iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

What new-ish @secondlife.bsky.social brands (launched 2020 or later) deserve more publicity? Because I want to feature them in an upcoming "Second Life's Hot New Brands" column! Suggest your favorites in my anonymous Google Form below. 👇 Please include MP links! docs.google.com/forms/d/1JEP...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Excited for today's early access launch of @seedgame.bsky.social, in development for nearly 10 years & easily one of the most ambitious MMOs ever launched. Single-shard, fully persistent, sorta multiplayer Civilization meets The Sims, I talk with the lead dev here: www.patreon.com/u4843285/pos...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

LOL I love this. "Backrooms" is so huge it inspired a creepy shopping hunt in @secondlife.bsky.social: www.patreon.com/u4843285/pos...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Not that I'm complaining, but holy shit. And I feel like there's still at least 50 more hours of nerdery left to go.

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Important @awexr.com tip: Sonoratown, one of LA’s very best tacos, is a very short walk from AWE. Thank me later!

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Important @awexr.com tip: Sonoratown, one of LA’s very best tacos, is a very short walk from AWE. Thank me later!

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I've seen dozens of "Scorsese is getting into AI!" posts on Other Social Networks but not ONE of them mention a key disclosure at the bottom of the NYT story on it: Scorsese's business partner is an investor in the AI company! And so they will both likely get a huge payout if it's acquired/IPOs.

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Google's Project Genie is yet another example of tech companies evincing utter obliviousness to what virtual game worlds actually are and why gamers love them. The problem is so obvious, it's even in the very demo video that Google just put out.👇

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Noam Chomsky's chumminess to Steve Bannon displays none of the fawning chatter from, say, Larry Summers. And he does not appear to have been co-opted by whatever access the global leader of white nationalist movements provided.

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Wow, just visited Monument in @vrchat.com and the Babel tower is still being built! But how tall is it now? It took me a good 5 minutes at a non-stop run to reach the top. For comparison, the world record for climbing to the top of the Empire State Building by stairs is under 10 min.

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Consider giving the gift of virtual world journalism and analysis with a subscription to my Patreon! Plus special benefits for subscribers including exclusive content, shout-outs, even consulting! 👇 www.patreon.com/c/u4843285

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

It's a seriously weird strategy when under 15% of young people are positive about Kirk, while 24% are negative. And the rest don't even know who TF he is.

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Kirk's YouTube channel has fewer than 5.25M subscribers. By contrast, Kimmel's official YouTube channel has vastly more. 👇🏼

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

LOL Altman's jazz hands bullshit can't even survive scrutiny for more than two months. He said this right before (another) disastrous ChatGPT update.

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

My latest book details how Meta's leaders never really understood the Metaverse, couldn't explain it to their staff, were never passionate about virtual worlds and what made them meaningful, and how they sidelined people on their team who were. But this is a bit too on the nose. 👇🏼

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

The jury is still out on how much of a net value LLMs will be for various use cases (factoring in compute/power/data training costs, etc.), but I can tell you they've definitely improved one sector of the Internet industry: Blog comment spam!

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

This is so bad. In the legendary D-Day scene of "Saving Private Ryan", Tom Hanks says something like "gatac gatac" into a walkie talkie. Curious, I checked Google to find out what he actually said. And then Google AI... just totally made some shit up.

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Happy Monday! Here's my latest metaverse platform news, including VRChat's coming creator economy for avatars, Second Life's company/community collabs to grow the world, and Matt Daly's look at the early player groups in Stars Reach from @raphkoster.bsky.social & co.👇 nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2025/05/...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Got an update from Linden Lab about the mysterious sexy bot bedroom island in Second Life I wrote about on my Patreon yesterday -- added it to the original post you can read here: www.patreon.com/posts/126813...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

UPDATE: Just talked with Linden Lab head Brad Oberwager, who explained what happened with these AI-based promos for SL. 👇 Brad Oberwager Explains Why Linden Lab Promoted Second Life With Stock / AI Images -- And Why They're Now Stopping. www.patreon.com/posts/brad-o...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be fine if a whole generation grows up not wondering, say, how many insulin users in the US there really are. Or what number 11 percent of the American population actually roughly is. Right?

