Amidst accusations of the dumbing-down of American youth, Henry Jenkins stands as a profound defender of popular culture, and a notable commentator on media and video game-related issues.

The Co-Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, author of numerous books including Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture, shared the stage with Steven Johnson, author of Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software, Everything Bad Is Good for You, and other popular books about emerging technology, for the opening remarks at SXSW 2008.

(Full article after the jump)

Virtual Worlds Management, organizers of the second annual Virtual Worlds Conference in New York City, have announced keynote speakers for the event set to take place April 3-4, 2008.

Keynote addresses will be given by: Girls Mattel Brands general manager and SVP Charles Scothon; Barbie Tech senior brand manager Rosie O'Neill; MTV Networks Music & Logo Enterprise Group EVP Jeffrey Yapp; Electric Sheep CEO Sibley Verbeck; Neopets SVP and general manager Kyra Reppen, and IBM Systems and Technology Group VP and associate general counsel Steve Mortinger.

Virtual Worlds Management executive director Christopher Sherman commented, "Virtual worlds are rapidly reshaping the toy, media, and entertainment industries. This year's Virtual Worlds Conference keynoters are individuals who are leading the charge, leveraging existing content, brands and intellectual property to create new, high-margin virtual worlds that excite, entertain and engage audiences."

Interested parties may visit the official site for further information on the upcoming event.

Social media technology and marketing company Wyndstorm Corporation has announced a beta test for a browser-based 3D social entertainment platform called RipLounge it built for Los Angeles-based advertising firm Stable Media. It may look like a world of "nightclubs, beaches, and yachts," but it is to be used as Stable Media's social media marketing network.

It doesn't require any downloads, and users can interact with one another through customized 3D avatars. Wyndstorm says RipLounge will showcase independent music artists, some of whose tracks will be available for download and playback, and advertisers get access to a ready made demographic "scene."

Stable Media co-founder David Abelson commented, "RipLounge was designed to take social networking to the next level. Advertisers can choose how they want to be seen within the community. We're trying to break away from the typical ad placements that users are not engaging in. We want to follow the lead of television and film in their ability to effectively advertise through product placement and content integration which enhances brand exposure while maintaining the integrity of the user experience."

When Linden Lab announced that Philip Rosedale would be stepping down as CEO, they painted an optimistic parting -- the founding visionary now stepping aside to make room for someone with more business experience. Rumors have abounded that Linden may even be set for an IPO.

Worlds in Motion spoke to Multiverse founder Corey Bridges on the heels of the announcement, and though he notes he has no inside information, Bridges sees the Rosedale departure somewhat differently. "Certainly Second Life has, in many ways, plateaued in some of their more important metrics and they're still not revealing a lot of the really key data on user behavior," he told us.

Added Bridges, "I think the fact that they had to push Cory out and then Philip is being excused from the CEO spot... I think that's because the investors have got their eye on their investment and are making hard choices that investors generally do. It's a very common thing for founding staff to be pushed out of the way when things get rocky."

Moreover, Bridges feels the idea of a Linden Lab IPO might be a paper tiger: "They can't go public," he states. "I think they would have difficulty if they tried to go public, because they would have to disclose a lot of the real numbers. They have a huge abandonment rate."

In other words, in Bridges' opinion, Rosedale's resignation is "an acknowledgment that [Second Life] is not suitable for mainstream users and corporate customers -- neither the culture within Second Life, nor the tech underpinning it, is suitable for either."

Bridges also reflected with us on the progression of the Second Life juggernaut. "On the subject of Philip himself, he's a creative, charismatic guy who has done a lot of good for the virtual worlds industry -- as sort of nascent as the virtual worlds industry is," he said.

Continues Bridges, "I think with Second Life, he and Cory Ondrejka built something that got a lot of attention. It didn't ever quite go mainstream, but certainly it got a lot of companies -- big consumer brands, enterprise companies, to sort of examine this new phenomenon of virtual worlds, and got them to dip their toe in the water, which has been great. To some degree, I guess -- to mix water metaphors -- 'the rising tide lifts all boats,' and that's been true for the past couple years."

