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Real Life:
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I've mentioned this before, but I guess it bears repeating. A lot of the stuff we now consider information wasn't considered information until technology allowed the local user to create the final form from information.
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News in the blogosphere this morning (from Sean Kane's Virtual Law blog, via Virtual Worlds News) that Worlds.com, a company that was an early pioneer of virtual worlds development, but which has long been relegated to the shadows of online history, is flexing potential litigious muscle in asserting certain patents it has been awarded on key aspects affecting virtual worlds and MMOGs -- essentially, just about anything with a virtual space and an avatar.
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The next Alpha release of the Edusim project will be formally known as “Open Cobalt: Edusim Edition” - to more clearly define the relationship between Edusim and the Cobalt project.
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I won’t bother turning this into a post about my feelings on RMT/Microtransactions (RMT = fail) but instead focus on what I saw during the footage and what I heard the developers/producers say.
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Billing and fraud management software provider Vindicia has announced a new version of its hosted billing solution, CashBox. CashBox is "designed for recurring and one-time transactions," and includes a built-in tax engine and support for multiple processors, currencies and languages.
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"We are enabling a new business model in the form of micro-transactions for users that prefer the pay-as-you-go model." He continues, "It is a testament to our market-leading position, demonstrated growth, and the long-term potential of virtual goods and micro-transactions that we have raised a significant round in spite of the current economic climate."
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So Habbo Coins continue to be a "cash-money" obtainable with real money. Pixels are a new currency earned through gameplay. True to the dual currency model, the set of items that can be purchased using Pixels is slightly different from the set of items purchaseable with Coins. Sulka notes that while Coins are exchangeable between users, Pixels are not yet so.
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The point is that Tabula Rasa did not have to fail - somebody at NCSoft decided to make it fail. It had all the ingredients of a successful third-tier game, and could easily have carved out a comfortable niche from which it could have grown into the very respectable second tier - it was a good enough game to do that. A modest grassroots (i. e. cheap) marketing program and good trial and referral plans could have created a cushion for it.
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A few days ago Turbine also licensed Fork Particle’s Visual Effects Tool and SDK, again another cross-platform toolset that works on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
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Metaplace has the most awesome "EULAs" (end user licensing agreement) for a virtual world ever. Check it out:...
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