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: Economics of SL
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Originally published on my Patreon Longtime SLer Ciaran Astral was in a hopping club last Sunday when they realized an unexpected thing: Though surrounded by upwards of one hundred avatars, they were dancing and socializing in a space free from lag. (Watch above!) "It was amazing," as they recall it now. "I remember saying to someone,…
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Originally posted earlier on my Patreon Second Life social media has been ablaze with excitement over Salt Peppermint's PROJECT MESH REVOLUTION (pictured), which purports to completely change our perspective on what SL avatars can and should be. And that's no fooling! "I promise I am releasing two bodies and two heads," she tells me yesterday,…
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The fact that these two reader comments on my post about Philip Rosedale's promised Town Hall on AI are right on top of each other is a good indication of how divisive the topic is. First up, from Tami, making the case that gen AI is something we can live with in Second Life: AI…
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Here's the results of my New World Notes survey last week, asking SLers what's the most they would be willing to pay for the new Project Zero option of streaming Firestorm/Second Life on a browser. As you can see above, a strong majority aren't interested in any option, even one that's free with advertising. About 15% were…
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Originally published on my Patreon The description and rules to Linden Lab's official Flickr group for Second Life images were recently updated to emphasize that user-made images and video uploaded there may be used in future ad campaigns for Second Life: By submitting your photos or videos (the “Submissions”) to the Second Life Official Flickr feed…
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Above: From my 2024 State of the Virtual World Economy report Last week's guest post by Maxwell Graf on why we need to decide now how to regulate content that uses AI being sold in the SL Marketplace (and beyond) generated some pretty passionate conversation. It came with this additional comment by Max that's also…
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Originally posted on my Patreon here UPDATE, March 4: This story continues here. If you've visited Facebook recently, you may have noticed new official ads for Second Life which incorporate video and images that are AI-generated. (And at least in one case, uses an Adobe Stock image.) After seeing complaints about this from SL creators…
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Max at his mainstore/sim, Rustica [direct teleport here] Last week's post on how AI-based image-to-3D mesh conversion will impact virtual world economies dependent on mesh content has inspired quite a lot of conversation across Second Life social media. Indie creator Tim Hannan demonstrated how it's now relatively easy to generate an SL-based shoe from a real world…
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Tim Hannan, an indie creator who's been doing some interesting experiments blending Second Life video/images with gen AI (as here), recently sent me these two fairly alarming — but actually not that surprising — images. The image on the left is the photo of high end basketball shoe. The image on the right is the…
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I recently saw someone on social media wondering whatever became of Blueberry in Second Life, and in case you missed it, I told that in-depth, highly personal story of Blueberry / KiwiCo creator Gizem Mishi Akin on my Patreon a few months ago. I continue to be grateful Gizem was so willing to share so…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 