Archive for October, 2007

While waiting in vain for my alpha testing account to be approved I read this post describing how Metaplace works. If Raph Koster and his team pull this off as well as I suspect they will I think it’s likely that Metaplace will spawn uncountable new MMOs, authored by everyone from kids to media agencies to seniors, for everything from pure fun to pure marketing to pure us-versus-them propaganda.

Like every technology that’s been democratized before this - film, video and music production, desktop publishing and graphics, animation and web development, open source software - there’s going to be flood of new content and a huge range of quality at first, and not a few “I told you so’s” about misguided efforts. But like the other technology that’s been opened to the public before, the move to user-built MMO is sure to reveal new artists and some wild rides. I can hardly wait.

In one sentence on Apple’s Hot News blog yesterday Steve Jobs changed (some of) everything: “Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February.” Yup, Apple is cracking open the iPhone so developers will be able to write new iPhone applications. The Times and just about everyone else picked up the story if you want details, but Job’s single sentence told me what I need to know.

If you recall from the run-up to the iPhone’s release several months ago, the computer lurking inside was theoretically (until now) capable of doing a lot more than making calls or playing mp3 and video files. Finally we’ll get a chance to see what it can do, where it can take us, and the implications for business, education and just plain fun are enormous. Think lighter briefcases, desktop apps in your pocket, one hand-held per child, MMOGs and virtual worlds that you can take with you… Let the development begin!

Virtual worlds and MMOGs are taking another step closer to meatspace — the real world — with the growth of in-game and cross-game economies.

Recently I read Julian Dibble’s book Play Money about “quitting his day job to trade virtual loot” as a gold farmer in the commercial metaverse — Ultima Online, World of Warcraft et al. Besides a good read, Play Money makes it abundantly clear that the virtual economy will be nearly identical to the real one and that it is growing apace with the explosion of new online realms.

That point was driven home when I was solicited by a startup seeking to build a cross-game currency exchange to facilitate trading the currency of one virtual word for that of another. Think WoW “gold” for Second Life “Lindens” or Whyvillian “clams” and you get the idea. But where Dibble had to skulk about to buy and sell his gold, in the model envisioned by this startup and others, like the recently organized PlaySpan, you’d use a secondary web service to buy, sell and trade between MMOGs and virtual worlds.

Another take on the virtual economy came in a press release from Whyville.net about an in-world banking service sponsored by Bankinter. After only a week of operation, Whyville’s users have already elected to deposit more than 100,000,000 clams (Whyville’s virtual currency) into the virtual bank. 90,000,000 clams have been deposited in certificates of deposit (CDs), while 21,000,000 have been deposited in interest bearing savings accounts — totaling more than 25% of all the clams in circulation. Users visit the bank or use a virtual ATM to monitor and manage their accounts, and in the process learn how to use these basic financial instruments, providing valuable real-world lessons to all the hard-working Whyvillians.

Whether it’s cross-game trading or in-world banking, virtual economies are inevitable because they serve real world needs of players. And while it’s too soon to tell if publishers will cooperate or try to block these efforts, they signal a new level of verisimilitude offering opportunities for entrepreneurs and players, and for smart parents and teachers who can use these simulations to help kids understand real world economics. Who said video games weren’t good for you?

Leading the Red Herring’s top articles this morning is a story about a new service called Zipidee that’s a paradigm shift in the sale of digital content, particularly for independently produced digital media and long-tail products from the majors:

“A startup coming out of stealth mode is hoping to upend the market for digital products in the same way eBay did for all types of physical products. Expected to launch in the next week or so, San Francisco-based Zipidee will let companies sell videos, music tracks, ebooks, mobile ringtones, software, games, and podcasts through its online marketplace. The idea is to allow small to medium sized companies—and individuals—to set up “stores” much like they can already do on eBay, but merchandise on Zipidee will be limited to digital goods. But unlike eBay’s auction system for physical goods, digital download prices on Zipidee will be fixed by the seller, much in the way that Apple’s iTunes store set prices for digital music tracks” (story continues here).

Indie distributors like CD Baby and Manifesto Games as well as stock footage site Pond5 have tried similar gambits in music, games and video respectively, but this new play purports to offer these digital form factors and more all in one place. Thought the comments following the Red Herring post discuss some of the potential downsides - pricing model, DRM issues et al. - as a long-time indie producer I’m loving the idea of being able to sell to my customers directly. In fact way back in the last century I had an idea the Internet would make this kind of 1:1 relationship possible, so I’m looking forward to seeing what Zipidee brings to market. Stay tuned.

