I've bored friends and colleagues with my stories of discovering the power of MUDS in the early 1990s. I have a massive soft spot for the original virtual worlds (as pictured), but aside from sentimentality there remains a real role for these text-based worlds. Justin Olivetti over at Massively has a great article on MUDs that showcases some of the good ones and the people who … [Read more...] about History with purpose: MUDs and MOOs
Virtual world history
The history of Second Life
Over the past two months I've been pretty immersed in virtual worlds history in regards to health innovations (for this book), and it's certainly been an illuminating experience. That said, this post from Tateru Nino over the weekend is the most illuminating piece of virtual worlds history I've read in a long time. Coinciding with Second Life's 7th birthday celebrations, the … [Read more...] about The history of Second Life
Another Perfect World
In late June, the UK's Channel 4 ran a documentary called Another Perfect World. It's a well structured look at virtual environments with a focus on the tensions in developing a 'utopia', with World of Warcraft, Second Life, Metaplace and Lineage scrutinised. A 30-minute preview can be viewed right here: … [Read more...] about Another Perfect World
Macarthur Foundation and Bartle interview machinima
Over the past few days I've been sent two really interesting machinima that don't really fit our Weekend Whimsy slot. The first is a detailed tour of the Macarthur Foundation's island in Second Life, created by Draxtor Despres. The Macarthur Foundation is a US-based philanthropy organisation working worldwide, with a well established pedigree in funding virtual worlds … [Read more...] about Macarthur Foundation and Bartle interview machinima
Second Life user retrospectives
The Second Life sixth birthday is looming. What, I wondered, were the changes, for good or for ill, that made the biggest impacts upon the community of users, since the last birthday? While pondering this, I had the following thoughts: "Don't worry, users can barely remember what happened last week. 12 months down the track, they'll have forgotten the whole thing." We've all … [Read more...] about Second Life user retrospectives