Archives for 2011

1. Vancouver Sun (Canada) – SEE Virtual Worldsâ„¢ Purchases Virtual Property from MindArk for $6 Million USD. “SEE Virtual Worldsâ„¢, an entertainment company developing a virtual reality universe of connected planets tied to licensed franchises, and MindArk, the company behind the virtual 3D environment Entropia Universe, today announced SEE Virtual Worlds has procured the rights to Planet Calypso, the first planet in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) Entropia Universe, for $6 million USD. Taking place in a distant future, Planet Calypso is home to a human colony working to establish a new virtual civilization. The planet has been successfully running since 2003 with more than 950,000 registered accounts from 200 countries and territories with $428 million USD processed in player-to-player transactions in 2010. Additionally, SEE Virtual Worlds’ has acquired the assets of First Planet Company, a subsidiary of MindArk.”

2. Tolerance (Canada) – Video Games – Virtual Worlds Not So Far From Our Own. “During my winter holidays this past December, I visited friends who had just received the Nintendo Wii for Christmas. At first I made fun of them – grown adults playing games after all! But after a few days of watching them play, I was intrigued and had to try this out to see what the big deal was about. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed myself. That winter morning, as I simulated playing tennis and boxing, I realized that I was quite good at it. Moreover, it was great exercise, and even an interactive activity, since I was playing against my friend. This was quite a revelation for me – as an adult female who just doesn’t “do” video games. ”

3. Digital Spy (UK) – Power Up!: The Gamification of Life. “In As You Like It, the great bard William Shakespeare famously penned: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” But in the modern world, that would possibly read more suitably as “all the world’s a game, and all the men, women and children merely players”. In just 40 years, the video games industry has grown from a niche world of bedroom enthusiasts to a multi-billion-dollar behemoth, snapping at the heels of the traditional entertainment industries, both financially and creatively. Perhaps gaming’s most incredible feat, though, is to extend its tentacles into everyday life via an intriguing phenomenon known as gamification – the application of gaming principles to work, education and day-to-day existence. Digital Spy investigates the growing groundswell of support for gamification and asks what dangers there may be in making life one big game.”

4. Detroit Free Press (USA) – At $1 a square, people get to use imagination. “Jerry Paffendorf has taken the popular concept of virtual worlds – where you can be anything or anyone you want to be on the Internet – and given it real roots in Detroit. For seven months, Paffendorf has been selling square-inch-sized pieces of land in the city for a $1 a square inch. Now, he has sold out of inches. This spring, he plans to put down the grid, so buyers or “inchvestors” from as far as Australia can do what they want with their tiny property. “If you can stretch your imagination … this small space can be as big as you want, ” said Paffendorf, 28, who moved to Detroit in January.”

5. The Independent (UK) – Reality is Broken, By Jane McGonigal. “Engaging with the argument that gamers are our future feels a bit like a game itself. It’s one in which I pit my wits against the California-based alternative-reality guru and academic Jane McGonigal and her characters, the Super-Empowered Hopeful Individuals, while she tries to slay my avatar, the cynical layman reared on English circumspection and gloom. It might not quite be Mortal Kombat, but McGonigal’s treatise is an epic read and, as a non-gamer, I am a prime target. The book describes the kind of experience gamers get from virtual worlds, such as that of the interstellar wargame saga Halo, and the all-encompassing, inclusive feeling that people need from real life. That they aren’t getting the latter is in part, the author believes, because of a focus on extrinsic rewards that promote an inward spiral of unhappiness.”

6. Los Angeles Times (USA) – Significant layoffs at Disney’s Interactive Group. “Disney Interactive Media Group laid off a “sizable” number of employees Monday as part of a restructuring of the money-losing digital unit, according to people with knowledge of the situation. It is unclear exactly how many people have lost their jobs in the reorganization. Cuts include “minimal” job reductions at Junction Point Studios in Austin, Texas, the development group within Disney Interactive that created the top-selling Epic Mickey video game, a company spokeswoman said. She declined to say how many employees were let go at Disney Interactive’s eight development studios, or how many people work for the digital group.”

