Posts Tagged ‘ virtual-commerce ’

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 ]

Invest in the Entrepreneur’s Guide to SL

To add to the fun we had at our book party this weekend, Daniel Terdiman is throwing a party of his own, to celebrate the publication of his own book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Second Life. If you’re around San Francisco this Wednesday (Nov. 7), crash the party at the CNET offices, where Dan works, [ READ MORE ]

Anshe Chung Draws Venture Capital Investment

Anshe Chung Studios, which produces digital content and services for virtual worlds like Second Life, IMVU and others, has drawn a round of funding from New York venture capital firm Gladwyne Partners, who were early investors in the Electric Sheep Company. Sources at Gladwyne tell 3pointD the investment closed today, but wouldn’t reveal the amount. [ 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 ]

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 ]

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 ]

Virtual Goods Summit Videos Available

I’m wearing my Virtual Goods Summit t-shirt today, which isn’t really interesting except that it gives me an excuse to tell you that videos from the event have now been released. This was an excellent day of deep-diving into various business models and approaches to virtual goods — and probably features more information and more [ 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 ]

Ambitious New Second Life Maps Mashup

I hadn’t heard of Mappa Novus until someone dropped it in the comments here. The Mappa crew is doing interesting work creating maps of the virtual world of Second Life that seem to be mashed up with the Google Maps interface, and overlaid with data layers about population, land sales, etc. On top of that, [ READ MORE ]

Sheep Launch New Second Life Shopping Site

The Electric Sheep Company (which sponsors 3pointD) yesterday launched its new shopping site for the virtual world of Second Life. Known as OnRez, and launched with little fanfare, the site really constitutes the migration and overhaul of the old SLBoutique (which now redirects to OnRez), one of SL’s longest-standing shopping sites. The Sheep bought SLBoutique [ READ MORE ]

Guardian Lays Out Potential of Virtual Worlds

The Guardian had not a bad story the other day about the potential for virtual worlds, focusing mostly on business uses. In contrast to some other recent takes on this in the press, the Guardian story seems more balanced to me, acknowledging that things are still at an early stage, and also tipping their hat [ 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 ]

View22, Autodesk Partner For 3D eCommerce

View22 has been inking some interesting deals lately, and today comes the announcement of another one: the company, which makes a 3D eCommerce solution called Immersiv, has just struck a co-marketing deal with design software maker Autodesk to cross-promote View22 for sales and Autodesk for design. “Autodesk will recommend View22 as a preferred partner for [ READ MORE ]

Panel on Virtual Goods and Entertainment

Google’s Charles Hudson, a host of the Virtual Goods Summit, moderated the last panel of the day, on virtual goods and entertaiment. Panelists: Jim Greer of Kongregate Erik Bethke of GoPets Sean Ryan of Meez Charles: What motivates people to stay engaged, and how do virtual goods play into that? Ryan: For us it’s about [ READ MORE ]

Virtual Goods: The Next Big Business Model?

Conference host Susan Wu moderated an afternoon panel addressing the question of whether virtual worlds are “the next big business model” at the Virtual Goods Summit. Panelists: Tim Stevens of Doppelganger Kevin Effrusy, general partner with Accel Partners (investor in Facebook) Dan Kelly, CEO of Sparter Min Kim of Nexon Susan: How do you guys [ READ MORE ]

Virtual Goods Summit: Why Virtual Goods Matter

Nabeel Hyatt of Conduit Labs moderated a panel on Why Virtual Goods Matter, and What’s Driving User Adoption, at the Virtual Goods Summit at Stanford University. Panelists: Craig Sherman of Gaia Online Daniel James of Three Rings Amy Jo Kim of Shufflebrain Byron Reeves of Stanford University and Seriosity Reeves: The human brian is not [ READ MORE ]

Virtual Goods: KartRider US Coming Soon

Min Kim of Nexon gave a presentation at the Virtual Goods Summit and said the company would probably announce the release of its KartRider in the US soon, which has been in closed beta. Kim also said Maple Story has been “kicking ass” in the US, with 3.5 million registered users. The company is also [ READ MORE ]

Neopets’ NC Mall to Open Next Week

Kyra Reppen of Neopets gave a presentation at the Virtual Goods Summit on MTV’s Neopets. Like other MTV presenters before her, she began her presentation with a video. Perhaps the most interesting part, though, was about the new NC Mall that Neopets will introduce in beta next week. It’s about customizing and self-expression. It’s complementary [ READ MORE ]

Tencent Tells its Story at Virtual Goods Summit

David Wallerstein of Tencent began the Virtual Goods Success Stories panel at the Virtual Goods Summit with a presentation, mostly to demonstrate what Tencent is doing in China: Chinese Internet penetration is only 10.5 percent. Wireless is 35.2 percent. Roughly 40 percent of Internet usage in China takes place in Internet cafes. Tencent currently has [ READ MORE ]

3pointD Off to Collect Virtual Goods in California

I’m off tomorrow for California, where I’ll be moderating a panel at the Virtual Goods Summit being put together by venture capitalist Susan Wu and Google’s Charles Hudson. I’ll also be hanging around Supernova just to see what can be seen. I’m very much looking forward to the summit, especially because, as Susan points out, [ 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 ]

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 ]

McKinsey Launches US$20,000 Contest in SL

Consultants McKinsey & Co. have launched a Virtual Venture Competition in the virtual world of Second Life. [Via Sebastian Kupers, who also provided the image above.] The competition is open to students and young professionals no more than 32 years old, and first prize is US$20,000 in training and career counselling. Teams get 45 days [ READ MORE ]

New 3D eCommerce Package From View22

View22 Technology has announced what it calls a “3D Web commerce and media platform” that “simplifies the process of adding 3D Web applications and customer experiences into the marketing mix.” Known as Immersiv (and viewable in video clips on the View22 site), the tech resembles a fancy Flash app with a few extra features, including [ 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 ]

Wirecard Bank To Open In Second Life, Entropia

German bank Wirecard Bank AG has opened »an island« in the virtual world of Second Life, according to a press release [< -- registration required]. The German financial services provider is also planning to set up shop in Entropia Universe, it says, which implies that it may be one of the five winners of the [ 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 ]

Amazon Web Services Opens Second Life Site

I checked into the virtual world of Second Life tonight for a sneak peek at two islands that were just opened by Amazon Web Services as a community-building effort for AWS developers. According to SL resident Jeffronius Batra (aka Jeff Barr, Amazon’s senior Web services evangelist), »the islands« — which are an official Amazon project [ READ MORE ]

Etsy Considers Crafting Its Own Virtual World

It was just over a year ago that I first blogged about Etsy, the online community for makers and sellers (and buyers, of course) of crafts of all flavors and kinds. Because they’re here in Brooklyn and because they have their metaversal aspects about them, I thought I’d go and pay them a visit recently. [ 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 ]