1. Second Life has talent!
2. Second Life Tribute To Lady Gaga Love Games Starring Winter Sideways
3. Second LIfe Episode 4 – Ozimals Lady Gaga Sex Playboy Bunny
Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
April 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment
1. Virtual RP is a French OpenSim grid that launched yesterday after four months development.
2. Want to test out a potential tattoo design on an avatar before making a lifetime commitment? Obsessive Ink may be worth a look.
3. Linden Lab have provided some more examples of what Viewer 2 is doing for enhancing in-world content.
4. The UK elections are turning out to be a dud as far as virtual world presences go.
5. There’s been quite a buzz about Blue Mars offering a cloud-based service. Here’s one of the better stories on it.
UWA Art: March winners and a three-year continuation
April 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment
The University of Western Australia continues its 3D Art and Design Challenge, announcing the March winners. All those details are replicated in full below thanks to the indefatigable Jayjay Zifanwe and the UWA in SL blog.
What’s even more impressive is the announcement that the UWA have agreed to fund the monthly competition for a further three years, to the tune of a million Linden dollars per year for art and half a million for machinima. That equates to around US$6000 per year on top of maintaining the UWA presence, which is certainly a demonstration of confidence by the University. It also extends the life of the competition to August 2013, ensuring exposure of a lot of artists over that time.
Onto the March winners:
Fuschia & Flivelwitz snatch IMAGINE, Breen machine chugs on: March Winners of UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
For the very first time, a collaborative work has taken the top IMAGINE Arts prize for the March round of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. The enchanting and enveloping HEATH, created by Fuschia Nightfire & Flivelwitz Alsop held off a very strong field of 55 works from artists all across SL in taking the $L5,000 first prize. Meanwhile in the FLAGSHIP building design challenge, no one seems capable of supooing Nyx Breen who has now won 4 of the 7 to FLASHIP prizes as this yearlong competition has crossed into month 8!
First time entrant, Flivelwitz and veteran Fuschia were thrilled and stunned to have taken the top gong. “Well i suspected we had won something! but not this”, said Fuschia, while Flivelwitz when asked to comment said “It is exciting to be the first to win in a collaboration at the UWA”.
The top 3 in fact were very close, and for the first time ever, a joint 2nd prize was awarded to Julez Odigaunt & Kolor Fall for their incredible works, JULIA’S WILTING HEART SHRINE & OCEANS OF LIGHT.
“Its such an honor that UWA appreciated Julia’s Wilting Heart Shrine. It is a very personal piece and I am glad it was well received. I would like to thank Ulrich Lionheart, the author of the poem. His words are so powerful and full of emotion – purely expressing what I was feeling at the time – it inspired me to create a shrine that allowed me to expose the mindset I was in at the time. It was quite healing” said Julez.
With Nyx’s back to back to back win in March to go with his October win taking his tally to 4, seems it will take some doing to dislodge Nyx who has declared that he will have one FLAGSHIP build submitted each month for the rest of the competition. It is going to take some doing to stop Nyx from having more than half of the entries that will come under consideration for the Grand Prize!
Following the announcements yesterday at the traditional winners announcement party at the UWA SIM, Nyx said, ” I would like to state that outside of developing some wonderful friendships in Second Life, that nothing has been as enjoyable as participating in an event that has truly global and groundbreaking results as the UWA Flagship Challenge. UWA has taken a small art show and made it a must see destination in the Cyber world and an event that if missed in Second Life, then one doesn’t understand the true potential of what was envisioned as the purpose of Second Life… creativity shared across a medium that brings us all closer.Great Job UWA, JJ & Quad and all that help make this possible.”
The best non-scripted entry was BLOOM GLOW by Gumby Roffo, another vetran of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, while Sharni Azalee’s FOREST OF DREAMS was voted top for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD!
The Artist Book Prize, being awarded for the final time, went to Miranda Mhia work, STANDING ROOM ONLY. UWA would like to thank Juanita Deharo, Victor Vezina and Juko Temple for making this award possible.
