Tag Archives: #virtualworlds

Ministries of VideoChina

Posted on by

BBC News online has an informative article on the amazing growth of online gaming in China. Interesting to note the government’s involvement: three separate ministries oversee the videogame industry. Of course there was no mention of virtual worlds. So maybe they could see fit to add another “ministry” – if just to help this poor virtual world resident posting on one official forum:

I Always Play Slingo, I Seen 10k Pot In Xxlodge Club, And Last Night Always From 3k-10k Changing The Pot, I Think The Players Are Mad, But To A Pity , I Was So Bad Luck Played All Night Didn’t Win Any , When I Near Ly Win I Met Devils,
So I Think, We Need Make A Script To Keep Us From Devils

I’ll update this when a “Soul-Saving Script” turns up in the virtual marketplace. Any day now…

Will The Real Virtual Eve Please Stand Up

Posted on by

Virtual Eve and someone else... I think

For the past few days I’ve been noticing a continuing stream of visitors coming from search engines throughout the world – though mostly Europe. They all have one thing in common: they keep landing on this post in my blog because they’re entering “virtual+eve” in a search engine query. At first I thought maybe there was some researcher(s) out there using the net to gather information. A few moments ago I noticed even more visitors so I figured something else was up. And here it is from the second most popular search engine return:

What is Virtual EVE? Is it a video game? “Not exactly,” says Mr. Sexton. “It doesn’t fit within the tradition goal-oriented framework of what we define as a ‘video game’. There isn’t a specific goal you need to accomplish; it’s something you experience. So in that respect, it’s not a game, but it’s not just another static porn movie either. It’s more of a real-time sex simulator. It features completely real-time 3D graphics which allows for a more interactive, immersive experience. You choose the sexual position, you navigate the environment with a free-roaming camera, and you direct the on-screen action.”

That’s from a press release dated 20 June 2005, so it looks as if someone has recently figured out there’s money to be made from selling… who would have thought… s e x. But I have to wonder if the people behind this “game” even know about sims like Second Life or There (the latter of which I’ve heard is nothing but Socializing). And heck, for half that one-time price people could get a world full of Eves… and Liliths and whatever else strikes their fancy (be sure to say Csven Concord recommended you should you register for Second Life. Thanks.). But if this simulation strikes your fancy, google away.

(Above image is Copyright © 2005 Eve Interactive. And btw, sorry for the excess pixelation. Who knew hiding naughty bits could be so much fun?)

Once More Into The Breach

Posted on by

I’ve been following a post by Cory Ondrejka over on Terra Nova (a monster thread) which might interest a few (perhaps a very few) of you. It’s basically a re-engagement of the “Text Worlds vs 3D Worlds” … *ahem* … discussion. It’s pretty low-level stuff which, to be honest, gives me a headache; but if you have an interest – and some extra aspirin – head on over for some gnarly virtual world theoretical banter.

WoW Data

Posted on by

Terra Novan and mediated interaction researcher Nick Yee has posted on the Terra Nova website an announcement that World of Warcraft player data he and a few PARC researchers are collecting is now up for review and discussion on the PlayOn blog.

If you’re like me then World of Warcraft by itself doesn’t mean much other it being an online videogame. However, the information they’re extracting is pretty interesting. I may not know what’s happening at “level 40”, but comments like the following are easy to understand:

Plotting playing time against level by guild involvement shows several interesting trends. Playing time increases dramatically for guilded players right before level 40. Because of the new skills and mount granted at level 40, it makes sense that players may increase their playing time to achieve those goals. Perhaps being in a guild facilitates this because other guild members encourage and help players reach level 40 when they get close to it, thereby increasing playing time.

Sounds like the academic version of how I imagine Massive’s system operates. Interesting (and perhaps a little scary). But if I’m an advertiser, I know where I want my ads placed… right around whatever it is in level 40 that’s making players spend more time online (I’m imagining there’s some location-specific activity or item required for the player to level up).

Swimmin’ With The Virtual Fishes

Posted on by

artificial living fish in Second Life

I came across an interesting story couple days ago over on New World Notes (a blog maintained by a Second Life-embedded reporter) about fish with artificial intelligence coded into them swimming and replicating in the simulation. I wanted to see it for myself so logged on today for a peek. Very cool. Unfortunately there were only a few fish left as apparently there was some kind of population explosion which forced the Creator’s unforgiving hand (sounds alot like a Flood story to me). No matter. It was still interesting to see them “swim” around. The pyramid object you kinda see at the bottom of the above image (hiding behind the lowest fish) is a food/sphere “dispenser” and they didn’t stray too far from that. And while they swam around me, they didn’t appear too interested.

My favorite part of the story however is actually in the comments section, where the following line sounded especially intriguing:

A virus was quickly introduced to kill off the mutant fish before they either crashed the servers or they evolved a way of teleporting to the main grid.

That’s classic. You can read the whole story and comments here.