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Meth apartment in Second Life

October 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment

This story appeared originally on our sister-site Metaverse Health.

UCLA have undertaken a fascinating study within Second Life, using it as an immersive environment to replicate scenarios around methamphetamine use and the triggers those scenarios provide in relation to cravings and potential for relapse.

Read the full details here, plus there’s a short introduction video here. The preliminary outcomes of the study showed that the simulation is proving more effective for cue exposure than traditional methods such as videos and use of drug paraphernalia such as needles, syringes and preparation implements. There’s planned future research on looking at what treatments work best to reduce cravings, using the simulation as the benchmark measurement.

Aside from the obvious benefits this approach is going to bring for improved treatment interventions, some other key points need to be made:

Simulation is more than hospitals: There tends to be a focus on the use of virtual worlds to simulate hospital and paramedical environments. Those aspects are very important, but being able to replicate community environments where problematic behaviours occur, is an equally rich vein to mine as a health professional.

Virtual can be better than real: One of the preliminary outcomes mentioned was that the simulation demonstrated better cue exposure than just interacting with drug paraphernalia. This seems a little counterintuitive, but with illicit drug use in particular, the environment surrounding the use is a pivotal component, so replicating such an environment, if done authentically, is going to beat a counselling room with syringes and spoons every time. There is an enormous number of health issues where the same applies, meaning that not only can costs of interventions be lowered in some circumstances, but efficacy can also be improved.

Filed Under: General News, Health, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

October 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment

1. Wired (USA) – Geeky Gamers Build Working Computers out of Virtual Blocks. “Ben Craddock has been busy gathering Redstone. He collects blocks of the virtual material from deep within the game world of Minecraft, then pulverizes it into a powder and sets to work. For most Minecraft players, Redstone might wind up in a virtual torch that will light their way when the sun goes down or open doors to underground traps in the game. But Craddock, 21, who goes by the handle ‘theinternetftw,’ has something else in mind: He’s trying to engineer a single bit of memory that’s small enough to snap onto a 16-bit arithmetic logic unit, or ALU, a key component in a working computer that he’s already built out of virtual stone blocks inside the game. “We have lots of programs designed to [help us] learn to build chips,” says Craddock, an undergraduate student in computer science at the University of Georgia, whose Minecraft computer simulation video rivaled Britney Spears in popularity on YouTube last week. “All of them are very clinical. In a game, it becomes a challenge to overcome the limitations. It’s a visceral, engaging reaction.”

2. Escapist Magazine (USA) – Second Life Study Focuses on Real-World Addictions. “People seem to keep on coming up with new, bizarre, and fascinating uses for Second Life. The latest, created by a UCLA PHD candidate, was to use the digital world to study how virtual drug paraphernalia would affect the cravings of a meth addict. Chris Culbertson was inspired to create this experiment thanks to “reports of alcoholics and smokers developing cravings while visiting virtual worlds devised by addiction researchers.” So he created a virtual meth house and then invited seventeen meth addicts to navigate the construct while under observation at UCLA. Aside from filling out questionnaires while they proceeded through the house, the addicts’ heart rates were monitored to study their cravings.”

3. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – Initiative: free land for educators migrating from Second Life. “The Immersive Education Initiative, a Boston-based non-profit coalition, announced today that it will offer free land, and free migration services, for educators working in Second Life’s Teen Grid. The Initiative currently provides thousands of OpenSim regions to members around the world through its Education Grid project, Aaron Walsh, founding director of the Immersive Education Initiative, told Hypergrid Business. “The Immersive Education Initiative has approximately 3,000 members worldwide and continues to grow at the rate of approximately 100 new members a month,” he said. About 75 percent of those members use virtual worlds provided by the Education grid, and the majority of those are private, secure OpenSim-based worlds, he added.”

4. WoW Insider (USA) – The Lawbringer: Real money transactions and some eBay history. “eBay and massively multiplayer online role playing games have a deep, rich and occasionally sordid past. As social beings, we’ve been bartering, trading and selling our time and goods for the entirety of human history. The internet just made things even easier. Hell, buying some gold or an item off of eBay isn’t the first time you’ve probably spent money for a work-around in a game. Ever heard of Game Genie? We paid money for that at one point in our lives. This week, The Lawbringer delves into the past, remembering the good ol’ days when the internet came in three varieties: 28.8k, 33.6k and 56k v.90. Also, 14.4k, but only losers had such weak baud. Please don’t make me go back further in time. You’re probably making modem sounds right now, pretending to go ksshhhh ksshhhh bee doo be dooo wha wha wha wha wha wha wha beeboobeeboobeebeeboobeep, so we should probably start this up. These were the days when you could browse eBay for a Silver Sword of Vanquishing for Ultima Online or buy plat in EverQuest. These were the homesteading, Wild West days. Eventually, companies either went the EverQuest route and sold stuff themselves or the Star Wars Galaxies path of banning accounts up for sale. ”

5. Marketing Week (UK) – The responsibility of brands engaging with children online. “As brands turn to online environments, social networks and virtual worlds to engage with a younger audience, the responsibility they have to keep them safe within those environments is becoming increasingly clear. Teenage brains are still developing and, according to a study by Laurence Steinberg, professor of psychology at the US Temple University, this lack of maturity results in an ’underdeveloped sense of responsibility,’ ’impetuous and ill-considered actions and decisions’, and a greater likelihood of being subject to peer pressure and negative influence.”

6. CNET (USA) – Nukotoys aims for next-generation toy empire. “To hear Rodger Raderman and Doug Penman tell it, one of the biggest shortcomings of the modern toy industry is that it has little in common with Silicon Valley. And the two are here to remedy that situation. Raderman and Penman are the co-founders and co-CEOs of Nukotoys, a San Francisco-based company that is aiming to take the best elements of the Silicon Valley startup–rapid prototyping, interactive technology, nimbleness, financial efficiency, and scalability–and apply them to the business of making fun, engaging, and educational toys worthy of the second decade of the 21st century. For sure, that means a mixture of offline and online presences, but Nukotoys hopes to win over millions of kids–and their parents, of course–by bringing a special blend of mixed-media and online and offline interactivity to a series of games that are tied in to some of the most popular franchises and media properties in the world.”

7. KKTV.com (USA) – Farmville: Not Just Fun And Games. “Farmville, Mafia Wars, Restaurant City. All Internet games that can be played on sites like Facebook. But click on the wrong places in these virtual worlds and players could lose real money without even knowing it. Some third-party advertisers are preying on the popularity of games on social networking sites. Farmville has more than 60 million users. CNN reported in September that it may be the most widely played video game in existence. Deceptive Internet ads offer Farmville currency by just filling out an IQ quiz. To get the results, users are asked to send their cell phone number and enter a code–and the scam is complete. Then a fee, $10 a month or more, starts appearing on their cell phone bill.”

