Second Life developer Linden Lab has acquired the experimental game studio LittleTextPeople, which specializes in exploring the emotional possibilities of interactive fiction. This marks the first acquisition for Linden Lab since former Sims developer Rod Humble took over as CEO in 2010, and falls in line with the comapny's new strategy to experiment with game design and develop products beyond Second Life. LittleTextPeople, founded by writer Emily Short and Maxis veteran Richard Evans, has so far focused on the development of software that replicates complex social interaction. For instance, among its internal technology is a simulator that models social behavior and individual personalities.
Credit card thieves have figured out a way to steal money from OpenSim grid owners. They take the credit cards, and use them to purchase virtual currency from the grids. Then they turn around and redeem the currency for cash before the card holder notices the theft and complains. The credit card company reverses the transaction and now the grid is out the full amount — plus the time spent dealing with the issue. Any grid that issues its own virtual currency and allows it to be redeemed is potentially vulnerable. Second Life, for example, to combat against this kind of fraud, has a security API in place for third-parties that trade its currency, such as outside currency exchanges, as well as internal controls.
While the nature of the firm has long been established as the dominant form of organizing for value creation, emergent forms of organizing such as the private-collective community model have recently gained attention from researchers and practitioners. Little is known about how such communities, where private goods from stakeholders are shared and freely distributed among a public collective, sustain themselves. The purpose of this research is to examine how the resources, stakeholders, and overarching network structure in which these are embedded influence the sustainability of the community. Using semi-structured interviews, archival data, and social network analysis, we explore these items in detail and provide initial findings from an ongoing research study of the OpenSim community. We conclude with future directions, expected contributions, and the limitations of this line of research.
Creating the pattern for a new dress design can be fiddly, so Amy Wibowo at the University of Tokyo, Japan, is using augmented reality to make it simpler. "The idea is to make it easy for people to design clothes," says Wibowo. Usually you have to choose set patterns, which is limiting, she says. What's particularly difficult is working out what 2D shapes are needed in order to achieve a particular 3D design. Her approach, called DressUp, gets round this by using "flattening" algorithms to work out the best shaped patterns to achieve the 3D design. Then you just print it out and cut around the patterns in the material of your choice, she says.
If I were to make a list of the top three things that are responsible for Second Life being as great as it is – and that is exactly what I’m doing today – it would read equally well as a list of things that hold Second Life back.
In Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel, Snow Crash,[1] humans battle each other as avatars in the “Metaverse,” the collective product of online shared three‑dimensional space.[2] While Stephenson's “Metaverse,” created by all virtual worlds as an augmented and enhanced physical reality and a physically persistent virtual space, does not exist today, millions of humans each year spend hours of their daily lives immersed in a three‑dimensional virtual world, fighting world wars, battling mythical creatures, living fantastic lives or running virtual businesses. Simply put, Stephenson’s science fiction view of future commerce in the Metaverse has become reality. As Stephenson envisioned, intellectual property is an important part of the virtual landscape. The current role of intellectual property in virtual reality demonstrates the promise and problematic nature of this new and different business world. This article will highlight some of the concerns and complexities that have been raised by recent cases of note regarding protecting one's intellectual property in virtual worlds.[3] Recent cases, involving such diverse subjects as virtual art galleries,[4] sex toys,[5] stun guns,[6] strip clubs,[7] horses and bunnies,[8] and furniture,[9] highlight the legal issues and differences between virtual reality and real-life infringement cases. A review of these cases gives one insights with respect to protecting intellectual property assets in the world of avatars.
As popular as social networking portal Facebook is these days, no amount of apps and widgets can remove the limitation of Facebook being a website. There are limited ways in how Facebook users can interact with each other as opposed to individuals who reside in multiuser virtual environments like Second Life. Shared space, collaborative environment, and room for user created content all facilitate creativity at the individual and group level that for Ward and Sonneborn (2011), researchers at University of Alabama and Syracuse University, is worth taking a peek at in order to further our understanding about the nature of creativity.
One of the new functions in upcoming 3DS love-sim New Love Plus is something called Dokodemo Date, or Date Anywhere. This augmented-reality (AR) feature takes a photo of your physical surroundings with the 3DS’s back-facing lenses, analyses the data, before inserting your chosen virtual girlfriend right into the shot, where they’ll animate and play around in 3D space.
InWorldz has now reached a big milestone hitting the 50, 000 total registered users mark. Congratulations to InWorldz and this is now another giant leap for InWorldz. This is really exciting and... Via Mal Burns
On January 12, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an exciting new 3D GUI for iOS mobile devices. The new UI will work with proximity sensor arrays and will respond to hovering gestures. The Crazy Ones in Cupertino have been working on advanced 3D GUIs for some time now. We first learned of a major 3D GUI project back in 2009 that involved using head tracking technology. Then in early 2010 we learned of Apple's first project relating to a 3D GUI for iOS devices. Later that year Apple 3D multifunctional widgets and over time revealed advanced 3D and hovering based gesturing for CAD users on an iPad. With twenty times the GPU power coming to iOS devices over the next year, Apple appears to paving the way for a new 3D GUI for mobile devices in the not-too-distant future.
The following is a selection from the Press Release surrounding the court's ruling that Bethesda (makers of Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls series) and ZeniMax Media have reclaimed sole rights to create a Fallout IP MMO. No longer will Interplay be able to create an online game based on the Fallout IP, as that right now exclusively lies in ZeniMax and Bethesda's hands. Whether that means we'll actually be seeing a Bethesda Fallout Online anytime real soon is another story, but come on... that's kind of the point, right?
