Posts Tagged ‘ governance ’

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 ]

Ludlow and Wallace on MITP Podcast

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 [ 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 ]

Congress Hears From Entropia on VW Taxation

It looks like MindArk, the company behind Entropia Universe (whose virtual currency is pegged and freely tradeable at 10 to the U.S. dollar), is getting in on the Washington lobbying act. Congress has been looking at issues of taxation related to virtual worlds since at least last October, and the Joint Economic Committee is long [ READ MORE ]

Cold Hard Cash: Second Life Coins Available

God bless IBM. Of all the big bad corporations doing business in the virtual world of Second Life, these guys — and, on an individual basis, the company’s employees — are near the top of the “most creative and ambitious” league table (mostly, I suspect, because they can afford to be). The latest: an IBM [ READ MORE ]

Policing Second Life: Guilt by Association

What do you do when a group of troublemakers is disrupting the operation of your virtual world? If you’re Linden Lab, which runs Second Life, you ignore the griefers themselves and simply go after the owners of the land they happen to be operating from. Big props to our managing editor over at the Second [ READ MORE ]

EVE Online Raises Bar on Virtual Economics

With the news a few days ago that MMO space opera EVE Online had hired an in-game economist, most commentators focused on how much fun he would have compared to all the other economists in the world, and how curious it would be to read quarterly reports from an imaginary universe. I think it has [ READ MORE ]

Controversy Over Anshe’s IMVU Virtual Goods

Virtual worlds entrepreneur Anshe Chung seems to have inadvertently caused quite a stir on the 3D avatarized chat platform IMVU, where she (she is really two people, a husband and wife) makes 3D objects that IMVU members can buy for their virtual environments. Anshe apparently lowered prices on some assets that other people had incorporated [ READ MORE ]

Exploring the Future Virtual Cosmos With IBM

ComputerworldUK has a nice article up about the possibility that different virtual worlds will one day support a standard that would let users travel freely among them. This is an idea I’ve been hot on since even before starting this blog, so it’s nice to see other people supporting it — especially when they’re people [ READ MORE ]

D-Briefs: State Dept. in SL, 3D Printing, More

A couple of events to briefly note today, including a new presence in the virtual world of Second Life, the U.S. State Department. Also, 3D printers are getting cheaper, but even the “home” versions remain prohibitive. Plus some microelectronics that could prove awfully cool someday[ READ MORE ]

MacArthur Ponders Virtual Philanthropy June 22

MacArthur Foundation president Jonathan Fanton will appear in the virtual world of Second Life on June 22, at 9am SL Time (noon Eastern), for a conversation with Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale on the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds. 3pointD hears that the appearance may be precursor to the MacArthur Foundation establishing a more [ 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 ]

EVE Online to Get New Governance Tools? [+]

I was just over in Iceland, visiting with CCP Games, makers of my favorite massively multiplayer online game, EVE Online. I was there to swap wisdom with some devs and attend CCP’s tenth anniversary party. We heard about a raft of new developments EVE has in the pipeline, most of which have been previously reported. [ READ MORE ]

MindArk’s Chinese Virtual World: Business First

The new virtual world that MindArk, makers of Entropia Universe, are developing for China will focus on business transactions and avoid politics, according to an Assoicated Press story. David Liu, chief executive of Beijing-based Cyber Recreation Development Corp., compared the upcoming Chinese virtual world with a three-dimensional eBay, where users can shop online through a [ READ MORE ]

CNN Heads to the Future, 3pointD to California

June 13 will see cable new network CNN kick off something it’s calling a Future Summit with a “landmark television event.” Why does 3pointD care? Because the series, which looks like it will unfold more on the Web than on the air, starts with Future Summit: Virtual Worlds, featuring everyone from Linden Lab CEO Phhilip [ READ MORE ]

Court Rules Against Linden Lab Terms of Service

According to a court brief I’ve just been emailed, a Pennsylvania court has allowed a lawsuit filed against Philip Rosedale and Linden Lab, makers of the virtual world of Second Life, to move forward despite Rosedale’s motion to dismiss the suit or have it arbitrated. The decision is significant in that the court has judged [ 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 ]

