Nigel Paravane

• City of Heroes ‘Mac’ Open Beta! | City of Heroes

  “The City of Heroes Development Team and TransGaming Media are pleased to announce that Mac users will now be able to test out City of Heroes for the Macintosh.”

  tags: OB, NP, video games, Mac

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Myst Online | URU | From GameTap™

  “So, Cyan has decided to give make MystOnline available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for MystOnline as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for MystOnline. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans. This is a bit scary for Cyan because this is an area that we have never gone before, to let a product freely roam in the wild. But we’ve poured so much into UruLive, and it has touched so many, that we could not just let it whither and die. We still have hopes that someday we will be able to provide new content for UruLive and/or work on the next UruLive.”

  tags: OB, NP, open source, Myst, virtual worlds

• ‘Myst Online’ to be released fully open-source | Negative Approach - CNET News

  “Cyan Worlds has decided to release all of the Myst Online: Uru Live assets to the public as open source, including the client and server architecture. Cyan will also hold one Myst Online server shard open for players to have a centralized world, while others can now freely put up their own Myst Online servers.”

  tags: OB, NP, Myst, virtual worlds

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Linden Lab Appoints Howard Look Senior Vice President of Customer Applications - MarketWatch

  “Linden Lab(R), creator of the virtual world Second Life(R), today announced the appointment of Howard Look as Senior Vice President (SVP) of Customer Applications. Look brings over 18 years of experience in software development and user interface (UI) design, having held executive positions at Pixar Animation Studios and TiVo Inc. Reporting to Linden Lab’s CEO, Mark Kingdon, Look will oversee improvements to the Second Life experience and the development of new products and features that enhance the usability and overall customer experience of the Second Life Grid.”

  tags: OB, NP, Linden, Second Life

• Millions of Us » Blog Archive » Forrester Consulting Report on Consumer Engagement in Virtual Worlds

  “The study which we are making available today to interested clients, prospects, and journalists is a strong first step in moving towards a unified set of standards and measurement by which clients can gauge the effectiveness of their activities in virtual worlds. We think many people will be interested in the study’s conclusions about opportunities for cross-channel tracking and building brand recognition through the distribution of virtual goods and the use of avatar customization.”

  tags: OB, NP, virtual worlds, Forrester

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Conference Island - Virtual conferencing in Second Life and virtual worlds

  “Using the on-line virtual world Second Life, Conference Island provides a far more enjoyable meeting experience than video conferencing and is without doubt better value for money. And it out-performs telephone hook-ups because it is so visually stimulating.”

  tags: OB, NP, virtual worlds, Second Life

• Bizinformer: How Long Until EVERYONE Has a Store in Second Life?

  “There are three things to think about. First, can you develop a product or service to sell inside Second Life (or some other virtual world)? Second Life has its own money, but it is convertible back into US dollars and you can transfer it from the game back into your bank account. Second, does Second Life provide marketing opportunities? If your real world products and services are available online, it’s likely that some of your savviest clients could be found in Second Life. Finally, can you use Second Life as a staging ground for making real world sells? In her article, Cohen gives the example of CareerBuilder.com: kiosks they set up in Second Life resulted in 6,500 real life job applications.”

  tags: OB, NP, virtual worlds, Second Life

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Lively - 3D Avatars and Rooms

  [Via Mitch Wagner] “After careful consideration, we have decided to shut down Lively.”

  tags: OB, NP, Google, Lively, virtual worlds

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Tutorial: How to Replicate a Real Life Building in Second Life « The ARCH

  “One of the most frequently requested services I receive as a freelance builder and consultant in Second Life is to replicate real-life buildings. While I’ve written a lot (here, and here) about the potential for a new (non-replica) language of purely virtual architecture, based on the inherent characteristics of the virtual environment, I strongly believe there is a potent value in the replication of physical architecture as a point of reference, a springboard for further development, or simply a kind of iconic 3D logo for organizations entering virtual worlds.”

  tags: OB, NP, Second Life

• First look: Raptr, a gamer’s Facebook with some rough edges

  “Leveraging the power of the Internet to bring gamers together has become an essential aspect of virtually every game that comes onto the market. But with the online social community boom, this trend has begun to transcend any one particular game or platform altogether as gamers seek out their brothers and sisters in other ways. That’s where Raptr, a new online social community service for gamers, comes in.”

  tags: OB, NP, social networking, video games

• ‘EA Land’ closing just weeks after debut | Gaming and Culture - CNET News

  I missed this when the news story hit in April, but the service shut down on August 1. This was to be the successor to The Sims Online.

  tags: OB, NP, EA, virtual worlds

• An Introduction To Open Sim: the “Apache of Virtual Worlds” | OStatic

  “You’ve probably read a bit about Open Sim, the BSD-licensed virtual world server, and recent news that IBM and Linden Lab are working to make Second Life and Open Sim interoperable. Besides that project, what’s Open Sim about, who’s working on it, what are they doing with it, and how do you get involved as a developer and participant? Here’s a starter’s guide, created with the help of Tish Shute, whose virtual world blog UgoTrade is an indispensable resource on the latest in Open Sim news.”

  tags: OB, NP, OpenSim, virtual worlds

• slpromusician.com • Index page

  “Professional Musicians in Second Life”

  tags: SL, NP, Second Life, music

• Some of von johin’s blues

  Heard him last night during the opening of Gibson Island. Excellent.

