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Residents of the Second Life community recently announced their intentions to host the first annual Second Life Community Convention. Completely organized by users, the event will include various demos, discussions, and presentations concerning Second Life and The Metaverse.

Some of the panels include presentations by Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Labs, Mark Wallace, reporter for the NY Times, and various well-known Second Life residents, including Anshe Chung, Fizik Baskerville, and Nephilaine Protagonist.

The event will also allow for players not able to physically be in the area to attend as well:

A unique aspect of the SLCC will be the ability for Residents to participate in the event regardless of their location. This is facilitated by the live, mixed-reality simulcast from New York Law School into a virtual recreation of the convention in Second Life. Likewise, video from the virtual convention will be streamed live to New York Law School for an interactive experience with a dynamic virtual world.

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SLCC

The Apple Developer Connection has teamed with Safari Books Online to provide developers just that: Instant access to the information they need. Safari Books Online, a joint venture between O'Reilly Media, Inc. and The Pearson Technology Group, is the premier provider of Web-based technical documentation. Beginning today, ADC members can now subscribe to the brand new ADC Bookshelf powered by Safari Books Online service for instant online access to a customized collection of nearly 1,000 Open Source and Mac-oriented titles from O'Reilly Media, Peachpit Press, Prentice Hall, Addison Wesley, and other technical publishers. Also effective immediately, developers can even test drive the ADC Bookshelf with a two-week complimentary subscription.

How ADC Bookshelf Works
For an inexpensive monthly subscription fee, developers can search or browse the entire ADC Bookshelf collection — which includes top-rated programmer books on Mac OS X, Cocoa, Java, Perl, PHP, MySQL and other topics — and add up to 10 books to their personalized ADC Bookshelf. Once on their bookshelf, the books are available to the developer whenever needed — all ten for less than the typical price of a single book at a bookstore. Developers can search the books, add notes and bookmarks, and download a limited number of chapters in PDF format. Developers can even swap old books on their bookshelf for new books as information needs change — the only rule is that a given book stay on a the bookshelf for 30 days.

How ADC Bookshelf Works
Developers interested in more information regarding the new ADC Bookshelf, as well as to take it for a two-week complimentary test drive, follow the link below.

ADC Bookshelf

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Slashdot recently posted Blizzard's answers to questions posed by readers of Slashdot about the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft. The questions cover a wide range, even touching on Blizzard's commitment to supporting the Mac platform.

Question-
Blizzard is one of the few companies that distribues Windows and Mac games together on the same media. Going further, WoW allows Windows and Mac users to play together on the same realms, something which isn't done in other MMORPGS. What kind of hurdles did you have to overcome to get both Windows and Mac versions to co-exist and have you had to make any sacrifices because you were only able to do something on one platfrom and not both?

Response -
There was never any question that World of Warcraft would be co-developed for Windows and Mac users. Blizzard has always supported the Mac platform; you'll notice that even as far back as Warcraft II and Diablo we were there supporting Apple. However, with World of Warcraft, we wanted to improve that relationship further and shoot for a simultaneous release on both platforms. All of us are thrilled that we succeeded in that respect, and we're sure Mac users are happy as well. Both games are equal in every respect; there weren't any features in one version that didn't make it into the other.

Slashdot: WoW Q&A

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Blizzard announced yesterday that multi-platinum recording artists The Offspring will headline the closing-night concert at the company's upcoming BlizzCon inaugural game festival. With over 32 million records sold and seven albums, The Offspring are one of the most prolific and successful rock bands in the world. Blizzard's president and cofounder, Mike Morhaime, said he was happy to have the band as part of BlizzCon.

"BlizzCon will be an epic celebration of gaming culture, so we wanted to book a truly epic band for this event," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're especially excited that The Offspring will help us make this a memorable occasion for our players, and we look forward to having the band bring BlizzCon to a fitting close."

BlizzCon

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George Lucas, the acclaimed film director and founder of LucasArts, was named by the Entertainment Software Association as the recipient for this year's Champion Award for his services and contributions to the industry. The award will be presented to Lucas during the Nite to Unite Kids charity in October.

“Though George Lucas has long been recognized for his tremendous contributions to the world of film, he has also been a leader in the video game business, creating amazing game experiences for players around the globe through one of the industry’s most successful companies," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. "Our industry and its consumers have benefited greatly from Mr. Lucas’ work over the years, and we are proud to recognize him as this year’s ‘Champion’ honoree.”

George Lucas Honored By Gaming Industry

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Gamasutra has posted an extensive college paper regarding the popular America's Army game. The paper covers a wide range of topics from America's Army as a first person shooter to saving "billions" in military marketing and even Digital l33t skillz f0r the U$ @RmY. In addition, the paper anaylyzes the beginnings of the game, America's Army as an experimental tool, propaganda and much more.

America's Army is a logical outcome of the expanding military-entertainment complex and signals the successful linking of entertainment and defence. The U.S. army is just one of many institutions using games to promote its services. However, unlike many other companies thus far, the Army can claim that it has been very successful at it. Why it became such a success is only part of the question, but its implications are equally important.

Master Thesis: Changing the Rules of Engagement

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1up recently posted a preview of Stubbs the Zombie, developed by Wideload Games. Stubbs, created by a few ex-Bungie employees, puts players in control of a zombie horde, with the sole purpose of consuming flesh. From the 1up interview:

Co-op is set up in a simple fashion. One player takes control of Stubbs, while the other controls Grubbs -- a palette-swapped fellow who looks an awful lot like the star of the game. Both characters share the same attacks and controls, only really differing in their names and visual appearance. Utilizing the two, players will jump into a split-screen format and take on levels from Stubbs' single-player game.

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1up Article - Stubbs Preview

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