I took a ‘break’ in over fifty worlds comprising the current metaverse, here is the holiday video…

I ventured into fifty of them to review and sample the culture, creative, business and educational potential. On my travels I got out my virtual camera and decided to capture a bunch of small vignettes which quickly turned into a body of audio visual delights - so decided to create a nice seven minute video for posterity.

With over 300 million frequenting or registering for the non-game based worlds and millions of new investment in 2nd and 3rd generation services there seems to be no stopping them…Enjoy

75MB MP4 Download available at http://www.justvirtual.com/SVWS_2008.mp4

Here is a list of the worlds featured in my video in order of appearance:

• Kaneva
• YoVille (in Facebook)
• RocketOn
• Prototerra
• Gaia Online
• HiPiHi
• Google Lively
• Habbo Hotel
• Laguna Beach (vMTV)
• Whyville
• Twinity
• Cyworld
• Football Superstars
• Weblin
• IMVU
• Second Life
• Club Penguin
• Active Worlds
• vSide
• A Tale in the Desert
• Barbie Online
• Amazing Worlds
• Webkinz
• Worlds.com
• Spore
• Exit Reality
• and 15 others including SpineWorld, Stardoll, The Manor, There.com, Vastpark, Qwaq, PS3Home, GoSupermodel, Grockit, Croquet, Metaplace, Coke Studios, Dreamville, Dubit, Mokitown, Moove, Muse, The Palace, Playdo, Sora City, Voodoo Chat, TowerChat, Traveler, Virtual Ibiza

Video details:

The ‘Social Virtual’ World’s A Stage
A Film by Gary Hayes © Personalizemedia 2008
http://www.personalizemedia.com

“This is not a Game” - Music composed and performed by
Gary Hayes http://www.cubrisound.com

Categories: Bio World, Games, Identity, Inhabitants, Population, Second Life, Travel, Virtual Tourism, Virtual Worlds
No Comments »

In the course of my work (educational, creative and commercial) it is often useful to know the proximity of islands to each other on the greater grid. A cool full grid map was recently uploaded onto Wikipedia by SignpostMarv Martin and although some of the far right part is cut-off affecting a few sims, I found and labelled the following Oz Islands - The Pond, ABC, Cog, AFTRS, USQ, Marni, Riverina, Monash, Victoria Univ, Murdoch, Deakin, QUT, Griffith, Terra Incognita, Jokaydia, La Trobe Univ, RMIT, Regor (Aussie Land), Australia and NMC (US edus). Also note this is only about half of the full grid - there is an equivalent area to the left of this map but as no Oz islands were there, crop, crop

You obviously can’t read the labels on the map below, clicking will take you to the high rez version. Enjoy. Oh and if I have missed an Australian sim (or related to) please add in comments and I will update if I get at least 5!

Modified map is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Although the distance between, or proximity to fellow inhabitants doesn’t really affect you operationally in Second Life it is nice to be able to just call up the map and in one quick hop, double click a neighbour’s sim to ‘pop over’, feels all communal and friendly. I tp all over the grid and meet anyone and everyone but it is nice to be back in Marni on a Sunday morning and just pop over to AFTRS, The Pond, USQ and Cog with a simple double click And there are many other benefits too, especially when adjacent, joined at the hip so to speak - over to you!

Categories: Australia, Bio World, Environments, Neighbourhood, Population, Second Life, Travel
No Comments »