Category Archives: New Media

Joi Ito on…well…’the state of the metaverse union’?

4 July 2006

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So I specifically turned my back on an absolutely glorious sunny day today, to work on a job application and finish up some thesis thoughts I had this morning (burnt the midnight oil) – but first things first – feeds need to be skimmed through!
Rather annoyingly erikso.com had a truely informative and extremely interesting post, loads of stuff I’ve just automatically loaded on to my iPod for the walk home tonight – but I ended up watching the whole of this charming videoblog by Loïc Le Meur (loads of other interesting things on his blog – I became a subscriber instantly), where he talks to Joi Ito about – well…everything important!!!! Joi Ito gives the best description of what playing World of Warcraft is about, EVER!!!!! What we can learn from MMORPGs and how we can incorporate several models into the business world. Ofcourse gold farming comes up -and Ito brings up an interesting observation that the Chinese had a hard time understanding what we have against gold farmers, according to them it’s a given that people with money should be able to pay their way to the top in games. Really ironic – that we in the capitalist world believe every MMORPG gamer should be equal, while the Socialist Chinese are all for money buying gaming fame and fortune! Amusing. Then they have a great talk about videos, music and copyright – and ofcourse the Creative Commons – and what all this sharing business is all about. It was really interesting!!! And it was so relaxed listening to them just have a conversation! Very inspiring! Definitely worth skipping a film or tv program to watch! But now – must work!!

Picture stolen from erikso.com! Thanks!!

When technology governs

20 June 2006

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Mark Wallace had a very honest and reflective post in his blog yesterday about ‘the issue of trademark, copyright and intellectual property rights in Second Life’. There seems to be a lot of trust in Linden Lab’s technology to take care of these rights – but that technology can only govern in its space, Second Life. If someone were to copy these virtual objects into another program – what happens to these issues? If then the object comes back into Second Life but modified from another program? And…well…what about when some of the virtual objects become real, without the original creator’s consent? And…oh I’m on a roll now – with virtual worlds such as Second Life, where citizens are making real money from real businesses – well, Linden Lab can’t protect the intellectual property rights of this, can they…would they?
It seems the IP rights issued for creators in Second Life are governed by technology – the ability to protect objects from being copied technolgically. But ideas and creativity go so far beyond technological restrictions, do they not?
Mr. Wallace feels that laws of the physical world should apply to the metaverse as well. And what I think is so funny in these discussions is the assumption that we’re trying to protect the rights of the little man from being stolen from the big corporational man! Or is it just me? These programs were designed to help creators – to create, to be imaginative, to be free – when we start protecting things with an iron fist of the law (real world) and screaming out “You can’t touch this, this is mine ALL MINE!” (wow – it just dawned on me why MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” is so popular now days) – it tends to put a damper on creativity and freedom to express oneself. If there’s absolutely anything this whole Web 2.0 movement has taught me is that you can actually trust people to create, be thoughtful and respectful at the same time. Give them the trust and they’ll give you a lovely gift economy.
I guess I’m wondering, what’s stopping the Creative Commons being involved in Second Life? I’m actually asking here! Is there really a need to go as far as the courts to deal with this issue? And does someone really have to be sued in ‘small claims court’ in order for people’s creativity to be protected as their own?
I’m very wary of the advocation to get real world courts involved in issues concerning the metaverse, but I find Second Life a difficult issue. It’s gone so far beyond any definition of a game and the protection of ‘the magic circle’, so I really can’t say if I agree with Mr. Wallace’s post or not, I just thought I’d point it out as an interesting read! But I will concur that I don’t think we can trust technology to govern such worlds! As he so cleverly puts it:

“If the focus remains on technology as enforcer of the law, then it will eventually be (as Lawrence Lessig has pointed out) the technologists who are writing the laws. Now, I’m all for technologists, don’t get me wrong. But we didn’t elect them as legislators, did we?”

Second Life

23 May 2006

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To those of you who haven’t been curious enough to enter Second Life yet – here’s a great little tour of some fabulous stuff Second Lifers have created! It’s beautiful, I must say! And they’ve even made they’re own version of Guiness; Goodness – awwwww…isn’t that sweet?!!

