Japanese Magazine On Virtual Worlds
Click to see some sample pages
A year ago I was scouring our local magazine racks for anything about virtual worlds. There are some great gaming magazines out there, but nothing that addresses Second Life. “Massive”, the closest bet, died in March. There hasn’t been much in print about social worlds where people create and trade.
At first I was disappointed, but after awhile I started to realize that the web is a better medium for this kind of thing anyhow. Maybe keeping news about virtual worlds online is “eating the dogfood you’re making”, so to speak. Besides, as soon as you move to print you start to assume that there’s a kind of permanence to anything we’re doing here, a kind of truth. Virtual worlds, even to experts, are still an unknown quantity. Keeping the discussions and discoveries about them online keeps everything fluid.
So, what happens just when I no longer want one? Why, one gets published of course!
Virtual Worlds Walker is a magazine out of Japan covering There, Second Life, HiPiHi and Meet-Me. They’re covering mostly the fashion and club scene, with a little art mixed in. Basically, it’s all about fun. I know! Shocking! No controversies or business analyses or debates or anything! Who are these people!?!?
Flipping through the sample pages (click the link above) it actually looks like something I might pick up, but right away I’m running into another problem with print media: I can’t use a translator. I didn’t realize how much I had come to rely on the various translation tools that have been cobbled together around the ‘net. Digital media’s power truly is in its copy/paste function.
The magazine is coupled with an awesome website though: VirtualWorldWalker.com. They use it as a general “what the blogs are sayin’” news site, and it’s a great place to get the Japanese take on the scene. If you click here, you’ll be able to surf it magically translated on-the-fly by Google goodness. Now if only my news reader could translate RSS on the fly.
(via CScout Japan)
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Interesting! I just *know* in my heart of hearts that English-language-only users in Second Life are missing out on some great builds by the Asian communities, simply because we’re not communicating enough with each other. I would love to find an “ambassador,” who could introduce us to what’s cool and happening on all those sims I have yet to explore.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
There are 4 tabs at the top, one tab for each virtual world.
The only tab that is responding is the tab for Second Life.