So I’m surfing C|Net and come across an article called “Making the virtual world a better place“. Okay. So I’m reading down the page and while scrolling down with the mouse I accidently hit what I initially took to be the visual for an ad (see above image, on the right). Well, it’s not an ad. And it’s not just a visual. It’s an interactive map of links to relevant articles. Yeah, I know, I’ve seen this sort of thing before too… but not one lying in wait in the sidebar (how long have I missed this?). Most of the time they’ve been centerpieces, and for some reason it just felt different. Check it out, and the article too. There’s a couple of interesting bits in it:

With that in mind, Schubert urged those gathered for his talk to focus the design of their virtual worlds around the creation of smaller game zones where players don’t feel alone. He said that would enable them to feel social even when there aren’t a huge number of other players around. The alternative, he said, is large game spaces where players feel lonely unless many others are nearby.

and

A designer at Dragon’s Eye Productions who called himself Dr. Cat for the panel, agreed, noting that while publisher-created content will likely be more polished than that made by users, content created by users–such as clothing, buildings, vehicles, weapons and the like-–can have more value to players because they recognize it was built by people they know.

The first quote is interesting taken relative to some of the comments made by judges for the State of Play architecture competition (see earlier posts here and here). And that second quote brings to mind the presentation made by Will Wright which included similar thoughts of his on user-created content (I think it’s the video link in this earlier entry).

Caught a curious article, “3-D Design Software Helps New Aircraft Take Wing“, over on the Los Angeles Times website. First off, “3-D” sounds like a mix of 3D CAD and 3D visual systems; there’s mention of 3-D glasses, a “3-D program to create the machine tools” and a virtual 3D simulation to lay out the factory similar to what UGS has advertised in their PLMware (which I’ve discussed here).

Second, and more interesting, is that there’s no direct mention of Dassault’s computer program (which certainly appears to be their PLMware) facilitating this rapid development of their new aircraft. What is emphasized is the process itself – bringing together a variety of tools to speed development. It’s that last part that reminded me of this interface experiment. And that has me wondering what it really means when the article says that the “Dassault engineering team continues to modernize the 3-D software”.

The past few days I’ve been following an interesting entry by Terra Nova blogger Thomas Malaby titled “Class Begins in…“. It started out with so much promise in it’s discussion of class systems but now the discussion appears to be on it’s last gasp. A shame considering how some of what is being discussed dovetails with some of my recent comments (1, 2). I’d have liked to seen where the discussion might have gone. Oh well. I don’t doubt the topic will resurface, so I’m thinking that some of you might want to give this a look.

Recently, while discussing Google’s latest moves into the realms of free wireless internet service, I mentioned that I expected the “free” business model would increasingly become the norm. After all, Google has shown that seemingly insignificant ads can bring in a ton of revenue. And only yesterday I posted that the virtual world There has also made their basic account free of charge (similar to Second Life, Project Entropia, and others). And now it appears Sony is joining the freedom movement.

Blue’s News has posted notice that Sony intends to release a free MMORPG next Fall. From the Dow Jones Newswire story to which they link:

Sony Online Entertainment, a division of consumer electronics giant Sony Corp., expects to more than make up for the lost subscription revenue by selling optional add-ons, such as extra weapons or game levels.

Earlier this year, Sony Online introduced a Web site, called Station Exchange, where players of some of its games can auction off characters or game items to other players for real money.

The move was designed to give Sony Online a cut of an activity already happening on unauthorized sites.

Smedley said Thursday that Station Exchange is paying off.

“It’s a real business,” he said. “It has a very meaningful revenue stream, and it’s growing.”

Do I even need to link back to posts where I’ve discussed how big the virtual market is going to become?

Via an SL Future Salon entry comes this interesting link to a Next Generation article where Sun Microsystems basically comes out and boldly announces what so many people have been saying for some time (perhaps years). Here’s a quote from Sun’s chief gaming officer, Chris Melissinos:

I argue that we’ve been the principle architect of the largest massively multiplayer online game in the world. It’s Wall Street. If you took a look at all of the mechanics that go in to building an online trading system, they’re almost one-for-one, the same functions needed to build an MMOG.

The article’s author goes on to say

But there’s more to this vision than just simple middleware. Nothing less than rewriting the underlying economics of the MMOG space is at stake.

This is where someone gets off the clue-train. This isn’t about Massive Multiplayer Online Games. This is about the convergence of work and games. This is about the blurring distinction between them. So instead I’d say this is about nothing less than reforming the occupational landscape on a different societal foundation. In fact, much of my commentary here (and elsewhere 1, 2, 3) is directly related to this shift.