Category Archives: Virtual Worlds

The Story Of Neverdie


A few months back I asked you guys what you thought of this: A press release from self-styled “virtual worlds pioneer” Jon “NEVERDIE” Jacobs about the showy online game world he’d made as a tribute to his late fiancée, Tina. Neverdie was a figure from the online world of Entropia Universe (which they apparently call Planet Calypso, now), and he was always putting out press releases full of dollar signs and the world “first.”

As such, he was apparently a little bit of a controversial figure to the Entropia players — a spokesperson and a figurehead known as something of a loose cannon, drawing attention as much for his showboating as for his genuine pioneership, his futurist’s view of virtual reality and the concept of the self in a game world.
You might be able to tell that I didn’t really know how to think about it, since I kind of just tossed up that press release for you to discuss. My coverage of Entropia for Worlds in Motion, back when I ran that site and its GDC summit a few years ago (it now exists as the ‘social and online’ section of Gamasutra) was fairly business-oriented, wherein I explored the game as a product in a sea of virtual worlds, which if you recall was the big bubble before mobile and social gaming descended on us all.
Finally, the article I wished I could have written if I’d had the ability back then; hell, the one I wished anyone could have written so that I could read it! Stephen Totilo found the press release here at SVGL and, in what’s probably the best piece of games-related journalism I’ve read all year, he spends time with Neverdie, talks to him about how his intense approach to virtually memorializing his fiancée after her death from illness — along with his bold stunts — brought him into conflict with his fellow players, and, most interestingly, provokes thought on the concepts of virtual self and virtual life through the views of a very unique individual.
It’s a fair portrayal of an interesting cast of characters and a fascinating must-read. Long, but worth your time.

‘Virtual Reality’

I received an interesting press release and I had several reactions to it, but rather than say anything I decided I’d just post it whole here and see what you guys thought. I opened the comments for you.

Virtual Worlds Pioneer Brings Fiancée Back From The Dead In Virtual Reality

Hollywood, CA – December 21, 2010 – Virtual worlds pioneer, Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, has revealed that he has brought his fiancé back from the dead as an avatar, and part of the launch of his latest virtual destination, the new Club NEVERDIE. The controversial entrepreneur believes that virtual reality will be the means by which humanity transcends death itself, and has taken the first step towards this with the inclusion of the avatar representing his late fiancée, Tina Leiu, who passed away suddenly in 2005. Two weeks ago Jacobs made worldwide headlines with the sale of the first Club NEVERDIE, based on a virtual asteroid, for a new world record $635,000 USD.

One of the stunning central locations found at the new Club NEVERDIE is the exotic Tiki beach resort with private houses and ‘The Island Girl Spa’ dedicated to Tina Leiu, who was known in the online gaming world as the avatar, ‘Island Girl’. Jacobs explains how he has kept Tina’s spirit alive in his new virtual destination. “Tina was a beautiful Samoan Princess and, in addition to her career as a singer and actress, was also a licensed therapist and healer. One of her unfulfilled dreams was to open a Spa in American Samoa where her family was from. By creating ‘The Island Girl Spa” at Club NEVERDIE, I’m able to in some way fulfil her last ambition. We’ve also created an Avatar in her likeness and she automatically revives anyone who dies gaming on the island, bringing another level of meaning to the name Club NEVERDIE. For me the return of Island Girl at the new Polynesian Club NEVERDIE brings everything full circle and represents an important statement to the online community and the world; that virtual reality is the place where we can transcend death, perhaps not on a literal level right now, but very possibly in the future. I plan to continue to lay the foundation for that future with the virtual worlds developed by NEVERDIE Studios.”

Tina Leiu was a popular singer, actress and gamer in her own right. In 2004 she narrowly survived a sudden attack of myacarditis brought on by the flu. During her convalescence she spent many hours as Island Girl inside the virtual Entropia Universe. When she passed away suddenly in February 2005 as a result of complications stemming from the myacarditis, MindArk, the developers of the Entropia Universe built a virtual memorial inside the world to allow the gaming community to pay their respects. In a touching effort to keep Tina’s memory alive, Jacobs would occasionally allow their son, Taliesin, to log the Island Girl avatar online to play inside the virtual world. However, the developers finally requested the avatar be retired, so reluctantly Jacobs logged Island Girl out for the final time at Club NEVERDIE in 2007. He comments, “I was very disheartened to shut her avatar down in the first place. I feel like virtual reality is ultimately a place where we can live forever. It really went against my hopes and beliefs for its future to have to retire Tina’s avatar and face the incredibly painful death process for a second time. Now both I and our son Taliesin can feel close to Tina once again, knowing her avatar is there waiting for us every time we go online and visit Club NEVERDIE. It’s actually a beautiful tribute to her that she would have loved.” Taliesin agrees, stating, “I think it’s awesome. It feels really good to see the avatar because it feels like my Mom is still there playing the game.”

The new and improved Club NEVERDIE gaming destination cost over a million dollars to develop and is this time located on NEXT Island, a free to play, virtual tropical island paradise where time travel is the main attraction and the focal point of a real cash economy where players can buy, sell and profit from the trade of virtual goods for real cash, with an exchange rate fixed to the US Dollar. Users can visit a range of incredible virtual environments and can of course, visit the Island Girl Spa, safe in the knowledge that should they die in the game, Island Girl herself will always be there to revive them.

ENDS

The Real World

You can change your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook portraits back to your real face if you had a Second Life portrait up. I mean, seriously, please do, because when you use an avatar picture as if you were an in-world character instead of a real human being, it looks weird. Especially ’cause that whole thing is kinda over.

