Month: November 2021

Step by Step, Roblox Is Moving from a Game Platform to a Full-Blown Metaverse: A Look at Some Recent and Upcoming Features

As I mentioned in a previous blogpost, Roblox has received a lot of attention when its market valuation hit US$41.9 billion when the company went public in March 2021. I’ve only written about Roblox a couple of times in the past on my blog (here and here), but I thought it was time to take a closer look at the popular platform, and some of the moves that the company is making to branch out from simply being a place to play games created by other users, into a more open-ended metaverse platform.

But first, some statistics: the core demographic of Roblox is children and teenagers, ages 9 to 15; adults over the age of 25 make up only 14% of users. In order to keep Roblox a family-friendly place, the company has deployed a team of 400 human moderators (assisted by AI algorithms), and has instituted policies such as a ban on romance and politics:

The company’s community standards were revised this week and detail many policies that weren’t in the version that was updated in July.

• An old ban on using Roblox for dating has been expanded to “prohibit content that seeks or portrays romantic relationships,” including weddings, honeymoons and romantic animations of kissing or hand-holding.
• A new section bars “discussion or depiction” of political parties, sitting elected officials, “previously-elected officials in their official capacity” and slogans tied to any current political races.
• The new policies also explicitly ban recruitment into and fundraising for terrorist or extremist groups.

The platform saw a surge in use due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of children were in lockdown, and currently has over 202 million monthly active users (i.e., those who sign on at least once in the past 30 days). VentureBeat reported:

The platform has 1.3 million developers and creators earning Robux [Roblox’s in-world currency], and this year, they are on track to earn $500 million from their creations.

Most metaverse platforms for kill for that level of popularity, but Roblox is far from an overnight success. Launched in September 2006, it has had a 15-year head start on competitors, building slowly but surely to become a dominant player in the marketplace.

At this year’s Roblox Developers Conference (RDC), the company did a show-and-tell of what new features they were working on. An October 19th, 2021 article in Vogue Business, titled Shaping online avatars: Why our digital identities differ, included the following picture from Roblox, showing a key future feature: dressable avatars!

At last week’s Roblox Developer Conference, the company announced an upcoming “Layered Clothing Studio” beta launch that allows a “combinatorial explosion of possibilities in customising your avatar”, according to a spokesperson, as any body can be outfitted with layered clothing items and will adjust to the avatar’s shape. This release “represents an important stepping stone in a long line of innovations to improve the expressiveness and combinatorics in the metaverse,” the spokesperson said.

This Layered Clothing Studio feature will be launching in beta sometime soon, and it would appear that, as in Sansar, Sinespace, and Second Life, there will be a new, emerging market for avatar fashion designers!

Another upcoming feature is Dynamic Heads, as mentioned in this Oct. 14th, 2021 tweet; this is a feature in private beta test, for avatar heads that support facial animations (more information here):

If you want to jump in and get started with these new avatar features, here’s a video by KreekCraft explaining how to test it out:

In addition, Roblox is hard at work on other features, including:

Finally, Roblox has launched a new feature called Party Place, where users can create a private server to host their own parties and events with friends. Last year, The Verge reported:

Party Place is currently in beta testing and free to access; it was previously used by the developers to host their own in-game events, including the One World: Together At Home Virtual Concert in April. 

As far as I can tell, the Party Place is still in beta as of this writing (November, 2021).

Step by step, Roblox appears to be adding new features that are expanding the platform to be more than just a collection of user-generated games, into a more fully-featured metaverse product where you can customize and animate your avatar in new ways, and socialize with your friends! I will be keeping an eye on Roblox and writing more about the platform in future, so I have created a new blogpost category, Roblox, and adding this and all my previous blogposts about Roblox under that new tag.

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Free Gifts from the Black Friday Bazaar!

Running from Nov. 21st to Dec. 1st, 2021, the Black Friday Bazaar shopping event in an annual tradition. Just join the Evil Bunny Hunts group for free, and you can pick up a free gift from almost all of the vendor booths! Even better, there’s a small sign next to each gift, which shows you what it looks like, so you can decide whether or not you want to grab it, which I think is a thoughtful touch—it saves you from having to unpack everything!

