The Alphaville Herald

Opening the Cupboard Door

The Herald is proud to introduce to its readers our newest freelance correspondent, Budka Groshomme, who here brings his experience as a RL writer of science fiction to bear on the not-quite-fictional world of Second Life. As a long-time reader and writer of fantastic fiction, I thought myself well prepared to step into the cupboard [...]

Op/Ed: Are You “Normal,” or teh Clone?

by Kendra Charlton Every time I see a furry, punk, goth, vampire, elf or feted SL resident, I notice them right away. However, whenever I see a “normal” resident — one who doesn’t obviously belong to any of these cliques — I never take note of their presence.

Al Qaeda, Tribes, and Virtual Mafias

by Peter Ludlow Ok, I know Uri posted on simulating terrorist networks just a few days ago, but there is now an interesting article in First Monday by David F. Ronfeldt, who is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. The headline idea of the paper – entitled Al Qaeda and its affiliates: A [...]

SL Ruined Again! This Week, Tringo did it.

Hammie Linden has a very nice piece, entitled THE TRAGICS OF TRINGO, which gives us the opening salvo in the inevitable handwringing war over Tringo. No doubt the phenomenon of Tringo represents a change of SL’s culture, but exactly what hasn’t? According to my notes, all of the following have killed SL: The arrival of [...]

Simulating terror? You’re soaking in it!

In a very interesting recent post on Terra Nova entitled Simulating terror, Ren Reynolds digs up the following gem from an interview with Will Wright last September. We’ve been talking to people in homeland security that want to know if we could simulate a terrorist network. I keep telling them they don’t have to; they [...]

Editorial: Simulating Free Speech In Virtual Lives

“If Peter Ludlow is a journalist,then I’m a railroad tycoon whenever I play Monopoly.”– Jeff Brown, Electronic Arts – Vice President for Corporate Communications Neal Stewart comments on Eric Goldman’s draft paper ‘Speech Showdowns at the Virtual Corral’, where under-age cyber-prostitutes, free-speech, corporate censorship – and our very own Urizenus Sklar – are the topic [...]

Neualtenburg – SL`s Most Hated Project

“On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a democractic socialist republic.” At her blog, Gwyneth Llewellyn recently looked at some of the same virtual governance issues discussed in Urizenus’ State of Play discussion. The ever-misspelt Neultenburg projekt, of which Gwyneth is a key figure, has become something of a Bavarian [...]

Controversial German Designer Returns From Her 8th Suspension – Interview 2/2

Athel Richelieu’s screen-shot of the now-erased compound, moments before he abuse-reported it. SS logo in foreground. by Neal Stewart In part two of our interview with controversial designer Katja Eisenberg, Katja responds to allegations that she is a Neo-Nazi and connoisseur of racist humour. She explains her true views on Adolf Hitler, George Bush, the [...]

Controversial German Designer Returns From Her 8th Suspension – Interview 1/2

Prok’s Candid Coversations With the Core: Lordfly Digeridoo, Part Two

For those of who you enjoyed SL resident Prokofy Neva’s “journalistic” debut last week, in which SL architect Lordfly Digeridoo kindly submitted himself to questions from the rhapsodist of Ravenglass (and even for those who did not), we are overjoyed to present Part Two, in which our interlocutors address questions of the grid’s economy. No [...]