Play’s Republic

(I’m not sure how long we, the students of last semester, will be able to keep on posting to the class blog, but I figured I would make a quick entry while I have access.)

The men’s magazine Maxim has released its “Hot 100 List” for 2007, ranking what they believe to be the 100 most attractive women around. Interestingly, they chose to put a synthetic girl – a Second Life avatar, to be precise – at #95. Next to her entry, Maxim writes:

“Second Life—a 3-D virtual world that’s imagined, created, and owned by its online residents—was launched in 2003 and now boasts nearly five million inhabitants around the globe. Never taken part in the nerdfest? Isn’t she reason enough?”

Many people seem to think it’s absurd to put a synthetic girl on the list, but it begs the question – how real are the “real” girls, anyway? After any photo is edited, retouched, and digitally enhanced, that’s not a real human being we’re even looking at. It’s a digital representation of a human being, in the most positive possible light. Why, then, is that so different from an image of a Second Life female avatar?

Of course, some might point out that Miss #95 could in fact be a middle-aged man in a stained undershirt eating Cheetos in front of his computer in Topeka. But that would break the veil of suspended disbelief, so I won’t go there. Instead, I’ll share this link to an image of lovely, virtual, virtually lovely Miss #95.

CALL FOR PAPERS
3rd International Second Life Community Convention (SLCC07)
August 24-26, 2007, Chicago, USA
Track: *Business in Second Life*

Visit the SLCC07 blog.

SCOPE
The emergence of virtual worlds and Web 3.D change the way of
doing business. Web 3.D is the synonym for Internet-based virtual
worlds, where people can create own 3-D *virtual*
personalities. One of the most famous of these virtual worlds is
Second Life. It is undergoing an evolution similar to that of the
Internet in the mid nineties and it might impact profoundly the
way people cooperate, communicate, collaborate, and conduct
business. The recent entering of companies such as Toyota,
American Apparel, Nissan, or Adidas on Second Life is a first
indication for the upcoming role of this platform for the next
generation of conducting business online.

The conference provides a forum for industry, academia, and
government to present their latest findings in virtual worlds
like Second Life and the underlying technology to support these
applications. Therefore, we invite contributions (research paper,
working paper, work-in progress) from a broad spectrum of
disciplines including economics, management, business, marketing,
finance, information systems, and computer sciences.

IMPORTANT DATES
- Submission Papers: June 1, 2007
- Notification of Acceptance: July 1, 2007
- Final Paper Submission: August 1, 2007

TRACK TOPICS
The track focuses on but is not limited to the following topics:

- Product Testing in SL
- Image, Branding, Advertising in SL
- Marketing in Second Life
- Selling, Cross-Selling Real and SL
- Intellectual Property, Copyright, Trademarks in SecondLife
- Business Planning for Non-profits in SL
- Promotion, Fundraising Tool and SL
- Customer Integration and SL
- Technology & Business, Strategy in SL
- Financial Systems, Investments, Currency Exchange in SL
- Emerging Media Presence in SL
- The Future of Second Life and Beyond
- Second Life as a Web 3.0 Technology

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES
Submissions should describe original research work not submitted
or published elsewhere. The author is responsible for
correspondence, including the author*s name, mailing address,
telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address has to be
identified. One of the authors of each paper must register and
present the paper at the conference. Submitted papers will be
double-blind reviewed and evaluated on significance, originality,
quality, and exposition. They should clearly establish the
research contribution, methodology, finding its relevance to
Second Life. Accepted papers will be presented at the conference
and published in the Conference Proceeding. Best papers will be
published either in a book or the Journal of Electronic Commerce
Research (JECR). There will also be *Best Paper Awards*.

In order to have your proposal considered, please submit it no
later than 1st June 2007 to mfetscherin@rollins.edu using the
following guidelines.
- Follow the *Guide for Authors* from the Journal of
Electronic Commerce Research
(www.csulb.edu/journals/jecr/s_g.htm)
- You need to submit the file as a Microsoft Word-Format
file
- Your email should use the subject line “SLCC Business
Track”

LOGISTICS & TRAVEL INFORMATION
The event is being held at the Hilton Chicago and the hotel
rates with our block are $159 per night before tax. We are all
very excited about SLCC 2007, for more information please visit
http://slcc2007.wordpress.com.