Other winners include Sundog Branner, Ichiko Miles, Gleman Jun, Betty Tureand and Nish Mip. Full list below.
Some other exciting things were also mentioned during the awards ceremony. First of all, UWA played host both in SL & RL to the Big Kahuna himself M Linden, who for the very first time in any universe was displaying his wonderful artworks. These can still be seen at a permanent exhibition within at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery which is on one of the 5 UWA SIMS.
This space has been listed as an SL destination for the Arts, which is the 2nd location within the UWA SIMS designated as an SL destination for the Arts, the other one being UWA’s Art & Design Challenge platform.
You can hear M Linden’s speech and watch some of the wonderful machinima created for the event on the UWA in Second Life Blog.
The next wonderful thing, is because of all the good news and publicity surrounding the machinima, the art & design competition and M’s show, UWA have been given funding for the Arts & Machinima for a further 3 years following then end of this current cycle in August 2010. The funding have received will allow UWA to provide L$1,000,000 per year for Art Challenges and L$500,000 for Machinima.
Also mentioned was the work of Lili Field, an Australian RL architect who has recreated UWA’s School of Business Building. A replica created based on the original buidling plans of an incredible award winning build at UWA .
IMAGINE CHALLENGE – 3D ART
Imagine Challenge 1st Prize: ($L5,000 + Custom T-Shirt)
HEATH by Flivelwitz Alsop & Fuschia Nightfire
Imagine Challenge 2nd Prize: ($L1,250) JOINT
OCEANS OF LIGHT by Kolor Fall/Patrick Faith
JULIA’S WILTING HEART SHRINE by Julez Odigaunt
Best Non-Scripted Entry: ($L1,250 + Custom T-Shirt)
BLOOM GLOW by Sledge RoffoCasey WA Cultural Prize 1st Prize (L$4,000)
TBA
FLAGSHIP CHALLENGE – BUILDING DESIGN
Flagship Challenge 1st Prize : ($L5,000)
AxS GALLERY by Nyx Breen (4th time winner)Honourable Mention Prize for ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES (L$500)
PRIMATAR’S LOVE: THE EVOLUTION by Gleman JunTHE ANTON MESMER Honourable Mention Prize (L$500)
KINETIC-ART ELLIPTIC THREADS by Sundog BrannerHonourable Mention Prize for ARTISTRY (L$500):
HERA’S LYRE by Ichiko MilesHonourable Mention Prize for TEXTURE & ATMOSPHERE (L$500):
BUTTERFLY HOUSE by Nish Mip – submitted for the FLAGSHIP ChallengeARTIST BOOK PRIZE – 1st Prize (L$2,000):
STANDING ROOM ONLY – Miranda MhiaARTIST BOOK PRIZE – Honourable Mention (L$500):
WOMEN ARE AFRICAS HOPE – Betty Tureand
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD (L$500):
FOREST OF DREAMS by Sharni Azalee
Educators and Second Life: local research
April 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Between August 2009 and February this year, Holmesglen’s Kenneth Rankin (SL: Ken001 Silverfall) undertook some research in Second Life as part of his Master of Education studies at the University of Southern Queensland.
It’s a fascinating snapshot on the state of play in regards to educators and Second Life, and includes some substantive recommendations for the future that may generate some debate. More on that later, but first the data:
Research context
After reading some of the results, I took the opportunity of contacting Kenneth, to ask him for some background and clarification of specific results:
TMJ: When was the research undertaken, with whom was it conducted, what was the sample size and the overarching research methodology?
KR:
· Data was collected during Nov 2009 via a web based questionnaire on SurveyMonkey.
· 79 persons responded, but 14 did not fully complete the survey. Analysis was conducted on data collected from 65 persons.
· The survey was undertaken only by educators who had at least one avatar in Second Life.
· Background: The technology adoption cycle, described by Rogers, shows the adoption of technology in various phases of adopters. First are the Innovators, then the Early Adopters, the Early Majority, the Late majority and finally the Laggards. Most technologies will enter mainstream use only if they can cross ‘the chasm’ between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority. Second life has been predicted to remain in the Early Adopters phase until 2013 when it is expected transition into the Early Majority phase.
