Play’s Republic

Linden Labs has just published a “preliminary” version of some interesting statistics regarding the who, what, and how of their synthetic space, available as an .XLS [Microsoft Excel] spreadsheet.  Read the February 2007 SL Virtual Economy Metrics.
Some interesting, accessible statistics:

January was another record month for Second Life in many ways. The size of the world, as measured […]

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Seymour Papert is the playful genius whose notion of constructionism lead to millions of children working with LOGO, a programming language that moved a turtle back and forth across the screen. He is credited with developing the Lego “Mindstorm” series of programmable robots, and was a founding faculty member of MIT’s fabled Media Lab.
I’ve been […]

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This is about World of Warcraft (yes, that World of Warcraft!), specifically, its brand new expansion - Burning Crusade.
But not about the game itself.
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My brother -he’s in Korea now- is a huge fan of video games. He prefers console but also enjoys lots of pc games, especially the ones of the Blizzard. A couple of days ago […]

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Whether you watch it passionately, or just talk about it later with friends, Sunday’s Superbowl should be interesting to consider in class.
Here’s an off-hand list of things to consider. Feel free to share additional questions before and after the game.

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CNET’s news.com has a brief story about IBM’s foray into the virtual world of Second Life. Commenting on the corporate giant’s use of virtual space, one consultant with IBM noted, in typically hyperbolic language:
“Success (in the future) will depend on how well you play the game, literally,” Doug McDavid, executive research consultant at IBM’s […]

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If your interest was piqued yesterday by your colleagues’ discussion of the law and “synthetic worlds,” but you don’t have time to dive into Castronova’s book just yet, consider reading this short article of his, “The Right to Play,” originally published in the Yale Law Review, October 2003.

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