The Black Friday Bazaar

WARNING: the gift from the LUSH booth costs L$10, which in my books is NOT a gift, and I think it’s a rather dirty trick to pull in an event where all the other gifts are free! It’s very easy to accidentally buy something which you had assumed was free. The LUSH booth is located in the rightmost row of vendor booths when you are standing at the entrance to the event, as my avatar Vanity Fair is in the picture above. (Click on GROUP at the entrance to join the Evil Bunny Hunts group.)

Today, Vanity Fair is modeling a few of the gifts which I particularly liked. First up is are two presents paired together: the red, oversize What The Elf? shirt is the gift from [M]ELANGE, and the decorated Christmas antler headband is the gift from Grumble:

Below are three gifts: the Hooke’s Law double hoop earrings from Loordes of London, the white tank top from The Bold Llama T-Shirt Company (in sizes to fit most mesh bodies), and a wonderful fatpack of rounded long mesh nails from Stunner Originals, which come in 13 different colours (which come in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara, Signature Alice, Belleza, Kupra, Slink, and Star mesh hands).

This cute Leela Pink Dream party dress, the gift from GBD, comes in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara; Meshbody Legacy; Belleza Freya, Isis, and Venus; Slink Physique and Hourglass; Signature Alice; Tonic Curvy, Fine, and Minimizer; eBody and eBody Curvy; Star Mesh; TEX; and Altamura mesh bodies.

The black-and-purple Seer dress by JR Wolf Creations comes in the following sizes: Maitreya Lara and Petite; Meshbody Legacy; Belleza Freya; Slink Hourglass; INITHIUM Kupra; Tonic Curvy and Fine; and Signature Alice.

Another purple gift dress is the Raven dress in berry from Starlight Apparel (Maitreya Lara; Belleza Freya, Isis, and Venus; Slink Hourglass and Physique; Tonic Curvy and Fine).

From Luxury Fashion (LF) comes this complete Iris outfit, which includes the shoes and necklace shown, plus a HUD to choose one of eight colours for the tied top, and one of six textures for the flared pants. This ensemble comes in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara; Belleza Freya and Venus; Slink Hourglass and Physique; and Tonic Curvy and Fine mesh bodies.

Happy freebie shopping!

UPDATED AS OF NOVEMBER 28th, 2021: Your 2021 Guide to Finding All the Black Friday Sales in Second Life

See also: What Advent Calendars and 12 Days of Christmas Calendars I’ll Be Hitting This December (2021 Edition)

Second Life male and female Bento head retailer LeLutka is having a 50%-off sale on all their heads from Nov. 26th to Nov. 30th.

Black Friday is coming up soon and, as in real life, there are bargains and sales aplenty in the virtual world of Second Life! I will be updating this blogpost with information on where you can find listings of Black Friday sales across the grid.

Courtesy of YouTuber NovataSecondLife, here are two Flickr collections of Black Friday sales in Second Life:

One thing that I do find irritating about these collections of pictures on Flickr is that you often have to hunt around in the image to find the store name or logo, while “50% OFF” is often in HUGE letters on the pic!

Perhaps the best and most comprehensive listing of Black Friday sales to date is the one on the Fabulously Free in SL website. Note that some of these sales have already started! For example, Belle Epoque’s 50%-off sale has its final day today, November 22nd, 2021. So please check the start and end dates of each store’s Black Friday sale!

I will be updating this blogpost throughout the week as I hear of especially good deals, and new lists of sales. Stay tuned!

UPDATE Nov. 23rd, 2021: TeleportHub.com has a list of stores participating in the Black Friday Weekend Sale 2021, running from Nov. 26th to Nov. 29th, 2021 (some stores may have different start and end dates, however; please check the list carefully).

UPDATE Nov. 23rd, 2021 8:29 p.m.: Kalhene is having a 50%-off sale on both their Maitreya-Lara-compatible Analexa mesh body (available here; now just L$999), and their new, curvier Erika mesh body (available here; now just L$1,295). The sale starts today, Nov. 23rd, and runs until Nov. 28th, 2021.