"That turned a corner last year, however, as the sort of completely wild, inappropriate expectations got way too far past what that particular world could actually deliver," notes Bridges. "What a lot of these big companies have found is that yeah, this is a useful new medium, or at least a method to engage with folks. But then, after they got that experience, they said, 'OK, what we really need is to build a virtual space where we have more control, where there are no flying penises, where our brand is not underneath somebody else's brand.'"

Bridges says Second Life was never built to be a virtual worlds platform -- notably, Multiverse provides one such platform in The Multiverse Network for online worlds. He says that what he sees as a new understanding on the part of companies working in virtual spaces benefits companies like his who now realize that "the industry is bigger than a single destination."

"I do honestly sincerely think we all owe Philip a thank you for bringing attention to the industry. Now it's just time for the real technology to step in," Bridges says.

[At the recent SXSW conference in Austin, a screening was held for a documentary film by Juan Carlos Piniero titled Second Skin, and Jessica Maguire provided Worlds in Motion with this review of the film, which presented the true stories of individuals whose real lives were touched in different ways by their experiences in online worlds.]

The title, Second Skin, seemed to imply this film documentary would address Linden Lab’s Second Life and the general impact of virtual worlds on personal identity. As the lights dimmed, I was excited to explore how interactive media is changing our experience of ourselves. But instead, I just wound up feeling sorry for the losers playing World of Warcraft.

Not that I think WoW players are losers -- I don’t. But if my only contact with them were this film, I would.

As gamers with an avowed fondness for their documentary subjects, how did the filmmakers manage to boil 400 hours of footage and 900 pages of transcripts into such an unsavory treatment of virtual worlds? Thankfully, the film’s press kit offered some answers. One should not have to read the press kit, however, to derive a filmmaker’s vision.

It seems director Juan Carlos Pineiro, was inspired to make the film after witnessing a close friend’s problematic relationship with the online MMO Star Wars Galaxies. Researching the matter, he found several websites bringing self-proclaimed gaming addicts and gamer widows together to share stories and seek help. Having just formed a documentary company with his college roommate and his brother, Pineiro decided they had the makings of a film.

(Full review follows the jump.)

Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group have stressed a continuing focus on virtual worlds, revealing three new products currently in development and promising additional growth for existing worlds Neopets and Nicktropolis.

Nickelodeon also revealed it is adding 1,600 games to their existing portfolio across its network of sites, in addition to other expanded gaming initiatives. It will also add new tools for users to build their own games, and add several demographic-focused sites. Presently, the company's site portfolio is comprised of Nick.com, Nicktropolis, NickArcade, TurboNick, Neopets.com, AddictingGames.com, The-N.com and Shockwave.com.

The company cites comScore statistics that show its sites collectively reach 20 million users per month, already hosting some 5,000 games among them. Ultimately, Nickelodeon says it will broaden its gaming presence to include a focus on multiplayer and community-based games.

Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group president Cyma Zarghami commented, "Our portfolio of digital brands is delivering fun and innovative gaming experiences for all of our audiences. Because our gaming sites complement and serve the same breadth of audiences as each of our linear channels, we are now offering game experiences that range from educational content, virtual worlds to casual games that are both property driven and totally original."

CDC games, which publishes and operates online games in both Asia and North America recently announced early success in North America for the Korean-born online game Lunia, which it began by operating in China. On the heels of that announcement, we spoke to CDC USA general manager Ron Williams about the process of "exporting" a Korean game and operating it in the U.S.

Williams has said that North American Lunia players have averaged more than 205,000 hours altogether, with the average player putting in about six hours per week. Since launch, CDC says registered users have grown 158 percent, with peak and average concurrent user figures up 151 and 140 percent, respectively.

But the East-to-West connection runs in both directions for CDC, who also operates CCP's EVE Online in China. We've spoken to companies like Outspark, who believe the way to energize an entirely new audience of multiplayer online gamers lies in importing the right kinds of titles from Asia. Williams agrees, and he explained to Worlds in Motion some of the very interesting particulars involved.

