MakeUseOf » virtual world

Join The Party & Be A DJ At Rolling.FM

Ryan Dube — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:01:45 +0000

There are few things in life that can help you de-stress quite like music. How many times have you just decided to switch on Pandora Radio or turn on radio on your mobile after a long, hard day? It’s a sweet feeling to just sit back and listen to some tunes – no pressure, no deadlines, just music.

Well, one way to add a bit of excitement to that relaxing time is to make your music enjoyment a more social experience. Listening to good music is cool, but listening to good music with friends (or even strangers) is awesome. If you want to mix in socializing with your music listening experience, then you’ve got to check out Rolling.fm.

What’s Rolling? It’s a brilliant new social network based on music created by Tim Zhou, who worked for both Google and IBM. At Rolling, you’ll find lots of other music lovers with the same interest in music as yours. All you have to do is pick a room that is playing the theme of music you like, and join it. Don’t see a party room for your favorite music genre? Create your own!

Rock & Roll At Rolling

Rolling is one of those communities where you’ve got an avatar in a virtual environment. There isn’t a whole lot you can do to interact with things inside that environment, but that doesn’t really matter anyway because the entire focus is the music. Sign up is as simple as logging in with your Facebook account. Just like at a real party, you stand around with other visitors and nod your head to the beat as each person takes a turn as DJ.

Trying your hand at being a DJ is as easy as clicking on “Add Songs” on the main screen when you’re in any of the party rooms.

You can search for your favorite music by song title or artist name. Hit enter and scroll down the list to find the song you’re looking for. Once you select a song, it gets added to your playlist and will enter the lineup of songs to play in the party room.

On the right side of the party room, you’ll see the mixer control box where the DJ takes control of the party. In some room, DJ’s will line up on the stage. In other rooms, people just stand around and each person takes a turn at the mixing table. Everything is automated, but it’s really a blast. When each song comes on, people can vote whether the song is “Hot!” or “Weak”. If too many people vote “Weak”, the song is cancelled and the next DJ steps up.

If one room isn’t playing the type of music you like, just click “switch room” at the top of the screen.

I scrolled down and found a cool hip-hop room. The creator of the room had chosen a bathroom (complete with urinals) as the backdrop, which I thought was a riot. You could even spray graffiti on the wall and visitors could vote whether or not to keep the graffiti on the wall. When it’s your turn to DJ, you’ll see your avatar move behind the mixer and your controls will appear to either skip your song or stop DJing completely.

You can always change your appearance by clicking the drop-down arrow next to your profile and choosing to change your outfit or your display name.

The selections are somewhat limited – but you’re here for music, not for a fashion show, right? By taking part in the community (playing music for others and voting on songs), you’ll earn credits and can eventually choose from some of the locked clothes and accessories.

It really is a blast trying to choose songs that the people in the room will like. When you do, it’s a pretty good feeling to see people start voting up your song – a sign that you have good taste in music!

Beyond the music, the avatars and the voting system, there’s also an in-room chat system for every individual party room. So, while the music is playing, you can chat with everyone else in the room. It really does start to feel like you’re at a real party. All that’s missing are the drinks!

If you meet someone at the virtual party that you want to friend on Facebook, it’s as easy as clicking on the “who’s here” tab under the chatroom and adding them to your friends list.

There are plenty of music social networks out there, but Rolling is one of the few I’ve seen that really makes it feel like you’re actually at a party. You can chat, socialize, discover new songs, and share your love of music with others – all in an environment that’s a blast.

Try Rolling for yourself and see how quickly you meet others that share your love of music. Start your own music room and see how quickly people start to arrive for the fun. Share your experience at Rolling with us. Did you meet any new friends, and did they vote your songs up when you took your turn as a DJ? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

Image credits: Yamamoto Ortiz

The 3 Best Modern Alternatives To SimCity

Matt Smith — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:31:09 +0000

Although electronic gaming has been around nearly as long as computers themselves, certain genres tend to rise and fall. Today the first person shooter is supreme, and a parade of military-inspired titles continues to advance on PCs and consoles.

One genre that’s unfortunately withered is the city simulator. This type of game was never a huge success compared to action-packed shooters and real-time strategy games, but it’s always had a place in the hearts of some PC gamers. While the vaunted SimCity series has ended (for now) with the critically despised SimCity Societies, there are a few alternatives to SimCity that carry on the legacy.

Cities XL 2011

If you’re looking for a pure city-builder that’s crafted strictly in the image of the SimCity games, Cities XL 2011 is your only modern option. Developed by Focus Home Interactive, Cites XL is a straight-forward alternative to SimCity 4. Much of what you do is the same. You zone property, you build utilities to support your city, and you try to keep the citizens happy so that people move in rather than out.

