Gary Hazlitt turns the page on 2008 - What happened and what's coming in virtual worlds

Sydney-based Brit and marketing wiz, musician, composer and rich content creator in virtual worlds Gary Hazlitt (aka Gary Hayes), is already done celebrating the incoming year, while we wait for a few more hours in the Western Hemisphere for 2009 to arrive.

Gary, who studied physics, is the director of the Australian Laboratory for Advanced Media Production (LAMP), and also heads up Virtual Worlds for the UK-based The Project Factory, for which he produced the highly successful and eminently revistable (as the traffic numbers indicate) Australian Telstra and ABC Second Life presences.

I welcome Gary's guest blogpost and knowledgeable take on the recent past and the coming adventures of virtual worlds. Happy New Year, everyone! - Bettina Tizzy

by Gary Hazlitt



In the social Virtual Worlds context, 2006 was about hype... another new frontier 'kid-on-the-block,' but became about fast bucks and cheap and cheerful PR. We saw that bubble gently burst in 2007 as the realisation that one world in particular, Second Life® (which is still the leading example of culturally created virtual content), was really about creative communication and artistic expression versus the local shopping mall or a crude business tool.

Last year, 2008, we witnessed a distillation in what Second Life (and by implication other customisable worlds) is really about, leading to a proliferation of new, niche virtual worlds meeting the cultural and entertainment needs of much broader demographics. We effectively saw the 'fat' surgically removed from Second Life and an acceptance that this new medium and form is still in its very early days, but in 2008 there are clearer reasons for being a part of the social web mix:

1. An immersive expression of community - Facebook and MySpace-meets-World of Warcraft. This community can create their own environments or swarm around trusted film, TV or lifestyle brands, too.
2. For business, it is more about a place to meet, present and recruit and far less about brand awareness, product sales or vacuous hype. The business model in 2008 clearly came into focus: the community selling to itself - brands needed to court existing inhabitants very carefully.
3. For education, Second Life is one of the most efficient tools in the learning process. Education becomes democratised, everyone can contribute and learn equally, remote learning is far more compelling, fun and immersive.
4 A creative tool. Second Life, in particular, showed significant maturity as we saw a higher number of serious live performance (CARP, NMC, DanCoyote Antonelli, for example), a record number of in-world 'machinima & TV-like programs' and by far the largest array of creative statements from virtual environment artists, many members of the NPIRL group. The quality of 'experience' creation from talented musicians, designers, photographers, artists, etc., reached new heights.


GROWTH OF WORLDS

Investment across the board - more than $900 million US invested since Oct 2007 - has moved away from generalist worlds like Second Life to more focused niche or user base environments with many starting to exhibit core game elements. These include those with renewed investment after new'ish launches: vSide, Football Superstars, Stardoll, Home, IMVU, Metaplace, Multiverse Places, and Music Mogul.



Towards the end of the year, console social worlds came onto the scene. XBox360 and Wii are very similar in 'cartoon' aesthetic, whereas Sony is far more game focused. All have very similar business models - create a space to hang out and be 'tempted' by games/film/merchandise. Although these are not yet places for community creation, they will soon learn that to keep inhabitants they will need to be or, like Google Lively, have to pull the plug. Embeddable or layered worlds began in 2008 and are likely to be significant in getting people used to real time communication through 'representational' avatars - vs text based 'social network' profiles. Also, Facebook worlds like YoVille or Vivaty, or layered worlds like Rocketon or Weblin that are embedded on the existing 2D web. The dominance of the likes of Club Penguin and Webkinz at the tweens end of the spectrum will be duplicated through teens and gen y's as a series of new, highly focused and targeted social worlds launch next year. This has already begun with Football Superstars and Music Mogul but expect to see many more - including several with user created content as a feature alongside the virtual economy.


HIGHLIGHTS OF 2008

- Graphics in Second Life become teenagers. Still some way from the likes of Crysis, Second Life Windlight turned the world into something far more fantastical for many. It added layers of light, glow and control to a previously very 'flatly lit' world. We still wait for dynamic shadows, better environmental sound and an even more useful scripting language (post Mono), but this was a paradigm shift for environmental artists.
- Some companies got it! There was not a plethora of companies or brands entering Second Life but those that did had continued success as they concentrated on the social (people) rather than 'product' aspects of their business. Although the Pond leads in dwell terms, new entrants like Warner's Gossip Girl have done exceedingly well. Car companies still do well even though Pontiac walked away from Second Life, and Toyota, Fiat and Nissan are always in the top 10 brands.


