Alphaville Herald

Class To Be Held…Inside a Facebook App???

by Idoru Wellman, Herald Education Desk

On January 28, in what may be the first instance of a university course held inside Facebook, Northwestern University Philosophy Professor Peter Ludlow (known to Herald readers as Urizenus Sklar) recently attempted to hold his class, Conceptual Issues in Virtual Worlds, inside the Island Life application on Facebook.  The results were mixed.

Island Life is a fantasy farming game inside Facebook that is somewhat similar to Farmville.  The twist is that that Island Life (currently in beta) is the creation of game developer legend Raph Koster (Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies) and it allows people to visit each other and chat on their “islands”.  The game is a bit of a throwback to 2D graphical social platforms like The Sims Online and Habbo Hotel.

Koster’s most recent project had been Metaplace, an attempt to bring virtual world creation to the masses by providing a platform in which people could develop flash based virtual worlds.  The project recently closed down but the bulk of the development team moved with Koster to his Island Life project.

Reached for comment, Ludlow explained that his course is a freshman seminar designed to encourage writing skills, but as Ludlow explains “I couldn’t just assign papers to them; they need to become literate in new communications technologies. Hence, they will be called on to develop projects in virtual worlds, record those projects with machinima, blog about their experiences, give power point presentations about their projects, and write traditional papers.”

Starving Metaplace Game Gods Marooned In Facebook

Raph Koster's shipwrecked crew selling cabbage, farming supplies in FB avatar deathworld

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Raph Koster: "We're not talking about overall plans yet... first we learn"

Game god survivors of the Metaplace world's apocalyptic loss of traction - Raph Koster and Tami Baribeau (Cuppycake) - did not perish when the Metaplace world ended January 1st. After the shipwreck of the standalone Metaplace user generated virtual world dream, the MP game gods washed up on the beach in Facebook where they hope to feed themselves by selling cabbage and farming supplies to the 35 million FB players, despite the ever-present threat of avataricide. IslandLife is Raph's new Facebook-embedded game in beta test - but will it be redonkulous?

Hoping to locate the pink spaghetti strap top I bought in the final hours of Metaplace, I joined IslandLife and began farming.

Farming consists of picking the appropriate tool or crop seed, clicking on the ground and waiting to harvest the crops. It felt more like a waste of time anything else, but I'm willing to put up with a certain amount of grind to get the right clothes for my avatar. Perhaps Raph will add the old Metaplace New You clothes store soon?

Metaplace - Pools Closed Due to Lack of Traction

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tizzers Foxchase got in the last word in Metaplace Central -  “POOLS CLOSED DUE TO AIDS” - and seconds later Raph Koster’s user generated virtual world creation service closed permanently last weekend. What went wrong - and how did the end of the virtual world affect the community?

Informed analysis has been in short supply since Koster announced the end of the virtual world. Eager to file stories and get on with the holidays, Metaplace tourists role-playing new media pundits shook their heads sadly and offered superficial analysis - Metaplace is teh fail because the avatars weren't realistic enough! 2.5 D fixed perspective is not immersive enough!!  Flash based games are everywhere - and Metaplace was too late!!! Blue Mars!!!! Farmville and YoVille on Facebook!!!!!!

Perhaps this is the best that can be expected with the less than exquisite timing of the December 21st Metaplace announcement and New Years day apocalypse. Players seriously engaged in Metaplace scrambled to establish alternate connections to preserve the community and salvage what content they could from the platform. Meanwhile, those with minimal connections to the world indulged in a bit of smug Schadenfreud.

Game Gods Play Nostrodamus - Metaplace Apocalypse Jan 1, 2010

User generated content world coming to end - doomed avatars plan killer party for 1/1/2010

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

 

Raph Koster, overwhelmed by baby dragon gifts lays on the street in Metaplace Central

The winter solstice was a dark day for those who invested time in Metaplace - on December 21 players were sent an e-mail stating "over the last few months it has become apparent that Metaplace as a consumer UGC service is not gaining enough traction to be a viable product, requiring a strategic shift for our company. We’re sorry to announce today that Metaplace.com will be closing to the public at 11:59pm on January 1st, 2010."

