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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His avatar festooned in both a Black Lives Matter T-shirt and Pride-themed pants, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg gave an in-world "state of SL" talk yesterday in celebration of the virtual world's 17th birthday. You can watch the whole thing below, but as far as I can tell, Ebbe doesn't really make any major announcements.…
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Last week we noted that the SL Marketplace was allowing racist slurs to be used as product tags — and that some vendors have been taking advantage of that to advertise virtual world content promoting racial stereotypes. While a Linden Lab staffer said they were looking into this issue at the time, it had not…
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While many companies have come out in support of Black lives in the wake of George Floyd's killing, Linden Lab's statement last Friday comes with some extra heft: We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, all victims of systemic oppression and violence, and with Black communities across the U.S., the globe, and the virtual…
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Well, maybe next door to Linden Lab on 940 Battery Street in SF, for the low low price of 31,500 UPX. This is Upland, a new virtual real estate acquisition game — sorta Monopoly meets the real world, where virtual land is registered on the EOS blockchain — and as it happens, is the first…
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SL land grid circa 2018, photo by Daniel Voyager There once was a virtual world that kept growing and growing (and often shrinking along the way), with dozens of new islands and continents suddenly emerging, seemingly from the digital ocean, every month. But then in the real world, a global pandemic caused many to seriously…
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While Travis Scott's literally giantic performance in Fortnite inspired some to think about the metaverse's future, it inspired reader "Seph" to also think about the metaverse's past: It's incredible how technically impossible 95% of that is in Second Life. Does Linden Lab hope for things like this? This is where so much of Second Life…
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A week after finally unveiling the long-awaited return of last names for Second Life avatars, Linden Lab finally unveiled its long-promised Environmental Enhancement Project, better known as EEP, giving SL users more granular control over the way their virtual world experience appears. Specifically: Environment objects that you can keep in your inventory and share with…
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I had a feeling this would happen soon after Linden Lab brought back last name options for Second Life avatars, but I didn't expect it happen so quickly: Less than 2 days after that feature was announced, some SLer looked at the first pool of available surnames, and did the inevitable: Became Freddy Mercury. I…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 