Virtual Worlds » Ciaran Laval

High Fidelity Hi

Apr 162013

High Fidelity, the book by Nick Hornsby, then turned into a movie starring John Cusack and now a new virtual world by Philip Rosedale. In the new virtual world Philip, ably abetted by Jeska Dzwigalski, goes back to his former places of employment to figure out what went wrong and learns how to build a new stronger virtual world, with molecular cubes and a soundtrack featuring songs such as “I can’t Stand The Rain“, “Walking On Sunshine“, “We Are The Champions” and “Baby I Love Your Way“.

Philip and Jeska work at a store called Championship Voxels where they help other people who come through the doors of the store to reach their goals and dreams. Jeska educates people regarding the key differences between Whisky and Whiskey and in which cases it’s worth worrying about it or not and In the end we all applaud and live happily ever after! Hurrah!

Ok ok the virtual world isn’t anything to do with the Nick Hornsby book, but if they will pick a name like that! No it’s nothing to do with the book, but it is an interesting looking venture and it does feature Voxels….. I don’t know what they are and I’m not googling it either.

So what is Philip Rosedale’s High Fidelity? Well it is intended to be a virtual world and the blurb does look interesting, although at this stage we’re in vague city. The blurb tells us:

“We’re building a new virtual world enabling rich avatar interactions driven by sensor-equipped hardware, simulated and served by devices (phones, tablets and laptops/desktops) contributed by end-users.”

There’s a blog post today announcing the formation of the new company, which you can read here.

MetaReality Podcast – More Words Less Bleeps Please

Second Life, Virtual Worlds 2 Responses »

Apr 042013

The latest edition of MetaReality Podcast – The Return Of The Reed has some interesting discussion, which you’ll find between the bleeps and even then the bleeps don’t always hit their target! This episode is a good one because the discussion goes beyond Second Life and into other areas, such as the recent launch of Sim City and and DRM in games and yet it comes back to Second Life even with subjects like that, by pointing out the unfortunate realities behind content theft, which mean that some measures to try and stop content theft can also be a massive pain in the backside for end users and ultimately self defeating.

This episode features of course, the return of William Reed Seal-Foss and boy can he swear. He mentions at one point that he only played Diablo III for about fifteen minutes because of the DRM issues, it’s a good job he wasn’t a victim of the digital download fiasco, I had to kill The Skeleton King for days because progress was halted there for people who purchased the digital download. This was another security issue type thing and yes it annoyed plenty of folk.

However if you do follow the link to the episode, the bleeps to cover profanity are off the scale, all of them are at it, that’s Qarl, Draxtor and even Gianna too! This is a shame because there’s really no need for that level of profanity in one episode, there’s enough to fill ten episodes in this one episode.

Avatar Skin Research Has A Bit More Depth Than Initial Reports Suggested

Second Life, Virtual Worlds 6 Responses »

Jan 042013

When I first blogged about reports of the research informing us that female avatars display a lot more skin than male avatars, I did so with a bit of surprise that such a survey had been conducted because the results were so obvious. One was left wondering whether the researchers would also conduct research into the religion of The Pope and what bears do in the woods. However I did comment in that blog post that the reports I had read lacked depth:

“Maybe if I could find the full report I’d get more context on exactly what the point of this study was, until then I only have the tongue in cheek reports that include such gems as thanking Laval University for reminding them that Second Life is still around”

Now, thanks to a forum post from Perrie Juran, I can read the full report and get more context, so too can you as the report is here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0051921

The report goes a bit further than merely stating the obvious but pretty much concludes that they haven’t yet found out why female avatars show more skin.

World’s Collide As Virtual World Resident Takes To The Stage

Second Life, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

Dec 022012

So a man walks into a bar, he drinks a couple of pints and then along comes the singer, her name isn’t Pearl and she’s not standing up to play the piano, although her job is entertaining folks. Now there’s something familiar about this singer, but he can’t quite figure out what until he hits a Kevin Bacon moment and he realises this singer is Lady Sakai’s mate!

Now fortunately it’s way too early in the night for alcohol to be giving the impression that a Second Life avatar is on stage. However there is concern that a paradox may be caused in the lines of time, space and virtuality that could cause one world or another to implode.

He glances to the stage where the computer running the backing tracks has broken, uh oh, is it all going to go tits up here in the bar and I’m not even drunk yet!

Virtual Reality Is Within Reality

Second Life, Social Networking, Star Wars Old Republic, Virtual Worlds, World of Warcraft 1 Response »

Oct 262012

So I was staring at my bookshelf and wanted to pick up something to read, House Of Cards by Michael Dobbs stared back at me and having just watched the series again on Virgin Media on Demand I reached for it but got sideswiped by Philip K Dick’s “Do Avatars Dream Of Electric Sheep?” … ahhh yes why not, I thought. This also ties in with a blog post from Hamlet Au over at New World Notes and listening to people on the radio pondering whether any of the real world is real or are we in a simulation, sort of like Second Life but with much better graphics and technology would be the answer if that were true, of course it’s an argument you can’t win and probably best saved for a night down the pub because that’s a debate with no end.

Philip K Dick came from an era where Mars and Alpha Centauri were the Kings of Sci Fi. Mars is no longer fashionable, to such a degree that I’m told that the remake of We Can Remember It For you Wholesale Total Recall doesn’t even include the Mars component. Alpha Centauri might be back in fashion in the Sci Fi world though now that they’ve found a planet the size of earth orbiting it. However, a theme in Sci Fi has been inhabiting worlds elsewhere, another one has been replacing human to human emotions with virtual ones or machinery. Even Woody Allen’s Sleeper and the movie Barbarella touch upon this.