Sincerely, hey, y’know, whatever you’re into, I don’t judge (see my Formspring anonymous question repository, where someone asked me if playing Bayonetta naked is wrong). But the big virtual worlds boom seems like it’s all but done to me — y’know, kind of like what I thought might happen in an environment driven by ideals that were a little bit too eager to throw out established best practices and declare gaming, online social behavior and the web itself “over”.
When I spoke at Worlds in Motion cautioning excited virtual worlds gold-rushers not to get too lost in a fantasy of actualizing Snow Crash and to pay a little more attention to the way users were already doing things I fielded an impassioned argument from someone who basically said I was wrong. That person made their living selling virtual something-or-other in Second Life. I wonder how their business is doing these days.
Anyway, back then, the loudest voices in favor of the new paradigm’s triumph were those who had already had tons and tons of the Kool Aid (and who had put millions and millions of dollars behind the ideas). It kind of reminds me of the echo chamber around Facebook gaming right now. Don’t get me wrong — I think Facebook gaming is a lot more relevant and viable than the “3D Web” and “virtual life” fantasy ever were, and I think Twitter really has changed the world forever, but there’s definitely something of a bubble forming.
I reflect on this bubble in my latest editorial at Gamasutra. The virtual worlds craze wasn’t entirely wasted time, of course — I parse out the permanent lessons that we learned and the way we’ve incorporated them into new media, too. Caution and pragmatism, entrepreneurs!

No Sleep Til Brooklyn

Have you been playing BioShock 2, the “sequel to a game that didn’t need a sequel?” So’ve I. No, it didn’t need a sequel, but I’m glad it got one. I hope it gets several more. It could be the beginning of something awesome.

Don’t worry, I’ll be explaining at Gamasutra soon. No More Heroes didn’t really need a sequel either, but it got one (and I was also glad of that). All I’ll say for now is that we ought to get used to sequels to games that “don’t need them” — and that the trend could evolve into something very positive.
I’m busy all the time, especially with my staff at D.I.C.E. I suspect that what people do at D.I.C.E. is play a lot of poker and get supremely drunk. So in other words, it’s like my life, except my life lacks poker (which I don’t know how to play), and lacks me having to cover people’s talks. Props to my colleague, Game Developer EIC Brandon Sheffield, who’s already got a couple talks from Vegas up at Gamasutra: Astronaut and new-minted Facebook gaming boss Richard Garriott’s sorta-critique of game narratives, and Davids Jaffe and Crane talking about their experiences in the evolution toward casual gaming — Jaffe says Calling all Cars was “a mistake”, thanks to “a casual theme with a hardcore mechanic on a machine people had paid $500 for. Nothing matched up.”
Speaking of evolution, remember that whole “virtual worlds” thing, where everyone wanted to interact in browser-based 3D environments with avatars? That lasted like, 12-18 months, didn’t it? I feel sorry for the venture capitalists that are still buying that line (and for Sony, which appears to have some very expensive lemons with which it must now make lemonade).
A couple years ago when I was running the inaugural Worlds in Motion Summit, I got up in front of a room of all these starry-eyed venture-funded kiddoes (ignore the awkward pic! I thought we were friends, Zonk!), and — okay, it was a bit nervy for a journo to do — demanded that they prove to me why I should believe in their promises of a 3D web, an avatar-based future. I was skeptical that anyone wanted a “3D web” or to “democratize content” or anything like that, and what I saw was a bunch of people who had actually gotten someone to fund their fantasy that Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash could be real.
A little bit thereafter at Austin GDC, where I had less involvement in the Summit, I told FreeToPlay.biz I thought Web 2.0-types should “evaluate their substance” and take more lessons from the gaming biz. Now it sure looks to me like a lot of the buzz and enthusiasm around so-called “virtual worlds” has been transmuted into iPhone and Facebook gaming.
Just look how many game developers have gone into those spaces: The dude who made Klax (read my interview with him!) A couple guys from Rockstar Leeds, who miss the sense of agency that comes with grass-roots bedroom coding. Flippin’ Richard Garriott! Sid flippin’ Meier is even putting Civ on flippin’ Facebook!
This, this I am interested in — especially when you see publishers like EA plainly state that they depend on success in this small-digital space for their survival.
I used to snicker a bit at dudes saying things like “Facebook is a virtual world.” No, Facebook is a social network. Virtual worlds are also social networks, and it turns out that Facebook is a method much simpler and more intuitive for social networking. People just want to be connected to each other in the most accessible way possible. Nobody wants the Web to be a world, a game, an “environment” or a “user-generated content space.” They just wanna get shit done.
I was one of the earliest business writers on Web 2.0 — one of the earliest neutral ones, at least. I remember getting into arguments with other journalists at events: I’d argue that Second Life was only relevant to the people that “lived” in it, and they’d argue back how wrong I was. The argument would soon reveal that they owned a business selling virtual fashions in Second Life, or selling virtual kits that could make their avatars into hermaphrodites or whatever. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I think a very vocal super-minority made a lot of people feel like this avatar thing was way more important than it is.
I did say that I hoped that a lot of lessons from the virtual-everything gold rush got transmuted wisely into the larger games business, and I think that’s happening. Some bubbles pop, some don’t, but mostly what happens is a lot of subtle evolution. All of this industry fragmentation is really good both for core games and for social games. It’s exciting, and I’m glad I don’t have to interview anyone who uses their Second Life picture as a real picture anymore.