What's different about marketing a game like Lunia in North America versus in Asia?

Ron Williams: Today the most sophisticated free-to-play microtransaction-supported games are developed in Korea, and almost all of them, including Lunia, were designed to do well in the Korean online game market as well as Greater China, Japan, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The typical MMO games in these markets have a strong focus on close-knit social relationships, and offer a more casual experience for gamers than a lot of MMO games coming out of North America and Europe.

"Casual," in this context, means shorter time frames to reach proficiency in the game, and play sessions in a single engagement with the game can be much shorter while still offering a fun and fulfilling experience. Lunia is one of the few games coming out of Korea that also had a lot of design considerations built in for outside-of-Asia export markets like North America, Europe, and South America.

The arcade action play and the ability to use a game pad heightens the appeal of Lunia to the millions of console players outside of Asia. Lunia also was designed to target the global market of manga readers which is exploding in popularity in North America.

Can you explain some of the decision-making processes involved in successfully rolling out a traditional Asian MMO stateside?

RW: It starts with choosing a good developer to partner with. We look for a developer that really wants to be successful outside of their home markets and understands the need to localize the game and the game's business model for the targeted export market. While this seems straightforward, we have found that, when working with Korean developers in particular, there can often time be a strong resistance to change even small things in the game and changes are slow-coming in general.

We also have found that Korean developers tend to manage the development lifecycle of the game in a manner that is not optimal for internet-delivered content, which is a significantly faster tempo than what is required to be successful in the PC Cafe markets of Asia . North American online games need to be operated in a very on-demand and just-in-time update-driven manner, while the PC Cafe market in Asia is very similar to the enterprise software arena in North America and Europe where things are tightly controlled, risk mitigation is more important than user satisfaction, processes are locked on-rails, and changes are made on slow, predictable schedules.

We also look for games that can be localized with minimum code changes. This means the game has been designed to easily change text, sounds, and character avatar appearance. Most importantly, the gameplay needs to be something we feel will be appealing to North American gamers, and more specifically, gamers that we feel are underserved by the current market offerings. With Lunia, we identified an ideal mix of these things and have found Allm to be a very good developer to partner with.

What kind of audience in North America is interested in a game like Lunia? Is it similar to the Asian user base?

RW: The casual RPG elements in the game combined with the strong solo and small team focus -- which is a hallmark for a lot of Asian MMORPGs -- allows us to reach out to the huge numbers of gamers who do not have 18 hours or more a week to invest in the World of Warcraft and Everquest-type of games which we see as very niche, legacy products that are leaving tens of millions of MMORPG gamers’ needs unfulfilled.

Lunia also has a gentle learning curve, which is designed in Korea 's hyper-competitive market to allow even experienced MMORPG players to quickly test out all of the critical features of a game. This same feature allows Lunia in North America to appeal to millions of first-time MMORPG players and also attracts male and female gamers of all ages.

Lunia is a family-friendly game, which is important as the lack of easy online payment methods for unbanked gamers in North America means that parents get involved paying for the game quite often.

Why did CDC choose to go West with Lunia as opposed to another title in the CDC family? What traits did you think made it a good place to start?

RW: Lunia's developer Allm was running the North America Lunia open beta prior to CDC Games' involvement. Th is made the game attractive on several levels. It had an established user base with thousands of fans, a large portion of the content was already translated to English, its manga appeal is the right product at the right time, and Allm has a strong desire to be successful in North America. It was an easy decision to make.

Conversely, you're now operating CCP's EVE Online in Asia -- were there challenges in moving a Western game East? What were the considerations, and how is the audience receiving it?

RW: We operate EVE Online in the People's Republic of China and are happy with its growing popularity. Translation of a very technical-oriented science fiction game to Chinese is more challenging than a car racing game, but the great thing about a science fiction game is that localization of the game content is minimal; the publisher can take a lot more license in a futuristic setting than a current time or historical one.

