GamePolitics.com posted an amusing article about the ongoing of attorney Jack Thompson’s lawsuits against the Florida Bar. Thompson filed 13 different responses to a single “show cause” order. Judge Adalberto Jordan’s had it. The whole article is too long to repeat here, so just read it on their excellent website. My favorite of it all:

Despite what Mr. Thompson may think, this case is not a war with the world regarding the state of its moral standards (if it is, I clearly do not have jurisdiction). Therefore, he cannot continue to use this case as platform to battle everything in society with which he disagrees.

In which Thompson responded:

The day that Thompson thinks that the federal judiciary is either the repository of morality or an authoritative arbiter of moral standards is the moment that Thompson really does need the mental health examination that The Bar illegally demands.

Jack Thompson is a jackass and a menace to the video games industry, but you gotta admit reading stuff about him is very amusing.

At least for one particular Chinese MMO called King of the World, operated by Shanda. From the WTF department today, they decreed that only actual females can play female characters. All those who wish to play a female character must provide a webcam pic of a girl…

Shanda (Nasdaq: SNDA) subsidiary Aurora Technology has frozen game accounts of male players who chose to play female in-game characters in its in-house developed MMORPG King of the World, reports 17173. Aurora stipulates that only female gamers can play female characters in the game, and it requires gamers who chose female characters to prove their biological sex with a webcam, according to the report.

It’s unclear whether females can play male characters or not, my guess is yes. This comes after skeletons being “covered up” in WoW. I understand there’s cultural differences. Afterall, I am Chinese. But if China wants the respect they want so bad from the western worlds, these kinds of things are exactly the opposite of what they need. Not to mention this is totally moronic and can be worked around so easily (”hey mom, can ya come sit here for a sec”).

Oh, and they recently outlawed reincarnation too.

From the virtual worlds rumors department, Google Operating System, an unofficial Google news blog, reported that Google’s testing something new at ASU:

Arizona State University’s students have the opportunity to test a new product “that will be publicly launched later this year”. The invitation page mentions that the product is developed by “a major Internet company” and there are hints that the application is related to social networking, 3D modeling and video games.

Read the post itself for speculations from the site operator. Personally, I don’t think Google’s trying to creating another Second Life type virtual world. If anything, my guess is it will be a 3D MySpace or Facebook. Google’s business is information. What’s better than to get everyone on Earth to contribute information about themselves, and present them as they are in Google Earth? Then again, no one’s obligated to “show themselves” on Google Earth. Philosophically, this can turn into an additional dimension to the world as we know it.

Areae, headed by Raph Koster, finally released details about the secret virtual world project that they have been working on for a year now. It’s called Metaplace and it reeks of boundless potential. I am extremely excited about it, and at the same time, concerned.

Metaplace is a next-generation virtual worlds platform designed to work the way the Web does. Instead of giant custom clients and huge downloads, Metaplace lets you play the same game on any platform that reads our open client standard. We supply a suite of tools so you can make worlds, and we host servers for you so that anyone can connect and play. And the client could be anywhere on the Web.

Read the rest of this entry »

Virtual Worlds News posted a great article with the BarbieGirls.com developer, Studiocom. I especially liked the way they broke down contents. Viewing content creation tools as toys is an interesting angle to encourage accessibility.

Studiocom breaks content down into four categories. There’s explicit creation like text or images that provides a very direct, open-ended form of communication, and also life-caching, a constant stream of self-reporting with cameras or audio. But more important for Studiocom’s work are the last two: mediated development and relationships.

“In mediated content, you work with existing tools,” said Santos. “You make music through your mixer or you decorate your room. A room is an incredible piece of content. In Coke Studios, we created 17 environments but then users created over 2 million rooms of their own. And the fourth type is content created through relationships. If you think about Facebook, people have profiles, but more important are the connections of who knows who. You filter that by adding friends or groups, but it’s a piece of content that the user never has or creates, but the system has it.”

I am currently on a promotional cross-country car trip for The Lord of the Rings Online. I am actually on vacation on this trip (since I am not on Marketing), but I am doing quite a bit to help out. It’s been fun so far, follow our progress on TwoGuysAndaLOTROCar.com!

It’s no surprise, but, rather a confirmation as to the resurgence of development activities for The Sims Online. The CTO and CVO (Chief Visual Officer) of EA, Glenn Entis, noted that top visuals is not going to be as important as user-created contents. It’s very clear that the corporate direction of EA is enabling user-created contents in all of its titles. TSO is a natural place to revamp and experiment. I for one am glad, since I have been a fan of the franchise for so long. Everything the TSO-E team’s doing seem to be trying to re-connect the content creation community of The Sims, to TSO, which is a fantastic move.

Linden Lab has released an official statement that they will now actively enforce a ban on online gambling activities, in an attempt to be compliance with various gambling laws around the world. It’s a bold move but one I am not sure can be enforced properly. It’s like trying to yank copyrighted materials from YouTube. We will see how it goes.