New World Notes

Virtual Worlds Museum Launches Explorable Education Hubs in Roblox, Horizon Worlds, Rec Room & Second Life

The Virtual Worlds Museum just unveiled its first set of interactive hubs and exhibits within multiple virtual world platforms including Roblox, Horizon Worlds, Rec Room, and (yes!) Second Life, which I'm helping finalize as a longtime consultant. While I'm somewhat biased, I do believe this is the most ambitious effort to created a unified experience and knowledge base spanning all virtual worlds past and present. Here's the officially vision:

Our vision was to build dedicated museum exhibits and hubs inside these virtual worlds as places where the culture of each platform could be explored and mapped... Each hub is an anchor point in a growing map of immersive experiences that will soon be connected to our six core exhibits

The Roblox hub, for instance, was created by VWM volunteer and Roblox builder Joshman, and takes you through a Time Machine where you can travel through the nearly 20 year evolution of the platform. (Here's its official Roblox page.)

Go here for more info for exploring all the hubs. More details on the Second Life hub soon!

Going to Augmented World Expo in Long Beach Next Month? Use This Discount Code & Meet Me There!

I'm once again signing books at Augmented World Expo in Long Beach next month (June 10-12), and am excited to say that's where I'm also introducing a new 2025 edition of the afterword. Hope to you see there!

If you are interested in coming, here's a special 10% off discount code: 

Enter SPKR25D during sign-up. Save money on entrance fees for more fish tacos.

And let me know in Comments if you're coming!

What Specialized Virtual Worlds Should the Virtual Worlds Museum Track?

I'm still working with Julian Reyes and his Virtual Worlds Museum to compile the most comprehensive list of virtual worlds online. Now that we've compiled this list of sunsetted virtual worlds, we're updating our next category: Specialized. 

In our definition, Specialized virtual worlds fall roughly into this category:  

Virtual worlds primarily created for Education/Training, Meetings, or other Enterprise use cases -- or social worlds with limited access due to narrow usage or limited platform / geographic availability, or other barriers to entry.

So for example, Breakroom falls in the Enterprise category, while ZEPETO falls in the latter category, as it's a social virtual world that's mobile only, and mainly used/marketed to a South Korean user base.

See the (mostly) whole list below. We're also adding open source virtual worlds to this category, but that'll be in the next edition.  

Is This Updated List of Sunsetted Virtual Worlds Missing Any Titles?

Above: Cloud Party before being acquired and shuttered by Yahoo!

Thanks to everyone, especially VR legend Jacki Morie, for helping update this list of sunsetted virtual worlds that I'm compiling with Julian Reyes and the Virtual Worlds Museum. Based on that feedback, we're adding these three to the VWM's exhibit:

Barbie Girls  - 2007 to 2011

Browser-based virtual world based on the Barbie IP where players could customize their own room and avatar, and communicate with each through pre-selected phrases. Discontinued by Mattel, with the company directing players to enjoy Barbe-themed avatars on Stardoll.

WorldsAway - 1995 to 1998

A 2.5D world developed by a subsidiary of Fujitsu and first launched on CompuServe, users had customizable avatars and rentable, customizable homes called "turfs". Acquired in 1998 and rebranded as VZones. Reference.

Cloud Party - 2012 to 2014

Browser-based virtual world backed with funding by Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka, developed by ex-Cryptic Studios CTO Bruce Rogers, with robust creation tools. Acquired by Yahoo! In 2014 and taken offline. Reference.

I'm a bit embarrassed for missing Cloud Party from the first draft, especially as I was the first person to blog about it!

See the rest of the sunsetted worlds documented here or below. Now that we have our final (or near-final) list, we'll be moving on to Specialized virtual worlds, especially those for Education/Training, Meetings, and Enterprise. Check for that next week!

Virtual World Writing Delayed by Real Life Conflagration

Apologies for the delay in blogging, but this was the view from our Los Angeles neighborhood last night, followed by an inverted pyramid of black smoke which blotted out half the morning sky. I'm safe and out of (relative) danger, and hope to be back posting on my usual pace tomorrow, when the material world has stabilized (relatively).

Stay safe, everyone, and care for the people around you as much as you can!

