1. The Huffington Post (USA) – Real Man Traded for Cartoon Rabbit. “Getting people to change their opinion of you is tough – especially if you are a rodent who has generated billions of dollars and has become a global icon like Mickey Mouse. Mickey wasn’t Walt Disney’s first star creation, that was another big eared little mammal, Oswald the Rabbit. Oswald was taken from Walt by his employer, Universal Studios. Disney soon left Universal to start his own company. Since he didn’t have the rights to Oswald, Disney shortened and rounded Oswald’s ears and created Mickey Mouse, one of the world’s most enduring fantasy characters.”

2. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – A Wayback Machine for virtual worlds? “One of the joys of exploring virtual worlds grids is finding new fantastic new regions and builds. Then comes the pain of virtual worlds — you bring your friends back to visit, and the builds are no longer there. Maybe it cost too much to keep the region up and running, or the owners decided to put up something else, instead. As Second Life and the various OpenSim grids evolve into a true 3D Web, these early builds will become items of historical interest. It would be a shame if they all disappeared forever.”

3. San Francisco Chronicle (USA) – 3D Web will save high-performance computing industry, Intel CTO says. “Three-dimensional Web technologies will save the high-performance computing industry from its current state of financial stagnation, Intel CTO Justin Rattner predicted at the SC09 supercomputing conference in Portland, Ore. Tuesday. Delivering the opening address, Rattner said the HPC market is struggling, with a compound annual growth rate of about 3.6%. Based on current trends, there is no sign of a future upswing. “This is not a healthy business,” he said. Demand for high-performance computing capability is limited to small markets, but Rattner believes that virtually the entire population can benefit from HPC if given the right platform.”

4. allmedia Scotland (Scotland) – Ready to Check Out the 3D Me? “For all the talk of Generation Y, you don’t really have to be young to ‘get’ social media. As an employer, I follow, with interest, reports about the imminent flood of hungry young workers about to transform the jobs market with all their net savvy ways. It’ll be great for business to welcome in a workforce who grew up with social networks and see the obvious benefits without the need for a seismic shift in thinking. However, there are already plenty 30 and 40-somethings who are changing mindsets and working practices to embrace new and social media. I include myself, since I am blogged-down, Tweeted-up and Facebooked-in; fluent in audio, video and other rich content, as well as the trusty, old written word. Still, though, there is one aspect of the newfangled communications I have real trouble with: virtual worlds.”

5. Gulf News (UAE) – Virtual policing: Training for Dubai Police. “Police detectives have sealed off a violent crime scene at a Dubai flat and are busy picking up clues leading to the suspect’s arrest – and they didn’t even have to open the front door. The officers are actually Dubai Police trainees playing “serious games” that digitally rebuild real crime and accident scenes from the city onto a computer screen. Be it a celebrity murder, jewellery shop robbery or a massive car crash, the police force’s virtual training and crime scene reconstruction sections put cadets in the middle of the action. The games use actual case file details like photographs, security camera footage, documents – plus three-dimensional scans of rooms or streets – to create life-like virtual worlds where cadets can “walk around” and uncover evidence.”

6. The Globe and Mail (Canada) – THE $350 MILLION PENGUIN. “The most surreal moment of Lane Merrifield’s career came on Oct. 24, 2008, when the young B.C. entrepreneur found himself standing on a stage in the middle of New York’s Times Square, surrounded by hundreds of adoring children and crowds of equally enthused parents. It was three years to the day that he and two partners-Lance Priebe and Dave Krysko-had launched Club Penguin, a virtual world where millions of preteens meet, chat and play games via 2-D penguin proxies. The three men had plenty to celebrate.”

7. news.com.au (Australia) – Virtual world opens doors for autistic. “A VIRTUAL “thinking head” generated by hi-tech computer software is teaching autistic children to recognise and respond to facial expressions. Flinders University research has found the computerised tutor helps the children improve their social skills and communicate more effectively with bullies. Children are shown facial expressions corresponding with specific emotions and are encouraged to respond.”

