• virtual worlds

    Second Life's death knell

    Google has shut down Lively, a service where people log on to chat and explore 3D virtual spaces, after a few short months. The MBAs of Silicon Valley have a pat phrase for the arrival of a competitor on the scene: They say it "validates their space." What does it say, then, that Lively is gone? It means that Second Life, the best known of these unreal universes, is doomed, too. More »

    10:40 AM on Thu Nov 20 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    6,903 views, 29 comments

    Most discussed That-Username-is-Already-Taken: If Google shut down Knol, Would Wikipedia need to worry? What about their social network (whose name I can't even remember) more »

  • confirmed

    After firing, Second Life maker insists they're hiring

    A boilerplate statement from Linden Lab confirms yesterday's rumor: "We've had to make some hard decisions about resources and as a result we eliminated four positions out of our headcount of nearly 300." That's not as bad as the "9 or 10" we'd been told were cut. In a statement sent to Silicon Alley Insider, Linden says they're still hiring. There are 45 job listings on the company's employment page. Are they all still open? Huh, maybe Second Life really is an alternate reality. What temperature does water boil at in SL?

    2:40 PM on Wed Nov 5 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    808 views, Comment

  • sex trade

    Virtual hookers to help us get laid off

    Now that they've fired Melissa Gira Grant, I've got my first Sex Trade assignment! Owen told me to post about Slate's new clip on the escort business in Second Life. Easy: "This is Samantha Henning with Slate V. Now, some vices are socially acceptable. But prostitution, that's not one I was gonna try out in the real world." Back button. Next on Slate: More Sarah Palin sentence diagrams.

    5:00 PM on Tue Oct 21 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    1,556 views, 1 comment

    Latest by tawni: Sorry but for once Slate has no clue at all. She looked terrible and was never going to the correct more »

  • Sophie Vandebroek

    Xerox tech boss's virtual math

    CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Does Xerox CTO Sophie Vandebroek have trouble with basic numberwork? At MIT's EmTech conference, she asked the audience how many people had "avatars" — digital characters for virtual worlds like Linden Lab's Second Life. From what I saw, half a dozen people out of some 300 attendees raised their hands. "Perhaps 25 percent!" she said, as she played a video showing off Xerox's presence in Second Life. I am not sure what is more disturbing: Vandebroek's miscounting, which one might blame on the bright stage lights, or her inability to calculate the lack of a return on investment in Second Life, which has no such excuse. Here's a clip of Vandebroek talking in Second Life: More »

    9:40 AM on Thu Sep 25 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    538 views, 3 comments

    Latest by Owen Thomas: Fascinating: Twitter user poinky, apparently a Xerox employee, claims I somehow found "nonpublic screenshots." Right: Nonpublic screenshots. On Google Images more »

  • virtual worlds

    There.com hopes Second Life hasn't ruined virtual worlds for everybody

    With support for Mac users, a new Facebook widget and an instant messaging application, There.com is hoping to breathe some life into its 3D virtual world which has gone largely unnoticed for years since its launch in 2003. If publicity could support a business model, Second Life might not be the largely empty libertarian paradise it is today. Google's new entry Lively, on the other hand, has also struggled with adopting users — possibly because it refuses to cater to any interests that aren't G-rated. The question remains as to whether any 3D simulacrum that isn't explicitly for gaming has much attraction to all but introverted shut-ins and avant kinksters. With family-friendly rules to keep the virtual pimps and hustlers off the polygonal streets, There.com might just succeed in finally reaching a broadening demographic: Parents so scared, they'd rather keep their teens cooped up at home and nervously trying to interact with crushes online when not reading the Twilight series of chaste teen romance novels featuring abstinent vampires or getting dragged to dad's Promise Keepers meetings.

    11:00 PM on Tue Sep 2 2008
    By Jackson West
    583 views, 6 comments

    Most discussed macbeach: Of course the alternative to acting out their fantasies in one of these things can often be primping for the more »

  • virtual worlds

    The reinvention of Second Life

    Virtual worlds are endlessly mutable. As are the wildly implausible schemes their boosters concoct for making money off them. The latest idea Linden Lab has for Second Life: Profit, in some vague, unspecified way, from the world's free 3D design tools. The perpetually gullible BusinessWeek bought this story, pointing to examples of toy designers and architects building digital models and showing them off to customers in Second Life. There's a certain beauty to it: An entrepreneur's fantasy, used to peddle other entrepreneurs' fantasies. Not that there's much of a business here, since Linden Lab gives away its design software. More »

    10:40 AM on Wed Aug 27 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,224 views, 4 comments

    Latest by glu: SecondLife has been one of the most pleasing failures of the past several years. more »

  • crime

    Second Life romance gone wrong ends in stalker's arrest

    A 52-year old man from Claymont, DE was surprised in his home by a taser-wielding Kimberly Jernigan, whom he had dumped months before shortly after they first meet in an attempt to flesh out a Second Life love affair. Jernigan fled, leaving her dog Gogi gagged with duct tape in the bathroom, but was arrested shortly thereafter by officers in Maryland. It isn't great publicity for Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life, but when you cater to making one's solipsistic delusions manifest, what can you expect? [CNET]

    1:40 PM on Tue Aug 26 2008
    By Jackson West
    908 views, 4 comments

    Latest by kimbjo: "solipsistic"? easy Valleywag, you're punching above your weight with these fancy schmancy words! more »

  • second life

    Obama, McCain fail to curry furry favor

    Like every other brand seemingly desperate to court the dressing-up-as-animals-to-have-sex market, the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns have purchased lots in Second Life. The virtual world's few active users aren't bothering to visit. Which is probably a blessing, because the best chance for the projects to gain publicity is for griefers to show up with pooping cats and flying penises. More »

    12:20 PM on Fri Aug 15 2008
    By Jackson West
    476 views, 2 comments

    Latest by raincoaster: Where would you find stats on actual usage? That would be the kind if thing I imagine they keep pretty more »

  • google

    New 3D virtual world Lively launches

    Lively from Google is yet another 3D virtual world, kind of like Second Life but as yet unpopulated by furries or Goreans — completely virgin virtual land for griefers from like the clever goons at Something Awful to terrorize! But rather than an expansive, open-ended universe, Lively is a collection of individual "rooms" which you can then embed on third-party Web sites. Though it's not a browser-based application but a Windows-only download — so you'll have to wait just a bit before I can confirm whether or not you can "cyber," gamble or run ponzi schemes. You can, at least, feel up other users: More »

    3:20 PM on Tue Jul 8 2008
    By Jackson West
    1,440 views, 5 comments

    Latest by macbeach: @vulture: Noooo I'm not in SV. Other end of the country. I do remember rumors about turning Google Earth into more »