I’m really loving Channel 4’s Routes Game! Perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon if you ask me!
Tag Archives: collaborative
Community Guidelines
I really enjoyed reading (via Raph Koster) Scott Hartsman’s “Beta Community Guidelines”. It was originally written for the Everquest II Beta in 2004 – but I think a lot is relevant now as well. In fact, I don’t think these rules apply just to MMORPGs – I think any online community would be smart in developing the same…I’m more inclined to use a word such as ethics and morals, than guidelines, but ok.
The guild
Oooh! A new webisode series that looks great!
"The top tier of Second Life is run by the women"
Excellent Metaverse Territories introduced me to a great blogpost about Second Life from Broken Toys called “Utopia Hidden Underground: Another Look at SL“.
All in all it sums up nicely with:
“That core of the singularity is what is actually Second Life’s core
strength, and what keeps its users struggling through the level grind and the
broken client and the lack of governmental, er, Linden oversight. Because as a
social MMO, once you get past all the clutter and dross, SL actually works. I
can honestly say that nowhere else online have I argued about Islamic
fundamentalism at one in the morning while lounging in a pool with a half-naked
demon-thing. Much like how people played Ultima Online despite its rampant
peekay and endless bugs simply because it was the promise of something new,
people find the core of SL is actually the other players. That’s something
that’s difficult to break.”
Naw – lawsuits can’t happen here because it’s virtual FANTASY world!
This is an odd tv segment. I found it interesting and just really weird (even odder – I was absolutely certain I’d blogged about the case – but apparently not, must be getting confused with my del.icio.us’ing).
So for those out of the loop:
- Stroker Alderman (aka Stroker Serpentine) designed a bed where avatars could have sex in in Second Life
- Selling these became a profitable business for Alderman(yes, in real life)
- Someone else comes along and steals the design and starts selling the ‘copy’ (authenticity is really difficult in virtual matters isn’t it? I mean – it’s exactly the same thing)for less
- Stroker Alderman ends up actually suing the avatar of the ‘thief’ (this is possible thanks to the recording industry’s efforts on suing online personalities – yup! it has a name in the American court of law: John Doe lawsuit)
Social Networks in Virtual Worlds
Here’s a video of one of Aleks Krotoski‘s presentation entitled “Social Networks in Virtual Worlds” – it was a refreshing find. Aleks doesn’t focus too much on the ‘OMG!’ factor and is very straight to the point about her research. She’s also willing to share her methods of research which I found extremely interesting and helpful. This should be useful to some people out there! ;) The more I think about my own thesis the more I wish I had spent more time on methodology techniques, so methodology has started to interest me. I feel like my thesis discusses more what we’re talking about and why and chapter 2 should be something like “Ok, now we know ‘what’ now let’s concentrate on how to really research the ‘what’!”.
It’s a great find – but I’m writing this already late for an appointment so I haven’t done enough digging from where and why this presentation was held. All I know is that it’s from an event called “Massively Multi-Learner” at The University of Paisley.
WoW machinima’ish news
I’m sure this is no news to all the WoW’ers out there – but I found this “Gnomeregan Gnews Gnetwork” – looks like it’s been around for a while and as far as I can gather it’s actually made by Blizzard. I gotta say I’m impressed. News from Azeroth machinima broadcasting style. I found the humor a bit stressful – but that may be because I’m not a WoW’er.
Grand Theft Mario
Ooooh!!! I was in stitches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember What The Dormouse Said 