Beautiful 3D graphics is this game’s most recognizable feature. While a beefy system is required to run it, the cities are truly beautiful when the game is played at its highest detail settings. In addition to this, Cities XL just has a lot of stuff – there’s many different types of roads, bus routes and public rail options, and there’s even super-buildings and specialty buildings that can jazz up a drab downtown.

Cities XL 2011 usually retails at $39.99 on Steam, which is a bit pricey. You’ll usually find a better deal if you download it from another service, like Amazon, or wait for a sale.

Dawn of Discovery / Anno 1404

This awesome strategy title focuses on the establishment of a city in what could be considered an alternative history of the 1400s – the game is broadly based on the events of that era, but doesn’t refer to them directly. The game is known as Dawn of Discovery in the North American market and Anno 1404 in most other locations around the world.

Despite the old-fashioned setting, the game is a strict and difficult city builder. Crafting a small village isn’t too hard, but as your towns grow and you attract more citizens, you’ll need to pay close attention to your supply chain. Citizens require access to certain goods to be happy, and you also need access to certain materials to construct more advanced buildings. Securing these goods through expansion and trade is the game’s focus.

There are some competitive elements to the game, including ship combat. This is the 1400s, after all. However, it’d be wrong to act as if that was the central focus of this title. Anyone who enjoys city management will likely love this game. Dawn of Discovery Gold can be purchased for $19.99 on Impulse. The original edition is currently available for just $5 on Amazon.

Fans of Dawn of Discovery should also keep an eye out for the upcoming Anno 2070, a futuristic city-builder slated for release by the end of this year.

Tropico 3

Another city builder with a unique setting, Tropico 3 makes you the dictator of a Caribbean island. As the Dear Leader, it’s your job to make sure that it grows and prospers – but in addition to this, you need to handle a number of political factions with different wants as well as your relations with both the USA and the USSR, each of which wants the allegiance of your strategically valuable slice of paradise.

Of the games listed here, Tropico 3 puts the most focus on social engineering. It’s possible, for example, to institute same-sex marriage as a national policy, and all of these different social policies impact how your nation runs. This is reinforced by the aforementioned factions, which tend to react differently to your choices.

This all has the potential to be a bit serious, but it isn’t. Tropico 3 is well known for its sly sense of humor, which includes a satirical in-game radio station that comments on the player’s actions. Visually, the game is vivid and bright, reinforcing the light-hearted tone.

Tropico 3 can be purchase for $14.99 on Steam. Fans should keep their eyes peeled for Tropico 4, which should hit both the PC and Xbox 360 sometime this fall.

SimCity 4 – Still A Solid Choice

Although all three of the games above are solid city simulators, SimCity 4 is still a valid option that any gamer should make sure to play if they haven’t already. Though now eight years old, an active community continues to surround the title, and there’s a wide variety of modifications available. Newcomers to the game should check out the Simtroplis forums to become familiar with essential add-ons.

These are the best city builders I’ve played – but perhaps you’ve played one that I haven’t? Feel free to share your favorite in the comments!

5 Fun Online City Building Games That Run In Your Browser

Tim Brookes — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:31:07 +0000

I’ve spent hours of my life toiling over virtual cities in Maxis’ Sim City series, and it must have rubbed off after all these years. I still enjoy meticulously planning infrastructure, zoning and carefully tweaking finances to this day.

The other day whilst trying to work, I accidentally (oops) went looking for some online heirs to the Sim City throne. Despite simple Flash games lacking the depth of even the original Sim City, I guessed there had to be a few decent, free city building games out there.

ElectroCity

A simple turn-based Flash game created by New Zealand energy company Genesis Energy to give players young and old a shot at managing a town or city’s growth and impact. Players must pay close attention to the levels of energy used, sustainability and environmental factors.

Players are given 151 turns to alter tax rates, build things, destroy things and generally oversee the planning of a city from an environmental point of view. It is up to you to keep your citizens happy, maintain finances and get the highest score possible out of 100 available points.

If you’re seeking inspiration then there’s plenty of completed cities to gawp at, and you can even save your progress and come back to it at a later point. Remember – it’s all about balance.

IBM CityOne

A very in-depth city management game that allows you to choose one of four aspects of city life to manage ““ energy, water, retail and banking. This game also uses a turn-based system which scores you after each turn made.

There’s a fairly chunky registration form to fill out before you can play (which asks for all sorts of intrusive data) but the game itself functions well, especially if you’re a business-minded individual.