The mood in Metaplace Central 45 minutes after the e-mail went out was chaotic - both Raph Koster and Community manager Cuppycake were present to answer questions as players wondered if there was any way to save the world - and their creations. However, little new information was available beyond what was already in the e-mail and FAQ. Raph's blog was similarly taciturn. An end of the world party is scheduled for noon PST January 1, 2010, and players were advised to save what they could and document their creations between before the party starts.

At one point Raph was almost entirely covered by baby dragon gifts from players who looked at their large hoards of experience-point-based coins and tried to burn through them while they still existed. The normally effusive Cuppycake stood facing away from the fixed perspective camera and could not be coaxed into facing forward by a player who wanted a picture. I gave Cuppycake gift fairies and Raph baby dragons for a while and watched the chat scroll by. At least I made it to level 101 before the world ended - which is a story for another day.

Fierce Fashionistas - Metaplace launches Fall collection!!!

The Herald goes backstage at MP's Fall fashion show

by Suzie Skybeam

Amethyst announces the after-show party

Nervously waiting backstage, I watch two channels of chat scrolling up the screen: the public announcements to the audience, and the private instructions to the models. They've taken away spotlight we had at rehearsal (it made the clothes look too washed out); we're supposed to click the pumpkin when we walk off stage.

Click the pumpkin? What on Earth? Oh, ok, it's so Cuppycake can teleport us off the catwalk.

Is ToToM the Metaverse Soundtrack?

Balancing creator, mixer, and consumer rights

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

While I was visiting Soviet Woodbury Saturday, the resident communists took time away from building their new workers’ paradise to rez a brightly colored dance floor and an impromptu worker’s dance party took place to an audio stream from http://www.maxxhitsbootlegs.com - a French mashup site that seems to be  on the way to becoming the metaverse soundtrack of choice for both Second Life and Metaplace. At the Metaplace Fashion Show event on Friday we were also dancing to a stream from the site, and I can confirm maxxhitsbootlegs is an in-theme choice for user-generated content worlds in either 2.5D or 3D.

I've begun to wonder if audio mashups are the aural equivalent of the W-Hat goons' and Woodbury /b/tard's builds - unexpected juxtapositions of diverse elements to create a new and typically ironic work - sometimes for fun and sometimes as social commentary. A mashup like Black Butterfly Busters combining Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with Butterfly Wings + Ram Jam – Black Betty + Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters seems to be saying something, but can the copyright laws and the sampled content creators keep up?

Players Dodge Horrific Namespace Collisions!!!

Metaplace developers hope to avoid each other's triggers

by Suzie Skybeam

Wednesday night, a group of developers got together in a Libertarian coffee shop to discuss what to do about the Metaplace's lack of namespaces.

In Metaplace, you can attach scripts from different modules to the same object. For example, a chat system and a combat system written by different people might both be attached to the same "player" object. The problem is that "properties" (used to store the current state of an object) and "triggers" (used for communication between objects) aren't local to a module, so if two modules happen to use the same name for a property or trigger, they will interfere with each other, and probably won't work properly.

DougQB explains: "a Builder who doesn't know how to code starts putting  a bunch of modules together and then starts changing/breaking things. Then wants someone to fix it."

Many people felt that the best solution would be a change to the Metaplace version of the Lua programming language, but weren't optimistic that would happen any time soon.

chooseareality: "a private declaration would be great.. sigh"
KStarfire: "Exposed Triggers is the best solution altho even that  i dont think it would completely fix it"
LunarRaid: "It's a pity triggers aren't prefixed with the script name by default."

Naturism Comes to Metaplace

Players shuck their inhibitions -- and avatar clothing

by Suzie Skybeam

Metaplace's new avatar implementation still doesn't let users create their own clothing, but with Tachevert's "Naturist Avatars" module they can take it all off - assuming they have 5500 coins to purchase the module.

The Naturist Avatars module description says, "This behavior allows you to add scripts that let avatars and players indulge in their Barbie-and-Ken-doll 'naturist' existence. Includes sample objects to enable and disable this mode... This module allows players to shuck their inhibitions -- and avatar clothing.  Censor bars keep everything PG-13-friendly!"

