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: Linden Lab News & Analysis
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Photo credit: Animats Another US Presidential election year, another clash of ideas in Second Life. As has been the case since 2004, the virtual world has recently been festooned with political billboards, much or most of them pro-Trump or anti-Trump — though as with Facebook, it seems like the pro-Trump forces have had the upper…
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Update, 8/14: Linden Lab confirms some recent code changes have improved sim crossing. Virtual world explorer Luca is the latest to stress test the new deployment of Second Life running on the Amazon Web Services cloud, which seems to make region crossing near seamless. Though as you'll see above, region crossing delays vary by vehicle,…
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Fascinating conversation in response to Luther Weymann's somber analysis of Second Life's prospects under new ownership, featuring many comments by readers who seem to be longtime veterans of the game/tech industry, or at least write with that level of expertise. Among them is Russell Skyther, who wrote this really sharp breakdown of what it would…
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You read the optimistic view of Second Life's future from a top SL brand owner, now here's a necessary counterpoint from longtime reader Luther Weymann, a retired technology industry veteran who last ran a company with 1000 employees, and is an eloquent supporter of SL's creative power. Despite his love for the virtual world, his…
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Above: Mishi IRL and her Blueberry brand on Facebook While the SL community's opinion over the world's new corporate owners is decidedly mixed, I put a lot of stock in the analysis of Gizem McDuff, owner and founder of Blueberry — which has been, since its founding in 2012, one of the most successful and…
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Here's the results of our not-super-scientific survey asking SLers how they feel about the future of Second Life under its new corporate ownership. With 212 respondents (a quite large sample size), the plurality chose "Pessimistic" as their attitude, while 1 in 3 chose "Optimistic". Meanwhile, 1 in 4 say it doesn't change their opinion either…
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Loading… Read the news here, then make your choice above! And be sure to discuss your answer in Comments! Update, 7/14: Bumped up for Tuesday morning voting!
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Pictured: Linden Lab headquarters in San Francisco Lots of reader comments over news that Linden Research is being bought by an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager, ranging from "sky is falling" panic to bullishness. Some samples, starting with the bullish: Oh, that was masterfully executed… 1) Dump the bottomless pit of…
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As promised, here's the questions I asked Linden Lab after they announced the imminent acquisition of the company: How will this acquisition change SL specifically? Will management or staffing change at all (layoffs, etc)? Will it create a cash injection into Linden Lab? Since the acquisition is led by the Waterfield Group which specializes in…
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I've heard rumors by various insiders that Linden Lab was looking to be acquired for the last few months, and now that prim-based shoe has finally dropped: Linden Research, Inc. announced today it signed an agreement to be acquired by an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager. Closing of the acquisition is…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 