Here is my review of both bodies, which include heads, hair, and a nice starter wardrobe. They were a real bargain before, and they are an even better deal now!

The Kalhene Analexa mesh body is compatible with almost all clothing and footwear designed for Maitreya Lara, and includes a head, a selection of Bakes on Mesh skins, hair, and a starter wardrobe!
The Kalhene Erika body comes with three different heads, a selection of Bakes on Mesh skins, hair, and a generous starter wardrobe with ten outfits (the feet are compatible with footwear designed for Maitreya Lara).

Also, While Seraphim has yet to publish its Black Friday sales listing, it did post the following image to Flickr, with a teaser:

Get Those Wallets Ready, Friends! There Are Over 425 Sales On The List And There Are Still 3 Days Until Black Friday!

So, when Seraphim does publish its list, I will be sure to update this blogpost with a link to it! If they do indeed have over 425 entries, then it will be by far the biggest list of Black Friday sales in Second Life! (UPDATE Nov. 25th: Seraphim has now published its Black Friday list! Have at it!!!)

UPDATE Nov. 24th, 2021: Pink Cream Pie is having a 50%-off sale, but the Pink Cream Pie store group will also be FREE to join from Nov. 26th to 29th, 2021! (The group normally costs L$314 to join.)

With your group tag active, you can pick up dozens and dozens of free group gifts on the second floor of the store, including all the group gifts from 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020! So be sure to join the Pink Cream Pie group when it is free to join.

The bountiful group gift wall at Pink Cream Pie

UPDATE Nov. 25th: In addition to a 50%-off sale starting today and running until Monday, November 29th, 2021, Blueberry is giving all members of its Blueberry Store VIP group L$250 in free store credit! Please check the group messages for the HUD to attach and click on to get the credit. The Blueberry Store VIP group costs only L$20 to join, so it’s worth it! Note that the free store credit will expire if not used within two weeks.

UPDATE Nov. 25th, 2021: The Meshbody is having a 50%-off sale on all male and female Legacy mesh bodies, which is an especially good deal! (The regular retail price for Legacy bodies is L$5,000, so that works out to L$2,500 with the 50% Black Friday discount.) The sale runs from Friday, Nov. 26th to Monday, Nov. 29th, 2021. (UPDATE Nov. 26th: Meshbody has increased the discount on Legacy mesh bodies from 40% to 50%, so I have updated this paragraph.)

Also, a reminder: if you are shopping for a new mesh body, that while it is technically not a Good Friday sale, Belleza still has their 50%-off sale on all male and female Belleza mesh bodies (more details here). The male Belleza Jake Bento mesh body is for sale for L$1,500, and the female Belleza Freya, Venus, and Isis bodies are only L$1,250 each, or you can pick up the three-pack for L$2,250! And both the Jake and Freya bodies have excellent support among Second Life fashion designers.

UPDATE Nov. 26th, 2021: I have checked and I can confirm that Maitreya is having a 50%-off sale on the Maitreya Lara mesh body! It is just L$1,375. The petite breast add-on option is L$299, and the flat chest option is L$249.

There’s no notice of this sale in the Maitreya V.I.P. store group, so the news just seems to be spreading via word of mouth. Expect the sim to be very crowded once word gets out on this bargain! (Maitreya had a sale like this last year, too, so I was expecting this.)

Happy shopping!

UPDATE Nov. 28th, 2021: Here’s a list of all the stores offering a free store group join this Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend.

Facebook/Meta’s New Metaverse Commercials: Is There a Method to Meta’s Madness in Their Current Advertising Campaign?

I first heard about Facebook (now Meta)’s new metaverse commercials via the following tweet by Andrew Woodberry:

This Meta ad ran during tonight’s Notre Dame vs. UVA football game. I’m not even sure Meta knows what “the metaverse” is.

If you happen to have missed this commercial, as I did, and in case you’re curious, here’s the advertisement in full, via the official Meta channel on YouTube:

What is notable about this commercial is that it is not promoting a specific Meta hardware product or platform; it is promoting the idea of the metaverse (and using some surprisingly acid-trip visuals!).

