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.

The Fitting Room: Try out new SL fits in a secure, private space. Click here to teleport.

Today’s Second Life Flickr Pick: “EPIPHAINEIN” Creates Incredibly Creative & Zany Riffs on Biden, Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” & Beyond!

September 6, 2023

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

EPIPHAINEIN has the best photostream, I haven’t a clue where to start, he is so inventive.

Here is detail from “Sunday Funnies with Joe” — see the whole amazing thing here.

And he delivers, not just with his persuasive pics, but the dialog even sounds like President Biden. I want more comics.

EPIPHAINEIN explains his name on his Flickr profile: “The word ‘epiphany’ comes from the Greek word ‘epiphainein’, which means ‘to make known’, ‘to manifest’, or ‘to shine upon’.” Well, he manifests humor, an appreciation for art, and a love of movies. And that’s not all

For more inventive manifestations, click here:

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Second Life Mass Growth Won’t Raise Premium Prices (Probably)

September 6, 2023

Lots of interesting conversation around Linden Lab's new (and still active) job search for a senior product manager to help grow Second Life into "millions of customers" as the virtual world expands to mobile. Kaylee West understandably worries if this growth will impact the long-term existing community and the rates they pay for premium subscriptions:

My concern is that as they grow they are going to start charging more for premium and premium plus (and whatever the next new tier will be). SL has always been the "every-person's" VR platform. As much as I would love to see and welcome newcomers, I'd hate to see those of us that have been in SL nearly two decades squeezed out (not even sure what I mean by that)…

Historically the high end for virtual world premium subscriptions tops out at around $15/month, and I don't see average SL Premium rates ever getting higher than that — though platinum Premium plans will probably start including larger and larger land allotments, or even whole sims.

The real thing for long term creators to think about is planning for a virtual world economy that has millions of users, most of them coming in via mobile. As Ryann Palianta comments:

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Today’s SL Flickr Pick: Stunning Landscape Photos by Richie MacLeod

September 5, 2023

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

Richie MacLeod (Richie Kimono) shoots landscapes that are pure and unfiltered such as this picture from yesterday, “Soul2Soul Rocks 5th Sept 2023_001.” I love this picture because it looks so happy and full of adventure. That car is purring along the road, easily bypassing the tree branch that fell there, probably downed by high winds that have abated. The family is off for the last long weekend of summer.

Normally, you would place a vehicle moving left on the right side of the picture, leading your eyes in, but in this case, he’s telling a story. They have safely passed the fallen branch and can move one and out of the frame. If he placed them on the right side moving into the frame, he would either cover up the drama, or moving back, show them driving toward the branch and a possible accident. It would not be as happy and carefree.

For more great landscapes, click here:

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Second Life Community Raises Over USD $9000 for the Maui Food Bank!

September 5, 2023

Thanks to everyone who contributed content and donations to the Maui Wildfire Relief Second Life fundraiser, with all proceeds going after Linden Dollar cash-out to the Maui Food Bank, one of the main non-profits helping victims of the Lahaina blaze. I took the above pic by the banyan tree tribute just before the final tally, which was L$ 2,342,991 — i.e. about US$ 9,012, before service fees.

Pretty impressive amount for an event that quickly came together after the wild fire tragedy! Much mahalo to lead organizers Cort Brandriss, Wendz Tempest, and Amanda Bork for putting it together.

Also great that many of the participants, including co-organizer Wendz, have a Maui background. Wendz jammed live on the ukulele, while DJ Johnathan Heiss shared a personal story about his time in Lahaina; Tatiana, who grew up in Lahaina, created a promo video for the event (watch below).

Speaking of service fees, perhaps Linden Lab will waive them in this case, as the company occasionally does for other fundraisers they help promote. (Hamlet hinted with much aloha.)

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Top 5 Posts Including The Problem With Meta’s Avatars & The Launch of a Mini-Metaverse Platform Called Rooms.XYZ

September 5, 2023
Welcome, Bad Unicorn: Creator of Comically Chaotic Second Life Items is Now a New World Notes Sponsoring Partner!