7. Minnesota Daily (USA) – From EverQuest to Afghanistan: Army, U teach teamwork. “When she started analyzing video games three years ago, Kyong Shim wasn’t taken very seriously. People questioned the idea of learning from the games. Now the U.S. Army is on board and is one of many groups looking to use the massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMPORG) research to advance training for soldiers. The Army will use the teamwork aspect of MMORPGs to improve communication and work toward a common goal, said Shim, a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota.”

8. Mother Jones (USA) – Wii Shall Overcome. “In February 2010, Jane McGonigal completed another level in her quest to become America’s new guru of gaming. She delivered a talk at TED, the annual California conference that’s an obligatory stop for anyone peddling a Big Idea, from Al Gore to Bill Gates to David Byrne. McGonigal’s was that video games can fix the planet’s toughest problems. It’s a bold, appealing proposition: Game-addled kids, who spend an average of more than 10,000 hours fiddling with consoles and controllers before they turn 21, could wind up stopping climate change with their PlayStations!”

9. Search Engine Watch (USA) – Beast Wars: The Bunny People vs. The Horse People. “Often, people tend to doubt that there’s real money at stake selling virtual goods. Despite estimates that virtual goods will become a $10 billion industry this year, it often seems fantastic that people are willing to spend real money on products that don’t exist in the physical world. But they do. Just like in any other business involving real money, there are real lawsuits involved. In this case, we have something that sounds almost ludicrous: the Bunny People (a.k.a. Ozimals) vs. the Horse People (a.k.a. Amaretto). To date, the battle still rages on. But as silly as this might sound it’s really only about what any other civil lawsuit is about: money. Very real money.”

10. The Epoch Times (USA) – New Video Games Played With Living Organisms (Video). “A new discovery could make “Tron”-like battle grids a reality for unwitting microorganisms, with the unveiling of “biotic games” in the journal, The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Games include remakes of classics like “Pac-Man” and “Pong,” only they’re played with living, swimming microorganisms, complete with a hand-held controller. Developing the games borders on scientific research. “The details of biological systems are not completely understood, hence the realism is limited by the game designers knowledge,” states the report.”

1. Signal Connections (USA) – Game On for NATO Virtual Training. “NATO’s innovative arm, the Allied Command Transformation (ACT), demonstrated a new way to improve the alliance’s military effectiveness using virtual worlds. Developers from the command presented a game called Boarders Ahoy! at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), and the program received the People’s Choice Award for the Best Serious Game. I/ITSEC is a venue for showcasing cutting-edge games for business, government and academia. Developers were challenged to create technologically sound programs that solve problems and provide users with a rewarding experience. The top 12 games, including Boarders Ahoy!, were presented to conference attendees and evaluated based on problem solving, technical quality, and playability and enjoyment.”

2. Department of Defense (USA) – ‘Virtual World’ Helps With Post-traumatic Stress. “The Defense Department is using virtual-world interactivity to educate and help warfighters and others who are reluctant to seek more direct care to deal with post-traumatic stress, said an official at the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, also known as “T2.” The welcome center for the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, based in the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life. This immersive, interactive learning activity is a public site designed for warfighters and their families. It educates visitors about combat-related post-traumatic stress and offers resources for seeking help. During a recent telephone briefing from the center’s headquarters at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Wash., Greg Reger — a clinical psychologist and acting chief of the center’s innovative technology applications division — said the kinds of immersive experiences available in virtual worlds, such as the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life, are designed to appeal to tech-savvy service members and their families.”

3. The State Press (USA) – Professors hold class in ‘World of Warcraft’. “Instead of logging onto Blackboard to complete homework this spring, students in one class will enter the “World of Warcraft” and “Second Life” to study the culture of online virtual environments. “Discourses, Community, and Power in Virtual Worlds,” or ENG 654, is open to students of all majors and interests. The course intends to adapt to an increasingly technological environment. “We want them to get the experience of playing together with different characters that have to take on different roles to really get an experiential sense of how complex game play is in that environment,” said English professor Elisabeth Hayes, who will teach the class with law professor John McKnight.”