In China, EVE Online is a time-based game that requires users to pay for every minute of play time, which is the common method in Asia for the subscription model. The subscription business model in an economy like China has a lot more friction in terms of subscription growth than free to play games, but offers a predictable income stream from game launch and lends itself well to games like EVE Online that do not force players to grind and level their way to advancement that the free to play micro-transaction supported model is designed to facilitate.

Currently, China is building a world-class space industry and promoting it as a matter of national pride, which is very helpful when marketing a space-themed game like EVE Online. The game's expansive science fiction content sets it apart in China, and when you combine this with the game's sophisticated play components, it makes EVE Online one of the best hardcore MMO games in China. Hardcore MMO games are still an emerging market in China, and we believe EVE Online will continue to be a favorite for Chinese players.

[The preceding article originally appeared at Gamasutra sister site Worlds in Motion.]

EVE Online will elect a governing body through an in-world democratic process, called the Council of Stellar Management. Nine representatives and five alternates were elected by popular vote from EVE's player base, which CCP says has reached about 225,000.

The next step is a two-week long election period beginning May 5th and ending May 19th. Each elected council member will serve a six-month term, during which they will discuss issues important to the community and liase with the game's operators at CCP on the future evolution of the world.

Said CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson, "EVE Online has evolved from an MMORPG to a virtual world with a virtual society. It is our role as its caretakers to evolve our approach as well, through economics research, political science or other aspects of operations or development. A democratic election process of representatives is one of mankind's greatest inventions. We are bringing a version of that to EVE now with hope of it allowing us to expand EVE Online in a similar way to what we've seen on Earth."

It's a fascinating move -- with one foot in MMO community management tactics and the other in the social replication attempted in non-gaming virtual worlds, it stands to be a move that benefits not only EVE players, but the game's operators, who will get feedback from community-elected representatives. It's also a furtherance of the viability of online communities -- if an online game can elect a council to deal with matters of gameplay and economics, perhaps virtual worlds can develop complex democracies for self-governance.

Toy maker Spin Master's interactive entertainment subsidiary, Spin Master Studios, is planning to launch a multiplayer online skate park based on the company's Tech Deck brand. The Tech Deck toys are miniature finger-skateboards, and the company also makes various skateboarding figurines and toys.

They're calling the online world "Tech Deck Live," and it's anticipated to launch in Summer 2008. It will be free to play and browser-based, with subscriptions for premium content. Players create a custom skater avatar with gear and skateboards, and can visit various skate park levels with friends for chat, teaming and skate competitions.

Spin Master Studios VP John Reale said, "We’re excited about combining the authenticity and fun of Tech Deck with the immersiveness of virtual worlds, providing a truly unique online experience for kids."

IBM and Forterra Systems are working together on a unified communications solution it's calling "Babel Bridge," with the aim of creating a common collaboration system for U.S. intelligence agencies to use for virtual world communications.

The two companies have entered into an agreement that will match up Forterra's OLIVE platform with IBM's Lotus Sametime software, as well as its Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC2) platform. They're hoping to open windows on the display and discussion of multiple data forms in parallel -- including documents, graphic displays, and human expertise -- via Internet and mobile connectivity.

The two companies note the frustration U.S. government agencies encounter in dealing with multiple procedures and communications systems at once, and these efforts are aimed at enabling them to share information for planning and real-time action in support of U.S. interests such as the War on Terror. IBM and Forterra will be cooperating with MI5, the FBI and local ground operatives, who are already using OLIVE's virtual reality capabilities to practice anti-terror operations.

Under the terms of the agreement, Forterra will deliver plug-ins to the Lotus Sametime platform and integration to the IBM Lotus Notes calendar that allow users to access, schedule and launch meetings in the virtual world. Forterra will also embed services like presence and location information, document, whiteboard, and application sharing from the Lotus Sametime platform into the virtual world with the goal of enabling faster collaboration and information sharing.

Bruce Morse, VP of IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration, commented, "The true value of UC2 is realized when multiple collaboration capabilities are well integrated within a business task or process — like bringing several organizations together to share, review, approve and take immediate actions for national security. Managing communication and collaboration effectively within business processes can make all the difference between the success and failure of critical projects."