Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Author, strategist, virtual world reporter

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Hypnotic Romance, an SL sim with secluded spaces for couples. Click here to teleport.

“TV POWWW!” by Tom Boellstorff & Braxton Soderman. Read about the first televised videogame here.

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This Large Flickr Group is Devoted to Screenshots Featuring Reflections of the Second Life Water

September 13, 2023

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Magical SL Reflections is exactly what it sounds like — a Flickr group devoted to pictures of reflections in Second Life. Over 1000 members strong, there are lots of people gazing into the water and boats' rippled reflections. Some are truly magical, like this one from Ice Rock called “The Lighthouse.” The moon is spectacular and its reflection even more so. The way the lighthouse flashes completely captured me. This is what I was looking for.

For more reflections, click here:

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How Generative AI-Based Art Can Echo Sampling & Remixing of Hip Hop Culture — Afrofuturist Artist Nettrice Gaskins Adds Her Voice to an Open Letter to Congress

September 12, 2023

Portrait of rapper Kendrick Lamar by Nettrice Gaskins from 2018

Creative Commons recently published an open letter to Congress, calling for artists who use generative AI in their creative works to be part of conversation on the future of the medium, and how it will be regulated:

We see a unique opportunity in this moment to shape generative AI’s development responsibly. The broad concerns around human artistic labor being voiced today cannot be ignored. All too often, major corporations and other powerful entities use technology in ways that exploit artists’ labor and undermine our ability to make a living. If you seek to ensure generative AI’s revolutionary trajectory benefits humanity as a whole, it would be a gross oversight to exclude those in our society who are working within its potential and its limitations.

While signed by dozens of working artists, I was especially excited to see the leading signature, because she's very familiar to longtime New World Notes readers:

Dr. Nettrice Gaskins, who's been using AI in her art practice for about 8 years. Starting in 2016 — long before Midjourney and other generative AI programs even existed — she was experimenting with the Deep Dream neural network to create these amazing Afrofuturist portraits of great Black artists.

Creative Commons and Internet activist group Fight for the Future reached out to Nettrice and other artists for their input on the letter. As the author of the book Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation, she makes a uniquely powerful case for the validity of art created with generative AI with this statement:

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Roblox Leaping the Metaverse Age Cliff With VOIP Calling, PlayStation Expansion, Dating Experiences and (Sigh) Generative AI

September 12, 2023
If you missed the recent whirlwind of Roblox announcements, they read like the company's concerted attempt to the cross (in a single leap!) the Metaverse Age Cliff, that point in the lifecycle of a platform where usage tends to drop sharply as the user base reaches adulthood:
- Coming later this year in early release, Roblox Connect is an avatar-to-avatar voice chat system. Most metaverse platforms already have some variation of this, but seeing as Roblox has 300 million monthly active users — i.e. nearly the size of the entire US population – this feature will create a calling network large enough to compete with traditional phone carriers.
- Roblox is coming to PlayStation 4/5 next month, connecting it to an install base of over 150 million households, primarily comprised of core gamers in their 20s and 30s.
- The company also unveiled a generative AI assistant (video below) to create 3D content.
- Roblox CEO David Baszucki is again promising "dating experiences" coming to adult-age users in the next 5 years, where "thousands" of people will start real life relationships. This is basically re-branding an existing phenomena for a mass market/Wall Street audience — thousands of people already do that in virtual worlds every day. Indeed, the 20-something developer couple I profiled in the book first met in Roblox. (More on them later.)
Pictured: Frontlines, recent user-created Roblox experience ideal for PlayStation crowd

This is on top of the recent Meta Quest integration and the little covered news (from a reputable data gathering source) that Roblox has amassed 300 million monthly active users. If the PlayStation launch is successful, the company will have a near-unbeatable lead among metaverse platforms.

As for the generative AI, I'm still a bit skeptical that it will be more than a brief novelty — but it will take a platform of Roblox's size to determine that. Watch below:

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This Artist Uses Layered Second Life Images & Wireframe Screenshots to Create Breathtaking Works of Abstract Expressionism

September 12, 2023

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Thus Yootz’ “Exodus to Air” is exquisite. There are multiple shots that have been layered to produce this otherworldly scene. It’s a distortion of reality that expresses emotion which suggests abstract expressionism. After all, it’s just some trees with clouds scudding in the distance. Add some screened flowers and some text in a different alphabet and all sorts of context becomes possible.

