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: Social Structures, Social Upheaval
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The fact that these two reader comments on my post about Philip Rosedale's promised Town Hall on AI are right on top of each other is a good indication of how divisive the topic is. First up, from Tami, making the case that gen AI is something we can live with in Second Life: AI…
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Originally posted on my Patreon This machinima by the inimitable Teal Aurelia (read my profile of her ) was created as a fun way of introducing the long-awaited video option on Primfeed, the social media platform for Second Life users. (Short, lower-res clips for free users, up to 10 minutes on 720p for paying subscribers.) Primfeed was…
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Linden Lab unveiled the latest version of its AI Character Designer late yesterday (website here, login required), created in partnership with Convai AI — watch the demo on YouTube above. To judge by social media, the SL community reaction has been, well, contentious. Here's a sample of YouTube comments: So this looks like a nice…
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With Linden Lab just announcing they plan to be much more aggressive around IP violations in Second Life, this great social media post on a related topic from famed SLer Alicia Chenaux is worth highlighting in full: I keep being shown a viral Instagram post about someone tagging major real world logos that…
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If you're on Bluesky and want to connect with other SL/virtual world fans, Caspian Morningstar created this whole huge, two part starter pack. (You can also request to add your own account to the pack.) Morningstar's packs are up to about 300 members so far, though I'd estimate there's at least 3000 SL-related accounts on…
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Recently saw a Reddit rant about a VRChat avatar with a hilariously ridiculous number of triangles (above), and had to laugh in recognition at the title: "Friends joining with these half a million polygon avies are literally ruining the experience (not only for me)! This is outrageously stupid and unnecessary!" Maybe unnecessary, but also inevitable,…
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Interesting comment thread on Second Life's nooby-booting problem. (I.E., that many of the best Second Life hangouts and locations have orbiters banning new users with accounts under 30 days old.) My suggestion is to add a VRChat-style trust system, which is just one (imperfect) way to help address this challenge; I also like this one…
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At right: A bestselling SL security system (on the Marketplace here) Last week's media event with Linden Lab was mainly about the Second Life mobile app officially launching, and the company's strategy to bring back lapsed SLers with it, and grow the overall user base. But before those details were announced, another challenge to growing…
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A reader who signs themself "LGBT+ anon" throws some important and necessary cold water on my tribute to virtual worlds as safe havens for LGBT people: Virtual worlds are surely helpful to LGBT+ people, gender expression and more, and in general I agree, but since we are talking about safety and "safe havens" after this…
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The Discord Experts from Peter Stindberg is one of the very most popular new-ish Second Life brands in my reader survey, and that's no surprise: As the name suggests, it connects Second Life to Discord, the most popular messaging app for gamers worldwide. (Now with 150 million monthly active users, according to the company's own…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 