Click image to see larger

- The quality of machinima across all social and game worlds increased exponentially this year and a growth in communities watching 'documents' of the worlds they spend most of their time in. In addition to some machinima appearing in heritage media ("Molotov Alva and his Search for the Creator" and HBO/Cinemax, for example) there has been a growth in long form game-engine films and notably many more serious issues tackled.
- The New Worlds. A fracturing, as it became obvious that Second Life cannot be all things to all avatars - so nearly 70 other worlds all showed up on the radar. Many are focusing on niche interest or are highly branded. Several of the new 'jack-of-all-trades' entrants will learn that enabling community creativity and an economy is absolutely necessary. There were several walled garden/locked content mirror worlds and builds in 2008, which will learn to be not about 'broadcast' spaces, and realise that their worlds are far more significant than modelling what is around us - "In augmented and online virtual worlds, humanity will exponentially evolve, free from the limiting ghosts of that other virtual world we called reality".

My basic OpenSim Travel Kit

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

While living in California, I put together a backpack filled with all kinds of emergency supplies to get me through a bad earthquake. There were Powerbars, a flashlight, a hand-cranked radio, a first-aid kit, some single dollar bills, etc. I tossed it into the trunk of my car and figured it would be with me at most times. In fact, I've given backpacks such as these to all my closest friends and loved ones in California as gifts. I usually tuck in a deck of cards, a pencil and notepad and sometimes a funny book. Even a yoyo!

Most of us have a little travel kit for toiletries, and frequent international travelers take that a few steps further: noise-cancelling headphones, jet lag meds, adapters, converters, a cozy pair of socks... you get my drift.

Nowadays, I am more in need of a kit for the virtual traveler, and these are especially important - and appreciated - if you are not a builder or a scripter.

These are all things I carry with me as I travel from one OpenSim to another...

Bettina's Basic OpenSim Travel Kit:
- One script for personal radar
- Good freebie skin, such as Sezmra Svarog's Splendor skins
- One transparent texture (I forget where I got mine)
- A basic particle script (good for testing), such as Jopsy Pendragon's Barebones Particle script (thanks for posting it, Ordinal!), or Ama Omega's ExampleParticleScript
- Eye textures, such as Vint Falken's pretty, free, and very NPIRL creations for Valentine's day.
- Of course, Torley's funtastic textures!

What else should we pack in our virtual travel kits? Got any good links? What could I be doing better?

On my wish list:
- Portable prim hair
- My fave June Dion bodysuit (ARC friendly!)

Arrival tips:
- Friend a few folks right away
- Ask for LMs, where the sandbox is, and where the freebie area is
- Check out the map right away. Where are you? Make a Landmark!

Winner of Koinup's Avatar Art contest - NPIRL category

Koinup's Avatar Art contest has just concluded and the winners have been announced in each of the three categories: surreal/Not Possible in Real Life; post-modern/traditional and kitsch; and realistic-pop art. The contest was open to photography taken in all virtual worlds.

It was my pleasure to judge the surreal/Not Possible in Real Life category, and the winner is Winter Wardhani with this image.



While there were hundreds of photographs to choose from, I selected Winter's image because she strayed away from the "beautiful human" look and did something entirely different, and fun. You can view all of the entries here.

The winning photographs are on display at the Museo del Metaverso.

An Academic Journal for Metaverse Creativity

Posted by Alpha Auer...

A few months ago I was contacted by Ravi Butalia, the publisher of Intellect Books and Journals located in the United Kingdom, with the irresistible offer of becoming the editor of a brand new journal, to make its debut in 2010, focused upon creativity in virtual worlds. The suggestion both for the content of this enterprise, as well as my name for the position of editor was made to Mr. Butalia by my much beloved and esteemed professor, tutor and mentor Roy Ascott, who really needs no further introduction in academic circles in the fields of the electronic arts as well as new media inquiry and vision.

Grave illness and subsequent bereavement related to my mother's passing away a few weeks ago, stopped me from focusing upon the development of this project but now I am fully back in the saddle and would like to proceed, prior to which I feel that a sounding out of ideas as well as getting a general feel for potential interest of involvement and collaboration amongst my peers in the metaverse is in order.

My personal approach in this venture has been delineated to Mr. Butalia as follows:

"This will be a refereed academic journal focusing on the examination of creativity in the metaverse, i.e., online social environments which differentiate themselves from online multi-user gaming communities in that they have no underlying social rules whatsoever that are game related: There are no scores to be gained, no levels to be attained. Thus, given this attribute of being intrinsically unstructured; ergo, being virtual environments where Residents undertake activities the purposes of which are defined by themselves entirely, it is hardly surprising that the pursuit of creative activity seems to have become one of the prevalent reasons for residency in a metaverse.

While creative activity in the metaverse certainly does include artistic activity, this definition should in no way be limited to artistic output alone but should encompass the output of the various disciplines of design, such as fashion and object design as well as virtual architecture that are currently all amply manifest in Second Life®, which still retains the position of being the most fully developed and functional of these environments to date. However, beyond art, design and architecture the creation of the very agent that enables the attainment of presence in a metaverse, i.e., the avatar should be considered as a primary source of investigation where creative activity in a metaverse is concerned.