Watch "Another Perfect World" Documentary in Metaplace

by NuMedia Econobot

Another Perfect World - a documentary investigating the quest to construct digital utopias - premiers in the United States Thursday September 10 at noon PDT in Metaplace at The Stage. For our readers' convenience, the Metaplace space for The Stage is embedded below.

showtime: Thursday Sept 10, 12 noon PDT

The film includes interviews with the real life typists for sexbed entrepreneur Stroker Serpentine, Metaplace founder Raph Koster, Second Life founder Philip Linden. and the cat-attracting Alphaville Herald/Secondlife Herald founder Urizenus Sklar, along with many others.

Recommended.

Watching Obama in Ghana from Metaplace/Second Life

Ironic ads courtesy of USTREAM video

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

A bit of unintentional irony was my reward for attending an early-morning cross world Second Life/Metaplace live stream of President Obama’s speech in Ghana today, as incongruous advertisements streamed along with the USTREAM feed rebroadcasting the Voice of America coverage of the speech.

Was I the only one who thought it odd that Obama's speech was being streamed with advertisements for paternity testing for immigrants? Another classic and distracting mashup was the “Obama Budget Cut Medicare” ad in the picture above - apparently a solicitation from a political action committee with concerns about the administration's proposed budget. Perhaps Google's constant juxtaposing of conflicting ads will make this seem normal in time - unfortunate product positioning is the price we pay for "free" streaming media.

Coverage leading up to the Obama in Ghana event had seemed aimed at promoting the image of a wired up administration using SMS and Twitter - does online life get any better than a White House Twitter feed?  But Second Life and Metaplace were not willing to be left out and joined together to be part of the show.

Raph Koster scored some coverage at CBS in a story that suggested that deeper and more active engagement beyond 140 character tweets might be possible in virtual worlds. But deep engagement may come at a cost as Charles Cooper's story went on to remind everyone that the signature moment for social engagement in Second Life came several years ago with a flying penis attack on Anshe Chung during a press conference. 

Metaplace Worlds Now Embed Into Any Web Page

1.) build a world    2.) add it to your web site    3.) profit?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

If the name of the game in MMOs is to grow the user population in preparation for an eventual IPO, Metaplace took a significant step forward this week by allowing Metaplace spaces to be inserted into players' web sites. For example, the Herald's Metaplace offices are embedded below, and can be freely explored - after logging into the service - without leaving this page.

Enter the world, find the television and click to see Larry Lessig YouTube video embedded in Herald Metaplace offices embedded in Herald web page

Why is this move significant? First, it has the potential to harness viral marketing forces.  To see the Metaplace worlds, visitors to websites with embedded MP spaces need to have an MP account -- and each web site with an MP embedded space becomes an advertisement for Metaplace.

Embeddable MP spaces may also help jumpstart acceptance of Metaplace now that existing web-based advertising and payment mechanisms can be used alongside MP spaces. We expect to see MP game designers, musicians, and DJs employ PayPal tipjars on their web pages along with Google AdSence in an attempt to monetize their gameplay.

Metaplace Founder Raph Koster Chats Up Linden Lab Co-Founder Cory Ondrejka

The hairy edge of augmented reality colliding with virtual worlds

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

At a much anticipated game god gabfest yesterday, Raph Koster and Cory Ondrejka neatly avoided the controversy over Metaplace male's second-class sit animations - possibly the most vital issue facing the metaverse today - by standing throughout the event. Rather than focusing on avatar emotes and poses, the Raph and Cory chose to discuss smaller issues - presence in new media, how virtual worlds are affecting the web, user generated content, the role of economies in sorting the gold from a sea of user created dross, and music in the virtual realm.

As predicted, a touching Linden Lab alumni scene was played out with Sunchaser - Robin Linden Harper - in attendance. A full transcript of the event (courtesy of Cuppycake) is reproduced below, and the Herald's own Urizenus Sklar was pressed into duty as a photographer.