Anshe to Launch Inter-World Financial Market

Virtual entrepreneur Anshe Chung will launch a virtual world-spanning financial market in early June, according to a news release on the Anshe Chung Studios site. The service will “allow direct capital flow and investment across virtual world boundaries,” and will link the markets of Second Life, Entropia Universe and IMVU. Anshe Chung Studios — which [ READ MORE ]

iCommons Dubrovnik To Get Second Life Arm

This year’s iCommons Summit, the annual gathering of 300 leading thinkers working toward a free Internet for all, will be held in parallel in the virtual world of Second Life, according to the summit’s Web site. The summit, which takes place this year in Dubrovnik, “will be run in parallel in Second Life,” according to [ READ MORE ]

Entropia News: MasterCard Deal, RL Bank, More

A small raft of news emerged from the virtual world of Entropia Universe this week, including tie-ups with MasterCard and a real-life bank, and a new awards show being put on by virtual entrepreneurs Anshe Chung and Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs. First up, MasterCard. Entropia has been trying to implement a real-life card for some time. [ 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 ]

Anshe Chung Wins Entropia Banking License

Nate Randall of RCE Universe sends along the news that Second Life mogul Anshe Chung has won one of five banking licenses recently auctioned in the virtual world of Entropia Universe. Though billed as “banking licenses,” they really give their holders the right to use the in-world interface and non-player characters to make collateralized loans [ READ MORE ]

Second Life Complaints Bring May 3 Meeting

Linden Lab, maker of the virtual world of Second Life, announced on Monday that it would hold an impromptu town hall meeting with chief technology officer Cory Ondrejka to address the concerns of the almost 3,500 SL residents who have thus far signed on to Project Open Letter, a list of five complaints about the [ READ MORE ]

STA Tests Time-Share Dorm Room Model in SL

Rik Riel has a good post on a project that opened last week and launched on Friday, built out by the Electric Sheep Company (3pointD’s sponsors). It’s STA Travel in Second Life, which seeks to do in SL more or less what it does for college students in the real world: point out the most [ READ MORE ]

SecondCast, Live at TalkShoe Tonight (April 4)

Tune in tonight to SecondCast, the podcast Prokofy loves to hate, if you want to give us a piece of your mind: we’ll be recording live on TalkShoe.com, which I guess lets you do stuff like that. If you’re logged into TalkShoe, you oughta be able to click this link to hear us stumble over [ READ MORE ]

U.S. State Department Considering SL Project

I had lunch yesterday at Virtual Worlds 2007 with a couple of guys from the U.S. Department of State, who told me the State Department is considering launching an official project within the virtual world of Second Life. Specifically, this would be an initiative of State’s Public Diplomacy wing, which is headed up by Karen [ READ MORE ]

RatePoint to Launch Second Life Ratings Service

RatePoint, which provides a way for users to rate, share, discuss and connect based on how they rate sites on the Web, will launch a new avatar ratings service for the virtual world of Second Life on Monday, according to a press release. I’ve been talking to the RatePoint crew over the last week or [ READ MORE ]

Danish Bank to Offer Real-World Services in SL

I missed this on Friday, but it makes a nice fulfillment of something I was pondeirng a couple of weeks ago: what if a bank started offering real-world financial services through the virtual world of Second Life? Reuters’ Adam Pasick has the news that just such a thing is coming: “Denmark’s Saxo Bank plans to [ READ MORE ]

A Missive From the Crossroads of Second Life

I received a nice note from Cory Ondrejka, chief technology officer at Linden Lab, makers of the virtual world of Second Life, in response to my looong post of Saturday entitled “Linden Lab Approaches A Crossroads.” I won’t quote from it, as it’s not an official LL response, but I’ll raise a couple of the [ READ MORE ]

Linden Lab Approaches A Crossroads

In the space of two days, Linden Lab, maker of the virtual world of Second Life, has made three separate announcements that indicate trouble may be on the horizon for the company — if it hasn’t already arrived. Two of them have raised renewed alarms about the platform’s scalability. Though CEO Philip Rosedale blithely assured [ READ MORE ]