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Competition winners: ‘The Unofficial Second Life Building Guide’

October 12, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Over the past fortnight we’ve run a competition, with five copies of The Unofficial Second Life Building Guide.

Twenty-one people entered, with some excellent suggestions of new builds in Second Life. Using a random number generator, I’m pleased to announce that the five winners are:

Cary
Alberik Rotaru
KerryJ
Kim Flintoff
Rayn Juran

Thanks to Killer Guides for the prize of five copies of the guide. Winners – we’ll be in touch via email very soon with your prize.

We have another competition coming up in the next month, so there’s plenty more opportunities to win!

Filed Under: General News, TMJ Site News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Our new Second Life HQ

October 12, 2008 by 5 Comments

We’re really proud to announce the opening of our new in-world presence in Second Life. It’s been quite a number of months in the making. Our aim with the new presence was to have a multi-purpose facility that could be used for in-world information sharing.

Our old presence had its limitations although we had a number of groups utilise it for events. With the new build, we hope to increase that focus – if you’re from a non-profit group, education or health support group and need a venue for a meeting, research project or other event, contact us. We’re also happy to hire the venue to for-profit entities, though that’s not the focus.

The whole layout is pretty spartan at present – well be adding further aspects as time goes on but keeping it simpler makes it easier to customise things when an event is underway.

A big thanks to Encore Design Group for their work on the build – they were consultative and very understanding of the extended development timeframes. A disclosure here: EDG Designs are intermittent advertisers on The Metaverse Journal.

So it’s over to you – comments, questions and debate welcome. And here’s to more Australian community events.

Check it out in-world

Filed Under: Australian News, TMJ Site News, Virtual Worlds

Weekend Whimsy

October 10, 2008 by Leave a Comment

1. SKATEBOARDING FOR REAL IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT

(This is related to the new virtual worlds course offerings at the Australian Film Television and Radio School)

2. Kaneva World Welsh Society Even Bigger

3. surfable waves for second life

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

Reminder: win a copy of the ‘Unofficial Second Life Building Guide’

October 9, 2008 by

A quick reminder that our competition closes at the end of this week.

Please post your comment on the competition thread to be in the running. A big thanks to all those that have already entered – there’s been some great building projects suggested so far.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

A year ago on The Metaverse Journal

October 8, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Early October 2007 was a busy month. We interviewed Australian Second Life resident Wolfie Rankin on furries – it remains one of our most viewed stories.

The Melbourne Laneways build launched on ABC Island in Second Life.

Finally, potential Aussie virtual world Project Outback folded before it got close to public viewing.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual world history, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Second Life – game?

October 7, 2008 by 5 Comments

Second Life - not a game.

Using games in education is a thorny topic. Which games? Which goals? Which outcomes? Which games will warp and twist the minds of our youth, which will contribute to their ongoing development in a positive way?

Games created solely for educational purposes often have their content boiled dry as old bones, all the fun ripped from them in order to create “serious” games. “Fun” in education is often viewed as being suspicious – anything lighthearted or playful is seen as not “serious”. Unfortunately, “serious” has more shades of meaning, that do not involve the concept of fun: serious can mean worthwhile, useful, functional and important – while not excluding fun.

One of the reasons that Second Life gets knocked back as an educational tool is that it is viewed as a game. Second Life is not a game. Second Life contains games, but is not itself a game. Let us examine the reasoning behind these statements, commencing with this definition of “game” by Roger Caillois, via Wikipedia:

A game must be:

  • fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character
  • separate: it is circumscribed in time and place
  • uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable
  • non-productive: participation is not productive
  • governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life
  • fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality

Fun

Second Life contains fun much as it contains games. In the atomic world, fun exists, as does seriousness (for all meanings of the word) – this is also true of digital environments. Digital environments are not fun all the time. However, playfulness and fun are well-supported by digital environments – they lend themselves to lighthearted interaction and creativity more easily than the atomic environment does.

Separate

A game of chess has a finite starting and ending point, It exists in a “game space”, whether that be the physical location, of the game board and pieces, or a mental space in which the player thinks about the game. Second Life does not have a definite beginning or ending, in which people can “play” it. Second Life is continuous – it exists regardless of whether any given user is in the space or not.

Uncertain

An activity that has a guaranteed outcome is not a game. However, an activity that has some degree of uncertainty is not automatically a game. For the most part, it’s about the degree of uncertainty – something that is more uncertain is more likely to be a game. For most non-game activities in Second Life, the degree of uncertainty is similar to that of non-game activities in the atomic world.

Non-productive

pro·duc·tive (pr-dktv, pr-)

adj.

