Flexi Prims are coming to SL and I’m all over it! At first it will be limited to people with expensive 3D modeling software, but the math is simple enough that converters should be coming quickly for cheap and free 3D programs.

Here is the official announcement from Linden Labs

Here is a FAQ from the official Wiki

The People Responsible

Currently they only have a Maya exporter, which is damn expensive. I’d like to see a converter from OBJ mesh files for example to RPG prims. The way they describe it, it is the equivalent of a 32×32 polymesh, and you can make some really freaky stuff with that. The video and pictures is just scratching the surface.

Imagine the possibilities! Real form fitting prim clothing comes to mind for example.

I’m going to stay on top of this, I’m interested in the mathematics of this, as well as simple conversion from OBJ files.

Here’s a video

Metaverse News sculpties, secondlife, video

Lord of the Rings Online launched this week. I’ve been playing it and am finding it fun. It is not a “Hard” MMORPG, there is no kill stealing, no reward stealing, no player vs player, no level grinding (leveling is accomplished primarily by doing quests), and there is no pressure to level up quickly. I prefer to go at my own pace and enjoy the story and the quests.

Obviously, being based on “Lord of the Rings” the game follows the lore of Middle Earth as much as possible. Hence for example, the lack of magic characters. In Middle Earth, magic is restricted to wise nearly immortal wizards like Gandalf who spend centuries on their craft. There is lots of attention to detail,and fans of the book and/or the movies should enjoy the back stories.

There are a few annoyances.
1. The default keyboard map is annoying. Because I’m used to CoH and Guild Wars I had to remap the keys. First swap Q for A and E for D. I moved run hold to R, moved reply (the old R) to Backspace, moved nearest foe to C (the old backspace), moved character journal to H, and since H does nothing of real importance, that was enough.
2. Basically, the avatars in the game are not as gorgeous as Guild Wars nor as versatile as CoH. They are not fugly, but dont expect a perfect look. Your avatar choices can vary depending on what origin you pick.
3. Name selection is REALLY annoying. Like all other online games, your name has to be unique. But to enforce the illusion of roleplay, the name you pick has to follow strict rules, like only a first name (no spaces or caps) no repeating letters beyond 3, must have a vowel, no long string of vowels, etc. I am extremely lucky to still have Ariane on the Gladden server. I tried creating a decent alt for an elf character and most pronouceable elven names seem to be already taken.

Those things aside, I am enjoying it. I doubt I will be an every waking hour regular or a long time subscriber, but I expect this to be an enjoyable summer activity.

Virtual Society LOTRO, mmorpg

EA Games is combining forces with Endemol Entertainment to merge reality TV with Virtual gaming. The idea apparently is to create an avatar (probably looking similar to The Sims 2 avatars) and then pretend to play along with Deal or No Deal.

Sounds just completely insane enough to be popular, though I’ll take a wait and see approach. Ooh look a press release:

Electronic Arts, one of the world’s most successful game developers has joined forces with Endemol Group, creators of Big Brother and Fear Factor and even Deal or No Deal have joined forces to develop Virtual Me, a new digital entertainment concept that bridges the divide between traditional TV and videogames. The new online offering is being prepared to debut in Endemol’s Big Brother.

Virtual Me joins avatar creation technology from Electronic Arts with popular TV formats from Endemol. This gives users a new way to meet, compete and socialize online in digital worlds. Avatar creation takes a leap forward with a high performing, easy-to-use tool that creates astonishingly life-like cyber-clones, with uniquely customized appearances and identities.

Further, Virtual Me will offer players a chance to participate in virtual versions of TV talent shows like Fame Academy and Operacion Triunfo, game shows like Deal Or No Deal and 1 vs 100 and to form real relationships with other virtual avatars on the web. VirtualMe.com, the home of the Virtual Me avatar creation system, will launch in the coming months.

Metaverse News avatars, virtual worlds, virtualme

Yesterday the Copyright Review Board (CRB) rejected appeals from the internet radio industry. Effective May 15th, Internet radio stations will owe hundreds of thousands of dollars that they don’t have to Sound Exchange the royalty collection agency of RIAA.

