BusinessWeek online has an article on PayPal that’s worth reading if you’re watching virtual economics. For those who aren’t aware, PayPal is owned by eBay. And of course the bulk of virtual transactions (for now) are apparently conducted over eBay. So as virtual currency becomes increasingly tied to real life, it’s interesting to read how PayPal is potentially in a position to extend its online presence into the real world.
Tag Archives: #virtualworlds
Blog In Game
There’s been alot of “blog talk” the last week or so. BusinessWeek had a big article on it… there were comments and discussions about that… then there was some NYTimes article by Adam Cohen on it yesterday I guess (maybe spurred by the BW thing), that got other people like Chris Anderson over on the Long Tail site talking. I rather liked Anderson’s comment: “The first rule of the blogosphere…is not to generalize about the blogosphere.” Seems that should apply to a lot of things.
Well, after all that (most of which I simply stepped cautiously around), I came upon this entry over on the MIT Technology Review site via the MIT AdLab site about the advertising potential of in-game blogging. It’s not all that amazing an article, but it did remind me that “non-gamish” virtual worlds like Second Life have already embraced this kind of stuff (there’s now an in-world internet of sorts so there should be real blogs popping up any day). Second Life even has a paid in-world journalist who posts entries online on his New World Notes site – and some of what is written is decidely not “game” material. Surprising that Second Life and perhaps other sims weren’t included in that article… almost as if someone else out there doesn’t quite consider them Games. I wonder if, when MMORPGs start churning out real advertising deals and XBox2 players start earning real cash using Microsoft’s virtual business tools, if those too will look less like games and more like regular businesses.
More Mainstream News of the Virtual
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m seeing ever increasing news articles covering virtual worlds. This latest one, over on C|Net, spends most of it’s time talking about Solipsis, manages to get a comment in on the OSMP, and includes Second Life (the article has links to all three). No comment on Croquet though which I mentioned two days ago and which seems much further along than Solipsis. Or any other projects I’ve come across, such as Kerry Bonin’s slowly developing VScape/VML project. Still, might be worth a read.
WorldChanging Notices Virtual Realities
I’m a recent reader of the Worldchanging.com website, but the tone of this article they’ve recently posted suggests their recent recognition of the potential in virtual worlds and their economies. Of particular interest to me however was the comment that reputation is a crucial element of these online activities; and that a positive reputation carries forward and sometimes outward into the real world. Sounds alot like some comments I read a couple years ago about Chinese business practices; how even with so few mechanisms in place (China is still communist after all) Chinese businessmen managed to do just fine using the best and oldest tools available: reputation and word-of-mouth.
I was glad to read that about “reputation” and to be reminded of that Chinese article. It’s a short read with plenty of links. Might be worth your time if you’re still new to the whole virtual thang.
Second Life, Croquet, and the Next SL Future Salon

Since Sunday’s are always kind of slow, thought I’d post a link to this announcement over on the Second Life Future Salon blog today instead of during the week (I figure niche news lasts longer). The post concerns the scheduled appearance of Dr. Julian Lombardi, one of the people behind the open source vr project Croquet, at the May 26 SL Future Salon meeting within Second Life. I’m especially interested in what he has to say since Croquet is, in my opinion, ripe for some serious use in the near future. It’s not only open source, but the inclusion of CAD tools within it is even more exciting for those of use that use CAD in our daily lives.
For those who don’t have a Second Life account, I’ve been told that the meeting will be webcast live from within the simulation (maybe). News of that should be posted on the SLFS blogsite before the meeting. If you do watch the virtual meeting, look for me. I’ll be in the back row.