Virtual Worlds Set for Shake Up Big media firms are rushing to copy the success of online games like World of Warcraft, a conference has been told. Millions of dollars are being spent trying to emulate the massively multiplayer online game, experts at the Game Developer's Conference said. "We are going to have so many failures it is going to be unbelievable," said Mark Jacobs of Electronic Arts. The panel also predicted that non-gaming MMOs such as Second Life would be prevalent in the short term. Speaking at the San Francisco event, Mr Jacob, who is currently working on Warhammer Online, said: "There is going to be a lot of corpses, rubble all over the place. "There is so much dumb money. Silly money Warcraft has eight millions subscribers around the world and is seen as a model to be copied by the mass media, the panel explained. "Because of WoW and dumb money and big publisher pressure there will be a lot of corpses," agreed Rob Pardo, head of game design at Blizzard, the makers of Warcraft. Beginning of the end
BBC NEWS: Brain control headset for gamers Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone. A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain will go on sale later this year. "It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer," said Tan Le, president of US/Australian firm Emotiv. "It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively," she added. The brain is made up of about 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, which emit an electrical impulse when interacting. Ms Le said: "Emotiv is a neuro-engineering company and we've created a brain computer interface that reads electrical impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept and control the game dynamically." Headsets which read neural activity are not new, but Ms Le said the Epoc was the first consumer device that can be used for gaming.
Planet Calypso - Home Herokon Online – Welcome to The Dark Eye - Herokon Online! Blinkx Main Page Says 80 Percent of Active Internet Users Will Have A "Second Life" in the Virtual World by the End of 2011 STAMFORD, Conn., April 24, 2007 View All Press Releases Analysts Identify the Five Laws for Virtual Worlds During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2007 Emerging Trends, Analysts Say IT Leaders Must Take the Initiative to Innovate By the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a “second life”, but not necessarily in Second Life, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts are examining the hype and reality around virtual worlds during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2007: Emerging Trends, being held here through April 26. “The collaborative and community-related aspects of these environments will dominate in the future, and significant transaction-based commercial opportunities will be limited to niche areas, which have yet to be clearly identified,” said Steve Prentice, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. First Law: Virtual worlds are not games, but neither are they a parallel universe (yet). Third Law: Be relevant and add value. Contacts
Programming Second Life: Basic Overview Exploring and Discovery Travel with friends to thousands of beautiful and exciting places — all created by the Second Life community. Join Now Filled with Friends Millions of people have already joined Second Life. Self-Expression Dress up and design a new 3D you. Endless Fun Every day there are thousands of new experiences and events created by the Second Life community. Artistic Bliss Discover your artistic t a lents and share them instantly with friends. Four slideshows for Second Life Workshop I’m running the first of three “Discover your Second Life” workshops at work tomorrow. Below are four slideshows I will use to guide people through some background to Second Life, creating an avatar, getting through Orientation Island and then finally completing a “Treasure Hunt” designed to familiarise them with the interface on Murdoch University Island. I played around with SnagIt to capture images from Second Life and then caption them. Easier than using the snapshot tool within Second Life. For previous workshops, I have just had a few images on a wiki ( Murdoch Second Life ). Second Life training NEVER goes according to plan, so I wonder whether it will be too structured. During the Treasure Hunt, I also give them a “how to” notecard with instructions how to complete each station. I just hope I don’t get caught out by the Rolling Restart possibly planned to happen during the workshop. Anyhow, here’s the slideshows. Second Life Workshop Background Creating a Second Life Avatar
EYEZMAZE --FLASH GAME-- Open Source Metaverse Project