Posts Tagged ‘ culture ’

Castronova’s Arden MMO Opens, Book Out

Edward Castronova’s MMO, Arden, is being released today. It’s available to play, download, and modify as you wish. His new book, Exodus to the Virtual World, is also now available. I’ve been flipping through a copy, and it looks pretty interesting. Whether or not you agree with the thesis — that game mechanics are going [ READ MORE ]

Second Life Herald Book Party, November 3

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 [ READ MORE ]

NY Times on Second Life Economics and Utility

Terrific. I’m quoted in an article about Second Life in tomorrow’s New York Times. Which of the many topics covered in the interview am I quoted on? That’s right, cyber-genitalia and virtual McMansions. On the whole, though, the article is a pretty good deep dive on why people value such virtual goods, and what utility [ READ MORE ]

$5,000 Reward For GoPets Avatar Bill of Rights

GoPets CEO Erik Bethke is set to break new ground in the area of virtual worlds by proposing to turn his service’s end-user licensing agreement and terms of service document into a plainly written bill of rights. [Via GamePolitics.com, pointed out by Nate Combs.] In a recent LiveJournal post, he offers $5,000 for help in [ READ MORE ]

South by Southwest Season: Pimp That Panel

It’s South by Southwest season again, or at least the run-up to it. For the last two years I’ve headed to Austin for the excellent South by Southwest Interactive festival, a fun week of geeks and great conversations that takes place each spring in one of the greatest small cities in America. The process of [ READ MORE ]

Two New Virtual “Worlds” For Kids

With the success of Nicktropolis and even more so WebKinz, Club Penguin, and things like GoPets and more (Animal Crossing, anyone?), virtual worlds for kids have become the hot ticket this summer. Two new ones are on their way: one an educational 3D theme park, the other a cool 2D “world” designed in part by [ READ MORE ]

Graph of Second Life’s Feted Inner Core

Virtual worlds researcher Aleks Krotoski, who’s been working on a Ph.D. about social networks in virtual worlds, has posted about some of her findings, which are available in the form of an excellent video presentation you can find at the Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences (scroll down). You can also download the accompanying [ READ MORE ]

Virtual 1990s Hit Second Life With SecondFest

The virtual world of Second Life is often compared to the annual Burning Man festival in that both are a place where fantasy becomes reality and almost anything goes. But SL resembles another, more mid-90s slice of festival culture as well, at times, and never more so than this weekend, when it takes on the [ READ MORE ]

EVE Online to Get Player-Led Oversight Panel

Honestly, I had no idea. When I blogged yesterday about the possibility that EVE Online players might soon get new governance tools, little did I know that Seth Schiesel would have an article about it in today’s New York Times. And indeed, the announcement today is that EVE players will soon be able to elect [ READ MORE ]

Mitch Kapor Speaks on Ending Bias Tonite in SL

Mitch Kapor, an early investor in and board member of Linden Lab, creators of the virtual world of Second Life, will give a talk this evening in SL, all about the Level Playing Field Institute, where he also sits on the board and which “promotes innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and workplaces by [ READ MORE ]

Destroy Television Gallery Show Opens Tonight

Don’t miss the Metaverse Meetup this evening at 7pm, where we’ll be back at the Fuse Gallery (93 Second Avenue, between 5th & 6th Streets, through the back of Lit Lounge) for the opening of Destroy Television‘s gallery show, which I blogged up a week or so ago. More information from Jerry in several recent [ READ MORE ]

Consoles Matter: Hollywood Goes Xbox Live

For those of you still skeptical about the value of game consoles as a social and communications channel in an age of virtual worlds, I offer this Variety story, which describes young Hollywood execs networking and talking about deals over Xbox Live. Voice chat means they’re undeterred by the lack of a keyboard. And the [ READ MORE ]

Romanian Political Leaders Invited to Second Life

On May 19, Romania will hold a referendum on whether to impeach its suspended president, Traian Basescu, who has been charged with violating the country’s constitution. Before that time, members of the Romanian community in the virtual world of Second Life would like to hear from him and other Romanian political leaders in a virtual [ READ MORE ]

SecondCast #59: Teens of SL, Unite!

Alex Harbinger holds a teen grid debate on intergrid commerce in the virtual world of Second Life. Photo courtesy of Lucky Figtree. We recorded a great SecondCast this past Wednesday with two residents of Second Life‘s teen grid, Lucky Figtree and Alex Harbinger (both 15 years old). They’re leading the charge (or at least, Alex [ READ MORE ]

RuneScape Reports 1 Million Paying Subscribers

Not alone in the wilderness RuneScape, the browser-based massively multiplayer game from Jagex, now has a million paying subscribers, the company reported today. Just $5 a month gets players “exclusive quests, skills and a huge map of the fantasy world Gielenor, to explore.” The fact that it’s being shelled out by a million kids (or [ READ MORE ]

Open-Source Museum Opens in Second Life

A group of students from Brown University have launched an open-source museum in the virtual world of Second Life. Known as OSMOSA, the Open-Source Museum of Open-Source Art, the museum is located »in Second Life’s Eson region« and features a mess of artworks that anyone can copy, modify, alter or otherwise contribute to. The museum [ READ MORE ]

Physical Book of Second Life Avatars On Sale

Giff Constable of the Electric Sheep Company (aka Second Life resident Forseti Svarog) has published a book of avatar portraiture from the virtual world of Second Life that’s now available not just in a virtual edition but as a real, old-media paper book as well. Out for about a week now, Avatar Expression gathers “56 [ READ MORE ]

