While virtual worlds have offered spending of real money on virtual items before it has never been on this scale or this frightening. Behemoth virtual world game, Second Life is now offering users who don’t have credit cards the option to convert Ukash cash vouchers into Second Life currancy, Linden Dollars. Chief Executive Officer at Ukash, Mark Chirnside said this concerning the success of the trading scheme:
“Over $6 million were traded at LindeX, Second Life’s currency exchange during the second quarter of 2007, and nearly 100m residents of the virtual world have premium membership that allows them to buy and sell land within Second Life so there’s a new and booming economy that we’re pleased to be opening up to the cash consumer,”
Marriages ruined, lives wasted and jobs lost can only increase exponentially from here.
Researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory at Keio University in Japan have developed a brain-computer interface that enables users to control the movements of Second Life avatars in real time. Through electrodes contained in a headset, it reads activity from the motor cortex, part of the brain responsible for planning movement. So all you have to do is imagine a movement, and it will be translated into the appropriate coded output. The video shows how far this technology really has come, but how much more development is needed before we can expect Halo via mind control.
The Australian has run a story on the alleged use of Second Life in training real-world terrorists. It cites reports of a recent “terror campaign” involving helicopters being flown into a Nissan building, and armed attacks taking place in an Apparel clothing and Reebok store.
Beginning August, the Australian-based global community -empyre- will open up critical discussion on networked media, titled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Being in Second Life
A bunch of intellectual-types will get the ball rolling on exploring artistic possibilities in the ever-expansive virtual environment. Using Second Life as their gallery space and canvas, artists and programmers have produced some thought-provoking and innovative pieces, looking at various themes that crop up as we live our lives online. They’ll be joined by thinkers and theorists who will offer some fresh perspectives on aesthetics in the virtual world
Read on for details on artists, guests and their projects.
You’re not safe from the Good News it seems, as Jesuit Missionaries make their way onto Second Life to save more souls. Writing in Rome-based journal La Civilta Cattolica, Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit academic, cites the popular MMO as a valuable resource for spreading the word of God.
You’ve slain dragons and toured international golf circuits with it, but soon the Wiimote may find its place in the hands of future power-plant operators, pest control specialists and even surgeons. David E. Stone, MIT research fellow, is sitting on a plan which will place the successful control medium in a virtual online environment.