(left to right - Raph Koster, Cory Ondrekja, Sunchaser )

Raph: Well, Cory, I'm glad to have you here today...
Raph: Seems like several years since I first told you about this crazy Metaplace idea!
CoryOndrejka: Great to "see" you after catching up at state of play
CoryOndrejka: Austin Game Conference, 06 right?
Raph: Yup... a long time ago :)
Raph: So our goal back then was to build a next generation virtual world platform, something that worked mor elike the web
Raph: It is fitting that you are the first guest at an event in the remote embed :)
CoryOndrejka: I think being able to toss up not only a pointer to the event and the event itself on my blog is great
Raph: It seems like a lot of the discussion around VWs is about "pleateaus
CoryOndrejka: Kudos to your team for getting this working so smoothly
Raph: lately.er, plateaus. What do you think about that?
CoryOndrejka: I'm just glad I don't have to spell plateau :-)
Raph: Yeah, kinda tricky :)
CoryOndrejka: Interesting choice, given the explosion of interest in "real time"
CoryOndrejka: and "presence" on the web
CoryOndrejka: we've seen some key elements of VWs and games coopted by Twitter, FB, et al
CoryOndrejka: so I'm not sure that Plateau is accurate at all
Raph: It does seem like many previously asynch experiences are becoming synchronous or at least a lot faster
CoryOndrejka: How about "a lot less asynchronous"?

Linden Lab Co-Founder Cory Ondrejka to Visit Metaplace

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

 

Cory's Second Life profile

After parting company with Linden Lab last year, Cory Linden Ondrejka joined EMI, where he seems to be doing well - and was recently promoted to senior vice president for digital strategy. Given Cory's credentials as a co-founder of Linden Lab and creator of many core technologies in Second Life and his work in the digital music industry at EMI, the Metaplace event should be fascinating.

Beyond an erudite discussion new media, look for a Metaplace in-world reunion between Cory and Sunchaser - ex-Linden game god Robin Linden Harper. The event is scheduled for 2:00 PM PDT June 30th at TheStage.

Of course, the most important question is whether Cory will opt for a male or female avatar in Metaplace.  Experts agree - girls are more relaxed than boys when seated in Metaplace. Given Cory's calm and confident Second Life profile, we have a good idea of what to expect.

MetaPRIDE Celebration - June 22

by Idorua Wellman, staff writer

MetaPRIDE is a day-long Metaplace celebration of the diversity (racial, cultural, demographical, gender, and sexual orientation) featuring a variety of performers and speakers all day Monday June 22.  The event will take place in the north area of Metaplace Central (the event area), the Lotus Club, Chooseareality's Metaequality Center, and the Alphaville Herald offices where meta-DJ Pixeleen Mistral will run the gamut from jazz to j-pop to rock to hip hop.  You can access the schedule of events and the links to the participating worlds by heading to Metaplace Central and walking north.

The full schedule of events:

All times are in PST:
9am – 10am: meta-DJ Pixeleen Mistral at the Alphaville Herald offices
10am – 12pm: Karel Hallard – DJ (Rock Music)
12pm – 1pm: Sara Beth Brooks - Speaker, Executive Chair of the San Diego Equality Campaign
1pm – 2pm: Winter Mullenix – Transgender speaker, GenderVoice project
2pm – 4pm: Tank Thibedaux – DJ
4pm – 5pm: Colin Seraphina Brennan – Contributing Editor at Massively, transgender speaker
5pm – 6pm: Grace McDunnough – live musician
6pm – 8pm: Romeo Reardon - DJ
8pm – 9pm: Elron Priestman – Comedian

There will also be an art gallery in Metaplace Central by artist Marcel Reyes.

Transworld Omnigendered in Metaplace

Will avatar poses lead to matriarchal society? It works for hyenas!

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Fiend sits uncomfortably

The story of how Fiend Ludwig and I discovered of the transworld omnigendered nature of Metaplace started simply enough. Fiend was in the Herald offices sitting uncomfortably on a couch, leaning slightly forward and rubbing his hands together. He seemed ill at ease, and confessed a certain discomfort with Raph’s Koster’s worlds - why did I look so relaxed while Fiend’s avatar looked dorky? Could there be some sort of gender bias at play in the avatar animations?

There was only one way to be sure, so we both opened a second web browser window and stopped by The New You shop in Metaplace Central. This is where Fiend's avatar underwent a sex change operation, and emerged with a new more feminine form. However, in the other window Fiend and I were still sitting on the couch at the Herald - where Fiend was still a boy. We realized that whether by design or by accident Metaplace was fundamentally a transworld omnigendered experience.