· The main question to be answered by this research was “what can be learned from the experiences of the Second Life Early Adopters to facilitate the move into the Early Majority phase?â€
· The topic was: “The collection and analysis of avatar experiences in order to provide conduct and appearance guidelines for educators adopting Second Lifeâ€.
· The research was a cross-sectional, qualitative, non-experimental design. The survey consisted of 29 questions with a mix of open and closed questions.
TMJ: Were there any results that surprised you?
KR:
· 38% of educators have no real-world code of conduct.
· 74% of educators have no real-world appearance code.
· The main reason to lose the ‘newbie’ look was originally thought to be as a deterrent to ‘griefers’. It was found that people lose the ‘newbie’ look in order to increase credibility and to display experience.
· Female avatars appear to be the target of more griefing incidents than males and are specifically targeted for sexual griefing. 17 males reported 6 non-sexual incidents and zero sexual incidents (35%), while 48 females reported 23 non-sexual incidents and 9 sexual incidents (66%). This was a surprise in an environment that was expected to be female friendly and gender neutral.
The full results
· The respondents were 74% female, average age just over 47, mainly from Nth America (54%) then Asia/Pacific (31%) and Europe (15%)
· Highly experienced group with more than half having over 3 years of Second life experience.
70% of educators use multiple avatars (accounts).
Recommendation: Educators should aim to have a single purpose for each of their avatars. The most common singularity of purpose is to provide for a private avatar and a professional avatar.
62% of employers provide a real-world code of conduct (CoC) Â for employees
23% of employers have extended their RW CoC into SL
6% of employers have an SL CoC
43% of employees believe that a CoC is required in SL and 43% believe that it is not required.
26% of employers provide a real-world appearance code for employees
6% of employers have extended that RW AC into SL
5% of employers have an SL AC
8% of employees believe that an SL AC is required and 89% believe that it is not required.
Recommendation: The Early Majority will look for greater structure and guidance in SL than that required by the Early Adopters. A CoC and an AC should be considered as facilitation factors to assist more educators to adopt SL.
Recommendation: Educators should not be dissuaded from the adoption of alternative forms and appearances for their avatar. Appearance, however, does need to be appropriate for the educational context, especially when representing an organisation.
Recommendation: Each avatar should have in their inventory, a collection of appearances or outfits that are appropriate to their range of educational contexts and functions.
89% of respondents chose human form in Second Life
6% represent themselves in the opposite gender.
44% have some form of name relationship with their avatar
79% have some form of appearance relationship with their avatar
Recommendation: Care should be exercised when selecting the name of the avatar at the account creation stage, as this is one of the few aspects of the avatar that cannot be changed later
66% of avatars have lost the newbie look within 1 month.
The main reason to lose the newbie look is to increase credibility and to display experience.
12% of avatar profiles provide enough information to identify the RW person
40% of avatar profiles provide enough information to identify the RW place of work
53% of avatar profiles provide enough information to identify the person’s RW position or role
Recommendation: Educators should exercise discretion with the information provided through the avatar’s profile. This information should be checked against the purpose of the avatar, the code of conduct and the privacy guidelines of the employer.
Of the critical incidents reported, 58% were of a positive nature and 38% were of a negative nature.
Recommendation: Educators need to be made aware of the ‘big 6’ SL community standards, the range of positive and negative incidents that can occur in SL and how to manage these incidents. Educators also need to be aware that griefing of a sexual nature does exist and appears to be specifically targeted at female avatars.
==========
This research provides a great deal of insight into the educator demographic in Second Life. A lot of the results aren’t surprising, but as a whole they do provide some fascinating launch points for further discussion. So over to you: whether you’re an educator or not, what stands out for you in the results? Do you agree or disagree with the recommendations put forward?
A big thanks for Lindy McKeown for the heads-up.
