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Bad News Week: Shock! Horror! Crime wave!
In Bad News Week, we take an irregular peek at some of the most mixed up and counterfactual reporting that the mainstream media performs on virtual worlds and MMOs, and lay it out for your interest and entertainment. The UK Mirror's Jon Clements reports "Police probe Second Life over virtual crime wave" from which you might reasonably infer that there is a crime wave going on in Second Life, and that you're about to read about it. Well, you'd essentially be wrong. Let's take a look and what the Mirror had to say.
Peering Inside: Linden Lab IPO = Epic Fail
No, you've not missed an announcement of an upcoming IPO. We're just looking at what it would mean if you did. There's been talk for years about Linden Lab taking the company through IPO (Initial Public Offering) and going public. Given the vision and history of the company, and the overall direction of the business, an IPO would more or less signal an epic failure to deliver.
Does it get any better?
Take an advertising/marketing operation and mix it with a virtual world, and what do you get? No, not There -- well, maybe them, but that's not who we mean. The answer is Riplounge. Browser-based and 2.5D (2D sprites in a pseudo 3D environment), Riplounge is for ... umm. Well, actually we're not quite sure. We think it is aimed largely at the wannabe-hip, under-25, knows-about-the-same-about-computers-as-your-granny demographic. Or maybe the I-wish-I-was-15-again demographic.
New open source voice project
Ryan McDougall has announced the formation of a new Sourceforge project, called VoIP for Virtual Worlds. The long-term goal is to create an interoperable open-source standard for all virtual worlds. To help the project find its feet, the initial short-term goal is to create an open-source replacement for the existing Vivox component (SLvoice) that is used for voice in Second Life that can communicate with a SIP-based backend server. Developers who are interested in the effort can start with the project's new mailing list. We don't presently know if an open-source solution could be fully compatible with the existing voice system in Second Life as the existing system relies heavily on Vivox servers and backend software.
Bridges backhands Rosedale, Second Life
Corey Bridges, founder of Multiverse another player in the increasingly large virtual world space, had a number of things to say to Worlds in Motion about the announcement that Philip Rosedale was planning to step down as CEO and step up as chairman. A sort of freehand summary would be, "Second Life can't deliver, and Multiverse can. So long, Philip, and thanks for all the fish." Intentional or not, it comes across as unbecoming smack talk, basically.
ABC Island anniversary tonight!
That's the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and not that other ABC in the United States of America. Partner and counterpart to the United Kingdom's BBC, "Aunty" ABC occupies a special place in the hearts of Australians. Oh, she gets some teasing sometimes -- but she's been with us since 1929 with Radio, Television, and the Web and has always excelled at embracing new media and finding ways to integrate old and new media together in new and compelling ways. As public broadcasters go, the ABC sports an impressive catalogue of high-quality educational programs, news, music and entertainment, and isn't shy about finding new ways to deliver them, with an increasing amount of content available on the Web or via Second Life.
Mercedes Benz closes current Second Life presence
Mercedes Benz has closed their presence in Second Life, according a post on their blog yesterday. Dated the 18th of March, the post said they were going to close the virtual site same day, and that they were happy with the results. "This brief and exciting foray into virtual communities brought us several essential realisations and the conviction that 3D worlds play a vital role as engaging communication channels." Mercedes Benz opened their Second Life presence in February 2007, and had a complex of 9 islands (pictured above). The islands -- while they still exist on the map -- are no longer accessible to the public as of today.
Peering Inside: Philip Rosedale regains his Second Life
With Friday's announcement of Rosedale stepping down from CEO of Linden Lab and stepping up as board chairman, things certainly start to look interesting for Second Life. You see, Rosedale was the one who really kicked off this latest generation of virtual worlds, much of it by imagination and force of will. Unfortunately, for some years he's barely been involved. But wait -- he's CEO of Linden Lab, right? Yes, that's right; which means he's probably had about as much focus on the world itself as the person who orders the beef jerky and pencils. Maybe less.
