New World Notes

This Week's Featured Banner: The Mass Effect-Inspired World Created in SL

This week's banner above was featured in my recent post on BluShock, a group of dedicated Mass Effect roleplay fans who have created an entire experience in Second Life inspired by their favorite game. Sample:

“It's our largest and most ambitious/compact base of operations yet,” BluShock leader Fazzy Constantine (above) tells me. “We have over 25 rooms and multiple elevators with 8 levels each, a huge arboretum dome, which is inspired to look like the Presidium Commons, on the Citadel, from the Mass Effect games, which our roleplay group has been inspired by, since 2010.”

But the base is only the beginning:

“The asteroid will be our base of operations in our fictional star system. Vanaheim, which is set in the Milky Way galaxy, in what would be known as the Beta Quadrant, if you were into Star Trek. We have three more main worlds we'll be creating, over the course of 6 to 9 months.”

Teleport link to start exploring yourself, but be sure not to interrupt any Mass Effect roleplay already in progress.

Submit your own favorite virtual world locations here or in Comments below:

Post Pics of Favorite Virtual World Locations to Feature on NWN's Banner

Want to feature an impressive virtual world location on New World Notes' revolving banner? Post some images of it in Comments with some information on the place, the host platform/world -- Second Life, OpenSim, VRChat, Sinespace, Rec Room, Minecraft, ROBLOX, basically any world I have or should feature on New World Notes -- along with details for accessing it.  

And yes, self-promotion is encouraged (but that does raise the bar on requisite coolness).

Survey: Would You Pay $5/Month for a Special New World Notes Newsletter?

Quick favor, excellent readers: Let me know if you're interested in a New World Notes newsletter, where subscribers will get special articles and other content. While I plan to always post to New World Notes the blog you're reading now, a subscription-based newsletter (if there's enough interest!) would give me a chance to devote more time to writing richer, more in-depth, news-you-can-use stories -- something I've wanting to do for years.

Hope enough of you agree. But even if you don't, I'd love your opinion. Much mahalo!

New World Notes Seeking New Sponsoring Media Partner - Here's Details

Much thanks to Ms. Xme Xme of Ample Avi for being a proud sponsoring partner to New World Notes for over 5 years, who is taking a (hopefully brief) semi-hiatus from SL sales. (However, her SL Marketplace store is still full many great items.)

This also means we're looking for a new media partner! If you're reading this post, chances our your customers and potential customers are too. Here's details:

Send Me Great Virtual World Location Pics to Feature on Our Banner

As one reader recently noted, New World Notes has a new banner -- a pic of Localhost, a new-ish cityscape in Sinespace with a very interesting story about its creation. (Full image below.)

Know of other impressive virtual world places that should be featured in the same spot? Send me an image in Comments or on New World Notes' Discord (#cool-virtual-locations) with info on the place, the host platform/world -- Second Life, OpenSim, VRChat, Sinespace, Rec Room, Minecraft, ROBLOX, basically any world I have or should feature on NWN -- along with details for accessing it. If I get enough submissions, this will become a weekly/monthly feature!

My Top Ten Personal Favorite New World Notes Posts of 2019

"Favorites" in the sense that I find them to make the most important points for where virtual worlds, VR, and the Internet culture is now, or that they fit New World Notes' original mission: Embedded reporting in a virtual world that reflects who we as humans and a culture truly are. And how digital life re-shapes that. I'm grateful to Cajsa Lilliehook and Danielle "Nylon" Feigenbaum for brilliantly helping me to tell that ever-evolving story.

• Radio, Remembered: Father Who Lost His Beloved Virtual Art In Second Life Finds Them Again -- Recreated In Fortnite By His Son
• Despite $2.6 Billion In Funding, Magic Leap Sold Less AR Headsets Than Jeri Ellsworth's Tilt 5 Kickstarter
• John Carmack, VR Pioneer Who Once Described Developing VR As A "Moral Imperative", No Longer Focused On Developing VR
• Majority Of Facebook Employees Believe Policy Allowing Political Ads With False Claims May Change 2020 Election - Blind Survey
• Donald Trump: The Japanese Dating Sim!

Sinespace Users: Refer Friends for Free Gold & Premium Subscriptions!

Here's a new offer for users of Sinespace, the Unity 3D-based virtual world sandbox MMO (and proud sponsoring partner to NWN): Get friends to sign up for Sinespace, and when they do and buy Gold, you get a Gold bonus that's 2% of whatever they buy. For instance, if they buy 10000 Gold, you get 200 Gold in your account.

The Referral Program also has a Premium offer: Refer 5 friends who become Premium members, you get your Premium membership free while they are subscribed!

Click here for details for how to redeem these offers, or log into your account and click the "Referral Program" tab.

Questions? Post in Comments below or even better, join Sinespace's official Discord. 

Join New World Notes' Discord! (Or Let Me Know If You Can't)

Click here to join with an invite link that's supposed to be permanent and for everyone. Several readers have reported being kicked out of our Discord -- which is either a service bug, or due to an old invite code with the wrong settings. If you do experience that problem, please let me know in Comments, so I can try and locate the bad link.

Speaking of Discord, there's an outstanding mesh complexity question from "Ianua" in the sl-news-and-coolness channel that needs some expert attention:

New World Notes' Discord Needs YOU - UPDATE: Fixed Invite Link

Click here to join. We're a friendly little club of some 200 folks or so talking about virtual worlds, VR, gaming, and subjects in between.

Speaking of virtual reality, here's a new server for AR/VR/XR fans called, of course, We Make Reality. (Via founder Eva Hoerth.)

New World Notes Seeking Another Sponsoring Media Partner!

Interested in becoming a Media Partner with New World Notes, the largest and longest running virtual world news/culture/opinion blog with a primary focus on Second Life and its many related spinoff products/virtual worlds? We get roughly 120,000-170,000 visits per month, according to Similar Web, fairly frequent coverage on major media outlets, and more key, we get our partners results:

At right are the clickthrough rates to the Second Life Marketplace listing of a recent partner, after just 4 months of their ad going live. (Typical CTR for NWN.)  You'll be joining our excellent, ongoing partners Sinespace and Ample Avi, and we''re looking for another, non-competing partner with a brand and product of value to our readers. For instance, given the ongoing search for better optimized 3D content, we're interested in partnering with a brand which values quality and graphics optimization. Other potential partners: Second Life/virtual world brands across many categories, VR/AR products/services, related hardware and software brands, and major organizations doing work in virtual worlds/VR.  

More details below: