It's that retrospective time of the year again - last year's look back was a popular feature so here we go again: January 2008 - Linden Lab issued a warning on currency trading scams - community-driven politics related to the US presidential election was observed in World of Warcraft - we made a personal comparison between Second Life and World of Warcraft - Linden Lab … [Read more...] about Virtual Worlds and Australia 2008 Part 1
Australian News
An Australian Christmas in Second Life
In more than two years of daily involvement in Second Life, one of the highlights has been the community approach of ABC Island since its launch in 2007. This year has posed some challenges for the island but things appear to be back on track if the latest addition to the island is any indication. Arguably the key meeting spot on ABC Island is its sandbox, and that's where … [Read more...] about An Australian Christmas in Second Life
2008 predictions review
A year ago we made some predictions on virtual worlds from an Australian perspective, and it's time to review them: 2008 - how did we go? Prediction 1: Australia will see its first legal action in regards to a virtual world - Second Life is likely to be the battlefield and it’s likely to involve an intellectual property dispute or financial regulation issues. Fail - there … [Read more...] about 2008 predictions review
Habbo Hotel – Australia’s growth story
Habbo Hotel is arguably the largest virtual world in existence, with well over 100 million registered avatars (as of June 2008) and ongoing growth. There's an Australian Habbo portal and in the past fortnight Habbo developer Sulake announced the launch of their in-world currency, the 'pixel'. Habbo already has a credit system where real-world money can be exchanged for a range … [Read more...] about Habbo Hotel – Australia’s growth story
Interview – Lee Hopkins, Business Communicator and PhD Student (Part 2)
Continuing on with our discussion (Part 1 can be found here), we discuss brand identity in virtual worlds, get deep into a discussion of virtual world PhD research and talk about governmental cluelessness. Lowell: One of the more controversial aspects of business in virtual worlds is brand identity. For regular virtual world users, the overt imposition of brand awareness … [Read more...] about Interview – Lee Hopkins, Business Communicator and PhD Student (Part 2)