As I predicted, Facebook (sorry, Meta!) is spending a small portion of its billions of dollars in earnings to do a little public relations: to try and implant the idea among the general public that Meta now a metaverse company; and to attempt to distance itself from the now-tarnished Facebook brand.

Here’s another ad in the current campaign (at least this one is for an actual product, the newly-rechristened Meta Quest 2 (formerly known as the Oculus Quest 2):

Jason Aten, a tech columnist with Inc., writes about Meta’s recent round of advertisements in general, and this last video in particular, in a recent editorial titled Facebook’s Ridiculous New Ad Reveals Its Vision of the Metaverse. It’s Everything Wrong with the Company:

If you want people to buy headsets, and Facebook definitely does, you do what companies do and you make an ad. That’s exactly what Facebook did, designed to highlight the Oculus Quest 2. 

In it, two men are playing video games in virtual reality using their Oculus Quest headsets. The two men are apparently neighbors, but have no idea. In fact, they don’t even like each other in real life, demonstrated by the closing scene where they yell at each other for making too much noise through the wall.

In the game, however, they are both teammates and friends. They even complain about their bad neighbors, again not realizing they are referring to each other. The ad is meant to be humorous, of course. It’s not, but that’s not even the biggest problem.

The real problem is that Facebook–which now calls itself Meta but is still the same company, with all the same issues–thinks this is a good representation of why you’d want to put on a VR headset and jump in the metaverse. If that’s the case, it’s a brilliant example of everything wrong with the company.

Jason goes on to write:

…the people who are friends don’t even realize they can’t actually stand in each other in real life. They live next door to each other, never interact in real life other than to ignore each other’s small talk in the elevator, or to yell at each other through the wall. 

Except, that’s everything that’s wrong with the way people connect online. And Facebook is largely the reason. Over the last decade, Facebook has worked hard to make us think that scrolling through a feed of images and posts from people we are loosely connected to is a substitute for actually engaging with real people. 

Not all connections are equal. Following someone on Twitter, or sending a friend request on Facebook doesn’t mean you have a relationship. It doesn’t even mean you know the person in real life. The problem is that we think that we know people because we scroll through an endless feed of carefully curated photos and moments they share. 

Part of the problem of eliminating the friction in making those connections online is that it makes it easier to connect with people you don’t actually know. Real relationships–the kind that add actual value to our lives–require proximity, conversations, and physical interaction. 

If the metaverse is going to be an amplified version of the kind of relationships people have been building online for years, I’m not sure we’re better off. 

In discussing the (in)effectiveness of this advertising campaign on the RyanSchultz.com Discord server, somebody made the following insightful observation:

They don’t need the ad to tell anybody anything- everyone is talking about it. The commercial did what it was supposed to do, get people’s attention and put Meta in the public consciousness.

Say the family is gathered together for the game—the less computer savvy family members go “what the heck was that”, then the techies in the family explain it to them, and have the time to get them to understand it better than a 1 minute ad could hope to do. The tactic was to get people to ask the question.

Hmmm, perhaps there is some method to Meta’s madness after all. The commercials are intended to be some sort of a conversation starter. From an experienced metaverse user perspective it’s bonkers, but then, WE (i.e. the hardcore virtual reality and virtual world crowd) are not the target audience here; the broader general public, who knows little to nothing about social VR, virtual worlds, and the metaverse, is the target.

And, again I say something I repeat often on this blog, the adage that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Meta’s continued pouring of profits into this sort of advertising means that many more new people will be introduced to the concepts of the metaverse. In the long run, this is a good thing for all metaverse world builders and content creators, whether or not they are on board with Horizon Workrooms and Horizon Worlds, or use Meta-branded VR hardware like the Quest 2.

In other words, Meta’s recent promotional push is good for everybody—provided that we (the people and companies who are passionate about social VR and virtual worlds) seize and pursue the opportunities which will arise due to this greater metaverse awareness by the general, non-computer-geek public. Everybody wins.

P.S. I wanted to leave you with something which I found extremely clever and amusing. The government of Iceland has brilliantly parodied Mark Zuckerberg’s recent Connect keynote address in the following funny three-minute video: come to the Icelandverse!

Now THAT is the kind of advertising which Meta should aspire to! 😉