Welcome to your Friday Loading... You can read previously enjoyed editions of Loading... in the blog archive. (For the navigation impaired that means you click the link and then look in the right menu.)
The 465th edition of Loading... is brought to you by...Nobody. This space for rent! See what happens when I take a week off?
The most read stories in the last edition of Loading... were:
- An Updated Look at Vanguard (MMOG News Headlines)
- Vanguard Beta Key Giveaway (TenTonHammer Exclusives)
- Burning Crusade: The Underbog (TenTonHammer Exclusives)
- Vanguard: Trivial Loot Code (TenTonHammer Exclusives)
- Burning Crusade First Look (TenTonHammer Exclusives)
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
First up, I make no bones about it; I don't play Second Life (SL) . I tried it. I didn't like it. I moved on and never looked back. I was fair and gave it a good look, but it just wasn't for me.
Many people, obviously unlike me in most every way, do play Second Life. They call it a world rather than a game and they have avatars not characters, but it all boils down to the same thing, people taking on the persona of a virtual creature in an artificial world. Second Lifers don't like to be associated with gamers, and to be fair they are a niche unto their own. To me they are still "playing" and that puts SL squarely in the MMOG genre.
"Join a burgeoning new online society, shaped entirely by its residents. Here you can be or do anything. Explore an ever-changing 3D landscape. Meet new and exciting people. Create a masterpiece - or an empire. Second Life is yours - to imagine, invent, and inhabit."
Unlike most massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), Second Life is created by the players. The clothing, the buildings, just about every item in the game is user created. This ability to create has caused a robust economy to develop; an economy in which real people are turning virtual money in real world cash. One U.S. dollar currently trades for 271 Linden Dollars. Whenever real world cash is involved there are going to be issues, for though a person may not be interested in SL, they are probably interested in money.
Lilnden Lab has promoted the protection of intellectual property as an integral part of its marketing program. The ability to create content and resell it is the primary reason that many players spend monkeying around in the game.
"Linden Lab will respond to allegations of copyright violations in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA provides a process for a copyright owner to give notification to an online service provider concerning alleged copyright infringement. When a valid DMCA notification is received, the service provider responds under this process by taking down the offending content. On taking down content under the DMCA, we will take reasonable steps to contact the owner of the removed content so that a counter-notification may be filed. On receiving a valid counter-notification, we generally restore the content in question, unless we receive notice from the notification provider that a legal action has been filed seeking a court order to restrain the alleged infringer from engaging in the infringing activity."
It is important to note that the people buying Linden Dollars are doing it with the permission of the development team. This is not like gold farming in EverQuest 2 or World of Warcraft. This is a condoned and encouraged secondary market.
Some denizens of the Second Life community created an item called CopyBot which as the name so aptly implies will copy any item in the game for free. Players using CopyBot can have for free what others are required to pay for, or in some cases cannot have at all.
They can do this because the client, like the client in most MMOGs is basically a library of information. It reproduces on your screen what the data being sent down the pipe from the server represents. Apparently in Second Life this data stream is unencrypted. CopyBot simply takes the information that your client has manipulated into an object and makes a copy of it. This new object is then sent back to the server and you Instantly have an item that you didn't pay for.
The methodology isn't particularly different from what many of you do every day when you download music or movies that you didn't pay for.What is different and what is causing the uproar is that it isn't the music companies, music studios or game developers who are being ripped off. In this case the average joe, or perhaps the average Linden is the one feeling the pain of having their intellectual property ripped out from under them. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) must be chuckling quietly inside their gigantic glass and steel super-bunkers.
A wise man (I believe it was Raph Koster) once said something that looked remotely like this;
"Never trust the client. It is in the hands of the enemy."
In this case the players in SL are the enemy. The client is their door into SL, but it is also the door that allows CopyBot to manipulate the data and stream it back to the server without being caught.
On one side of the picket fence we have the virtual vendors who are outraged that anyone can copy their intellectual property. On the other side of the fence are the CopyBot users who are thrilled that they now have access to items that would have been otherwise out of their reach. They are sticking it to the "man". Does this sound familiar?
It is interesting in reading the postings of the players that many are writing that they are most worried about their virtual identity, or their ability to appear unique within the Second Life community rather than the pilfering of the goods that they have been selling for profit. I don't buy this for a minute. Though virtual identity in SL is an obviously attractive factor, I'd wager that most would give up that ability if they could keep people from copying the items that put coins in their coffers.
