The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. TechRadar (UK) – The evolution of virtual worlds. “Stitching Facebook and MySpace into a 3D environment might not seem like the most exciting project in the history of gaming, but a handful of intrepid gaming companies are wondering if social gaming is going to be the next huge, very profitable thing. The logic is simple – not everyone enjoys blowing up friends and enemies when they go online, or obsessively assembling a vast arsenal of ultra-weapons and superhuman skills. While World of Warcraft and its medieval and science fiction beat-’em-up and shoot-’em-up siblings have questing and wizarding locked down, the popularity and momentum of social networking suggests that there’s serious money to be made from friends and fans. But is this really gaming? And does it matter?”

2. The Economist (UK) – The avatar will see you now. “THAT people undergoing medical procedures should give their informed consent might seem simple and uncontentious. But what if a patient has a mental impairment and his doctor does not have time to ensure he understands the proposed treatment? Those who try to look after the interests of such people say that, in practice, hard-pressed hospital staff often ask leading questions and the “consent” obtained is thus far from informed. A team of researchers led by Suzanne Conboy-Hill, a psychologist at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, England, reckon virtual environments could provide the solution. ”

3. Revolution Magazine (UK) – UK start-ups out to prove virtual worlds are back in fashion. “NearGlobal and RealLife could be among the next wave of virtual worlds to receive hype of Second Life proportions after securing venture capital funding from Ariadne Capital. The two UK companies have received unspecified amounts of funding from one of the UK’s largest digital investment firms. Ariadne’s cheif executive Julie Meyer said that the company became convinced of the potential of virtual worlds only where the user has a purpose, rather than several existing virtual worlds where the experience is casual.”

4. IT Business Edge (USA) – Catty Thoughts on Job Recruitment via Second Life. “Like many folks, I find it tough to focus on work on Fridays. It’s an even bigger challenge than usual today, thanks to the Goverment Technology story sent to me in response to a call for sources for an article I’m working on about job recruitment via social channels like Facebook and Twitter. The story, datelined September 2008, describes how the state of Missouri hired a developer for its Department of Natural Resources via a recruiting area it created in Second Life. Have trouble seeing the humor? The money quote, from Missouri CIO Dan Ross: “He came to our job fair as a tiny cat with a red bow tie on and expressed interest. That was followed by an in-person interview.” So many questions. Was it the red bow tie that helped put this developer over the top? Did other applicants apply for the position and, if so, what kind of avatars did they use? Are they going to pay the developer in Linden Dollars? Thank goodness a personal interview also was involved.”

5. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Scottish University First in UK to Teach Virtual World Development. “Glasgow Caledonian University, a school based in Glasgow, Scotland, is actively creating a 3D Web project and a major component of this project is a “complete, integrated module” that will teach students everything they need to know about 3D virtual worlds. The course will teach students all the elements required to get a VW up and running. These include hosting, managing and creating real estate, and user interactivity. The course will be taught for now in class but could also be supplemented by elements in Second Life and will also use OpenSim.”

6. Troy Media (USA) – Second Life’s founder responds to criticism. “Philip Rosedale, the mastermind behind virtual reality phenomenon Second Life (SL), predicts that SL technology will make great strides in the near term. If “near-term” is typically defined as under a year, this means users will find that it’s a lot easier to master SL and get into its virtual world, according to Rosedale.
At the moment, Rosedale says it takes about five hours to understand and get your bearings in SL. With software and hardware refinements, he says that it will take only five to 20 minutes to get the lay of SL’s virtual terrain. That’s about as close to user-friendly as any technophobe can hope for.”

7. Massively (USA) – Linden Lab releases Snowglobe 1.0 for Second Life. “A while back, Linden Lab’s Philip Rosedale announced a new Second Life viewer development project. That project ultimately grew along lines similar to that of third-party viewer project, Imprudence, breaking down many barriers to user contributions, and adopting a more agile methodology. After only a couple of release-candidates, the result is already available. One of the biggest developments you might see in the Snowglobe viewer is that the map is now an order of magnitude faster to load, rather than taking several fractions of forever, as is traditional. This is the start of a new texture-transfer pipeline, which we can reasonably expect to become standard in future viewers, and to encompass more kinds of textures, however there’s a new caching architecture which should benefit all textures.”

8. Express Buzz (India) – Senior citizens in second life. “As we entered, we were greeted with a cheerful smile from Bessie, a small old lady with a crop of snow white hair, exuding an infectious enthusiasm. Once you are in the restful premises with its lush green gardens, you will feel like you have been transported away from the city. This is the Little Sisters Of The Poor on Hosur Road, a home for the aged and the infirm. Well, if that makes you think of a place bereft of liveliness, of a place where people just bide their with nothing much to do, think again. Expresso paid a visit to see how the elderly come together to form a community and go through their daily lives.”