Your city starts off sketchy and greyscale, with colour gradually introduced as you implement much-needed change. At times it plays like a big advert for IBM, but remains enjoyable and looks pretty good to boot. Probably not great on slower PCs, especially those with an aversion to resource-heavy Flash.

City Creator

Not necessarily a simulation or a management game, City Creator simply allows you to do just that ““ create a sprawling landscape from a set of pre-fabricated buildings and features.

The game features charming pixel art from and an isometric viewpoint, which complements the laid back style of play. Simply drag items from the left hand side of the screen to your city on the right and see what you come up with.

There are 3 building sets to choose from, each with their own unique style. If you register on the site you can save your creations and share them with your friends. If you just want to build a city then City Creator should entertain for a while at least. Be sure to check out their other project Castleford.

Zanpo Virtual Cities

Lovers of Minecraft and pixel art rejoice in this Flash block-based city building game. Instead of building preset structures and features Zanpo Virtual Cities allows you to build fairly detailed city blocks using individual building pieces.

Users then vote on the best ones, and they get added to the virtual city. This one strikes me a bit like online Lego, and the emphasis is very much on building and not management.

You’ll need to register to build, or you can simply choose a city from the drop down list and click City View and see what everybody else has been building.

CityVille

I know, I know. You’re sick of FarmVille, so why on earth do you want to hear about CityVille? Well considering there’s already more than 20 million people playing it I figured it would be an injustice to not include it on the list.

If you’re fine with yet another application accessing all your personal data and posting whatever it feels like to your wall then CityVille might appeal. The game is a casual Sim City-esque sim in which you take a humble town and turn it into a sprawling metropolis.

Graphically the game looks awesome, and there’s the added social interactions provided by the Facebook platform. If only it didn’t clog up your feeds, eh?

There are a few more Facebook games, that I’ve left out (it’s quite a saturated market, and Facebook isn’t for everyone). If you’re interested, they were:

Have you found any other cool city building games? Do you prefer building or managing? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit : Shutterstock

Visit These 5 (Virtual) Museums Without Leaving Home

Saikat Basu — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:30:40 +0000

A field trip to a museum was one of the necessary educational activities while growing up. I think it still is. The only difference is that with the explosion of the web and virtual environments, a student can cover so many more sights than earlier possible.

Virtual environments open up many more educational options. You can go to places you wouldn’t even dream of, or even be able to in your real life. For example, a virtual museum tour is not real, but it is infinitely more “˜real’ than boring texts and pictures.

As you check out the cool virtual museum tours below, you will realize that it’s not only educational but also gives you a preview of what to expect when you do the real thing. Take these five virtual tours of museums in your pajamas without bothering to pay the price of an admission ticket.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

It is part of the largest museum complex in the world run by the Smithsonian Institution and is also the most popular. Even if you take the real tour, it is a complex of 19 museums and research centers. For a lot of us, it has to be on the “places to visit in our lifetime” list. Even though that day is in the future for a lot of us, we can take a peek into the treasures thanks to the virtual tour.

You can enter the rotunda and go for the comprehensive self-guided, room-by-room walking tour of the whole museum. Directional arrows and a few controls help to guide you around the exhibits. You can directly go to a spot by using the map. If you see an icon of a camera, clicking on it displays the exhibit in close-up. Make sure your internet connection is fast enough before you start the virtual tour.

European Virtual Museum

A collection of items from various museums in Europe have been put up on this portal with the help of 3D images. Visitors can explore the history of Europe through the artifacts’ and archaeological information linked to them. You can go by the eras, the area, objects, route, or pick up a museum to browse their collection online. Although it’s not as visually impressive as the online museum above, the European virtual museum is an educational treasure trove if you are studying European history.

Louvre

Another museum which ranks among the world’s largest and also has a neat virtual tour is the Louvre. When it comes to art, this museum in Paris holds the top spot. The virtual tours of the museum come in snippets which cover different sections of the museum. You can take in the architectural splendor from the outside and then go into the different departments housing the art objects. An inline QuickTime player gives you pan and zoom controls to close in on the exhibits. You can see a listing of all the virtual tours around the museum on the left sidebar. When it comes to the view, the medieval tour of the Louvre is the best.

Vatican Museums

From paintings and sculptures to frescoes, the Vatican Museum is an art connoisseur’s delight. The homepage includes several collections you can view online if you haven’t yet managed a trip to the Vatican City. The 360 degree virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel will show you what you are missing. You can explore the other collections in a little Java player.

