Loading…
Read the news here, then make your choice above! And be sure to discuss your answer in Comments!
Update, 7/14: Bumped up for Tuesday morning voting!
Wagner James Au / New World Notes
Author, strategist, virtual world reporter
Making a Metaverse That Matters
Contact me — links below!
My Patreon Supporters
Hypnotic Romance, an SL sim with secluded spaces for couples. Click here to teleport.
The Virtual Worlds Museum. Click here to teleport to their Second Life hub with tribute to sunsetted worlds!
“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.
The Virtual Museum Team hosts several museums in Second Life, Wolf Territories Grid and Roblox. Check out all the teleport links here.
Breedables CoOp, helping the SL pet community grow through shared resources. Go here to get started.
-
Pictured: Linden Lab headquarters in San Francisco
Lots of reader comments over news that Linden Research is being bought by an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager, ranging from "sky is falling" panic to bullishness. Some samples, starting with the bullish:
-
- Ebbe Altberg & Other Linden Lab Team Members Answer (And Don't Answer) SL User Questions About The Company's Acquisition
- Linden Lab Acquired By Investors After Months Of Rumors, Layoffs & Sansar's Sale; Second Life To Still Expand, Official Announcement Promises
- Hit Japanese Pop Composer Promotes New Solo Project With SL Video
- Core Directly Paying Cash To Select Users Who Create Popular Games — And Letting Them Keep Their Games' Underlying IP Rights!
- Ready Player One Sequel Coming At A Time When Hundreds Of Millions Already Live In OASIS-Like Virtual Worlds
- Tutorial: How Lizz Palen Transforms SL Screenshots Into Amazing Images
- The Economics Of Fifty Linden Fridays — Or, Why Dozens Of SL Merchants Willingly Sell Items For The L$ Equivalent Of Twenty Cents
-
Linden Lab's future may now be up in the air, but the legendary and miraculously sustainable Fifty Linden Fridays for Second Life shoppers goes on. Here's this weekend's offers, starting with this face-punchingly adorable item above: Ice cream fans for the blistering Summer from Astralia — click here to get them at the store.
Not cute enough for you? Then how about these holdable plushie with a complimentary crown:
This pair from Cosmic Dust: Click here to teleport and shop.
Many more FLF fashion, housewares, and other random coolness offerings below, with teleports to take your consumerist avatar ass there:
-
I've heard rumors by various insiders that Linden Lab was looking to be acquired for the last few months, and now that prim-based shoe has finally dropped:
Linden Research, Inc. announced today it signed an agreement to be acquired by an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager. Closing of the acquisition is subject to regulatory approval by financial regulators in the U.S. related to Tilia Inc.’s status as a licensed money transmitter as well as other customary closing conditions. Upon closing, Mr. Waterfield and Mr. Oberwager will join the Board of Directors of Linden Research, Inc.
This announcement follows fast upon the recent acquisition (in March) of Linden Lab property Sansar by a little known turnkey operation called Wookey. In fact, that's when I heard rumors of Linden's coming acquisition — just as I did when Linden Lab made a round of layoffs last February. In retrospect, both moves appear to be in preparation for this purchase.
However, the overall gist of this announcement is very much: Don't worry, Second Life will continue and grow. Which may or may not be true, but that's definitely the intended theme:
-
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Jasmine Albright’s photostream is filled with stunning portraits, some rendered in 3D modeling software and others beautifully crafted images from Second Life. Luckily, she labels them. I love how you can see the lush velvety texture of the flowers and how the light on her face seems to make it glow.
More stunning avatar pictures ahead.
-
Core, the Unreal-based, user-generated game development platform from startup Manticore (think Fortnite meets ROBLOX) just announced a pretty uniquely generous reward program for select user creators — build a game that a lot of other Core users play, and get a lot of direct cash payments:
We designed the Creator Payouts Pilot Program around one simple concept: the more people play your game, the more you should get paid.
Each calendar month, creators in the program can receive $3 per average daily player. This will be calculated by taking the daily number of unique users who log into your games and averaging them across that month.
This means that if you have 500 unique users log into your games every day (they do not need to be the same players) you could receive $1,500 after the end of the month. If you average 1,000 users, you could receive $3,000. If you average 10,000 … you get the idea.
Just as notable to me: Creators of Core games retain the underlying rights to the games they make. For instance, a creator could then publish a version of their Core game on Steam:
"Creators retain any original IP rights they have in their creations and they grant other users and Manticore a right to use, modify, adapt, or repurpose their shared creations in Core," Arash Nia, Chief Product Officer at Manticore Games, tells me. "Core games can’t be exported and put on other platforms, but creators can publish versions based on their Core game IPs in other places."
But is there a maximum payout? What if a Creator manages to attract 100,000 monthly players, for example — do they really get paid $300,000?
Yes, says Nia:
