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The Virtual Whirl: Community guide to Virtual Worlds
Welcome to The Virtual Whirl, a new weekly Massively column covering virtual environments generally. The term 'virtual world' is slowly seeing less use, being supplanted by the more general 'virtual environment', but the world term still has a fair bit of life left in it. Virtual environments covers a whole lot of ground. From William Crowther's original efforts in 1976 that based a game in a virtual version of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, virtual environments have been a part of gaming, artificial intelligence and behavioral research, modeling, telemetry and process control and more. Nowadays we're seeing Second Life, Blue Mars, There.com, IMVU and others trying to find places in non-game contexts, like content-development and prototyping, publishing and performance, entertainment and social, education and business; efforts that are met with varying amounts of success.
Government workshop on evaluation of broadband included Second Life users
This morning's workshop on using broadband internet to increase the US government's transparency and citizen participation included a brand new feature -- Second Life participation.The workshop was streamed live to the MacArthur Foundation's island in Second Life as a representative forwarded questions from the citizens over to the participants of the FCC's workshop. Second Life citizens were able to be hands on with the workshop, getting their questions sent over a specific channel to be answered as they came in."In developing our nation's National Broadband Plan, we are committed to finding innovative, cutting-edge ways -- both online and offline -- to reach out to the public and elicit suggestions, questions, and insight regarding our nation's broadband future," said Jen Howard, the FCC chairman's spokesperson, to New World Notes. "We are delighted that this first workshop will have an aperture into Second Life and that staff is experimenting in such ways to reach all stakeholders."[Via GamePolitics] Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Second Life pwns Gordon Freeman, Warhammer Online, others
Wagner James Au at New World Notes is carrying some surprising data from ratings giant, Nielsen Media Research. From actual measurements of usage across over 180,000 homes in the USA, Linden Lab's Second Life (paradoxically measured under the 'PC games' category) rates the number two most played title, just behind World of Warcraft. Forget Warhammer Online, or EVE Online, they don't even make the top ten. World of Warcraft and Second Life beat out Gordon Freeman (Half Life 2), Civilization IV and StarCraft. As for actual weekly usage, Second Life is top of the pops at an average of 760 minutes per user per week. World of Warcraft earns the top spot with 653 minutes per user per week, but has a whole lot more users. How about Google's YouTube, the 800 pound gorilla and market leader of online video? Just 47 minutes per week (figure from C|net). Facebook? 84 minutes per week. Myspace, just 10.5 minutes per week (figures from ITProPortal). This data is measured from actual homes, as we mentioned. Almost 200,000 of them, so it isn't just data that's centric to the hardcore gamer. This is a random sampling of ordinary people. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Linden Lab says figures "misleading"
Starting late last month, the published statistic that showed an unprecedented ongoing reduction in Second Life land area was disabled (perhaps permanently, the Lab hints). The raw data is still available, however, and the decline continues. We've had no luck in obtaining response or comment from Linden Lab about any of this, but Wagner James Au at New World Notes has fared rather better. However the statements from the lab are fairly tangled and unclear. The Lab claims that the figures misreport, which is technically true. All of the statistical systems give incorrect information at least several times each month, but according to Jack Linden, the numbers are actually sort of correct, and indeed even skewed slightly in the Lab's favor (the reported losses have been far smaller than expected) -- but just misunderstood.
Ladies and gentlemen: Flexiboobs
If you were around in Second Life when flexiprims were introduced, you knew, as I did, that it was only a matter of time before this happened: flexiboobs have arrived.Raven Ivanova sells these avatar attachments at her store Smashing Prims, where apparently they're quite popular -- to the tune of about $2,000 after only 2 months on the market. Residents can buy the breasts as separate attachments, or as adjuncts to dresses that Ivanova also sells at her store. For the full story, and a video of the flexiboobs in action, check out Hamlet Au's New World Notes. I'm going to have to stop predicting the future. Or failing that, predict something useful to me.
Cinemassively: Sand, Episode 1
If you're just tuning in, we've been following the storyline of Scion City in Second Life. So far, they've discovered a vehicle that allowed them to uncover a transmission device. A mysterious woman transmits a message to them, but it is not yet clear what she wants ...Episode 1, directed by Michael Verdi, sees one of the explorers doubting that any life could exist below the sand. The transmission device begins playing the commercial for Scion City, which gives them the idea that if they unearth the structure, they'll have enough power to save their colony. After a bit of digging, they find a vehicle with a skeleton in it, and a hatch that leads to something. When they struggle to open it, an explorer decides to use the vehicle they found in Episode 0 to help. Did they survive the crash? What's inside the hatch? Tune in tomorrow for more of the story!Read on for more trivia about the films ...
Professor Ondrejka
Linden Lab's departed CTO and co-founder will be spending the (USA) Spring as a visiting professor at USC Annenberg, according to New World Notes, and Ondrejka's new personal blog Collapsing Geography. According to Ondrejka, "I'm now consulting, writing, and speaking about the economic and technological impact of virtual worlds; the interrelation between innovation and learning; and, the requirements of product development across geographically dispersed teams," at least until he figures out what he's going to do next.
Ex-Linden staffers on Ondrejka departure
One-time Linden Lab insider and virtual worlds/games journalist Hamlet Au (Wagner James Au) gathers comments from recently departed Linden Lab staff about the departure of Linden Lab CTO, Cory Ondrejka, and garners additional feedback from Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale. Comments are provided from the former Chadrick Linden, and the former Iridium (once Heretic) Linden. Quite what Ondrejka himself thinks is anyone's guess at the moment. [via New World Notes]
