State Of Play Conference Announces Virtual Spaces Winner

As part of the third annual State of Play conference on law, video games and virtual worlds, held at the New York Law School last weekend, the judges of the Virtual Public Space Design Competition have announced the winners of the contest, which invited participants to submit their best examples of public spaces and structures created for virtual worlds. The first-place winner was Relay for Life, submitted by Randal Moss of the American Cancer Society Futuring and Innovation Center, Keith Morris, and Jerry Paffendorf, and created in Linden Labs' 'virtual world' MMO game Second Life, which allows extensive construction of player-devised assets on in-game servers, which are then viewable and interactable with by all Second Life players. The public space consisted of an elevated circular track where a 24-hour virtual walkathon to raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society took place. The track also encompassed a disco, an amphitheater, a silent auction park, a small yacht club, and a colossal main stage that hosted a virtual-world beauty pageant. “We were delighted to receive 26 submissions representing an extremely wide diversity of concepts and interpretations of public space,” said New York Law School Professor Beth Noveck, director of the school’s Institute for Information Law and Policy and founder of the State of Play conference. More information on the State of Play design competition can be found at the official results page, and Gamasutra will have a full write-up covering State of Play in the near future.