Subscribe to My Patreon on the Supporter/Creator/Partner Level, Get an Ad for Your Virtual World Brand on New World Notes

Starting this week, my Patreon subscribers on the Supporter level* get an additional benefit option that'll show up here on New World Notes: A 300 x 150 permanent ad to your virtual world brand! (Subscribers can also gift their ad to a friend with a brand!) I just added my first ads for Rapture, a long-time SL mesh fashion brand, and the new book by Tom Boellstoff, and will be adding others soon.

With about 100,000 monthly pageviews (give or take), this is a cost-effective way to reach readers of Second Life's most-read news/culture blog, which also draws thousands of readers interested in VRChat, Roblox, and other metaverse platforms/immersive games. It's also a good way of helping New World Notes keep on noting!

Speaking of which, Patreon subscribers on the Creator or Metaverse partner get another NWN-based benefit:

Now Available: Second Life's First Illustrated Coffee Table Book!

SECOND LIFE: The First, Best Metaverse in Words and Pictures is a new book from metaverse media partner Hari Sutherland, a professional author IRL with several published books, both fiction and nonfiction. His new book, as the title suggests, is devoted to Second Life, and I’m thrilled to recommend it, both for longtime SL veterans and the uninitiated wondering why this unique and quirky virtual world has thrived for so long.

It's also the very first paper and ink coffee table book fully focused on Second Life -- that I can recall, at least! -- and it’s sumptuously illustrated and narrated by Hari. A beautiful tribute to the virtual world, both the platform and the global community who've come together to build it, it also features moving stories of the many people who've transform themselves for the better through their avatars.

"As is often the case, a number of things — thoughts, ideas — collided," Hari tells me, explaining the source of its inspiration. "Serendipity, really, or perhaps an honest-to-goodness zeitgeist. A lot of exciting things seem to be happening around Second Life right now."

More below, including a look at the hardcopy:

Connect With Me on Bluesky & Threads! Plus Thoughts on Continuing to Tweet on X.

Last week my little-used Threads and Bluesky accounts gained a trove of new followers for Totally Mysterious Reasons. So if you're looking to follow me on either platform:

On Threads, I'm "wjamesau"

On Bluesky, I'm "SLHamlet" 

Advice wanted: Is there a good service for quickly cross-posting to and from these platforms, or also to/from Twitter/X?

As for Twitter/X itself, I'll keep posting there for the foreseeable future, if only to share new posts and chat with followers. Not to pull rank, but I've been on Twitter since 2007, three years longer than the current owner. I'm also very well aware of what's been happening to the social network since its acquisition, but in my experience, the virtual world/metaverse/Second Life ecosystem there is largely free from the service's worst levels of toxicity. What's more, I'd estimate 30% of them are not even based in the United States.

None of this is ideal, but then again, continuing to keep New World Notes operating basically means continuing to run every social media channel it's associated with. Speaking of which, also please consider following/subscribing to my Patreon!

Second Life Economy Report Now Free to All Patreon Members

My Summer 2024 report on the Second Life economy is now free to all my Patreon members here.

Bringing together responses from one hundred and eleven SL merchants, this overview of the Second Life economy goes in-depth on current/future trends and summarizes their sales results on topics like the best price to sell an SL item (see above).

Other topics include:

• How much realm money SL merchants are earning
• Where most of their sales originate (Marketplace, mainstore, etc)
• Their overall outlook on the current state of the SL economy

Join my Patreon and read it all for free here!

New On My Patreon: Why Gizem Went Beyond Berry & Second Life (But Came Back Again)

New on my Patreon: Excited to finally run my in-depth interview with Gizem Mishi Akin after months of mystery about her departure from her famed virtual world fashion brand, Blueberry. We talk about that and many things -- including of course her new SL brand/mainstore The Kiwi Co. Sample:

[Her] trajectory has been something to behold: First stumbling upon Second Life as a college kid in her home country of Turkey, she came to America, and quickly created a behemoth brand of virtual world fashion. And as hype over the Metaverse hit in recent years, expanded her SL-based brand, Blueberry, into Roblox, ZEPETO, and other massive platforms.

She was on her way, in short, to metaverse royalty across many platforms.

And then, suddenly, Gizem announced she and Blueberry were leaving Second Life...

Join my Patreon to read for free.