New World Notes

Roblox's Jaw-Dropping IPO Filing: 31 Million+ Daily Users, $589M+ in 2020 Revenue, Most from Mobile; User Creators Earned $209M+, Up 3X from 2019

Above: Image from ROBLOX's stock filing, data from the first 9 months of 2020

ROBLOX just filed its Form S-1 in preparation for going public, giving us a good glimpse at the virtual world platform's metrics. And they're pretty amazing! I'm still digging into it, but its 2020 standout stats for me so far:

31 million daily active users in 2020, nearly doubling since 2018:  "Daily active users, or DAUs, on Roblox grew 47%, from 12.0 million DAUs in 2018 to 17.6 million in 2019, and grew 82%, from 17.1 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2019 to 31.1 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2020."

52% of Roblox's revenue now from mobile apps: "For the nine months ended September 30, 2020, 34% of our revenue was attributable to Robux sales through the Apple App Store and 18% of our revenue was attributable to Robux sales through the Google Play Store..." The vast majority of Roblox's activity is from mobile usage too: "[D]uring the same period 68% of our engagement hours on the platform were from users who signed up through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store." 

With nearly $600 million in 2020 revenue for company by September, total annual revenue could exceed $800 million or (with the new pandemic quarantine and people indoors during the holidays) even reach toward $1 billion. But how much of that revenue is shared with Roblox's user creators, who make the bulk of the games and other interactive entertainment on the platform? That brings us to another interesting point:

SL Flickr Photographer of the Day: Banana Lecker

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

Banana Lecker’s photos are fun and often light-hearted microblog. I love this picture with her enjoying a hot cocoa at an outdoor food stand. It’s a wooden handcart, a rare sight today. Living in a city of over 500 food carts, though, it’s nice to see the culture honored in Second Life. 

More fashionable photos ahead:

Watch: New Video from Yasushi Watanabe, Top J-Pop Composer Who Created a Spinoff Project Based Around Second Life

Dropping on YouTube just an hour or so ago, here's the latest music video of BYNORAL, aka Yasushi Watanabe, a major figure in the J-Pop world (he's composed songs for top girl groups AKB48 and Nogizaka46) who earlier this year spun off a side project creating music videos in Second Life. Video summary:

This track is a sentimental song that incorporates various elements of electro, chill, and pop with the theme of light and darkness of modern society.

Not quite seeing the dark side of this beautifully shot, candy-colored video, but maybe the lyrics are where the shadows reside.  He was actually active in SL ten years ago, so this side gig represents a return to the virtual world.  (His new brand "BYNORAL”, by the way, is a play on "binaural stereo system."

Stunning SL Images With Disciplined Use of Color and Light

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

Kalliope’s “Not a Wish-Granting Factory” is a fun visual play on the idea of wishing upon a star. Of course, it’s not a star she is perched upon, it is a moon. But that is a petty quibble for a lovely and fun photo. I love her color story, all in blue including the light leak overlay that gives it a flash of moonlight. 

More stunning photos with intriguing and fun titles.

Acclaimed VR Game Developer Locked Out of Oculus Platform Due to Facebook's Mandatory ID Policy -- Warns of Its Dangers to Developers in LGBT & Other Vulnerable Communities

Guess if @Facebook disabled my account for no reason and there's no way to have it reviewed I won't be developing VR anymore? Good thing I haven't opened the shrink wrap on my Quest2. #VR

— Nicole Lazzaro #RBG #BLM #Harris2024 💪🏾🗳🌈 🥞 (@NicoleLazzaro) November 16, 2020

Nicole Lazzaro is an acclaimed game developer, named by Fast Company as among the top 100 women in tech and by Gamasutra as among the top 20 women working in games. But now there's one kind of game platform she currently can't develop on: The Oculus Quest. Which is a shame, because she was developing her quite impressive VR game "Find the White Rabbit" for Oculus, but it looks like there's going to be a delay (if not a permanent pause).

This is due, as you probably guessed already, to Oculus' recently imposed mandatory Facebook log-in policy:

This Artist Turns Virtual World Landscape Screenshots Into Beautifully Dramatic & Whimsical Imagery

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

Uma Fae Dust‘s picture is called “Open Spaces” but it really makes me think of the Reata Ranch outside Marfa, Texas and the fabulous, ahead-of-it-time movie, Giant. I love the stark isolation of the house without a tree to soften its alienation from the environment. It’s just plopped down, so out of place, that it stands on the line between ludicrous and beautiful, not committing to either. 

