Got my first plot of land, planted a tree and made my HatHead hat in the Chinese virtual world of Hipihi today. Hipihi just entered public beta yesterday.

Feel free to give it a try: sign up here, download here.

The interface is a little confusing since some of it is still in Mandarin. You can hack the client to display a mostly English GUI by changing the following entry in the following file:

…your install directory/UIData/LocalSetting/LocalSetting.xml -> change the ‘0′ to a ‘1′.

An outdated English version pdf to help translate various GUI elements can be found here. While the screens have changed quite a bit, you can still match up the Mandarin labels to the new GUI.

Hipihi resident openid has also translated some of the screens - JurinJuran has posted them here.

The english hipihi forums are here.

This is a video of a real-time blues performance taking place in Second Life featuring Komuso Tokugawa on vocals, guitar, harmonica and intelligent back tracks (which follow him) from Tokyo, Japan and myself on piano, excited yelps and groaning from Toronto, Canada. This is a regular weekly show so keep your eye on the event listings. The video was filmed and edited by Osprey Therian.

In a world where a mobile phone ring costs more than a real song, I am convinced that virtual music performances are the future for musicians.