RPG Trader's Blog

Few technologies have been subject to more hype and subsequent disappointment than Second Life. Corporations from shoe manufactures to cruise lines to news services set up shop with hopes this new frontier would bring soaring profits. Most evacuated shortly thereafter when the effort resulted in spaces devoid of audiences and buyers. A notable exception, though, is education.

Education is thriving in Second Life. This enthusiastic subculture is abuzz within the Second Life realm, constantly interacting inside and outside Second Life. Educators are exploring every possible tool the 3D virtual world offers and establishing best practices along the way.

Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, reports on the company’s Web site that universities such as Harvard, Texas State, and Stanford have Second Life campuses. While Linden Lab states that more than 200 educators and about as many universities are using Second Life, all signs point to a far larger community.

The Second Life Educators (SLED) community is an e-mail list that includes more than 4,700 working in or interested in education in Second Life. SLED was created in October 2005 to help newcomers adjust to Second Life, exchange resources, network, collaborate on projects, and share best practices.

Real Life Education in Second Life is a group inside the 3D realm that boasts 3,500 members. It is for sharing information, asking questions, and getting notices of in-world and “real life” events.

CC International is a group of 4,200 that promotes the use of virtual reality for education. The goal is to provide training seminars and certificates in building, scripting, furniture making, and more, offering college-level classes for credit, possibly toward a degree.

Thousands are involved in these three groups alone. There are many more groups, some of which focus on fields of study, such as architecture, music, and business.

Read more…

News, Second Life

Blizzard announced today that it will carry on the tradition of its annual BlizzCon event with the 2009 incarnation taking place Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22.  Per tradition, the Con will be on at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.

This year’s BlizzCon will take a similar format to that of last year’s with hands-on game previews, panel discussions, tournaments, specialty merchandise, and other community-oriented events.

Blizzard fans can expect a Christmas morning’s worth of announcements during the event.  BlizzCon 08 played host to a number of major unveilings, including a bulk of information about Diablo III, the splitting of StarCraft II into a trilogy, and numerous revelations relating to World of Warcraft.

In years past, Blizzard used its own convention to lift the curtain on World of Warcraft expansions Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.

Tickets are not yet available, so would-be attendees should regularly check the BlizzCon site for ticket availability and pricing information to appear.

News, World of Warcraft

Registration for the 2009 World of Warcraft Global Tournament is now open. The tournament features 3v3 matches with level 80 characters and gear. Prizes come in the form of cash and range from $600 to and impressive $75,000! Grab the details below:

• The registration fee is $20 per account for the online qualifier
• Live tournaments with a chance to win cash
• Instantly create new, fully-customizable level 80s with full sets of epic gear
• 3v3 Arena team combat
• Earn exclusive rewards: Armored Murloc Pet, “Vanquisher” title

We invite the most dedicated and skilled Arena combatants around the world to enter the new World of Warcraft Global Arena Tournament! Your glorious victories in the Tournament will not only grant renown and recognition for your prowess, but will also grant your team a chance to earn cash prizes as well.

Within a structured format comprised of one online qualifier, players will battle on special Tournament realms purely dedicated to the competitive format of 3v3 Arena matches. The characters used in these realms are new level 80s that you create, bristling with PvP armor and weapons. The top teams from the online qualifier will battle in an invitational ladder for a chance to participate in the regional finals, culminating in the live global finals - featuring a total cash prize pool of over $200,000!

Tournament registration is open to any active World of Warcraft account upgraded with the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions. Registration costs one payment of $20.00, which grants one eligible World of Warcraft account access to the tournament realms for the duration of the six-week tourney. Players will be able to create up to three new fully customizable level-80 characters on these realms and deck them out with a full set of epic gear. Then form your new 3v3 team and enter the Arenas, where a whole new level of competitive play awaits you. Good luck!

$20 is a bit too much for the tournament IMO. I can have just as much fun playing in the regular arena. With the economy as it is is, I doubt their tournament may be as successful as it was last year.

News, World of Warcraft

World of WarCraft Lead Producer, Jeffrey Kaplan, will now head up development of Blizzard’s next MMO:

I wanted to take a moment to let the community know that I’ve switched roles here at Blizzard to work on our upcoming, unannounced MMO. World of Warcraft has been such a central part of my life these past six and a half years, and it’s success would not have been possible without the tremendous community around it, so I wanted to say thank you to all our players who’ve shared this amazing experience with us so far. Also, while I have served as the spokesperson and Game Director for World of Warcraft on Wrath of the Lich King, by no means would WoW be where it is today without the dedicated team that we have in place. The WoW development team is comprised of some of the most talented and experienced game developers in the world, and it was an absolute honor to serve amongst them, and they will continue to make WoW better than ever. I still plan to be very involved with the future course of World of Warcraft, but will leave the day to day operations of World of Warcraft to my partners in crime, Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack.

When all is said and done, WoW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone. If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better. We know we have some big shoes to fill. So thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the years, and likewise, thanks to those who have given us pointed feedback on all areas of the game. Without all of the feedback and participation, WoW would not be the game that it has grown to be. Azeroth truly belongs to you and we’re lucky to have shared in your journey. And as always, I’ll still be lurking on the forums and in the game. Mostly, I just wanted to say thanks. It has been an absolute honor.

StarCraft II in 2009, Diablo III in 2010, Unannounced Blizzard MMO in 2011?

News, World of Warcraft

A primary school teacher has been jailed for 12 months after she admitted sending a 14-year-old boy “crude and explicit” text messages.

Lynn Walls, 42, sent sexually explicit texts then came to rely on her young victim emotionally, even lying to say that she had breast cancer.

The offending caused lasting damage, Newcastle Crown Court heard, as the schoolboy came to feel withdrawn, guilty and even suicidal.

