Catching Griefers/Cheaters

In Second Life™ we have griefers. I think that is because cheating in Second Life isn’t really possible in the word’s common sense of usage. It’s that long term debate about whether Second Life is a game that I think drives use of the word griefer. If it isn’t a game, how can you cheat? It pushes us to more precise language.

Black Desert Online

Black Desert Online

However, in Black Desert Online™ (BDO) there are cheaters. Recently they have been causing a problem. Apparently a number of us sent Massively Overpowered links to a video of hackers at play. No one was hearing anything back from Daum in response to complaints, so put it on Massively. Result: Daum, the creator of BDO responded and is now following up with a hunt for hackers. See: Black Desert Turns to Its Playerbase to Hunt Down Cheaters for PrizesContinue reading

Virtual World Potential Sales

Massively Overpowered has an article about a surprising purchase of an in game rifle. See: ONE-OF-A-KIND ENTROPIA UNIVERSE RIFLE. Will we ever see such high priced items in Project Sansar?

One of the problems in Second Life™ is the copyboting. It isn’t just a problem for those of us in Second Life. It is a problem for anyone placing content on the web or digital media in general. Continue reading

When are Art & Images…

I am fascinated with Second Life images appearing on Flickr. Many are strictly artistic, others erotic, many pornographic, and most just pictures. I’ve noticed some of the fashion blogs have very talented people doing the art, but how to categorize those images is debatable. While commercial art is still an art form there are the elitists that look down on anything that cannot be classed as fine art. Some going so far is to eliminate photography from the field. My thinking is there is nothing that says people have to be sane or even rational, especially when it comes to taste.

Pink Blueberries

Pink Blueberries

Some like to use what I’ll call mood images in their promotional/commercial art that I think really increase the visual impact. I find it as artistic as any fine art and debatably more challenging to create as one must achieve multiple goals. I am impressed when I see people creating, basically, ads that I would class as art. Others are making promotional material that shows their products in purely functional ways with beauty is barely a consideration. That doesn’t mean that work isn’t artistic, at least for me, I just see other art as more.  Continue reading

John Carmack: Minecraft a Better Virtual World

Several bloggers have pointed to a bit of video from a recent talk that John Carmack made. He is well known in gaming circles. If you don’t know the name, you’re not keeping up with your game history or Oculus Rift.

Minecraft Station

Minecraft Station

Ciaran provides a quick review of that bit of video. See: Joyce Bettencourt Captures Fascinating Chat With John Carmack At Oculus Connect 2015.

How Virtual Worlds Will Take Over Real Life

From a speech by by Philip Rosedale, former Linden Lab CEO – 28 minutes. Philip uses Second Life to show what is happening in virtual worlds and how it will affect society. His thinking is interesting and in some ways a bit scary.

The video is the basis of an NPR show TED Radio: Why Build a Virtual World? Follow the link to see the video. I can’t embed it, only the audio portion, which is 9 minutes. The video and audio have different content. Both are interesting.

NPR/KPBS presented a radio show titled Screen Time. Philip Rosedale was a guest for the show. The audio above is also here: KPBS: Screen Time. The video is where some of the sound track for the show came from. The video is more interesting than the audio. The radio show has more context and less content, the audio is only 9 minutes long. It is worth checking both.   Continue reading