This week on the MMORPG Weekend Warrior we see an attempted takeover of the Hellgate: London Franchise from HanbitSoft, the removal of certain features from the launch version of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the rapid growth of Second Life, and more. So head on over to the full article to find out more!

Linden Lab, the creators of the popular virtual world Second Life, announced that the total number of regions owned by players increased by 44.2 percent for the second quarter of this year. To find out more, then head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link.

If you've been bothered by the fact that you can't log in and play Linden Lab's Second Life, don't worry about it anymore. It took some time before things were settled. Either way, it's good to know that this particular issue has been finally resolved. Find out more on this in the full article.

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.

Everyone knows that scammers are everywhere, even online. Because of this, Linden Lab has published a nifty guide that will help Second Life netizens check if a third-party Linden dollar seller is legit or not. More details in the full article.

Major news cable television network CNN announced today their plans of entering Linden Lab's MMORPG virtual society Second Life in the hope to understand what's making news in the new territory. According to the company, it will also be encouraging Second Life residents to submit reports to its virtual I-Report hub.

Read the full details of this development right after the jump!

In what could be a fitting way to present research and development findings about digital learning toolkits, a research team from the Institute of Digital Learning at the University of Wales, Newport held their forum in a virtual amphitheatre of the popular Second Life. The forum was led by Matt Chilcott through his virtual avatar named Casnewydd Maximus.

Explained Chilcott,

As it replicates real world face-to-face meetings it was a fitting venue for us to explain how we developed our innovative new range of online learning materials which include free interactive games that help people explore topics such as disability, age diversity, racial equality and homelessness.

Chilcott also said that aside from making real-life millionaires through businesses, Second Life by Linden Labs also managed to produce economically successful disabled people, who would otherwise find difficult in achieving the same feat in the real world.

The forum was initiated by the non-profit organization TechSoup.org, who invites real-life various technologists and policy makers to discuss various ways to help out in the charity as well as the non-profit sectors.

Information technology advisory firm Yankee Group recently published a study titled "Wither Second Life?" which outlines how online metaverses such as Linden Lab's Second Life are all about hype and how such communities are lacking on providing an impact to mainstream interactivity.

According to the said study, after peaking back in October 2006, the influx of new SL residents has gone down significantly with current users spending lesser time inside the confines of the game (an average of 12 minutes per month).

Yankee Group said that the "PC-centric" approach of Linden Lab is to blame for this. Yankee Group senior analyst Christopher Collins explained:

The experience must be untethered to meet the needs of the "Anywhere Consumer". Companies that provide remote access - through mobile devices or other means - to their web experience will have a greater impact than PC-centric companies.

It was just reported yesterday that serious competition to Second Life, SceneCaster, is currently in beta testing phase.

Kevin Alderman, the creator of Second Life's highly popular SexGen program sued the virtual character for breaking his program's copy protection and selling unauthorized copies of the SexGen Platinum, a US$ 45 program that equips Second Life avatars with genitalia and lets them perform various sexual acts.

The civil lawsuit was filed in Tampa, Florida as a fitting response to Volkov Catteneo, when the latter said, "What are you going to do? Sue me?" when he was finally confronted about the copyright infringement issue. Alderman of Eros LLC gave his own analysis of Catteneo's behavior.

I guess the mentality is that because you're an avatar ... that you are untouchable. The purpose of this suit is not only to protect our income and our product, but also to show, yes, you can be prosecuted and brought to justice.

Catteneo has claimed that he provided fake personal information upon joining Linden Lab's Second Life. However, Alderman's lawyer Francis X. Taney said that they already know Catteneo's real identity and are verifying it through PayPal account records. "There is a whole lot less anonymity online than people think," Electronic Frontier Foundation's Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann said. He also mentioned that 20,000 people getting sued for downloading music is proof enough that people are not as anonymous as they think they are over the Internet.

Taney has admitted that the involvement of virtual sex made the lawsuit garner a lot of attention, but he explains that Alderman's case holds legal ground, saying that as a software, the SexGen is copyrightable and is grounds for a lawsuit. He also added that, "There is some sizzle. People like to say it's really far out there, but at the end of the day I equate it to basic intellectual property principles."

It seems religious groups continue to take notice of the social interactions provided by Linden Lab's Second Life MMORPG. Just recently, a Jesuit academic has sent out the call to fellow Catholics to start bringing their missionary work to the virtual world.

"It's not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it," said Antonio Spadaro in an article in the Rome-based Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica. "Instead it needs to be understood ... the best way to understand it is to enter it."

Spadaro wrote that while the virtual environment of Second Life is home to a lot of people who seek an escape from the real world, it is also full of those who are looking for something more. Spadaro is optimistic that religious enlightenment is one of these things.

"Deep down, the digital world can be considered, in its way, mission territory," he said. "Second Life is somewhere where the opportunity to meet people and to grow should not be missed, therefore, any initiative that can inspire the residents in a positive way should be considered opportune."