Unbelievable Games Grafics of Crytek.

Crytek is a German Company for computer games. It has released „Far Cry“ almost 3 years ago, which was a big sucess because of the amazing grafics.

Now, Crytek will release Cryengine2, which features some of the most amazing grafic effects. Some of them you can see in the movie at golem.de.
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The clip is roughly 3 minutes long, but it will most certainly change your expectations in terms of reality of grafics.

Having spent some time in the last couple of days showing second life to colleagues and clients, I can only shake my head at the difference in grafic quality – I wish second life was only nearly as realistic as anything the new cryengine can show!

Taking a Mazda for an unusual Testdrive

On Nagare Island within Second Life you can now test drive the new Concept-Car Mazda Hakaze. I have tried it of course, but controlling the car is not that easy. As you can see in that screenshot, I wasn’t the only one having difficulties. The one in front of me was no expert either. But it was fun, nevertheless. And I made the „Jump“. Which one? Go find out! (Coordinates are, apparently: Nagare Island 128, 128)

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Second Life user statistics by country

Finally, finally, there are some numbers on the nationalities of Second Life residents. OK, you might argue, they’re all Second Life citizens – true. But nevertheless it was interesting for me as an advertising person to know who actually visits this virtual space.

Now Reuters writes about the latest statistics.And it seems like Europe is well represented – something I never thought:

Europeans make up the largest block of Second Life residents with more than 54 percent of active users in January ahead of North America’s 34.5 percent, according to new Linden Lab data.

Interestingly enough it was especially the French who boosted the european numbers – mainly due to the fact that during their presidential elections in January both parties got actively involved in this virtual world – opening up offices and such.

France has the second-highest number of users after the virtual world became a battleground for the country’s presidential election. Although French residents had long been a part of Second Life, thousands more joined Second Life in January as demonstrators picketed the virtual offices of Jean Marie Le Pen’s far-right National Front party. Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal also established a Second Life presence.

Here is the complete overview:

Active residents by country

  • United States 31.19%
  • France 12.73%
  • Germany 10.46%
  • United Kingdom 8.09%
  • Netherlands 6.55%
  • Spain 3.83%
  • Brazil 3.77%
  • Canada 3.30%
  • Belgium 2.63%
  • Italy 1.93%

The numbers add up to round about 85% – which means that 15% are spread out over the remaining +/-150 nations worldwide. And I guess that China makes up a large part of that 15% – even though I would have expected them within this list…

The average resident is 33 years old, and:

58.9 percent of residents declared themselves as men when they registered, compared with 55.5 percent a year earlier.

I like the way that is put: „declared themselves as men“. But it’s true. On the web, you never know – and in Second Life this is just as well the case…

One more link: these news were posted within the Reuters Second Life News Center Website. (I just want to keep track of this link for myself…)

Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life

Here is a curious initiative: Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life

Sweden is to become the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world of Second Life, officials said on Friday.

„We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden,“ Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Wästberg told AFP.

They won’t issue visa, instead they will tell people how the obtain visa for Sweden in the real world. And they want to inform people of how nice and beautiful Sweden is… This sounds more like a regular tourist information to me, than an embassy. But nevermind – I like Sweden and I hope this helps.