1. San Francisco Chronicle (USA) – FTC: Explicit Virtual world content easy for minors to see. “The Federal Trade Commission today said minors can access explicit sexual and vilolent content in 70% of the virtual worlds it reviewed in a congressionally mandated report and urged virtual world operators to make key enhancements aimed at reducing the risk of youth exposure to such content. The report, The Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks, looked at 27 online virtual worlds — such as Poptropica, Runescape and Zwinktopia — divided among those specifically intended for young children, teens and those intended only for adults. The FTC found at least one instance of either sexually or violently explicit content in 19 of the 27 worlds and observed a heavy amount of explicit content in five of the virtual worlds studied.”
2. Defence Systems (USA) – Second Life demonstrates mingling of real and virtual worlds. “While the public version of the Second Life virtual world remains primarily a playground for self expression and social networking, military and government agencies are taking a more serious look at its practical applications now that its maker, Linden Lab, has created a version of the environment that can be run behind a firewall on private servers. But Second Life is only one of several environments for creating what are sometimes called 3-D Internet experiences. Like Virtual Battle Space 2, Second Life made cameo appearances at several booths around the show floor at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference in Orlando, Fla., this week.”
3. Crispy Gamer (USA) – Buying Influence: how anti-healthcare reformists use virtual currency. “How much is your voice worth as a United States citizen? 100 virtual coins or a fake hat in your favorite virtual world? And are social game users willing to do anything to earn such things to get ahead in their favorite games? These are the questions being asked as real-world political positions and influence are being purchased by fake dollars and intangible baubles in virtual worlds. The story begins with a trade group representing the health insurance industry that is using a third-party offer in some social network games and virtual worlds to send letters to congress expressing opposition to President Obama’s health care plan, according to a report in Inside Silicon Valley. This questionable third-party offer came to light when a company called OMGPOP tipped the publication off, providing it with a screenshot of the offer in progress.”
4. TechCrunch Europe (Germany) – Twinity’s virtual London opens for business. “Twinity, the virtual world that mirrors the real world, has finally launched a beta of virtual London. And if mirroring the real world includes replicating London’s reputation for delayed construction works, then Berlin-based Metaversum, the company behind Twinity, is doing just fine. The virtual world, which distinguishes itself from the likes of Second Life by building exact replicas of well known cities, launched back in 2006 and while London was always planned to follow Berlin and Singapore, it feels like it’s been a long time coming. And tough luck if you are on a Mac – the 3D browser only supports Windows XP and Vista.”
5. WoW.com (USA) – How the WoW community is about to push the self-destruct button. “This post is going to be very meta in some regards, and it’s going to touch on a few things that deal with the WoW community’s very existence. We’ve wrote this article in hopes that it might help calm the waters, or at least bring some will on the part of the multitudes of individuals not to jump on the wrong bandwagon. If you’ve been paying attention to the role forums and the “Ghostcrawler drama” this past week, you know what I’m talking about. If not, we’ll begin with a brief rundown.”
6. The Guardian (UK) – Gamesblog Christmas Book Corner. “We’re rarely sent videogame-related books for review, which is shame as I’m always happy to cover them on the blog – especially when they’re rather esoteric and intellectual, thereby providing raw material for some of my more, erm, ‘conceptual’ postings (i.e. pretty much anything through the slow summer months). Anyway, The MIT Press has sent over two books that I’m currently reading simultaneously, and they’re both worth a look if you’re interested in reasonably heavyweight game theory.”
7. The Toronto Star (Canada) – Avatar: James Cameron’s new world. “In science fiction, they call it “world building” – the long, often-exhausting process of imagining not just a story but the whole vast new environment it takes place in. James Cameron had Pandora, the world filmgoers will visit this week when they rush to see Avatar, in his head for two decades – but it was Peter Jackson who showed him that it could be brought to life.”
8. NPR (USA) – In Which Virtual World Will You Choose To Spend What’s Left Of Eternity? “You won’t read about it in the headlines, but deep in the high-tech corporate campus of the Research Triangle Park, in Durham, North Carolina, desperate refugees fight for survival against mutant cannibals in a dystopian wasteland where civilization is just a dim memory. No, it’s not a hyperbolic recession metaphor (at least not exclusively), it’s Fallen Earth, the post-apocalyptic virtual world created and maintained by RTP game company Icarus Studios. Fallen Earth, you see, is a video game — one in which thousands of players play simultaneously via the Internet and their personal computers.”
9. The Irish Times (Ireland) – Research reveals video games are stimulating to the brain. “PARENTS BUYING video games this Christmas will draw comfort from new research suggesting that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, they do not turn kids’ brains to mush. Just as the physical activity-based Nintendo Wii console convinced parents that computer games and sloth do not have to go hand in hand, new research suggests that video games stimulate the brain. A multidisciplinary team of neuroscientists at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, has discovered that video games increase brain activity.”
10. The Guardian (UK) – The internet’s dirty carbon secret. “We’ve been told about the environmental costs of motoring, industrial farming, long-haul flights, big oil, deforestation in the Amazon and buying sweat-shop produced, throwaway fashion. Some of us have taken this advice on board, cycling more, flying less, choosing renewable energy schemes, and seeking out ethical, organic products. We can make these choices because appliances and cars are rated according to their energy consumption, and Fairtrade or organic products have prominently displayed certification logos. The information we need to assess whether a service or product is environmentally friendly is either accessible or it’s just common sense – hopping on an aeroplane every weekend is hardly sustainable, after all. But there’s one particular aspect of most of our everyday lives whose environmental consequences are not so well explained: the internet and online activities.”
Speak Your Mind