9. Destructoid (USA) – Sony: Home to be ‘essential’ for all PS3 games. “f you close your eyes and get everybody to be quiet, you can almost hear my soul dying a little bit. That’s because Sony has stated that its eventual goal for PlayStation Home is to make the horribly dull poor man’s Second Life an “essential component” of the PS3 experience. Excuse me while I am sick into a little bag. “Home is the starting point for PlayStation 3 online, and that’s something that gamers are going to expect as more games support Game Launch from within Home,” promises SCEE’s Peter Edward. “This will become an essential component for all PS3 games.” Edwards states that Home is not going anywhere soon, stating that the company is “in it for the long-term.” He also boasts 7 million users of the service worldwide. 6 million virtual items have also been downloading, leading me to believe that the world is full of incredibly bored people. ”

10. AdAge (USA) – Twitter Is What Second Life Wasn’t: Light, Cheap and Open. “I run into many skeptics who believe that Twitter is rife with the sort of hype associated with the ascent and crash of Second Life. This is not true. Twitter is suffused with hype, for sure, but it is a much different and more sustainable hype than Second Life. Here’s why: Twitter is light, cheap, open and permanent, whereas Second Life is heavy, expensive, closed and ephemeral. Twitter does things right where Second Life failed. Second Life is amazingly heavy, requiring lots of computer, lots of bandwidth and a commitment to client software. Second Life is a closed system, a walled city, completely invisible to serendipity and coincidence. Second Life is greedy, pushing avarice and commerce. Second Life is ephemeral and anti-textual, meaning that all of the work and energy one spent on Second Life invariably went away the moment people stopped investing time and money into the platform. While there was a programming language, a scripting language and lots of room for creativity, Second Life was not nearly as agnostic and open a platform as it could have been.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Report: Virtual Worlds Growth to Skyrocket. “Market research firm Strategy Analytics today released its forecast for growth within the virtual worlds sector and to say it sees growth would be an understatement. Overall, the firm said it sees the global population of virtual world users growing from 186 million today to almost 640 million by 2015 — that’s almost one hundred million new players a year, a nearly 25 percent compounded annual growth rate. The fastest growing demographic is kids between the ages of 5 and 9 which the company predicts will grow 27 percent; the current largest segment of virtual worlds players, tweens and teens, should grow by some 21 percent, according to the company.”

2. UQ News (Australia) – Virtual worlds and video games explored at teaching conference. “Not all academic conferences include sessions on the Nintendo Wii, but an upcoming UQ event is happy to explore new boundaries in the name of better teaching. Taking place on June 18 at St Lucia, the Blended Learning Conference will link researchers from Australia and abroad to discuss innovative approaches to education. Among the participants are Caroline Steel and Dr Helen Farley – two UQ researchers who are helping establish virtual learning environments in the realm of Second Life. Dr Farley, who holds joint appointments with UQ’s Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology (CEIT) and the School of Philosophy, Religion and Classics, said the applications of virtual learning were endless.”

3.VentureBeat (USA) – Intel Labs prototypes virtual world for scientists. “Intel is showing off a number of cool research projects today at its research day event in Santa Clara, Calif. But the coolest of all is a project called ScienceSim, which is an effort to create interconnected 3-D virtual worlds that scientists can use for experiments. The worlds will be able to connect to each other as needed, says Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner. The company will debut the effort, in concert with university researchers, at the SuperComputing 09 conference later this year. The idea is to create a prototype of what Rattner says will become the “3D Internet.” The research platform will focus on immersive scientific collaboration and will be based on the OpenSim technology.”

4. OC Register (USA) – ‘World of Warcraft’ quest leads to Laguna. “Get your orcs, trolls, elves, dwarves and Forsaken ready.
The “World of Warcraft” has descended upon a museum near you. The Laguna Art Museum has recently opened a new exhibition, “WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon,” which explores artwork created for and inspired by the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The show runs through Oct. 4. For those of you who don’t play video or online games, “World of Warcraft” is a highly graphic computer-based experience with an intensely loyal following – about 11.5 million subscribers. Created by Blizzard Entertainment, which is headquartered in Irvine, “WoW” (as it’s known) has spawned its own art, action figures, board games, comic books, manga and novels.”

5. Accounting Web (USA) – Taxation of virtual goods is on the drawing board. “The National Taxpayer Advocate has raised the question of whether the tax code should allow for tax-free transactions of virtual goods. Taxpayer advocate Nina Olson, in a report to the IRS earlier this year, said that in 2005, about $1 billion in real dollars changed hands in computer-based environments. Online gamers or social networkers use real money to buy virtual currency, which is then used to buy virtual goods. Those ‘goods’ can be objects, such as virtual birthday cakes posted to social networking sites, or actions, such as the ability to get to a more advanced level in an online game, explained Lora L. Abe, director of marketing for Gambit, a payments engine for online games, in Venture Beat.”

6. CrunchGear (USA) – Interview: Rob Burkinshaw, game designer and creator of homeless Sims. “Yesterday we posted about Alice and Kev, homeless Sims that exist entirely in the world of Sims 3. They are a family. Alice is a girl with the traditional adolescent pre-teen worries but she’s saddled with a father who is high-strung, hates kids, and is generally a misfit in the orderly world of the Sims. They are homeless in that they live in a house with no walls and sleep on park benches. They have no source of food except for things given to them from other Sims or stolen in the course of the day. They can’t get clean in their own home – there’s no bathroom – and Alice’s sleep is interrupted constantly by Kev’s rants. Rob Burkinshaw created the experiment, called Alice and Kev, as an examination of game theory and a test of his in-game photography skills but it quickly morphed into one of the most heart-breaking stories I’ve read in a long time.”

