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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  • SL Fashion Friday: Fantasy-Flecked Styles from Kanatan Abramovic

    ☑ 139. Don't look away.


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

    Le Soleil is a fashion blog highlighting Kanatan Abramovic’s style and photos. “Don’t look away” is her most recent post and features the ever-popular lingerie ensemble, but this one really made it hard to look away with the fantastical combination of angel wings, bunny ears, and elven ears. I also love, love, love those lace gloves. 

    • Pillar: DISORDERLY. / Old Columnist / Plain / FATPACK
    • Pillar: DISORDERLY. / Old Columnist / Vined / FATPACK
    • Ruins: ~ xantes ~ Secret Garden – Ruins 02
    • Feather: boxed) {anc} feather chips {colorful}FATPACK

    For more of her great styling, click here:

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  • Here Come the Metaverse’s ChatGPT-Powered Avatar Sex Bots — Whether Humanity is Ready or Not

    ChatGPT avatar sex bot Second Life

    The future of sexuality in the Metaverse is waiting for me on a steel platform in the sky, but unexpectedly turns out to be shy. Meet Uma Johnson, a slinky blonde avatar in a body-hugging outfit, who may be the first Second Life bot connected to ChatGPT designed for virtual sex, but certainly won’t be the last.

    “How does the pixel sex stuff happen?” I query creator Stone Johnson, after my brief chat with Uma. “I asked her and she said she didn’t know.” (See some of our chat above.)

    “You should have just asked her –” says Stone, then suggests a sexual act that a man inclined to have relations with a submissive sex bot is likely to request. “It's possible she might be less forthcoming with you than with me as I am set as her Master.”

    “What happens when someone asks her?”

    “Well, she'll assume the position. And being animesh, she can be sat upon. She's basically a piece of sex furniture!”

    Well OK then. If you have your Adult settings enabled, here Uma is in the Second Life Marketplace. 

    While other ChatGPT-powered avatar bots exist, Stone’s bots are the first that I know of to tap into the inevitable desire for virtual simulation. Powered with GPT 3.5 Turbo, Stone tells me they do more than just chat, and come with “feedback of touch, proprioception, ‘vision’ and more.” 

    In real life, Stone tells me he’s a scientist in applied physics — knowledge which he applies in his metaverse creations: 

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  • VRChat Finally Announces Creator Economy in Very Cautious Closed Beta

    After 9 years of operation, VRChat is finally — and very carefully — rolling out its user creator economy:

    First, when we say Closed Beta, we really mean it – we only intend on inviting in 10 – 20 creators at first. Up until now, we’ve been testing these systems internally, but before releasing them to the public (even in a beta format) we want to make sure that they both actually work and that creators find them easy to use. That first point can’t be stressed enough! We have to make sure that this system is solid at launch, as people will be putting their real, actual money into it.

    As I’ve written before, there’s likely over 1000 VRChat creators who are earning an income from external sources like Patreon and YouTube. So this is a much-demanded feature. It also puts VRChat much more in line with being a full-fledged metaverse platform.

    I’m not surprised that VRChat is only announcing this now. In my upcoming book, the founders Graham Gaylor and Jesse Joudrey told me how concerned they are about getting this feature right:

     

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  • Today’s Second Life Flickr Pick: Deep-Fried Style Photos from Karaage

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

    Karaage | からあげ is not for you if you suffer from acrophobia. This is not her only death-defying scene high up where only superheroes who can fly or swing on spiderwebs should go. Her feet are half off that ledge. The pavement is far below and made of concrete, not goose feathers. To say my stomach flipped over is not an exaggeration. It’s called “Sparkle Train” after this music video. To listen to Sparkle Train, click here. 

    For more derring-do, click here:

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  • The Future of Generative AI & the Metaverse are Inextricably Linked

    ChatGPT bunny Second LifeAbove: Chatting with a ChatGPT-powered NPC in a metaverse platform

    The producer of a major financial news program recently asked me a mind-boggling question:

    Meta and others ditching the metaverse for AI, is that the real future?

    Which is, wow. Asking if AI and not the Metaverse is the future is a bit like asking, fifteen years ago, if 3D graphics engines and not smartphone apps is the real future. Because, well: They're both part of the real future, and the former is going to greatly enhance the latter.
     
    I see this false dichotomy everywhere, and it points to a broader misunderstanding of both categories. Mostly it's a negative externality pumped into the air by the hype industry. The kind of Silicon Valley evangelists and marketers who are currently buzzing effusively about generative AI (without really understanding its profound technical limitations) are almost exactly the very same people previously buzzing effusively about the Metaverse (without really knowing about or actually using existing metaverse platforms).  
     