8. BBC (UK) – What happened to Second Life? “Not long ago Second Life was everywhere, with businesses opening branches and bands playing gigs in this virtual world. Today you’d be forgiven for asking if it’s still going. Once upon a time Second Life had a Twitter level of hype. Even those without a cartoon version of themselves couldn’t plead ignorance due to blanket coverage in newspapers and magazines. Second Life is a virtual world started by the US firm Linden Lab in 2003, in which users design an avatar to live their “second life” online.”
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9. Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) – BigPond pulls plug on Second Life. “Telstra has decided to close its doors on Second Life, evicting the residents of its virtual BigPond Island and revoking their unmetered usage, in a move that has infuriated some subscribers. BigPond’s islands will cease to exist on December 16, signalling an end to its two-year “experiment” with Second Life, and residents of the swanky virtual Pond Estate have been given a month to relocate elsewhere.”

10. WarCry (USA) – Five Years of Warcraft: Speaking With Blizzard’s Rob Pardo. “Mega-MMO World of Warcraft turns five this month, and to celebrate, our sister site The Escapist sat down with Blizzard’s VP of Game Design, WoW mastermind Rob Pardo to chat about the lessons they’ve learned, the mistakes they’ve made, and how they’d like to beat themselves at their own game.”

1. Science Daily (USA) – Avatars Can Surreptitiously And Negatively Affect User In Video Games, Virtual Worlds. “Although often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one’s self-representation, or avatar, in a virtual environment can affect the user’s thoughts, according to research by a University of Texas at Austin communication professor. In the first study to use avatars to prime negative responses in a desktop virtual setting, Jorge Peña, assistant professor in the College of Communication, demonstrated that the subtext of an avatar’s appearance can simultaneously prime negative (or anti-social) thoughts and inhibit positive (or pro-social) thoughts inconsistent with the avatar’s appearance. All of this while study participants remained unaware they had been primed. The study, co-written with Cornell University Professor Jeffrey T. Hancock and University of Texas at Austin graduate student Nicholas A. Merola, appears in the December 2009 issue of Communication Research.”

2. Computing (UK) – From ancient to virtual worlds. “he notion that your customers are only 10 seconds away from your competitor’s web site still holds true. But while the server and network infrastructure needed to deliver a web site that stays up 99.999 per cent of the time is one aspect of delivering a good online experience, the phrase “content is king” is equally relevant, and just as important for customer retention. Would a better way to engage customers be by spicing up that dowdy site with some visually stunning graphics, tied into standard e-commerce transaction middleware? For visually stunning graphics, read virtual worlds, whose genesis can be traced back to the multi-user dungeon program MUD, which originated in 1978 at Essex University. But it was many years before what people now think of as a virtual world was realised – a 3D, immersive world, available 24/7 via a web connection.”

3. Financial Times (UK) – Habbo Hotel creators hope to welcome older users. “Creators of virtual worlds and other online communities are hoping their members will continue to pay for digital goods as they grow older. Sulake , a private Finnish company, is hoping to build on its success with Habbo Hotel, a virtual world visited by 14m teenagers every month, with a new mobile version for young adults, Bobba Bar . The application, launching today on Nokia and Apple smartphones, is only available to over-17s. It allows members to create a unique digital character and chat to other avatars in themed rooms, such as sports, technology or “romance”.”

4. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Kid Command Set For Launch. “Today, Collin Caneva will take his Kid Command virtual world live. The world, targeted to kids and tweens, hopes to instill an appreciation of the environment and world’s fragile eco-system. As the growth of virtual worlds, social networks and web-based entertainment explodes, Omaha-based Caneva hopes to carve out a special place in that digital eco-system that will taps kids’ curiosity and innate intelligence, talking up to their intellect rather than down.”

5. The Economic Times (India) – Endgame for reality. “Technology, like much else in life, seems to come with a built-in ‘dual use’ possibility. Take computers, and all else associated with them: the internet, gaming et al. There is, of course, the information revolution, the educational benefits, or just plain downright entertainment that comes with this. And then there’s the dark side. The world of pervasive online porn, of cyber terrorists, of even computers or the net so taking over people’s lives as to over-rule the real. A recent report has it that among the plethora of existing execrable violent games , which seem to have legions of addicts across the globe, a new one is based on the ‘raping skills’ of players. ”

6. Techdirt (USA) – Virtual Goods, Scams, Investigative Reporting And The Media. “For many years, we’ve been quite skeptical of any business model in virtual worlds/social networks that rely on “buying virtual goods.” That’s because these are all based on artificial scarcities, and as we all know (hopefully, by now), relying on artificial scarcities for a business model is incredibly risky, especially once people realize the scarcities are artificial. And yet, over the past few years, a number of businesses have been built on this very premise. In fact, Silicon Valley is crawling these days with businesses built on selling virtual goods, and if you talk to many VCs about it, you’ll quickly note that they’re positively giddy over the fact that people are paying for this stuff. What they don’t seem to realize is that it’s unlikely to last. ”

