Wagner James Au / New World Notes
Author, strategist, virtual world reporter
recent posts
- Welcome to New World Notes’ 2006-2025 Archive!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
- Top Five Posts Including: Huge Rec Room Layoff & Meta Boots Neal Stephenson Off Facebook (Briefly)
- Four Glorious Second Life Sims to Explore — After Watching Sabina Valeska’s Machinima Tributes to Them!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
about
Category: Avatars and Identity
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//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting Laerka’s “Whatever Sprinkles Your Donut” made me laugh because its liberating message with donuts reminded me that ten years and one month before the Stonewall Riots commemorated in #Pride month, the purported first gay uprising took place at a donut shop…
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting Cicciuzzo Gausman is Second Life’s Lon Chaney, a man of a thousand faces. This is #1151. Casually browsing through Flickr, you might think he’s a portrait photographer who shoots a very specific, closely-cropped sort of head shot. And yes, they are all…
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting Jane Bang has the cutest avatar. I was browsing and I could not stop smiling when I looked at this picture. A second and third look and it still worked – insta-smile. I want those glasses in real life, by the way.…
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Above: Untouched raw screenshot of Yo Roo's avatar In a virtual world dependent on highly-detailed, heavily customized avatar models, and images depicting them, what qualifies as "real"? In recent months I've noticed the social media feeds of Second Life users increasingly swamped by avatar images heavily enhanced by generative AI programs like Krea AI, Midjourney,…
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Above: From my 2010 post, "Sexy Scarface: The Story Behind 'Broken Hearts Bleed', the Latest in Stylishly Brutalized Female Avatar Skins" Really interesting /SecondLife Reddit thread about the prevalence of avatars who are physically damaged in some way: My daughter, who does not play Second Life, asked me about the prevalence of avatars showing body…
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting Flo Udimo is a role-player and her photostream is full of so many different role-playing identities that it’s just astonishing. I love this one. This pose is just so saucy. She’s very much a take-no-prisoners woman, isn’t she? For more or her…
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UPDATE, 9:00PM: The Napoleon outfit featured in most of the following images is still available on the The Fifty sim through December 20th — click here to teleport. //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting I noticed there are a lot of pictures of Second Life users dressed…
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In 2010's "What Rebecca Learned By Being A Second Life Man" recounts a young woman's experience roleplaying as a hot male avatar in the virtual world dating scene: … she had her own challenges in this male form: "I kept thinking to myself, 'How do guys talk? What am I suppose to say?'" Again, her…
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Above: Uncanny Valley Luke Skywalker in Disney's big budget Mandalorian series Lots of interesting reader discussion to last week's post about how ultra-realistic mesh avatars haven't helped Second Life user growth. Veteran SLer 0xC0FFEA (a host of Reddit's largest Second Life-themed subreddit) delves deeper into this problem, and relates it to the Uncanny Valley problem…
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There's been lots of interesting conversation over my post last week criticizing Meta's ultra-real human IRL avatars, and why they're not actually wanted in metaverse platforms — with many VR enthusiasts telling me I'm wrong because of, well, reasons. I even got into a back and forth with someone from Meta on social media, who…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 