Creativity in a metaverse manifests under unique conditions and parameters that are engendered by the virtual environment itself and is intrinsically related to these in its very act of realization. Thus metaverse creativity cannot be separated from the underlying metanomics (metaverse economy), the legal issues of ownership and copyright, the very geography and related atmospheric/lighting conditions, the underlying computational system but also cyberpsychology and cyberanthropology, the latter two becoming particularly important in the process of understanding the creation and subsequent role and interactions of the avatar with the social environment that it becomes a part of."

(Excerpt from Editor's Questionnaire submitted to Intellect Books and Journals on September 25th 2008, abbreviated version downloadable from here)

I have already compiled a substantial list of researchers and artists, all of whom I will be approaching individually within the next few weeks. However, I am certain that there are many individuals involved in such research activity out there, of whom I am not aware of and who would be a huge asset as contributors to this journal. Thus, it is in an effort to seek out such persons that I am now posting this here.

My first task will be the setting up of an advisory board, as well as establishing co-editors with whom I wish to share full responsibility as well as full credit in the enterprise. I am delighted to be able to say that my friend and colleague from the Planetary Collegium, Yacov Sharir (Cyboryac Jolles in Second Life), Professor of Digital and Performative Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, has already agreed to become one such. Beyond this, I will need to establish interest from individuals as reviewers and ultimately of course as contributors of academic/scientific articles.

Ravi Butalia has informed me that it is customary for the first issue of a new academic journal to be printed and distributed a few months ahead of its officially announced publication date and thus the proposed journal will need to be printed around September 2009. Which means that the call for papers will need to go out first thing in the new year, with a mid spring deadline in time for the reviewing and editing process to kick in at this time.

Finally, my personal academic credentials can be obtained by following this link here, and my artistic activity as well as some of my research data can be viewed on my Real Life website.

If you are interested in this venture please contact me at alphaauer@gmail.com, with all of your suggestions as well as your proposed degree of involvement. Comments on this post are, of course, also highly welcome...

An interview with LaLa Legend, proprieter of the virtual world Legend City Online

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

March 15, 2009 ping: It's been months since I or anyone else I know has logged in to Legend City Online. Does it still exist? Does anyone care? Sound off, please!

Update: Per Marianne McCann, and in a message dated November 22nd, Legend City Online's LaLa Legend posted a clarification of LCOs terms of service to the LCO message boards:

"A reminder of our Terms of Service and Code of Conduct in reference to age and the use of Kid Avatars. All services are mature, strictly for entertainment purposes and are designed for individuals 18 years of age or older. It is strictly prohibited to portray a child or child avie in the matrix of Legend City Online in any way shape or form -- use of such will be seen as a direct violation of our terms and your account will be terminated."

The LCO Terms Of Service, however, as vague on issue of age, only indicating that, "Legend City Online will not knowingly execute an Agreement with anyone under the age of 18. Persons under age 18 may not use the Service without the consent and supervision of their parent or legal guardian. We only provide MATURE land. If Customer chooses to permit a minor to use the Service, Customer agrees to (i) supervise minor's use of any and all MATURE land usage, (ii) assume all risks associated with the minor's viewing of content received through use of virtual land we offer, (iii) assume any and all liabilities, including payment for services, resulting from the minor's use of Legend City Online Services as specified in this Agreement."

The only statement in their Code of Conduct ó roughly analogous to Second Life's Community Standards ó is that "all services are mature, strictly for entertainment purposes and are designed for individuals 18 years of age or older."

Hmmm.

FAST FACTS ABOUT LEGEND CITY ONLINE:

* Legend City Online's website can be found here
* Opened for business on September 22, 2008
* Legend City Online was formerly known as Central Grid
* Registration is free
* It is a registered US Company. The name has been trademarked and the design is under copyright.
* The German "Xumeo" continent was added to the matrix on October 28, 2008
* As of November 15, Legend City had a total of 303 Regions: 181 public regions, 69 regions on the separate continent of Xumeo, and 53 private regions
* There were 5,214 registered accounts as of 9am November 15, 2008; 2,196 of which are unique accounts since Legend City's acquisition of Central Grid
* Legend City will not disclose what kind of physics engine it is using
* Textures R Us (TRU), Simone and Alady Shapes are setting up shop in Legend City even now
* The Hippo Viewer, as modified and developed by Mana Janus, is their most compatible viewer. You can download it for Windows, Linux, or Mac here


Many thanks to Jolly Jedburgh for bringing Legend City Online to my attention eleven days ago. On the surface, this virtual world looks a lot like Second Life®, but it is another grid altogether. The differences don't stop with the company name, either. Despite the harried pace of signing up many new residents and dealing with the extraordinary technical issues that one might expect for a brand new world, it's owner graciously agreed to an extensive interview.

LaLa Legend has been a resident of Second Life since just after Beta in 2003. She left shortly after because, "(I) didn’t get the concept of its awesomeness," and returned in 2004 going by the name LaLa Xevious. Today, LaLa is the owner of Legend City Online. LaLa would not disclose her real name.