8. ZDNet (USA) – Gartner: 3DTV, 4G, cloud, activity streams at peak of hype cycle. “Gartner is out with its 2010 hype cycle and 3DTV, 4G, activity streams and cloud computing are at the peak of inflated expectations. It’s doubtful any of those items will be all that surprising. More interesting are the technologies headed toward the “trough of disillusionment,” an area where virtual worlds resides. E-book readers, telepresence and microblogging are also on the slippery slope to disillusionment, according to a statement.”

9. The Detroit News (USA) – GM’s high-tech scanner puts vehicles on virtual roads. “Buick is tackling the world’s roughest, most challenging roads — with a 3-D scanner. A team of engineers at General Motors Co. have created a high-tech scanner that can record all the bumps and grooves of a road’s surface and digitally replicate them on the computer screen. The goal is to use them in vehicle testing without having to put the cars and trucks on real world roads. Of course, a virtual road requires virtual tires and a virtual vehicle, which engineers are creating at GM, said Mine Tasci, one of about 10 members on the development team. “This helps us avoid a lot of late changes in the vehicle’s development,” Tasci said. “It definitely helps with identifying problems early on.”

10. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – MuniGov Launches GovGrid Project. “MuniGov has launched the GovGrid, an OpenSim-based virtual world designed for use by local government agencies. Land in GovGrid is priced at $25 per month per region with a $50 setup fee. A four-region “mini-grid” costs $75 per month, with a $220 setup fee. From 10 to 15 avatars can occupy any region at the same time. Full estate management tools will be available, as well as the ability to connect to other grids. MuniGov’s creation of GovGrid was prompted by an announcement that land prices for non-profit organizations in Second Life would double beginning in January. At the time, MuniGov was holding meetings in land donated by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association). Following the announcement, NOAA announced that it would have to close down the sim that MuniGov was using. This forced MuniGov to begin organizing a move to OpenSim. ”

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With:

Weekend Whimsy

October 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

1. OpenEnergySim – Walking Among Bots (Pedestrian Experience)

2. Promo: BURN2 Festival in Second Life, October 16 – 24, 2010

3. Second Life Halloween: Dying in Style

Filed Under: User-generated, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge Grand Final: a triumph

October 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Over the past year, one of the most extensive and impressive virtual world art projects has been undertaken. I’ve written about it repeatedly here, for three reasons. First, it’s an Australian initiative driven by the University of Western Australia. Second, the scope of the project was enormous, encouraging submissions across a range of mediums. Third, the passion of the organisers was very hard to resist – each and every person was driven by their passion for art and progressing virtual worlds art.

On all three counts, it’s hard to argue anything but outstanding success. As an Australian initiative it’s rightly been lauded. As a showcase for the ways in which mediums such as sculpture, art, music and film can be mixed and enhanced, the exhibits speak for themselves. Finally, the organisation of the monthly heats and the grand final has been superb, let alone the day-to-day enthusiasm for the project by all involved.

My point? That virtual worlds art, as evidenced by the UWA competition, is in for a bright future. Nish Mip’s winning entry is stupendous, as is the majority of the works submitted. I was thrilled to be one of the large panel of judges, and it’ll be fascinating to see the ripples that radiate from such an intensive project.

The inexhaustible Jayjay Zifanwe has the full wrap, including lots of pictures, on the UWA in SL blog. Otherwise, read on for the full results, the winning machinimas and Jayjay’s grand final speech.

The full winner’s list:

UWA 3D ART & DESIGN CHALLENGE

GRAND CHAMPION, IMAGINE ART CHALLENGE, 61 points (L$75,000):
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

2nd Prize IMAGINE Grand Finale, 54 points (L$16,000)
THE LAST OCEAN by Nish Mip

3rd Prize IMAGINE Grand Finale, 44 points (L$15,000)
CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo

4th Prize, IMAGINE Grand Finale, 38 points (L$12,000)
WILLOW by Bryn Oh

5th Prize, IMAGINE Grand Finale, 27 points (L$10,000):
TENDRILS by Glyph Graves

1st Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 63 points (L$75,000):
PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Nexus 

2nd Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale,57 points (L$16,000):
DB BAILEY & PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Gallery & Labs

Joint 3rd Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 46 points (L$13,500):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future
NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Jan 2010)

5th Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 40 points (L$10,000):
HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (August 2010)

1st Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, 95 points (L$14,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

2nd Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, 73 points (L$10,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

3rd Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED, 37 points (L$5,000):
CONCENTRIC SHELLS by Ichiko Miles

PEOPLES CHOICE AWARDS

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$15,000):
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$7,000):
THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$5,000):
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$15,000):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$7,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (July 2010), replaced the destroyed Dec build!

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$5,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (August 2010)

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$8,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$5,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED (L$3,000):
THE WHITE GODDESS TREE by Soror Nishi

MACHINIMA II: ART OF THE ARTISTS

Joint 1st Prize (L$55,000 each):
BRADLEY DORCHESTER – Art of the Artists

LAURINA HAWKS – No Tomb for the Arts

3rd Prize (L$30,000):
TUTSY NAVARATHNA – An Art Form is Born

The Aview TV Award (L$10,000):
FAKE JEWELL, Song of Medusa

Best Art Visualisation (L$10,000):
RYSAN FALL – MachinimUWA, Art of the Artist

Best Art Visualization, Single Artwork (L$10,000):
ED VESPUCCIANO – Lessons in Democracy

Best Crossover Impact (L$10,000) :
L1AURA LOIRE – CLICK, Immersive & Interactive Virtual Art

Best Story (L$10,000):
YESIKITA COPPOLA – Inspiracion

Best Editing & Message (L$10,000):
PIA KLAAR – Art of the Artists, A Closer Look

HONOURABLE MENTION PRIZE (3-WAY TIE, L$3,333 each)
SPYVSPY AEON, I Am Not A Robot
SUZY YUE, Across A Crowded Room
LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, City of Art

For the dedicated – the full speech:

Greetings everyone, and welcome to the University of Western Australia, or UWA as she is known and also welcome to the Grand Finale of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge & MachinimUWA II. As is tradition at UWA, I would like to acknowledge that the University is situated on Nyoongar land and that the Nyoongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land and continue to uphold their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.

