Apparently, scientists have been able to do something simply astounding with Linden Labs' MMOPRG. They were able to create artificial life in the form of a child-like intelligence in Second Life, named Eddie. Read more on this by heading over to the full article.

When virtual worlds collide, what will happen? With Second Life's Linden Labs and IBM trying to do just that, we're about to find out. Both companies are now trying to find ways to let a single online persona access different online games and services, thus breaking virtual barriers. "It's going to happen anyway," said IBM's digital convergence vice president Colin Parris.

One of the things that would happen, according to Linden Labs, is that the more exciting virtual worlds will gain many immigrants and users, while "dull" worlds will lose most of their clients. Certainly an interesting prospect, and will force online gaming developers not to slack off and do their best in improving gaming experience.

Both IBM and Linden have discussed the industry standards expected from implementation of "open virtual world borders" in a recent virtual worlds conference located in San Jose, California.

IBM began establishing itself inside Linden Lab's Second Life back in late 2006. It seems that it has been enjoying its stay in the virtual world as it recently announced a future project that will allow residents to walk into three-dimensional Web worlds to browse virtual libraries.

According to IBM.com Director of Global Web Strategy and Innovation Maggie Blayney, they are doing this because they feel like a major transformation in web interaction is coming soon. Blayney added:

The real reason why we're doing this is because we do feel the beginning of a major transformation on how people are going to interact on the Web - going from a flat to an immersive experience. It's not going to replace the two-dimensional Web but it's going to integrate and complement it.

The director added that starting Thursday, IBM's virtual business center in Second Life will be populated with real sales representatives from regional offices in Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. Since its opening last year, the said virtual center has welcomed around 10,000 Second Life residents.

Gamers investing countless hours on MMORPGs may have something to smile about: a study by IBM and Seriosity reveals that online games actually help shape up managers and corporate leaders.

"What we've found is that success as a business leader may depend on skills as a gamer. Smart organizations are recognizing valued employees who play online games and apply their skills and experiences as virtual leaders to their 'real world' jobs," said Jim Spohrer, Director of Services Research, IBM Research Center in Almaden, Calif.

Online games and the future of work are found to have various similarities in terms of required skills and challenges tackled. According to the report: today's gamers are learning collaboration, self-organization, risk-taking, openness, influence, and how to earn incentives linked to performance and be flexible in the way they communicate.

Here are the features of game environments that businesses should adopt:

• Incentive structures that motivate workers immediately and longer term
• Virtual economies that create a marketplace for information and collaboration
• Transparency of performance and capabilities
• Recognition for achievements
• Visibility into networks of communication across an organization

With game design concepts used in educating children and MMORPG players given the spotlight as the future's world leaders, it looks like everything is shaping up to put the virtual worlds we gamers enjoy beside the real challenges of life. Happy gaming!

 

Given that the 2007 Online Game Development Conference (OGDC) is just a few more days away, we'll be updating the previously reported speaker list with a fresh new 8-pack. This latest announcement includes the presence of industry bigwigs like GameSpy director Todd Northcutt, as well as PopCap Games business development director James Gwertzman. Here's the full list:

• JJ Richards - GM, Xbox Live, Microsoft
• Charles Merrin - Vice President, RealArcade, RealNetworks, Inc.
• Brett Close - President & CEO, 38 Studios
• Todd Northcutt - Director, GameSpy Technology, GameSpy / IGN Entertainment
• Tom DuBois - Producer, Global Online Studio, Electronic Arts
• James Gwertzman - Director of Business Development, PopCap Games
• Victor Wachter - Online Community Relations Manager, Cryptic Studios
• Craig T. Dalrymple - Community Relations Manager, EverQuest II, Sony Online Entertainment
  

Also confirmed to be arriving at the event are groups like IBM, Nvidia, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, Cartoon Network, K2 Network, Multiverse, DigiPen, Pearl Research, Fox Interactive Media, Gas Powered Games, Midway Studios, WildTangent, High Voltage Software, Flagship Studios, and Ensemble Studios.

Keep posted in case more information on additional speakers is announced, as this year's OGDC goes down this May 10 to 11, at at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle.

 

Next-generation in-game community management tools provider PLAYXPERT has announced today that the beta version of their PLAYXPERTTM is now available for preview at the ongoing Game Developer Conference, located at the IBM boot #483. Charles Manning, CEO of PLAYXPERT, describes their product as being able to:

[enrich] gaming experience by empowering players to do more while in-game, enabling them to visualize and leverage their rich social fabric that ties them together with other gamers across games and across clans or guilds, and finally by providing a general purpose overlay architecture so that anyone can build widgets that gamers can use.

Be able to send IMs to your friends across any chat network, browse the net, check out the hardware stats and a whole lot more, minus the hassle of the alt-tab. It also enables you to reduce the time spent swapping between browser, searches, and the game client, thus making for a more enjoyable gaming experience.