LaLa Legend

How many new accounts can you handle immediately?

LaLa: 75,000 new accounts can be handled, at which point we will need to restructure our database.

How large is your staff and what are their hours of operation?

LaLa: We have staff of 8 core team members as well as a small staff of volunteers working hard 24/7 to serve our community.

Why should we believe that you will not disappear overnight? People would invest in your grid, buy land, create content and set up shops... why should we believe that you will still be around in five years?

LaLa: Why would you believe that Second Life® would be? Our promise to our customer is this: We are working to create a lasting environment, where people can come and realize their goals and dreams at Legend City Online. We plan to be here for the long term.

Where is your funding coming from and will you be able to raise sufficient funds to maintain a state-of-the-art grid no matter what its growth might be?

Our funding is coming from multiple sources, and is stable enough to maintain our matrix as we are faced with the challenges that all I.T companies face in an ever changing market.

How long ago did you add a currency/economy and do you plan to keep it to Lindens? (This question was posed before I realized that the "L" I was seeing in my client related to the Hippo Viewer I was using, and not Lindens)

LaLa: We have enabled currency from day one. Our currency, the Legend $Ð has never been tied to the Linden$, nor will it be. In fact, the Legend $Ð trades at a different U.S rate than the Linden.

Understanding Legend City's currency

* Legend City's currency uses this symbol: $Ð
* Plans are in the works to establish a full-blown exchange
* You can purchase Legend dollars at Legend ATMs in Second Life. $1,000Lindens will buy you $Ð666 Legend dollars
* Notably, uploading a texture costs you $Ð10



Like every start-up, some growing pains are glaringly in evidence. This building is adjacent to the Legend City welcoming area

What are your biggest technical challenges, at present?

LaLa: Legend City is burdened with many technical issues. This is pioneering work, and there will be problems, which we will solve as we go along. We are, however, not changing things for change's sake, and we are listening to our users about the user experience they would like to have and about the steps we have to take to get there. Please bear in mind that this is a very complex endeavor and there are many things in Legend City that, in this form, have never been done before. Making Legend City a world enjoyable for it's residents is our highest goal.

More on Xumeo, the German continent...

Xumeo is a separate continent/grid available by teleport only from Legend City. It is planned as an All German speaking environment including currency, blue box dialogs, and all in world communication and signage. The two main regions there are Willkommen and Willkommen 2.



Xumeo is very PIRL and urban




Country cabins, perhaps? These were found on Xumeo


What are your thoughts on governance? Do you welcome all communities (child avatars, Gor, BDSM)?

LaLa: We welcome people from all walks of life. Of course we expect everyone that comes to our community to be respectful of each other’s choices. As well as expect that all activities are legal.

Are groups working well yet? (In fact, since I posed this question, my own experience has been that while you can create a group, it is not yet possible to add additional members. In other words, groups in Legend City have one member).

LaLa: Group implementation is a work in progress and is not complete yet. However, we are the only world offering groups at all.


Legend City newbies


There are eight avatars you can choose from upon registration: four male and four female. Here I am (also Bettina Tizzy) within two minutes of rezzing in Legend City Online


Once in-world, you can pick up any and all of the eight freebie avatars at the welcoming area

* Friend people when they are in your presence. Even so, they may not show up on your friends list. Search does not work yet.
* To change any of your body parts, go to your inventory and create a new part. Then wear it and go into appearance to begin modifying it.


Newbie look-alikes abound


Skins and eyes are already for sale on the Barrows region


My own experience has been that female avatars seem to outnumber male avatars nine to one

Newbie navigation tips:

* While it doesn't always happen, you may find that your avatar begins to bounce. One way to prevent the ensuing sea-sickness is to set your avatar to "fly"
* Sometimes you will find that the ground seems to swallow you up whole. Again, set your avatar to "fly" and you'll be back above ground again
* A teleport can be a dangerous thing. If you are meeting friends, be sure to agree on a spot before you attempt that teleport.


Sometimes the grid performs admirably and all seems perfect. You can even dance!


I have had a giggle over my avatar becoming a contortionist at times. Major lag spikes are not uncommon.


When do you expect to add voice and what protocol do you plan to use?

LaLa: We currently have no plans of adding voice because there are no technologies available to us that meet our standards. However, as our technologies develop, we will certainly look at including this feature.

Are you working with standard back-end protocols for everything?

LaLa: OpenSim is based on standard back-end protocols. These include http, xmlrpc and REST (Representational State Transfer). So the answer to your question is yes, we are working with the standard back-end protocols for everything.

Legend City Online's pricing structure and prim allocations are as follows:

Basic Private MiGs (Mini Grids) include 2 Regions for the $500 buy in pricing. Tier fees will remain at $85 per month.

Custom Private MiGs (Mini Grids) include 4 Regions for the $1000 buy in pricing.