Today brings to an end the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge which was launched on the 15th of August 2009, with 841 entries received across the IMAGINE Art Challenge and the FLAGSHIP Building Design Challenge. Today also sees the conclusion of MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists and with this, we had 45 machinima submissions where the theme was to film the artworks submitted to the UWA Challenge.

Its been an absolute pleasure for me to work with all of you over the year, and especially to those who went above an beyond the call of duty to make all of this a success. Thank you quadrapop lane, curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, thank you Taralyn Gravois, thank you LaPiscean Liberty, thank you Raphaella Nightfire. Also much thanks to those who have provided support and sponsorship which raised the overall prize pool from L$100,000 to more than L$1,000,000 now across Art, Architecture and Machinima. So I would like to also thank the Cultural Precinct at the University of Western Australia, ShedworX.com, the Casey Family of Western Australia, the Residents of Artemesia, MidnightRain Glas, Phillip Vought, Bohemian Ghost, Gumby Roffo, Sasun Steinbeck, Galea Yates, Kip Yellowjacket and a host of others.

Before any further announcements, first on the agenda today is our Special Guest Speaker whom I would like to sincerely thank for agreeing to attend and address everyone at this event. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce the creator of the legendary Ivory Tower Library of Primitives, and Grand Finale judge for the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, Lumiere Noir.

(Lumi Speaks)

Thank you Lumiere, it was truly a privilege to have you here! At the end of all the announcements, we will have the privilege of hearing Mommaluv Skytower singing live, and this will be followed by super Art DJ, Eifachfilm Varcirca, who is the definition of a multi-talented artiste having also been part of the UWA 3D Art Challenge across the year as well as machinimUWA II !

First… will be the announcements for MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists. MachinimUWA II grew almost by accident, out of a desire to honour the wonderful work that the artists of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge had created, and so the theme was, ‘create something that will take our breath away’. And the subject matter was the artwork of the Grand Finale of any of the works featuring in the July and August rounds of the 3D Art Challenge.

When the winners, it will be done in 1 minute intervals. We do invite everyone to comment and congratulate the winners and for the winners to respond before the next announcement (and if they could please use the SHOUT function :). Hopefully we can get pictures of you attending the event. If you do take them yourself, please email them to me at jayjayaustralia@hotmail.com. These will go into the UWA in Second Life Blog (www.uwainsl.blogspot.com), the Metaverse Journal, Prim Perfect Publications, the SL Enquirer, The Australian Trader and a number of other journals and blogs.

I want to thank our judging panel for their sterling work in looking through the incredible array of 45 entries. It was unbelievably hard to seperate things, and the panel was put to a great deal of work!

1. Professor Ted Snell (RL) – Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
2. Dr Carmen Fies (RL) – Second Life Lead: University of Texas San Antonio
3. quadrapop Lane (SL) – Curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
4. White Lebed (SL) – the founder of AppliedGameology.com
5. Jayjay Zifanwe (SL) – Owner of The University of Western Australia (SL), Creator & co-host of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
6. Iono Allen (SL) – Official Machinimatographer of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
7. Cisko Vandeverre (SL) – Reigning UWA MachinimUWA Champion
8. Dr Kim Flintoff (RL) – Lecturer, Instructional Design, Centre for eLearning, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
9. LividEye Yoshikawa (SL) / John Yap (RL) – Senior Media Producer, National University of Singapore
10. Michelle Glaser (RL) – Senior Project Officer, Department of Culture and Arts, Government of Western Australia
11. Ian Booth (RL) – Chief Executive Officer, Screen West, Western Australia
12. Raphaella Nightfire (SL) – Snr Writer Best of SL Magazine, Owner Sanctorum Gallery (SL)
13. Laetitia Wilson (RL) – Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, UWA
14. Aaron Kennedy (RL) – Chairman, WAnimate, Raging Pixel Productions

Now to explain how the judging was done. Each judge listed their top 8 in order of preference. 8 points was allocated for a 1st place vote, 7 points for a 2nd place vote, and so on, with 1 points being allocated for an 8th place vote. The top 3 were taken as a straight aggregate compiling the individual rankings of the 14 judges. The special awards were then selected by discussion among the judges taking into consideration the overall rankings. There was also a special award provided by Aview TV & LaPiscean Liberty.

First of all, and you can see the trouble started here, we have the Honourable Mention Prize. This is a single prize of L$10,000. However, the judges were hopelessly deadlocked. And so it was, that we had a 3-way tie for the Honourable Mention Prize, which becomes L$3,333 each! And so the Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, goes to:
SPYVSPY AEON, I Am Not A Robot

and The Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, also goes to:
SUZY YUE, Across A Crowded Room

AND FURTHER, The Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, also goes to:
LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, City of Art

Next, we have the special awards, and we start off with The Aview TV Award, with L$10,000 provided by Aview TV & LaPiscean Liberty. The Aview TV Award, goes to:
FAKE JEWELL, Song of Medusa

Commenting on this, LaPiscean said, “When identity and prose meet one another, the content is heartfelt. I know, because i was a Medusa in my time. At least thats why I so like the Song of Medusa, as if to say this Machinima was about myself. While a Medusa among Medusas, I shone and now that I’m not among Medusas, remaining one at heart, I still shine!”

Next, the Award for Best Art Visualisation (L$10,000), goes to:
RYSAN FALL – MachinimUWA, Art of the Artist

The Award for Best Art Visualization, Single Artwork (L$10,000), goes to:
ED VESPUCCIANO – Lessons in Democracy

The Award for Best Crossover Impact (L$10,000) goes to:
L1AURA LOIRE – CLICK, Immersive & Interactive Virtual Art

The Award for Best Story (L$10,000) goes to:
YESIKITA COPPOLA – Inspiracion

And, the Award for Best Editing & Message (L$10,000) goes to:
PIA KLAAR – Art of the Artists, A Closer Look

Now we come to the top 3 prizes, and we start with 3rd Prize. When all the statistics were done taking into account the judges rankings, this piece finished with 42 points, and 12 of the 14 judges listed this piece in their top 8. A wonderful whimsical story with a sublime message. The L$30,000 3rd Prize, goes to:
TUTSY NAVARATHNA – An Art Form is Born

Next we come to 2nd Prize. Now truly, for 2nd Prize, when I did all the calculations following the judges submissions, I got the shock of my life! I apologize to this person, but I just had to shake my head, I can’t believe this was selected for 2nd and so, the 2nd Prize of L$50,000, goes to:
NOBODY

Yes ladies and gentlemen…. nobody, because incredibly, we have a TIE for FIRST PLACE, on 60 points each. One of the 2 winners appeared on 13 of the 14 judges lists of top 8, while the other had 3 first place votes and 3 second place votes. No other piece had more than TWO 1st place votes and TWO 2nd place votes. So we had to recalibrate the prize, and put the 1st & 2nd Prize together and divide by 2, making that L$55,000 for each of the two 1st Prizes!

