Play’s Republic

As the tags might suggest, this is an aside about something that I still find somewhat amusing. One topic that I always recall coming up in class about World of Warcraft is its plot- and/or lack thereof. As convoluted and nonsensical as it may be, however, I’m simply amazed that it still manages to be […]

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More of a prediction for the future than a description of the current, this article describes the potential confluence between Google Earth and Second Life. More generally, we’re being forced time and time again to consider how the virtual and non-virtual worlds are merging. Imagine using Earth to view a 3D block of […]

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I stumbled across Nabaztag, the WiFi bunny while writing tonight (don’t ask), and found a Second Life complement for bunny owners: SecondNabaz.

The Second Life version I made detects if avatars are around. If so, it makes my real Nabaztag wiggle its ears and tell me their names. Also, if people talk to the virtual bunny, […]

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The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that a virtual auction will be held in Second Life to benefit “victims’ families and people on campus who are struggling to cope with last month’s deadly shooting rampage.” Bids are to be submitted in Linden (L$) amounts.
You can browse photos of the items available at the auction website.

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There’s great story to be had in Turbine’s new MMORPG version of The Lord of the Rings, “The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar,” (TLOTROSOA, in the parlance of the fanboy). At least, that’s the take of The New York Times, in today’s issue.
One sentence, particularly striking, suggests that the reviewer has […]

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(Updated)
Tomorrow’s conversation will be about games, public policy, political discourse, and so on. One of the interesting, motivating tensions I see here returns us to Huizinga and Caillois, and has all sorts of interesting echoes: If, per Caillois, we may read a culture by reading its games, then what are we to make […]

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On this wonderfully most green of days, we all take a moment to think about how to preserve our wonderful non-virtual environment. We go buy compact fluorescent light bulbs. We turn down our thermostat. We even plant trees. Online.
Dell’s presence in Second Life is growing and, as part of a current […]

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I laughed so hard when I watched this.. Gnome morphs into Orc and Human!
Please enjoy!  :)
By the way, who moved (or deleted, stole, whatever) Kylah’s 2*1*1 kiosk in SL?It suddenly disappeared and is nowhere now: not in the lost & found folder, either.

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I was talking to Alyssa today about a WoW guild called We Know and how they plan raids in Second Life, and figured this would be a good time to write about one of the sessions I attended at SXSWi in March.

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