4. Economics Of or involved in the creation of goods and services to produce wealth or value.

Caillois’ definition of productivity, or lack thereof, revolves around the economic definition of the word. Thus, non-productive carries connotations of not making goods or services, not being directly productive. Similarly, un-productive: adding nothing to exchangeable value. Games are more typically only indirectly productive, adding value through increased knowledge and learning. Second Life is productive, directly and indirectly, in the economic sense of the word.

Governed by rules

The rules in Second Life do not differ from the rules in the atomic world, though there are additional rules that cover circumstances that can occur in digital environments that cannot occur in the atomic world, just as any specialist venue in the atomic world might.

Fictitious

Feigned, rather than artificial. A contrivance, the rules of which only work within the system of the game being played. Second Life is an artificial space, or construct, in which real and meaningful interactions can and do occur. The consequences of actions within Second Life have an impact beyond the digital space.

“If you can tell me how real life isn’t a game, I’ll tell you how SL isn’t one.”

Is the game-like digital interface being used, or the use of avatars, or maybe even the hyperbole and misinformation generated by the press, that causes the confusion? Regardless of the cause, it’s long past time to set people’s minds at ease – Second Life is not a game.

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

Virtual Worlds London lineup finalised

October 7, 2008 by Leave a Comment

As mentioned previously, we’re a media partner for Virtual Worlds London. It’s looking like a dynamic get-together, with quite a list of speakers finalised.

Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon is one of the many notables. If I were attending myself, I’d love to ask some questions of Niniane Wang, Google Lively’s Engineering Lead, on how Google perceive Lively’s performance to date. Australia’s own Bruce Joy, CEO of VastPark is on the speakers list as well.

So if you’ve got a spare few thousand dollars and a couple of weeks to go to London – why not register to attend?

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

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

October 6, 2008 by Leave a Comment

1. Fox News (USA) – ‘World of Warcraft’ Gets Kids Interested in School. “t’s not unusual for video game players to speak of a routine that involves ordering pizza, getting a sugar jolt, and then playing “World of Warcraft” for hours. But the person talking in this case is Constance Steinkuehler, an educational researcher who organized an afterschool group for boys to play, for educational purposes, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game.”

2. MarketWatch (USA) – Virtual World ‘Planet Cazmo’ Integrates AllPosters.com Content. “Today Planet Cazmo, http://www.planetcazmo.com, a virtual world that hosts a global audience of ‘tweens and teens, announced a major update which includes integration of ad content from AllPosters.com, the world’s largest online retailer of quality wall decor, with over one million items including posters, prints, and specialty items. Planet Cazmo is one of the first virtual worlds to partner with AllPosters.com — a relationship which gives Cazmo players access to thousands of poster images with which to decorate their virtual rooms.”

3. BBC News (UK) – Future football stars start here. “If you ever had the desire to live the life of a top football player both on and off the pitch but lack the real world ball skills, then Football Superstars might be able to help. The online game combines a football simulation with a virtual world and lets players work their way up towards superstar status, earning money as they go.”

4. ScienceDaily (USA) – Virtual World Offers New Locale For Problem Solving. “Second Life, a virtual world created in 2003, currently boasts more than 12 million users worldwide who go there for everything from college recruiting to shopping. Now, Penn State researchers are investigating how virtual teams can better solve real world problems by collaborating in Second Life. Nathan McNeese, undergraduate, psychology; Gerry Santoro, assistant professor, and Michael McNeese, professor, information sciences and technology and psychology, Penn State; and Mark Pfaff, assistant professor of media arts and sciences, Indiana University-Indianapolis, created an experiment in which students formed teams and were asked to solve a problem, posed by a video, using different meeting styles.”

5. Ottawa Business Journal (Canada) – Living in a virtual world. “It was when he mentioned we could teleport to our next meeting that I got a little skeptical. I’d been chatting with Eilif Trondsen, program director of the Virtual Worlds Consortium for Innovation and Learning at California’s SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. He was in town last week to deliver a series of presentations to Industry Canada, OCRI and the National Research Council on the growing importance of ‘virtual worlds’ (VW) – those quasi-geeky, online simulated realities such as Second Life – in the business world. “The key message is corporations are recognizing that these are technologies they need to understand better,” said Mr. Trondsen, with a distinguishable Scandinavian lilt, just before heading off to the NRC early last week.”

6. Online Media Daily (USA) – HipChicas.com Targets Tween Latinas with Eco-Friendly Virtual World. “Hip Venture Co. is the latest company to enter the crowded virtual worlds market for kids, tweens and teens (KT&T) with the imminent launch of HipChicas.com. But what separates this Flash-based virtual community from some of its competitors is its focus on socially conscious, young Latinas, and its “eco-friendly” stance, differentiators that analysts say may help it stand out from the pack. HipChicas.com members can create and customize avatars and living spaces, as well as purchase items with virtual currency called Hip Change. Girls can chat in English, Spanish, Portuguese or French, with an automatic translator that displays the appropriate language for each user.”