Toyota Automobile Museum

The Toyota Automobile virtual museum doesn’t give you the 3D experience with pan, zoom, and tilt, but if automobiles are your thing, you won’t mind. If you are planning to visit the museum in Japan, check out the virtual tour beforehand. Clicking on the map takes you to the different galleries and you can take a look at the photos of the cars that are displayed there. The only thing that’s missing is a bit of historical detail on the cars displayed. But I guess that’s available on the museum floor.

Most virtual tours are designed for the purpose of tourism. They do take you around the world. But when it comes to history and culture, online virtual tours are useful educational tools. If you want to check out some more cool examples, visit the BBC Virtual Tours page. Do you think that virtual tours are the next best thing to an actual visit?

Image credit: Shutterstock

8 Panorama Websites For A 360 Degree Virtual Tour Around The World

Saikat Basu — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:03 +0000

The beauty of a panorama can never be described in words; it has been to be seen to be believed. In an extremely crowded world, panoramic spots are few and far between. Oh yes, you can see an entire city laid out in front of you from the top of a skyscraper. But nothing beats watching the natural ones. For instance, the one from Yavapai Point at Grand Canyon is a natural wonder.

Wide angle photography and stitching software help creating our personal panoramas quite easy. It is these very skills and tools that have gone into creating panoramic worlds we can view in our browsers. You can consider panorama websites as another peephole for a bit of virtual tourism. Of course, just like the travel videos we covered earlier, they aren’t the real life deal.

But even in a browser you might feel a touch of vertigo while taking in a bird’s eye view of some of the world’s most favored places. Widen your eyes and glance at these eight places for panoramic views from around the world.

360Cities

360Cities.net has a good collection of panoramic vista from around the world. Most of the panoramic shots are geo-referenced and interactive. You can start off from the Editor’s picks or go to their World panorama map and the Photographer map for travelling to a spot from a world map. You can watch the panoramas in full screen and navigate on it with the controls provided. The sweep of the eye is also represented on a Google map alongside.

If you have Google Earth installed, you can literally travel to spots around the world and view panoramas using a downloadable KML file.

But right now, I am checking out what they advertise as the world’s largest 360 panorama ““ an 18 Gigapixel shot of Prague.

Panoramas.dk

The panorama website is the work of Hans Nyberg, a photographer and an enthusiast of immersive panoramic images. As he says, an interactive VR panorama cannot be seen in a book or on a printed image. It has to be experienced on a computer screen. The site also has links to other great resources for learning more about the art of VR photography. The site has a huge collection of panoramas from around the world. You can even check out Obama’s Nobel Prize speech or panoramic photos from Tour de France.

Me? I went to the Grand Canyons.

Gigapan

The Gigapan panorama website is all about gigapixel panoramic images from around the world. What’s interesting is that GigaPan was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group, with support from Google.

The panorama website also has a community formed around the common passion for panoramic photography. You can join for free. Use their uploader to share your panorama shots with the general community. You can search through the collection using the search box, or go for the orange filters at the top that are marked as ““ Most Popular, Most Recent, Tags, and Conversations. You can view a lot of the panoramas on Google Earth using the link given just below the snaps. The site does not give a full screen view, but Google Earth does.

I am checking out The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

ARounder

Immerse yourself in panoramic vistas of cities, museums, parks, local cafes and stores, cathedrals, and more. ARounder is an online travel magazine and a neat panorama website with a smaller collection than the ones before it. But it is neatly arranged according to region. And there are two outer-worldly places on the moon and Mars too for the space buffs. You can click a location and take a wide-eyed virtual tour through the place. You can also get ARounder’s free iPhone app for some virtual sightseeing while on the move.

I am not going to Tahiti; instead let me do a bit of virtual roaming across the landscape of Mars for a change.

Panoguide

Panoguide is a free central stock of information and community discussion on panoramic photography. Their About page says that the panorama website is also a how-to on techniques for creating panoramic images using a conventional camera and “stitching” the images together on a computer. Click on the tab that says Gallery and dive into their collection that’s arranged around country names. You can also use the Google Map for a point and click approach.

I always wanted to visit the Colosseum in Italy. Here I am doing it at night.

ViewAt

Select the wide variety of locations from the dropdown or on the map and you are there with two clicks. You can watch the default panorama or go for the high resolution image. The site’s forum is also a spot to visit if you are interested in panoramas and photography.

I am returning to my country with a visit to the St. Carmel Church in Goa.

Panedia

Panedia is a combination of Panoramic & Encyclopedia. It is actually a professional services site for “˜georeferenced photography using immersive panoramic technologies’. The site has a small collection of panoramic photos, all on Australia. Every panorama has hotpsots which are clickable links to more panoramas. If you like the Australian outdoors you can check out their small demo collection.

I am heading for the Garden of Eden Walk.

1001 Wonders

It is a panorama tour of the sites that are listed on the World Heritage List compiled by UNESCO. Presently, 263 places are being showcased on the website. The ultimate goal is to panophotograph 1001 sites.

I am starting out with the Great Wall of China.

Like a “˜third eye’, Panorama virtual tours reveal the beauty around us. Tell us about your favorite virtual travels or even a real one.

Image credit: Hamed Saber

4 Other Virtual Pet Sites for Your Kids Like Neopets

Taty — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:30:44 +0000

To anyone who has witnessed the Neopets phenomenon, which launched in 1999 and resulted in a line of toys and cards, distributed by Viacom to several real stores across the country; it is no surprise to hear that kids have an insatiable appetite for virtual pets.

It doesn’t seem to matter that the cute little creatures only exist in “pixieland”, they still want to feed them, buy them, clothes and play with them. So why not make the little ones happy by introducing them to other virtual pet sites like Neopets? It might be all you need to get a few moments of peace and quiet during the summer vacation.

Marapets

Marapets has been designed to work with several age groups. Its target audience goes from the very young to the preteen groups. If your kid has played Neopets, a lot about Marapets will seem very familiar.

The selection of pets isn’t quite as attractive as Neopets’ but there is still enough variety to keep most kids happy. Though the site is free, like several other sites nowadays, it has upgrade options, all of which require real money. Some of the most desired ones involve upgrading your pets to special edition pets, special items and costumes.

One major difference between Marapets and Neopets, is that they cater to a pop-culture-savvy audience, with dress up games that give you options to dress your doll like pop culture icons such as Lady Gaga, Usher, Pink and Zac Efron.

Subeta

Subeta targets an older audience, since you must be at least 13 years old to create a character. Though many of the pet features are very similar to Neopets, there is certainly an edgier style to the site, which feels less like a site for little kids and more like a site for pre-teens. To appeal to that age group, they made a few choices to differentiate themselves from the sites for younger kids. Some of those choices had mixed results.

For example, they named the groups of similar interests “Cults” and created journals that users can update with their thoughts, but that never seem to be updated with more than a few words. The design of the features is certainly well done, and the imagery of a lot of the features is interesting and original, even if the actual features on the virtual pet site are still so much like Neopets. Subeta is a good option for those who still want to play with virtual pets, but who want to feel like they are on a site with people from their same age group.

Build-A-Bear-Ville

Build-A-Bear-Ville is certainly built with a younger audience in mind, starting from its character creation which has a character guiding you all along the way. One of the first steps on the creation asks you for “your parents email address” so they can let them know you are a member of Build-A-Bear-Ville.

It is refreshing that they have golden rules you must accept stating that you must be kind and never give out personal information. The site itself is not quite as interactive as Neopets, and with long loading times between activities. Some of the games are also more repetitive than you would find in other sites, but it seems appropriate and welcoming to a very young audience. Note that some of the features are only available for those who have purchased a bear at Build-A-Bear-Ville stores.

Powerpets

Powerpets is one of the most obviously Neopets-inspired sites with a lot about it looking like a direct copy of Neopets. The good news is that if you like Neopets, you are bound to like Powerpets too. They have added a few features that make this site an interesting alternative to Neopets though, one being the ability to add pictures of your real pets to the “Pet Zone” part of the site. Some of the stock market and bank loan aspects of the site can potentially teach kids some real money skills.

So pick one of the sites above and explore them with your kids. It’s a great way to spend some time together, even when on the computer, and to introduce them to sites they can share with their friends. Know of other virtual pet sites like Neopets? What sites are your kids into? Tell us about them.

3 Awesome Virtual Tours To Show You The World’s Sights

Beth Ritter-Guth — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:31:32 +0000

Life has certainly changed over the last 50 years, and among the greatest changes is the ability to travel to far away places with a click of a mouse.

I really love traveling, but don’t have nearly enough time or money to visit all of the world’s greatest places.

Virtual world tours are an awesome way to explore the greatest nooks and crannies of the earth. Virtual tours are also an excellent way to teach children about the world or to help folks who can’t travel to see the sites. The best collection of tours is located here.

But in case you don’t have time to view all 100 of those tours, I have picked the 3 virtual world tours that I think are worth a virtual passport. I chose one from earth, one from space, and one from water. Enjoy!

Goin’ To The Chapel….

Cathedrals 3D Tour

This tour takes you all over the world to see the greatest cathedrals. The modeling is excellent, but you must be patient and allow the models to render.

Cathedrals 3D works within Google Earth, but everything is there for you to use with ease.