So, one of the JOINT-WINNERS of MACHINIMUWA II: Art of the Artists (L$55,000) is:
BRADLEY DORCHESTER – Art of the Artists

this machinima certainly took many breaths away! lets all enjoy the winning Machinima, so please turn on your media everyone, as we play it:

AND NOW, the JOINT-WINNER of MACHINIMUWA II: Art of the Artists (L$55,000) is:
LAURINA HAWKS – No Tomb for the Arts

a film of epic proportions, let us all enjoy it now!

We also had an viewer participation event, where we asked SL residents to predict who would be in the top 8, and to rank the order, and and we have 3 winners, 3rd (L$1,000) is Pia Klaar, 2nd (L$1,500) is EdwardIV Beaumont and the winner (L$2,500) of the viewer participation event is Beau Aie !

And now, we move to the Grand Finale of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. Before announcing the winners here, there are a few things I do need said.

First please help me thank the curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge once again, who has for an entire year, magnificently marshalled the 841 entries that I allowed to come in at all times of the day and night with not a single day break as to when the works were submitted, and not a single day when the gallery was closed across the year. Ladies & gentlemen, quadrapop Lane.

And sadly, we have to announce that quadrapop will from today be stepping down as the curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, as the Challenge comes to a full stop, and qpop will be able to get the great breat she deserves! Thank you quadrapop Lane!

I would also like to thank Taralyn Gravois for her great work in being the Director of the UWA-BOSL Amphitheatre, and looking after events held at the 4-SIM Theatre. Sadly, she is also stepping down today, as a number of other pressures wont allow her to continue in her role. Thank you Taralyn!

The Torch passes however. FreeWee Ling will take over as curator at UWA & Chantal Harvey will take over at this theatre! 3 Cheers for FreeWee & Chantal!

Now, what is there to take over at UWA? Well, I won’t have a NC to distribute for a few weeks yet, but basically once the curtain comes down today, the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge (L$1,000,000 Prize Pool), which again will run for one year will kick off. This will be a Grand Collaboration among the major art houses of SL, and aside from the top 3 monthly awards, in place of the Honourable Mention Awards, we will have a monthly Pirats Prize (selected by Merlina Rokocoko & Newbab Zsigmond), an Odyssey Prize (selected by Fau Ferdinand & Lizsolo Mathilde), an SL Arts Prize (selected by Gleman Jun & Sunset Quinnell), a Show & Tell Prize (selected by Florenze Kerensky & Barney Boomslang), a CARP Prize (selected by Josina Burgess & Velasquez Bonetto) and a BOSL Prize (selected by Frolic Mills & Giela Delpaso).

The rules for this will be simple. The theme is ‘Create something that will take our breath away’, and the prim limit is 100! As it always has been. So anyway, the receiver for the works is in the same location as before !

Professor Ted Snell, Director of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge whose 5 minute meeting with me 2 days before the very first mini-Launch we had at UWA in August 2009 sparked off these challenges said, It began with a rush but the entries just kept coming, rising from over thirty in the first month to a final total of over one hundred artworks in the final competition. What was most exciting was the obvious increase in
the standard of entries, the increasing sophistication of the conceptual basis of the works and the extraordinary skill in rendering them within the
virtual world. ”

As with the Machinima, I want to thank and acknowledge the judging panel. There were 23 judges in all, however 22 for either the Flagship or Imagine side as one of the judges, only looked at the Flagships, while another only looked at the Art.

JUDGING PANEL for GRAND FINALE of the UWA 3D ART & DESIGN CHALLENGE
1. Lumiere Noir (SL) – Creator of the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives
2. Sasun Steinbeck (SL) – Founder of the Art Galleries of SL list
3. Lowell Cremorne (SL), Owner of The Metaverse Journal
4. White Lebed (SL) – Founder of AppliedGameology.com
5. Phillip Vought(SL) – Art Philanthropist & Founding Patron of UWA-BOSL Amphitheatre
6. Lanai Jarrico (SL) – CEO SL Enquirer
7. Reslez Steeplechase (SL) – Founder First Call Musicians Co-op (FCMC), CEO Matters of Music Media Group (M3)
8. Mal Burns (SL) – Metaverse News Aggregator and Broadcaster
9. Apollo Manga (SL) – examiner.com Writer & Novelist
10. Raphaella Nightfire (SL) – Snr Writer Best of SL Magazine, Owner Sanctorum Gallery
11. Dr Gary Zabel (RL) / Georg Janick (SL) – University of Masachusetts
12. Saffia Widdershins (SL) – Owner and Editor of Prim Perfect Publications
13. Jordan Whitt (SL) – Editor in Chief, ICON Lifestyle Magazine
14. Rowan Derryth (SL) – Art & Design Historian; Writer for Prim Perfect Publications
15. Courtney Linden (SL) – Linden Lab
16. Paisley Beebe (SL) – CEO of Perfect World Productions TV
17. Bohemian Ghost (SL) – Owner of Summerland Estates
18. Jopsy Pendragon (SL) – Founder of the Particle Laboratory Learning Center
19. Professor Ted Snell (RL) – Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
20. Frank Roberts (RL) – The University Architect, The University of Western Australia
21. Jayjay Zifanwe (SL) – Owner of The University of Western Australia (SL), Creator & co-host of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
22. Dr Chris Thorne (RL) – Co-Founder of the UWA (SL) & UWA Honourary Research Associate (RL) (judged Flagship only)
23. Frolic Mills (SL) – BOSL & CO CEO (judged the IMAGINE sections only)

First though, the results for the People’s Choice Awards. For the people’s choice, all of SL could vote for their favourite pieces across the month of September, and had to use a HUD (created by quadrapop) to visit all the builds rezzed across the grid, as it needed more than 30,000 prims to have everything up. And I need to thanks Caren McCaw & Nyx Breen (Annapurna), Dijodi Dubratt (Toor), quadrapop Lane (Poorlatrice), Kip Yellowjacket (Virtlantis), Lilli Field (Mysten), Phillip Vought (Acquitaine), Cuwynne Deerhunter & Eliza Wierwight (Patron) and the LEA for valuable space to rezz the works.

