Just found out that Discovery Channel will have a segment called LEVEL FIVE - Rise of the Video Game, that covers Second Life and it will first air this Wednesday, 12/19/2007:
Here's the information:
".. LEVEL FIVE
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Premiere: Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 8 p.m. ET/PT
The advent of the Internet has changed everything — including videogames. When ARPNET, a military precursor to the Internet, went live in 1969, gamers almost immediately began using this new technology for gaming. But what began as text-based adventure games called MUDs (multi-user dungeons) quickly evolved into graphic-based online adventure games called MMOs (massively multi-player online games). Millions worldwide have battled together and against one another in the latest genre of videogame. From Ultima Online to the most successful MMO of all time, World of Warcraft, gamers now are attracted to virtual second lives as they battle friends and foes across the globe from the safety of their home computers. In the virtual world, gamers have found they can be anyone or anything. The ability to reinvent oneself virtually has become an irresistible experience for many, and has some critics wondering whether the line between the real world and the virtual world has become dangerously blurred. Many gamers spend more time in the virtual world than the real world, but they argue that the virtual experiences of MMOs are still human experiences simply delivered via the latest wave of technology — the videogame. This episode includes interviews with Cory Ondrejka (chief technology officer at Linden Lab) and Richard Bartle (British writer and game researcher best known for being the co-author of MUD)."
Not sure I'll be around to watch it - and it makes me curious to know what was covered in Level One - Level Four.
Word comes from IBM that a fully functional web browser for Second Life has been betat tested - http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/10/viewing-induali.html:
"..According to Pelican CEO Clive Jackson, inDuality transmits about 95% of the SL experience from the world to the web."
We'll see once I can beta test - There's a form to sign up for the inDuality Beta test at this link.
Missed the CSI-NY Episode last Wednesday CSI:NY Down the Rabbit Hole but I did manage to download the OnRez Browser and try enter the crime scene and orientation - however, as I re-entered with my normal avatar I found I could not transport anywhere else outside of the CSI-NY island.
Also heard that Electric Sheep was bought by CBS, but I don't know if that's true or not, or it's more of a partnership.
I see the CSI:NY Rabbit Hole Second Life connection as an experiment to see if you can take a crime drama, or any drama, and extend it beyond the boundaries of the show itself. It seems to me that, in this sense, the CSI Crime Scene is more of an extension of the 2D Web - you could have done most of the things that your doing at the Official CSI:NY Virtual Experience from CBS from any Flash website.
But the trend to move online to Virtual 3D games is more telling - and illustrative of the kinds of things Brand Managers were talking about doing at the first Virtual Worlds 2007 that I attended in New York earlier this year.
I would think CBS would be finding a way to connect people who say the show (and perhaps saw it on Cable vs. Online vs. those who heard about it but didn't see the show) and entered into the CSI:NY Virtual Experience with web metrics or whatever analytics they could get ahold of.
Based on what I've heard, The Sheep don't have any real analytics - so I'm wondering what they're using for Analytics?
You'd think, if someone is going to build a new browser, they'd all put some metrics collection in it - at least, that's my thinking.
As far as the OnRez browser - I don't see it as any major advance or much of an improvement over the standard Second Life Browser - perhaps more useful for the CSI:NY Virtual Experience but not for much else.
