The Blue Book a Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds

The Blue Book A Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds

The Association of Virtual Worlds Blue Book A Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds

The Blue Book

A Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds and Social Networks

Guide Listings Brief Descriptions Links Categories

Published by

The Association of Virtual Worlds

7th Edition November 2010

www.AssociationOfVirtualWorlds.com

The Team

Edita Kaye Founder & Publisher

Edita Kaye is a new kind of author development expert. She introduced this agency to two outstanding authors in just a few months that we subsequently took to strong six figure deals with major publishing houses. Not only does she spot talent and potential but she helps develop projects, makes the right introductions and has a keen sense of contemporary book marketing. It is a pleasure working with her and with the talented writers she brings to us. Larry Kirshbaum, Founder LJK Literary Agency, NYC, Formerly Chairman Warner Books

Author: She is the award-winning author of sixteen books including The Fountain of Youth; The Anti-Aging Weight Loss Program, Bone Builders: The Complete Low fat Cookbook Plus Calcium and The Diet a novel which rose to #1 on Amazon. She has also written The Blue Book: Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds, The Green Book: Enterprise Guide to Virtual Worlds as well as strategic marketing books for professionals and trainers including Marketing to the Senior Market, 101 Ways To Get And Keep New Patients, and The Superstar Doctor: Identifying, Grooming, & Promoting the Patient-Generating Physician. Several of her books were selected by the Doubleday Book Club, The Literary Guild, and The Christian Book Club.

Business Builder: She built a $6.5 million internet diet and weight loss business in just 30-monthswith 150,000 customers through a unique combination of product and marketing strategies

Publisher: Kaye packaged not only her own titles but others and secured six and seven figure deals. She also negotiated sales of thousands of books to major national retailer such as Sam’s Club

TV Producer & Host: She was the executive producer and host of her own national PBS series, The Fountain of Youth dedicated to helping baby boomers live healthier, happier, longer lives.

Founder: She is the founder of the Association of Virtual Worlds, one of the leading groups of business and professional leaders in the cutting edge industry of the next generation of the Internet. In addition she was the Founder of the Women’s Conference Institute and co-founder of The Canadian Stress Institute. She launched The Mature Market Report.

Media Expert: Edita has appeared on countless Network and Cable Television programs, as well as being a frequent guest on a wide variety of radio shows. Edita or her work have also appeared in magazines and newspapers including; The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, Woman's World Magazine, Parade, Redbook, Ladies' Home Journal, Glamour, Essence, and First For Women. She has also presented on QVC in a ‘sold out’ show.

Spokesperson: Edita served as a spokesperson for L’Oreal.

Motivational Speaker & Coach: She inspires, motivates, coaches and trains through programs for both large and small audiences, corporations and individuals including Johnson & Johnson, The American Marketing Association and The Association of Women Executives to name a few.

Award Winner: She won Honorable Mention in the Writer’s Digest 2000 National Self-Published Book Award and has received Certificates of Appreciation from The American Marketing Association Southern California, The International Association of Business Communicators NYC and the American Business Women’s Association. She has been a member of the American College of Healthcare Marketing

Barbara L. Ciaramitaro, Ph.D. Editorial Directory

Barbara L. Ciaramitaro is an assistant professor with the College of Business at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on a variety of topics including information security, business intelligence, social media and virtual worlds, and project management. Dr. Ciaramitaro entered the academic world after 30 years of experience in business including 10 years as an executive with General Motors where she participated as co-inventor on four patents related to a proprietary software development effort. Prior to General Motors, Dr. Ciaramitaro was employed as Director of Technology at two of the largest law firms in the State of Michigan. Dr. Ciaramitaro holds a Ph.D. from Nova Southeastern University in Information Systems with a graduate certificate in Information Security; a M.S. from Central Michigan University in Software Engineering Administration; and a B.A. in Psychology from Wayne State University. She is currently working on earning her MBA degree from Ferris State University. Dr. Ciaramitaro has earned several professional certifications including the CISSP (Certified Information System Security Professional), CSSLP (Certified Software System Lifecycle Professional) and PMP (Project Management Professional). Dr. Ciaramitaro is a frequent speaker and author on topics including social media, virtual worlds, and privacy. She edited the book and authored chapters in Virtual Worlds and E-Commerce: Technologies and Applications for Building Customer Relationships published by IGI Global in August 2010. She is currently editing the book and authoring chapters for Mobile Technology Consumption: Opportunities and Challenges to be published by IGI Global in 2011. During her employment as Director of Technology, she co-authored Excellence in Action which detailed a total quality initiative she coordinated at a prestigious law firm in Michigan. Currently, she is also editor for the Virtual World Directories published by the Association of Virtual Worlds. She is an active member of several professional organizations including the Association of Virtual Worlds, Project Management Institute, ISACA, ISC2 and IEEE.