Here's a quick lowdown on what exactly is there to expect from this program:

• Manage and stay connected to their virtual communities while in game
• Quickly access necessary tools like Thottbot and Allakhazam while in game
• Enjoy an optimized community experience via integrated community management tools
• Use community-developed ‘widgets’ extending the behavior of the PLAYXPERT

To know more about it, feel free to visit their site via our Read link below.

  

Dan Miller is one cool dude. Read on, and find out why.

Business journalist H.S. Ayoub recently submitted to Internet Stock blog SeekingAlpha a write-up on his experiences in Linden Lab's Second Life. Obviously the fellow focused more on the business aspects of the metaverse. He covered the recent activities of Cisco Systems, IBM, American Apparel, and Toyota within the virtual world.

What's noteworthy though about his report is his input on government – to be specific, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress - plans to start taxing transactions taking place within Second Life.  Ayoub takes time to note Dan Miller's view on the subject. Ayoub writes:

While the flurry of activity and monetary spending can attract the attention of businesses, it can also attract the government. The Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress is taking a hard look at the possibility of taxing income derived from virtual online worlds. But the general consensus is against any taxation at this time. The blogging community immediately condemned the committee's announcement last year, and Dan Miller, senior economist on the committee, agrees.

He believes that a realistic attempt at taxing virtual transactions could prove very difficult. It would place too much pressure on virtual administrators, such as Linden Lab, to keep tabs on the millions of transactions and player activities that occur every day. This, Miller believes, could slow down the impressive innovation taking place. It is not surprising to learn that the 64 year-old Miller is an avid World of Warcraft fan, and player!

Great, the great online businesses on Second Life, indirectly defended from taxation by a World of Warcraft player. The amazing teh internetz is. Amazing.

Multinational computer technology corporation IBM currently has a prototype software that will give birth to future speech-to-speech translation engines. Dubbed as MASTOR, Multilingual Automatic Speech-to-Speech Technology aims to provide users speech translations in  real time.

Here's how the software works: With the help of MASTOR, the words spoken in a foreign language by someone on one end of the receiver will be translated into English so that the person on the other end will be able to understand him, and vice versa. IBM Innovation and Technology Executive VP Nicholas Donofrio explains,

We have been working on speech technology for nearly 35 years now. As opposed to our earlier efforts where we were solely focused on perfect translation, this time around we focused on its use in other parlance where perfection does not matter. A technology was born that can offer translation service in real time.

MASTOR was actually tested with the armed forces during the Iraq war. And we guess you are still wondering what the heck this article has to do with MMO games. Donoforio further mentioned,

The technology has uses in massively multiplayer online games. Imagine you are playing World of Warcraft with players from different countries. How can you converse in a common language? Well with MASTOR, you could be playing from Korea, China or Italy, all at the same time and everybody could understand each other.

Like we've mentioned at the beginning of this article, MASTOR is still a prototype software so don't expect a commercial version any time soon. It's just good to know that an innovation like this will soon be heading our way. IBM also plans to use MASTOR in medical facilities, law enforcement, banking, and travel.

Here's a follow-up to our previous report on retailers setting up shop in Second Life. It has been recently announced that a prototype of the Sears' Virtual Home showroom has made its debut in SL. The prototype 3D showroom on an IBM island promises users an immersive chance to browse the store's online merchandise.

The store fully intends to showcase the interactivity involved in virtual showrooms. For example, the initial store allows shoppers to experiment with changing the color of the cabinets and the countertops in a virtual kitchen. It also allows users to explore 3D versions of various home theater set-ups and learn how to organize their garage by allowing users to virtually customize storage accessories.

The showroom replicates 3D tools available in Sears.com. And unlike other showrooms, consumers can order items from the Sears Virtual Home by connecting from the 3D environment to Sears.com and choosing to either have the product delivered to their homes or have it reserved for pick up at a Sears store.

Eventually, customers may be able to use avatars to get a better idea of how room dimensions or kitchen re-designs will work out. Soon, shoppers will be able to instantly change to colors, sizes, styles, furniture, countertops, ovens, etc.

Corporations, institutions, and business setting up shop in Second Life seems to be the trend now-a-days, and it seems that there isn't any slowing down.

The Washington Post reports that this month, Sears Holdings Corp, in partnership with International Business Machines Corporation (er, IBM) unveiled Sears Virtual Home, a showroom on Second Life. There are also reports that Circuit City Stores Inc. have built a showroom in Second Life with IBM's help.

As trendy as it is at the moment, industry watchers are warning that the popularity of setting up shop in virtual worlds could backlash. Gartner Group analyst Steve Prentice has said earlier this month that SL was "heading toward the peak of the hype cycle" and faces the possibility of growing disillusionment among its community.

Playing it safe, the showrooms that Sears and Circuit City are just that, showrooms. Visitors can browse products, but they cannot purchase. However, despite the caution, there are hopes that consumers will eventually be able to redesign areas of their own homes (with the products) using the virtual online showroom.

Paul Miller, senior vice president of direct commerce at Sears had this to say:

The real goal here is to introduce people to the brand and in doing so, increase people's level of awareness. Does that translate into sales at some point? I think so.