Universal Avatars To Be Developed

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Design, Internet, Video Games

IBM and Linden Lab’s Second Life are collaborating to create universal avatars that will be able to travel between virtual worlds. Both companies are hoping that more gamers will explore virtual worlds by making them simplified. They are putting the emphasis on a single system for now that allows users to move between worlds. The announcement came before the launch of the Virtual Worlds Conference in San Jose, California, this week. Last year there were only 9 virtual sites, but that number has jumped to thirty. We want to know if you go from Warcraft to Second Life, could you get to stay in your armor?

Read More | BBC

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Virtual Game “Second Life” Gets a New Voice

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Software, Video Games

The virtual 3-D game “Second Life” is about to become an audio one. Linden Lab, the company that produced it, says it will be incorporating voice-over Internet software so that its over 4 million gamers can communicate to each other via mics and speakers. The process used to create this is Spacial Audio, which is dependent upon the separation of players in the virtual environment, according to tech exec Joe Miller.

“A group close together will be able to chat normally, but once a certain distance is reached, not even shouting will be enough,” says Miller.

Players will also be able to choose those that they wish to chat with and block those that they do not. Testing will begin next week, with a debut date sometime next month. We are gussying up our avatars just for the occasion.

Read More | Second Life Virtual Game via USA Today

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