Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Author, strategist, virtual world reporter

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Did Meta Start Talking Less About “the Metaverse” Due to Wall Street / Madison Ave Pushback? (Comments of the Week)

May 1, 2023

Lots of interesting chat in comments and on social media for my post about Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth heatedly insisting to me — "Dude just take the L"– that the company was still focused on the Metaverse despite not mentioning it at all in his latest "vision of the future" post.

Rony Abovitz, founder and former CEO of the heavily-funded AR company Magic Leap — he hired literal Neal Stephenson as the company's chief futurist — thinks any current reluctance by Meta to mention "the Metaverse" too much now is basically about current perceptions with the investment world:

They realize that their version of “metaverse” is tainted with respect to Wall Street. They will build whatever they want to build – and either name it something else or not even name it all (except for the pesky fact that the whole shebang is called “Meta”). It is a perception game…

— Rony Abovitz (@rabovitz) April 28, 2023

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

"They realize that their version of 'metaverse' is tainted with respect to Wall Street," as he put it to me. "They will build whatever they want to build — and either name it something else or not even name it all (except for the pesky fact that the whole shebang is called 'Meta'). It is a perception game."

Given Abovitz's background, I tend to think that's plausible.

And as it happens, a Meta insider recently told me almost the exact same thing:

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Top 5 Posts Including: An Interoperability Debate With Neal Stephenson’s CPO, A Brain-Melting Demo Becomes a Playable Game, and Meta’s CTO Tells Me They Haven’t Quit the Metaverse

May 1, 2023
SL Fashion Friday: Fun & Fantastic Story-Rich Looks from Loute Diesel

April 28, 2023
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Loute Diesel’s Flickr post I’ll Protect You is emblematic of her fashion blogging, a full-throated commitment to the story she’s telling with her clothing. She never just shoots clothing, but always provides a rich context that intensifies the mood and emphasizes her color scheme. This is a gorgeous outfit of leaves brighter than her bed of moss. A baby lies in an external womb. Is this some creepy future? It’s from Fantasy Faire so all is fair.
- Skin : Petrichor – Zova Skin
- Baby : Azoury – Minuscule
- Leaves and feets : Aii & Ego (Fantasy Faire closes May 7th) at Szystrum Synod
For more, click here:

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Meta’s CTO Tells Me They Haven’t Walked Away from the Metaverse. Here’s Why I’m Not Persuaded.

April 27, 2023

Read the actual document my guy. One doesn’t have to use a specific word for something to be about a thing. Come on. Lol.

— Boz (@boztank) April 27, 2023

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Late last night, shortly after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg insisted that the company had not moved away from the Metaverse, I got a similar message via Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth on Twitter. Who took umbrage with me noting that his December 2022 vision statement did not mention “the Metaverse” even once:

Read the actual document my guy. One doesn’t have to use a specific word for something to be about a thing. Come on. Lol.

To which I pointed out that his vision statement is also scant on discussing core metaverse concepts — only mentioning Meta’s virtual world and avatars once in a document nearly 2000 words long. And then saying that Meta’s XR technology has “longer-term possibilities unlocked by eye and face tracking technology [that] go far beyond avatars.”

I also compared it to Zuckerberg’s 2021 statement on Meta’s XR vision, in which he mentions “the Metaverse” a dozen times.

Well, thirteen if you include the talk’s actual title: “Our vision for the metaverse“.

But really, the recent dearth in metaverse mentions by Meta is only one sign the company has collectively moved away from making the Metaverse. Here’s several more:

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Neal Stephenson’s Lamina1 Publishes New Metaverse-as-a-Service White Paper — But Do Consumers Really Want Its Alternative to Walled Gardens? CPO Tony Parisi Replies

April 27, 2023

Here's an epic new white paper on the Metaverse-as-a-Service platform from Lamina1, co-founded by literal Neal Stephenson (who I interviewed about it here).

The paper itself is co-authored by Lamina1 CPO Tony Parisi, who's pretty much been striving to build the Metaverse ever since Snow Crash was published in the 90s, starting with the web-based VRML.

Sample section on how Lamina1 will offer a blockchain-based payment solution to current metaverse platforms:

Specialized metachains allow for the creation of blockchain-based applications and experiences in ways that overcome the limitations of today’s monolithic chains.

Additionally, they allow for a much wider variety of businesses and use cases than today’s metaverse “walled gardens,” empowering the users and the market –– rather than a centralized, risk-averse entity focused on specific business models –– to decide on the value of things that get made…

All of this could one day lead to a world where metaverse experiences are actually interoperable, are accessible and usable, and are able to persistently scale, adapt, and grow – no matter the size or scale of the endeavor. Which brings us full circle back to the mission of Metaverse-as-a-Service: To provide builders and creators with a usable, flexible, and decentralized framework to create the next generation of online worlds.