7. Sydney Morning Herald (USA) – Sordid world of razor gangs reborn for virtual tourists. “HE fleshpots of Sydney’s Darlinghurst and the Cross are havens for sleaze, binge drinking and boozy violence. Cocaine dealers, standover men, pimps, junkies and sex workers abound. Tales of vendettas and gang murders are vicariously thrilling law-abiding newspaper readers. The State Government, desperate to curb the escalating violence, is about to enact a law forbidding criminals from associating with each other. What’s this city coming to? The year is 1930, the days of the 6 o’clock swill, when early closing times created a lucrative market in after-hours booze. This colourful period of local history is relived in a new interactive GPS game called Razorhurst, designed by Darlinghurst resident Richard Fox.”

8. ZDNet Asia (Singapore) – Youth Olympics virtual world to debut early 2010. “Singapore Technologies (ST) Electronics has been appointed to create and operate a virtual world for the inaugural Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games–the first time such a concept will be used for an Olympic event.
In a press statement Thursday, the company announced its wholly owned subsidiary, ST Electronics (Training & Simulation Systems), was awarded the contract by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore. Dubbed “Virtual World for Education and Youth Engagement”, the three-dimensional virtual world is scheduled to be ready early next year, the IDA said in a separate statement Thursday. The virtual world will help promote friendship and connect youths from the 205 territories taking part in the Games, the Authority added.”

9. Canada.com (Canada) – Virtually nasty: cybersex is pushing the boundaries of human behaviour. “Was it real for you too? Human-computer sexual interaction – whether using interactive stimulus-toys or engaging your `virtual self’ in fantasy romps with mythical creatures – is slowly gaining in popularity, but as the line between the real and virtual experience blurs, sex educators are faced with some tough ethical questions. Emerging technologies offer individuals greater access to diverse sexual practices, says sex educator and online columnist Cory Silverberg, who spoke this past week at the annual Guelph Sexuality Conference in Guelph, Ont.”

10. Massively (USA) – Second Life moves to 1.23, opens adult continent, allows more content. “Linden Lab has released the new viewer, bringing Second Life up to 1.23 a few days earlier than expected, off the back of a very short release-candidate cycle. The new viewer brings three things with it: The new Adults-only continent (formerly Ursula and now Zindra), user-verification by documents or payment-status, and a new Adults-only content rating that opens up Second Life to more extreme sexual and violent content. At least so long as it is confined to the adult continent and no child avatars are involved, of course. That this was all done as a adult-continent rather than an adult-grid suggests that Linden Lab’s intergrid interoperability isn’t ready for prime-time yet.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. VentureBeat (USA) – Zula launches science-focused kids virtual world. “Hoping to add an Internet dimension to its growing kids business, Zula USA has launched a successful kids science education TV show in the past three years and is now diving into the vitual world market. The Burbank, Calif.-based company quietly launched its ZulaWorld virtual world for kids on June 1 and just filled me in on the details of its new offering. It has about 1,000 members so far, and it’s all in the name of making science fun.”

2. Bangkok Post (Thailand) – The world is yours … however you want it. “Have you ever created your own avatar and sent it wandering into a virtual world? With advanced tools and open source technology, Internet users can indeed create whole new characters and places online. Taking inspiration from sci-fi movies such as Star Trek, Star Wars and Sunshine, two Chulalongkorn University students have teamed up to build their own 3D virtual world called Hyperion. Kriangkrai Traichaiyaporn and Noppawat Muktaphan spent one month building Hyperion, which went on to win an award from “Wonderland Challenge 2009″.

3. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Microsoft: Avatars, Si; Virtual Worlds, Nyet. “Last year, the New Xbox Experience introduced fully customizable avatars to Xbox Live players. With those avatars, came the attendant thought that Microsoft might be prepping an entry point into virtual worlds, with one exec going so far as to tell VirtualWorldsNews, “We’re thinking about the [virtual worlds] space heavily and have been involved in a gaming aspect for quite some time.” But that was 2008. Which is why all eyes were on Microsoft at this year’s annual E3 Expo trade show. And while recent comments from Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten don’t exactly point to a virtual worlds launch from the company, they do fuel continued speculation.”

4. ZDNet Asia (Singapore) – Virtual worlds an inroad to new generation. “Virtual worlds aren’t dead–they’re enjoying a re-awakening, as marketers learn to connect both the real and virtual, say observers. Mary Ellen Gordon of Market Truths, a U.S.-based research firm specializing in virtual worlds, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia, companies expressing interest in virtual worlds such as Second Life are compelled to learn the media-consumption habits of the new generation. This marks a contrast against the initial wave of companies which flocked to Second Life for mostly publicity, and also “during which at least some companies did not seem to take the time to really understand virtual worlds or to think about how to use them to contribute to their overall business objectives”, said Gordon.”

5. Gamasutra (USA) – Worlds of Abundance: Currency and Virtual Worlds. “Money holds the power to shape the flow of games – from single player games to MMOs. With every game we make, we are designing currency. Sometimes the currency is simply points (or points in a more colorful guise). Other times it is a means of drawing the player towards challenges – collect x widgets and you can continue. In a third case the player collects money to gain power directly or indirectly: Direct mechanisms being things like Mario’s 100 coins for extra lives or experience points to earn level-ups, and indirect ones being shopping and bartering. One thing unifies those examples: The game has absolute control over the money supply. And in many games, it tends towards an initial scarcity that later collapses into an abundance of wealth; the player starts off weak, and has to pick opportunities carefuly, but inevitably progresses in skill or power, or finds loopholes in the system, and legitimately or not, they collect hundreds of extra lives, store thousands of pieces of equipment, boost their character’s abilities to god-like ratings.”