Each virtual world tour takes you to a different cathedral and offers a 3D realistic model of the structure. Because it is an overlay, you can see what is around it in real time. The key is to make sure you click on the box next to “3D Buildings” in the layer toolbar of Google Earth.

Once you have the tour loaded properly, it works like a charm. It pauses between stops automatically, and you can click on balloons to get more information about each located.

The detail of the 3D models are awesome! You can click on the model and turn it around and explore it from different angles.

Because it is within Google Earth/Google Maps, you get a lot of information about the location, and that is really helpful if you are interested in the culture or history of a location.

Out Of This World

Arounder Moon

This is an awesome tour. While it is not as complete as applications like Celestia, it offers very close imaging of the Earth’s moon. NASA has provided panoramic tours of different locations, and, although the images are black and white, they are still incredible.

The detail of the moon rock is truly incredible. When presented to my star gazing son, he wanted to know if the moon was black and white and without color or if the film was black and white. While I don’t know the answer, I thought the question was pretty profound for an 8 year old. This sort of imagery and virtual tourism helped him frame an intelligent question. Awesome.

This is a close up shot from Apollo 17. Again, the detail is fantastic. If you spin around, you can see this shot…

A Whale Of A Tour

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society Virtual Whale.

This seems like a silly sort of tour, but my kids love it. Essentially, you are touring the whale’s exterior. You simple move that little red box to zoom in.

The details are amazing. You – literally – see every nook of this whale. You get close enough to see the mouth and scars. There is something incredible about looking directly into its eye.

The point of the tour is clear. This may, indeed, be one of the last whales we will be able to see if commercial whale fishing isn’t stopped.

Which virtual world tours do you enjoy viewing? Let us know all about them in the comments.

Image Credit: Caveman

5 New Tools For Educators To Love In Second Life 2.0 Beta

Beth Ritter-Guth — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:30:59 +0000

Linden Lab, the creators of the popular multi-user virtual environment, Second Life, have launched a shiny new viewer that promises to be more user friendly to the non-gamer.

Over 5000 educators use Second Life to teach including Harvard Law professors Charlie and Becca Nesson. The new viewer promises to draw more teachers to the fold as virtual life is a lot easier for newbies and inworld tools are a whole lot more collaborative.

What new tools for educators are breathing life into Second Life?

HTML on a Prim

In Second Life, sharing websites has been slightly cumbersome. In the old-old days, the only way to do it was to open a browser outside the SL platform. While not terribly taxing, it was a pain for students to toggle back and forth.

Those days are long gone, and improvements and upgrades allowed you to set a parcel to a specific web page for viewing, but NOW you can actually WRITE ON the prim, click it, use YouTube, search for images, Google, check email, or even edit a collaborative wiki.

The only thing I couldn’t do when I tested it was use Google Docs. Hopefully, they can work that out during the Beta phase.

This is an uber cool feature for teachers because it allows them to use a wiki as a live chalkboard. While students will have to refresh their views to see updates, they won’t have to leave Second Life to do it. Sweeeet.

Easy Peasy Menu

In the old viewer, the infamous pie wheel appeared when you right-clicked on yourself. Now, life is not so complicated. There is a menu bar on the right side that hosts all of the options you will need as a new or advanced user.

This is truly helpful to teachers because most of the initial class time spent in world was devoted to trying to show students how to find things like their inventory (hair is really important in creating your second self!). Everything a new resident needs is on this new side menu.

People Locator

One of the fair criticisms of Second Life is that there is never anybody in it. That isn’t actually true, since 65,000 users are always logged in and millions of people have accounts. The problem is, like in real life, people are scattered and pockets of people are hard to find. It isn’t any different than real life; if you were to go to a bank at 3AM, you would hope to find it empty.

Since Second Life is a 24 hour operation with people from every corner of the earth, there is a great chance you are logged in at a time when other folks are sleeping. The new people locator helps you find the hot spot pockets of people. If you want to send your students to do a survey or to observe avatar behavior, they can simply click on the people finder and teleport to the nearest cluster of people.

Clothing Bin

One very cool addition is the “My Outfits” tab on the menu. This helps you to organize all of your outfits and role playing costumes into one place.

My avatar, Desideria, has a zillion different outfits, and it helps to have a place to store the best of the best.

If you are a second life educator teaching a course on avatars, gender, or social issues, it is helpful to have “stock” costumes on hand. In teaching literature, wearing costumes for role playing activities can bring boring texts alive. Students will now being able to quickly access that Wife of Bath frock and won’t have to hunt around a crowded inventory to get to it in time for class.

Easy Talk

The new viewer includes a much easier way to use the voice system. Now there is one simple button to push, and you are able to chat away with your students. The old menu wasn’t hard, but it was a bit cumbersome and not at all intuitive. This one-button approach will help students get connected instantly.

