VirtualWorlds
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Sony to intro refreshed PlayStation Home tomorrow, tosses in free titles to celebrate (video)
SCEA's cleaning up its virtual house and introducing a new design for PlayStation Home. The newly redecorated Hub is set to hit PS3 consoles in North America tomorrow, bringing with it "genre-based districts" split into Action for core gamers, Sportswalk for related scores, news and titles, Adventure which'll extend the Uncharted 3 experience, Pier Park that plays host to arcade games, PlayStation Home Theater for media content and, lastly, PlayStation Home Mall where you can purchase DLC. A spate of "freemium" titles is also on deck for the refresh, offering users access to a handful of mini-games like the first-person shooter Bootleggers '29, poker-based PlayStation Home Hold 'Em, PlayStation Home Sport Trivia, racer RC Rally and 3D puzzle game Cogs. If you're aching for a sneak peek, just click on past the break for a video tease.
Sony redesigns PlayStation Home, makes it the game outside the game
Sony updated PlayStation Home in the spring of this year, and gave its virtual world multiplayer support and better graphics. Evidently that update wasn't quite what Sony wanted, so the company will roll out a complete redesign of the community this autumn to make it easier for folks to connect with desired content. The revamped Home lets users find games by exploring several themed districts (Action, Adventure, Sportswalk and Pier Park) with their digital doppelgängers. Sony's saying the changes will make PlayStation Home itself a game, so maybe it's time for Second Life to start shaking in its boots. Denizens of Sony's digital world can get more details in the PR below.
ION Game Conference to address social networking on consoles, PC
Game industry types looking for yet another reason to flock to a central location and gab about the business while getting liquored up at the open bar should take a moment to block out some time for this summer's Ion Game Conference, taking place from May 13-15 in Seattle. Known as the Online Game Developers Conference in a previous life, organizers Evergreen Events note that the re-dubbed conference will feature an expanded focus, with panels covering topics such virtual worlds and social networking on home consoles.While few details concerning specific panels have yet been revealed for this year's event, last year's topics included "Xbox LIVE on Windows and 360: Are Your Games Dead or LIVE?," "The Future of Games and Entertainment Resides Online," and "Dirty Secrets of Episodic Video Games," among others. Early registration for the Ion Game Conference is now open, and event organizers note that as they are expecting a considerable turnout by attendees across the globe. Those interested in taking part in the event should register early.
Considering a real simulated reality
Those of you who are regular readers might have figured out by now that I'm very interested in the relationship between the real and the virtual world, but the latest post at Terra Nova goes far beyond any simple reasoning I've ever done. Basically, they sum up some speculation being performed by academics that says that just like we Earthlings have created our own virtual worlds (in Azeroth and elsewhere), it's somewhat, maybe possible that we ourselves actually live in someone else's virtual world.Wow. To me, that's so far off the beaten path that who knows where to begin with it-- you've got religion in there somewhere, as well as the old question of our existence itself. But supposing that were true (and it's almost too big a jump for even me to make, except for the fact that even if it is true, we'll likely never know it), what would you do if you were living in a virtual world? Would you act differently? Would you be a griefer? Or would you play the game, play by the rules, and help yourself and others not only "win," but have fun too? It seems a little loony (because who wants to admit that their world is someone else's toy?), but it's a fascinating thought experiment that should help you examine both how you're living your life and how you want to live it-- what would you do if you were an NPC in a virtual world?Of course, things get even stranger, because we don't just create virtual worlds-- we play in them. Azeroth isn't just full of NPCs-- it's full of us, walking around, killing things, and generally taking (and taking over) whatever we want. If our world really is someone else's, does that mean they're here too?