And so for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED 3rd prize goes to (L$3,000):
THE WHITE GODDESS TREE by Soror Nishi

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED 2nd prize goes to (L$5,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$8,000) is:
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

Now we move to the People’s Choice Awards for the FLAGSHIPS

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP 3rd prize goes to (L$5,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (August 2010)

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP 2nd prize goes to (L$7,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (July 2010), replaced the destroyed Dec build!

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$15,000) is:
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

Now on to the IMAGINE ART SECTION

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE 3rd prize goes to (L$5,000):
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE 2nd prize goes to (L$7,000):
THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$15,000) is:
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

And now we come to the crunch. The overall juried Grand Prizes for the UWA 3D Art & Design competition. The results are extremely interesting, and I do need to explain how the Judging was done. Each judge listed their top 10 in order for IMAGINE & FLAGSHIP & top 5 for the non-scripted. Works receiving a 1st place vote were allocated 6 points, 2nd place 5 points, 3rd 4 points, 4th 3points, 5th 2 points, and 6th – 10th place votes received 1 point each. The winners are taken as a straight aggregate compiling the individual rankings of each member of the judging panel. No one individual had any greater influence than any other. Every single piece featured in the top 10 of at least 2 judges. Every single piece was also NOT in the top 10 of at least 2 judges. So there was great individual variability, however, when put together, I am staggered by how clearly the results come across.

First the Non-Scripted. I will reveal the aggregate points received by the winning pieces, and also of the ones which just missed out. The Prize winners will receive special trophies created by Miso Susanowa who won the Trophy Challenge some months back run by FreeWee Ling and the Residents of Artemesia. There are 3 prizes for the non-scripted. It was very close, between 3rd prize and the works in 4th – 6th. There was in fact a 3-way tie for 4th place in the non-scripted, these being:

4th (non-scripted) BLACK PEARL by Solkide Auer – 30 points
4th (non-scripted) THE NIGHT ORCHID by soror Nishi – 30 points
4th (non-scripted) BLOOM GLOW by Sledge Roffo – 30 points

All said and done, the overall IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED 3rd prize, on 37 points goes to (L$5,000):
CONCENTRIC SHELLS by Ichiko Miles

For overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED 2nd prize, on 73 points goes to (L$10,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core – 73 points

And the runaway WINNER for the overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, on an incredible 95 points (L$14,000) is:
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

Now for the Flagship. There are 5 prizes, but I will reveal the relative positions and point allocations for the top 10 so everyone can get a sense of how things shaped up. Again remember, these are not ratings of artworks… these are more similar to how things work when selecting the MVP for a football game or the world footballer of the year. 6th through 10th place from the 23 builds overall fell as follows:

6th FLAGSHIP : HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (July 2010) – 30 points
7th FLAGSHIP : ELIZA WIERWIGHT: The Patron Gallery Build – 23 points
7th FLAGSHIP: OWL RAE (MOTH REXEN): Arcapelus Sanctuary – 23 points
9th FLAGSHIP: NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Feb 2010) – 20 points
10th FLAGSHIP: NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB  (June 2010) – 18 points

OK, so for the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 5th prize, on 40 points goes to (L$10,000):
HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (August 2010)

For the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 4th prize, goes to (L$12,000) :
NOBODY – as we have a tie for 3rd place on 46 points apiece

For the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, we have a JOINT 3rd Prize, and this goes to (L$13,500):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

3rd Prize for the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, also goes to (L$13,500):
NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Jan 2010)

I had told Nyx a couple of times that this was my personal favourite of his many amazing builds!

Next the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 2nd prize on 57 points goes to (L$16,000):
DB BAILEY & PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Gallery & Labs

And now for the winner. This build will remain on UWA grounds as long a UWA in Second Life stands, and will be looked as as a foundation for the design of the real Cultural Precinct Flagship build at UWA in a few years time.

The WINNER of the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, on 63 points goes to (L$75,000):
PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Nexus 

Finally, to the IMAGINE Grand Finale. Again, there are 5 prizes, and I will reveal the top 10. Things were very close just outside of the prizes, and the gap between 5th place and the 3 way tie for 9th is only 6 points, and here they are:

6th IMAGINE: THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight – 23 points
7th IMAGINE: CYBERSHARK by Igor Ballyhoo – 22 points
7th IMAGINE: ATOMIC-GO-ROUND by Atomic Gaffer – 22 points
9th IMAGINE: IMMERSIVE ART: THE MAZE by Alizarin Goldflake – 21 points
9th IMAGINE: 26 TINES by Bryn Oh – 21 points
9th IMAGINE: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine – 21 points

OK, so for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, 5th prize, on 27 points goes to (L$10,000):
TENDRILS by Glyph Graves

4th Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 38 points, goes to (L$12,000)
WILLOW by Bryn Oh

3rd Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 44 points, goes to (L$15,000)
CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo

a real favourite especially among the machinimatographers, as it is the most filmed artwork

2nd Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 54 points, goes to (L$16,000)
THE LAST OCEAN by Nish Mip

Now its a stunning result for 1st place, and in fact what happened with this was the reason why I decided to release the point totals of the cumulative judges rankings, and ensure that the prizes extended to the top 5, instead of what is was going to be initially, which was a top 2.

And so, the GRAND CHAMPION of the IMAGINE ART CHALLENGE, on 61 points (L$75,000) is:
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

Its almost unfathomable. To achieve what Nish has, in taking the Top 2 spots from amongst 772 artworks across the year. I cannot begin to calculate the odds against that happening. UMBRELLAS received SIX 1st place votes and only 2 other works received more than ONE 1st place vote being WILLOW & THE LAST OCEAN which each received THREE.

Congratulations Nish! Anyone wanting the full results, please send me an IM. Do check and link to the blog as well, as everything will be there in 24 hours http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/

The UWA 3D Open Art Challenge is now officially open! And with that ends the formal part of today.

Thank you so much Eifachfilm Vacirca for helping stream voice to all the 4 sims during the announcements!

I now hand the floor over to the incredible Mommaluv Skytower who has wowed many an audience with her incredible performances! Please give her a warm welcome all!

Filed Under: Art, Australian News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

October 10, 2010 by Leave a Comment

1. Mashable (USA) – New Facebook App Monitors Your Child’s Gaming Behaviors. “arents wishing to follow along as their children play games online have a new friend in Piggyback, a recently launched Facebook application designed for such purposes. Piggyback, built by newly launched startup Media Chaperone, is a free Facebook application for parents who want to monitor in real time their children’s online social and gaming activities from their Facebook profiles.”