How does copyright translate into the virtual world? I'm not sure that it does, in any easily enforceable manner at least, but I believe that it should. The Linden Lab Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is certainly a start.
What do you think of the current dilemma in Second Life?
Don't forget to post in our forums or at the bottom of this blog. If you are shy (or female and sending in naughty pictures) you can E-Mail me.
Every good guild needs a home. A home free of gold ads and secondary market farmers. Look no further than GuildPortal.com.
Exclusive new TenTonHammer.com Content!
Let us entertain you or at the very least waste some of your time at work.11.17.2006 Exclusive Content
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Gaming Post-Vista: Myths and Realities
"There's a lot of misinformation floating around the Internet about what Windows Vista, Microsoft's new OS set to release in early 2007, will mean to PC gaming. Ethec tackles the myths and realities of Vista and DirectX 10 in Ten Ton Hammer's latest article, focusing on questions such as the following: Will your present games work on Vista? Can games released post-Vista work on prior versions of Windows? Is expensive new hardware required for a fully DirectX 10-optimized system?" -
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Threnal East 1 Quest Guide
"We're warning you right now: Don't let the short start to the Threnal East quests fool you. This is one of Dungeon & Dragon Online's most intense areas, and your just getting started when you first discover the library and face Baasthul." -
EVE Online - Day 1 Fanfest Coverage
"Day One of EVE FanFest 2006! Now, this would be normally where I tell you all about my problem-free trip to Iceland, how I checked into the hotel early that morning, had a lovely nap, got up at a leisurely 2PM, then registered downstairs and started hard into the Meet N' Greet with the Devs at CCP, in the lobby and bar of the amazing Nordica Hotel." -
EVE Online: Day 2 Fanfest Coverage
"Well, I thought that perhaps the Gods of Gaming had forsaken me, and that I was destined to be stranded in Boston until the FanFest was over - but I did make the Thursday night flight, and arrived here in Reykjavik at around noon on Friday. Huzzah! Off to the Hotel Nordica we go. I shared a cab with Mike F. from Penny Arcade, who was also flying in to cover the event, and had a great discussion on the way in from the airport about EVE and MMOs in general." -
EVE Online: Fanfest - Art With Asgeir, Graphics With Redundancy
"The first presentation of the day came from the Art Department... I wasn't quite sure what to expect, as I'm not normally what you would call 'artistically inclined'. Hey, I'm as appreciative of the eye candy in games as the next guy, but I'm not particularly interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff of it." -
EVE Online: Fanfest - Vivox With Monty
"Integrated voice in EVE - How does it work and what would you like to see in the future?" -
EVE Online: Fanfest - Kjartan on Serenity, Tech With Halidor
"Halldor was on-hand to guide us through some of the tech-related initiatives that CCP is looking to implement in the near future." -
EverQuest 2: Get In Line!
"Lines are forming all over Norrath, but what to they draw? The answer may surprise you, or make you think that people are complete and total idiots. Join us as as we investigate this...." -
EverQuest 2: Guide to Klak'anon
"Welcome to Klak'Anon and Echoes of Faydwer! With the release of EoF happening this week, everyone is wanting to know what exactly the zones in this expansion have to offer, and since I love doing my duty, here is what you need to know about Klak'Anon, provided by Savanja the Fearless Explorer." -
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Ask The Devs
"Tired of watching your character either stand or kneel? Would it add to your immersion if your character could actually sit down on a chair or a rock? Find out if this feature will make it to Vanguard: Saga of Heroes in this week's Ask the Devs." -
World of Warcraft: Asuremyst Isle - Draenei Starting Area
"Ten Ton Hammer takes a look at the new Draenei race from the Burning Crusade expansion and the area in which they start their adventures in Azeroth."
Vin Diesel Fact of the Day - The last digit of Pi is Vin Diesel.
Now from the real world. You can't make this stuff up.
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Kansas Kidnapper Shoots Self In Groin [Thanks Phil]
His escapades considered ballsy by the other inmates. -
New Robot Shrugs Off Injury [Thanks Matt]
All hail our regenerative robotic overlords! -
Re-casting The A-Team [Thanks Darren]
I pity the fool who plays B.A. -
Unknown Fabric Found At Wal*Mart
Price check! Aisle 3! On this "100% unknown" fabric.
As always, thanks for visiting TenTonHammer.com,
-- John "Boomjack" Hoskin