The collision of Hogwarts and Azeroth
(There are no spoilers in this post-- see note below.)We've been trying to stay away from covering the specifics of this, but I'm pretty sure that by now, everyone who wanted to read Harry Potter's last book spoiler-free has done so (I finished it last Saturday night after a marathon reading session, and really enjoyed it). So perhaps now's the time to, as Terra Nova does, examine these strange relationships between virtual worlds.Why would the WoW forums (or any MMORPG forums, as TN mentions FFXI) be a hotbed of spoiler posting, and not, say, a note posted on the door of a bookstore (or any other place that is likely to hit more Harry Potter fans than the forums)? What is it that attracts the WoW playership to be both inclined to post spoilers, and inclined to be bothered by them?The answer, I think, lies in the fact that WoW really has two audiences-- there are gamers, like myself, who also play Halo and Counterstrike. They play games to get the highest level and the best gear and most Arena points, and they think the Harry Potter books are nothing more than kids' books about a stupid wizard school. These are the people who think it's funny to post spoilers on a forum, and who take pleasure in ruining someone else's appreciation of something they have no appreciation for. But there's a second group that also plays WoW, and they are very different.*Note: Before you go any further, I should mention that if you haven't read the Harry Potter books yet, you may want to stay away from the comments on this post. Spoilers will be deleted from our comments, but we can only act so fast, and any post about spoilers is bound to attract some itself.
User-created WMDs do massive damage in Second Life beta test
Virtual world pioneer Randy Farmer loves to mess around with MMO games. As a beta tester for Second Life, Farmer was responsible for one of the first legendary events in the game: the Jessie Massacre. Out of curiosity, he created a weapon of mass destruction and unleashed it on a community of former WWII gamers. The resulting mayhem made him the target of more than a few nasty looks, but to the rest of the community he was thought of as a hero. Using the SL creation tools, Farmer constructed tiny, almost invisible objects and programmed them to explode into dozens of fragments, flying out at maximum velocity and doing loads of damage. Afterwards the fragments teleport themselves to a random location and start the carnage again. The only way to stop them was for Farmer to shout "STOP!".As you can guess, chaos ensued when the WMD was unleashed in the town of Jessie. Farmer quickly decided his completely scientific beta testing experiment was a success and went to disarm the grenades. Then he ran into a small problem: he couldn't find the little invisible buggers. With help from Linden labs he managed to remove the bombs, but the legend of the Jesse Massacre lives on.[Via GameSetWatch]
Virtual worlds virtually exploding in popularity
Gamasutra has a interesting article that wraps up the Virtual Worlds 2007 spring conference and asks if they are the future of gaming. They cite the growth and expansion of sites like Disney's Virtual Magic Kingom, Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis, and MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach -- which is soon to include Virtual Pimp My Ride and Virtual Hills, and be connected by a virtual superhighway.Anyone else tired of the word virtual? While virtual worlds might become the future of social networks, we're not sure that they're the future of gaming. It's hard to imagine a Virtual Halo, where you stroll around, chat with other Spartans, Elites, Grunts ... or is it? "Hey, anyone wanna pile in this warthog and go sightseeing?" Maybe it isn't so far-fetched.With Sony's upcoming PlayStation Home network, and Nintendo working on some sort of a Sims-like Wii virtual world, the virtual experience could grow beyond Second Life and into the console gaming realm.