The Watch – virtual worlds in the news
April 12, 2010 by 1 Comment
1. Computerworld (USA) – Avatars rising in the enterprise. “Avatars aren’t just for the movies or for techies with time on their hands. Organizations are using virtual worlds for training, simulation and prototyping, among other things. The U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) is making the most of what officials call “immersive learning” in secure, virtual work environments replete with avatars, to augment existing training curricula and to facilitate collaborative engineering. “Immersive learning is all about the true power of a virtual world where gravity is optional and scaling is arbitrary, and objects can be made to be transparent,” says Steve Aguiar, virtual worlds project lead at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, one of the NUWC’s two primary units, in Newport, R.I.”
2. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – IARPA Soliciting Info On Intelligence Training In Virtual Worlds. “Last month the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) posted an RFI looking for quantitative research–and theories and proposals on how to obtain it–on the effectiveness of using virtual worlds for intelligence analyst training. Responses are due April 12 as the agency is aiming to incorporate the information received into a two-day workshop in May. It says the information will help it set an agenda, with some respondents getting an invitation to the workshop itself and an opportunity to set the stage for a multi-year competitive program.”
3. AFP (France) – Augmented reality puts the squeeze into virtual hugs. “Now you really can reach out and touch someone through the Internet, with the help of a wearable robot designed by a husband-and-wife team of scientists based in Japan. Five years in the making, the device aims to inject a little physicality into online chatter, boosting the emotional quotient of virtual exchanges between flesh-and-blood people. Forget emoticons, those annoying little smiley 🙂 or frowning 🙁 faces added to text messages with key strokes. The quickened thump of an angry heart beat, a spine-tingling chill of fear, or that warm-all-over sensation sparked by true love — all can be felt even as your eyes stay glued to a computer screen.”
4. Computerworld (USA) – Intel guru says 3-D Internet will arrive within five years. “A technology guru at Intel Corp. predict that the internet will look significantly different in five to 10 years, when much of it will be three dimensional, or 3D. Sean Koehl, a technology evangelist with Intel Labs, said technology is emerging that will one day change the way we interact with electronic devices and with each other. That could come as soon as five years from now when, he predicted, there will be realistic-looking three-dimensional applications. “I think our lives will be a lot different,” said Koehl. “Look at the trends of the last decade or two. Think about computers becoming widespread, and the Internet and these mobile devices. With the availability of all this computing power, we’re only beginning to exploit it. Now we’re adding more intelligence and more capability. Add that to 3-D worlds and it could be very different than the sort of experiences that we have today.”
5. Kotaku (USA) – How World Of Warcraft Could Change The Workplace. “Stanford University communications professor Byron Reeves talks to The Washington Post about how the collaborative online model of games like World of Warcraft can help change real world workplaces and empower better leaders. Reeves is the co-author of Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete. With a title that long and involved, you know he has to be an authority of the subject of plumbing virtual worlds for ways to enhance our workplace interactions, so you should listen to what the man says. As a once-rabid MMO player, I’ve often marveled at the difference between the way large video game guilds work and how your average office operates. I would spend hours online with people from all over the world, with one or two leaders flawlessly orchestrating the actions of 25 to 40 different individuals, none of whom had ever met in person.”
6. Smart Money (USA) – Entrepreneurs Doing Business by Avatar. “After seeing “Avatar,” the movie, I wondered whether the record-breaking intake at the box office might spur more entrepreneurial activity in places populated by, er, “real†avatars—like Second Life, the best-known and largest of the 3-D virtual-world platforms. Could Avatar do for avatars what Titanic did for Leonardo DiCaprio? An avatar is a digital, simulated representation of a person. On sites like Second Life, There and ActiveWorlds, you can engage your avatar alter ego in all sorts of escapist fantasies, like designing and dancing in your own underwater disco. When Second Life and its peers came out in 2003, companies rushed in to build outposts and sell products to the hoards of consumers rushing in to play. Attire companies like American Apparel and Giorgio Armani and tech giants like IBM and Dell set up virtual stores, using the build-it-and-they-will-come approach. Problem is, nobody came. The supposed consumers used the site to attend concerts or become unicorns, not to buy a computer. And what did they want to buy? White hair and goth outfits for their avatars. Which is not to say entrepreneurs should dismiss the immersive reality trip. In the past few years, much has changed, and many companies are doing virtual business—just not the kind they originally envisioned.”