7. Business Standard (India) – Virtual classrooms go commercial. “Ramesh Thorat (not his real name) is at home. But sitting on his computer, he is intently watching and listening to a lecture on the internet. He has a broadband connection, a webcam and even a microphone to interact with the lecturer if he has any question. In fact, Thorat is one of the many engineering graduates from the Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT) who studies in a “virtual classroom” called “kPoint”. Developed by Pune-based Great Software Laboratory Pvt Ltd (GS Lab), this virtual classroom tool “kPoint” is a concept which is fast catching up in the city. It has been successfully deployed at outsourced product development (OPD) firm Persistent Systems, too, to train newly-recruited engineering graduates at its Nagpur campus from its parent facility in Pune.”

8. CBS News (USA) – Scams Target Gamers on Social Sites. “Farmville, Mafia Wars and Restaurant City are Internet-based games that can be played on sites like Facebook, where millions of people have signed up. But click on the wrong places in these virtual worlds, and you could lose real money without ever knowing it. CBS News Science and Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg reported where there’s a popular online trend like these games, advertisers are sure to follow. But the legitimate ads aren’t the problem — it’s the ones that promise a free trinket or virtual cash to be used in your game. And if you’re tricked into clicking, they start draining your money.”

9. Information Week (USA) – Second Life Steps Into The Enterprise. “Second Life is attracting a cult following among businesses, who say the virtual world gives them richer collaboration than teleconference calls or video conferences. But Second Life still has limitations that pose barriers to enterprise adoption. Ericsson has become the first vendor to prove end to end interoperability in TD-LTE, another standard of 4G radio technologies designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile telephone networks. One of the major limitations is that Linden Lab, which developed and operates Second Life, runs the service on its own server farms. This software-as-a-service model creates problems for user control and confidentiality of sensitive conversations.”

10. The Korea Herald (South Korea) – Second Life withdraws from Korean market. “The virtual world community game Second Life has effectively withdrawn from the local market.
According to industry sources, the U.S.-based developer of Second Life, Linden Lab, failed to extend the contract with the local game company Barunson Games Corp. Barunson was first contracted to operate Second Life services in Korea in October 2007. However, the Korean Second Life community Sera Korea will continue to be serviced. Linden Lab’s official position is said to be temporarily closing local operations. However, the company is reported to have no plans to revive the operations as yet.”

1. CNN (UK) – Virtual businesses: Going to the office in Second Life. “As travel budgets are squeezed and slashed in the recession, companies are increasingly seeking innovative ways of bringing employees together for conferences and meetings remotely. Virtual community Second Life is seeking to tap into that market by creating a new tool that allows businesses to have virtual meetings on their own computer networks. The company’s Enterprise tool will let employees’ avatars — animated alter egos — meet in virtual worlds from the privacy of a company’s own network, rather than the public networks used in standard Second Life. That extra security could encourage more companies to take up the technology.”

2. Boston Globe (USA) – To build up real business selling virtual goods, firms change tactics. “ust after Labor Day last year, Pano Anthos flew out to San Francisco to unveil his new start-up, Hangout Industries Inc., at a major technology conclave, the TechCrunch50. It was an opportunity to show off the three-dimensional virtual environment his Boston company had been working on, intended to attract young Internet users and allow them to deck out online rooms with all sorts of branded merchandise – some of which they might also decide to buy in the real world. Then, they could invite friends over to socialize. Hangout, Anthos told the crowd, would combine some of the best elements of MySpace and Facebook, the two massive social networks, and The Sims, a popular video game. After his presentation, Anthos got feedback – much of it positive – from a panel of on-stage experts that included Marissa Mayer, a senior executive at Google, and Ron Conway, one of the investors who bankrolled the search company in its earliest days.”

3. Reuters (USA) – Can Virtual Worlds Provide Support to Military Amputees? “Virtual worlds can provide military amputees with an opportunity to enhance their overall quality of life, expedite their reintegration into society, and improve their physical and mental wellness. ADL Company Inc. (ADL) and Virtual Ability, Inc. (VAI) announced today the start of a project to establish best practices and protocols for the provision of on-line peer-to-peer support services to this community, with funding from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the US Army Medical Research and Materiel
Command (USAMRMC). “For individuals with disabilities, virtual worlds are a powerful way to connect with others, to access peer support, and to participate in activities that might not otherwise be possible,” said Alice Krueger, President of Virtual Ability, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation. “This project will establish the best way to adopt this technology for the unique needs of the military amputee community.”

