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Guest #388

DutchPIPE is a new (alpha-version) free system for creating “Persistent Interactive Page Environments.” The sytem uses DOM, XHTML, Javascript, PHP and AJAX, and is built on an abstract, object-oriented architecture similar to the LPMuds of the late 1980s. While it’s hard to get an idea from the Web site of just what DutchPIPE will be capable of, the site proposes uses including eCommerce, social software and the construction of virtual worlds. There’s some hint that it might become interoperable with other virtual worlds, or that user-owned, DutchPIPE-built spaces would be able to connect to one another. Basically it sounds like an open-source, distributed version of MySpace with perhaps a bit more functionality. This could be an interesting thing to have around, if it were to catch on. Hard to tell at the moment whether DutchPIPE will be it, though. Graphics look pretty limited, but I did find it notable that as soon as I got to the page and became Guest #388 I was assigned an avatar that wore glasses, favored neckties and was blessed with unruly hair (though of a different color), just as I am in real life. Now that’s impressive functionality. [Via vgs-rss.]

TotalVideoGames.com has an interesting feature up today on Multiverse, the third-party development platform for massively multiplayer online games. While it doesn’t have all that much new to say, there is an interesting passage toward the end of the piece in which it’s pointed out that Multiverse’s flagship project, Kothuria (currently in closed beta), is planned as “the first moddable MMOG,” and will be available to developers for free. Users will be able to host their own versions of the game and tweak the mechanics — or anything else, for that matter — as they see fit. If this works, it should make the universe of MMOs a much more interesting place. MMO game design could arguably benefit from a more open-source approach, and releasing a moddable MMO is one way to spur thatkind of development. And from a gamer’s perspective (this gamer’s perspective, at any rate), Kothuria sounds like a pretty interesting game: (more…)

Just got off the phone with Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab (creators of Second Life, who tells me that LL will soon start regular releases of select economic data about its virtual world. The first such release is to come later today, in conjunction with the recent change to the SL economy that removes cash payments to popular locations. Among the figures LL is currently looking at:

Money supply is growing at a rate of something like 6 percent a month or perhaps a bit more.

Land mass is growing at around 10 percent a month. (There are currently 2,262 “sims” for a total of about 141 square km. of virtual real estate.)

Population growth, of course, is huge, with more than 185,000 members at the moment. Just a year ago, SL’s population was in the range of only 28,000.

The Electric Sheep Company (anchor sponsor of this blog) sends word of the grand opening of the New Media Consortium’s campus in Second Life (built by the Sheep), which is slated for this Thursday, April 20, from 4:00-10:00pm Eastern time. The NMC bills itself as “a not-for-profit consortium of nearly 200 leading colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.” Events will include building demonstrations, dance parties, an Electric Sheep Q&A panel and tours of NMC’s island. Space is limited, so to reserve a spot, send an email with your SL name to johnson [AT] nmc [DOT] org or send an in-world IM to Larry Pixel or Ninmah Ash. A TeamSpeak server is also being set up to support the event in voice. [UPDATE: Grab this PDF for more details.]

Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, made an announcement yesterday about a change in the virtual world’s economy. No longer will LL make cash awards to property owners based on the amount of traffic their parcels see each month. Because of the particular way the SL economy works, this amounts to a significant change, something akin to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank raising a key interest rate by half a percentage point or so. For LL, it’s a step in the right direction, moving the world toward a more liberal open-market economy, and should help foster the kind of development LL would like to see there. The question now is whether LL is ready to go as far as will be necessary, in terms of transparency and fiscal responsibility, to make its world truly robust. (more…)