Developer FAQ reveals PlayStation Home launch schedule
Those of you who spent the weekend eagerly anticipating the chance to waste even more of your free time immerse yourselves in the new virtual world that is PlayStation Home now have a solid launch window to look forward to, thanks to a FAQ uncovered by Gamesindustry on Sony's developer site; according to the ten-page document, a closed 15,000-user beta will run from April to August, followed by an open beta for 50,000 people until October, with the service going live sometime before Halloween. The FAQ also clarifies some details that were omitted or glossed over during Phil Harrison's GDC keynote, such as integration with cellphones (hopefully not just Sony Ericsson handsets) and PSPs, and the fact that launching multiplayer games from Home and so-called "environmental persistence" will not be ready at launch. Specifically, this means that avatars will not initially be able to segue into cooperative gaming mode from within the Home environment, nor will their digital swag like apartments and cars exist when they're offline. Finally, this fact sheet also shows Sony playing both sides of the fence when it comes to in-world ads and commerce: the company is quick to reassure gamers that Home is primarily focused on socialization and entertainment and that advertisements will be kept to "palatable" levels, while in the same breathe wink-wink-nudge-nudging advertisers and content providers that there will be significant opportunities for them to capture plenty of gamers' hard-earned euros, dollars, and yen. So in conclusion, Home-lovers should be breaking out the Sharpies right about now and drawing a big circle around the entire month of October in their calendars; Home-haters may actually want to do the same, but only so they have a timetable to prepare their inaugural grey-goo or flying Wiimote attacks. [Warning: PDF link][Via Gamesindustry]
PS3 will see 'user-created experiences' next year, says Harrison
User-created content, which has long been a fixture in the world of PC gaming, has never managed to gain any real traction on consoles, be that due to technological constraints or a lack of online connectivity. With both of those issues out of the way in modern systems, the time is ripe for users to interact and share their creations and experiences. Sony's Phil Harrison gets behind the idea in a revealing interview with MTV's Stephen Totilo, opining* that gaming needs to move away from presenting "closed experiences." If games are to break free (God knows they want to break free), there needs to be a constant flow of communication between Sony and gamers -- more importantly, Harrison insists that said communication flows in both directions (give us money, here's your money). "Next year you're going to see user-created experiences in a number of interesting ways on PlayStation 3," goes the official and spectacularly vague PR line. A Second Life-styled virtual network has oft been rumored, but Harrison fell victim to "line distortion" before Totilo could get any concrete information about it.So, what entails a "user-created experience?" In the worst case, it's a custom wallpaper and a shared photo between friends. In the best case? Oh, it could be anything, from personalized in-game T-shirts to deadly dungeons designed to foil your friends. Be sure to ask us about it next year. * Basis for an awful pun later in the sentence.Read (and be assaulted by Flash) -- Full interview on MTV News
Socialtext holds WoW's first press conference
A while ago, we told you about Socialtext's plans to run a real-life press conference inside the virtual world of Azeroth (Goldshire, to be specific). The conference went down two Fridays ago on December 1st in Eitrigg (a lot of Socialtext's employees are members of Joi ito's We Know, the guild famous for bringing corporate networking into WoW), and now here's a story resulting from the conference. Unfortunately, the story reads pretty dry (and mentions Second Life more than WoW-- apparently they're the leader for corporate schmoozing and marketing inside virtual worlds), but fortunately, writer David Ho included a much less formal (and more interesting) writeup of what it was like to talk to a corporate rep playing a Pally wielding an Obsidian Edged Blade (does the CEO of Socialtext play a DPS-adin??).We have to give Ho credit-- he didn't just show up for the press conference as a level 1 gnome (that's what we would have done), he did his homework. He got a Night Elf to level 9 before being escorted to Stormwind and then the Twilight Grove in Duskwood. And we have to give it to CEO Ross Mayfield, too-- he held to his word of forcing those with questions to duel him before they were answered. What other press contact would be willing to fight the press to the death? Wait, scratch that-- probably all of them.The press conference itself sounds more gimmicky than anything. If Socialtext was trying to actually announce something (besides the fact that they were having a press conference in WoW), they weren't able to get their message across, so it's not too likely that more high profile companies will start using WoW as a marketing outlet. But someone's got to lead the way, and even though they're Alliance (they do have a Horde guild called We No, but no word if Mayfield also has a Shammy), kudos to them for bringing an old idea to a relatively new world.
Is WoW a game?
