In-game advertising may tend to be amusing or sometimes even intrusive during play, but we haven't seen the full potential of it yet. Google is reportedly testing "AdSense for Games," an in-game advertising system that involves in-game characters initiating product plugs and other sort of advertisement. More in the full article.

Move over Second Life, there's a new 3D virtual web space in town which is trying to make a name for itself in the online community. SceneCaster is a company that has a created a 3D scene creation application that integrates itself with many other web-based apps and online accounts.

While it isn't a virtual world in the way that Second Life is, SceneCaster will allow users to customize a virtual space for themselves and allow them an easy way to share media files as well as build an online community through its user-friendly interface.

It's definitely easier to access and link your virtual space with SceneCaster's new application since each scene created there is already embedded into a web page.  Also, SceneCaster has tied itself to several big names in the online networks and e-commerce scene.

The application will be integrated with Google's 3D Warehouse, which allows the user access to many 3D images to help customize their web space. SceneCaster has also enabled the incorporation e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon, as well as other networks like Facebook and Flickr.

All in all, while not as fluid as its long-time virtual world counterpart, Second Life can expect some tough competition in the game of 3D virtual communities with what SceneCaster has in store for everyone.

 

Ever been as curious as to how Blizzard's The Warcraft Armory database uses "Relevance"? You may have, since there are times when searching for a World of Warcraft character sometimes yields different search rankings when you decided to search for it again. What changed significantly wasn't the information within the document (although over time, it does); it was the percentage followed by the field "Relevance".

Yahoo! Search has it and so does Google Search. So you can be sure that The Warcraft Armory for World of Warcraft would have it, too. "Relevance" is commonly used as a way to rank potential matches based on your search parameters, such as the exact spelling and arrangement of words in a search phrase for instance.

Then why does an exact character search phrase yield a search list ranking the intended page on number eight - even if it came up as item number one earlier? Because much like Yahoo! or Google, the Armory's Relevance ranking changes over time. This has much to do with other factors that affect the Armory's relevance values.

And going through the Armory's FAQ, you can find that these factors would also affect relevance: the level of the character and the last login time of the character. So expect that two characters of the similar name - yet different realms - would result in one character ranking higher than the other, because the higher ranker logged in two hours ago while the lower ranked character logged in three days ago.

There's always something to do in Myth War Online. After all, IGG always makes it a point to provide its user base with events, activities, and even contests.

True enough, the company just announced the MMO video game's Children's Day Event that should cover the month of June. It should be remembered that Blizzard recently held a similar event for World of Warcraft.

Anyway, here's a quick rundown of what you can expect for Myth War Online's latest event:

• In-game Events:
• Drowcrusher quest (June 1 to June 3): The accumulated times for completing Dragon slain quest of each character per day will be increased by 5 during this period
• Bounty Quest (June 1): We will wipe all Bounty Hunter records at 0:00 Server Time June 1, 2007 and gather the final results at 20:00 Server Time June 1, 2007. Players can do Bounty Hunter during the 20 hours from 0:00 to 20:00. (Reward: Snow Wolf)
• Fourfold Exp for Beating Mobs (0:00 Server Time June 1, 2007-23:59 Server Time June 3, 2007): Players will obtain fourfold Exp after defeating mobs. However, the quest reward will remain the same and also double-exp scroll and tri-exp scroll won't work during this period.
  
• In-game Quiz Contest (June 2 to June 3): GM will appear in game randomly and send a question via Local channel. Then players shall find the GM’s location and answer the question via Local channel. And the one who gives the correct answer in the shortest time via the Local channel near the GM will be the winner.
• Item Mall Events:
• Double Credit Points Given for Buying Item Mall Points (June 1 and the end time will be notified later): We have provided Google Checkout payment method before June 1. And we will give the player extra Integral Points(Fortune bombing points) who buys Item Mall Points via Google Checkout after June 1.
• New Stuff in Item Mall (June 1 to June 10): Our item mall will release 2 new items—Chocolate and Cryolite due to players' suggestion. The new stuff will be on sale for 10 days.

Please refer to our read link below for further details. Clicking on it should take you to IGG's official events page.

 

Okay, this may cause some alarmists to scream "Big Brother!" so before all the speculation, here are the known details - just so all you privacy advocates can relax a bit.

Google has filed a patent that reveals that they plan to compile psychological profiles of millions of gamers by covertly monitoring the way they play online games. Now you may think that this only concerns folks who play MMOs on their PCs, however, the patent apparently says that Google can also monitor people playing on any game console that hooks up to the internet, including the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft Xbox 360.

What's even more hair-raising is that it says that information could be retrieved from previous game details saved on memory cards. To quote: "Such saved information may be thought of state information, and offers a valuable source of information to the advertisers." Yes, if you've played 350 hours of Oblivion, they'll know. Yep, the patent is that creepy; it even says:

In a car racing game, after a user crashes his Honda Civic, an announcer could be used to advertise by saying 'if he had a Hummer, he would have gotten the better of that altercation', etc... If the user has been playing for over two hours continuously, the system may display ads for Pizza Hut, Coke, coffee.

Now here's why we're asking all those privacy advocates to calm down and not cry foul. Google has said that they do not plan to roll out the technology in the near future. They say that it was just one of the patents that they wanted to file. The Guardian reports that a Google spokesman had this to say: "Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them."

So no, Big Brother, er, I mean, Google isn't watching you. Not yet. *insert cheesy B-movie sci-fi music* It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

At Daily Gaming News, we found something thoroughly amusing - and what's more amusing? Some people actually believed it to be true. Well, the premise is pretty real and the subject absolutely hilarious.

