Virtual Worlds

Warcraft ‘bot’

Warcraft ‘bot’

Nice “News from the Future” from BBC, a legal battle over a Warcraft ‘bot’. It will be interesting to read the verdict! The makers of World of Warcraft are locked in a legal battle with a firm that has produced a tool to automate many actions in the virtual world. Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly, […]

The Future of Credit Cards – Earning virtual currency for spending in the real world & other world bridging

The Future of Credit Cards – Earning virtual currency for spending in the real world & other world bridging

Very soon, credit card companies and game makers will reward their customers who spend money in the real world using private label “rewards” credit cards. They will use gifts of virtual currency such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft gold and Second Life’s Linden dollars. A special “News from the Future” from MAKE:Virtual. We’re a nation […]

Web browser mapped on 3D objects…

Web browser mapped on 3D objects…

Img413 16 uBrowser is an simple Web Browser that illustrates one way of embedding the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine into a standalone application using LibXUL. In this case, the contents of the page is grabbed as it’s being rendered and displayed as a texture on some geometry using OpenGL. You are able to interact with the page (mostly) normally and visit (almost) any site that works correctly with Firefox 1.5. Translation: Expect to see browser like Firefox in every virtual world really soon. [via] Link. I took a few screenshots, check’em out!

Lessig in virtual world (photos and transcript)…

Lessig in virtual world (photos and transcript)…

88414088 B9E3Ab29E9 TAlan Martin reports from last night’s virtual world event – “On January 18, 2006, Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, known for his work on Creative Commons and intellectual property rights in general, joined Lindens and residents alike in the world of Second Life for a discussion on what turned out to be a very wide range of topics. Professor Lessig talked about the future of SL, and how we must be careful not to take the path of overly restrictive IP rights. He even offered to consult with Linden Lab in the future on these matters, and said he would look into getting some members of congress to speak in SL as well. The event proceeded into a long string of questions from the audience, during which many interesting topics were brought up, many relating to SL and RL IP rights (and what distinction we can make between the two). Finally, the event ended with a Free Culture book signing featuring lines of patient residents waiting to get their autographed copies from virtual Lessig himself.”