• 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
    8,632 views, 46 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
    820 views, Comment

  • 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
    541 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 »

  • exits

    Chadrick loves looking for work (also: new Valleywag mascot needed!)

    Chadrick, Chadrick, Chadrick. Most of all, we loved saying his name. Chadrick Baker, the virtual-worlds enthusiast Valleywag plucked from obscurity to be our mascot, has been fired from his day job. We think. He should have known better than to bite the digitally furry hand that feeds him. After Chadwick called a competitor — we're not sure, we don't follow the fancy 3D game worlds he runs in — a "hack" in a barely read interview, his CEO, Peter Haik, had to step in and disown Baker's comments. After Haik emailed the company Baker dissed and said he couldn't be sorry enough for what had been said, we hear he took all his apologies one step further and let Baker go. More »

    12:00 PM on Tue Sep 16 2008
    By Melissa Gira Grant
    769 views, 7 comments

    Most discussed laughingcat: HAH! This guy was a joke anyway. Next time get a hotter mascot. Wait... wasn't he linked to some hot 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
    586 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
    1,226 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
    920 views, 4 comments

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

  • sex trade

    How Google can whore out its virtual world

    Lively, Google's entry into the 3D-avatar chat market, has been neutered before its time, writes the Economist. But in the midst of the starchy business newspaper's tour of the service, its editors hit on the solution: "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." It's obvious, yes? Even if your terms of service beat sex into submission, users will find their own way to slip it back in. They're feeling lucky, even if Lively's product managers aren't. So why not embrace what a truly open sex market, powered by Google, could look like? More »

    1:40 PM on Mon Aug 25 2008
    By Melissa Gira Grant
    1,214 views, Comment