second life – AFK Gamer

HBO Buys Second Life Film

Foton — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:18:27 +0000

HBO bought the rights to a film shot entirely inside Second Life, everyone’s favorite human zoo. Basically, this dude took off from his real life and began game blogging (I think) from Second Life and tada! now he’s got an HBO deal. Unreal.

Each of the 7 mini-episodes of “My Second Life” explore a different subculture within the virtual world, according to HBO …

Oh god.

(Via Washington Post)

Terrorists Use Magic

Foton — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:48:34 +0000

Cmon people! Think before you publish!

The head of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre in Canberra, Kevin Zuccato, has warned that terrorists can gain training in games such as Second Life and another game known as the World of Warcraft, using weapons similar to those in the real world.

(“Terrorists practise on cyber game“, The Australian, July 31, 2007)

This should have been the followup question: Are you high?

Second Life Opened

Foton — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:23:20 +0000

Like these guys need any more attention … Second Life’s client goes opensource. (See also, the Second Life blog announcement.)

Interesting.

Second Life Posing

Foton — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:31:23 +0000

More about everyone’s favorite online human zoo, Second Life: ‘Second Life’ faces threat to its virtual economy, via CNET. Seems some industrious open-source types have unwittingly (they claim) given everyone the keys to the kingdom. From the article, “Linden Lab, which publishes Second Life, posted a blog alerting residents of the virtual world to the existence of a program or bot called CopyBot, which allows someone to copy any object in Second Life. That includes goods such as clothing that people purchase for their in-world avatars …” heh, lol? Half the fun of gaming is having something the other guy doesn’t. And when everyone’s super, no one will be.

Nevermind, Let’s Not Talk About Second Life

Foton — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 15:58:20 +0000

The Chicago Tribune featured Second Life on the front page today, below the fold, in a multi-article profile.

(Makes ya wonder how long they had that in the can waiting for a slow news day, and, wow, this is a REALLY slow news day.) Anyways …

Despite the curious placement, it’s an interesting set of articles about Second Life: the hardware, the people, the commerce, the celebrities, the absurd.

Now, because the Tribune is under the mistaken belief that locking content behind registrations is a GOOD IDEA, I can’t share and we can’t talk about it and now we’re all just annoyed, so try to imagine the 2-paragraph pithy commentary I would have written instead of this one sentence:

I’ve lost interest.

Google, Yahoo, Warcraft and You

Foton — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:53:05 +0000

If you’re a Google calendar user like I am (because I want Google to know everything about me, and some day, if the government needs to compile a Foton dossier, they can just go to Google and pinpoint the exact location and time where I’ll be so they can serve me with papers), you probably know that you can subscribe to any number of public calendars, which will add their events to your giant calendar too.

For example, below is the World of Warcraft Google calendar containing the Darkmoon Faire dates and locations, the PVP battleground holidays and the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. The calendar could really use the raid instance reset dates, especially Onyxia, but eh, can’t have everything. (The subscribe link is at the bottom.)

Several guilds have set up their raid schedules in Google, as have a few Everquest raiding guilds — not mine however, we don’t want the government to know our raiding schedule, nosey bastards.

On to Yahoo. If you’re widgetized — the desktop doohickeys — there are a few Warcraft widgets available (gallery of Warcraft widgets), including an RSS Breaking! Warcraft! News! feed, item search widgets connected to Thottbot or Allakhawhatsit, and several realm status widgets. Not available yet: a World of Warcraft in-game weather widget or a World of Warcraft Faked Patch Notes widget.

I didn’t find any EverQuest widgets, but there are a couple for Second Life — an auction widget, a ~~brothel~~ location search and news feeds. Not available yet: a Vanguard in-game Beta Cam (view the vast and empty landscape) or an EQ Day/Night Clock for noobs without adequate monitors or night vision.

Bringing this all full circle: a Yahoo widget for your Google calendar. (Note: a new version is expected shortly as the current one is … bug-riffic.)

Harness the power of the new technologies so that wherever you are, whatever you’re supposed to be doing (but aren’t), know what’s going on in your better other world.

Second Life Ninjas Publicity from World of Warcraft

Foton — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:39:44 +0000

Since I know next to nothing about computer hardware and even less about network doohickeys, CNET News’ article about the scalability of Second Life versus that of, say, EQII and World of Warcraft reads like this in my head: bzzzz servers bzzzz users bzzzz bees bzzzz I need some more coffee. I see that they talked to Castronova about all this … bzzzz, because that’s some sort of rule in g-journalism. Either that or Castronova spam emails all the paid rags that he’s available WHENEVER to comment on gaming issues, although he’s never emailed me saying, “hey Foton, if you ever need some perspective on The Endgame or The Lack of Ideas in MMO Orc on Elf Gaming, I’m your guy.” Which is good, because I’d just think, wtf, like I’m not living it?

Eden Found

Foton — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:50:33 +0000

Hey, apparently not everyone in Second Life is a circus-type freak. Guess I was wrong about that. New World Notes, a Second Life events and player profile site, detailed the efforts of player Laukosargas Svarog in creating a self-sustaining virtual ecosystem, Svarga, an island populated with bees, birds and bats. I say, throw some apes into the mix and let’s settle this once and for all: creationism or evolution.

Second Life Rats Us Out

Foton — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:43:08 +0000

Business Week‘s May 1, 2006 issue.

PLEASE stop attracting attention to real life earnings in virtual worlds. That was supposed to be Our Little Secret.

A Second Life Education

Foton — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 14:57:25 +0000

Please. God. No. The Second Life Education Wiki, a resource for educators and academics interested in using Second Life for teaching purposes. On a serious note, the wiki has collected a lot of valuable links to gaming study materials although I don’t see a huge, blinking neon sign warning educators (that’s the cool word for teachers) that SL is largely an adult zoo.