As Fiend got in touch with her feelings about himself, we speculated on what conclusions might be drawn about the Metaplace developers based on their avatar animations - were they consciously trying to create a world to attract more girls - or was the boys nervousness an unconscious mirroring of real life attitudes?

DJ Cuppycake vs Bruce Schneier - Event Showdown Part 2

Dancing to DJ Cuppycake's tunes in an embedded Metaplace world

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Thursday night, after a disappointing Bruce Schneier event in Second Life, I stopped by Metaplace community manager Cuppycake's blog to see how well embedding a Metaplace space into an independent web site would work - and what sort of beats Cuppycake would throw down.

Players in Metaplace have begged for the ability to embed worlds into third party web pages for some time, and Raph Koster and company finally provided a first public look at this feature late Thursday. The effect was something like going to a web page with an embedded YouTube video, but instead of passively watching videos, you click on the image, log into Metaplace, jump into the world, and join in the fun. Being an active participant rather than a passive viewer is much of the magic of virtual worlds - it is surprising that more events aren't better structured to take advantage of this.

Cuppycake took requests from the dancers, and there was plenty of interaction between DJ Cuppycake and the text chatting players -- I'm still a bit concerned about Cuppycake and Luke's dog, but her dinner sounded great. Overall, the event felt like stopping by a friends apartment for a rent party, and this sort of community feel has been part of what made live music and DJs a mainstay of the Second Life social scene for years. Let us hope for better support for these sorts of events now that Metaplace is in open beta.

Richard Bartle in Metaplace -- MMOs FTW & WTF

The best way to get into it is to go where it isn't and wait for it to come - Richard Bartle

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

[Richard Bartle recently visited Metaplace, and although the most of the Herald staff were unable to attend, one of Urizenus Sklar's contacts provided this transcript.  Cuppycake (Metaplace community manager and part time DJ) attempted to keep order as Sunchaser (formerly Robin Linden of Second Life) acted as MC for the event.]

Cuppycake: Okay I'm going to repeat the rules once again
Sunchaser: hehe nice crowd huh!
asarazan: I'm hungry and just wanted a meal
Obo: I better get my XP!

Cuppycake: Everyone please be quiet
JasonGee zips lip
Cuppycake: There is no moderation system here, so we will be doing it manually.
Cuppycake: The center aisle is where you go if you have a question. Please form a neat line.
Cuppycake: No one should be talking except for Richard, and the person who is asking the question (after waiting in line)
Cuppycake: You don't get a warning, so don't test it. ;)

Sunchaser: OK - I'm going to introduce Richard, not that he needs an extensive intro
Sunchaser: I'm really excited and pleased to welcome Richard Bartle to Metaplace today.
Sunchaser: Richard is a professor and teaching fellow at the university of Essex in the Dept of Computing and Electronic Systems, specializing in game design.
Sunchaser: Richard is best known as the co-author of MUD, the first multi-user dungeon, and for his research into player personality types. Want to know what type you are? Take the Bartle Test! http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/bartle-test-of-gamer-psychology
Sunchaser: You can also find Richard blogging on Terra Nova about virtual worlds.
Sunchaser: We're planning a Q&A session for the next hour. So let's start with the first question!

Event Review: Richard Bartle Q&A in Metaplace

by Suzie Skybeam

Dr. Richard Bartle held an hour and half Q&A session for a packed audience in the MetaGlobe Theatre yesterday, covering diverse MMO-related topics, from government taxation of VW transactions, through "What have current MMO's lost that MUD's had?" to the perennial favorite, "How do you get a job in the gaming industry?" (You need luck, apparently).

A sample of the dialog:

Richard: As for Metaplace, well one of the things I always hoped would happen is that people would be able to create their own virtual worlds and now they can. I'm very pleased by it.
Richard: not as pleased as if it had more documentation, obviously...
Raph laughs
Cuppycake: We're working on that ;)

As this was one of the first big public meetings to be held in Metaplace since it entered public beta, it also gave us a chance to see how Metaplace performed. I hope Dr. Bartle will forgive me for reporting on the technical aspects, rather than the substance of his talk.

Richard Bartle To Visit Metaplace May 26

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

The celebrities just can't seem to get enough of Metaplace - the Herald's off the hook party last friday night was just the beginning. MMO pioneer, game guru, and virtual world designer Richard Bartle will be paying a visit to Metaplace Central Tuesday May 26 at 12 noon PDT.