Educators in Second Life

Educators will love the new Second Life viewer because it is easier to use and more functional. Less time will be spent showing students how to wear shoes, and more time can be spent working in groups on collaborative content.

Lots of seasoned SL bloggers have been discussing the new viewer, and experienced users have mixed emotions about the new look and feel of it. How do you feel about the new viewer? Do you think it will be easier for educators to use, or should Linden Lab tweak it a bit before it goes out of Beta?

Image credit: Daniel Voyager

How to Get Started In Second Life in 10 Easy Steps

Tina Sieber — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:01:04 +0000

If you don’t yet play Second Life (SL) then I’m sure you have heard a thing or two about it.

Are you curious? Or do you think SL is crap? What is SL anyways and what does it offer?

SL is a 3D virtual reality, it’s an interactive graphics chat world, SL is a game and a playground, it’s all about sex, it’s a role playing game, people in SL have relationships and families, it’s an online community, it’s all about money, SL players spend real money, people with various skills make real money, SL can be experienced for free, SL is for geeks, SL allows the “socially handicapped” to connect, SL supports charity (e.g. Relay for Life), and that’s just a small selection. Maybe something caught your attention and interest here. Curious now?

Getting started in SL takes some time and patience. The initial learning curve may appear steep, but isn’t that true for everything new you try? With a bit of common sense it’s not that hard. The following Second Life step by step how-to guide should help

1. Start Slow!

Go to the Second Life website, sign up, download the client, install, and log in.

Your first login will take you to Orientation Island. Take your time to go through all the tutorials and get familiar with the software. It will help you tremendously in your future Second Life experience. You will also have to pass some tests before you may proceed to Help Island.

Help Island is restricted to fellow newcomers and mentors. Pick up all the free stuff you can find and play with it. Don’t hesitate to chat with passers by or ask for help from a mentor. You never know, you might as well meet your first SL companion. In any case remain open-minded.

2. Drop the Newbie Look!

Everyone starts out looking more or less the same. There are different female and male avatars to choose from when signing up. These avatars are only good for the first couple of steps and are frowned upon by advanced residents.

To blend in you should demonstrate individuality in shaping your individual character. Start by editing your appearance and sculpt your avatar until you like what you see.

In the store at Help Island you will find a few alternative outfits, try them on and also browse the public Library, which is part of your inventory, for more clothes. Later I will show you where to find more free stuff, including shapes, skins, hair, shoes and clothes.

3. Work on your Profile!

Your profile gives everyone an impression of who you are. It’s part of your character. Leaving it empty doesn’t make you mysterious, it makes you look like the noob you are.

When in SL, right-click on your avatar and select > Profile… from the pie menu. Go through the different tabs and fill in some details about yourself. To view the profile of another avatar, just right-click on their body or name-tag and select > Profile… from the pie menu.

4. Work on your Skills!

Help Island offers tutorials on building and inventory management. You’ll find a sandbox, an area where you can drop items from your inventory or start building. Use it to get familiar with the tools you have, it’s free!

To start building, right-click on the ground and select > Create from the pie menu. From the menu that comes up you can select the type of object you would like to create, then click onto the ground again and the item will apear. Now go ahead and play with it.

5. Know what is Expecting you!

On Help Island you will also find a lot of posters. Some give out information in the form of notecards. Just left-click them, accept the inventory offer (blue menu in the top-right of your screen) and keep the notecard that is being given to you. All of this is valuable information that you should not pass up on. My advice: read, read, read!

6. Explore

What is the first thing you would like to see in Second Life? A club, a park, people, a shopping mall? Whatever it is, by now you should know how to find it.

Use > Search button in the bottom of your viewer, jump to the > Classifieds, > Events or > Places tab and proceed to discover your first destination. > Showcase features some of the hottest locations in SL.

When you think you’ve found an interesting destination click the > Teleport button to leave Help Island. Alternatively, you can use the Exit at Help Island which will send you to a welcome hub on the mainland.

In the next hour or so take some time to explore. Visit the landmarks you received on Help Island or find other adventures. Walk, run, and fly, collect impressions of land and people, and don’t worry too much about still looking like a newbie.

Remember to keep a landmark (> World > Create Landmark Here) of the places you might want to check out again later.

7. Collect Free Stuff

After seeing what is possible, you might want to pick up some new clothes and a nicer skin. Search the > Classifieds for “free” stuff in the > Shopping category. Many stores offer freebies for L$0 or Dollarbies at L$1. For now you don’t want to spend any Lindens, so go with the L$0 stuff.