RealXtend viewer now on Sourceforge
Sourceforge - billed as the largest open source website in the world -- is now host to the source code project for the RealXTend viewer (rexviewer) for Second Life. RealXtend claims to have replaced all of the license encumbered portions of the viewer with GPL-friendly alternatives, though they are still having some issues decoupling FMOD from their VoIP solution. The project website remains at rexviewer.org, while the project page and source code (available via subversion) is now on Sourceforge. Rexviewer is only in alpha at present, but has a number of distinctly interesting technological features, and more planned.
Richard Bartle at Metanomics
Richard Bartle dips in and out of Second Life. He likens it as going to London. He might not be there for months, and then multiple times in a week. To him, Second Life is a place, much like many others. Bartle was in that place on 11 March, as a part of the Metanomics series, hosted by professor Robert J Bloomfield. Bartle often regarded as the father of the first MUD. In a sense he's the progenitor of all existing virtual worlds, both those based on games and those that are game-free.
One Shots: A peaceful day in Caledon
One of the things that really impresses us with virtual worlds is all the user-created content. Having spent some time on-grid myself, I can tell you that the array of ideas and designs is just mind-boggling. Today our very own Tateru Nino shares a screenshot she took in Second Life. This area is in Caledon, about two sims north of Tateru's office in Nova Civis. Tateru describes Caledon as "the home of Victorian civility, mad science, and gentleman adventurers in dirigibles where giant steam-powered robots hardly ever attack -- at least not during tea." Having tried (and failed) to build many things in SL myself, I can say that between lining up all of your prims (primitive 'building blocks') and adding textures to them (assuming you didn't have to make your own) you can imagine how much time and care went into all of the many user-generated things that we see in this screenshot. Impressive!If you have something you've made, dreamed up, or just like to look at, what are you waiting for? Grab a quick screenshot, tell us who you are and what it's about, and pop it into the mail to us at oneshots@massively.com. Your image could be next!%Gallery-9798%
SL art and architecture sells for US$100,000?
Notable Second Life artist, China Tracy, has apparently sold an installation in the virtual world for US$100,000, according to the New York Times - other sources suggest that the purchase price may be 100,000 Euros, not US dollars. The NYT is scanty on specifics as to what was sold (and we're not able to locate the specific site), but it appears to be an SL site and architecture (maybe RMB City), rather than any specific item of artwork. We're not actually sure quite yet, based on the information available, whether this constitutes an actual sale or if it is actually capital for development of the site. Right now, we're suspecting that it is the latter, and that the representation of it as a sale is not necessarily technically correct. [via New World Notes]
Metaplace sends Metachat live on Myspace
A few of the Metaplace folks have announced that their first virtual world has been released on MySpace in the form of an app called Metachat, which you can add to your Myspace account right now. In terms of virtual worlds, it's not much -- there's a chat room, obviously, and a little soccer ball kicking area, and some RSS integration in terms of stock quotes, some weather info, and even translation features.But even better than what it is is the potential that something like this represents. Social networks are already dabbling in social games (and planning even more interaction between the two), so a virtual space like Metachat may be the first virtual world that most of its users enter. It's a far cry from some of the more mature virtual worlds like World of Warcraft and Second Life (not that those two are all that mature, actually), but spaces like Metachat are a big sign of the coming collision of social networking and virtual worlds.
Multiverse co-founder describes new virtual world order
Multiverse's Corey Bridges spoke at the SXSW conference about the effects digital distribution and the democratization of advanced development tools will have on the industries of gaming, social networks, and virtual worlds.Gamasutra put together a great summary of the talk. The thesis: just as they are stripping the entrenched establishments of the music and film industries of much of their oligarchical power, new technologies will transform online gaming and virtual worlds. According to Bridges, virtual worlds are just getting started. "WoW is not a fad," he said, "it's a harbinger." Furthermore, the virtual worlds will be in the hands of indies, not the major conglomerates, and they'll be synergized with social networks.Bridges also touched on the notion of a more splintered industry made up of smaller projects catering to lots of niche tastes, as opposed to the huge Hollywood-budget productions we see today. A while back someone said that it would take at least a $1 billion super project to take on World of Warcraft. But maybe, as it was with the Roman Empire, the wolves at Blizzard's gate will be countless smaller tribes made up of the so-called unwashed hordes.