They first made contact on the World of Warcraft internet game after the plump defendant invented a “thin, attractive and blonde” character. After chatting online, they swapped mobile phone numbers, the court heard. Crucially, the London teenager told Walls his age, said Penny Moreland, prosecuting.

Walls sent texts inviting the boy to have sex with her, and commit sex acts. In other texts, Walls confided childhood problems, falsely claimed to have breast cancer, and confessed she loved him. Miss Moreland said the victim felt guilty as a result, and struggled to cope, being only 14.

The boy’s mother made a Victim Impact Statement in which she said the child, now 15, had changed dramatically since the offences in November 2007.

Miss Moreland said he had expressed suicidal thoughts, was abusive and had a “phobia of people”. His school attendance had deteriorated, and he was considering leaving when he turns 16. He and his family were being counselled as a result.

Walls, of Rose Street, Penshaw, Wearside, was a primary school teacher in Co Durham, and has a son herself. Judge Richard Lowden banned her from working with children for life, and put her on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.

At a previous hearing she admitted one count of enticing a child to engage in sexual activity.

Nick Peacock, defending, said his client accepted full responsibility. The case had “destroyed her days and haunted her nights” since her arrest, Mr Peacock said, and she accepted she was virtually “unemployable”.

News, World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft has its share of online gamers who find comfort in griefing, or profiting by selling valuable items or gold. They do get caught, and their accounts banned. This video by JERorly shows anyone who breaks the rules suffers the same consequences. And, yes, even Hitler.

World of Warcraft

More than 100,000 folks seem to think so. That is how many copies have been sold of a computer program called Glider, which essentially plays the game World of Warcraft for you. While you sleep, eat, go to work, attend class or do whatever else, Glider controls your WOW character — killing monsters, casting spells, collecting treasure and accumulating the experience points required to advance and become more powerful.

Of the 11 million people who play World of Warcraft, most do so legitimately; they actually play the game themselves. The whole point of a massively multiplayer online game like WOW or EverQuest is that players can take pride that their virtual accomplishments and wealth reflect real human effort, determination, ingenuity and skill. Even though I haven’t played WOW regularly in more than a year, I’ve still racked up thousands of hours in that world since 2004. To have the few unscrupulous players use a “bot” program like Glider makes a mockery of that effort and contributes to ruining the entertainment experience for me and everyone else.

But should creating and selling a program like Glider be illegal?

Read more…

World of Warcraft

While MMO makers Mythic confirmed back in October that Warhammer Online had accrued 750,000 subscribers, it seems that numbers may have fallen as part of the ‘churn’ since.

According to data released by EA during US financial briefings yesterday, Warhammer Online subscriptions have fallen to 300,000 - less than half of their peek, if these statistics are correct.

Word of Warhammer’s struggle to compete with World of Warcraft (which boasts over 10 million users), comes as EA admit to losses in excess of 600 million USD for the third-quarter.

The Warhammer Herald made an official announcement they will be cutting the task force hired for Warhammer Online’s debut. EA as well will be reducing 1% of their task force to compensate for their huge losses.

News, Warhammer Online

According to Edge-Online, World of Warcraft made up half of Activision Blizzard’s earnings last year:

Arvind Bhatia with Stern Agee said in a Wednesday research note that he expects WoW subscriptions amounted to earnings per share of about 30 cents out of a total 60 cents, or around $400 million total, in the fiscal year ended in December.

In December, Blizzard announced that WoW currently boasts 11.5 million subscribers worldwide.

That means that Wow makes as much money as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Starcraft, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and the rest of Activision’s franchises and games combined. So if you’re ever wondering why companies keep creating new MMOs to challenge Warcraft, there’s your answer. There’s a lot of money in it.

News, World of Warcraft

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Web site MyMMOShop.com has been acquired by My MMO Inc. for $10 million. MyMMOShop.com sells in-game currency, for some of the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft Gold, Final Fantasy XI Gil and EverQuest II Platinum.

Considered the #3 Real Money Trading (RMT) site in overall sales, MyMMOShop.com is known for its focus on customer service. MyMMOShop.com’s Customer Support Department is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via Live Chat. The company has tenacious privacy and anti-fraud initiatives in place, requiring voice authorization for every new order.

“MyMMOShop.com appealed to us because of its strong reputation for providing optimal customer service,” says Hunter Crowell, My MMO Inc.’s Media Relations Agent. “That focus will continue with our purchase.”

RMT in online gaming had suspect beginnings. Purchasing virtual currency rather than earning it by playing the games successfully seemed, at first, unfair to those who put in the actual playing time to earn the currency themselves. Beginners could often have unfairly large accounts when compared to veteran gamers. But it caught on. People began spending thousands of dollars to fund and equip their gaming characters. Using real world money to purchase in-game money got a further boost in validity when Sony created its own RMT site, Station Cash in 2008. Now a $2 billion industry in the U.S., RMT is rapidly growing. In fact, gaming may well be a recession proof industry.

“This is a risky time for any kind of traditional investing,” says Crowell. “People are staying home more and choosing less expensive forms of entertainment, like playing video games.”

Applying money trading basics to virtual economies yields tremendous growth potential, even in a volatile time. In-game currency is a highly desirable product with a pandemic customer base that is increasing at viral rates.

My MMO Inc. was formed at the end of 2008 for the specific purpose of purchasing MyMMOShop.com, it is owned by a private equity firm. MyMMOShop.com has been in business since 2003 and has locations throughout the United States, Ireland, and Australia.

Source:
My MMO Inc.
Media Relations:
Hunter Crowell, 424-354-0478
huntercrowell@mymmoinc.com
Yahoo Finance Report

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