Many stores have special offers for newbies 30 days old or younger. This is your chance to lay your hands on high quality apparel and body parts for free. So watch out and take advantage of this opportunity.

In > Groups search for lucky chairs or dumpster diving to find groups dedicated to sharing places where you can pick up free stuff.

8. Collect Linden Dollars

Search for “money tree” in the Classifieds or even better the Places tab. While you are 30 days old or younger you can pick up Linden Dollars hidden in money trees. Other residents leave them there for new players.

9. Get Involved

Talk to people around you, make friends, if you have some more time browse the events calendar (> Search > Events) and visit a party, join groups and try to have a good time. Meeting people and making connections or friends is the best part of SL. You never know where these encounters may take you. In the end you might open a SL business.

10. Get a Job

Unless you have met someone who has offered you a job, your quest starts with searching again. Browse all available jobs in the > Employment category of the > Classifieds section and reply to those that sound interesting. Remember to tick the “Include Mature content” box if you’re ready to explore all there is to offer.

And that’s it, welcome to Second Life!

What is your experience with SL or other virtual worlds? Did you find this little guide helpful for your start into a Second Life? What’s missing? Leave your feedback in the comments!

Roblox – A Cool Lego-Based Free Virtual World for Kids

Guy McDowell — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:00:57 +0000

My darling wife was volunteering at the world-famous Ponoka Stampede (props to my cowboy homies). She saw a kid playing some cool games and asked what they were. “It’s Roblox!”, I imagine the child said. “Your husband should check it out and write about it on MakeUseOf.com. His article will go straight to the front page of Digg and be Twittered near and far.” Did I mention I imagined that he said this? The sky is purple in my world.

In any event, I did check out Roblox. Not only is it fun, it has some great features. It’s a cool, free virtual world for kids where you get to create your own character, much as you would for SecondLife or any number of other virtual world games.

In this one, the characters are blocky, and reminiscent of those little yellow Lego fellows. It’s kind of like Sims, where you get to build your own buildings and towns. Sort of like Webkinz in that you can earn points (known as tickets or Robux in Robloxian) so that you can do different things like buy user-created online goods for your Roblox character.

What really sets it apart is that kids playing on Roblox can create their own games and put them out there for the world to use.

Parent’s – take note of this site. Here are some of the uber cool tools you can use to keep your wee ones safe:

All in-game chat is filtered for coarse language. As the parent, you can control whether they can chat or use something called menu chat. It’s a list of pre-written questions and responses. The kid’s just choose them and that’s all the communication they are allowed.
You can control something called SuperSafe Privacy mode for the kids too. What that does is block ALL text fields from accepting any input. So your precious one cannot put any personal information out there.
As the parent, you login for them using your email account. That keeps you in control of their playing time AND adds another layer of security from weirdos.
Most importantly, Roblox has a team of paid and volunteer monitors who pore over all chat logs and forum discussions. There is zero tolerance for course or violent language.
The Roblox team provides tips for online security and recommends other resources to help you have a fun, safe time online.

As a Dad, I’m very pleased to see this. But as a grown-up kid, I want the games! There are a lot of games on this site, many of them user-built. As a result, some of them are not so good and some are way cool. Area 51 was pretty cool but I’m not sure exactly what the objective of it was. I found a flying saucer and got in it, but I couldn’t go anywhere. Then,I got infected with some sort of alien virus and that’s how you die, I guess. You don’t really die, you just regenerate.

The Roblox-created game, Crossroads, was really fun, too! It’s a good starting ground to learn how to use your tools (which are really weapons) with a bunch of other players. Some of them hang out there regularly and talk to each other and team up. That was so much fun, my wonderful one had to tell me to get back to writing. I wish she wouldn’t use the cattle prod, though.

Sure, the game play seems juvenile, but guess what? It’s supposed to be. The point is that this is an online gaming community that the kids themselves can create. They can do that through the Roblox Studio. It strongly resembles the Visual Basic Studio and allows you to design your own spaces and games. Unfortunately, it’s not terribly intuitive to me, but they do have great documentation over at the Roblox Wiki.

To really get the full effect of building your own games and items in Roblox, you would need a Builder’s Club account, which does cost. Maybe give your kids a couple months of using the site in general, before commiting to that.

With the ability to build games, sell items that they make and interact with other games, kids are learning priciples of programming, design, marketing, business and Math skills. I fail to see the downside to Roblox.

Are you a Robloxian? Or maybe your kids are? What do you like best or least about Roblox? Is this your first time hearing of Roblox and you want to thank me with gratuitous praise? Are you aware of any other free virtual world for kids? Well, my fellow Robloxians, that’s what the comments below are for.