sample issue - to get your free subscription go to http://www.virtualworldsweekly.com
Virtual Worlds Weekly -
Volume 1, Issue 1
February 15, 2007
http://www.VirtualWorldsWeekly.com
The Electric Sheep
Company, ILL Clan Join Forces
Sony Online Entertainment Releases Station Exchange Online Gaming Auction Site
White Paper
Doppelganger Appoints Silicon Valley Veteran Tim Stevens As New CEO
TMP Worldwide Brings
Recruitment to Second Life
Ty To Introduce Ty
Girlz with 3D Virtual World
Numedeon, Inc. Builds NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Micro-World for Kids
Sparter Launches Trading of Virtual Currencies, Bessemer Venture Partners
Invests
Woize
International Enters Virtual World of Second Life
Rival Second Life stock
exchanges merge
Hi-end Second Life profit
growth stalls
Comverse demos Second
Life on mobile phones
US
Presidential Candidate John Edwards Launches Campaign in SL
Rivers Run Red Looks to Expand
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The Electric Sheep
Company, ILL Clan Join Forces
ILL Clan Inc., creator animation and machinima (machine+cinema) process, has
joined The Electric Sheep Company, a creator of virtual world content. ILL Clan
Inc. will become the machinima division of The Electric Sheep Company. It will
work with the company's growing portfolio of brand-name clients to produce
machinima from virtual worlds such as Second Life for re-broadcast, promotions,
events and entertainment. To date, the ILL Clan and The Electric Sheep Company
have jointly created machinima for clients such as MTV, CBS and NBC. The ILL
Clan will also bring original machinima characters and content to virtual
worlds.
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Sony Online Entertainment Releases Station Exchange Online Gaming Auction Site
White Paper
Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announced the results of a 12-month study of
Station Exchange.
The auction site, which has operated since June 2005 on specific EverQuest II
servers, generated player transactions of $1.87 million during its first year,
according to the White Paper published today. Players have paid as much as
$2,000 for the right to use a single EverQuest II character and one seller
earned $37,435 from 351 auctions, according to the report, entitled Station
Exchange.
http://news.com.com/Real-world+success+with+virtual+goods/2100-1043_3-6156925.html
http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/02/07/soe-whitepaper-on-station-exchange/
http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/02/sony_releases_v.html
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Doppelganger Appoints Silicon Valley Veteran Tim Stevens As New CEO
Doppelganger, Inc., a provider of next generation avatar based virtual worlds
with customers including MTV, Warner Brothers and Interscope, today announced
the appointment of Tim Stevens to the position of President, Chief Executive
Officer and board member. Stevens succeeds the company's founding Chief
Executive Officer, Andrew Littlefield, who remains on as Chief Creative Officer
and board member. Stevens has worked for and advised several emerging private
and public companies over his career. Most recently, he served as a senior
executive of Borland Software Corporation, where he was responsible for
overseeing business services, streamlining and accelerating the customer closure
process, driving sales initiatives, and supporting corporate development.
Trident Capital is an investor in Doppelganger.
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TMP Worldwide
Brings Recruitment to Second Life
TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications, the world's largest independent
recruitment advertising agency, today announced that it will bring new
capabilities to corporate recruitment in 2007 via TMP Island, the company's
space within Second Life. TMP Island is a space where recruiters will be able to
network with prospective candidates, host events, conduct employee
presentations, and even build virtual replicas of their real-world offices for
unprecedented interaction with job seekers. TMP expects a number of events to
take place on TMP Island throughout 2007, beginning in the first half of the
year.
www.tmp.com
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Ty To Introduce Ty
Girlz with 3D Virtual World
Ty's newest creation, Ty Girlz, made its North American at the American
International Toy Fair in New York. This brand new concept in dolls has been
created in conjunction with its own 3-D interactive virtual world and is
designed to appeal to girls of all ages. Ty Girlz will be available in March at
specialty gift retailers. Ty Girlz are 14" soft-sculpt dolls that are dressed in
the latest trend- setting fashions that can be mixed and matched, and each
outfit is completed with complimentary earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Each
Ty Girl comes with an individual scratch-off secret code which enables the
collector to unlock the 3-D virtual world. Here girls can chat, play games,
listen to music and just "hang out" in a forum that's both fun and safe for
kids.
http://www.ty.com
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Numedeon, Inc. Builds NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Micro-World for Kids
Numedeon, Inc., creators of Whyville.net, an educational virtual world for
children and young teenagers, has developed a site for NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) that offers kids a virtual field trip around the famed lab.
JPL's Virtual Field Trip site uses Numedeon's expertise in engaging young
learners, gained through the creation and management of Whyville.net. Visitors
can also collect virtual souvenirs of celestial bodies and share them with one
another. Numedeon's virtual world for tweens, Whyville.net, is approaching 2
million registered users.
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Sparter Launches Trading of Virtual Currencies, Bessemer Venture Partners
Invests
Sparter is a new entry in the real money trading industry that uses an eBay-like
“peer-to-peer” approach for the buying and selling of game gold for World of
Warcraft and other MMORPG online games. The company has received venture capital
funding from Bessemer Venture Partners and its management includes executives
with experience at THQ, Walt Disney, Expedia, Ariba and IGN. Sparter describes
itself as “the world’s first company devoted to enabling global Gamer2Gamer
trading of virtual currencies.”
http://www.virtualeconomies.net/blog/2007/02/14/new-peer-to-peer-system-for-rmt-trading-debuts/
http://sparter.com/web/index.jsp
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Woize
International Enters Virtual World of Second Life
Woize International Ltd, a communications services provider, will supply Second
Life with an interactive advertising service. Woize's service will enable real
life voice-to-voice connections between the residents and merchants of Second
Life. Woize International Ltd provides advanced communications services for
individuals, and next generation marketing and communication tools utilizing the
means of IP-telephony for businesses.
www.woize.com
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Rival Second Life stock
exchanges merge
The Metaverse Stock Exchange is merging with the rival World Stock Exchange,
which was launched by LukeConnell Vandeverre’s Hope Capital last month but has
been beset by technical problems that have frustrated traders and investors.
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/02/13/rival-second-life-stock-exchanges-merge/
http://www.slnn.com/article/merger-marvel/
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Hi-end Second Life profit
growth stalls
Growth in the number of Second Life residents making more than US$5,000 a month
slowed to a crawl in January after the record pace set in the previous month.
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/02/08/hi-end-second-life-profit-growth-stalls/
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Comverse demos Second
Life on mobile phones
Software firm Comverse Technology has created an application that runs Second
Life on Java-enabled mobile phones, along with other software that allows
integrated SMS and instant messaging and the streaming of mobile video directly
in-world.
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/02/08/comverse-demos-second-life-on-mobile-phones/
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US
Presidential Candidate John Edwards Launches Campaign in SL
Edwards becomes first U.S. candidate to launch a full-fledged campaign
headquarters in SL.
http://www.slnn.com/article/edwards08/
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Rivers Run Red Looks to Expand
RRR's client, Adidas, happy with RRR's new San Francisco strategy
http://www.slnn.com/article/moosebutt-adidas/