7. io9 (USA) – Real Economist Studies Virtual Economy in EVE Online. “Today’s virtual worlds have their own virtual economies, whether you’re coughing up enough gold to buy an epic mount in World of Warcraft or converting real money to Linden dollars so you can buy realistic genitalia for your Second Life avatar. EVE Online, a sci-fi online game of space warfare and commerce, may have the deepest, most complex virtual economy in the world. It’s so deep, in fact, that EVE Online has a chief economist, Eyjolfur Guomundsson. What do real economists think of fake economies?”

8. The Guardian (UK) – We’ll all be citizens of virtual worlds. “Most people still look askance if you admit to using virtual worlds where you move around with an avatar or 3D version of yourself. It recalls the technophobic reactions in the early days of the internet. But attitudes may now change for two reasons. First, children are piling into their own virtual worlds, so their parents can get a glimpse of what it is all about. And second, a huger user base is being created, one that is accustomed to virtual worlds and is ready to trade up to more sophisticated ones as they grow older.”

9. TMCnet (USA) – Vollee Enables Nokia N96 for Second Life Mobile. “Vollee, a 3G streaming services provider, announced support for Nokia (News – Alert) N96, and also its start of sales worldwide. With Nokia’s new model, N96, users can access Second Life, the 3D virtual world platform by Linden Lab. Other than new Nokia N96, other Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, LG and other manufactures models are being supported for access to Second Life as well. In fact, with N96, there are now more than 70 3G handset models supported by the Vollee service.”

10. The Daily Telegraph (UK) – Space travel: The urban spaceman. “Richard Garriott grew up surrounded by astronauts, keeps two Sputniks in his home, and claims to own the Moon. And next week, the British-born video-game pioneer will become the sixth person to make a private flight to the International Space Station. Peter Lyle joins him in Russia as the countdown begins.”

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

The Unofficial Second Life Building Guide – 5 copies up for grabs

October 4, 2008 by 26 Comments

Killer Guides are a well-known e-book producer in the MMO sphere. Their recently launched Second Life Building Guide is a 120-page run through on content creation in Second Life

The review

As a true content creation amateur, I feel I’m well placed to assess the usefulness of the guide for the new builder in Second Life. The building project the guide walks you through is a mansion – not the most intuitive Second Life build but one that involves a lot of key building strategies that you can apply to other creations. The instructions are comprehensive, with lots of screen shots of both the Second Life interface and the outcomes of your work at each step. This was one of the better features for me – being able to see what my work should be looking like at each step. If you’ve ever tried putting Ikea furniture together, you’ll know what I mean.

Being more of a beginner’s guide, sculpted prims are understandably put in the too-hard basket – you’re advised to seek out other options for that. Creating your own textures is another section I gained a lot from – it’s one of many sections that reference Adobe Photoshop, which is superb if you own that application. If not, you may be a little frustrated although most graphics applications have similar tools, so with a little extrapolation you’ll still glean a lot of useful tips.

Other items beside the mansion are covered in some depth. For me a highlight was the clothing tutorial – there’s some nice reinforcement of principles learnt earlier in the book, although again you’ll need Adobe Photoshop to follow the steps in full. Killer Guides have an online resource centre that’s referenced throughout the guide, so there’s plenty of free goodies to add value to the learning experience.

For me, the guide was very useful in getting my head around key concepts that determine success in content creation in Second Life. It’s the sort of publication I would have loved when I did my first experimentations with content (a horrendous ‘freeform’ metallic sculpture was my first effort in late 2006). There are free Second Life tutorials out there for sure, but if you plan on spending some time building in Second Life, the readability and layout of this guide is exemplary. At US$29.95 it’s equivalent to one month’s medium-level tier fees – a worthwhile investment if you’re looking to create content for either personal satisfaction or resale.

The competition

Killer Guides are generously offering five Metaverse Journal Readers the chance to win a copy of the guide. To be in the draw, all you need to do is post a comment at the bottom of this review on what you’d like to build in Second Life if you won the guide. You’ll need to provide a valid email address, which will not be used for anything other than determining the winner of the prize.

Every valid entry (any comment that actually describes what you’d build) will be added to the draw and via a random number generator, a winner will be announced. The competition closes at midnight (AEST) on Sunday 12th October. Winners can expect to receive their prize within five working days or so after that. So comment away!

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds

Weekend Whimsy

October 3, 2008 by Leave a Comment

1. Second Life: You and Me (Lifehouse)

2. Moving Art in ( Second Life )

3. lively dance clubs

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

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