New World Notes

Survey Results: Second Life Community Strongly Agrees with Anonymous Creator's Acerbic Rant About SL Economy

Here's the reader response to that widely-discussed rant from an anonymous SL creator on all the challenges plaguing the Second Life economy. With 247 responses -- quite a large sample, as these things go -- a strong majority of 57% said they agreed with the essay, Strongly or Mostly. (Contrasted with just 16% in the Mostly Disagree or Completely Disagree camp.)

Personally I had expected the reaction to be much more evenly mixed; though to be fair, questions like these probably have a natural bias toward the negative. (If everything's going fairly great, why spend any time complaining in an online survey?) 

If you missed it, read the whole essay here, where the unnamed creators inveighs against entitled customers, exploitative event owners, and lax bloggers; evidently, it all struck a chord among the SL community. While some of these complaints hold true in most other realms -- offline, we come across entitled customers quite often at our local department store! -- I think it fundamentally points to a need for more growth among the SL user base, so that there are other internal markets beyond high end mesh fashion, which comprises the majority of the Second Life economy.

As reader and creator Peter Strindberg puts it in comments, offering some advice as well:

 

Cajsa Lilliehook Profiled in ECLIPSE Magazine

The latest issue of ECLIPSE magazine has a fun and much-deserved profile of Cajsa Lilliehook (starting at page 51), and if you've been touched by her many blogs and articles over the years (basically every active SLer has by now), you'll want to know more about her. Find out how she discovered Second Life, and more about the real life woman behind the avatar. For instance, in addition to writing about virtual fashion and culture for New World Notes and her own blog, It's Only Fashion, she also publishes a high active book review site, and a single-serving recipe blog. (Featuring a baked eggs with kale and bacon dish that looks seriously delish.)

Cassie's Clips: Sneak Preview of SL's Salem Halloween-Themed Event Starting Tomorrow, and Favorite Styles from the Ongoing Hair Fair

For the upcoming weekend, NWN YouTube correspondents Cassie Middles gives us an advance look at an upcoming Second Life event, and shares some favorites from an ongoing one: Salem (opening tomorrow), and the Hair Fair.

"Salem is an event all about the beautifully dark or cheerfully playful parts of Halloween. Filled with stores of all types of Halloween or autumnal-themed Decor, Accessories, Clothing, Hair, and even animals. This is my all-time favorite event, one I look forward to every year. With a gacha gallows section at the landing point and two more rings filled with stores, it's a massive event that is perfect for the witch, vampire, or just dark at heart." She got a sneak preview of the sprawling scene, which you can starting by watching above, then continue on to part 2 and 3 on her YouTube channel. Direct teleport to Salem here, Facebook page for the event here.

Next up: The Hair Fair launched last week, featuring dozens of fashion designers donating virtual hairstyles, with sales going to benefit Wigs for Kids, for children suffering from hair loss due to chemotherapy and other challenges. Cassie got some friends together to select their favorites -- watch below:

Second Life Gachas Likely to Face Government Regulation of Online Gaming Lootboxes

PC Gamer just published a good story on the SL Gacha duping controversy featured in New World Notes last month. Reporter Steven Messner quotes me a few times, including my comparison to the CopyBot controversy of 2006, and does a solid job explaining the complex topic to non-SLers. 

Speaking of which, what many Second Life users might not know is gachas have strong similarities to lootboxes in other online games -- most especially Star Wars Battlefront, which have faced recent controversies of their own, in great part because they have a gambling element. (I.E. pay real money for the chance to win valuable virtual goods.) The controversy is so great, in fact, game lootboxes may soon be regulated in Belgium, and a US Congressman is calling to regulate them in America, too.

Which is a long way saying this: If these and other governments do impose regulations on gaming lootboxes, expect these regulations to impact SL gachas too. In fact, the sale-ability of Linden Dollars for US dollars means that SL gachas are even more like gambling, than other games' lootboxes. As Messner writes:

On the surface there's little difference between gachas and the controversial loot boxes that are appearing in many games like Star Wars Battlefront 2, but there's several key distinctions. For one, these items have tangible value. Each play is always rewarded with an item, and any you win can be resold on Second Life's Marketplace for Lindens and then converted into US dollars. Secondly, the proceeds of these items goes to their respective creators, not Linden Lab (though it does collect a small transaction fee for items sold on the Marketplace). And for those who hate the gambling aspect of gacha games and loot boxes, many creators also offer a buyout price to purchase the set in full.

I'm not a lawyer (but I play one on the Internet), but if any major market regulated lootboxes, I'd suspect Linden Lab would just outright ban gachas from the SL Marketplace before government agents even came calling. Seeing as how huge a part of the SL economy gachas are, the impact would be pretty massive. Which is to say:

Gacha Fever: Second Life Designers Are Dropping Stunning Work-In-Progress Teasers for Upcoming Fashion Event

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

'Tis the season once again -- for The Arcade, I mean. Second Life's most popular gacha event will open its doors on Monday, June 1st, and designers are already starting to tease the sets they'll be offering in their gacha machines.

My favorite so far has to be the work-in-progress teaser posted above, a set of mesh corsets from Pixicat. Pixicat (both the brand and the designer) are known for clothing and accessories with a lot of detail work that's more than just texture deep. She's a phenomenally talented 3D modeler, and her work is always intricate and costume-like. She takes so much care with every swoop and swirl of her creations that these finished corsets are sure to be a must-have from the upcoming event. I mean, seriously, just look at them.