    Then again, I can't quite blame hypesters for misunderstanding the Metaverse when their working definition for it has been something like, "That VR thing Meta is making with NFTs in it I think?"
     
    So to reset expectations around both generative AI and the Metaverse, let's go back to the canonical definition:

     

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  • Today’s Flickr Pick: Exal Grut Makes Second Life Look Like Video Game Screenshots

    Lara Croft made it look easy

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

    Exal Grut is a role-playing, story-telling fiend whose stream overflows with characters and stories. This one is familiar, a tomb-raiding adventurer who has encountered more than she bargained for. The title “Lara Croft made it look easy” is a good fit with the expression on her face that implies this story is being played for laughs. 

    For more characters and stories, click here:

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  • WATCH: Sims/Second Life Dev Rod Humble Unveils Features in Life by You, His Ambitious, Upcoming Simulation Sandbox Game

    In March we got the first in-depth preview of Life by You, the new life simulation game lead developed by ex-Linden Lab CEO / former EA/Sims lead Rod Humble. Since then, the game’s YouTube channel has been steadily showing off various features, including Rod himself showing off the avatar movement interface. (Watch above.)

    I have to wince and grin at the video because Life by You’s movement UI is already easier and more intuitive than what it currently is in Second Life — even though Rod himself implemented some click-and-move improvements to the official SL viewer during his tenure as CEO. By that time, however, most active users had switched over to a third party viewer for using Second Life — so any fixes to the official viewer were like giving a new paint job to the entrance of a mansion that’s already been mostly abandoned.  

    That to one side, Life by You is looking pretty impressive. Previous videos show off the powerful home customization options, and a feature for editing chats with NPCS: 

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  • Attend My GamesBeat Online Talk for Free Next Week — And Get My Discount Code to Attend GamesBeat In Los Angeles!

    Wagner James Au - GBS23

    Next week I'm speaking about Making a Metaverse That Matters (and related topics) for the first time, at the GamesBeat conferences' virtual event — go here to register for a free pass. 

    And if you can be in the Los Angeles area next week, you can attend GamesBeat's in-person conference on March 22-23 at the Marina del Rey Marriott, with a special discount from the GameBeat folks — here's how:

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  • Today’s Second Life Flickr Pick: Kaze Takeda Photographs the Hilarious Adventures of “Percy & Muriel”

    Kaze Takeda SL Flickr Percy Muriel fun

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

    Kaze Takeda has a fun and eventful photostream, but I have fallen in love with his album featuring his not-so-great-uncle Percy and the vivacious Muriel. They are adventurous avatars, with lives full of fun. But their adventures generally run to mayhem as in “Getting Away from It All.” Hilarity ensues.  

    For more of Percy and Muriel, click here:

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  • New Apple VR Rumors Ignore Small Sales & Insiders Hesitant About VR

    Apple VR headset rumors debunking

    I definitely don't want to get into the habit of dunking on seriously questionable Insider articles but, well, here we go again:

    The original designer of Meta's VR offering, Oculus, says Apple's much-rumored rival metaverse headset [!!!] is "so good."

    Palmer Luckey, a billionaire who cofounded Oculus VR in 2012 and now leads defense-tech startup Anduril, made the bold claim in a tweet on Sunday, suggesting he had tried out the iPhone maker's next-generation hardware…

    Industry watchers are expecting the tech giant to debut its metaverse project in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), particularly after the company made a quiet announcement about its iPad last week that would typically be saved for the conference.

    First off:

    A VR headset.

    Is not.

    The Metaverse.

    It is definitely not a "metaverse project".

    It's not even a necessary component of the Metaverse. VR HMDs are but one of many devices to access a metaverse platform.

    It's like calling a new iPhone with updated 3D graphics a "metaverse project" — in fact, that would actually be somewhat more accurate, since vastly vastly more people use smartphones to access metaverse platforms, than do so in VR.

    Anyway, the real issue here is, first of all, taking away the wrong lesson of the Oculus Quest. As anyone who follows Meta's earnings reports can tell you, Quest sales remain slow — the install base remains small, not yet even 20 million.

    The other problem is putting more stock in what Oculus' founder (who no longer works in VR) says about Apple's VR headset — while ignoring what people actually working at Apple say. As I blogged a couple months ago, citing a Times report and an insider I interviewed for my book:

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