7. CIT Magazine (UK) – Technology forecast: Virtual events becoming reality. “New technologies are adding to planners’ armouries, but which are the best and how will they shape future events, asks Leanne Bell. The conditions are perfect for a boom in virtual meetings – there’s pressure to reduce travel costs, allocate tiny budgets to events and, at the same time, the technology is cheaper and more sophisticated than ever before. Undoubtedly, most events in future will include some virtual or online element. But how far will event planners plunge into the virtual world? Will the networking event of the future comprise avatars swigging virtual beer? MPI (Meeting Professionals International) chief executive Bruce MacMillan agrees technology will be among the most powerful influences on events in the next five to ten years. But rather than going totally virtual, MacMillan says the event of the future will be a hybrid – a live event enhanced by virtual components. “Hybrid events are the reality of the future,” he says.”
8. CNET (USA) – Google trying anew for a 3D Web. “Two related projects from Mozilla and Google, each with the similar goal of bringing hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the Web, appear to be joining forces after a change in Google tactics. The two projects emerged at nearly the same time in 2009: the O3D browser plug-in from Google and the proposed WebGL standard from Mozilla and the Khronos Group, which standardizes the OpenGL graphics interface on which WebGL is based. O3D is a higher-level technology, whereas WebGL is more concerned with the nuts and bolts of 3D graphics. O3D lets browsers show accelerated 3D graphics such as this island scene. It’s tailored for tasks such as first-person shooters or virtual worlds. In recent months, though, O3D has become dormant. But it’s not fading away, exactly: Google is trying to breathe new life into the project by rebuilding it on a WebGL foundation.”
9. CBS News (USA) – Korean Couple Nurtured Virtual Baby While Real Baby Starved to Death, Say Reports. “They may have excelled as online parents, but prosecutors in South Korea say a young couple from Suwon province failed miserably at the real thing. According to prosecutors, the couple would put their daughter to bed at night and then sneak off to a neighborhood internet cafe for 10-hour gaming sessions in a role-playing game called “Prius Online.” Prosecutors say that in the Second Life-style game, the couple raised a virtual baby, while their real daughter was given just one bottle of milk a day, Korean news report said.”
10. iTWire (Australia) – Blizzard mulls Aussie World of Warcraft servers. “World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard Entertainment this week reportedly said it was discussing the possibility of hosting Australian servers for the popular massively multiplayer online game. The lack of servers hosted in Australia for the game — also a common problem with a number of other online offerings — means that local players must connect to international servers and suffer extended latency compared with players in those countries, which can disadvantage them in-game and cause slower online reaction times. “I would say it’s possible and that it’s something we talk about on a regular basis — and I will also say it’s something I have talked about this week,†World of Warcraft production director J. Allen Brack said in an interview with AusGamers publishers this week.”
Keiko Takamura’s Dreams of Rock Stardom
April 7, 2010 by 1 Comment
Keiko Takamura (2006 MTV video profile here) is a musician who performs in Second Life, one of the burgeoning community who do.
I’ve followed her progress over the years and I certainly admire her desire to succeed, which when combined with her songwriting and performance abilities, put her in a good position to do so.
She’s of course not alone in that regard, there are plenty of talented Second Life musicians hoping to make an impact more widely, and we’ve covered a small number of them over the past four years.
Which is why I was interested in a message Keiko sent out in the past week, via Twitter and her blog, to her fans, friends and fellow musicians:
My dear musician friends,
My band (The Shebangs) and I have been rocking out in meatspace for a good while now, and we’re ready to record. The studio I have my eye on has engineers who have worked with names like Elvis Costello, Teagan and Sara, CAKE, The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, etc… but it’s PROHIBITIVELY expensive.
That’s why I’m planning a HELP KEIKO FINALLY RECORD tour from 4/18-4/23.