Traditional Regions are priced at $100 with $100 a month tier. These regions have 20,000 prims and prims are scaleable to 256x256x256m

Open Space Regions are $25. Prim limit is set at 3750 and only 10x10x10m prims are allowed.


Do all scripts work on your grid? Which ones don't and do you plan to provide support for them soon? How soon?

LaLa: Of the 360+ functions, most have been implemented but not fully. The most notable exception is physics. Physics act somewhat differently and vehicle physics are not implemented yet. However, simple scripts like pose balls, doors and teleporters are very likely to work, with more complex ones needing a bit of a touch-up in places, but to know for sure you just have to try it. That’s what this is all about! Testing to see what works and needs to be tweaked.


Jolly Jedburgh tested particles in the sandbox. No one appears to be using the sandbox to learn how to build. They already know how

What are your policies on content theft, IP protection, etc.?

LaLa: As we continue to grow at such a rapid pace with new people coming to our community at mind boggling speeds, I have been made aware of the issues that other grids are plagued with at this time. It is this that has prompted me to address this issue head on and make public what my protocols for this will be.

Unlike other virtual environments, we have a zero tolerance for Content Theft or Infringement of rights in any way shape or form. With this zero tolerance come a few concerns I have as the owner of Legend City, as well as a person that creates content.

I want to say that we have taken precautions to make sure that the casual bot or copy bot being used on "our" grid is not possible.

This, we know, does not stop the uploading of content that may or may not be stolen from other grids. With this being said the following protocol will take place if the issue arises:

1. The content creator/s, themselves, MUST be the root of ANY complaint or suspicion for questionable items on the matrix of Legend City Online.

Although we appreciate those who want to keep an eye out for content theft, we will NOT respond to nor condone "witch-hunts" or arbitrary cries of theft from overzealous residents - period.

We do not feel it is fair to incite unfair or unjustified "doubt or suspicion" in anyone's products until it can be proven that the questionable content is being distributed improperly.

2. It will further be the responsibility of said content creator to provide proof of ownership and copyright and/or intellectual property registration. Without this information, your content may be unprotected. Watermarking should be kept on file with our administration.

3. An investigation of questionable content will take place for all sources to be discovered. If a justification cannot be made or it is deemed that content was intentionally stolen for ANY purpose, then this content will be banished from the matrix of Legend City Online.


The Eve region, created by Taarna Wells, is attractive.









Humps Place is a region on the westernmost coast of the Legend City continent.


Humps Place


Good to know: Moving your creations from one grid to another

According to Melanie Milland who owns the Xumeo continent, Second Inventory is having some trouble with sculpty transfers into Legend City.

Second Inventory is a 3rd Party Software that allows you to save your creations from one virtual environment directly to your hard drive, and then restore them in other grids. It costs € 29,00.

In conversation, Melanie indicated that you can NOT download a sculptmap from Second Life even if you have it in your inventory as an original, and re-upload it (in Legend City). In her words, "It WILL be broken. You need to take the same file you originally uploaded to SL and upload it. Saving it from your SL inventory to your hard disk is not lossless in itself. It changes the file."


Melanie Milland

See also:

LaLa Xevious' thread on SL Universe


Mana Janus (best known for developing the Hippo Viewer) has already set up a couple of businesses in Legend City, including MJM Lab (it sells a sim-wide teleporter), as well as Christmas trees

Second Life® shrugged

Years from now we'll look upon this period in the history of virtual worlds as a time of splintering. Like the English settlers who fled the corruption of the Anglican church and struck out to establish colonies, several thousands of Second Lifers, disappointed and disillusioned with Linden Lab's mismanagement and lack of support, are seeking new territories and a fresh start.

Statistically, and against the half million+ residents that actually use Second Life, a few thousand people wouldn't normally be missed. But these aren't just any Second Lifers. They are Second Life's backbone.

Most of the people I'm meeting on other grids have been loyal to Second Life for years. I recognize their names from the forums, prosperous stores, and the JIRA. They are the people who know Second Life backwards and forwards and they are also the people who contributed heavily to whatever success it may claim. Second Life was built on their shoulders and now they are collectively shrugging it off and vowing to diversify and support alternative worlds.

They tell me they don't want to contribute their business leadership, their innovations, their art and their ideas to a world that exploits them and won't protect their creations or their investments. Many of these explorers pay their mortgages and car payments from their virtual incomes, too. While most have no choice but to remain in Second Life for the time being, they are also now busily working on building their own grids and planting their flags in fledgling new worlds and rolling up their sleeves to help those new grids gain their footing.

They do so with a heavy heart, but with hopes for a brighter future.

Here in the United States, we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving - our annual harvest festival - on November 27th. On this day we commemorate the pilgrims' early progress and colonization, and give thanks. Perhaps there will be a similar holiday in pixelated form in the future... If this happens, it will be because early settlers made it possible.