2. Inside Social Games (USA) – How Design Choices Impact Virtual Goods Purchases in Games. “Only two years ago, I was attending a conference on virtual worlds and people were discussing whether or not microtransactions would be a viable business model. Many people were skeptical about whether the success of microtransactions in Asia would translate to North American users. Now, there seems to be less talk about whether or not microtransactions work, and more talk about what makes them work. Industry stats show that yes, people are spending real money on social games. That said, however, the percentage of players who actually spend money is extremely small. From a research standpoint, it has been difficult to find out the characteristics of these spenders because of the difficulty in getting enough people to provide a sample size large enough to derive results that we could generalize.”

3. VentureBeat (USA) – Nexon Invests In Spanish Virtual World Developer BoomBang Games. “South Korea’s Nexon wants to be a bigger player on the global gaming stage. Today, the company announced it has made an investment in Spanish game studio BoomBang Games. Nexon acquired 32 percent of the shares of BoomBang, a Flash game developer based in Barcelona. Nexon’s goal is to reinforce its line-up of light community games and to strengthen its business in Latin America, where, of course, Spanish is a popular language. BoomBang Games was founded in 2004 by chief executive Luis Oses and Max Bevilacqua.”

4. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (USA) – Uncharted Realms. “In a virtual world such as Second Life where participants exchange virtual cash in transactions adding up to billions in the real world … where does a citizen go for virtual justice? Just one of the many questions explored in a new book by Rutgers law professor Greg Lastowka, “Virtual Justice: The New Laws of Online Worlds.” The book debuts less than a month after Oliver Chiang’s report at Forbes’ SelectStart blog that sector analysts predict the exchange of virtual goods and services will pass the $2 billion mark next year … which would represent a doubling of the realm’s cash activity within two years.”

5. Birmingham Post (UK) – Daden creates 3D lab for University of Leicester. “A Birmingham firm which specialises in building virtual worlds has won a contract to create a 3D laboratory to help students learn to screen for inherited genetic disease. Birmingham Science Park-based Daden is creating the virtual lab to help students at the University of Leicester as part of a project addressing the limitations of teaching in working laboratories. These include the pressures of time and the costs of handling real equipment and working together with peers, lecturers and demonstrations.”

6. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – Education Discounts in Second Life: Loss or gain? “I hate that sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach when I know something has been lost that I care about. After my initial shock of hearing that Linden Labs was dropping education discounts, I immediately communicated with colleagues (most of whom I have never met in person) about “what will we do?” Hand wringing. Then during the day today, Maria Korolov, from Trombly International, asked me a simple question in an email — “Do you think the Lindens are doing the right thing here?” – and that question ignited a spark that I think will grow like a California brushfire. That is simply because it was clear to me that it didn’t matter – this was no longer about Linden Lab. Yes, I am very disappointed that I will have to front-up to the University and tell them I have invested precious capital budget in a failed project.”

7. Search Engine Watch (USA) – Losing the Plot In Second Life? A Tinfoil Hat Theory About Linden Labs. “So it seems the Powers That Be here at SearchEngineWatch (SEW) have decided to lose their collective sanity long enough to give me a permanent bit of bandwidth to write about Second Life/Virtual Worlds once a week. But any discussion starts with a perspective, and I think it’s only fair that I deliver mine, up front, so there’s no mistaking it: For the most part, my Second Life is a job. I’m phrasing it that way because there’s been a longstanding philosophical debate about what Second Life is. Usually that gets divided into binary camps of game/not game, and the debate can get very heated and ugly. My view is a little broader- it is whatever it is for you. Ultimately, I think it’s a blank canvas.”

8. Blast Magazine (USA) – Panasonic announces new handheld. “Do you long for your virtual worlds when at work? Do you wish you were riding your trusty mount when you’re really slumming it on the city bus? Panasonic has something they’d like to show you. The long rumored, and finally unveiled Jungle has finally been unveiled by Panasonic and grants access to MMOs and other online titles to gamers on the go. Featuring a few QWERTY keyboard, shoulder buttons, a touch screen display, HDMI port and a D-pad, The Jungle looks to take on handheld kings like the iPhone and the Nintendo’s DS…oh, and the PSP too…I guess.”

9. VentureBeat (USA) – Nukotoys aims to be Silicon Valley’s toy company. “Toys and electronics are still in search of a happy marriage. Nukotoys believes it has the answer with toys and games that merge virtual and real world activities. The startup is coming out of stealth mode today in the hopes of becoming Silicon Valley’s toy company. The San Francisco company is announcing a number of interconnected toys that combine online virtual world games and collectible cards that can be scanned by computers. The company will also build toy-game products based on two major brands: the Ology books for children (such as Dragonology) and Animal Planet. And in December, PBS Kids will launch an online game built by Nukotoys; the 3D educational adventure game will teach kids reading.”

10. Gamasutra (USA) – Feature: The Death Of Linearity? “Tale of Tales’ Michael Samyn (The Path) describes how narrative linearity got tangled up in the game medium, and suggests how leaving it behind will allow a true art form to emerge. Calling “the joys of linearity… beyond dispute”, Samyn says that it’s no surprise linear storytelling became a function of games early in the medium. “We love the tension that comes with a carefully constructed story arc. From Greek theater through medieval fairy tales and printed novels to stereoscopic high definition cinema, humankind has enjoyed storytelling for thousands of years,” he observes. “As we perfected the presentation of our creations, the backbone of our designs shifted from the linearity of competitive gameplay to the linearity of the narrative arc. Our characters and worlds simply demanded this,” writes Samyn.”

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With:

Weekend Whimsy

October 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment

1. Second Life Tribute To Charlie Wilson Super Sexy Starring The PLAY GAL BUNNIES

2. Polyamour: A Second Life Dance Project by La Performance

3. eDiZ Silverfall – DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR in Second Life

Filed Under: User-generated, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

The Caerleon Museum of Identity

October 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment

I missed this announcement a few days back, but it’s far from too late to check out this exhibition. Featuring 18 artists, the goal of the installation is emphatic:

Georg Janick’s six Theses on the Art of Virtual Worlds are the framework for the series of collaborations on the Caerleon sims. In addition to major builds on each of the six theses, there have been numerous theme collaborations on various topics, including consumerism, imprisonment, surrealism, and masks, as well as limited resource challenges like the one-prim and limited texture shows.

The Caerleon Museum of Identity is an interpretation by the collaborative team of Georg’s fourth thesis: the Ambiguity of Identity. It states in part, “…digital bodies, and the names that uniquely identify them, can be altered, multiplied, discarded, or exchanged at the will of the user. Since bodily presence is open to such radical discontinuity, the identity of the virtual person is protean and ambiguous, including indicators of age, gender, race, and even biological species.”

