BBFC Audience Report

The factors which affect gaming audiences.

Parents should remember that all games are educational, but the type of instruction delivered may not be desirable. Do parents need to protect their children from the content of games? click here and find out more

Future: It's like being at the dawn of television," he says. "What happens now is going to affect how everyone is entertained in the future." for the full article click here.

Second life's vices

Second Life Vice: Linden Lab Is in Denial About Its Gambling Problem, see the full article.

Second life

Can the technology cope with the growing demand of Second Life? Click here to see full article.

LINDEN LAB AND THE GAME INITIATIVE LAUNCHTHE SECOND LIFE™ GAME DEVELOPER’S COMPETITION.
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Second life

• it was developed in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab
• Second Life, has attracted 4.6 million members
• the popular virtual world in which people can do or build just about anything they can imagine and socialize with others anywhere in the real world.
• Companies are starting to realise the benefits of second life, for example travel companies. The Starwood hotel group has created the first virtual hotel as a way of gathering feedback on the designs for its Aloft chain, due to launch in the US, Europe and the Middle East over the next few years.
• People will start to expirience their holidays before they book them, like an advanced brochure.
• People are also able to visit countries across the world from the comfort of their own homes- 'They aren't official, with borders, but there are simulations of real countries, and regions with their own cultures and populations.' There's a Little Italy, Dublin has Irish pubs and Ihla Brasil, which attracts Portuguese speakers. Then there are the 'furries' of Luskwood, who have animalistic avatars, and a place called Gor, where the resident Goreans live according to a novel by John Norman, The Cycle of Gor, with courtesy, slavery and female subservience as key beliefs.’
• Rather than a computer game, Second Life can be considered as a platform where "residents" collaborate at building a virtual world with the tools provided by the system. Residents build avatars, clothes, houses, vehicles etc., buy and sell land and designer items, and organize events. Second Life is a "persistent" VR world that does not disappear when a user logs off. Though at the time of writing (April 2006) the 3D graphics and simulated physics of Second Life cannot be compared to those of the best VR videogames, Second Life is a very interesting social phenomenon and probably the first example of successful, mass-market persistent VR world. full article