Educators are looking into art and design in virtual worlds

Just happened upon this video of a presentation that the Dallas Museum of Art hosted for the University of Texas' as part of their Dallas Virtual Worlds event last spring.


One of the speakers stresses the importance of design around participatory experiences, saying that structures by themselves are not sufficient. I think this is a problem most virtual creators have to learn to cope with... but would suggest that keeping relevant in-world groups informed and blogging are two good ways to ensure that a work gets seen. The video was an eye-opener for me and a window on the process that artists and educators go through as they discover the possibilities in virtual spaces... but I kept wanting to shout out, "But wait! Have you considered X?"

Not Possible IRL + Koinup = Not Possible IRL Safaris: First stop... the world of Tayzia Abattoir

The Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL groups are partnering with Koinup - an inclusive social networking site for all Virtual Worlds that permits storage and sharing of imagery: photography, Machinima, and "storyboards" - to host a new kind of joint monthly event called the Not Possible IRL Safaris.



Among the Virtual Worlds you'll find images of on Koinup: Second Life®, World of Warcraft, Lively, The Sims, IMVU, vSide, Kaneva, There, and more.

Koinup's CEO Pierluigi Casolari and I agree that the convergence of media from all these worlds will expose Koinup's members to new ideas and stimulate an appreciation for new lands, as well as heavy crossover. Speaking for myself, I hope that crossover will funnel thousands of new members to Second Life, where user content creation and creativity are not only possible, but the future of the 3D web. I also see it as a way to promote and showcase top-notch creators and their quality content.

To that end, the first Not Possible IRL Safari will be hosted by the ultimate aggregator of art in Second Life, Tayzia Abattoir, on Saturday, September 13th at 6pm SLT, starting at the Crescent Moon (teleport directly from here).

The first Safari: The World of Tayzia Abattoir
Tayzia founded the Crescent Moon Museum - the longest continously-running art house in Second Life - back in February 2005 and her inventory (over 70k items and practically all of it art!) is probably the richest in-world repository of one-of-a-kind sculptures, art installations, paintings and photography in all of Second Life. In addition to running the Crescent Moon, Tayzia also curates the New Media Consortium's (NMC) Kirsti Aho Museum , and Ars Simulacra, the NMC's Second Life artist showcase island.

About a year ago, Tayzia took me under her incredible wings and gave me a crash course on art and artists in Second Life, leaving my own life and virtual dreams forever changed. Tayzia rezzes art that no one else possesses, and knows more about how each artist got started, who's work they were influenced by, and what they are up to, than anyone else on the grid. It's simply the best way to kick off the Not Possible IRL Safaris with our new partner, Koinup.

Later and once a month, NPIRL and Koinup will offer Safaris and tours with many of Second Life's best content creators, exposing the participants to new sims, new content, and new ideas that are leaving the old world behind and breaching the future. See you there!

The Not Possible IRL (NPIRL) and Impossible IRL (ImpIRL) groups are dedicated to identifying and sharing well conceived and realized content creation in Virtual Worlds which would not be possible in Real Life: architecture, landscaping, art, animations, fashion, particle effects, building tools and scripts... show me, I'll show you.

Gary Hazlitt reminds us that "this is not a game"

Via FutureLab, I've just discovered this video by one of our own: NPIRLer, metaverse developer, marketer, musician, and film maker (among other things), Aussie Gary Hazlitt (aka Gary Hayes).

In it, Gary tours over 50 social virtual worlds in the "current metaverse." As he points out, there are "300 million frequenting or registering for the non-game based worlds and millions of new investments in 2nd and 3rd generation services."



Of the virtual worlds featured here, I have only been to Second Life®, There, HiPiHi, Spore, and Lively.

Kaneva
YoVille
RocketOn
Prototerra
Gaia Online
HiPiHi
Google's Lively
Habbo Hotel
Laguna Beach (vMTV)
Whyville
Twinity
Cyworld
Football Superstars
Weblin
IMVU
Second Life®
Club Penguin
Active Worlds
vSide
A Tale in the Desert
Barbie Online
Amazing Worlds
Webkinz
Worlds.com
Spore
Exit Reality
SpineWorld
Stardoll
The Manor
There.com
Vastpark
Qwaq
PS3Home (Sony Playstation)
GoSupermodel
Grockit (Live interactive learning)
Croquet, peer-based messaging protocol, now building Cobalt (open source and multi-platform metaverse browser)
Metaplace
Coke Studios - There.com
Dreamville (Now appears to be defunct)
Dubit
Mokitown (MobileKids)
Moove
Muse - No longer exists?
The Palace
Playdo
Sora City - Defunct
Voodoo Chat - Animated graphics-based chat
TowerChat
DigitalSpace Traveler
Virtual Ibiza

If you see great virtual content being developed by residents of any of these worlds, would you please let us know? Especially if it is Not Possible IRL (NPIRL).