Game fundings destroyed the record book for fundings this year as 145 companies raised more than $1.540 billion in 2011, not counting initial public offerings. In 2011, games took center stage. Game investment changed fundamentally during the year, as investors shifted their money into social, mobile and online games as they chased after users who were embracing the newest platforms for games. The total game investment number is up more than 47 percent from the $1.05 billion raised by 91 companies a year ago, based on VentureBeat’s own research. By comparison, 115 game companies raised a total of $663.1 million in 2009. And in 2008, 112 game companies raised $936.8 million.
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Australian gamers can expect to have an R18+ classification for games by January 1, 2013, according to the federal government. Federal Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare today introduced the R18+ bill in parliament and announced the federal government expects the R18+ for games legislation to officially come into effect next year. Last month, Clare announced his intention to stick to former Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor's previous plans in introducing the R18+ legislation in the February 2012 session of parliament. Clare has stayed true to this plan, officially introducing the R18+ for games bill in parliament today.
28 Australian higher education institutions released a joint paper at the ascilite 2011 Conference between the 4th-7th of December at the University of Tasmania in Hobart. The paper, titled, "How are Australian higher education institutions contributing to change through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds?", was a landmark event bringing together all these institutions and was made possible in part by the close cooperation forged among Australian institutions of higher learning via the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group.
Contact lenses which focus 3D screens directly into people's eyeballs could be on sale as early as 2014, says U.S. company Innovega.
Course teaches journalists in a virtual world how to cover disasters and crises in the real world... Via Mal Burns
The clock is chiming, and kids (and the young at heart) everywhere are asking for just a little more time with LEGO Universe. Unfortunately the struggling MMO has gotten no reprieve from the imaginary video game governor, and its servers will go offline tonight at midnight EST.
Games are increasingly seen as a way to address human needs, from the intimate work of maintaining social relationships to the pragmatic benefits of games for learning, health, and social change. If we hope to design games that address these needs, we must understand how people create meaning with, through, and around games. How do specific game design decisions impact the way players think, feel, and behave? What kinds of imaginative and social affordances can games provide players? And what kinds of problems are most appropriate to solve with games in the first place? This talk explores the complex interaction between game design, user experience, and real-world problems through the lens of game-based research projects on discrimination, smoking, and history.
Today, Hamlet Au wrote a column suggesting that the OpenSim user base is shrinking — and used Hypergrid Business numbers to support his position. The short answer to his question is: No, OpenSim usage is not falling, and the numbers do not support this. In fact, it is growing quite well. The reason being — the numbers Au is citing aren’t the full numbers, not even for the top 40 largest grids. In particular, InWorldz has only released its active user numbers once, last month, when it was at 4,500 active users. And New World Grid, one of the largest grids, stopped reporting active user numbers this fall. Assuming that both have been growing steadily, in line with the growth on other grids — and in line with their region growth — that would show a very different picture.
It is hard to know what is happening with user numbers in Second Life. From my empirical experience I would say they are growing because I meet so many new people now, but it is hard to find real numbers to back up that opinion. What I do think is coming clear is the nature of OpenSim and the reasons for the popularity of Second Life.
Robin Teigland, Paul Di Gangi, and Zeynep Yetis recently finished an academic paper based on their research of the OpenSim Community. Below is the abstract. If you have any questions about their research, please do not hesistate to contact them. Setting the Stage: Exploring Sustainability of a Private-collective Community
Online shoppers may be able to buy clothes in their pajamas, but they never know just how well those purchases will actually fit. That problem may soon be history — thanks to a breakthrough piece of augmented reality technology from Bodymetrics. The company has partnered with PrimeSense on a 3D body-mapping product to be revealed this week at CES 2012. The product uses PrimeSense 3D sensors, much like those used for Microsoft Kinect, to scan a user’s height and waist size, as well as the other shapes and curves that make a body unique. After creating an account, users will be able to virtually try on clothes from partner retailers to get a true sense of how potential purchases fit. The 3D body-mapping will be available for preview at CES, but Bodymetrics is still fine-tuning its business model — including its final price, which the company said will be approximately $150.
Libraries, librarians and library associations have historically been some of the most active nonprofit groups in Second Life, establishing an entire archipelago of library-related islands during their heyday. The American Library Association is one of the most prestigious and well-known library associations, and so their island closing is a major loss to the virtual world. See their blog for some history and background on ALA's activities in Second Life. We'll approach them for a comment on why they decided to close the island after all these years.
The OMC, or Open Metaverse Currency, is a virtual currency from Austria-based VirWoX that can be used to buy and sell virtual goods on OpenSim grids. The OMC is fully convertible, and can be bought and sold for US dollars, British pounds, Euros, and Swiss francs, and can also be traded for Second Life ‘s Linden dollars. The OMC has an exchange rate of around 270 OMC to US $1. The OMC isn’t transferred from grid to grid — instead, it’s kept in an online VirWoX account, requiring each transaction made inside a virtual world to be verified on their website. The status bar on the top of the viewers will show your current OMC currency balance if you are on an OMC enabled grid. A recent innovation — Pocket Money — allows hypergrid travelers to keep a portion of their balance in a fast-access account, allowing in-world purchases to be made without a second confirmation step.
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