The Sunday New York Times ran a provocative article this weekend called Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church about how some churches holding “Halo nights” to lure teens boys and young men back to the fold. From my life and travels beyond the confines of the Hudson and East rivers, I know that churches, temples and fraternal organizations have raised money by sponsoring “Bingo night” for years. And from my study of games and education, I know that progressive teachers have found that commercial off the shelf games (COTS) can be powerful learning tools. But playing Halo 3… in church? It’s not that I have a problem mixing the sacred and profane, but my brain began a Linda Blair spin when I read the headline on this story.

NYT reporter Matt Richtel writes, “The alliance of popular culture and evangelism is challenging churches much as bingo games did in the 1960s. And the question fits into a rich debate about how far churches should go to reach young people. Far from being defensive, church leaders who support Halo — despite its “thou shalt kill” credo — celebrate it as a modern and sometimes singularly effective tool. It is crucial, they say, to reach the elusive audience of boys and young men. Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church” (article continues here).

Once I settled into the story and got beyond the mind-warp of kids playing Halo 3 under church auspices, I realized it makes sense. Adolescent boys are at a developmental stage where exploring their role in the world is essential to growth. Considered in that context, regressive behavior is appropriate and experiencing the consequences of ones actions - real or virtual - is one of the most powerful learning tools of all.

Looking back at my own adolescence - I’ll spare you the details - I can see how true this was for me. As academics and authors including James Gee (What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy), Mark Prensky (Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning) and Steven Johnson (Everything Bad is Good For You) have observed, parents and educators knee-jerk reaction that “video games are bad” are well advised to look beyond the surface gloss - or gore - of these products to what underlying lessons can be learned from playing them. The answers are surprising.

After this post I may have to give up on reporting all the new virtual worlds - they’re popping up like so many wack-a-mole rodents and the day’s just not long enough to track ‘em all. But before this meme goes dark I can report on two PaidContent.com posts relevant to the convergence of virtual worlds and social media.

Turner Goes Deeper into Virtual Worlds reports the soon-to-be-announced deal between the Turner division of TimeWarner and Atlanta-based Kaneva. Kaneva has developed a multiplayer online gaming platform that makes it easy to mash up all the good stuff: virtual worlds and user generated content, social networks and video. Though it’s only available for Windows XP and Vista at present, the PaidContent post reports they have deep pockets so that may change in time: “Kaneva co-founder and CEO Christopher Klaus should have plenty of money to self-fund—he founded Internet Security Systems (ISS) in 1994 and sold it to IBM for more than $1 billion. Kaneva co-founder Greg Frame was founder of IndigoOlive Software, Inc. In beta, Kaneva is trying for a mix of ad support, premium membership and virtual good sales.”

The other PaidContent post announcing Warner Bros. T-Works To Offer Online Video, Gaming, Virtual World Featuring Cartoon Icons only describes a content play at this point and the more detailed BusinessWire news release offers no platform or tech specs. Still, hold your finger in the air and once you get past the hype (”new studio uber-brand”) it sounds remarkably similar to Turner’s gambit with Kaneva. I’ll pass on the uber-hype but will be following this one too, if only for the chance to mash up Bug’s Bunny ‘toons with my videos.

We’ve all read the screaming headlines that top the news cycle every few months, “Videogamer Drops Dead,” and had to decide whether to answer or ignore another round of questioning from non-playing friends/colleagues. Gamers have a tougher decision to make every night; for married gamers the decision is even more difficult: Should I go to bed or should I keep playing? This jem of a decision flow chart from BBspot should help you make the right choice (click to enlarge).

Everywhere you look there’s another virtual world or game site coming to life. Today’s installments are Planet Cazmo, a new music themed virtual world from western-Massachusetts based Pileated Pictures, and YoYoGames from the UK.

Though Planet Cazmo is not yet open to the public I stumbled across the registration screen, signed up and logged right in without a hitch. There’s nobody in-world besides the random NPC just yet but the overall look and feel is very cool. Highly customizable avatar, good tunes and a fairly extensive virtual world from what I can see. Overall it’s also edgier and, though also browser based, manages to pump out a much larger screen area than Penquin or Habbo or Whyville. From the looks of it’s ready for action as soon as a few sponsors sign on. You can read more in this press release posted on VTOR earlier this year or go to the PlanetCazmo site to register for the Beta release.

YoYoGames promotes itself as the site “Where the world comes to play, make and share online casual games.” Though still in Beta, it’s obvious that YoYoGames has been around a good while longer, offering visitors a library of virtual parts, a wiki, forums and the underlying GameMaker engine which you can download from the site. Not at all unlike what Roblox and Scratch want to be when they grow up, but much further down the road. Let the games continue!