6. io9 (USA) – 7 Virtual Reality Technologies That Actually Work. “So far, virtual reality has mostly been a colossal disappointment. But VR has had its share of breakthroughs and innovative applications. Here are seven VR technologies that work, and that may yet point the way to truly successful virtual reality.”

7. E-Health Insider (UK) – Second Life to show Confed sessions. “embers of Second Life will be able to view sessions from the annual NHS Confederation conference live online tomorrow. For the first time, three key sessions from the conference will be accessible to members of the public through the virtual world’s website. The free screening is being provided by the NHS Confederation and Imperial College London. Second Life members will be able to view ‘Can Obama fix the US health system?’, a panel discussion on the financial challenge facing the NHS called ‘Just how tough is it going to get?’ and a final session on The paradox of choice: Why more is less.”

8. Kotaku (USA) – Seventeen Magazine Gets An MMO. “Teen bastion of style and sex tips, Seventeen Magazine, is signed up with Habbo.com to create an online interactive world for its readers. Break out the virtual lip gloss. According to Media Week, Seventeen will supply Habbo with articles, quizzes and polls for the MMO while Habbo will host a Seventeen Beauty Salon section where readers can get beauty tips from editors. This is a step up from Seventeen’s first foray into virtual worlds over its digital issue released via MTV’s virtual world, Virtual MTV.”

9. New York Times (USA) – Microsoft’s Project Natal Seeks Poetry in Motion. “Microsoft’s headline announcement at this year’s E3 gaming conference was a motion-detection system housed in a sensor bar that plugs into your Xbox 360’s ports. The pull-out-all-the stops unveiling included an on-stage appearance by Steven Spielberg who raved “I think what Microsoft is doing is not about reinventing the wheel. It’s about no wheel at all.” I had my doubts.”

10. VentureBeat (USA) – Free pricing triumphs as Free Realms online game hits 3 million in seven weeks. “Sony’s Free Realms has scored 3 million registered users in just seven weeks, making it a true hit for the free online games business model in the U.S. The “free to play” games, where players start playing for free but can purchase virtual goods with real money as they add new capabilities, has taken off in Asia, where companies such as Shanda and Nexon have pioneered this new way of doing business. But until now U.S. consumers have been reluctant to embrace it. Sony Online Entertainment’s Free Realms is the first big stake in the ground for a free-to-play massively multiplayer online game in the U.S. market. It could force a lot of rivals to follow and, god forbid, might even make a dent in the demand for the industry-leading World of Warcraft, which has 13 million paying subscribers. Just two weeks ago, Sony announced it had two million registered users for Free Realms.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

Beautiful Kate – virtual worlds as normality

Beautiful Kate is both a visually stunning and emotionally confronting movie that builds a warmth that belies its subject matter. Based on Newton Thornburg’s 1982 novel of the same name, Director Rachel Ward has transplanted the bleakness of Idaho USA to outback Australia (the film was shot primarily at Wilpena Pound in South Australia). It made its debut at the Sydney Film Festival last night, with a wider Australian and international release on the 6th August. It’s likely to draw some serious attention for a range of reasons, not least of which are its subject content (unresolved family conflict, frustrated ambitions and incest to name three) and its actors – Ben Mendelsohn, Rachel Griffiths and Bryan Brown are three of the most well-known. Its location and intense examination of some deep emotional issues should also make it stand out.

The Jungle Bar set

The reason for this being discussed on The Metaverse Journal is the involvement of Second Life and some Australian (and American) Second Life residents in the movie. That involvement is extremely modest and in no way pivotal to the progression of the film’s plot, and that is exactly why I believe it’s noteworthy. Second Life is shown in a remote but otherwise remarkably everyday setting, being used for what it does best: connecting people in a more immersive way. Even better, it shows how virtual worlds are accessible in remote areas: I can vouch for the fact that frame rate times and latency issues were calculated to get as close an estimate to what an actual Second life session would look like from a remote location.

I won’t give away any more than that in regards to plot, but for the more dedicated virtual worlds follower, Beautiful Kate is one of the first (possibly the very first?) international release movie featuring a 3D non-gaming world in a context where that world isn’t the focus. There’s some analogies that can be drawn with TV: the first time one appeared in a movie would have been an eye-opener for some, but now there’s more likely to be comment about a movie scene featuring a home living area without a TV.

This is the future lot of virtual worlds in regards popular culture, and it will be a welcome evolution. Once virtual worlds’ place is cemented in everyday life, then perhaps there can be sensible discussions around their opportunities and challenges without the white noise of sensationalism or unfamiliarity.

Some significant kudos need to be given to Beautiful Kate’s production team. Director Rachel Ward is the first to admit she’s no Second Life user. That said, when writing the screenplay Rachel had an intrinsic understanding that Second Life was increasingly a normal way for people to interact remotely in a more immersive way. She also understood that most people use Second Life for one thing: to have fun. It was 100% Rachel’s vision on what the ‘Jungle Bar’ and the lead avatars should look like that were featured. Producers Leah Churchill-Brown, Bryan Brown and their team were very patient and supportive throughout the whole process of clearing intellectual property rights with Linden Lab. As I’ve said already – the Second Life footage is a tiny component of a movie with much broader themes, but it remains demonstrative of the growing power of virtual worlds in popular culture, and not just driven by the ‘digital natives‘.

