Year: 2020

Decentraland and Somnium Space Launch Day is Today: So Far, An Exercise in Frustration

Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash

I am still on vacation from work, and I slept in super late this morning, dragging myself out of bed at 11:30 a.m. (hey! I am on. holidays.)…

While I was asleep, two major events happened on two different blockchain-based social VR/virtual world platforms:

Unfortunately, I wasn’t expecting either event to happen first thing in the morning in my time zone, so I was caught flatfooted and unprepared. (Bad, BAD blogger!)

And so far, my day has been an exercise in frustration:

  • When I log into Decentraland, it doesn’t remember my custom avatar name (which I paid 100 MANA for), and my avatar appearance, generating a random newbie name and appearance instead.
  • I am having problems downloading the latest update of the client software for Somnium Space 2.0 (apparently, their server is down).

Both platforms are swarming with new users (there’s a treasure chest hunt going on at Decentraland), and their support teams are (understandably) swamped with requests for assistance. So I am just going to have to be patient.

Expect blogposts about both platforms once I sort out all my technical problems! As a social VR and virtual worlds blogger, I should have been on top of this, and I wasn’t. I’m so sorry!

Sansar Video: I Dare You to Test Me

Daisy Winthorpe has created a well-crafted three-minute YouTube music video that shows off a dizzying array of Sansar worlds to wonderful effect:

If this doesn’t get you at least a little curious about Sansar, then nothing will! (Thanks, Daisy.)

Loki Eliot’s Videos: Sansar Postcards

Given the current state of affairs at Sansar, I think it is important to document the many wonderful, beautiful worlds that designers and creators have built on the social VR platform over the past three years.

Longtime Sansar resident Loki Eliot (also well known from Second Life) has created a series of short videos in a series he calls Sansar Postcards, which he has been sharing on his Twitter feed. Because Twitter feeds tend to be somewhat ephemeral, and Loki does not have a YouTube account, I asked his permission to upload and share some of his Sansar Postcards with you here on my blog. Thank you, Loki!

The link below each video is the Sansar Atlas webpage for that world, in case you wish to visit and explore for yourself. I hope that this will inspire you to visit Sansar and discover more marvelous worlds!

Felsenmeer (by Silas Merlin)

Felsenmeer (Sansar Atlas page)

ZeroCheese World Hub (by ZeroCheese)

ZeroCheese World Hub (Sansar Atlas page)

A Victorian Christmas (by VintageTales, a.k.a. Mad-Eye and Solas)

A Victorian Christmas (Sansar Atlas page)

114 Harvest and 114 Harvest Village (by Draxtor, Ria, and many other creators)

114 Harvest Basement (Sansar Atlas page)
114 Harvest Village Sansar Atlas page)

Scurry Waters (by FullSpectrum, a.k.a. Medhue and Bagnaria)

Scurry Waters (Sansar Atlas page)

2077 (by C3rb3rus)

2077 (Sansar Atlas page)

Cerb’s Lounge (by C3rb3rus)

Cerb’s Lounge (Sansar Atlas page)

Fort Loki (by Loki Eliot)

Fort Loki (Sansar Atlas page)

If this whets your appetite for exploration, may I make a few suggestions of other Sansar worlds to visit? (The list of worlds in that link is from June, 2018, so a few may no longer be available on the in-world Codex directory.)

If you need some help getting started with Sansar (which does not require a VR headset to enjoy), here are some step-by-step instructions for newbies I put together last year (although it is also a bit out of date).

The Educators in VR 2020 International Summit Opens Today!

Just a reminder that the Educators in VR 2020 International Summit opens today, and will be running events pretty much around-the-clock for its global audience until it wraps up at noon Pacific Time on Saturday, February 22nd. The conference opens at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time today. Among the speakers on the first day are virtual reality pioneer Tom Furness, as well as Alvin Wang Graylin of HTC China.

The complete schedule is at the link above. Many of the events will take place in AltspaceVR, but events will also take place on four other social VR platforms: ENGAGE, rumii, Mozilla Hubs, and Somnium Space. The entire conference is free and open to the public. You do not need a virtual reality headset to attend! The conference events will also be livestreamed to YouTube at this URL.

I will be one of the speakers on the final morning of the Summit, giving two talks: one as a librarian (Social VR and Libraries: A Look Back and a Look Forward) and one as a blogger (Four Lessons Learned as a Social VR Blogger). Here’s a link to the event on the ENGAGE website.

I had my first technical and speech run-through in ENGAGE’s beautiful virtual recreation of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford yesterday:

See you there! I plan to attend as many presentations as possible, before I give my own talks on Saturday. This will be a conference you will not want to miss!