September 1, 2023

I'm psyched to welcome Bad Unicorn as a sponsoring media partner to New World Notes. Founded by Bhad Craven (Second Life Spotlight profile here), Bad Unicorn is a leading creator of SL items ideal for creating comic chaos with friends.

That's Bhad above, hitting me in the face with his newest item: Thor's Hammer, i.e. a bunch of old-ass Nokia phones duct-taped to a stick. [Click here to teleport to Bad Unicorn's mainstore, which is full of zany delights]

"Bad Unicorn began as a modest clothing store," Bhad explains, "but over the past decade, it has evolved into a dynamic platform for me to explore various aspects of design and digital artistry. I have created a wide range of items during my time here, such as houses, Halloween costumes, vehicles to weapons and many other random objects. I'm not really sure what inspires me, but fun and chaos definitely play a big part in this creative journey."

Creator of the recent meme-worthy combat folding chair, what really sold me on Bad Unicorn were smart/goofy items like his Basel Banana:

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SL Fashion Friday: Rockabilly / Kawaii/ Goth / Grunge Styles by Gross Rizzo

September 1, 2023
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Gross Rizzo is a Flickr microblogger with a unique style all her own, one that is hard to describe. “Pretty Lungs” is a good example. She has this sort of rockabilly/kawaii/goth/grunge vibe that I find charming and so very original. Consider this outfit, it dances around several styles but there is at least one element that keeps it from landing on one. Even her music video inspiration by Princess Chelsea has a similar off-kilter sensibility despite being very heavily autotuned.

Also, that hair bow is to die for.
- [Cosmic Dust] – Flutter Top – Legacy @ Kustom9 through 9/10
- hive // nicotine & caffeine @ Kustom9 through 8/10
- BTTB [Boys to the Bone] bowup head piece – fatpack @ The Fifty through 9/20
- Magika – Hair – Erin on Marketplace
- FACS ~ Legacy Frill Jean Shorts @ The Warehouse through 9/18
- DAPPA – Nessa Tattoo. @ Kinky through 9/22
- Semller – Thigh High Stomper Boots Fatpack
For more ineffable style, click here:

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Rooms.XYZ is a Kind of Mini-Metaverse You Can Customize & Explore in the Palm of Your Hand

August 31, 2023
Rooms.xyz is a new virtual world platform to play with; still in Beta, it's a deceptively simple (that is, actually powerful) interactive room creator/explorer on the web and iOS:
- Try on the web here
- For iOS, download the Alpha release on TestFlight here.
Watch the intro demo above. I only started noodling with it myself, but I see it as a kind of potential mini-metaverse, where the virtual world is represented by thousands of interconnected rooms you can play with in the palm of your hand. The charming voxel graphics and the bite-sized experiences that are 2.5D by default (with an option to display in full 3D) are a tight, organic fit with how Gen Y/Z habitually engage on the Internet.

Founded by Jason Toff, formerly of Vine, Twitter, and Meta (where he was a VR developer), here's a good interview with him in FastCo:

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Viewfinder, Immersive, Brain-Melting Puzzle Game, Now 20% Off on Steam — Read My Interview With the Indie Dev!

August 31, 2023

Fun for the long Labor Day weekend — Viewfinder is 20% off on Steam until September 8:

Challenge perception, redefine reality, and reshape the world around you with an instant camera. Viewfinder is a new single player game offering gamers hours of interesting and fun experiences while uncovering the mysteries left behind. Viewfinder is a mind-bending first person adventure game in which you can bring pictures to life by placing them into the world.

As longtime readers may remember, I started cheerleading for and chatting with Viewfinder indie's developer, Matt Stark, back when it was just a viral demo released during the peak of COVID in 2020:

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Today’s SL Flickr Pick: Powerfully Composed Images by Andrej Paulik

August 31, 2023

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

Andrej Paulik’s “Streetlight Skate” is beautifully composed. I love how he employed multiple composition “rules” to create a truly stunning picture. Here's how:

The skateboarder in the upper left is placed by the Golden Ratio, both people by the Rule of Thirds, and look at the diagonals, not only in their gaze, but how the metal bars in the upper left are echoed in the lower right.

For more beautifully composed pics, click here:

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