New World Notes

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

Top 3 Posts Last Week Including VRChat Concurrency Hits Record Numbers, While a Trump Billboard in Second Life Meets an Inevitably Bizarre Fate

• Why Wait For 2020 Election Results On The Web When You Can Watch Them In A Virtual World?
• VRChat Surpasses Peak Hype Concurrency Of 20,000, About Half Using VR Headsets -- But Only 5,000 Logging In Via Facebook-Connected Oculus Quest Devices
• Trump Billboard In Second Life Immediately Surrounded By Communist Party HQ, Statue Of Liberty & Giant, Dancing, Pink Trump-Shaped Dildo

Top 4 Posts Last Week, Including: EFF's Cory Doctorow on the Oculus Jailbreaking Movement & A Soothing Society Simulation for Stressful Times

• Bonfire 2: A Society-Building Game That's Also A Meditative, Flow-State Relaxation Simulator For Our Stressful Era
• Should You Jailbreak The Oculus Quest From Facebook Control? EFF’s Cory Doctorow Has Advice -- And A Warning
• This Halo Lights Up If A Second Life Region You Visit Has Migrated To The Amazon Cloud -- Or Makes A Womp-Womp Sad Trombone Sound If It's Not
• If Games Are Art, And Second Life Is A Game, Then Second Life Is A Work Of Collective Art

Top 6 Posts Last Week Including: AOC's Twitch Gets FOX-Level Ratings & Among Us Gets an Unofficial VRChat Version

• Play Among Us In VRChat: New Fan-Made Version Adds Visual Tasks & VR-Based Body Language Gameplay To The Original
• Second Life Registrations Down In 2020 Despite COVID Concurrency Bump
• This Artist Uses Depth Of Field & Dynamic Lighting To Make Screenshots From SL Seem Like Photos
• Carmen King Kicks Up Second Life User Concurrency -- YouTube Star's SL Videos Likely Lead To 1st Growth Since COVID Quarantine
• AOC's Twitch Viewership Already Competitive With FOX & MSNBC Ratings
• Founding Linden Hunter Walk: When Launching Second Life, "We Over-Indexed On The Community" Versus Broadly Appealing Content

Top 6 Posts from Last Week Including a VR Study That Seems to Reduce Sadism, The Emerging Real Money Economy of VRChat & A New Twist to the Eternal "Is Second Life a Game?" Debate

• Study: Men Who Experience VR-Based Sexual Harassment From Woman's Point Of View Exhibit Less Sadism In Subsequent VR Shock Test
• Among Us Inspires Full VR, Horror-Themed Version Of Hit Game In VRChat
• As Virtual World Grows, Real Cash Marketplace For VRChat Content Emerges
• Artist Transforms Second Life Screenshots Into Epic Cinematic Action Stills
• Saying "Second Life Is Not A Game" Is An Excuse For Not Demanding A Better & More Fun Virtual World
• How It Started, How It's Going: 1991 To 2020 Virtual World Edition

Top 7 Posts Last Week Including: David Lynch Enters the Metaverse

• Get IncrediMarble: Free-To-Play, Physics-Based, Marble Slide Construction Game For IOS From Linden Lab Vet Dave Kap
• "Second Life Is A Game" Meme Inevitably Outrages Non-Gaming SLers
• David Lynch Appears As Avatar In Breakroom From Sinespace To Accept Award At First Major Film Festival Hosted In A Virtual World
• Survey Of Top Tech Company Staff: Facebook Not Doing Enough To Prevent Election Disinfo & Hate Speech -- But Most Facebook Staffers Insist Otherwise
• Using Virtual Worlds For Real Work -- An Oculus/Linden Lab Vet's Insights
• Does The Metaverse Require Real World Money?
• Black Dragon Creator Praises Optimization Of Slink Mesh Bodies -- And Challenges Creators Like Maitreya To Follow Slink's Example

Top 6 Posts from Last Week Including a Top Gaming YouTuber Embraces SL, and a Visual Metaphor for the Metaverse

• Watch: Celebrity YouTuber Bored With The Sims Quickly Becomes Queen Of Second Life, Basically
• Shopping Tips From An SL Fashion Blog -- And Blogging Tips From Me
• Founder Hubris Led To Magic Leap's Fall -- But Valley Hubris Enabled Its Rise
• Is The Ideal Metaverse A Network Of Linked Places, Or A Seamless World?
• Epic Invests In Core To Expand Unreal's Metaverse Potential -- And Increase Its Competitive Advantage Against Apple
• Linden Lab Needs To Punish Poorly Optimized Mesh -- Or Reward Well-Made Mesh

Top 6 Posts from Last Week, Including Avatar Creation Advice from a Virtual World Veteran & A Slapping Rap Song Inspired by SL

• Zuckerberg Wants Oculus Quest 2 To Sell 10 Million Units. The First Quest Hardly Sold 1 Million.
• There's A Playable, Physics-Enabled Tribute To Fall Guys In Second Life
• Someone Made The Bates Motel & Mansion Of Hitchcock's Psycho In Second Life
• How To Create Avatars For Virtual Worlds -- An Oculus/Linden Lab Vet's Advice
• Watch: Someone Made A Rap Song About Second Life And It Fricking SLAPS
• Poignant Images Of Sadness Created From Virtual World Screenshots

Top 3 Posts Last Week, Including: Teaching Industrial Design in a Virtual World, And a Linden Alum Leaves Oculus to Do Indie XR Projects

• Industrial Design Students Still In COVID Quarantine Learn How To Prototype Real Chairs In A Virtual World
• Babbage Is Back: Linden Lab Vet Jim Purbrick Leaves Oculus, Starts Sharing His Wisdom On Creating Virtual Worlds
• Artist Turns Second Life Screenshots Into Powerfully Cinematic Imagery

Top 5 Posts Last Week, Including a Ban on Real Life Political Billboards in Second Life, a VR Version of Milgam's Test & a "True Metaverse" Launches

Photo credit: Animats

• The Metaverse Is Here: Now In Open Beta After 6 Years Of Development, Dual Universe's Lead Creator Speaks
• Test Subjects In VR Recreation Of Milgram’s Shock Experiment Still Become Traumatized, Even Knowing Their Electrocuted Victim Is Only An Avatar
• Watch: Compact But Amazing Cyberpunk Scene In SL -- Plus Creator Tips!
• Second Life Bans Political Billboards From Public Lands After Pro-Trump & Anti-Trump Signs Choke The Virtual Sky
• Second Life Veterans Miss The World's Wild West Days Of Creative Anarchy