- WATCH: Raph Koster's Stars Reach Already Attracting Early Builder Communities — Even in Pre-Launch With Periodic Server Wipes!
- Epic's Court Victory Against Apple Likely to Be a Big Boon for All Metaverse Apps, Including Second Life; Oberwager Cautiously Optimistic
- Horizon Worlds Pivoted to Compete With VRChat Around 2019 (Unsuccessfully), Says Senior Meta Veteran
- Man Visits “Dead World” There, Finds There’s More There There in There
- Linden Lab’s Creator Partnership Program Part of Company's Daring New Pivot to Grow Second Life With SL's User Community — Here’s How
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Seemingly everyone in tech is talking about a huge ruling in the long-running Epic Games v. Apple dispute:
[J]udge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers just ruled that, effective immediately, Apple is no longer allowed to collect fees on purchases made outside apps and blocks the company from restricting how developers can point users to where they can make purchases outside of apps. Apple says it will appeal the order.
As part of the ruling, the judge says that Apple cannot: Impose “any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app… interfere with consumers’ choice to leave an app with anything beyond “a neutral message apprising users that they are going to a third-party site”.
Epic head Tim Sweeney has called his dispute with Apple (and Google) a battle for the Metaverse, since most metaverse platform users access the virtual world through their smartphone — but because Apple and Google charge a 30% cut on in-app purchases, and metaverse platform companies are hugely hobbled.
Now, the mobile version of Epic's Fortnite — and Roblox, and VRChat, and Rec Room, and yes, Linden Lab's Second Life — can enable in-app purchases without that huge 30% fee, or even encourage users to buy virtual currency from their website.
Reached earlier today, Linden Lab head Brad Oberwager is cautiously optimistic:
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Varosh SantanaMiguel’s photostream is like a shot of adrenaline for your eyes. They are full of this wild energy that demands our attention. Take “The Last Rays,” his most recent work, I have to look closer to absorb what I am seeing. In his own words, from the description:
In the shimmering waters, where the last rays of the sun meet the darkness, Lysmaro reigns. His skin is adorned with perfect shades, and his back is crowned with crystalline fins — sharp as blades, yet as beautiful as the stars in the sky.
His staff, topped with a living pearl that pulses like a fragment of a long-lost star, he wields like no other. Surrounded by fish that swirl around him like liquid silver, and songs so hauntingly beautiful they could steal one’s sanity. Accompanied by magical currents, his voice echoes through the seas, both warning and promising in equal measure.
For more of Varosh's exciting work, click here:
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Horizon Worlds Pivoted to Compete With VRChat Around 2019 (Unsuccessfully), Says Senior Meta Veteran
I keep learning more about how Meta, one of the most powerful and profitable companies in human history, has been unable to grow its metaverse platform Horizon Worlds. Part of that story is told in my book (plug!), while another part of the story I wrote about here, in which Meta leadership decided to develop Horizon Worlds with a VR version of Meta's React code of mobile apps, called "ReactVR" — leading to a team of 2D app developers driven by engagement metrics and retention numbers, but little experience in virtual worlds or VR.
Another piece of the puzzle was just offered by Meta senior veteran Jim Purbrick, who knows quite a lot about virtual worlds and VR — read his blog links below for much more — but was sidelined from leading Horizon Worlds design. (Sometimes with disastrous consequences for the company.)
Commenting on my post, Jim recently tweeted:
There was, briefly, an acknowledgement that "The Metaverse" would require learning. Horizons started out as an experiment alongside Rooms and Venues then grew and sucked all of the oxygen out of the room when it was decided that Meta needed a platform to compete with VR Chat.
Yes: VRChat, the social VR virtual world first created by a tiny startup, grew organically with little marketing, but still far outpaced Horizon Worlds in terms of active users, even (and especially!) on Meta's own VR platform. So Meta pivoted to catch up.
More from Jim:
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A core goal (as I see it) of the Creator Partnership Program is to grow the Second Life user base through a collaboration of Linden Lab development and grassroots community creativity. You can see that in another company/creator collaboration which also addresses the first-time user experience. Longtime SL game developer MadPea created a HUD that will be seen by some select new users, giving them a set of daily adventure Great Heist quests and rewards…
Join free to read (and comment on) the rest!
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Sophie D takes pics of herself and her travels around Second Life. She’s new-to-me, someone I discovered today while searching for pictures of trees. Portland’s Friends of Trees celebrated planting its millionth tree this Sunday which led me to wonder about tree planting in Second Life. Of course, it’s much easier to plant a tree in SL, no messy digging, watering, pruning, and hoping it survives. Plop, and there it is! All grown up.
While searching for trees I found a lot of pics by Sophie, in fact if anyone deserves to be the SL Virtual Forest Ranger, it is Sophie. This is her most recent picture and it just happens to be a tree. In general, framing the main element toward the center is a mistake, particularly if it’s asymmetrical, but she accounts for that with the leading lines that draw our eyes, making this a successful picture.
For more of Sophie’s trees, click here:
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 