  tags: OB, NP, music, blues

• Gibson Guitar Enters Into Virtual World of 3-D With Launch of Gibson Island on Second Life.com, an Industry First - MarketWatch

  “Gibson is the first major music manufacturer to establish an official island in Second Life and has advanced the opportunity for consumers to participate in an exciting virtual world complete with digital luthiers, instruments and guest stars. The Gibson Island will officially launch at 8am SL Time on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 with an exclusive live music performance at 6pm SL Time. In tribute to the legendary Gibson Les Paul guitar and the musician, the Gibson Island is in the shape of the famous guitar body and rises up from the ocean in Second Life. The “island” will feature humbucker mountains, full theatres, mini-theatres and other areas resembling pick ups and other aspects of a Gibson guitar.”

  tags: OB, NP, guitar, Gibson, Second Life, virtual worlds

• Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog: Can I bring my flame thrower into Second Life?

  “I’m not sure that IBM and Linden have fully thought through the consequences of bringing the globalization ethic to the virtual realm. About five minutes after the gates come down, all the residents of Second Life will have been made the slaves of powerful Warcraft clans. Peace-loving cyber-utopias will see their unnatural resources strip-mined by invading tribes.”

  tags: OB, NP, Second Life, War of Warcraft

• New Statesman - Second Life teleporting

  “The real challenges of course lie not just in technically moving data between worlds, but with import / export legislation, relative exchange rates and virtual immigration policies.”

  tags: OB, NP, Second Life, IBM, teleportation, virtual worlds

• A ‘Second’ chance to study abroad | News - Digital Media - CNET News.com

  “According to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, several universities and even the U.S. Department of State are using Second Life to spread culture and experience to people who can’t afford pricey semesters overseas. This year, Ohio University noticed that its virtual campus was party to many visitors from around the world. The foreign students interacted with the campus’ avatars in an attempt to learn more about American culture.”

  tags: OB, NP, Second Life, virtual worlds, education

• Virtual world tipping point: Is there an enterprise use? | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

  “Google has entered the virtual world game with a project called Lively and Second Life and IBM have pulled off a few interoperability experiments. Add it up and we may be seeing a little tipping point for virtual worlds. There may be even a few corporate uses in the future.”

  tags: OB, NP, virtual worlds, Second Life, Google, IBM

• Hands-on: Google’s Lively social 3D world is 20 percent done

  “If Lively grows some legs during its Google Labs beta phase, the company can monetize it in obvious ways down the road by embedding text and video advertising in the rooms. Site owners can probably get a slice of the pie as well, giving them an incentive to try the platform. For now, however, Lively is a clunky beta.”

  tags: OB, NP, Google, Lively, virtual worlds

• With Lively, Google tries its own ‘Second Life’ | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET

  “Google on Tuesday plans to unveil an online 3D social arena called Lively, the Internet giant’s take on Second Life. But Google wants it to be part of your first life. Second Life requires users to download and install a separate “client” software package that taps into the online world. Lively also requires a download and installation–Windows only for now–but then people can use Internet Explorer or Firefox to enter the virtual world.”

  tags: OB, NP, Google, Lively, virtual worlds

• Vivaty Brings The 3D Web to Your Browser, Starting With AIM and Facebook

  “Move over Second Life. The 3D Web is starting to make inroads into the plain old browser. By “plain,” I mean only Internet Explorer on Windows machines—which for now is what you need to experience Vivaty Scenes. But at least it’s a start. (Firefox support on PCs is coming in a few weeks, but Mac support is being pushed off further).”

  tags: OB, NP, Vivaty, virtual worlds

• Virtual Worlds Review: Virtual Worlds List By Category

  “So many worlds, so little time. Not sure where to start? Here are a few recommendations”

  tags: OB, NP, virtual worlds

• FT.com | Tech Blog | Second Life’s maiden voyage across the metaverse

  “One small teleport for avatars, one giant leap for virtual worlds is how Second Life is viewing the first crossing of its members between platforms. While not quite the equivalent of finding a parallel universe or landing on the moon, the achievement is a significant one for Linden Lab’s partnership with IBM.”

  tags: NP, Second Lide, OpenSim

• IBM and Linden Lab Interoperability Announcement « Official Second Life Blog

  “This is a historic day for Second Life, and for virtual worlds in general. IBM and Linden Lab have announced that research teams from the two companies successfully teleported avatars from the Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server, marking the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another.”

  tags: OB, NP, SecondLife, OpenSim

• Bob Sutor: Open Blog | Hopping from one virtual world to another

  “Today IBM and Linden Lab are announcing basic avatar teleportability across the Second Life Preview Grid and an OpenSim virtual world server.”

  tags: NP, Second Life, OpenSim

• Museum of Robots in Second Life Announces Competition Winners at Event on July 19, 2008 - Pop Culture and Cool Stuff News from Send2Press Newswire Jul 7, 2008

  “The competition’s goal is to explore what a robot is, how it can be expressed within the parameters of Second Life, and to encourage creativity and originality. With almost 50 entries received, creativity is indeed on display.”

  tags: OB, NP, robot, Second Life

• Video Game Review - Conan’s Back, at Play in a World of Savagery - Review - NYTimes.com

  “By contrast, a massively multiplayer game like Age of Conan or World of Warcraft is an immense round-the-clock online environment where thousands of players simultaneously go about their virtual lives, exploring, fulfilling quests or just making friends.”

  tags: OB, NP, Conan, MMORPG