There’s lot more details here or you can check it out for yourself.

Filed Under: Art, General News, Virtual Worlds

Why Second Life is already second-best for education

October 6, 2010 by 19 Comments

The announcement by Linden Lab in the past 24 hours that their discounting of pricing for educators and non-profits would cease in January 2011, has engendered the expected level of outrage. And rightly so, given the critical mass of educators that have generated significant outcomes for Second Life. In fact, it could be argued that it’s only the good news stories generated by the non-profits that have helped offset some of the negative aspects inflated by parts of the mainstream media and others. The comments section below the announcement is well worth a read: even taking out the initial emotion, the overwhelming attitude is that it’s time to downsize or move on. Of course, the migration to OpenSim grids is already well underway, for a range of reasons.

As someone who follows virtual worlds pretty closely, I thought I understood the specific reasons for the move from Second Life fairly well. However, I only got the full picture over the past month, when I needed to explore options for my own education-related build. Without boring you with detail, I’m looking at conducting some research that will involve some fairly complex simulations. When I wrote the proposal for the research, I was already assuming that Second Life wouldn’t necessarily be the platform due to cost constraints (and this was before the price-rise announcement). That assumption was confirmed after some detailed discussions with a number of people, including someone developing a number of education-related projects including one aligned with my own proposal.

Based on those discussions and my own observations, here’s the key reasons I’ll not be working in Second Life for my education project (and most likely using either Unity3D, OpenSim or both):

Content creation: Although SL provides some great scripting options, the learning curve is significant and there’s minimal support for defacto design and modelling platforms. This leads to the need to either hire an SL builder or give up a significant chunk of time to learn a scripting language that’s not transferable elsewhere (except in some respects to OpenSim).

Structured learning: There is minimal ability in SL to guide avatars through particular experiences. Heads-up displays can work to some extent, but the scene-by-scene capability of Unity3D is head and shoulders above.

Reliability: ignoring historical challenges, the fact remains that down-time in SL is totally at the mercy of Linden Lab. A standalone OpenSim grid or a Unity3D installation aren’t as susceptible.

Client: SL being still being a standalone client makes it a bigger challenge to use for education that a web-based client. That may change in the medium-term but it’s a deal-breaker for purposes where dedicated PCs aren’t an option.

Ease of use: One of the key weaknesses of SL is it’s ease of use, particularly for new users. It’s something that has improved and will continue to improve. Although competitors aren’t markedly better, they certainly aren’t worse.

I want to make an important point: Second Life deserves to continue to grow and I’m still confident it will, albeit with a very different focus to what it has now. The decision on education pricing fits the wider business model as it now stands. Even that is fine, if it’s based on confidence of a new market and unshakeable faith that the current shortcomings of SL will be overcome soon enough. On the face of it, that market isn’t apparent and the improvements still seem a while away.

I’d love to hear from educators / non-profits at the coalface. Emotions aside – have you started considering moving away from Second Life, and if so why?

Update: Linden Lab have made a follow-up statement with a rather interesting take on things.

Filed Under: Alternatives, Education, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , , ,

Is Linden Lab up to the job of keeping younger teens safe in Second Life?

October 3, 2010 by 5 Comments

In some ways the decisions surrounding Linden Lab’s closure of Teen Second Life, and the plans for its teen users represent an almost perfect microcosm of Linden Lab process.

There’s the decision to close Teen Second Life, apparently made without consulting with … well, anybody at all. As a part of this, older teens (16-17 years old) will be migrated to the adult grid along with their elders, but under some restrictions that remain a secret at present, despite now being just a few weeks away.

There’s the much better decision to allow younger teens (13-15) to be allowed a form of restricted access to Second Life, in order for a number of worthy education, community and support programmes to continue. A decision which appears to have been grudgingly granted at the behest of programme providers, and which doubtless would have surfaced originally, if they had only been consulted.

Now it remains to be seen if Linden Lab can carry this off. A mix of teens and adults in Second Life can be a potentially volatile mix from a public-relations and media perspective. Reducing the risk of potential scandal will require the utmost care and attention-to-detail from Linden Lab as they prepare to migrate users.

Fortunately, most of the code required for younger teen users appears to already be a part of the grid systems, and has been mostly successful at keeping Teen Second Life and Second Life largely isolated from each-other so far. There’s certainly some expressing doubts that Linden Lab will be able to competently meet the challenge, as many feel that those levels of care and quality-assurance exceed the organisation’s capabilities.

The plan with younger teens is to restrict them to the estates of a sponsoring organisation or programme. Each of the younger 13-15yo teens will be signed on with a particular group, and allowed no access beyond that group. Adult members of the organisation will keep estate-controls tight, allowing only approved and authorised adults access. Additionally, younger teen accounts would not have access to the new Second Life marketplace on the Web.

Now, that’s good, but clearly it isn’t enough. Teens in Teen Second Life have thus far had much greater protections than this, being protected from messaging by adult accounts who weren’t currently logged into the teen estate (a very limited privilege), and unable to be sent content by adult accounts from outside of the teen estate.

Under the new system, adult accounts in the sponsoring group would clearly be able to bring content into the sponsoring estate from the broader grid of Second Life, or (while in the estate) give content to or instant-message a younger-teen account in their sponsored group. These are fine. What about instant-messages or inventory transfers from adult accounts outside of the sponsored estate, however?

If those were to be permitted, any teen could be sent prurient account or sexually harassed by any adult or prankster with a throwaway account who wished to do so. That’s a media scandal in the making right there, and there’s certainly a minority of people in the world who would choose just such tactics to cause one.

As I said, of course, the code exists now to prevent this inappropriate crossing of estate boundaries with respect to contact with younger-teens, if it is appropriately planned, carefully adapted and diligently tested, and if Linden Lab has even thought to do so.

The question is, is Linden Lab up to the job of keeping younger teens safe in Second Life?

Update (Lowell): On top of the Teen grid decision, Linden Lab have now announced a cessation of discounted pricing for educators purchasing full regions on the main grid. It’s hard to see a result other than less nuanced education projects as pricing forces them to Homestead and Open Space regions. More on this later.

Filed Under: Education, General News, Op-ed, Virtual Worlds

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

October 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

1. nebusiness (UK) – Attend meetings without travelling with Teesside University’s DLab. “Have you seen how expensive it is to get a train down the spine of the country these days? It hardly seems worth it if you’re skulking down to a meeting with clients or other folks in your company, only to say about five or six words and slither back up again. This is why virtual worlds should in theory be an ideal solution for businesses looking to meet without travelling, or showcase their wares across the world without shipping them. Virtual worlds such as Second Life have allowed computer users to dip their toes into this strange but oddly thrilling water, while companies such as IBM are already piling into virtual meetings.”