4. New York Times (USA) – Virtual Estates Lead to Real-World Headaches. “Two avatars, Leto Yoshiro and Enchant Jacques, met in the virtual world of Second Life in 2005. They married online the same year and built a house together on an island they had brought out of the waves that covered much of that world. In real life, Leto was a film producer from Michigan, Enchant an accountant from England. In 2008, after three years together for the couple, several real-life encounters and thousands of hours logged in, Leto died of liver failure while awaiting a transplant. About six months later, the island where they had lived, along with everything on it, was erased under the terms of service that Leto had signed with Linden Lab, the company that created the platform for Second Life. It had been bought in his name in Linden dollars — on Friday, $1 bought 259 Linden — and Enchant decided she could not pay the fees to maintain it. All that remains are a few objects of which she had copies.”

5. New Scientist (USA) – How your brain sees virtual you. “As players who stay up all night fighting imaginary warriors demonstrate, slipping into the skin of an avatar, and inhabiting a virtual world can be riveting stuff. But to what extent does your brain regard your virtual self as you? Brain scans of avid players of the hugely popular online fantasy world World of Warcraft reveal that areas of the brain involved in self-reflection and judgement seem to behave similarly when someone is thinking about their virtual self as when they think about their real one.”

6. VentureBeat (USA) – Max Levchin on Slide’s big virtual goods bet, scams and — mating. “Slide, which started in photo-sharing, moved into Facebook widgets and then raised funding at a reported $550 million valuation last year, shifted gears this year and went aggressively into virtual goods. The company’s looking to become a mainstream version of Second Life, where there’s a virtual economy at work of real people buying and selling goods. Instead of churning out new apps like many of its competitors, the company has focused its existing ones — including seven on Facebook like SuperPoke, Top Friends and FunSpace, with about 27 million users between them. Slide introduced a virtual currency into its SuperPoke! Pets application, where you can raise and care for a virtual pet. You can earn gold through the game or you can purchase 10 pieces of Slide Gold for $1.”

7. Massively (USA) – Exclusive interview with Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon. “Mark Kingdon, Linden Lab’s CEO, has been a bit of a mystery figure since his appointment about a year and a half ago. While he has not been uncommunicative, it’s been hard to get a very good sense of the man at the helm of Linden Lab, his passions, interests and direction. We were very pleased, therefore, when he took the time to sit down with us and answer a whole grab-bag of questions, about himself, about Linden Lab, and – of course – about Second Life. Bear with us, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”

8. Kotaku (USA) – Visually Impaired Gamer Sues Sony. “GameSpot reports that a man has sued Sony, Sony Online Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment of America, contending the company violates the Americans with Disabilities Act for not making its virtual worlds more easily navigable by the visually impaired.”

9. Data Center Knowledge (USA) – Virtual Goods and the Cost of Infrastructure. “In an economy built atop virtual goods, how do you manage capacity and sort out whether the business model is able to pay for the infrastructure required to power it? That’s an important questionas as virtual item purchases become a key revenue stream for fast-growing social networking platforms like Facebook. Managed hosting specialist GNi, which offers an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) hosting platform for online games, offers a window into the evolving infrastructure requirements of virtual economies. In the U.S., popular understanding of online gaming has been shaped by the popularity of World of Warcraft and other virtual worlds that generate through monthly subscription fees. That approach is increasingly yielding to a “free-to-play” business model.”

10. TechCrunch Europe (Germany) – 20 years on, explore the Berlin Wall in Twinity’s virtual Berlin. “With only days away from the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, how best to mark the occasion? Rebuild it or at least a virtual two kilometer stretch. That’s the approach being taken by Metaversum, the Berlin-based company behind virtual world Twinity, who have constructed a replica section of the wall in-world. Visitors to Twinity’s virtual Berlin will be able to travel back to 1989 to explore a two km-long, true-to-scale section of the Berlin Wall, from the Reichstag, past the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, ending with a realistic replica of Checkpoint Charlie. Along with the wall itself, visitors can also access various multimedia content, including video and audio guides at seven key points describing the building of the wall, important dates in its history, witness accounts and, of course, the climatic events of 1989. The exhibition is a collaboration between Metaversum, the Berlin Senate and media partner Berlin.de.”