Part I: Important Papers

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research; don’t make me pick just one article.
If you were to FORCE me to, though, check out Piracy vs. Control: Models of Virtual World Governance and Their Impact on Player and User Experience, Melissa de Zwart, University of South Australia. It follows the extremely relevant question of what if the control of virtual worlds is too much; let the players play! Read the whole article, it makes great points and raises good questions.

Protecting Children in Virtual Worlds Without Undermining Their Economic, Educational, and Social Benefits, by Robert J Bloomfield, Benjamin Duranske; in Washington and Lee Law Review, Vol. 66, 2009. It covers the latest regulations and of course the “balancing act” between fun and societal control. My favorite quote, “As children spend more of their time in virtual worlds—for endeavors like work, education, and engagement with social, cultural and civic affairs— they are bound to find opportunities to develop romantic attachments that carry our society to the next generation.” It has many facets of the regulations protecting children, and wisely does not just focus on the more salacious aspects, as a mainstream media article often does.

And outside the States, but still important, Virtual Consumption OK, I admit I’ve just skimmed it, but it is longer than Catcher in the Rye (248 pages). It’s meticulously written, and with a detailed table of contents, so this is a good primer for why real people buy virtual goods. Citation listed as Vili Lehdonvirta (2009). Virtual Consumption. Publications of the Turku School of Economics, A-11:2009, Turku.

Part II Important posts I found this month that couldn’t fit a definite topic:

Iowa State Study finds high volume video gamers have more difficulty staying attentive. A study relating ADD and high volume video game players.

Born to Rhun is a great thought piece about mods, developers, and Tolkien’s Middle Earth. And it is also focused on one of my favorite underrated topics concerning games; FUN!

AR Wave: Layers and Channels of Social Augmented Experiences; great article and interview. My favorite quote is “Having these invisible aspects of the world made visible would create ways to improve sustainability, social equity, urban management, energy efficiency, public health, and allow communities to understand and become active participants in the ecosystems and infrastructure of their neighborhoods.” It seems a very good goal, but is Google, and the rest of the augmented reality industry, further marginalizing the contributions or opinions of those not plugged in to the internet?

5 Ways to Know You’re in a Virtual World

Sociology and Virtual Worlds, talking about digital anthropology.

Part III: Cool tools

Frenzoo is a new free avatar creator that can be customized, a little cooler than any I’ve seen.

Game Crafters (Like Cafe Press, except for Board Game ideas)

This is a tool to get copyright info for photo citations.

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.