(via TerraNova) Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, are involved in copyright litigation against MDY, the makers of a cheat program called Glider. This program allows users to run the game on autopilot by becoming a bot that allows the user to kill monsters and farm their loot without Read more
(via Wiebke Abel and other sources) Many news sources have been carrying this story. Apparently, the United States intelligence services (who also brought you The Iraq War), are hunting for cyber-terrorists in Second Life and other virtual worlds. Apparently, those dastardly terrorists are coming to a screen near you, envious Read more
… I found this. Associate Professor Evil Kills All Gold Farmers I loved the line: “I’m sick of gold farmers infesting our servers and inflating our prices. You get in the way of our ability to complete quests by killing NPCs and camping spawns! You make it harder to farm Read more
I’ve read a surprisingly well-informed article in the BBC Technology News website about gold farming in virtual worlds. I should not sound surprised, but it is my experience that mainstream media coverage of virtual economies tends to be tainted by sensationalism and/or misunderstanding of the new environments. Whichever way you Read more
Last week I was rather quiet for several reasons. On Wednesday I presented a paper entitled “Build Your Own World” at the beautiful Glasgow venue called The Lighthouse (available from the awesome Slideshare website). I was very impressed with the knowledgeable and diverse audience, but I am now a complete Read more
Is your wife cheating you on the virtual world? Do you want to check on the extra-curricular activities of a future employee? Hire SL(eye) Investigations! Their services include: • Vetting & Pre-Employment Screening• Asset Tracking• People Tracing• Theft & Fraud Investigation• General Research• Computer Security & Data Recovery The site Read more
(Via ZDNet News) Back in July we covered an incipient IP dispute involving sex toys in Second Life. The conflict involved the makers of the popular Second Life line of sex toys called SexGen, which include such items as the SexGen Platinum Base Unit v4.01. I have done some research, Read more
More self-promotion of speaking arrangements. Well, if I cannot have self-promotion in my own blog, then where can I have it? Anyway, here is the information: Build your own worldAndres Guadamuz, AHRC21 November 2007 10am – 12.30pm The Lighthouse, Glasgow Free Andres Guadamuz is an academic interested in the ownership Read more
Bloodspell: The rise of machinimaViewing and panel 22 November 20075.15 – 8.30pmLondon Metropolitan University Graduate Centre 166-220 Holloway RoadLondon, N7 8DB Bloodspell is the world’s first feature-length machinima, and it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Bloodspell “is a story of a world where men and women Read more
Virtual Worlds with commercial toy tie-ins may be bad for kids. This seems to be the message by Lord Puttnam in his opening address to the Virtual Worlds Forum in London (which unfortunately I’m not attending). He seems troubled by the ethical implications of virtual worlds designed specifically for small Read more