PDC World Championship Darts 2009 is announced and will be available for Wii and DS on May 29.

Oxygen Games said they have dramatically increased accuracy and realism of the game, and that the gameplay has consequently improved compared to the old version. Reportedly, at the special preview event recently held in London, some of the world's top players were stunned!

"My kids have got no chance of getting a game", said Phil Taylor, the 14-time world champion, referring to the addictiveness of the new Nintendo's title. Even though he admits it's a different challenge, he says he might even consider "warming up his shoulder" with the game before going to real practice. World number two, James Wade, says the same thing. Warming up his shoulder before the game and unbelievably accurate. He even says it's as close to real darts as you could ever get!

OK, at the end, we all know how these things work, with editors and official promoters, it's no wonder to hear such praises at a preview event. However, it's clear that, as any other good mixed reality, the game will probably help attract young generations and spread the culture over. How, you ask, given it's only darts, for God's sake!? Well… how often do you get a chance to play against Taylor or Wade, real or virtual, and maybe even win sometimes? See?

[ via Sky Sports ]

On May 6, in Strasbourg, France, a workshop will be organized by the Council of Europe and its European Audiovisual Observatory, with the goal to explore the guidelines interpreting Human Rights in an online context.

Two sets of guidelines have been published the last October. The documents are the following :

• The Human Rights Guidelines for Online Game Providers (pdf)
• The Human Rights Guidelines for Internet Service Providers (pdf)
  

The first one, more directly related to virtual worlds and virtual reality, was developed by the Council in coordination with the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE), and is aiming to provide a benchmark for online games providers and developers.

While stressing the important positive role that games can play in the lives of individuals, the guidelines underline a concern that games designers and publishers take into account the rights and freedoms, values and dignity of gamers.

Browsing through the document, after the initial information about understanding the role and the impact of online games providers, you can find several paragraphs applying principles on different aspects of online games. Racism, violence, security, privacy of children or freedom of expression, all the burning subjects are there. The council promotes social standards and measures that should help preserve (or attain) high level of respect of Human Rights in online games. The member states (of the European Union) are called to adapt their legislation order to be ready for the new age, that has already came as a matter of fact.

Call it Old Europe, but this is good stuff!

[ via Terra Nova ]

The Wired Campus reports about the project at the UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) aiming to explore the ancient Egyptian site of Karnak by using VR techniques.

Willeke Wenderish, an associate professor of Egyptian archaeology at the named University has actually used modeling and virtual simulation to learn, and now present and explain, how the Egyptian religious center has evolved over two millennia. Her efforts are concretized in the online presentation named Digital Karnak.

Ms. Wenderish's opinion is, though virtual reality techniques are appreciated and increasingly popular in the field of archaeological studies, they are still underused. This is probably a consequence of high costs, she thinks. At the same time, she says she is working on other projects of the same kind, such as the exploration of the site of the Faiyum Oasis.

This is not the first time, though, that virtual reality is used to study and popularize archaeological issues. Remember Dassault Systemes' Kheops?

EternalSpace unveiled last week a completely new type of online memorials, in the form a virtual cemetery where people can mourn, share sorrow for and with their loved ones, and - spend money!

So, how does it work? Funeral homes, cemeteries and crematories, who are all searching new and modern (why?) ways to differentiate their offers and help their clients in the hard moments, are accepting the online solutions as the road to take. Services like Tributes or Legacy represent the, let's say, classical way to modernize the mourning business.

EternalSpace is the first of a kind because it proposes the customers to create a real space dedicated to the memory of the deceased. It comes in a form of a customizable peaceful landscape, accompanied by a serene music, hosting the virtual grave. Family and friends can sign a guest book or upload photos and videos to preserve the memory. In addition, they can place along the grave various types of items, such as monuments, flowers, trees, candles, hobby and sports related memorabilia and others. As you can guess, these items are not free, they cost money.

The idea behind is that people will want to create social communities around the memory of the people they knew and loved. All the features of a community are there : profiles, groups, real-time communication, messages…

Two questions, however, remain. One is related to the very concept of virtual cemetery, graves, grief and so on, and goes probably deeply in the philosophical and emotional bases of our culture(s)… OK, maybe doesn't have to, but might very easily. The second, more pragmatic and not at all virtual, is : is this an altruistic attempt to help people live through the most difficult moments of a loss, or just another profit-making scheme exploiting human sensibility and despair? Just asking

[ via Cloud Computing Journal ]

The first virtual recruitment fair was organized and held this week (April 22-24) in Italy. The manifestation was hosted by a local organization called BIP (Borsa Internationale del Placement, or International Placement Market), and attracted more than 85 companies, 70 universities and 15,000 candidates.

Seems too obvious, but in fact it was just like a real fair. Stands, information desks and real interviews organized through video chat. Thus not only a repository for job offers and CVs, but a real meeting where people could exchange and get to know each other. And if you need a proof that it was a success, take a glance at the list of participating companies : IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, P&G, L'Oreal, and many other really big ones (big like… PricewaterhouseCoopers or Pirelli). And how many universities can there be in Italy? 70 were present!

The organizer, BIP, organizes also a "real" Forum with the same objectives. After having gathered some experience (not very much, to be completely honest) in this job, they just thought that virtualizing the whole shebang makes sense. And they couldn't be more right!

[ via Sassuolo 2000 ]