FT.com / Home UK / UK – Gamers hone hypercapitalist skills online
One group, the Guiding Hand Social Club, infiltrated a corporation, assassinated its chief executive and carried out a heist. Another staged a successful IPO to raise money to build space stations. Investors lost everything when the outposts were attacked and taken over by a rival.
I want to join Eve Online!
Reuters/Second Life » Gartner sees 80 % virtual world penetration by 2011
I’ve always thought this was the trend, but 80% penetration is remarkable. I wonder what penetration is on social networking sites, as of now. Perhaps virtual worlds will be seen as a next generation of social networking, with usage/penetration trends following.
If Second Life isn’t a game, what is it? – On the Level – MSNBC.com
Wow, what a great question. I wonder if anyone has ever asked “What is Second Life?”
L Word Pam Grier interview audience on Flickr – Photo Sharing
I’m not much of an “L Word” viewer (ok, I’ve never seen it and rarely watch tv of any sort). But if this avatar is typical, I may have to reconsider. Hey man, don’t blame me, it’s just how things are in this crazy virtual world… ;-)
Images: Griefing in ‘Second Life’ | CNET News.com
Is the dude in the mohawk supposed to be the virtual terrorist? Must be, he looks pretty shifty…
This post on GamePolitics.com talks about the vandalization of John Edwards Second Life campaign headquarters. First, I’m fascintated that there is such a blog as Game Politics. I’ll have to add it to the (nascent) blogroll over here at What Is Second Life central HQ. Second, I’m intrigued that most (all?) of the mainstream presidential candidates are campaigning in SL.
Finally, I’m fascinated by the differences between what occurs in SL vs real life. On the one hand, if a group of Repulicans vandalized John Edwards real life headquarters like this, it would certainly be a national scandal – therefore this would never happen in real life. There is a vastly wider scope to propriety in SL than in real life. No matter how much like real life it becomes, there seems to be this huge scope for wierdness in SL. On the other hand, if the vandals had taken a more “ligitimate” real life action (say blogging about John Edwards) they would receive no media attention at all. The ‘physical act’ in SL (vandalizing) is more acceptable and receives substantially less attention, but the ‘effective act’ (online advocacy) receives a disporportionately large amount of attention.
Am I making sense?
Reuters reports today that Second Life has eliminated subsidized “first land”…
Increasingly we have found that these cheap L$1 per meter parcels were … being immediately sold, or bought via alts, purely for profit
Arbigrage, in other worlds. Was this a surprise? They are running a virtual economy, and one can expect that market participants will exploit any arbitrage opportunity, to the extent allowed by transaction costs and market volume. I wonder how many economists they have on staff at SecondLife. I’m sure many would jump at the chance to run one of the most innovative and dynamic virtual economies in the history of the world…
This article on Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog claims that (SL) Avatars consume as much electricity as the average citizen of Brazil. The solution to this is clear: All in-world power should be renewable. First life Brazilians have done a great job integrating corn based ethanol into their fuel system. Why not do the same for SL? I can see it now – thousands of virtual farmers, tending their virtual corn, and processing this in ultra-clean virtual distilleries. Handling the millions of tons of bio-waste generated should be no problem. Just have an admin delete it from the system!
In this article in VentureBeat – Doppelganger targets SecondLife, Draper bankrolls sex toys & more we can another sign that the hot money is moving in to SecondLife and it’s clones. I can go so many ways with this story. First, you can see that this particular SL clone makes an effort to integrate with AOL IM. This means I could have posted the same story in my other, highly influential blog, IM Roadmap. I also love the fact that the story is covered in the same column as a story describing a VC funding a sex toy manufacturer. Perhaps there is room for synergy of some sort. Ideas, anyone?
This article in alarm:clock (Virtual World In the Making Areae Raises Funds) mentions that funds are flowing into the virtual world space. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to mention how much money or what kind of virtual world Area is, exactly. Could it be a SecondLife competitor/clone? Undoubtedly the worlds nascent virtual bondage gear designers are holding their breath…