Is it a parallel multiverse or a dystopian future here with black chlorophyll and a red, red sun, or is it a mood? She chose “The Ballad of John Henry” by Joe Bonamassa to accompany the picture, a connection I don’t see, but I enjoy Bonamassa any day of the week. Unlike an ordinary landscape, this picture is not just beautiful, but also confounding. What does it mean?

The original screenshot was taken at The White Armory and Sylvan Moon Designs.

For more Second Life screenshots as abstract expressionist art, click here:

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Survivor of the 9/11 Attack Created This Powerful Memorial in Second Life, A Somber Site Where the Names of the Fallen Are Just Out of Reach

September 11, 2023

Along with being incredibly powerful, Liam Kanno's September 11 memorial made in Second Life (video tour above) is a landmark in immersive design:

"Watching the massive towers fall was unlike anything I've ever seen," Liam continues, explaining his design. "The scale was immense, and I wanted to give as much scale to this build as possible… still, at the same time I had the intention of making it as intimate and private as possible, and wrap the visitor in the space."

Unlike Maya Lin's Vietnam memorial, which this evokes, the names of the fallen remain at a close remove, just out of reach. "Personally for me, when I saw the people fall from the towers… the biggest thing for me is that I could do nothing ot help them… they were there, but no one could catch them. So in the design I have in-world there is about a three foot gap between the names and the walkway."

Read more about it here from my original 2007 post, and the story of how Kanno came to create the memorial:

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Top 4 New World Notes Posts, Including a Successful Virtual Fundraiser for Maui & An Ambitious All Voxel VR Game

September 11, 2023
This Great-Looking, Fully VR, Voxel-Based Sandbox Game Was Created by One Person — And It’s Now Updated & On Sale!

September 8, 2023

cyubeVR is easily among the most impressive-looking VR games I’ve come across, and while it launched in 2018, it just had a huge graphics optimization update. It’s now on sale on Steam until September 20.

A voxel-based sandbox world, cyubVR (pronounced “cube VR”, of course) is credited as coming from Stonebrick Studios, but it’s really a labor of love from one person.

“There is exactly one person on the dev team, it's just me,” they tell me, who goes by the name "sbsce", and quickly credits the game’s dedicated user community as collaborators. “I've been working full-time on cyubeVR for over 7.5 years by now, so quite a long time!”

There is no multiplayer mode yet, but sbsce tells me that’s on the roadmap. “It's certainly one of the most requested features by the community.”

And despite surface appearances, it’s not Minecraft. Really:

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Friday Fashion Finds for Anime Avatars by Alma Berta

September 8, 2023
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Alma Berta is a Flickr microblogger whose anime characters are having fun. I am particularly fond of “Special Heart” because she is wearing the right-sized garters and not those too-tight-thigh-squeezing-circulation-stopping monstrosities with red and irritated skin. These garters fit. They also won’t cause blood clots or compartment syndrome. Click through for more detailed credits.
- Insomnia Angel . Ellis hime sleeves at Mainstore
- Insomnia Angel . Lize strap leg garter available at Dubai Event until Sept 15th
For more delightful anime fashion, click here:

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These Second Life Screenshots by Carey Chenault Look Like Landscape Paintings

September 7, 2023

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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Carey Chenault is a landscape photographer and a very good one. I love how she has framed this serene with the magnolia and cherry blossoms. The landscaper also did a wonderful job. Look how the line of the rocks in the forefront follow the curving lines of the horizon. I love how the reflections are only slightly shifted by the movement of the water which is not perfectly still. The shadow from the rock behind the rowboat looks like a sail at first glance. A bit of serendipity in the reflection.

For more beautiful landscapes, click here:

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New World Notes Finally Back Online, So Here’s an Open Forum & My Contact Info

September 7, 2023
Apologies on behalf of Typepad, my super awesome blogging service, which had a server outage for most of today. Blogging should resume to normal speeds by tomorrow. Meantime, here's an open forum to discuss or share content. I'll go first:

In case you missed it, here's my main contact/social media channels. I'm "Hamlet Au" in Second Life and you can e-mail me at wjamesau at gmail.com.

As for my socials (roughly in order of preference and usage):
- On Twitter/X, I'm "SLHamlet"
- On Discord, I'm "wja_hamlet"
- On Reddit, I'm "SLHamlet"
- On Facebook, I'm "Hamlet.Au"
- On Threads, I'm "wjamesau"
- On Bluesky, I'm "SLHamlet"
Please share your own contacts, or whatever else even vaguely SL/Metaverse-related that's on your mind, below!