TRACK CHAIR
Marc Fetscherin, Rollins College, USA
Christoph Lattemann, University of Potsdam, Germany
Peter Lokke, CEO Crucial Armitage Inc., (Crucial Creations
(SL)), New York, USA

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
Carsten Holtmann, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Germany
Susanne Robra-Bissantz, Universität Nürnberg/Erlangen, Germany
Günter Müller, Freiburg, University, Germany
Guido Lang, University of Bern, Switzerland

FURTHER INFORMATION
More Information and details at the conference website on
http://slcc2007.wordpress.com or
http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/
General inquiries and requests about the track: *Business in
Second Life* should be sent to mfetscherin@rollins.edu

For those of you who got hooked on World of Warcraft while fulfilling the requirement for this course:

The New York Times ran a series of articles written by Seth Schiesel on conquering The Burning Crusade expansion pack. You can access the series at Conquering the Burning Crusade. (The author was the first to hit level 70 in his particular realm.)

SL has a big challenge ahead of them if they are to make a true impact.  They are the leaders in the genre, but in order to stay ahead of others who will come around they need to rethink their approach.   Scalability is a huge issue when dealing with the corporate world and I just do not understand how IBM or Dell is willing to conduct business in-world when there are so many rendering issues.  Perhaps their experience is different, but  in order to create a viable business model the company has to firmly decide whether it wants to go down the path of entertainment or business.  Back in the early 90’s AOL made a go at the business market, only to fail miserably by not understanding the market’s needs.  It will be interesting to see if SL is able to maintain its momentum or fall prey to its own success. 

you know those moments when everything comes together – well mine came a bit late.  This whole semester I have argued in favor of the structurlist argument and intent, not really sure what to make of the “game design” impacts interaction discussion until I looked back at the many ways in which I changed my original SL exhibition due to technical glitches, lack of time and experience – and it dawned on me.  What I produced – is a direct result of my interaction with the game engine and technology itself not the overall intention that I had.  It turned out in ways that I never expected when I started out – and I finally realized what Juul meant when he talked about emergence. 

FYI: It is my goal to review your papers, etc., and submit your grades by 10AM Tuesday May 15th. (Faculty must provide grades for non-graduating grad students by Noon, May 21st.)

Just one more posting for y’all. Thought this map was pretty interesting. Enjoy!

The aptly-named First Person Shooter is… well, okay, it’s a play. It is the story of two young programming geniuses, their start-up company (‘JetPack Games’), and their amazing technicolor computer game: a red-hot, ultra-violent FPS game that hits the top of the market in no time, bringing its creators fame, fortune, and all sorts of success.

… until the game is linked to as the cause of a recent schoolyard shooting, bringing with it a slew of ethical questions (what are the programmers’ responsibilities?), the perspectives that give the programmers a rude awakening as to the consequences of their actions (meeting with the victims’ parents), and the experiences of everyone caught in the media crossfire.

I have not heard of this play until just recently, but still, one paragraph in particular caught my attention, as it reveals a bit of the playwright’s take on the situation from which he drew inspiration:

 The play draws on the national debate over the link between violent videogames and school shootings, which first came to the fore after Columbine. Aaron, who now develops videogames, worked as a journalist covering the world of videogames at the time of Littleton, Colorado shootings and “wanted to write a play about the people caught in the echo chamber of the debate. What must it be like for the people actually accused of making a game that turns kids into killers? What about the parents of the victims? Their children are dead and the news is jam packed with talk of something so trivial as videogames!”

http://sfplayhouse.com/season0607/firstperson.php

 A textbook published by gaming company Capcom, dedicated to teaching children (through use of comics) about the ins and outs of video gaming culture, industry, history, and the creative process, distributed to primary schools and libraries all over Japan?

Why can’t WE have something like that?

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/11/capcom-releases-japanese-textbook-about-video-games/