Up next, a picture to make you smile:

SL Users: Please Take This Survey from UC Irvine's Tom Boellstorff on Your Virtual World Usage During the Pandemic

Here's a fun short survey for SL users for a study on virtual cultures during the COVID-19 pandemic. (One of the questions above.) The study is led by my pal Tom Boellstorff of UC Irvine, who's easily among the most preeminent academics with a focus on virtual worlds. (He's the author of Coming of Age in Second Life, among many other related works.)

"I’ve been conducting various research projects in Second Life for almost 17 years now," Tom tells me, explaining the genesis of this study. "A couple years ago, I completed a study of disability in Second Life, and after that wonderful research experience moved on to some other projects (I’m actually finishing up a book on the Intellivision video game system from the early 1980s, which is great fun!) But then when COVID-19 hit, I decided to return to Second Life to see how COVID-19 is reshaping online interaction. I was lucky enough to get support from the National Science Foundation that means I have three wonderful graduate research assistants. Until next April we are conducting research in both Second Life and Animal Crossing. It’s a wild ride, setting up research with very little warning, but it’s been a great experience for all of us."

Here's the key questions Tom and his team hope to answer:

"The basic idea behind our project is that what people call 'social distancing' is really physical distancing. Online, new kinds of connections are being created. What are they, how are they working, and what lessons can we learn as it’s happening? In particular, the Internet isn’t a unified entity. Virtual worlds share some things with social network sites like Facebook or Instagram, with mobile devices, with online games, and so on, but there are distinctive features as well. What do virtual worlds specifically offer? What is the potential and what are the dangers? How can learning from what people are doing in virtual worlds help us better respond to the transformed lives we’ll all be living in the wake of COVID-19?"

Even better, Tom will share the results with New World Notes. More about the study here, excerpt below:

How Virtual Worlds Can Benefit Senior Citizens (Comment of the Week)

My "How avatars change who we are" article for Samsung EDGE's Components mentioned a study suggesting that being Einstein in VR seems to improve a user's IQ, and longtime reader Luther Weymnn notes that this phenomenon also seems to happen in non-VR virtual worlds:

Over the past decade, I've chatted with dozens of SL content creators who are between the ages of 65-85. Previously, I thought that I was in a tiny group of senior citizens using SL, but I was wrong. In my 70's having SL as a hobby and creating content a little bit every day has been a powerful method to keep my retired from business brain sharper than most other activities. And this is what all of the senior citizen's content creators I've chatted with agreed upon. Having to creatively think our way through SL product content creation is a terrific way to keep old brains thinking creatively and staying sharp. I attempted to tell my neighbor about the benefits of building in SL. He is also my doctor for the past 35 years. But, all I could get out of him was, "uh-huh, ok, now let's talk about getting you to exercise more." Oh well.

Pulsar concurs, suggesting a reason why the Einstein experiment works, and how it might translate to non-VR worlds:

Top 5 Posts Last Week, Including Four Seasons Landscaping in VRChat, and an SL Fashion Blog Bigger Than Many Top RL Fashion Sites

• Looking For Lumiya, The Android App For SL? It's Still Available On SlideME
• Seraphim Secrets: How A Second Life Fashion Blog Earned 60 Million+ Views
• NeosVR Makes User-To-User File Sharing An Immersive Social VR Experience
• Being Einstein In VR Can Raise Your Actual IQ, And Other Fascinating Examples Of How Avatars Change Who We Are
• Four Seasons Total Landscaping Rapidly Recreated In VRChat For Post-Election Furry Fun; UPDATE: Dildo Store Addition TBD

Mandalorian Made on Massive LED Screens So Actors Reflect The Virtual Light

You probably know already that the visuals for the Disney streaming show The Mandalorian are created in the Unreal 3D engine, but this Vox explainer video shows you how those virtual spaces are integrated with the actual, physical cast: Not through green screen but via giant, curving LED displays, which effectively wrap the actors in a virtual world. Technically more efficient than green screen, another advantage of this approach is that the actors in these shots are illuminated by virtual light. So if the cast is, say, standing there watching a twin star sunset on Tatooine, the warm light on their faces really is cast by the virtual suns. (Also super important when an actor is already wearing a costume with reflective surfaces, as with Mando in the show that bears his name.)