Tag: virtualworlds

The joys of ‘porting

For example, 1 stunt I used frequently involved setting up a portal somewhere high above me on a wall. Then I’d jump off a cliff, start falling — and then open a portal precisely at the spot where I was due to hit the ground. My momentum would blast me out the portal high above the ground, shooting me like a bullet through the air to a far-off ledge I couldn’t otherwise reach. The game constantly challenges you to invent ever more paradoxical feats of self-propulsion. I used the same momentum-gathering technique to bounce myself vertically upward out of a hole in the ground, and then, while flying through the air, shoot another portal in a nearby piece of ground.

about time that games seriously explore alternate realities with alternate physics

Virtual AI Training

Virtual worlds also solved the problem of giving an AI a relatively unsophisticated environment in which it could live and learn. “I’m one of many AI theorists who believe that embodiment is important. Typing stuff back and forth does not give the AI much to go on in terms of understanding the world around it, or itself or its place in that world.”

ben goertzel’s pets come to second life

Out-of-body experience

A scientist hooked up some subjects to virtual-reality systems — and hacked their brains into having an out-of-body experience. The experiments were based on a long-known trick called the “rubber hand illusion.” In this one, people hide one hand in their laps while looking at a rubber hand on the table in front of them. A researcher strokes the fake with a stick — while simultaneously stroking the real hand in precisely the same way. Pretty soon the subject begins to identify so strongly with the rubber hand that if you smash it with a hammer, the subject will freak out and “feel” the pain.

the potential for entertainment.

Second Earth

Mirror Worlds vs. Virtual Worlds – Second Life is fictional, whimsical, experimental. Google Earth is a reflection of the real world and will remain so in the future. In SL, you can make or do almost anything. GE is meant to be a platform for delivering geo-referenced information that is strictly relevant and useful (as well as fun) for our first lives.

next time jerry brings this up, i can ask “where is the code”?

Etsy Virtual World

he’s thinking about a persistent crafters’ world built out in a Flash interface similar to the rest of the Etsy site, but complete with virtual currency, that would function as an online bazaar shoppers could roam around in. It would come complete with game-like elements to keep people engaged, and the virtual currency would be good for spending on real physical goods.

what i imagine when someone says clicks and mortar

Virtual World Web Integration

This would include video integration, and begin to draw in the television and film industries as well. But as I’ve mentioned before w/r/t Kaneva, I don’t see why there needs to be a separate Web-based storage space for your various media. Why not just let your virtual world interact with your Flickr account, your MySpace, account, etc.? This would actually reduce the load on the developer, rather than having to recreate these functions in a closed system.

musing on convergence. et tu, google earth? 🙂