If you want to know more about The Arcade, keep your eyes on their website. In addition to having an event calendar, group info and all the latest news, it  will be updated with a full catalog of what's available closer to the event's launch. As for Pixicat, you can check out more of her work (eventually including the finished corsets) in her Flickr gallery.

Don't Dawdle, 21Shoe's Deals on Limited Second Life Footwear Won't Wait for the Weekend

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

21Shoe is an event I don't often get the occasion to cover, simply because it's window is too narrow for me to squeeze a post about it into the schedule. It opens on the 21st of every month... And only the 21st. If you miss that 24 hour span then too bad, so sad, because the lovely discounts (and often limited editions) that come with it will soon be out of reach.

This month's lineup has a distinctly summery feel and I've picked a few of my favorite entries to share, so keep reading if you're looking for the perfect pair of virtual shoes to flaunt your avatar's latest mesh pedicure.

Second Life Fashion Bloggers Are Scrambling to Show off LeLutka's Upcoming Release (and I Can See Why)

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

Over the past few days Second Life fashion bloggers have been scrambling to show off the new line of mesh heads that LeLutka will be releasing on April first. Aria, Ever and Leda (as the three available faces are called) have a high fashion look with fairly compressed features and expressions ranging from soft to stern. Apparently these mesh heads are all designed to work only in tandem with mesh bodies, which means that for a lot of us they'll be off the table for now. For others they're all the more appealing, seeming to guarantee an even more seamlessly augmented avatar.

So far no blogger has captured the expressions and elegance of each of these upcoming faces quite as well as Nana Minuet, who put together a post highlighting the upcoming release yesterday. Her shot of Aria, shown above, is easily my favorite of the lot. It's so bright and clean that you could almost expect to find it in a magazine with a perfume sample or some ad copy streaming down the side, rambling about jojoba or CC creams. And that's not a slight against her work. Her pics are vivid and polished, and easily picked out from a crowd.

You can visit Nana's blog to check out the rest in the set, though she doesn't have much to say about any of the heads in question. For that Strawberry Singh's blog post about Aria, Ever and Leda should be your next stop. As for reviews, well, so far most of the bloggers are sticking to the technical details. Expect stronger opinions to emerge after release.

Watch it This Weekend: Virtual Fashion Designer Maylee Oh Works Her 3D Modelling Magic on Twitch

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

In spite of streaming service Twitch.tv's relative hostility towards Second Life, they do still seem okay hosting developers and artists who are streaming their process while they work on game-related assets. I hope that never changes, because I love the idea of going to the same site to watch people making games (and things for games) as I do to watch people play them. For the time being there are still plenty of Second Life content creators using Twitch to share their creation process too, including designer Maylee Oh -- and she's been particularly busy there this week.

Maylee, who runs the adorable virtual fashion brand The Secret Store, has been streaming the process of modelling her latest design with particular voracity over the past few days. Through her Twitch archives, you can watch her manipulate basic shapes into a beautifully gathered top like magic. Complicated, incredibly technical magic. In the later streams she experiments with some more complex tools and techniques, so if you're a 3D modelling beginner you may want to avoid skipping straight to the end.

The downside to watching Maylee's archives instead of catching her live is that some sections of the video are muted because of the music she was listening to at the time. Then of course there's the fact that Twitch archives have a very limited life span, so you'd be wise to watch them while you can.

You can check out Maylee Oh on Twitch here.

'MM' Versus 'TSR': The Feud That's Tearing The Sims 4's Fashion Modding Community Apart

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

Every community has seams, and video game modding communities are no different. Each modder has their own priorities and its easy enough to see the borders that form around like-minded groups. Maybe one forum focuses more on visual mods, or a certain blog prefers to talk about systems mods. There's no harm in either. These borders don't really isolate anyone, nor do they indicate any inherent animosity between groups; in essence they just paint a line down the middle of the room, creating a superficial and generally unspoken divide.

That's how it's been in the modding community surrounding The Sims series for some time now, particularly when it comes to fashion mods. The principal divide between Sims modders exists between those who prefer crisp photo-realism and those who embrace a softer and more stylized look that blends into the vanilla game (like the dress pictured above from modder Anubis Under the Sun). But following the release of The Sims 4 this divide has only widened, and now things might be coming to a head. Here's why:

Familiar Faces: Popular Second Life Skin Maker Tuli Asturias Relaunches her Store at Skin Fair 2015

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

Skin Fair 2015 is open as of today, and it's a great place to go if you're looking for a new avatar face... Or a new face for your avatar face, what with the proliferation of mesh heads in Second Life fashion and all. Along with most of the usual suspects, it's a pleasant surprise to see designer Tuli Asturias back in the mix as well. After a brief hiatus, it seems like the popular designer is back with new skins and appliers of the same gorgeous quality.

In case you're not familiar, Tuli Asturias was a well established designer in SL for quite some time. While she initially specialized in clothing and accessories, after a few years she made a sharp swerve towards skin, eye, and shape creation. She saw tremendous success in this area because, to be perfectly frank, her skins were absolutely gorgeous. As a long-time customer, it looked like she'd really found her niche. Her skins were elegant, highly-detailed, and worlds away from the oversized red lips, smoky eyes and orange-glo tans that are still a little too common today.

Suffice it to say it's good to see her back.

You can check out what Tuli's offering at Skin Fair 2015 on her Flickr, or grab a map and drop by the event [Teleport link] for yourself.