Here’s a quick note to call attention to something that might be of interest: Another avatar fabbing outfit has set up shop. Most of you are probably already aware of Fabjectory, the service that’s been “3D printing” Second Life avatars and objects for the last year or so. Well now there’s a service available for fabbing World of Warcraft game characters. The company is called Figureprints (Link) and from the artwork on their website it appears they’ve licensed the content from Blizzard (I was actually more interested in what Blizzard would do if Figureprints were offering the service without getting clearance. Guess I’ll have to wait.).
Continue reading →

I caught word of Papervision3D via a post on the design:related social network. I’m impressed. If you watched the video, you probably are too. But more importantly, with recent reviews of Kinset‘s virtual Brookstone space (Link 1, Link 2), I can’t help but think that a Flash- or Shockwave-based solution might not be a better approach for targeted e-commerce. Some of the Papervision3D sites are really well done and I’d be very interested in seeing how a hybrid 2D/3D virtual store might turn out.
Continue reading →

I caught word of Qwaq, the Croquet-based virtual world collaboration application, receiving an additional $7M in funding a couple of days ago and have been watching the word spread, both curious as to how it would be received but also because of what CEO Greg Nuyens told Red Herring (Link):

Mr. Nuyens, who describes Second Life as a “fancy pick-up joint,” said that although Qwaq Forums is more focused on sharing documents, the social aspect is still important. “It isn’t one or the other. It’s about being able to do both in the same place,” he said.

Continue reading →

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then those and a couple of movies are worth something more. Via Inhabitat’s entry “COHDA: Recycling Design Factory at Dott 07” (Link), I made my way over to Cohda’s site (Link) hoping to find additional information, as I’d wondered about some of the details that went into the construction of their chairs. I found them.

{Images Copyright © 2007 cohda design limited}

I caught a whiff of this piece on the Guardian earlier this month, and having finally read it, all I can say is, thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster someone else is starting to talk about the impact virtual worlds will almost certainly have on real world commerce. Victor Keegan has fired a nice warning flare in his article, “Virtual China looks for real benefits” (Link). From the piece:

Anyone who still thinks that virtual worlds such as Mind Ark’s Entropia Universe or Second Life are the plaything of geeks should look at what is happening in China. It is simply mind-boggling and, if it all comes off, has awesome implications for western economies.
… Continue reading →