3pointD.com

The 3pointD meetup we’ve been planning to hold in the virtual world of Second Life on October 22 (at 5:00pm SL time) is beginning to take shape. There have been plenty of great comments on the various aspects of metaversal sustainability that we could discuss, and at least 15 people have RSVP’d. (If you’re interested in attending, please leave your SL name in the comments here, or Instant Message me in-world.) The meetup will take place in the new Dirty sim that 3pointD is now occupying along with Johnny Ming and a few other similarly nefarious types, so we should have room for plenty of flapping gums. I’ve given a bit more thought to what / how we might discuss, and how to end up with some material we can post on 3pointD for all the world to ponder, all of which you’ll find after the jump. (more…)

More EVE fun: My love of the massively multiplayer space opera EVE Online is such that I am a subscriber to the game’s quarterly print magazine, EON, where I recently read that EVE player Syri Dominus has created a simple Connect Four game that’s playable in the in-game browser players can view while playing EVE. The browser, which supports limited html (a dev guide is available from this dmoz page), already has a number of player-developed pages flogging services or giving access to killboards. There’s even an in-game casino. Now, if you launch EVE and navigate over to Syri’s Connect Four site, you can play against a live opponent within the game. No one was waiting for a match when I was on, so the screenshot above only shows the initial set-up (and my handsome Rifter), but it’s a very nice job, and the kind of thing that makes predictions of a World of Warcraft operating system seem not quite so outlandish.

For a great picture of just how involved things can get in the massively multiplayer space opera EVE Online, read this epic forum post, which narrates a three-week long campaign on the part of one of the game’s better known mercenary corporations. Hired to take down a corp called Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate, the mercs lay their plans under cover of nearby hostilities, spend almost two weeks gathering their forces, and finally launch an assault that takes the enemy by complete surprise. I won’t ruin the ending, I’ll just say it’s well worth a read, chock full of links to screenshots, other forum posts and even some video. A great look at some of the game’s best (and worst) moments, which also really makes you understand just how important the human element is here. Nice writing by Seleene (pictured above), CEO of the Body Count Inc. corporation, a member of the Mercenary Coalition alliance. (more…)