Second Life's rapidly growing community is getting a power boost to enhance the user-created world, as creator Linden Lab acquired the graphics technology from Windward Mark Interactive.

Aside from getting the five founders of Windward in their Boston office, Linden Lab  will also earn:

• Windlight - an advanced atmospheric technology, uses patent-pending algorithms that simulates light affected by real-world factors like dust and moisture in real-time
  
• Nimble - a realistic 3D cloud simulator using advanced physics models
  
• Other intellectual properties

Windlight will be open source and available to PC users immediately, with a Mac version to follow. This time around, we'd probably see hotter babes that would eventually get awarded on male-oriented magazines.

Both sides are excited about the acquisition. Linden Lab Founder and CEO Philip Rosedale said "We're excited to bring this technology to Second Life and pleased to have such a talented team of developers join Linden Lab." Coming from Windward's president Asi Lang, "It will be exciting to see how the Second Life community will further advance our technology when it is open sourced.”

Rally up, it's time to create the ultimate Second Life utopia!

And here comes a new kid in the gaming industry block, pitched by no less than Major League Baseball pitcher Boston Red Sox">Boston Red Sox">Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox. Introducing 38 Studios, formerly known as the Green Monster, this brand promises to deliver not only massively multiplayer online games, but a whole lot of immersive products boasting of a wide range as well.

Brett Close, president of 38 Studios, explains, "the name 38 Studio captures the scope of our goals... Our mission is to create ground-breaking intellectual properties that inspire a vast selection of entertainment experiences."

Why the number 38?

It's not only about what we're going to accomplish, but how. 38 is Curtis' number, of course. Anyone familiar with Curt recognizes that he represents excellence, integrity, and achievement. These are attributes intrinsic to our people, our organization, and our products.

The company is currently attending this year's Game Developers Conference marking their debut appearance in the gaming industry's event.

"You spend too much time playing videogames." Yep, we've heard pretty much every variation of that line over the years. More often than not, parents usually direct that line towards their teenage kids, but a recent study has dug up some surprising answers to the question of who does the most online gaming.

Here's a hint: I'm not part of the leading demographic, and most likely, you aren't either.

According to KXAN.com, a 125-page casual games white paper published by the International Games Developers Association that reveals the who, the what and the why of online-gaming participants reveals that women between 35 and 45 years of age make up the largest block of online players. That's right, OUR MOMS make up the bulk of online gamers.

KXAN also points towards a separate report by AOL which revealed that women over the age of 40 spend just over nine hours a week gaming online. Teenagers only came in second place, with 7.4 hours per week. Adult men bring up the rear, with only 6.1 hours a week in the online-gaming world. As for top gaming cities, the research cites Atlanta and Boston as the top gaming cities in the country.

Weird, huh? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Curt Schilling. He may be the starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, he may be a self-confessed fan of EverQuest II. But does his Green Monster Games has what it takes to churn out a great MMO, or any MMO for that matter? Well, for now, nothing is certain, but Curt Shilling's recent interview with The Escapist may give us a glimpse of what he can or can't do with his team-up with Salvatore and McFarlane.

When he was asked if he sees Green Monster Games as a mere pet project or as something he'll be someday working on full-time, this is what he had to say:

This is something I will focus on explicitly and completely when I'm retired. Outside of working out for this season and my family right now, it's taking up every minute of my day.

Ok, we've settled that issue. So what would Curt do at Green Monster? He said that he is the founder and CEO of the company. He got a president and they'll be creating the core team over the next six months. That team will consist of 30 people. So what would be R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane do with the company. Schilling has this to say:

R.A. was hired on as the creative director. R.A. will drive the creative vision, the story behind what we're doing. He's got a pretty decent track record of writing some pretty good stories.

Todd will literally be the art director. He will be behind the artistic vision of R.A.'s story. We will have an art director in house that will collaborate with Todd and Todd's team to take Todd's conceptual vision and turn it into a game world and game players and game characters.

Although he didn't mention anything about what kind of MMOs Green Monster Games are preparing for, a little optimism doesn't hurt. But then again, one can't live on optimism alone. To read more of Curt's interview, click on the Read link below.

Over the past few days, we followed the development of GTA ads which earned the ire of some people who are urging that the ads be pulled down from public places. First there was Boston and Denver. While things are still being protested in those areas, Oregon's TriMet went out of its way and removed the ads.

Now for a change, instead of listing down all states that don't like such kind of games, let's start a new one: states that fell on their knees to such kind of games. Let us begin with Illinois:

Last year, August of 2005 to be exact, the above mentioned state enacted the Sexually Explicit Video Game Law or SEVGL. Accordingly, the objective of the law is to criminalize the sale of "sexually explicit" video games to minors. Also, the law states that those who are in the business should conspicuously label any sexually explicit game with a four square inch label reading "18." On the other hand, Entertainment Software Association together with other similar groups protested the law immediately the following day.

One year after, the case finally reaches to a conclusion: "The district court permanently enjoined enforcement of the law, and the State of Illinois sought review. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the lower court's holding that the statue was not narrowly tailored." Why didn't we heard cheering? Hmm.. Well, in simpler terms, the law was unjustified and without basis.

Now we hear the loud applause...

Word on the net says that baseball legend and avid MMO fan Curt Schilling is teaming up with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and popular sci-fi/fantasy author R.A. Salvatore to form a new Boston-based video game company called Green Monster Games.

Schilling, who pitches for the Boston Red Sox, is already known for his interest in gaming. He owns a small paper-gaming company called Multi-Man Publishing and was recently turned into an evil NPC in EverQuest II in the name of the ALS Association charity. Schilling has also been a longtime EverQuest player.

The names Todd McFarlane and R.A. Salvatore became associated with Green Monster Games through the job ads the company has posted on various game job sites. McFarlane will apparently be helping the company as the lead artist on their new project, with Salvatore taking on the role of creative director for Green Monster Games's output.

Green Monster Games is apparently named after the 37-foot left field wall at Fenway Park, home to Schilling and the Boston Red Sox. Green Monster Games aims to create what it describes as "industry-changing games."

So far, there have been no concrete news yet on the games that Green Monster Games might be developing. With the weight of the names behind this company, though, it seems not too presumptuous to expect something big once Green Monster Games finally makes their first game announcement.

Around 1975-1985, hardcore gamers could be described as virtual pen and paper gamers. As computers before (back then, you're considered lucky if yours has an 8 or 16KB memory) aren't as sophisticated as the ones we have now, most games were text-based RPGs. You would be given a scenario, and you'd type a command for your character to move further in the game. Basically, these are pen and paper RPGs where interaction is limited to you and your computer.

But the advent of more high-tech computers seemed to have rendered these games quite obsolete. So Boston filmmaker and Unix system administrator Jason Scott decided to pay homage to these text-based games with his documentary, "Get Lamp." Scott adds that the said games are well, books. "Early interactive fiction borrows stylistically from Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games and fantasy adventure novels."

The said film is currently in the works, and Scott plans to include interviews with the early game developers, which include those who made Zork as well as Adventure, "the first interactive works to gain a following." We're not sure when this film will be released, so just regularly check QJ for updates.