New World Notes

Linden Lab Partners With Adult Swim & Releases Special Viewer for Streaming Live Events in Second Life

"Join us this Friday for a Season 2 screening of The Shivering Truth inside @SecondLife," the Cartoon Network's insanely popular [adult swim] brand announced earlier today on Twitter. "Admission is extremely limited and extremely complicated."

Home to stylish and usually zany animated shows like Rick and Morty and Samurai Jack, there hasn't been a cool pop cult crossover like this into Second Life in many many years. (Off the top of my head, I'd say not since The Office featured Second Life.) I am amused that the official Adult Swim tweet openly acknowledges how complicated Second Life is for most to use, but I imagine the Fortnite-type crowd that loves their shows will figure it out.

Perhaps even more noteworthy is that this is probably the first of many such crossovers. From the official Second Life blog: 

The event also marks the first media partnership utilizing the new limited-release Second Life Viewer, which enables content creators and entertainment companies to broadcast live video events to virtual world audiences. In the future, you may see several new forms of entertainment including movie and TV premieres, live concerts, and artist/fan meet-and-greets. We're very excited to partner with Adult Swim for the debut of this new feature, which we plan to integrate into the main Second Life Viewer release in the coming weeks.

Longtime SLers are thinking, "Wait, we've been able to stream video into Second Life since forever." But as Linden Lab's Brett Atwood explains to me:

Second Life Survey: Are You Interested in Attending SL's 16th Birthday Party?

It's that time of the year again, the official annual celebration of Second Life's commercial launch. But are you attending? Please take this survey, share with other SLers, and feel free to explain your answer in Comments below!

Second Life Ironically Declared to Be "Dying" By... Digg (Seriously)

Say you're a freelance writer who decides to write a story about Second Life as a "dying" Internet site:

Residents and businesses began fleeing for more popular social networks long ago. Vast acres of land are abandoned or sparsely populated by the few remaining diehard users. Its developer's VR follow-up, Sansar, is currently in beta. 

Say you don't bother noticing that Second Life usage actually hasn't measurably dropped in well over a decade, and that Sansar usage is a tiny fraction in comparison. Say you go through your old contacts list and wonder where everyone went without looking much more beyond that list -- or look much further beyond old, defunct sites which never had many visitors to begin with:

After that encounter on the boardwalk with the creepy ghost girl, I decided to find the old John Edwards SL headquarters. It was created in 2007 to promote the former Senator's presidential campaign. This was before he lost the primary, and it was revealed that he had had an ongoing affair while his wife was dying... I couldn't find the Edwards HQ, or [MTV's] Laguna Beach. Nothing showed up in the game's search engine. I tried asking around. I visited an '80s-themed night club and asked anyone if they knew where Laguna Beach was. I was immediately warped to a dance podium, where I started dancing, against my will.

Say you don't ponder if the user community has evolved and changed, and how. Say you don't notice someone like, say, Strawberry Singh, even though she has more YouTube subscribers to her SL content than you have Twitter followers. 

And finally, say this half-hearted, half-assed article is published on Digg, which was once a content recommendation portal with hundreds of millions of visits until it was made defunct by Reddit. (And was then rejiggered as a half-hearted, half-assed content site.) So say you miss the final irony of declaring one Internet property "dying" from another one that's actually dying faster:

This Weekend in SL: Explore "Hand", Bryn Oh's Latest Metaverse Art Installation - And Donate So It Can Stay Open!

Click here to start exploring "Hand", the latest metaverse art installation by the acclaimed Bryn Oh. To whet your intrigue, first watch this trailer (above) she created, with music and magical voice work by Phemie Alcott. Like I said yesterday, Immersiva, the simulator underneath this installation, may disappear by the end of this year -- so when you go, please donate what Linden Dollars you can at the entrance.

"Hand", Bryn tells me, continues the themes she's been exploring in Second Life for nearly a decade, and includes some shocking or disturbing elements -- so much so that it provoked a strong reaction from one visitor who in real life was a first responder during the September 11th terrorist attacks.

"Each of my works for the last 9 years or so have been an ongoing narrative which is interconnected," as she puts it. "Each new work is a layer to the story. This work, along with all the others, are a type of diary which I use to express parts of my life and things I can imagine could happen in the future."

So for example, "Hand" has flying drones that take photos of you, and advertisers who project ads directly into people's homes. And when you click on a phone, you then see a photo of a girl taking a selfie -- in front of the crashing twin towers on 9/11:

Behind the Surreal and Highly Personal Second Life Art of Whiskey Monday

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

It seems like Draxtor Despres, the creator of the ongoing mixed reality (Linden Lab sponsored) mini-documentary series The Drax Files: World Makers, is working his way through a bucket list of his most sought after subjects. Last month it was the quirky but elusive designer Nylon Pinkney, now it's Whiskey Monday, one of the most recognized artists active in Second Life today (and a favorite here on NWN).

