Archives for November 2010

1. Gizmag (USA) – Play robot moves effortlessly between real and virtual worlds. “In an increasingly tech-centric world, keeping kids interested in learning can be an uphill battle. With teaching that involves play recently attracting some powerful supportive voices, students from MIT’s Media Lab have developed a system which merges technology and play to stimulate young minds. The Playtime Computing system uses infrared emitters and tracking cameras to monitor the position of a special robot within a play area. As the bot disappears into a hole in a panel, it appears to continue its journey into a virtual world projected onto the walls.”

2. Pittsburgh Post Gazette (USA) – IUP website takes archaeology class into a virtual dig. “Indiana University of Pennsylvania has carved out a virtual dig for its archaeology students in Second Life. Second Life is the popular online destination for people who want to socialize, play games or buy and sell stuff in an alternative world. But virtual worlds are also an educational tool whose potential is beginning to be tapped by projects such as IUP’s Archaeology Island in Second Life.”

3. The Huffington Post (USA) – The Next Killer App: Work. “As a technologist, I’m obsessed with searching for the next killer app. Today, there are many companies that are offering amazing services and products that some may deem “killer apps.” What I find interesting is that many of these are aimed at improving our virtual world–becoming a mayor on a social networking site, getting a hole in one or building an empire on a gaming site. It seems so simple when we escape for a few minutes (or hours) from our real world commitments to the fantastic online world we have created! But what about improving our offline “real” world?”

4. New York Times (USA) – In Cybertherapy, Avatars Assist With Healing. “His talk was going just fine until some members of the audience became noticeably restless. A ripple of impatience passed through the several dozen seated listeners, and a few seemed suddenly annoyed; then two men started to talk to each other, ignoring him altogether. “When I saw that, I slowed down and then stopped what I was saying,” said the speaker, a 47-year-old public servant named Gary, who last year took part in an unusual study of social anxiety treatment at the University of Quebec.”

5. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – IDIA Lab City Opens in Blue Mars. “Ball State University’s Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA) announced today the release of IDIA Lab City, a new immersive learning experience powered by Blue Mars, Avatar Reality’s 3 social world platform. Visitors to the new area can virtually tour and examine stunning, realistic recreations of artifacts and artworks in their original historical contexts, including sculptures at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and a centuries old Buddha at a Japanese temple. IDIA’s premiere effort in Blue Mars showcases several examples of recent grant supported research projects. For example, students in IDIA’s Immersive Seminar in Virtual Worlds 3D laser-scanned sculptures in Ball State University’s Museum of Art collection, resulting in accurate and detailed replicas in IDIA’s simulation.”

6. Global Times (China) – Goodbye to 2D. “Chen Zekun looks almost the same as his fifth-grade primary school peers. But when he sits before the computer, his design skills amaze even the most tech savvy adults. The 10-year-old boy’s wildest dreams – from warriors with wings to household robots – come to life on the screen. “I found my son had a talent for 3D design three years ago, by chance,” said Chen Shaoping, who owns a computer graphic production house in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province. “He became interested when he saw one of our designers work on 3D design, and then taught himself.” The boy spends most of his free time creating his own virtual worlds. “I also like playing games such as World of Warcraft,” he said. “But it’s more interesting to create game characters of my own.”

7. Dr Dobb’s (USA) – In Silicon No One Can Hear You Scream. “In his book of TV reviews The Crystal Bucket, Clive James writes of David Attenborough: “It is a lucky break that the presenter looks normal, because some of the life-forms he is presenting look as abnormal as the mind can stand. To Attenborough all that lives is beautiful: he possesses, to a high degree, the quality that Einstein called Einfühlung — the intellectual love for the objects of experience. Few who saw it will forget Attenborough’s smile of ecstasy as he stood, some years ago, knee-deep in a conical mound of Borneo bat-poo. Miles underground, with cockroaches swarming all over him and millions of squeaking bats crapping on his head, he was as radiant as Her Majesty at the races”. How long will it be before such emotions can be inspired by the evolved objects of digital experience? I’ve been looking at Thomas Miconi’s page Evolving Virtual creatures. ”