I’m asking you, my musician friends, to donate an hour (or even half-hour) of your time to help me raise donations for this project. Why should you bother? Well, I know you have heard the whole song-and-dance of “exposure”, but I have a 1,000+ Twitter following, 500 people in my SL group, and if this thing is successful they’ll probably write this up on New World Notes (I live next to Hamlet Au IRL!). Also, my True Life episode on MTV just re-aired, and a slew of new SL residents just joined and are waiting to see what “virtual live concerts” are.
Also, you’ll be helping me out a lot. 🙂 My dream of being a rockstar feels like it’s inching closer, and a polished, professional, radio-ready recording of my music will put me that much closer.
If you’re interested, please EMAIL ME – TakamuraKeiko at gmail
and tell me which day/time you want to play (time is totally up to you), and send me your music website/Myspace. I’ll get back to you about a venue.Thank you so much for being wonderful friends and awesome musicians,
Keiko
After reading the message, I contacted Keiko via email to ask a few questions, which are replicated in full below:
TMJ: How’s the response to date been to your call for musicians to donate time to raise money for your recording dream?
KT: It’s been mostly good! Within the day I posted my idea for a “Help Keiko Record Tour”, I got most of the week booked up with both good friends and musicians I’ve never heard/met before.
TMJ: Have you had any negative reaction to your call for people to donate time to raise money for you personally?
KT: Yes, but just one person.
TMJ:Â More specifically, have you had any negative feedback from fellow SL musicians, who may hold the same ambitions but haven’t asked the community to raise the funds for them?
KT: Yes.
TMJ:Â You mention the likelihood of coverage in New World Notes due to living close by Hamlet Au -was Hamlet aware you were going to make that statement?
KT:Â No, but he knows now! 🙂
TMJ:Â If the funds are raised successfully to allow you to record, and the results earns profit for you, do you propose to enter a profit-sharing or pay-back arrangement for those who helped out with the benefit?
KT: Short answer: Yes! Long answer: I’ve been a live musician in SL since 2006, and I’ve played for COUNTLESS benefits from Relay for Life, Toys For Tots, Make a Wish Foundation, etc. I’ve also donated my time for the benefit of other musicians who needed help. Some needed help because they had serious medical bills. Others needed help because they needed tour money. In any case, I was there. And now I’m asking for help. If any musician is willing to donate an hour of their time in order for me to make a 5-song EP, I would be more than happy to help them out in return in the future. And more immediately, I hope to give their music some good publicity in any way I can.
TMJ:Â What safeguards will you have in place to demonstrate the amount of money raised and how it is spent by you?
KT: I don’t have anything automatic set up, but if anyone wants to email me personally and ask, they are welcome to. Also, I intend to make each donation of $5 or more a “presale” for a digital copy. Meaning, if you chip in $5 (or l1400 and give me a notecard with your email address) I’ll send a digital copy of the EP when it’s done!
Let me clear some other things up, just in case:
My “tour” is going to be from the 17th to the 24th – 8 days. I’m going to play a show in SL every single day, on top of my RL work and RL band practices. I am setting up schedules with several musicians. I am coordinating with venues. I am creating promotional graphics/notecards. I am reaching out to others who have blogs, podcasts, large Twitter followings, etc. to make the “exposure” part of this deal worthwhile for the musicians who are kind enough to donate their time. It’s not like I’m going to sit back and collect tips while the musicians work and I do nothing. I’m going to work hard, play hard, every single day of that tour — and if my friends want to be a part of this and make it into an awesome event, that’s even better! I really, truly appreciate all the support I’ve gotten from my musician friends who are willing to help me out. It’s because of them that the live music community is as strong as it is today. I have absolutely no intention of making this a one-sided deal, solely for myself. I know it’s a lot to ask.
==========
Over to you: is Keiko being creative, entrepreneurial, mercenary or all of the above? There’s certainly plenty of uncharted territory in regard to creative projects in virtual worlds, and undertakings like Keiko’s are certainly exploring some of that territory.