Interestingly, while Vivaty is not featured in Gary's video, nor on this list, I was running a search for virtual worlds on Google, and Vivaty trumped Lively in the ad section on the right hand column. Heh.

See also:
* Gary Hazlitt's "Hide and Seek"
* Gary's machinima "Second Spring," featuring DanCoyote Antonelli's ZeroG SkyDancers
* Karma in Second Life (Thursday's Fictions)
* Fireside chat with Gary Hazlitt (my interview with him before he joined NPIRL)
* Dancing with Angels machinima by Gary Hazlitt
* Whitenoise travels from Second Life to Google's Lively
* Your name in virtual worlds is your brand
* Feel like straying into a new metaverse? (HiPiHi)
* Someday, a galaxy of metaverses
* AngryBeth Shortbreak talks about Twinity

Second Life infomercials you actually *want* to see, by Ordinal Malaprop - Yea!

"Technologist, natural philosopher, mathematrix and occasional purchaser of shoes,"
Ordinal Malaprop, has taken marketing in the metaverse several steps up the "professional production" scale." In fact, she has created infomercials for her "Ordinal Galvanic Swordstick," and her "The Ordinal Automatic "Flick"-Knife" that just need to be seen by one and all. Never thought I'd see the day I'd love infomercials, but yea!

Here's one:


The Ordinal Galvanic Swordstick from Ordinal Malaprop on Vimeo.

Feel like straying into a new metaverse? Chinese HiPiHi now in limited beta for English language users

HiPiHi (type that intentional cuteness five times in a row!) for English language users is now in limited Beta testing. You will have to submit your personal info, including your address and cell phone number, and wait to hear if you have been accepted. Oh, and the uninstall of the current release "30014" is infected with the backdoor Trojan BDS/Bifrose.

HiPiHi - pronounced "High-Pee-High" :0 - is a place where, according to their website, "The residents are the Gods of this virtual world; it is a world of limitless possibilities for creativity and self-expression, within a complex social structure and a fully functioning economy." Here's the Wikipedia on 'em. Just remember to mind your p's and q's, darlings. Whatever they choose to call it, it is censored.


Interesting use of Christmas music... and interlaced with cinema. Hmmm. Wave at the transformer, everyone!

I wonder if they would like to trade one of my used Woots for some textures?

For a while, at least, HiPiHi is going to make SL seem like Mach 4. It took me forever just to load a photograph from their website, so pack your patience for that trip instead of those woots. All kidding aside, I wish them well. There's nothing like expanded communication tools to tear down the wall.

Get your *own* grid! Thomtrance O'Toole provides step-by-step instructions for OpenSim + binary executable

I like to think that everything we publish on this blog is significant and valuable information, but what I am going to share with you here, today, has the potential to be transformative, and for some, will be on par with a religious experience.

ThomTrance O'Toole is a deceptively easy-going, self-proclaimed mad Celt Goa King and the owner of Happy Clam Island, the home of Organica. There - together with his busy clan of 'Happy Clams' - he blissfully DJs vintage Goa trance tracks and promotes global sustainability and Permaculture. Make no mistake... this man is no light-weight. In fact, he is profound, and I am deeply honored to call him a friend.



Several weeks ago, ThomTrance O'Toole IM'ed me in the most excited tones to say that he had pursued a thread of an earlier conversation we'd had regarding OpenSim. I entreated him to share his findings with me via notecard so that I could distribute said information to the rest of the NPIRLers. ThomTrance is always teasing me gently, and this time was no exception. Here are the contents of that notecard:

Today, I blamed Bettina Tizzy for ruining my life.

On the boundary of the phase transition from a two dimensional NET, to a 3D Metaverse, the bleeding edge is where life begins, where we take small steps into the new Metaverse... being able to create a region of your own, a sim of your own, beyond the boundaries of Second Life, is one of these steps.

OpenSim, an open source project is now in Alpha release 0.4, and I am here to report that yes, Second Life is possible outside of Second Life.

Today, at Bettina's prompting, I tracked them down, downloaded the source, and built the alpha release. Running the executable in stand alone mode, on my desktop, I quickly, and easily established a server.

And it is a *piece of cake* to set up and log in. (Download file - about 18MB - to login = 10 minutes!!!). Note that I have the source code and have built the code into a binary... an .exe, which I will give you via the NPIRL blog.

Now here is the interesting part: I used my Second Life client (1.18.2) to connect to this server, and logged in with the user I created when I originally started the server. Connecting to "ThomSim" , I was presented with a raw island, and a Ruth avatar. (Don't mess with the estate.XML until ye know what ye are doing thom, he said, after needing to reinstall it after doing exactly that).

But this space, this sim, even though I could build on it, and terrain it, and change my av, existed in my desktop, outside the grid of Linden Labs! My head is still spinning, as I realize that this opens up our Metaverse to new grids, all accessible through the SL client . Like the Web in 93, with just a few small servers out there serving up primitive HTML pages, I can see this as a turning point for our Metaverse, a freeing event that will allow us ALL to host and build regions and creations in an ever expanding Metaverse.