Welcome

If you are a newbie (a newcomer) to virtual worlds, this book will open up the metaverse and show you the exciting possibilities which are just a click away on your own computer. You’ll find a wide variety of virtual spaces, environments, and playgrounds from the very sophisticated, to the quick and simple, just waiting for you to explore.

If you are a pro and long time fan of virtual worlds this book will give you a kind of “one stop shopping” reference to the worlds that are already live and those that are still in the planning and development stages.

If you are a business or an organization this book will guide you to the many possible platforms available to bring the virtual enterprise into your own organization.

But above all this book was put together to showcase the amazing worlds already in existence— over 300—for your entertainment, education, and even healing, as well as socializing, communication and play.

We hope you find your journey of exploration into virtual worlds rewarding.

Other Titles

Edita Kaye Founder www.TheAssociationofVirtualWorlds.com

Newbie Glossary

AVATAR

“Avatar” comes from Hindu mythology and means the incarnation of a divine being. But in the virtual world an avatar is an icon or representation of a user. So if Sally, Joe and Henry want to get inside a virtual world they first have to create avatars of themselves and those avatars would have virtual world passes.

CYBERSPACE

The word was invented by sci-fi writer William Gibson in a 1982 story he called Burning Chrome. By the 1990s it became another word for “Internet” and “Web”. So if you’ve been on the Internet or if you’ve surfed the web…guess what…you’ve been in cyberspace.

METAVERSE

The Metaverse started as a fictional 3D world of avatars created by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 sci-fi novel, Snow Crash. Today, many of my friends use the world “metaverse” when they mean virtual worlds, as opposed to universe, or the real world.

MMORPG

MMORPG stands for “massively multiplayer online role playing game”. MMORPGs allow large numbers of players to interact with each other, go on quests, do battle, even live, work and shop in a fictional virtual world. The term was coined by Richard Garriott the creator of Ultima Online.

SOCIAL NETWORK

Social Networks are sites where individuals and communities can discuss, communicate, collaborate and post information.

VIRTUAL WORLD

A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment, says Wikipedia. Remember the book The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis? These kids opened the wardrobe and found themselves in a whole other world called Narnia. Well, you could think of a computer as a 21st century “wardrobe” and virtual worlds as the “Narnia’s” of today. Or how about this way to think about virtual worlds? Web 1.0 the first generation of the Internet was like looking at a picture of a store window. In the second generation of the Internet, Web 2.0, the picture is gone, instead there is the actual window filled objects. Now here is the third generation of the Internet—the virtual web—where you are no longer standing outside the window looking in— but you are now inside, actually inside, the store. Everything is three dimensional—you can touch everything—try everything on—that’s the next big thing on the Internet and it’s here!

Read ME First!

The Categories

The Association of Virtual Worlds with this Blue Book, strives to offer a useful resource for anyone interested in virtual worlds. To organize this resource, we have used some commonly used terms, including social network, MMORPG, and virtual world. Clearly, in this nascent space, there is not always complete agreement concerning the definitions of each of these terms. Accordingly, we have, where possible, adopted the characterization of the website, network, game, or virtual world, made by the owner. Virtual worlds of course, find their roots in games and, now, MMORPGs. As a result the number of virtual worlds in games is huge. This compilation strives to provide a listing of virtual worlds but not necessarily an exhaustive list of virtual worlds for all games. We have listed some of the most popular games for reference. There is no question that some will dispute certain characterizations, and we welcome a rigorous debate on the terms. Suffice to say, we have done our best in an emerging field, with a lot of data, in the interests of outreach and education.