(Picture courtesy of Keiko Takamura’s 2008 Sugar Pill video)
The Watch – virtual worlds in the news
April 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
1. The Australian (Australia) – Virtual worlds the real deal. “ASK most academics about virtual worlds and the response will usually be something along the lines that they are frivolous games of no relevance to their work. Get more specific and inquire whether they have a presence in the best known virtual world, Second Life, and they commonly refer to their workloads and bemoan how nice it would be to have a first life. Yet virtual worlds are profoundly affecting opportunities for research and teaching, and need to be taken much more seriously. Virtual worlds are places where digital representations of individuals, or avatars, congregate. They are not real but they are a place where real people interact. As such, they are places where behaviour can be studied and important research can be conducted.”
2. VentureBeat (USA) – Vivaty shuts down site for user-generated virtual scenes. “Virtual world company Vivaty announced on its site today that it will shut down its user-generated “virtual scenes†site on April 16, another victim of the malaise around virtual worlds. Jay Weber, chief technical officer and co-founder, announced on the company’s blog that the site will close because its business of letting users create their own 3D virtual spaces just hasn’t taken off. “I apologize to our loyal users that this must be so,†Weber wrote. “Vivaty.com is a rather expensive site to run, much more than a regular web site, and Vivaty the company has been running out of money for some time. Our business model was to earn money through Vivabux sales, but that has never come close to covering our costs. We tried for months to find a bigger partner that would support the site, but that didn’t work out.â€
3. Philadelphia Inquirer (USA) – Girls abandon dolls for Web-based toys. “Paige Gabriele loved her dolls – once. At age 8, however, the Swarthmore girl has largely abandoned them. Even Barbie gets slim face time, and the single American Girl doll, a gift from her grandmother, sits pretty on her bureau – untouched. Playing with dolls “gets boring after a while,” said Paige as she passed by the well-stocked aisles full of Barbie, Moxie Girlz, Liv, and other fashion dolls at the Target in Springfield Mall. She was more interested in a basketball, and gushed about social Web sites such as moshimonsters.com, where she nurtures pet monsters. It used to be that dolls held girls’ interest at least through elementary school. But these days, girls are dropping such playthings at ever younger ages, largely replacing the childhood mainstay with technology-driven activities, even as the toy industry battles to attract the coveted market with new products.”
4. The American Spectator (USA) – Virtually Innocent. “Several months ago, at the request of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission released a report explaining the risks children face when they play in virtual worlds. Virtual worlds, a quickly expanding market of online playgrounds, combine glitzy three-dimensional environments with social networking. Basically, users can lazily sit behind their computers, but still interact, communicate, and play with each other in these worlds via their avatars, cartoonized representations of themselves. Some of the games they can play, parents may be surprised to learn, push the boundaries of Larry Flynt’s wildest dreams. Virtual worlds took off in 2007, with sites like the Disney-owned Club Penguin and the adult-oriented Second Life leading the charge. According to KZero Worldswide, one of several virtual worlds consultancies that have emerged in recent years, in 2009, an estimated 150 worlds were either live or in development, bringing in about $1.3 billion in revenue. In the next two years, an estimated 900 virtual worlds will hit the market, generating $9 billion in revenue. ”
5. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Secret Builders Scores $2.3M. “oday Renaissance 2.0 Media, parent company of the educational virtual world Secret Builders, announced that it had raised $2.3 million in new funding. Despite the world’s educational theme, it still monetizes by selling virtual currency to its users, mostly kids aged 8 to 12. Parents can also buy subscriptions for their kids, which give them a monthly in-game allowance of virtual currency. Secret Builders serves 1 million registered users, with around 350,000 monthly active users. “We’ve weathered a tough time in the market,” said Secret Builders CEO Umair Khan, in statements made to Venture Beat. “Spending money to get users was a good way to go out of business. Now the investors are looking for traction and your long-term success in attracting users.”