This Newsweek article -- yet another mainstream look at this strange concept called World of Warcraft -- unexpectedly asks a very interesting question. Is WoW a game? Sadly, the article devotes most of its time to explaining the concept of WoW to an outside audience, rather than getting stuck into a discussion of virtual worlds, their categorisation, and their future.It's often been said that WoW can be more like a job than a hobby; the regular hours, the repetitive tasks, the camaraderie, the rewards. The question asked by the Newsweek piece, however, has a different angle from the old "work vs play" debate. Instead, it asks -- is this the future? Are WoW's immersiveness, its ability to sneak into lives, its vast popularity all indicators of what virtual worlds in the future will hold? I think so.'Serious' virtual worlds could easily take lessons from WoW on how to be fun, but while WoW may be exemplary with regards to current MMO design, it's still very much rooted in the 'entertainment' sphere -- future developments away from gaming and towards everyday pervasive virtual worlds have to cater for the seven million WoW-heads, and will be more easily received as a result. The most important question of all, though, is: when we live and work in the Matrix, will there still be night elves called Légolass?[Thanks, Dave]
"Sythentic World Initiative" Sets Foot on Azeroth
Metroblogging Azeroth put up a link to this very strange site called the "Synthetic World Initiative" out of Indiana University. I have to say, it looks pretty academic and obscure, but the base idea here is that they're organizing "expeditions" into uncharted territory of the modern world-- namely, virtual, online worlds just like the one we spend most of our time in, Azeroth.The reason why they're doing this, however, isn't really clear. Their about page quotes Shakespeare a lot-- the end result is that they seem to be attempting to quantify these new online, virtual worlds in the same way unknown worlds were quantified back in the Age of Exploration. But here's the really interesting part: it seems like they're going to discover these online game worlds by playing a game of their own. They're going to research virtual worlds by creating and interacting in their own virtual world. They say they're "test[ing] the possibility that professionals engaged in a properly designed game would generate both entertainment and productivity at the same time."Which is a fancy way of saying, I guess, that they're going to play their own roleplaying game, while playing online games and studying them (sweet gig if you're a social sciences college student). For their first "Kuriaan Expedition" (named after, I gather, something from their created game), they're meeting in World of Warcraft, over on the Alliance side of the Silver Hand server (on Sunday, they're leading an expedition into the Deadmines). At any rate, it should be interesting to see what analysis comes out of it-- odds are they won't find much we don't know about, but maybe their work will help to correct public perception of online gaming. And hey, if you're over on Silver Hand, go give 'em a /wave for us.
Of Guilds and Government
Terra Nova has an opinion piece up on democracy in virtual worlds. While we organize ourselves into self-governed guilds, where does it go from there? From my own experience as a guild member and a guild leader, the governance involved in even small organizations can be a headache, and I can only imagine it getting worse with increased size and complexity. Anyone have any opinions on democracy, from a World of Warcraft perspective?
Cash card taps into virtual funds
The MMORPG Project Entropia is known for its economic experiments, with pieces of virtual land being bought for high real-world prices. This latest news breaks the barrier between real and virtual money even further, however; a new cash card will let owners withdraw from their ingame balances using real ATMs.Some MMOs entirely shun the idea of converting money earned online to real money, but Project Entropia is taking this to the other extreme. The game's economy is built around real-money transfer, so a move like this simply adds a logical ending to the cashflow pipeline, with developer MindArk sitting in the middle profiting from the whole process.[Thanks, pandlcg]
MMO design: the job of creating worlds
Decisions over how long burning rivers should stay aflame for can have a profound impact upon the atmosphere and enjoyment factor of a virtual landscape. This, and many other decisions like it, is how Richard Garriott spends his time these days -- as executive producer for Tabula Rasa, he has to help craft a variety of planets. World-building isn't a new hobby; fantasy authors and tabletop GMs have been facing questions like this for years, and often throwaway comments cause a lot of trouble for those making film adaptations or video game versions of the world. Creating a world from scratch for gaming means that all the important questions need to be answered at once, however, or the players will ask them. It doesn't stop at the design stage; game companies are providing governments, too, by creating laws and rules on the fly.Universes created primarily by users, like the world of Second Life, still operate within boundaries and constraints set down by the developers and providers of that world. If the Metaverse idea is really the future of online gaming, there's going to be a lot of influence exerted by some early decisions, just as early networking protocols and standards still influence today's Internet.[Via Walkerings]
Cybersex is child's play: virtual world morals
We've already heard recently about the sexy side of Second Life, a virtual world in which the players' imaginations are more or less the limits. This article, however, shows just what can -- and does -- happen in an 18 environment where players are given free rein. Although Second Life is no stranger to kinks and perversions, some fetishes provoke far stronger opposition than others.The case in point here is age play, a pastime in which adults put on kiddy avatars and act out scenes which would, in the real world, be considered paedophilic. Thanks to Second Life's strict separation of minors and adults, everyone taking part is of age, which makes for an interesting moral debate. Is this activity virtual paedophilia, an offensive type of sexual play that should be banned lest it lead to real crime? Or is it simply an extension of the fantasy world, a harmless activity carried out in private?Sex-based virtual world Rapture Online, mentioned in the article, is playing it safe from the outset by not letting adults look like children. In SL, however, some official decisions may eventually have to be made on this front -- the simple existence of this sort of activity is enough to get some people riled up, but by infringing on users' freedoms to fantasise about whatever they want in private, the world loses some of its strength.[Thanks, Ken. Image shows items available from some of SL's kid-themed shops.]
