COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWS This week's cover story on Pee-wee Herman; this week's Stage feature on An Oak TreeNEW REVIEW...

Immersive education is about immersing students in a rich, complex curriculum that allows them to learn by participating in a wide range of engaging activities. Of course, immersive education doesn't have to be about technology! ...

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver. At the end of January, Project Wonderland development lead Nicole Yankelovich... This feed contains blog posts by ThinkBalm industry analysts Erica Driver and Sam Driver, who cover work-related use of the ...

3D immersive education is a virtual reality and game-based learning method. It combines interactive 3D graphics, game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat, Web cameras and rich digital media with collaborative online ...

Hats off to the Project Wonderland developers. Despite Oracle laying them off, the team will continue work on Project Wonderland. According to the project blog the core group behind the 3D virtual world toolkit believes in the open ...

From OStatic blogs Hats off to the Project Wonderland developers. Despite Oracle laying them off, the team will continue work on Project Wonderland. According.

“We found out on Friday that development resources are no longer being applied to Project Wonderland,” said Nicole Yankelovich, principal investigator of the Collaborative Environments program at Sun Labs, in an announcement Saturday. ...

Project Wonderland developers say they will continue working on the ...

Oracle is pulling out development resources from Project Wonderland, the open-source virtual world platform originally supported by Sun Microsystems. Oracle's acquisition of Sun for $7.4 billion came into effect last Wednesday; ...

There will be no more development resources given to Sun Microsystems' Java-based platform for developing 3-D virtual worlds. The project's official blog expresses disappointment - Page 1.

2010 was our most productive Engage! Conference and Expo ever, providing attendees with a range of new opportunities.  There were a lot of firsts with this particular show, primarily our co-location with Toy Fair.  Conference recordings (MP3 audio files) are now online.  They can't provide you the full value of being there of course but they provide some great insight. (Photo: Will Wright delivering his opening keynote address)

Welcome to the Virtual Worlds News Wrap-Up for the week of February 5, 2010. The Wrap-Up is where VWN spotlights stories that we didn't get to cover individually, but still make for interesting reading about the virtual worlds industry.

• Disney's World of Cars Online is moving to open beta, reports Massively. 
• Raph Koster, of the late Metaplace, opines that while virtual worlds are changing and games like Farmville are growing while There.com is shutting down, it doesn't mean that virtual worlds are over, but they won't look like what we've been working on. More info at RaphKoster.com.
• But with plenty of worlds popping up on Facebook, Hi5 wants to get in on the action. This week it announced support for Facebook-compatible APIs. 
• With There.com going the way of the Dodo, Frenzoo is one of several worlds trying to pick up the newly homeless creator community as well as general users with specials to entice them to join through March 31. More info at Frenzoo.
• The Sun--so take it with a grain of salt--is reporting that a Korean couple let their child starve to death while raising a virtual toddler in the game, Prius. The paper compares Prius to Second Life offhandedly, so there may be more hubub to come. 

Welcome to the Virtual Worlds News Wrap-Up for the week of February 5, 2010. The Wrap-Up is where VWN spotlights stories that we didn't get to cover individually, but still make for interesting reading about the virtual worlds industry. Disney's... Joey Seiler

China-based Radiance Digital Entertainment announced today that it will be releasing its Beach Volleyball Online virtual world in May. Omniverse Games will oversee operations here in North America and provide marketing and customer support. Radiance describes its free-to-play volleyball world as allowing users to compete in virtual beach volleyball, but go beyond the game and explore a full virtual world. It sounds like Football Superstars in that the attraction and governing theme is the sport, but there's more to the activity than just competition.

"We are pleased with the support and dedication Omniverse Games has shown during the localization phase of development, and we are looking forward to seeing these games make a splash in North America" says Montgomery Singman, CEO of Radiance Digital Entertainment.

China-based Radiance Digital Entertainment announced today that it will be releasing its Beach Volleyball Online virtual world in May. Omniverse Games will oversee operations here in North America and provide marketing and customer support. Radiance describes its free-to-play volleyball world... Joey Seiler

BigWorld Technologies announced today the roll out of three new pricing structures for independent and small development studios and academics looking to experiment with virtual worlds or MMOs. For as low as $299 a year, casual developers and academics can create their own worlds based on the BigWorld development platform.

BigWorld Indie and Academic differ only in licensing terms, but otherwise allow users to purchase, for $299 a year, the ability to install copy-protected tools on 25 machines and create a world for up to 10,000 subscribers. BigWorld Indie Source runs $2,999 annually, but includes source code for the client and tools as well as the ability to install plugins.

“This announcement comes as a bona fide boon for students, indie and prototype developers who have previously been unable to gain access to BigWorld’s premier, complete and proven MMOG solution," commented John De Margheriti, CEO, BigWorld. “Many developers have been placing solutions for Indies and making available prototype builds for emerging game companies for quite some time. BigWorld has kept its focus on the fully commercial marketplace and to date, there are over 40 commercial licenses in development or launched on BigWorld Technology. We are now well positioned to expand our product offerings to include academic institutions and mod and indie developers, who are in our belief, stronger and more capable than ever to take advantage of virtual or graphical social worlds and MMOs."

You can find a full list of what comes with each package here.

BigWorld Technologies announced today the roll out of three new pricing structures for independent and small development studios and academics looking to experiment with virtual worlds or MMOs. For as low as $299 a year, casual developers and academics can... Joey Seiler

Sony announced today that its casual MMO, Free Realms, had registered over 9 million users. That's up from the 8 million the company announced at the beginning of February. As a bit of history, Free Realms registered over 1 million users in its first 17 days, 2 million within its first month, and over 5 million by September.

“With Free Realms, we’ve been able to reflect the needs and wants of our players by keenly listening to their suggestions and feedback,” said John Smedley, president of SOE. “We believe the persistent exercise of capturing in-game research inside Free Realms has been a huge contributing factor as to why we’ve attracted over nine million players in less than a year. It truly helps us give our players a game where they can do and be whatever they want.”

Sony announced today that its casual MMO, Free Realms, had registered over 9 million users. That's up from the 8 million the company announced at the beginning of February. As a bit of history, Free Realms registered over 1 million... Joey Seiler

Comdex ran as a popular computer trade show in Las Vegas from 1979 to 2003. Since then Comdex has been sold around and existed as a website rather than a conference. Now Comdex is coming back to a virtual Las Vegas. From November 16-17, 2010, Comdex will reopen with an environment created by UBM Studios.  

The updated virtual expo will include:

• A Grand Hall of Masters to showcase the events keynote speakers.
• A Conference Hall offering technical, product, channel and business training for the sellers of technology through a wealth of content and conference tracks. Everything Channel journalists and analysts as well as technology industry leaders will present sessions.
• An Exhibit Hall for booths and pavilions where technology vendors can meet with technology sellers to communicate strategies, product value and programs.
• Hospitality Suites for private meetings, briefings and cocktail parties with customers, partners and media.
• A Media Room for registered journalists and industry analysts.
• A CRN Test Center with live reviews and demos of the industry’s most compelling and leading-edge technology solutions.

In other words, Comdex Virtual will offer all the aspects of a physical expo, but without the travel costs or expense of renting a venue.

“The technology sales channel drives two-thirds of technology sales worldwide,” said Robert Faletra, CEO, Everything Channel. “We live in a globally connected world and a virtual COMDEX gives us the ability to connect this powerful market which is now untapped. When COMDEX first launched it was positioned as a show for the technology sales channel, we are pleased to bring it back to its initial mission.”