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Twinity
''Twinity'' is a 3D computer graphics, 3D online virtual world. Initially developed by Metaversum GmbH, it is currently held by ExitReality. The game offers its population, called Twinizens, to navigate around virtual (historical) versions of real-world cities, also called a mirror world or a Metaverse. A Software release life cycle#Beta, public beta began in September 2008, with the release of the first virtual city, Berlin, which later was followed by Singapore, London, Miami and New York City, New York. ''Twinity'' is built on BigWorld, BigWorld Technology and its economy is based on a free-to-play model. ''Twinity'' is the first 3D online virtual world to incorporate true-to-scale replicas of large cities from all over the world. However, the company has recently begun to shift the focus away from a mirror world towards a more fantasy-oriented environment with locations like the Isle of Palmadora. In this respect, ''Twinity'' seems to be moving towards a Second Life-like worl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaversum GmbH
Metaversum GmbH was a Berlin-based startup company behind the 3D virtual world Twinity. The company was founded in July 2006, and was led by CEO Jochen Hummel, CMO Mirko Caspar and CTO Christian von Hardenberg. In 2010, the company had offices in Berlin, Kyiv and Singapore and employed around 80 people. In 2012, after problems and declining usage at Twinity, Metaversum was acquired by the internet company ExitReality. Products and vision Metaversum was known for developing and operating the 3D mirror world Twinity as well as the former urban style sharing social network Yumondo. The vision behind the main product Twinity had been to build realistic replicas of cities in 3D. Berlin, Singapore, London, Miami and New York City were launched in Twinity. Twinity members can create personal avatars, explore real cities virtually, move into a 3D home, or chat with a friend. Metaversum was financially provided by international venture capitalists and Balderton Capital, formerly Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Life
''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for personal computers by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab, it launched on June 23, 2003 and saw rapid growth for some years; in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users. Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017, the active user count had fallen to "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, ''Second Life'' is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing game, massively multiplayer online role-playing video games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective." The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own Client (computing), client software or via alternative third-party viewers. ''Second Life'' users, also called 'r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machinima
Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, machinima is the art of making Animation, animated narrative films from computer graphics, most commonly using the same Game engine, engines used by Video game, video games. Machinima-based artists, sometimes called Machinimists or Machinimators, are often fan laborers, by virtue of their re-use of copyrighted materials (see below). Machinima offers to provide an archive of gaming performance and access to the look and feel of software and hardware that may already have become obsolete or even unavailable. For game studies, "Machinima's gestures grant access to gaming's historical conditions of possibility and how machinima offers links to a comparative horizon that informs, changes, and fully participates in videogame culture." The practic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
User-generated Content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), emerged from the rise of web services which allow a system's User (computing), users to create Content (media), content, such as images, videos, audio, text, testimonials, and software (e.g. Video game modding, video game mods) and interact with other User (computing), users. Online News aggregator, content aggregation platforms such as social media, discussion forums and wikis by their interactive and social nature, no longer produce multimedia content but provide tools to produce, collaborate, and share a variety of content, which can affect the attitudes and behaviors of the audience in various aspects. This transforms the role of consumers from passive spectators to active participants. User-generated content is used for a wide range of applications, including problem processing, news, entertainment, customer engagement, advertising, gossip, research and more. It is an example of the democratiz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mopay
Boku, Inc. is a mobile payments company that allows businesses to collect online payments through both carrier billing and mobile wallets, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Boku utilizes mobile network operator (carrier) data for consumers online. Boku operates in over 90 countries globally, offering a bank-grade payment system. In 2020, Boku processed over one billion billable transactions and processed over $7 billion in payments volume. History Boku was founded in 2009 by Mark Britto, Erich Ringewald and Ron Hirson using the combined assets of Mobillcash Ltd. and Paymo, Inc. Boku raised a $13 million Series A investment from Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures and Benchmark. A year later, in 2010 Boku raised an additional US$25 million Series C investment, led by DAG Ventures. In 2012, Boku raised another US$35 million, Series C investment led by NEA and existing venture capital investors. In 2016, Boku again raised an additional US$13.75 million led by a conso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alternative to traditional Banknote, paper methods such as cheque, checks and money orders. The company operates as a payment processor for online vendors, auction sites and many other commercial and company users, for which it charges an international addition bank charges fee. Established in 1998 as Confinity, PayPal went public through an initial public offering, IPO in 2002. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay later that year, valued at $1.5 billion. In 2015 eBay corporate spin-off, spun off PayPal to its shareholders, and PayPal became an independent company again. The company was ranked 143rd on the 2022 Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue. Since 2023, PayPal is a member of the MACH Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtual Economy
A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergence, emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). People enter these virtual economies for recreation and entertainment rather than necessity, which means that virtual economies lack the aspects of a real economy that are not considered to be "fun" (for instance, avatars in a virtual economy often do not need to buy food in order to survive, and usually do not have any biological needs at all). However, some people do interact with virtual economies for "real" economic benefit. Despite primarily dealing with in-game currencies, this term also encompasses the selling of virtual currency for real money, in what is sometimes called "open centralised marketplaces". Overview Virtual economies are observed in Multi-user dungeon, MUDs and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MMORPG
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player character, character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and takes control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from Online game, single-player or small Multiplayer online game, multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together, and by the game's persistent world (usually hosted by the game's video game publisher, publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game. MMORPGs are played throughout the world. Global revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005, and the western world's revenues exceeded a billion dollars in 2006. In 2008, the spending on subscription MMORPGs by consumers in North America and Europe gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alter Ego
An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a different personality. Additionally, the altered states of the ego may themselves be referred to as ''alterations''. A distinct meaning of ''alter ego'' is found in the Literary criticism, literary analysis used when referring to fictional literature and other narrative forms, describing a key Character (arts), character in a story who is perceived to be intentionally representative of the work's author (or creator), by oblique similarities, in terms of psychology, behavior speech, or thoughts, often used to convey the author's thoughts. The term is also sometimes, but less frequently, used to designate a Hypothesis, hypothetical "twin" or "best friend" to a character in a story. Similarly, the term ''alter ego'' may be a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photofit
A facial composite is a graphical representation of one or more eyewitnesses' memories of a face, as recorded by a composite artist. Facial composites are used mainly by police in their investigation of (usually serious) crimes. These images are used to reconstruct the suspect's face in hope of identifying them. Facial reconstruction can also be used in archeological studies to get a visualization of ancient mummies or human remains. Methods Hand-drawing Construction of the composite was originally only performed by a trained artist, through drawing, sketching, or painting, in consultation with a witness or crime victim. The FBI claims that hand-drawing is its preferred method for constructing a facial composite. Feature-based selection Feature-based systems essentially rely on the selection of individual features in isolation. Individual facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, etc.) are selected one at a time from a large database and then electronically 'overlaid' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is a graphical representation of a user, the user's character, or persona. Avatars can be two-dimensional icons in Internet forums and other online communities, where they are also known as profile pictures, userpics, or formerly picons (personal icons, or possibly "picture icons"). Alternatively, an avatar can take the form of a three-dimensional model, as used in online worlds and video games, or an imaginary character with no graphical appearance, as in text-based games or worlds such as MUDs. The term ' () originates from Sanskrit, and was adopted by early computer games and science fiction novelists. Richard Garriott extended the term to an on-screen user representation in 1985, and the term gained wider adoption in Internet forums and MUDs. Nowadays, avatars are used in a variety of online settings including social media, virtual assistants, instant messaging platforms, and digital worlds such as ''World of Warcraft'' and ''Second Life''. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