Prediction: One virtual world to rule them all
This Wired piece by technology thinker Steven Johnson is a neat summary of a prediction about virtual worlds that's becoming increasingly common. If you take a step back from the MMOs and other online pursuits of today, you see a lot of standalone bubbles of activity with one common factor--you. However, you can't cross the boundaries between worlds, taking your Halo 2 friends list and reputation into EverQuest or sending your Animal Crossing characters messages from your mobile.The prediction is that, relatively soon in the future, this won't be the case. As in The Matrix, as in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, one virtual world (or metaverse, if you prefer) will connect everything together:Within a decade, then, the notion of separate game worlds will probably seem like a quaint artifact of the frontier days of virtual reality. You'll still be able to engage in radically different experiences - from slaying orcs to cybersex - but they'll occur within a common architecture.The heterogeneous environment of home computing in the 1980s underwent a similar transformation; now it's virtual worlds' turn. Whether a proprietary product like Second Life (which resembles a fledgling metaverse) will come to the fore, or whether it will (like the Internet itself) evolve out of open standards and protocols, only time will tell--either way, in ten years' time people will look back on this post, from their virtual homes in a virtual reality, and laugh.[Via Terra Nova]See also: Wharton Dean: virtual worlds are the future of MBA education Virtual crucifixion punishes bad behaviour onlineIs online gaming antisocial?
When Virtual Worlds Collide
While I try to stick with one MMORPG at a time, I know a few people who play several. (Where do they find the time? I'll never know!) However, I imagine I'll eventually leave my Warcraft avatar behind and move on to other games - where I'll start from scratch. However, this article on Wired suggests that the future may see the boarder between our virtual realities blurring. Are we going to be able to bring our Sims to Azeroth? Doomguards to Animal Crossing? Perhaps not specifically, but as more and more people flood into virtual worlds, it will be interesting to see whether the boundaries between them change.
Virtual worlds' selective reflections of reality
The announcement of Valentine's Day events for both City of Heroes and World of Warcraft comes hot on the heels of a debate around virtual identity sparked off by a LGBT-friendly guild. The creation of in-game events that reflect popular world holidays is increasingly fashionable; it seems no week goes by without some new festival being celebrated in WoW's capital cities.However, by first stamping out discussions of sexuality, and then opening up the floodgates by theming an event around love, what are Blizzard thinking? Will players be able to flirt with same-sex NPCs or will they be instantly banned for even venturing a hug? We hope that there will be some procedures in place to help stop harassment, as it can be difficult to throw off determined admirers at the best of times. As for those gamers who prefer their MMOs with a dash of escapism, it seems to be a dying trend, especially amongst popular Western games.[Image from the Alter Ego project]
Ingame lawyers may soon be necessary
The complexity of massively multiplayer games is such that they are generally also called 'virtual worlds'--and as places that echo the real world, they carry with them a whole host of unanswered legal questions. GameTycoon has compiled a list of issues that are currently unresolved in various worlds, including such touchy topics as theft, copyright, indecency and gambling. Most of these are crossovers from the real world, and are a result of the anonymising nature of gaming: people of all ages and nationalities are subject to the same in-game laws, and may carry out actions in-game that are illegal for them to do in their own country. Scripted game interactions, such as killing human NPCs, are not an issue--but when other players get involved, it becomes an extremely murky area. While there have been notable lawsuits involving online game companies, it may not be long until legal action between players becomes commonplace; without ingame law enforcement to handle it, these 'virtual' issues may soon become very real indeed. [via GamePolitics] [Updated to fix minor typo]
