“While the virtual world might be a refuge for some people seeking to flee the real one, it is also full of people seeking something more from life, including, possibly, religious enlightenment … “

Catholic missionaries … are being encouraged to go into the virtual realm of “Second Life” to save virtual souls.

In an article in Rome-based Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, academic Antonio Spadaro urged fellow Catholics not to be scared of entering the virtual world which may be fertile ground for new converts wishing to better themselves.

“It’s not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it,” Spadaro said. “Instead it needs to be understood … the best way to understand it is to enter it.”

… “Deep down, the digital world can be considered, in its way, mission territory,” he said. “‘Second Life’ is somewhere where the opportunity to meet people and to grow should not be missed, therefore, any initiative that can inspire the residents in a positive way should be considered opportune.”

[Link @ FOXNews.com]

Via Thinking Machine.

See also Preaching to the Perverted in Second Life by Lore Sjöberg @ Wired.com.

Text-based web client for Second Life:

It’s a new, open source[-based] version of the SL viewer, and though it’s severely limited– you can use the SL map, teleport, chat and IM, and check your friend/L$ status, and that’s pretty much it– it has one signature advantage.

This is Second Life from the Web.

Firefox and Safari to be exact, running a version of SL through Ajax. According to Katharine Berry, creator of the aptly-named AjaxLife, it also runs less well on Internet Explorer, Opera, and Wii Opera. Up to now, accessing SL requires a separate client download and a powerful graphics card– two high hurdles for almost everyone on the Internet. A number of SL competitors have been targeting this very weakness, aiming to create a Web-based user-created world without such an awkward, time-consuming barrier to entry. Using protocols from libsecondlife, the open source SL project, Katharine has changed that assumption considerably. “If there’s enough interest,” she concludes with winning modesty, “I’ll make a version that you can run on your own machine to connect to, once it’s further developed (e.g. starting IMs, profile viewing, possibly inventory management, etc.)”

[Wagner James Au: New World Notes]

Via Futurismic.

World of Warcraft players plan raids in Second Life –

Some World of Warcraft players have started planning their WoW games inside of the virtual world Second Life; they use Second Life on Tuesday afternoons, when WoW goes down for maintenance.

[Boing Boing: Link]

Sean Bonner: At Last! Something useful to do with Second Life!

Interview with W. James Au by R.U. Sirius. Au worked, for a time, as an official embedded reporter in Second Life; and he continues to report on the SL scene:

Second Life is the online 3-D virtual world that threatens to conquer reality as we know it. W. James Au was hired by the game producer, Linden Lab, to be an embedded reporter in an emergent society, covering the news of this alternative game world. While no longer officially under contract with the company, Au continues to be the pre-eminent newsman in this strange new world. He joined us at our studio.

[Mondo Globo: Link]

W. James Au: New World Notes.

Via Boing Boing:

AU: They created what they call a Camp Darfur. So it’s like … tents and campfire and photos of real life refugees in the real life Darfur … This guy found a flaw in the building and he was able to trash the whole camp. And some of it was racist. They started shouting anti-African slurs and they started attacking the camp day after day.

Meanwhile on the other side of the camp, there’s a group called The Green Lantern Core… One of the guys is the Green Lantern — he’s got the Green Lantern outfit on and he’s this huge dude and he’s got the magic ring — he heard about Camp Darfur getting attacked… And so now the Green Lantern Core guards Camp Darfur.

[Boing Boing: Link]

Speaking of Green Lantern — he is the superhero whose powers I’d most like to have.

If I owned one of those Green Lantern rings, I’d be an auto mechanic for a living.

No more toolbox — no more tools — whatever tool you need, the ring makes it, hey presto! I’ll bet I could fix cars three times faster than any regular mechanic.

I signed up for Second Life today.

Premium account — bought my First Land!

Here’s a snapshot of my First Land, an aerial view.

The dark red objects mark out my patch.

The gray rectangular panel at ground level, inside the red border lines, that’s a billboard — currently nothing on it, but in due course I’ll upload my sketches and other stuff.

Surrounding objects belong to other subscribers. This is a First Land area, subdivided into small lots, all the same size.

Okay, so it’s not much to look at yet. I’m still coming up to speed on the Second Life editor — first, learn how to build better stuff, then learn the scripting language so I can animate that stuff. Virtual menagerie? Simulated living art gallery? Stay tuned for further developments ….

Visit me! If you don’t yet have a Second Life account, go get one — basic accounts are free.

Game designer Laukosargas Svarog has created a virtual ecosystem in Second Life:

She’s noticed some limited forms of emergence (the holy grail of artificial life developers) particularly in the development of her plant life.

“It’s very sensitive to very small changes,” she says, “like if a gene emerges which gives a plant an extra seed in its lifetime, that can cause huge growth in its locale. And the opposite of course, one less causes thinning growth. I’ve also seen the same color become a dominant gene so all the meadow cup plants became blue once. Simple things like that emerge quite often.”
[Link]

Via boingboing

Business Week reports on emerging game-based economies –

Online game Second Life is drawing legions of eager players — and big bucks from VCs who see hard profits in a booming fantasy world

Some 165,000 people roam the online virtual world Second Life through their “avatars,” or onscreen graphic characters. But it’s a good bet most of them don’t realize that in their midst is an avatar controlled by the chief executive of Amazon.com. (AMZN). Now, as part of a new $11 million funding of Second Life’s creator, San Francisco-based Linden Lab, Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos is also an investor in this growing online phenomenon.