1. Information Week (USA) – Design Your Own Board Game With The Game Crafter. “Internet-powered personalization has changed the way products are made and sold. Using various e-commerce sites, individuals can now create and sell products like books, CDs, DVDs, mugs, posters, stamps, T-shirts, and assorted accessories with only a few digital files and mouse clicks.
The do-it-yourself ethic has also spawned Web sites like Metaplace that allow users to create online virtual worlds, but until this week, aspiring board game makers had to handle game production and assembly on their own.”
2. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – Sex king takes on the hypergrid. “The battle for the future of the 3D Web is about to get hot… and steamy. Utherverse CEO tells us that he’s planning to launch an all-out attack against the other virtual world platforms out there, with free hosting and a set of free building tools designed to attract business customers. His main target is the hypergrid – worlds based on the OpenSim, RealExtend and Second Life platform which all use the OpenLibMetaverse set of communication standards and can all be accessed by the same set of browsers (now numbering over a dozen), and potentially supporting hypergrid teleports.”
3. CNET (USA) – MMPORGs, microtransactions, and user experience. “Microtransactions within online games and social networks offer one possible way to place a value on services while enhancing the experience for users. In addition to online games like Maple Story, virtual goods are launching all over social-networking sites, including Thursday’s launch of PlaySpan’s marketplace on Facebook and MySpace. Funding for virtual worlds has grown dramatically over the last year and companies need to find sustainable revenue models. Transactions of virtual goods allow for new cash flow into both subscription and nonsubscription sites. But some users don’t like the idea that you can simply buy something to affect the game in your favor. Accordingly, games need to be very clear about the purchased goods unfold into the game.”
4. TechCrunch (USA) – PlaySpan Launches Virtual Goods Marketplace On Facebook And MySpace. “Micro-payments across the gaming world is gaining serious traction, especially on social networks. PlaySpan, which powers micro-payments across over 1,000 video games and virtual worlds, is launching marketplace storefronts for Facebook and MySpace (which will be rolled out soon). The marketplace will which let users purchase online game items, virtual goods, and game currencies for online games and applications directly from their social networks. What makes the marketplace interesting is that you can buy, trade, and sell goods within the marketplaces on Facebook and MySpace and then use the items in online game environments. And making a transaction on the marketplace becomes a whole lot more social, as your friends may be able to see it on your NewsFeed. PlaySpan, which recently acquired micro-transaction app developer Spare Change, has processed more than $50 million worth of micro-transactions through its PayByCash and Ultimate Game Card products. PlaySpan also raised $16.8 million in a series B funding last Fall from Easton Capital Group, Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures, and STIC. The startup was founded by a 12-year-old, Arjun Mehta, but it is actually run by his father, CEO and co-founder Karl Mehta.”
5. Virtual Edge (USA) – Forterra the 10 Year Old Start Up Provides Secure 3D Collaboration, Learning & Marketing Solutions. “Forterra Systems, Inc. is a 3D immersive environment for meeting collaboration and marketing that started about 10 years ago as There.com. There.com was one of the first social virtual worlds (teenagers) before Second Life. About 4 years ago, management saw they had a great opportunity for more serious, business uses of the technology so they split into two parts and Forterra Systems was created to go after the business usage of the technology. They launched their Olive products about 2 years ago as a software development kit for the 3D environment. Inherently it’s been a virtual world software platform, really focused mostly on how people can craft collaboration and training applications. But, underneath collaboration, the core areas that they focus on are meetings, events, and training solutions.”
6. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – QuickStat: Korean Market Update. “Market research and consulting firm Pearl Research today teased the game and virtual worlds industries with a number of data points from its recently published “Online Games Market in Korea” study. The stats are worth noting as what is popular, and who is thriving, in Korea — in the online gaming, MMOG, and virtual worlds camps — can sometimes impact the North American market. The top five game operators in Korea in 2008, according to Pearl, were NHN (with revenues up 51 percent year-over-year); NCsoft (revenues up 5 percent year-over-year); Neowiz (revenues up 29 percent year-over-year), CJ Internet (revenues up 21 percent year-over-year); and Nexon. ”
7. ReadWriteWeb (USA) – Cross Reality Will Change Your Life, But at What Cost to Your Privacy? “Yesterday we explored an emerging trend called “Cross Reality”, one term for when sensor networks meet online virtual worlds. As this trend becomes more common over the next few years (and it will, as both Web-connected sensors and virtual reality ramp up), what are the implications on how people use the Web? How will it change our interactions in both real and virtual life? In this post we’ll explore some of these issues and offer some ideas: for example a bookstore that offers you personalized, contextual information on your mobile phone, in real time and with virtual reality.”
8. Computerworld (USA) – Timeline: The evolution of online communities. “In the hyperactive online venues of today, it’s easy to forget that online communities got started back when ABBA was cranking out hits. True, these early efforts didn’t much resemble Facebook or Ning, but they were communities nonetheless. Here’s how online communities have evolved. ”
9. San Francisco Chronicle (USA) – Virtual Relay For Life fundraiser in Second Life. “About 3,000 people will be gathering from around the world Saturday to journey back to the Middle Ages, do the Tour de France, take part in a scavenger hunt or sail a boat — all in the name of charity and all in the virtual world of Second Life. It’s the annual Relay for Life in Second World event, which has already raised more than $236,000 in real-life dollars for the American Cancer Society, says event chairwoman Fayandra Foley. In real world Relays, teams of participants take turns walking around a track or a park to raise money for cancer research. For the Second Life version, the teams made up of about 2,000 volunteers have set up virtual castles and villages to visit, Foley said.”
10. GamingExcellence (USA) – Cities XL PC release date confirmation. “Aiming to re-define the perennially popular city builder video game genre, CITIES XL offers an experience that pushes the limits of scale, realism and sophistication both in solo play and with the vast connected online community in the game’s massively persistent multiplayer ‘Planet’ mode. Online or offline, CITIES XL lets gamers develop cities on realistic 3D maps using a painstakingly crafted collection of unique structures and monuments based on European, Asian and American architectural styles. The numerous maps feature a variety of environments including mountains, hills, canyons, beaches and islands, all set in different climate zones ranging from tropical to desert, Mediterranean to temperate.”
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