Should you go and see Beautiful Kate? My obvious and biased answer is yes. Be prepared to be confronted and don’t expect to come out laughing (although there are some very humourous sections), but this is a more than worthy film, with or without the couple of minutes Second Life You can view the trailer for the movie right here:

Technical Aspects

The Second Life footage was shot in June 2008 on a set specifically designed to the Director’s requirements. Encore Design Group (EDG) created the ‘Jungle Bar’ in Second Life and did a stupendous job if it . They had created a Second Life presence featured in the US version of The Office and they delivered in spades for this project too. The scene itself was shot over three weekends and involved the following Second Life Residents in addition to myself:

Graham Sabre
Wolfie Rankin
Simon Kline
NeilRobert Janus
Kat Claxton (EDG Designs)
AnnGee Li (EDG designs)
Leyah Renegade
Zak Claxton
Jambalaya Fonck
Willowhouse

The footage itself was captured via iShowU on an iMac at a frame-rate to replicate Second Life responsiveness on a less than optimal broadband connection. The only editing done was to package the footage in a range of acceptable formats for the production team to edit. This by necessity was a low-cost project but the end result in my biased opinion, is pleasing and a good fit for the movie.

I’d really like to thank all those people listed above for their help with the creation of the scene. Kat and AnnGee from EDG were stupendous. I also have to make special mention of Simon Kline who initially let me know about this opportunity and it was great to have him involved in the scene. Graham Sabre was also invaluable as the male lead avatar and was very patient with the large number of takes, as were all the other dancers. We’ll have more on Beautiful Kate, including some shots of the Second Life scene, in the weeks leading up to its more widespread distribution.

Disclosure: Creative Shed Services (of which I am the owner) was involved in Project Managing the Second Life shoot and was paid to do so. EDG Designs are an advertiser on TMJ.

Other coverage of Beautiful Kate and Second Life:

1. Virtual Worlds News

2. Massively

3. New World Notes

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. io9 (USA) – 7 Failed Virtual Reality Technologies. “There was a time when people were calling home virtual reality the wave of the future. Now most people just call it goofy and expensive. Here are 7 virtual reality technologies that didn’t work, and never will. In what may be considered the first case of virtual reality reaching beyond its own limitations, Morton Heilig unveiled the Sensorama in 1962. It was a large box that enclosed the viewer’s head and displayed a stereoscopic 3D movie. The seat tilted and the box unleashed wind and smells. And all of this was accomplished mechanically.”

2. Federal News Radio (USA) – Beyond ‘heads-up’: augmented reality for virtual worlds. “Fans of the science fiction television show Star Trek: The Next Generation are certainly familiar with the ‘holodeck’, a room where powerful computers create realistic virtual environments. That’s the fictional model for what virtual worlds researchers are developing in labs all around the world today. Recently, several of the top names in the realm of ‘augmented reality’ presented an update on their work at the recent Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Conference at the National Defense University at Fort McNair. Dr. Maribeth Grandy from Georgia Tech is one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic of augmented reality for virtual worlds.
“Augmented reality can mean many different things. Traditionally, you’re registering 3D graphics with the world, and the user is experiencing that virtual content through a head-mounted display, or a tablet computer that is acting as a ‘magic window’, or a projector. More recently, I’ve been working in the mobile domain, where you can use something like your IPhone as a little magic window.”

3. Fox News (USA) – College Plans Virtual Graduation for Online Students. “Many colleges and universities offer online courses. But only one’s having an online graduation. Bryant & Stratton College, a for-profit institution with campuses in four states, plus an online division, plans to host a graduation ceremony June 10 in Second Life, the online virtual world. Fittingly, the commencement address will be delivered by Second Life founder Philip Rosedale.”

4. VentureBeat (USA) – Small Worlds and Hi5 combine virtual world and social networking. “In a marriage of games and social networks, SmallWorlds has teamed up with social network Hi5 to open up SmallWorlds’ cartoon-like virtual world to Hi5’s 60 million monthly visitors.
Hi5’s users can use Hi5’s games channel to access the browser-based virtual environment of SmallWorlds, which has hundreds of casual games available to play. Hi5’s games channel has become a major focus for revenue generation for the San Francisco-based social network. With the alliance in place, users can pay for items in the virtual world using Hi5’s virtual currency, Hi5 coins, said Ted Tagami, vice president of business development for Small Worlds. The deal is good for SmallWorlds because it broadens its potential audience – Hi5 is a top 20 web destination with huge followings in Latin America and Europe.”

5. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – In-world Sound Gets Upgrade from Cornell Researchers. “One look at the environment in Second Life, for example, and the conscious mind knows it is dealing with a virtual world; the same occurs while attending a virtual event. Still, developers do their best to enhance the in-world experience, using every trick in the book to nudge one toward a suspension of disbelief. Take sound. It helps that the Second Life servers manage VOIP as they do — making it proximity based, tuning the vocals based on relative position to, and distance between, avatars.”

