Corporate Stupidity Or What?
You should check Gwyn's writing about future of the metaverse and Intergrid. It deals mostly with the current state of and what big companies wish and plan with our little toy:
Instead of an “unified metaverse”, they’re using the name ambiguously as a more fancy synonym of “virtual world”. The industry players wish to address a different target — games for teens — and are reluctant in accepting an “unified” environment. Each company wishes to have their own virtual universe and aggressively compete with the others.
Fear And Loathing In The Barbie World
After I checked the tips, rules, more rules and even more rules for the girls in the BarbieGirls virtual world, it was time to jump right there and hope for the best. I took a deep breath and clicked login button. Read more…
Iridium Linden’s Apology NOW!
Now this is really too much! If you don't know of the censorship of Burning Man second life event you can read it at SLinsider (and the follow-up). In short, Lindens didn't like the fact that statue of woman have nipples so they censored the event. If they are fine with the fact that humans in RL have nipples is still unknown. But, it doesn't stop on mere censorship. It has to be spiced with insults. Read more…
Political Means in the Virtual World
The grid performance is crappy. Lindens first banned ageplay. Then casinos. What is next to be forbidden in our lives? Maybe second life is a game but is a fairly big and complex game. Most of us invest considerable amounts of time and money in it. For some people second life is surely not a game. They do their business' here whether it is inworld biz or extensions of RL. We have some rights over the game. And sometimes, in both our lives, we have to do something about it.
Real Protesting in the Virtual World
No, I am not going to talk much about new Linden's banning of the gambling in second life. There is not much to say we already don't know. And I am not in the mood for ranting. (Hey, dandellion, what's up with you, are you OK?) I will accept the fact that some people are deaf and blind against their own good and against the basic moral principles. I won't go after the story that their dreams (and their money) are compromised by what they do. I don't care about their dreams. I care about our world. Read more…
Between Paranoia And Utopia
A transcript of Robin Linden's office hours last Wednesday (full and SLHerald's excerpt) should put some light upon Second Life's future. It should but, as you expect, it doesn't. It starts with Robin mentioning that somebody who is arrested for child porn in Germany is also Second Life's resident. Despite the fact that does not make any proof of anything it may be the good starting point for argumentation. It ends with some sweet picture from the future:
The more likely scenario, however, is that Residents will join together to create local regions where they agree on rules. In that case our role becomes more one of oversight. When the day comes that the group can host their own servers, then they can do whatever they want and answer directly to their local authorities.
But, let's see what lies between today's censorship paranoia and future utopia. Read more…
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