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: Monday Memory
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Writing about the new homeless camp in Hangars Liquides last week reminded me of another instance of virtual homelessness in Second Life as a political statement — back in 2006, at the peak of SL hype, NBC (yes as in the actual Saturday Night Live/The Office/30 Rock etc. TV network), owned a Second Life sim…
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Yesterday's blockbuster Oprah Winfrey interview with Meghan and Harry, in which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed the rampant racism she suffered that led them to leave Britain, also led to the most unlikely overlap with Second Life. The couple first moved to the British Commonwealth of Canada, a bid to continue representing the…
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Listening to The Office podcast about the 2007 episode where Dwight and Jim play Second Life reminded me of another appearance by the virtual world a few years later — in Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), starring John Cusack along with Craig Robinson and Clark Duke. (Both of whom, funny enough, also starred in The…
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I mentioned this machinima last week in another post but it deserves a post of its own: "Watch the World" by Robbie Dingo (aka Rob Wright). Created in 2007, it remains one of the best machinimas in Second Life ever made, because it beautifully illustrates the dynamic content creation that remains unique to Second Life,…
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Gone a decade or so ago after an update to the environmental system, the face of Martin Luther King Jr.'s face once emanated from the surface of Second Life's virtual sun on this day of the year, to celebrate the civil rights icon's birthday: In honor of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., a special…
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As the United States takes stalk of the violent riot of Trump supporters at the Capitol last week, led in part by people wearing Nazi shirts and carrying Confederate flags, I thought back to the behavior of Trump supporters in Second Life before the 2016 election — mobbing the virtual HQ of Bernie Sanders, for…
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Above: In one hallucination, text on a poster would change, when you walked closer to it. When I first read the study suggesting that VR might help prime people to have more lucid dreams, it immediately seemed credible to me. For one thing, extensive VR use often shapes my own dreams. For another, it immediately…
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August 31, 2006: Read my interview with now-Senator Mark Warner here. His SL appearance came at a time when Democratic insiders were considering whether the former Virginia governor should be their "fallback" presidential candidate in 2008, should Senator Hillary Clinton’s presumptive ascension as the party’s choice for President in 2008 ever fell through. (Funny these…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 