6. Toronto Star (Canada) – Keeping it under control. “Steven Spielberg came down from his mountain (of money?) this week, eyes blazing with prophetic fire, to deliver a pronouncement to the rabble of international gaming media gathered at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. “The only way to bring interactive entertainment to everybody,” he declared from his green-glowing pulpit at Microsoft’s press event, “is to make the technology invisible. Only then can we shine the spotlight where it belongs, which is on you.” Like millions of other game-news junkies around the world, I received this sermon remotely, through my laptop screen in the comfort of my couch, and it’s a sermon those millions and I have heard many times before.”

7. The Advocate (USA) – Virtual Gays Say “I Do”. “Gays and lesbians can now get married all over the world — the virtual world, at least. After playing The Sims 3 for a week, Lyle Masaki at AfterElton.com discovered that gay couples can now marry. Earlier versions of the game only allowed same-sex couples to move in together and declare unions. The Sims 3, which debuted at this week’s E3 electronics entertainment expo, builds on its hugely popular predecessors The Sims and The Sims 2 from video game developer Electronic Arts. The game allows players to create and control virtual characters and communities.”

8. Kotaku (USA) – The Sims 3 Review: Delayed Gratification. “After a more than three month delay—and more than four years on from the release of The Sims 2—The Sims 3 is finally here. So let’s get down to reviewing it. There are two types of Sims player: the Second-Life types who enjoy crafting and sharing stuff online and the God-types who look for new and interesting ways to terrorize their virtual dollies. The Sims 3 has room enough for both types in its expansive gameplay and online-feature set that lets you create and share everything from couch patterns to machinima. The once-narrow world of the Sims has been expanded to a persistent environment where Sims can freely walk from one lot to the next, the town around them progressing instead of freezing ‘til your Sim arrives on the scene. This makes the life cycle of the Sims more fluid; as your Sims grows old, so too do all the Sims around him or her. ”

9. O’Reilly Radar (USA) – 3D Glasses: Virtual Reality, Meet the iPhone. “A light flickers from two distinct points in time. As a child in the early-1970s, one of my toys was a View-Master, a binoculars-like device for viewing 3D images (called stereograms), essentially a mini-program excerpted from popular destinations, TV shows, cartoons, events and the like. The View-Master completely predated the advent of electronic toys (it was light powered and human click driven), but it was dumb simple to operate, and the 3D viewing experience was quirky cool. Plus, the content was customizable (just pop in a different program card) and for its time, it was engaging (sound could play on top of each image, making it even more so). Flash forward, and it’s 1992. I am reading Mondo 2000, a long since deceased magazine that was at the bleeding edge of the technology wave that was to come. Total reboot in terms of re-thinking and re-imaging the schema of the possible.”

10. Daily Kos (USA) – Kossacks in Second Life. “I first started working in Second Life as a library assistant, helping the campus library I work for develop its virtual presence to complement the programs already being developed in distance education through the university. As I continued working in Second Life, however, I realized I also needed friends there, as well, in addition to just working. No woman is an island, even in a virtual world. That’s when I started seeking out folks who were like me. I wanted the same environment I found at Daily Kos — a fun mix of diverse views and strong progressive values.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. PNN Online (USA) – MacArthur Island Opens in Virtual World of Second Life. “The MacArthur Foundation Island opened today in the virtual world of Second Life. The island is a new laboratory for MacArthur’s two-year exploration of virtual worlds, led by the University of Southern California and the nonprofit Global Kids. MacArthur Island is designed as an alternative space to educate grantees and others about the potential for philanthropy in virtual worlds and allow grantees and Foundation partners to showcase their work and connect with new audiences. The new island is located adjacent to an archipelago in Second Life dedicated to the public good, called the Nonprofit Commons. Visitors to MacArthur Island can interact with installations created about the work of MacArthur and its grantees. They include a giant pair of 3D headphones that visitors can use to listen to stories by independent radio producers as part of Public Radio Exchange, and a map about Chicago neighborhoods through which visitors can learn about a comprehensive community development effort being carried out in Chicago. ”

2. WebProNews (USA) – Kids/Teens Drawn to Virtual Worlds, Not Marketers. “What do you get when you cross a video-game with social networking? Virtual worlds – and they’re no joke, particularly with younger generations who are immersing themselves in increasing numbers.
In fact, half of online kids (age 3-11) will be regular frequenters to virtual worlds by 2013, predicts eMarketer. In its new report, “Kids and Teens: Growing Up Virtual”, the research firm estimates that currently 37% of online kids log on to virtual worlds each month. By 2013, that proportion is expected to rise to 50%, or 8.7 million.”

3. Multiplayer Online Games Directory (USA) – Footballvillage.net Worldwide Opening with FC Barcelona Virtual World. “E-Calcio is Proud and Happy to Announce the Opening of Footballvillage.net. It’s the result of over 2 years of development with 150 people involved in the creation of an innovative virtual world environment dedicate to the football passion. The target it’s to give to the largest number of users a very immediate and easy to use access to the virtual worlds experience and a chance to live and share with other friends all over the world their true football passion.”

