Massively^™

A number of sources have been talking about Second Life avatars getting their own phone number for voice calls. First hinted at in a discussion between Information Week writer Mitch Wagner, and Linden Lab's VP for Platform and Technology, Joe Miller, by far the best information on the topic at the moment seems to be available from Expletive Deleted.

E.D. spoke with Miller and got some more details. The goal, it would seem, is PSTN numbers for either groups or avatars with some sort of access PIN to prevent wholesale misuse -- and it looks like some elements of that may already be getting closer.

Ryan McDougall has announced the formation of a new Sourceforge project, called VoIP for Virtual Worlds. The long-term goal is to create an interoperable open-source standard for all virtual worlds.

To help the project find its feet, the initial short-term goal is to create an open-source replacement for the existing Vivox component (SLvoice) that is used for voice in Second Life that can communicate with a SIP-based backend server. Developers who are interested in the effort can start with the project's new mailing list.

We don't presently know if an open-source solution could be fully compatible with the existing voice system in Second Life as the existing system relies heavily on Vivox servers and backend software.

Sourceforge - billed as the largest open source website in the world -- is now host to the source code project for the RealXTend viewer (rexviewer) for Second Life. RealXtend claims to have replaced all of the license encumbered portions of the viewer with GPL-friendly alternatives, though they are still having some issues decoupling FMOD from their VoIP solution.

The project website remains at rexviewer.org, while the project page and source code (available via subversion) is now on Sourceforge. Rexviewer is only in alpha at present, but has a number of distinctly interesting technological features, and more planned.

It's been no less a tumultuous year for Second Life in 2007 this year than any previous year, frankly. There are a few standout items though.

This isn't the list that anyone else might make - We might completely skip over one of the things you see as standing out as a huge impact, based solely on that we don't actually think it was that big a deal in the scheme of things.

Linden Lab wants to know your thoughts on voice. As Eric Rice/Spin Martin puts it "after it's installed and after months of community bitching. Awesome."

Feel positive about Second Life voice? Negative? Ambivalent? Take the time to do the survey and let Linden Lab know - but you'll need Javascript enabled for qualtrics.com in order to make the survey work properly and store the results.

Linden Lab advises this-morning (and we're certainly seeing it reflected in the figures) that while they thought the issue had been resolved on Saturday evening, that it was not, and that the issues that plagued the Second Life grid over the weekend are still ongoing.

Additionally, all voice services went dark at 2:06AM SLT (US Pacific).

The folks at CCP are nothing if not ambitious. They're more willing to take risks and try new things with EVE Online than a lot of other developers are with their respective games. So far it's paid off; EVE has a very large and passionate fan base. So large and passionate, in fact, that they annually hold a huge Fanfest in Reykjavik.

We provided a list of all the best coverage of the event, but one item on the list stands out enough to warrant a plug of its own. WarCry has been rolling out a series of articles on EVE Online as coverage for this year's conference. All together it's called "The War on the Impossible" after CCP's new slogan. Part IV of this series was just launched. This time the focus is on the Trinity expansion, which includes a graphical overhaul, a revised voice chat system, and many new or tweaked gameplay elements.

In case you missed the earlier articles; Part I was an introduction to CCP's big moves and plans for the game. Part II was about the panel debate between Richard Bartle and Jessica Mulligan on CCP's plans to democratize the world of EVE, and Part III described "Ambulation" in detail. The articles aren't purely informative; WarCry weighs the consequences of each change. If you play EVE, you'll find that this series is one of the best summaries of the changes on the horizon. If you don't play EVE, it's exciting reading anyway because of the audacity of some of CCP's plans.

Linden Lab reports that "many" Second Life users are unable to join or create voice chat sessions. We're not sure what "many" means, exactly. The voice system doesn't actually operate as a part of the Second Life grid, per se, and the servers and software that make it go are all the domain of their voice partner Vivox.

Naturally, many people at both ends are running around in a dignified state of panic as they attempt to diagnose the flaw. Voice is not widely used by Second Life users - however, those that do use it, rely on it heavily.

[UPDATE: The official blog reports this as fixed at 9:19 am Second Life Time]