4. WoW Insider (USA) – The Lawbringer: The lessons of globalization and gold farming. “Back in 2008, I wrote an article for The Escapist titled Crossing Boundaries, a piece all about globalization as the greatest issue facing video game developers and producers at the time. Guess what, ladies and gentlemen? It’s 2011, and globalization still takes the top spot as the prime issue challenging video game development and production. Rather than rewrite an article on the effects of globalization and the problems the phenomenon causes for the video game industry at large, I thought it might be fun to use globalization as a rubric for discussing the very global industry of gold farming, especially when it comes to the legal nature of things, whatever things may be. We will talk about the lack of predictability in the global market, gold farming as globalization, and the problems with fighting the good fight against the grey market. Won’t you join me?”

5. St Louis Today (USA) – Our love affair with technology is one-sided. “One of our most intimate relationships is often our most unexamined. In a book for anyone who has compulsively checked a Facebook page, felt tethered to a phone, spent hours online that passed like minutes, Sherry Turkle has taken apart our affair with technology and shown us how one-sided the love really is. Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology at MIT and founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, is also a clinical psychologist. This book, a result of 15 years of research with children, robots, digital pets, teens, social networks, adults and virtual worlds, is beautifully written; the prose clear and accessible, but also poignant and moving.”

6. TechNewsWorld (USA) – Study: One in 10 Young Gamers Could Become Pathological Addicts. “rantic parents concerned about their children’s digital habits have found a new ally in the form of a study by U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore researchers, published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics. Roughly 10 percent of young video gamers suffer a pathological addiction to their games, the research team found. “We aimed to measure the prevalence and length of the problem of pathological video gaming or Internet use, to identify risk and protective factors, and to identify outcomes for individuals who become or stop being pathological gamers,” explained study co-author Albert Liau, Ph.D., a psychology researcher at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.”

7. The Parthenon (USA) – Marshall engineering professors use new 3-D technology. “The Power Wall: a 10x17ft 3-D projection screen four times more powerful than an HD TV. It may come as a surprise, but this technology can be found in Marshall University’s Engineering building. Professors of engineering are using the power wall along with the organic motion stage markerless motion capture system to develop technology that will allow people to create and manipulate avatars without the use of markers on their body.”

8. ABC Technology (Australia) – MMO Games, your boss and succeeding at work. “For many people, politics, corporate strategy and philosophy are the sort of topics that lead to thoughts of using a cheese-grater on an inner thigh. If you’re a cubicle jockey in an office, or someone questioning their existence in the meatspace, then Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games like World of Warcraft, Everquest and Guild Wars may be able to help. For the sake of this discussion and because most of my experience comes from WoW, I’ll be mentioning it specifically – but it’s only one of many options.”

9. Mashable (USA) – Why Video Games Are Scoring Big for Social Good. “Cultural historian Johan Huizinga suggested that play and games have always been learning tools, key to the development of culture and civilization. Today, as the multi-billion dollar gaming industry continues to soar and begins to embrace social good integration, Huizinga’s theory reigns true. From FarmVille calling on players to support Haiti to an onslaught of environmental, educational, and corporate social responsibility initiatives being driven by games, the fastest growing segment of entertainment is evolving into a new force of digital activism and facilitating social change.”

10. Xconomy (USA) – Say Hello to My Avatar: Bob Metcalfe Gives First UT Innovation Lecture Using Avaya Web Interface. “Internet tycoon Bob Metcalfe, who recently moved from Boston, is giving his first lecture as professor of innovation at the University of Texas at Austin this afternoon. I don’t know exactly what he plans to say, but what’s particularly interesting is how he’s delivering the talk—to more than just the people in the room, through a virtual collaboration interface from Avaya, the New Jersey-based business communications firm. The technology is being led by an Avaya group with a strong presence in Boston. Metcalfe, the inventor of the Ethernet local-area networking standard, founder of 3Com, and partner at Polaris Venture Partners, moved to Austin for the faculty job earlier this month. He has been a mainstay of the Boston innovation scene for the past couple of decades.”