Jun 29th, 2007 by Gary
Electronic Arts and Endemol announced a creative partnership on 16 April 2007 to build an online community called Virtual Me. VM will debut in Endemol’s TV show, Big Brother. Participants can compete in virtual versions of Endemol’s television talent shows and other Endemol TV offerings using “cutting edge avatars.”
Jun 29th, 2007 by Gary
A one day conference titled, Virtual Goods Summit 2007, was held at Stanford on 22 June 2007 devoted to Virtual Goods. Topics included virtual goods and currencies, users, nurturing virtual economies, impact on social networking and more.
Susan Wu, a co-producer of the conference, wrote a nice guest post on Tech Crunch titled Virtual Goods: the Next Business Model on 20 June 2007 in advance of the Summit.
Jun 28th, 2007 by Gary
On 4 April 2007, David de Rothschild of Adventure Ecology, a London based environmental group, and a National Geographic Society emerging explorer, in coordination with several other territory owners raised water levels in Second Life to simulate global warming. Ogilvy, a London ad agency, and Anshe Chung, the largest real estate developer in Second Life, were also involved.
Adventure Ecology had avatars explaining what was happening and how to prevent similar occurrences in the real world. Several avatars were confused at first, but they soon started helping one another onto roofs or getting into boats and getting on with their daily lives.
In addition to pointing out “real life” global warming issues, the event was also intended to point out the contribution “virtual life” is making to “real life” global warming. For example, the computer equipment needed to power a person’s avatar in Second Life consumes as much “real energy” as the average “real world” Brazilian. People were encouraged to “offset” their “real world” emissions of their avatars.
See National Geographic’s 4 April 2007 coverage of the virtual disaster for more information.
We also webmaster Boat Carbon Footprint which teaches “real” boaters how to reduce and offset their emissions. Its interesting to see our real and virtual efforts coming together.
Jun 28th, 2007 by Gary
The Telegraph, a United Kingdom daily paper, reports on deviant behaviors surfacing in Second Life and other virtual communities, in its 2 June 2007 article, Trouble in Online Paradise . Problems include players posing as minors to sell virtual sex, gather in virtual riots, virtually assault one another, human avatars having sex with virtual animals, and “real life” Chinese sweatshops playing 24 hours a day as “gold farmers” in World of Warcraft where they earn credits that can be sold for real cash to Westerners who don’t want to spend the time to earn the credits or tools.
Some people have even been killed in real life for their virtual actions. The Telegraph article reports 41 year old Qiu Chengwei of Shanghai stabbed Zhu Caoyuan several times in the chest after he was told Zhu had stolen his “dragon sabre” used in Legend of Mir 3. The sword sells for about 430 British pounds, but required a tremendous amount of energy and time to acquire. Qiu actually reported the theft to “real” police but was told they “could not investigate the loss of virtual property”.
The Telegraph article goes on to report last month (May 2007) German prosecutors launched an investigation into players who “were buying and selling sex with underage avatars.”
Way back in 1997 we noted this trend when we tried to identify Recent Developments and Trends in Keychain Virtual Pets. Our 16th trend was Pets From the “Seedier Side” and noted the Tamahonam Gangster Pet, and how the initial Rikou Rikou Chan if not properly cared for drank beer, smoked cigarettes, and stabbed people. Since then several more seedier pets have appeared including a Charles Manson Tamagotchi.
Most virtual pets and virtual communities start with good intentions, but when traffic gets mainstream and heavy, the seedier side begins to show up in the dark corners and prey on others, just like in real life.
Jun 28th, 2007 by Gary
Per Video Game Generation, Namco Bandai began shipping Tamagotchi Party On! for Nintendo’s Wii platform on 29 May 2007. The game features a presidential election, Rock Paper Scissors and other games taking advantage the Wii’s motion features.
Jun 28th, 2007 by Gary
A 28 June 2007 Bandai press release reports three Tamagotchi characters (Mametchi, Memetchi, and Kuchipatchi) are out interviewing for jobs this summer as they travel around the country to baseball stadiums, zoos, theme parks and other public places. (Think dressed up mascots traveling in a Tamagotchi van, maybe more than one set of them, like Ronald McDonald).
Bandai is trying to keep the heat on the brand as things have slowed a bit and Webkins seems to be getting all the press.
Jun 28th, 2007 by Gary
On 1 June 2007 Reuters reported from Tokyo an animated film is planned for release this December featuring several Tamagotchi characters befriending a human girl that shows up at their home.
The movie will be distributed by Toho Co.
Jun 28th, 2007 by Gary
We will be briefly covering each of the latest developments in virtual pets here while we continue to post larger articles and studies on our Virtual Pet Home Page
We also welcome any comments or suggestions you may have for our Virtual Pets Blog.
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