If Bartle's talk is anything like his recent IMGDC keynote slides this will be a fascinating event.

Llnk to the IMGDC slides courtesy of Raph Koster's blog.

Live Bitstream Boogie Blues in Metaplace

Herald hosts real-time alternative blues show tonight

by Pixeleen Mistral, Arts and Entertainment desk

Internet-mediated blues musicians Komuso Tokugawa (Tokyo),  Hathead Rickenbacker (Toronto), and Noma Falta (Atlanta)  are scheduled to make a special live appearance at the Alphaville Herald’s Metaplace newsroom makeover party tonight May 22 at 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT. 

a recent Bitstream Boogie show the Juke Joint in Second Life

Komuso is well known for sim-filling concerts in Second Life, and helped with a shoutcast stream soundcheck of the Herald’s new DJ booth earlier this week. Once the soundcheck was complete, we talked, and after some negotiation arrangements were made to provide Cristal in the green room - none of that Moët crap here at the Herald - and break in the Herald's Metaplace dance floor in style.

Alphaville Herald Metaplace Newsroom Makeover Party

Dance on the skeptical dance floor -- chill in the dystopia analysis area

by Pixeleen Mistral

Friday, May 22 at 7:00 pm EDT (4:00 pm PDT), the Alphaville Herald will celebrate the completion of our new Metaplace office space. Join us for the party as we re-invent new media journalism in the metaverse at http://www.metaplace.com/AlphavilleHerald/play.

The re-design was commissioned earlier this month from Dalian Hansen - a noted designer who perfectly balanced the competing needs of the Herald staff - critical analysis, dance floor, dj booth, state of the art Alpha60 computer/printing press, and news kiosk. 

Metaplace Opens Beta Starts Now

Raph Koster opens the doors after avatars run wild at closed beta party Wednesday

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

 

"We are opening the beta TOMORROW MORNING" shouted Raph, and I prayed that my screen grab was going to be fast enough - held my breath - and immediately saved the historic picture to disk (click on the image above for the full-sized version). Now with the Herald money shot in hand, I could enjoy the party - the rest of the story would be easy. The short version: you can now go to metaplace.com and join the web browser-based virtual world building platform without any special invites.

The party was in full swing when I joined the crush of around 90 Metaplace beta testers celebrating the end of the closed beta in Metaplace Central. Raph Koster and the rest of the MP staff thanked everyone with a short address, set off some fireworks, then prepared to open the gates to the Internet at large today -- but quietly.

The open beta is designed to be a soft launch without major publicity efforts. When asked, Raph was not willing to state exactly what time the open beta would begin Thursday, and also said he had requested that Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing to not blog about the opening - all efforts aimed at avoiding a crippling synchronized launch click storm.

Metaplace Gift Economy Balloons - Subscription Fees Loom

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Adz is the lucky recipient of three gift balloons

Gift balloons and subscription fee discussions have appeared in Metaplace during the last week - signs of an impending move to an open beta and broader access to the web-browser based world construction kit.

Last week, the game gods of Metaplace added a new in-world spacebux sink - gift balloons for sale at  3 coins each. By clicking on another player and selecting the give gift option, a generous soul may buy a balloon which then trails the recipient of the gift for a short time, then disappears.

Placing a real world value on the ballooning transaction is difficult. There is not yet a virtual currency to real money trade in Metaplace - at least in part because currently all MP coin transactions go through the MP Marketplace in exchange for goods. It is unclear when a player-to-player payment system will evolve, but presumably this is planned as part of the recent launch of an in-world currency. Some speculate the balloon transaction is a test case for a more general class of inter player transactions, which could set the stage for a more robust economy. Certainly in-world currency sinks will be needed to avoid rampant mudflation.

It's 4/20 -- Do You Know Where Your Medical Marijuana Is?

Part time griefer and journalist advocates for medical marijuana

By Doctor Ocularis, Herald Medical Desk

photo stolen from Metro Spirit

Today being April 20 (aka 4/20) it is only fitting that we link to a story about weed. In this case we link to a story by Joshua McCracken in the Augusta Georgia Metro Spirit. Josh, if you don't know, had a former incarnation in Second Life as Deadly Codec (d3adl3yc0d3c); he had an impressive career as a griefer and tied for third place as 2008 avatar of the year. He is also a former Herald Contributor. 

