Terra Nova

Weekly research seminar in Second Life

Inspired by this year's conference in WoW and an appreciation for Second Life discussion groups, some researchers decided to start a weekly seminar meeting in Second Life. So far four meetings have been held, with the fifth and sixth planned. The organizers would like to invite Terra Nova readers to attend the seminars and if they like, present their work.

The format is an informal one-hour meeting, once a week, for VW researchers to discuss problems, methods and results. While the meeting takes place in Second Life, any VW-related topic is suitable. Each week a presenter speaks about their work for part of the hour, then opens the floor to audience discussion. The presenter chooses how long they want to speak for, and the day, time and place of the talk (though lately we seem to have settled on Tuesdays at 2pm SL time). In order to be friendly to all time-zones it is envisaged that this will change week by week. Usually the presenter uses SL voice, and the audience uses text-chat for discussion and questions. As is normal in SL, individual attendees choose whether they want to reveal their RL identity.

Most of the organizing is done via the "SLRL" email list, and seminar details are available at http://vwresearchersgroup.pbwiki.com . Previous topics and speakers are listed there. If you'd like more information or are interested in presenting, please email Greg at greg.wadley@unimelb.edu.au .

2006 in Review

So it's nearly 2007, and this is the point where lazy editors tell their lazy pundits to knock out a couple of hundred words structured around the topic: "Top Ten Moments in X for 2006", where X stands for whatever the hell the magazine/blog/thinget is allegedly about.

It turns out that I'm even lazier than those lazy editors and lazy pundits so instead I figure that you can tell me: What are the Top Ten Moments in Virtual Worlds or MMOGs for 2006? Your response only needs to be a couple of hundred words and of course Terra Nova will pay your usual freelance rate on a per word basis.

And as I sit here on the deck of the "Extraneous Load", the newly commissioned TN yacht, sipping an extremely good vodka gimlet and watching distressingly attractive women swim by, can I wish you all our best wishes for the Season. My only recommendation for this time of year is not to get into a Texas Hold'em game with Constance Steinkuehler...but that is a story for another day.

State of Play / Terra Nova Symposium

The SoP/TN Symposium went off largely without a hitch this weekend, and I'll try to find time to write some observations about it. In the meantime, thanks to everyone who attended and presented. You were great.

Some initial thoughts are available from Raph, Jesper, Mark and Daniel (twice).

Blacksnow documents

Vili Lehdonvirta over at VERN has posted the links to the documents in l'affaire Blacksnow Interactive. Essential reading.

Second Life's Security Breach: Do We Care?

It was widely reported in the past few days that there was a security breach in Second Life's user database. That opened up a discussion in the Terra Nova backchannel about whether this was worth reporting here. It seems to me that security breaches are old news and germaine to a security blog; there's nothing inherently virtual worldy about them. On the other hand, I received emails from people claiming that we are SL fanbois for not posting about it. So, OK, we can post about it. Your thoughts?

Computer Games Magazine to Launch New MMO Publication

Straight from their mouths: "MASSIVE Magazine Will Be Devoted Exclusively to Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Computer Games Magazine, published by the media division of theglobe.com, today announced it will publish MASSIVE Magazine, the first print publication dedicated solely to massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. It will provide avid online gamers a new source for the latest news, features, and previews. The premiere issue will hit newsstands for a three-month run on September 19, 2006, and will start as a stand-alone quarterly publication by January 2007. It will also include a free DVD packed with MMO demos and games.

NCs 2 b NC?

Let’s imagine that the rumour is true and media-megalopolis News Corp actually does buy NCsoft. Would that be the mainline to mainstream?

How Did We Miss This?

All of us got so excited about Sony Station going live that we somehow missed EA's attempt to sell Ultima Online items for real US$.  I say "attempt" because Stratics has details on their emergency publish to roll back all of the items.  Apparently there was a dupe bug, which is unfortunate when you had players paying $2.99 for each item (or $12.99 for all 6).  Sounds like they're going to try again once they debug their problems.  While this isn't traditional real-world transactions, selling upgraded and special items seems to be inline with the approach that would fit other EA games, like Madden, with online components.

IGE Speaks

Steve Salyer, IGE's CEO, takes some tough questions about the secondary market from okratas.

I like to watch

The Boston Globe reports that Electronic Arts is mulling over a proposal to have "Sims TV". In the words of Jan Bolz, vice president of marketing and sales for EA Europe: "One idea could be that you're controlling a family, telling them when to go to the kitchen and when to go to the bedroom, and with this mechanism you have gamers all over the world 'playing the show'."

Now the first response to this must be: Genius.