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It seems like forever since we first started working on it, but at last our book about the Second Life Herald — and about the metaverse in general — is being published (in a matter of days), and we’re planning a party to celebrate the fact. In case you missed it, I’ve written a book with philosophy professor and Herald founder Peter Ludlow. It features a colorful cast of virtual characters from places like Second Life, The Sims Online, World of Warcraft, EVE Online and various other places, as well as numerous flesh-and-blood people. Titled The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid That Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse, the book not only chronicles the rise of the virtual world’s first and favorite tabloid, but looks as well at the increasingly important role that virtual spaces play in our everyday lives, and articulates the issues we’ll be facing as the societies now emerging in the metaverse grow in reach and influence.

It should be in bookstores momentarily, and you can already buy the thing online, but maybe the most fun way to acquire a copy would be to buy one at the party we’re having in Brooklyn on November 3. (more…)

• When Reality Feels Like Playing a Game, a New Era Has Begun
  “It’s no historical coincidence that gaming ascended right along with the rise of the information age.”
  (tags: games wired)
• The Best Medicine: We Are All Larry David: The Talk of the Town: The New Yorker
  televised unspoken communication better then role-playing reward systems for schizophrenics
  (tags: hbo humor newyorker science television psychology)

• Current // TV
  nice UI to see what’s on Current
  (tags: flash news tv ui video)

• The Future - Forbes.com
  Nassim Nicholas “Black Swan” Taleb is a smart man
  (tags: business culture future futurism tech)

• Press & Argus - www.livingstondaily.com - Virtual world opens up real trend
  good article about webkinz
  (tags: webkinz virtual kids games web)

• The New Advertising Outlet: Your Life - New York Times
  “As consumers spend more time online, running their virtual lives and connecting with other people more through typing than talking, Nike executives contend that they also want more physical interaction with brands.”
  (tags: brands advertising)
• Designing a Gameless Game: Sulka Haro On Habbo Hotel
  A problem that I’m hitting is that I’d want there to be more than one identity for myself within even one application.
  (tags: design games play social habbohotel)

Millions of Us, led by Reuben Steiger, has drawn an investment from global advertising and marketing agency Omnicom. Press release below. 3pointD hears the investment values MoU at quite a healthy number. (more…)

• GameSetWatch - 2008 Independent Games Festival Reveals Main Competition Entries
  2008 Independent Games Festival Reveals Main Competition Entries
  (tags: indie games)

• Untitled Document
  sweet looking “spot the difference” game
  (tags: entertainment flash fun game)

• YouTube - World of Warcraft …wha huh?
  wtf - leeroy jenkins-esque toyota WoW commercial - they even left the UI in
  (tags: wow toyota commercial)

• Clips: Total Immersion D’Fusion, Realtime Dynamic 3D Awesomeness - Gizmodo
  awesomeness indeed
  (tags: 3d graphics augmented)

• The Fakebook Generation - New York Times
  “every Facebook act is a soliloquy to our anonymous audience.”
  (tags: facebook internet)

That’s Ludlow as in Peter Ludlow, who founded the Second Life Herald, and Wallace as in myself, who occasionally does some work over there. We’re interviewed on Episode #2 of the MIT Press podcast, which you can listen to via this link. (You have to listen through some advertisements for the podcast itself at the beginning, for some reason.) MIT, of course, is who’s publishing our book, The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid That Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse, which is due out any minute now — or anyway, at the end of the month. We talk about Second Life, of course, issues of governance in the metaverse, the future of metaversal technologies, and a few other things. I think we were spared any annoying furry sex questions in this one, which was nice. Check it out.

• NAVTEQ: Home
  the map the world turns to for directoin
  (tags: data google gps map maps software)

I’m off Monday for the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference in San Jose next week (online registration ends tomorrow! see below), where I’ll be moderating what should be a very cool roundtable on the future of virtual world platforms. We go on Thursday at 11am, on the strategy track, with a very flattering title: Visionary Panel: Where the Platforms Are Going Next. The panel features Christopher Klaus, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kaneva; Raph Koster, President, Areae, Inc.; Michael Wilson, CEO, Makena Technologies; Hui Xu, Founder & CEO, HiPiHi Co., Ltd; Stephen Lawler, General Manager of Virtual Earth, Microsoft; and Corey Bridges, Co-founder, Executive Producer, & Marketing Director, The Multiverse Network. Should be some pretty fascinating talk flying around about what’s going to happen in the near and far terms, and where all of the things these people and others are working on are headed.

As noted, online registration for the conference (of which 3pointD is a media sponsor) ends tomorrow, Friday, October 5. The online reg price is only $795. After Friday, you’ll be able to register onsite at the show beginning 7:30am, Wednesday, October 10, for $995. Reg now and save your cash for drinks with Corey!

• http://www.thuletrail.com
  slacker Oregon trail
  (tags: advergame flash free game retro)
• Amie St Facebook App for Your Fantasy Record Label
  not really a “fantasy” record label
  (tags: amie st facebook fantasy music label)

Turner Broadcasting System has signed a one-year deal to use Kaneva to build out virtual-world extensions of its entertainment properties, according to a press release. “The agreement will grant Turner access to Kaneva’s technology and tools to create and use Web communities and Virtual Spaces on the Kaneva Web site and in the virtual world of Kaneva. Each Turner Web Community and corresponding Virtual World space inside Kaneva will be enabled with embedded video players for video streaming of select Turner network content. One of the foregoing Turner Virtual Spaces will be an external space that will link to the other Turner Virtual Spaces, as well as other areas within Kaneva’s Virtual World.”

It’s interesting to see a year-long deal being signed in this way. I’m not sure that’s been done before. Most of the projects we’ve seen so far has been one-offs, or involve the purchase and/or licensing of software.

Full release below: (more…)

• Defrag:\ Agenda
  …the first conference focused solely on the internet-based tools that transform loads of information into layers of knowledge, and accelerate the “aha” moment…
  (tags: conference)

Michael Arrington is reporting that the AOL Games Group may be getting ready to launch a social network for World of Warcraft players, since the company owns wow.com. Could AOL’s reach make wow.com a category-killer? Sean Fanning’s Rupture, another WoW socnet, hasn’t particularly taken off, as I understand it. New entrants to virtual world social networking include Koinup as well. More on the subsector at GigaOm.

• Carnegie Mellon Libraries:Library Arcade
  “i’ll get it” is a great educational library/time management game
  (tags: game video)