3pointD.com

Yeah, baby! That’s our reaction to the news that Peter Ludlow — aka Urizenus Sklar in the virtual world of Second Life — has been named one of the ten most influential gamers by no less august a body than MTV.

The Unwelcome Guest: Peter Ludlow. It’s not every day that getting kicked out of an online video game puts you on the front page of The New York Times. But University of Michigan professor Peter Ludlow’s disputably “bad” behavior in “The Sims Online” did just that in January of 2004, after the game’s publisher, Electronic Arts, revoked Ludlow’s online citizenship. The offense was Ludlow’s publication of a “TSO”-centric newspaper that chronicled creative and sometimes troublesome behavior of other gamers in the world, including allegations that under-age players were involved in virtual-sex-related activities. EA claimed Ludlow’s newspaper violated the terms of service for playing “TSO.” Ludlow quickly took his act to the online world “Second Life,” where he began to rake muck for a new newspaper, “The Second Life Herald.” If you, too, dream of playing a game so sensationally that the game’s creators take notice, then Ludlow is the role model.

Even if sensationalism isn’t your bag, working with Uri can do wonders for your understanding of the virtual world, as I wrote recently in the Herald (while advertising for an editor to come on-board and help me run the place). He was one of the first writers to view life in virtual worlds as merely an extension of life in the physical world, and to report about it as just that, rather than as a fantasy life. His retirement has slowed the Herald somewhat, but I’m still hoping the next generation of virtual muckraker will come along and take up the torch. (I’ve gotten some good applications, but I’m still open to more.) Meanwhile, congratulations to Peter! The virtual world needs more watchdog journalists like him.