, just in time for Christmas shopping!

Watch our last episode below!