Poster Andrew tells about a World of Warcraft gamer named John Harrison who was devastated when he discovered that his long time WoW girlfriend (Chelxai) was actually a dude. The relationship apparently blossomed at Elwynn Forest and spanned over a long period of time. (This writer found it really funny, though we discussed this kind of thing as irksome when you happen to be a real girl gamer.) Anyway, as the story goes, the guild officers knew about the Chelxai's gender and kept that amazing piece of info to themselves.

The masquerader even got the poor Harrison pay for his subscriptions and send a video cam and microphone. Well, good thing it's fake (we couldn't help checking Google and the Armory, even when the writer said that it was fake) or the poor John Harrison would be the laughing stock of eight million or so other Blizzard subscribers. Anyway, let this serve as a lesson to all online players around - there are girl gamers around but please know how to distinguish them before you go into a relationship.

Jeffrey Steefel, the executive producer of Turbine's upcoming MMORPG epic The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, has a pretty lofty goal in mind for the game. In an interview with SPOnG, Steefel revealed that Turbine's intention with the game is to "expand the whole social experience of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar onto the web."

The in-game map system used in LotRO has been likened by some people to Google Maps. Steefel said that this is all a part of the whole "web expansion" plans Turbine has in mind for LotRO. "Part of [expanding the game's whole social experience] is giving you access to interactive maps, giving you access to a full compendium of Tolkien-knowledge that’s tied into those maps."

This compendium of knowledge (kind of a built-in Tolkien Wiki) can also lead to building social networks within the game. "Imagine that you are roaming around the world and you click a button and it opens up this interactive encyclopedia... and there's hyperlinks inside that to tell you all about characters you're meeting, what's happening in the locality and so on and so forth. From this we can get blogs, player profiles... all this kind of stuff."

So a kind of MySpace with a Tolkien flavor? Sounds pretty cool. The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar is currently slated for an April 24 release in the U.S. For the full interview, click on the "Read" link below.

PC World, a global computer magazine, has recently named some of the most influential people on the internet. Net heads, here's the top five of a list of those persons who move and shake the internet; we've arranged them from the fifth to the first for emphasis.

5. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia - Admit it:  whatever piece of information that you get/cite, trivial or otherwise, often  comes from Wikipedia. It's even been cited in more than 100 US court decisions since
2004.

 4. Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard Entertainment - Some say that there are only two MMO's: WoW, and everything else. Eight million people (and still counting) plus a chance to obtain the Blade of Eternal Justice put this guy at number 4.

3. Bram Cohen, Co founder of BitTorrent - This math and programming whiz kid put up BitTorrent, a way to download large files (like movies) by sharing the burden across hardware and bandwidth.

2. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple -  DRM-free music and internet browsing through iPhone puts him on top - again.

1. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, Executives of Google - The most trafficked site on the internet is bound to influence internet users the most.

 

After having recently announced his community-driven MMO, Dave Perry, the former Shiny Entertainment boss, has announced that he has another project for the developer community. Develop Magazine reports that over at the Game Developers Conference 2007 Dave Perry has invited everyone in the games industry to submit markers to the Google Maps powered Gameindustrymap.com.

Just so you aren't left clueless, Game Industry Map is a wiki-style Map of  of the videogame industry. The map is set to include studios, colleges, outsourcing companies, freelancers, publishers, and even the gaming press. Perry calls this self-funded project a "gift to the industry." Perry had this to say about the community-powered endeavor:

This site picks up on two fast-growing trends – community and user generated content – the videogame industry is still relatively young and we already have a great community spirit which we hope to nurture for the benefit of industry as a whole. Plus we get to show the rest of the world just how widespread we are, employing creative talent all over the planet.

The result is that it immediately becomes the most accurate information available in the world, it will grow daily, and it’s shared to all. We expect to see everyone using it, job hunters, press, gamers, college students, investors, even agencies that would like to see just how prolific this industry is.

...As the Internet has proved, businesses grow when you connect people, and my goal is to simply help drive that growth. I’m not looking for any donations, not looking for any sponsorship, I am looking for teams (especially new ones) to just put themselves on the map.

The project currently has a team that has put up the first 1,000 markers. It is expected that the community itself will eventually fill in the blanks.

Ah, if only the user-generated, homebrew-ed world of those entrenched in web 2.0 could spread to the rest of the world. If only.

Anyhow, feel free to fill Perry's map in yourself if you wish. Our read-link below should lead to the the map. It's important to note that the thing is free and it's still in beta.

Voice changing software are fun to use sometimes, especially since the person you're talking doesn't see you. If the person you're talking to is also using a voice changer is beside the point.

Screaming Bee LLC has announced that its free voice changing software, MorphVOX Junior works with Microsoft Vista. It's a free Windows tool that morphs voices into a setting of choice. MorphVOX Junior features three fixed voices (man, woman, tiny people), four sound effects, easy to use controls, "enabled to broadcast" sound effects, and works well with Vista. There's also a built in Voice Doctor that analyzes the input speech and adjusts the output.

Gamers would find the push to talk function and key mapping very useful as it is relatively easy to use. Additional sound effects, voices, and after effects can be added by upgrading to MorphVOX Classic (US .95) or Pro (US .95). The latest version of Junior also has improved sound quality and allows for easy control over a microphone and recording source.

This software can be used both for chat programs like Xfire, TeamSpeak, Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Messenger, Roger Wilco and Ventrilo, and online games like World of Warcraft, EVE Online, EverQuest 2, Guild Wars, and Counter Strike.

So how about changing your foxy female Blood Elf voice into a guy's?