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The Archives
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10.26.07Theory of Property and Rights in Virtual WorldsA while back I wrote a lengthy piece on the concept of property, avatar rights to property, and what we mean when we, as users, get in a "huff" about the latest shift in the winds by the Lindens. At "In the Near Future" the writer agreed to my philosophy but also argued that platform providers would always be motivated by profit. I had summarized Benkler in saying: “The question of “who should own this spoon” should be understood as a question about what we want the social relations using the platform to be like.” And then had argued that there was a benefit ...
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10.02.07Virtual vs Artificial Property in Virtual/Synthetic Worlds, (and what to do with real houses on artificial lakes)I've only been here a few weeks, blogging away, and have only been in virtual worlds a few months - I admit it, I'm a newbie. So I've been back-tracking a bit and reading through past posts such as a thoughtful post by Nobody Fugazi on the value and definition of "property" (as in real estate) in virtual worlds. Nobody observes that if we swap out the word virtual for artificial, we might not get so easily confused by notions of "property". We tend to think real estate, tangible items, a closet full of frito lays. If I was to talk ...
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10.01.07Virtual Constitution and the Rights of AvatarsA little round-up on a subject I find to be of great interest - namely, the rights of avatars, whether avatars have rights, and the intersection of those rights with those of 'game developers' or platform hosts. As time permits I'll dig into this a bit deeper, for now a few links: Metaverse Constitution Declaration of the Rights of Avatars
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09.30.07Hey buddy, wanna buy a planet?I had missed this previous post but thought I'd try to do some catch-up on Entropia. Entropia Universe, the leading virtual worlds platform for interactive entertainment, community building and e-commerce using a real cash economy, boasts the Most Valuable Virtual Items and Real Estate of all the virtual worlds. The new 2008 Guinness World Records book features Club NEVERDIE, an asteroid space resort bought for $100,000 USD by famous gamer Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs as "The Most Expensive Virtual Object." The asteroid space resort which boasts a nightclub, shopping mall, 1000 apartment complexes, commercial space ship docking, mega sports stadium, and hunting ...
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09.26.07Google/Second Life Merger and a Life of SpeculationHot on the heels of a cover article on "How Second Life and Google Earth are Merging into One Metaverse" (password required) in the MIT Technology Review, a series of rumours that, well, Second Life and Google... Continue Reading...
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