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."
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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."
more fromwww.mystonline.com
'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."
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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."
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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."
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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."
more fromwww.conferenceisland.com
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."
more fromwww.bizinformer.com
Lively - 3D Avatars and Rooms
[Via Mitch Wagner] "After careful consideration, we have decided to shut down Lively."
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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."
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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."
more fromarstechnica.com
'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.
more fromnews.cnet.com
Alpha Male » World Of Warcraft On Treadmills
"The Wii might get you involved and more immersed in your gaming experience, thanks to the unique motion control system, but the folks at Manapotions.com decided to go the extra mile where World of Warcraft (WoW) is concerned. This special mod connects treadmills and joysticks to a computer, where running on the treadmill will make you move your character accordingly."
more frompoplife.biz
'Warcraft' players to get 'Wrath' expansion features early | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET
"Hot on the heels of its new expansion's cinematic debut last week, Blizzard Entertainment on Monday announced that it will release a World of Warcraft patch "in coming weeks" that will include features from its second expansion Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard said the patch is designed to "bridge current game content with that of the expansion.""
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Play more 'Warcraft,' get sued for malpractice less | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET
"OK, first off, the idea that video games are good for you is not a new one. I mean, I've seen plenty of studies saying video games improve everything from hand-eye coordination to driving skills. This is, however, the first time I've seen the benefits directed at surgeons. I guess some surgeons needed to justify the increased amount of raiding they've been doing lately. According to the study, laparoscopic surgeons who play video games are apparently 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than surgeons who do not game. Hmmm, I guess the most interesting part of that for me was that there was that much room for improvement in advanced surgical procedures."
more fromnews.cnet.com
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."
more fromostatic.com
slpromusician.com • Index page
"Professional Musicians in Second Life"
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Some of von johin’s blues
Heard him last night during the opening of Gibson Island. Excellent.
more fromwww.vonjohin.com
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."
more fromwww.marketwatch.com
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."
more fromwww.roughtype.com
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."
more fromwww.newstatesman.com
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