Because the new fees are per song and per listener the measly 6 hundreths of a cent fee can grow into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a station with 1,000 listeners. It works out to $11 per listener per month.

The Internet Radio is fighting for their lives right now, and only Congressional action (they are the ones who passed the stupid law in the first place) can save Internet Radio from shutting down for good as early as May 15th.

Yesterday they set up http://www.savenetradio.org/ as their central web site for organizing petitions and support. Another good source of info is http://www.saveourinternetradio.com/.

This affects Virtual Worlds like There and Second Life in a huge way. Both rely on free streams from places like Shout Cast to provide in world music. If legitimate American stations shut down, most of Shout Cast disappears.

But, I know what you are saying, “This won’t affect foreign stations will it?”. Wrong, and in even a more sinister way. A friend of mine from the UK posted a list of great internet radio stations from there. Sounds good, especially since lately British bands have been sounding better than the pop tripe we have been getting fed in the US. Only to find out that all of the stations on his list block listening in the US.

Worse than that, because of new agreements in this regard, foreign stations are being forced to drop free feeds that play in Winamp (and therefore can be fed into There and Second Life) and go with DRM based feeds like Windows Media Player feeds that do not work in There or Second Life. The only likeable foreign feed I know of is Virgin Radio Classic Rock, and who knows how long RIAA will allow them to feed into the US.

That leaves two kinds of stations: 1) Independent music only stations that make arrangements with unsigned groups or independent labels, or 2) Pirate stations that defy the law.

Stations in category 1 have limited appeal, and finding good ones will be hard. Stations in category 2 are going to be chased down and hunted by RIAA, and unfortunately tracking IP addresses of radio in There and Second Life is really easy using the DOS command “netstat”.

Because Virtual Worlds without music is dull, no doubt people will try to get around it using voice, which not only sounds crappy, but if the practice becomes widespread, There and Second Life may have to shut down voice servers.

Bottom line is this: The Virtual World community has to put its support behind Internet Radio’s survival. The loss of music to the community could be devastating.

Metaverse News internet radio, Media, secondlife, There

I have not written in a couple of weeks, I have spent time updating the look of my website arianeb.com. Check it out!

Its been a while since I visited some of the virtual worlds I reviewed earlier on this site. I’m partly writing this inspired by a post about the fate of There Philippines, a Filipino version of There which is declining in popularity. Based on what I read, the game runners of There PH, were content with a subset of There, leaving out what I believe are the most important elements: Paz’s and custom content approval.

Ariane’s first law of Virtual Worlding:

If you want a successful virtual world, you must have two things: 1) Custom player content, 2) customizable homes for players. Leave one or both out, and your virtual world will be a bust.

The most successful virtual world game is Second Life, which was built entirely around both principles. Other successes like There and even the limited in scope IMVU have both, and as a result have thousands of players on at any given time.

I recently took a look at The Lounge to see how things are going there. There were about 105 players last night, which is about 102 more than last time I was there. Similar story in Red Light Center, which has 147 currently logged in, and they have porn! I know they are both new and what not, but the rule still applies. Neither has custom player content, neither has customizable homes for players. (RLC has private rooms for virtual sex, but that does not count.) They will never succeed as virtual worlds, just as novelty add ons.

Currently, there are two new virtual worlds in beta that I know about. Kaneva is in closed beta, and PS3 Home (see previous post) was just announced. Both feature customizable homes, but based on what I have read, neither are adding custom player content. PS3 Home says it will eventually, but launching without it already built in is a mistake. Both will allow user pictures and music to decorate their homes, but custom housing isn’t enough, just ask The Sims Online.

They also need texturing walls, clothing, furniture, and especially avatars, even if it requires an approval system like There. Otherwise they are doomed to draw in crowds initially, but people won’t stay.

Virtual Society kaneva, PS3home, redlightcenter, There, virtual worlds, vside