In August Linden Lab announced their intentions to build SLim. Though specifics are still unclear, it is likely to be a ‘light client’ - filtering the social functions such as instant messaging from the full experience of Linden Labs main virtual world Second Life. This to create a more smooth, more accessible social platform, and [...]

Posted on: September 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »

MTV and virtual worlds have a ‘thing going on’. Ever since 2006 their name frequently pops up in the media in connection to persistent online worlds. In 2006, the infamous ‘Laguna Beach‘ world was launched as a virtual world based on the Laguna Beach MTV series. But the MTV involvement with virtual environments just [...]

Posted on: July 25, 2008 | No Comments »

Trough Virtual Worlds News I was shown a really interesting website, the Nottingham Trent University publications on cyberpsycology. Their most recent report covers the phenomena of ‘Gender Swapping and Socializing in Cyberspace’. The report includes the remarkable conclusion 57% out of 119 gamers included in the research indicated to choose an avatar of the opposite [...]

Posted on: March 5, 2008 | No Comments »

Exactly 10 days after valentines I found this article about how avatars (the user of Virtual Worlds) relate to each other differently than in the real world on the ‘This is HERD’ blog. It does a great job on defining one important aspect of online connections between humans, the relationships and the level in which [...]

Posted on: February 24, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Just now I stumbled upon ‘Linden Lab thinks about RL/SL friends matching‘ over on the mrtopf.de blog, discussing an interesting proposal by Linden Labs (Second Life) VP Marketing & Community Developer Robin Linden:
“Yesterday at Robin Linden’s office hour she asked at some point if we are ok with the following idea: On signup to Second [...]

Posted on: February 18, 2008 | 6 Comments »

On the internet we present ourselves differently to different audiences. Of course this is not a purely digital phenomena, but the internet has greatly amplified our need, and ability to do so. As Joseph B. Walther, a professor of communication and telecommunication at Michigan State University, told the New York Times in a recent interview, [...]

Posted on: January 27, 2008 | 5 Comments »