Yesterday was the official “bash virtual worlds” day in the UK press. With the launch of the latest World of Warcraft expansion (Wrath of the Lich King), news sources went overboard in the coverage of thousands of costumed geeks queuing outside Oxford Street’s HMV; at some point the game’s launch Read more…
Internet news sites are abuzz with the report that a Japanese woman has been jailed after reportedly “killing” her virtual husband’s avatar after a virtual divorce. A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher was virtually married to a 33-year-old office worker in the online game Maplestory – a cutesy Korean manga-style world. Read more…
(via panGloss, The Register and Out-Law) Roll back the time to 1999. The internet was relatively new, electronic commerce was still a buzz-word, and everybody was talking about electronic cash, virtual currency and Mondex. In the future we would have relinquished our reliance on paper money, and we would be Read more…
(via Wiebke Abel) The BBC has a fascinating story on the astounding growth of virtual economies. Richard Heeks of the University of Manchester’s Institute for Development Policy and Management has produced a report entitled Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on “Gold Farming”. The report makes for a fascinating read, Read more…
I’ve just attended Virtual Policy ’08 in London, organised by BERR and the Virtual Policy Network. This has been a different event because it has brought together regulators, industry, educators, developers, economists, and academics to explore current and future policy issues involving virtual worlds. The wide number of sectors represented Read more…
(via B2fxxx and Terra Nova) Back in March we reported on an important suit involving World of Warcraft and software developers MDY (I don’t know why I’m using “we”, it’s only me writing this). The suit involved cheating autopilot exploit which allows a player to gather gold automatically by using Read more…
As an update to the WoW gold spamming story I wrote earlier, I have noticed that in the last month the spambots have gone. There is still some spam, but I could swear that SpamMeNot has been reporting less and less spam recently. I have also noticed that the corpses Read more…
There has been considerable excitement in those interested in virtual world research about the results of the election of EVE Online’s Council of Stellar Management, which is as far as I know the first ever democratic experiment involving users of a virtual world. EVE Online is one of the most Read more…
This is an excellent use of Machinima to illustrate the need for Fair Trade.
(The next victim stands on top of a pile of dead spammers) A curious scene has been taking place in the streets of Stormwind. The square between the Auction House and the Bank is by far the busiest place in the game, with dozens of players moving to and from Read more…