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Inside SL
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Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
The internet-based virtual world Second Life may have a serious impact on people's real life relationships, one of Britain's best-known scientists warned yesterday.
Baroness Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, said she feared users of the popular simulation could abandon the messy intimacy of "real-life" human relations for two-dimensional liaisons in the virtual world.
Second Life was started in San Francisco in 1999 and now has seven million players who can create their own characters, known as avatars, buy goods, throw parties and build their own homes.
However, Baroness Greenfield says the implications have not been thought through. "People who dismiss it as a game will be in for a rude awakening," she said. "This will have a huge impact on society.
"Offering people the chance to have a permanent soap opera going on, in which they can participate, will be even more pervasive than reality TV such as Big Brother.
"This is the ultimate in that you can be involved, you can interact, but still you are hiding behind an avatar."
READ IT ALL HERE:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
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Written by Enniv Zarf
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Monday, 18 June 2007 |
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Sponsored by:  By Jim WalkerSometimes one life isn't enough. So millions of people are populating a parallel online universe called Second Life, where, with digital versions of themselves, they can earn real money and socialize with people from around the world. Users can visit the Louvre or Yankee Stadium -- virtually, that is. They can become whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do. Users can teleport themselves or fly. And they can adopt nearly any appearance, from flawless Pixar-style versions of themselves to giant raccoons dressed in topcoats and tails. READ IT ALL HERE: http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps...
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Monday, 18 June 2007 |
By DOREEN CARVAJAL
PARIS, — Critics may fume about violent killer video games, but top manufacturers are starting to beat some of their swords into beauty tips.
My Word Coach is a video game meant to improve vocabularies.
By fall, software developers will start introducing offerings aimed at nudging players to bond with Grandma, balance their hormones and eat their peas.
Ubisoft, the French manufacturer known for its top-selling Rayman game and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, is betting on a vocabulary-building exercise game called My Word Coach.
Also in the works is My Life Coach, which will be packaged with a pedometer and a portable Nintendo DS player that analyzes walking and rewards exercise and a hearty breakfast with game play.
Konami, the Japanese manufacturer of rough-and-tumble sports titles like Pro Evolution Soccer, is poised to offer a beauty care guide on DS consoles. The game player dispenses customized advice based on the player’s basal body temperature and hormone balance.
Those steps reflect an intensifying effort to attract a global mass market for portable video games, which are expected to hit $10 billion in sales this year, according to DFC Intelligence, a game research company in San Diego.
READ IT ALL HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/technology/18games.html?th&emc=th...
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Monday, 18 June 2007 |
Enlarge Second Life
Visit virtual Chichen-Itza: Mexico's tourism board launched
By Jayne Clark,
The Mexican Tourism Board threw a party Sunday at Chichen-Itza, the magnificent Mayan archaeological site in the Yucatan jungle. The thousands of guests, many of whom donned complimentary Mayan warrior get-ups and salsa-danced to live music, were an international mix.
But nobody checked into a hotel when the festivities ended.
Instead, they simply logged out of Second Life, the virtual world populated by 7.2 million registered users. To enter the online realm, participants register on the free site (secondlife.com), create an alter ego called an avatar and navigate the character via their computer keyboard, interacting with other users.
Many of the locales within Second Life are simulations of generic places — restaurants, beaches and stadiums, for instance. But as this cyber world grows (it now boasts about 1 million regular users), real-world tourism entities, including tourist boards, hotels and travel agencies, are setting up virtual re-creations there to heighten awareness of their real-world existence.
READ IT ALL HERE:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-06-14-second-life_N.htm?csp=34...
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Monday, 18 June 2007 |
When Will Nickelson and his daughter want to spend some quality time together, they fire up Nintendo Co.'s Wii and play a few rounds of "Wii Sports" or "Mario Party 8."
He's certainly not alone.
The generation that grew up with "Pac-Man" and "Pong" are now having children of their own. And across the nation, fathers and their kids are finding the virtual worlds of video games a popular place to bond.
READ IT ALL HERE:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/fun.games/06/15/gaming.parents.ap/index.html...
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Sunday, 17 June 2007 |
Cleveland - There are digital worlds out there that most of us have no idea about. One of them is called Second Life (SL), and it's got 6 million residents. These residents are avatars – animated cartoon-like characters – created by ordinary people who register to take part in Second Life. These ordinary people buy their avatars houses, open bank accounts for them, take them out to bars, and let them throw parties. All the things we all do in our first lives.
Occasionally things get out of hand, as often happens when cartoon characters get together. Recently, an avatar was allegedly raped, and some people want the perpetrator brought to justice. And I don't mean the avatar.
They want the real person who created the rapist avatar to be punished in real life for what his character did in Second Life. The Washington Post recently reported that police in Belgium are investigating whether a crime had been committed.
READ IT ALL HERE:
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0618/p09s02-coop.html...
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Inside SL 