Kitely Offer Unmetered Regions

Second Life, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

Oct 162012

This much needed rest from Second Life blogging is going to bugger up my end of the year review, I think I’ll just have to raid Inara Pey’s blog and take it from there! So a lot has happened, which I’m not going to cover, much … it’s time to look forward not back but something has been happening over at Kitely.

One of the big criticisms of Kitely was their pricing structure,which was pretty much based upon how long you, or your visitors spent in Kitely. This meant folk with popular venues would baulk at the costs, whereas those who wanted to spend a small amount of time there could get a whole region, or multiple regions at low costs. Swings and roundabouts and all that. However, during my absence Kitely have not only changed their pricing structure, they’ve also introduced a new unmetered option too.

Kitely developer Oren Hurvitz explained the new unmetered option on October 3rd in this blog post. This is in my view a big plus for Kitely and they now offer options for users to work out what deal suits them best, the pricing for unmetered monthly access is as follows:

1 Region $40 per month.
4 Regions $60 per month ($15 per region per month).
9 Regions $80 per month ($8.89 per region per month).
16 Regions $100 per month ($6.25 per region per month).

As you can see, the more regions you pay for, the lower the cost of each region.

BattleBeast Breedables

Entertainment, Second Life, Virtual Worlds 3 Responses »

Feb 032012

Countdown To Launch Press

Celebrating 2012 as the Chinese Year of the Dragon, BattleBeast Breedables introduces a revolutionary concept in SL: combining a breedable animal with gaming. The BattleBeast Breedables Dragon is the first SL project to unify the fun of breedables, gaming, and role play (RP). Our very exciting “Countdown to Launch” project started last week, with a Closed Beta. “This testing is an instrumental part of our program”, said BattleBeast Resident, “I might add that Closed Beta has gone quite smoothly and the group of people who’ve been testing the dragon have been happy with the project and are very enjoyable to work with.”

What’s so revolutionary about a breeding dragon, one might ask? Well, the BattleBeast Breedables dragons don’t JUST produce off-spring, eat, interact, and look amazing in accessories… (although they DO look amazing in accessories), the Beasts battle! Gamers will appreciate that XP, Levels are earned through battle. Stamina, strength and speed are a blend of Nature and Nuture: Breeding and Battle. As you breed your dragon traits to produce the best possible (“Nature”), the dragon also gains through battle (“Nurture”).

SL is still amazing

General, Second Life, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

Jan 292012

I know I haven’t blogged in awhile, but today a note card was passed my way that I want to share with you.
First I want to explain why this note card hit me the way it did. Last night I was reading a chat window of fellow bloggers and one person went on to say how SL has become a pit. That it has lost its shine. “This place is rapidly turning into a shit hole of a has been.” His summation of SL, obviously, was not good. I just closed the window as I didn’t want to listen or read the negativity anymore.
So, today a dear friend of mine passed out a note card which follows:

Phoenix McGann
One of the things I loved about performing online in Second Life was the opportunity to touch the lives of people all over the world. SL is a godsend to some…particularly those with disability or disease that confine their world. In SL they could run, dance, and soar through their imagination…doing things the weight of real life would not permit. One of these wonderful, joyful spirits, Phoenix McGann, passed on recently. For several years Phoe battled courageously with late stage Parkinson’s Disease. But nothing could stop her. SL allowed an outlet for her indomitable love of life. She was an amazing, crazy woman. Funny how people you’ve never met can sometimes touch your heart so. She was a Shantu fan from the very beginning…over 5 years ago. She was a wonderful human being. I’ll miss her.

This Thursday, Feb 2 at 7pm SLT I’ll be singing in SL for a tribute for her being put on by people who loved her. I hope all of you will find the time to stop by and celebrate here life. A landmark and further details will follow.

Shantu

So next time you want to “rag” about SL and what it DOESN’T do, remember what it does do too.

Till next time,
Your friend, Jez

Educators Still Turning To Second Life

Second Life, Virtual Worlds 3 Responses »

Oct 142011

Even though there was quite a hoo-ha when Linden Lab announced they would be removing the educational discount in Second Life, educators are still actively involved in Second Life, I might come to tier issues later this evening.

This weekend, Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE 2012) is holding an informational meeting. The meeting is free to attend, the agenda is as follows:

The Agenda:

Please join us for our first information meeting for 2012!

We’ll start with the Call for Proposals and dates.
Discuss the new initiatives under development for 2012 – live research, MOOC, continuing education and games contest.
Go over the volunteer opportunities opening up in November – December.

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Gateway/127/128/25/

For more information go to the eventbrite site where the event is listed, which you will find here.

A Visit to See Tonight Live With Paisley Beebe

Entertainment, Relay For Life, Virtual Worlds 2 Responses »

May 052011

On Sunday, as it was a bank holiday Monday, I decided to stay up late and go and watch Tonight Live With Paisley Beebe…. well actually I was going to see Tonight Live With Lady Sakai, but Paisley Beebe does the interviews. I hadn’t been to see the inworld chat show for ages, I think Sarah Nerd was being interviewed last time I went, this isn’t because the show is rubbish, it’s actually very well done, but 2am on a Sunday morning isn’t a great time for me, this is 6PM SLT, so for many of you it’s a great time.

Anyway, I sat at the back and settled down to watch events unfold.

Maybe it’s just me, but crossed legs poses don’t do my evil drow wizard image a lot of good! Where was I, oh yes, the chat show ….

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