Joshua is now in Metaplace as Satan (not griefing so far as we know). Josh is also an AIDS patient, and this has led to his interest in medical marijuana. From the story:

Because I cannot have legal access to potentially more effective (and less addictive) medicine — such as marijuana — I am prescribed meds such as hydromorphone for pain caused by golf-ball sized lymph nodes in the sides of my neck. Hydromorphone is an opioid painkiller that is five times the strength of morphine. It is also known by the brand name Dilaudid. For the record, I am grateful that my doctors gave me the relief that they could (some of them might be reading this).

But Wilsey and I both could be helped by something much cheaper and less dangerous. I believe our pain and suffering is being compounded by draconian drug policies. Government entities such as the DEA continued to push their agendas without regard to people like us, or the millions who support our option to be treated with the medication called marijuana

Blaze on, C0d3c. Blaze on.

<3

Lunar Raid's Video Metaplace World Reviews

by Pixeleen Mistral, New Media desk

Pirates, ponies, and frogger-style roadkill can be seen at the Metaplace Insider, where Lunar Raid has just released his second video MP world review - more examples of the sorts of worlds that can be created in Metaplace and run on standard web browsers. After an intense negotiating session, with promises of Internet fame and possible spacebux, Lunar agreed to allow to Herald to republish his work going forward.

Lunar's newest video sails into the High Seas world with a stereotypical pirate accent, a hat tip to the ponies in PonyPlace, a bloody battle which causes Zetaphor’s ship to sink, a mercy killing of Zetaphor's drowning sailors before the sharks could get them, all pulled together with Lunar's best pirate hat.

An earlier MP Insider World Review covers Zoo Escape  - where the challenge is to cross the road or become roadkill.

[video after the jump]

Will Nomadic Furs Nest in Metaplace?

FurCity under construction

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

A few intrepid scouts for the furry community are now investigating Raph Koster’s still-in-closed-beta Metaplace platform - despite the very limited options for customization of the avatars.

While personally customized avatars are presumably to be available in the future, MP worlds currently can override a player’s avatar on entry to a space, so it is possible to make all visitors to a fur world take the form of animals. This is demonstrated in Zoo Escape - a roadkill-orientated game of skill that challenges animals to cross busy highways.

A short-term avatar override approach may have some appeal to the fur community, by forcing any would-be trouble makers to become furs themselves when visiting a world. Would the prospect of exploring their inner fursona put would-be griefers off?

Responding to my questions about the fur future of MP, one fur pioneer pointed out that the hardware requirements to run Second Life force many into IMVU and Habbo as alternatives - and went on to highlight both the limits and potential of Metaplace from a fur perspective.

Browser Based 3D Worlds: Are the Pieces Finally Falling in Place?

by Urizenus Sklar, Contributing Editor

Raph Koster is expressing a kind of jaded been-there-done-that-saw-it-coming attitude about what he is seeing at the Game Developers Conference this year, and I’m not surprised. One year you are the crazy nut describing the future to an audience of twelve other nuts, and the next year the room is full of hundreds of suited up, panting, business people who just last year were marketing Band-Aids and motor oil and are now world-wide experts on the great promise of virtual worlds.

But even in the face of this dreary spectacle of suits in rut, Raph can barely disguise his glee over recent developments in the development of 3D browser technology. And who can blame him? The infrastructure of Metaplace is lying there waiting for web based technology to bring it with the 3D. When that happens then life gets very interesting indeed. While virtual worlds like Second Life have proved the concept of 3D virtual worlds, they are still not “of the web”. What happens when robust 3D  virtual worlds accessible through a web browser? When the only application you need is Firefox? We’ve seen attempts to push "of the web" virtual worlds before before (remember Trevor Smith’s Ogoglio project?), but now things are heating up.

Herald Invite Key Opens Metaplace Closed Beta

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

The game gods at Metaplace have provided the Herald with a powerful spell - a secret key - able to open the invitation-only closed-beta doors to Raph Koster's latest effort - until the magic of the invite key wears off from overuse.