8. California Literary Review (USA) – Book Review: Fun Inc.: Why Gaming Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century by Tom Chatfield. “In the first few pages of Fun Inc., Tom Chatfield, the Arts and Books editor of the British magazine Prospect, admits that his is “a shamelessly partisan book about video games” because they’ve been an important element throughout his life, and also because “they’re an increasingly central part of both American culture and of an emerging global culture. . . that . . has the power to re-mould the 21st century at least as radically as cinema and television did the 20th.” In a similar effort at honesty and full disclosure, this reviewer is the author of the first memoir on video game addiction, Unplugged: My Journey Into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction, as well as a frequent speaker on gaming culture, social networking, cyberbullying, and video games at medical conferences, schools, and businesses. These facts are especially relevant because the majority of video game aficionados and supporters I encounter tend to be overly vocal, shortsighted, and ineffective in their defenses of their beloved pastime. Chatfield, by contrast, has a clean, compelling writing style, and he is quite reasonable throughout his analysis of both this rapidly growing industry and its profound effects on society. While he can get a bit defensive of some justified criticism over video games, that’s fairly easily forgiven since the majority of this book is open-minded, interesting, and insightful.”

9. News Channel 34 (USA) – American Cancer Society of Southern NY Gets Donation from Virtual Community. “Southern Tier HealthLink (STHL), the Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) for the Southern Tier of New York in conjunction with Amaretto Ranch Breedables, has raised over US $64,000 for breast cancer research through its “New York HealthScape Breast Cancer Awareness Center” simulation (sim) in the virtual world of Second Life. STHL on behalf of Amaretto Ranch Breedables will be presenting a check for the proceeds to the Southern Tier Regional Office of the American Cancer Society in the near future. Created in 2003, Second Life is a computer-generated 3D world already home to millions of virtual residents, businesses, universities, non-profit, and health care organizations around the world. While the enhanced graphics and avatar features of Second Life give it a sophisticated “game” feeling, this actually augments its potential as an education tool. In fact, Second Life has generated serious academic research into the impact of virtual interactions and real life communications, team building, and education. Several studies have concluded that the simulated environment is highly effective for interactive learning.”

10. Third Sector (UK) – Digital Campaign of the Week: Homeless Link. “Earlier this year, Homeless Link was one of the lead partners in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, when 500 homeless people designed and created a real garden. The objective was to overcome stereotypes of homeless people and to demonstrate that homeless people have talent. Homeless Link was then given funding from the Gulbenkian Foundation to create a virtual representation of the real garden in Second Life, called the Places of Change Garden, which will be online for the next year. “

1. The Drum (UK) – Psychiatrists drafted in to treat Italian Facebook addicts. “Mamma mia, Italians have emerged have emerged as the world’s biggest social media addicts after a survey by Nielsen indicated that the country has the highest per capita use of Facebook of any nation. Psychologists in the Mediterranean nation have found that addicts are eschewing the real world pleasures of Italy to stay connected to their virtual worlds day and night. Nielsen found that Italy’s 16m Facebook users spend an average of 6hrs and 27min on the site per month, a figure which stood at a mere 15min just seven years ago. Such is the extent of the problem that the Agostino Gemelli clinic in Rome has established a Facebook clinic to treat the condition; it welcomed 150 patients in its first year.”

2. CIO Insight (USA) – Virtual World Training: Give Your Programs a ‘Second Life’. “Since the launch of the groundbreaking Second Life in 2003, “virtual world” training and collaboration tools have become increasingly popular in the modern workplace. These are not simply exercises with “cute” avatars that provide an enjoyable but meaningless distraction for employees. These tools can help you, your senior managers and your work teams to recruit and retain talent, address customer needs, enhance collaboration and perform other “mission-critical” functions. Organizations such as IBM, Cisco, Intel, Michelin, Microsoft and the World Bank are successfully deploying these virtual efforts and getting results, according to the book Training and Collaboration with Virtual Worlds: How to Create Cost-Saving, Efficient, and Engaging Programs.”

3. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – Enterprise Guide to Virtual Worlds released. “The Association of Virtual Worlds has just published the first Business Guide to Virtual Worlds listing over 30 virtual world solutions, vendors, or providers, for businesses and organizations. The Green Book: A Business Guide to Virtual Worlds shows examples of how major brands and companies are currently using virtual worlds to promote or extend their brands and identifies solutions that can be used by enterprises internally to recruit, train, and meet using the newest generation of the Internet—web 3D.”

4. Euro Gamer (UK) – Planet Michael: What would MJ say? “SEE Virtual Worlds is turning Michael Jackson into an MMO – but what would the late, great pop star say if he were alive today? “I think he would be… You know, it’s hard – I don’t want to get caught too much in trying to speak for him, that would be out of taste,” VP of production and development Josh Gordon told Eurogamer. “But I can tell you that we have looked very, very hard at what he presented to the public and what he brought to our world really – to everyone in the world. Our focus is very much on maintaining that vision and not trying to radically diverge from the fantastical world and super-pop iconic stuff that he brought.”