6. Discovery News (USA) – Avatars May Inspire Us To Exercise. “If seeing is believing, could watching a digitized version of yourself running on a treadmill drive you to get in shape? Watching a self-resembling avatar in action turns out to be an effective motivational technique to start exercising, according to a Stanford University research project. Participants who watched digital versions of themselves run on a treadmill ended up exercising nearly an hour longer than those who watched their avatars hang out or viewed avatars of other people exercising. “We’re definitely surprised that the manipulation worked,” said Stanford doctoral student Jesse Fox, who oversaw the studies. “I was very fascinated.”
7. University of Ulster Online (UK) – New Computer Games For Stroke Sufferers Tested. “Researchers at the University of Ulster have been carrying out trials of specially designed computer games to help rehabilitate stroke sufferers. Ulster’s School of Computing and Information Engineering in Coleraine has collaborated on the project with fellow researchers at the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the Jordanstown campus. The Games for Rehabilitation project, which has been funded by the Department of Employment and Learning over three years, focuses on rehabilitation of the upper limbs and involves the player using their hands and arms to touch targets which move around the screen. Their movements are tracked by a webcam and the game responds to their interaction, giving them positive feedback on their performance and engagement with the system. The design of the games and interface means people don’t need to have played computer or video games in order to engage effectively with the system.”
8. Gamasutra (USA) – DFC: Virtual Goods Adoption Grows, ‘MMO Lite’ To Reach $3 Billion By 2015. “88 percent of gamers surveyed have bought virtual content, says a study from DFC Intelligence, in partnership with monetization platform company Live Gamer. Research firm DFC and Live Gamer studied some 5,000 gamers in North America and Europe during the first two months of 2010, and included seven years of Live Gamer’s historical data from around the world. According to the survey, “digital content” also includes music, movies and games, and isn’t limited to virtual goods bought through microtransactions, as players can do in popular Western social games like FarmVille on Facebook or Sony Online Entertainment’s family-friendly Free Realms MMO.”
9. Kotaku (USA) – Free Realms Reaches 10 Million Users, Gives Out Free Cash. “Free Realms continues to be an unrelenting engine of family-friendly fun and frivolity, reaching the 10 million player mark just short of its first birthday, with Sony Online Entertainment doubling Station Cash purchases this weekend in celebration. We’ve established by now that people love mini-games and free things, and that’s pretty much the formula to Free Realms’ success – it’s a free massively-multiplayer online game packed with mini-games. It’s also packed with stuff to buy with Station Cash, which is a Sony Online Entertainment form of currency people buy with real cash. To celebrate the big 10 million, SOE will be doubling any Station Cash card values redeemed between 4PM today Pacific and 11PM Sunday.”
10. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – Educators save money switching to OpenSim. “Educators in primary schools, colleges, and other institutions looking for lower costs, better controls, and no age restrictions are considering switching from Second Life to its open source alternative, the OpenSim virtual world server platform. The OpenSim server software can be used to power an entire public grid, or a small, private behind-the-firewall installation, and can be run on an institution’s own server or hosted with third-party providers. In general, educators say, they find that OpenSim offers significant cost savings over Second Life. However, there might be some hidden costs.”
Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
April 2, 2010 by 1 Comment
1. The US-based Global Kids are holding a Winter 2010 Roundtable on Virtual Worlds and Nonprofits on Monday April 12, from 12-1pm PST (7-8am on Tuesday 13th AET) on MacArthur Island in Second Life.
The purpose is presentations from six nonprofit organisations on “their initial explorations of Second Life and other virtual worlds, and how they are thinking of integrating these virtual tools into their organizations’ respective missions”. Those organisations presenting are: Child Welfare League of America, Health Consumers Alliance of South Australia, Hip-Hop Education Center, Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc and V.O.I.C.E. Community Development Corp.”
2. As covered last week, the M Linden Art Show hit the University of Western Australia in Second Life and on UWA’s physical campus as well. There’s a great round-up here. There’s also a machinima of the launch by Chantal Harvey that you can view:
4. Terra Nova has a great piece on where social worlds like Farmville fit into the scheme of things.
5. Our Metaverse Reader iPhone app now has a userbase numbering in the hundreds. Version 2 is about to be submitted for approval and it contains some big enhancements, and we’ve already added a couple more sites to the app. Why not check it out for yourself?
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