4. ZDNet Asia (Singapore) – Virtual worlds an inroad to new generation. “Virtual worlds aren’t dead–they’re enjoying a re-awakening, as marketers learn to connect both the real and virtual, say observers. Mary Ellen Gordon of Market Truths, a U.S.-based research firm specializing in virtual worlds, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia, companies expressing interest in virtual worlds such as Second Life are compelled to learn the media-consumption habits of the new generation. This marks a contrast against the initial wave of companies which flocked to Second Life for mostly publicity, and also “during which at least some companies did not seem to take the time to really understand virtual worlds or to think about how to use them to contribute to their overall business objectives”, said Gordon. She named some of these business needs as saving time and costs related to traveling, by using virtual platforms to carry out Web conferences.”

5. Kotaku (USA) – Are Our Games Alive? “Anyone who’s played through a game like Microsoft’s Fable II (who can forget your virtual dog?), BioWare’s Mass Effect (with its robust roster of non-playable characters) or seen Sony’s upcoming Heavy Rain (whose developer, Quantic Dream, promises a new type of relationship between player and character) may have wondered to themselves whether gaming, which is still in its infancy as an art form, is heading towards its inevitable Citizen Kane threshold. More than the graphics or surround sound, the latest game consoles’ processing power are bringing to life AI-controlled characters unlike anything experienced before. But what are these sentient beings that help or hinder gamers as they explore vast virtual worlds? Are the Locust Horde who hide behind blockades and orchestrate flanking attacks in Gears of War 2 the first step in some type of real-world AI nightmare like the apocalyptic future displayed in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Terminator: Salvation? Will Steven Spielberg’s next original game for Electronic Arts, which remains untitled, deliver on its promise of making a gamer connect with a female avatar emotionally?”

6. Hi-Tech Scotland (UK) – Scotswoman scores ‘Second Life’ Gold. “Dunfermline businesswoman Pauline Randall’s office looks out over sparkling blue oceans, lapping around lush, landscaped gardens and she can fly to meetings in an instant – all in her Virtual World business park. This week, (Wednesday 27th May, San Francisco) it was announced she is the first, and only, Scottish company accepted into Linden Lab’s Gold Solution Provider Program in recognition of her experience and expertise in helping companies enter and operate in Second Life. Pauline runs her company, virtual-e, to recreate 3D replica offices and buildings online for organisations like Imperial College, London, Ashridge Business School, CyMAL – Wales Museums and Libraries and the University of Hawaii. In these online spaces, organisations can host virtual meetings, collaborative working, product training and demonstrations – even international conferences, without the cost and hassle of travel. Medical colleges are using virtual worlds for training young doctors in diagnosing patients and businesses find them an innovative way to manage 360 degree presentations on new products.”

7. VentureBeat (USA) – Virtual events draw a live in-person crowd. “Yes, these people in the picture are real. What’s weird is they’re attending a conference about virtual events. You know, the kind they have only in cyberspace where you pretend you’re at a live event. As surreal as it sounds, the fledgling virtual events industry gathered today at a first-of-its-kind Virtual Edge event at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif. While other conferences have been pummeled by the recession, there were 500 people registered and an overflow crowd this morning. The reason for the interest is that demand for virtual events has skyrocketed during the recession, said Malcolm Lotzof, chief executive of Chicago-based virtual events firm InXpo, one of several companies that stage the virtual events for all sorts of customers. As companies seek to cut costs and curtail travel, they’ve come to see the wisdom of putting on virtual events on the Internet.”

8. Mail & Guardian Online (South Africa) – A new world of study. “There’s not a red pen in sight when Russell Stannard marks his master’s students’ essays — but it’s not because they never make mistakes. Stannard doesn’t use a pen to give his students feedback. Instead — and in keeping with his role as principal lecturer in multimedia and Information & Communication Technology (ICT) — he turns on his computer, records himself marking the work on-screen, then emails his students the video.”

9. ITWorld Canada (Canada) – Immersive Internet technology is no video game. “A Kirksville, Mo.-based non-profit organization providing drug abuse counseling services is taking a Second Life-esque approach to continuing to treat clients once they leave residential treatment centres. For the past two months, Preferred Family Healthcare Inc. has been running its own virtual islands on a private server where young adults who have spent some time in residential care can continue to receive counseling remotely using only a provided laptop and Internet connection.”

10. The Escapist (USA) – PlayStation Home Users On The Rise. “After an initial peak of interest followed by a dip in activity, PlayStation Home’s active user base is now on the upswing, according to Home director Peter Edward. PlayStation Home has had a reputation for being the biggest budgeted ghost town of all of gaming’s virtual worlds, but that might not actually be the case, according to Home director Peter Edward. While the feature saw very little use after an initial surge of interest following its debut, people are apparently going back Home, and they’re staying there.”

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. Bizinformer (USA) – Entering an Era of Virtual Currencies? “There’s money. People (me included) carry it around in their wallets and save small pieces of it in the ashtrays or cup holders of their cars. And they buy things with it – hamburgers, gasoline, and sometimes other small things. Then there’s checks and credit cards. We pretend they’re money and much of the time that works for us. They’re closely related to money. Then there’s RockYou Pets from Hi5, Linden Dollars frm Second Life, and PEDs from the planet Calypso, in an online gaming world called Entropia Universe. How much like money are they? Some would say they are money – to the extent that you live your life in a particular virtual world. Some of them are actually exchangeable in the real world; 250 Linden Dollars is worth one US dollar. You can provide a service or sell a product in Second Life, change the Linden Dollars into “real money” (whatever that is now) and take it to the grocery store or the mall. PEDs can also be converted back into real money; 10 PEDs equal one US dollar.”

