Last night I went to a fashion show in Second Life. The ‘What not to Rez’ night was the in-world social event on the Emerge Island, and an extension of some of the work going on related to digital identities by the JISC-Emerge community.

It was an opportunity for everyone to show off their lovely avatars - a fun event to explore and showcase virtual creation. StevenW Bohm (aka Steve Warburton of King’s College London) invited me, and I have to say, left me feeling distinctly under-dressed! (see picture below left)

After a delayed start, the fashion show got underway with some very extravagant outfits, as one by one, the models took to the stage showing off their customized avatars. There was one awkward moment that went like this:

Josie Oh: Jiz! You are looking good - going on the catwalk tonight?
You: haha no not me
Josie Oh: aw, ok

The drink of the evening was MaiTai Tropical Drink, a rather fruity cocktail served with an umbrella! After working the room, so to speak, I recognised a few avatars I’ve met before – some doing some interesting work in SL, in particular, Kisa Naumova (Leeds Metropolitan University) and Wess Wexler (Loughborough University).

Overall a fantastic evening and a chance to let your digital hair down and network with others involved in immersive environments and Second Life. If you would like to see a few more images of the even, please visit my Gallery Page.

Just a quick post to share a little fun, today I have been flooded with fun, gaming April fools pranks and I wanted to share the best two with you all.

Legend of Zelda Movie trailer!!!!! WORLD PREMIERE!!!!!

Thomas Higgins a Zelda fanatic brought this to my attention; there isn’t much in the Zelda genre that doesn’t slip through his net.

It looks pretty good and I would defiantly pay to watch it  shame it’s a spoof; maybe someone will take note at the serious number of hits and actually make it. Finally if you have time check out the Zelda Retrospective parts 1-5 on youtube, it gives a fascinating overview of the Zelda series and what might be install for Link and Hyrule in future titles.

World of Warcraft, The MoltenCore

World of warcraft has finally made it to consoles!!

Just to re-cap here are a few of the delights awaiting console players:

• 10 Bosses with 6 unique models
• Move in 8 unique directions
• Lush 2D environments
• Glorious 192i Resolution
• Finally ready for it, another major selling point… with sound!

Another fantastic Spoof! The website is well thought-out and extremely playful, worth a look, Click Here

Today was the launch of the Twofour Learning blog, click here. The blog aims to keep an informal eye on the education sector, documenting the thoughts, concerns and ideas of Twofour’s Learning Team.

I will be one of the contributing bloggers to the blog, documenting my travels through the metaverse. But don’t worry if you miss my posts there I will also be documenting my thoughts here.

I saw this post over at massively, and I thought i’d put a few random thoughts together and blog it!

I very much come from a very different background, originally a Digital Arts student I have also been playing computer games since my first Amega. I can totally see the addictive element of MMORPG technologies and virtual environments in general.

I would be the first to hold up my hand up and say I was addicted to playing World of Warcraft for a total of two years. For two main reasons; player experience, Blizzard have managed to capture and understand why people are draw to play these games (player motivations), coupled with seamless graphics and complete game play smoothness, you are never reminded that you are in a virtual world. So you can easily get immersed in the technology. Hence the very long nights and mind set of wanting to hand in “just one more quest”.

However these games also present something else; social obligation, when I did get more and more immersed in Wow I found my “in-game friends” would worry if I wasn’t online at a particular time. Also to push your progress in a community or guild you “had” to be online to participate in events and what is know as end game instances (going to dungeons) to improve your equipment and gain experience.

In regards to Second Life, it has the social aspects granted, but you’re always re-minded of being in a virtual environment with lag, constantly greyed out graphics and lack of smoothness. This all comes from “what second life is and does” the content is ever changing and has to be re-loaded constantly because its all user created and not predetermined or pre-rendered graphics. (This isn’t a negative; it’s in fact a huge benefit).

In the future I do feel UK legislation needs to follow suit to many Eastern and now European countries, with the introduction of game addiction clinics. Understanding is needed of the technology and behaviour of players in this now “digital society”.

I know this doesn’t detail all the reasons for gaming addiction but feel free to have your say!

On 6 September 2007 the PM Gordon Brown asked Dr Tanya Byron to conduct an independent review, looking at the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games.

Ok I understand that the internet is a big scary place. Parents might not know how to educate or protect their children online (etc). We do need to work out how to educate and protect them. But in-regards to computer games, I don’t feel naivety is an excuse. Adult games are labeled 18+ for a reason. These games are inappropriate for under 18’s. The games industries target market is progressively getting older, I think it was estimated at the average gamer being between 26-34 years old, don’t quote me, but its around that! Parents need to understand if a game is rated at 18 there is a good reason why, that the game contains themes of a strong violent or sexual nature. I suspect that parents don’t acknowledge this when buying games for their children. If the Byron review helps improve or educate parents about this, that would be fantastic.

