VRChat Video: "Stage Flight 3.4 - Avali Takeover"

 

 From Stage Flight on Sept 1, Tantari Kim would call this "A great festival on VRC."

 

Netflix Buys Avatar Maker For VRChat, Smaller Worlds

 

There's been a development that will likely make it more difficult for people in VRChat and similar virtual worlds to get new avatars. According to an article in Techcrunch, Netflix has purchased the program "Ready Player Me." For those who haven't heard of it, it's an avatar-creation platform for various virtual worlds and games.

 

Ready Player Me was founded in 2014 in Estonia. Over the past decade it has raised over 70 million US dollars from investors.  It has a staff of twenty, who will all be joining Netflix. It's services, including Player Zero, will be going offline on Saturday January 31st. 

 

The Techcrunch article stated Netflix "plans to use the startup’s development tools and infrastructure to build avatars that will allow Netflix subscribers to carry their personas and fandom across different games." 

 

Scott Hayden in "The Road to VR" called the purchase "a blow to one specific group of people, namely VRChat users." Ryan Schultz felt while this would inconvenience users of the popular next-generation virtual world, at least it had a Marketplace for avatars for people to chose from. From his point of view, it would be the users of smaller virtual worlds that would truly be hurt as those platforms, "which wholly rely on Ready Player Me’s services ... are now going to have to scramble to find and implement a replacement in very little time."

 

Hat tip: Ryan Schultz

 

Sources: Techcrunch

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Memorial Tree In VRChat

 

Some may remember Sylys Sable (account name Sylys Weezles), who passed away last year.  Slylark "Snowy" Lefavre, told me about a spot in VRChat where there's a memorial tree in which he's among those honored. It's at Antiheat's Apartment, accessible at the Party Roof is the "Fast Travel" station, which is also known as the Lilac Lounge. Looking around, among the sights was this tree with bright purple leaves. 

 

Also known as The Ethereal Tree, Sylys was one of three people honored. As of now, unclear who the other two are. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan

Return To VR Chat

 

 It's been a while since I was last on VR Chat, and several days ago, I finally went there and joined a couple friends who have come to spend more time there than Second Life. Some things haven't changed, such as avatars not able to be dressed like they can be in our virtual world and any attachments need to be constantly held in your hand, dropping if you take your finger off the button. But some things have such as the potential size of some regions. One was so huge, my friend told me over a hundred kilometers across, you needed a car to go across, and it took a while. 

 

So I may write more about VRChat in the months ahead. I say may as I have my hands on a few projects. Time will tell.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

VR Chat Opens Avatar Marketplace

 

In Second Life, people have been buying avatars for almost all of it's history. In VR Chat in contrast, for most of it's history you could only get those content creators will willing to give away. But last year this started to change when an inworld economy finally came about. And several days ago the process was simplified with the opening of their Avatar Marketplace.

Read the story in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

 

Ryan Schultz to Stop Blogging

 

A few days ago, Ryan Schultz, a noted blogger about Second Life and other virtual worlds and VR technology, announced there would be no more posts on his blog. 

I’ve had a good run, but it’s time for me to close this blog after a little over seven years and three months. It’s time.

Please know that it has been an honour, a joy, and a privilege to write about a subject that I loved: virtual worlds, social VR, and the metaverse, plus virtual and augmented reality in general. This blog has opened many doors for me, and I am truly grateful for the experiences I have had.

Thank you for your comments, suggestions, encouragement, and feedback throughout the years. I have made many friends and acquaintances in many virtual worlds, and I hope that our paths cross again soon, either via the metaverse or in real life.

I will be offline for a while, but I hope to be back soon. I doubt it will be a blog, though. Perhaps something different; I don’t know what yet.

Be well. Keep each other warm in a cold world. I love you all.

In his post before, he stated was staking an indefinite break, saying he was too busy with the demands of real-life. In the post before that, he had stated his job at a university has undergone quite a bit in recent months. His last post about technology was on October 1, with two posts in August. On July 4, he announced there would be fewer posts "for the forseeable future" due to his job.  

Ryan Schultz was a blogger about Second Life, often posting about mesh avatar accessories and outfits. But he didn't limit himself to Second Life, starting off as a blogger about Sansar when it was owned by Linden Lab, calling it the "Sansar Newsblog" at the time. But in January 2018, he briefly suspended writing following a dispute with Linden Lab about a story he did on one of Sansar's locations, later renaming it the Ryan Schultz blog as part of Linden Lab's complaint was about the blog's name. He would also write about VRChat and other virtual worlds, as well as VR Gear. 

Ryan Schultz did hint he would be back in some form. But it looks like he won't be with the blog he made a name for himself in Second Life media.

To check out Ryan Schultz's blog: https://ryanschultz.com/

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: The Staying Power of Second Life

 

Second Life recently celebrated the twentieth anniversary of it's official launching. When you think about it, that's a long time for a product to be on the market, especially a computer one. And it remains the number one open-ended (or sandbox) virtual world for the public. So what's the reason for it's continuing appeal? Yours truly has a few opinions as to why.

 

 Read the commentary in Extra.

VRChat Video: The Relay For Life Anthem

 

 

(Click here if the video does not play)

 

 Filmed by Wayne Griffiths on January 31, Werefox18 (Mattie Carlton in SL) lipsynics to the Relay for Life Anthem.

The RFL in SL Kickoff takes place today, on American Cancer Society 2

Announcement: Panda Jenn Looking For Furry Avatars to Help With Video Collaboration

 

Panda Jenn (PandaJenn0 Resident) is working on a collaboration project in which the aim is to get a number of people to take part in a video, and those with furry Second Life avatars are invited to take part.

 

I want to do a collaborated video with all you furries dancing. (preferably in fursuit, vr chat avatar, SL avatar, etc.) The final cut will be to the song "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston. If you're interested, please DM me.

 

Second Life residents can contact her via a notecard or IM (both might be best). For those interested who don't have a furry avatar, there are free or nearly free avatars, such as the Wingless avatars, available.
 

To check out what videos Jenn has done before, her Youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/PandaJenn . 

VR Chat Cartoon: Shipping

 

 

 Taken in VR Chat. Someone had an "SS Titanic" avatar. That reminded me of the phrase that lately has come to mean to claim someone's in a same-sex relationship, true or just rumor. 

By Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of The Day: Knuckles' Speaks

 

 

 Taken at Montecito Bay. When VRChat first started getting attention, among the details that propelled it was the "Uganda Knuckles" meme, featuring images of a deformed avatar of the "Sonic" character in this virtual world. It didn't seem that funny, so maybe as it involved African accents those forwarding it thought they were messing with the "forbidden." The deformed avatar I don't think ever made it to Second Life. As for what Knuckles would think, probably something like this.

By Bixyl Shuftan

VR Chat Security Update Results in Mass Protests by Playerbase

 

The Newser hasn't written much about VRChat in a while. This is mostly because we've been busy with reporting on Second Life, but until recently we didn't hear of much other than it's increasing userbase that was making it a true competitor to the older and more established virtual world. But this week there was a major development that's gotten a lot of anger from its users. The developers installed a security update in order to combat the mods of hackers and other malicious users. Trouble is, it also disables the mods players made over time to improve the experience of users, notably disabled users, some saying a number were to address issues the developers were slow to act on. 

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.