Enter the invite key "ALPHAVILLE" here - then stop by the Alphaville Herald officepark to pet the cat, or chill and listen to jazz in Pixeleen's jazz loft, then dodge the amorous alligator that roams Uri's post-modern virtual world pundit media experience - an experience that somehow turned into a McLuhanesque nightmare with lots of content from McLuhan, Postman, Chomsky, R.U. Sirius, Ludlow and other eggheads.

And the Metaplace Hype Cycle Begins

BBC in the pool early with fanboi hype

Special to the Herald, from Urizenus Sklar on the Herald Yacht

Now the BBC has joined the Metaplace hype with this story. One wishes that traditional media would leaven their hype with a bit of critical discussion at the outset. That might help save them from feeling the need to pour on the Haterade two years from now. We've seen this before with Second Life. Everyone needs to calm down. Metaplace is interesting and promising, but mostly promising. If you get off on promissory notes I have a trillion in toxic assets to sell you. The yacht is for sale too.

The Graphics on Metaplace are Crap! Or maybe not...

Utopika World

by The Allseeing Eye, staff reporter

While Pixeleen and Uri sit in Metaplace and marvel at its egalitarian tools and its democratic Terms of Service and its we-are-of-the-web philosophy, I've been wondering about something else. Given that it's more or less flash based or whatever, aren't the graphics going to be craptastic? That's what I thought until I bumped into some self-described Metaplace pixel artists the other night. Here are some screenshots brought to you at great personal risk, given that Raph enforces his NDA with led pipe wielding thugs -- the kind that kneecap figure skaters without a second thought! Anyway, pics are below the fold.

Metaplace Now Coins Spacebux

Jump starting a virtual world economy

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

While real world economists attempt to unfreeze the global financial system with fiscal stimulus plans, handouts to the needy, and anything else that might stimulate demand, the game gods of Metaplace are in the process of stimulating their own virtual economy - and move from the free-goods-for-all early beta phase into a market-based world.

Over the last few weeks, Metaplace added a virtual currency - originally called “gold” but now named “coins” - and players watched as they magically coined spacebux while visiting and rating other player’s worlds and other normal parts of MP gameplay.

To date, the in-game marketplace has not included a mechanism to charge for user-created content. This is all about to change according to Cuppycake - the MP community manager - and in the next few days there will be charges for both publishing items to the marketplace (250 coins), and a commission fee on sales of virtual goods (25 coins or 10% - whichever is greater).

The coin discussion in the Metaplace forum has raised some interesting issues - will new players start out with enough coin to make a world? could there be a “try-before-you-buy” feature? when will players be able to give coins to each other?

How SL Wins the Drama War with Metaplace

Did LL design the metaverse to create resident conflict?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

I ran into a Second Life e-friend in Metaplace on Sunday - Robin Linden Harper had stopped by and left a comment on my profile. When I saw Robin was online, I hopped over to visit the garden world she was building, but we didn’t have much time to talk before she had to leave for dinner.

This was a shame, because I wanted to ask if she had noticed the dramatically lower level of drama in Metaplace compared to Second Life - and if this might have something to do with virtual land scarcity.

A major portion of the Second Life economy - and the Linden Lab business model - presumes the game gods will restrict creation of new virtual spaces to prop up prices in the Second Life fee-for-virtual-land game. This approach has worked well enough to date, and even made some land rental agents like Anshe Chung serious money back in the day, but comes at what may be an unsustainable emotional and economic price.

Second Life vs. Metaplace - A Tale of Two TOS

Alphaville Herald opens Metaplace offices

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Within five minutes of my first visit to Metaplace - the latest virtual world from Raph Koster - I understood why Google had given it's Lively web browser-based virtual world the chop. Someone at Google saw the Metaplace beta and realized that they had been hopelessly outclassed. Since that first visit I've been spending a lot of time in Metaplace, talking to players and watching the world evolve while building an Alphaville Herald office space - complete with flying saucers.

So while some publications are doing drive-by reviews of the still-in-beta world, look for the Herald to provide a much more immersive view as Metaplace becomes an ongoing part of the Herald beat. We will start at the beginning with the Terms of Service agreement - a sort of shrink-wrap license that few players bother to read - but which defines your rights in the virtual realm.

Compare the Metaplace TOS with the Second Life TOS below. Where would you rather live?