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: Comment of the Week
-
Above: The default viewer's log-in announcement message… if you can click it in time While last Tuesday's main post was mostly about Linden Lab's upcoming features to the SL mobile app, it also noted why Linden Lab is now making such announcements through group video calls: I was on the Zoom call with dozens (hundreds?)…
-
The reader conversation around creating an AI-driven experience that improves Second Life new user retention continues. Just please, writes, Zane Zimer, no SL bot like Clippy, the intrusive, unhelpful "assistant": Microsoft's Clippy is still a point of jest, all these years later. A 'character' is not the answer. Simple, intuitive, perhaps even guided, viewer help…
-
In our latest post about improving Second Life's first-time user experience, longtime reader/retired tech exec Luther Weymann details how AI might help with that: AI bots are assigned to each new user. Read the IP address; if the new user is using it for the first time, they cannot disconnect the AI bot until it…
-
Interesting comment thread on Second Life's nooby-booting problem. (I.E., that many of the best Second Life hangouts and locations have orbiters banning new users with accounts under 30 days old.) My suggestion is to add a VRChat-style trust system, which is just one (imperfect) way to help address this challenge; I also like this one…
-
A reader who signs themself "LGBT+ anon" throws some important and necessary cold water on my tribute to virtual worlds as safe havens for LGBT people: Virtual worlds are surely helpful to LGBT+ people, gender expression and more, and in general I agree, but since we are talking about safety and "safe havens" after this…
-
Telehub image by Ciaran Laval How do you make Second Life feel more like a serendipitous social space? Expanding off some good points raised by EmptyEyes, I suggested this: Add a small L$ charge to teleporting, and bring back free-to-use telehubs that are available across the mainland, and an option for sim owners. That would…
-
Good question from reader Elle Couerblanc on Once Human and its cozy virtual world gameplay: Well, this game looks interesting! I see there is combat involved? Is it more PVE or PVP-oriented? I thought cozy MMOs did not have combat. OK, technically Once Human isn't cozy; instead, say cozy-ish, or at least, cozy-able. Gogo, who I…
-
Important fact check from longtime reader Joey1058, on my rant about Zuckerberg talking about adding "primitives" to Horizon Worlds, a term I suspected he lifted wholesale from Second Life: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 'primitives' isn't new to SL either. We'd been using prims in VRML for half a dozen…
-
Lots of interesting reader feedback to my interview with Irena Pereria, on what went wrong with WoW, based on her insights as a former Blizzard designer/developer. Irena’s core argument is that changes to World of Warcraft starting with the Cataclysm expansion degraded the sense of World of Warcraft as a dynamic, living virtual world and…
-
Loving the variety of new-ish SL brands recommended by readers so far, including: Dope Pixels (Facebook): "We make beautiful, scene-changing skyboxes from real-world photos, renders and AI, but mostly AI lately! It's gotten so good," says owner Adrienne Lowe (Andi Ayashi in SL) Neutral Tones (Instagram): "They started off with really unique shoes but branched out…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 