I have a funny anecdote relating to this…

Back in the day, when I was about 13 I purchased the original “Resident Evil” or RS1 (15 rating) for the PS1 without my mum knowing via the “for sale section” of the local paper… Well I got busted playing it, at 10pm on a school night lol

My mum walked in just as the very first in-game cut scene occurred, remember, the zombie looks up from chowing down on a fellow STAR’s member, gripping stuff, I was scared out of my skin!!! Nightmares for several days after!

Well regardless, my mum forced me to take the game back and I didn’t play RS1 again until I was about 16 years old, precious gaming time lost there! haha

Well on a serious note, I think my mum was right, I’m kind of glad she took an interest and forced me to take it back, it was inappropriate and I was under the 15 age rating.

Another time (when I was 16) I tried to buy “Duke Nukem 3D” (18+ game) I went to every shop I could imagine in Plymouth, with no luck, every time I heard the words “have you got any ID”. Alas the system does work! Or are the parents buying 18+ games for their children?!

The review is currently on going until the end of March, but there are already growing concerns from the gaming industry and general internet chatter, that this will be used in many ways:

• Used as political propaganda to counter knife crime in the UK
• Introduce a BBFC rating system on all games, not just games of an extreme sexual or violent nature
• Re-solidify the stereo-typical view of the pail white gamer of 13 years, we are actually mid-twenties to mid-thirties now, we’ve grown up. Still pail tho…
• Even give MP’s the power to out right ban games completely, Manhunt 2 has recently been banned by the BBFC, I do believe!

My personal belief… I’m unsure, I’m eager to see this review, and see how it gets used. To educate parents on how to protect their children online isn’t a bad thing. I just hope it’s not used as a “cheap below the belt” shot at the games industry.

Just for the record these are my own personal views not my employers!

Check out some other articles on the subject here;

www.rockpapershotgun.com

www.gamepolitics.com

www.chewingpixels.com

The clever chaps responsible for the Havok physics engine for Second Life and many other games. Were showing off this cool little tool at the recent GDC (Games Developer Conference) last week… Simulation of the movement of cloth, i can’t think of a better word, but slick! Completely Slick!

Early November last year LL (Linden Labs) released its WindLight First Look Second Life client; it incorporates the technology Linden Lab acquired when it took over Windward Mark Interactive in May 2007.

Well last week I got 5 minutes away from my typical pleasures at work to test it, I ignored the warnings regarding using a “alt” with the usual scariness about losing your linden dollar balance, inventory and your dog! But I’m a Husky?! Epp, cough, err, I’m a human, oh, err, never mind… Anyway well I just didn’t have time to register a new account! (I do advise you do this if you plan to test it though).

So what’s the difference?!

• Firstly, the new system makes more extensive use of vertex and pixel shaders. This has considerably improved the lighting model throughout SL.
• Water effects are just amazing. You really have to see it to believe it!
• The new skies are also amazing; again you really need to see it in action, to believe it!

• Completely alterable day/night, altering the complete atmosphere (looks unbelievable in comparison to the standard SL). In future versions, we have been told that sim-owners will be able to set preferences to fit the mood of their places. How cool!
• Shininess looks real and object-glow, amazing!
• There are a phenomenal number of settings to tweak, enabled, disabled or tuned individually. Making it look pretty good on most hardware setups.
• Improved User-interface, I found it, a lot simpler, i took to it, like a duck to water. I was impressed.

In the final analysis, Windlight is, well, um stunning!

You can get the Windlight First Look viewer here for Mac, Linux and Windows.

First Look viewers contain major feature previews, but run against your live account on the main grid (Agni) rather than on the beta-test grid (Aditi). The new viewers get a much more solid workout on the Agni grid, but there’s always the risk as mentioned that it could eat your Linden Dollar balance, your inventory and your dog…err… Husky!

These little fellows are looking unbelievably cool and so cute! You must watch these videos! Currently not realised yet for BETA testing, but i look forward to their UK release, including Playstation’s Sony Home this year!

Little Big Planet is a child friendly game where you can choose everything from what to wear to what to do. The figures are unbelievable movable, using the controllers analogy sticks, powerful physics engine and perfectly hi-def rendered real world graphics. The PS3 processor is able to calculate everything in real time!

It seems to have an unbelievable amount of learning potential for young players and old alike, I was fascinated by the videos. A little interesting fact for you all, 80% of school-aged children own a games console (well ok granted not a PS3, but still what a great way for informal learning).

This game really grows with you, as the better you become the more you can contribute. Build your own areas, create your own designs, anything is possible with teamwork! No longer “user driven content” but now “communal creativity” in “gaming 3.0″… I can dig the lingo! I tip my hat at you Sony, good show, sir!

I’m delighted to announce I will be a guest author during the month of February on TerraNova with several posts on there way.

Last night my introduction post on Terranova finally went out… Click Here

Terranova is a highly regarded academic blog for Massively Multiplayer Online Environments with many renowned contributing authors! I’m extremely excited about this opportunity and I look forward to some lively debate!