China Declares: Game Money Can't Be Spent Outside the Game

This blew my mind the other day.

CNN reports that China has made a decision that all virtual currencies can not be used for any purpose outside of purchasing virtual goods.

An Information Week article came out two days prior, but was more ambiguous whether sale of virtual money for real money was explicitly banned.

What blows my mind on a smaller scale is that I waited two days before continuing to write this blog post, and no other news outlets, including virtual-world specific blogs and website, seem to care.

If what CNN is reporting is accurate, then the following are true:
- While it may be tough to crack down on independent L$ sales, China will certainly press Linden Lab to stop facilitating the sale of L$ for real money for Chinese accounts.
- Gold farming is effectively illegal. Then again, so is copyright theft, but that's rampant in China, too. (Somehow I'm dubious that the government in China will clamp down on its gold-farmers, who effectively break the rules of most MMOGs to bring money into their country. )
- Residents of China will not be able to use virtual money to buy real life goods.
- Effectively, the rule amounts to "This is play money, and only for play."

Side note: I'm curious if China will clamp down on its native HiPiHi, the blatant Second Life ripoff that I'm shocked that has not been sued out of existence for lifting the entire look and feel of the interface and 3-D graphics, err, I mean China's glorious shiny happy virtual world.

Inevitability

CNN interviewed Edward Castronova, who notes:
"These virtual currencies, as they grow, are going to become competitors to real-world currencies -- and apparently that's what happening in China."

And I agree. Whether virtual currencies will be cracked down upon has been a quiet topic of discussion among us developers and platform creators for years, now. A couple years ago, we saw the banning of gambling within Second Life after recommendations from the FBI. Governments are starting to get keen on the idea that there's real value behind virtual economies. And not surprisingly, the L$ economy has been far more stable than the US dollar.

So, it's rather inevitable that we will see more rulings like this in more countries. I think it is a little bit sad that China was tech-savvy enough to enact this law before Western countries, but on the other hand, they are way more about controlling their Internet usage of its citizens, so I am not that surprised. But hopefully before other governments wake up and pass similar rulings, virtual world platform companies like Linden Lab will have made back-up plans - partnerships with PayPal-like systems, etc. Or perhaps a government like the USA will actively engage the platform creators in the discussion of how to best implement regulations. I can hope, right?

Second Life Solution Provider Conference: Lots of Great Features

... and I can't talk about them yet. Solution Provider Conference attendees are under NDA. Inevitably, it will be leaked, and I'll talk about them once they're out there, but suffice it to say -

A LOT of long-asked simple features are being implemented in new versions of the Second Life browser and into next year. There's also really smart changes to the Second Life website coming.

One thing that is safe to say is that Linden Lab's top priority right now is new user experience. That's right on the money, considering high attrition rates and the learning curve of Second Life. That's always the thing I hear most frequently about why people don't go to / stay in Second Life.

So... for now, keep your eyes peeled and ears open for more from Linden Lab. Until then, I'll have to blog about different topics. :)

Augmented Reality Uses: A Brief Overview

Let's cut to the chase. This is what nVidia's working on for graphics-enabled phones (iPhone, Blackberry, etc):

Cool, eh?

What's cooler is the Postal Service has a released augmented reality app for you to estimate box sizes for your shipping needs, by projecting semi-transparent boxes on top of images of your real items.




Augmented Reality is, naturally, perfect for virtual worlds. Here's a screen-shot of the Popcha AR demo. They did a Magic 8-Ball type setup where you hold up a piece of paper with an icon on it, and it places a box on the screen. When you shake the paper, the box spins and gives you the answer to your question.

Say, will Augmented Reality catch on big time?



Another Augmented Reality device that my company, Involve, is exploring is CamSpace. This lets you control your program using basic shapes that you hold up - instant driving wheel, or perhaps avatar control.

And ultimately, that's what Augmented Reality is best at: control. Imagine being able to visualize an entire sim based on a map printed out on a piece of paper, and navigate it with a wireless device or a phone? Imagine mapping the real world interactive instead of to a screen, but directly inside a virtual world? Have real people walk around a virtual space? Have meetings where half the people sitting down are avatars, half meat-bodies?

There's a lot of potential, but right now, barely any practical applications actually released outside of entertaining 1-minute interactions and games. That's why the Postal Service application is so important.

I'll continue to keep my eye on Augmented Reality applications and keep you, my loyal reader, informed.