MySpace to Hold Mock Presidential Election

MySpace recently announced it would hold a mock presidential election on January 1st and 2nd of next year. (Results will be posted on MySpace’s impact channel.) While that’s obviously not very virtual-worldy, I do think it’s worth noting here, because it’s going to focus a huge amount of attention on one of the most compelling [ READ MORE ]

Second Life Nerds On Now at Nerd of the Week

As Jerry notes, Negin and Kimmy’s latest Nerd of the Week has been posted, this one examining the Second Life Nerd in detail, based on interviews conducted at our latest metaverse meetup with all your favorite Second Lifers. (The interviews are actually interesting, FYI.) If you haven’t seen Nerd of the Week, check it out [ READ MORE ]

In the Cultural Metaverse of Berlin

If you’re reading this, you probably know that I gave a presentation on Friday to the Art Directors Club of Germany here in Berlin. I had written my comments into a long post that also included these more general thoughts on culture and the metaverse, but realized there was too much for any sane person [ READ MORE ]

Calvin Klein Launches Scents in Second Life

The nose knows nothing in virtual worlds, but that hasn’t stopped Calvin Klein from launching a virtual version of their new ck IN2U fragrances for men and women in Second Life, according to a press release. The virtual launch accompanies the real-world launch of the same scents today, March 21. Since avatars can’t smell, the [ READ MORE ]

Read the Design of the Future in Helvetica

I’m in the Austin airport on the way back from South by Southwest (my flight of course delayed by snow in New York [and actually, I'm home now]), and I just snapped this vaguely Sesame Street-like picture of the number 18. Not just any 18, though: It’s a Helvetica 18, brought to my attention by [ READ MORE ]

SXSW Xcript: Joi Ito and Justin Hall

Venture capitalist and World of Warcraft addict Joi Ito and lifelogger Justin Hall sat down for a conversation together in Room 9C on Monday afternoon at South by Southwest. Ben Cerveny joined them midway. Title of the talk: Online Games: Beyond Play and Fantasy. Ito: I know everyone says this, but we’re going to try [ READ MORE ]

3 Years Ago in SL: Screenshots Then and Now

Welcome to Second Life: The Ahern welcome region in March 2004 Electric Sheep Chris Carella reminded me recently of this page full of screenshots taken three years ago, in March 2004, in the virtual world of Second Life, by SL resident Essence Lumin. [Chris found them on virtual architect Lordfly Digeridoo's redesigned blog.] Essence recorded [ READ MORE ]

Rocky Horror in Second Life, March 1

Finally! I’ve long thought the Rocky Horror Picture Show would be the perfect film to screen in the virtual world of Second Life. After all, it’s the original weird costumed participatory media experience, filled with sex, mad scientists and terrorized newbies — just like SL! Well, start working on your Frank N. Furter avatars, because [ READ MORE ]

Lifelogging the Living Canvas: Dylan to YouTube

The above YouTube clip, from Minneapolis artist Phil Hansen, doesn’t appear to be all that 3pointD, at first, but appearances can be deceiving. It’s a full five minutes of some really nice action painting with a unique twist (which I won’t give away; hit the Play button already!). In an unbelievably fortuitous moment of technological [ READ MORE ]

Sheep to Electrify the Today Show [DELAYED]

[UPDATE: Boo! Due to technical difficulties, the Sheep won't appear on the Today show until sometime early next week. Stay tuned for details.] Sibley Verbeck, CEO of metaverse services firm Electric Sheep Company (still sponsors of this blog) will make a live appearance on NBC’s Today Show tomorrow morning, February 23, 3pointD has just heard. [ READ MORE ]

A First Year on the Air for SecondCast

A fun new episode of everyone’s favorite Second Life podcast, SecondCast, is now on the air (or on the site, rather). It’s our one-year anniversary, and incredibly, we’ve actually managed to average an episode a week, making this one #52. Johnny, Torrid, Lordfly, Cristiano and myself take a walk down memory lane, reminiscing about fruit [ READ MORE ]

Uffie at Hiro Ballroom, Metaverse at Planet Thai

Let’s dispense with the news straight off: The metaverse meetup that’s slated for 23 February now has a location: Planet Thailand in Williamsburg, which is letting us take over their back room for the event, so you’ll be able to munch Pad Thai and eggplant and wander around and chat to whoever you want to. [ READ MORE ]

Real-World Gallery Show of Virtual Portraits

SLInsider reports that the Postmasters Gallery in New York City will be mounting a show of portraits of Second Life avatars on February 17. The portraits were shot by Eva and Franco Mattes, as far as I can tell, and have been digitally printed on canvas at 36″ x 48″, all of which sounds like [ READ MORE ]

Promoting Second Life: The Official Guide

Click image for JimmyJet Fossett’s Flickr set from the event No, not the official guide to promoting Second Life. Second Life resident JimmyJet Fossett snapped a bunch of good pictures of last night’s in-world author appearance promoting the book Second Life: The Official Guide, which I wrote two chapters of, and he was kind enough [ READ MORE ]

Nominate the Great Builds of SL

Second Life resident Forseti Svarog (aka Giff Constable of the Electric Sheep Company) has begun a search for the greatest architectural wonders of the virtual world of Second Life, which he plans to collect in Volume 2 of Great Builds of SL, a virtual book you can pick up in the »Bisque region« of Second [ READ MORE ]