W-Ns On secondlife | .blogspot. | webjunkie | reuters

2008

Saturday 23 August 2008 Poor earning virtual gaming gold
Nearly half a million people in developing countries earn virtual goods in online games to sell to players, a study shows.

Many online games have tried to tackle the trade in game gold

Nearly 500,000 people in developing nations earn a wage making virtual goods in online games to sell to players, a study has found.

Research by Manchester University shows that the practice, known as gold-farming, is growing rapidly.

The industry, about 80% based in China, employs about 400,000 people who earn £77 per month on average.

Friday 22 August 2008 Lively, Google’s virtual world, has been a flop …will they come?

IT SOUNDED like a brilliant idea. Google, the internet giant, would bring 3-D virtual worlds to the masses by making them accessible through a web browser. Millions of people log into virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life every day, but they require special software and their complexity can be daunting to newcomers. So Google’s launch of Lively, in July, seemed to have great potential. But in the weeks since it opened its virtual doors, Lively has remained surprisingly lifeless, hosting a dwindling number of users and prompting a string of negative reviews.

Lively is a simple environment, amounting to little more than a series of 3-D chat rooms. To enter, you must first download and install a plug-in for your web-browser. You can then choose from a list of rooms, the most popular of which are (inevitably) themed around sex and dating. And although some popular rooms—“Love Sweet Love” and “Sexy Babes Club”—have had thousands of visitors, the number quickly drops into the double digits further down the list. Hardly anyone is using Lively.

Thursday 10 January 2008 Pixelanthropy: Charities tap into Second Life Nonprofits move into virtual world and champion causes in new ways

2007

Thursday 06 December 2007
Computing: Virtual worlds are being put to serious real-world uses—and are starting to encounter some real-world problems
...Real-world trade in virtual items is allowed in virtual worlds that are intended to simulate reality, such as Second Life and Entropia Universe. And it has been going on for years among players of “massively multiplayer online” role-playing games such as “World of Warcraft”, “EVE Online” and “Lineage II”, even though such trading is banned in many game worlds, since it upsets the competitive balance if some players buy weapons or armour rather than earning them in the game. “We don't allow real-money trades in our games because we think it creates an unfair advantage to those who are trying to play the game as it was created to be played,” says a spokesman for NCsoft, the maker of “Lineage II”.

Sunday 09 September 2007 Even in a Virtual World, ‘Stuff’ Matters
Ms. Hawkins, who in Second Life takes on the persona of Iris Ophelia, a beauty with flowing hair and flawless skin, keeps a list of things she wants to buy: the latest outfits from the virtual fashion mecca Last Call, a new hairstyle from a Japanese designer, slouchy boots. When she receives her monthly salary in Linden dollars, the currency of Second Life, she spends up to four hours shopping, clicking and buying. After a year and a half, she owns 31,540 items.

Aug. 20, 2007

Second Life's Real-World Problems (Second Life's Real-World Problems)

15/06/2007 Get a (second) life!

Hanging out with some friends at a local coffee house, the conversation turns to real estate. "Hey, I forget to tell you guys I bought that place I had my eye on!" says a handsome 20-something to the others. "It cost me an arm and a leg, but wait 'til you see the view of the ocean. Follow me." At that moment, the three exit the cafe, levitate, and then fly with arms outstretched towards a southwest clearing.

Such is a common scenario found in Second Life, the incredibly popular online hangout to more than 7 million online residents.

Sweden opens embassy in Second Life

Reuters

May 30, 2007 at 9:10 AM EDT