Beanie Babies Online entertains kids, sells toys
Ty -- the company behind Beanie Babies -- has teamed up with Animax to take on Webkinz with a somewhat similar online service called Beanie Babies 2.0. Unlike Webkinz, the different levels of service will only unlock when children buy new real-world Beanie Babies. The toys ship with some sort of registration code that will progress the account to the next level when entered at the Beanie Babies 2.0 website.Usually we're glad to see virtual worlds and online games adopted by the culture at large, but we're not so crazy for this one. It looks less like a meaningful experience for kids than it looks like a sneaky attempt to use technology to sell more Beanie Babies. Sure, Ty is a business, and it needs to profit. But we're more quick to admire businesses that try to do something constructive with their products as well -- like Fluid Entertainment and its environment-friendly kids' game. At the very least, the game should be fun on its own, right?Beanie Babies 2.0 has no such aspirations. The New York Times thought it fitting to call it "Catalog 2.0."
How many times do you have to prove it?
One of Second Life's (non-sexual) child avatars -- let's call him "Joe" for the moment -- used Linden Lab's beta Age Verification system to forestall any issues of being possibly suspended for being an underage user. Unfortunately, "Joe" was subsequently suspended after being abuse-reported as an underage user. Subject to an age-check, he had to provide copies of assorted government-issued identity documentation to Linden Lab's office, where, satisfied that he had proved he was an adult user, his account was re-enabled. Unfortunately for "Joe", it doesn't end there.
Linden Lab publishes draft Open Grid Protocol
It's only the first draft, but Linden Lab (specifically Mark Lentczner aka Zero Linden) has published the awkwardly named Second Life Grid Open Grid Protocol (SLGOGP) on the Second Life wiki. While very preliminary and far from complete, the SLGOGP is essentially the beginnings of the technical underpinning that will ultimately allow the cohesive operation of both Linden-operated and non-Linden-operated Second-Life style simulators and grids. If you're not deeply excited by protocol documents, this is probably not going to be your cup of tea. Otherwise, if raw technical protocols get you hot, this is a great starting point for technical discussion.
Iovation stops 0.365% of transactions
Iovation, a company that markets anti-fraud software to online game operators (and online dating sites) claims to have blocked over ten thousand fraudulent transactions per day out of a round-figure-billion over a year. They don't actually say how many of those billion transactions were actually fraudulent, so we must smilingly acknowledge that while their quoted figures contain some attractive round numbers, they don't actually provide any useful information on their actual success rate. Iovation's patented anti-fraud system (United States Patent 20080040802) basically involves a small piece of software dropped onto a user's machine that provides a unique system fingerprint or device identifier that can be queried alongside transactions. Unfortunately, in our experience (Linden Lab used to use essentially this same sort of system for severe user bans for years, but ultimately had to discontinue it) this kind of system is relatively easily circumvented by the determined or knowledgeable (at least without the most egregious rootkitting), and also only prevents subsequent frauds, after an initial fraud is detected by other means. Nonetheless, with an increasing focus in the online gaming world towards non-subscription-based transaction models, fraud prevention/reduction is occupying increasingly large amounts of attention from MMO/VW operators and developers who are looking for solutions. [via PlayNoEvil]
Monday grid glitches in Second Life
Just to round up the carryover problems from the weekend in Second Life (along with a couple new ones) Network problems are affecting 480 regions. We're not sure if that's basically just a few racks, or if that's the whole Texas colocation facility. Linden Lab says they have a network engineer on site now. Account transaction histories are all about five hours out of date. If your accounting relies on them being current, best to hold off until this one's sorted. Events can't currently be posted through the web-site facility for events. Also being worked on this-morning. Recent changes to search have prevented searches from non-Linden estates from returning results from Linden estates (you can't search for businesses or parcels on the mainland if you're not on it). This only affects the older search and not the new search system at present. Oh, and of course the problems with parcel media settings via scripts. Hopefully the problems are relatively short-lived.
Peering Inside: Linden lags, a failure to communicate
One of the most common complaints from Second Life users is that Linden Lab and their support staff either ignore or are dismissive of ... well, of one of the most common complaints from Second Life users: Performance and lag (commonly seen as the same thing). Like the recent problem with the bug that ate up simulator performance like candy. When it was reported, the response to the user reports was chilly, bordering on hostile. Why is that?
