Caleb Booker

Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.

For other weeks, see the archive page.

I kind of went light on the video embeds and inline images this week so that it all doesn’t seem so overwhelming. Dunno if that’s the best strategy. Well, we’ll try it and see… the wonders of it being your own blog ‘n all.

Disclaimer: As with everything on my blog, the opinions expressed here are mine and do not reflect on Clever Zebra, the vBusiness Expo, my friends, my family, my blip channel, any of the other “Jack of All Strange” stuff that I do, etc etc etc… k here we go:

Top Stories

Virtual Banking (18): Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank
A rough outline of a couple of German banks making homes in Second Life. Check out the promo for Volksbank:

Canada Post hosts holiday retail on Second Life
“Canada Post’s Maple Grove [...] has built a retail city of 10 leading Canadian retailers to provide an online shopping and entertainment experience to the 380,000 registered Canadians visiting the site.”

Worlds.com Hires IP Firm for Licensing: To Begin Contacting Virtual World Companies “Shortly”
Oh this is helpful. Apparently Worlds.com is going to try to enforce copyright on some very widely used virtual world concepts. They own U.S. Patent Nos. 6,219,045 titled “Scalable Virtual World Chat Client-Server System” and 7,181,690 titled “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space.” Way to grow the industry guys.

Griefer Raid Shuts Down Muslim Virtual World “Muxlim Pal”
Oh hell. Anyhow, glad they’re busy.

Amidst Cuts and Bankruptcy Rumors at Nortel, Web.Alive Going Strong
Well now that’s inspirational that is!

ThinkBalm Guest Post: How enterprises can use the Immersive Internet to avoid costs in 2009 and innovate beyond
Fun advertorial for Erica Driver and Sam Driver’s report “The Immersive Internet: Make Tactical Moves Today For Strategic Advantage Tomorrow.” Hi guys!

IGG Raises Over $10M in Series B
This casual MMO developer and operator, which hosts a slew of free-to-play worlds, raised $4.5 million in a Series A led by IDGVC this past January.

Virtual World HiPiHi Hits 75,000 Registered Mainland Users
A good start I suppose, although what we’re really talking about is 3,000 to 4,000 active users.

Korea to Invest $242M in Games
Funding coming from the department for Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Training and Education

eLearning and Sales with Tandem Learning’s Virtual Territory
Press release. Corporate training company Tandem launches a 3D environment.

JumpStart’s Virtual World Teaches Kids While They’re Busy Having Fun
Hooray for edu-tainment!

Government and Military

Army Debuts Second Life Island, Virtually
The official Army release.

Guest Post: Mike Macedonia, VP and GM, Forterra Federal Systems – Virtual Worlds Build Steam at I/ITSEC Conference
Mike Macedonia calls this a “milestone event for virtual worlds”.

Marketing

Elf Island Launches to Beta; Launches Promo with Habitat for Humanity
Promoting a non-profit is a good way to launch a beta.

Virtual World There.com Creates Unique Holiday Campaign to Inspire Giving and Drive Charitable Donations
Press release. ‘Tis the season I suppose.

Gaia Adds Justin Timberlake and Elvis Goods from Virtual Greats
Justin Timberlake and Elvis Presley are put in the same category. That’s it then, the final sign of the Apocalypse has arrived. I’ll be in the bomb shelter.

Gaming

Sony aims for a new virtual world order
Sony Home launches, garners massive press from all corners. Advertisers jump on the bandwagon.

HeroEngine to be Used for Star Wars: The Old Republic
What does this mean to you? Probably not much, but I mention it just to note that yes, they’re moving ahead with the project.

Infogrames Acquiring Cryptic Studios
Infogrames, parent publisher of Atari, announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Cryptic Studios for $27.6 million and up to $20 million in sales-based incentives.

Nerds Only

Q&A: Sulka Haro on Habbo’s Dual Currency System
Habbo went dual-currency awhile back. Hard to understand why, isn’t it? I’d say so. Here, maybe this will give you some answers.

Big Stage Announces “Portable You” for Partners, Integrates with Icarus
“[...] opens up its 3D facial modeling system to third parties for integration in games, virtual worlds, websites, mobile apps, and more.”

Newbs Only

Virtual world, real emotions: Relationships in Second Life
In case you’ve gone a full 30 minutes without reading a story about people meeting online and then in real life.

Dangers of virtual world
The latest “look out, that orc’s gonna get ya!” article.

Sociological Oddities

Crime and Punishment in the Virtual World
Brilliantly written piece about the philosophy behind punishment and how it all applies to this online stuff.

From Real Life to Second Life: Global Warming Activism in the Metaverse
Just added as a kind of “note to self” about ‘isms in general. They all, universally, seem to make a home here. Is the reason for that psychological?

The Strangest Sights in Second Life
I was prepared to be all cynical about this, but as a matter of fact this is a great pictorial! Worth checking out!

Sex in Sony’s Home?
I don’t uh… know. Whatever. Here, look for yourself. (Totally SFW).

Posted on December 14th, 2008 under new media. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.