I love the idea of empowering users and creators for sure, but whether blockchain and other web3 concepts are the solution there remains very much in doubt — read this incisive guest post on that very topic by virtual world pioneer Richard Bartle.

As for "walled gardens" — i.e. Roblox, Fortnite, Second Life, etc. — this brings up a question on my mind for years: Consumers actually seem to prefer them, especially when it comes to metaverse platforms.

Here's how I put that point to Tony — and his response:

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Today’s SL Flickr Pick: Hop Spot Evokes Gen Z-Meets-Warhol Coolness

April 27, 2023

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

Hop Spot is cool. He doesn’t have to try to be cool. He just is. What is he doing in this picture “Winner”? Standing, his hips slightly canted. Is he even making eye contact? We don’t know. But he’s cool, without doing a dang thing. The effect of black and white with the orange is also cool.

For more coolness, click here:

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Viewfinder, the Viral, Reality-Altering Unity Demo of 2020, Finally Playable as Free Demo on Steam

April 26, 2023

I first wrote about Viewfinder by indie game developer Matt Stark over three years ago, when it was just an impressive Unity 3D demo which went viral thanks to a pretty unique gameplay twist: It's a first-person puzzler where you alter reality by manipulating pictures within it. (Just watch the video above, for a glimpse of what I mean.)

The full game will be published later this year by Thunderful Games, but a free playable demo is now available on Steam here.

"It's a few levels from near the start of the full game, followed by a couple from later in the game," Matt tells me. "We're aiming for a 2023 launch date so it's largely representative of what the final game will be like.

"It's come so far since the demos I posted ages ago. There's lots of stuff in the demo I couldn't have even dreamed of us doing back then. At the same time, it feels like the demo is just scratching the surface of all the stuff we've got in the rest of the game."

One particular feature that wasn't in the 2020 demo is fairly dazzling:

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Today’s SL Flickr Pick: Amazing, Emotional Avatar Portraits by Aver Osk

April 26, 2023

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

Aver Osk has stunning avatar portraits that evoke strong emotions. “Hope flies away” is a great example. The dried, cracked lips, the drooping ash, all suggest a feeling of helplessness and despair. She’s not taking care of herself, something that happens when people think they don’t deserve good things like a bit of lip balm. What hope she has is pinned to her nose, not the place where hope can grow and worse yet, the pin is unsnapped, those letters are ready to slide right off.

For more great portraits, click here:

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Watch: Powerful Tribute to VRChat — and the True Metaverse Ideal

April 25, 2023

This is a pretty powerful tribute to the VRChat community and the creativity they’ve wrought on the platform thus far — and as created and narrated by Raergur, the video expresses the essential appeal of the Metaverse ideal too:

Built by and for the community, by real people. This is the real Metaverse. I’ve met so many beautiful souls people I never would have met otherwise, now lifetime friends I deeply and genuinely love.

Inside, you meet the most diverse people from around the world, but yet can interact with them as if they’re right there in the room with you… We all come from vastly different lives. And this diversity gives fruit to such amazing experiences.

It’s a place where any idea can be made and shared. We get to escape into the world people dreamt about in their mind, explore them and get lost in the stories people want to tell. We get to touch the cathedrals people have built in their minds.

Profoundly put (and visualized). Somewhat surprisingly, Raergur was not an active virtual world explorer before VRChat, he tells me, and first came across it through various meme videos on YouTube. But he’s now a deep denizen of VRChat, where he created an avatar inspired by his interest in werewolves, while forming fast friendships through the power of immersion:

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Today’s Second Life Flickr Pick: Mouth-Watering Photos of Virtual Bread

April 25, 2023

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

Today was spent making some limpa bread in my kitchen. Limpa is a dark rye bread, rich in the aromatic spices, fennel, anise, and caraway with lemon zest. The bread is delicious but while it’s rising, a person could go mad spelling all that deliciousness.

This led me to wonder if there is any lmpa in Second Life and Cecil Møller came through with a true smorgasbord. Somehow, Americans have gotten the idea that smorgasbord is a buffet, but really it’s a sandwich spread with different breads and crackers with spreads, sausages, and cheese for your smörgås (or sandwich.) We like our sandwiches open-faced. I now have some rye bread in my inventory in first and Second Life.

For more SL bread, click here:

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