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: Making the Metaverse
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After much anticipation (at least by me), the developers at Build a Rocket* have just unveiled on Twitch an extensive teaser of their new metaverse platform, Everywhere. The studio was founded by Leslie Benzies, formerly president of Rockstar North, lead developer of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, so I’ve been wondering how a team with…
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Loading… Here's a survey on how much generative AI will change important parts of human culture, inspired by a debate posted last week. In case you missed it, read the different perspectives below here: How Artificial Intelligence May Change Metaverse Platforms. How AI May Change Movies and Music. Roughly summarized, one argument suggests AI will…
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Cyber Monday special for the immersion fan in your life: I'm giving away my autograph plate to anyone who buys a copy of Making a Metaverse That Matters. I'll even write a special (short!) dedication message to you or a special someone. Here's how to get it! 1. Get a copy of the book (if…
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Above: Meeting BunnyGPT, one of the first NPCs hooked up to OpenAI's LLM Read Part 1, Will Artificial Intelligence Totally Transform Culture & Intellectual Work? After discussing how AI might change movies and music, Adam Frisby and I debated how it could alter the future of the Metaverse. It's topic both of us have long…
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This is a fun and useful timeline for the history of virtual worlds from the team at the Virtual World Museum (a proud sponsoring partner!) which starts all the way back to Plato's Allegory of the Cave from 375 BCE to the present day. Very much a project in progress, developers of current virtual…
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Practical steps to making the metaverse from VentureBeat on Vimeo. As promised, here's video and the slide deck (below) from the recent Gamesbeat Next's "Practical Steps to Making the Metaverse" talk with game designer Raph Koster, Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka, and myself. Volume is a bit low in places, but the video has close…
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Above: Star Galaxy, the MMO with a passionate if niche following Nick Yee of game research firm Quantic Foundry has a fascinating new blog post which helps answer a mystery that’s been bothering me for roughly 15 years: Why do we rarely see any science fiction-themed MMO/multiplayer game become a mass market hit? It’s true:…
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Huge milestone for Fortnite last Saturday: A little over six years after it launched, battle royale sensation Fortnite just broke its all-time one-day player record — by going back in time. The launch of Fortnite OG, a special season which brings back the game’s original Chapter 1 map, drew an incredible 44.7 million players on Saturday, Nov. 4,…
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Above: The home office of full-time VRChat employee (and former community member) "Merlin" Interesting new work policy from leading metaverse platform company Roblox, as reported by Vox's Jay Peters: Roblox — a company that builds a hugely popular virtual experiences platform, recently introduced its own spin on video chat, and even created an in-Roblox career center — is “transitioning…
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Just got word that Philip has been added as a keynote speaker to GamesBeat Next in San Francisco next week Monday and Tuesday (October 23-24) — use this discount code for 40% off at sign-up: GBN23SPEAKER That's on top of me moderating a panel with Second Life co-founder/Google VP Cory Ondrejka; as I discuss in…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 