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: Games
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Click here to visit Bad Unicorn World, the new sim from Bhad Craven's Bad Unicorn, purveyor of zany items in Second Life — and, I think, a promising new way of solving SL's first-time "what's the point of this world?" user experience problem. Not just a visually cool sim, but as the trailer suggests, a…
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I’m seriously psyched to play Thick as Thieves, an upcoming PC/console game first teased at the Game Awards a few weeks ago. It has a direct heritage to the original Thief games from the early 2000s, milestones in immersive simulation. (And as a young gamer, got me personally ebullient about interactive immersion as an emergent…
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If you want a glimpse of how AI/LLM technology might be used to bring new users into the virtual world, check out Ask Narrator, a new-ish feature to Crack Den, the long-running role-playing MMO built in SL: Click here to teleport, then get the HUD on the nearby table. "This feature is more than just…
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Since Linden Lab recently unveiled Combat 2, a major update to Second Life's combat system, I got in touch with Kyle Linden, the company project manager under the Avatars and Creator Tools initiative. A Linden since 2007, Kyle's also a longtime gamer and even owned a roleplay region in SL before joining the company. "[O]ne…
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Crack Den, the long-running urban roleplay mini-MMO in Second Life — think a text-driven GTA Online, but both more creative and adult-rated — just added AI interaction to its roleplay gaming systems. If I’m not mistaken, this is one of the first live MMOs to integrate LLMs like ChatGPT into gameplay. (It might actually be…
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Pic by Drakedarkblood from a recent Potted photo contest Somewhere off the coast, there’s a deep sea diver sitting in a decompression tank worrying for long stretches about the fate of his virtual plants. “One of our players is a deep sea diver,” Cort Brandiss explains, “like for oil companies. And he has to sit…
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting Vandom excels at creating role-play characters. He also shoots some pictures on commission. He created this character for Right of Conquest, a roleplay sim based on Game of Thrones. He has a gallery of his role play characters. [To teleport to the…
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//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting Stevo Kozlowski shoots Second Life rugby. Who knew Second Life rugby looked this real? It’s changed a lot since Miffyhoi Rosca, Hatchy Mills, and I went to a stadium in 2007. I am blown away by these action shots. Wow, wow,…
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting You can always rely on Second Life residents to respond to cultural phenomena with pictures and activities that bring the key elements into SL. Ginger Chevalier’s “Front-Man Squid Game” seems an excellent introduction to residents’ homage to the streaming series that has…
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Just in time for Halloween and Squid Game roleplay in Second Life, the Really Dangerous Explosives Pack is a fun new addition to the Really Needy HUD (a proud sponsoring partner), which turns SL into a Sims-like game experience. Now, with the help of major style brand Izzie’s, any damage from nearby explosions will cause…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 