Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Nalates Urriah Electronic Arts seems to have a reputation for buying successful gaming companies and eventually closing them. This appears to be what has happened with Maxis Emeryville, the developer of SimCity.
The games created at Maxis will still be around and they remain the property of EA. But, the development process of those games is being folded into EA’s other development studios.
We are hearing more and more about the financial burden students face after graduation. The government under Pres. Obama’s direction, pen and phone in hand, has attempted to alleviate the problem. Instead it is adding to the national debit (+5%) and student debit is increasing ($1.2+trillion).
Few people realize the new Obama student debt plan aggravates the problems. You can see the trend in a document by the Institute for College Access & Success. A small problem has turned into one too big to fail… and we tax payers are on the hook for the money. Obama guaranteed the bank loans (90% are now government backed). This is expected by numerous authorities to cost tax payers hundreds of billions per year. To learn more about what was actually done and is happening see: Heritage Foundation.
Gaia is working on better and easier use of shape keys in AvaStar. Watch the teaser:
These are only for use in Blender. They cannot be transferred into Second Life. SL shapes are baked into the viewer, meaning users cannot change them. But, they should allow us to make our various shapes for clothing and transfer the clothing into SL.
For instance, if I understood correctly, the shapes we personally model for, say large, medium, and small, could be setup in shape-keys and we could click between them. That would make a number of things easier.
No release date.
Opening March 13, Skin Fair 2015. Visit here: Skin Fair 1 & Skin Fair 2. There is no staging area so you have no choice but to teleport into one of the regions. The population limit is 45 per region. I haven’t yet been able to get in.
There is a strictly enforced script limit. 50 scripts max. That seems like a lot. I normally keep mine under 20.
Did you notice it is Pie Day? 3/14/15 — 3.1415 π
Ebbe Linden (Altberg) gave the opening speech at Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) earlier this year. (Reference) They have videos available.
On March 21, 2015 Time: 9:00 – 10:50 a.m. in the Second Life Main Auditorium (SLURL) a panel of people from Second Life will be discussing and answering questions in Second Life about “…how NonProfit Commons has contributed to significant dialogue around the uses of virtual worlds like Second Life. The panelists will discuss how they have changed and grown, as well as the different opportunities and moments that have distinguished the group and the manner in which they promote and spotlight best practices.” (quoted from the VWBPE site)