It's Easier Than Ever to Commission a Distinctive Avatar Portrait from Popular SL Artist Nylon Pinkney

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

If you haven't been waiting for a chance to get your portrait painted by Nylon Pinkney, then you probably haven't been paying attention to this offbeat Second Life designer's artistic output (which I cover fairly regularly here on NWN). Then again, maybe you're as big a fan of her work as I am and you've just been trying to work up the nerve to shoot her an IM or an email. In that case, I've got some very good news for you.

Nylon, who brands her RL art under the name Elleinadart, has made it even easier to commission her work. You can drop by her website to check out all the details, including portrait options and pricing, and fill out a form to submit your request on the spot. Even better, you can pay for your glossy digital portrait with either Paypal or L$, depending on which is more convenient.

If you've been out of the loop, in addition to being one of Second Life's most enduring and recognizable designers (not to mention Drew Carey's favorite), Nylon was the subject of a recent episode of mixed-reality mini-documentary series The Drax Files: World Makers. Her work is even gracing the cover of upcoming book Anna the Powerful. 

If you'd like to commission a portrait of your virtual (or real) self, just head over to Nylon's commission info page and scroll to the bottom to find the request form. Or, if you're stuck on the fence, check out more of her artwork on Tumblr.

Second Life WWII Roleplay Game Set in Nazi-Occupied French Town is Also Great Idea for a Sandbox MMO

Zoe Connolly pays a multi-part visit to the Secodn Life sim of New Bastogne, which has been created to look like Caen, France in 1944, and is the location for a brilliant roleplay game:

You can play Axis, Allies, or even French citizens (as either collaborators or part of the Resistance). [Above] night falls and battle lines are drawn. The Allies maneuver and hide... waiting for their best opportunity to attack the Nazi occupiers.

The sim runs on the VICE combat system, so this is straight up combat gaming, and I gotta say: This is a great goddamn idea for a sandbox MMO. Second Life is pretty excellent for prototyping game concepts, but I'd love to see a single-shard, massively multiplayer version of New Bastogne running on the latest game engine. Anyway, if you want to visit the city under siege, here's the SLurl to copy/paste into the Second Life viewer of your choice:

In San Francisco This Wednesday: Free Mixed Reality Show Merging Real Dance With Second Life's Famed SkyDancers

Click here to RSVP for an arts event happening this Wednesday early evening in San Francisco, merging a Second Life performance broadcast on a screen in the Little Boxes Theater (Dogpatch district of SF), with seasoned dancer Kathleen Moore on stage before it. The SL performers are Dancoyote Antonelli's acclaimed SkyDancers, who've been performing in SL for over 8 years. The free event starts at 5:30pm with free drinks and a curator/artist talk from DC Spensley (Dancoyote IRL) with the show itself kicking off at 6:30pm. Go here for all the details.

Listen This Weekend: The Drax Files Radio Hour Interviews Celebrity Griefer Esteban Winsmore

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

If you're a virtual world enthusiast who's not keeping up with virtual world documentarian Draxtor Despres' new podcast, The Drax Files Radio Hour, then you're absolutely missing out.

The latest episode is packed with some pretty controversial content headlined by the notorious Esteban Winsmore, who has developed a reputation with some as a griefer, while others find his voice chatting antics downright entertaining. Draxtor and co-host Jo Yardley (known for her work in SL's 1920s Berlin sim) also discuss net neutrality, Oculus Rift augmented reality, Second Life's HTTP Project, and more.

If you go for the Esteban interview, just be sure to stay for the new virtual world documentary by Loki Eliot. "The Lost Virtual World" examines the ups and downs of virtual worlds, painting a picture 2 decades in the making. Check it all out for yourself here.

Don't Miss This Must-Watch Virtual World Performance of The Nutcracker's "Waltz Of The Flowers"

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

Lovers of art, avatars, dance, music, and machinima, gather 'round and drop everything because boy do I have a treat for you. Loony Columbia's latest machinima, "A Pemberley Nutcracker - Waltz of The Flowers", might be everything you've ever wanted in a virtual world dance performance. While The Nutcracker is a holiday tradition in the world of ballet and beyond, it can be incredibly difficult to pull it off in games and virtual environments. The more dancers there are, the more points of failure you have to contend with. It can be even more troublesome when you have to worry about recording it. But this? This is flawless.

Watch the full performance for yourself after the jump!