3pointD.com

Something else that cropped up while I was away: the news that AOL is launching services in the virtual world of Second Life, described in a Friday article on InfoWorld. Details are few at the moment, but it looks like AOL’s AOL Pointe area within SL will feature “an amphitheater and an extreme sports park, in which the company plans to highlight AOL content and services like AOL Music, Moviefone, TMZ, and Lat34.com.” Given AOL’s enormous audience (AOL.com is at #48 on Alexa’s global top 500) will this mean a flood of new users to Second Life? The company is taking an interesting approach, launching a beta test of its SL site within the next week or so. I haven’t seen this done before; it could be a sensible way for AOL to get its feet wet before they decide whether they want to dive into the virtual world. If they do jump in, look for a big splash. Would Linden Lab’s already over-taxed servers be able to handle it? We’ll see.

No, none of the names in that headline are misspelled. That’s virtual worlds researcher and journalist Aleks Krotoski, who has a nice interview with veteran games designer Raph Koster about the idea behind his new start-up, Areae, Inc. (from which I’ve stolen the image at left), on Friday’s Guardian GamesBlog. Don’t expect to read about just what Areae will be, though. Raph is remaining mum until he appears at GDC in early March. (Speculation is that it will either be a Second Life-like world with a better new-user experience or a tool to allow the creation of one’s own 3D space — both are things Raph has wished for in the past — or something similar or else completely different.) Instead, Raph talks about what virtual worlds can learn from Web 2.0 apps, and vice versa. And see below for another argument for interoperable virtual worlds. (more…)

As noted here, MTV is expanding its virtual world, Virtual Laguna Beach, to incorporate Laguna Beach spinoff show The Hills. (Read more about MTV’s virtual world initiative and how it came together in my piece in the February issue of Wired, which has just come out.) MTV’s vHills apparently launched last Monday, while I was away, but it’s now kicking off what could be a nice experiment in user-generated content: a fashion challenge (to be announced in vHills on Tuesday, 23 January, at 8pm EST) that looks like it will allow users to become either models or fashion designers. It’s also something that could help push adoption of virtual worlds as 3D social networking sites, if you ask me. (more…)

Virtual world services company Rivers Run Red forwards a press release from Talpa Digital about the DropZone project the two are producing in the virtual world of Second Life. Covering four SL regions, DropZone will host a festival stage, virtual skydiving, an area for viewing television programs piped into the virtual world, and a nightclub called Mundo, which will be the virtual arm of the Dutch dating site of the same name. In addition, “Talpa Digital is currently developing a unique technology for a virtual world version of Skoeps, the new citizen journalism site in the Netherlands. Offering the residents a chance to send in their Second Life skoep to huge billboards throughout this virtual world.” (Or at least, throughout the DropZone sims.) Perhaps more significantly, energy drink Red Bull will use the DropZone “to introduce their athletes in a live chat with their fans and to stream extreme sport events.” (more…)