Taken from Pierce P. tv – there’s more machinima there if you want it!

New Ties

19 May 2006

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I’m literally on my way out the door from work but I just had to comment on this! By the way, is it nerdy not wanting to leave work on time because you wanna finish blogging? I’m beyond hope now aren’t ?!

But just look at this New Ties project:

The NEW TIES project is growing an artificial society using computer
programming
that develops agents–or adaptive, artificial beings–that have
independent
behaviours. The project is the first of its kind to develop a
large-scale and
highly complex computer-based society. The project’s results
may have larger
implications for information technologies design,
evolutionary computing
systems, artificial intelligence and linguistics.

The project’s goal is
to evolve an artificial society capable of
exploring and understanding its
environment through cooperation and
interaction. The agents are sufficiently
complex and their environment
demanding, which enables them to develop a
communication system to learn how
to cooperate and to adapt.

Completely stolen from Mark Wallace’s blogg!

How cool isn’t this?!!!

2 New Games Worth Keeping An Eye On

18 May 2006

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BUD – “A lightweight passively multiplayer online game where your data is your playfield”

I’m not certain I understand the gaming element in this or even the fun factor but it certianly is interesting.


“bud.com is an experiment to turn our personal data trails into a playfield for a web-based massively-multiplayer online game. Call it passively multiplayer – the reality of communication networks. Already, Web 2.0 and social networking sites keep track of our relationships and communications. bud.com proposes to make that web more engaging through surveillance with non-threatening stakes: browser-based multiplayer play.

Honestly, I still like to be in control of what information I share with my networks – this sounds kinda scary and I’m sure my surfing would become more tactical than the freedom of my own curiosity. But it certainly is an interesting concept – and I’ll be eagerly following his progress!

And:

PlayByWiki – the pen is the sword

Yes! It’s a Role Playing Game using Wiki! Looks really interesting! And to be honest I’m thinking this is more of a collaborative story telling than a game! Oh how those definitions are blurring my mind! It looks great! What a truely interesting concept!

Doppelganger Virtual Nightclub

15 May 2006

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Red Herringreports:

  • The well-funded San Francisco-based company is trying to tie together the trends of online advertising instant messaging, and online gaming. Like many youth-oriented companies in the wake of concerns about safety in public chat rooms and on MySpace, Doppelganger thinks it can walk the line between cool and wholesome”

I don’t know….I just don’t know! There’s supposed to be live DJs and bouncers but there is ‘no punching, hitting, or kissing’ – I can’t help but wonder if that’s just not a tad too boring!

Social places like this need som kind of common denominator – like gaming. The article doesn’t really dwell on what gaming features are available – so I may be wrong here. I very much agree with Mortensen that in order to create new social spaces there has to be a common background and challenges and tasks (she lists more, but I’m sticking with these two for now). I’m not so certain that this can be found by going to a virtual nightclub – but ofcourse if they’re looking at the MySpace tendencies they’re hoping that groups of already established friends will come there to hang out. But this is still different. It seems they’re focusing their attention on the consumer culture and the bodily form of the avatar and things.

  • “In-game advertising is hot, and Doppelganger says it’s ready to pull out all the stops – in a tasteful way, of course…Doppleganger’s immersive advertising will include clothing and media for purchase, both digitally and physically. The ad-coated buildings surrounding its clubs are meant to resemble nighttime hotspots in New York or Tokyo. and the company wants to build out its world, with users decorating their own apartments near the clubs”

So how come this is going to be popular and There never was? And yet…social games like Habbo Hotel are a huge success! Spot the difference?

They’re marketing towards teenagers, but the article fails to mention if it’s restricted just for teenagers. But here’s the thing I think is smart though, “But unlike Linden Lab’s popular Second Life and other massively multiplayer online games, Doppelganger isn’t primarily a full-screen experience. The idea is to slide into the multitasking world of teenagers, with a minimized buddy list screen open at all times”.