2. Ottawa Citizen (Canada) – It slices, it dices … it markets to kids. “We’ve come a long way from the days when placing ads for toys and sugary cereals alongside Saturday-morning cartoons was the slickest way to sell stuff to kids. Marketers have become increasingly sophisticated in their efforts to expand brands with young consumers. Some present kids with the keys to the product image, allowing them to create new products. For example, media companies provide audio and video clips that young fans slice and dice to create montages. “Advertisers and broadcasters are approaching children as participants in cultural production and not as audiences,” says Stuart Poyntz, an assistant professor of communications at Simon Fraser University.”

3. IntoMobile (USA) – First Look: The Sims 3 for iPhone. “EA Mobile’s stable of iPhone games is already impressive, but it’s about to get even better. The mobile arm of famed game developer EA is putting the finishing touches on their latest in iPhone gaming – The Sims 3 for iPhone – and we’ve got the first-look scoop for all our readers! These are the same guys behind iPhone-tastic gaming titles like Spore Origins, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Need for Speed Undercover, so you know their “next big thing” is going to be, well, big. And, after spending some time with the EA Mobile team and their Sims 3 iPhone game, we’re convinced they have a hit on their hands.”

4. Mediaweek (USA) – eMarketer: 50% of Kids Online Will Use Virtual Worlds by ’12. “hile virtual worlds like Second Life still represent a fringe activity in the general market, more than half of the kids who use the Internet will be regular visitors to virtual worlds in just four years, predicts researcher eMarketer. Virtual worlds — game-like Web environments where users can create avatars in a fantasy landscape and interact with other users — have become particularly popular among young children. Currently, eMarketer estimates that there are 6 million kids age 3-11 who visit virtual worlds at least once a month, representing 37 percent of that Web demographic. By 2012, there will be 8.7 million kids 3-11 using virtual worlds — or 50 percent of the entire kids’ online universe.”

5. New England Business Bulletin (USA) – New corporate training options include virtual worlds. “Online options have rewritten the world of corporate training, expanding possibilities well beyond the traditional presenter with Powerpoint show. Today, businesses across the globe are using 3-D virtual world technology as a way to hold meetings, simulate business in any environment, conduct training and much more. One growing example, Second Life, dubbed a “virtual world imagined and created by its residents,” is an online world that businesses have begun to get acclimated with over the last year or so because of the possibilities it holds for nontraditional learning.”

6. BusinessWeek (USA) – Studying Epidemics in Virtual Worlds. ” day after news reports about an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico, health officials in Allegheny County, Pa., huddled to discuss contingency plans. How should they respond if the virus came to their part of the world? By closing schools? With widespread vaccinations? To test different courses of action, they turned to computer scientists who had built a working model of the county. “It helps come up with recommendations of when and how to intervene,” says Dr. Ron Voorhees, chief of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Allegheny County Health Dept.”

7. Popular Science (Australia) – Businesses Seek a New Lease on Second Life. “What ever happened to the online virtual world revolution? You know, the one where everyone would spend hours every day blinging out their Second Life avatars and crashing weddings in World of Warcraft? Well, those days never quite materialized. The media fanfare around virtual worlds has transitioned from an initial wildfire of exuberance to essentially nothing, as expectations for growth and revenue failed to pay off.”

8. VentureBeat (USA) – Second Life generates 15 billion minutes in web voice calls. “When you think of phone companies, Linden Lab’s Second Life virtual world doesn’t come to mind. But the company is announcing today that its users have used its web-voice calling feature to talk to each other for a total of 15 billion minutes since it was introduced 18 months ago. The voice-over-Internet-protocol web calling service inside the virtual world is now being used at a rate of 1 billion minutes per month, said Mark Kingdon, chief executive of Linden Lab in San Francisco. By comparison, the VOIP service Skype has been used for 200 billion minutes in the past six years. At any given moment, 50,000 Second Life residents are using the voice application.”

9. Gamasutra (USA) – Sixth Annual State of Play Conference Discusses Future of Virtual Worlds. “Organizers of the Sixth Annual State of Play Conference announced that this year’s event will be held on June 19th and 20th at the New York Law School. The conference will focus on the social impact of virtual worlds and multiplayer online games. State of Play’s sixth annual showing will bring together scholars, games developers, industry figures, and government leaders to examine the development and study of virtual worlds. Speakers at this year’s conference will discuss whether scholars have reached a limit in the understanding of multiplayer online spaces, and will seek to determine whether virtual worlds have stalled at a development plateau.”

10. CNN (USA) – ‘Virtual currencies’ power social networks, online games. “When Santiago Martinez wants to give his friends birthday presents, he buys a cake or flowers or sometimes a teddy bear. But the 41-year-old, who lives on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, doesn’t spend pesos or dollars. He buys the gifts with an online-only currency called hi5 Coins. He also doesn’t deliver the gifts in the physical world. They appear digitally on his friends’ online profiles on a site called hi5, which is a social network like Facebook or MySpace. “They can’t eat the cake. It is an image — the thing that it represents,” said Martinez, an accountant with a wife and two kids. “You can send the feeling of that [cake] that you want to send.”

Popularity: 3% [?]

Next Page »