Second Life’s generally considered to be a bit of a weird place. A lot of virtual environments are. They go through two phases of weirdness. The first phase covers the first few waves of users. They’re considered weird because they’re doing something that isn’t usual: using a virtual environment at all, or using one that isn’t particularly well-known. The second phase is when … [Read more...] about Going mainstream means letting in the weirdos
tateru
Immersion and the Conceptual Hump
I'm obviously biased in my assessment of Tateru Nino: she is a contributing writer for this publication and I'm already convinced she's one of the world's best virtual worlds observers. Articles like this one are why I believe that. It's a superb piece on immersion and how that can be hard to achieve until those first few frustrating hours of getting to know a virtual … [Read more...] about Immersion and the Conceptual Hump
Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
1. Looking for alternative to the now Linden Lab-owned online shopping option? Slapt.me has launched and has a fair sized inventory already. Given the ever-improving integration of the incumbent in Second Life, it'll be interesting to see how much support there is for a competitor. 2. Metaplace have been focusing in a big way on enhancing the community aspects of the platform … [Read more...] about Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
The identity paradox
Last week, we spoke about anonymity and privacy, and in so doing we brushed past the concept of identity. The problem of identity has been with us for quite some time, as a species and as a set of societies. Newer technologies, such as the telephone and the Public Internet do not make the problem harder or more intractable, but they sure do make it a lot easier to actually … [Read more...] about The identity paradox
Introducing: Tateru Nino
It's an understatement to say I'm really pleased to announce a further addition to the writing team at The Metaverse Journal. Tateru Nino is a significant addition too - she's one of the first Second Life writers I read and she was incredibly supportive of our initial efforts when we started in 2006. It's also worth reading our 2007 profile of Tateru to glean more of a … [Read more...] about Introducing: Tateru Nino