This is a type of convergence I can see working (and I’m hating myself now for going to the South Park talk and not Eirik Solheim‘s lecture ‘(?)at the Nordic Media Festival). Just like BBC 1’s festival and their virtual BBC 1 radios in Second Life! I was fortunate enough to experience David Zach‘s talk on Friday – and as he mentioned – the culture today is very obsessed with not letting anyone tell us what we can and cannot do, say or buy – yet most teenager rooms are EXACTLY the same. So I don’t know! Maybe it will catch on, but if it does I’m certain that there needs to be some form of ‘complete individual freedom to do, say and buy’ illusion for these teenagers to think it’s cool! After all, isn’t that some of MySpace‘s allure?

Speaking of My Space…have you noticed the new proposed bill:

"…even if their world doesn’t really exist."

9 May 2006

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Clickable Culture reports on a lawsuit made against Linden Lab for “a virtual land deal gone sour”. From what I gather, Marc Bragg found some glitch in the system (bug?) of Second Life where he could buy land for under the market value. He decided to invest in this discovery and see if he could make a profit when he proceeded to sell the land for market value.

And from what I gather something suddenly happened that made him loose his Second Life account. According to Bragg, Linden Lab terminated his account “without explanation, without citing any violation of community policy, and have since refused offer a credit or a refund”.

Bragg in a statement says: “These games are like the virtual Wild West, but Linden Lab is still obligated to honor real-world contract law and consumer law, even if their world doesn’t really exist.”

Of course he’s right! Second Life has a potent market with US dollars and since they’ve issued Intellectual Property rights to their citizens – they really do have to think about real life contract and consumer law. Second Life very much exists then, if you ask me. But by what laws should they adhere to? Don’t get me wrong, I love what Second Life has done! But with it comes some democratic responsibility and not dictatorial rule. I’m no lawyer, so I’m not sure – and to be honest, lawsuits like this kinda scare me for what’s going happen in the future. I, for one, don’t want too much reality in virtual worlds although it is exciting to see it evolving, it’s like a whole new society being born – and that is fun!

I find it really suprising if Linden Lab truely has behaved in this manner. They must have been prepared for this happening somehow, haven’t they? And I’m sure they’re within their rights of punishing those who take advantages of bugs for profit (after all, we’re not talking about a game here, we’re talking about reality) – but to just cut him off with no reason, no explanation and furthermore no dialogue! I’m sure they could have worked something out, somehow and learned from this ‘glitch’! So…I’m not sure if this is really the way it all went down – I’m looking forward to hearing Linden Lab’s response!

Public Diplomacy Through Games

7 May 2006

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The University of Southern California has come up with the novel idea of hosting a competition to create a game promoting public diplomacy. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the results for months now!

“The USC Center on Public Diplomacy is looking for people to showcase their talent with a bit of world class game-making. The challenge to the game mod community, and current and aspiring game designers is as follows: design a prototype or modify a game incorporating the fundamental characteristics of public diplomacy”

The finalists’ presenations are now available and the winner is to be announced today.

Looking at these, I was searching for something creative and fun. As much as I adore and admire simulations such as Peacemaker – I was hoping something less ‘obvious’ would make the finalist list as well. I’ve often thought that the trick to learning in computer games is to hide the ‘message’ behind humor and absurdity. For a game to be truely successful in teaching something like the promotion of diplomacy, I feel it has to lure those who just want to go and have a great gaming time as well. I know of very few who play to learn something and having played my fair share of dreary simulation games for the jobs from my past (I’ll have to tell you about those some day! ) they usually don’t work (at least I can’t remember what I was supposed to learn).

I truely love the idea behind Hydro Hijinks, it actually made me think about Myst and the game of consequence.

The others are brilliant as well! Ambitious but lovely! I would however, love to see more fun and absurdity!

Anyways it’s a great initiative and a big ‘yay!’ to Second Life for making them all possible!

Peer Gynt

20 April 2006

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This year, we’re commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Henrik Ibsen (is it just me or isn’t it a bit odd celebrating a great man’s death instead of his birth, although I’m sure we do that as well?).

Lots of innovative stuff is blossoming out of the woodwork from all over the world! I’ve truely been amazed several times.

i1277 sent me (oh how I adore being a part of this ‘secret’ Infomedia blogging network) this BBC produced Peer Gynt game! I think it’s great! Short and pointless, to be sure, but a lovely homage to the music of Peer Gynt!

Photo: From the visual profile for the Ibsen Year 2006