Granted, this is an alpha release, not everything works, plenty to still work on, but to login to SL......MY own SL running on my desktop, was a thrill I have not experienced in years.

In the coming week I will prepare some detailed instructions for the non-coders among us, and Bettina will have a link soon to a binary executable from her wonderful blog. A sim of your own coming to a desktop near you.

Until then, Love and light,
thomTrance

P.S. I can see me completely immersed in this project now, so thank you Bettina - for "ruining" my life!!

We haven't seen much of ThomTrance these past few weeks...

But ZOMG, look, look, look at the AMAZING information ThomTrance has created for us! Follow this link to find his gift: step-by-step, easy-to-follow instructions that even non-coders can use on how to get your own grid PLUS a binary executable.

I just hope we don't lose you forever! Please report back to me periodically, would you?

... and ThomTrance spoke yesterday of creating the Not Possible IRL grid. I'm pinching myself. Blessings, ThomTrance. <3

Fire-side chat with Gary Hazlitt, or interactive marketing 101

Within something like two minutes of meeting NPIRL'er Gary Hazlitt, I realized that I am going to want to warm my toes by the heat of his knowledge and - importantly - his marketing prowess... often and a lot.

It is so very rare to find someone who is, at once, technically expert and savvy/hyper-innovative in the area of user-friendly branding. It isn't for nothing that Australia's 11-island The Pond (or BigPond) - which he masterminded and lead-created for Australia's communications group Telstra - is experiencing 12K+ visits a week (see Tateru Nino's analysis), and is the highest rated brand in Second Life.

Even more endearing is the fact that Gary is a ginormous supporter and believer in the power of the Not Possible in Real Life (NPIRL) concept, and integrates it into his builds in fun, approachable and unexpected ways.

The spice on Gary (aka Gary Hayes IRL):
* Sydney-based, born a Brit, lived in the U.S.
* Director of the Australian Laboratory for Advanced Media Production (LAMP)
* Heads up Virtual Worlds for the UK-based The Project Factory
* ...is a busy blogger on SL and its culture, as well as role-playing which he says is a "big fascination of mine atm"
* Is an advocate and has a passion for creating rich organic
story environments
* Makes cool vids
* Is a musician and composer, having created music for film, radio, tv and self-expressed albums

Here are some highlights of what Gary had to say when, for a change, I actually kept my fingers quiet and listened and, dear readers, for you folks who want to learn something about marketing in the metaverse, this is the smartest - albeit basic - 101 you are going to find on how to get it right from the get-go:

"I have been talking about over-representation for a long time ;-) - hence my interest in NPIRL. In other words too many malls, real world architecture, etc, etc.

I have just posted a simple thesis on wikipedia about how the environment can help nurture inhabitants in SL to really dream and create their own fantasies, but most importantly share stories and experiences through places with total immersion.

There are 5 levels and most of the great places in SL, especially the
NPIRL ones, exhibit levels 3 and 4 where the environment itself has character and leads you into your story mode.

Greenies is a great example, albeit a frozen moment. I am always trying to create fantastical and dynamic (things) so (they are) slowly morphing and exhibiting a different character and sensation at any given moment. Every time you go back you have a slightly different experience (and are) always able to uncover something new.

(I) suppose that is the organic side to it... layers of depth to get under the surface; very few places like that but it should be, as creators, our goal to create things that feel like they have been here for years and centuries, even if they feel contemporary.

I am a good friend of DanCoyote's (Antonelli) and his works have that sense of organic... of being created from the virtual earth... and are timeless vs - spits on the floor - copies of RL!"

* PAUSE while this blog poster and yours truly thinks to herself: OMG, this guy sooo gets it!

"(RL) has its place as I have to do lots of corporate builds, too, and although I would love them all to be floating, moving, spacious, ethereal - you have to create the equivalent of the vanity boardroom and such... that being a metaphor for things noobs from companies can recognise at the start."

* PAUSE while this blog poster lowers head, genuflects and utters "amen"

"(We are) happy for people to drop in and - here is a main point with NPIRL type builds - is that they should be responsive to comment. (Important) that the builder and creators agree with the inhabitants who visit that any piece can be changed (to some extent) so it becomes a work of the SL community, too.

We are very keen for folk to suggest changes, because we love to hear from those who have experienced it and say 'oh that would be great' or 'do this.' To me that is what the social network that is SL is all about... co-creation... so we really listen to comments and suggestions and mix that in with our intentions."

***
Over the next two weeks NPIRL members will have the pleasure of previewing two of Gary Hazlitt's new build environments and learning his thoughts on them.

P.S. After posting this, a couple of friends mentioned that my commentary sounded a bit suggestive. OH MY! Is it my fault that smart marketing makes me sizzle? Not hitting on Gary, no no no. :P