Category Archives: Virtual Worlds

It’s Getting Hard to Tell

Posted on January 20, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Real life or Second Life? It's getting hard to tell. Consider this video advertising the personal blimp.

blimp.jpg

Can you tell which it is? (More about the personal blimp on its homepage.)

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology, Virtual Worlds | 1 Comment

Six! Yes, Six New Lightbulb Jokes

Posted on December 20, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

I’m sorry, but I love lightbulb jokes. And it’s a rare day indeed that I find SIX new ones. But thanks to Games * Design * Art * Culture, I learn how Game Developers Change Light Bulbs.

Sample:

Q: How many art directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Does it have to be a light bulb?

Posted in Completely Different, Virtual Worlds | 1 Comment

Dumb Move

Posted on May 19, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Dan Hunter posts on (confused) threats he’s received from the proprietor of an online game whose press releases Dan had the temerity to suggest might be slightly inflated.

As one of the commentators to his post noted, sending this sort of threat to a tenured law professor and/or his Dean, is “like playing chicken with a freight train.”

(Incidentally, guys, oral defamation is slander, written defamation is libel. Get your threats right.)

Posted in Virtual Worlds | Comments Off on Dumb Move

Not Quite Fit For Class Time

Posted on January 23, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

People who know me will attest that when the occasion warrants, and alas perhaps even when it does not, I am not notably squeamish about offending people. It may surprise them, therefore, to learn that there is one place where I am actually very squeamish about giving offense if it can be avoided: in the classroom. My feeling is that I have a somewhat captive audience, and that therefore I should be as careful as I can be to discuss potentially disturbing issues — e.g. the control of pornography on the Internet — in a somewhat clinical and even euphemistic manner. We may talk about the issues, but, for example, I certainly don’t think we need in-class demos of how porn sites might trick people into going there with deceptively named URLs.

All of which is preface to why I suppose I probably won’t be playing The Internet is for porn, a funny bit of World of Warcraft machinima, to my Internet Law class next year. (Warning: contains no nudity and only one offensive image.) And probably not even to the Virtual Worlds seminar (if in fact we get it organized). Which is maybe a pity.

Posted in Completely Different, Internet, Virtual Worlds | 1 Comment

Meta-blogging State of Play III

Posted on October 10, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

There was a lot less on the blogs about the conference than I expected. The Terra Novans, for example, were (like me) too busy attending to write about it. Perhaps that is the sign of a really good conference.

Urs Gasser had thorough pre-conference thoughts. James Taylor Lewis Grimmelmann, The State of Play is Strong, best captures the flavor of the event, although Community Mobilization, hightlights another important aspect. Torill Mortsen reports on the debate I participated in,

And the audience like this debate. This is the topic that has this audience rocking, to the point that they actually line up in front of the microphone in order to ask questions or participate in the discussion. This is, if nothing else, good academic/intellectual theatre!

Exactly.

Posted in Talks & Conferences, Virtual Worlds | 1 Comment

Summing Up ‘The Great Debate’ at State of Play III

Posted on October 10, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The so-called ‘Great Debate’ at State of Play III asked two stellar teams to debate the following proposition:

A legal system based on geography, territory and physical force is inappropriate for Virtual Worlds

I had the uncomfortable task of summing and declaring a winner.

[This is the second of three posts on State of Play III conference. The first was my notes from the ‘The Great Debate’ at State of Play III, with an outline of what the panelists said. The third post will be about the conference more generally.]

Continue reading →

Posted in Talks & Conferences, Virtual Worlds | 1 Comment