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Excited to run this guest post by author @haridsam.bsky.social who has an intriguing idea to help solve the first-time @secondlife.bsky.social user experience: Should I Stay or Should I Go: The Insidious Problem of Purpose in Second Life -- And a Way to Help Solve It: nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2025/01/...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Google's AI Overview continues to fail, contradicting itself from one request summary to another *within seconds*. But Dan Inouye is only a major Senator in US history, a Medal of Honor recipient, and a still-beloved figure in Hawai'i, so who cares where he actually grew up?

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Watch a test ad for @secondlife.bsky.social's first marketing campaign in years! For more context and strategy, read my latest interview with Linden Lab head Brad Oberwager and CTO Philip Rosedale below: nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2025/01/...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

"If Second Life was easy to play, what would that be like?" Got a preview from top SL brand owner Gizem Mishi Akin of Simthing, her new casual sim life game that's integrated w/ content from favorite Second Life brands! Join my free Patreon to read about it first: www.patreon.com/posts/120975...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

NEW: Project Zero isn't just a streaming option for existing Second Life users. It's integrated into an aggressive marketing plan with a growing budget -- the 1st SL marketing in 4 years! -- and a completely revised 1st time experience. Rosedale & Oberwager explain: www.patreon.com/posts/120707...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Yet another Google AI hallucinatory fail on a serious life or death question. Is it 8.4 million in the US taking insulin, or 11% of 336 million, ie some 37 million, and what did the highly reputed ADA actually say?

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Starting this week, Linden Lab is letting a select number of new Second Life users try out Project Zero browser streaming, to see if that helps retention. And much more from my recent Q&A with Philip -- join my Patreon to be first to read: 👇 www.patreon.com/posts/119670...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

UPDATE: Virtual world writing delayed by real world conflagration. (This was the view from our LA neighborhood last night.) Will be back posting when the material world has stabilized (relatively)!

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Hope you're enjoying the holiday break! Here's my top 10 most-read/shared posts from 2024, including my chat with a Blizzard veteran on what went wrong with WoW, and @philiprosedale.bsky.social on returning to work on Second Life fulltime. nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2024/12/...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Wow -- beautiful new @teal-aurelia.bsky.social SL machinima music video leads to the song it's promoting getting RL radio airplay! Watch & hear the whole song here: nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2024/12/...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Got a sneak preview of upcoming updates to Second Life's mobile app, and Linden Lab's strategy for using it to bring back lapsed SLers. "There's an imperative that Second Life continues," Linden head Bradford Oberwager explained. Join my Patreon to be first to read! www.patreon.com/posts/second...

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

If I'm reading this right, Twitter starting doubling in growth year on year after it hit around 30 million users. Think that'll start happening with Bluesky (now with 22M users) by the end of this year!

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 30/06/2023

Twitter crapping out so quickly even the Spam bots are peceptibly sucking more. Just totally phoning it lately!

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 16/06/2023

Los Angeles suddenly invaded by mysterious and unknown illumination!

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 12/05/2023

How many *active* users does Bluesky have? Definitely not 600K - downloads don’t equal engaged users. (Many people create accounts merely to “park” them and are otherwise dormant.) Offhand I’d estimate 30,000 - 45,000. IE, 2-3x the number following top accounts like @aoc.bsky.social. Thoughts?

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Wagner James Au @slhamlet.bsky.social · 12/05/2023

Every time I fire up Bluesky, I try to post something, but lock up. Finally realized I still have post-Trump Twitter brain. It feels like Bluesky is closer to the time I started tweeting, at SXSW back in 2007. So here’s a burrito I recently ate.

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