5. World Policy Blog (USA) – Playback: The New Archive, Part IV. “If the future of literary production is increasingly interactive, collaborative, and user-driven, the shape and experience of the future literary archive might be that it could look a lot like the 1993 multi-player first-person shooter video game DOOM. Henry Lowood, co-Principal Investigator of the “Preserving Virtual Worlds” project at Stanford, specializes in the historical documentation of virtual worlds. In his forthcoming essay “Video Capture: Machinima, Documentation, and the History of Virtual Worlds,” he describes how players of the first-person shooter, multi-player Internet-based computer game DOOM participate in a typical culture of game-based replay or demos that both showcase a talented player’s competitive skill set and serve as a tutorial for peers to enhance their own. What is fascinating is that these demos are played from a first person perspective (perfect provenance) and the so-called “perfect capture” of these “in-game recording sessions” achieve not only perfect context and perfectly emulated play without degradation, but are also accessible from remote points of access on Internet. Forever.”

6. Singularity Hub (USA) – Man Sells Virtual Real Estate in Online Game for $635,000! WTF? “How much would you pay for a string of ones and zeroes? How about a string of ones and zeroes that grossed you $200,000 a year? Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs made history by selling virtual property for a reported total of $635,000. Club Neverdie is a virtual asteroid in the online game Entropia. The Entropia Universe is rare among MMORPGs, because it has its own virtual economy that has a fixed exchange rate to the real world. When you make 100 PED (as the Entropia currency is called) you can trade it out for $10 USD at any time, and vice versa. Forbes’ Oliver Chiang did an amazing job researching Jacob’s record level virtual property sale. According to Chiang, using Club Neverdie as a resort destination for thousands of Entropia players, Jon Jacobs was able to make $200k a year in revenue. Get a tour of the virtual space in the video below. With the sale, Jacobs is helping fund even larger virtual projects who’s worth is likely to be valued in the millions. Selling an imaginary playland for hundreds of thousands of dollars sounds crazy, but what’s really insane is how big this phenomenon has already grown.”

7. Today Online (USA) – No Second Chance. “I SPORTED shoulder-length tresses and was dressed in a black trenchcoat – you could very well have mistaken me for a modern-day vampire in the gothic get-up for my avatar in Second Life. This was day six of my second foray into Second Life, which is an Internet-based virtual world developed by United States-based company Linden Lab in 2003. Simply download a free client program called the Viewer onto your computer and you can join Second Life. Residents can socialise, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, as well as travel throughout the virtual world (which residents refer to as “the grid”). Out of curiosity, I joined Second Life three years ago, but my interest soon fizzled out. I revisited it recently, and was surprised to see that the virtual world’s innovation has sputtered since. As I roamed around, I found it empty … and boring.”

8. MarketingProfs (USA) – How to Attract an Audience for Your Virtual Events. “Virtual events have been around for years. So it may come as a surprise to learn that immersive virtual worlds seem to be stagnating while virtual events for the B2B world are experiencing a boom. Part of the reason may be that you don’t need to download software or create complex avatars, or learn how to navigate a complex 3-D environment when leveraging virtual events. There is another trend worth noting, though. Short-lived virtual events, initially designed to help even out a lack of attendance at physical conferences, are rapidly turning into virtual business centers with different venues hosting multiple virtual events.”

9. Gamasutra (USA) – Virtual Economic Theory: How MMOs Really Work. “cally grew out of my somewhat “rantish” review of Final Fantasy XIV. One of the biggest issues that I — and many other commentators — have taken issue with is the way FFXIV handles its in-game economy: the Market Ward system. My intent with this article is to first address the broader issue of virtual economies in MMORPGs in general, and apply those theories to FFXIV to better explain exactly what is wrong with the Market Ward system.”

10. Dissident Voice (USA) – Technology Addiction and Virtual Reality. “It will be difficult, if not impossible, to bring the U.S. back from the brink of social and economic collapse upon which it is so precariously perched. Our collective inertia is carrying us to the edge of the abyss. Changing course will require a change of consciousness, an awakening. Critical mass must be reached, but we have not even begun contemplating making that immense journey. We should have started long ago. Now it may be too late for us. The American people are brainwashed by prolonged exposure to the corporate media, particularly television, which has a financial stake in keeping them propagandized and in a stupor. The religion of America is buying and selling. Capital is God and everyone and everything is subservient to it. Corporations are people. Money is free speech. Virtual reality has replaced actual reality.”