This week, we cover the final installment of our summarized history of Second Life and Linden Lab (check out the first installment or the second, if you missed them). It's only possible to cover a tiny fraction of the events that took place in the space we have here, but the highlights paint an interesting picture.

We'll be working our way from 2008 to June 2010, and looking at what future directions we expect from there.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, 2008-2010 and beyond

The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, 2008-2010 and beyond originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week, we cover the second installment of our summarized history of Second Life and Linden Lab (or check out part one, if you missed it). From 2005, there's an impossible amount of material to cover, but there are some interesting stories lurking among it all.

Join us as we work our way through some of the interesting highlights from 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, the middle years

The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, the middle years originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Luke Connell's 'fictional' stock exchange, the World Stock Exchange (or WSE) has abandoned the use of Linden Dollars for reasons which seem a little confused and unclear other than apparently fear, uncertainty and doubt. The exchange has been closed for some time for a software refit that seems to be taking a lot longer than anyone expected.

If you had Linden Dollar balances with the WSE - well, tough. They've been converted to World Internet Currency (WIC) and you can try to cash them out for some value (that is if people want to spend real money on valueless game-tokens) - when the WSE goes live again (a date that is, as yet unclear. Maybe March. Maybe not).

But since Connell asserts that all the businesses, money, shares and all that that are involved are just role-playing, that's no loss to anyone at all, right?

WSE abandons Linden Dollars originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A recurring question, amid the forest of what might be legitimate failures and mismanaged enterprises or might just be scams, is just how legal are the banks and stock exchanges that operate alongside and inside various MMOs and Virtual Worlds such as Second Life.

As seems to be usual with legal matters, a simple question doesn't yield a simple answer.

Continue reading How legal are virtual banks and stock exchanges?

How legal are virtual banks and stock exchanges? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.