3pointD.com

Alan Levine at Cog Dog Blog has a bone to pick with Flickr. I’d have one too, if I were him. It seems, according to Alan, that a Flickr admin has deemed his screenshots of Second Life to be contravening the site’s Community Guidelines — which they clearly do not — and has shoved his Pro account into the not-for-public-consumption area. His follow-up emails have gotten no response. I’m baffled as to why SL screens should be deemed unworthy, especially when there are so many World of Warcraft screens on Flickr. Game companies are generally fine with making screenshots available for public use, and Second Life expressly grants users the IP rights in their creations, so what’s the problem? Alan appeals for help at his blog, so get in touch with him there if you have any suggestions. I’m blogging it here for that reason, but also because the 3pointD world deserves to have its images given similar respect to those coming out of the real world. The real world will always be more real, make no mistake, but I see no reason to disallow images from the virtual world on a site like Flickr. The social, commercial and other experiences that take place in virtual worlds are no less “real” than the interactions we have in the physical world. Visual recordings of such moments should be able to take their place beside photos from the physicial world on a site like Flickr.

If you travel in virtual worlds, you may know that Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is a big EverQuest II fan. Now the rest of the world will know it as well, when Schilling takes on all comers in a series of virtual duels being held to raise money for the fight against Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. According to a press release, it sounds as if Schilling is getting a new character just for the event, which will see Sony Online Entertainment donate $5 each time Schilling is defeated (up to a maximum $10,000). Does this mean Schilling, an EverQuest veteran, is going to throw his matches for a good cause? The matches will take place June 5-7, during a series between the Yankees and the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium — which makes me wonder whether it will actually be Schilling playing his character, or an SOE stand-in. In any case, it’s probably a good move for Sony and a great way to raise money for a good cause. It sounds like you’ll be able to get into EQII for free during the event here.

The Second Life Future Salon has found a new date for its machinima night after the last one had to be postponed due to a Grid-crashing attack on the virtual world. The event takes places this Thursday, May 25, at 5:00pm SL time, and features SL filmmaker Pierce Portocarrero and Paul Marino, who runs the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences. More details about the event at this link.

The title says it all. PCMag.com articles here and here, product from Immersion Corp.