Archive for December, 2005

Incriminating Photos Leaked from Herald Birthday Party

“Banned” Gang Leader One Song Schmoozes with Pathfinder Linden at Herald Debauche. The Herald Staff did their best to keep it all under wraps, but pictures of the virtual debauche that was the 2nd Birthday Party of the Herald have been leaked into the blogosphere by New Games Journalism legend Always_Black. Shit. Well, there is [...]

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Naughty America: the Game. OK, now who needs SL?

Yes, its true, there is now an online game that has latched onto the essence of Second Life and built their platform and marketed it with one thing in mind: Cyber. Called Naughty America: the Game, it seems more upfront about the role of cyber than either TSO or SL, but seems tamer than Sociolotron [...]

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Sex and Games. Why Didn’t We Think of That? Oh Wait…

The International Game Developers Association finally has a Special Interest Group dedicted to Sex in/and/of Games, and a 1337 new blog called Sex and Games to cover it (and what we want to know is, what took them so long). There is also a discussion forum here. Great stuff, but honestly, they would be *lost* [...]

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Roleplay or Landgrab? As the Elf Council Debates, only the Orcs Know for Sure!!!

Are these guys fugly or what? In the hall of mirrors that is Second Life, what does it mean when a band of plug ugly Orcs invite the peaceful elven folk to a game of combat roleplay? Is it all in fun, or does something more sinister lurk beneath the surface? Elven Queen Forcythia, seeing [...]

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CBC Confirms Linden Attempts to Discredit Plastic Duck in RL

Wow, kudos to Tony Walsh (aka Rat Boy aka Zero Grace) for contacting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and confirming that the document we republished in the Herald was in fact an excerpt from an actual letter send by Linden Lab to the CBC. According to Tony’s contacts at the CBC, the letter was sent by [...]

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Did Lindens Attempt to Prevent Plastic Duck from Talking to the CBC?

Several days ago we posted an announcement that a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio station in Toronto was looking for SL residents to interview about the game. They were looking to find residents without going through the Linden Lab filter. In the comment thread to that announcement, infamous SL griefer and Toronto area resident, Plastic Duck [...]

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Blogosphere Debates Philip’s Turn to the FBI

As first reported by Dow Jonas in this newspaper, a few days ago Philip Linden announced that he was turning to the FBI for help with griefers that were involved in global attacks on the grid – effectively taking Second Life offline. Since then the blogosphere has been all a gaggle over this move (assuming [...]

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Hiro Quits Meatspace Job, Becomes Full Time Secondlifer

Hiro Pendragon, co-organizer of the Second Life Community Convention and Charter Member of the Feted Inner Core recently sent us news about the appearance of Make editor Phillip Torrone at the most recent SL Future Salon. That’s news to be sure; we always raise a glass to fello media giants who join us in world. [...]

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Spotted in the News: That Other Book on Virtual Worlds

The Economist gets down with Ted Castronova this week, calling his new book an “illuminating guide to these new synthetic worlds.” We agreed back in October. If you haven’t already bought your copy, now’s the time — you only have three more months to read it before the Doomsday Book appears.

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A Merry Denominational Xmas to You!

Happy Hannukah! Joyous Kwanzaa! Lovely Diwali! Have a nice Ramadan! Merrrrrry Christmas!!!!1! That’s what Blizzard Entertainment, the corporate cog behind World of Warcraft, is saying to their 4 million-plus players this holiday season. A new holiday patch released this week adds some fun new content to the game, in the form of a big Christmas [...]

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