2. IEEE Spectrum (USA) – The End of Gold Farming? “Right now, thousands of gamers are doing menial jobs in their virtual worlds. And they’re earning a living. The process of contracting out a game’s drudge work for real money is called “gold farming.” This happens in the games that involve thousands of characters at a time, interacting in an online universe that players inhabit over the course of months or even years. Some tasks, such as gathering up virtual gold pieces, swords, and magic wands, can be done by any novice player who puts in the time. In other cases, you can hire a master player to surmount a game’s challenges and raise your character to a higher skill level. By any standard, gold farming is big business. Estimates range from a global workforce of 400 000 earning US $1 billion a year to a labor pool exceeding a million gold farmers generating more than $10 billion in annual, real-money revenue. Yet the future of gold farming is uncertain. Some observers see it as a classic market inefficiency—a blip in the history of online games—that game designers can and should eliminate from their virtual worlds.”

3. The Telegraph (UK) – Planet Michael developer interview. “The news that developer SEE Virtual Worlds was planning an MMO video game based on the life and work of Michael Jackson, which emerged last week prompted more than a little confusion. How would it work? What would it look like? How would it compete in such a tough market dominated by the likes of World Of Warcraft, Lord Of The Rings and EVE Online? Most important of all, was it all a hoax? Well, it turns out that, no, Planet Michael is scheduled for release on PC next year, and according to SEE’s Vice President of Development, Josh Gordon, the developer is confident that the King Of Pop’s appeal will prove a massive draw amongst gamers.”

4. New York Times (USA) – Virtual Goods Expected to Grow by 40 Percent Next Year, Study Says. “The booming business in virtual goods — paying real money for things that don’t really exist — is expected to continue booming. That’s good news for the likes of Zynga and Playfish, and of course, Facebook. The Inside Network, a research firm that tracks social media trends, said Tuesday that the market for virtual goods in the United States was expected to grow to $2.1 billion in 2011, up from $1.6 billion in 2010. The figures are estimates based on new research conducted by the company, and put the virtual goods market on a path to double in just two years.”

5. Escapist Magazine (USA) – Second Real Life. “It’s easy to dismiss the people that you meet online as less important than those you see in real life. The contact that you have with them is fast and usually anonymous, and most encounters end as soon as the timer runs out. But that doesn’t mean that all relationships online are so meaningless. To some internet denizens, especially those who frequent virtual worlds such as Second Life, the people that they meet online are just as important to them, if not more, than those they see in meat-space. I didn’t always recognize that fact. With the help of two vampires named K and W, I discovered just what these virtual world and the relationships forged there can mean to the people who actually play them. When I originally heard about Second Life, I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. A couple of friends introduced me to the idea of living vicariously through online avatars, and, after a little research, I was amazed to see the impact these virtual lives had on real-life profit margins. I declared Second Life a giant rip-off and dismissed it as a waste of both time and money. My friend suggested that before I judge, I might experience it myself.”

6. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Microsoft Buys Vivaty For New Project, May Be Looking For More. “The rumor that Microsoft is bidding on troubled virtual world Second Life just got a bit more interesting. It turns out that Microsoft is the previously unnamed company that acquired Vivaty, a virtual world competing with Second Life that went out of business in April. The terms of the deal remain undisclosed but Microsoft definitely paid less than $75 million, according to Microsoft Managing Director of Corporate Development Marc Brown. The acquisition was confirmed by Vivaty founder Keith McCurdy, in an email to paidContent.org. When Vivaty closed earlier this year, McCurdy said that the company acquiring Vivaty intended to use it as the foundation for an unnamed new project. Given the details that have just emerged, it seems like Microsoft is working on some sort of virtual world or possibly a game-like service with a persistent 3D world.”

7. Wall Street Journal (USA) – Congress Looking at Proposed Changes to Terrorism Finance Laws. “A group of money laundering and national security experts are pressing Congress for major reform of anti-terrorism financing laws, including a controversial measure that would allow bankers limited access to classified records and a proposal that would ease reporting requirements for some suspicious activity. Stephen I. Landman, director of national security law and policy for the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said that the risk in government agencies sharing classified information with bankers was “obvious” but that “through careful monitoring I believe such a move would increase the effectiveness of terror finance investigations.”

8. Modern Ghana (Ghana) – Are You An Eco-Friend Or An Eco-Foe? “Academics at the University of Derby, based in the East Midlands of the UK, are using the virtual reality platform Second Life to gauge people’s unconscious attitudes towards ‘green’ issues such as recycling. Derby academics Simon Bignell (Psychology) and Rosemary Horry (Environmental Management) have created an ‘Eco House’ setting in Second Life where volunteers will be asked to take part in exercises which challenge their attitudes and beliefs towards environmental issues. The pair have secured funding from the Higher Education Academy to run the Education for Sustainable Development project which will offer online tutorials and problem-based tasks for students to complete this academic year.”

9. Gamasutra (USA) – The Realities Of A LEGO MMO. “There are always tremendous complications when developing and launching an MMO. As APB recently handily demonstrated, it’s an enormously time and money-intensive endeavor to launch a game on this scale — and even when it does launch, there are numerous additional considerations arising from audience issues. Of course, from that point forward, a company has to operate the game as a service, and continue to update it with live content. And then there are business model considerations… In this in-depth interview, Ryan Seabury, creative director of LEGO Universe at developer NetDevil — itself a division of well-funded MMO firm Gazillion — discusses the development process of the expansive toy-based title, which was first announced in 2007. He takes in everything from the cloud-based graphics-crunching technology required to get the game up and running, to why it’s a subscription-based title, whether Luke Skywalker might make a cameo, and how the team has been focus-testing the title with the same group of kids for four years now.”

10. Mashable (USA) – Formspring Snags Two Key Hires from Nokia and Second Life. “Social Q&A website Formspring is looking to take its product to the next level, starting with snagging two key senior-level hires from Nokia and Linden Lab, creators of Second Life. Later today, Formspring will announce that it has hired Rob Storrs to be its head of engineering and Tom Wang to be its head of product. They started with Formspring earlier this month, CEO Ade Olonoh told me last week. Rob Storrs was the director of web development at Linden Lab, the company behind the Second Life virtual world. There, he created and oversaw different engineering teams focused on social networking, search, virtual goods and e-commerce.”

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With:

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